Search results for: 'the works'
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BERTHELOT, Claude-François. Le Mécanique appliquée aux arts, aux manufactures, à l'agriculture et à la guerre;Paris : 1782
First edition. Described on the title as "Ingénieur-Mécanicien du Roi", Berthelot (1718-1800) rose from humble origins to the professorship of mathematics in the Military School in Paris, where in 1763 he invented a famous gun carriage for use in coastal artillery, though the invention was generally credited to Gribeauval who was largely responsible... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 108958
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GREAT EXHIBITION. Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851.London : 1852
Presentation edition, with a copy presented to every exhibitor at the Great Exhibition of 1851; trade editions were also produced. The book is a key contemporary document for the Exhibition, giving the jury awards and details of the thirty categories of exhibit, and was selected in Printing and the Mind of Man as the representative book for the Exhibition.... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 131571
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ROBINSON, W. Heath. The Making of Asbestos-Cement Roofings.No Place : [c. 1930]
Rare first edition, first impression, of one of Robinson's commercial work, this one on asbestos, from its extraction to its transformation into roofing tiles, featuring some of the gadgets and contraptions for which he was to become famous. "Mr. W. Heath Robinson, the well-known artist, recently visited the works at Trafford Park, Manchester, and in... Learn More£425.00Stock Code: 140698
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BABBAGE, Charles. Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on some of its Causes.London : 1830
First octavo edition, in the original boards, of the author's scathing and sensational critique of the English scientific establishment; presentation copy to a Continental colleague, inscribed by Babbage on the front free endpaper "To M. Nicollet from the Author". Joseph Nicolas Nicollet is a fitting recipient, as a member of the Bureau des longitudes,... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 131351
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SMEE, Alfred. The Process of Thought adapted to Words and Language.London : 1851
First edition. In this work Smee (1818-1877) considers the implications of whether difference engines, as invented by Babbage, can be considered to be thinking; as such, the work ranks as among the earliest treatises on artificial intelligence. "In his Process of Thought, Smee was the first to suggest the possibility of information storage and retrieval... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 140601
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LAURENCE, Edward. The Duty of a Steward to his Lord.London : 1727
First edition. A major work on rural estate management by the Northamptonshire land surveyor Edward Laurence (1634-1739), renowned in his day for his knowledge of agriculture and for the manuscript maps he produced for landowners. The present work proposes modernisation, including cultivating new crops and enclosing small farms into larger farms. Laurence... Learn More£850.00Stock Code: 124698
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FALCONER, John. Cryptomenysis patefacta: or the art of secret information disclosed without a key.London : 1685
First edition of this early work of cryptography. Falconer states in his epistle to the reader that he writes Cryptomenysis because he finds the subject diverting, though his dedication to the Earl of Middleton gives the work a political flavour: he serves Charles II and hopes to keep the royal family safer with unbreakable cyphers. Alongside cyphers,... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 140382
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BABBAGE, Charles. On currency, on a new system of manufacturing and on the effect of machinery on human labour.London : 1833
First separate edition. On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures was first published in 1832, and second and third editions soon followed that same year. This pamphlet comprises three additional chapters by Babbage that examine questions of political economy and which were newly included in the third edition. To make the text available to owners... Learn More£2,250.00Stock Code: 129725
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PEPPER, John Henry, "Professor". The True History of the Ghost;London : 1890
First and only contemporary edition, inscribed by the author on the title, "Mr. John Bailey, July 25 1893, With the Author's kind regards, J. H. Pepper". The work gives his exposition of the famous stage illusion that came to be known as "Pepper's Ghost", in which a spectral image of an actor was projected before the audience.
Pepper (1821-1900)... Learn More£3,500.00Stock Code: 133346
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COMPUTING. Two pieces of the Whirlwind Computer.[1940s-50s]
Two limited edition paperweights, each with a unique piece of the Whirlwind I, the first large-scale digital computer able to operate in real-time, embedded within them. The importance of the experimental 'one-of-a-kind' Whirlwind computer to the development of technology cannot be overstated: it was the first to use magnetic core memory; the first... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 128889
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EYRE, John. The Exact Surveyor:London : 1654
First and sole edition, first issue (with the author's initial only given on the title page) of this scarce surveying manual, an online search of institutional libraries records just 12 locations, and only a single complete copy shows at auction since the celebrated C. E. Kenney sales of 1965-8 (the Macclesfield copy, in later boards, Sotheby's 2004).... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 145024
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VON NEUMANN, John. Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata.Urbana : 1966
First edition, first printing. The contents of this volume stem from two unfinished manuscripts, edited by Burks, and present Neumann's final conception of the theory of automata. Divided into two parts, the work covers complicated automata in general, comparing artificial and natural automata, as well as the logical design of a self-reproducing cellular... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 91541
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WILKES, Maurice V.; David J. Wheeler; Stanley Gill. The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer.Cambridge, MA : 1951
First edition, first printing, in lovely condition, of "the first book on computer programming" and one of the most influential textbooks of this early era (Tomash & Williams). As in the Tomash copy a printed slip with the imprint of Scientific Computing Service Limited is tipped onto the title page indicating that they were the English distributors... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 139945
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BUTLER, Herbert J. Motor Bodywork; the Design and Construction of Private, Commercial and Passenger Types.London : 1924
First edition, first impression, of the most comprehensive contemporary book on the subject, with a preface by Sir Herbert Austin. The 30 chapters cover open bodies, racing and sporting bodies, cape hoods, closed bodies, bodies with folding heads, shooting and luggage breaks and protected phaetons, seat fittings, windscreens, private bodywork, materials,... Learn More£875.00Stock Code: 122003
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WATERMELONS IN UZBEKISTAN. 60 Velikogo Oktyarya (60 Years of the Great October.)Tashkent : 1977
First edition, no other copy traced. "In the spirit of socialist emulation inspired by the 60th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, a specialised engineering office and a pilot plant have successfully completed the key stages of a development plan for melon production. The issues of complex mechanisation of melon cultivation were... Learn More£1,950.00Stock Code: 120082
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CLAVIUS, Christopher. Gnomonices libri octo, in quibus non solum horologiorum solarium, sed aliarum quoque rerum.Rome : 1581
First edition of this "substantial work which summarises all that was known about sundials at the time. It formed the foundation used by all makers of sundials until well into the 17th century" (Tomash & Williams). The annotations to this copy, in a pleasing contemporary vellum binding, offer a particularly nice example of early scholarship on the subject.
Often... Learn More£2,750.00Stock Code: 142710
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LAUNHARDT, Wilhelm; Christian Petrlik; J. C. Leuchs; L. Meyn. Ueber Rentabilitat und Richtungsfeststellung der Strassen.Hanover : 1869
A very interesting collection of rare pamphlets on road construction, including one unrecorded:
a) LAUNHARDT, Wilhelm. Ueber Rentabilitat und Richtungsfeststellung der Strassen. Hanover 1869. 54 pp. including terminal advertisement leaf and folding map showing the road system linking the Elbe and Weser rivers. WorldCat lists 7 copies (none in... Learn More£1,000.00Stock Code: 96480
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FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Œuvres.Paris : 1773
First collected edition in French of the author's collected works. The first part is entirely devoted to electricity and includes previously unpublished pieces. Translated by Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg (1709-1779) from the fourth edition in the original English. A close friend of Franklin and his translator and publisher in France, Barbeu-Dubourg was also... Learn More£1,250.00Stock Code: 98387
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GENERAL MOTORS. When the Wheels Revolve.Detroit, Michigan : 1944
An attractively designed General Motors brochure which explains for a general readership how automobiles work, with numerous diagrams and illustrations. Learn More£75.00Stock Code: 88968
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BABBAGE, Charles. Science economique des manufactures.Paris : 1834
First edition of Isoard's French translation of On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures - Babbage's most successful lifetime publication, selling 3,000 copies. Prompted by the demands for precision in the construction of his first calculating engine, Babbage had made a conscientious and detailed survey of factories and workshops both in England... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 93461
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JEDDAH WATER SUPPLY - BALFOUR, David Ross. City of Jeddah Water Supply.Westminster [Jeddah] : 1947-48
One of a limited set of detailed planning documents for the important modernization of Jeddah's water supply in 1947, this copy inscribed by the British civil engineer leading the project to Ahmad Ashmawi of the local engineers who presented the scheme to Emir Saud. Likely produced in small numbers for key stakeholders, we find no other copies or references... Learn More£17,500.00Stock Code: 138324
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HAUTEFEUILLE, Jean de. Recueil des ouvrages de M. de Haute-Feuille. Contenant plusieurs Decouvertes & Inventions nouvelles dans la Physique & dans les Mechaniques.Paris : 1694
First collected edition of Hautefeuille's works, with some additional pamphlets bound in. The note at the front of the book reads as follows: "Mr Jean de Hautefeuille auteur de ce Recueil, ecclesiastique du Diocese d'Orleans, de l'Academie des Sciences, Belles Lettres, et arts de Bordeaux, Pensionnaire du Roy Louis XIV et Louis XV est mort le mercredi... Learn More£7,500.00Stock Code: 133476
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GALTON, Francis. Finger Prints; Decipherment of Blurred Finger Prints; Finger Print Directories.London : 1892, 1893, 1895
First editions of Galton's three publications on fingerprints, this a very scarce presentation set with the first work inscribed by Galton to his brother, "Erasmus Galton, from F.G.", on the half-title, the second work with Erasmus's ownership inscription "E. Galton, Oct 9 1893" to verso of front free endpaper. Erasmus (1815-1909) was named after their... Learn More£4,750.00Stock Code: 134448
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CHALKLEY, A. P. Diesel Engines for Land and Marine Work.London : 1915
Fourth edition, first impression. This revised and enlarged edition of A. P. Chalkley's work was in fact the second complete revision since its first publication in 1911, made necessary by "the rapid strides that were made in design and construction of the Diesel engine, more particularly for marine work".
Learn More£125.00Stock Code: 124044
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HARTREE, Douglas R. Calculating Instruments and Machines.Urbana : 1949
First edition, first printing, of Hartree's survey of analogue and digital machines, now considered a pioneering work of computing. Intended as a general introduction illustrated by Hartree's personal experiences working with ENIAC and the Harvard Mark I, the book's contents were originally delivered as a lecture series at the University of Illinois... Learn More£400.00Stock Code: 143694
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MOON, William. Wide Line Reader. Prayers and Promises.London : [c.1920s]
An appealing example of a book employing William Moon's system of type, in which the letters of the alphabet are reduced to their simplest unique elements and then embossed on paper for touch-reading. Moon had contracted smallpox at the age of 4 and lost the sight in one eye, retaining some vestigial vision in the other. In 1840, aged 22, despite several... Learn More£600.00Stock Code: 130011
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HARTREE, Douglas R. Calculating Instruments and Machines.Urbana : 1949
First edition, first printing, presentation copy, albeit uninscribed, with the loosely inserted slip of "the Compliments of the Author", of Hartree's survey of analogue and digital machines, now considered a pioneering work of computing.
Intended as a general introduction illustrated by Hartree's personal experiences working with ENIAC and the... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 139615
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GODDARD, Robert H. Rockets.New York : 1946
First edition, first printing, of this posthumously printed collection of Goddard's famous papers on rocketry; "A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes" and "Liquid-Propellant Rocket Development", first published by the Smithsonian Institute in 1919 and 1936 respectively. This work also contains a new foreword by Goddard, the father of modern rocket... Learn More£1,100.00Stock Code: 130701
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TOMPKINS, Charles Brown. High-Speed Computing Devices.New York : 1950
First edition, first printing, of the first treatise on how to build an electronic digital computer. An important contribution to computing literature in its own right, it also provided some of the most complete bibliographies available on the subject at the time. Charles Brown Tompkins, a pioneering academic in the fields of numerical analysis and... Learn More£750.00Stock Code: 132836
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TOMPKINS, Charles Brown - ENGINEERING RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, INC. High-Speed Computing Devices.New York : 1950
First edition, first printing, of the first treatise on how to build an electronic digital computer. An important contribution to computing literature in its own right, it also provided some of the most complete bibliographies available on the subject at the time. Charles Brown Tompkins, a pioneering academic in the fields of numerical analysis and... Learn More£825.00Stock Code: 118811
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MEIL, Johann Wilhelm. Spectaculum Naturae & Artium,Berlin : 1761 & 1765
First edition of both volumes of this rare polyglot pictorial encyclopaedia of trades, technology, crafts, and nature, with the text in four columns in German, Latin, French and Italian. The attractive illustrations cover beekeeping, printing, engraving, bricklaying and other trades, as well as scientific and military equipment. The work was aimed at... Learn More£10,000.00Stock Code: 129021
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SHOCKLEY, William. Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors.New York : 1950
First edition, first printing. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: "To Thornton Read: As an introduction to germanium research. Bill Shockley. Dec '50". The recipient Thornton Read was an American physicist who with Charles Frank formulated what came to be known as the Frank-Read mechanism for generating dislocations... Learn More£1,750.00Stock Code: 132838
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FARMAN, D. Auto-Cars.London : 1896
First edition in English, first published in France in the same year. This expansive work was written by Richard 'Dick' Farman, the eldest of the three Farman brothers who ran the Anglo-French Farman motoring company. The company, which produced both aircraft and cars, presented its first motor car at the Salon de l'Automobile in Paris in October 1919,... Learn More£375.00Stock Code: 130940
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DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU, Henri-Louis. Tratado del Cultivo de Las Tierras,Madrid : 1751
First edition in Spanish of the first part of Duhamel du Monceau's treatise on agriculture, which had been published in France in 1750 as Traité de la Culture des Terres; five other parts followed, the last one published in 1760. Quesnay's entry on agriculture, which appeared in the first volume of the Encyclopédie in 1751, was influenced by the work... Learn More£675.00Stock Code: 129087
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WOOD, Nicholas. A Practical Treatise on Rail-Roads,London : 1825
First edition of this foundation work on railways, scarce in the original boards and in such exemplary condition. Nicholas Wood (1795-1865) was a civil and mining engineer who was a colliery manager at Killingworth, Northumberland, when his book was published, which coincided with the opening of the Stockton and Darlington railway.
"George Stephenson... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 111980
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MALEY, Gerald A., & Edward J. Skiko. Modern Digital Computers.Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey : 1964
First edition, first impression, of this introductory text to the field of digital computers, "organized to give the computer designer valuable insight into the techniques of programming and a comprehension of computer design to the programmer" (dust jacket). Maley and Skiko, both employees at IBM, examine the IBM 7000 series of computers as their working... Learn More£95.00Stock Code: 123578
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VON NEUMANN, John - BARGMANN, Valentine, Deane Montgomery, & John von Neumann. Solution of Linear Systems of High Order.[Washington, D.C.] : 1946
First edition of this report on computer-oriented numerical analysis, a key document in charting the early development of von Neumann's understanding of the work of Carl Friedrich Gauss. The statistician Harold Hotelling had discredited Gauss's approach to numerical analysis and "advocated using an iterative method to eliminate numerical instability... Learn More£450.00Stock Code: 118844
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BOWDEN, B. V. (ed.) Faster Than Thought.London : 1953
First edition, first impression, of "the most widely read early English introduction to electronic computing" (Origins of Cyberspace), a collection of 24 essays by leading experts in the field, including a chapter on computer chess that was one of Alan Turing's final published pieces. The author, Bertram Vivian Bowden (1910-1989) was educated as a physicist... Learn More£425.00Stock Code: 118824
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DUHAMEL DU MONCEAU, Henri-Louis. A Practical Treatise of Husbandry:London : 1759
First edition in English. The first part of Duhamel du Monceau's treatise was published in France in 1750 as Traité de la culture des terres; five other parts followed, the last one published in 1760. Quesnay's entry on agriculture, which appeared in the first volume of the Encyclopédie in 1751, was influenced by the work of Duhamel du Monceau. The... Learn More£550.00Stock Code: 114569
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PARETO, Raffaele. Del mal uso che si fa delle medie nelle scienze fisiche e sociali:Modena : 1869
First edition. Inscribed by the author on the title page: "All'egregio sig. Prof. Gilberto Gavi?". Father of the famous economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto, Raffaele Pareto (1812-1882) was a prominent civil engineer whose career began in France where he had sought exile following his involvement with Giuseppe Mazzini's movement for Italian unification... Learn More£425.00Stock Code: 114087
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WEIK, Martin H. A Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems.[Washington, D.C.] : 1955
First public issue of Weik's first survey, an invaluably thorough description of eighty-eight of the earliest commercially available computers (including the SEAC, DYSEAC, ENIAC, Ferranti Mark I and II, and Whirlwind I models). This is the second printing, with the added title leaf bearing the OTS imprint; the first issue, privately circulated as Report... Learn More£3,000.00Stock Code: 137255
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BAIRD, John Logie (signed); DINSDALE, Alfred. Television.London : 1928
Second edition, first impression, of the first book in English on television. Signed by John Logie Baird on the front free endpaper. This volume is much enlarged from the first edition and covers all aspects of early television. Baird was the pioneer of television, demonstrating the first working television system on 26 January 1926, and inventor of... Learn More£1,500.00Stock Code: 142223
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NERI, Antonio. L'arte vetraria distinta in libri sette,Florence : 1661
Second edition, following the Giunti edition of 1612, of the first published textbook of glassmaking. One special appeal of Neri's book was that it revealed the carefully guarded secrets of Venetian glassmakers, which the author had pieced together from working alongside Venetian craftsmen who had relocated to Pisa and Antwerp. "L'arte belongs to the... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 119789
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ZABAGLIA, Nicola. Castelli, e Ponti …Rome : 1743
First edition of this fundamental work for the history of the restoration and maintenance of St Peter's Fabbrica and for an understanding of early building practice. The master mason and engineer Nicola Zabaglia (1664-1750) invented many ingenious mechanical devices to aid restoration. Here he illustrates his techniques, with the help of Giovanni Bottari... Learn More£5,000.00Stock Code: 77359
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JENKINS, Charles Francis. Picture Ribbons.Washington DC : 1897
First edition of the author's book on chronophotography and proto-film reels. Charles Francis Jenkins (1867-1934) was a prolific inventor (over 400 patents were issued to his name) and an important pioneer of cinema and television. He devised a "motion picture projecting box", which, on 6 June 1894, became the first apparatus to project a film in front... Learn More£2,500.00Stock Code: 102230
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![[Patch label on front cover:] Matériels & Outils de Sondages pour les mines & les colonies (Materials and Survey Tools for Mines and Colonies).](https://d3dzzbbvj9im7s.cloudfront.net/media/catalog/product/cache/ae0834d12b7cf129fc73bcc000ea526a/1/2/123046_6.jpg)
DRU, Léon & Saint-Just, & Louis-Georges Mulot. [Patch label on front cover:] Matériels & Outils de Sondages pour les mines & les colonies (Materials and Survey Tools for Mines and Colonies).Paris : [c.1890]
A handsomely presented and apparently unique album of 21 striking original albumen prints showing test rigs and drilling machinery, largely for use in artesian exploration, assembled for one of the leading French engineering concerns of the period, Mulot & Dru, described by a contemporary as "acknowledged in France to be masters of the art of boring"... Learn More£12,750.00Stock Code: 123046
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GENNETÉ, Claude Léopold. Nouvelle construction de cheminées,Liège : 1760
Second edition, preceded by the rare Paris edition of 1759. An important work on chimneys and their ventilation: "the latest technology on making chimneys draw properly and preventing smoke in rooms" (Deborah Howard, William Adam, Architectural Society of Scotland, 1990; who also notes that James Adam acquired a copy in Belgium "at the start of his... Learn More£325.00Stock Code: 113696
