“Snail or Worms Water, very good against a Hectick ffeavour” and “Swallow Water”, which involved 50 or 60 very young birds being “…crushed to a pap in a mortar, feathers and all”, were among the least appealing to modern tastes, but the manuscript sold well at £2300 in the Diss rooms of TW Gaze (18% buyer’s premium).
Bid online to that same sum was a copy of John Gerard’s Herball or General Historie of Plantes. A 1636 re-issue of the 1633 edition, rebound in blind-stamped calf gilt, it was described as an excellent example of this profusely illustrated work.
A rebound 1756 first of John Hill’s well-known British Herbal… made £1200.
