P

Oxford: W. Dawson at the Oxford Bible Warehouse, 1790. Full morocco, 12 inches tall. A fabulous late 18th century binding with gilt bands and exceptional gilt tooling to the panels and boards. The boards are framed withing double fillets, garlands and a series of masonic tools. At the centre of the upper board is the name of the original owner 'Lord Spencer Chichester'. All edges gilt. A remarkable copy of 'The Book of Common Prayer' in an exceptional binding in fine condition.

London : to be had by the Subscribers of those Booksellers to whom they have subscribed, and at W. Bristow's late Shop in St. Paul's Church Yard, or at his House in Roll's Buildings, Fetter-Lane, 1766-1767. 4 volume set, 7 1/4 inches tall. A superb full 18th century calf with gilt raised bands, twin labels, delightful gilt pomegranate tooling to the panels and a simple gilt chain roll framing the boards. Yellow edges. With the magnificent armorial bookplate of Vane Londonderry. An early advocate of women's rights having escaped an unhappy marriage and hostile husband. Early copies of her works are very rare even in institutions. A superb set.

London: Printed for the Villon Society by Private subscription and for Private Circulation Only, 1882-1884. 9 volume set, 9 inches tall. A very handsome set with raised bands and splendid gilt centre tools. Gilt top edges, the other edges deckled. This privately printed edition is limited to 500 copies of which this is number 14. Slight foxing to the preliminaries, otherwise pristine.

London: George Goulding and John Walker, 1793. 3 volume set, 10 1/2 inches tall. Superb 18th century 'Country House' full calf with raised bands and splendid gilt tooling to the panels and exceptionally fine twin labels. With the splendid martial bookplate of Stewart. From the library of Charles William Vane (formerly Stewart), third Marquess of Londonderry. Vane served with distinction throughout the Peninsula War. His dashing and dandified portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence is at the National Portrait Gallery. He amassed magnificent libraries in his various Country Houses. There is an ink stain to one foredge and two stains on the reverse of the frontispiece, not affecting the portrait itself, otherwise very clean internally and magnificent externally.

Paris: Perlet, 1803. 23 volume set, 8 1/4 inches tall. A most attractive and unusual full calf from the period of publication. The very elegant spines have gilt bands, twin labels and ornate and delicate centre tooling, typical of the period. A fine gilt roll frames the boards which blend tree calf with speckled lozenges in a superb fashion. Minor rubbing. With the armorial bookplates of Lord Kinnaird. A lovely set of Petitot's greatest work.

London: William Pickering, 1844. Full morocco, 9 1/2 inches tall. An extraordinary and magnificent full hard grain morocco by Catherall & Pritchard with gilt raised bands, ornate gilt tooling to the panels and boards, gilt dentelles and all edges gauffered. Unpaginated, including facsimile title page and colophon of Richard Grafton (1550), printed in red and black throughout. Ornamental initials and woodcut headbands and musical notations. Light foxing. From the library, and with the bookplate of, R.H.L.-C. de Beaumont.

A reprint of a volume of selections from the 'Book of Common Prayer' as set to music by John Marbecke (or Merbecke). First printed in 1550 by Richard Grafton, and here reprinted by Charles Whittingham at the Chiswick Press.

Paris: Chez Apollon, au Mont-Parnasse, 1782. Full morocco, 5.5 inches tall. A superb binding by Zaehnsdorf, one of the greatest London bookbinders. with gilt raised bands and splendid rococo gilt tooling to the panels and boards. Dentelles and all edges gilt. An engraved frontispiece and 17 further full page engravings. A charming 18th century anthology of French tales and poems.

London: Macmillan and Co., 1904. Full morocco, 6 inches tall. A beautiful example of one of Ramage's luxury bindings, so popular in the Edwardian period. Full crushed morocco gilt raised bands and sumptuous gilt tooling to the panels and boards. With wide and elaborate gilt dentelles and watered silk doublures and free 'endpapers'. Light foxing to the preliminaries and slight rubbing but still a remarkable and impressive binding on this charming anthology 'selected from the best songs and lyrical poems in the English language'.

Amsterdam: Johannis van Someren, 1670. 3 volume set, 7.75 inches tall. A wonderful set in a full crushed morocco, unsigned but possibly by Clarke at the beginning of the 19th century. With raised bands, twin labels and superb gilt floral tooling to the panels. Gilt dentelles and all edges. Armorial bookplate. Fine engraved title pages to the first 2 volumes. In the original Greek. Slightly faded spines but still a splendid set which describes the rise of the Roman Republic to the status of dominance in the ancient Mediterranean world. Famously it includes Polybius's eyewitness account of the Sack of Carthage and Corinth in 146 BC and the Roman annexation of the mainland Greece after the Achaean War.

London: William Fearman, 1819. Half morocco, 11 inches tall. A splendid later binding by Zaehnsdorf with raised bands, gilt title and top edge. From the Library of the Late Christopher Foyle of Beeleigh Abbey. With 19 bright hand-coloured plates "By an artist Recently Returned from the Continent". Each view is most illuminating particularly the 'Interior of a Coffee House', 'The Morgue' with a young child come to have a look and 'The Gaming Table'. A fine clean copy of this scarce colour plate book. With the text in English and French.

AMSTERDAM: Louys & Daniel Elzevier, 1661. Full morocco, 5 1/2 inches tall. A beautiful little volume bound in a later (c.1820) full straight grain morocco by SIMIER, the great Parisien bookbinder, with gilt raised bands and magnificent gilt tooling to the panels. Signed at the foot 'Relié par Simier'. Simier is described thus by Ramsden 'His variety and technique were superb; he had no superior and few rivals during his career". The boards are framed within a gilt roll, fillets and corner tools. All edges gilt, gilt dentelles and pink watered silk endpapers. From the Hayhurst collection. A lovely copy in superb condition. In French.

London: Bathurst, Strahan, et al, 1770. 9 volume set, 8 1/2 inches tall. A splendid 18th century full speckled calf with gilt tooled panels, twin labels and yellow edges. From the library of Lord Kinnaird of Rossie Priory and with his bookplate. With full page steel engravings. A very clean set of the works of one of the early 18th century's greatest and most influential poets and satirists.

Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1850. 2 volume set bound in 3, 9 inches tall. A magnificent Victorian full hard grain morocco with gilt raised bands, extra gilt panels and boards, Gilt dentelles and all edges gauffered. Embellished with 1700 woodcuts, some in colour. Parker 'was of considerable importance to Ecclesiology, the Gothic Revival, and the huge national upsurge of nineteenth century Anglicanism.....his Glossary.....must stand as one of the earliest (and most scholarly) influential texts of the whole ecclesiological movement' (James Curl: Oxford Dictionary of Architecture).

London: William Pickering, 1829-39. 3 volume set, 7 3/4 inches tall. A stunning full crushed morocco binding by 'The French Bindery Garden City N.Y.', in pristine condition. With raised bands, fine extra gilt tooling to the panels and a splendid gilt 'Cambridge panel' to each board. Gilt dentelles and top edge. With the bookplates of 'E.V.C.H'. and Beeleigh Abbey. George Peele was a 16th century English translator, poet, and dramatist, who is most noted for his supposed but not universally accepted collaboration with William Shakespeare on the play Titus Andronicus. He was renowned for his dissipated life style and little is actually known about his short life other than his remarkably influential output.

London, Paris, New York: Goupil & Co., 1902. Full morocco, 13 inches tall. A magnificent binding with gilt raised bands and handsome Edwardian gilt tooled panels and boards. One of a limited edition of 1150 examples. Embellished with a splendid colour portrait frontispiece and monochrome plates throughout. A little foxing to the preliminaries, slight rubbing and some fraying to the foredges of a few leaves and chips to the frontispiece but still a fine example of Goupil's luxurious productions.

London: Richard Bentley, 1886. 3 volume set, 8 3/4 inches tall. A classic Victorian full calf for Sotheran with gilt raised bands, twin labels and fine floral gilt tooling to the panels. Twin fillets and corner tools frame the boards. With the armorial bookplate of John Warren. With 18 full page steel engraved portraits and numerous wood engravings. Julia Pardoe was a well respected historian and novelist and was published on both sides of the Atlantic.