This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 452.   Binding as above, spine with gilt-stamped title, in original glassine dust jacket and original slipcase; volume very clean and fresh, glassine wrapper with spine gently sunned and small chips at foot, slipcase label slightly darkened and slipcase otherwise all but unworn. A very nice copy.  (30114)

This copy includes the half-title, but has been well read and shows the signs thereof!

•  BAL 11139; Howes K184; Sabin 37991; Wright, I, 1583.   Contemporary half sheep and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and author; leather worn/rubbed, especially at head of spine, but text firm in its binding. Front pastedown with Philadelphia bookbinder's ticket of B. Kohler (printed on blue paper). Ex–social club library: 19th-century inked call numerals on endpaper and half-title overlaid with paper labels, title-page pressure-stamped, no other markings. Pages age-toned, with intermittent stains and short edge tears; many leaves with edge repairs done some time ago, often with loss of a few letters, generally not affecting sense. Two final pages of advertisements lacking; one leaf with upper outer portion torn away, costing parts of 12 lines; two leaves with lower portions torn away, with loss of about 14 lines to each. Last leaves with waterstaining to outer portions. Clearly, as noted above, the club library that owned this had avid clientele for it; and that they were as determined to “keep it going” as the repairs show, even after it had been damaged, is interesting!  (26386)

•  Publisher's quarter leather with printed paper sides; respined with cloth tape, front hinge (inside) open, covers rubbed with paper loss at corners and a bit to printed matter. Text with a bit of staining and the odd torn corner; some pencilling.  (4197)

•  One leaf, printed on one side and creased from folding into six parts. Top left and bottom right corners torn. Tear to lower margin resulting in the loss of one or two words of text. (6336)

If you were heading “West” in 1839 or the early 1840s, you probably had a copy of this to help you travel safely and expeditiously.

•  Sabin 82931; Howes S-615; Checklist of printed maps of the Middle West to 1900 1-0816; Karpinski, Bibliography of the printed maps of Michigan, 146.   Publisher's green ribbed cloth covers stamped in blind with a plaque and lettered in gold. Old water crinkling to text block and some associated soiling. Map backed with Tengoju Japanese paper and the case binding with minor repairs using Japanese paper toned with acrylic. A delicate book and a very delicate map, now not delicate at all and housed in a blue cloth clamshell case with leather spine label. A good ++ copy of an important and scarce work.  (24796)

This includes, among other interesting morsels historical, moral, and agricultural, a long essay onshooting stars.

•  Later sewing; spine reinforced with archival tissue. Title-page and last page with shallow tears in blank area of outer margin. Shallow dog-ears, occasional edge chips. Small hole on pp. 27/28, touching but not costing three letters. Light foxing.  (27818)

The advertisement on the back cover of this volume notes that William G. Comstock (the author's son and publisher) offered for sale 100,000 white Italian mulberry trees; 10,000 Chinese mulberry plants; and 2,000,000 “silk worms eggs,” among other items of sericulture.

•  American Imprints 36859.   Publisher's quarter brown cloth and printed paper–covered sides, moderately rubbed and soiled; spine sunned and a strip of black cloth tape across its head. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on pastedown, front free endpaper with inked number covered over by black tape, pressure-stamp on title-page. No other markings. Pages clean.  (26271)

•  Original printed wrappers; five-digit number stamped on front wrapper; some chipping; loss of paper from spine. (78)

Binding:  Very handsome but unsigned publisher's green cloth stamped in gilt and black with attention to geometry, upper board graced with flowers, birds, and a gilt vignette in a circle of a girl reading and watching the sun rise over water from her perch beneath a tree on a hill. Spine with elegantly embellished title and author’s name also in gilt and black. Floral endpapers. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Presentation from author to Capt. John M. Tobin (presentation on front fly-leaf).

Evidence of readership: (At least) one word added in early ink, p. 79.

•  Bound as above. Extremities lightly rubbed and the lower board mildly scuffed; minor waterstaining in the upper and outer margins of some leaves, visible at the fore-edge. Lovely.  (29948)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Sabin 16279.   Publisher's textured teal cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; sides and edges clean and showing virtually no wear, spine with head pulled, title dimmed, and small rubbed spots. Ex–social club library: number on endpaper in a good 19th-century hand, rubber- and pressure-stamp on title-page, several other pages faintly stamped. Front free endpaper lacking. A nice, clean, sound copy with its paper holding up beautifully.  (26266)

48 wood-engraved illustrations

Binding:  Publisher's dark gray-green vermiform cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped cattle-herding vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and eagle design. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early pencilled inscription of Frances Stephens of Pennsylvania.

There is quite a lot of how-to, here!

•  See Welsh, Miniature Books, 2053 for 1840 London edition.   Binding slightly cocked, showing minor wear (only) overall. Front free endpaper with inscription as above, back endpapers with additional pencilled inscriptions. Soiling, generally light; spots, generally small; a solid and pleasing copy of a book that was often loved to pieces.  (29676)

This is numbered copy 972 of 2000 printed, signed at the colophon by the illustrator; the appropriate LEC newsletter and prospectus, in an unstamped and unmailed LEC envelope, are laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 479; BAL 4068; Williams & Starrett 1.   Binding as above, in original glassine dust wrapper and publisher's slipcase; binding very clean and fresh, wrapper with spine chipped, slipcase showing very minor shelfwear only. A nice copy.  (30127)

•  Schoenberg, Jesuit Mission Presses, 74.   Stitched in original blue paper self-wraps with title and ornamental border in black; corners of wraps and pages variously a little bumped or (at lower outside) chipped or dog-eared. Two old and faded round rubber-library-stamps of the “Bibl. Scholasticatus Pro. Oreg. S.J.” (on front wrapper & first leaf); three-digit number in white on front wrapper and a longer one minutely to pp. 2 and 10. Small repair to rear wrapper. A clean, decent copy.  (29305)

Father Cuoq (1821–98) was an extremely accomplished linguist as evidenced by his becoming fluent in both Algonquin and Iroquois; Field (Indian Bibliography, p. 93) writes glowingly of his mastery of these languages. His life as a missionary of the Order of Sulpitians, notably among the Nipissing at Lake of Two Mountains, certainly aided in his scholarly achievement.

•  Pilling, Algonquian, 100-101; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 952; Field 391; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Algonkin-14; Sabin 17980. Not in Banks; not in Evans, Masinanhikan. Original printed green wrappers, spine reinforced some time ago, edges chipped. Half-title with pencilled annotations. First text page rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages otherwise clean.