Welcome to Motte & Bailey Booksellers

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We are a used and rare bookshop in Ann Arbor Michigan, with both more common and antiquarian books. We focus on American and European history, Books About Books, children's books, and scholarly titles. We have 8500 books in all subjects, with over 2,700 catalogued on our site in over 50 catalogs. New arrivals are always listed here before we post them to the internet bookselling sites.

To keep our stock interesting and growing, we buy individual books or entire libraries across our region. Also, when you visit our shop and choose 2 of our books, you get a 3rd book priced $12 of less free, each and every day, any quantity.

We are one of the few remaining booksellers in our area who perform appraisals for estate, donation, or insurance purposes. See links to to your left for more information.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or if are looking for a hard to find book. If you prefer to call, our phone number is 734.669.0451. Our hours are Mon -Sat 10-7 p.m., closed Sundays. However, you may call for an appointment.

Featured Items

Insurance in Venice from the Origins to the End of the Serenissima. Documents Published for the 125th Anniversary of the Company, 1831-1956. Two Volumes.
Stefani, Giuseppe. Translated by Arturo Dawson Amoruso.
Trieste: 1958.. First translated edition. Two very good folio sized (oversized) hardcovers in biege cloth binding without dust jackets. Both volumes have.. more
Price: $140.00

Racing for the America's Cup : the Great Romance of Yachting History.
Kemp, Lieutenant Commander P. K., R.N.
London: Hutchinson & Co., 1937. Octavo (standard size). Heavy wear and chipping to edges and corners of dj, with a few short closed tears. A.. more
Price: $85.00

After the first edition of 1839 and the second of 1841, enlarged in size and content. Good folio volumes in quarter red leather and red cloth. Edges and corners have some wear, with a small nick at the mid-spine of vol. 1 and a bit more wear at the heel of vol. 1 as well. All plates still have original tissues, though some tissues show a bit of soiling. V. 1 has all 47 portrait plates, while Vol. 2 has 45 of 47 listed. However, after checking against 5 other copies of this set in various libraries, all copies checked were missing the same 2 plates - those of Viscountess Jocelyn and Countess Malmsbury. Each plate should have been accompanied by text. This too was missing from the 2 entries. Our presumption is that the plates were not bound in with the book, else (less likely) there existed a very thorough, focused, and mobile thief in the past. Additionally, some women listed in the table of contents are noted as pointers to other entries, and do not have portraits under those names, though the portraits are present. A lovely set, with external wear, of the leading artistocratic women of early Victorian England, with the frontispiece being of the Queen herself at a young age. Many examples of Victorian fashion, and some jewelry. There is some variation in paper and style of the engravings, but all are sharp and attractive, like many of the women they portray. 8 copies in the US, 2 more worldwide according to Worldcat.

Portraits of the Female Aristocracy of the Court of Queen Victoria. 2 vols.
Finden, William.
London: J. Hogarth, 1849. After the first edition of 1839 and the second of 1841, enlarged in size and content. Good folio volumes in.. more
Price: $550.00

Folio. Price clipped dj has tears at front bottom and at right front corners, and a pieces missing from lower spine and back cover. Upper left corner of dj back crinkled. Cellophane tape stains to areas around tears. Corners and lower edges of boards have noticeable wear. Front board illustration bright, with only light soiling to covers. Interior clean and bright, no marks. British illustrator Kathleen Hale (1898-2000) is best known for her Orlando books, of which this is the second in that series of 19 books. For her beloved work she was recognized when she was given the Order of the British Empire in 1976. Uncommon, more so in a dust jacket of any condition. A good addition to any collection of British illustrators.

Orlando the Marmalade Cat : A Trip Abroad.
Hale, Kathleen O.B.E.
London: Country Life, 1939. Folio. Price clipped dj has tears at front bottom and at right front corners, and a pieces missing from lower.. more
Price: $500.00

Attempt to Investigate Some Obscure and Undecided Doctrines in Relation to Small-Pox [Smallpox], Varioloid and Vaccination.
Bell, Luther V.
Boston: Marsh, Capen and Lyon, 1836. Fair octavo hardcover in brownish binding without dust jacket. Wear and rubbing to edges of boards with bumping to head.. more
Price: $150.00

$Duodecimo. 2 complementary works bound in one volume. Contemporary vellum over boards. Slight wear to edges and corners. Many pages have foxing, more so in the pages of the Axiomata. A few pages have very slight tears at foredge. A small rectangle has been cut from the lower corner of the first free endpaper. Binding has a small nick at foredge of back board. Vellum slightly scuffed. with light soiling. [24]154 [10], [182] p. Large printer's device on last page. Many simple geometrical woodcut illustrations, primarily of triangles. Contains the first 2 parts of Stevin's work on trigonometry translated into German from the original Dutch, with 4 axioms (Pitisci Axiomata) from Bartolomeo Pitiscus added by Schwenters in his forward. The second part of the book is a work consisting of tables for sine, tangent and secant added by Schwenters. The work does not include the 3rd part of Stevin's Trigonometry, which covered spherical triangles - indeed, Schwenters states Stevin did no writing in this area, which is incorrect. The original edition of this work is titled "Driehouckhandel". The translator for this work is unknown and was perhaps Schwenter himself, but appears not have had access to a complete copy. (Struick, Principle Works of Simon Stevin, II B p. 755). Less desirable than Dutch editions but still a scarce work on Trigonometry by one of the more important mathematicians of the early Dutch independence period. Simon Stevin (1548-1640) was a Dutch bookkeeper, mathematician, engineer, and science advisor to Maurits (Maurice) of Nassau, stadholder of the United Provinces. Stevin helped set up an engineering school and advised in a number of major nautical related projects. Steven in most well known for introducing decimal fractions to Europe in 1585, though his original arcane notation was abandoned shortly thereafter. He is also known for creating a "land yacht", powered by sails that could move before the wind faster than a horse. On at least one instance he, Maurits, and over 20 others put it to entertaining use on a beach. In all a lovely copy of the book.$ [ TRIGONOMETRY ] Kurzer doch gründlicher Bericht/ von Calculation der Tabularum Sinuum, Tangentium vnd Secantium. Sampt deroselben gebrauch/ in Solvierung oder aussrechnung aller flachen Triangel: in zweyen Theilen begriffen: ... auss dem Niderländischen
Stevini, Simonis [ Simon Stevin ]. Danielis Schwenters, editor and contributor.
Nürnberg: Simon Halbmayer, 1628. Duodecimo. 2 complementary works bound in one volume. Contemporary vellum over boards. Slight wear to edges and corners. Many pages.. more
Price: $2,550.00

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