•  Original green cloth stamped in gold, cloth slightly soiled and interior with a bit of cockling (not, really, staining) from moisture intrusion to lower margins. Though the price is much reduced here, recognizing faults, the book is actually less “reduced” than the price is!  (29037)

48 wood-engraved illustrations

Binding:  Publisher's dark gray-green vermiform cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped cattle-herding vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and eagle design. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early pencilled inscription of Frances Stephens of Pennsylvania.

There is quite a lot of how-to, here!

•  See Welsh, Miniature Books, 2053 for 1840 London edition.   Binding slightly cocked, showing minor wear (only) overall. Front free endpaper with inscription as above, back endpapers with additional pencilled inscriptions. Soiling, generally light; spots, generally small; a solid and pleasing copy of a book that was often loved to pieces.  (29676)

Evidence of Readership: An early owner of this copy who seems to have sided with Jeffrey has made occasional annotations in pencil, one of which decries “these commentators [who] will never allow poor Shakespeare any invention, always endeavoring to prove him pilfering . . . “

Both volumes are illustrated with wood engravings by J. Berryman, reproducing medieval and Renaissance images; vol. II also includes a total ofnine plates, one being an oversized, folding rendition of a fanciful 15th-century engraving of a Flemish morris dance. The title-pages are printed in red and black.

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf of vol. II with pencilled ownership inscription of prominent 20th-century Philadelphia collector E.M. Boyle.

•  NSTC D1619; NCBEL, III, 1644.   Period-style quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped red morocco title-label, compartments with blind-tooled and gilt-stamped decorations, back pastedowns with binder's tickets. All edges marbled. Regular but not heavy early pencilled annotations, some offset onto opposing pages; a few scattered small smudges, pages otherwise clean. One leaf with small central hole affecting about four letters. A very attractive copy, with interesting and engaging signs of readership.  (30112)

This publication is Memoir 12 of the New York State Museum. The plates are photomechanicals in full color.

The plates are signed “F. Kearny,” an artist born in Perth Amboy, NJ, who studied drawing with Archibald and Alexander Robertson and engraving with Peter Maverick. From 1810 to his death in 1833 he practiced engraving in Philadelphia.

There are two states of gathering “U”: this copy has the typographical error “tibbon” with the stop-press correction to “ribbon” on p. 235.

The volume ends with advertisements for several sporting and fishing goods suppliers.

•  Shoemaker 27838; Howes K108; Henderson, American Sporting Books, 6; Phillips, Sporting Books, 21; Streeter Sale 4084; Bennett, Practical Guide, 60–61. On Stauffer, American Engravers, I, 148–49.   Publisher's sprinkled sheep with simple rope roll in blind on board edges, some abrasion to leather; round spine with gilt double rules forming “spine compartments,” black leather title label. The usual light and scattered foxing noted in all copies, nothing more. A very nice copy.  (28553)

•  Sabin 27904.   Full recent tan cloth with gilt leather spine labels, clean and neat. Ex–social club library with old inked stamps, including to title-pages, no other markings. Otherwise, save between two pages where something once was laid in and in the index where a few leaves show a little soiling, chipping, or tearing to margins and one displays an old repair, only the odd small inkstain or short marginal tear and the gentlest of age-toning. A remarkably clean and fresh set.  (30144)

Provenance:  Half-title with inked gift inscription: “Emily Dean From Cousin Lou Fall River, Nov. 16th 1869.”

Binding:  Publisher's red pebbled cloth with bevelled edges, covers blind-embossed, front cover with a large gilt-framed, inset chromolithographic rectangular medallion showing a richly tinted, singing robin; spine with gilt-stamped decorative title.

•  NSTC 2J12360.   Binding as above; front cover vignette with unobtrusive small faint scuffs and with two small spots of staining, spine and edges mildly sunned, joints and extremities with a bit of rubbing. Half-title with inscription as above. Pages age-toned with scattered faint spots of foxing, otherwise clean.  (30280)

The volume is illustrated with20 copper-engraved plates by prominent Philadelphia engraver and publisher Joseph Yeager, including one dainty bird and a number of interesting sea creatures.

•  American Imprints 38398; NSTC 2K6659.   Period-style quarter light grey cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. All edges sprinkled. One leaf creased. Offsetting from plates, among which the last is misnumbered; otherwise, clean.  (30332)

This was first printed in 1839, again in 1843, and then only this last edition. We find but two U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Lacking wrappers. Lightly foxed; corners bumped; last leaf a bit creased.  (27855)

Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, front cover with black-stamped title and gilt-stamped vignette of an 18th-century mob-capped lady tasting from a steaming cauldron.

•  Bitting 337 (for first ed.); Brown, Culinary Americana, 2452 (likewise). Not in Cagle & Stafford.   Binding as above, minimal rubbing to extremities. Back pastedown with 19th-century Brentano ticket. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean. A very nice copy.  (30093)

This is the second edition, following the (scarce) first of 1852; the front cover differs from the title-page in giving the publication information as Chicago.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with several early pencilled inscriptions, including one reading “To Vestilla from W.B. Lear, July 13th 1857.” A folded section from a smaller hymnal is laid in.

•  Publisher's quarter sheep and printed paper–covered boards; binding darkened and rubbed, front joint starting from head, front cover creased. Front free endpaper partially excised and back free endpaper lacking; front pastedown with inscriptions as above, back pastedown with early inked annotations and numerals. First three leaves with central tear affecting several words. Laid-in hymnal pages with upper edges chewed. Moderate foxing and intermittent waterstaining; some corners dog-eared.Interesting for its graphically appealing cover and the array of its “juvenile” repertoire choices.  (30255)

The volume opens with a wood-engraved frontispiece and title-page, the latter done by Augustus Kinnersley; vignettes by Phinneas F. Annin, E.J. Whitney, and others are sprinkled throughout, many featuring children with birds or animals. First published in 1842.

Binding:  Publisher's dark terra-cotta cloth, front cover black- and gilt-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title, back cover with blind-stamped frame. All edges gilt.

•  Bound as above; minor wear to extremities, otherwise fresh and bright. Pages gently age-toned with very few spots of light foxing. A very nice copy.  (30287)