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•  Removed from a nonce volume and now in wrappers. A very good copy.

Provenance:  Bookplate inside front wrapper of Lorraine & Horace Haynes.

•  Publisher's light-blue wrappers. Bookplate as above. Near fine.  (23669)

Provenance: Ownership note of the Baptist Weekly Journal (or, occasionally, a personal name) to each front wrapper.

Vol. I (1830), #s 1, 2, 7, 9, 10. Vol. II (1831), #s 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12. Vol. III (1832), #s 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 11, 12. Vol. IV (1833), #s 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Vol. V (1834), #s 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12. Vol. VI (1835), #s 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 12. Vol. VII (1836), #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Vol. IX, #6 (issued and bound with Extra #8). New Series: Vol. I (1837), #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Vol. II (1838), #s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Extras: #2 (Dec. 1830); #3 (Dec. 10, 1831); #s 4&5 (Aug. 6, 1832); #6 (Aug. 5, 1833); #7 (August, 1834); #8 (Oct., 1835); #11 (Oct., 1839).

Alexander Campbell (1788–1866) was the founder of the Disciples of Christ.

•  In original wrappers, uncut, many issues unopened. Dust-soiling, edges of pages chipping. All issues with early ownership inscription at top of front wrapper. Not just a “good run” of this periodical, but also, with relatively few (if striking) exceptions, a gathering offering some good copies. (20390)

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The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth was established in Philadelphia, in December 1824, to disseminate information on the latest improvements in the development of transportation systems including roads, railways, canals, bridges, etc.; William Strickland, Mathew Carey, Richard Peters, Jr., Joseph Hemphill, Stephen Duncan, and Gerard Ralston were among its members.

•  Shoemaker 15654, 21855, 19953, 19955, & 19949. Light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label. Light age-toning and spotting, more pronounced in last few leaves. Final (blank) leaf with early inked ownership signature; child’s pencilled drawings on one blank page.

•  Publisher’s red cloth, without the original glassine dustwrapper and so with (at some angles) the thumb-oil prints of a reader visible; therefore not absolutely pristine but quite nice.

•  Recent wrappers. Lightly foxed.

•  Wright, II, 474.   Contemporary quarter morocco and marbled paper sides, worn and abraded, spine chipped and cracking, front and back covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct library. Text block separated from spine, front cover partially detached. Title-page and several others stamped; pages with light waterstaining and scattered small spots.  (4362)

•  Sabin 80996; Pilling, Algonquian, 462; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3601a. Not in Banks; not in Evans. Original buckram, showing minor water damage; upper page margins waterstained, obviously to very lightly. Title-page with library stamps and some rough old pen-markings; first two leaves a bit torn at binding.

An early purchaser has recorded the cost of binding the set (60 pence per book) in a pencilled note on the front fly-leaf of vol. I: “Aug. 15th 1864 in 38 vol bound in fine 1/2 moroco [sic] per vol c/60 d.”

The essays and authors here were all once fashionable as well as interesting; they are no longer at all fashionable, but they are interesting in ways that their authors and original readers never imagined.  

Bindings: Contemporary half morocco over attractive marbled paper–covered sides, each spine with gilt-stamped title, volume number, and elegant arabesque decorations. Top edges gilt.

•  On Chalmers, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Bindings lightly rubbed, a few with leather showing slight cracking over spines. Frontispiece with bookplate of private collector. Pages age-toned, with edges slightly embrittled; some occurrences of staining and pencilled underlining, with the majority of pages clean. An attractive set; many hours’ worth of reading. For anyone who savors slices'o'life, and slices'o'time, very rich fare.

Chapman, along with several of her sisters, founded the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and was one of the staunchest supporters of the abolitionist cause, braving mob scenes and social condemnation to attend anti-slavery meetings, circulate petitions, organize the Anti-Slavery Fair, and publish the present annual. Not many solid, presentable copies of the Liberty Bell make their way to the market, and this one is especially notable for its having been inscribed by Chapman herself.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with presentation inscription reading “Eunice Dorman [?] from her friend M.W. Chapman,” dated February, 1844 (“39 Summer St.”).

•  On Chapman, see: McHenry, Famous American Women, 68–69, and DAB, IV, 19.   Publisher’s brown cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped bell vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorative bands; cloth worn along board edges and corners and chipped away at spine extremities, exposing underlying boards or support. Front cover and outer edge with a few small dents, back cover with line of light, unobtrusive staining. Pages lightly foxed, otherwise clean, with some corners dog-eared. A desirable copy. (21279)

The play's length is that of a "filler" piece in a jam-packed 19th-century theatrical night of three or four plays (or parts thereof) and other "entertainments"—or, the length of a school or home production. The style is distinctly amateur/naive.  E.g., the euphonious exotic names are far from consistently Chinese and one character is "carried [from his 'chinese cottage'] to the ganges"; the author confuses exit and exeunt ("Exeunt Priest")—we wonder if this blithe vagueness as to geography and world cultures, and the seeming lack of even basic classical education, suggest a lively-minded and enthusiastically play-going but unrigorously schooled female writer?

Provenance: Gift inscription: "Horace W. Smith, Esq. to W.W., 1863." A pencil note says "By J. Howard Payne in his handwriting, W.W."—but the handwriting does not match that of Payne's MSS. at Yale and Brown Universities.

•  First leaf dust-soiled and now separated. Edges of some leaves chipped costing a few letters and, very rarely, an entire word; lost letters and words are easily supplied by context. Comfortable, for working with.