Forest Books offers John Fransham’s The World in Miniature (1741) for £950.
Among the highlights at Firsts Online, which runs until midnight of March 1, is a copy of John Fransham’s bestseller The World in Miniature: or the Entertaining Traveller. Published in 1741, it is a second edition much enlarged with additional prints. Each volume includes folding engraved frontispieces showing the costumes of various countries covered within. The text covers ‘every thing necessary and curious’ regarding customs, manners and religious ceremonies of the various cultures, as well as their mountains, rivers, birds, beasts and ‘other curiosities’.
It is available from Forest Books for £950.
Firsts Online has run since coronavirus restrictions forced the in-person event to be cancelled in 2020. Though it returned as a physical fair last year to its new home in Chelsea’s Saatchi Gallery, digital editions continue.
A first edition of The Once and Future King compendium by TH White, published by Collins in 1958, is available from Neil Pearson Rare Books for £400.
Also showing at this month’s staging are Michael Graves-Johnston, PY Rare Books and Type & Forme. Thousands of books are included and stock is updated throughout the fair.
Priced at £1250, this copy of Francesco de Lodovici’s The Triumphs of Charlemagne and the Glory of Venice from 1535, is offered by Bernard Quaritch.
This year’s in-person fair is set to run from February 24-March 1.
