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Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: Pagination: [4], 87p. Fine binding modern quarter calf over marbled boards gilt rules at spine ends and gilt black title label. New endpapers. Title page and B1 printed in black and red. Outer margin textblock edges uncut (not uncommon) .A2 & B1 with tiny repair to outer margin edge no affect. Some minor foxing. Presentation inscription from author removed from original front pastedown and adhered to new pastedown. A nice copy of a rare first edition signed by the author. ?Thomas Frognall Dibdin (1776-1847) English bibliographer who helped to stimulate interest in bibliography by his own enthusiastic though often inaccurate books, by his share in founding the first English private publishing society, and by his beautifully produced catalog of Lord Spencer?s library (which collection later became the nucleus of the John Rylands Library, Manchester). His father, the captain of a sailing ship, was the inspiration for his uncle Charles Dibdin?s song ?Tom Bowling.? Both of Dibdin?s parents died on the passage from India to England in 1780, and at age four he became the ward of his mother?s younger brother, Charles Compton. Educated at St. John?s College, Oxford, Dibdin began a legal career but took holy orders in 1805. His Introduction to the knowledge of rare and valuable editions of the Greek and Latin Classics (1802) attracted the notice of Lord Spencer, through whose patronage Dibdin obtained a clerical appointment in London. His Bibliotheca Spenceriana (1814?15) became famous for the high quality of its printing. Dibdin traveled widely in search of books and manuscripts, and his Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany (1821) is typical of his work in containing much lively anecdote, many factual errors, and some excellent engravings. His Bibliomania (1809) contributed to the public?s interest in old and rare books. Among his many other works is the two-volume autobiography Reminiscences of a Literary Life (1836).? [-Britannica].
Seller: Dark Parks Books & Collectibles, Fallon, NV, U.S.A.
Dibdin, Thomas. The Bibliomania. First edition, with ALS mounted on front pastedown. London, 1809.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: With an Autograph Letter from Dibdin Dibdin, Thomas Frognall (1776-1847). The bibliomania; or, book-madness; containing some account of the history, symptoms, and cure of this fatal disease . . . iv, 87pp. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme, 1809. 214 x 124 mm. 20th century half calf, marbled boards, a few tiny scuff-marks on back cover. Light toning but very good. With an Autograph Note signed by Dibdin, dated Jan. 25, [18]41, tipped to the front pastedown, mended with clear tape. First Edition. "Dibdin's Bibliomania, first published in 1809, is an anthem to the printed book, a warning to the unwary about the perils of obsessive book-collecting, and the confessions of a rabid book-collector" (Danckwerts, p. vii). Written in less than a month, The Bibliomania marks "the first full flowering of Dibdin's love affair with books" (Windle and Pippin, p. 35); it had the effect of "producing much innocent mirth and exciting a general curiosity after rare and precious volumes" (Dibdin, Reminiscences of a Literary Life, p. 272). Dibdin, a clergyman and inveterate book-lover, was a lively and engaging writer whose works enjoyed great popularity and helped to stimulate enthusiasm for book collecting in the nineteenth century. The autograph note tipped into this copy reads: "Good Mr. Warren, If I had not been cheated of £37.10 that Monday you would have had your £5 with fresh boards last week. As it is please to wait until Saturday next. Always your obliged T. F. Dibdin." Danckwerts, "Introduction," in Dibdin, The Bibliomania (2004), pp. vii-xxxvi. Jackson, Thomas Frognall Dibdin: An Annotated List, 16. Windle and Pippin, Thomas Frognall Dibdin: A Bibliography, A11a. .
Seller: Jeremy Norman's historyofscience, Novato, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$1500.00 + shipping
Description: First edition. Title vignette. iv, 87, [1, ads] pp. 1 vols. 8vo. Fine Copy in Booklover's Shop Binding. An amusing work; Dibdin's best known. The real action takes place in the footnotes, so copious and detailed that they overwhelm the main text. This copy finely bound by Henry Hardy, Leon Maillard, and Gaston Pilon of the Booklover's Shop bindery in Cleveland. The bindery traces its lineage back to The Club Bindery, founded in 1895 by members of the Grolier Club to provide exceptionally fine binding for American collectors. The Club Bindery moved to Cleveland, where it was successively renamed the Rowfant Bindery (1909-1913), the Booklover's Shop (1914-1917), and finally, The French Binders (1918-1920s), as in-house bindery to Doubelday in Garden City, New York (cf. Martin Antonetti's essay in Bound to Be the Best: The Club Bindery). Jackson 16; Neuburg 5; Windle and Pippin A11a. Provenance: Henry Alden Sherwin (morocco booklabel) Circa 1914 full crushed brown morocco, gilt, a.e.g., the rest uncut, by the Booklover's Shop (signed in gilt on front and rear turn-ins "Bound by The Booklovers Shop Cleveland. Hardy Maillard Pilon"). Small paper repair to margin of title, else fine Title vignette. iv, 87, [1, ads] pp. 1 vols. 8vo
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.