Tag Archive: 0politics

It’s Election Day in the UK and, as luck would have it, we have a political Christmas carol here in the office! According to Fuld, the music of ‘God rest you merry gentlemen’ ‘is said to have been in a broadside printed … about 1796, but no copy of the broadside has been found.  The […]

Sometimes, in the book world, there are wonderful coincidences; you can come across a book you’ve never heard of at precisely the right moment.  Take this, which I found just earlier this week: Published in about 1794, it was written by Samuel Harrison (1760–1812), one of the country’s principal tenors for almost 30 years, some difficulties […]

I was looking for something election-related for today’s blogpost.  I wrote about a couple of very nice items connected to the Russian 1906 (parliamentary) election a few years ago, but I don’t think I’ve shared this before: It’s a merciless (and rather bloodthirsty) satire of the Radical-Socialist Édouard Herriot and the Cartel des gauches during […]

In two weeks’ time I shall be exhibiting at the 48th California International Antiquarian Book Fair in Oakland.  As ever, what to take?  Whatever else will go in the trunks, this is certainly on the list: It’s a large (605 × 558 mm) visual puzzle commemorating the Congress of Berlin in 1878, following the Russo-Turkish War, and […]

I’ve always liked books like this which were never intended to be sold; they often make  fascinating reading.  This one, from 1920s Berlin, entitled simply ‘Spitzel-Almanach.  Unverkäuflich …’ (‘Spy Almanac.  Not for sale’) and bound in plain paper wrappers, was an internal publication of the German Communist Party and gives details of all the known spies and […]