•  Publisher's embossed cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; corners and spine extremities showing minor wear, with gilt oxidized. Front free endpaper with pencilled inscription; some page edges with small blotches. Binding very handsome in its subtle way. Impossible! to get a good image of! (12986)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with ownership inscription by Henry Binkly, dated 1833; several laid-in slips of paper include a recipe for hair dye and a concoction involving sulphur, sugar of lead, and bay rum.

•  Shoemaker 8591; First Century of German Language Printing in the U.S., 2565. Contemporary sheep framed in blind, spine with blind-ruled raised bands, abraded but solid. One clasp lacking, one present and working. Moderate foxing; one sectional title with pencilled annotations. Clearly a volume that saw both use and reasonable care. Plain, and pleasing.

“nothing had been published in regard to the subject” before the present work

Illustrated with10 full-page stipple-engraved plates done by J. Erxleben, this guidebook covers efficient tank construction, freshwater aquarium inhabitants readily obtainable in the wild (goldfish, sticklebacks, sunfish, minnows, crawfish) as well as likely marine candidates (crabs, anemones, gobies, blennies, pipefish), and the basic overall principles of balancing species (fish, plants, snails, etc.) so that the tank seldom needs to be cleaned or have its water changed. It should be noted that the author is not wholly reliable in his identifications of American vs. British natives — but then again, the fad of aquarium-keeping was brand-new at the time, very few people could lay claim to more than Edwards' two years of aquarium experience, and all previous published works on the subject had been thoroughly British.

Binding:  Publisher's textured olive-green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and publisher; front cover framed in blind around a gilt-stamped central medallion offering a decoratively lettered title accented with images of small swimming fish, shells, and seaweeds.

•  NSTC 2E5035.   Bound as above; extremities rubbed and spine slightly sunned with small area of discoloration around paper shelving label at head. Ex–social club library: shelving label as noted, call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on endpapers and two pages (not title-page), no other markings. Back pastedown with small ticket of New York bookseller, partially effaced. A few leaves with very short tears from outer margins, not touching text; pages clean.  (29024)

The authorial attribution is tentative; WorldCat notes that the present text “is not the poem published under the title “My Brother” in Mary Elliott's Grateful Tributes (1819). Text of issue is designated as an 'uncertain ascription to Mary Elliott' by Mary Elliott's bibliographer Marjorie Moon.”

Provenance:  Inside front wrapper with beautifully inked inscription reading “Samuel Gara his Book Bought in Lancaster August the 23rd, 1827 by his Mother.”

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, age-toned, paper splitting along spine and sewing loosening; inside front wrapper with inscription as above. Pages age-toned, with mild foxing. In delicate condition, but a very appealing item.  (30251)

Four volumes in one as issued; each piece was printed in a limited edition of 900 copies.

•  Publisher's blue-green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped Art Nouveau-style title and mermaid decoration; dust jacket lacking, binding a little soiled and slightly cocked with edges and extremities lightly rubbed, corners and center of back cover at top bumped, spine darkened. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean. A decent “used” book.  (29695)

Although Sternick says the first edition appeared in 1864, this appears to be erroneous — the copyright page here gives 1866, and WorldCat fails to locate any copies anywhere printed prior to 1866.

•  Sabin 64917; cf. Sternick 589.   Publisher's textured oxblood cloth, covers framed in blind, spine with decorative gilt-stamped title; extremities a bit rubbed. A clean, attractive copy of this romanticized Western American story.  (30359)

•  Publisher's quarter sheep with printed sides; neatly respined with cloth tape. Signed by previous owner on front pastedown.  (4182)

Provenance: Old inked signature of L.(?) E. Ammisdown to fly-leaf.

•  Publisher's quarter sheep with printed sides; respined with cloth tape. Joints cracked, without separation; rear cover loosening. Text clean and paper quite decent.  (4183)

The volume is illustrated with43 lithographed plates done by Weber & Co., including a portrait of “A New Mexican Indian Woman,” a fish of the Gila River, a map of “the actions fought at San Pasqual in upper California between the Americans and Mexicans Dec. 6th & 7th 1846,” and a view of cliffside hieroglyphics, as well as a series of 14 botanical images.

•  Cowan & Cowan 195; Graff 1249 (other 1848 issues only); Haferkorn 38; Howes E145; Sabin 22536 (for House ed. only); Wagner-Camp, Plains & Rockies, 148:2; Zamorano 80, 33.   Recent black cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Oversized, folding map lacking. Plates and pages with some light to moderate foxing; one leaf with tear from upper margin, extending into text without loss. Clean, strong.  (27364)

The title-page verso has an affixed paper label reading “Manufactured in Japan by the Dai Nippon Printing Co.”

•  Publisher's color-printed paper wrappers, joints and extremities lightly rubbed. Pages clean. A very nice copy.  (30351)

It is notable that despite its light theme and touch, this book offers serious instruction to men wanting seriously to achieve real competence in its era's arts of entertaining. Those seeking a gamesmanship guide suggesting ways merely to appear competent, or those cheerfully assuming that it is charming for men to be incompetent in this realm, had best look for support elsewhere.

•  Brown, Culinary Americana, 3337 (for first ed.).   Publisher's black cloth, front cover with eggplant- and gilt-stamped vignette of a mustachioed man hoisting a drink tray, spine with eggplant-stamped stripes and gilt-stamped title; dust jacket lacking, minor shelfwear to extremities and lower edges. A clean, solid copy.  (30269)

•  Sabin 23225; not in Shoemaker. Period-style quarter tan cloth with paper-covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Title-page and a few others rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution; title-page with inner margin repaired. Mild to moderate foxing throughout.

Provenance:  Inscribed by the author: “To B.F. Pyle, Esq. [?] from his friend the author.”

•  Publisher's textured violet cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; faded, especially over spine, tear to cloth along front joint with corners and extremities a bit rubbed. Front fly-leaf with inked inscription as above. Endpapers, frontispiece (“The Rhine”), and title-page lightly foxed. In fact a clean, nice copy.  (23195)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine sunned with stain at head, lower corners bumped. Front hinge (inside) slightly tender. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label on spine, 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. Pages clean; in fact a nice copy.  (28344)