antiquarian bookseller - Peter Harrington

Peter Harrington Antiquarian Bookseller
258.HARDING, James
Duffield.
Harding’s Sketches at Home and
Abroad. Designed and Drawn by J.
D. Harding.
[London,] by Charles Tilt, at C. Hullmandel’s Lithographic Establishment
[1836] [33266] £6000
Folio. Publisher’s green half morocco, spine lettered gilt,
purple flower-patterned cloth sides and inner hinges, yellow
endpapers. Lacks the printed dedication leaf. Lithographed
title and 50 tinted lithographs on card, all with fine recent
hand-colouring. Extremities rubbed, cloth sides evenly sunned,
title leaf a little frayed at fore-edge, an excellent copy.
FIRST EDITION. “This book represents something of a
landmark in the history of the lithograph in that it may
be said to initiate the series of tinted lithographs, which
… were to dominate the market for many years, reaching
a peak of ambitious bulk in Roberts’s Holy Land, 1842–9”
(Abbey). Harding’s work pleased the dedicatee, King Louis
Philippe, so much that he presented him with a diamond
ring. The plates are of European scenery in Italy, France,
Germany and England.
Abbey Travel 29.
259.JACOB, William.
Travels in the South of Spain, in
letters written A.D. 1809 and 1810.
London, for J. Johnson & Co., and W. Miller, by John Nichols and Son,
1811 [16206] £975
4to, pp. [iii]–xvi, 407, 36 appendix, 7 index. Contemporary
half calf, neatly rebacked and recornered, marbled paper sides,
blue sprinkled edges. 13 sepia engraved plates, 2 of which are
folding. Without the half-title. Occasional, light foxing. A very
good, attractive copy.
FIRST EDITION. At the time of writing, William Jacob
(1761/2–1851) was a successful businessman, one of
the few Englishmen carrying on a direct trade with South
America, who had been an MP for Westbury, then for Rye,
a Treasury seat. In 1809 and 1810 Jacob spent six months
in Spain, and this book, which was favourably reviewed
in the Edinburgh Review, is based on the letters he wrote
from that country. Shortly after his return to England his
business crashed, but he recovered to become a widelyrespected
economist, doing much to ensure the repeal of
the Corn Laws.
260.LAW, William John.
The Alps of Hannibal.
London, Macmillan and Co., 1866 [37276] £500
2 volumes, 8vo. Folding map to each volume. Some foxing
and browning, particularly to the prelims and maps, which are
quite heavily browned, that in vol. I a little brittle and lacking
a small piece from the corner, no loss of image, but overall a
very good set in a contemporary full calf prize binding by J.
Carss and Co. for the University of Glasgow, engraved prize
bookplates, dated 1868, to both front pastedowns and gilt
crest to all boards, spines gilt in compartments, red and green
labels, marbled edges, a little rubbed, joints of vol. I slightly
cracked at the head, but remains highly presentable. Prize to
Thomas R. Wyer for excellence in Greek (the bookplates signed
by Edmund Law Lushington, Professor of Greek at Glasgow, a
brilliant scholar who married Tennyson’s sister Cecilia, a match
celebrated in the Epilogue to the poet’s In Memoriam.)
FIRST EDITION. Law was a trained as a lawyer and
specialised in bankruptcy, writing several works on the
subject and rising to become chief commissioner of the
Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors. Outside of the
law his twin passions were racing – he was reputed to
know the Racing Calendar by heart and never missed
seeing the Derby – and the classics. Between 1854–56
he was involved in a sharp controversy with Robert Ellis
concerning Hannibal’s route through the Alps, eventually
working the topic up into the present work.
PRESENTATION TO CHARLES
LEVER
261.LEAR, Edward.
Journals of a Landscape Painter in
Albania, &c.
London, Richard Bentley, 1851 [29345] £3500
Large 8vo. Original blind-stamped blue morocco-grain
cloth, spine decorated and lettered gilt, cream endpapers
with printed adverts, Remnant & Edmonds binders’ ticket at
the foot of the inside rear cover. Map of Albania and region
as frontispiece, 20 tinted lithographic plates printed by
Hullmandel and Walton. Armorial bookplate of Richard Nevill.
Rubbed, spinecaps restored, a very good copy.
Catalogue 57: Travel Section 6: Europe, including Constantinople
FIRST EDITION, with the author’s signed presentation
inscription to the novelist Charles Lever and his wife: “Mr
& Mrs Charles Lever from Edward Lear. In remembrance
of pleasant days passed at Florence & La Spezzia, June,
July, 1861.” Lear had been in Florence to make a painting
for one of his most consistent patrons, Frances, Lady
Waldegrave, later the wife of his close friend Chichester
Fortescue. Lever was serving at the time as vice-consul
at La Spezia on a minimal salary (“as I like the place, and
there is nothing – actually nothing – to do, I have thought
it best to accept it”), a post that helped support his writing.
The book is based on two journeys Lear made through
northern and western Greece, Albania, and Macedonia in
1848 and 1849. The lithographs in this volume are tinted
with three colours – blue-grey, grey and sepia – perhaps
a technical experiment on Lear’s part.
130 131
Abbey Travel 45.