Page 12-13 - H&W Brochure #3

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François Grandineau. Conversations Familières, or, Conversational Lessons;
for the Use of Young Ladies from Nine to Twelve Years of Age.
Kensington, 1832. 12mo, contemporary full straight-grained morocco gilt. $2500.
First edition of this French conversational guide by the tutor of the future Queen
Victoria, then aged thirteen. This copy is inscribed from Kensington Palace by
Victoria’s mother to her young grandson by her first marriage. An intriguing
glimpse into the young Victoria’s private education, with royal provenance.
Benjamin Franklin. The Life of the Late Dr. Benjamin Franklin,
Written by Himself.
Philadelphia, 1811. 12mo, original blue printed paper boards. $500.
Early American pocket edition of Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography, marketed
to children, including advertisements for other “juvenile publications.” Written
in the form of a letter to his son, Franklin’s autobiography emphasizes the value
of hard work, education, and self-reliance: this edition opens with Franklin’s
apprenticeship in his brother’s print shop, and ends with his founding of the
Library Company of Philadelphia in 1731.
Punctuation Personified: or Pointing Made Easy. By Mr. Stops.
London, 1824. 12mo, original grey printed wrappers, 16 hand-colored plates. $3000.
First edition of number 43 in publisher John Harris’s Cabinet of Amusement
and Instruction. Two children discover the unique personality of each common
punctuation mark, instructed in verse by Mr. Stops: “Here counsellor Comma the
reader may view, / Who knows neither guile nor repentance; / A straight forward
path he resolves to pursue / By dividing short parts of a sentence.”
Maria Elizabeth Budden. True Stories, from Ancient History; Chronologically
Arranged. From the Creation of the World to the Death of Charlemagne.
London, 1822. Two 12mo volumes, period-style full crushed morocco gilt by Bayntun,
72 hand-colored plates. $2500.
First illustrated edition of this survey of ancient history. Biblical, mythological,
and historical subjects include Noah, the Minotaur, Confucius, Socrates, Caesar,
Christ, the Roman Empire, the Goths, and Charlemagne, all chosen to amuse
and instruct young readers: “this work is written rather to raise curiosity, than
to satisfy it.”
Marmaduke Multiply’s Merry Method of Making Minor Mathematicians.
London, 1816-1817. 16mo, bound from parts, period-style red sheep gilt over
marbled boards, 69 hand-colored plates. $4500.
First edition of this popular pictorial guide to the multiplication table, which
represents each equation as an illustrated couplet: “Six times 8 are 48. Dear Aunt!
your dress is out of date,” “Seven times 8 are 56. That fellow merits twenty kicks.”
Originally issued by publisher John Harris in four parts over 1816 and 1817, this
copy is printed on paper watermarked 1814 and 1815, the earliest recorded.
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Virginia Woolf; [Vanessa Bell]. A Writer’s Diary.
London: The Hogarth Press, 1953. Octavo,
fragmentary original dust jacket. $6000.
First edition, published twelve years after
Virginia Woolf ’s suicide, tracing her intense private life as a reader and writer.
Woolf struggled to maintain her equilibrium and momentum in the face of
criticism, indifference, and self-doubt: “about two in the morning I am possessed
of a remarkable sense of (driving eyeless) strength. . . . if only for a time I could
completely forget myself, my reviews, my fame, my sink in the scale—which is
bound to come now and to last about 8 or 9 years—then I should be what I
mostly am: very rapid, excited, amused, intense.” This copy belonged toWoolf ’s
beloved older sister “Nessa,” the Bloomsbury painter Vanessa Bell, who designed
the dust jacket: Bell has signed her name in ink on the front free endpaper.
A well-used copy of a moving book, with an extraordinary association.
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