Rare books from 19th Century Rare Book and Photograph Shop

Fine Large-format Photograph of the Capitol. This dramatic photograph of the United States Capitol shows the building ca. 1870, after the completion of the new dome and the extensions. The view shows the east side of the building, as seen from the northeast. There are signs of construction evident in the image, and a number of people and two horse-drawn carriages are visible. The photograph was taken within a few years of 1867, when the cheek blocks beside the Senate steps were installed. The photograph shows the rails for a street car system, for which termini were constructed on the Capitol grounds. Thomas Jefferson insisted the legislative building be called the "Capitol" rather than "Congress House." The word "Capitol" comes from Latin and is associated with the Roman temple to Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Capitoline Hill. The name, which followed the example of Virginia's House of Burgesses' "Capitoll" authorized in 1699, signified the national aspirations for a republic steeped in the ancient… Read More

SIXTH EDITION of the most important book in the history of economics. One of 2000 sets. The sixth edition is the first to have been published after Smith's death in 1790.
"The Wealth of Nations had no rival in scope or depth when published and is still one of the few worked in its field to have achieved classic status, meaning simply that it has sustained yet survived repeated reading, critical and adulatory, long after the circumstances which prompted it have become the object of historical enquiry" (ONDB).
Smith's Wealth of Nations has been the bible for generations of laissez-faire economists and political philosophers and is the cornerstone book of free-market theory. His individualistic view of political economy is neatly summarized in a famous quotation from the Wealth of Nations: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interests. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their… Read More

Gelatin silver print (20 x 30 in.). Archivally framed. Estate Edition, a limited edition of 10 copies, embossed and numbered.
While in this picture it is Frida's eyes that gaze lovingly up at Diego, Marcel and Ilse Sternberger's records paint a picture of another day that contrasted perfectly. Ilse recounted,
"Suddenly [Frida] admitted to being tired, and Rivera carried her upstairs to her four-poster bed – in which she did a lot of her painting, with the canvas affixed above her. "Frida will not come with us to the party," he said when he returned. "She has much pain today [sic]."
Ilse wondered aloud if it wouldn't be better to cancel al- together. "Oh no, no – we must go!" Diego insisted. I will just tell (sic) good-bye to Frida…" and he walked heavily up the stairs again.
Ilse recalled, "We waited – five minutes, ten… 'I'll see what's keeping Diego,' [Ilse] said, and followed him. The door to Frida's bedroom was open, and [Ilse] saw Rivera kneeling beside her bed, his large… Read More

Sixth plate tintype (2 ½ x 3 ½ in.), hand-painted jewelry including a brooch, rings and earrings. Light wear. Very good condition.
This delightful photograph shows a kind-looking young black woman sitting with a somewhat sour-looking young white child. Both are finely dressed for the occasion, the woman in an elegant dress with lace collar and the child in a dress with an elaborate lace collar. The photographer has highlighted in gold the fine jewelry each wears.
This interesting and seemingly endearing pose reflects several solutions to the problem of keeping a young child still for the long exposure time required by the tintype process. It appears that the woman is leaning her head firmly against the child's. At the same time she holds the child's head still from behind. A broad black sash or belt further immobilizes the subject!

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE (with the integral Eliz. Holt title-page). An excellent, fresh copy of this classic of philosophy, the first modern attempt to analyze knowledge. "Few books in the literature of philosophy have so widely represented the spirit of the age and country in which they have appeared, or have so influenced opinion afterwards" (Fraser).
"The Essay has long been recognized as one of the great works of English literature of the 17th century, and one of the epoch-making works in the history of philosophy. It has been one of the most repeatedly reprinted, widely disseminated and read, and profoundly influential books of the past three centuries" (Nidditch).
"Locke is often classified as the first of the great English empiricists (ignoring the claims of Bacon and Hobbes). This reputation rests on Locke's greatest work, the monumental An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
Locke sold the copyright to the publisher Thomas Basset for… Read More

Freud, just months from dying of oral cancer, is shown seated at his desk in Mansfield Gardens, with his famous devotional statues.
Freud and Sternberger had known each other while still in Europe, but their portrait session did not take place until both men had escaped to the safety of England. Stefan Zweig, a prominent novelist and friend of both, was aware of Freud's inevitable fate. He asked the dying psychoanalyst to "let Sternberger add your scalp to his already notorious belt of famous contemporaries."
When Sternberger arrived for the session Freud told him, "frankly I was not too enthusiastic at first about our old friend's suggestion: but now … it makes me feel good to see old familiar faces."
Still, Freud's condition permeated the air and the sitting was not a happy one. Freud was aware that he was being photographed for posterity, and it proved to be his last portrait session. Freud asked, "tell me why you want to bother with this … this wasted face of mine at all? You know… Read More

This photograph shows a reunion of friends. The Sternbergers and Einstein had known one other in Europe and met again in Princeton. Ilse was Sternberger's wife, collaborator, and perennial foil. She was a constant source of warmth during sometimes-contentious sittings. She also helped document their life, publishing several articles on Sternberger's work and their sessions with famous sitters after his death.Gelatin silver print (20 x 30 in.). Archivally framed. Estate Edition, a limited edition of 10 copies, embossed and numbered.
$2500 unframed; framed: $3,000

This is an excellent example of the Second Folio, the second edition of Shakespeare's collected plays. This is "incomparably the most important work in the English language" (Jackson, Pforzheimer Catalogue).
The First Folio, published in 1623, was such a success that just nine years later the collection was printed again. The Second Folio venture was undertaken by a group of booksellers and rights holders, some of whom had been members of the First Folio syndicate. The massive book includes 36 plays, half of which had not been printed prior to the First Folio, as well as commendatory verses and dedicatory epistles by contemporary admirers of Shakespeare. One of these, John Milton's "An Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare," was Milton's first appearance in print.
For almost four centuries Shakespeare's transcendent genius has been recognized. In 1623 Ben Jonson wrote of Shakespeare, "He was not of an age, but for all time." In 1840 Thomas Carlyle called Shakespeare,… Read More

First edition of Poe's first published collection of tales, one of only 750 sets printed. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque contains many of Poe's finest tales including "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "MS. Found in a Bottle."The publication of these twenty-five tales marked the culmination of Poe's long struggle to get his prose tales into book form. In 1833-34, Poe had failed to see into print his planned Tales of the Folio Club. Most of these tales, with additions were published as Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. The title is derived from Sir Walter Scott's 1827 essay "On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition: "the tales of the arabesque are the product of an intense imaginative effort and the tales of the grotesque tend toward satire or burlesque." In the preface to the collection, Poe defends himself from those critics who have charged him with 'Germanism' and gloom, writing, "If in many of my productions, terror has been the thesis, I maintain that terror is not of Germany,… Read More

Original red cloth (first binding). Joints very slightly tender, light soiling. A very handsome copy in original, unrestored condition. Half morocco case.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST BINDING, FIRST PRINTING (with page 213 mis-numbered 113 and sig. b present on the list of illustrations, points that were corrected in later copies of this edition).
A Tale of Two Cities is one of Dickens's greatest and most-quoted novels. "The force of the novel springs from its exploration of darkness and death but its beauty derives from Dickens's real sense of transcendence, from his ability to see the sweep of destiny . . . this is what emerges most clearly from one of his shortest and most powerful novels" (Ackroyd).
Dickens was emotionally vested in this great novel. He wrote, "It has had complete possession of me; I have so far verified what is done and suffered in these pages as that I have certainly done and suffered it all myself." The quality and strength of the prose is some of the finest he was ever… Read More

Three volumes. Folding map in each volume. Return of the King is second state with sig. 4 and slipped type on p. 49 (this was formerly Hammond's first state, but the bibliographer has revised his opinion). Original red cloth and printed dust jackets. Show-through staining from old removed tape repairs to jackets of vols. 1-2, some wear, spines tanned. A good set.
FIRST EDITIONS, FIRST PRINTINGS. This is a very attractive set of the celebrated Lord of the Rings trilogy. The size of the edition was small: The Fellowship of the Ring (3000 copies), The Two Towers (3250 copies), and The Return of the King (7000 copies).
WITH AN INSCRIPTION BY TOLKIEN. Mounted at the front of the first volume is a small leaf inscribed by Tolkien: "For Mr Hal Coomer in memory of a pleasant meeting & suffering shared, on Whitsunday, 1958. J. R. R. Tolkien."
The two had appeared together on a radio program. The set is accompanied by a letter dated 3 June 1958 from Tolkien's publisher George Allen & Unwin. In this letter to… Read More

4to. Six volumes. Contemporary calf, red morocco labels, spines heavily gilt- tooled, spine ends neatly restored. First volume recased, spine ends and joints restored. Two small worm trails at front of vol.I in upper margin not touching text. A handsome set.
First editions of all six volumes of the most celebrated historical work in English literature. Gibbon's Decline and Fall covers the thirteen centuries from the age of Trajan to the fall of Constantinople with unmatched erudition, clarity, and organization. "Gibbon brought a width of vision and a critical mastery of the available sources which have not been equaled to this day; and the result was clothed in an inimitable prose" (PMM).
Gibbon wrote that it was in Rome on October 15, 1764 while "musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, where the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter … the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started into my mind." It was not until 1772, after his father's death and… Read More

4pp. ads at front dated 1 October 1847. Original boards, printed paper spine label. Joints cracked but secure, foot of spine chipped. An excellent copy, especially rare in original condition. Half morocco case.
First edition, first state. This is an excellent copy of the rare first issue of Longfellow's romance of the expulsion of the Acadians by the British during the French and Indian War. The idea for the poem came from Nathaniel Hawthorne, who had heard a story about tragic Acadian lovers. Longfellow did meticulous research on the historical setting of the poem, which paid off, literally—it earned him record royalty payments.
The earliest printed copies have Long on p. 61, line 1; "examination indicates that during the run of the first printing the reading became Lo…, due to an unknown, accidental, cause" (BAL). This is a particularly rare issue of an already rare book in original condition.
"It was not only Longfellow's first long poem, but the first long poem by an American to live beyond… Read More

Three volumes. Folding map in each volume. Return of the King is second state with sig. 4 and slipped type on p. 49 (this was formerly Hammond's first state, but the bibliographer has revised his opinion). Original red cloth and printed dust jackets. Show-through staining from old removed tape repairs to jackets of vols. 1-2, some wear, spines tanned. A good set.
FIRST EDITIONS, FIRST PRINTINGS. This is a very attractive set of the celebrated Lord of the Rings trilogy. The size of the edition was small: The Fellowship of the Ring (3000 copies), The Two Towers (3250 copies), and The Return of the King (7000 copies).
WITH AN INSCRIPTION BY TOLKIEN. Mounted at the front of the first volume is a small leaf inscribed by Tolkien: "For Mr Hal Coomer in memory of a pleasant meeting & suffering shared, on Whitsunday, 1958. J. R. R. Tolkien."
The two had appeared together on a radio program. The set is accompanied by a letter dated 3 June 1958 from Tolkien's publisher George Allen & Unwin. In this letter to… Read More

Small folio. Engraved portrait of Whitman (state A, printed on heavy paper). Original gilt decorated green cloth, all edges gilt (binding A), inner hinges expertly repaired. Copyright notice printed in two lines as usual, "cities and" correctly printed on p. iv. Very minor wear, several leaves neatly repaired at gutter. Morocco case. A very handsome copy.
First edition, first issue, one of only 337 copies of the first issue, distinguished by its elaborately gilt-stamped cloth binding prepared in June/July 1855. Whitman reported that only 800 copies were printed; this copy is from the first group to be bound. The copies bound later did not have the extensive gilt stamping. Whitman paid for the book, supervised its production, and even set a number of pages in type.
"If one attempts to list the artistic achievements of our nation against the background of Western tradition, our accomplishments in music, painting, sculpture, architecture tend to be somewhat dwarfed. … The exception is in literature. No… Read More