
AMERICANA TO 1820
A Ba-Bl Bibles1 Bibles2 Bm-Bz C D
E F-G H I-J K-L Ma-Mb Mc-Mz
N-P Q-R Sa-Sl Sm-Sz T-V W-Z
Neal, John. The battle of Niagara: Second edition — enlarged: With other poems. Baltimore: N.G. Maxwell (pr. by B. Edes), 1819. 18mo (15.6 cm, 6.2"). Add. engr. t.-p., 272 pp.
$575.00


Second, expanded edition, following the first of the previous year, of the author’s second published book. In addition to the title piece, the volume includes “Goldau: Or the Maniac Harper,” along with a few shorter works. Neal, who went on to become a prominent voice in 19th-century American literature, describes in the preface here his distress over the first edition, which he calls “crowded and disfigured with innumerable errors — chiefly typographical, however; though in some cases, whole lines were left out . . .” Alas, this edition also required an errata leaf.
BAL 14856; Shaw & Shoemaker 48824; Wegelin 1066. On Neal, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XIII, 398–99. Period-style quarter tan cloth over light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Dedication page and a few others (not including title) stamped by a now-defunct institution. Waterstaining to upper margins and some inner page parts, with final leaves darkened and a few spotted with foxing. Some upper edges chipped; final leaf with inner margin repaired.

Infighting! New York State Senate 1806
New York (state). Democratic-Republican Party. Broadside. Begins, “To the electors of the Western District. Fellow-citizens, In a few days you will again be called upon to exercise the distinguishing privilege of Freemen — that of electing your Representatives to the Legislature. In discharging this duty, the great body of the people only want correct information, and they will generally choose the most able and faithful men to legislate for them.” New York state: no publisher/printer, [1806?]. Folio (39 cm, 15.5"). [1] f. (verso blank).
$1000.00
A wall posting of the so-called “Lewisites” or “Quids,” the faction of the Democratic-Republican party that supported Gov. Morgan Lewis of New York against the faction led by New York City Mayor DeWitt Clinton. This supports four candidates, “friends of the present administration [i.e., Gov. Morgan Lewis],” to fill vacancies in the Western District of the New York State Senate; the candidates, all former members of the state assembly, are Freegift Patchin, of Schoharie, Evans Wharrey, of Herkimer, John McWhorter, of Onondaga, and Joseph Annin, of Cayuga. Their names are printed at the end, followed by the words “The People's Choice” in bold letters. Included are attacks on the character of the opposing candidates, Salmon Buell, John Ballard, Nathan Smith, and Jacob Gebhard, and of particular interest is a spirited defense of the controversial Merchants' Bank.
An interesting window into the factional struggles within the party and the growing dominance of the western district in state politics. Text printed in double columns.
Rare. We fail to trace any copies via OCLC.
Not in Shaw & Shoemaker. As issued, with old folds. Short tear and spot in blank area of inner margin. A clean, very good copy. (24637)

NOW— There's a Movie!
Newton, John. Letters originally published under the signatures of Omicron and Vigil ... To which is prefixed, an authentic narrative of some remarkable and interesting particulars in the Life of Newton. Communicated in a series of letters to the Rev. Mr. Haweis, rector of Alwinckle, Northamptonshire. Philadelphia: Pr. by William Young, 1795. 12mo. [2] ff., 372 pp. (lacks half-title).
[SOLD]
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Later American edition, issued as vol. I of John Newton's Letters
and sermons, with a review of ecclesiastical history, and hymns (Philadelphia,
[1795–1803]); first published in the U.S. in 1788. John Newton (1725–1807)
was a divine, a poet, and writer of the famous hymn “Amazing Grace.”
His Narrative recounts his conversion experience and the brutal
hardships of his life at sea when, as a young man, he served aboard a slave-ship
which took him to the coast of West Africa. His letters under the signature
of Omicron appeared in 1774, being first published in the Gospel Magazine,
and the letters under the signature Vigil were included in the edition of 1785.
Provenance: Moore family
markings, one being the large signature to fly-leaf of “Eliza B. Moor”
[sic].
Evans 29213; ESTC W34085. Contemporary black sheep; undecorated
and worn, with a bit of leather lost at corners and a thumbnail-size chip
at head of spine; joints rubbed and spine with surface cracks. Most of front
fly-leaf torn away, large signature as above remaining; another ownership
inscription to front free endpaper. Lacks the half-title. Gathering L printed
on off-size paper, resulting in print shaving edge on p.122; paper flaw (not
damage!) on p. 175 skewing the text on final three lines and costing a portion
of several letters only; small hole in outer margin of p. 163, without touching
text. Library name pressure-stamped on the title-page and rubber-stamped at
bottom edges, bookplates on front pastedown, call number in pencil on title-page
verso, and five-digit number rubber-stamped at base of p. [3]. Offsetting
from leather of cover to first and last leaves; pages lightly foxed throughout.
A good, satisfactory copy. (21185)
Keepsake . . .
The oath of a free-man. With a historical study by Lawrence C. Wroth and a note on the Stephen Daye Press by Melbert B. Cary, Jr. New York: Press of the Woolly Whale, 1939. 8vo. [20] pp.
$40.00
From Governor Winthrop's journals we know that the "Oath of a Free-Man" was the first thing printed on the first press in what is now the U.S. No copy of it is known to exist, but the notorious Mark Hoffman, a.k.a. "The Mormon Bomber," created what he attempted to palm off as the "recently discovered, only-known copy" of this literally legendary historical document. It was a convincing fabrication for many, but not all, and his inability to sell it led to the
financial crisis that precipitated his bombing spree and led to the discovery of his many, many forgeries of historical autograph documents supposedly by mountain men, Alamo figures, Mormon founder Smith, and Emily Dickinson.
This is Keepsake no. 60 of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, although this copy does not include the laid-in sheet noting that detail. Important study by the head of the John Carter Brown Library on the Oath.
Publisher's cloth, front cover with printed paper label. Clean and fresh. (14191)

“The Deist Unmasked”
Ogden, Uzal, & Charles Leslie. Antidote to deism. The deist
unmasked; or An ample refutation of all the objections of Thomas Paine, against the Christian religion; as contained in a pamphlet, intitled, The age of reason; addressed to the citizens of these states. Newark, N. J.: Pr. by John Woods, 1795. 12mo. 2 vols. I: xxiv, [13]–327 pp. II: xxii, [13]–342 pp.
$275.00


First edition of this two-volume treatise by the rector of Trinity Church, Newark, N. J., refuting Thomas Paine's “Age of Reason.” Dedicated to George Washington. Also includes “Advertisement,” “Remarks on Boulanger’s Christianity unveiled,” and “A short method with the deists” by the Reverend Charles Leslie.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Provenance: M. La Rue Perrine, on title-page.
Evans 29237; Felcone, New Jersey Books, 206. Original sheep, volume number in gilt on spines, title gilt-stamped on
a red leather spine labels. Bindings abraded and leather of spines cracking; spines with white-lettered call number and remnants of paper shelf label; covers rubbed and scraped, with leather at base of front cover of vol. I torn with loss; black stain and faint ink notation on front cover of vol. I; gilt on spines darkened. Ex-library, with bookplates on front pastedowns, pressure-stamp on title-page of vol. II, and
penciled call numbers on verso of title-pages. Signature of a contemporary owner at top margin of title-pages. Front fly-leaves with ink notation in an early hand. Pages age-toned. Front free endpapers torn at gutter. Front endpapers of vol. II heavily stained. Browning at edges of front and back blank pages only. Small chip within text of pp. 21/22 of vol. II, with loss of several words but no loss of overall sense. A couple of leaves chipped in fore-margin. (20002)

A Hard-Laboring Poet of
Cumberland County
Oliver, Isabella. Poems, on various subjects. Carlisle: A. Loudon, 1805. 12mo. 5, [1], [vi]–ix, [11]–220 pp.
$275.00
These poems from a woman resident of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, were composed in moments stolen from hard, hard work on her family's farm; and in fact they were dictated, not written, she not being a “ready writer.” In addition to a number of musings on love, family, and death, the volume includes an abolitionist exhortation and tributes to George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. The lengthy list of subscribers shows names from many Pennsylvania counties as well as from Philadelphia, New York, Princeton, and Fredericktown, MD.
Click the image for an enlargement.
First edition and an early Carlisle imprint; the first poetic publication in Cumberland County.
Provenance: “Presented to Alfred Creigh by His Mother, October 21st 1827,” on verso of front free endpaper: Alfred's modestly calligraphic ownership note inside front cover and his plain note at top of contents page; signature of Eleanor Jane Creigh at top of title-page.
Sabin 57205; Shaw & Shoemaker 9346; Wegelin, American Poetry, 1072. Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rubbed, front joint starting, spine and joints with small wormholes. Inscriptions as noted. Margins variously waterstained, never horribly; pages age-toned with occasional spotting. One leaf with tear from lower margin extending into text, partially repaired some time ago; one leaf with lower outer corner torn away, a few lost words replaced in manuscript. Occasional manuscript corrections. (23146)
Parry, William Edward. Journal of a voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific.... London: John Murray, 1821. 4to (27.3 cm, 10.75"). [4] ff., xxix, [3], 310, [2], clxxix, [3 (2 adv.)]pp.; 14 plts., 4 fold. maps, 2 maps.
$1000.00
Click any image above for an enlargement.
First edition of Parry's classic account of his first and most
successful voyage of Arctic exploration (181920), which resulted in the
mapping of extensive stretches of coastline. The volume is illustrated with
14 plates and six maps, four of which are oversized and folding; the appendix
includes tables of navigational and chronometer data,
lunar
observations, and a report on the state of health and disease
among the men.
The copper-engraved, oversized frontispiece
map shows Baffin's Bay, Barrow's Straits, Prince Regent's Inlet, and the North
Georgian Islands, as well as the bay named after Parry's two ships.
Arctic Bibliography 13145; Hill (2nd ed.) 1311;
Sabin 58860. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine
with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, and gilt-stamped anchor
decorations in compartments. Title-page and a few others, plus reverse of
1 map, lightly stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages gently age-toned,
with occasional offsetting from engraving and the odd spot or smudge. One
map with small portion of inner margin reinforced; final two leaves with inner
margins reinforced; one plate with tears into image and mounted. Final advertisement
leaf bound in before final text leaf. All edges marbled.
The PETITIONER
"Respectfully Sheweth . . . "
Patterson, Alexander. A
petition...to the legislature of Pennsylvania, during the session of 18034,
for compensation for the monies he expended and the services he rendered in
defence of the Pennsylvania title, against the Connecticut claimants; in which
is comprised, a faithful historical detail of important and interesting facts
and events that took place at Wyoming, and in the county of Luzerne, &c.
In consequence of the dispute which existed between the Pennsylvania land-holders,
and the Connecticut intruders, commencing with the year, 1763. Lancaster: Robert
Bailey, 1804. 8vo (23.9 cm, 9.4"). 34 pp.
$375.00
Capt. Patterson's complaint: He nearly lost an arm in combat and had his
head split by an axe as well, was victimized by the marauding "Intruders"
from Connecticut (who wound up permanently settling what is now the Wilkes-Barre
region of Pennsylvania, under the Susquehanna Claim), paid for the expenses
of numerous other petitioners, and then had the government decline to protect
what he considered to be his rights. An absorbingand highly aggrievedchronology
of the Yankee-Pennamite wars and their accompanying legal travails, from a
personal angle.
Sabin 59130; Shaw & Shoemaker 6994. Recent simple paper-covered boards,
spine with printed paper label. Slight cockling; minor foxing to first and
last few leaves. Edges untrimmed. Two leaves with inner margin reinforced.
A good copy.
Pennsylvania.
Collection of the penal laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Pr. by Budd & Bartram, for the use of the Prison, 1801. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.6").
72 pp.
$1000.00
Click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.
Scarce: Only the second such collection of Pennsylvanian criminal laws and legislation, following Zachariah Poulson’s first of 1794. The unspecified prison for which Budd & Bartram printed this work was almost certainly the Walnut Street Prison, in operation from 1773 through 1838 and one of the earliest American penitentiaries as well as a groundbreaking experiment in humanitarian incarceration. At the time of this volume’s publication, the prison reform movement was flourishing in Philadelphia.
Many institutions report microform holdings, but very few hold actual copies.
Sabin 59986; Shaw & Shoemaker 1114. Contemporary-style quarter tan cloth over blue paper-covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Paper embrittled and somewhat fragile; pages age-toned and foxed.
We
Are in Production!
Pennsylvania
Society for the Encouragement of American Manufactures. A communication
from the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the
Useful Arts. Philadelphia: Pr. for the Society by Samuel Akerman, 1804. 8vo
(21.3 cm, 8.375"). 28 pp.
$300.00
Founded to "promote the manufacturing interest of our country"
in 1787, the Society sent out this communication giving its constitution and
list of officers with a report on the present state of manufacturing in the
United States. This includes a discussion of growth in domestic raw materials
and manufactureswith some detail as to items whose production has increasedand
reports decline in the need for imported materials and manufactured goods. The
whole ends on a note at once self-congratulatory and restrained: Things are,
happily, "in most respects very considerably better than . . . at the first
establishment of the Society."
Tench Coxe was the publishing President, Peter A. Browne, the Secretary.
Shaw & Shoemaker 7024; Sabin 60367. Publisher's plain blue
wrappers, soiled. Dog-earing, with a few chipped corners; some soiling and
foxing.


Early American
Mental Health Hospital
Philadelphia. Contributors to the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason. Account of the rise and progress of the asylum, proposed to be established, near Philadelphia, for the relief of persons deprived of the use of their reason. With an abridged account of the retreat, a similar institution near York, in England. Philadelphia: Kimber and Conrad (Merritt, printer), 1814. 12mo. Frontis., 76 pp.
[SOLD]
Click the image for an enlargement.
Annual report of the contributors to the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends' Hospital), in Frankford, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1813, the Hospital (which opened in May 1817) was the first private institution in the United States charged specifically with the mission of caring for the mentally ill. It was also the first institution in the United States to use the “moral treatment” approach to mental disorder, which emphasized humane care and occupational therapy.
This report includes a “Plan of an asylum,” the constitution of the Contributors to the Asylum, a list of “Monthly meetings [of the Society of Friends] that have subscribed,” a list of contributors, and a financial report. The second section (pp. 19–76) is a “Description of the Retreat, an institution near York, for insane persons of the Society of Friends,” which is an abridged version of Samuel Tuke's work of the same name, published in 1813. It was Tuke who pioneered “moral treatment” in England and founded the York Retreat, which served as a model for the Friends' Asylum. Here, he expounds on the principles of his treatment, arguing that the “mode of management” of patients has a direct bearing on their recovery.
Illustrated with a frontispiece view of the proposed asylum, drawn and engraved by W. Strickland, Philadelphia.
Provenance: Signature of previous owner (“Ann P. Paschall”) at top margin of title-page.
Austin 525; Shaw & Shoemaker 31538 & 32484. Removed from a nonce volume; inner edge with two stitch holes, not touching text. Moderate foxing throughout. (22556)
Pickering, Timothy. Message from the President of the United States, accompanying a report of the Secretary of State, containing observations on some of the documents, communicated by the President, on the eighteenth instant. 21st January, 1799. Ordered to lie on the table. Philadelphia: John Ward Fenno, 1798 [i.e., 1799]. 8vo (20.2 cm, 8"). [2], 45, [1 (blank)] pp.
$1150.00

Important documentation of a low point in relations between the United States and France, summing up the state of affairs following the signing of Jay’s Treaty and the revelation of the XYZ Affair. John Adams’s letter of transmittal is on the verso of the title-page, followed by Pickering’s report describing numerous French government actions that could be interpreted as hostile or aggressive, if not directly contrary to international law, including much mention of seizures of American ships; the letter closes with Pickering’s incendiary warning “I hope we shall remember ‘that the Tyger crouches before he leaps upon his prey’” (p. 45).
Evans 36546; ESTC W26008. Period-style quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title. First two leaves with a bit of light spotting in margins, otherwise clean.

Bilingual & American Interest
Pindarus. [two lines in Greek, romanized as] Pindaroy Periodos [then, in Latin]: hoc est, Pindari lyricorum principis, plus quam sexcentis in locis emaculati, ut jam legi & intellegi possit ... illustrati versione nova fideli .Rationis metricae indicatione certa. Dispositione textus genuina. Commentario sufficiente. Cum fragmentis aliquot
diligenter collectis. Indice locuplete, victorum, tutorum, rerum & verborum. Discursu duplici; uno de dithyrambis; altero de insula Atlantica ultra Columnas Herculis quae America hodiè dicitur. Opera Erasmi Schmidii Delitiani. [Witebergae]: sumptibus Z. Schureri, 1616. 4to. 4 parts in 1 vol. [6], 23, [1], 331, [9], 395, [9], 267, [9], 264 pp., 1 fold. table.
$1100.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Erasmus Schmidt's great edition of Pindar with the original Greek and a Latin translation on facing pages. The work also includes the first printing of “De America, oratiuncula ... anno 1602, habita” [utrum ea terra hoc demum proximo seculo, primo omnium alijs extra eam degentibus innotuerit; an versò etiam priscis homnibus fuerit cognita: et si fuerit, quid causae subsit, quod tot seculis ... incognita latuerit?] on pp. 256–64 of part IV.
The main text is composed of “In Pindaricam exegesin prolegomena” (pt. 1: fol. 1–5 recto); “Prolegomina de Olympiis” (pt. 1: fol. 5 verso – 12, p. 13–45); “De eidei, strophe, antisrophei [sic], epodoi, kolois, pedibus, & carminibus lyricis” (pt. 1: p. 46–51); “Pindarou Olympionikai” (pt. 1: p. 53–331; caption title p. 53); “Pindari Pythionicae” (pt. 2: p. [1–8], 1–395; half title p. [1]); “Pindari Nemeonicae” (pt. 3: p. [1-8], 1–267; half title p. [1]); “Pindari Isthmionicae” (pt. 4: p. [1–8], 1-–53; half title p. [1]); “ Catalogus victorum, qvibus eide haec scripta sunt” (pt. 4: p. 155–56); “Leipsana seu residua fragmenta scriptorum Pindari, incuria superiorum seculorum amissorum, ex diversis autoribus collecta ab E[rasmo S[chmidtio]” (pt. 4: p. 157–68); “De dithyrambis. Qvaestio in promotione XXXII. Philosophiae candidatorum d. 23. Martii Anno 1607. à M. Joachimo Jaschio proposita” (pt. 4: p. 247–55); and two indices.
Alden & Landis 616/94; Sabin 62917; Jantz, German Baroque, 193; Schweiger, I, 235; Dibdin, Greek & Latin Classics, II, 288. Contemporary vellum. Browned copy; ex-library with bookplate and attractive rubber -stamp in margin of one preliminary leaf; old notes in an elegant hand on front and rear free endpapers. In fact a very good copy. (21201)
[Plautius, Caspar]. Nova typis
transacta navigatio novi orbis Indiae occidentalis.... [Linz], 1621. Folio (32.6
cm, 12.875"). )(4 (-)(4, blank) A–M4 N4 (-N4,
blank); Engr. t.-p., [2] ff., 101, [1] pp.; 18 plts.
$27,000.00

Curiously enough, the dedicatee of this work, Caspar Plautius,
is certainly also its author, writing under the pseudonym of Honorius Philoponus.
Plautius was abbot of Seitenstetten in Lower Austria, and no doubt wrote as
a compliment to a fellow Benedictine: Bernard Buil or Boyl of Montserrat, appointed
by the pope vicar general of the Indies, who, with others of the order, accompanied
Columbus on his second voyage as missionaries. In the style of a medieval legendary, Nova
typis transacta navigatio novi orbis Indiae occidentalis relates first the
westward voyage of St. Brendan, then the exploits of the Boyl and his fellow
monks, including some description of the customs of the American native peoples
they met, with their lands, their agriculture, their feast customs, et al. Boyl’s
missionary enterprise failed, and sadly he is now only remembered for his mordant
criticism of Columbus.

This
book bears an ornate, emblematic engraved title-page, with portraits of St.
Brendan and Boyl and more, and no fewer than 18 leaf-filling plates by Wolfgang
Kilian. These plates, which mix
fancy and realism in entirely engaging ways, include
a portrait of Columbus, a scene of St. Brendan celebrating mass on the back of a whale, botanical images of the marvelous Peruvian potato, and numerous views of
the missionaries’interaction with the natives, some friendly, and some not—the unfriendliest being notably violent and gory. Also, on p. 35–36 is given an example of purported
native
American music, with both words and notation. This copy is one (probably the first) of two states of this sole edition (with only three leaves in the preliminaries), without the additional foldout plate found in some copies.

Binding: Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt-extra, with a red leather title label. Red, blue, yellow, and green endpapers. All edges speckled red. (Our image in this early "edition" of our description is a bit distorted; we expect to fix that, before general publication.)
Alden & Landis, European Americana, 621/100; Sabin 63367; Palau 224762. Binding as above and shown at left (distortion noted), chipped on corners and at head and foot of spine. Small wormholes visible on inside of covers, running into margins of pages and plates, and a few closed tears, neither affecting print or plates. Engraved title remounted. Small stains, light spots of waterstaining, and light soiling.
A
very covetable illustrated Americanum of the early 17th century, in an enjoyable copy.
Single-click
any image above, for an enlargement.


Get
Cured or
Get Clean
YOU
Choose: “Druggs”
or Soap
Pomet, Pierre.
A compleat history of druggs, written in French by Monsieur Pomet ... To which
is added, what is further observable on the same subject, from Mess. Lemery
and Tournefort ... Illustrated with above four hundred copper cutts ... Done
into English from the originals. London: Pr. for R. & J. Bonwicke, and R.
Wilkin; John Walthoe & Tho. Ward,, 1725. 4to (22.5 cm; 9"). xii, 419, [1]
pp., [4] ff.; 86 plts.
$3250.00
In his capacity as “Chief Druggist to the late French King Lewis XIV” Pomet (1658–99) gained a highly favorable reputation for his knowledge and use of botanical and other drugs, and in 1694 he presented as much of his knowledge as he thought wise in his Histoire générale des drogues. In 1712 the first English-language edition appeared, followed a-dozen-plus-one years later by this second. The English editions add material from the works of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656–1708) and Nicolas Lémery (1645–1715), and were translated by Joseph Browne (1673–1721), a Lincoln College –educated physician and satirist.
Highly influential in its time, this materia medica covers botanical, zoological, and mineral sources and is illustrated with
86 etched plates, mostly with four
specimens per plate; but there are also full-page images of a silk factory, a fishery, and of “negro's [sic] making Roucou.” Other plates are of unicorns, whales, rhinos, elephants.
The
Americana content is noteworthy, with discussion of cacao, chocolate, “guinea pepper,” “long American pepper,” tobacco, and so on. Two surprising sections are devoted to glass manufacture and achieving color in glass, and soap making.
The volume begins with a black and red title-page, is printed in roman type with some italic in double-column format, and offers its plates close to the text that refers to them.
Wellcome Catalogue, IV, 412; Graesse, Trésor de Livres rares, V, 398; Alden & Landis 725/158; not in Sabin; ESTC T111989; Pritzel 7258n; Junersforgg & Hasenkamp, Coffee, 1177– 1179. Recent full calf antique-style with gilt concentric panels on covers and gilt corner devices on same; round spine with raised bands, each accented by gilt rules. Some plates closely trimmed at foremargin. A very pleasing copy. (21774)
A
PRB&M “FEATURED BOOK”
for others, click
here.
Pons, François Raymond Joseph de. Voyage à la partie orientale de la Terre-Ferme, dans l'Amérique Méridionale, fait pendant les années 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804: contenant la description de la capitainerie générale de Carácas.... Paris: Chez Colnet, F. Buisson, and others, 1806. 8vo (20 cm, 7.875"). 3 vols. I: [2] ff., 358 pp.; foldout map. II: [2] ff., 469, [1 (blank)] pp. III: [2] ff., 362 pp.; 3 foldout maps.
$2875.00
Single-click the image above, for an enlargement.
The map is NOT fully folded out that would have mandated an image either too small
in scale to be at all useful, or simply TOO big.
Depons’s Voyage gives us a picture of the Spanish Main (Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, etc. to the mouth of the Amazon) in the period shortly before independence, including Spanish colonial administration, the colony’s commerce, finance, and military, a discussion of the inhabitants—including aboriginal ones—and notes on the organization of the Church, including
the Inquisition. The maps are “Carte de la Capitainrie Génerale de Caracas (vol. I, facing p. 1), “Plan de la ville de Caracas” (vol. II, facing p. 63),“Plan de la Port de la Goayre” (vol. III, facing p. 124), and “Plan de la Rade et de la Ville de Porto” (vol. III, facing p. 128).
François Raymond Joseph de Pons (1751–1812) was archivist for the French Navy. This work also appeared in English, German, and Spanish editions; this is its first edition, and the sole French edition.

Provenance: Engraved armorial bookplates of Thomas Munro on front pastedowns. Unattributed note in pencil in top margin of half-title of vol. I (repeated in substance in the other volumes): “This was Talleyrand’s copy.”
Sabin 19641; Palau 70507. Treed calf, spines gilt with red leather labels, marbled endpapers; a little rubbed with fine chipping and some cracking along joints, endpapers with some browning from turn-ins, pages with some light waterstaining and brownspotting and a few small holes resulting in loss of individual letters. Closed tear (without loss) into map in vol. I, short closed tear into right border and some soiling and browning in bottom portion of map facing p. 63 in vol. III, light browning in bottom margin and faint waterstaining in top portion of map facing p. 124 in vol. III, and light waterstaining in map facing p. 128 of the same volume. All edges speckled red and blue.
Overall quite handsome and intriguing.

Early
AMERICAN Law Book
“Practitioner in the law.” The Young clerk’s magazine: or, English law-repository: containing, a variety of the most useful precedents of articles of agreement, bonds, bills, recognizances, releases, letters and warrants of attorney, awards, bills of sale, gifts, grants, leases, assignments, mortgages, surrenders, jointures, covenants, copartnerships, charterparties, letters of licence, compositions, conveyances, partitions, wills, and all other instruments that relate to publick business. With necessary directions for making distresses for rent, &c. as the law between landlord and tenant now stands. To which is added, the doctrine of fines and recoveries, and their forms. Together with those of common writs, affidavits, memorials for registering deeds, &c. in Middlesex; as also a choice collection of declarations in the King’s bench and common pleas. Philadelphia: Reprinted [from the London edition] by John Dunlap and Joseph Crukshank, 1774. 12mo. [2] ff., 303, [1 (blank)] pp.
$850.00
First American edition of a wildly popular English law vade mecum for the common man and the law clerk. The title-page labels this the “fifth edition, revised and corrected” but that is totally misleading for it is not the fifth edition printed in America, nor the fifth edition overall, nor the fifth revised edition; the puffing “fifth” is simply there to convey that this is a book that many have purchased and therefore “you should too.”
The English and Dublin editions all give as the author on the title-page, “Practitioner in the law,” but the American editions omit it.
Provenance: Ownership inscription on front fly-leaf: “Michael Conrad, October the 1st, 1785.” Later in the Theological Library of Bucknell University (bookplate), and from that collection transferred to Ambrose Swasey Library of the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (its stamp on bottom edge). Deaccessioned.
Uncommon in commerce.
Evans 13786; Hildeburn 3140; ESTC W21104. Contemporary tan sheep, dry, joints cracked. Ex-library: call number on binding, bookplate on front pastedown, rubber- and pressure-stamps, pencilling on verso of title-page. Some spotting, not a great deal; a dried flower laid in. Now sporting a cranberry-colored paper jacket and housed in a red cloth clamshell case with cafe au lait-colored spine labels. (24514)
Prentis, Joseph. Autograph Letter Signed to Robert Saunders. Unnamed place in Virginia, 2 February 1820. Folio (32.8 cm, 13"). [2] ff.
$125.00


Sent to Robert Saunders in Williamsburg, Va., this letter discusses a debt owed to the writer (not by Saunders, but rather by a gentleman with whom Saunders was apparently in communication); a court case in which the writer’s family was involved; the health of “Aunt Susan,” who has been “so much indisposed of late”; and the stagnation of business that followed the War of 1812. The letter bears its integral address leaf with a notations, “mail single, post paid” and “Paid 12½.”
Click the image for an enlargement.
The writer seems to have been Joseph Prentis (1785–1851), son of a Williamsburg merchant of the same name; it is difficult to identify him with absolute certainty, but Saunders is elsewhere recorded as having assisted in the administration of the estate of Joseph Prentis the elder.
Creased, with small spots of discoloration. Portion of upper and upper inner margins lost to hungry rodent, with loss of a number of words; one tear to the final leaf repaired some time ago with tape.
Priestley, Joseph. A general history of the Christian church, to the fall of the Western Empire ...the second edition improved. Northumberland [PA]: Pr. for the author by Andrew Kennedy, 1803–04. 8vo (21.7 cm, 8.5"). 2 vols. I: xix, [1], 488 pp. II: 552 (i.e., 554), [2] pp.
$975.00

Second edition, following the first of 1790: Corrected and expanded version of this scholarly history by Priestley, a controversial theologian as well as a chemist who may be best remembered today for experiments with gasses that led to the discovery of oxygen. Covering the early development of Christianity, the two volumes also address some contemporaneous events in Judaism and among various heathen groups.
The work was printed in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where Priestley settled in 1782, when his liberal political opinions and defense of the French Revolution (in addition to his status as a nonconforming minister of questionable orthodoxy) obliged him to emigrate from England to the United States.
Provenance: Both title-pages inscribed by N. Irwin.
Shaw & Shoemaker 4912 & 7121. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Title-pages with faint impression of a once-pencilled shelf number; some leaves lightly foxed.
Priestley, Joseph. A general history of the Christian church, from the fall of the Western Empire to the present time.... Northumberland [PA]: Pr. for the author by Andrew Kennedy, 1802–03. 8vo (21.6 cm, 8.5"). 4 vols. I: xxxvi, 475, [1 (blank)] pp. II: vii, [1], 539, [1 (blank)] pp. III: [6], 488 pp. IV: x, [3], xii–xiii, [1], 480 pp.
$1275.00

First edition. Priestley here continues his General History of the Christian Church to the Fall of the Western Empire (published in two volumes in 1790) up through 1802. (Although the present set, dedicated to Thomas Jefferson, stands alone, each book does close with an acknowledgment of its number in both series — i.e., “The end of Volume the third of the Second Part, or Volume the fifth of the whole Work”.) Priestley’s ecclesiastical history not only canvasses Catholicism and the other branches of Christianity, but considers Judaism and Islam (if the latter to a somewhat limited extent) as well.
Click the image to the left for an enlargement.
This work was printed in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, where Priestley settled in 1782, his liberal political opinions and defense of the French Revolution (in addition to his status as a nonconforming minister of questionable orthodoxy) having obliged him to emigrate from England to the United States.
Provenance: Each title-page inscribed by N. Irwin.
Shaw & Shoemaker 2933 & 4913. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Title-pages with faint impression of a once-pencilled shelf number; a few page edges slightly ragged; some instances of small spots of foxing, mostly in margins, and varying degrees of offsetting. Please note these are octavo values they're substantial, but we think the photo may make them look a bit taller than they actually are.
Prince, Thomas. A chronological history of New-England in the form of annals: Being a summary and exact account of the most material transactions and occurrences relating to this country, in the order of time wherein they happened, from the discovery by Capt. Gosnold in 1602, to the arrival of Governor Belcher, in 1730. With an introduction containing a brief epitome of the most remarkable transactions and events abroad, from the Creation.... Boston: Pr. by Kneeland & Green for S. Gerrish, 1736. 8vo (16.6 cm, 6.5"). [8], xi, [1], 20, 104, [2], 254 pp. (lacking title-page).
$500.00
Click either image above for an enlargement.
First edition of an extremely ambitious, painstakingly detailed
history — “our most scholarly colonial work,” according to
Howes. The Rev. Thomas Prince was minister of the Old South Church in Boston
and founder of the New England Library (now the Prince Collection of the Boston
Public Library); he began collecting the historical references that formed the
basis of the present work in 1703, when he entered Harvard.
Dedicated to Jonathan Belcher, this first volume ends at the year 1630, with
a note that the size of the undertaking had exceeded the expectations of both
the author and the bookseller. The second volume did not appear until 1755,
under the title Annals of New-England.
Sabin 65585; Evans 4068; Howes P615; ESTC W30371. On Prince,
see: Dictionary of American Biography. Contemporary sheep, spine with
gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather rubbed and scraped, with spine label
chipped. Front pastedown with institutional stamp; front free endpaper and
fly-leaf with pencilled notations. Title-page lacking; first (dedication)
leaf with signature “[W?] Nathans” and two early inked inscriptions
on text pages reading “Nath[.] Mason his book.” Pages browned,
most heavily the first 50 pages; some other staining; a few leaves with short
edge tears, in two cases touching text without loss. Sound, and still interesting
reading.
The
FRENCH
Position: In
re:
Privateers
& More
(Privateers). [Adet,
Pierre Auguste]. Authentic. Official notes, from the minister of the
French Republic, to the secretary of state of the United States of America.
With a replication to the first note, by the secretary of state. Philadelphia:
J. Ormrod, [ca. 1796]. 8vo signed in 4s (20 cm, 7.9"). 42 pp.
$275.00

Ongoing political maneuvers regarding privateers, the treatment of neutral vessels and of ships of war, and Mr. Jay's negotiations. A message from Secretary of State Timothy Pickering is included in which Pickering complains of Adet's having published a previous note that would have been more "properly addressed to [the U.S.] Government, to which alone pertained the right of communicating it in such time and manner as it should think fit, to the citizens of the United States."
ESTC W21390; Evans 30442; not in Sabin. Recently rebound in quarter blue morocco over blue cloth, leather edges stamped with gilt rolls, spine gilt-stamped with title and publication information. Title-page with inner margin reinforced, chips to outer edges. Some leaves lightly spotted, title-page somewhat more darkly so.


AMERICAN
Sericulture a
Possible Source of
Revenue?
Pullein, Samuel. The culture of silk:
or, an essay on its rational practice and improvement. In four parts... For
the use of the American colonies. London: Pr. for A. Millar, 1758. 8vo. Frontis.,
xv, [1 (blank)], 299, [1] pp., plt.
$1250.00
Interest in the production of silk in the New World began with
the Spaniards in the 16th century, though despite the best efforts of many in
Mexico, the enterprise came to naught. Either undaunted by or unaware of the
failure of these earlier efforts, the English in the 18th century attempted
the introduction of sericulture into their regions of North America. This early
English treatise on the possibilities of silk culture in British North America
was aimed at planters and owners of land on which the essential mulberry trees
could be planted, and entrepeneurs looking to enter a new business at ground
level.
In the period 1750 through 1820 there was considerable interest in the development
of this potentially lucrative enterprise. The work in hand is divided into
four parts: "I. On the raising and planting of mulberry trees. II. On hatching
and rearing the silkworms. III. On obtaining their silk, and breed. IV. On
reeling their silk-pods."
The two plates (one being the frontispiece) show various machinery and tools
for, and stages of, the production of silk. The author, a "reverend," flourished
1734–60.
Sabin 66625. Recent quarter calf, antique style. Round spine
with raised bands accented with gilt ruling. Gilt center devices in spine
compartments. Green morocco title-label. Marbled paper sides. Light foxing.
A very good copy.


PLACE
AN ORDER | E-MAIL
US | PRB&M HOME