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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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).

1880. Single sheet of thick artist paper, 315 x 245mm, with central oval view of Bad Schoenbrunn done in watercolour, surrounded by a series of satirical black and white silhouette sketches and vignettes seemingly engraved, though possibly executed in pen and ink; print mounted on card 435 x 345mm; small correction made to the lower central silhouette, with what appears to be a very small photograph image of the head of Peter Joseph Hegglin, pasted on to replace original image; some light spotting and browning, otherwise very striking. An enchanting and unique ‘souvenir’ from the famous health resort of Bad Schönbrunn in Menzingen. Sadly anonymous, and seemingly executed at the turn of the century, the striking broadside comprises an appealing central watercolour vignette of the Spa buildings, set against an idyllic background of rolling hills, woodland and distant snow-capped mountains. This vignette is surrounded by a series of black and white silhouette vignettes, seemingly engraved, though resembling pen and ink drawings. Through this series of enchanting scenes, we are shown a number of the diversions, healthy activities, and treatments, on offer at the Spa. Those at the head of the broadside represent some of the outdoor and leisure activities available to patrons, including gentle walks in the countryside, a game of skittles, three men enjoying a game of billiards, musical soirees, painting, and nature watching. The silhouettes below the central oval focus more upon the treatments, a rather startled looking figure enduring various cold showers, towel wraps, and cold water hosing.
Two figures can be seen at the tail of the image - one seemingly taking the pulse of the other, as he is holding a pocket watch in his hand. Above the two figures flies a wreath-bearing dove. Of added appeal, the head of the ‘doctor’ has been replaced with what appears to be a very small original photograph image. We presume this to be that of Peter Joseph Hegglin (1832-1893) himself, the founder of the Spa in 1857, although it could also be his son Joseph Hegglin-Kerckhoffs (1862-1920) who appears to have taken over the running of the establishment. It eventually closed in 1926.
Sadly anonymous, the impression is that this wonderful ‘souvenir’ has been created by a previous patient ‘now on the mend’, and who has perhaps had a small number of these engravings published to give as gifts to his fellow patients and the good Doctor. A unique and most charming depiction.
Two further attractive watercolour depiction's of the Spa are included with this image.

1931]. Five volumes, 4to; I. pp. viii, 272, with 20 plates on ten leaves (one coloured); II. pp. vi, 364, with 36 plates on 18 leaves (of which 4 coloured), with three advertisements loosely inserted; III. pp. vi, 364, with 35 plates on 23 leaves (of which one double-page, and 20 coloured), and with slip pasted in at p. 111, plate XII somewhat browned; IV. pp. viii, 335, [1] with 33 plates on 20 leaves (of which one double-page, three folding, and 12 coloured), with one advertisement slipped in; V. pp. viii, 267, [1], with 23 plates on 15 leaves (of which 13 coloured, and one with an overlay), with two advertisements loosely inserted, and with large folding chromolithograph plate printed by Fricke & Co., ‘Des Mensch als Industriepalast’ 98 x 49cms, housed within pocket at rear, together with accompanying 12pp pamphlet ‘Des Mensch als Industriepalast’, and a further folding plate ‘Stammbaum des Menschen’, and a pair of 3-D glasses to be used with plates IX and X; some occasional light foxing and browning through all volumes due to paper quality, with some occasional light marginal dampstaining, but otherwise generally clean and crisp; an appealing set in the original blue publisher’s cloth, with title in blind on upper cover, and spines lettered in gilt, spines all slightly sunned, with some light rubbed to head and tails of spines and to joints (more noticeably Vols I. & II.), covers all a little sunned and foxed, extremities lightly rubbed. A fine set, all in first edition, of this copiously illustrated five volume work on the inner workings of the human body, published over a decade by the noted German gynaecologist and science author Fritz Kahn (1888-1968), and unusually retaining the original famous anatomical wall chart, ‘Der Mensch als Industriepalast’ or the ‘Human Industrial Palace’, as well as the pair of 3D glasses to be used with plates IX and X in the final volume.
Kahn developed a sophisticated graphic analogy between anatomy and machinery. His modernist visualization of the digestive and respiratory system as “industrial palace”, really a chemical plant, was conceived at the height of Weimar Germany’s rapid and advanced industrialisation, in conjunction with the artistic experimentation of the Bauhaus and Dada movements. The resulting illustrative style remains as evocative today as it was nearly a century ago. ‘Das Leben des Menschen’ or ‘The Life of Man’, was published between 1922 and 1931, using ‘visual metaphors drawn from industrial society - assembly lines, internal combustion engines, refineries, dynamos, telephones, etc. The body in Kahn’s work was “modern” and productive, a theme visually emphasized through his use of modernist art styles. Though his books sold well, his Jewishness and public advocacy of progressive reform made him a target for Nazi attacks’ (Sappol, Dream Anatomy, p. 144). “Prolonged by the inflation crisis of 1923 and the economic depression at the end of the 1920s, but also by the difficulties of containing the increasingly extensive material in the initially planned volumes, the book finally amounted to more than 1,600 pages, with the last of its fifty binders issued and distributed in 1931, a decade after the start of the project. More than a thousand illustrations were included in the five volumes, and almost 150 colour plates” (Borck, "Communicating the Modern Body", Canadian Journal of Communications). Kahn continued to publish, relocating to Palestine and Paris before escaping to the USA with the help of Albert Einstein.
‘In 1951, an example of [Kahn’s] poster was selected by Barbara Jones to feature in her exhibition of popular art at the Whitechapel entitled ‘Black Eyes and Lemonade’. Eduardo Paolozzi is understood to have visited the exhibition and viewed Kahn’s print. Paolozzi later produced the series “Secrets of Life - the Human Machine and How it works” which was inspired by the graphic works of Fritz Kahn’ (Christies Sale 9935, lot 132, 2013). It was presumably at this stage that it came to the attention of Adam Rouilly & Company, the famous London manufacturers of medical teaching aids, and who published their own version of the chart. It was to later inspire in 2006 the German artist Henning Lederer to create an interactive and animated installation based upon the poster.
The first three volumes went through a number of editions, Kahn taking the opportunity to revise the works as subsequent volumes were published, amending some of the images included. Having previously now held a couple of sets, it would appear that even the later editions also include some variations, predominantly in the number of coloured images included - suggesting once again constant revision by Kahn.
A copy of the famous image made $3750 in the Dean Edell Anatomy as Art sale, (Christies, October 5th, 2007, lot 224). Another realised £3750 at the Out of the Ordinary Sale (CSK September 5th, 2013, lot 132). The imprints also display some variants, with the present example reading: ‘Aus Kahn, Das Leben des Menschen/Franckh’sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart/Offsetdruckerei Fricke & Co. Stuttgart’ (the Edell example read ‘Beitrage zu Kahn, Das Leben des Menschen/Franck’schen Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart).

1804. Small folio, pp. [iv], 22, 28; pp. 21-22 bound upside down; title-page with light dampstain, with some light browning and soiling throughout, but generally clean and crisp; old library stamp on verso of title-page, crossed out with crayon and which has caused a small paper tear; in contemporary tan paste-paper boards, paper label on spine lettered in black, label slightly chipped, head and tail of spine a little worn, with further light scuffing and wear to spine and covers, some light spotting and soiling, extremities a little bumped and worn; still a good copy. Scarce and attractively printed work of factors and prime numbers, published by the noted educator and philosopher Karl Christian Krause (1781-1832). In this, one of his first works, Krause presents a table of 22 pages showing all products <100 000 of two primes, a table of primes <100 000 with letters for 01, 03,..., 99, and (pp. 25-28) a factor table to 10000 by use of letters for numbers <100.
‘In his introduction, Krause mentions the tables of Lambert [10] and Felkel [2,3,4,5], and he understands the objections towards the use of letters for numbers which was favoured by Felkel. He nevertheless decided to provide his two short tables, in order to show that letters can be used more conveniently than in Felkel’s table. The main tables in Krause’s book, however, do not use letters. Krause wrote that his tables were computed (neuberechnet), and presumably not copied, although he certainly compared his tables with earlier ones.’ (Roegel, A reconstruction of Krause’s table of factors, p. 3).
Krause studied philosophy and mathematics at the University of Jena under Fichte and Schelling. He later went to Berlin, Göttingen (where he was one of Schopenhauer’s teachers), and Munich. One of the early natural philosophers, his “Krausismo” philosophical system influenced the theories of Kant and Hegel, and during the 19th century he was regarded as one of the most important of the German philosophers, his system attracting particular attention in France and Spain.