The collection, which was later printed under the title Oasis; or Golden Leaves of Friendship, opens with a hand-colored floral frontispiece; the title-page gives the editor’s name as “Fergurson.” The front free endpaper bears an early inked gift inscription, and a coupon printed in 1854 for 100 expressions of “sincere homage & never failing devotion of an affectionate heart” is laid in, although the space for the recipient’s name has been left blank.

•  Faxon 857 & 58 (for first & second eds.). Publisher’s brown cloth, covers and spine gilt-stamped with arabesque and foliate motifs; corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed, gilt (attractively) oxidized in some portions. All edges gilt. Front free endpaper with early inked gift inscription. Pages faintly age-toned, two pages with offsetting from now-absent item.

•  Sternick 496.4 (describing binding as red).   Publisher's blind-stamped green textured cloth, spines gilt extra; bindings fresh and clean. Eight vols. of 12 present. Each volume with inked ownership inscription dated 1863 on front free endpaper. Pages slightly age-toned with occasional faint offsetting from illustrations, generally clean. A beautiful set, virtually as new.  (24423)

•  Publisher's cloth, front cover and spine stamped in green, white, and gilt with arabesque designs; binding cocked, otherwise showing next to no wear. Owner's name, partially erased, inked on the front free endpaper. (12602)

•  Publisher's green cloth binding, front cover stamped in black and gilt; bright and clean, with cloth showing only very minor wear to corners and extremities. All edges gilt. (14437)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Publisher's teal cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title and decorative floral motifs; back cover and corners showing very slight scuffing. Back hinge cracked and front hinge starting; front free endpaper excised. Still, an attractive copy. (18393)

Binding:  Publisher's red cloth, covers and spine gilt-stamped with avian and foliate designs; all edges gilt.

•  Faxon 786.   Spine and edges moderately rubbed with front hinge cracked; spots of staining to bottom part of front cover. Front free endpaper with portion torn away, back free endpaper lacking; waterstaining in varying degrees to lower outer corners after p. 120. One signature extruded.  (12944)

•  Scott, A Bibliography of the Works of Sir Henry Haggard 1856–1925, 10. Publisher's red pictorial cloth, issued without frontispiece. Spine a bit darkened, a few leaves with faint spots of foxing, endpapers lightly discolored. Spine slightly cocked. (8614)

•  Publisher's pebbled cloth, front cover blind- and gilt-stamped, back cover blind-stamped, spine gilt extra with vignettes and decorative title; corners and spine extremities lightly worn. Scattered light spots of foxing to first few leaves; one text page with inked ownership inscription in outer margin, offset onto next page; pages otherwise clean. (5783)

This sample promises over 100 biographies, with photographic portraits, to be delivered; it contains, itself, a great many portraits and “bioblurbs.” Tipped-in colored-paper slips offer selling points; one notes that “Complete books will be available immediately after the Democratic National Convention . . .”

Bindings offered: Volume in original pictorial light blue cloth stamped in silver, gold, and black; sample spine for this variant stamped on outside rear cover. Sample red leatherette spine mounted on rear pastedown, with rubber-stamped notice: “This strip is paper and only represents the color and stamping on the leather of our half morocco book.”

•  Arbour 1270 (noting an imprint of Plymouth Publishing Co.).   Cloth lightly sunned and a little soiled and worn. A very good copy.  (23487)

Binding: Publisher’s green cloth, front cover stamped in black with gilt-stamped vignette of Brer Rabbit reclining elegantly at his ease; spine with decorative gilt-stamped title featuring a banjo.

•  BAL 7100; Grolier, 100 Influential American Books, 83; Blank, Peter Parley to Penrod, 56. Binding lightly worn with some rubbing to extremities, spine a bit darkened. Title-page with inked inscription dated 1881 in upper margin, front pastedown with similar inscription. Very mild foxing to some pages.

•  BAL 7841.   Publisher's tan cloth, front cover with affixed color-printed paper illustration; binding somewhat darkened (especially spine), corners and spine extremities rubbed, a few small spots of discoloration to front and back covers. Front pastedown with pencilled gift inscription, front free endpaper with bookseller's small ticket. Pages clean. A very nice book. (20839)

Provenance: With a tipped-in, printed slip reading “With the kind regards of The Author.”

•  Publisher's purple cloth, front cover and spine gilt-stamped; spine and edges sunned, back cover with its double layer of cloth partially torn through the top layer (interesting, as to binding structure). Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, preliminary leaf with early inked ownership inscription and pressure-stamp of a religious institution, title-page with small rubber-stamp. Pages clean. (20829)

•  BAL 9401. Green publisher's cloth, front cover stamped in white and gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title; clean and solid, with only very slight traces of wear to extremities. Front free endpaper with inked owner's name. (16665)

•  Publisher's gilt-stamped cloth, extremities rubbed but front cover bright and attractive. Front pastedown with bookplate, front free endpaper with gift inscription dated 1906. A few signatures unopened. (11431)

•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in gilt and red; minor darkening and rubbing with binding overall very attractive. Front cover beautiful and bright. Pages and plates clean.  (22046)

•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black and gilt; extremities showing a touch of rubbing, with small scuff to spine. Front fly-leaf with inked owner's name, dated 1884; title-page with another inscription using the same last name. Pages slightly age-toned, clean; all edges gilt. (14705)

As described by the title-pages, the volumes are “Illustrated by upwards of three hundred engravings, from sketches by the author. The steel plates executed [by J. Hamilton and others] under the superintendence of J.M. Butler, the wood engravings by Van Ingen & Snyder.” The plates total 20 altogether, including frontispieces.

•  Very good; board edges, corners, and spine extremities showing light wear, spine slightly dimmed. (1957)

the front board beneath the jacket is printed with an attractive morning glory design (unsigned) in green, cream, black, and gold over blue

•  Publisher's paper-covered boards, front cover as above, in original dust wrapper; binding very slightly cocked, paper just starting to crack along part of back joint, jacket sunned with edges and extremities rubbed, back corner creased, and a few small edge nicks. Front free endpaper with bookseller's small ticket.  (24488)

•  Very good; a few nearly unnoticeable spots to covers, a few small darker discolorations to upper portion of spine, corners and spine extremities lightly worn. All edges gilt. Pages very clean, a few signatures slightly more age-toned than others. Our photo shows condition and giltwork well; color is a brighter green than you probably are seeing. (1911)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Smith, American Fiction 1901–1925, M-339.   Publisher's terra cotta cloth, front cover and spine gilt-stamped, front cover with affixed colored half-tone portrait by Ver Beck; corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed, spine very slightly sunned, otherwise a beautiful copy. Top edges gilt.  (24839)

•  Publisher's tan cloth, with borders and letters stamped in black, green, and red; binding showing slight wear and soiling over edges and corners, otherwise clean and bright. Front cover with a rectangular full-color illustration on-lay of a country estate. Previous owner's signature on the front free endpaper, owner's bookplate on the front pastedown. Clean, tight. Very good. (5799)

•  Contemporary gilt-stamped green cloth with a bit of light wear to the head and foot of the spine, otherwise bright and lovely. Some page edges uncut. (10569)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Not in NCBEL; not in Sternick, 19th Century Children's Series Books.   Publisher's light green cloth, front cover and spine pictorially stamped in gilt, dark green, and white; back cover with two areas of light discoloration. Binding slightly cocked, showing minor rubbing overall, moreso at corners and spine extremities. Front fly-leaf with inked gift inscription dated [18]86.  (24869)

•  Publisher's ribbed charcoal cloth; spine stamps and lettered in gilt (faded); covers stamped in blind, but front cover also with a gilt stamped device of a lyre and laurels; cloth at top of spine breaking. Quite a good copy. (2568)

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in red, black, and silver; spine pictorially stamped in black and silver with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding a bit cocked, hinges (inside) tender; corners rubbed, spine darkened and spine gilt dimmed, spine with inked shelving number. Front pastedown and free endpaper each with institutional bookplate.  (24678)

•  Publisher's dark blue cloth, front cover and spine stamped in silver; corners and spine extremities slightly rubbed. Front hinge (inside) cracked and back hinge tender; endpapers partially adhered to pastedowns.  (22222)

Click the images for enlargements.

Some of the science is now of questionable authority (and may have been even at the time of this publication), as in the answer to “What is supposed to be the proximate cause of sleep?” — “An impeded motion of the nervous fluid to the brain, produced by a mechanical compression or collapse of the nerves” (p. 176).

Provenance: Front and back pastedowns rubber-stamped by the Railroad Mens' Reading Room of Sayre, Pennsylvania (“Contributed by Henry C. Davis”); bookseller's label of a firm in Glasgow. Faint oval rubber-stamp on fly-leaf of Richard Hutchinson(?), New Brunswick (probably in England), with pencilled date, 1858.

•  NSTC 2P15178.   Publisher's green moiré cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped candle vignette surrounded by blind-stamped title and arabesques, spine with gilt-stamped title and back cover blind-stamped; binding lightly rubbed, with spine somewhat sunned and covers with streaks of discoloration. Front hinge (inside) tender; paper across back hinge cracked. Pastedowns and fly-leaf markings as above and two text pages rubber-stamped by the Railroad Men; two leaves of publisher's advertising affixed at front.  (23715)

•  Publisher's brown cloth, stamped in black and silver; front and spine with decorated with a frontier scene showing Conestoga wagons in a wilderness landscape with rising sun in the background. (We can't seem to get a photograph of this that doesn't “glare out.”)  Bright with a few flecks of white (paint?). Spine slightly rubbed on joints and at head and base. Pages toned. Good+. (20739)

•  Publisher's red cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black, spine with gilt-stamped title label (gilt just showing in our photograph); cloth very slightly rubbed over corners and spine extremities, with a small smudge to front cover near head of spine and spine stamping a bit dimmed. Reverse of frontispiece with inked gift inscription dated [18]87. One leaf with short tear from outer margin, not quite touching text. (14353)

Binding: Publisher's red cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black and gilt, boards with beveled edges.

•  A lovely bright copy with spine gilt a bit less bright than cover gilding; small smudges to edges, joints, and back cover. Front pastedown with small owner's ticket and inked notation dated [19]72.  (22042)