Chiswick Auctions’ Books sale, on May the 14th, is wide-ranging and features a number of highlights.
The food and drink section includes The English Vineyard Vindicated, with a probable manuscript correction by author John Evelyn, who wrote under the instruction of John Rose, the King’s Gardener. The rarity of this first edition of 1666, printed ‘at the Ship in St. Paul's Church-Yard’, is often attributed to the Great Fire of London. Also included is a pioneering work on ethical vegetarianism published in 1683, namely Thomas Tryon’s The Way to Health, Long Life and Happiness. For Tryon, who had visited Barbados and been horrified by slavery, vegetarianism formed part of a broader reaction against humanity’s evils.
Under English Literature, we have a first edition of John Keats’s Lamia, containing ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, ‘Ode to Psyche’, and ‘Ode to Melancholy’. His last and most important book, it was published in July 1820, less than a year before his tragic death from tuberculosis in Rome.
The sale also features an original design by artist William Nicholson, depicting a boxing match. The famous image illustrated the month of November in An Almanac of Twelve Sports (1898), with verse provided by Rudyard Kipling.
In the Travel section, highlights include six watercolours by James Wathen from his Voyage, in 1811 and 1812, to Madras and China, which a contemporary reviewer argued “will be followed by the reader and the gazer with much gratification”. This section also includes a first French edition of Cornelis De Bruyn’s account of his circuitous voyage to Persia, with numerous striking illustrations and panoramas of Moscow and Isfahan.
Lot 50 - Vasey. Remarks on the Influence of Pugilism on morals, 1824
Sold for £882
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 53 - Nicholson (William) Boxing, pencil, india ink, watercolour and gouache, 1897
Estimated at £26,000 - £28,000
Lot 56 - Bacon's New Ordnance Survey Atlas of London and Suburbs, c. 1880
Sold for £1,512
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 57 - British Maps: Herman Moll, The North Part of Great Britain called Scotland
Sold for £403
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 59 - De Bruyn (Cornelis) Voyages... par la Moscovie, First French edition
Sold for £1,890
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 60 - Lattré (Jean), Plan Routier De La Ville et Faubourg De Paris 1774
Sold for £126
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 62 - Moscow and neighbouring cities: An Archive of Metro Memorabilia, maps, and travel guides
Estimated at £200 - £300
Lot 66 - Stow (John) A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster..., 1720
Sold for £1,134
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 69 - Ortelius (Abraham) Indiae Orientalis Insularumque Adiacientium Typus
Sold for £1,008
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 70 - Smith (John Calvin) Map of the United States of America, large wall map, 1846
Estimated at £1,500 - £1,800
Lot 71 - Cartwright (Joseph), View of the Town and Harbour of Vathi in Ithaca, 1821
Estimated at £300 - £400
Lot 75 - Miscellany: Khan (Gazanfar Ali) & Sparroy (Wilfrid) With the Pilgrims to Mecca
Estimated at £200 - £300
Lot 76 - Turkey: Amedeo Preziosi, Stamboul: Souvenir d'Orient
Sold for £5,040
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 78 - Bengal: Ricketts family, album of 78 watercolours and drawings
Sold for £1,008
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 80 - Colebrooke (Robert Hyde) after, The Lake of Mooty Tallaow, near Seringapatam
Sold for £227
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 81 - Daniell (Thomas) R.A., Ramnugur, near Benares, on the River Ganges
Sold for £2,394
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 84 - Wathen. Journal of a Voyage, to Madras and China 6 original watercolours. [1811-12]
Estimated at £2,000 - £3,000
Lot 86 - [ Pechell (George Mendes)] Chinese Junks moored before Peiho Fort [1858]
Estimated at £150 - £250
Lot 93 - Korean War: A collection of 28 airborne ‘psywar’ propaganda leaves
Sold for £63
Includes Buyer's Premium
Lot 96 - Hollar. The Prospect of London and Westminster Taken from Lambeth [c.late c.18th]
Sold for £1,260
Includes Buyer's Premium