Binding: pebbled leather over thick boards, covers with sculpted raised panels; panels and spine compartments gilt-stamped within; all edges gilt—a handsome example of this style of Victorian binding.

•  Binding as above, with some rubbing and abrading, especially on edges, and faint waterstain at head of spine. Short tear with loss along front hinge (inside) at base and short closed tear along outer edge of front free endpaper. Light to moderate foxing on pages and plates. Inked ownership inscription on recto of front flyleaf. (8624)

•  Faxon 108. Binding as above, paper scuffed and joints a touch rubbed. Front free endpaper with owner’s name; front pastedown and fly-leaf with pencilled notations. Frontispiece with small chip to outer margin, repaired. Some instances of offsetting surrounding plates and illustrations, pages otherwise clean. An attractive, engaging little book.

Binding: Contemporary black morocco, covers gilt-stamped with arabesque and foliate motifs, spine gilt extra, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls. Front cover gilt-stamped “C.A. Babcock.” All edges gilt.

•  Binding as above, corners bumped, a few spots of light rubbing to gilt, edges, and extremities. Edge gilt, though rubbed, still glimmering. Front free endpaper with pencilled monogram. Pages clean. Once, somebody’s treasure — “C.A. Babcock’s,” to be specific.

Binding: Signed binding (with Bilbao’s ticket on front pastedown) of oxblood morocco, front and back covers framed in a wide gilt roll surrounding gilt-stamped coat of arms of Francesco de Assisi de Bourbon, Duc de Cadiz (consort to Isabella II of Spain); spine with four raised bands, compartments gilt extra, with author, title, and date gilt-stamped. Board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls; all page edges gilt; blue moiré endpapers.

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of Maria Christina, Queen of Spain.

•  Palau 350495. Binding as above, showing light wear, spine slightly faded; pastedowns with some offsetting, endpapers with spots of foxing. Rare and attractive.

Binding: Bound by M. Lortic in red morocco, gilt extra with accents of black; original wrappers bound in. Wide turn-ins with gilt dentelles; marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

•  Rubbing to joints at top and bottom.

Binding: Contemporary treed calf; spines with gilt-stamped decorative bands and compartment devices, and with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Edges gilt-rolled. All page edges stained yellow.

•  Bindings a little rubbed over joints and extremities, with a few instances of pinhole-type worming to back cover of vol. I; upper and outer edges dust-soiled. Some instances of light foxing. An attractive set.

Click either image for enlargement.

Additional illuminated and color-printed title-pages open the volume; each page of text is printed inside a decorative border.

Signed binding: Signed by Bradley, with that company’s pressure-stamp on the front free endpaper: Brown cloth, covers gilt-stamped with strapwork and floral and lyre decorations surrounding a gilt-stamped vignette of cherubim, spine gilt extra. All edges gilt.

•  BAL 5932; Sabin 50374; Faxon 286.   Binding as above, corners and spine extremities rubbed, front joint with small nick in cloth, back joint with tiny area of insect damage (not affecting interior), binding overall clean and bright. Front free endpaper with early pencilled gift inscription. Illuminated frontispiece (only) foxed, pages otherwise clean. A lovely thing, a delight.  (24359)

•   Sabin 58295; Medina, BHA, 1245; Peeters-Fontainas 1029; Palau 209622. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine gilt extra, with gilt-stamped leather title-label; corners, spine, and spine extremities a touch rubbed, otherwise pleasingly fresh. Front free endpaper with early inked inscription, front fly-leaf with early inked “Acto de contricion” affixed. Lacking additional engraved title-page. Final third of text block starting to pull away from spine, sewing still holding. Pages age-toned, with some instances of spotting and offsetting. All edges mottled to match binding.

Binding:  Publisher's bright red sheep in imitation of morocco, covers and spine gilt extra with arabesque and foliate designs. All edges gilt. Ticket inside back cover claims this as the work of “B. Bradley & Co. Boston.”

•  Faxon 24.   Leather worn over edges and joints, with joints starting; top inch of spine along back joint with sliver of leather missing. First and last few leaves foxed, with some additional foxing in proximity to plates, and pages gently age-toned.  (12953)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Binding:  Publisher's red cloth, covers embossed and gilt-stamped, each cover with chromolithographed paper illustration affixed; spine gilt extra. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 259.   Binding slightly dimmed overall, scuffed at edges and joints. Front free endpaper with owner's inscription dated 1869. A few spots of foxing, mostly in proximity to plates.  (12931)

Provenance: With the printed and folding ex-proemium of J.J.S. van Goltstein van Hoekenburg, Jan. 1819.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 976. Binding as above. All edges marbled. A very good copy; text block very slightly skewed in binding.

The "Story of the Country-Mouse and the City-Mouse," Prior's satiric and politically motivated response to Dryden's "Hind and Panther," is not included, but the long pieces "Solomon on the Vanity of the World" and "Alma" are present. The "Life of Mat. Prior" in the first volume commences beneath a small engraved portrait.

Binding:  Later sprinkled calf, covers gilt-ruled with gilt inner dentelles, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. All edges saffron.

Provenance:  Both volumes with armorial bookplates of Sir Robert D'Arcy Hildyard.

•  On Prior, see: Dictionary of National Biography, 397–401. Leather cracking over joints with hinges tender; spine tips a little dry and pulled; upper and outer edges of all covers somewhat darkened; light wear to extremities. Light foxing to some pages. In fact a very handsome pair.

Binding/Provenance: Prize binding of contemporary vellum, covers framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and gilt central vignette with the crest of the city of Amsterdam, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. The partially printed, partially inscribed, bound-in prize certificate reads “Ingenuo magnaeque spei adolescenti, Henrico Gerteler propter insignes in artibus humanioribus progessus, in classe tertia . . . Quod testor R. v. Ommeren [/] Gymnasii publici Amstelaedamensis Rector,” dated 1791.

•  Brunet, IV, 905; Dibdin, I, 385–86; Graesse, V, 460; Sandys, II, 455; Schweiger, II, 831. Binding as above, vellum slightly darkened, lacking ties; spine with gilt dimmed and traces of a now-absent label and inked call number at foot of spine. Lower edges with institutional rubber-stamp; title-page with shadow of a pencilled numeral. Front free endpaper with paper adhesions from a now-absent bookplate; back pastedown with rubber-stamp and small adhesion. Pages clean save for offsetting to upper margins of a few, from a laid-in slip.

Provenance: Front pastedown with elegant gilt-stamped green morocco bookplate of an unusual shape, dated 15 November 1859, bearing the names of J.W. (John Wesley) and M.E. (Mary Elizabeth Smalley) Sarles. The Rev. Sarles was pastor first of the Central Baptist Church of Brooklyn and then of the Piscataway Baptist Church of Stelton, New Jersey.

Binding: Contemporary green calf, front cover with central gilt-stamped village church vignette surrounded by flowers and vines; this further framed with an elegant frame of beading, trefoiled arabesques, and foliate decorations. Back cover with identical framing surrounding a gilt-stamped lyre vignette. Spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. (Our exterior image, above, shows the spine and both covers.)  Board edges with gilt roll, turn-ins blind-tooled with a different roll, all edges marbled. The style of the covers, their sensibility, and one tool used can be associated with the Philadelphia firm whose work is illustrated by Willman Spawn as #46 in his catalogue of the Maser Collection at Bryn Mawr.

•  NSTC 2R4901.   Binding as above; see: Spawn, Bookbinding in America 1680–1910. Spine head pulled and bottom compartment scuffed, corners slightly rubbed, back cover with a few small scuffs and two small spots of faint discoloration, back joint just starting from top; all this much less distressing than it may sound. Hinges (inside) tender. Front free endpaper with early inked numeral; title-page and last index page institutionally pressure-stamped; first preface page with small inked annotation in inner margin. Back pastedown with abrasions. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. Beautiful.  (23930)

The Fore-Edges:  Each volume bears a different fore-edge painting with a hunting theme, the hunters in traditional "pink" coats, with a pack of brown-and-white hounds either gamboling around the horses' legs or coursing ahead in the gently rolling terrain.

•  Hinges cracked across silk, inside, but all holding; vol. I frontispiece lacking. Some wear at heads, tails, and corners, nicely refurbished; occasional light spots of foxing.

Attractive.

Click the images for enlargements.

The series started in 1656, “compiled for his country's benefit” by Cardanus Rider, pseudonym of doctor and astrologer Richard Saunders; an issue of the British Merlin was found in Isaac Newton's library at the time of his death. In addition to calendrical information, each month gives gardening advice and preventative measures for good health — in March one should “Purge and let Blood: Eat no gross Meats” (p. 7), after finishing pruning fruit trees and sowing peas, oats, and barley.

Binding:  The present copy is notable for having been inserted in an older “cottage roof”-style black morocco binding, covers and spine gilt extra with foliate and arabesque designs. This binding originated in the 17th or early 18th century, most likely the former; with the old text block gone, the almanac (interleaved with blank pages as issued, with additional blank leaves supplied at the back) was added in its place in the 19th century — so too the silver furniture now here: silver button-style bosses etched with a floral design, concealing clasps which hold the volume closed with a silver stylus clasp-pin.

•  NSTC EPH132.   17th-/early-18th-century morocco as above; edges and extremities rubbed, spine leather with minor cracks, clasps and pin slightly tarnished. Front fly-leaf with early inked annotation (“For to keep steel from ruse,” use “Tripoli” and sulphur), back fly-leaf with offsetting from a now-absent leaf also with inked annotation. Pages clean.  (23933)

•  Brunet, IV, 1421. Contemporary black half morocco over blue pebbled cloth, spine beautifully gilt extra, leather edges ruled in gilt; volume clean and virtually unworn. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings); some soiling and offsetting to front pastedown and free endpaper. Many leaves lightly to moderately foxed, a few more heavily — the paper here was not as good as it might have been. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, touching page number but not text. An attractive production.