Los Angeles
We're returning to Rare Books LA with a coven of books for the fair's theme, which marks the 50th anniversary of Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire. Among these apprehensive offerings are Edmund Dulac's haunting illustration of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and a copy of the first printing of John Polidori's Vampyre owned by his nephew, William Michael Rossetti. On our stand we'll also be unveiling a behind-the-scenes archive for David Lynch's Dune, an ancient coin portraying Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, and more.
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CONFUCIUS. A series of woodblock prints illustrating his life.China : c. 1700]
An example of the Chinese genre known as "Sheng ji tu", in which Confucius's sagehood, spirit of public service, and mastery of self-cultivation were celebrated through prints showing famous moments in his life.
The first pictorial biography of the Master was composed in 1444 by Zhang Kai (1398-1460), an imperial censor responsible for... Learn More -
NIEUHOFF, Jan; OGILBY, John (trans.). An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China.London : 1669
First edition in English of Nieuhoff's definitive account of the 1655-57 Dutch diplomatic mission to Beijing, the first VOC attempt to secure access to Chinese ports for trade. This edition provided the textual and visual reference points for many subsequent English-language books on China.
As the expedition's steward, artist, and... Learn More -
SWIFT, Jonathan. Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.London : 1726
True first edition (Teerink A) of Swift's masterpiece, published on 28 October 1726. Two superficially similar but distinct octavo editions followed in quick succession: the second (designated AA by Teerink) sometime in the middle of November and the third edition (Teerink B) in December. The stated "Second Edition" of the following year was in... Learn More -
FERMENT, Louis. Officium sancti Gildardi.[likely Rouen] : 1736
A truly striking illuminated manuscript, unusually strewn with glitter, of unrecorded liturgies for two Rouennais saints. The illumination is exuberant and freely drawn, quite unlike the crisp regularity of contemporary courtly manuscripts. Such informality and its vivid blue, red, and ochre palette perhaps reflects a vernacular context, recalling... Learn More -
CALMET, Augustin. Dissertations sur les Apparitions des Anges, des Démons & des Esprits. Et sur les Revenans et Vampires. De Hongrie, de Bohème, de Moravie & de Silésie.Paris : 1746
First edition of this influential critical study of the supernatural and vampirism. The French Benedictine abbot Augustin Calmet applies a scientific approach to the existence of magical beings in the Bible, mythology, cultural legends, and famous accounts of alleged sightings in Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia.
The book was a... Learn More -
WALPOLE, Horace. The Castle of Otranto, a Gothic Story.London : 1765
First edition of the first Gothic novel, presented here in a handsome 18th-century binding. Printed on Christmas Eve 1764 in a run of 500 copies on laid paper, the first edition is disguised as the translation, by one "William Marshal, Gent", of an Italian work discovered in the library of an old Roman Catholic family in the north of... Learn More -
TRADE. Tables of the various Weights and Measures, and their different Coins, both imaginary and real,London : 1778
First edition of a series of tables "compiled with the greatest exactness, and which has been allowed to be the truest tables, and countenanced and recommended by the Armenian and Portugal Merchants, who are continually trading from port to port in the East-Indies."
Places treated of include Madras, Bengall, Malacca, Siam, Goa, Bombay,... Learn More -
SIBLY, Ebenezer. A Key to Physic, and the Occult Sciences.London : [1794]
First edition of this fusion of astrology and medicine. Sibly, a physician and Freemason who straddled the worlds of magic and science, here demonstrates the equivalencies between the natural and supernatural worlds. It was issued with an illustrated appendix to Culpeper's British Herbal bound at the rear, which includes an early depiction of... Learn More -
LIBERTINE WOMEN. Clémentine, ou La Jeune Lesbienne, histoire galante et philosophique.À Lampsaque [Paris] : An VII [1796]
First and only edition, a clandestine Revolution-era publication. Clémentine uses a pseudo-classical lens to portray a woman enlivened by intellectual and sexual emancipation. It is notable for the term "lesbian"; although the term does not here refer to homosexuality, the author uses it to imply female sexual nonconformity, anticipating its... Learn More -
CONFUCIANISM. The Works of Confucius; containing The Original Text, With a Translation.Serampore : 1809
First edition of this translation of the first ten books of the Analects, the first time any part of the text was directly translated into English, and one of the first books printed at the influential missionary press in Serampore.
Marshman (1768-1837) moved to Serampore in 1806 to study Chinese under the tutelage of Professor Hovhannes... Learn More -
WHITE, Thomas. The Beauties of Occult Science Investigated; or, the Celestial Intelligencer: in Two Parts.London : 1810
First edition of this scarce astronomical treatise. Thomas White provides both a comprehensive introduction to astronomy and an advanced guide to understanding the universe and its influence on human life. Only six institutional copies are recorded worldwide, all held in libraries in the UK and the US.
White argues that, because humans are... Learn More -
POLIDORI, John. The Vampyre; A Tale.London : 1819
The rare first appearance in print, and a familial association copy, of the first modern vampire novel. This copy is bound within a sammelband of Rossetti-family works assembled by John Polidori's nephew, William Michael Rossetti, and bears Rossetti's ownership inscription and an autograph index in his hand. This is the only familial association... Learn More -
DE QUINCEY, Thomas. Confessions of an English Opium Eater.London : 1822
First edition, unrestored in the original boards, of the first book in English to deal in detail with drug addiction, presenting an account of the author's opium-induced hallucinations, ecstasies, and torments.
The work became a sensation after it was serialized in the London Magazine from September to October 1821. "Throughout the 19th... Learn More -
BEETHOVEN, Ludwig Van. Sinfonie mit Schluss-Chor über Schillers Ode: "An die Freude"Mainz & Paris : [1826]
First edition of the full orchestral score for the Ninth Symphony, first trade issue, published 28 August 1826, without the list of names found in prepublication copies for subscribers and without the metronome markings added to copies from December onwards.
Beethoven's final complete symphony redefined the genre, breaking new ground by... Learn More -
BLAKE, Quentin (illus.); HUGO, Victor. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.London : 1833
First edition in English, the "First Editions: Re-covered" copy. This copy features a unique dust jacket by Quentin Blake presenting two original drawings. The first shows Quasimodo hanging from a Notre-Dame buttress (130 x 120 mm), and the second depicts Quasimodo swinging on a bell (130 x 166 mm). The jacket is signed and dated "Quentin Blake 21... Learn More -
HOCKLEY, Frederick. Manuscript of "The Extract or Tables of Rotalo, 1500".[London] : [1840s]
Frederick Hockley's manuscript of the 16th-century fortune-telling Rotalo, which provides the equation to predict the future winning lottery numbers through diagrams, mathematics, and astronomical calculations. The manuscript also contains Hockley's pencilled calculations and a Cabalistic Alphabet at the rear.
Hockley (1808-1885) was a... Learn More -
FIRST OPIUM WAR. Collection of letters and notes sent to Anne Noble during her imprisonment in Ningbo.1841
A moving and historically significant record of companionship in confinement, Anne Noble being one of the few Western women to see the interior of China before the opening of the treaty ports. These notes, sent surreptitiously by two British officers detained in nearby cells, are the most important surviving artefacts of her extraordinary... Learn More -
TOLSTOY, Aleksey Konstantinovich, as Krasnogorsky. Upyr' ("The Vampire").St Petersburg : 1841
First edition of one of the legendary rarities in Russian book collecting, the debut publication of Aleksey Tolstoy, and a key example of Russian gothic literature. We can trace no copy in auction records, nor any in international library listings (Library Hub, WorldCat, and KVK) or the famous Kilgour Collection of Russian Literature.
Upyr'... Learn More -
POE, Edgar Allan. Tales; [and] The Raven and Other Poems.New York : 1845
First editions of Poe's landmark collections of short stories and poems, both published in 1845, here bound together with the half-titles present. Tales is one of 1,500 copies of the first printing, with the New York imprint; The Raven is one of 750 copies.
Tales collects some of Poe's most significant stories, among them early examples of... Learn More -
BALLANTYNE, James Robert. The Aphorisms of the Yoga Philosophy, of Patanjali with Illustrative Extracts from the Commentary by Bhoja Rájá.Allahabad : 1852 & 1853
First editions, a complete set of the first translation into English of any parts of the Yoga Sutras. The title page of Part II gives a print run of 400 copies, and surviving copies of either book are concentrated institutionally. We cannot trace another set in commerce in recent decades.
Ballantyne (1813-1864) was appointed professor of... Learn More
