Search Results: Titles starting with V from E C Books

Paisley and London: Alexander Gardner, 1901 A very good clean copy of the second series with songs including 'The Bonnet o' Blue', 'Bonnie Jeanie Cameron', 'Brannan on the Moor' and many others. The green cloth binding is sound and clean with a slightly paler patch at the bottom corner of the front board. Title label to spine which is slightly faded and with light pulling to spine ends. Corners with light wear. Top page edges gilted; remainder untrimmed. Size 22.5 cm x 18 cm. Contents very clean and largely unopened. Some light browning to free endpapers. Publisher's catalogue 2pp at the rear.

London: Chapman and Hall, 1868 A fair copy of the 1st edition in newer quarter buckram binding with folding map at the rear. The binding is clean and sound. The boards are marbled - with what could be the original marbling - and have light wear to edges and corners. The spine has gilt titles and date. The endpapers and initial and final blanks are newer. Contents with title; dedication; preface 2 pp; contents 3pp; errata 1 p; text pp 1-343; appendix 345-418; large folding map at rear. The paper quality is quite poor being toned, with general marking - particularly in the margins. Pages 228-229 have some foxing. The title and dedication pages have both been attached to new paper to bind them in, and there is paper repair in the gutter to the contents pages. There is damage to side edges (no loss of text) at p 15, and 301-2. There are some small repaired edge tears. There is a pin head indentation in the top margin pp 100-136 and mid text pp 391-401. There is a small hole in p399 with the loss of one… Read More

Edinburgh: David Douglas, 1899 A very good copy in the original cloth binding with faded titles to spine. There is an armorial bookplate of James Donald Dobson to the front pastedown endpaper. Top page edges gilt - remainder rough cut where pages have been opened. Contents: half title (which refers to A Vertebrate Fauna of Scotland - the intention being to cover the whole of Scotland in time), title with photographic background, preface, contents, illustration list, introduction and bibliography pp 1-xxix; text 248 pp with 12 full page photographic plates and 2 photographs in text. Folding colour map at the rear. Contents in very good clean condition. Some of the pages are very roughly opened with varying margin sizes.

Edinburgh, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme; John Ballantyne and Co, 1809 A fair to good 2 volume set in contemporary full leather bindings, with frontispiece map of the Shetland Islands. Arthur Edmondston (1776-1841) was a physician. He was born in Lerwick and returned to practice there. This was his major written work, drawing on his knowledge of the islands and using comparisons with Barry's slightly earlier work on Orkney. He provides considerable detail on land use, tenure and associated rents and fees. This copy is in full leather with title labels and gilt lines to the spines. The bindings are clean, but with wear particularly to the spine joints, where there is some splitting, and to the corners and edges. The spines are lightly scuffed. Both volumes have the bookplate of John M Slater, 22 Bridge Street, Kirkwall to the front pastedown. It is likely that this is the John Slater who was Provost between 1925 and 1940. Vol I: blank; frontispiece map; title page; preface and contents… Read More

Edinburgh: Printed for the Author by P. Neill, 1823 A very scarce original copy of the Reverend Walter Traill of Westope's furious response to Alexander Peterkin's Notes on Orkney and Zetland, published a year previously. Traill refutes a number of Peterkin's statements, accusing him of not knowing enough about his subject matter, and in the process provides a lot of useful information about farming and fishing practices. This copy is in a half leather binding with gilt title to spine and cobbled cloth boards with gilt title to front board. There is some scuffing to spine joints and the top and bottom of the spine, and some corner wear, but the binding is tight and sound. Contents: half title; title; advert; contents list; text pp 1-63; appendix pp 65-72. There are a couple of small splits at the front endpaper joint and small paper repairs to the gutter of the half title and advert pages. A nice clean copy.

Berwick: Printed by and for W Phorson; B. Law and Son, 1793 An extremely scarce 1st edition copy. Classed as 'fair' because it is lacking the frontispiece portrait and has been rebound in a more recent (?1960's) full leather binding. HMS Pandora was sent to recover The Bounty after the famous mutiny. It sailed on 7 November 1790 and picked up 14 of the mutineers before running aground on the Great Barrier Reef. George Hamilton was the ship's surgeon and the only eye-witness to write up an account of the voyage. This copy is in newer full leather with raised bands and faintly tooled title and author to the spine. New page marker. Contents: initial blank; title page; text 161pp; blank; table of latitudes and longitudes pp 163/4; blank. Page edges are untrimmed and the text is in very good clean condition with light toning to paper. There are some interesting pieces of ephemera: a letter from a previous owner to the Daily Telegraph in 1961, telling them about the book because they had… Read More

Autrecht: Ches Antoine Schouten, Marchand Libraire, 1705 A fair copy of the 1st edition of the French translation of this work by Willem Bosman. Classed as 'fair' because it contains 19 of the 27 plates issued. Bosman lived in Dutch West Africa from 1688 to 1701 and worked for the Dutch West India Company, becoming Chief Merchant, until his forced retirement at the age of 29. He returned to Europe and wrote up his experience of West Africa using a letter format. It was extremely popular, particularly because his was the first full and accessible account of the area. It has been used as a major source of information on the Dutch Slave Trade. This copy has been fairly recently rebound in a full leather binding with gilt compartments and titles to spine and gilt decoration to board corners. The binding is in very good clean condition with light corner wear. There is the bookplate of O and H Brunner to the front pastedown endpaper. Contents: frontispiece; decorative title with signature of Edwd… Read More

London : John Stockdale, 1798 Vol II only of this scarce 2 volume work - one of two english translations of La Perouse's voyage produced in 1798. With frontispiece by Stothard and 24 further plates/charts. (The plate list is presumably in Vol I so I can not confirm that the plates are present as listed. The work had 51 plates/maps over the 2 volumes). Detailed account of the voyage with Tables showing the course of La Boussole and L'Astrolabe. Separate section at the rear 'Substance of the Travels over the Continent, with the dispatches of La Perouse, in the Years 1787 and 1788 by M de Lesseps'. Page listing of Stockdale's poetry works at the rear. In contemporary full leather binding which is badly damaged. The boards with gilt edging and cross hatched blind tooling are complete and rescuable but the spine is missing. Page edges marbled. With bookplate of F E Baines (a local historian) and Laura Baines of Hampstead July 1890, on the front pastedown. The fep is detached and the… Read More

London: J Newbery, F Newbery, 1767 A fair copy of the 1st edition of Commodore Byron's circumnavigation of the globe. With black and white frontispiece and 2 further plates. The title page states that it was written 'by an Officer on Board the said Ship' This was originally thought to have been Byron himself, but it is more recently being assigned to Charles Clerke, who was a Mid-Shipman on the voyage - and later sailed with James Cook. Byron was asked to explore the S Atlantic, in the hope of finding a base for British interests, but this was kept secret to avoid conflict with Spanish authorities who controlled the S American mainland. He crossed the Atlantic in winter 1764. The account provoked considerable interest, particularly because of its desciption of a giant people in Patagonia. The book describes a meeting in which Commodore Byron wanted to hand out 'trinkets - 'The method he made use of to facilitate the distribution of them, was by making the Indians sit down on the… Read More

London: Printed for Dan. Browne, and Lockyer Davis, 1753 A good copy of the 4th edition of Martin Martin's account of his visit to St Kilda in 1697 (first published in 1698). Martin Martin lived on Skye and was a gaelic speaker. He decided to visit and study the western isles of Scotland to record both the land and its culture and natural history. Although Martin's account was mocked by some, particularly because he was considered too believing of local tales, it was much read and reprinted. This copy is in a probably later 1800's half leather binding with marbled boards. The spine has blind stamped decoration and gilt compartments with leather title label to spine. It sound and clean with some rubbing at joints, edges and corners and a little scuffing. There is the armorial bookplate of Edward Herbert, Earl of Powis to the front pastedown, and some marking to the endpapers suggesting that a cover was stuck down over the book at some point. Contents: initial blank; folding plate of 2 birds… Read More

London: C.Corbet, 1751 A good copy of the scarce 1st edition in newer full leather binding. The anonymous author describes his travels through the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland. Some interesting details on the herring trade and, what are to our eyes, credulous accounts of apparitions and second-sight. The full leather binding is in near fine condition with gilt titles and date to front board and spine. New endpapers and initial and final blanks have been added. There is the bookplate of John Davie Manson Robertson to the front pastedown. He was a noted business man and active in many community organisations in northern Scotland and Orkney. Internally the book is complete and clean. Contents with title page, 'to the Reader 2pp, text 71pp, finis. The title page has had a professional repair to the side and there are some small repaired edge tears at pp 29, 31 and 33. There is a small hole and mark in the side margin at p 56. The pages are brown-toned with the occasional spot.

London: Jonah Bowyer, 1717 A good copy of the first English edition (published one year after the French 1st publication) with 37 fine engraved plates, maps and charts as called for. Frezier was a French royal military engineer, and was asked to undertake a voyage to Spanish possessions in South America to study fortifications and to chart the western coast. The first section covers his voyage from France round Cape Horn and the second gives detail of his voyage along the coast of Chile and Peru. His observations were valuable and he gives interesting accounts of local people and customs. Of interest now (particularly for those with golfing and strawberry eating interests) are his depictions of a sport that looks like golf and his discovery of strawberries which he introduced to France. Frezier made some geographical errors which Halley (of comet fame) corrects in this edition.
In contemporary panelled calf which has been expertly rebacked to provide a newer spine with raised bands and title label.… Read More