Description
London:: Published for the author, by Holtzapffel & Co., . . . 1843, 1846, 1850, 1878, 1884., 1843. [Complete] Five volumes. 8vo. [vol. I] xiv, [2], 462; [II] xx, [457]-1025, [3], [8]; [III] viii, [8], [1026]-1477, [2], [16]; [IV] xix, [1], 592, [12]; [V] xxi, [1], 652, [6] pp. Profusely illustrated [2,575 figures in all (incl. 78 'plates')], figs., plates, indexes, ads. Original full blind- and gilt-stamped dark brown cloth; vols. 1-2-3-5 each neatly restored preserving the original covers, spines laid down. Bookbinder's tickets of J. & J. Thomson, Manchester, Westleys & Co., and Westleys & Clark, London. Handsome set. Very good. GEORGE ELLERY HALE'S COPY WITH HIS SIGNATURE, 1910. First edition of the greatest work in English on the lathe and its accessories. The set was published for the author. It is rare today and, when found, often either incomplete, mixed issues, or rather worn. The series was proposed to be issued in 6 volumes, but only 5 volumes were ever published. / SUB-TITLES: Vol. I. Materials, their differences, choice and preparation; various modes of working them, generally without cutting tools. Vol. II. The principles of construction, action, and application, of cutting tools used by hand; and also of machines derived from the hand tools. Vol. III. Abrasive and miscellaneous processes, which cannot be accomplished with cutting tools. Vol. IV. The principles and practice of hand or simple turning. Vol. V. The principles and practice of ornamental or complex turning. / Holtzapffel, Charles (1805–1847), mechanical engineer and technical writer, was born on 28 December 1805 in London, where he was baptized at St Martin's in the Fields on 13 May 1806, the son of John Jacob Holtzapffel and his wife, Ann. His father, who was from Strasbourg, settled in London in 1792 as a tool and lathe maker, and was naturalized as a British subject. In addition to a thorough training in workshop practice, Holtzapffel received a good general education and, by assiduous study and practice, became a skilled mechanical engineer. He married, on 9 September 1830, Amelia Vaux Dutton (1803–1889) of Islington, with whom he had three daughters and three sons. In 1838 he published his New system of scales of equal parts applicable to various purposes of engineering, architecture and general science, followed by List of Scales of Equal Parts suitable for his system. His principal work, Turning and mechanical manipulation, intended as a work of general reference and practical instruction on the lathe, was designed to fill six volumes, but only five were published. The first three volumes appeared in 1843, 1846, and 1850 (posthumously published by Holtzapffel's widow). The final two volumes were completed by his son, John Jacob Holtzapffel. The family business was Holtzapffel & Co., 64 Charing Cross Road, London. They made lathes and other machines, and published a number of works in connection with woodworking. They also marketed an amateur printing press, about which they published a number of booklets. / In his writing, Holtzapffel throughout displayed a masterly knowledge of technical art and of the scientific principles underlying it. He was a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and a member of its council. He was for a time chairman of the mechanics' committee of the Society of Arts. He died on 11 April 1847 at 127 Long Acre, Covent Garden, London, of chronic abscesses of the liver, and was buried at St Marylebone. – DNB. / His son, John Jacob II, was eleven years old when his father died. Twenty years later (in 1867), he became head of the firm, which he ran until 1896. He completed Vol. 4, "The Principles and Practice of Hand or Simple Turning," which was published in 1879. (He also made the 750 woodcut illustrations that it contains.) Vol. 5, "The Principles and Practice of Ornamental or Complex Turning," was published in 1884. PROVENANCE: Signature and armorial bookplate of John Hick (1815-1894) ["Omne Bonum" Desupee], Bolton – [vol V] Charles [possibly S. or E.?] Fletcher, Aug. 1844[sic] and again 1884 on half-title – signature of George Ellery Hale (1868-1938), astronomer, Jan 1910. Hick's bookplate is mounted on the half-title. NOTE: John Hick JP DL (1815-1894), of Bolton, was a wealthy English industrialist, art collector and Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1868 to 1880, he is associated with the improvement of steam-engines for cotton mills and the work of his firm Hick, Hargreaves and Co. universal in countries where fibre was spun or fabrics woven. "His final years at Mytton Hall [were devoted]to compiling an elaborately illustrated catalogue of the collection; some of these works were auctioned by Christie's during June and July 1909 following Rebecca Hick's death in 1908. The Hick library at Mytton Hall was dispersed at Capes Dunne & Co. Manchester in November 1909." [Wikip.]. See: Sinkankas 3008–3010.
