[London : Thomas Tegg, 1811]. 12mo., [190x60mm] A set of 24 hand-coloured etchings, each titled at head and with 4-line verse below, no imprint, mounted on card, bound in 19/20th century red morocco, 2-line fillet borders, central panel of dots enclosing a 2-line fillet with floral cornerpieces, central arabesque lozenge of daisies, tulips, urns and lyres in gilt, spine fully gilt with title direct to spine in second compartment, a.e.g., a fine miniature binding.

A charming and very rare set of cards relating to the Regency celebration of Twelfth Night held on 6th January to mark Epiphany.We have traced a total of five copies in American libraries and a copy in a recent sale at Forum Auctions, all of which give a complete list of characters (King -- Queen -- Lord Flutter -- Lady Careless -- Sir Timy. Spruce -- Miss Busy -- Lord Zealous -- Lady Flutter -- Jemmy Dazzle -- Miss Sparkle -- Sir Simon Solid -- Mr. Nimble -- Dolly Diligent -- Lady Peaceable -- Capn. Dash -- Lady Lydia Blaze -- Giles Diligent -- Priscilla Prudent -- Sir Peter Puff -- Major Matchless -- Lady Radiant -- Mrs. Friendly -- Sir Chas. Worthy -- Miss Gadabout) . These were originally printed on one sheet, of which a copy at The Met, New York, shows “Lady Racket” and not “Lady Radiant”. The accompanying explanation states “Once cut into cards, Regency era party-goers could draw these figures out of a hat, then perfom the characters–a host might also send such cards to guests in advance to allow them to prepare suitable costumes. Festivities on January 6th, which is also known as Three Kings' Day or the Feast of the Epiphany, concluded the Christmas season and often included games that disrupted the normal social order; a servant, for example, might be elevated to monarch of the feast. Specially decorated cakes were enjoyed and examples appear here next to the king and queen.
Rowlandson's figures have no obvious connection to Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." Scholars do, however, posit that that play may have first been performed at the end of the Christmas season, and note how the the dramatic shifts of fortune, costume and gender that occur in the plot echo Tudor Twelfth Night revels.” We would only add that the practice of distributing them as invitations must inevitably result in rarity.
Grego, J. Rowlandson the caricaturist, v.2, p. 214 Prideaux, S.T. Aquatint engraving, Appendix E, p. 385 Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accession No. 59.533.1464

Bordeaux : Chez Jaques L’Aveugle. 1710 [ but not before 1742]. [4th edition]
12mo, eng. portrait of Jacques Masse, 3 leaves, 508 pps, title-page vignette of a nude woman, old mottled calf, marbled endpapers, recently rebacked and corners renewed, spine fully gilt, red edges, a few ms. marginalia in pencil in the early pages, early signature of “Edward Scudamore M.D., St. George’s Place, C....ty”on verso of front end-paper and of “G.S. Morley” on front fly-leaf, a good sound copy.
According to Rosenberg this is the fourth (his ‘edition D’) of four editions all dated 1710, the earliest of which was probably issued in The Hague c. 1714-1717. It has all the issue points that he mentions; the nude woman vignette, the imprint spelt “Bordeaux”, *1 missigned *2, A6 missigned H6, and P3 unsigned, and from the watermark he dates it ‘not before 1742’.
Tyssot de Patot, a firebrand Huguenot free-thinker, sets his imaginary voyag (or as P.D. Gove argues, rather an ‘extraordinary’ voyage; making the distinction between narratives which the authors admit to being fantasy and those which are passed off as genuine voyages), as had Vairesse before him, in Australia drawing for his description of the country on the accounts of real travellers such as Dellon and Lahontan. Here his hero discovers a well-organised Utopia and makes the very prescient observation of the importance of mining and irrigation in that country.
Reference: Cioranescu 18me 62587 Gove : Imaginary Voyage in Prose Fiction. p.217
[Rosenberg: Tyssot de Patot & His Work... pps 86-90]

Hamburg : Gebrüder Enoch Verlag, 1926. First Edition, 2nd issue (6-10 Tausend)
Large 4to, 216, xx pp, 242 photo-illustrations and diagrams in text and 126 photographic sequences, a total of some 1100 images on 42 sheets in a pocket at the rear, publisher’s original decorated blue cloth printed in black, fine copy.
Arnold Fanck was a German film director and pioneer of the mountain film genre. He is best known for the extraordinary alpine footage he captured in such films as The Holy Mountain (1926), The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929), Storm over Mont Blanc (1930), Der weisse Rausch (1931), and S.O.S. Eisberg (1933). Fanck was also instrumental in launching the careers of several filmmakers including Leni Riefenstahl and cinematographer Sepp Allgeier.
Johann "Hannes" Schneider was an Austrian Ski instructor from the Arlberg. He developed the Arlberg technique and appeared in Dr. Arnold Fanck's ski film. Der weiße Rausch, filmed in the Arlberg in the winter of 1930/1931, which helped make skiing popular.
He moved to New Hampshire in 1939 and during the Second World War helped train the 10th Mountain Division of the U. S. Army in which his son Herbert served. Hannes became a member of the US Ski Hall of Fame in 1958.