#antique book
Happy almost birthday, Shakespeare! Or should I say Bard-thday? Recently, in honour of the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death (conveniently for celebratory purposes, he was born on April 23 1564 and died on the same day in 1616), I was given the incredible opportunity to have a private audience to go through the University of Glasgow’s copy of the First Folio, page by page. I’ve written a short article for the University Library’s blog, which you can find here, but I wanted to share some other images on my own blog that I didn’t have room for on the official post!
The University of Glasgow’s First Folio (more properly known as Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies) is able to tell so many more stories than those of the plays contained in its pages- of the history of the antiquarian book trade, of the printing practices of the Renaissance, of book ownership and value. Rest assured, you’ll probably be seeing posts from me in the future about all of these things, as well as the typographical ornaments used in the book, which I found fascinating. The University’s Folio is particularly interesting due to the notations by past owners, including one who had apparently seen at least one of the original Chamberlain’s Men “By eyewittnesse”. But my favourite bit of the later additions is the morbid little poem on the reverse of one of the flyleaves: “Pitty it is the fam’d Shakespeare/ Shall ever want his chin or haire.”
A superb introduction to the first folio in the care of the University of Glasgow Special Collections by my Wife Alexandra Newman. Within this short piece is a link to a University of Glasgow Library blog post written by the same author which goes into further depth to concisely explain what the first folio is and the interesting features of this particular book.
Well done!
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‘The British Military Library or Journal: comprehending a complete body of military knowledge; and consisting of original communications; with selections from the most approved and respectable foreign military publications’. 1798 – 1801.
This two volume set consists of the issues of The British Military Library produced from 1798 – 1801 and subsequently bound together.
The British Military Library is a fantastic resource bringing together studies on particular military figures, case studies of battles complete with compositions on pull out sheets and articles on various topics relevant to a British army officer of the time.
i – The title page.
ii – Left an officer of the 7th (or Queen’s Own) Regiment of Light Dragoons. Right an officer of the 16th (or Queen’s Own) Regiment of Light Dragoons.
iii – Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Abercromby K.B. Here dressed as Colonel of the 2nd (or Royal North British) Dragoons.
iv – A list of the rates of pay for the various ranks of cavalry in the British Army.
As seen at the Lyon & Turnbull rare books and manuscripts auction viewing back in early May, 2016.
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A very special edition of Alice in Wonderland… can’t believe I got my hands on it!
Backstory: I’m turning 21 on 16th February. I’m doing an Alice in Wonderland ‘Mad Hatters’ tea party (which I’ll probably blog about too) so everything that is related to Alice, I go I NEEEED IT.
I had been hauling vintage tea cups, whilst at the Antique shop my mum found this. It’s in really great condition for how old it is. I got it for £3 which was a steal! So I whipped out my camera, to take…
I love antique books. “The Sorrows of Satan” by Marie Corelli was one the world’s first bestsellers in 1895. Critics hated it but the public ate it up due to its prosaic style. In its day, the book even outsold Dickens and Conan-Doyle. I can’t help but think it’s widely unknown today because the author was a woman.
Fun fact: the name Mavis was invented for and popularised by this book. Many critics view the character Mavis Clare as a surrogate for the author, Marie Corelli.
