[ALLESTREE (Richard)]:

The Art of Contentment. By the Author of The Whole Duty of Man, &c.

[Oxford] At the Theatre in Oxford, M. DC. LXXV. 1685. 8vo, 175 x 108 mms., pp. [viii], 214 [215 Contents, 216 blank], engraved frontispiece, vignette of Oxford Theatre on title-page, contemporary boards panelled in gilt, sometime rebacked in plain brown morocco, red leather label. The two entries for this date in ESTC are for "the second impression" and "the third impression." In the absence of any such designation on the title-page, perhaps one can infer that this is the first impression, with no copies recorded.

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Book number: 10121

Catalogue: Provenance

Keywords: provenance conduct prose

BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER

The Book of Common Prayer. And Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of The Church of England: Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, Pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches.

Cambridge, Printed by John Archdeacon and John Bures, Printer to the University; And sol by C. Dilly, F. and C. Rivington, And B. & J. White in London; and J. &j. Merrill, in Cambridge. 1794. 8vo, 202 x 126 mms., unpaginated, collating a-b8 c2 A-Aa8 A-P8, contemporary red sheepskin, spine ornately gilt in compartments, all edges gilt; marbled free end-papers removed, last leaf water-stained binding a bit worn, corners worn, joints creased, top and base of spine chipped, spine creased; a fair copy. For some years the works of the now-acclaimed eighteenth-century painter Francis Towne (1739-1816) lay mostly unknown. The work of his most accomplished pupil, John White Abbott (1763-1851), was also for many years largely unknown and unexplored. Today, the works of both artists stand in high regard in the history of British art. Very recently, the paintings and drawings of Francis Towne have been described comprehensively in a Catalogue Raisonné, by the art historian and curator Dr Richard Stephens, published online by the Paul Mellon Centre (), which provides also a biography and lists of lost and disputed works. The website gives a facsimile of Francis Towne's signature, which is a match to the writing in the two inscriptions in the present copy of The Book of Common Prayer (1794). The story that the two inscriptions in this copy appear to tell could hardly be more pertinent to Francis Towne and his circle. The first, being an ownership inscription and date, "Francis Towne / 1799", suggests that at the end of the eighteenth century Towne acquired this volume as his personal copy of The Book of Common Prayer. Then, seven years later, in his elegant hand, he inscribed and presented the volume to "Mrs Elizabeth Abbott", who was the wife of his patron and greatest pupil, John White Abbott (1763-1851). For more information on Francis Towne, John White Abbott, and their circle, see the website mentioned above plus the Oxford DNB and Grove Art online. See also the lengthy, heavily-illustrated interview with the art historian Dr Richard Stephens on the Christie's website (). The Towne-Abbott copy of The Book of Common Prayer (1794) is a very rare exemplar of ESTC T87346. For the British Isles and Ireland, the ESTC finds of course Cambridge, the place of printing, but then only BL and Norwich Cathedral. For North America, the ESTC finds only four copies: Saint Mark's Library at the General Theological Seminary, New York; the Andover-Harvard Theological Library at Harvard University; the Library of Virginia; and Oberlin College. The ESTC finds no other copies.

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Book number: 9705

Catalogue: Provenance

Keywords: provenance

[DYCE (William)]:

The Order for Morning and Evening Prayer, and the Litany, both Plain-Text, according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland.

London: James Burns, Portman Street [Printed by Robson, Levy, and Franklin, Great New Street, Fetter-Lane,] 1844. Small 4to (in 2s), 168 x 133 mms., pp. [336], printer taken from colophon, rubricated, with title and text printed within ornamental borders, title-page in red and black, parts of text in red and black, attractively bound with full contemporary tree calf, gilt scroll borders, spine ornately gilt, with morocco label, all edges gilt, and with contemporary brass clasp engraved with the arms of "Le Scrolpe-Howe/ Langar" and on the front cover the ownership in gilt, "John Emanuel Grubham/ Le Scrope-Howe/ of Langar Co Notts," and with a label printed in gilt on the recto of the front paste-down end-paper, stating "The Altars themselves were gone, for Protestantism needed them not. It sufficed for Her to have four bare white-washed walls, and a wood table In the midst of the nave"; front hinge cracked between front free end-paper and title-page, but a very good copy.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 8344

Catalogue: Provenance

Keywords: provenance religion prose

[GLOVER (Richard)]:

Leonidas. A Poem. The Third Editon.

London: Printed for R. Dodsley..., 1738. 12mo, 164 x 97 mms., pp. [iii] - xxii, 262 [263 Errata, 264 - 268 blank], 19th century half green morocco, marlbed boards, gilt spine. red leather label; lacks half-title, binding a little worn, but a good to very good copy. Hardly anyone seems to read this epic poem, which I rather liked when I first read it many years ago (don't ask). Jonathan Swift wrote to Pope on 31 May 1737, "Pray who is that Mr. Glover, who writ the Epic Poem called Leonidas, which is re-printing here, and hath great vogue."

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Book number: 9919

Catalogue: Provenance

Keywords: provenance poetry literature

[VENTIGNANO (Cesare della Valle, Duca di)]

Lalage nello Studio di Canova.

Napoli Dalla Tipografia di Angelo Trani, 1814. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 8vo, 213 x 132, pp. 59 [60 blank], bound in contemporary marbled paper; corners curled, spine defective. Ventignano addresses his preface to Canova (1757 - 1822) who was, of course, still alive in 1814, stating that he (Canova) cannot induce his soul to hope or to fear and that he does not presume to glorify him with his verses. A rare book of poetry on the sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822), widely regarded as the greatest sculptor of his day. Cesare della Valle, Duke of Ventignano (1776-1860) addresses his preface to Canova, who was, of course, still alive in 1814, stating that he (Canova) cannot induce his soul to hope or to fear and that he does not presume to glorify him with his verses. COPAC locates only a single copy: the National Art Library in the V&A Museum, London. OCLC adds UCLA, Harvard, NYPL, and the National Art Gallery in Washington, DC, plus four copies in continental libraries. The inscription, "Dall' arcivescovo di / Taranto a Bettina / Napoli Giugno / 1815", means "From the Archbishop of Taranto to Bettina / Naples, June 1815". The Archbishop of Taranto in 1815 was Giuseppe Capecelatro (1744-1836), the patron of Canova and an avid collector of sculpture. In addition to being an archbishop, he was a bibliophile, library founder, politician, art lover, and a friend of Goethe, Lamartine, Humboldt, and Sir Walter Scott (Wikipedia). The archbishop was close to the playwright and poet Cesare della Valle, Duke of Ventignano (1776-1860), who dedicated three of his books to the archbishop, Ippolito, Ifigenia, and his three-volume Tragedie. Owen Chadwick regarded Giuseppe Capecelatro as "the most charming archbishop of the Christian centuries", and said that all of "his later years, which were many, he spent in a charming house at Naples among a collection of works of art, and presided over a salon of European celebrity where visitors felt at their ease" (Owen Chadwick, The Popes and the European Revolution, Oxford University Press, 1981, p. 548). Chadwick emphasizes that in "all Roman Catholicism he was the only archbishop to prefer a married to a celibate clergy" (p. 548). Now that we find ourselves, conveniently, on the topic of relations between men and women, who, pray tell, is Bettina? No doubt this is the brilliant polyglot bluestocking Bettina Rawdon, as she was known in Italy, though more often as Bessy Rawdon to her friends in Britain. Born Elizabeth Anne Rawdon (1793-1874), she was the daughter of Hon. John Theophilus Rawdon, and the niece of Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings. In 1817, two years after the inscription in this copy, she would marry Lord George William Russell (1790-1846), the diplomat and politician, whose brother, Lord John Russell, 1st Earl Russell (1792-1878), would later be twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Lord John would himself propose to Rawdon, only to be refused, but for a good reason, as his younger brother had successfully proposed to Rawdon a few hours earlier the same day. Rawdon's beauty was legendary. Byron wrote of it, and Ingres drew it. As the art historian Hans Naef relates, "As a child, her parents took her with them on their Continental travels, so that she was able to learn the most important European languages at a very early age. She is said not only to have spoken German fluently, but later to have mastered it so far as to enjoy to the full the greatness of Goethe and Schiller. Not content with reading Latin and Greek, she attacked Sanskrit and Hebrew. As a child she was greatly admired by Mme de Stael, and their friendship lasted many years. Tsar Alexander declared her to be the most delightful woman in London. Among her friends she numbered Wellington, Humboldt, Schlegel, Pozzo di Borgo, Sismondi, Nesselrode, Metternich, Cardinal Consalvi, Palmerston. Byron celebrated her beauty in two stanzas from Beppo", whereupon Naef quotes stanzas 83 and 84 of the poem (Hans Naef, "Ingres' Portrait Drawings of English Sitters in Rome", The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 98, No. 645 (December 1956), pp. 427-435, 431, ). For Elizabeth Anne Rawdon's relationship to Canova, see especially Hugh Honour's article "Canova and the Archbishop of Taranto" in Oxford, China, and Italy: Writings in Honour of Sir Harold Acton on His Eightieth Birthday, Florence, 5 July 1984, ed. by E. Chaney and N. Ritchie (1984), pp. 209-221; or Antonio Canova's own Epistolario (1816-1817), Vol. 2 (2003); Timothy Clifford, The Three Graces: Antonio Canova (1995), p. 103; as well as Georgiana Blakiston, Lord William Russell and His Wife, 1815-1846 (1973), pp. 8-9, 44. Two short, separately-published biographies were issued in the 1870s: Harriet Grote's Lady William Russell: A Memoir (London, 1874), 15pp, and Annie Jane Harvey's Memoir of Lady William Russell (London, 1876), 53pp. Both memoirs, however, seem rather cleansed of controversy. OCLC locates copies at V&A, National Art Library in UK; UCLA, Harvard, NYPL, National Art Gallery, in the United States; and four copies in continental libraries.

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Book number: 9401

Catalogue: Provenance

Keywords: provenance art literature

VERTOT (René-Aubert), L'Abbé de Vertot:

Histoire des Révolutions de Portugal, M. L'Abbé de Vertot, de l'Académie Roïale des Inscriptions & de Belles Lettres. Sixième Edition. Revuë & augmentée par Auteur,

A Londres Chez Jean Nourse, M. DCC. LXV 1765. 12mo, 149 x 85 mms., pp. [xxiv], 215 [218 blank], 218 - 236 [237 sic blank], later 18th century half calf, speckled boards, spine gilt in compartments to a floral motive, red leather label; a very good copy, with the bookplate of Eleonora Charlotta d'Albedyhll, née Wrangel (1770-1835) on the front paste-down end-paper. This edition of Histoire des Révolutions de Portugal by the Abbé de Vertot, René-Aubert Vertot (1655-1735), is so rare that the ESTC finds only two copies: one at the Bodleian in the United Kingdom, and one at Cornell in the United States. So, this edition is indeed rare, but the book itself is one of the most frequently reprinted and tranlated books of the 18th century. Vertot published the book in 1690 as Histoire de la conjuration de Portugal. In a "General note", one ESTC cataloguer moots, "The imprint may be false; printed on the continent?" (ESTC N49946). The publisher-printer is indeed listed as "Jean Nourse" in the imprint, i. e., the well-established John Nourse (1705-1780), was probably himself responsible for the Frenchification of his name. Interestingly, this very rare edition of Histoire des Révolutions de Portugal (1765) hails from the library of the household of Eleonora Charlotta d'Albedyhll, née Wrangel (1770-1835). She is one of the most important female intellectuals in Sweden during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Wikipedia says of her that she "was a Swedish countess, poet and salon holder. She hosted a literary salon in Uppsala 1812-1835 and has been described as the center of the salon in Uppsala during the Romantic era. She is known as the patron of Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom, who greatly admired her, and as one of the earliest supporters of the Fosforisterna, a group of romantic poets in Uppsala. … Eleonora Charlotta d'Albedyhll was the daughter of riksråd count Anders Reinhold Wrangel and Eleonora Mariana Barnekow. In 1795, she married baron Gustaf d'Albedyhll and moved to Nyköping. Her marriage was described as happy. Already during her early years, she was known to be intelligent, educated and a talented intellectual, and she was also described as a beauty. … In 1812, Eleonora Charlotta d'Albedyhll and her spouse moved to Uppsala. In Uppsala, she founded a literary salon and became a center of the cultural life in the city, rivaling Malla Silfverstolpe. … [S]he became the patron of the circle of Romantic poets known as Fosforisterna."

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Book number: 10265

Catalogue: Provenance

Keywords: provenance Portugal PROSE