a woodcut vignette of a man playing a barrel organ with a monkey on a leash at his feet

•  NSTC 2T11878. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page separated; title-page and some others with short edge nicks, otherwise clean and fresh. (16777)

•  ESTC T1702. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Half-title lacking. Title-page and two others stamped by a now-defunct institution; leaves with reinforced tears at inner margins.

Each portion has a separate title-page; the signature marks would seem to indicate a main half-title not present here, but ESTC’s collation does not call for one. The work is sometimes attributed to George Hickes, whose name appears after the dedication.

•  ESTC T108841; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1828 (for first ed.). Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rubbed and abraded with back joint starting to crack from top, spine with stamped call number. One front and one rear fly-leaf excised. Library bookplates, stamped numerals, pressure-stamps, and rubber-stamp to bottom edge; front pastedown with inked presentation note, front free endpaper with inked inscription dated 1805 (lined through), and private owner’s small rubber-stamp. Moderate foxing; some leaves with splashed inkstains extending inwards from outer edges; light waterstaining to lower inner margins of center portion of volume.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Binding: Publisher's crimson cloth, front cover and spine gilt- and black-stamped, back cover black-stamped. All edges gilt. Actually, breathtaking.

•  Binding as above, clean and bright with only very faint traces of wear to corners and joints. Pages clean; some lower outer corners slightly crumpled. It is hard to imagine a better copy.  (23709)

•  Quarter sheep over marbled paper boards, gilt-stamped on the spine. Spine gilt rubbed, joints and extremities abraded. Corners and cover edges worn. Foxing, age-toning, and browning. Some pencilling to endpapers. A few dog-ears. Ex-library, with spine shelving label. Final four (blank) pages mutilated.  (7149)

•  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)

•  NSTC 2M14137. Removed from a nonce volume. Pages clean. (16756)

•  Evans 29025; ESTC W29507; Sabin 44848. On Cobbett, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XI, 142–45. Contemporary sheep, framed in blind tooling, spine with gilt-stamped title label; leather worn over edges and front joint fully open, spine showing some cracking and chipping. Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription dated 1839, also later pencilled inscription; front fly-leaf with a different inked ownership inscription. Scattered instances of minor spotting and offsetting.

The front cover has a wonderful chromolithographic illustration of letters in envelopes and the title of the volume. The advertisements for other Dick & Fitzgerald publications that fill the endpapers and fly-leaves are worth reading in their own right.

•  Publisher's quarter red cloth with printed/illustrated paper over boards. Text with foxing. Binding lightly worn at edges.  (23673)

Provenance: Inscription to Ellie Bond Robinson (from her cousin Elizabeth); elegant small booklabel, “Gardner.”

•  Publisher’s textured cloth, framed in blind, front cover with gilt-stamped title; covers and corners showing very slight traces of wear. Front free endpaper with small booklabel and with inked gift inscription dated 1887. One flap (“Circumspection”) lacking, with all other flaps present and working. An attractive copy of an uncommon item.

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.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Provenance: 18th-century inscription, “Master Griffith Boynton”; 20th-century bookplate of the John Donne scholar Charles Monroe Coffin.

•  ESTC T76120. On Norris, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   Contemporary speckled calf, framed and panelled (with plain calf) in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, rebacked, spine with recent gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges and corners showing minor rubbing, front cover with small faint area of staining from a now-absent paper label. Front pastedown with private collector's bookplate (institutionally rubber-stamped), as above; front free endpaper with inked inscription, as above; title-page institutionally rubber-stamped in lower margin. Two pencilled marginal annotations; scattered pencilled bracketing. Pages age-toned, with occasional light spotting. (20902)

•  Shoemaker 6710. Publisher's sheep. Abrasions to covers and spine, with pieces of leather flaked off; joints abraded. Foxing. Tear to rear free endpaper. Bookplate on front pastedown. (1078)

•  Foxon S147. Recent marbled paper wrappers; lacking half-title.

The work is generally attributed to the Comte de Ségur, a diplomat and historian who served under Rochambeau in the American War of Independence; he also published works on classical and Jewish history.

•  Old-style blue morocco, covers framed in double gilt fillets, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped devices in compartments, leather turndowns tooled in blind. Tear in upper margin of one leaf repaired very unobtrusively; several leaves with closed tears or holes also professionally patched, just touching a few letters; one leaf with clear tape covering tear. Pages washed, resized, and very clean, with only a few faint spots; edges slightly brittle, with occasional very short tears.

•  Sewn in publisher’s color-flecked paper wrappers. A crisp, clean copy.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  ESTC T109737. Contemporary speckled calf framed in gilt double fillets, recently rebacked with complementary speckled calf using original gilt-stamped leather spine label; sides acid-pitted and rubbed. This collation matches that given by ESTC, although it appears from the signatures that one blank leaf may be lacking in between parts II and III. Pages age-toned, with some instances of mild foxing; lightest waterstaining to lower margins/portions of most pages.

•  NSTC 2H32642.   Publisher's brown cloth, spine chipped, corners worn. Internally, only a few stray spots and mild foxing. Pressure-stamped “The Blasberg Collection” on the title-page and front free endpaper.  (10188)