Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2014 Issue

Books and Ephemeral Items from Samuel Gedge Ltd. Rare Books

Catalogue XVI from Samuel Gedge.

Catalogue XVI from Samuel Gedge.

Samuel Gedge Ltd. Rare Books is now offering their Catalogue XVI (also known as 16). Samuel Gedge mainly offers items from England and Europe of several centuries ago, not so much full-length books as documents, broadsides, letters, and other ephemeral items. Anything can be found in such uncommon items, so the most we can do is provide a few samples of the types of things you will find. Here we go.

 

Free speech has not always been welcomed by British authorities and the time of the English Civil War was no exception. Item 19 is a pamphlet headed An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament, against unlicensed or scandalous pamphlets, and For the better Regulating of Printing. Complaining about “the many seditious, false and scandalous papers and pamphlets daily printed,” it provides that the writer of such unlicensed verbiage forfeit their papers and be subject to a fine of 40 shillings or imprisonment up to 40 days. It also provides that booksellers and other vendors of such material be forced to forfeit it and “be whipt as a common rogue.” Officers were authorized to enter suspicious premises and seize all offending materials as well as the printer's presses. Item 19. Priced at £2,500 (British pounds, or about $4,107 U.S. dollars).

 

The next item, also from 1647, is a similar document, headed An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament...to supresse Stage-plays, Interludes, and common Plays and commit the Actors to the Gaole, to be tried at the next session, to be punished as Rogues. There were a lot of rogues running around England at the time. This ordinance authorized officials to enter any place where plays might be put on, arrest the actors and throw them in “gaole.” One suspects this was not meant to save audiences from bad acting, but rather, like the previous ordinance, to shut them up. Item 20. £2,500 (US $4,107).

 

Here is an account of some American visitors to London on June 17, 1817. These guests were less than human. Item 1 is a handbill headed, By Permission. Sketch of the Natural History of the Four Animals Now Exhibiting in the King's Mews...being a New and non-descript deer, lately arrived from North America. These “non-descript deer” were wapiti, more commonly known today as elk. Inhabitants of the American West, elk were a novelty in the days before the West was won. These critters were displayed to audiences in Philadelphia and New York before sailing off to England. The importer had no intention of returning the creatures to America, advertising for “...noblemen, or gentlemen, who would make it an object to bestow on England and Europe this race of new and interesting creatures...” By the way, “mews” is an old British term for a type of stables. £450 (US $739).

 

Here is an odd piece. Item 29 is an affidavit “to certify that the body of Jennett Merchant lately deceased interred in the parish of St. Nicholas was not put in wrapt wound up or buried in any shirt, shift, sheet, or shroud made or mingled with flax, hemp, silk, hair, gold, or silver, or other than what is made of sheeps wooll only...” What was the point? To display that Jennett was warm and resting comfortably, or not a pauper? Perhaps it was to prove to God Jennet's last act did not violate His commandment not to mix fibers? Actually, the reason was far more mercenary than any of these. The law in England at this time (February 28, 1728) under the Burial in Woolen Acts required burial be in wool to protect the English wool trade from competition by foreign suppliers selling other cloths. This sheet is bordered with, by today's standards, ghoulish images of skulls, crossbones, skeletons, shovels, coffins, and the Grim Reaper. £750 (US $1,231).

Rare Book Monthly

  • High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Ellis Smith Prints unsigned. 20” by 16”.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: United typothetae of America presidents. Pictures of 37 UTA presidents 46th annual convention United typothetae of America Cincinnati 1932.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec signed Paper Impressionism Art Prints. MayMilton 9 1/2” by 13” Reine de Joie 9 1/2” by 13”.
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Aberle’ Ballet editions. 108th triumph, American season spring and summer 1944.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Puss ‘n Boots. 1994 Charles Perrult All four are signed by Andreas Deja
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Specimen book of type faces. Job composition department, Philadelphia gazette publishing company .
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: An exhibit of printed books, Bridwell library.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur Court By Mark Twain 1889.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 1963 Philadelphia Eagles official program.
    High Bids Win
    Rare Books, Catalogs, Magazines
    and Machine Manuals
    December 24 to January 9
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: 8 - Esquire the magazine for men 1954.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: The American printer, July 1910.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 24 – Jan. 9: Leaves of grass 1855 by Walt Whitman.
  • Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: William Shakespeare.
    The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USD
    Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens.
    A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Golding.
    Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USD
    Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: Lewis Carroll.
    Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien.
    The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: John Milton.
    Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD

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