Rare.   The first edition is vanishingly scarce, and this second only slightly less so; searches of various institutional databases locate only one U.S. and two overseas holdings of the second edition.

•  Contemporary half morocco with paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; leather lost from corners and head of spine, binding a bit rubbed and scuffed. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate; front pastedown and free endpaper institutionally rubber-stamped. Light to moderate foxing throughout; plates of demonstration lacking, philosophical text (still interesting) all/only present, along with the frontispiece portrait of a young and serious-looking Favarger.

Also reported/canvassed are hot religious disputes at the University of Pennsylvania and “Carlisle” (Dickinson), with reference to (literal) iconoclasm at Cambridge colleges under the Protectorate ; a double execution in New-York; and minutes of the General Assembly (including a petition from residents of Germantown protesting “enormous” taxes, “an act to prevent the importation of convicts within this common wealth,” and several items having to do with insolvent debtors.

•  Unbound, as issued; edges tattered, pages creased, age-toned and foxed, with tears along one fold and scattered small holes, with loss of a few letters or words not affecting general sense. Two pages with large, early inked notations over text.  (24658)

Binding:  Contemporary blue calf framed in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped title and floral decorations, turn-ins with gilt dentelles, front cover gilt-stamped “C. Anderson.” All edges gilt.

Portrait: In addition to the personalized binding, this copy has the skillfully executed silhouette of a boy in a cap glued to the back of its title-page, opposite the contents.Is this Charles Anderson?

Provenance:  Charles Anderson.

•  NSTC 2S26587.   Binding as above, corners and spine extremities very slightly rubbed. Title-page with early inked inscription of Charles Anderson in upper margin. A beautiful little volume.  (22728)

•  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 dark blue cloth, gilt lettering on spine. Publisher's illustrated dust jacket. Small nick out of the upper outer corner of the rear panel of the dust jacket. VG++/VG+.  (22224)

•  Evans 27001. Removed from a nonce volume, now in modern wrappers. Six-digit number stamped on title-page. Dusty.

•  Sewn; in original wrappers.

Uncommon:  OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only four copies of this 1835 edition.

•  Not in American Imprints; not in Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books.   Publisher's printed paper wrappers, browned and tattered with edge tears and chips, spine clumsily resewn at a later date. Pages darkened and spotted, corners bumped. Clearly read, but intact and unmarred by childish hand.  (24673)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 10485. Contemporary speckled sheep, worn and abraded; back cover with slices to leather, title label on spine almost entirely rubbed away. One leaf torn; pages age-toned throughout, with staining/spotting. Back pastedown with calligraphy practice inked in an early hand.

Single-click any image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

Founded by Sara Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon, Girton was originally known as the Hitchin College for Women before its relocation and renaming in 1873. Although the women students were not granted the full rights of Cambridge degrees until 1948, “Girton girls” quickly achieved numerous academic successes, many of which are vividly commemorated in songs or verses present in this volume. One such piece—sung to the tune of “The British Grenadiers”—honors the Girton Pioneers, the first three women to sit the Tripos exams (these are the university’s honor examinations, and one of the first three Gifton champions was C. L. Maynard). Another entry, a rousing take-off on “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” celebrates the“Charge of the Five [Girton] Students” who nobly passed the “Little Go” in December, 1872: “Papers to right of them, Papers to left of them, Papers in front of them Rustled and threatened. Pelted with questions round, bravely they stood their ground . . .”

The controversy over women’s degrees was raging hotly at the time of this book’s creation, and is reflected in a number of the songs, with less political entries including “Auld Lang Syne,”“Gaudeamus,” “The Great God Cram,” and “Farewell, dear Friends, Farewell ye comrades dear.” There is much to smile at, much to think about, and much to admire, in this Victorian keepsake volume.

Provenance: Front cover gilt-stamped “A.E. Tuthill”; one page bears the ownership inscription of Katherine V. Woodward of New York.

•  Contemporary limp morocco, front cover gilt-stamped as above; extremities rubbed, with leather cracked and partially lost over spine. Several leaves partially excised or affixed deliberately to one another; some instances of light offsetting and a few instances of verses struck lightly through with pencil (we cannot venture why). Otherwise clean.

•  Publisher's cloth, issued without dust jacket. Dust soiling and one spot of discoloration on the binding. Very good condition.