Libros raros de Rulon-Miller Books

Philadelphia: D. Rice & A. N. Hart, 1855. Third octavo edition, considered by some to be the best of the octavos for the superiority of its coloring; 3 volumes, 120 brilliant hand-colored plates by J.T. Bowen; a stunning set in publisher's full red morocco gilt, a.e.g. with virtually no wear at all and with the plates in an extraordinarily fine and clean state. Originally published in three large folio volumes 1836-44. "These are the most colorful portraits of Indians ever executed ... The original oil paintings of which these plates were copies were all destroyed in the 1865 Smithsonian fire" (Howes M129). Field 992: "The plates are accurate portraits of celebrated chiefs, or of characteristic individuals of the race; and are colored with care, to faithfully represent their features and costumes." Sabin 43411.

Napoli: [Gennaro Morelli], 1750. First edition, 4to, pp. [14], 320, [14]; text partially in black letter, engraved vignette (device of the Accademia della Crusca) on title page printed in sanguine, title page otherwise printed in 4 colors; 3 hand-colored folding plates of the quipus (1 also printed in red and green); engraved initials and headpieces; contemporary full mottled calf, gilt spine, red morocco label, modern quarter brown morocco clamshell box with gilt spine, red morocco label. Sabin 40560: "This letter from a learned academician of the Della Crusca, contains a defense of Madame de Grafigny, "Letters from a Peruvian Princess," published in 1747, wherein the author speakls of the extensive use of the quipus by the Peruvians." "The mysterious science of the quipus ... supplied the Peruvians with the means of communicating their ideas to one another, and of transmitting them to future generations ... The quipu was a cord about two feet long, composed of different colored threads tightly… Leer más

London: Henry G. Bohn, 1866. 2 volumes, 8vo, pp. viii, 264; viii, 265, [1]; 3 hand-colored maps (1 folding), plus 310 hand-colored etchings on 177 plates; publisher's half red morocco over marbled boards, gilt-decorated spine in 6 compartments, gilt-lettered direct in 2, a.e.g.; extremities rubbed, internally quite clean and bright; a very good set. The celebrated colored issue, and purportedly one of only "12 or more" copies so made. Clark III, 141; Field, 260; Howes C-241; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 685; Sabin 11537; Streeter Sale, 4277; Wagner-Camp, 84.

New York: Will H. Coleman, 1885. First edition, slim 8vo, pp. 5, [1], [5]-[42], [4] ads; original turquoise cloth stamped in gilt, black and silver; minor spotting, else very good. This copy enhanced by a presentation from the author, "J. B. McCormick, Esq. with best wishes of Lafcadio Hearn. Sept. 8/86." Also with a 40-word holograph correction in the text signed with initials by Hearn (in proverb 139, "Gambette ous trouvé..."). Presentation copies of Hearn are very rare. There has only been one other inscribed copy of a Hearn title at auction in 40 years, and even that was 36 years ago. BAL 7914.

New York: G. P. Putnam & Co, 1856. Large folio (approx. 20½ x 15"), consisting of a title page, and introduction leaf, and 10 leaves of descriptive text to accompany each of the 10 plates, of which one is a lithograph portrait of Commodore Perry from a daguerreotype by P. Haas, 2 chromolithographs, 7 lithographs printed in 2 colors on India paper and mounted (as issued), original pictorial wrappers with the title enclosed by 8 vignette scenes and an American eagle at the top, the wrappers backed in blue cloth; the whole in the publisher's quarter green morocco lettered in gilt on upper cover; some soiling of the front wrapper and title page a little spotted, but over all very good or better. Heine (1827-1885) was the official artist on Perry's expedition to Japan in 1853-54. The sketches he produced of the places he visited and the people he encountered there, together with the daguerreotypes taken by his colleague Eliphalet Brown Jr., formed the basis of the official iconography of the American… Leer más

London: printed for the author, and sold by H. Chapelle, 1750. First edition, 4to, pp. viii, [4], 84; title page printed in red and black, 32 engraved plates (2 folding, 8 rather spectacular ones in mezzotint), wood-engraved initials, head- and tailpieces, with the errata- and list of subscribers leaves, without the final blank; recent full speckled calf by Phil Dusel, double gilt-rule on covers, gilt-decorated spine in 7 compartments, red morocco label in 1, gilt edges; quarter tan calf clamshell box. A very nice, large copy measuring 11 3/8" x 9". The list of subscribers consists of a mere 113 names, so the edition was likely a small one and the book is consequently rare. A beautifully illustrated book, and one of considerable importance in the history of science. Wright first explained the Milky Way and the nebulae as external galaxies and provided the basis for the theories on the universe by Kant, Herschel and Laplace. Wright, a teacher of navigation and a land surveyor by profession,… Leer más

New York: Currier & Ives, 1863. Hand-colored lithograph approx. 30¼" x 22" (by sight); fine example with strong coloring; attractively matted and in a curly maple frame. Currier & Ives New Best Fifty, no. 23; Reilly, Currier & Ives, A Catalogue Raisonné, Detroit, 1984, pp. 737, 758; no. 7326. Provenance: from the collection of the Minnesota railroad tycoon James J. Hill, Saint Paul, Minnesota. One of Currier & Ives most famous and dramatic images depicting the steamboat Princess as firewood is loaded onto the ship to power its steam engines. The artist Frances Flora Bond Palmer (1812-1876), often referred to as Fanny Palmer, was an English artist who became successful in the United States as a lithographer for Currier and Ives between 1849-1868. She is credited with producing around two hundred lithographs for them during this time.

Largely shipboard and at sea, 1831. Folio (13" x 8½"); pp. [284]; original full calf, roll-tooled borders on covers, red morocco label on spine reading: "Journal," black morocco label on front cover reading: "S. B. Wilson. Lieut. U. S. Navy"; the binding is sound and the manuscript is in a small, neat hand, in ink; very legible. In a custom clamshell box, morocco label on spine. An unpublished manuscript journal of the maiden voyage of the U.S. frigate Potomac kept by one of her two senior lieutenants, Stephen Bayard Wilson (1795-1863) of Clermont, Columbia County, New York on the Hudson River, who first went to sea as a deckhand at the age of fourteen on a ship bound for Calcutta. Potomac, a 1726-ton frigate with a complement of 480 officers and men and armed with 42 thirty-two pounders and 8 eight-inch guns, set sail on her round-the-world cruise flying the pennant of the War of 1812 veteran Commodore John Downes. Downes' original orders did not include a circumnavigation of the globe. He was to… Leer más

Largely Sante Fe, 2002. This is the artist's own archive, left to her friend, the bookbinder Priscilla Spitler, on Hocks' death in 2003. Ms. Spitler is committed to seeing this archive in a home where it can be used and studied, and to that end she is willing to work with the buyer to see it properly placed. Paula Jeanne Hocks (1916-2003) was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, the daughter of Malcolm and Eileen (Magruder) Neathery. Her talents touched painting, sculpture, architecture, photographic techniques, book making, and writing. But eventually, she concentrated on the creation of photo montages and photo collages which she set into book form, often under the imprint of Running Women Press. A complete inventory is available on request. Paula "first embarked on her artistic career in Denver during the early 1940s. Though her major work would evolve into photomontage and the artist's book, her first art was sculpture. From Colorado, she soon relocated to a more developed art environment in La Jolla,… Leer más

London: printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1814. First English edition and first quarto edition of Lewis and Clark's famous account, 4to, pp. xxiv, 663, [1] ads; large folding frontispiece map (one or two short splits at folds), 5 engraved maps on 3 sheets, small, elongated hole (? paper flaw) in lower outer corner of the half title, slightly later full diced russia with an early rebacking, neatly preserving the remains of an earlier spine which is laid down, spine darkened, extremities worn and peeling, the whole somewhat scuffed and rubbed, otherwise a good, sound copy. The "definitive account of the most important exploration of the North American continent" (Wagner-Camp). Field 929; Howes L-317; Literature of Lewis & Clark 5A.2; Streeter 3128; Wagner-Camp 13:2.

New Haven: printed and sold by Edward O'Brien, who holds the copy-right for the states of Connecticut and New-York, 1797. First and only edition of the first English dictionary compiled by an American, and a noted American rarity. 32mo (4 7/8" tall), pp. 198; contemporary marbled boards neatly rebacked in modern calf, red morocco label on spine. With the early ownership signature on the verso of the title-p. of Betsy Norton, 1798 (possibly Elizabeth Cranch Norton, niece of Abagail Adams and part of the extended family of John Adams -- this based on a comparison of the handwriting in a 48-p. journal of Miss Norton's once owned by us). While the book is undated, an advertisement for it appeared in the November 8, 1798 issue of the Connecticut Journal recommending the book, and with a testimonial signed by a number of notables, including Noah Webster. A portion of this advertisement, which includes the recommendation of Noah Webster, is affixed to the verso of the title page. Dated 1796 by Evans;… Leer más

New York: John Reid, 1796. First edition of the second atlas published in America, folio, 21 engraved maps including that of Washington, D.C., often missing. This is the first atlas to contain a map of Washington, D.C. Later calf-backed marbled boards, printed paper label on upper cover; the maps are clear with only light occasional spotting; small neat infill on the title page repairing a small hole, the guards neatly renewed. Additionally, there are about 500 words of manuscript notes on the recto of the United States map regarding lakes and waterways in America; 100 words of manuscript notes on the verso of the first sheet of the Massachusetts map addressing the battles of Breed's and Bunker Hill (these rather faded); and manuscript entries on the verso of the second sheet of the Virginia map giving distances from New Orleans to 12 U.S. locations; also, text on the recto of the first sheet of the Kentucky map giving 29 stops and distances from Fort Pitt to the Mississippi; manuscript on the verso… Leer más

London: printed by W. Strahan, for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755. First edition, 2 volumes, folio, title pages in red and black, lexicon in double column; contemporary full paneled calf, gilt-decorated spine in 8 compartments, red and brown morocco labels in 2; sometime rebacked with original spine laid down, joints restored, endpapers and flyleaves renewed. A very good, sound, and clean copy. Alston V, 177; Courtney & Nicol Smith, p. 54; Fleeman 55.4D/1a; Grolier, English 100, 50; Printing and the Mind of Man, 201; Rothschild 1237.

n.p., n.d.: England, ca, 1800. Large folio, unpaginated, but in excess of 800 pages, contemporary full diced calf, gilt-ruled borders, small fleurons on the corners, binder's ticket of Christian Samuel Kalthoeber, a German who operated a bindery in London from 1782-1808, "an outstanding craftsman and was responsible for the introduction of a number of new binding styles" (Glaister's Glossary of the Book, p. 265); old red morocco label on spine reading "Gostling's Dictionary," the whole neatly rebacked, and the covers carefully inlaid, marbled endpapers, engraved armorial bookplate of George Gostling. A Johnsonian-era English manuscript dictionary (several newspaper cuttings found in the gutter margin bear the date 1781), in ink, in at least three distinct hands (the use of the long 's' is predominate and all three hands seem distinctly 18th century), text in double column and double-ruled, the text consisting of entry words, parts of speech, accents, and short definitions, many, but not all, taken… Leer más

[Lyme Regis?], 1976. The manuscript comprises 15 quarto pages of typescript, and 3 pages of typed notes, all so thoroughly reworked (in both pen and pencil) in Fowles' hand that the original kernel of thought is transformed into a full-blown essay right before our eyes. Fowles inserts, deletes, adds paragraphs in the margins, and in three cases turns the sheet over and to write extensively on the versos. Even in this form the manuscript differs substantially from the published version which was published in Thomas Hardy: After Fifty Years (Macmillan, 1977, edited by Lance St. John Butler). A most interesting example of the novelist at work. Fowles manuscripts are very rare on the market, with most all his papers and journals having gone to Exeter in 1992 and the Harry Ransom Center in 1968-1993, and 1999. Fowles's major works include The Collector (1963), The Aristos (1964), The Magus (1965), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969), Poems (1973), The Ebony Tower (1974), Daniel Martin (1977), Mantissa… Leer más