Rare books from Michael R. Thompson, Booksellers, ABAA/ILAB

London: Printed for F. and C. Rivington; by Bye and Law, 1802 First edition. Contemporary half red morocco, gilt spines, binder's ticket of J. Soulby in Ulverston (Ramsden, p. 153). Two volumes, twelvemo. A fine, bright copy of an important book, in an attractive provincial binding. In cloth open-end slipcase. The author was a prominent clergyman who went on to become archdeacon of Nottingham (see DNB). Barrow's preface cites the theories of Locke, Rousseau, the Edgeworths, and Knox; included here are chapters on the discipline and instruction of infants, the comparative advantages of public and private education, the choice of a school, grammars, the study of the English language, the art of teaching, "compulsion and correction," "diversions and holidays," the virtues and vices of boys, "ornamental accomplishments," the effects on education of the French Revolution, etc.

London: Printed for the Author; and sold by L. Hawes…[et al.], 1764 First edition. Recent tan calf over marbled boards, Gilt-ruled spine with crimson morocco label. . Quarto. Five engraved folding plates. With list of subscribers. A little light foxing. A very good copy of a scarce book. John Landen (1719-1790) was the most notable British mathematician in the second half of the eighteenth century. At the time when British mathematics was held back by inadequate notation, an unfortunate consequence of the Newton-Leibniz dispute, he was the only Englishman to score major advances in mathematics and in the art of computation. In this, his most important work, he attempted to replace the fluxional calculus with an analytic method "founded entirely on the anciently received principles of algebra." A second volume was planned, but it never appeared. According to Lacroix, this was the first attempt to reduce the infinitesimal calculus to "purely mathematical notions" (Oxford DNB). Landen's writings… Read More

[Sherman Oaks, CA:] [Ninja Press, 2015] One of seventy-five copies, signed both by the poet and photographer with an additional eight lettered hors commerce. . Quarter forest green French goatskin over decorative black English paper. . Folio (12.5" x 6.75"). . Photographically reproduced frontispiece and title page illustration; twenty-one photographic reproductions by Carolee Campbell. The photographs were printed digitally on Japanese Asuka washi, then cut and tipped-in by hand. The type is handset Van Dick with Felix Titling for the display. It is printed letterpress on dampened Barcham Green paper, handmade in 1986 at the Hayle Mill (now closed) in Maidstone, Kent, England. A fine copy. Prospectus laid in. On Rooks consists of a "set of splendidly rich poems that records the minutiae of the moment, moving from the micro to the macro throughout. The poems are both the residue of privacy and an accounting of terrain, the poet's territory; a collision of megalopolis, mountain, and desert meeting in a… Read More

Paris: Librairie L. Conquet, 1895 The Robert Hoe Copy, specially made for him and so stated on the limitation page in ink: "Exemplaire offert/à Monsieur Robert Hoe/ L. Conquet." Limited to 150 copies, of which this is number 68.This copy is distinguished as having two separate (and identical) suites of illustrations, interspersed within the text. Of the thousands of books in the Robert Hoe collection, this is one of only a few in which he commissioned a special product from the publisher. In a superb contemporary embroidered binding on silk, consisting of elaborate floral motifs, ribbon patterns, and buds, all in colored silk embroidery on cream-colored silk padded covers. Gilt lettering on spine, marbled endpapers with leather bookplate of Robert Hoe. . Octavo. Frontisportrait and eight etchings, plus etched headbands and tail-pieces. Printed on Imperial Japan Vellum. Tear along front joint, a little fraying at foot of spine. A very good copy. Robert Hoe III (1839-1909) was an American businessman,… Read More

London: Edward Stanford,, 1864 First edition of Jevons's rare second book and his first on logic. . Original blue pebble-grain cloth, paper labels on spine and front cover. . Small octavo. Labels a bit chipped,spine darkened, but a very good copy. Modern bookplate on front pastedown. "This was a period of rapid development in symbolic logic, primarily influenced by the work of George Boole and Augustus de Morgan. Following the lead which they had given, Jevons developed a system of what he called 'combinational' logic, which incorporated yet significantly simplified and improved upon the algebraic approach and notation used by Boole and De Morgan in attempting to set out the laws of reasoning. This system was essentially a logic of terms or classes, based upon a principle to which Jevons gave the name of 'the substitution of similars'… New Palgrave Dictionary.

London: Printed for J. Johnson.. 1798 First edition of Maria Edgeworth's first publication, produced with her Lunar Society father. Muirhead calls this "the most important work on general pedagogy to appear in this country between…Locke's Thoughts …and Herbert Spencer's Essay in 1861" (The English School, 57). The Edgeworths were the preëminent disciples of the educational theories of Rousseau in England. Slightly later half calf over marbled boards, gilt spine, tooled in compartments, olive morocco label, edges stained red, brown paper endpages. Binding extremities lightly rubbed with slight wear to boards. Two volumes in one, thick quarto. Illustrated with one diagram and two folding plates. Both joints starting to crack, but sound. Itermittent very light foxing, slight offsetting to plates. Early armorial bookplate, ink signature dated 1872 on a preliminary blank. A very good copy. Possibly a large paper copy, with wide margins. "In the preface to Practical Education the authors stated that… Read More

New York: A.C. Armstrong and Sons, 1889 Later edition. The first edition was published in a two-volume set in Edinburgh in 1881. The title-page of the present item states that it is the second edition, though it seems that several earlier single-volume editions, published in both New York and Edinburgh, are stated on their title-pages to be the second edition.. Publisher's blue-green cloth stamped in black with image of a "cannibal fork" on both coveres. Octavo. With four plates from the author's own illustrations of Fiji and a fold-out map (11" by 7 "). Very minor rubbing to extremities. Blue-green endpapers. A bright, attractive, near-fine copy, uncommon in this condition, of this account of British life in the first years of the Colony of Fiji. Constance Frederica Gordon Cumming (1837 – 1924) was a skilled landscape painter and author of over two dozen travel books. At Home in Fiji recounts her 1875 voyage into Fiji with Sir Alfred Hamilton-Gordon (no relation) and his wife, Rachel Emily, so… Read More

London: Macmillan, 1868 Publisher's brown morocco. Front cover has a recessed blind and gilt stamped panel, intricately decorated in gilt and blind with painted ivorine centerpiece. Back cover has the same recessed panel without the inset. Gilt turn-ins. All edges gilt. . Octavo. Binding extremities lightly rubbed. Intermittent light foxing and minor marginal tear on p. 96. First few gatherings have been re-inserted. Contemporary ink inscription on front flyleaf. A very good copy and an example of a vulnerable deluxe trade binding that has remarkably survived.

London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1873 First edition, first issue, with the advertising leaf and no errata.. Original green cloth ruled in blind with gilt lettering on spine. . Octavo. Minor shelfwear. Brown coated endpapers. Later pencil ownership signature (Lauren Buchanan) to preliminary blank and some pencil marginalia on a few pages. Some marginal toning, but still quite crisp and fresh. A very good, tight copy of a notoriously fragile book. One of the most famous autobiographies ever, the present work "excited universal astonishment" (Printing and the Mind of Man, 345n). Mill devotes most of the work to the first thirty-five years of his life; the final chapter covers the years 1840 to 1870. He records his education by his famous father — learning Greek at the age of three, reading Plato at eight, and Aristotle at twelve — and details the numerous literary works that shaped his thinking throughout his life.

London: John Camden Hotten, [1867] First edition. Bound by Bickers and Son in contemporary red morocco with blue-green morocco onlay. Covers and spine stamped in gilt. Spine with five raised bands. Quarto. Fifty beautifully chromolithographed plates with facing text printed in gold on rectos only. India paper interleaves. Plates attributed to Heinrich Knöfler. Joints a bit tender. Some rubbing to extremities. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers. Contemporary ink signature of a "Sister Ida" to preliminary blank. Light occasional foxing. A very good, bright copy of an uncommon book. Heinrich Knöfler (1824 – 1886) was the foremost German lithographer of the period. He began printing professionally in 1850 and became known for his luxuriously chromolithographed books and individual prints. Knöfler, in collaboration with his brother Rudolf, established a reputation for his Catholic artwork and facsimiles of medieval manuscripts. Some of his finest work appeared in an 1861 Catholic Missal (published by… Read More

London: Printed by Edw. Midwinter, for John Taylor.. 1707 First edition of "a mathematical bestseller in Georgian England and Ireland… [It] was attractive not only to school boys trying to learn mathematics for the first time, but also… to adult readers eager to have an easy, portable mathematical compendium in the vernacular." The work went through twelve printings in London, Dublin printings, and a French translation.. Finely bound in contemporary green morocco paneled in gilt. Gilt spine expertly rebacked to style with red morocco spine label. All edges gilt. Marbled endpapers with contemporary bookplate of Yorkshire gentleman Ellerker Bradshaw of Risby and modern bookplate of computer pioneer and book collector Erwin Tomash (1921-2012). Bradshaw's signature and inscription, dated 1707, to preliminary blank. . Octavo. With an engraved frontisportrait by Vander Gucht. Text supplemented with numerous tables, equations, and diagrams throughout. Some light wear and toning at top edge. Still, a… Read More

[ Berkeley California: ca. 1930s] A unique item. Block printing was a fixture of many school art classes during the 1910s-30s. California was a hub of block print making during the Arts & Crafts movement, with iconic California artists like Pedro Lemos (1882 – 1958) publishing art education books that featured block print making in the San Francisco Bay Area. Original orange portfolio bound with twine. 9 in. x 11 in. . With three original color Provincetown method block prints by students (and signed by them). Also with five tipped-in hand-drawn diagrams depicting lines of symmetry. Typewritten image captions and introduction explaining the concept of "dynamic symmetry" and how it relates to art education. Some shelfwear. Toning to first and last page; otherwise, very clean throughout. A teacher's art lesson plan in very good condition. A detailed and beautifully executed lesson plan compiled by educator Dorothy I. Murch, who developed the plan to teach the principles of "dynamic symmetry," a… Read More

Claremont, California: Scripps College Press, 2003 One of ninety copies. Signed by Kitty Maryatt and the seven students who contributed to the project.. Full aluminum with decorative cutouts and onlays. Spine sticked. Black and gold endpapers. . Small quarto. Color-illustrated on almost every page using a combination of linoleum block printing, ink, pochoir, and colored pencil, along with mounted fabric. Printed on Zerkall Book Laid paper in six different type faces. A fine copy.

[ London: Day and Son, 1865 ] First edition thus. The poem was originally published in 1816.. Original polychrome purple cloth decorated in gold, blue, and red. Expertly recased. . Quarto. [20] ff. chromolithograph plates (printed on one side only). Beautifully illuminated by Audsley with decorations by W.R. Tymms. Expertly recased. Slight rubbing to extremities. Faint contemporary ink signature to front flyleaf. A very good, remarkably clean and bright copy. McLean: "In 1865, Day & Son issued an edition of Byron's The Prisoner of Chillon… illuminated by the Audsleys, richly polychromatic, and richly muddled in its mixture of decorative styles, the total effect being most attractive," (Victorian Book Design, p. 133)

London: W.S. Orr & Co., [1847] First edition. Original paper wrappers chromolithographed in blue and gold. . Sixteenmo. . Folding hand-colored frontispiece. Some wear and chipping to wrappers. A very good copy of a rare and fragile item. A collection of patterns for fiber craft designs, as follows: "Elizabethan Collar," "A Useful Carriage Bag," "A Netted Shell Mat," "A Novel and Very Pretty Pen-Wiper," and three designs for infants (a hat, slippers, and shoes). The designs are illustrated on the frontispiece.