•  Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title label; spine and edges lightly rubbed. Occasional pencilled marginalia and emphasis marks, confined to the first half of the work. (12103)

Provenance:  Inscribed to a Philadelphia social club “from the President & Fellows of Harvard University,” signed by Josiah Quincy.

•  American Imprints 1772 & 7465; Sabin 30729 (vols. 1–3) & 30730 (maps).   Publisher's quarter cloth and tan paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels; worn and soiled/stained but sound, with spines sunned and front lower outer corner of vol. I chipped. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, endpapers with call number, rubber-stamp on title-pages and a few others, no other markings. Front free endpaper of vol. I with inked inscription as above.  (26904)

Click the images for enlargements.

Present here is an early U.S. edition of the first series; two series were published, the first in 1847–49 and the second in 1859. Much of the second volume of this series is dedicated to the question of slavery.

•  Allibone 818. On Helps, see: Dictionary of National Biography online.   Publisher's blind-stamped brown cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; moderate rubbing most noticeable at vol. I spine head, and vol. II with strip of dark cloth tape at head of spine extending onto sides. Ex–social club library: front pastedowns with 19th-century bookplate and call-number sticker, front free endpapers lacking, title-pages pressure-stamped, no other markings. Pages age-toned, with intermittent spots of staining and light pencilled bracketing.  (26412)

Provenance:  Rolle family armorial bookplate.

•  ESTC R10688; Wing (rev.) H1578; Allibone 813.   Contemporary sheep, covers framed in blind double fillets; leather rubbed and scuffed, partially cracked along front joint. All edges marbled. Pastedowns peeled up, front pastedown with early inked inscription; inside front cover with armorial bookplate. Title-page with inked numeral in upper outer corner. (21012)

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)

•  Sometime bound in a nonce volume (removed).

This is the rarer of two Philadelphia editions of 1815: It is not listed in NUC Pre-1956 and Shaw and Shoemaker located only one copy (at The American Antiquarian Society); we do know of some other copies. The other edition has the imprint reading “Impensis E. Kimber.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 34951.   Original treed sheep, leather label; spine, with gilt-stamped red leather label, a little pulled at bottom. Significant degrees of browning and foxing, as expectable of the paper used. Front free endpaper missing; volume opens on title-page. An interesting volume in attractive condition.  (7008)

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers. A clean, fresh copy.  (26075)

•  NCBEL, III, 1217; NSTC H3100. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title-label and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Half-title with affixed advertisement for another Leigh Hunt publication; slight offsetting to two leaves from laid-in article on dance, pages otherwise clean save for very minor age-toning. Attractive.

The plate is a very fine copper engraving of the viceroy's coat of arms and is signed in the plate “Garcia.” (There is also one handsome headpiece.)

•  Not in Medina, Mexico; not in CCILA; not in Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico Español; not in Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico Mexicano.   Never bound, never stitched; irregular at the lower area of the inner margin of all leaves with rodent-gnawing visible. Light waterstaining in lower inner corners as well. Some finger soiling; light chipping along top edges. Title-page lightly dust-soiled.  (26879)

•  Willems 1565.   Contemporary vellum, spine with early hand-inked author, title,and publisher; lightly dust-soiled, three corners bumped. A few light smudges towards back of volume, pages otherwise very clean; one leaf torn from upper margin and repaired, affecting a handful of letters, sense unobstructed. Some lower corners nicked.A nice, one might say “classic” little Elzevir.  (27495)

Knight, who was devoted to books and to literature from the time he was a small child, was a much-admired printer and publisher, as well as an author, reformer, and would-be educator: Many of his publishing endeavors were aimed at improving and enlightening the working class.

•  NSTC 2K7731. On Knight, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth, style Wav3.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with muse motif and title, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; lightly worn overall with some fading, vol. II spine head with traces of a strip of cloth tape. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Paper slightly embrittled (more so in second volume), with a few short edge tears. Externally ordinary; internally worthwhile.  (26860)

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)

true first edition of the unofficial second series

attending boarding school

The first series made its first appearance in book form in London, 1823. The authorized second series was not published until 1833, under the title The Last Essays of Elia; the pieces selected for the unauthorized American second series offered here are different from those contained in that volume, and mistakenly include three essays written by other hands.

•  Shoemaker 33813 & 33814; NCBEL, III, 1225; NSTC 2L2346.   Vol. I: Uncut copy. Publisher's quarter once-red cloth and paper sides, covers printed with “Elia” within a simple frame, spine with printed paper label; binding rubbed and lightly soiled, spine sunned to yellow. Repaired tear to one leaf, touching text without loss; remarkably clean and sound. Vol. II: Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rubbed, and head of spine chipped with old refurbishing. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call number ticket on front pastedown, front free endpaper with inked numerals, title-page pressure-stamped. Author's name inked on title-page; front free endpaper and title-page reinforced at fore-edge (the latter from the back). Both volumes age-toned, with intermittent spots of staining; advertisements absent. The set now housed in a quarter blue morocco and blue cloth–covered clamshell case with marbled paper–covered sides and gilt-stamped spine.  (26434)

Click the image to the left for an enlargement.

•  Metallic marbled paper-covered boards, front cover with printed paper label; clean and pleasant, in original glassine dustwrapper a little chipped at edges. (22940)

•  Quarter sheep over marbled paper: chipped and rubbed; remnants of a paper title label on spine. Lightly browned with foxing/spotting as in common; dog-eared with some shallowly chipped corners resulting in no loss of text. Inked ownership inscription on recto of front free endpaper and of front fly-leaf. (The color in our image is WAY off, red-wards; we will fix this, if we get a chance!)