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Collection of Sporting and Humorous Designs, A.

Collection of Sporting and Humorous Designs, A. by ALKEN, Henry

7 to 14 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $5.50
Details
$21,500.00
( US$)
Seller: David Brass Rare Books, Inc.
Title
Collection of Sporting and Humorous Designs, A.
Author
ALKEN, Henry
Seller
David Brass Rare Books, Inc. (United States)
Description
London: Collected and Published by Thomas M'Lean, 1824. The Golden Age of English Sporting Color-Plate Books A Monumental Regency Collection of Henry Alken's Finest Sporting & Humorous Designs Over 320 Hand-Colored Plates in Three Elephant Folio Volumes ALKEN, Henry. A Collection of Sporting and Humorous Designs, Comprising A Variety of Entertaining Works, by Henry Alken, Illustrative of the Manners, Customs, Sports and Pastimes of England. London: Collected and Published by Thomas McLean, 1824. Three elephant folio volumes (21 5/8 x 13 3/8 inches; 550 x 340 mm.). Three engraved general titles and 321 superb hand-colored soft-ground etchings, all carefully trimmed and inlaid on gray wove paper, interleaved throughout with blank white leaves. Handsomely bound in contemporary plum straight-grain morocco gilt, covers elaborately paneled and decorated in gilt, expertly rebacked with the original spines laid down, spines with six shallow raised bands elaborately tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, gray endpapers, all edges gilt. Bindings lightly rubbed and scuffed, as expected with a work of this immense scale and weight, but entirely sound and highly attractive. An extraordinarily rare and visually magnificent deluxe large-paper collection of Henry Alken's sporting masterpieces, preserving more than 320 hand-colored plates in monumental elephant folio format. These vast assembled Alken collections rank among the grandest survivals of the English Regency sporting print tradition and were originally intended for wealthy sporting gentlemen and aristocratic patrons. Because the plates were frequently broken up for framing during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, coherent collections of this scope are now of the utmost rarity. The present set contains many of Alken's most celebrated and elusive suites, including: Four Sporting Subjects - 4 hand-colored plates, complete Hunting; or, Six Hours Sport - title and 6 hand-colored plates, complete (Schwerdt I, p.16; Tooley 32) Shooting; or, One Day's Sport of Three Real Good Ones - title and 6 hand-colored plates, complete (Schwerdt I, p.21; Tooley 49) Specimens of Riding Near London - 18 hand-colored plates (Tooley 51) Comparative Meltonians - 6 hand-colored plates, complete (Schwerdt I, p.13; Tooley 23) Scenes in the Life of Master George - 12 hand-colored plates, complete (Tooley 46) Illustrations to Byron - 10 hand-colored plates, complete Humourous Miscellanies - 6 hand-colored plates, complete (Schwerdt I, p.16; Tooley 30) Also included is an almost complete example of the 1821 folio edition of The National Sports of Great Britain - 50 (of 51) hand-colored plates (Schwerdt I, p.19; Tooley 41), and several other Alken suites including Symptoms of Being Amused - 39 (of 41) hand-colored plates; Involuntary Thoughts - 8 hand-colored plates, complete; Tutor's Assistant - 6 hand-colored plates, complete; Illustrations to Popular Songs - 43 (of 43) hand -colored plates; National Sports (small format) 30 plates, complete; A Touch at the Fine Arts - 12 hand colored plates, complete; and Illustrations of Byron - 10 plates, complete. Together these works form an unparalleled pictorial survey of Regency sporting life, documenting with wit, energy, and astonishing observational skill the hunting field, coaching roads, shooting parties, riding schools, race meetings, and comic misadventures of English sporting society during the golden age of the hand-colored sporting print. Henry Alken remains the supreme comic sporting artist of the Regency era. His collaborations with the great publisher Thomas McLean helped define the visual language of English sporting art and influenced later artists from John Leech to Cecil Aldin. Today Alken's finest plates are prized not merely as sporting images, but as vivid social documents of early nineteenth-century England. The luxury production of this set is especially noteworthy. Each plate has been individually inlaid on gray wove paper in the grand Regency manner, a costly process intended both to protect the delicate soft-ground etchings and to elevate their presentation for display in aristocratic libraries. The surviving contemporary morocco bindings further underscore the exceptional status of the collection. Auction records confirm the rarity of such monumental Alken compilations. A three-volume collection of 318 hand-colored plates appeared in the celebrated John Herbert Slater sale at Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge in 1904, described as "a fine and interesting collection," realizing the substantial sum of £181. A later two-volume example containing 208 hand-colored plates from the collection of Henry Arthur Johnstone realized £12,100 at Christie's London in 1992 and again sold at Christie's New York in 2011 for $21,250. Large-scale Alken collections of this caliber have become increasingly elusive, particularly examples preserving so many major suites together in contemporary deluxe bindings. A monumental survival from the golden age of English sporting caricature and among the most visually spectacular Henry Alken collections to appear on the market in modern times. Full listing of plates available on request.
La Theorie du Rayonnement et les Quanta. Rapports et Discussions de la Reunion Tenue a Bruxelles du 30 Octobre au 3 Novembre 1911, Sous les Auspices de M. E. Solvay. [The First Solvay Conference]

La Theorie du Rayonnement et les Quanta. Rapports et Discussions de la Reunion Tenue a Bruxelles du 30 Octobre au 3 Novembre 1911, Sous les Auspices de M. E. Solvay. [The First Solvay Conference] by EINSTEIN, ALBERT; CURIE, MARIE; PLANCK, MAX; RUTHERFORD, ERNEST; LANGEVIN, PAUL; et al.

5 to 10 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $5.00
Details
$6,500.00
( US$)
Seller: The Manhattan Rare Book Company
Title
La Theorie du Rayonnement et les Quanta. Rapports et Discussions de la Reunion Tenue a Bruxelles du 30 Octobre au 3 Novembre 1911, Sous les Auspices de M. E. Solvay. [The First Solvay Conference]
Author
EINSTEIN, ALBERT; CURIE, MARIE; PLANCK, MAX; RUTHERFORD, ERNEST; LANGEVIN, PAUL; et al.
Seller
The Manhattan Rare Book Company (United States)
Condition
Very Good
Description
Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1912. First edition. Original wrappers, custom box. Very Good. RARE FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS OF THE REPORTS FROM THE HISTORIC FIRST SOLVAY CONFERENCE, "THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN PHYSICS EVER ORGANIZED" AND A CRITICAL MOMENT IN THE BIRTH OF QUANTUM PHYSICS. In the short time that followed Planck's hypothesis of the universal constant that would bear his name, the greatest minds in physics were largely at a loss about how to deal with the bizarre theoretical results that followed (let alone the experimental results which confirmed them!). Much of the focus at the time was on black-body radiation, including work by Planck himself, as well as Lorentz, Rayleigh, and Jeans. However, shortly before the first Solvay conference, a young Einstein had also started investigating the related question of materials' specific heat. (Kuhn). "The purpose of the first Solvay Conference was thus two-fold: first, there was the need to examine whether classical theories (molecular-kinetic theory and electrodynamics) could, in some undiscovered ways, provide an explanation of the problem of black-body radiation and of the specific heat of polyatomic substances at low temperatures; secondly, to consider phenomena in which the theory of quanta could be successfully used." (Mehra). Underlying these questions was the more fundamental mystery of how to interpret the existence of the Planck constant. There were two camps, both of which were represented at the conference. Planck's took the constant to indicate some fundamental constraint on the radiative processes of emission and absorption. For example, "Sommerfeld introduced a version of the quantum hypothesis, which he considered to be compatible with classical electrodynamics. He postulated that in 'every purely molecular process' [a quantized] quantity of action is exchanged." (Staumann). Einstein's camp, on the other hand, took the quantum of action to represent the physicality of a (perhaps pseudo-)corpuscular theory of energy exchange - his photons of light. Although the debates that followed the lectures (included in the proceedings) did not rise to the famous heated exchange that Einstein would have with Bohr at the 1927 Solvay conference, we do see some of the young Einstein's hotheadedness as he opens the debate following Planck's plenary lecture: "What I find strange about the way Mr. Planck applies Boltzmann's equation is that he introduces a state probability W without giving this quantity a physical definition. If one proceeds in such a way, then, to begin with, Boltzmann's equation does not have a physical meaning." (As translated by Straumann.) It would take another 14 years for quantum mechanics to be fully formalized, but the first Solvay conference represents a pivotal point in quantum history: "During 1911 [the] situation changed quickly. Articles that applied the quantum to other topics then outnumbered those on blackbody radiation for the first time, and some were backed by impressive experimental evidence. In part because of that evidence, physicists like Planck and Lorentz, who had previously taken the constant h to be characteristic only of the radiation problem, began to consider additional areas in which others had earlier staked quantum claims." (Kuhn). Albert Einstein and the Solvay Conference: Among the most renown scientists of the day - including Ernest Rutherford, Marie Curie, and Max Planck - Einstein made quite an impression. At age 32, he was the second youngest participant in the conference. The youngest was British physicist Frederick Lindemann, later to become scientific adviser to Winston Churchill. Although "Einstein had already published so many masterpieces, none had actually been put to the test and his theories were looked on rather as tours de force than as definitive additions to knowledge. But his pre-eminence among the twelve greatest theoretical physicists of the day was clear to any unprejudiced observer." (Frederick Lindemann, quoted in Brian). References: Headline quote from the Solvay Institute website. Kuhn, T. (1978) Black Body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity (1894-1912). University of Chicago Press. Mehra, J. (1975) The Solvay Conferences on Physics: Aspects of the Development of Physics Since 1911. Straumann, N. (2011). On the first Solvay Congress in 1911. The European Physical Journal H, 36(3), 379-399. Denis Brian, Einstein: A Life, p.82. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1912. Octavo, original wrappers; custom box. Splits to top and bottom joint of upper wrapper, two creases to front wrapper. Text in fine condition, largely unopened. FIRST PRINTINGS IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS ARE EXTREMELY SCARCE.

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