A Voyage Round the World, In the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV, By George Anson

A rare and complete first English edition of this seminal work. Pliny, Gaius Secundus / Plinius, Gaius Secundus (23­-79 AD) / Translated by Philemon Holland. The Historie of the Wor...

Life in Paris; comprising the Rambles, Sprees, and Amours, of Dick Wildfire of Corinthian Celebrity, and his Bang-up Companions, Squire Jenkins and Captain O Shuttleton.... London: ...

Rare first issue of the first edition for Bernard Shaw’s first published novel. Shaw, George Bernard. An Unsocial Socialist. London: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowery & Co., 1887. First Edition, First Issue. Crown 8vo, 7 3/8 x 5 inches (188 x 126 mm); [4] 256 pp.; original red cloth, stamped in gilt on spine and covers, a little rubbed and soiled, spine slightly faded, hinges weak; dark brown endpapers; foxing on first 2 and last 2 sheets. First edition, first issue with "Author of The Confessions of Byron Cashel's Profession etc. etc." to title and no appendix. Ink inscription of Mrs Walter Crane on half title. [Broad, p. 87; Magill p. 965] This is Shaw's first published novel. It had been serialized in "To-Day, A Monthly Magazine of Scientific Socialism" between March and December of 1884. This printing was promptly canceled, and supposedly only samples for booksellers and travelers had been sent out with this title-page. Having attended a meeting by political economist Henry George in September 1882, Shaw became fascinated with Socialism, read Marx and became a member of the Fabian Society in September 1884, writing their first manifesto later that year. He believed in a more moderate, non-violent form of socialism and believed that socialist ideals could best be achieved by infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties. In the early 1880s Shaw also began his literary career by writing music and art criticism and began writing novels, of which An Unsocial Socialist was the first published. But as his career as a playwright started taking off in the latter part of that decade, his political activities also decreased. Shaw later explained that he had intended An Unsocial Socialist as the first section of a monumental depiction of the downfall of capitalism. Gareth Griffith, in a study of Shaw's political thought, sees the novel as an interesting record of conditions, both in society at large and in the nascent socialist movement of the 1880s. [Griffith, Gareth. Socialism and Superior Brains: The Political Thought of George Bernard Shaw. London: Routledge, 1993]. The story centers on Sidney Trefusis, a millionaire socialist, who leaves his bride on their wedding day because he fears his passion for her will get in the way of his plans to overthrow the British government. Sidney vanished "underground"--Disguises himself as a common laborer called "Mengels"--and infiltrates Alton College, a girl's school where well-bred young women are "fitted and fatted to be put on the marriage market". His plan: take over the school and plant the seed of radical socialism into the fertile brains of the future consorts of cabinet ministers and kings. What he doesn't plan on is the presence of one Agatha Wylie, a sixth-form rabble-rouser, who falls hopelessly in love with both Sidney and his politics, and just happens to be his deserted wife's cousin. Love triangles, mistaken identities, Marx, Engels, pistols and the proletariat jostle for position. (via LibraryThing) An unusual ASSOCIATION COPY with ink inscription and address of "Mrs Walter Crane" [ie Mary Crane] on the half title. Walter Crane married Mary Andrews in 1871 and after a sojourn in Rome returned to London in 1873 living first in Wood End and then at Beaumont Lodge, Shepherd's Bush (the address she has written in this book). In 1914 Mary...

Geometrical and Graphical Essays [and] Plates to the Geometrical and Graphical Essays.; By the late George Adams, Mathematical Instrument Maker to his Majesty, & c. London: W. & S. Jones, 1813. Fourth Edition. Two volumes, 8vo, 9 x 5 3/4 in. (228 x 145 mm). Text volume: pp. frontispiece, xii, 534, [16] ads; Plates vol.: pp. title page and 34 folding plates. Previous owner's name penned on the first free flyleaf. Uniform contemporary paper-covered boards, untrimmed, housed in a felt-lined custom clamshell box, 9 x 5 1/2 in. Occasional browning to the edges of some of the plates in Vol. 2, 1/2 inch tear to fold of Pl. VIII and 1 inch tear to the edge of Pl XIV, none of these minor flaws affecting the images. Frontispiece "The Great Theodolite, by Ramsden, Used by the late Gen.l Roy &c. in the great English Trigonometrical Operations." This is the "Fourth Edition, corrected and enlarged by William Jones, F. Am. P. S. [ESTC T88416, 1791 edition]. The last chapter of these fascinating volumes includes conversion tables to various standard national measure ranging from the Paris foot to the Russian archine, to the Venice braccio, the Egyptian stadium to 'The mathematical foot of China'. GEORGE ADAMS the younger (1750–1795) was an English scientist, optician and scientific writer. In politics Adams was a Tory, and as such was received with favour at court by George III, who made him his official mathematical instrument maker, succeeding his father George Adams in the post. George III was personally interested in instruments and had Adams produce items for him exclusively, many in silver. These instruments now form a collection which is housed in London's Science Museum Royal collection Adams was also known for making globes, and for inventing the lucernal microscope, a type of projection microscope where the image is projected on a screen by a large oil lamp...

Antique map titled 'Nieuwe Wereld Kaart waar in de Reizen van den Hr. Anson rondsom de Wereld'. Original antique map of the world on Mercator'...

Plank on frame model of the English Royal Yacht "Caroline". All planks are tree-nailed to the hull. Very well rigged with all appropriate standing and running cords. Imported from England...

Antique map titled 'Carte du Canal des Iles Philippines - Kaart van het Kanaal in de Filippynsche Eilanden'. Large detailed chart of the islands of the Philippines. One of the most detailed charts of the Philippines of the era. Shows Islands, bays, reefs, soundings tracks of the Manila Galleon route, etc. Includes a large compass...

Three Years in California by J. D. Borthwick Published William Blackwood and Sons Edinburgh and London 1857, First Edition Bound in 3/4 leather and marbleized boards, gilt tooled spi...