Miss Emma Catherine Forman. Conte Guide.
An albumen print from a photograph

A lovely tribute, in the true Victorian style, to Emma Foreman (b.1832), who was the fourth woman to climb Mont Blanc and, in 1857, the first to climb Monte Rosa, just two years after the first man.

Emma Foreman climbed Mont Blanc, with her father Richard and their guide, on August 1, 1856. The ascent had first been made by a woman in 1809 (Marie Paradis), and again in 1838 (Henriette d’Angeville) and 1854 (Mrs. Hamilton - her name appears lost to history). The present record of her climbs incorporates an image of Emma Forman, her father Richard, and their guide Conte, as well as lists her climbs from 1853-7.

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GALLI DA BIBIENA (Ferdinando)
L'Architettura Civile, preparata su la geometria, e ridotta alle prospettive. Considerazioni pratiche . . . disegnate, e descritte in cinque parti.

The first edition of Ferdinando Galli da Bibiena’s (1657-1743) work on geometry, perspective and civic architecture, a work of great importance in the history of theatre, and a splendid piece of Parma book production.

The ownership inscription on the title page shows that it passed from a father to his son. Ippolito Matteini (1720-96) and his more famous son Teodoro (1754-1831) were both painters; the inscription here appears to have been written in two different - presumably their - hands: 'di Ippolito Matteini Pittore e Teodoro suo figlio Pittore'.

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OE (Kenzaburo).
Warera no kyoki wo ikinobiru michi wo oshieyo [Teach us to Outgrow our Madness].
& Kozui wa waga tamashii ni oyobi [My deluged Soul].

Two inscribed first editions by contemporary Japanese author Ōe Kenzaburo. Both titles deal with the trauma of a father whose child is developmentally impaired. Oe Kenzaburo’s son Hikari was born in 1963 with brain damage and suffered as a consequence. Oe was clearly affected by his son’s autism and developmental disabilities, and a number of his books touch on this subject.

The plot of Kozui wa waga tamashii ni oyobi [My deluged Soul] follows a father who notices that his mentally impaired son's reaction to birdsong. This is based Ōe's son Hikari, who had a fascination with birdsong which led him to become a composer of chamber music.

The father-son relationship is presented in a touching way, with both men working through challenges and learning to navigate the world together.

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COOKE (E.W.).
Fifty Plates of Shipping and Craft.

The first edition of this illustrated book. This particular copy bears a charming gift inscription to the front free endpaper: “Maria E.H. Julian. The gift of her beloved Father".

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James and Stuart Brockman

Based in Oxford, the Brockman Bindery was founded in 1976 by James Brockman. He is now joined by his son Stuart, and together they hand craft some of the most coveted fine bindings in the world.

We have been fortunate to handle many exquisite works by both James and Stuart, and we are happy to share two special bindings that are currently on our shelves at Maggs.

The first is James Brockman's binding on Cheloniidae Press' Birds and Beasts of Shakespeare (1990). James explains, James explains that his ‘design suggests a theatrical stage with the focus on on the discrete elephant shape, taken from the illustration in the book. The colours of the end-papers, end-bands and leather on-lays derive from the colour of the inks used by the printer on the Title Page and frames throughout the book.’

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The second item is Stuart Brockman's binding on Land, published by the Old Stile Press in 1996. This is a a characteristically technical binding, with a grid of straight gilt rules with four goatskin onlay circles in green, yellow, blue and red at points where the grid intersects, and a central band of gilt lightly applied, which allows the grain of the skin to show through beneath and with tree forms outlined in silhouette.

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MILL (James). & MILL (John Stuart).
Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind. A New Edition with Notes Illustrative and Critical by Alexander Bain, Andrew Findlater and George Grote. Edited with Additional Notes by John Stuart Mill.

The principal philosophical work by James Mill, father of John Stuart Mill, originally published in 1829. The publication of the present edition was the initiative of John Stuart Mill, who greatly expanded the text in the hope to reintroduce what he saw as his father’s neglected work. John Stuart Mill was heavily influenced by his father’s works and it can been said that ‘many of J.S. Mill’s logical and ethical doctrines are evidently suggested by the attempt to solve problems to which his father’s answers appeared unsatisfactory’ (DNB).

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HEANEY (Seamus).
Death of a Naturalist

In ‘Digging’, the opening poem from Seamus Heaney’s first regularly published collection, the poet explores the complex relationship between father and son. Through an evocative series of sense impressions, we feel the intimacies of a son’s admiration for his father, combined with the anxiety of feeling unqualified to follow in his footsteps.

The narrator’s 'squat pen’ seems both ugly and impractical alongside the ‘bright edge’ of his father’s spade, ‘Nicking and slicing neatly’ through the turf. Yet it is these memories of his father digging which inspire him to write, 'the curt cuts of an edge / Through living roots awaken in my head’; with a final acceptance the narrator decides to take up his pen, ‘I’ll dig with it’.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
(poem continues)

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CRANACH PRESS. SHAKESPEARE (William)
The Tragedie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke

Surely one of the most famous works that explores the father-son complex. Hamlet, distraught by his father's death, he seeks revenge on his uncle Claudius who becomes his stepfather. The ghost of Hamlet's father visits him urges:

If thou didst ever thy dear father love—
[...]Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

This particular copy of Hamlet was printed by the Cranach Press in 1930. Almost 20 years in the making, the Cranach Press Hamlet is one of the supreme achievements of 20^th century printing. The undoubted magnum opus of both printer and artist, William Rothenstein wrote adoringly to Count Harry Graf Kessler on receiving his copy: ‘I must tell you at once how magnificent I think the Hamlet. It is one of the great books… to my mind easily the most important book since Morris’ Chaucer.’

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FREUD (Sigmund)
Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety.

The first Hogarth Press edition of one of the most important texts in the evolution of Freudian psychoanalytic theory. Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety further elaborates upon Freud's conception of the Oedipus complex as a central mechanism in the development of anxiety and neuroses.

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FINCH (Bryce)
[TEMPERANCE]
--but his FATHER DRINKS

An alarming, and surely effective, poster on the theme of temperance. This print is Number 6 in a series of anti-alcohol posters that could be ordered from Broadman Supplies (formerly Broadman Press), a Southern Baptist Christian publishing outfit.

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