•  Original illustrated and printed wrappers, dusty and a little chipped.

•  Original printed wrappers. Dusty and some chipping to the wrappers, with additional vertical strip of paper lost at top of spine along joint; fragile, and wanting to separate between signatures. Now housed in a simple acid-free phase box. UNCUT and mostly unopened exemplar.

•  Vicaire, Manuel de l'amateur de livres du XIXème, I, 772. Uncut, mostly unopened copy. Publisher's wrappers, printed in black and red; expectable chipping and with soiling. Some pages lightly spotted; mostly, clean. A decent copy of this (rather fragile!) work.

An early owner has mounted on the title-page an armorial plate bearing an image of the two leopards of Normandy on a shield superimposed by a crown, the whole flanked by attendants holding long branches (palms? laurels?) in one hand and the shield in the other.

Handsomely decorated with engraved initials and tailpieces.

•  Brunet 24296.   Recent deep walnut full calf old style, by Grace Bindings (signed in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in); round spine with raised bands accented in gilt and with blind-tooled devices in compartments, oxblood leather gilt-lettered title-label, blind fillets extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils and covers framed in double blind fillets. Ex–Mercantile Library of Philadelphia with stamps, mostly faint, including to title-page; title-page re-margined along top and inner edge with an interior hole filled also (no words affected). Title-page with early inked ownership initials; a few other instances of early inked notations within text. Some leaves chipped, others mildly to moderately waterstained; we have chosen to show pages bearing more waterstains rather than fewer. Armorial device mounted to title-page, as noted; we cannot be sure what this covers, but it is elegant!  (21215)

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

Though Nares is quite capable of picking nits with a level of scrupulousness to match that of the most pedantic of scholars, he is also prone to flights of fancy such as pondering—after noting that a married woman’s moveable goods are unquestionably the property of her husband— “whether the female tongue is to be reckoned among the moveables . . . I believe it is pretty generally held to continue ‘in potestate Mulieris,’ even after marriage, and I know nothing to prevent it” (p. 148). This is followed up with references to Ovid, the Wife of Bath, and the much-storied Flitch of Bacon!

•  Contemporary half calf with marbled paper sides, spines with gilt-stamped helm decorations and gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels (the volume labels recently supplied, in sympathetic style). Board edges showing light to moderate wear, with leather cracking at joints and crackled over the spines generally. Top edges gilt. Front pastedowns with bookplates now partially torn away; title-page of vol. II with an early inked ownership inscription in the upper margin. Delightful reading, as well as an overall attractive set.

This publication demonstrates that change among many others, as it traces the Society via its own documents from its founding at the "Cantonment of the American Army, on Hudson's River, 10th May, 1783," through the incorporation of the Pennsylvania branch, to the death of Gen. Washington. Included here are the by-laws of the Pennsylvania chapter.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 1339. Sewn, as issued. Front wrapper missing, rear wrapper present. A few spots of waterstaining. Uncut copy. New protective paper corset provided and the whole housed in a cloth clam shell case with a leather spine label lettered in gilt. A very good copy.

•  Original stiff green wrappers with paper spine label. A very nice copy.