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“YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE: ONCE WHEN YOU ARE BORN AND ONCE WHEN YOU LOOK DEATH IN THE FACE”: COMPLETE SET OF IAN FLEMING'S JAMES BOND NOVELS; IN THE RARE ORIGINAL DUST JACKETS; WITH FIVE SIGNED BY SEAN CONNERY
FLEMING, Ian.
Complete Set of 14 First Edition James Bond Novels: Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, Diamonds are Forever, From Russia with Love, Dr. No, Goldfinger, For Your Eyes Only (short stories including A View to a Kill and Quantum of Solace), Thunderball, The Spy Who loved Me, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, You Only Live Twice, The Man with the Golden Gun, Octopussy and The Living Daylights.
London: Jonathan Cape, 1953-66.
First editions of each volume in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. Octavo, 14 volumes, original cloth. Each volume is fine in near fine to fine first-issue dust jackets, with five signed by Sean Connery, which include: From Russia With Love, Dr. No, Diamonds Are Forever, Goldfinger and Thunderball each signed by Sean Connery. Each volume is housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional collection of first editions, most rare in this condition and signed.
Price: $125,000.00 Item Number: 105482
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First Octavo Edition of the The Birds of America from Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories; In the Rare Original Publisher's Morocco
AUDUBON, John James.
The Birds of America from Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories.
New York: Published by J.J. Audubon, 1840.
First octavo edition of this landmark work. Octavo, bound in original publisher’s morocco, 7 volumes, gilt titles and ruling to the spine, marbled endpapers, complete with 500 hand-colored lithographed plates by J.T. Bowen after J.J. Audubon; woodcuts in the text. From the library of Boston businessman and Ambassador T. Jefferson Coolidge, with his bookplate to the front pastedown. Coolidge was born to a prominent Boston Brahmin family and was a great-grandson of the 3rd United States President Thomas Jefferson, through his maternal grandparents, Thomas Mann Randolph Jr. and Martha Jefferson Randolph. His uncles were Thomas Jefferson Randolph, George Wythe Randolph, Andrew Jackson Donelson, and a relative of Calvin Coolidge. He was an uncle to Archibald Cary Coolidge through his older brother, Joseph Randolph Coolidge. He was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as United States Ambassador to France on May 12, 1892, a role his great-grandfather had held from May 1785 to September 1789. Coolidge presented his credentials on June 10, 1892 and he presented his recall on May 4, 1893, terminating his mission. In 1898 and 1899, he was a member of the American delegation to the commission to resolve the Alaska boundary dispute. Historian Ernest May says Coolidge was, “a prototype member of what today we call the foreign policy establishment.” In 1898, Coolidge donated a collection of Thomas Jefferson’s personal papers to the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. The collection contained more than 8,000 items: Correspondence, including 3,280 letters that Jefferson had written and 4,630 letters that he had received; Jefferson’s garden book (1766-1824) and farm book (1774-1824); annotated almanacs from 1771-1776; account books for 1783-1790; manuscript expense accounts from 1804-1825; notes on the weather spanning the years 1782-1826; plans of American forts in 1765; law treatises, 1778-1788; legal papers, 1770-1772; and Jefferson’s 1783 catalog of his personal library. In near fine condition. An exceptional set with noted provenance, rare in the original publisher’s morocco.
Price: $75,000.00 Item Number: 111832
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“If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more": Rare First Edition of Jane Austen's Emma
AUSTEN, Jane.
Emma: A Novel. By the Author of “Pride and Prejudice.”
London: John Murray, 1816.
First edition of the final novel published during Austen’s lifetime. Small octavo, 3 volumes, bound in contemporary three quarters leather, gilt titles to the spine. With the publisher’s advertisements on the verso of the last page of Vol. III. In near fine condition with light toning. An exceptional example, most rare and desirable in this condition and in a contemporary binding.
Price: $40,000.00 Item Number: 120465
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Rare First Edition of Mathematical Collections and Translations, which includes the first translation in English of Galileo's System of the World" (Dialogo)
GALILEI, Galileo; Salusbury.
Mathematical Collections and Translations.
London: William Leybourn, 1661.
First edition of Thomas Salusbury’s Mathematical Collections and Translations. Salusbury compiled and translated important writings by Archimedes, Descartes, Galileo, Kepler, Tartaglia, Torricelli into English for the first time, greatly influencing the English-speaking world. This volume contains the first English translation of Galileo’s 1632 The Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo). Also included is Galileo’s 1615 letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, published in 1636 as Nov-antiqua sanctissimorum patrum et probatorum theologorum doctrina, which asserted the independence of science from religious authority. This short but important Epistle to the Grand Dutchesse Mother concerning the Authority of Holy Scripture in Philosophical Controversies (known today as the Letter to Christina), was only the second work of Galileo’s to be published in England. It preceded the Latin edition, published in London by Thomas Dicas, by two years and remained the only vernacular translation for two centuries. Apart from the two works by Galileo, Salusbury included other translations from Italian and Latin in this volume of his Collections, such as Johannes Kepler’s and Didacus a Stunica’s “Reconcilings of Scripture Texts,” and Foscarinus’ Epistle to Father Fantonus reconciling the Authority of Scripture. Folio, bound in full calf, with 4 engraved plates. Lacking the half-title, contents leaf, fly-title to The System of the World, and the errata leaf found at the end of the first part in some copies. 2 parts in one volume. In very good condition with the contents showing some light browning in the upper margins. First editions are exceptionally rare.
Price: $38,000.00 Item Number: 73025
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"The first atlas of the new world": First complete edition in Italian of Ptolemy's La Geographia, the earliest and most comprehensive small-format world atlas published
PTOLEMY, Claudius.
Le Geographia di Claudio Ptolemeo Alessandrino, Con alcuni comenti & aggiunte fattevi da Sebastiano munstero, Con le tavole non solamente antiche & moderne solite di staparsi.
Venice: G. B. Pedrezano, 1547.
First complete edition in Italian of Ptolemy’s “first atlas of the new world” (Nordenskiöld) and the most detailed and comprehensive world atlas published prior to Ortelius’s Theatrum in 1570. Small octavo, bound in full vellum with gilt morocco spine label, all edges speckled red, woodcut border to the title page, woodcut initials and illustrations throughout the text including a portrait of an astronomer and 60 double-page engraved maps designed by Giacomo Gastaldi. The majority of the 34 maps of the modern world are entirely new first appearances, including 7 maps of the Americas. Among the maps of the Americas is the Nueva Hispania tabula nova which shows the Mississippi and Florida area and is the first separate printed map of the region. Also included is the landmark Tierra Nueva map of the North American coast from Florida to Labrador. In fine condition. Housed in a custom cloth clamshell box. An exceptional example of this landmark work.
Price: $35,000.00 Item Number: 95367
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“THE MOST AMBITIOUS PUBLICATION EVER UNDERTAKEN, UP TO THAT TIME, UPON AMERICAN SOIL… RICHLY DESERVING OF ITS GREAT REPUTATION AT HOME AND ABROAD”: FIRST EDITION OF WEBSTER’S LANDMARK AMERICAN DICTIONARY, 1828
WEBSTER, Noah.
American Dictionary of the English Language.
New York: Published by S. Converse. Printed by Hezekiah Howe, 1828.
Rare first edition of Webster’s monumental American Dictionary, one of only 2500 copies, with frontispiece portrait of the pioneering lexicographer, in full contemporary calf. Quarto, two volumes, bound in full contemporary calf, marbled endpapers, illustrated frontispiece, tissue guard present. In near fine condition, light toning to the text. Most rare and desirable bound in contemporary calf. An exceptional example, most rare without any restoration.
Price: $27,500.00 Item Number: 102755
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“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying": The Works of Oscar Wilde; One of 80 Sets Bound in Japanese Vellum
WILDE, Oscar.
The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde.
London: Methuen & Co, 1908.
First collected edition, one of 80 sets on Japanese vellum, the rarest and most desirable of Wilde’s works. Octavo, 14 volumes, bound in original vellum, gilt titles and tooling to the spine and front panel with the design by Charles Ricketts, top edge gilt. “The text is taken in most instances from the last editions issued under the superintendence of the author. In some cases the volumes contain additional matter which had not previously been reprinted, while some of the volumes contain matter here published for the first time” (Mason). In near fine condition. Rare and desirable, especially in this condition.
Price: $27,500.00 Item Number: 103150
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Rare first edition of one of the earliest chess manuals; Pietro Carrera's Game of Chess
CARRERA, Pietro.
Il Gioco De Gli Scacchi Di D. Pietro Carrera Diviso in Otto Libri. (The Game of Chess).
Militello: Giovanni de' Rossi, 1617.
Rare first edition of one of the early chess manuals, and the first book printed in Militello at Prince Francesco Branciforte’s private press. Octavo, bound in full contemporary vellum with ink titles to the spine, large engraving of the Branciforte coat of arms opposite the dedication page, woodcut illustrations throughout the text. In near fine condition. First editions are of exceptional rarity, with only three appearing at auction in the past 90 years.
Price: $25,000.00 Item Number: 96172
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"When you come to observe faithfully the changes of each humblest plant, you find that each has sooner or later its peculiar autumnal tint, or tints": The Manuscript Edition of The Writings of Henry David Thoreau; In the Original Binding
THOREAU, Henry David.
The Manuscript Edition of The Writings of Henry David Thoreau.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1906.
The manuscript edition of the writings of Henry David Thoreau. With the original manuscript sheet by Thoreau from his journal tipped-in to volume 1. The two page manuscript fragment comprises 58 lines from “Autumnal Tints,” in altered form, published in the Atlantic Monthly, October 1862, and collected in Excursions the following year. The fragment concludes with the line containing the title phrase: “When you come to observe faithfully the changes of each humblest plant, you find that each has sooner or later its peculiar autumnal tint, or tints […].” Octavo, 20 volumes. Bound in the publisher’s three-quarter green morocco over marbled boards, spine elaborately tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, raised bands, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers. Signed by the publisher. Illustrated in each volume with a photograph of flowers and a hand-colored scenes used as frontispieces and additional plates inserted throughout. In fine condition without wear.
Price: $18,500.00 Item Number: 97590
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"A Major Source for Shakespeare": Second and preferred edition of Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland
HOLINSHED, Raphael.
The First and Second Volumes of Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland With: The Third volume of Chronicles, beginning at Duke William the Norman [Holinshed Chronicles].
London: John Harrison, George Bishop, Rafe Newberie, Henrie Denham, and Thomas Woodcocke, 1587.
Preferred second edition of the greatest Elizabethan repository of English history which served as an important source for Shakespeare’s plays. Folios, 3 volumes bound into 2, bound in full calf, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised bands, red morocco spine labels, gilt ruled, woodcut initials and title pages. Separate title pages and pagination for The Description and Historie of England, The Description and Historie of Ireland, and The Description and Historie of Scotland comprising volume 1. When this expanded second edition of the Chronicles appeared in January 1587, the Privy Council, responding to Queen Elizabeth’s displeasure at certain passages, ordered the Archbishop of Canterbury to recall and censure the work; as a result extensive cancellations (74 pages) were made of offending sections in Volumes II and III. The censors removed “all references to English intervention in Scottish politics, raised the profile of the Earl of Leicester, and distanced England from Elizabeth’s one time suitor, the Duc d’Alençon. Any accounts of trials and executions were altered to ensure proceedings were unequivocally portrayed as being fair and legal” (King’s College London). The work of altering the entire edition of the Chronicles was rather haphazardly carried out, so that the sections affected vary from copy to copy. In this copy all of the offending sections are cancelled or excised. A nice example, scarce and desirable.
Price: $18,000.00 Item Number: 95438
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First edition of the second book on architecture published in America: Owen Biddle's The Young Carpenter's Assistant
BIDDLE, Owen.
The Young Carpenter’s Assistant; Or, A System Of Architecture, Adapted To The Style Of Building In The United States.
Philadelphia: Benjamin Johnson, 1805.
First edition of the second book on architecture published in America, second only to Asher Benjamin’s Country Builder’s Assistant’ published in 1797( Shaw & Shoemaker, 8018). Quarto, bound in full calf, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, gilt ruled to the front and rear panels, illustrated with 44 engraved plates, 2 folding. In very good condition. Scarce with only 2 copies having appeared at auction in the past 50 years.
Price: $15,000.00 Item Number: 117672
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Rare French Military Artillery and Fortification Manual with text in manuscript and technical drawings throughout
French Military Artillery and Fortification Manual.
Metz: Ecole Royale de l'Artillerie et du Genie, 1818-19.
Rare early 19th century French military manual created in manuscript for the Ecole Royale de ‘Artillerie et du Genie (School of Application of Artillery and Engineering of Metz) containing lessons and technical drawings in the mechanics of artillery and construction of temporary and permanent military fortifications. Quarto, ten volumes bound in three quarters morocco over marbled boards with gilt titles to the spine and front panels, text in manuscript with technical drawings throughout. In near fine condition, internally exceptionally clean. A rare and desirable piece of 19th century French military history.
Price: $15,000.00 Item Number: 109852
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International Limited edition of the works of Alexandre Dumas; one of only 1,000 copies
DUMAS, Alexandre [Alexander].
The Works of Alexandre Dumas, Including: The Count of Monte-Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later.
Boston: Little, Brown , 1899.
The international limited edition of the works of Alexandre Dumas. Octavos, 40 volumes, bound in three quarters leather over marbled boards, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised gilt bands, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers, engraved frontispiece with tissue guard to each volume, illustrated. One of only 1,000 sets. In near fine condition.
Price: $9,800.00 Item Number: 120147
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“It's in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present": First Edition In Parts of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield; from the library of Steve and Peggy Fossett
DICKENS, Charles.
The Personal History of David Copperfield.
London: Bradbury and Evans, May 1849 - November 1850.
First edition in the original monthly parts of “the most perfect of all the Dickens novels” (Virginia Woolf). Octavo, original blue-green illustrated paper wrappers, twenty parts in nineteen, frontispiece, vignette title-page and thirty-eight additional inserted plates. In near fine condition, an unrestored example of Dickens’ classic work which is virtually complete with all preliminary advertisements with the exception of the slips after plates parts 9, 13, 14, and 16; all front advertisements in part 11 and the “Household Words” advertisement in part 15. With all of the rear advertisements with the exception of “The Theory of Musical Composition”, “Illustrated Weekly Journal” and “Penny Maps” in part 15, and all advertisements in parts 2 and 8. Housed in two custom full morocco and chemise boxes. From the library of Peggy and Steve Fossett with their bookplate to the pastedown. Scarce and desirable in the original parts which were “much read and roughly handled,” with “fine, clean and unrepaired copies difficult to procure” even in 1932 (Hatton & Cleaver pp.253-272; Sadleir 686; Yale/Gimbel A121).
Price: $9,800.00 Item Number: 96035
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“It's in vain to recall the past, unless it works some influence upon the present": First Edition In Parts of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield
DICKENS, Charles.
The Personal History of David Copperfield.
London: Bradbury and Evans, May 1849-November 1850.
First edition in parts of “the most perfect of all the Dickens novels” (Virginia Woolf). Original serial issue. Twenty parts in nineteen, octavo four to thirty-two pages of preliminary advertisements; text continuously paginated 1-624; eight leaves of preliminaries follow text in final part. Frontispiece, vignette title-page and thirty-eight additional inserted plates, the majority with tissue inserts as issued. Original blue-green illustrated paper wrappers. Several backstrips chipped at head and foot; some light soiling, wear at hinges; some parts skewed. In excellent condition, an unrestored example of Dickens’ classic work. Includes the scarce insert “Lett’s diaries” advertisement at end of Part VIII, which unfolds to a 26 inches, with ten specimen diary leaves. According to Hatton & Cleaver, this is a “particularly scarce” insert. Hatton & Cleaver, pp. 253-272. Housed in a custom half morocco and chemise box. A very nice example.
Price: $9,800.00 Item Number: 91369
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"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times": First Edition, First Issue of Charles Dickens' A Tale Of Two Cities
DICKENS, Charles.
A Tale of Two Cities.
London: Chapman and Hall, 1859.
First edition, first issue of one of Dickens’ most enduring works, with p. 213 misnumbered “113,” the signature mark “b” at the foot of the plate list, and the misspelling “affetcionately” on line 12, p. 134. Octavo, bound in three quarters leather over marbled boards, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised bands, marbled endpapers. Sixteen plates after H.K. Browne including frontispiece and title vignette. In near fine condition.
Price: $9,500.00 Item Number: 107546
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“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all": Complete Works of Oscar Wilde; One of 52 Copies; Finely Bound In Full Morocco
WILDE, Oscar.
The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde.
London: Keller-Farmer Co, 1907.
The Astral edition of Wilde’s works, one of 52 sets, this is number one. Octavo, 15 volumes. Bound in full morocco, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, floriated corner devices in gilt, red and green, raised bands, moire silk endpapers, top edge gilt. With photogravures in two states from paintings, photographs, and drawings (4 of which are by Aubrey Beardsley). In near fine condition. An exceptional set.
Price: $9,500.00 Item Number: 104968
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First edition of Walt Whitman's Two Rivulets: Including Democratic Vistas, Centennial Songs, and Passage to India; one of only 100 copies signed and dated by Walt Whitman and with an autograph note signed by him tipped in
WHITMAN, Walt.
Two Rivulets: Including Democratic Vistas, Centennial Songs, and Passage to India.
Camden, New Jersey: Author's Edition, 1876.
Scarce first edition, first issue with the blank leaf between ‘As a Strong Bird’ and ‘Memoranda’ and single leaf of advertisements for Whitman’s books inserted between the back flyleaves. One of only 100 copies. Octavo, bound in full morocco with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, triple gilt ruling to the panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentetlles, gilt top stain, marbled endpapers. With the frontispiece sepia photograph of Whitman signed and dated by him, “Walt Whitman 1881.” From the library of Richard Hoe Lawrence with an autograph note by Whitman tipped in. Addressed to Lawrence and dated March 11, 1881, the note reads, “Dear Sir yours of 10th enclosing #10 received – Walt Whitman.” Richard Hoe Lawrence served as president of the Grolier Club from 1906-1908. He was the great-nephew of Grolier Club co-founder and renowned bibliophile Robert Hoe III. With Lawrence’s bookplates to the pastedown. In near fine condition.
Price: $9,200.00 Item Number: 114654
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Rare early printing on Cervantes' masterpiece Don Quixote; with numerous illustrations after the drawings of renowned royal painter Antoine Coypel
CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, Miguel de.
Vida Y Hechos Del Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote De La Mancha: Con Muy Bellas Estampas Gravadas Sobre Los Dibujos de Coypel, Primer Pinto de el Rey de Francia.
En Haia [The Hague]: Por P. Gosse y A. Moetjens, 1744.
Rare early printing and one of the most highly coveted editions of Cervantes’ masterpiece. Octavo, 4 volumes, bound in full calf, gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling to the spine, burgundy spine labels, triple gilt ruled, marbled endpapers, all edges red, ribbons bound in, with numerous engravings after the drawings of Antoine Coypel, renowned for the paintings he produced for King Louis XIV of France including those decorating the ceiling of the Royal chapel at Versailles. In near fine condition. An exceptional example.
Price: $8,800.00 Item Number: 92807