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Provenance: Signature of Jos. Walter on wrapper.

A scarce publication.

•  Evans 17310; Hildeburn 4072. 19th-century half brown sheep over marbled paper with gilt-lettered spine, original plain blue wrapper bound in; binding rubbed with front joint just starting. Ex-library copy with inked call number on front cover, bookplate on front pastedown, pencilled call number on verso of second front flyleaf, pressure-stamps, and rubber-stamps (including front wrapper and title-page, “Locked Section”). Title- and following leaf chipped in lower outer corner, repaired with paper; light foxing and spots of soiling, only. Inked ownership inscription as above, on front wrapper.

This edition, the first to be printed in New Hampshire, exists in two states — this one has “sold also by the booksellers in Boston” on the title-page.  (In addition, there was another 1795 edition printed in Newbury, Vt.)  Regularly reprinted into the 19th century, the Token saw editions in Welsh and Gaelic.

•  ESTC W19733; Evan 28677. On Flavel, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary quarter sheep over brown paper covered boards, significant loss of paper and of edges of boards. Some shallow chipping, notable soiling, browning, and waterstaining (yet no difficulty reading text). A volume that’s been through a good deal, but is probably stable for quite a long while to come. (12461)

Evidence of readership: Occasional pencilled marginalia, including “Great chapter,” “Know,” and, in one case,the comment, “Voltaire again!”

•  ESTC W11665; Evans 17930.   Contemporary sheep, spine with raised bands and binding slightly sprung; leather cracking over spine and lost in small areas at corners, edges, and spine foot to insect damage or abrasion. Front free endpaper lacking; back free endpaper with inked inscription dated 1789. Pages browned and stained, with minute insect damage to blank areas (only) of first few leaves and with marginalia as above.  (14942)

Rare. Not located via OCLC.

•  Not in Shoemaker.   As issued, with some later folds; edges a little irregular. Lightly foxed.  (24634)

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•  Evans 38786; ESTC W026281. Folded as issued, edges untrimmed and slightly darkened. Second leaf with corners creased.

•  American Imprints 18878; Sabin 25494.   Publisher's brown cloth, spine with printed paper label; rubbed and discolored, spine cloth cracked, spine head with paper shelving label extending onto sides. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Occasional small spots of light staining, scattered edge chips, one page with small burn hole (not touching text); two pages formerly adhered together, with resulting small holes in one and paper traces affixed to the other, obscuring a handful of words. Page edges untrimmed.  (27630)

featuring an addition “not in any other Edition,” according to the title-page: “An Examination, before the British House of Lords, respecting the Stamp-Act.”

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Sabin 25602; Shaw & Shoemaker 515. On Temple Franklin and early editions, see: Green & Stallybrass, Franklin,151–60.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; spine extremities a little chipped, front cover a little sprung, hinges (inside) reinforced. Frontispiece and title-page tattered and now mounted, with outer margin of first preface page repaired; a number of corners bumped or dog-eared, with a few in one section at some point delicately rodent(?)-nibbled. Subscribers' list trimmed closely, affecting two names only; pages age-toned with intermittent foxing. In fact, though certainly not “excellent” — quite “satisfactory.”  (25357)

•  Evans 37442; Sabin 25602; ESTC W17376.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; joints fully open and holding by cords, leather peeled up from board edges, gilt dimmed on spine label. Front fly-leaves with faint pencilled and inked inscriptions; back fly-leaves with inked ownership inscriptions, one dated 1801. Pages age-toned, last few waterstained; one leaf torn with loss of several words from one line. A “survivor” copy, priced accordingly.  (22636)

The work was additionally printed in Dublin and Basil in the same year. OCLC notes that a third volume was printed almost ten years later, by J. Murray; that supplementary volume is not present here.

Signed binding: Contemporary treed calf, covers framed in gilt rolls, beautifully rebacked with gilt-stamped spines preserving handsome original gilt-stamped, two-color leather title and volume labels, turn-ins with gilt rolls. Front pastedown of vol. I with binder's ticket: “Pigge Binders, Lynn.”

A charming silhouette of Gibbon serves as frontispiece to volume I.

•  ESTC T79696; Allibone 663; Brunet, II, 1586; Norton, Gibbon, 131.   Bindings as above with original leather showing some scuffs and abrasions; gilt on original spine labels a little (but a little only) dimmed. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Final page of each volume, back pastedown of vol. I, and title-page of vol. II institutionally rubber-stamped; no other such marks. Intermittent spots of light foxing. A lovely, wide-margined, archetypically “18th-century” quarto production for this quintessentially 18th-century writer.  (23770)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 10485. Contemporary speckled sheep, worn and abraded; back cover with slices to leather, title label on spine almost entirely rubbed away. One leaf torn; pages age-toned throughout, with staining/spotting. Back pastedown with calligraphy practice inked in an early hand.

In any case, this work is a standard early European work on the history of China and of the European travellers and missionaries to it. The details are gleaned from previously published works but were augmented by some unpublished or oral sources.

For Americanists, pp. 301–79 are the most important, being Father Martin Ignacio's account of his voyage from Spain to China by way of the Spanish Main, Mexico, and the Philippines. The pages on his time in Mexico include an important account of the Espejo Expedition to and discovery of New Mexico.

Provenance:  Ex–John Carter Brown Library, with its bookplate.

•  Palau 105504; Adams G868; Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 10; Lowendahl 30; Sabin 27778 ; Leclerc 261; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 586/34; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 7j.   19th-century half calf with sprinkled edges; interior with the usual browning and stains that characterize 1580s editions printed at Rome, these varying by section with the paper. Short closed tear to title-page and one leaf with lower corner lost, taking a bit of lowest shouldernote; lacking pp. 263–66 (Franciscans in China — an interesting omission/excision!). Library bookplate on front pastedown with its small release stamps. Rather a nice copy with distinguished provenance for the busted bibliophile.  (28311)

•  Removed from a volume and old sewing holes visible in inner margins. Last leaf detached and reattached with archival-quality tissue tape. A clean copy.

English brewers

•:  Removed from a volume and resewn. A clean copy.

A good example of the solid, workaday English law-printing of its period, opening with an attractive foliate initial crowned with a seated griffin.

•  ESTC N57352. Removed from a nonce volume. Pages clean save for some very minor browning in outer margins.

• ESTC W28659; Evans 28775; Sabin 28933. 19th-century quarter sheep in imitation of morocco, rubbed and worn; covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct institution, spine with paper shelving label. Half-title lacking, title-page and a number of others stamped, back free endpaper with pocket. Pages clean save for stamps. (9536)