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“First Blow STRUCK in the Western World 
at theGigantic Vice Prostitution”

•  First edition: “An official report to the board of Alms-House Governors of the city of New York,” this work goes beyond its titular subject to examine sexual mores and gender roles in various times and countries, and to recount historical incidences of lewdness, rape, infidelity, and promiscuity, before concluding with an examination of prostitution in the United States and the status of prostitutes in New York City. Some readers have, doubtless, found the detail titillating. Click the images for enlargements.

•  Publisher’s brown cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding faded, cloth partially split along joints and rubbed at corners and edges, spine gilt almost entirely faded. Hinges (inside) starting. Front pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean.

No“Tacks” on Bibles . . .

Scotland.

•  Scarce petition, written by “the Tacks-men of the Paper-Manufactorie,” arguing against a proposal to tax imported paper and foreign Bibles, Psalm books, and “Practical Pieces of Divinity.” Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Not in ESTC; not found either via OCLC or NUC. Removed from a nonce volume. Reverse with early inked inscription. Tattered, with lower quarter lost, as well as several words along the chipped and repaired inner margin. An incomplete survivor, but scarce and still of interest.

“Minuts” — The African & Indian Company

Scotland.

•  Number 78 (of 89) of the 1706–07 minutes, this is a brief account of a committee report “anent the Accompts”of a Scottish company trading to Africa and the Indies, authorized for printing by Andrew Anderson by decree of Sir James Murray, Lord Clerk Register. Many of the Parliamentary documents printed by Anderson and heirs display the same misspelling of minutes as seen in the header of this example.

•  ESTC T78547 (for holdings of complete sets). Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper; now in a Mylar folder. Lower margin and bottom of outer margin slightly tattered to a curve; otherwise relatively minor creasing, soiling.

We Can Do ANYTHING Here . . . Seybert, Adam. An oration, delivered on the 19th day of May, 1809, at the meeting of the manufacturers and mechanics of the city of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Pr. by order of the committee, [1809]. 8vo. 16 pp.
$90.00

•  Seybert, a medical doctor, issues a rallying call for progress in developing national industry to rival that of Europe: All of the raw products are present for clothing, glassmaking, smelting, and much more.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 18591. Removed from a nonce volume; six-digit number stamped on title-page. Stapled and respined with archival tissue.

This TimePay Attention

•  Second edition. Sheridan entered Parliament in 1780, crowning his previous career as a successful playwright and theatre manager with a long and distinguished record of public service. He originally read the main portion of this statement before the House of Commons as part of the debate, after noticing that the gentlemen discussing the two bills in question appeared not to have paid “any very minute degree of attention” (p. 6) to the details of either one.
Single-click lefthand image,
for an enlargement.

The texts of both bills are present here, along with Sheridan’s analysis of how each would address “the question of right between the public and the [East India] Company” (p. 39).

•  ESTC T30944; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 13610. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title label and spine with gilt-stamped leather author label. Half-title and several other pages stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages with edges untrimmed and a few small spots of staining; mostly, clean.

By a Bible Scholar & Church Historian

•  First edition of this pseudonymously published work on the history of Church finances, written by a controversial French Oratorian priest much attacked for his published arguments that Moses had not written the whole of the Pentateuch. Simon, an accomplished Hebrew scholar, was later lauded by the New Catholic Encyclopedia as the “father of Biblical criticism.” Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Provenance:  Howard Osgood's signature on title-page.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 2558; Wing (2nd ed.) S3801B.   Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label, board edges stamped with gilt roll; corners and spine extremities worn, front joint cracked and back joint starting, sewing holding. Front pastedown with small French bookseller's ticket and early inked numeral. Title-page with small early inked owner's name and with institutional pressure stamp, reverse with pencilled numerals. Pages clean. (19511)

& the Exciseman Ends Up in Hell

•  The first named item in this chapbook is a tale of rashness and death,

•  NSTC 2N2681. Removed from a bound volume. Good++ condition. (8418)

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Songs & Meds for the Kiddies — Dos a Dos!

•  A little pamphlet advertising two patent medicines, “Peruvian Syrup” and “Dr. Wistar's Balsam of Wild Cherry,” produced by Seth W. Fowle & Sons of Boston. Interspersed with the advertisements and testimonials are nursery rhymes, riddles, and other verse. The two texts begin at opposite ends of the pamphlet and read towards the middle — which see, at right! Click the images for enlargements.

•  Sewn; sewing loosening a bit. Paper of the spine starting to split. Lightly soiled.  (5000)

Abolition of the Spanish Crown's
TOBACCO MONOPOLY

•  The first printing of the 31-clause decree abolishing the Crown's tobacco monopoly, creating free trade in the commodity "in both [the Old and New] worlds," scrapping the old tax structure and instituting a new one, and addressing what is to be done with the government employees in the Tobacco Branch.

•  Not in Palau (?); not in Maggs, Bibl. Amer.; not in Harper, Catalogue XVI. Excised from a volume and leaves no longer integral, but now rehinged. Light stain in inner margin. Rubber-stamped numbers in upper margins. Manuscript notes indicating that this copy was sent to authorities in Chile. Now housed in a quarter cloth (faux leather) folder with marbled paper sides. A nice copy of an important economic document.

Vich Printing of aWOMEN's Right-To-Work Decree

•  Permits women to manage and work in textile factories and as artisans generally, as long as the activity is proper to their sex. The decree was originally printed in Madrid, and originally promulgated in San Ildefonso on 2 September 1784. The title-page bears an interesting woodcut of the royal arms.

•  Modern half vellum. No problems.

Encouraging Local Industry

•  Finds that local manufacture of linen and textiles is beneficial and removes restrictions on it; the "locality" is Vich, near Barcelona. The title-page has a nifty woodcut of the royal arms. Originally printed in Madrid. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Modern half vellum over burgundy cloth sides. Contemporary inked notation at top right corner of title-page. Very good. (21056)

EstablishingSt. Paul's — Agreements Rules Rents

•  In 1760 the congregation of Christ Church in Philadelphia suffered a schism. The bishop, minister, vestry, and church wardens of Christ Church dismissed William MacClenachan from his position as assistant minister and refused to give a hearing to him in order to allow a defense against the "private" charges brought against him. Part of the congregation was devoted to Rev. MacClenachan and, breaking away, established St. Paul's Church for him. This endeavor required both land and money. Laid out here in black and white are the means by which the congregation intends to raise the monies.

Also printed here the church's act of incorporation and its rules and regulations, as established in 1783. This last section contains an important manuscript addition concerning pew rental that was left out of the first printing of 1794 and was also omitted in this edition because the 1794 printing was too closely followed by Ormrod, the printer of this second edition.

•  Evans 34359. Modern boards covered with marbled paper and with a paper label on front cover. Faint, old stamps of defunct library. A very good copy of a scarce pamphlet detailing economic aspects of American religious life in the 18th century.

Captured Americans! Barbary Coast Pirates! Sensational Stuff!

Single-click the image, for an enlargement.

•  First edition of this important and interesting Algerian history, incorporating natural, political, and military information, as well an account of the 1793 capture of the American ship President by Algerian pirates and the subsequent enslavement of her crew.

The oversized, folding frontispiece depicts a torture scene entitled “The Manner of Bastinading.”

•  Evans 32877; Sabin 91534; Howes S-966 (“aa”); ESTC W12692. Recent speckled full calf, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped title and date. Title-page with early inked ownership inscription, partially shaved, and with a small repair done some time ago just touching one letter; frontispiece mounted. Pages age-toned with some scattered stains; three leaves with careful tissue repairs (including frontispiece, not within image). Occasional pencil marks and annotations.

A Lot of“STORYS” for the Money!

•  Title woodcut vignette of a man leading a prancing black horse by the reins. Also with decorative woodcut border & woodcut tail-piece on p. 12 of a tiger stalking through the underbrush. In the first tale [12 pages] a fiddler becomes lost in the forest and finds his way into a enchanted castle. He wakes up at the foot of a gibbet with a strange violin which turns out to be made of a dead man's bone embossed in silver. Engraved on it is the name of a much-feared local magician. With some trepidation he returns the violin to its owner and in return is given a bottomless purse of money. His four nephews, envying his new-found wealth, murder him for his money. The second story [6 pages] is a vividly dramatic account of the narrow escape of sailors whose ship is set on fire by lightning. John Hetherington, a tailor who cannot resist clipping small pieces out of each piece of cloth his customers bring him, falls asleep after a meal of Welsh rabbit [toasted cheese]. He dreams he has died and is met by the Devil, who unrolls a long patchwork scroll of all the pieces he has stolen. This cures him of the practice of "cabbaging". The final page of the chapbook contains an anecdote about soldiers from an American regiment making fun of a hunchback who gets back at them with a dig about Bunker Hill where the regiment suffered heavy losses. "[No.] 28." printed at the foot of the title.

•  Not located in RLIN. Very good. Original self wrappers (unbound; removed). (17584)

“The Great Buzaglo”

•  Unusual: ESTC gives listings for fourth and sixth editions, but not for a fifth edition.

The "Buzaglo" referred to in the poem is the eponymous cast-iron stove designed by London inventor/ironmaster Abraham Buzaglo, which the author of the poem contends will, once installed, quell party strife in the House of Commons by warming the uncomfortable chill that provokes and riles the more partisan members.

•  Recent marbled paper wrappers. Very light foxing on first three leaves. Two page numbers shaved.

"Scipio's" Opinions

•  Monroe was dismissed from office as minister to the French Republic, then replaced by Pinckney; he subsequently attempted to vindicate his actions and place blame on the president in a publication entitled A View on the Conduct of the Executive on the Foreign Affairs of the United States, Connected with the Mission of the French Republic, which piece is here attacked by the so-called Scipio. Tracy does not confine himself to reproving Monroe's words, but also denounces Paine's letters and one letter translated from French that is attributed to Jefferson.

•  ESTC W007021; Evans 34675; Howes T 326; Sabin 96421. Recently rebound in quarter blue goat over blue cloth, leather edges with gilt roll-tooling; spine with gilt-accented raised bands and with gilt-stamped title, author, place, and date. Some pages spotted.

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BEGGING for Commercial Law Reform

•  First edition: Pamphlet in support of law reforms for merchants and traders. The final portion is subtitled “Remarks on the utility and organisation of Tribunals of Commerce. (By the aid of a Belgian barrister).”

•  NSTC 2L25966; not in Goldsmiths’-Kress. Recent paper-covered boards. Title-page with small inked numerals in upper outer corner. Shouldernotes shaved. Pages clean.

“Horse-Hoing” — 6NIFTY Fold-Out Plates

Single-click any image, for an enlargement.

•  Improvements in farming founded on a scientific basis made British agriculture one of the strongest in Europe in the 18th century. Though called to the bar, Jethro Tull (1674–1741) never practiced law, but devoted himself to farming on land that had belonged to his father. From the beginning he set about trying to discover ways of doing things better, including inventing a number of implements, as this work reveals both in text and in image. His work proved very successful—Tull’s “seed drills” revolutionized planting techniques—and it saw a number of editions; it was translated into French, whence it proved influential on the Continent. This volume’s six beautifully engraved, pleasantly intelligible plates (“W. Thorpe, sculp.) illustrate some of Tull’s inventions, including improved plows and drills for planting seeds.

First printed in London in 1731, Horse-hoing is here (likely) the fourth edition. Bound with it is the first edition of the interesting Supplement issued in 1736, directed largely to answering Tull’s detractors. The first title is fairly widely held, in libraries; the latter, much less so.

•  Goldsmiths’-Kress 7065; ESTC T81915 and N24607. Contemporary calf with remnants of gilt; dry, flaking, and partially gone to red, with some chips to edges, corners, and spine tips; old repairs to joints. Remnants of bookplate on front pastedown. Old water/mildew damage to lower margins, occasionally making its way a bit into text; several leaves repaired, long since. Plates generally quite clean and always pleasing, with faintest waterstaining to lower portion of plate 6 (only). All edges speckled red.

“Horse-Hoeing” — COBBETT's Introduction

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Second Cobbett edition of this work on scientific farming that was first published in 1731 to some little controversy concerning “plagarism.” This edition contains William Cobbett's lengthy introduction “explanatory of some circumstances connected with the History and Division of the Work; and containing an account of certain experiments of recent date.” Illustrated with a single full-page woodcut diagram accompanying the chapter on roots.

Published at the beginning of renewed interest in the U.S. and England in “scientific agriculture.”

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 25812.   Publisher's blind-embossed green cloth, rebacked with much of old spine unobtrusively reapplied. Binding a little soiled and spine darkened with gilt of title dimmed; tips of corners chipped. Instances of dust-soiling at some top margins; one leaf with loss and soiling along outer edge without affecting text. Ex-library with old rubber-stamp on the title-page and several other pages.  (24439)

Surveying & Selling Public Lands — 13 Maps

•  With “Reports of the Surveyors General, accompanying the annual report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, December 28, 1843” on pp. [49]–106 and “Documents accompanying the annual report of the Survey General of Louisiana, of August 9, 1843” on pp. [107]–158. The report includes maps (all but one, folding) of public surveys of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Alabama, and Florida. Government document: 28th Congress, 1st Session. Doc. No. 37. Ho. of Reps. Treas. Dept. Click the images for enlargements.

•  In modern wrappers, with sewing holes. Remnants of paper label affixed to top left corner (blank space) of first page. One map torn, with tear limited to blank space in inner margin. Moderate foxing throughout; some corners dog-eared.

The Committee of Commerce & Manufactures
SaysNO

•  The petitioners seek to have Congress make Plymouth, North Carolina, a port of entry. The congressional committee recommends against it.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 14060. Removed from a library-style pamphlet binding and in new wrappers.

An Irish-AMERICAN'S Service & Claims

•  Oliver Pollock, an Irish-born American merchant, claims remuneration for losses sustained in his capacity as commercial agent for the United States at Orleans during the American Revolution.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 14058. Removed from a nonce volume. Librarian's lightly pencilled notation on title-page. Stray brown spots. Very good. (18017)

Treasury Department Copy

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Extremely detailed accounting of appropriations and expenditures. Both reports were submitted by Samuel Meredith, the first treasurer of the United States; both of these government documents are not commonly seen in institutional holdings save in microform.

Provenance: A Treasury Department Library copy, with bookplate of that institution on the front pastedown. Gilt-stamped leather labels on spine state “1798” and “First Comp’t Office”; gilt-stamped leather labels on front cover state “Register’s Office” and “Treasurer's Accounts.”

•  Evans 34885, 36541, & 36595. Contemporary or very early19th-century library sheep, spine and front gilt-stamped on green and red leather labels (as described above); binding much rubbed and abraded, with some peeling of leather and loss at head and foot of spine; front cover detached. Remnants of old paper label adhered near inner edge of front cover. Pages clean save for some offsetting.

Convention Constitution Membership

•  The Railway Mail Service Mutual Benefit Association was founded in 1874 to secure life insurance and other benefits for its members. It was the grandfather of the current American Postal Workers Union. A number of delegate speakers are quoted at length, and some of their remarks are witty — Mr. Towers of Texas, for example, noted that he came from “Ft. Worth, the largest city of its size in the United States.”

•  Original printed wrappers, chipped at spine and edges and corners without loss of printing; darkened. A shallow chip or two to title and following page, shallow dog-earing and faint waterstaining to initial leaves including title-page; otherwise, clean and free of chips or tears. (21257)

“United States Register” —For English Reference, 1794

•  Uncommon British reprint of an American work originally printed in Philadelphia. Although no calendrical information is present, much other material commonly found in almanacs is: lists of government officials by state, population statistics (categorized by free white males and females, slaves, and “other persons”), and duties payable on assorted goods.

•  ESTC T105844. Period-style quarter calf with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Some offsetting to margins of first and final leaves, pages otherwise clean. A nice little Anglo-Americanum, very evocative of its era.

Avoiding aU.S. Navy ENERGY Crisis (1860)

U.S. House of Representatives. Committee on Naval Affairs.

•  Steam-powered naval vessels of the 19th-century needed coal and lots of it. The U.S. Secretary of the Navy sought to obtain a reliable and abundant supply for the Pacific and Caribbean fleets through a contract with the Chiriqui Improvement Company of Nueva Granada; coal from the Chiriqui region of what is now Panama was to be extracted and transported for the navy's use to two ports, one on the Caribbean coast and one on the Pacific. Present here are the majority and minority reports of the House Committee on Naval Affairs. They are detailed and informative and include three highly important maps of the Chiriqui region.

•  Very Good condition, in recent wrappers.

Anti-British & Early AmericanCatholicum

•  First edition of a vituperative anti-British study of British mistreatment of America in which the author quotes individual passages from the many published attacks on the new American nation by the British — launching fiery returns. In the book's dedication to Robert Oliver, an Irishman, Walsh says, “In the same nation which [the Irish] have always found a tyrannical mistress, [America], throughout her colonial existence, found a jealous step-mother, and now finds a malevolent scold.” He candidly admits that his purpose is “a collateral retaliation for [Great Britain's] continued injustice and invective.” Little wonder the DAB records that this work “brought congratulatory notes from Jefferson, John Adams, and John Quincy Adams and a vote of thanks from the Pennsylvania legislature, but occasioned denunciatory notices in British publications.” Of particular note is the lengthy section on the American slave trade, Walsh justifying it against fierce British attacks and describing the state of the institution as he saw it, at the time.

Provenance:  Released as a duplicate from the greatest collection of American Catholica in the world, the Georgetown University Library, with a few of the requisite and expected stamps; Walsh, a leading literary critic and editor of the American Quarterly, was an early and distinguished Catholic-American literateur.

•  Parsons 631; Shaw & Shoemaker 50024; Sabin 101158; Howes W67. On Walsh, see: The Dictionary of American Biography, XIX, 391–92.   Recent quarter natural linen shelfback with blue-green paper sides in the style of the era. Library markings noted above. A very good copy.  (24005)

Trade in Wartime

•  Paginated continuously with Ward’s Treatise of the Relative Rights and Duties, and apparently also issued as the second part of that document, this work discusses international law regarding trade in wartime; the 1793 stoppage by the English of American corn exportation to France is included and analyzed as an example.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 18239; NSTC W529. Recent paper wrappers. Some instances of light foxing and offsetting.

Rights Granted, Taken Away, & Granted Again

Waterford (Ireland).

•  Waterford’s original charter, granted in 1171 and expanded by King John in 1210, was revoked on more than one occasion over the city’s ongoing resistance to Protestantism. It was first printed in 1752 in two editions, one in the original Latin and the other in an English translation by Timothy Cunningham. The present printing of the charter issued by Charles I, only the second edition in English, covers the legalities of the rights of mayors, sheriffs, and citizens, as well as those of trade issues including the making and selling of usquebagh. The list of city officials extends to 1831 rather than the 1803 described by the title, but these leaves were almost certainly added later to remainder copies, as the paper is different. According to RLIN and OCLC, this rare item is held by only one institution outside of Ireland; no holdings are listed by NUC Pre-1956.

•  NSTC C4545. Period-style calf, framed and panelled in gilt rolls, panels with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather label and gilt-stamped shamrock devices in compartments. Title-page mounted; one leaf with paper flaw with absence of a few letters, one lower outer corner torn away. Pages with edges untrimmed, last few chipped, some slightly dust-darkened; previous sewing holes visible. Manuscript notes extending the roster of sheriffs added to the bottom of two pages.

A Revolutionary War GENERAL . . .

or Was He a Colonel?

•  At the beginning of the Revolutionary hostilities Whitcomb was “old,” i.e., in his 50s and he was not called to service until the men of his militia regiment refused to budge without him. He is variously described as having served as a colonel or a general before retiring late in 1776. Click either image for enlargement.

In the document at hand, Whitcomb in his capacity of justice of the peace attests on the verso of the leaf to the authenticity of the document on the recto. His attestation is approximately 1.5" high by 8" wide, with a clear signature.

The document on the recto is a printed legal form by which Artemus How of Boton, Worcester County, Massachusetts Bay Province, sells 50 acres of land to Bezeleel Hale. Interestingly, both Artemus and his wife Abigail signed the instrument of sale.

•  On Whitcomb, see: Appleton’s Cyclopaedia. Good/Good+ condition: short fold tears. Three small areas of discoloration from old tape used to tip item into an album. With old pencilled dealer’s code (Sessler’s).

Corn/LAND Tax Relief! (Urges Manchester)

•  Wilson here makes a learned argument, beginning with Anglo-Saxon law, and covering medieval law and the nature of feudal tenure, against the real-estate tax in the England and against the unjust collection of that tax by the exchequer. This was an especially urgent matter in the mid–19th century as landholders and farmers were doubly burdened by the combination of low grain prices and high taxes, and were increasingly losing political clout to rising industrial and urban interests.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 32703.2; NSTC 2R11046 & 2W25177. In recent wrappers; previously removed from nonce volume. Light soiling and staining on outer pages. Closely trimmed by binder with lost of part of last line on last two pages. Inked number on title-page.

Winchester Days . . .

•  Folded advertising leaflet, depicting and describing “12 sturdy, fast, straight-shooting" rifles — a “model for every shooter... from the beginner to the expert.”

•  Folded sheet, showing a few small holes along folds, with spotting to back panel and edges of front panel. (15613)

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