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

1920. Ruled note book, 4to, ff. 138; about a quarter of the leaves used and neatly penned, though sometimes in a slightly illegible hand, in either blue or brown ink with 14 home-made ‘tabbed’ sections created by owner and labelled in brown ink; tabbed extremities somewhat soiled and browned, with further occasional light foxing; A charming and evocative survivor. A personalised receipt book seemingly belonging to a trainee beautician from the north of England. The ruled note book has been adapted by the owner, presumably the ‘M Wilson’ noted on the front paste down, and who has created of a number of tabbed sections along the outer margin, to enable them to quickly refer to a range of recipes and hints for shampoos, brighteners, dyes, ‘packs’, massage creams, lotions, manicures, and for ‘P.W’ (permanent waves)’. From the tone of some of the notes taken down, it may well be that the notes are based upon a lecture course taken by a student beautician. In the ‘High Frequency’ section, although not entirely legible, a number of suggested pieces of apparatus have been noted down, together with purchase price and the name of the manufacturer. Although we cannot completely make out the model in question, it was made by Dexter’s - a manufacturing firm located at ‘28 Percy St, Tottenham Court Rd’ who specialised in making hair dryers and high frequency hair vibrators - long used by hairdressers to help stimulate and promote hair growth.

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

1848. Single sheet, 315 x 217mm; with engraved arms at head, partially completed in neat manuscript in brown ink; with evidence of seals, some light soiling along horizontal fold, with some minor furling to extremities; a good example. A standard maritime ‘Bill of Health’, issued to guarantee the health of the ship and its crew, and granting onward passage from Uruguay to Brazil for the Brig Frederica. ‘I Martin Tupper Hood, Her Britannic Majesty’s Acting Consul General to the Oriental Republic of the Uruguay, do hereby certify to all quarantine Officers and others whom it doth or may concern, that by the Mercy of God this City, its Harbour and Vicinity, are entirely exempt from every degree of Plague or other contagious disorder’. The document has been signed by the Vice Consul, a slightly illegible signature but possibly Vernon Hunt.
As such it provides a fascinating insight into cross-boundary maintenance of public health in the first half of the 19th century, especially in the light of the recent cholera pandemics. Major efforts were being made to restrict the spread of disease, with highly organized measures being put in to practice and laws written to enforce these. Ships and sailors, with their easy mobility, were considered chief contributors to the international spread of disease, thus becoming prime culprits and easy scapegoats. The ‘Bills of Health’ nullified this threat. Issued in various places in their own individual formats, they nevertheless followed a standard pattern, were official printed forms, and were signed and dated by specific ‘qualified’ individuals. They acted, therefore, as guarantees: without them the ship could not sail or be allowed to dock: with them the citizens of port towns could feel that their good health was secure.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1937. 4to, pp. 36, with four leaves of coloured plates, together with numerous text illustrations; with errata note tipped at tail of p. 33, and with three revised notes tipped on to p. 35; p. 33 torn at gutter but not touching text; Uncommon manufacturer’s catalogue promoting a complete dental ‘unit’ for modern dental practitioners. The ‘Rathbone’ reclining dental chair together with attached spotlighting, small basins, and moveable apparatus trays, was ‘based on a thorough investigation of the needs of modern dentistry and a study of the possibilities and limitations of dental units generally. The layout is such that every piece of apparatus comes readily and naturally to hand. The position and movements of each component have been planned so that, when in use, the component can be brought to the most convenient position for the operator, and when not required, returned to a point where it will not impede him in any way’. OCLC locates one copy of the 1933 issue at the Wellcome.

1873. 8vo, pp. 12, with double-page lithograph plate; An attractive presentation offprint of a lecture delivered before the Neuchâtel Society of Natural History on May 1st 1873. Desor, the noted geologist and professor at the Academy of Neuchâtel, here outlines a number of Bronze Age archaeological discoveries found in Siberia, many of which are depicted in the double-page plate, illustrating ‘objets préhistoriques en bronze des environs de Krasnojarsk sur le Jenisseï, Siberie’.
Provenance: Sven Lovén (1809–1895) was a pioneering marine biologist (founder of the Kristineberg marine station) and arctic explorer, professor of invertebrate zoology at the Natural History Museum (Naturhistoriska Riksmuséet) in Stockholm. Poggendorff III, p. 355; OCLC records no copies in North America, with only one copy at the Bibliotheque D’Art et D’Archeologie.

1890. 8vo, pp. xvi, [xiv] series of atomic weight tables, 68, [48] blank pages of which five have been filled in, in neat manuscript, 69 - 175, [1] advertisement, [4] blank; with some further neat manuscript annotations, and small typed addendum by a later owner adhered at tail of p. 73; one section with tabbed outer margins; somewhat browned and soiled in places, lower outer corner of preliminary leaves gnawed and missing; Uncommon first edition, and a nice association copy, of this practical work for chemists, by the renowned German chemical analyst Prof William Dittmar FRS FRSE LLD (1833-1892). As he notes in the preface, Dittmar intended the work to be viewed as a new edition of his ‘Tables to facilitate Chemical Calculations’ (1884). His proposed second part ‘an exposition of the applications of arithmetic to the solution of chemical problems’, was never published.
Born in Umstadt in Germany, Dittmar originally qualified in pharmacy, but in 1857 went to work in Bunsen’s laboratory at Heidelberg. There he met Henry Roscoe, who invited him to England, and when Roscoe became professor of chemistry at Owens College, Manchester, Dittmar accompanied him as his assistant. From 1861 to 1869 he was chief assistant in the chemical laboratory at Edinburgh University. After spending the next three years in Germany, where he lectured in meteorology at an agricultural college near Bonn, Dittmar returned to Edinburgh in 1872. In 1873 he was appointed assistant lecturer at Owens College - and was a contemporary of William Stanley Jevons - but the year after he became professor of chemistry at Anderson’s College, Glasgow, where he remained until his death. He is probably best remembered for his work of 1884, “Report on Researches Into the Composition of Ocean-Water”, the result of six years’ work on the H.M.S. Challenger samples. He was the first to confirm the Principle of Constant Proportions, a theory first conjectured in 1865 by Johan Georg Forchhammer regarding the major ions of sea-water: that whilst salinity varied across the oceans, the ratios of ionic abundance remained constant. As a result the Principle is often called "Dittmar's Principle" or "Forchhammer's Principle". Other work included research on the atomic weight of platinum and on the gravimetric composition of water, for which he was awarded the Graham Medal of the Glasgow Philosophical Society. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1863 and of the Royal Society in 1882.
The present volume bears the signature of the noted American pioneer of radiochemistry, Betram B. Boltwood. Indeed he appears to have had the copy especially bound, with a large additional section of blank leaves added for notes, together with a number of card tables of the ‘Internationale Atomgewichte’ tipped in (for 1902, 1906, 1907, and 1908). A number of manuscript notes are found in the work, presumably in Boltwood’s hand. Boltwood established that lead was the final decay product of uranium, noted that the lead-uranium ratio was greater in older rocks and, acting on a suggestion by Ernest Rutherford, was the first to measure the age of rocks by the decay of uranium to lead, in 1907.
The volume subsequently passed into the hands of the noted physicist, historian of science, and UCSB professor emeritus Lawrence Badash. Badash specialized in the history of physics and specifically in the study of nuclear weapons. His early writing focused on the career of Rutherford, and indeed he wrote an article in 1986 “Rutherford, Boltwood, and the Age of the Earth: The Origin of Radioactive Dating Techniques” - no doubt drawing upon the present work for some inspiration.

but ca. 1940-50s?]. Large cotton engraved handkerchief printed in red and black, 680 x 750mm, with 32 square engraved vignettes each with accompanying panel of advice below, all within a decorative border; with one or two small pin holes and some very minor fraying, but with no significant loss; upper and lower edges neatly hemmed; overall a striking example. An attractive, though we believe much later reproduction example, printed in red and black on cotton, of one of a series of brightly coloured and practical instructional handkerchief, originally produced in Rouen by the Buquet family. The present example provides 32 useful household hints and ‘receipts’, giving advice on a range of domestic situations, including a quick way to leaven bread, a means of preserving artichokes throughout the year, a recipe for an almond hand-cream, one for cleaning copper, on the care of lace, a cure for toothache, as well as a recipe to kill rats.
The present example has the additional stamp at the tail ‘Archives Musée de l’Impression sur Etoffe de Mulhouse’, and which therefore leads us to believe that this is, in fact, a later 20th reproduction. The Museum of Printing on Fabrics is the most important textile image archive in the world, holding over 6 million motifs and original plates and blocks. It is our belief, from the inclusion of the stamp, and from the crispness of the fabric, that the present example has been drawn using the original plate in the archive, possibly for display in an exhibition on the history of textile printing. Whilst only a reproduction, however, it is nevertheless of interest, in terms of the ethics and practice of reusing plates well after original production, and the matter of ownership and rights. The present example has been removed from an old mounted frame of at least 50 years old. Attempts to confirm this with the Museum have so far drawn a blank.
Handkerchiefs remained a luxury article well into the seventeenth century, after which time, the growing fashion for snuff-taking increased the need for more practical handkerchiefs. It was at this point that pictorial, or commemorative handkerchiefs were introduced. Often headscarf size, the images depicted record many of the major events of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, with wars, travel, politics, scandal, satire, notable events, famous people, and royal occasions all commemorated. As the present example demonstrates, it was a fashion that was to prove equally popular in Europe, and especially in France, with Rouen become somewhat of a hub for their manufacture. The first known Rouennais commemorative handkerchiefs date from around 1835-1845, and in many ways are the fabric equivalent of the Épinal prints, made famous by the Épinal printing house of Charles Pellerin, and which depicted popular subjects in bright sharp colours. As in England, the most entrepreneurial printers at the heart of this trade were often map sellers, with the advantages of a map on silk or linen versus a map on paper self-evident. Between 1830 and 1905 the Buquet’s engraved over 300 such examples, on a range of topics including politics, military instruction (amongst the more popular and reprinted), humourous, commemorative, and practical, as demonstrated here. Whilst often intended to be worn around the neck, they could also be displayed on a wall, or carried on one’s person to reference. This most practical and portable guide was one of the more enduring examples, first published in around 1840 and which was frequently reprinted over the years.

1848. Two volumes, 8vo text and 4to atlas; pp. [viii] including blank, 475, [1] blank; with attractive engraved frontispiece showing young ladies gardening, and numerous text wood engravings of which the majority are hand-coloured, gathering 19 misbound; atlas ff. [2], 124, comprising 15 divisional part-titles, [1] index (pp 123-4) and 107 hand-coloured engraved plates; title-page and frontispiece of text volume a little foxed and browned, with occasional light foxing and marginal browning, and two book-labels on front paste-down; atlas title page with appealing hand-coloured vignette, half title and index leaf somewhat browned, a little foxed and soiled throughout; An attractive, though mixed set of the third edition (first 1847) and first edition, of this charming work of instruction for young French women about the cultivation of herbs, and for the establishment and care of a garden. Both text and atlas are most attractively illustrated and hand-coloured, with textual engravings and plates by F. Leblanc from drawings by Belaife, illustrating flowers, leaves, fruits, berries, seeds and mushrooms. The text volume was first published in 1847 and went through nine editions over twenty years. The much rarer atlas volume was separately issued first in 1850, and followed only by an undated 1865 edition. This separate issue and sale of both text and atlas has led to an inevitable scarcity of complete sets. Pritzel 283; Nissen BBI supp. 54n; Plesch p. 130; BMC NH, p. 71 (text vol.); see Gumunchian 395-398 for earlier editions; OCLC locates copies at Arizona and the Lloyd Library for this edition of the text, with seemingly only one copy of the atlas at Bern.

1862. 8vo, pp. [iv], 203, [1]; with 12 chromolithograph plates (including frontispiece), all retaining the original tissue guards, together with numerous engraved text vignettes; a little foxed and browned throughout, more prominent in one or two places; First edition of this appealing work for children, both an introduction to geography as well as a book of costume. It was one of a number of works published as part of the series ‘Bibliotheque de la Jeunesse’. M. Castillon, a professor at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, one of the oldest Colleges in the city, was the author of a number of educational and recreational works of scientific interest for a younger audience. These texts were often chosen by schools to be given as prizes in recognition of academic success.
The attractive lithographs are the work of either Hippolyte Louis Emile Pauquet (b. 1797) or Polydor Jean Charles Pauquet (b 1800) is responsible for the illustrations. Both brothers, from the publishing house of Pauquet Frères, were engravers, painters & illustrators during the mid 19th century.