1920s?]. Offered together, three boxed reversible dissected wooden puzzles, each @ 125 x 175 x 4mm; each puzzle with chromolithograph sheet in landscape mounted on one side, and cut into 75 pieces; with image of camel in black on verso; puzzles a little dust-soiled; Series No. 4 and 6. contained in the original light blue paper card box with linen hinged lid, with mounted paper title printed in blue on upper lid, Series 10. in Navy blue hinged box lettered in gilt, all three with printed note adhered to inside lid, joints and extremities of boxes all a little rubbed and worn, most noticeably Series No. 4; most appealing examples. Three appeal and seemingly rare advertising solid wood reversible jigsaw puzzles, issued by the famous Birkenhead based shipbuilding company Cammell Laird & Co., Ltd. The company was formed in 1903 with the amalgamation of William and John Laird’s Birkenhead Iron Works and the Sheffield Steel firm of Charles Cammell & Co., Ltd. Known across the globe, the company built more than 1350 ships, playing a key role during both World Wars building both commercial and military vessels, being remembered in particular for the building of the Cunard White Star passenger liner Mauritania, and the first British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal - both in 1938.
Described as a "Cam-Bru-Mac" Reversible Puzzle, the present examples, all scarce, were part of a series of similar games, and show in turn ’Casting a Large Ingot’, a picture of "Rolling a Locomotive Tyre. Sheffield and Birkenhead", and a ‘12,000 Ton Armour Bending Press’. Each puzzle has on the reverse, the famous logo of the company, a large black Camel.

1886. Mixed set, together two volumes, text and atlas, small folio; text: pp. viii, 160; atlas: pp. [iv], with 59 glyptographs numbered A-D and I-LV; front free endpaper and half-title of text volume with some marginal dampstaining, lightly browned throughout with occasional light spotting and foxing, but otherwise generally clean; atlas also somewhat browned throughout due to paper quality, fore-edge of planche A nicked with japanese paper repairs to verso, and with library stamp on half-title ‘Royal College of Surgeons Library Ireland’; text volume bound in recent black cloth, with new morocco label on spine lettered in gilt, with the original printed wrappers bound in (dampstained and with signs of repairs), atlas volume in contemporary blue cloth, neatly rebacked preserving much of original spine, with new endpapers, and inner hinges strengthened, upper cover ruled and lettered in blind and gilt, covers slightly stained, extremities lightly rubbed and worn, mainly at corners. Uncommon first edition of notable work of neuro-anatomy by Émile Alexandre Gavoy (1836- ca 1896), with 59 striking life-sized plates drawn from nature by the author and printed using a method of etching called glyptography.
Gavoy received his medical doctorate in Strasbourg and made a career as a military doctor, and indeed was to publish a number of works relating to military medicine, most notably his account of his experiences during 1870-1871, Étude de faits de guerre. Le service de santé militaire en 1870. Hier, aujourd'hui, demain. (1894).
It is for his neuro-anatomical works, however, for which he is perhaps best remembered, having carried out numerous researches in this field throughout his career. In 1882 he published his Atlas d’Anatomie Topographique du cerveau et des localisations cérébrales’, containing 18 life-sized chromolithograph plates of the brain, and for which he obtained an honorable mention at the Montyon Prize.
The present work includes a highly complimentary prefatory letter from the noted French neurologist Professor Alfred Vulpian (1826-1887), who writes: ‘You have done an important work here, not only by the number and the beauty of the figures, but also and above all by the evident sincerity with which you have reproduced the texture of the brain. I admire the talent and the prodigious amount of work of which these plates are indisputable proof; I am even more seduced by the personal character of these plates... It is not difficult to recognize that you have done better in many ways than your predecessors’. A contemporary advertisement in L’Encéphal: journal des maladies mentales et nerveuses, p. 256, reveals that the work was originally available for purchase in five parts.

(1801). 12mo, pp. [viii] including first blank, 192, [2] errata and blank; errata leaf laid down with repair at lower gutter (no loss of text), title-page a little browned with minor abrasion causing loss of a couple of letters, text lightly browned; in nineteenth century green morocco backed marbled boards, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, head of spine nicked slightly at upper joint, lower joint starting, extremities lightly rubbed and bumped. First edition of this thoughtful essay on tombs and the influence of funeral institutions over manners and morals, providing a comparative study of funeral rites and ceremonies, including discussion of China, Canada, Tahiti and Guyana.
Girard’s work was one of a number compositions entered for a competition set by the L’Institut National. As with so many areas of public life in the aftermath of the Revolution, there was a growing widespread concern over a lack of respect for the dead and their burial, the preceding decade having borne witness to a prevalence of what were considered by many to be indecent and at times almost inhumane modes of interment. Girard therefore presents his ideas and plan for ‘d’Institutions funèbres simple et moral, et j'y mêlai toutes les idées consolantes qui peuvent adoucir la dernière et douloureuse séparation’ (p. 4), in which he looks at such issues as ‘proclamation des décès, l’inscription sur les tables funéraires et l’eloge des morts’.

1933. 8vo, pp. xx, 332; with 22 inserted plates, of which 20 are half-tone or x-ray illustrations, with two further diagrammatic plates (one in red and black), further copious half-tone illustrations and diagrams set within the text, totalling 118 illustrations; some occasional light soiling and marking, half-title and verso of final leaf a little browned; gutters slightly exposed in a couple of places; six pages of loosely inserted pencil notes with illustrations in a contemporary hand; evidence of previous book-label on front free endpaper with signs of abrasion; bound in the original green publisher’s cloth, boards ruled in blind, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, head and tail of spine lightly rubbed and bumped with minor nicks at tail, rear cover lightly creased; with ownership signature of Joan Chadwick-Smith on front free endpaper; a good copy. Fifth, enlarged edition, of a seemingly less well-known but important and popular contribution to the corpus of literature devoted to medical gymnastics and massage, and first published in 1917. As Goodall-Copestake notes in her preface ‘this book was first compiled during the Great War. The writer’s object then was to place a simple text-book in the hands of those qualifying themselves in the science and art of massage, in order that they might take their part in the relief of suffering at that time. Since then the progress of physical medicine in all its branches has gone forward every year, and it is necessary for the student to quality himself and herself more fully, the requirements of examiners being much greater than they were formerly’ (p. vii).
The work contains extensive chapters on the history of massage; tips for beginners wishing to be a ‘medical gymnast’ (i.e. massage therapist); details of massage manipulations and their physiological effects on the skin, muscles, circulation, lymph flow, nervous system, and metabolism; practical massage on all parts of the body from head to toe and heart to colon; and the use of massage for the re-education of muscles. The chapters on kinesiology, gymnastics, movement and exercises are generally based up on Pehr Henrik Ling’s famous Swedish system of gymnastics. Also included is a chapter on curvatures of the spine which are matched with dedicated exercise programmes which, with their emphasis on breathing and movement, are reminiscent of therapies used today, as well as the contemporaneous developments in schools of exercise such as yoga and Pilates.
The second part deals with ‘surgical conditions treated by massage and movements’ such as inflammation and wound healing, fractures, dislocations and deformities of the musculo-skeletal structures. The third part is dedicated to ‘medical conditions’ and their treatment with massage, from alimentary problems, diabetes and obesity, respiratory, neurological and circulatory diseases, to headaches, insomnia, and pregnancy. The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs, X-rays, half-tone illustrations and diagrams. Many of the pathological conditions shown in the images, such as rickets and scoliosis, are interesting from both a historical and medical point of view.
The first edition of The Theory and Practice of Massage and Medical Gymnastics was well reviewed in the Glasgow Medical Journal (No 89, 1918, p. 310) and the British Medical Journal (No 1, 1918, p. 430): ‘a sound and comprehensive handbook’, which ‘– as far as it is possible to do so in a book – also introduces the nurse and massage-pupil to the rudimentary knowledge of those conditions in the treatment of which she may be required to help the physician or surgeon’. A series of further editions followed (1919, 1920, 1926, and this in 1933), each with more illustrations and additions: the second edition added a chapter on the ‘after-treatment of war injuries’ (1919, p. vii), while the preface to this fifth edition notes that it has been ‘enlarged by the addition of notes on Kinesiology and also a fuller description of Remedial Exercises’ as taught by Dr Johan Arvedson, with additional illustrations for these exercises as well as depiction's’ of deformities. It is interesting to note that the chapter on rheumatic conditions was also rewritten for this edition, as Goodall-Copestake is known for one of the earliest detailed accounts of physical therapy in the treatment of rheumatism. A sixth edition was published in 1942, when the focus of attention for practitioners was once again those wounded in battle, and it contains a new chapter on war injuries including a section on the treatment of amputation stumps.
Beatrice Mary Goodall-Copestake (1877 - ?) was the other of ‘Massage as a Career for Women’ (1919) and was named an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy in 1949.

1814. 8vo, viii, [iv], 236; with folding engraved plate; lightly browned and foxed throughout; with ex-libris on front free endpaper ‘Bücherie Johannes Cotta’ and stamped date ‘21. Dez. 1925’; bound in contemporary red marbled paste-boards, with yellow and green paper labels on spine lettered in gilt, head and tail of spine and joints rather rubbed and worn, with further light scuffing to surfaces, extremities a little bumped and worn; still a good copy. Scarce first edition of this compilation of historical facts and events, popular beliefs, and spurious anecdotes, and the work of the Austrian bibliographer Franz Arnold Gräffer (1785-1852). The folding engraved plate (sometimes bound as a frontispiece though here found at the end of the work) is extremely striking and rather curious depicting as it does a rider on a horse, composed out of various other animals.
Gräffer’s ‘cabinet’ includes an impressive range of ‘curiosities’ from the fate of Jean d’Arc (was she really burnt at the stake?), the riches of Rome (with full accounts), to a listing of automatons and famous kisses. The reader learns too about the household accounting instructions of Mme de Maintenon and her helpful money-saving tips such as get yourself invited to dinner.
The son of the bookseller August Gräffer (d. 1816), after first studying art, Franz subsequently joined his father’s business. For a time librarian to Prince Moritz von Liechtenstein and Count Karl Harrach (1761-1829), he later devoted himself to the publishing and antiquarian business, though after losing most of his fortune in the process, he turned to literary pursuits, writing some 60 works, predominantly relating to Viennese literary life. Together with Johann Jakob Czikann (1789-1855) he published ‘Oesterreichische National-Encyklopädie’.

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.

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.

1830. Lithograph trade card, 95 x 121mm, with attractive lithograph vignette of the pump room, with verses below; slightly soiled and spotted, with some minor edgewear and slight abrasions on verso, with evidence of previous label; a most appealing example. A most attractive lithograph promotional souvenir, giving a view of the Montpellier Pump Room at Cheltenham Spa in Gloucestershire. In the early 18th century, salt water springs had accidentally been discovered at Cheltenham and the spring was developed into a well by the entrepreneurial owner Henry Skillicorne. At the time, the benefits of salt water bathing as a new cure for ill health was being recognised and recommended by Georgian physicians, and it soon became a noted tourist destination for the great and the good, including such visitors as Handel, Johnson, and of course George III and his family, whose visit in 1788 really made Cheltenham fashionable.
To meet the growing demand, new wells were opened and rival spas established. In 1801 Henry Thompson, a London financier, bought a large estate and in 1809 opened the Montpellier Spa, originally a wooden structure, but later replaced by a far grander building, designed by the architect, artist and founding member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, John Buonarotti Papworth (1775-1847), whose classically designed building included a copper domed rotunda inspired by the Pantheon, and which can be seen in the present image. This was opened in around 1825, Papworth also redesigning the grounds for the Montpelier estate.
It seems probable that the card is the work of the British printmaker Christian Harttwieg, the Fitzwilliam Museum Collections recording a small valentine card of a similar style and which also includes verses within small oval medallions. That example includes the imprint ‘Harttwieg scr. & lith. 108 Hatton Garden’. The Yale Centre for British Art also notes a lithograph panorama of Gravesend from Windmill Hill, and which is signed by S. Schonberg, engraver, and which they date to 1830.

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.

1930. Single folded sheet, large 4to, pp. [4]; music score on pp. 2-3, with vertical column of advertisement down central fold; paper somewhat browned and soiled; advertisement on p. [4]; with photographic depiction of the aviator with her plane on upper cover, front lower corner folded over and with a tiny nick, small tear at the top edge without loss, very faint retailer’s stamp on the front cover. An appealing ephemeral item: an arrangement ‘for “Banjulele” Banjo and Ukele’ of a song written by Gilbert and Nicholls commemorating the ‘daring deeds’ of Amy Johnson (1903-1941).
Born in Kingston upon Hull, Johnson graduated from Sheffield University with a degree in Economics, before moving to London where she trained at the London Aeroplane Club and obtained her pilot’s licence in 1929. The following year she undertook the first woman’s solo flight from England to Australia in the second-hand de Havilland ‘Gypsy Moth’ that she bought with funds from her father and Lord Wakefield. She named it ‘Jason’ after the trademark of her father’s business, and the celebrated plane is featured prominently on the front cover of this song sheet. She flew from Croydon Airport on May 5th., and arrived at Darwin, Northern Territory on May 24th. The aeroplane is now in the Science Museum.
Whilst celebrating her considerable achievements, the song can by no means be considered to be a classic of lyricism and musicality, and the verses jar somewhat with modern sensibilities. ‘You deserve a lot of credit for your daring deeds... You are just the kind of person that the country needs... Yesterday you were a non-entity, Now your name will go down to posterity, Amy, wonderful Amy, how can you blame me for loving you?’
In 1940 Amy Johnson joined the Air Transport Auxiliary and in January 1941, in poor weather conditions, had to bail out whilst on a ferrying mission, over the Thames. Her parachute was spotted by the ferry HMS Haslemere, whose commander, Walter Fletcher, dived in to rescue her but both died and Amy Johnson’s body was never recovered. In 1999, a member of an anti-aircraft crew claimed that they had shot down the plane as Johnson had failed to give the correct identification code. To further compound the enigma, there have been claims that a third, unidentified, person died in the accident. He had been a passenger on the plane but as the reason for the flight is still covered by the secrecy laws, this remains unverified.

1929. 8vo, pp. xii, 156; with one folding table, seven half-tone plates on four leaves, and one large folding engraved coloured map in pocket at rear (plate 1), with further illustrations, diagrams and tables within text; lightly browned and foxed with occasional dust-soiling, minor edge wear to final leaf; stapled as issued, in the original printed blue wrappers, spine and extremities a little sunned, some minor edge wear; a good copy. One of a number of collaborative publications by two former Bryn Mawr students of Florence Bascom (1862-1945), Eleanora Bliss Knopf (1883-1974) and Anna Isabel Jonas (later Stose, 1881-1974). Bascom is considered to be the first woman geologist in America, being one of the first to earn a Ph.D. in the subject, and the first woman to work for the United States Geological Survey. She established a pre-eminent geology department at Bryn Mawr, and was to teach and train a generation of young women who subsequently went on to have successful geological careers. In 1937, 8 out of 11 of the women who were Fellows of the Geological Society of America were graduates of Bascom's course, and her graduate programme was considered to be one of the most rigourous in the country, with a strong focus on both lab and fieldwork.
Under Bascom’s direction, Bliss and Jonas undertook a challenging dissertation on the geology of the Doe-Run-Avondale district, just west of Bryn Mawr. The two women followed similar career paths, both working as demonstrators in the Bryn Mawr geological laboratories, and later working for the United States Geological Survey, collaborating on a number of projects as here.
Bliss married fellow geologist Adolph Knopf, and moved with him to Yale, where she taught privately, and continued to take USGS assignments. Jonas too, married a fellow geologist whom she had met through the USGS, George Stose. Knopf was one of the first geologists to use stereotypically viewed airplane photographs for field mapping and to help her interpret geologic faults and folds, and is remembered for translating the work of foreign scientists and introducing new approaches in the United States’ (Profitt p. 295).
Jonas and Knopf eventually broke with Bascom ‘over the dating of the Wissahickon formation. In two major papers, they indicated that what Bascom and E. B. Mathews had referred to as Paleozoic were actually Precambrian. At that time, Anna Jonas began to collaborate with George Stose, who was very direct in his letters of disagreement with Bascom. The break with her students was complete’ (Ogilvie, II, p. 1243).

1874. Single sheet, 240 x 195, printed on recto and verso on blue paper stock, and partially completed in manuscript seemingly in a couple of hands; margins a little dust-soiled and stained, and with evidence of previous horizontal folds. An interesting social history document: a legal summons issued by the County Court of Staffordshire to one ‘Lucy Kirkland of Wetley Rocks near Leek’, in response to an accusation made by Mrs Mary Ann Turner that on June 5th 1875 she was ‘drunk and while so drunk were then and there guilty of riotous behaviour’. Mrs Kirkland it therefore charged to appear before magistrates at the Court House in Leek. The template document appears to have been completed by the Constable Frederick Howard, with his signed deposition that he has served the writ. A further note on the verso states that the case was adjourned. There is a further signature which is unfortunately illegible, but is presumably that of the Justice of the Peace.

1835. Small 8vo, pp. viii, 86, with a number of small woodcuts; title page a little soiled with some light paper abrasion at upper margin, lightly browned throughout, particularly at margins; uncut in the original green pebble-grained cloth, with printed paper label on upper cover (somewhat soiled), and remains of paper label along spine, joints and head and tail of spine neatly repaired. First edition of this uncommon introduction to the fibrous structures in particular, by Alexander M’Nab, Jun ‘Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London’. According to the preface, Macnab has drawn upon more ‘voluminous works’, and hopes that his abridged compilation will provide a more accessible work for those ‘unable to conveniently to peruse more elaborate productions’. The woodcuts are apparently by ‘Mr Berryman’, and although as far as we can tell, Macnab makes no direction citation from other works, he does refer to case histories as described by physicians both in England, Europe and America, including ‘Dr. Kirkbride, resident physician of the Pennsylvania Hospital’, (p. 22) ‘Dr. Warren of Boston’ (p. 23), Dupuytren (p. 23), Bichat (p. 56) Delpech (p. 65) and ‘Mr. Hunter’ (p. 62) as well as a number of cases highlighted in the Medical Gazette.

1788.]. Small 8vo, pp. 72, [14] blank; pre-printed service or record book to be completed; title-page filled in in a contemporary hand in brown ink, otherwise unused, aside from some doodling on p. 46-7, 66-7, and in pencil on p. 71-72, with the first four final blank leaves ruled in pencil to form a grid, and which has been used; contemporary stiff vellum with closing fore-edge envelope flap, retaining part of the closing cord, title in manuscript (?) in black on upper cover, with small royal arms in black at centre of rear cover, some small wormholes evident in spine, covers somewhat soiled, with small loss of vellum to envelope flap edge; a little dog-eared but an unusual survivor. A scarce survivor, a pre-printed personal service record book belonging to Jean-Bernard Bouën, born in Verdun in 1767, and who became a classified or registered ‘gens de mer’ on in 1787.
During the 17th century, several seafaring nations used forced recruitment or impressment (better known as ‘press-ganging’) to crew their Royal warships. Although the British Royal Navy continued to impress many merchant sailors well into the 19th century, in 1669-70 France created a system of maritime registration or ‘L’Institution du service des classes’, under the auspices of Louis XIV’s minister of finances Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), thus becoming the first of the great naval powers to establish a permanent force of regular navy personnel. All men 18 years and above, who lived in or near coastal towns, and who were employed as fishermen, merchant crewmen and officers, were required to register on the rôle des gens de mer, and were divided into ‘classes’, each of which was required to serve a year in the King’s Navy every three, four or five years depending on the size of the district. This ‘inscription maritime’ was a broad, comprehensive code, which established standards of recruitment, pay, and benefits which in theory helped to build confidence and unity among newly enlisted sailors. ‘The navy maintained seamen not needed to commission warships during their year of service, theoretically, on half-pay: however, they were forbidden to sign on merchant ships. The Crown gave “classed” men various privileges in return for this perpetual commitment: exemption from certain taxes... and eligibility to receive money from the Caisse des invalides, a royal fund for invalid seamen or the families of those lost at sea.’ (Cormack, p. 23). Each coastal province was overseen by a class commissionaire, who kept a record of whether they were officers, sailors, or seafarers, together with names, age, address, qualities and description of the registrant, as well as keeping a record of any dependants. As Cormack goes on to discuss however, although this ‘class system’ was intended to place all of the maritime population at the navy’s disposal, it was constantly unable to supply crews needed for the commissioning of warships throughout the 18th century. He cites a number of possible reasons for this. Many preferred to work for privateers, whilst the mortality rate for sailors on long voyages was also high. The French navy was also frequently unable to pay its crews, and so consequently, many seamen did all that they could to resist conscription or to desert. The system was eventually reformed after the French Revolution in 1795, although some form of maritime inscription lasted until 1965.
The survival of such personal record books, by their very nature, appears to be unusual, no doubt potentially exposed to all weathers and conditions. Pierre Loti, in his work Le Matelot of 1893, includes a paragraph referring to a similar notebook: ‘Le livret de marin de mon frère Yves ressemble à tous les autres livrets de tous les autres marins. Il est recouvert d'un papier parchemin de couleur jaune, et, comme il a beaucoup voyagé sur la mer, dans différents caissons de navires, il manque absolument de fraîcheur’.
The booklet is divided into three sections. The first template page provides space for the owner to give their own details. This is followed by the ‘Instruction sur les devoirs des gens classés, leurs exemptions & privilèges’, according to recent reforms set into law on October 31st 1784. The remainder of the note book provides space to detail the owner’s various assignments, commissions on Royal vessels, and on other authorised voyages and navigation's.
For whatever reason, Bouën has filled in very little of his notebook, aside from his own personal details, and what appears to be the name of a vessel on p. 66. A number of the blank leaves at the end have been used, completed in pencil to form a grid of some sort, and which we have failed to decipher - although some look suspiciously like the doodling of a young child. Having signed up only two years before the start of the Revolution, it seems quite possible that larger events overtook him. Nevertheless, a scarce and appealing example from the last days of the Ancien Regime.

1913. 8vo, pp. 150, [2] publishers’ advertisements; with photographic frontispiece, and 16 text diagrams and half-tone illustrations; small nick at outer margin of pp. 117-120, title-page a little browned, with occasional light soiling; with contemporary repair to front free endpaper; in the original maroon publisher’s cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt, tail of spine nicked with small loss, spine and outer margins a little sunned; a good copy. Uncommon first edition in book form of this practical work on mine safety, by the mechanical engineer J. W McTrusty ‘Lecturer on Mining to Warwickshire County Council’, and based upon a series of articles first published in ‘The Science and Art of Mining during 1911-12’. Aimed at mining firemen, examiners and deputies, there were written to help them to understand the new regulations brought in by the Coal Mines Act of 1911. The chapters deal in turn with safety issues surrounding mine air; carbon and oxides; black-damp; fire-damp; the diffusion of gases; shaft and underground fires; colliery explosions; the dangers of coal-dust; and with a final chapter on breathing apparatus. The Appendices include official advice on safety procedures to be followed at all mines.
A second edition was published in 1916, and was again issued in 1919.

1930. Single sheet on crepe paper, 184 x 120mm, printed on recto only along the outer margins, central box apparently blank - though impregnated with secret message to be revealed when heated; clean and fresh. An advertising novelty produced by the famous firm of Beecham’s. As the note along the left margin states: ‘When you suffer from colds, chills, influenza, headache, rheumatism, nerve pains, Beecham’s Powders Act like Magic’. The present curiosity is itself a magical trick to highlight the tag line. The application of a glowing piece of burned string to the central panel will reveal a secret message - which in this case appears to reveal a tortoise! A previous example, showed a chicken, with another, which though difficult to discern, incorporated the phrase ‘Beecham’s Pills’.

1907. Together two sheets, larger 4to typed form letter on headed paper including two half tone illustrations 280 x 215mm, with 8vo sheet 218 x 140mm, printed on both sides with small woodcut illustrations; both documents with evidence of previous folds, two small nicks at head of form letter with slight loss, with a small dampstain, with two small tears at outer margins along one fold of the ‘Rules’; paper a little browned. A forceful advertising letter, together with an accompanying measurement and order form, from the Brooks Rupture Appliance Co., Addressed to one Mr. Glidden, the letter begins: ‘We have written you several times trying to persuade you to buy one of our celebrated rupture appliances, and are unable to understand why you have not ordered; you certainly were not satisfied with what you were wearing, or you would not have written us.... Our appliance is the best thing in the world for rupture, and is making more cures and producing more solid comfort than all the common trusses in existence’.

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.

1906. Large single sheet broadside, 340 x 250mm; printed on both sides in red and black, with engraved vignettes; central horizontal fold evident; paper lightly browned with some occasional foxing, paper quite prominently creased; a couple of minor marginal tears, but otherwise good. A 20th century medical broadside - in fact the bottle wrapper according to the text - promoting the benefits of Genuine Haarlem Oil (real Dutch drops) and attesting to its authenticity. Originally prepared by Claas Tilly in his laboratory ‘the formula for this remedy has been handed down from generation to generation’ and soon gained a reputation as a cure for kidney and bladder complaints. According to the present day Haarlem Oil web site he was assisted by Hermann Boerhave in the production of the remedy, who though sharing the profits of the medicine and recommending its use, was prevented from associating his name with a commercial proprietary product through the ethics of his profession. ‘The ingredients follow a process that take several days, in which the particular chemical preparation and difficult analysis has permitted the Tilly Family to preserve the secret of the production during 200 years’ (present day web site).
It proved so popular, that it was inevitable that a number of imitations were produced, with many claiming to be the genuine Tilly Haarlem Oil. At some point in the early 20th century the company gained an American backer, and in around 1906 the Dutch government granted a charter to the company which was given the right to use the word "genuine" and the words "Oudste Fabriek" (oldest factory) on its product, a privilege which was not been granted to any other concern or individual making or handling Haarlem Oil. The American connection meant that the remedy had to conform with the requirements of the United States Food and Drugs Act of 1906. The present broadside attests to this, and notes that from hereon their bottles will have blown on to them the words ‘G. de Konig Tilly’. Indeed in 1911 the Federal Government prosecuted the The Holland Medicine Co, of Scranton, Pennsylvania for falsely selling Gold Medal Genuine Tilly Haarlem Oil Capsules, For kidney, liver and bladder.