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“Uxorius.” Hymen: An Accurate Description of the Ceremonies Used in Marriage,
by Every Nation in the Known World. Shewing, The Oddity of Some, the
Absurdity of Others, the Drollery of Many, and the Real or Intended Piety of All.
Dedicated to the Ladies of Great-Britain and Ireland.
London: I. Pottinger, 1760.
Twelvemo, contemporary calf. $2800.
First edition of this Enlightenment-era guide to marriage rites, positioning English
matrimony as the height of civilization, and English women as the most fortunate
of wives, enjoying “liberties which foreigners can hardly give credit to.” The survey
begins close to home, with accounts of Jewish and Roman Catholic practices, then
expands to include the native tribes of North and South America, the “Bramins,”
the Chinese, the Persians, the Japanese, the Greeks, the “Mahometans,” and the
Hottentots. The more remote the nation, the more lurid the report.
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Louise Jordan Miln. Wooings and Weddings in Many Climes.
London: C. Arthur
Pearson, 1900. Octavo, original patterned boards. 48 photographic plates. $300.
First edition of this modern ethnographic survey of courtship and wedding
customs, richly illustrated with photographs of brides and bridegrooms around
the world. Published just as
National Geographic
was reinventing itself as a
photographic magazine,
Wooings andWeddings
testifies to the growing popular
demand, at the turn of the twentieth century, for photographs of exoticized
peoples, apparently untouched by modernity.
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Karel Čapek; Josef Čapek (illustrator).
Továrna Na Absolutno [The Absolute at
Large.]
Brno: Polygraphie, 1922. Octavo,
original wrappers. 20 full-page illustrations.
Inscribed by Karel Čapek. $3000.
First edition of this biting science-fiction
satire, inscribed in the year of publication.
The plot involves a revolutionary invention that produces both clean energy
and a byproduct of “Absolute,” a “God particle” that triggers intense spiritual
experiences in those exposed to it. Eventually, an absurd GreatWar breaks out
between competing religious groups: “you should not listen to those people when
they proudly say what they lived through was the greatest war of all time.We all
know, of course, that in a few decades’ time we will manage to create a war which is
even greater.”
Továrna NaAbsolutno
is illustrated by
Č
apek’s brother Josef, who like
Karel was a central member of the Czech avant-garde between the wars: their
intellectual circle promoted the modern renaissance of written Czech, publishing
works like this one in the vernacular rather than in German. Josef
Č
apek would die
in a concentration camp in 1945, victim of an “even greater” war. Inscribed by Karel
Č
apek to actress Tána Cuprová of the national theatre in Prague, where
R.U.R.
, his
most celebrated work, introduced the word “robot” to the world. Text in Czech.
A unique copy of an important early science-fiction novel.
