1817. 12mo, pp. [ii] half-title, xxv, [i] advertisement, 191, [i] title-page ‘Descriptive Catalogue’, 59, [i] advertisement; with a couple of small text engravings; a little foxed and dust-soiled throughout, though often marginal, the ‘Descriptive catalogue a little more foxed, with prominent staining affecting lower gutter between pp. 25-48 and from p. 47 to the end of the ‘Descriptive Catalogue’ also affecting final endpaper; uncut in the original publisher’s grey paper boards, with printed label on spine (cracked and somewhat soiled), head and tail of spine worn with slight loss, joints cracked but holding, covers somewhat spotted and a little ink stained, corners and extremities bumped and lightly worn; with the book-plate of Benjamin Flounders [Flanders] on front paste-down; overall a good copy, and uncommon in the original boards. Uncommon first edition, and of appeal being in the original boards. ‘One of the most popular expositions of elementary chemistry of the time, which did much to bring the study of the science to the attention of the general public. The book was “written with a view, to blend chemical science with rational amusement” (preface). Five English editions appeared in quick succession: 1817, 1818 (2 eds.), 1819, and 1821, as well as translations into German (1819, 1824), Italian (1820, 1829, 1854), French (1825, 1835), and Spanish (1836). At the end is A descriptive catalogue of the apparatus & instruments employed in experimental and operative chemistry manufactured and sold by Frederick Accum (1817), comprising a detailed list of the apparatus and chemicals used at the time, complete with prices. Accum supplied apparatus to Harvard and Yale universities and even universities in India. The first edition is very scarce’ (Neville, p. 4-5).
Of the 103 experiments, a considerable number involve the properties of silver and other substances later applied to the photographic process.
Friedrich Christian Accum (1769-1838) ‘came to England in 1793 as an assistant in the firm of Brande, apothecaries to George III. By about 1800 he had his own laboratory and was soon giving lecture courses which proved popular. Accum was one of the forerunners of the developing class of professional chemists, seeing and exploiting the technological possibilities created by the rapid advance of chemical knowledge. He was active as a lecturer, author, merchant, consultant and did fundamental work on gas-lighting and food adulteration’ (Cole, p. 1). Cole notes that the first edition was sold out within two months, leading to Accum to issue the revised and expanded second edition in the following year.
Provenance: Benjamin Flounders (1768-1846) was a prominent English Quaker with business interests in key new industries and developments at the time of the mid-industrial revolution, such as The Stockton and Darlington Railway (of which he was a founding Director) and new canals in his native Northeast of England.

[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; bound in contemporary marbled boards, neatly rebacked and recornered in calf, spine ruled and lettered in ink, with some minor abrasions to surfaces; with presentation inscription from the author to Mr. Fildes at the tail of the dedication leaf; a good copy. 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.

ca. 1947. Small photograph album, 175 x 210mm, sheet size 166 x 180mm; ff. 15 leaves of brown card, containing 73 photographs of varying sizes, most presumably taken by the compiler, one larger and more formal photograph embossed with the stamp ‘Forest Hall Observatory, Northumberland’, and with four later newspaper clippings loosely inserted at rear; with evidence of at least two further images no longer present; the majority neatly annotated in a single hand in ink; some occasional light scuffing to the card, fore-edge of a few leaves a little thumbed and rubbed; contemporary ‘faux crocodile’ brown stiff card photograph album, lettered in gilt on upper cover, bound with gold and red silk cord through eyelet's, head and tail of spine a little rubbed and worn, corners lightly bumped; good. A striking personally compiled photograph album from the mid 20th century, assembled by the noted local astronomer and Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, Frank J. Acfield (1905-1975). A large striking photograph is found on the verso of f. 4, and annotated ‘Circumpolar Star Trails by F. J. Acfield, Forest Hall Observatory’, whilst another photograph is annotated ‘F.J.A’ and shows him standing by his own telescope. A previous owner has also had the handwriting verified, by the archivist of the British Astronomical Society, as being that of Acfield.
The 73 photographs of varying sizes were taken during the late 1940s and early 1950s, and depict a number of UK and European Observatories and buildings, their astronomers (including one of Acfield himself at work), 26 images of telescopes, and 25 depicting various observations of the solar system, including images of the sun, the moon, Jupiter, ‘Comet Honda’, and auroral light. Amongst the observatories visited include Seaton, Hepple, the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Paris, Whickham, with a number taken of, and from, Acfield’s own observatory at Forest Hall in Newcastle, which he set up at his home in 1949. Using a 10-inch reflecting telescope, Acfield undertook extensive celestial photography, and according to Harold Gooch in his ‘Appreciation’ of Acfield in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association (Vol 89, p. 504-505, 1979) ‘did much for the Jupiter Section of the BAA and also worked extensively in the fields of cometary and auroral work as well as in the patient pursuit of the minor planets. Much of his outstanding photographic work is still widely reproduced’ (Gooch, p. 504). In addition he was a tireless astronomy populariser, writing weekly newspaper columns, and giving regular lectures. In 1970 an episode of the famous ‘Sky at Night’ series, hosted by Patrick Moore, was transmitted from Forest Hall, with the programme dedicated to his work and expertise.
Acfield was born in Southampton and trained and worked in the woollen industry, moving to Newcastle upon Tyne in 1936. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1945 and later was honoured by the Société Astronomique de France.

1810. 8vo, pp. [iv], [4] ‘Annonce’ giving times and dates of the sessions of the auction; [v]–xx 338; with duty paid stamp at head of the ‘Annonce’; some light foxing and spotting, but generally clean and crisp; in later nineteenth-century half calf over marbled boards, spine tooled in blind and gilt, with green morocco label lettered in gilt, head and tail of spine nicked and rubbed, lower joint starting to split, extremities lightly bumped and worn with some minor surface wear. First and only edition of this uncommon and important catalogue intended to be used as a bibliography as well as a sale catalogue of the library of the renowned chemist Fourcroy (1755-1809), including a classification scheme and indexes of authors and anonymous titles. Over 2,700 items in Fourcroy’s library are listed, 1800 of which are on science or medicine, with many rare chemical books being listed. It is preceded by a brief biography of Fourcroy including a bibliography of his own works. The sale dates are given in the separately paginated announcement. The library was sold on consecutive days, Monday to Saturday 19 November to 22 December 1810, 29 days in all. Fourcroy’s library is interesting in its own right, but also valuable as it provides a point of comparison with the library of Lavoisier who was his near contemporary and collaborator on the Méthode de nomenclature chimique (1787) which ushered in the chemical revolution. Lavoisier’s library was about the same size, 2,500 titles including pamphlets. Of the 1,746 books (excluding pamphlets) Beretta classifies 844 as scientific and medical (another 145 are on mineralogy and mining and 91 on agriculture and husbandry). According to Peignot, the compiler of the catalogue was François Henri Stanislas de l'Aulnay (1739-1831), the author of a book published in 1786 on Pilâtre de Rozier's antimephitic respirator, upon which he improved.

1821. Three volumes, 8vo; pp. lciv, 1 - 176, 173-362; pp. 463, [1] blank; pp. 477, [1]; with three lithograph frontispieces and a further 6 (one folding) lithographs; aside from some occasional light foxing and marginal browning, generally clean and crisp, though with a couple of small burn holes (Vol. II, p. 15, and Vol. III p. 209), a small paper flaw affecting upper blank gutter of Vol. I p. 281, with a few neat marginal repairs (Vol. I, p. 82, Vol. II, pp. 186-8, 265-7, 317-9, 461-4, and Vol. III half-title), with upper gutter of Vol. III pp. 67-69 nicked; recently rebound in modern calf, with new labels in red and green on spine, lettered in gilt. First edition of this extraordinary work, of note for the striking plates drawn by Quinart and lithographed by Langlumé, and considered by many to be one of the strangest publications of the 19th century. Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier (1765-ca. 1851) ‘believed himself to be plagued by a host of demons whom he referred to as farfadets (”goblins”). He claimed not only to have been repeatedly victimized by these demons (among other things, they were responsible for the death of his pet squirrel, Coco), but he also allegedly carried out extensive correspondence with them, both sending and receiving letters from the various emissaries of Hell. Berbiguier wrote and illustrated his three-volume autobiography and published it between the years of 1818 and 1821, for the benefit of others who might learn how to battle with demons through his own experiences. He titled the massive, rambling work, Les Farfadets... (Goblins, or Not All Demons are from the other world)’ (Belanger, p. 69). For some time he was treated by Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) at the famous Hôpital de la Salpêtrière, but without success, indeed Berbiguier coming to believe that Pinel himself, was a ‘representative of the Devil’ (Vol. I. p. 4), Pinel coming under frequent attack throughout the work, and accused of colluding with occult forces. Limited to a small print run, Berbiguier eventually destroyed almost all of the copies after publication, though whether from remorse or from fear of retribution from the forces of evil, remains unknown to this day.
This rare and curious ‘autobiography’ has given rise to numerous studies and publications, both from a medical and literary point of view. The work is discussed at length by Massimo Introvigne in ‘Satanism: A social History’ (ff. 74): ‘In 1821, Alexis-Vincent-Charles Berbiguier published a book... that few approved of but many read. In elegant Paris of the Restoration, reading Berbiguier became almost an obligation. References to him by several contemporary authors show the popularity of Berbiguier, later usually listed among the “cranks” or simply consigned to psychiatry... Les Farfadets...is, effectively, a paradoxical and wonderful work, which deserves its fame. The portrait decorating the first of Berbiguier’s three volumes, a marvellous lithography that became a rarity sought by bibliographers, portrays him as the “scourge of the farfadets”. Farfadet in French, means “leprechaun”, but the author defined farfadets as “the élite secret service of Beelzebub”. Although the demons themselves are occasionally defined by Berbiguier as farfadets too, there is no doubt, through his three volumes, comprising almost one thousand five-hundred pages, that most farfadets are human beings, who became “agents” of the Devil and Satanists.
The work of Berbiguier opens with an erudite introduction, a Preliminary Discourse that was probably written by François-Vincent Raspail (1794-1878) who, together with lawyer J. B. P. Brunel (1789-1859), edited Berbiguier’s manuscript giving it a literary form... Theology and experience, Berbiguier argued, prove not only that the Devil does exist, but also that there are men and (more often) women who bond with him through a demonic pact... Animated by the Devil, farfadets can manipulate nature, causing rain and snow, and invisibly sneak into the houses of their victims. The can also modify the behaviour of animals and even “animate” inanimate things. The pious man can however defeat Satanists through prayer and the use of herbs such as laurel and thyme, where are feared by the devils themselves.
The first volume portrays the poor Berbiguier, who at the age of thirty-two moved from his birthplace in Carpentras, where he was born in 1764, to Avignon. He worked there as an employee for the Lottery, and then as the bursar in the Hospice of Saint Martha. One of the housemaids convinced him to consult tarot cards with a soothsayer known as “La Mansotte”. This initial excursion into occultism was the event that “put him in the hands of the farfadets” and was the source of all evils for Berbiguier. The poor man never slept again from this moment on: the Satanists, invisible, crept into his house and into his bed and tormented him with every sort of offence... He approached for help both an exorcist and several doctors in Avignon: among whom two named Bouge and Nicolas who, unfortunately for him, were disciples of Mesmer and tried to “magnetize” him. Berbiguier saw in magnetism and mesmerism, just like in tarot reading, an artifice of the Devil, so he did not regard his declining condition as a surprise... The pilgrimage to different doctors continued, among others to the famous Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) of the Salpêtrière Hospital. Pinel sent him to an exorcist priest, who however did not believe in the diabolical nature of his ills. Pinel and his collaborators for a while indulged Berbiguier, suggesting placebos and ceremonies both bizarre and harmless to free him from spirits they regarded as imaginary, but eventually sent him away and treated him as a lunatic. Berbiguier ended up believing that almost all doctors were farfadets and that Pinel was actually the “representative of Satan” on Earth’ (Introvigne, and see Vol. I. p. 4).
Berbiguier provides extensive information about what he perceives to be the court of Hell, and throughout the three volumes recounts numerous encounters between himself and other ‘Satanists’, both male and female, including a failed priest, Étienne Prieur, a magician Adélio Moreau (1789-1861), and other personalities including Marie-Anne Lenormand (1772-1843), the famous tarot card reader of the period, and whom Berbiguier believed to be a leading Satanic Grand Mistress. ‘The most famous pages of the book are those dedicated to the epic of the squirrel Coco, Berbiguier’s only inseparable friend, destined to a cruel fate... The farfadets, in their nocturnal visits... in invisible form, lashed out at Coco, and finally killed him by inducing him to go in between the mattress and the bed of his unhappy owner, who at the same time was violently thrown on that bed by a farfadet, causing the immediate death of the little creature’ (ibid, and see Vol. II. 78-79).
‘Berbiguier ruined himself by sending copies of his luxuriously bound text to sovereigns, newspapers and libraries. He later had all the remaining copies burned, an action which makes his work today a bibliographic rarity, we don’t know if out of fear of being considered a madman or of further persecution by the farfadets. Although other sources considered him “healed” and dead in Paris in 1835, it appears that in 1841 he was still chasing after farfadets, in spite of his miserable condition, in the Carpentras home for the aged’ (ibid).
As Introvigne notes, some scholars have subsequently questioned whether the whole work in fact that of the editors, hoping perhaps to create a literary sensation and capitalise upon the 19th century fascination with the occult. Barbier certainly seems to suggest that it is more the work of Raspail and Brunel. Many contemporaries widely regarded him as a madman, but a madman who told certain truths, and the work certainly found a wide contemporary readership, and was cited by several authors and known to the eminent demonographer Collin de Plancy, who cites the work in the ‘Dictionnaire Infernel’. Today, it is widely believed that Berbiguier was indeed suffering from some form of monomania or psychosis, and indeed the Dictionnaire encyclopédies des sciences médicales, of 1868-69 devote a passage to Berbiguier describing him as the ‘most famous of the hallucinated monomaniacs’, who ‘devoted all of his time defending himself from the insults and attacks of goblins, to hunting down these fantastic beings, to imprison them in boxes or in bottles, to prick them with pine like butterflies’.
Of his name, Berbiguier notes that the addition of ‘de Terre-Neuve du Thym’ was not through some improbably claim to nobility, but more simply from the idea that Terra Nova fishermen catch many fishes, as he hoped to catch many farfadets, and from his desire to retire and cultivate thyme, a plant that was effective in driving out demons (Vol. I, pp. xiii-xiv). A second edition was finally published in 1990.

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.

1754.]. 8vo, pp. [ii], 5-138, with engraved title-page vignette; pp. 7, [1]; aside from some light spotting and foxing, clean and bright; abridgement loosely inserted, with some dust-soiling and light wear along fore-edge; in later stiff marbled wrappers, spine somewhat nicked and worn with small loss at head and approximately 2cm loss at tail, covers slightly creased with some light surface wear and minor staining. Separate edition, issued with a general title the year after it had received Royal Assent, of the act which saw the inception of the British Museum, the ‘Act for the purchase of the Museum, or collection of Sir Hans Sloane, and of the Harleian collection of manuscripts; and for providing one general repository for the better reception and more convenient use of the said collections; and of the Cottonian Library, and of the additions thereto’ (p. 5 and known formerly as Public General Act 1753 26. Geo. II. c.22).
Sir Hans Sloane died on January 11th 1753, aged 83, leaving behind a magnificent collection consisting of around 71000 objects, including 50,000 printed books and manuscripts, natural history specimens including 337 volumes of dried plants, coins and medals, prints and drawings, and antiquities, acquired from around the globe. Like many of the great collections and cabinets of curiosities of the time, Sloane had used developing global networks created by European imperial expansion to collect these materials, some of his income partly derived from Jamaican sugar plantations and enslaved labour. His will had placed the collection in the care of several trustees who were entrusted to ensure that his wishes that it be bequeathed to the nation were achieved. They were instructed to approach king or parliament with an offer for the collection in return for the payment of £20,000 - not the full value of the collection which was nearer 80,000 - to be paid to his executors for his daughters. Further, it was his wish that they secure an act of Parliament to vest the collection in their care, with all necessary property, powers, and money to ensure its preservation and accessibility by creating a new and freely accessible public museum to house it. So confident was Sloane over the collection’s scientific and educational value, that should this offer be declined it was to be offered in turn to four academies - St. Petersburg, Paris, Berlin, and Madrid - where Sloane held honorary memberships. Should this fail, the collection was not to revert to the daughters, but rather was to be sold at auction, with his heirs receiving the cash.
As chair of the executors, the Earl of Macclesfield presented a petition to King George II to purchase the legacy, but being famously uninterested in championing either the arts or sciences, he dismissed it as being too expensive. This rebuff led the executors to approached parliament, and whilst some did not fully embrace the idea of purchasing a museum, others, notably Henry Pelham, recognised that such a valuable bequest should not slip through its hands. After deliberation, parliament took the opportunity to combine Sloane’s museum with the great Cottonian and Harleian libraries, to create a larger institution than originally envisaged. The Act set in place the rules of governance for the museum, with a new body of forty-two Trustees appointed, and which included holders from some of the greatest offices in church and state. The Act was passed and given Royal Assent on June 7th 1753, the collections thus becoming the foundation not only of the British Museum, but subsequently of the Natural History Museum and the British Library.
The King having refused to pay the £20,000, the Act provided for the establishment of a national lottery to raise £300,000 to build the museum. It proved to be a scandalously run affair, with virtually all of the tickets sold before they were put on offer to the public. The market was covered especially by a rich financier, Sampson Gideon, and also by one of the four receivers of the lottery money, Peter Leherpe. They managed to sell the tickets in large chunks before the lottery opened. The Act had specified that no one person should have more than 20 tickets. Leherpe, however, allowed people to submit a list of fictitious names so that they could buy many more. After two days, the British Museum lottery tickets were said to be selling for a premium of 16 shillings, with various financiers reselling them at a profit. Gideon himself had more than 5,000 tickets. When he died he left an estate worth more than half a million pounds, and during his lifetime was so rich that he bankrolled the Government. The identity of the eventual lottery winner is not known, but the winning ticket number was 46885. The British Museum, after the payment of expenses, received £95,194 8s 2d, some of which went towards buying Montague House, the house on the present site into which the various collections were sent. It was eventually opened as a museum on January 15th 1759.

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; in contemporary half-sheep over marbled paste-paper boards, spine in compartments with raised bands, ruled in blind, head of spine worn and exposing headband which is frayed, faint and illegible manuscript at head of spine, spine a little nicked in places, joints cracked but holding, extremities somewhat worn and rubbed, with slight surface wear; still a good copy. 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.

1801. 8vo, pp. [vi], viii, [9] - 228, [2] blank; with 10 folding engraved plates; some occasional light soiling and spotting, but otherwise clean and crisp; contemporary calf-backed marbled boards, spine tooled in gilt with red morocco label, light rubbed to head and tail of spine and joints, fore-edge of upper board nicked splitting paper, corners a little bumped, extremities rubbed and lightly worn. First edition of this contribution to the growing number of taxidermy handbooks published during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, in response to growing demands amongst the wider scientific community for better methods of preserving natural history specimens.
The French physician and biologist Pierre-François Nicolas (1743-1816) taught natural history at the university at Nancy between 1795-1798. After resigning, he worked in Paris for two years before becoming professor of chemistry in Caen in 1801. In the present work, Nicolas presents a summary of contemporary knowledge and practices of the day. The ten folding plates, drawn by himself, illustrate the tools required, and the methods for preserving various animals, birds, insects and reptiles. Nicolas is critical of a number of contemporary methods which he deems to be inadequate, offering up many of his own techniques as being superior. In particular, he addresses the problem of insect damage to specimens. The use of poison to deter insects was a matter of some debate at the time, and many were trying to find alternative methods. It was believed that the insects were attracted to bird skins in particular by the decomposing fat left on skins. To counter this, Nicolas proposed a two step procedure that called for soaking the skin in a tanning solution then treating it with a soapy pomade. He claims to have had extraordinary success with his technique, but other naturalists failed to duplicate his results, and for this reason his method did not win many adherents.
The present work is dedicated to the Minister of the Interior, Lucien Bonaparte, a younger brother of Napoleon. One wonders whether this dedicated helped to secure his position at Caen in the same year.

2015. The Swedish Dental Society, founded in 1860, accumulated an important historical collection of over 850 odontological books, the majority printed before 1920, and which today forms one of the major special collections deposited in the Hagströmer Medico-Historical Library in Stockholm. The catalogue comprises 208 pages and 161 illustrations with descriptions of 65 books including the earliest printed works from the sixteenth century entirely devoted to dentistry, as well as on how to cure toothache, on extraction, and on the replacement of false teeth. The collections includes first editions of several odontological classics, from Eustachi's Libellus de dentibus (1583) through to Jackson's Orthodontia of 1904 on the regulation of teeth, and including the most famous of them all, Pierre Fauchard's Chirurgien Déntiste, Paris, 1728. Each item is given a bibliographical description and at least one page with a historical commentary on the author and the importance of his work.
**Temporarily out of stock - but more on order and will be available in due course.

1873.]. Set of ten large, thick card tablets, 480 x 320 x 5mm; each with mounted printed sheet, with engraved vignette either at head or centrally, sheets all a little browned with some staining, soiling and scuffing or creasing in places, plain blue paper on verso, boards 1- 7 with the original green mottled paper edging (somewhat chipped and worn), boards 8 & 9 with later green cloth edging, and final board with no edging remaining and exposing the inner board; though extremities all somewhat rubbed, worn and a little dog-eared, otherwise a striking and rare survivor of an ephemeral teaching aid. A wonderfully striking and extremely scarce set of this didactic French ‘ABC’. The ‘Cours Désir’ was a private quasi-religious Catholic educational establishment set up by the Adeline Désir (1819-1875) in 1853. In particular it welcomed girls from the Parisian upper middle class, and its specific aim was to produce ‘cultured women’, with a focus upon religious education, and the arts, although Désir did place importance upon the role of science in the education of young women. The school took in full-and half boards, as well as some day pupils, from primary stage through to the baccalaureate, and also included a school for the training of women teachers. As the famous alumnus, Simone de Beauvoir, recounted in her ‘Memoirs of a Young Girl’, the school took care to distinguish itself from similar secular establishments, with the young girls enlisted into a ‘Eucharistic crusade’ as soon as they arrived. The number of hours of teaching a week did not exceed 12, and annual retreats were an important part of the school calendar. Students of the school were instantly recognisable by the manner of their bow: ‘un coup de pied droit en arrière avec un léger fléchissement de la jambe gauche’.
The series of ten printed teaching aids, introduce the young child to the basic principles of the ‘Abécdaire français’, through a series of engraved images with accompanying moralistic printed text or verse, starting with the nativity, the farm, ‘Creator God’, a nest, the tale of the ‘Good little Marie’, ‘the two Ceciles’, the good brother, and the Innocent Saints, together with the remaining two boards giving an overview of the linguistic principles so far introduced.

1890-1901.]. Large oblong album, 270 x 420 mm; ff. 33 leaves of thick paper 264 x 410mm; with 399 late Victorian calling cards, greeting cards, menus, invitations etc neatly mounted and organised, with a further 7 items loosely inserted, front and rear endpapers also used, four pages unused, and one calling card blank; a number of the cards signed or with manuscript messages of greeting, several of the mounted items with neat manuscript annotations penned below by Dietz; some light foxing, soiling throughout, with some offsetting and see-through caused by the glue, a few cards now a little faded, one or two slightly creased, and with a couple of small marginal tears; An extraordinary turn of the century personally compiled album of printed calling cards and correspondence, received over a number of years by Catinka [also Cathinka] Mackenzie de Dietz (1813-1901), noted concert pianist and former pianist to the Queen of Bavaria. As such, it throws a fascinating light upon her social circle, forming a veritable ‘Who’s Who’ of European Royalty and High Society, and made even more appealing by her acerbic and often slightly scandalous annotations! in the original ribbed brown publisher’s cloth, ruled in blind with ‘Souvenir’ in gilt on upper cover, lower joint split at tail, spine somewhat sunned, small loss of cloth on upper cover, rear cover crinkled and stained at tail, with some wear along upper margin, corners a little bumped and worn. Dietz ‘made her Paris debut on 7 February 1836 at the Salle Pleyel with the first movement of Hummel's Concerto in A Minor and Kalkbrenner's staple debut piece - his Grand Duo in D for two pianos, Op. 128 - with Thalberg. Her career revolved around placements at royal courts. By 1840 she was pianist to the queen of Bavaria; the following year she played at the French court and was appointed pianist to the queen of the French in 1845. She composed salon pieces, played regularly for Queen Victoria, and was reported to have written an oratorio for which Queen Victoria accepted the dedication. Her pianistic style was Classical, firmly within the Kalkbrenner tradition. She sometimes published under her married name, Mackenzie von Dietz.’ (Katherine Ellis, "Female Pianists and Their Male Critics," Journal of the American Musicology Society Vol. 50 2/3, p. 359). She married William Mackenzie Shaw, Managing Director of the Antwerp and Rotterdam Railways, and they apparently divided their time between Paris and Saint Germain, no doubt entertaining quite extensively, if the present array of cards is anything to go by. Amongst the small number of loosely inserted additional material, are the two black-edged mourning invitations printed by Catinka for her husband after his death on December 7th 1890.
The souvenir album houses predominantly elegantly printed calling cards, though Dietz has also retained and mounted a handful of greeting and Christmas cards, invitations, menus, and clippings. European Royalty are well represented, with several cards given by Princes, Princesses, Counts and Countesses, Viscountesses, and Barons. A high percentage of the cards have been given by other women. Others reveal her various artistic relationships, and as a whole, the album provides a wonderful snap-shot of social connections and late Victorian high society. A number have been inscribed by the giver with messages of esteem, whilst of particular appeal, Dietz herself has frequently added a little note below the card (usually in French, though sometimes English), and which often prove to be quite humorous and sometimes a little acerbic, adding some delicious flavour to this Who’s Who of the Belle Époque.
Under the card for ‘Le Comte de Barck’ she has written ‘c'est dangereuse de s'embarquer avec lui?; Alderman Wilson of Beckenham apparently gave very good dinners; Mrs Crawford Bromehead apparently ‘found the tenors kinder than her husband,’; Mrs Baker ‘was a prim lady’; Mrs R. E. Hamer ‘Her pretty face greeted her two husbands’; under the card for Lady Caroline Murray ‘Sa famille ne payait pas ses dettes’; under the card for M. & Madame Ernest du Fresnel ‘Out of sight, out of mind’; for the painter James Frutier she notes that he ‘sells spinach’; E. Nathan, ‘miaule sur son violoncelle et fait le tendre auprès du beau sexe’, whilst Camille Philipp ‘est sourd et pourtant la déesse de la mélodie lui prodigue ses faveurs’ (is deaf and yet the godess of melody lavishes him with favours). The lawyer Malioche apparently ‘does business with lost funds’, whilst she describes Georges Stigelli as ‘a heavy German who made himself an Italian singer by adding an i to his name’; whilst Albert Anschutz, a professor of piano, ‘gives music lessons, cleans, composes lullabies and prepares baths for Madame’.
Increasing attention is being given to the study of Victorian card ephemera, including calling cards, of which the present album provides a comprehensive and unique example. As the 19th century progressed, rules of deportment became more rigid, and cards helped define the complicated new social code and express its growing sentimentality. Barbara Rusch provides some insight into their importance in her essay ‘The Secret Life of Victorian Cards’ on the Ephemera Society of America’s website. ‘Cards were the ambassadors of social convention, and their subtle, covert messages were well understood by those who used them as tools in the creation of an image of respectability in an increasingly demanding and judgemental world. Particularly noteworthy are cards of social and cultural significance such as the visiting card. In Our Deportment, published in 1890, John Young observes: “To the unrefined or under-bred, the visiting card is but a trifling and insignificant bit of social paper; but to the cultured disciple of social law, it conveys a subtle and unmistakable intelligence. Its texture, style of engraving, and even the hour of leaving it to combine to place the stranger, whose name it bears, in a pleasant or a disagreeable attitude, even before his manners, conversation and face have been able to explain his social position.”... The use of cards in 19th-century daily life represented and helped define class, breeding, and status. They were a form of social contract, a common language, and ideology through which the Victorians communicated with one another, maintained moral standards and disseminated popular culture’ (Rusch).

1825. Small folio; pp. [ii] original printed green paper wrapper to first fascicle bound in as general title, [64] of biographical text; with 32 lithograph portraits; somewhat foxed throughout, with the text leaves for Linné, Aldrovani, Celsus, Sydenham and Bartez rather browned, and those for Chaussier and Haller at the end of the work heavily browned; in black morocco backed pebble boards, spine in compartments with raised bands, ruled and lettered in gilt, with marbled endpapers, inner hinge cracked but holding firm, spine somewhat faded and lightly rubbed, extremities more prominently bumped and worn; with small library stamp on verso of final leaf ‘Don du Docteur Ch, Leroux, Hopital Civil de Versailles’. Rare. A complete set bound together of this most striking lithograph ‘gallery’ of some of the most notable figures in medical history.
The inspiration of the physician Guillaume Tell Doin (1794-1845), the lithographer Pierre Roche Vigneron (1789-1872), and the publisher G. Engelmann (1788-1839), according to a contemporary review in the ‘Archives générales de médecine; Journal publié par une société de médecins’ (Tome IX, p. 312, Sept 1825), the original intention was to produce one hundred portraits, the whole publication issued in a series of monthly fascicles containing four portraits together with accompanying biographical text. Normal copies on plain paper would cost 6fr, whilst more luxurious copies on China paper priced at 9fr. However, as later notices reveal, the plan was revised down to a proposed series of 10 fascicles - and indeed ultimately only eight were produced, with 32 fine lithograph portraits issued. No more were published, and being issued in individual fascicles, the plates more often than not, now appear individually. It is thus uncommon to find a bound copy of the complete series.
In the present copy beginning with Hippocrates, (the order of the copy found at Padova is different) Doin and Vigneron have concentrated upon Western luminaries both ancient and modern, and thus we find included Galen, Leonard Fuchs, Andreas Vesalius, William Harvey, Albrecht von Haller, Philippe Pinel, Herman Boerhaave, Paul Joseph Barthez, and Edward Jenner. From the wider sphere, portraits of Carl Linnaeus and Nicolas Copernicus are also included, with the medieval Islamic polymath Averroes chosen as the sole representative from the Arabic world.

1836. Large 8vo, pp. [iv], viii, 188; with steel engraved frontispiece, folding steel engraved plate, and wood-engraved title-page vignette; plates a little browned and foxed, with some offsetting from frontispiece onto title-page, lightly browned throughout, gutter cracked at p. ii; ex-libris from Gloucester County Council with their stamp on front pastedown, and loosely inserted presentation bookplate at rear of book; contemporary maroon pebble-grained cloth, black morocco label lettered in gilt on spine, head and tail of spine lightly bumped and worn, joints cracked but holding, spine and covers a little sunned and faded, corners a little worn. First edition of this extensive catalogue, compiled by the Keeper of the Museum, Philip Bury Duncan (1772-1863). His brother, John Shute (?1769-1844), had preceded him in the role, and since 1824 had done much to improve the organisation of the Museum, which had been fallen into neglect. His appointment coincided with an upsurge of interest at Oxford in the study of natural history, and so with the general approval of the university, J. S. Duncan set about rearranging the collections, and undertaking much needed preservation and conservation work. Philip succeeded his brother in 1829, making further improvements, a note at the tail of p. viii stating that ‘since his appointment the Museum, in consequence of the addition of the Lower room, has been in a great measure newly arranged, and considerable additions have been made... the printed books and MSS. have been repaired, and catalogues made of these as well as the other contents of the Museum’. As Brock notes further ‘no other arrangement could have ensured a greater continuity of purpose than that which marked the transfer of the office from one brother to the other. Philip Duncan too promoted the cause of the natural sciences in Oxford, although his term of office saw the final alienation from the Ashmolean of the geological material which had once formed the principal element of its scientific collections. With the freeing of the ground-floor premises consequent on the departure of the geology professor and his specimens, Philip Duncan put in motion another radical programme of reorganization of the displays’ (Brock and Curthoys, The History of the University of Oxford Volume VI, Nineteenth Century Oxford, p. 600).
The catalogue begins with a brief history of the collection. ‘It is agreed on by all our antiquarian, that the Tradescant collection, which was the foundation of the Ashmolean Museum, was the earliest exhibited in Great Britain... It is well known that the first collection of the curiosities, natural and artificial.. was made by John Tradescant, by birth a Dutchman, who is supposed to have come to England about the end of queen Elizabeth’s, or the beginning of James the First’s reign. He was a considerable time in the service of lord treasure Salisbury and Lord Wootton. He travelled in various parts of Europe as far as Russia; was in a fleet sent against the Algerines, and collected plants in Barbary and the isles of the Mediterranean. He had a garden at Lambeth, and in the reign of Charles the First, in 1629, bore the title of the king’s gardener. He was a man of extraordinary curiosity, was the first who in this country made any considerable collection of the subjects of natural history. His son, of the same name, went to Virginia, and imported many new plants from thence. His Museum, called Tradescant’s Ark, attracted the curiosity of the age, and was much frequented by the great, by whose means it was also considerably enlarged, as appears by the list of his benefactors, printed at the end of his Museum Tradescantianum... The son inherited his collection, and bequeathed it by a deed of gift to Elias Ashmole, who lodged in Tradescant’s house. It afterwards becoming a part of the Ashmolean Museum... He was successively a solicitor in chancery, when Oxford was garrisoned by the royal army, an exciseman, a comptroller of the ordnance, a freemason, astrologer, botanist, chemist, anatomist, physician, and though last not least, a very learned herald... Ashmole enriched the Tradescant collection (which consisted chiefly of the skins and bones of animals) with a collection of medals, coins, and gold chains... and with manuscripts and printed books on heraldry and astrology, for he had purchased the library of Lilly the celebrated astrologer. The Museum has since been increased by Sir W. Dugdale’s, Anthony Wood’s, and the Aubrey manuscripts... It has also been enlarged by Martin Lister’s collections of shells and fossils, Lloyd’s, Plot’s, and Borlase’s, and other objects of natural history, and by Mr. Rheinhold Forster’s collection of the dresses and various instruments of the natives of the South Sea islands, and those of the Esquimaux Indians... It has been from time to time enriched by the valuable donations of many other benefactors, particularly by those of the Alfred gem, the large magnet, the very curious group of figures made with humming-birds’ feathers, and lately by a great portion of antiquities described in the Naemia Britannica, presented by the liberal antiquarian Sir Richard Colt Hoare’ (p. vi).
The wood-engraved title page vignette is by Orlando Jewitt after W. A. Delamotte. The frontispiece is a steel-engraved view of the museum, engraved by John Le Keux after Frederick Mackenzie. The folding engraved plate depicts the giant lodestone presented to the Museum by the Countess of Westmoreland in 1756 (unsigned).

1760. Later seemingly 19th century music box, the mechanism housed within hollowed out 8vo, with the winding key located at the rear of the book; in the original mottled calf, spine in compartments with raised bands, expertly repaired and rebacked, with attractive gilt floral endpapers; ex-libris bookplate on front pastedown, ‘Ex Bibliotheca Joseph-Claudii-Anthelmi Recamier, Doctoris magni Parisiensis nosocomii Medici’; a most appealing example. An unusual example of a faux book, ‘buch atrappe’, ‘faux livre’, or ‘blook’ (the term coined by Mindell Dubansky for her own collection of ‘things that look like a book, but aren’t’), in this case housing what we believe to be a 19th century music box mechanism, added to a hollowed out and customised volume of the 18th century French medical ‘Journal de Medecine, Chirurgie, Pharmacie’, from January 1760. The winding key is located in at the rear of the volume, and once turned, the music plays when the front cover is lifted. The tune is frustratingly familiar, and as yet unidentified, though possibly a Strauss Waltz.
The volume has an interesting provenance, having the bookplate on the front paste-down of Joseph Claude Anselme Recamier (1774-1852), the noted French gynaecologist and a pioneer in the study of cancer metastasis. A unique example.

1945-1950. Collection of 40 ALS, of various sizes though predominantly 8vo, penned in a single neat hand in ink, sometimes on headed stationary, ranging in length, a few minor nicks, with some occasional light foxing and browning, final letter from 1950 the most foxed, together with accompanying addressed and stamped envelopes and one Christmas card; now housed within a custom-made ‘keepsake’ box. A fascinating, and often poignant, archive of letters penned over a five year period, between Josef ‘Joe’ Biel, and his friend Miss Betty Stanford, during which time Biel underwent a number of reconstructive surgical procedures under Sir Archibald McIndoe at the famous Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead. In addition to giving occasional details of the procedures involved, the letters provide an invaluable and highly personal insight and account into the physical and mental effects this often long and painful restorative and recuperative process had upon Biel - no doubt a reflection of the experiences of the many others who similarly underwent, and ultimately benefited from, the pioneering work undertaken by McIndoe, all of whom became members of ‘The Guinea Pig Club’. Established in 1941, membership of this social club and mutual support network for British and allied aircrew injured during World War II, was made up of patients of McIndoe, all of whom underwent experimental reconstructive plastic surgery, including facial reconstruction, often after receiving burns injuries in aircraft. What began with 39 patients grew to 649 by the end of the war and included Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders as well as Americans, French, Czechs and Poles. His pioneering plastic surgery techniques restored function and gave hope to these young man with life-changing disfigurements, and with his encouragement, rather than hiding away with their injuries, most went on to lead full and active lives. The club remained active after the end of the war, and its annual reunion meetings continued until 2007.
Sergeant, later Warrant Officer Josef Biel sustained serious burns to his face and hands after his Spitfire was shot down by Anti Aircraft [flak] fire over France, some 12 km South of Lille July 8th 1941. He was immediately captured, and was treated in a German Military Hospital before being held for three and a half years as a P.O.W. In May 1945 he was repatriated to England and received treatment at The Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead. In a letter to his mother, recorded in a photocopied document enclosed with the letters, he wrote “My face, my hands and my left leg were quite burned so I am still in hospital”.
Written over the course of five years, between 1945 and 1950, Biel’s letters to Miss Stanford include several references to the nine operations undergone at the Queen Victoria, and provide an insight into his mental state during this difficult time, often reflecting his bitterness at the Post war treatment of Polish pilots and his sense of loneliness and isolation during his slow return to health. The collection comprises ten letters written in 1945, eleven in 1946, nine in 1947, five in 1948, four in 1949 and finally a brief note written in 1950. Eleven were written at the Queen Victoria Hospital, twelve from RAF Dunholme Lodge, Lincolnshire, with the rest penned whilst staying in Plumstead, near Woolwich and finally Birmingham. As revealed in the letters, during his recuperation period, Biel studied at the Woolwich Polytechnic for 8 hours a day, often studying late into the night, though his progress was continually interrupted by time lost to operations, and as a result of the injuries suffered. The crash had damaged both his eyesight and his hands, and this five year period was also hard financially, Biel living on the breadline for much of it, and without any social life. Sometimes a little broken, his English is good on the whole, with only the occasional grammatical error. A true tale of endurance, his story ended happily however. By 1949 after years of struggle, he met and married another ‘Betty’, who had nursed him at East Grinstead, the couple moving to Birmingham where Biel was able to take up a job working in a metallurgical laboratory on microanalysis of aluminium and its alloys.
A more detailed list of transcriptions is available, but included below is a selection offering an insight into his experiences.
[5.8.45] “Last week I have been in East Grinstead and I had an interview with my doctor and on the 3rd Sept I am going to his hospital for my beauty treatment. I did like this hospital as there is no military discipline and there are quite a few good looking nurses (London girls). Every week in the re-convalescence part of the hospital the patients have got dancing and the nurses join them. All the drinks are free!”
[21.8.45] “I am trying to eliminate this attitude of disappointment and bitterness because I know it is tragic when one allows bitterness and frustration dominate one’s thoughts. As I told you I realise that there is no justice. This is one of the most painful lessons idealists learn sooner or later. That there is no justice is a fact about which I no longer despair”
[10.9.45] “I am in the hospital already. I am well and in good spirits, waiting for my beauty treatment. I expected to have an operation last week but it has been postponed indefinitely as they are reorganising hospital … it is very nice here and everybody is very kind to me. The people in the town are very hospitable so I go out practically every night” (East Grinstead became known as ‘The Town That Doesn’t Stare’)
[23.8.46 Q.V. Hospital] “The head surgeon Mr McIndoe is at present operating in Sweden so I was examined this morning by S/L Moor and told that I shall be operated upon on Tuesday. I don’t know yet who will be operating on me but most probably S/L Moor or a Polish doctor. They are both very good. Polish doctor who is at present sick saw me last night, we had a long talk, and he examined me and said that he will fix me properly. They are going to lift up my both eyelids at the same time so I shall be blind for about four or five days”
[8.9.46 Q.V. Hospital] “My left eye is still covered and my right eye doesn’t feel too comfortable yet but I can read a bit. Anyhow I am very pleased to tell you that my operation was successful and at last I am able to close my eyes properly; my nose has healed nicely and the left hand is doing quite well. I had comparatively a very easy time after operation though I was blind for nine days … A Polish surgeon operated on me; he took two pieces of skin from behind my ears and grafted them under the eyes; the grafted skin has taken nicely and it looks quite nice already. The eyelids have perfect shape again. They opened my right nostril and done a L-plastic on my left hand. I have to say that I am very pleased with his work on me. He says that I shall be a smart looking boy when he finishes with me. I am going to stay here perhaps two more weeks and then I am going on leave. After my leave I shall come back here to get a nice pair of eyebrows”
[3.11.46] “I had to leave hospital a bit earlier than I ought to and my right eyebrow is not doing too well; it got a bit septic; the left one looks very nice. I do hope that the right one will improve soon”
[9.1.47] “I am very sorry for not having written to you in so long but my eyes were very bad and for about two weeks I hardly could see. I have to tell you (to avoid a lecture on eyesight) that my eyes went bad as a result of my accident in the Air Force, and the eye-specialist told me that this may happen from time to time…At last I am on unpaid leave from the Air Force but I have to sign to the Resettlement Corps”
[31.1.47] “I am rather fed up as everything is against me just in time when ought to work hard; even my watch has stopped. In spite of that I am not going to surrender but will try to make up for the lost time and work harder as soon as I am old myself again... I have signed to the Resettlement Corps, and I am on unpaid leave for educational purposes with Home Office Consent... I have signed for two years, and what is the next step I don’t really want to think about it. There is one think [sic] I am sure of, that I am not going to Poland as I would have to go there for ten years to prison; signing to the Resettlement Corps I confirmed that sentence given by Warsaw Communists. Life is bitter and I am more often hesitating if it is worth living; Let’s hope the future is brighter than the presence”
[7.8.47 Q.V. Hospital] “I have been in hospital since 28th July and that I have had my operation on July 30th. This time they grafted one piece of my ear on the right side of my nose but I nearly lost the graft as the wound was bleeding for four days. Using all sorts of tricks my doctor won the battle for the nose which now looks quite nice”
[24.1.48] “I left hospital on the Jan 10th and had a week rest in Lincoln. I spent 8 weeks in hospital and had one operation which was successful though after that operation I was feeling very badly; I never felt worse and I thought I was going to leave this earthly sphere of misery to start another life. Anyway I survived and I have to go to East Grinstead once more in summertime. I spent Xmas in hospital and had quite nice time under the circumstances; plenty of food and drink and Sir Archibald McIndoe done all the carving for us with an expert hand; he also dined with us and after dinner he played the piano for us. Most of the time at Xmas I spent in a wheelchair but on New Years eve I went out as I wanted to get drunk”
[12.2.49 Q.V. Hospital] “As for me, I am still in hospital and last Thursday I had my last operation; this was definitely last one, and next week I shall be out of hospital for good so I won’t be able to see your friend here … I am going to my station to be invalided out and then I shall be looking to earn my living. I have a job in Birmingham to go to but I don’t think I can cope with it at present as my left hand is of not much use since I had a new graft put on it. I shall find a big improvement after two or three months. I was absolutely mad two weeks ago as they wanted to discharge me without giving me invaliding board; anyway I managed to persuade them but I am still anticipating trouble”
[12.9.49] “so your friend is a ‘friend of Guinea Pigs’; I seem to know her name (as I was in East Grinstead in 1945 for three weeks) but I don’t remember her as I didn’t recognise her at our dance … I enjoyed the Guinea Pig dance as well as the Annual Dinner in spite of the fact that I had a headache for three days after these celebrations as I drunk more than ever … I have another surprise for you yet; I am about to be engaged to a girl who was nursing me in East Grinstead. Her name is Betty as well and she is now a sister in East Grinstead; so I can’t say anymore that nobody loves me”
With thanks to John Langdon and John Underwood for the transcriptions. Also included with the archive is a collection of photocopies of papers relating to Biel and his crash, his imprisonment at Stalag 8, and his entry in the Guinea Pig Club roll of honour held by the East Grinstead Museum.

1840. 8vo, pp. ii, 343, [i], errata; with 32 lithographs on 31 leaves, two folding; faint dampstain affecting the upper margins of each of the plates, though predominantly unobtrusive and never touching image; text clean and crisp; with library stamps on recto and verso of title-page, and library label on front paste down; in contemporary marbled boards, spine in black with red paper label lettered in gilt, label very slightly nicked, head and tail of spine, and upper joint a little rubbed and worn, corners a little worn; a good copy. First edition of this attractively illustrated travel account of the journey made by Dr. Joseph Guislain in 1838 through Italy and Switzerland, effectively a medical fact-finding tour. Written as a series of letters addressed to his fellow members of the Society of Medicine of Gand, the work is divided into two parts, the first parts dealing with ‘la constitution morbide de l'Italie’, ‘les conditions morales de l'Italie’ as well as ‘les travaux médicaux en Italie’. In the second part, Guislain describes in more detail ‘les hôpitaux, établissements de charité et institutions scientifiques de l'Italie’ which he had visited in Turin, Genoua, Pisa, Florence, Sienna, Naples, Rome, Venice, Milano, Lausanne, Berne and Zurich. The work is attractively illustrated with a number of lithographs, which depict a number of hospital façades, plans, architectural details, instruments, and even methods of treatment, including a striking image of a mentally ill patient horizontally restrained and strapped to a mattress.

1928. 8vo, pp. xvi, 202, [1] limitation statement; with one folding engraved plate (slight offsetting onto text); some occasional minor marginal browning; uncut and partially unopened in the original ochre goatskin, ruled in gilt, top edge gilt, spine a little darkened in places, covers with some light spotting and soiling, and small dink on lower cover, with usual browning of endpapers from turn-ins, and turn-ins themselves slightly soiled; with a number of contemporary and later newspaper and catalogue clippings relating to William Harvey and this edition, loosely inserted by a previous owner; a good copy. Number 1249 (of 1450 copies) of the finely printed Nonesuch Press edition, issued to celebrate the tercentenary of the printing of the first edition of the most famous book in the history of medicine. This is the only modern edition of the 1653 text of the De motu cordis - which had been the first English edition of Harvey's seminal work on the circulation of the blood. Printed on handmade Van Gelder paper by Joh. Enschede en Zonen in Haarlem, the engraved folding plate is by Charles Sigrist after a drawing by Stephen Gooden.

[ca. 1840-45]. Single sheet, 23 cm x 13 cm, printed on silk on one side; some very minor fraying to edges, and very slightly darkened, but otherwise in fine condition. A celebrated pianist, composer and inventor, Henri Herz (1803-1888), Austrian by birth but French by nationality and domicile, travelled world-wide, including tours in Europe, Russia, Mexico, South America, and the United States. In 1839 he founded his own piano factory where he made many important developments in piano design.
This luxuriously produced announcement, printed on silk, seems to be for a performance by some sort of mechanical musical instrument, using cylinders which were "changed through the medium of the patent dials." According to the flier, the two cylinders were capable of performing "8 operatic airs," and "5 quadrilles and 3 waltzes." We have so far been able to identify the machine in question, although Herz made improvements, and patented designs for various sostenente (or sostinente) pianos - the name given to keyboard instruments on which the duration of sounds is artificially lengthened by methods such as compressed air, the quick striking of hammers, free sounding reeds, or by other clockwork or mechanical devices. The first known example was invented by Henry Robert Mott of Brighton in 1817. Herz worked upon sostenente piano mechanisms using both compressed air (obtained by means of bellows moved by pedals or a motor and which is directed upon already vibrating strings in order to prolong the vibration), notably his ‘pianoeolique’, as well as a ‘melopiano’, a method of sustaining tones through the repeated and quick striking of hammers. Fast rotating cylinders were one way of achieving this.
This appealing silk promotional flier has been printed by the artist and engraver George Phillips Johnson (1807?-1848).

1863. Large 8vo, pp. [iv], 440; with 20 steel engraved portraits, each retaining original tissue guards (all now somewhat browned); some occasional foxing throughout; retaining original two-colour silk marker; a lovely wide-margined copy, bound in full red morocco and signed by Tinot, spine with elaborate mosaic gilt tooling, covers ruled in gilt with green morocco detailing, inner gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, covers a little soiled and scuffed, with minor wear to extremities and corners. First edition, and a beautifully bound copy, of this work celebrating the life of twenty famous 18th century women, accompanied by steel engraved reproductions of their contemporary portraits by noted artists such as Largillière, Nattier, La Tour and Mme Lebrun. Amongst those featured include Madame de Pompadour, Madame du Chastelet, and of course Marie-Antoinette.
Arsène Houssay (1815-1896) was a noted French novelist and man of letters, who wrote a number of works on history and art criticism.
The present copy has been most attractively bound in mosaic red morocco by Jean-Baptiste Tinot.