[Rarebooks] FS: Well, I'll Be a Monkey's Uncle!

[Joslin Hall Rare Books]

Ruskin, John & Henry W. Acland.  "THE OXFORD MUSEUM"  London; Smith, Elder
and Co.: 1859.

An interesting discourse touching on the principles of the Gothic Revival,
handwork and the dignity of workmen, and the proper decoration of
buildings, as they were related to the architecture of Oxford’s famous
Museum of Natural History, popularly known as the Oxford Museum.
Championed in the 1850s by Sir Henry Acland, who felt that Oxford was
ignoring the natural sciences, the Museum brought all those disciplines,
including geology, astronomy, geometry, chemistry, and zoology under one
roof. And quite a neo-Gothic roof it was...

The building was designed by Deane and Woodward of Dublin, with assistance
of one sort or another from Ruskin, who notes here-

“In the competition [for the design] scarce any limitation was imposed,
and to style none. Thirty-two designs by anonymous contributors were sent
in; the majority of the judges, after a thoroughly English battle, in
which some professed advocates of Gothic architecture deprecated the
application of Gothic Art to secular purposes, -thereby denying to their
own style that malleability which is, perhaps, its highest prerogative,
-the design, ‘Nisi Dominus oedificaverit domum,’ was accepted”.

The Museum was the scene of the famous 1860 debate during which Samuel
Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, asked Thomas Huxley whether he was
descended from a monkey on his grandfather’s or grandmother’s side, to
which Huxley replied that he had "no need to be ashamed of having an ape
for his grandfather, but that he would be ashamed of having for an
ancestor a man of restless and versatile interest who distracts the
attention of his hearers from the real point at issue by eloquent
digression and skilled appeals to religious prejudice."

Hardcover. 4.75”x7.5”, 111 pages plus a 4-page list of other titles by the
authors; steel-engraved frontispiece of a pillar with fern carvings; a
full-page woodblock plate of decorative tracery; folding plan of the
museum; publisher’s pebbled & embossed cloth with gilt titles; spine
slightly faded, else a very nice, fresh copy.

Handsome engraved bookplate of Herbert John Gladstone [1854-1930]. Lord
Gladstone was the son of Prime Minister William Gladstone, and after
lecturing on history at Keble College, Oxford, he embarked on a long
political career which culminated in his appointment as Home Secretary
under Asquith from whence, after some controversy over domestic policy, he
was booted “upstairs” and sent to South Africa as the first
Governor-General and High Commissioner of the Union of South Africa. 
[30336]  $350.00

 - -


JOSLIN HALL RARE BOOKS, ABAA
Fine books of the 16th-20th centuries
on the decorative and fine arts & design

Post Office Box 239
Northampton, Massachusetts 01061 USA
telephone (413) 247-5080

Our website-
<http://www.joslinhall.com>

Our Latest Catalogs-

WINTER, 2008 -Recent Acquisitions
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog_311.htm>

FOLK ARTS & AMERICANA
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog_302.htm>

BOOKS ON GLASS
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog_299.htm>

BOOKS ON CERAMICS
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog_295.htm>

BOOKS ON FURNITURE
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog_306.htm>

BOOKS ON SILVER
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog_308.htm>

FIRE AND ICE
 -lighting, fireplaces & ice
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog_282.htm>

A GRAVE AFFAIR
 -gravestones, epitaphs & mourning
<http://www.joslinhall.com/Catalog_288.htm>

 ~ ~ ~

 SPEAKING OF BOOKS
    -Our free email News List
<http://joslinhall.com/mailman/listinfo/jhrbnews_joslinhall.com>

 FOGGYGATES
    - our Bookselling blog
<http://foggygates.blogspot.com/>

 ~ ~ ~

TERMS:
All payments must be in U.S. funds and negotiable through a U.S. bank; We
accept checks, money orders, American Express, Visa and Mastercard. Books
may be reserved pending payment; Institutions may be billed; Standard
courtesies to institutions and the trade; Postage charges are $5.00 for
the first book, and $2.00 for each additional book. Shipments outside the
U.S. will be billed at cost. We accept returns if we are notified within
ten days of your receipt of the books-please ask for full instructions and
terms. Massachusetts residents must add 5% state sales tax.

As members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America we are
committed to upholding high professional standards and making sure your
bookbuying experience is enjoyable.