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The 1851 Streets of New York & Their Well-Regulated Cartmen

(A Suggestive Duo of Survivors; One, aRegulatory Manual).  Taylor, Asher. 

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•  Two scarce official publications both in different ways relating to streets, common areas, and the use of them. The ordinance for cartmen and porters details registration requirements and fees, rules for operation, and approved prices for hauling all manner of goods from fish to rubbish to plaster, with the penalties for failure to comply. Taylor's 107-page “Hand Book,” following, locates streets (“Abingdon Place. From Hudson street, at 611, to Greenwich street”) and, where distances are necessary, gives them in hundredths of a mile; going northward, the city seems to end at about 24th Street, except for casual inclusion along Broadway of 33rd and 43rd [sic for 34th] Streets. (Taylor is described as “first marshal” and his book was “compiled for use in the mayor's office.”)

Searches of WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locateonly one copy of each item, those copies being at the New-York Historical Society; bound with the N-YHS's copy of Taylor is a separately paged, six-page publication with a caption title “Hackney coaches,” which gives rules and regulations concerning taxi fares. (The copy of Taylor reported at the New York Public Library is a photostat of the Society's copy.)

The survival of a bound-together duo particularly useful to cartmen and another to hacks, along with a separately bound copy of the text that would have been independently useful to both, raises tantalizing questions about how the pamphlets were sold and left Bowne's shop — i.e., as individual items, as mix-and-match two-fers, bound or only to-be-bound?? The questions may be unresolvable as the surviving exemplars constitute so small a sample!

•  Contemporary sheep with modest blind roll around the perimeter of the boards; plainly rebacked. Overall clean; stray staining in Ordinances, age-toning overall. Housed in a light brown cloth open-back case with dark brown leather spine label, and cloth chemise (by MacDonald of New York). An amazing survival of two interesting works relating to “New-York's” public spaces.  (29764)

WHINE, Whine . . . !

•  The officials of the Royal Accounting Office in Buenos Aires have complained to the king of ill-treatment at the hands of other government officials, and the king here declares how the accountants are to be treated.

•  Folded as issued.

How Many? HODS were in a“Dale” of Coal?

[Anderson, Andrew].

•  Sheet of five identical printed slips meant to be used as receipts; the text provides space for recording the date, the payer, and the sum paid for an amount of coal (in “Dales”) furnished by the Laird of Wolmet, acting through his factor Andrew Anderson, here identified as a “Writer in Edinburgh.”Only one holding of this item, in Scotland, is reported by ESTC.

•  ESTC R172299; Wing (rev.) A3084B. Small portion of upper inner margin torn away. Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper; now in a Mylar folder.

Arm & Hammer & Cow Brand Baking Sodas AreTHE Best

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•  Color illustrations.

•  Original printed wrapper mimicking needlework. A pleasantly clean copy.  (29889)

Cooking with Gas — Sponsored by a Gas Company

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•  First edition: Intended to demonstrate that gas can be an economical fuel for cooking, these classic 19th-century recipes offer specific instructions for gas ranges and ovens. The publisher, Philadelphia's United Gas Improvement Company, was incorporated in 1882 and exists today as UGI.

This is the genuine first edition, not a modern reprint.

•  Bitting 11; Brown, Culinary Americana, 4021. Not in Cagle & Stafford.   Publisher's aubergine cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title; spine and edges rubbed. Hinges (inside) tender; sewing just starting to loosen. Front free endpaper with inked numerals, a column of figures relating to eggs; otherwise unannotated. Pages with intermittent light spots of staining, largely but not entirely in outer portions; used but not abused.  (28523)

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Medical Highlights, Secrets, & Tricks of the Trade

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•  Sole edition: Opening with a history of British medicine and brief commentary on other global medical traditions, this anonymously compiled work features accounts of physical and medical anomalies, notable cures or failures thereof, lives of famous medical practitioners, and descriptions of medicine's most dramatic (or most curious) moments. The assembled anecdotes are intended to communicate to medical students “that knowledge of the history and biography of their profession, which would inspire them with that enthusiastic feeling, in regard to all that has been great and glorious in its connection and progress” (I, v).

The set is illustrated with a total oftwelve steel-engraved portraits and three oversized, folding facsimiles of prominent physicians' letters and signatures. The binder has disregarded the printer's directions for the arrangement of the plates, and grouped them all at the fronts of the volumes.

•  NSTC 2A12623.   Contemporary speckled calf, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings mildly rubbed overall and moreso in spines' top compartments where old labels were removed(?), spines darkened and showing small cracks in leather with some joints just starting, small square of old tape at corner of back cover on vol. I. Ex–social club library: each volume with 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Vol. I with hinges (inside) starting. Occasional mild spotting or smudging, short edge tears (not extending into text) and occasional corners or lower margins partially torn away throughout. Vol. III: lower inner margins of frontispiece and engraved title-page reinforced with strip of cloth tape. An uncommon and fascinating set.  (29411)

A PortugueseAnti-Church Law Explained

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•  In the form of a letter from one friend to another, this publication seeks to explain “the end and the logic” of the law of 1 August 1774 prohibiting citizens who have attained the age of 60 from selling or mortgaging their real property to/with the Catholic Church.

No copy located via NUC Pre-1956 or WorldCat.  PROBASE locates only one copy in the more than 170 Portuguese libraries that participate; no copy found in the OPAC of the Portuguese National Library.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Slim short wormtrack in lower margin of last leaves; light soiling to edges. A nice copy indeed of a rarity.  (28603)

Jesuit Property in MexicoImmediately after the Expulsion

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•  Contemporary copy of the fiscal accounts of the Marqués del Astorga's administration of Jesuit properties following the expulsion of the Society in 1767. Included are these properties: Atrisco, Chalco, Chilapa, Campeche, Huachinango, Istlahuaca, Maninalco, Mestitlan, Metepec, Octupa,Otumba, San Juan de los Lianco, Santiago Tecali, and Zelaya.

•  Very good condition. Written in a clear, easy-to-read hand; attractively, as well as sensibly, laid out on the pages.  (27600)

Truth & Progess of Knowledge

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•  First American edition. Bailey was an economist and moderate philosophical radical.In the field of economics he challenged David Ricardo and his followers and demonstrated several of their fallacies and false assumptions The present work is a continuation of his “Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions and other Subjects” (1821).

•  American Imprints 5859.   Publisher's quarter red cloth shelfback with drab paper on boards and paper label to spine; spine cloth chipped at top (3/4" missing). Ex–social club library; with 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpapers, no other markings. Small piece of front free endpaper torn away. Uncut copy. Clean.  (28077)

Volcanic Illustrations — Baily's Central American Survey

•  First edition of this evaluation of the commercial and agricultural potential of the Central American countries. An officer of the British Royal Marines, Baily lived in Guatemala for many years, and was the translator of Juarros's Compendio de la historia de la ciudad de Guatemala; he was also a proponent of the “Canal de Nicaragua.” Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The volume is illustrated with three engraved views, all three incorporating volcanos. As usual, this copy does not include the oversized map, which was printed and published separately.

•  Palau 21943; Sabin 2771; Nicaraguan National Bibliography 1476.   20th-century quarter red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; minor wear to corners and spine extremities. Plates with light waterstaining to lower portions; frontispiece, title-page, and plates backed with linen.  (25454)

A PHILADELPHIA Bank's Articles of Association . . .

•  Sole edition and very rare. The bank was capitalized with $1,000,000, aimed at making loans to merchants and farmers, and drew its original 16 directors from the powers that were in Philadelphia at that time, both Christian and Jewish.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 4846. Sewn as issued. Waterstaining to lower margin of most pages; mildew damage to same areas.

. . . and Its Incorporation (Banking). Philadelphia [National] Bank. Pennsylvania. Laws, statutes, etc. An act to incorporate the Philadelphia Bank. Philadelphia: Pr. by W. W. Woodward, 1804. 8vo. 21, [1 (blank)] pp.
$800.00

•  The legislature enables the bank to come into existence and prohibits conflicts of interest by barring sitting governors and legislators from serving on the Bank's board of directors. This act of incorporation seems to be as rare as the Bank's Articles.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 7007. Original light boards covered with marbled paper. Back cover and two leaves gnawed by a rodent, with loss of paper.

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        interest,  click here.

Gold & Silver Conversion Tables
  fromthe Press of a Woman Printer

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•  Mining was one of the chief industries of colonial Mexico, and after a century of decline during the 1600s, the 18th century saw a renaissance in ore extraction, chiefly due to new technologies that made it possible to rework old ore and to achieve higher than previously imagined levels of silver and gold extracted from newly mined ore. Berdugo's work is a vade mecum of conversion tables of values for gold of different carats and for silver of different values of purity.

The work was absolutely essential for all merchants and other business people, and for government workers in the treasury department — for milled coins were the exception in Mexican commerce, cob pieces the norm, and raw gold and silver, including dust, were extremely common.

The volume ends with the “Reglas varias, para sacar juntos, o separados en pasta, o en moneda los reales derechos, que se pagan a S. Mag. De el oro y de la plata, y para reducir a toda su ley estos metales.”

An uncommon economic work: We trace fewer than nine copies in the U.S.

This was printed by Doña Maria de Rivera with a red and black title-page, and with woodcut arms on first dedication page. The charming cut of a herald cherub appears after the decima dedicated to the author at the end of the preliminaries.

•  Medina, Mexico, 4073.   Contemporary full Mexican calf, modestly tooled in gilt and with all edges red; recased, new endpapers. Final two leaves little ragged at edges costing a few letters and with small hole at center and short tears at inner margin; old staining and age-toning/browning throughout. There is every indication that this well-produced little volume saw time “in the field”!  (26850)

New Chemistry, Practical Applications — Illustrations!

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•  C.-L. Berthollet was a member of the circle of Lavoisier and helped in the development of a chemical nomenclature that was applicable and derived from the chemistry being developed at the end of the 18th century. The present work is a systematic study and scientific discussion of the nature of dyeing, with nine plates, four folding.

Posthumous second edition in English, “translated from the French, with notes and engravings, illustrative and supplementary, by Andrew Ure.”

Uncut, partially unopened copy.

•  Uncut, partially unopened copy. Publisher's quarter cloth with paper covered boards; some discoloration to cloth, light chipping to board edges. Ex–social club library: paper label at top of spine, 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. A clean copy with the plates good and crisp; as noted above, an uncut, partially unopened copy.  (27388)

Syers’s Bible — A GOOD ButDOOMED Production
[A Printer-Businessman's Sad Experience]

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•  Scarce sole edition. Sold without direct episcopal sanction, this folio edition of the Douai– Rheims version was issued in rivalry with the better-known Haydock rendition and is the artefact of a sad story: The Catholic priests of Manchester, who mistakenly believed that Haydock’s effort to print a Douai–Rheims Bible had been abandoned after his move from that city to Dublin, therefore encouraged local printer Syers to produce his own edition — only to restore their patronage to Haydock following the discovery of their error, leaving poor Syers in the lurch.

The text generally follows the Challoner–Rheims revision, although the notes are collected from various sources. The volume isillustrated with two frontispieces and17 plates engraved by J. Bottomley, Symns and Mitchell, and others after paintings by Westall, Raphael, Reynolds, et al. Issued in parts in a small print run, this Bible is now uncommon.

•  Darlow & Moule 1034. Contemporary acid-stained calf rebacked with mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and blind-tooled compartment decorations; sides rubbed/scraped with leather worn over corners/edges, this not disfiguring. Hinges (inside) reinforced with cloth tape, and this large volume now strong. Lacking title-page. Plate from Genesis I:4 removed, and laid back in with margins cut away. First few leaves with edges ragged. Pages with offsetting around plates; occasional light spots of staining, mostly confined to outer margins. (11727)

Victorian Gothic toBeat the Band
(Inside & Out)

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•  The Victorian era saw that the application of emerging technologies to book manufacture could produce books that would rightly be thought of as tours de force. The fascination with the “gothic,” for example, led to the marriage of chromolithography and papier maché: the color printing used to approximate the eye-popping illumination, miniatures, and marginal decoration of late medieval manuscripts, and papier maché to approximate gothic woodcarving.

This edition of the parables has 31 text pages, each with adifferent chromolithographic border. The text is printed in gothic type in black and red, with touches of blue and gold in-fill. There are a scattering of chromolithographic miniatures and historiated initials; the title-page is printed in black and gold. The illuminated initials and borders are by Henry Noel Humphreys.

Binding:  Publisher's boards of papier maché and plaster, formed using a metal mold and colored black, creating a gothic “carved wood binding.” Title blind-embossed on black roan spine. All edges gilt.

McLean states of the English edition of this work that “It was . . . the first of the so-called 'papier maché' bindings, contrived to look like carved ebony.” This first American edition bears the first “papier maché” binding accomplished in the U.S.

•  Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England, 231; McLean, Victorian Book Design (second edition), pp. 99, 210; Maggs Bros., Bookbinding in the British Isles, part 2, 245; Abbey, Life, 222.   Very nicely preserved copy with just a few small cracks in the binding, leaves expertly reattached/recased; spine intact with surface of front cover a little rubbed in one small portion. Unlike the broken, chipped, and damaged copies we have seen, this is a treasurable exemplar. Housed in a quarter red cloth clamshell case with tan cloth sides and black leather gilt spine label.  (30100)

ROMAN Political Science in itsOriginal State

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•  Sole edition, here unopened and uncut in the publisher's paper wrappers, of this treatise on ancient Roman government andeconomics. Bilhon also published Principes d'administration et d'économie politique des anciens peuples, appliqués aux peuples modernes and Éloge de J.J. Rousseau.

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only eight U.S. holdings.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 19346.100.   Publisher's rose paper wrappers, rebacked in paper wrapper edges chipped and hinges (inside) reinforced. Half-title and title-page institutionally rubber-stamped, front pastedown with institutional bookplate and early inked numeral, half-title with small inked ownership inscriptions. Signatures unopened, edges untrimmed; pages age-toned throughout, some with a little foxing; a nice copy. Now housed in a neat rose-maroon cloth clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather title-label.  (25268)

Increasing Prosperity for All — by “a Lover of Ingenuity”

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•  Seminal work of 17th-century agricultural improvement, here in its first publication under this “Improved” title, with extensive revisions; the added section “Six Newer Peeces of Improvement” also appears here for the first time. These planting, drainage, and irrigation guidelines, first published in briefer form in 1649, were “all clearly demonstrated from Principles of Reason, Ingenuity, and late, but most Real Experiences” gone through by a “lover of Ingenuity,” according to the extended title. Blith (ca. 1605–54), a gentleman farmer, was a strong advocate of the common good, and although determined to increase efficiency and output, he also here warns landholders against shortsightedness and selfishness — particularly of the sort that yields short-term gains at the expense of long-term productivity. The DNB says that this and Blith's other work on husbandry “surpass all others of their time for their practical good sense, their evidence of his own and others' farming experience, the candour of the author's judgments and opinions, and the care given to describing new farming practices and making textual changes as time and improved knowledge permitted.”

The engraved title-page of this edition shows troops of Cavaliers and Roundheads facing off above and then beating their swords into plowshares below; the four subsequent plates show the design of a water engine and various tools, including those used for surveying with a bonus image of the (well-dressed!) surveyor; and each chapter begins with a decorative initial. Ll1 is a substitute leaf replacing pp. 257/58 (and apparently 259/60 as well; the text is complete and uninterrupted).

Provenance & Evidence of Readership: Front pastedown with bookplate of Sir John Dashwood-King. This copy was fairly extensively annotated in ink and pencil by an early hand, with both marginalia and marks of emphasis.

•  ESTC R206906; Wing (rev. ed.) B3195. On Blith, see: Dictionary of National Biography online; his designation as “a lover of Ingenuity,” in our caption, is from the engraved title-page.   Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, nicely rebacked with calf, spine with gilt-stamped title in exceptionally good period style; sides with minor abrasions, now toned. Pastedowns and free endpapers lacking. Engraved title-page with early inked annotations and pencilled doodle on recto, outer edge slightly ragged affecting image at upper corner; secondary title-page with early inked ownership inscription and a few tiny ink spatters. Pages age-toned and some browned, with early inked and pencilled annotations as above. A significant work, here intriguingly engaged with by a contemporary reader.  (30320)

The Infinite Variety of Ways toConvey Persons & Goods

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•  Sole edition of this illustrated history of carriages and carts in all their worldwide variations, “published under the direction of the Committee of General Literature and Education, appointed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.” The work covers all sorts of animal-powered, (mostly) wheeled conveyances around the globe, including ancient war chariots, camel caravans, Indian “hackarees,” Chinese and Japanese palanquins, Russian carts, Esquimaux dog sleds, American baggage mules, English coaches, etc. In-text steel engravings (several per chapter) illustrate the text.

This is the genuine first edition, not a modern reprint. WorldCat locates only four U.S. institutional holdings.

Binding:  Publisher's blue-green pebbled cloth, covers blind-stamped with foliate corner decorations around central medallion, spine with decorative gilt-stamped title.

•  NSTC 2B40909.   Binding as above, carefully rebacked and repaired; corners bumped, joints mildly rubbed. Front free endpaper with small pencilled gift inscription dated '42. Pages age-toned and upper outer corners bumped/creased (not breaking); quite clean. A nice copy of an interesting work.  (29615)

Louis XIV'sCourt Preacher

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•  Bishop Bossuet (1627–1704) was a renowned preacher, orator, and theologian of his time. He was also the court preacher to Louis XIV of France and not unexpectedly a strong advocate of political absolutism and the divine right of kings. His Catéchisme du diocèse de Meaux (1687) became a model in certain orthodox Catholic theological circles and was reprinted often in French. This is the first edition in Spanish, the translator being Miguel Joseph Fernández.

The title-page here is in black and red, opposite a fine frontispiece of Christ seated, surrounded by adults and children and the quotation from Matthew 19:14 (i.e., “Sinite parvulos et nolite eos prohibere ad me venire talium est enim regnum caelorum,” or in English, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven”). The engraving is by Juan Antonio Salvador after Maella.

Preceding the frontispiece is a leaf of publisher's advertising for other works by Bossuet and translations by Fernandez. Such advertising leaves in Spanish books of this era are very uncommon in our 30 years of experience.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate no copies of this edition in U.S. libraries. Searches of COPAC found no Spanish-language 18th-century editions. Searches of the Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico gave the best results, with 15 copies of this first edition found in libraries across Spain.

•  Palau 33620.   Contemporary vellum over light boards; button and loop closures (broken). Inconsistent browning varying from gathering to gathering, having to do with impurities in water used in paper manufacture and subsequent exposure to humidity. Light waterstain to foremargin of the frontispiece and slightly into the image. Withal, a rather good copy of a book that is difficult to find in today's market.  (29824)

Curbing Contraband

Brazil

•  Document summary, found below "REY": "Alvará com força de Ley, porque V. Magestade he servido ampliar os Paragrafos quinto, sexto, e setimo do Capitulo decimo setimo dos Estatutos da Junta do Commercio destes Reynos, e seus Dominios, para mais efficazmente se evitarem os contrabandos. . . . "

•  Quarter green cloth with marbled paper sides, and red leather cover label with gilt-stamped title and gilt ruling.

Hands OffOur Guano!

•  The Isla de Aves was a matter of contention between the U.S. and Venezuela, as Venezuela claimed sovereignty over the island and thus the exclusive right to exploit the large amount of guano there. (The dispute was eventually decided in favor of Venezuela.) Briceño was envoy extraordinary to the U.S. and minister plenipotentiary of Venezuela.

•  Not in Palau. Original yellow printed wrappers, removed from a nonce volume with stab holes in the inner margins; inside wrappers with a short closed tear and a little shallow chipping, light soiling and a few stray marks. Fold mark down the center and traces of soiling on the top edges.

What’s Going on Here?

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•  Deed from the Hon. Thomas Burnside to Benjamin Patton, transferring the rights to a 559-acre property in western Pennsylvania previously owned by David Curry, deceased, which land became the property of the county upon default of payment of taxes. Two years later Patton sold the same tract to the George Curry, executor of David Curry’s estate. Patton had paid $14.65 in 1811 and sold in 1813 for $200.00.

The Irish-born Burnside, then treasurer of Clearfield, Pennsylvania, was later a justice of the Pennsylvania state supreme court.

A notary’s seal is affixed to the document, which was signed by both Burnside and Patton.

•  Creased and slightly age-toned, with the folios separated and some offsetting from seal; a few small holes, touching text without notable loss.

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