London, Thomas Horne, 1700 ('Fourth Edition, carefully Corrected and Enlarg'd')/ 1638. 'One of the earliest systematic treatises on its subject in English' ('Dictionary of National Biography') which 'represents the economic views of England of the seventeenth century more accurately than any other work of that age' (Carl Menger). More

'In the Savoy' [London], printed for D. Browne, J. Walthoe (and numerous others), 1717 (third edition, first issue)/ 1670. Blount's Law Dictionary was first published in 1670 under the title 'Nomo-Lexicon'. '[This] work quickly superseded its predecessors. In addition to providing the explanation of common law terms, Blount was the..... More

Paris, Jacques Collombat, 1733 [first folio edition]/ 1731. With the armorial bookplate of Colonel Geoffrey Callander of Craigforth, and his name-stamp on the frontispiece. More

Oxford, Printed at the Theatre, [1739]. Bound together with the bilingual Greek and Latin edition of the same work, published in 1741 (octavo, [viii], 112 pages with a vignette on the title page; tear across one leaf neatly sealed; a few early annotations). Provenance: Glen Ralph, with his Wilmar Library..... More

London, R. Manby and H.S. Cox, 1749 and 1751. The article on Conyers Middleton (1683-1750) by Leslie Stephen in the 'Dictionary of National Biography' is painstakingly (and almost painfully) informative. The English clergyman was no stranger to controversy: 'Serious imputations ... have been made upon his literary honesty [he was..... More

London, David Mallet, 1754 (first collected octavo edition). Each volume contains the armorial bookplate of A.R. Downer, Sir Alexander 'Alick' Russell Downer (1910-1981), politician and diplomat. He was the Minister for Immigration under Menzies from 1958, and the Australian High Commissioner in London from 1963 to 1972. Henry St John..... More

London, printed by Thomas Baskett ... for J. Nourse, 1757. More

Edinburgh, printed by E. and J. Robertsons for W. Gray, 1759 [enlarged edition]/ [1748]. The 1751 London edition (and presumably the 1748 first London edition) has only two added dissertations, namely those on manners and on superstitions. More

London, John Wilkie, 1760. More

London, The Author, 1766 ['second edition, corrected and enlarged'; the first two tracts were first published in 1758 and 1759 respectively]. Important early works on the corn trade, which earned the praise of Adam Smith in his 'Wealth of Nations'. More

London, Becket & De Hondt, 1771 [first issue, with the dedication leaf to Banks and Solander, quickly suppressed]. The first published account of Cook's first voyage to the Pacific, which appeared some two years before the official account. This copy carries the stamp of the Northern Protector of Aboriginals, and..... More

London, G. Robinson [and others], 1776. Goldsmith 11428. More

Bath, J. Johnson, 1778 [first edition]. More

London, W. and A. Strahan, 1784 [first edition]. The large folio atlas is not present with this set of the official account of Cook's third and final voyage. The first two volumes were written by James Cook, the third volume by James King. With the armorial bookplate of John Dixon..... More

London, John Stockdale, 1788 ('a new edition, embellished with an elegant Frontispiece and a Vignette')/ 1788. With the armorial bookplate of Arthur Wood. More

London, Printed for the Society of Antiquaries by John Nichols, 1790. Pages 423-476 are 'Ancient Cookery. From a ms. in the Library of the Royal Society', and the prefatory note is worth quoting at length: 'The ms. from which the following pages are transcribed, is without title or date, or..... More

London, Brooke, 1792. More

London, John Stockdale, 1793. The journal of John Hunter, second Governor of New South Wales, and an important source for the early European settlement of Australia. Plates include the first published illustration of the new settlement ('View of the Settlement on Sydney Cove', after a sketch by the author), and..... More

London, John Stockdale, 1794 (new edition)/ 1782. The dedication referred to in the title runs to 116 pages. More

London, J. Johnson, J. Butterworth and B.C. Collins, 1795 ['third edition, with considerable additions']. With the ownership stamp of Howard Zelling, sometime Supreme Court Judge of South Australia (plus an earlier name-stamp on the front pastedown and the title page, and a much earlier signature on the title page). More

Paris, Chez Janet [et] Hubert, [1796]/ 1651-1657. Drawing on the picaresque tradition of Rabelais and Cervantes, this work is among the first French novels. Scarron charts the adventures of a troupe of wandering actors, mixing incisive social commentary with bawdy humour. More

London, Printed by A. Strahan for T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, 1798 and 1802 (both first editions). David Collins was Judge-Advocate in the new colony, and secretary to Governor Phillip, and was thus 'in a perfect position to compile a detailed and informed record of all important transactions in..... More