Binding:  19th-century vellum over boards with yapp edges, spine gilt extra (diced) with three leather gilt-lettered spine labels alternately green and red. All edges (faded) blue.

Provenance:  Bookplate of an escutcheon with a passant lion in the bend, the shield with a lion's head at the helm, above the motto Dum spiro spero (front pastedown).

• Willems 412; Goldsmid, II, 38; Copinger, Elzevier, 4051; Rahir, Elzevier, 400; Schweiger, II, 877–78; Dibdin, II, 384; Brunet, V, 86; H.P. Kraus, Cat. 194, 155.   Bound as above, one spine label a bit chipped; engraved title mounted with manuscript notes visible (but illegible) showing through; volume lacking sixth preliminary leaf and with two minute pinholes in the upper margin of last leaf of preliminaries (where an owner's 1723 inscription was, now illegible). Light foxing and instances of staining throughout, with a rust stain causing a small hole at one leaf's gutter. Priced according to faults, still a very neat little book.  (29562)

Binding:  Full speckled sheep, four raised bands; tooled in blind using rules and a rope-design roll. Binding attributed to Philadelphia-area binder Christopher Hoffman, who was both a Schwenckfelder minister and a binder!

Provenance:  “To Isaac Jeackle in Herreford 1791" on front fly-leaf. Hereford is in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

•  On Hoffman as a binder with an illustration of a nearly identical binding, see: Maser, Bookbinding in America, 15.   Binding as above, chip to bottom of front joint; old library rubber-stamp on front pastedown and to title-page verso, with a bit of old pencilling. Without the half-title and pp. 465–68; title-page with short closed tear along gutter. Paper with the usual age-toning/foxing, but untattered. All edges heavily sprinkled red.  (28536)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of John Train.

Binding:  Contemporary maroon straight-grain morocco framed in wide gilt border and panelled in gilt single fillet, spine with gilt-stamped title and decorations, board edges (at corners) and turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC 2S9246.   Binding as above, moderately rubbed; hinges (inside) slightly tender. Front free endpaper verso with inked ownership inscription.  Light to moderate foxing throughout, pages otherwise clean.  (30141)

A glossary at the end here defines select vocabulary.

Binding: Full moss green pebbled morocco, spine with raised bands and gilt extra; covers bordered with gilt double fillets and an interesting rod, vine, and flower frame gilt within that; gilt board edges and turn-ins. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Robert George Arbuthnot (?) to Francis Edward Dumford, December 1857 (ink inscription, front fly-leaf verso).

•  Lowndes 2266; Keynes, Pickering, p. 88; Colbeck, A Bookman's Catalogue: The Norman Colbeck Collection (University of British Columbia Press, 1987), Vol. II, p. 976, no. 15.   Bound as above, rubbed at extremities; spine darkened to deeper green. Mild offsetting to yellow endpapers from turn-ins, very light foxing on some leaves mostly at the rear. Bookmark cut from an old envelope (“Official Business”) postmarked Washington, D.C., May 3, 1917. A sound, clean, lovely example of a beautiful little production.  (30119)

Click the images for enlargements.

Binding: Publisher's ribbon-embossed green geometric-patterned cloth of Krupp's style Gt2; original printed paper labels.Do please click to enhance the image of this handsome American binding cloth— it's hard to show, but worth trying to see!

•  American Imprints 49627. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England & America, 1823–1850, Gt2.   Bindings as above, cocked; edges, extremities, labels rubbed, chipped, spotted — far from fresh, but also far from devastated. Ex–social club library: bookplate on each front pastedown, call numbers in a 19th-century hand (lined through) on pastedown and front free endpaper, title-pages and a few others rubber-stamped. No other institutional markings. Front hinge (inside) of vol. I starting, text block pulling away from spine, first few leaves starting to separate. Front fly-leaf with pencilled numeral and pencilled doodle/sketch of a chubby child; occasional faint pencilled annotations. A few scattered spots of staining, pages mostly clean.  (26294)

•  Palau 137466; Sabin 68390. Victorian acid-stained sheep with gilt spines extra. Marbled edges. Tape adhered to one title-page at inner margin. Ownershjp signatures on title-page. A nice set.

Binding

Provenance: Infante Duc de Montpensier (sixth son of King Louis Philippe), husband of the Infanta Maria Louisa (Queen Isabella’s sister), with his bookplate.

•  Palau 236716. Binding as described above, covers showing only very minor wear, spine slightly faded. Front pastedown with bookplate described above. Pages gently age-toned, a few showing mild foxing but most clean. Very attractive.

Binding:  Publisher's ribbon-embossed brown cloth with flower and acanthus leaf design (Krupp's style ft1), spine with gilt-stamped title.

Click the images for enlargements.

•  American Imprints 53164; Adams, Manual of Historical Literature, 168. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England & America, 1823–1850, ft1.   Binding as above; corners rubbed and small rubbed spot on front cover, spine extremities chipped, spine head with small lightly discolored area from now-absent label. Ex–social club library: bookplate and early inked call number on front pastedown, title-page pressure- and (faintly) rubber-stamped. No other markings. Front hinge (inside) partially reinforced with paper some time ago. Scattered light staining. A nice book.  (26289)

Binding:  Prize binding from King Edward VI's School: Contemporary walnut-brown calf, framed and panelled in blind double fillets with blind-stamped corner crosses and gilt-stamped English Royal coat of arms (with the quarter of France and dragon supporter) as central medallions; spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels and blind-stamped crosses in compartments.

Provenance: Front fly-leaf of vol. I with inked inscription dated 1863, noting this set's presentation to R.K. Rodwell as an “Extra Prize for the best English Essay.”

•  NSTC 2T3717.   Bound as above, spines and extremities rubbed. Endpapers and frontispiece lightly spotted. All edges stained red.  (21923)

Binding: Mid- to late-19th-century binding, with binder’s ticket of the True American Bindery of Trenton, NJ.

•  Half morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped titles and blind-stamped decorative devices; edges and sides moderately rubbed with a bit of paper skinned from cover of vol. II. Most pages with some degree of foxing.  Handsome on shelf, solid in hand.

Fore-edge: This beautiful example bears a subtly shaded (and therefore hard to photograph)fore-edge painting showing Westminster Abbey in the background behind a waterfront view with sailboats.

Binding:  Full straight-grain dark olive green morocco, covers framed in elegant feather and pearl twist gilt roll, turn-ins with floral gilt roll. Stone-pattern marbled endpapers. All edges gilt.

•  Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1802/1.   Binding as above, mild rubbing overall with some abraded areas consolidated, joints and extremities subtly repaired, aesthetically appropriate endbands supplied. Title-page with inked ownership inscription dated 1803, “The gift of my beloved husband.” Intermittent faint spots of foxing, mostly confined to early leaves. One inked marginal annotation in an early hand, three psalms (145–47) with small inked emphasis marks, pages otherwise clean.  (28715)

The work was limited to 100 copies, all printed on Japan vellum. It has an engraved vignette on the black and red printed title, small illustrations or vignettes on 50 text pages, 11 vignette borders or headpieces (three of them in color, 10 of them in anextra state), and 10 tipped-in color plates. The illustrations are by Henri Gervex, J.A. Gonzalès, L. Kratké, Albert Lynch, Adrien Moreau, and Félicien Rops.

Binding:  Full red crushed morocco with five raised bands. Covers with a triple-rule gilt border; spine gilt extra with gilt beading on bands. Triple gilt fillet on board edges. Wide turn-ins richly tooled in gilt and with cream and blue leather inlays that are also gilt-tooled. Blue silk pastedowns and free endpapers. Marbled paper fly-leaves. All edges gilt. Binding signed “David.”

Provenance:  Red leather bookplate of Cortlandt Field Bishop, the famed collector of the early 20th century and, at one time, owner of the TWO most important auction galleries in NY/USA.

Original full-color wrappers bound in.

•  Vicaire, VII, 924.   Uncut copy. Bound as above with original wrappers bound in. Light refurbishment of front joint (outside). A fabulous copy.   (26675)

•  Faxon 763 (for the 1826 edition); Shoemaker 26110. Green straight-grain morocco wallet binding, framed in wide gilt rolls; worn, with portions of binding faded to brown and hinges tender. Back pastedown with pencilled ownership inscription; some engagement pages filled in. Several leaves removed, some leaving traces. Some plates with spots of foxing. Clearly not only used but actually carried around on a regular basis; still appealing and intriguing. (3714)

The volume was designed by Lewis F. White and printed in an edition of 920 copies; this is numbered copy 648, andsigned by the artist.

•  Publisher's airbrush-patterned paper–covered sides with copper foil backstrip stitched in black (stitching intact); front upper outer corner and back outer edge bumped, paper showing minor wear, foil chipped at head and foot. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscriptions dated 1933 and 1977. Stains and smudges to early leaves with the occasional spot elsewhere; most plates and pages with waterstaining to upper outer corner, not touching images. Not a “painful” copy but not pristine either; priced accordingly.  (29246)

Click the images for enlargements.

Provenance:  Covers gilt-stamped with the device of Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere.

Binding:  Contemporary calf framed in gilt triple fillets and blind roll, rebacked preserving original spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; covers gilt-stamped with supra-libros as above. All edges marbled.

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only six U.S. locations.

•  Bound as above; spine leather with small chips and cracks, sides with small unobtrusive areas of rubbing and light discoloration. Binding overall solid and still attractive; interior clean and nice.  (25320)

This work is rarely found in the deluxe binding: The handsomely gilt-stamped publisher's cloth is the norm.

•  NSTC 2W24418; Allibone 2762.   For binding, see: Morris & Levin, Art of Publisher's Bookbindings, 44. Binding as above, showing minor wear to extremities and front cover vignette, original silk bookmark detached and laid in. Volume slightly shaken with text block starting to pull away from spine; this is the kind of volume that wants to do that, and the reader will want to “cradle” it in hand — that done, no worries. Front fly-leaf with early pencilled gift inscription and with a Maine druggist's small ticket. Mild to moderate foxing. Both funny and decorative, in a publisher's binding that may fairly be called “DAZZLING.”  (26748)