Beschreibung:

GLAUBER, Johann Rudolph (1604-1662). A Description of new Philosophical Furnaces, or a new art of Distilling , London: Richard Coates for Thomas Williams 1651. 4°, woodcut initials, most hand-coloured (title soiled with short tears, small marginal worm holes and tracks affecting a few letters, some spotting and dampstaining, some leaves torn with losses), early mottled calf, 19th-century red morocco slipcase (upper cover missing, lower board detached, spine broken). Provenance : C. T. Swanston (sale, Puttick & Simpson, 2nd December 1869, lot 1438, bought by Cole); Richard Monkton Milnes, 1st Lord Houghton (correspondence); Robert, Marquess of Crewe (bookplate and by descent from Lord Houghton). FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of Glauber's work, sold as Oliver Cromwell's copy in 1869 and 1876 by Puttick & Simpson. His forged signature appears on the title, above the dedication with the date 1653, on the verso of the last page, and there are two inscriptions supposedly in his hand. The autograph map 'Plan of Battell', drawn at the end of the third part, had been identified as that of the Battle of Naseby. Whilst the forger copied Cromwell's signature from a reproduction of the execution warrant of Charles I, of which there were many facsimile reproductions, he may not have had an example of Cromwell's rare handwriting. Neither the signatures nor the handwriting bear comparison with genuine examples of Cromwell's hand in the British Library. Wing G846. 'Documents Relating to Oliver Cromwell's Copy of Glauber's Philosophical Furnaces, 1651,' two autograph letters, one from C.J. Swanston to an unidentified correspondent, the other from the Earl of Crawford, and a sale notice relating to this work from the auctioneer's Puttick & Simpson, contemporary red half morocco gilt with title as above on front cover (upper cover detached), bookplate of Robert, Marquess of Crewe. (2)