JAMES CUMMINS bookseller catalogue 115 Winter Miscellany james cummins bookseller catalogue 115 Winter Miscellany To place your order, call, write, e-mail or fax: james cummins bookseller 699 Madison Avenue, New York City, 10065 Telephone (212) 688-6441 Fax (212) 688-6192 e-mail: [email protected] jamescumminsbookseller.com hours: Monday – Friday 10:00 – 6:00, Saturday 10:00 – 5:00 Members A.B.A.A., I.L.A.B. front cover: item 51 inside front cover: item 76 inside rear cover: item 10 rear cover: item 18 terms of payment: All items, as usual, are guaranteed as described and are returnable within 10 days for any reason. All books are shipped UPS (please provide a street address) unless otherwise requested. Overseas orders should specify a shipping preference. All postage is extra. New clients are requested to send remittance with orders. Libraries may apply for deferred billing. All New York and New Jersey residents must add the appropriate sales tax. We accept American Express, Master Card, and Visa. 1 ARISTOPHANES. Lysistrata. A New Version by Gilbert Sel- des with a Special Introduction by Mr. Seldes and Illustrations by Pablo Picasso. Printed in Caslon types on Rives paper, at the Printing-Office of the Limited Editions Club, Westport, Conn. 117, [1] pp. 4to, New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1934. Limited edition, no. 1452 of 1500 copies signed by pi- casso. Printed in black and sanguine. Fine in original printed pictorial boards, in original chemise and modern slipcase. The Artist and the Book, no. 226; Cramer 24; Skira 294. One of the most ribald works of antiquity, illustrated with Picasso’s magnificent etchings and drawings. This is “the only American publication with original Picasso etchings, which are among his most important in the classical style” (The Art- ist and the Book). $6,500 2 ASIMOV, Isaac. Foundation [with] Foundation and Empire [with] Second Foundation. 3 vols. 8vo, New York: Gnome Press, [1951-1953]. First editions, Currey binding state A for each volume. Original dark blue cloth; red boards; blue boards. Some rubbing to extremities, Foundation with small stain at bottom corner of front endpaper and inner flap of dust jack- et. Very good copies in very good pictorial dust jackets (some slight rubbing and soiling, a few nicks to ends of spine panels). An attractive, desirable set. Currey, pp. 17-19. Asimov’s major sequence of novels depicting the far-future interplanetary history of the human race, this being the important first three, of which each were awarded a special Hugo in 1966 for best all-time series. Several years later, Asimov added later installments to the series. $5,000 3 4 BAQIR, Muhammad bin Muhammad Taqi. Zad al-Ma’ad. (BINDING, Designer) Langland, William. Piers the Plowman. [Islamic Devotional Manuscript in Arabic and Persian]. Manu- Initials and illustrations by H.M. O’Kane. Small folio, New script in Arabic and Persian, black and red ink on polished pa- Rochelle: Elston Press, 1901. One of 210 copies. Specially- per, 21 lines per page in fine naskh hand within gilt-ruled bor- bound in multi-colored onlaid leathers and raised images der, consistently vocalized, with red notations for emphasis, formed by bands of leather; repeated designs on doublures; catchwords, and with occasional interlinear translations in red suede and board chemise and slipcase. Fine. nasta’liq as well as marginal glosses. Polychrome gilt double- The Elston Press edition of Piers the Plowman in an elaborate page opening, with gilt floral borders. 262 leaves, complete. designer binding. 8vo (165 x 105 mm), [Persia: early 1800s C.E.]. Leather spine, painted pictorial lacquered boards. Shaken, some edgewear. $5,000 First leaf with split along gutter (old cellotape stain); six leaves heavily thumbed (one loosened); otherwise generally sound and clean with only occasional and minor smudges. Book of prayers in the Shi’a tradition, composed in 1107 A.H. (1695 C.E.) by the great scholar Muhammad Baqir b. Muhammad Taqi b. Maqsud ‘Ali al-Majlisi al-Isfahani (A.H. 1037-1110/1627-98 A.D.). He was Shaykh al-Islam under the Safavid Shah Sulayman (d. 1106/1694). Here in a well preserved nineteenth-century manuscript, with a few leaves showing wear but generally sound. $2,750 2 | james cummins bookseller blake’s “grave” the art of firing a mortar 5 6 (BLAKE, William) Blair, Robert. The Grave, A Poem. 12 etch- BLONDEL, Nicolas-François. L’Art de Jetter les Bombes. With ings by Schiavonetti after designs by Blake. Portrait frontis- additional engraved title, engraved title-page vignette, en- piece of Blake by T. Phillips, pictorial title. xiv, 36, [4] pp. 4to graved headpieces, engravings in text (including several full (13-1/16 x 10-I in.), London: Printed by T. Bensley, Bolt page), and figures in text. [8], 445, [16] pp. (including “Fautes Court, for the Proprietor, R. H. Cromek, No. 64, Newman à corriger” on last page) + final blank leaf [i4]. 4to, À Paris: Street, 1808. First Blake edition, quarto issue. Bound in con- Chez l’auteur. Et se vend À Amsterdam, chez Pierre Mortier, temporary quarter sheep and marbled boards, neatly rebacked 1699. Sixth edition (first published 1683). Contemporary vel- in brown calf, gilt spine and red leather label, minor foxing. lum with brown morocco spine label; moderate wear. Some Keynes 81; Bentley & Nurmi 350A. internal dampstaining at outer margins, a few leaves repaired; overall, very good. OCLC 17590330; Dictionary of Scientific Includes Blake’s dedicatory poem, “To the Queen,” the Biography II, pp. 200-203. six-page list of subscribers, note by Fuseli at pp. xiii-xiv, and, following the poem, the description “Of the Plates” and the Blondel (1618-1686), brilliant mathematician, architect, engi- advertisement for Stothard’s Chaucer and “Prospectus.” neer, and topographer, was admitted to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1669. He became director of the Royal Acade- $1,750 my of Architecture in 1671, was appointed director of public works for the city of Paris by Louis XIV in 1672, and in 1673 became mathematics tutor to the dauphin. Earlier, “during his infantry service, Blondel had been amazed at the crude methods of the French bombardiers,” and devised practical rules for determining the angle of a mortar sometime in 1677. The printing of Blondel’s solution in L’Art de Jetter les Bombes “was delayed by order of Louis XIV, who hardly cared to have the enemy profit by it. The French gunners, however, paid no attention to it until 1731 …” (DSB). $2,000 catalogue 115 | 7 (Book of Common Prayer) The Book of Common Prayer … Together With the Psalter or Psalms of David [bound with:] The Whole Book of Psalms. a-b8 c2 A4 b-Y8 *Y3-6; A-N4. 4to, Lon- don: John Baskett … Thomas Newcomb, and Henry Hill; William Bowyer, 1715. Altar edition. Contemporary black morocco, covers tooled in gilt to a panel design, spine gilt in six compartments, a.e.g. Light rubbing to joints, some soiling to text, in a custom blue chemise and half morocco box. Griffiths 1715:4 (with variant imprint); ESTC T81401 & T82245. Provenance: Anne Johnston (her calligraphic inscrip- tion, dated 1729, on the recto of the first blank). $1,500 8 BRADFORD, Rev. William. Sketches of the Country, Character, and Costume, in Portugal and Spain, made during the campaign, and on the route of the British Army in 1808 and 1809 … [bound with:] Chronological and Historical Retrospect of the Events of the War in the Peninsula. 53 hand-colored aquatints (40 views and 13 costumes, without an unlisted plate “Toro from the River Douro”) by J. Clark after Bradford. Titles and text in French and English. Text watermarked 1809-10, plates watermarked 1815-16. Folio, London: Printed for John Booth, Duke Street, Portland Square by B.R. Howlett, 49, Brewer Street, Golden Square, 1812. Contemporary marbled boards, rebacked in half calf. Bookplate of Charles N. Bancker and signature of J.R. Latimer, Canton, 1832 on bookplate. Abbey Travel 135.3; Colas 421. Sometime before 1816, John Richardson Latimer went to Philadelphia to receive training in a counting house, prob- ably that of his uncle, George. George arranged for John and his son, James, to enter the China trade. John made his first supercargo voyage to Canton in 1815. From that time until 1838 John made regular voyages between China and his home in Delaware, spending most of his time abroad. Profits from his years in China allowed him to retire at the age of forty. In 1838, he and his wife, Elizabeth Caldwell Keppele, moved to an estate known as “Latimeria.” (Winterthur Mu- seum has a small pantry from Latimeria installed adjacent to the Port Royal Parlor.) During his retirement years, John was elected to the Delaware constitutional convention, served as president of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati, and was a member of the executive committee for the Soldiers National Cemetery at Gettysburg. He died at his home in 1865. $,500 4 | james cummins bookseller one of 125 copies, bound by bedford 9 BRATHWAIT, Richard. Barnabæ Itinerarium, or Barnabee’s Journal … With a Life of the Author, a Bibliographical Introduction to the Itinerary, and a Catalogue of His Works. Edited from the First Edition by Joseph Haselwood. Frontispiece, plates, some in two states. xlv, [i], [2], 459, [1]; [iv], 448 pp. 2 vols. 12mo, London: [R. and A. Taylor, Printers], 1820. One of 125 copies. Full green morocco, gilt-tooled to a Grolieresque strapwork de- sign, green morocco doublures richly gilt in the fanfare style, glazed endpapers with hand-painted red, blue and gilt bor- ders, all edges gilt and gauffered, by Bedford. Lowndes I, 260.