1866. Small folio, pp. [ii], 4 with ten engraved plates and plans (one double-page); some occasional minor marginal dust-soiling, and some light foxing; First separate edition of this attractively illustrated architectural account of the design and construction of the new anatomical Institute at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Berlin, by the noted German architect Friedrich Albert Cremer (1824-1891). The engraved plates include depiction’s of some of the finer details of the building, including some of the ornate light fittings, and even the water closets, with plans of the proposed grounds also included.
Cremer, the son of the builder Johann Peter Cremer (1785-1853), studied architecture at the Berlin Academy in 1846. After some time spent in the Prussian Army as a hydraulics engineer, he returned to Berlin in 1859 and was appointed as a building Inspector. His first major architectural project, together with Carl Johann Christian Zimmermann (1831-1911), was an expansion to the Berlin debt prison to create a women’s prison. This was followed by his two most famous commissions for the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität: designing both a new Anatomical Institute building as discussed here, and under the guidance of the new director of Chemistry August Wilhelm von Hofmann, a new purpose-built chemistry laboratory, about which Cremer also published a similar account in 1868, Das neue chemische laboratorium zu Berlin.
The present account was also published in Zeitschrift für Bauwesen 16/1866 and 17/1867. OCLC locates copies at Cornell, the New York Public Library, the NLM, Glasgow, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Library.

[1838.]. 8vo, pp. [iv], 102; with four large folding lithograph plates; lightly foxed and browned throughout due to paper quality, with some further occasional minor soiling, minor ink staining on verso of first plate, with other three plates a little creased and with evidence of previous folds; Uncommon first edition of this detailed work, based very much on first hand experience, on the design and management of boilers, and the work of the Manchester engineer Robert Armstrong. The work bears testament, therefore, to the many technical and mechanical advances which emanated from the town, thanks to the rapid growth of the cotton industry which had transformed Manchester from being a small market town with a popular of 10,000 at the turn of the century, to becoming Britain’s second city by the 1840s, and home to nearly 400,000.
Indeed Armstrong dedicates his work to the ‘Cotton Manufacturers and other Proprietors of Steam engines, in Manchester and its vicinity, who have afforded him many opportunities of obtaining a variety of information on practical details’. This first edition is printed on rather cheap paper, the four large folding plates containing somewhat crude illustrations done reproduced from his original drawings in lithograph, a fact which Armstrong rather ruefully acknowledges in his concluding remarks, his publisher clearly having had little faith in its sale and suggesting only a limited initial print run ‘to meet a merely local sale’. Whilst he prides himself upon his boiler-making workmanship, his limited budget had not allowed him to use skilled engravers and printers, when it came to his bookmaking. An interesting commentary, perhaps, upon how lithography was considered to be a less skilled profession.
The poor design and management of boilers was frequently the Achilles heel of the steam engine, preventing their efficient and economic running. Armstrong focuses in particular upon boilers for mill engines, though there is a small section describing locomotive boilers. He deals with high and low pressure boilers, form and proportions, the capacity of the steam chamber and what happens when the boiler is too small, together with rules for alteration and improvement. There is advice on re-setting boilers in order to save fuel, methods of estimating power, the best form of fire-grate, boiler cleansing machinery and ways to get rid of scale and boiler balls, which clogged up pipes and flues, and on the cause and prevention of explosions. Various types of boiler, such as the Boulton and Watt boiler or Durham and Cornish boilers are referred to and some leading contemporary books, such as Tredgold and Pambour, are cited. A practical and thorough work. OCLC locates copies at Toronto, Michigan, the British Library and Manchester.

1922. 8vo, pp. 56; copiously illustrated throughout; printed in brown on cream paper, text within ruled border; some light foxing, with a few neat pencil corrections to prices; A most evocative and striking trade catalogue, issued by the London firm of Silk’s Toilet Company, copiously illustrated and advertising a myriad of beautifying tonics, lotions, potions, powders, perfumes and colognes for both men and women. Amongst the must-have items we find ‘Silkodono ... the latest scientific discovery for producing, preserving, restoring, and beautifying the hair and for keeping the scalp healthy and free from dandruff, scurf and scalp irritation’. Also for sale are manicure kits, nail polishers, powder puffs, hair nets, hair combs, and several pages devoted to wigs and wig-making, with ‘finest French hair’ available, as well as ‘beautiful French transformations’ - striking wigs and postiches for women.
We have been unable to find any information about the company, other than what is revealed by this wonderful brochure, in that they were manufacturing perfumers based at Red Lion Street, High Holborn, London. So far unlocated on OCLC or COPAC.

[1640.]. 8vo, pp. [xiv], [ii] blank with engraved armourial coat of arms on verso, 171, [4], Privilege du Roi (dated April 20th, 1640), [1] blank; pp. 103-9 inserted folding astrological charts; title-page somewhat browned with dampstain along gutter and which is evident throughout, though varying in prominence, with some further occasional dampstaining to upper margins, browned throughout due to paper quality, a few headlines shaved close but without significant loss; with a small number of contemporary annotations in brown ink on the margins of a couple of leaves; First edition of this rare and little known early work by Martine Bertereau, Baroness of Beausoleil (fl. 1600-1630), considered to be the first female geologist.
Little is known about the early life of the baroness de Beausoleil. Born in around 1590, Martine de Bertereau came from a noble family, though her exact place of birth is uncertain. She clearly received a quality humanist education however, and in 1601 married Jean du Châtelet, Baron de Beausoleil and Auffembach. Du Châtelet was a Belgian metallurgist, alchemist, and prospector, and inspector of mines of the German empire, and for some fifteen years they travelled together across both northern and southern Europe visiting mines, even venturing as far as South America. His alchemical experiments engaged upon during a prospecting trip to Brittany in 1628 prompted his arrest on charges of sorcery. He was released after a short term in prison, but his apparatus was destroyed. Between 1630 and 1634 they were commissioned by the superintendent of mines, to survey the French provinces in search of new mineral veins. A failure to be reimbursed for some expenses incurred, however, may perhaps have prompted Martine to pen her first work in 1632, ‘Veritable declaration de la decouverte des mines et minieres par le moyen desquelles sa majeste et sujets se peuvent passer des pays etrangers’. This was followed in 1640 by the present work, further discussing their joint work. Written in the form of an appeal to Cardinal Richelieu to open and operate the French mines, it contains discussions on their travels, provides a long list of mines visited, and discusses the minerals found.
‘She presented two memoirs to the French court to inform the king how he could make himself and his country more independent of other countries by using the mineral resource of France. She never received a response to these reports, and apparently the couple’s persistence annoyed Cardinal Richelieu to the extent that he had the pair imprisoned in the Bastille, where du Châtelet died in 1645 ... After her husband’s death, Martine and her daughter Anne were imprisoned at the Château de Vincennes. According to Mozans, the baroness’s memoirs discuss various types of mines, the assaying and smelting of ores, and the general principles of metallurgy. She also provides a description of the qualifications of a mining engineer - a person who was knowledgeable in chemistry, mineralogy, mechanics, and hydraulics. She assured her readers that she devoted thirty years of study to these branches of knowledge’ (Ogilvie, I p. 119). Martine is credited with having discovered some 150 ore deposits and water deposits through a variety of hazel and metal divining rod, although this, together with her shared interest in alchemy, eventually led to accusations of witchcraft and their imprisonment, and she too died in captivity, as her husband had done.
Though clearly of significance to those interested in mineralogy and metallurgy, it is interesting to note how much importance Bertereau places upon the need for a good understanding of astrology - one of the vital skills required by a mining engineer she believes. Seven woodcut charts are included, and the stars, she believes, are directly connected with and govern the developing metals in the earth. Touching upon her alchemical believes, she expresses her belief in the universal spirit of life, responsible for the growth and reproduction of all things, including precious metals. From these metals, she notes, the ancient philosophers prepared their Grand elixir which could treat incurable illnesses, and purge metals of their imperfections. In her discussions about the importance of seeking new mineral reserves both at home and abroad, she touches upon the explorations of Christopher Columbus.
Though condemned in her lifetime she was undoubtedly a serious woman of science, and her conclusion’s were deemed important enough to be reprinted over 100 years later, in the second volume of Barba's Metallurgie, ou, l'Art de tirer et de purifier les Métaux, Paris, 1751, 2, 56-151. Alic, p. 114; BM STC French; 663; Dorbon-Aine Bibliotheca Esoterica 298 ‘very rare’; Eleanor Elder, “Women in Early Geology” (Journal of Geological Education 30, 287-293); Ferchl 40; Freilich Sale catalogue, 53; Klinckowstroem (Divining) 40; Mozans, Women in Science, 1991, pp. 238-40; Roller-Goodman. I, 108, the catalogue of the history of science collections of the University of Oklahoma libraries; Ward & Carozzi, Geology Emerging, 190; not in Hoover, Bibliotheca de re metallica; OCLC locates copies at the Smithsonian, the Newberry Library, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Smith College, Illinois, Oklahoma.

1927. 8vo, pp. 469-480; with five text illustrations and halftones; paper a little soiled and browned; Offprint of this the second of two important papers by the Austrian/US physicist Marietta Blau (1894-1970), published during her time as an unpaid researcher at the Institute of Radium Research, Vienna (1923-1938), outlining her pioneering work on the development of the photographic method of detecting and observing nuclear particles and reactions, a method which was to play a prominent role in nuclear physics in the following decades. Considered extraordinarily gifted by Albert Einstein, Blau was nominated three times for the Nobel prize in physics, twice by Erwin Schrodinger. ‘Blau began to explore the possibility of finding protons and smashed atoms using photographic emulsions. Finally, in 1925, she succeeded in detecting the fragments of atoms hit by alpha particles, [Über die photographische Wirkung natürlicher H-Strahlen] including the thinner, harder-to-find tracks of protons. These experiments were followed in 1926 and 1927 by a series of experiments in which Blau bombarded aluminium with alpha particles in order to measure the nuclear fragments that would emerge. Unfortunately, with a week radioactive source (the only kind available to her), she had to settle for the very lowest energy particles. It was clear that is she was going to make fast protons visible (as opposed to the much more heavily ionizing nuclear fragments or slow-moving protons), she would have to improve both the emulsion and the development process that would bring out the narrow tracks’ (Galison, Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics, p. 150).
Blau received her Ph.D. in 1919 with a thesis on ray physics and the absorption of gamma rays. Following her doctorate she moved to Berlin in 1921, taking a position with a company that manufactured X-ray tubes. This was followed by a position at the Institute for Medical Physics at the University of Frankfurt where she worked and published papers on X-ray physics. ‘Blau’s sex and her Jewish background impeded her professional advancement in Austria ... When the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, Blau, who was out of the country at the time, did not return. She worked briefly in Oslo at the invitation of her friend Ellen Gleditsch, then relocated to Mexico City. In 1944 Blau moved to New York, where she worked on radioactivity and took out several patents. She then did research at Columbia University and at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Afterward she took a position at the University of Miami’. Due to the brevity of her employment in the United States, Blau’s retirement income was very low. In order to economize on expenses, she returned to Austria for an eye operation. Poor health caused in part by radiation exposure prevented her from returning to the United States, and she died impoverished in Vienna’ (Ogilvie I, 143). Grolier Club, ‘Extraordinary Women’ pp. 57-60; Ogilvie I, p. 143; see Strohmaier and Rosner, ‘Marietta Blau, Stars of Disintegration: Biography of a Pioneer of Particle Physics’ 2006.

1680-1682-1682-1685-1685. Five parts in four volumes, 4to; I. pp. [xvi] including initial blank, 270, 271-332, [10], with engraved frontispiece and 8 engraved plates (of which three folding, plate VI misbound at p. 252 rather than p. 152, and plate VIII misnumbered as VII); II. pp. [ii] blank, [vi], 264; with engraved frontispiece (the same as in vol. I) and 3 engraved plates; III. pp. 153 [ie 155], [11] index, [1] blank, with 3 engraved plates; IV. pp. [ii] half title for parts IV and V, [viii], 368, with engraved frontispiece (same as in previous volumess) and 3 engraved plates, (of which 2 folding); V. pp. [ii], 104, 145-160, 121-252, [4], with 1 engraved plate, and with tipped in contemporary handwritten note at p. 54, and with frequent mispaginations; volumes IV and V with shared half-title; with appealing woodcut title-page vignettes and head- and tail-pieces; all five volumes somewhat browned and foxed, with some occasional staining, usually from ink blotting; all five volumes with contemporary marginal annotations in brown ink, more frequent in the final two volumes, and with further ink notes listing items of interest on either rear endpaper, or rear paste-down of each volume; First Latin edition, all published, and which despite its somewhat astrological sounding title, is an important and early medical periodical, and the brain-child of the controversial and colourful French physician Nicolas de Blégny (1652-1722), here anonymously translated and then continued into Latin by Théophile Bonet.
It was begun in the previous year, in 1679, originally published as ‘Nouvelles découvertes sur toutes les parties de la médecine’. Though preceded by scientific journals such as the Transacations of the Royal Society, and Bartholin’s Acta medica et philosophica Hafniensia (1673-1680), Blegny’s contribution is considered to be the first dedicated medical periodical in the vernacular, aimed at, and therefore more accessible to, a wider readership than just traditional academic circles. ‘Its popularity is evidenced by its translation into German as Monatliche neueröffnet Anmerckungen (Hamburg, 1680). It was translated into Latin, and continued by Théophile Bonet as Zodiacus medico-gallicus (Geneva, 1680-1685)’ (Garrison, History of Medicine, p 281). Issued monthly, of the first French issue in January 1679 Blegny states in the preface that it was ‘his intention to bring together all those discoveries, experiences, and comments that may be found useful in the art of medicine. In order that he may continue to do so, he urges all physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, both Galenic and chemical, those residing abroad as well as those in France, to send him their discoveries ... Each issue, he says, will be sold for five sols, which, he adds, is just sufficient to reimburse him for the expenses entailed in publication’ (ibid p. 5).
The present Latin translation includes a striking frontispiece representing Apollo, the patron of medicine, surrounded by the signs of the zodiac, with a simple but appealing scene of the city of Geneva seen below. With a ‘chapter’ as it were for each month of each year, the periodical provides a wealth of material, including accounts of recent medical activities, unusual and notable surgical and clinical case histories, notes on therapeutics and materia medica, discussions on practices such as bloodletting, autopsy reports, together with reports of incredible abnormalities and curiosities. Contributors for the various articles are named, with a number seemingly by Blegny himself, who also comments upon the work of his contributors, much as a modern editor would do. ‘Thus we have cases of vicarious menstruation, petrification of the semen, a wound of the heart, a hanged person restored to life, extraction of a urethral calculus followed by blindness ... a hydatidiform mole, monstrous births ... and transposition of the viscera. Besides these, however, there are lengthy disquisition's on topics of current interest, such as fevers and febrigures, on the nature of the teeth, their diseases and appropriate remedies, the generation of man, the use of quinquina in fevers, the letting of blood ... on various aspects of physics ... [and] one or two articles of an astrological nature’ (Nicholls, p. 201).
The French version had a somewhat checkered career, and ran until 1683, though under variant titles of ‘Le temple d’Esculape (1680), and ‘Journal des Nouvelles Descouvertes (1681-1683). At that point the Faculty of Medicine finally withdrew his privilege, Blegny having constantly challenged their authority and that of the traditional medical communities, and having himself been accused of all kinds of nefarious activities. Undeterred, Blegny transferred editorship to a Dr Gautier in Amsterdam, publication resuming in 1684 under the title Mercure Savant. A rival in Paris, Abbé de la Roque, took up the mantle of a Parisian periodical, and in 1681 began his own Journal de Savants, which itself ran to 1685.
Whilst the whole publication may have had a somewhat stormy and ultimately short-lived path, Blegny was nevertheless something of a pioneer in medical journalism, through his attempts to make medical information more widely and socially available. See Kronick, “Devant le Deluge” and other essas on Early Modern Scientific Communication, ff. 1; see also Nicholls, ‘Nicolas de Blegny and the First Medical Periodical’ in The Canadian Medical Association Journal, August 1934, ff. 198; Wellcome II, p. 180; Krivatsy 1376; collated complete against both the BL copy (although that does include one additional half-title for part IV excluded in this copy), and the copy at Glasgow - although plates not bound in varying orders in each copy; further complete sets located at the Huntington, Harvard, Texas and McGill and the Wellcome.

1910. Chromolithograph trade card, 126 x 96mm, printed on both sides, verso a little browned, with small tear at tail touching a couple of letters. A striking trade card celebrating ‘Wampole’s Preparation’, and notably its receipt of a Gold Medal at the International Health Exhibition of 1910, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
This tonic, containing extracts of cod livers, malt, calcium and wild cherry, was created in the 1880s by Henry K Wampole in Philadelphia. It found a ready market with doctors, providing as it did a way of administering cod liver oil in a more palatable form, having masked both the taste and odour of the oil. The company soon expanded with a large and well equipped second laboratory opened in Ontario in 1905. As the present striking card attests, it clearly found an International market. Seemingly not in Atwater.

1892. Small 8vo, pp. [vi], 44; with 7 full-page half tone plates, and further illustrations within the text, together with head- and tailpieces; some occasional light marginal soiling and foxing; with library label on front paste down, and library deaccession stamp on front free endpaper, and a number of smaller though quite discreet stamps throughout; An attractively printed account by Robert Boyle the younger, the noted Glasgow sanitary engineer and inventor and adept self-promoter, recounting his experiences during his ‘fourth crusade’ around the world, studying sanitary science and promoting sanitary reform through his own inventions.
Robert Boyle Senior (c. 1820-1878) was a practical religious philanthropist, who established charitable bakeries for Glasgow's poor, and delivered earnest, illustrated 'missionary lectures'. He opened an industrial museum promoting temperance but it failed in 1857. In 1866 he successfully demonstrated 'safe' high-explosives. Robert Boyle Junior (1850–1930) went into business with his father, and from 1870 onwards, to counter 'foul air' and harmful gaslight vapours, they developed their 'patent self-acting air-pump' roof and ship ventilators. These eliminated 'down-draught' and utilised natural air currents. They solicited testimonials from eminent scientists such as Lord Kelvin and Sir Joseph Lister, and from noted architects which adorned their full-page adverts. They won multiple prizes at international sanitary exhibitions (e.g. 1881, 1884, Paris 1900), and prominent clients included Caius College, Cambridge and St Paul's Cathedral and the Royal Society's Burlington House in London.
From their London offices at 64 Holborn Viaduct, Boyle Junior began his world-wide 'sanitary crusades' in which he would preach a doctrine of health through the breathing of pure air. Reports on Boyle's travels appeared in the Building News during the early 1890s. The present work is an account of his fourth such venture, visiting Burma, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Siam, Borneo, Java, Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and the Sandwich Islands. He is particularly struck by the sight of the lepers at the Shway Dagohn Pagoda in Burma, who lined the steps from top to bottom, and all “suffering from that loathsome disease in its worst forms and most advanced stages” (p. 6). He observes further terrible cases in Mandalay and in the Sandwich Islands, Boyle believing it to be one of the greatest scourges of the day, and seemingly little tackled by the medical authorities. ‘Mr Boyle has a theory that the practice of cannibalism has had in the past much to do with the propagation of this terrible scourge, the disease being spread wholesale through the eating of infected bodies’ (p. 43). He also witnesses cholera and smallpox in Bangkok, discusses the water supply in Rangoon, sanitation in Sydney and Melbourne, public buildings in Adelaide, house drainage in Christchurch, and discusses the recent revolution in Honolulu. An account of this trip appeared in Nature 47, 105-106 (01 December 1892).
By the beginning of the 20th century Boyle had amassed a large fortune and in 1902 he donated £100,000 towards hygiene education in schools in 1902. When he died over £169,000 of his estate was bequeathed to charity.

1871. Small folio, pp. vi, [2], 28; with six partially hand-coloured lithograph plates; some foxing throughout, more prominent in early leaves, with some staining and foxing to plates; Uncommon first edition of this finely illustrated anatomical treatise on the femoral vein, by the noted German anatomist Wilhelm Braune (1831–1892), published just a year before his groundbreaking and iconic ‘Topographische-anatomischer Atlas’ (1872), famous for its use of frozen sections.
Braune studied at the universities of Göttingen and Würzburg, and in 1872, became professor of topographical anatomy at the University of Leipzig. His works are renowned for his excellent use of lithography to depict the anatomy of the human body, of which this is a striking and early example. A second edition was published in 1873, together with a companion volume ‘Die Venen der menschlichen Hand’, and which are sometimes found together. These preliminary works and studies eventually culminated in his publication of ‘Das venensystem des menschlichen körpers’ (1884-1889), and which GM remarks was also ‘notable for its excellent illustrations’. OCLC locates copies at Cambridge, Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons, Chicago, Michigan, Columbia, NYAM and Cleveland.

1779. Single engraved sheet, sheet size 300 x 640mm, image size 285 x 625mm; hand-coloured; evidence of three previous vertical folds, with small hole in centre of left fold with minor loss, some light surface wear, paper a little browned and foxed, with neat repair along lower margin; very good. A rare hand-coloured engraving showing the side elevation and top view plan of an attractive six arch self-supporting stone bridge, and the design of the noted Montpellier architect Jean-Antoine Giral (1713-1787). According to the running headline the bridge ‘a été exécuté à Montpellier, en pierre de taille sur l’Echelle d’un pied par toise; c’est a dire, le sixieme du Grand, au quel on a done trente pouces de largeur. Representant quinze pieds en grand pour la moité de trente pieds de largeur d’une cette a l’autre il est entre pour les six arches sans les culées, 1000 pieds cubes de pierre de taille, pezant 2000 quintaux, qui sont soutenus sans aucune pille ni pillier sur lequel pont on roule des brouettes remplies de boulets de canon pesant douze à quinze quintaux sans que les arches reçoivent le plus petit mouvement, présentant au contraire, la plus grand solidité, depuis environ une année, que ce pont est construit’. The attractive engraving is signed by Giral and dated August 24th 1779.
Despite our best efforts, we have been unable to identify the bridge, or to ascertain for certain whether it was ever constructed, or whether this is merely a proposal for future discussion - which seems more likely.
We have found no other mention of this engraving. Giral, from a distinguished family of architects, was named state architect for Languedoc and he was entrusted with the design of a number of municipal and public edifices, most notably the water fountain at Peyrou, and the Royal Promenade which linked the water tower to the Montpellier Aquaduct. He was also responsible for the design of the new Pont sur la Mosson at Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone, built to replace one destroyed by a severe flood, and completed in 1766. The present engraving certainly bears some resemblance to that bridge, and as a number of other bridges in the area had been damaged during flooding, it seems likely that he had been called upon for new proposals.

1804. 4to, pp. [ii] title-page, 135, [1] blank; with four folding copper engraved plates; aside from some minor spotting and soiling, clean and fresh, printed on thick paper; First edition, and most attractively printed, of this collection of memoirs presented before the Paduan Academy, by the noted anatomist Leopoldo Marco Antonio Caldani (1725-1813). Caldani succeeded Morgagni in the chair of anatomy at Padua, where he was already professor of theoretical medicine. Best remembered for the monumental Icones Anatomicae (1801-1814) published in conjunction with his nephew Florian Caldani (1772-1836), Caldani was the author of a number of works on anatomy and pathology, and announced several anatomical discoveries in various academic publications. The present collection includes seven memoirs on a variety of topics: a comparative examination of the structure of human and bovine bones (19 Marzo 1795); on the composition of the teeth (9 Febbraro 1797); some special remarks on the lymphatics and veins of the mesentery (23 Aprile 1789); research on the causes of the force and duration of the constant motion of the heart and the extreme susceptibility of its internal walls (28 Febbraro 1799); a singularly monstrous foetus (2 Marzo 1787, and accompanied by a striking plate); and a dissertation on a child with missing arms (2 June 1796, and also accompanied by an engraving); and finally a memoir on respiration.

1765. Two works in one volume, first work in two parts, small folio; pp. [x], 10, 152, 151-8, [159] part title dated 1761, [160] blank, [161]-200, with attractive woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials, with one half page copper engraving on p. 163, and 20 copper engraved plates (of which four folding, plate XII particularly large): pp. [iv], 316, with woodcut headpieces, and with 28 copper engraved plates (of which three folding, plate IV another large and striking image); pp. [x], vi, 254, [2] errata and blank, with attractive woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials; paper a little browned throughout due to quality, with some occasional faint marginal dampstaining, with some slightly more prominent staining in a couple of places in part II of the Acta at pp. 120-124 and p. 141-3, small stamped monograph of ‘G.D.’ on verso of both main title-pages, and some occasional neat pencil annotations and ink corrections in text; overall clean and crisp; First editions of two classic late eighteenth century works on mining technology and the history of mining in Germany, attractively illustrated with a number of detailed copper engravings, the work of Hans Calvör (1686-1766), a teacher at Clausthal and pastor at Altenau.
The ‘Acta historico-chronologico-mechanica’ is one of the most impressive and important German works on mining technology of the 18th century. “A valuable record of mining machinery and mining operations, as practised in Germany during the middle of the XVIIIth century. It was intended as a supplement to Schlüter’s Gründlicher Unterricht von Hüttenwerken” (Sotheran 1st supplement 6384). The attractive plates depict machinery, tunnels, and metallurgical apparatus. It is here bound together with Calvör’s invaluable historical companion volume, and which prints for the first and only time much original material which is now lost concerning the most important mining area of Germany. Mining had been carried on in the Harz mountains since the middle of the 10th century and Clausthal and St Andreasberg in the Upper Harz were the chief centres, and were sources of a number of metals and minerals including silver, lead, gold, copper, iron, sulphur, alum, and arsenic. The two works thus provide an important and invaluable insight late eighteenth century mining practices. Ferchl p. 82; Poggendorff I, 364; Roller/Goodman I, 196; OCLC locates copies Yale, Harvard, the Library of Congress, Columbia, Linda Hall, Lehigh, Oklahoma, Chicago, Stanford, Manchester, Cambridge and the British Library.

1838. Manuscript written in a single hand, in an un-ruled 8vo notebook of different coloured paper; ff. 52; pp. [8]; ff. [38] blank; first section written in landscape across the page; some occasional light foxing and marginal finger soiling; A personal album of cartomancy, written in a neat hand on multicoloured paper, and bound in a most attractive binding, by Joseph Dobson. Belonging to one ‘R. Sattersale’ of Blackburn, Lancashire, a check of the 1841 census reveals a number of Lancashire Sattersale’s - but we believe the volume may well have belong to one Rose Sattersale. Ms. Sattersale uses the most popular form of fortune-telling and card reading i.e. by using a set of standard playing cards. The author diverts, however, from more common interpretations of the cards, and has instead penned a series of light-hearted verses as answers, suggesting that this was for personal amusement amongst friends. Thus for the Seven of spades we read: ‘There are some that will speak very fare to your face, But would gladly behold you invok’d in disgrace. They call you inconstant, unkind and perverse, Forgetting that they are all this and much worse’ (p.30). Whilst for the Seven of clubs: ‘A great entertainment your presence will grace, At a very large house in a very gay place, But had you not gone you will say on the morrow, You’d been saved many hours of vexation and sorrow’ (p.1). The second section, written more regularly in portrait (as opposed to the first section penned in landscape), appears slightly more serious in tone. A series of 44 readings are given (numbered 1st-44th), providing such predictions as ‘Many things will be said to your disadvantage but you will have a warm advocate and steady friend in a gentleman you think little of’ (7th). Or this: ‘You will soon have a new relative introduced to you. I do not pretend to say agreeable, on the contrary’ (13th). The volume ends on a more positive note: ‘Your amiable disposition has gained the love of many’. Ramsden, London Bookbinders, and Packer, Bookbinders of Victorian London, both note a Joseph Dobson working in London between 1838-1840.

1860. 8vo, pp, [8], with eight woodcut illustrations, four of which have been crudely hand-coloured, and with running alphabet at the head of six pages; generally clean and crisp; An appealing and scarce chapbook, reprinting the popular tale of Jenny Wren, and issued by the noted firm of W.S. Fortey. The McGill copy has the same illustrations hand-coloured in the same style.
During the 19th century the printing industry became much more technologically advanced, resulting in a major increase in the speed and output per printing press, and a consequent reduction in the cost of printing. Literacy had greatly improved through all sections of society, and the demand for cheap newspapers, journals and novels was unparalleled at any point in British history. Printers such as WS Fortey embraced new technology such as steam printing, and were very active as the printers of cheap chapbooks, posters, leaflets and trade cards. OCLC locates copies at McGill, Pittsburgh, Cambridge and Monash, with further digitalised copies located.

[ca. 1819-20]. 12mo, pp. xii, [i] blank, [13] - 216; with large and attractive folding wood-engraved frontispiece 150 x 540mm, and wood-engravings and tables in the text; some occasional light spotting and marginal soiling, otherwise clean and fresh; An attractive copy of the third edition, variant issue (other copies located have on the title ‘third edition with considerable alterations and improvements’) of this extremely popular juvenile work of scientific recreation, first published in ca. 1818, though the precise date is uncertain. Of interest to collectors of not only conjuring and fireworks, this entertaining little work contains a myriad of experiments, chemical feats, and magic tricks to while away the hours, including how to make invisible ink, ‘the exploding bubble’, ‘a mercurial shower’, ‘the electric aurora borealis’, magical mirrors, and artificial earthquakes. The section of “amusements with cards” occupies 23 pages, and the “complete system of pyrotechny”, which in the first edition comprised 15 pages, has here been extended to 42 pages; the new material describes several quite sophisticated fireworks including shells and water-fireworks. It was one of the first two books to be published in America to deal with the subject of fireworks. All editions appear uncommon. See Toole-Stott, Conjuring, ff. 256 for several editions; Philip, Bibliography of firework books, pp. 48-50; not in Osbourne; OCLC cites copies of this edition at New York University, the Smithsonian, and Cambridge, with the variant third edition title-page ‘with considerable alterations and improvements’ at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and the Library of Congress.

1930. Small 8vo, pp. 255, [1] advertisement, and with map on verso of front free endpaper, and further advertisement on recto of final free endpaper; paper a little browned due to paper quality; A comprehensive price list of ‘special preparations, and a general run of chemicals and drugs, in consecutive order’, and issued by the famous London pharmaceutical firm of William Martindale.
The company was best remembered for its extensive compendium of pharmacy, ‘The Extra Pharmacopoeia’ first published in 1883, and by the 1930 had reached its 19th edition, as promoted on the final leaf of the present trade list.
William Martindale (1840-1902) began trading in 1873, the business being situated in New Cavendish Street, and trading as W. Martindale. In the 1890s William's son, William Harrison Martindale (1874-1932) assumed control of his father's firm and expanded the manufacturing side of the business. 1928 he rebuilt the New Cavendish Street premises and erected a factory in Chenies Mews behind University College Hospital. The business, W. Martindale, was acquired by Savory & Moore Ltd in 1933, following which the retail operation at New Cavendish Street continued to trade as W. Martindale until the mid-1970s. See http://www.histpharm.org/40ishpBerlin/P51P.pdf.

1813. Two single manuscript letters on watermarked paper, neatly written in brown ink in two separate hands, and with further additional signatures; paper little browned and dust-soiled, with some minor ink spotting, and each sheet with two or three small paper flaws. Two nice early 19th century documents relating to chimney sweeping. The first, dated Purfleet June 16th, 1813, is a copy of a report by John Davies and addressed to Captain Godfrey Esq, Storekeeper. ‘Gentlemen, You will give directions for the chimney shaft attached to Taylors shed to be enlarged as there is a check by the roof so as to prevent the Boy or a wiff of straw to go up or down which was the occasion the chimney being on fire’. The accompanying letter of instruction dated ‘Office of Ordnance, Purfleet 21st June 1813’, is addressed to Major Birch ‘Coms. Rl. Engineer’. ‘Sir, We beg to transmit to you the enclosed copy of a report made to us by John Davies employed to Sweep the Ordnance Chimnies at this place, and as the chimney of the shed therein mentioned has been on fire twice, we have to request that you will be pleased to give directions for the same to be enlarged as as to admit of its being properly swept’. This has been signed by John Godfrey, Sam[uel] Prynn and Francis Pallatte. Prynn was Clerk of the Survey, and Pellate Clerk of the Cheque. As one of the gunpowder magazines of the Office of Ordnance, the prevention of fire at Purfleet must surely have been a matter of some urgency!

1942. Together five volumes of 4to notebooks, four ruled and one plain paper; I. ff. [30], [1] blank, [6], [15] blank, [86], [20], with a further loosely inserted note; II. pp. 117, 120-121, 118-119, 120-132, [14] blank; III. pp. [ii], 8, 13-45, [46] -[72], [64] blank, including a number of newspaper clippings neatly pasted in; IV. pp. 91, [57] blank; V. ff. [27]; neatly penned in ink and pencil in a single hand, with a couple of pages typed; notebooks all well used and thus with some fraying, marginal nicks and edge wear, signs of one or two pages removed, with some light browning and soiling throughout; A fascinating insight into the teaching of Chinese to foreign residents during WWII. Baroness Irene von Oertzen (1908-2007) and her husband Baron Klaus-Detlof von Oertzen (1894-1991) were well-known as passionate collectors of Chinese art. Von Oertzen was a pioneer in the early German car industry, and is indeed the man behind the iconic Audi logo. As a member of the Prussian aristocracy, he turned his back on Hitler’s Germany and in 1935 the couple moved to South Africa. After the outbreak of war, they were interned in prison camps in the Dutch East Indies in May 1940, the Baroness then being separated from her husband and transferred to China. There she gained employment at the Canadian Consul, and the present notebooks record her studious attempts to learn the Chinese language. Indeed she subsequently became fluent and developed a great appreciation for Chinese art and for jade carvings in particular. In time, Von Oertzen was also transferred to China where he established a car dealership, although the eventual civil strife in the country forced them to return to South Africa, and where he later became Volkswagen’s main representative, earning the soubriquet of ‘the father of Volkswagen in South Africa’.
As the notebooks clearly reflect, Irene von Oertzen soon mastered both written and spoken Chinese. Written in English, German and Chinese, the notebooks include much vocabulary, text excerpts from Chinese literature in German translation, and with the last two books bearing the title ‘Newspaper Chinese Course’ and containing, in addition to vocabulary, several glued Chinese newspaper clippings.
Her time spent in China, and her clearly devotion to Chinese culture and language, as conveyed in these five notebooks, had a lasting impression on both Irene and Klaus, and over the years, they created a large and renowned private collection of valuable Chinese art (see S. Howard Hansford, Jade: Essence of Hills and Streams. The Von Oertzen Collection).

1903. 8vo, 251, [1]; with seventeen halftone photographs (all but four full page) and two maps; very small rust mark at gutter of title-page, with some light soiling and marginal browning; First edition of this fervent account by Mary E. Darley, ‘A Missionary in China of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society’ in which she reports on the activities and work of the mission, to lead souls ‘out of utter darkness into “His Marvellous Light”. Whilst inevitably focused upon the religious purpose of her stay in China, her account provides an insight into the role that women played in early 20th century missionary work, and in particular her work with local Chinese women and children, and the missions social and welfare work with lepers and the blind.