•  Shoemaker 30185; on Powel, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XV, 143–44. Contemporary paper wrappers, front with printed paper label and separated from spine but present; chipping, soiling, and pencilling, with staining especially to lower edge of front wrapper. Pages untrimmed; varying degrees of foxing and staining; lacking frontispiece and one plate — a still-interesting volume priced according to its faults.

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•  Shoemaker 21855. Later light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label. Slightly age-toned, with small paper flaw to one outer margin, else clean.

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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 25712. Period-style light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label, volume bound with 34 blank leaves at the back. Moderate foxing; second leaf starting to separate along gutter.

•  NCBEL, II, 1583 (for the 1854 ed. on which the present ed. was based). Publisher’s textured cloth, worn, covers framed in decorative blind-stamping, spines ruled in blind and simply gilt-stamped with titles and volume numbers; spines faded, slightly discolored, all pulled with cloth lost above page level and one with additional chip out of cloth near head. Front pastedowns with tickets from a Nashville bookseller. Many pages with light offsetting (darker following frontispieces) and foxing such as the paper is prone to; front free endpaper of vol. IV with pencilled ownership inscription and back fly-leaf of vol. II with pencilled annotations. (4737)

This first American printing followed a London edition of the same year and was part of Putnam's "Library for the People."

•  Textured red cloth, covers stamped in blind with an attractive branch and leaf pattern, spine gilt-stamped; spine faded. Sewing starting to loosen. Lacking map. Front free endpaper with inscription “Rachel Wiston / 1887 / Aunt Sarah Hunt.” Scattered spots of foxing, mostly to first and last few pages.

Publishers' advertisements at back offer other useful volumes, and tout this one as, “not by any means a clap-trap book, though it exposes many clap-traps.”

•  Publisher's black pebbled cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with blind-stamped title; limited fading and rubbing, sewing starting to loosen. Front pastedown with inked inscription, front free endpaper with intriguing “Fraters Florere” rubber-stamp. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (26631)

Elegantly printed with wide margins, this is dotted with references to the original works in Greek, which Taylor studied with the aid of ancient commentaries; thorough footnotes clarify foggy passages and explain editorial decisions, often referring to ancient sources. A helpful “Explanation of Certain Platonic Terms” (in English, next to the original Greek) follows the general introduction in vol. I, before the translated Life of Plato by Olympiodorus.

Provenance:  Front pastedowns with one of the 19th-century bookplates of the German Society in Philadelphia.

Evidence of readership: On two pages in vol. IV, ink annotations supply the original Greek and correct the translation.

•  Schweiger, I, 250; Lowndes 1877; Brunet, IV, 698; Graesse, V, 322–23; On Taylor, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent period-style quarter speckled calf over red marbled boards, spines gilt-ruled and with gilt title and volume numbers on red and black morocco labels; place and date gilt-stamped collector-style at spine bases, red speckled edges. Early library markings in ink on front fly-leaves. Offsetting from original binding to endpapers in all volumes and in vol. I from plate onto contents. All volumes with occasional thumbsoiling, sparse mild mildew stains, a few tiny spots from chemical reactions in the paper affecting a handful of words, and occasional ink smudges; there are a natural flaw or two, a couple of marginal tears, light dust stains, and faint browning. Despite its handful of typical blemishes, this five-volume set is handsome and magisterial.  (30052)

This bears an addedgilt chromolithographic title-page by William Sharp of Boston, who printed the first American chromolithograph there in 1840, and a wood-engraved image of a woman writing at a parlor desk on p. [2].

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth, spine gilt extra; covers blind-embossed in a floral motif, framing a gilt-stamped vignette of a woman writing at a desk on the upper cover (this not the same image as the one mentioned just above). Endpapers white with a green pattern, all edges gilt.

Provenance:  G.W. Emery of Hyde Park, MA (pencil inscription on front fly-leaf).

•  On W. Sharp, see: P. Marzio, The Democratic Art: Pictures for a 19th-century America: Chromolithography, 1840–1900 (Boston, 1979), pp. 17–19 & ff.   Bound as above with remarkably little wear; front cover a bit darkened in upper left corner and another small spot to the back. The interior is very clean, remarkably so, considering this is a practical manual to be used, and carried in the pocket!  (30030)

illustrated with five plates (three of them oversized) showing plans of sugar mills and equipment

•  American Imprints 8805; Goldsmiths'-Kress 26165.18 (for first London ed.). On Porter, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, XLVI, 178.   Publisher's tan paper–covered boards with tan cloth shelfback bearing printed paper label; rubbed, spots of discoloration, spine cloth and label darkened and worn; joints cracked and reinforced at head with cloth tape, text block pulling away from spine with front free endpaper separating, contents leaf separated with inner margin reinforced some time ago. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label at head of spine, bookplate and call number on front pastedown, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Minor offsetting to plates, otherwise clean. Uncut copy.  (28127)

•  Publisher's brown cloth, stamped in black and “silver”; front and spine with decorated with a frontier scene showing Conestoga wagons in a wilderness landscape with rising sun in the background. (We can't seem to get a photograph of this that doesn't "glare out.")  Bright with a few flecks of white (paint?). Spine slightly rubbed on joints and at head and base. Pages toned. Good+. (20739)

•  Publisher’s cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title (attractively oxidized); cloth rubbed at extremities, spine with small spot of faint discoloration from a now-absent label. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped (no other markings). Erratum slip tipped in. A cleaner copy than most seen on the market.

•  BAL 16346; Gardner P-7; Sabin 65272. Publisher’s blind-stamped cloth, spines with gilt-stamped titles; sunned and with small spots of discoloration, spines each showing traces of a now-absent shelving label. Front pastedowns each with private collector’s bookplate, institutional rubber-stamp, and speckled show-through of binder’s glue. Light to moderate foxing throughout.

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only four holdings, all in the U.S.

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, front wrapper with early inked inscription in upper portion; paper just starting at foot of spine. Age-toned, otherwise clean and fresh.  (25501)