A Nineteenth-Century List

A Nineteenth-Century List [email protected] 917-974-2420 full descriptions available at www.honeyandwaxbooks.com or click on any image The Uncanny Animals of William Blake 1. William Blake (illustrator); William Hayley. Ballads . Founded on Anecdotes Relating to Animals, with Prints, Designed and Engraved by William Blake. Chichester: J. Seagrave for Richard Phillips, 1805. $5500. Octavo, measuring 6 x 4.25 inches: [4], 212, [2]. Late nineteenth-century full blue crushed morocco gilt, boards triple-ruled in gilt, raised bands, spine compartments richly decorated in gilt, all edges gilt, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers. Five plates designed and engraved by William Blake, including frontispiece; index at rear. Bound without half- title, several signatures uniformly toned. First edition of this collection of fifteen ballads for young readers by English poet William Hayley (1745-1820), each devoted to a different animal, offering adventure, pathos, and moral lessons: “Ye, whom a friend’s dark perils pain, / When terrors most unnerve him, / Learn from this Elephant to strain / Your sinews to preserve him.” The enduring interest of the book lies in the five remarkable engravings contributed by William Blake, a partner in the venture, “which Hayley seems to have invented as a make-work project for Blake” (Morgan Library). In 1802, Blake produced engravings to accompany a proposed quarto edition of Hayley’s ballads to be issued in fifteen parts; only four parts appeared, for lack of sales. For this 1805 octavo edition, Blake re-engraved three of his earlier plates (“The Dog,” “The Eagle,” and “The Lion”) in a smaller format, and produced two new designs: “The Horse” and “The Hermit’s Dog.” The immediately recognizable, dreamlike quality of Blake’s vision elevates (and effectively disrupts) an otherwise conventional volume of verse. A near-fine copy, handsomely bound by Riviere. Tom Telescope Explains It All 2. Tom Telescope; [John Newbery]; [Oliver Goldsmith]. The Newtonian System of Philosophy, Explained by Familiar Objects, in an Entertaining Manner for the Use of Young Persons. London: Ogilvy and Son; et al., 1806. $500. 18mo, measuring 5.25 x 3.25 inches: vii, [1], 136. Contemporary green roan spine, marbled paper boards, pale grey endpapers, all edges speckled blue. Cop- per-engraved frontispiece and three copper-engraved plates; wood-engravings throughout text. Illustrated appendix. Light shelfwear; paper flaw to lower corner of page 129, not affecting text or illustration. Early nineteenth-century edition of this popular introduction to science for young readers, first published in 1761; authorship has been ascribed to both publisher John Newbery and writer Oliver Goldsmith. A country-house party of “young people of both sexes,” looking for amusement, invite the “very ingenious” Mr. Thomas Telescope to come teach them about natural philosophy. He delivers six lectures spanning the laws of physics, the solar system, the elements, geography, natural history, and the limits of human perception. The handsome copper engravings depict Vesuvius in mid-eruption, the Earth’s solar system, an orrery which has been updated with “the Moons which have been newly discovered,” and a combined illustration of the moon and an ar- millary sphere. At the end, readers encounter as an appendix a catalog of the scientific and drawing instruments mentioned in the book, with prices ranging from a shilling map of the moon to a six-pound air-gun “for experiments only.” A near-fine copy, in a contemporary binding. Shakespeare’s Reading: Mirror for Magistrates and The Palace of Pleasure, Edited by Joseph Haslewood 3. [William Shakespeare]; Joseph Haslewood (editor). Mirror for Magistrates (three volumes); WITH: The Palace of Pleasure (three volumes). London: Lackington, Allen, and Co. Finsbury Square; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, Paternoster Row; Reprinted for Robert Triphook, St. James’s Street, by Harding and Wright, St. John’s Square, 1815, 1813. $7500. Six quarto volumes, contemporary full brown crushed morocco gilt, gilt- ruled blind-tooled boards, raised bands decorated in gilt, spine compartments decorated in blind, maroon endpapers, all edges gilt. Letterpress titles in Mirror for Magistrates printed in red and black, decorative engraved titles throughout all three volumes, small woodcut vignettes in Volume III; two engraved half-titles in Palace of Pleasure. Crease to front free endpaper of first volume of Mirror for Magistrates, lightest occasional foxing. Deluxe large-paper reissues of two classic sixteenth-century source texts, the inspiration for some of the most important Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. Featuring chapters by a number of English poets, Mirror for Magistrates was at first suppressed by the Lord Chancellor in 1555, then published under Elizabeth in 1559, and expanded by new contributors over the decades to come. The anthology offers pointed verse portraits of historic rulers, with an eye to instructing those in power; Philip Sidney, in his Defence of Poesy, recommends “Mirrour of Magistrates meetly furnished of beautiful parts.” The chapter on “Queene Cordila” served as a key source for Shakespeare's King Lear: “I must assay your friendly faithes to prove: / My daughters, tell mee how you doe mee love.” The Palace of Pleasure, first published in 1566 by William Painter, and expanded in subsequent editions, translates dozens of sensational tales from Continental sources, including the first English translations of Boccaccio's Decameron and Marguerite de Navarre’s Heptameron. The anthology provided English playwrights with a rich supply of plots, inspiring The Rape of Lucrece, Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Timon of Athens, The Duchess of Malfi, Love’s Cruelty, Insatiate Countess, and The Revenger’s Tragedy. As the Cambridge History of English Literature observes: “it would be difficult to find a plot that has not had its origin, or its counterpart, in Painter’s treasure-house.” Sixteenth-century editions of Mirror for Magistrates and The Palace of Pleasure are exceptionally scarce. Editor Joseph Haslewood, a founder of the Roxburghe Club, strove to bring neglected Renaissance texts to the attention of nineteenth-century readers and collectors; these lavishly produced sets, issued in editions of 150 copies, were part of his mission. These volumes were splendidly bound by Charles Lewis, “the leading figure in English binding of the first years of the nineteenth century” (Maggs 1075). A fine collection of Shakespearian source material. Child’s Sketchbook of American Landscapes, Including Mount Vernon, 1835 4. [MANUSCRIPT]; L.C. Andrew. Sketchbook, including views of Mount Vernon and the Washington family tomb. United States: 1835. $850. Side-stitched landscape sketchbook, measuring 6.25 x 8 inches: [22]. Contemporary marbled wrappers. Five watercolor landscapes, painted rectos only, and three full-page pencil sketches (one detached from binding). Signed in pencil in a child’s hand to verso of upper wrapper: “L.C. Andrew / 1835.” Wrappers partially split at top fold; marginal staining to lower wrapper and two of the pencil sketches. Vernacular sketchbook of early American views, produced by an unknown young artist. The naïve landscapes include a number of river scenes, including pencil sketches of “a brig bound out” and Native Americans in a canoe. There are full-page watercolors of Mount Vernon from the Potomac side (complete with family dog and doghouse) and the Washington family tomb. An intriguing artifact of the early national period, reflecting not only reverence for Washington, but also a decidedly Romantic feeling for the American landscape. Remarkable Insects 5. [EDUCATION]. Remarkable Insects. London: Religious Tract Society, [1842]. $350. Single volume, measuring 5.25 x 4.5 inches: iv, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32. Original red ribbed pictorial cloth elaborately stamped in gilt and blind, gilt lettering to spine, yellow endpapers, all edges gilt. Hand-colored pictorial title page and illustrations throughout text. Ink gift inscription, dated 1881, to front free endpaper; bookseller ticket to front pastedown; binder’s ticket to final pastedown. Light soiling to binding, corners rubbed. First edition, hand-colored issue, of this illustrated Victorian field guide for young readers, featuring conversational chapters on the honey bee, the fly, the ant, the spider, and the gall insect. The author illuminates the remarkable qualities of everyday insects, drawing comparisons between insect and human achievements, and praising God’s ingenuity in designing even the smallest creatures: “Who is there that devoutly studies animated nature, that is not continually delighted and instructed?” Detailed illustrations are skillfully hand-colored throughout the text. OCLC locates holdings at six American institutions. A near-fine example of an uncommon and beautiful little guide. The Raven and Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe 6. Edgar Allan Poe. The Raven and Other Poems. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845. $12,500. Octavo, measuring 7.25 x 5 inches: [4], 91, [1]. Early twentieth-century full russet calf, boards single-ruled in gilt, raised bands, black morocco spine labels, spine single-ruled and lettered in gilt, gilt dentelles, marbled endpapers. Slip tipped onto second fly leaf noting “inner gilt dentelles by Zaehnsdorf.” Lacking original wrappers, half title, and ads. Expert repair to joints, a few light scratches to lower board. First edition in book form of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,”

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