The Icelandic Sagas Vols I & II by Magnus Magnussen [editor] - 2002

Bewick, Thomas. Bewick's Select Fables of Aesop and Others. In Three Parts. I. Fables Extracted from Dodsley"s. II. Fables with Reflections in Prose and Verse. III. Fables in Verse. To which are prefixed The Life of Aesop, and An Essay Upon Fable by Oliver Goldsmith. Faithfully reprinted from the Rare Newcastle Edition published by T. Saint in 1784. London, Bickers and Son. 1871. 4to. Red morroco. Gilt decoration with black inlays. 5 raised bands, gilt decoration with black inlays, black and gilt title piece. Silk tricolour headbands. All edges gilt. Gilt inner dentils, marbled end papers. Frontis portrait, half title, title, preface vii-xxix, Life of Aesop xxx -xxxvi, Essay Upon Fable xxxvii -xl. Pp312. 142 fables most with at least one illustration by Bewick, within a red printed border. Skillful reback retaining original spine, inner hinges strengthened. All pages and illustrations in excellent order throughout. The skillful beauty of Bewick illustrations with the fables from nature including… Read More

Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1921 A good copy of the scarce 1st edition in original cloth binding with black and white frontispiece and 8 further black and white plates by 'native Eskimo artists'. Knud Rasmussen is famous as an explorer of the Arctic, who grew up in Greenland and spent his life understanding and studying native life. The green cloth binding has gilt titles to spine and blind stamped titles to the front board. It has some light scuffing and edge wear; some pulling to spine ends; and corner wear including bumping to the top corners. Internally there is the bookplate of Cardiff Public Reference Library to the front pastedown endpaper. The bookplate and a small set of library numbers written on the verso of the title are the only library markings. Contents: half title; frontispiece; title; introduction pp 5-10; contents list; plate list; text pp 15-156 with 8 plates; list of sources 1p; publisher's list 2pp. There is some browning to free endpapers and spotting to half title and… Read More

London: T Payne; P Elmsly; B White; and J Walter, 1775 A very good 3 volume set with 29 plates (some text engravings) and 3 maps as called for in contemporary full calf bindings. Jacob Bryant (1715-1804) is chiefly known for this work which attempts to link the mythologies of the world to stories and events in the book of Genesis. It was seen as an important publication and is credited with influencing the work of William Blake. Blake was apprenticed to the engraver James Basire whose name appears at the bottom of most of the plates, and is believed to have worked on them. The bindings are in very good clean condition and have been rebacked at some point, retaining the original spines with gilt decorative compartments and red title labels. The boards are in very good condition with some corner wear. The marbled endpapers look to be contemporary with repair at the joints. There is the armorial bookplate of William Orme Foster (1814-1899) to the front pastedowns. He was an iron and coal-master, owning… Read More

The Russian Story Book, 1916, 1st Edition. Tales from songs of Kiev and Novgorod, retold by Richard Wilson. Beautifully illustrated with full-page color plates by F.C. Papé, and color and black-and-white drawings throughout. Published by Macmillan & Co, London. Red and gilt cloth boards, 308 pages, 8.5" x 7.5" (8vo). . Condition of the book is Good-: front free endpaper (blank first page) has heavy foxing (see photo) and gift inscription dated 1921. Binding is somewhat loosened but solid. Interior pages and plates intact and bright.
Volume is RARE; this appears to be the only copy currently available worldwide. The Papé art plates are striking and are widely known and discussed. See complete .jpg versions available at https://www.enchantedbooklet.com/the-russian-story-book/.
"I have gone right into the heart of "Holy Russia," to Kiev and Novgorod and the borders of the Caspian, in an endeavour to show by means of some of the early legends the ideals and point of view of the Russian nation… Read More

Los Angeles, Pig's Whisker Music, 1979, large format trade paperback (8.5" x 11"), 48 pp, First Edition, Very Good condition, Boldly signed and dated (1980 London) by both Robin and Janet Williamson on the title page and inscribed "to Gerald Green with every good wish". Straight, tight and clean with no markings, slight foxing to covers, slight corner bumps, slight warp. One of the founding members of The Incredible String Band and leader of The Merry Band, who set this piece to music on their album A Glint at the Kindling (1979), presents an epic poem "based on five broad stages of ancient British history" and the "emotion that the ancestral figures of the green islands have woken in me, since I first learned of them as a boy." Ten pages of the book are made up of the poem and its accompanying drawings while the following 31 pages contain the historical and literary notes and references that appear in the text. There are also two black-&-white photographs of the authors. A two-page Bibliography is… Read More

Bewick, Thomas. Bewick's Select Fables of Aesop and Others. In Three Parts. I. Fables Extracted from Dodsley"s. II. Fables with Reflections in Prose and Verse. III. Fables in Verse. To which are prefixed The Life of Aesop, and An Essay Upon Fable by Oliver Goldsmith. Faithfully reprinted from the Rare Newcastle Edition published by T. Saint in 1784. London, Bickers and Son. 1871. 4to. Red morroco. Gilt decoration with black inlays. 5 raised bands, gilt decoration with black inlays, black and gilt title piece. Silk tricolour headbands. All edges gilt. Gilt inner dentils, marbled end papers. Frontis portrait, half title, title, preface vii-xxix, Life of Aesop xxx -xxxvi, Essay Upon Fable xxxvii -xl. Pp312. 142 fables most with at least one illustration by Bewick, within a red printed border. Skillful reback retaining original spine, inner hinges strengthened. All pages and illustrations in excellent order throughout. The skillful beauty of Bewick illustrations with the fables from nature including… Read More

Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1921 A good copy of the scarce 1st edition in original cloth binding with black and white frontispiece and 8 further black and white plates by 'native Eskimo artists'. Knud Rasmussen is famous as an explorer of the Arctic, who grew up in Greenland and spent his life understanding and studying native life. The green cloth binding has gilt titles to spine and blind stamped titles to the front board. It has some light scuffing and edge wear; some pulling to spine ends; and corner wear including bumping to the top corners. Internally there is the bookplate of Cardiff Public Reference Library to the front pastedown endpaper. The bookplate and a small set of library numbers written on the verso of the title are the only library markings. Contents: half title; frontispiece; title; introduction pp 5-10; contents list; plate list; text pp 15-156 with 8 plates; list of sources 1p; publisher's list 2pp. There is some browning to free endpapers and spotting to half title and… Read More

London: T Payne; P Elmsly; B White; and J Walter, 1775 A very good 3 volume set with 29 plates (some text engravings) and 3 maps as called for in contemporary full calf bindings. Jacob Bryant (1715-1804) is chiefly known for this work which attempts to link the mythologies of the world to stories and events in the book of Genesis. It was seen as an important publication and is credited with influencing the work of William Blake. Blake was apprenticed to the engraver James Basire whose name appears at the bottom of most of the plates, and is believed to have worked on them. The bindings are in very good clean condition and have been rebacked at some point, retaining the original spines with gilt decorative compartments and red title labels. The boards are in very good condition with some corner wear. The marbled endpapers look to be contemporary with repair at the joints. There is the armorial bookplate of William Orme Foster (1814-1899) to the front pastedowns. He was an iron and coal-master, owning… Read More

The Russian Story Book, 1916, 1st Edition. Tales from songs of Kiev and Novgorod, retold by Richard Wilson. Beautifully illustrated with full-page color plates by F.C. Papé, and color and black-and-white drawings throughout. Published by Macmillan & Co, London. Red and gilt cloth boards, 308 pages, 8.5" x 7.5" (8vo). . Condition of the book is Good-: front free endpaper (blank first page) has heavy foxing (see photo) and gift inscription dated 1921. Binding is somewhat loosened but solid. Interior pages and plates intact and bright.
Volume is RARE; this appears to be the only copy currently available worldwide. The Papé art plates are striking and are widely known and discussed. See complete .jpg versions available at https://www.enchantedbooklet.com/the-russian-story-book/.
"I have gone right into the heart of "Holy Russia," to Kiev and Novgorod and the borders of the Caspian, in an endeavour to show by means of some of the early legends the ideals and point of view of the Russian nation… Read More

Los Angeles, Pig's Whisker Music, 1979, large format trade paperback (8.5" x 11"), 48 pp, First Edition, Very Good condition, Boldly signed and dated (1980 London) by both Robin and Janet Williamson on the title page and inscribed "to Gerald Green with every good wish". Straight, tight and clean with no markings, slight foxing to covers, slight corner bumps, slight warp. One of the founding members of The Incredible String Band and leader of The Merry Band, who set this piece to music on their album A Glint at the Kindling (1979), presents an epic poem "based on five broad stages of ancient British history" and the "emotion that the ancestral figures of the green islands have woken in me, since I first learned of them as a boy." Ten pages of the book are made up of the poem and its accompanying drawings while the following 31 pages contain the historical and literary notes and references that appear in the text. There are also two black-&-white photographs of the authors. A two-page Bibliography is… Read More