Rare Books Berlin
We're delighted to be exhibiting in the heart of Berlin with a fascinating selection of rare books, original artworks, prints, and first editions, chosen especially for the occasion. Highlights include original etchings of fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm by David Hockney and a first edition of Newton's Principia, the crowning work of the Scientific Revolution.
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BUDDHISM. A scroll from the Jingoji Tripitaka;[Japan : 1150-1185]
A bright and shining example of a late-Heian period sutra, stored for 800 years in Jingoji Temple, Kyoto. The complete set was commissioned by Emperors Toba and Go Shirakawa from 1150 to 1185, exemplifying the highest standard of craftsmanship available at the time. Other examples have been named Important Cultural Properties in Japan.
The... Learn More -
WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH (attrib.), but Albrecht von Scharfenberg. Der jüngere Titurel.[Strassburg : 1477
First edition, William Morris's copy of one of the most celebrated Arthurian romances recounting the quest for the Holy Grail. The Grail legend was a profound influence on Morris and, through him, on the Arts and Crafts movement; scenes from Grail literature appear repeatedly in his designs for tapestries, stained glass, and decorative arts, and... Learn More -
MELANCHTHON, Philip. Corpus doctrinae Christianae.Leipzig : 1560
First edition of Melanchthon's influential Body of Doctrine, a collection of his most important doctrinal and theological writings, which shaped the confession of faith within German Protestantism for generations. The handsome German binding, signed "G.M." in one roll, may be attributed to the workshop of Matthias Gärtner, active in Augsburg from... Learn More -
RIFLE SHOOTING IN JAPAN. An early hand-painted manuscript of Inatomi-ryu shooting techniques.[Japan : mid-17th century]
A stunning example of mid-17th century luxury manuscript production. The techniques, passed down as secret knowledge, show how to shoot birds in flight, fish in the water, herons from a boat, and deer on the run. The high quality suggests it was probably commissioned as a decorative work rather than a textbook.
Matchlock firearms were... Learn More -
SHAKESPEARE, William. Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Published according to the true Original Copies. The third Impression.London : 1664
The Third Folio, the preferred second issue, complete with Pericles and the other added plays. The traditional estimate of the Third Folio as the rarest of the 17th-century folios is upheld by the online Shakespeare Census maintained by Adam G. Hooks and Zachary Lesser, which locates 184 extant copies, plus 54 fragments.
Soon after the... Learn More -
ESQUEMELIN, Alexandre Olivier. De Americaensche Zee-Roovers.Amsterdam : 1678
Rare first edition of the original account of swashbuckling pirate exploits in the Caribbean. Known in English as the Buccaneers of America, the book has 12 engravings that bring the fearsome pirate captains to life, and unflinching descriptions of the violence and plunder that both horrified and fascinated readers.
Perhaps the most... Learn More -
PSEUDO-ARISTOTLE. Aristoteles Master-Piece:London : 1684
First edition of the first sex manual written in English, for centuries the most popular compendium on conception, pregnancy, and childbirth. Complete copies are rare in commerce; we traced only four in auction records.
Aristotle's Master-Piece "provided a kind of sex education to the masses long before the concept of sex education was... Learn More -
DACIER, Anne Lefèvre (trans.); HOMER. L'Iliade [and] L'Odysée, traduite en françois, avec des remarques.Paris : 1711 & 1716
First Dacier editions, extra-illustrated, in beautifully preserved early 18th-century morocco bindings. This exceptional set features the full suite of Picart plates, not issued in all copies of the Iliad, two folding plates depicting the Shield of Achilles from Boivin's Apologie d'Homère (1715), and the plates issued in the Amsterdam 1731... Learn More -
MARINE LIFE - KANDA, Gensen. Nitto gyofu ("The Illustrated Fish of Japan").[Japan : not before 1741]
A beautifully hand-painted manuscript of the first Japanese illustrated compendium devoted to marine life, in its fourth and final recension. We have seen no other copy as lavishly hand-painted as this one. The manuscript later belonged to the Naito family, domain lords in present-day Miyazaki Prefecture.
Nitto gyofu describes more than 300... Learn More -
CAMPOMANES, Pedro Rodriguez de - ZEVALLOS Y MIER, Manuel de. Sisthema Político-Ecclesiastico,Seville : 1767
A finely bound and elegant manuscript treatise on Campomanes's Tratado de la regalia de amortizacion, written by Manuel de Zevallos y Mier, a presbyter of the University of Seville, for presentation to the Royal Council of Castile in support of Charles III's suppression of the Jesuits.
Campomanes (1723-1802) was minister of the treasury... Learn More -
OLD BELIEVERS. Apocalypse,[Russia : after 1812]
A stunning Old Believers' Apocalypse with the commentary of Andreas of Caesarea, produced around the time of Napoleon's Russian campaign, and formerly exhibited at the British Museum. Napoleon was one of numerous political and religious figures who had been successively identified with the Antichrist since the establishment of the Old Believers'... Learn More -
TEXTILES AND DESIGN. Pair of salesman's pattern books, containing over 1,000 finely woven textile samples.[Likely Norwich : c. 1820s]
A prepossessing collection of textile swatches for clothing or furnishing, likely produced in Norwich for selling to the German market. Using the whole spectrum of colours, the designs incorporate stripes, geometric shapes, diaper patterns, zigzags and chevrons, floral and foliate motifs, and ikat designs.
The samples are arranged by... Learn More -
GOTTFRIED, Gesche Margarethe. Life of Geshe Marg. Gottfried: Executed at Bremen in Germany in May 1831.Gettysburg : 1832
First edition in English of an account of one of Germany's most prolific female serial killers, scarce. Gottfried murdered 15 individuals using arsenic, including her parents, two of her husbands, three of her own children, and her brother. The original German text was written by Friedrich Voget, Gottfried's defence lawyer, and published on the... Learn More -
BLACKWELL, Elizabeth. The Laws of Life, with Special Reference to the Physical Education of Girls.New York : 1852
First edition of the British physician's earliest published work, a collection of popular lectures on the education of young women delivered in New York during the spring of 1852. Blackwell was the first woman to earn a medical degree in the US and the first to practise as a doctor in Britain as a member of the General Medical Council. It is... Learn More -
BEATO, Felice (attrib.). Peeps at Japan.[Yokohama : c. 1872]
An excellent collection of unrecorded landscape shots of Edo and the Tokaido Road. The album was gifted in October 1872 by Frederick Victor Dickins and his wife, Mary Jane Clark. Both were close friends of Ernest Satow and part of the first tranche of Westerners who moved to Yokohama. Dickins's inscription is in Japanese and his wife's is in... Learn More -
CARLS, Francisco Henrique. Album de Pernambuco.Pernambuco : 1880
A well-preserved copy of this superb 19th-century record of Brazil by the German artist. "The colourful and airy rendering contributes much to the appeal of this extensive series of images that forms one of the most comprehensive visual reports carried out on any Brazilian city in the period" (Correa do Lago).
The album was first issued in... Learn More -
KELMSCOTT PRESS: CHAUCER, Geoffrey. The Works, now newly imprinted.Hammersmith : 1896
First Kelmscott edition, one of 425 copies on paper, in a superb onlaid morocco binding by Birdsall. The spectacular binding is reproduced as a colour illustration in the Petersons' census of copies of the Kelmscott Chaucer (plate 7). The Kelmscott Chaucer was the product of close collaboration between Morris and Burne-Jones over four... Learn More -
VIENNA SECESSION. Ver Sacrum:Vienna and Leipzig : 1898-1903
First editions, a very scarce complete run of one of the most consequential artistic journals ever published, the organ of the Vienna Secession, bound in annual volumes, the latter four in floral cloth bindings likely by the Wiener Werkstätte.
The Vienna Secession was a group of Austrian artists, led by Gustav Klimt, who, in 1897, broke... Learn More -
KEATS, John. Sonnets.[c. 1900]
A consummate example of British provincial fine binding: this elegantly printed selection of Keats's verse was bound by the renowned Staffordshire firm of Bagguley. The bindery employed some of the generation's best finishers; the quality of their work is clear here from the filigree-like medallions, carefully built up with many different... Learn More -
BOXER UPRISING. Collection of German Army letterpress newspapers:Beijing : 1900-01
A substantial run of ephemeral newspapers printed by German forces stationed in Beijing after relieving the siege of the international legations. Collections of assorted issues are confined to German institution only.
The Germans began publishing their newspaper on Christmas Day 1900 under the name Pekinger Tageblatt, and this issue (given... Learn More
