John Johnson (1777-1848) operated Sir Samuel Egerton Brydges's Lee Priory Press before a falling-out. Typographia was printed at his Apollo Press, in Brook Street, Holborn, with the financial support of Edward Walmsley, and came out in four sizes. "Of the few standard works on the art of printing in the English language, this is perhaps the most familiar. [The first volume contains] a table of the introduction of the art into the different countries, after which comes the "introduction and art in Great Britain", with a list of the productions of the first printers up to 1599. The second volume may be described as practical, in contradistinction to the first, which is historical. It gives a description of types, directions for composing, for press, and warehouse work, &c. It is particularly rich in foreign alphabets, a feature which has gained of it great estimation. It has long since become, and deservedly, a printer's classic" - Bigmore & Wyman, I, pp.371-2.Note: This is the book that served as a source of plagiarism for Adams's Typographia: a brief sketch of the origin, rise, and progress of the typographic art published in Philadelphia by himself in 1837. The copy returned to the seller for the reason stated in section Points above and replaced with the unaltered copy LIB-2693.2021.
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2 volume set. Vol. 1. Title: Typographia, | OR THE | Printers' Instructor : | INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT | of the | ORIGIN OF PRINTING, | with | Biographical Notices of the Printers of | England, from Caxton to the close | of the Sixteenth Century : | A Series of | Ancient and Modern Alphabets, | and | DOMESDAY CHARACTERS : | Together with | An Elucidation of every Subject con- | nected with the Art. | By J. JOHNSON, Printer. |{stanza}| Vol. I. | In frame: Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, | Rees, Orme, Brown & Green, Pater- | noster Row, London | Under the frame: 1824. || Typographical frame with the names of distinguished printers; on the cornerstone: William Caxton, 1474. Pagination: ffl / blank, blank / engraved frontis., engraved t.p. / blank, engraved dedication / list of club members, engraved arms vignette / blank, [4] pedigree, [i] ii-xii – preface, [1] 2-610, [10] – index, bfl. Text printed in the frame. To ffl : previous owner’s inscription: Herbert Heath | from | William Blades. | Xmas 1886; Frontispiece: Portrait of John Johnson at age 46, engraved on wood by W. Hughes; t.p.: TYPOGRAPHIA, | OR THE | PRINTERS INSTRUCTOR | BY | J.JOHNSON | PRINTER. VOL. 2. | 1824 | frame with lettering, top: GUTTnbg – FAUST – ELZEVIR – ALDUS, bottom: MENTZ – STRASbg –HARLAEM | below: BIBLIOTHECA • BODLEIANA. | below the frame: G.W.BONNER SC ||; Dedication to Earl Spenser, K. G., and the members of The Roxburghe Club, dated 1824, engraved on wood by W. Hughes; Arms vignette: Roxburghe Club | Instituted | June XVII | M D CCCXII || engraved on wood by William Harvey. Provenance: Admiral Sir Herbert Leopold Heath, KCB MVO (1861 – 1954); William Blades (1824 – 1890) – English printer and bibliographies. Inscription to ffl in both vols:D. Bateman. Vol. 2. Pagination: ffl, t.p. (similar lettering, but Vol. II.) / blank, [2] advert., [i] ii-iv contents, [1, 2] 3-663 [664] [16]. Points: Vol. 1.: Frontispiece portrait of Caxton replaced by a portrait of J. Johnson from Vol. 2, engraved t.p. of Vol. 1. replaced by t.p. of Vol. 2; Vol. 2 without engraved t.p., and without frontispiece. Edition: First Edition. Size: 16mo. 12.5 x 8.5 cm Binding: Mid-nineteenth century polished calf, the covers with a border of a gilt double fillet and blind roll. Spine divided into six panels with raised bands flanked with gilt fillets, lettered on new red goatskin labels, marbled endleaves and edges. Seller's description: -
Title: BIBLIOMANIA; | OR | Book Madness: | A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ROMANCE, | IN SIX PARTS. | Illustrated with Cuts. | BY THE REV. | THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN. | {vignette} | INTERIOR OF THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY | I pity all our great ones and rich men that know not this happiness. HEINSIUS. | LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, | By J. McCreery, Blackhorse-court, Fleet-street; | AND SOLD BY MESSRS. LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, | AND BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. | 1811.|| Pagination: ffl, [i, ii] - ht, frontis., [iii, iv] - t.p., blank, [v]vi-ix - to the reader, [x] - blank, [2] - contents, [1, 2] - part 1 fl. t.p., blank, [3] - woodcut frame and capital I, 4-782 (imprint to p. 782) [2] - errata, blank, bfl; 1 plate op. p. 158. Collation: [A]6 B-Z8 2A-2Z8, 3A-3B8, 3C-3F4. Binding: 8vo, 23 x 14 cm, modern full dark brown calf by Period Binders (Bath, England), gilt fillet border to boards, raised bands with gilt ornaments and lettering to spine, pp. 685-688 an open tear in upper 1/8 of lateral margin, all margins marbled. Substantially revised 1st edition ("so much altered and enlarged, as to assume the character of a new work"). Author: Thomas Frognall Dibdin (British, 1776 – 1847). -
Title: Life in Paris ; | COMPRISING THE | RAMBLES, SPREES, AND AMOURS, | OF | DICK WILDFIRE, | OF CORINTHIAN CELEBRITY, | And his Bang-up Companions, SQUARE JENKINS | AND | CAPTAIN O’SHUFFLETON ; | WITH THE | Whimsical Adventures of the Halibut family ; | Including Sketches of a Variety of other Eccentric Characters in the | FRENCH METROPOLIS. | BY DAVID CAREY |[Vignette]| Embellished with Twenty-One COLOURED PLATES, representing SCENES from REAL LIFE, | designed and engraved by Mr. GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. | Enriched also with Twenty-Two Engravings on Wood, drawn by the same Artist, and | executed by Mr. WHITE. | LONDON : | PRINTED FOR JOHN FAIRBURN, BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL; | Sold by Sherwood, Neely, and Jones ; Langman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown ; and | Baldwin, Craddoc, and Joy ; Paternoster-Row ; Simpkin and Marshall, Statio- | ners’ Court ; Whittakers Ave-Maria-Lane ; Humphrey, St. James’s | Street ; and Wilson, Royal Exchange. | 1822. ||
Edition: 1st edition in book form, 1st issue; large-paper copy bound from the parts in original blue paper boards, "most scarce" (Cohn).
Pagination: ffl, [i, ii] – h.t. ‘LIFE IN PARIS’ / ‘MARCHANT, Printer, Ingram-Court, London’, [2] – blank / Frontispiece (Ville la Bagatelle!!) hand-coloured, [iii, iv] – t.p. with vignette / blank, [v] vi-xxiv, [1] 2-489 [490 blank], [2] – 'TO THE BINDER' and 'Marchant, Printer, Ingram-Court, Fenchurch Street' "considered indispensable to a complete copy" (Cohn) / blank, bfl watermarked 1800; 21 hand-coloured aquatints and 22 wood-engraved text vignettes; cancelled leaves 143/4 and 335/6; pinholes from printing visible in most gatherings.
Collation: 4to; [a]-c4, B-Z4 Aa-Zz4 3A-3Q4 3R1 + [Ω]1
Binding: Original boards sometime re-backed with red paper, binder's end leaf watermarked 1800; red hard-grained morocco clamshell box.
Catalogue raisonné: Albert M. Cohn, 1924: № 109 p. 37/8; Abbey, J. R. (Life in England), 112; Tooley (Some English Books with Coloured Plates) 129; Hardie (English coloured books) 199.
Description of Shapero Rare Books, London: Of the copies that have come to auction since 1975 only one has been a large-paper copy in original boards. "The pictures are extremely spirited and true and are all the more wonderful in view of the fact that the artist’s continental experiences were limited to one day spent in Boulogne." (Hardie). In 1821, the journalist Pierce Egan published Life in London, an immediate success illustrated by the Cruikshank brothers, George and Robert. In order to capitalise on this success, another journalist, David Carey, decided to publish his own Life in Paris in monthly instalments (just like Life in London) and with a very similar frontispiece to the one that appears in Egan’s work; Life in Paris, however, was illustrated only by George Cruikshank. One of the earliest and most notable examples of the work of George Cruikshank, with fine, clean plates.
