Wednesday, August 27, 2014

1891 SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION ~ GYPSY SORCERY AND FORTUNE-TELLING BY CHARLES GODFREY LELAND

1891 SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITION

GYPSY SORCERY AND FORTUNE-TELLING
ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS INCANTATIONS, SPECIMENS OF MEDICAL MAGIC, ANECDOTES AND TALES
BY CHARLES GODFREY LELAND

COPIOUSLY ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR

*** RARE ANTIQUE LIMITED FIRST EDITION ~ SIGNED BY AUTHOR ~ BEAUTIFUL PICTORIAL BINDING ~ CLASSIC OCCULT, MAGIC, ESOTERICA, CHARMS, INVOCATION, LEGENDS, AMULETS, SPIRITS, GOBLINS, WITCHES, DWARFS, SPRITES, FAIRIES, FORTUNE-TELLING, DEMONS, WITCHCRAFT, SHAMANISM, SORCERY, CONJURATIONS, CONJURING, EXORCISMS, SUPERNATURAL, ETC ETC ETC ***

Author Charles Godfrey Leland was a Princeton-educated folklorist, born in Philadelphia, PA. Leland worked in journalism, traveled extensively, and became interested in folklore and folk linguistics, publishing books and articles on American and European languages and folk traditions. Leland worked in a variety of trades, achieved recognition as the author of the comic "Hans Breitmann's Ballads," and wrote what was to become a primary source text for Neopaganism half a century later, "Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches."

Publisher T. Fisher Unwin would go on to become Allen and Unwin, publisher of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as the works of Bertrand Russell, Arthur Waley, Roald Dahl and Thor Heyerdal.

Includes rare antique engraved bookplate of The Signet Library (Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet), a private society of Scottish solicitors, dating back to 1594. Writers to the Signet originally had special privileges in relation to the drawing up of documents which required to be signeted, but these have since disappeared.

London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1891.
Printed by Unwin Brothers, The Gresham Press, Chilworth and London.

• rare antique First Edition
• limited to 150 copies; this book is number 12
• signed by the author on limitation page
• book measures about 12'' x 9.5''
• exquisite original ivory paper over boards with red lettering to spine and front cover and elaborate ornaments in black - binding designed by the author
• textblock top edge gilt, otherwise deckle edge
• frontispiece with tissue-guard
• illustrated

Thursday, August 14, 2014

CA. 1899 SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ~ RARE GILT-TOOLED LEATHER BINDING

CA. 1899

SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE
BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

*** RARE ANTIQUE EDITION ~ GILT-TOOLED LEATHER BINDING ~ PRINTED IN ENGLAND ~ CLASSIC POETRY ***

New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Company, no date, circa 1899.

• measures about 5.75 x 4''
• exquisite decorative full leather fine binding
• ornate embossed gold gilt and blind stamping
• textblock top edge gilt
• frontispiece portrait