•  ESTC R20941; Wing (rev.) M514. On the Popish Plot, see: New Catholic Encyclopedia, X, 590–94; and the article on Titus Oates in The Dictionary of National Biography, XLI, 296–303. Removed from a nonce volume with remnants of previous binding at “spine” and two fly-leaves from the volume remaining attached also, on the second of which is a list of contents in ink. The leaves of this piece are numbered in ink consecutively on the upper outer corners of the versos. Some staining, foxing, or soiling, and a few shallow tears, with no loss of print. All edges speckled red. (4907)

Provenance: 19th-century ownership signatures on front pastedown or front fly-leaf of John T. Wait (Dec. 14, 1839), Luther Spalding (undated), and W.H. Richards.

•  Evans 29025; ESTC W29507; Sabin 44848. On Cobbett, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XI, 142–45. Contemporary sheep, framed in blind with a roll of a rope design, spine with gilt-stamped title-label; leather worn at edges and front cover expertly reattached, spine worn with chipping. Ownership inscriptions as above. Minor spotting and offsetting.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Provenance: Signature on title-page of Bruce J. Worthington, dated 1794; of Ethan Allen, dated 1856; of John H. Alexander, Esq.; in the library of the Maryland Diocesan Librarywherein Wroth will have worked with and delighted in it (deaccessioned).

•  Evans 10049; Wroth, Maryland, 254; Sabin 45186.   Recent full calf, old style, by Grace Bindings (signed “G.B.” on lower turn-in of inside back cover), with gilt tooling on covers and spine, raised bands on spine, red title-label. Title-page browned around the edges and with some loss of paper; leaf now backed as is the last (bookseller's advertisements). Maryland Diocesan library stamp (deaccessioned as above) on title-page. Dedication page with very old repair along inner area of blank verso. Old damp- and/or waterstaining to early and late leaves and a few other places; occasional stray spots or small stains. Complete with the errata/advertisement leaf. A handsome, impressive volume.  (20605)

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•  Evans 8400 & 8399; ESTC W33793. Good-quality 20th-century quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title label, raised bands, and ornately handsome blind-stamping within compartments. Back fly-leaf with inked inscription dated 1782. Some browning and spotting; one early, inked marginal annotation.

Blockley, in which the land in question was located, was a township located in West Philadelphia from about 1677 until its consolidation with the city in 1854. The name has lingered, although it has been superceded in general usage by the broader term “University City.”

•  Parchment crisp and untorn, with outermost folded portions lightly spotted; front with early inked title as given above, plus pencilled numerals. An evocative document connected to some very prominent names, in excellent condition, with its seal protected for its intended reuse by a diamond-shaped paper covering.

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This is copy 152.

•  Publisher's quarter cranberry-colored calf with decorated paper over the boards, in a cream-colored paper wrapper. A fine copy.  (30522)

•  New. Publisher's illustrated boards.  (27539)

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          FALSE IMPRINTS,  click here.

Click the images for enlargements.

The frontispiece portrait of Nelson was engraved by George Vertue after a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller. The volume also includes all publisher's advertisements as well as the rather uncommon Poem in Memory of Robert Nelson Esquire.

This was produced to be a handsome work, printed in large type on good paper with wide margins — the better to appeal to a “quality” audience?

•  ESTC T85360; Goldsmiths’-Kress 5249. Poem: ESTC T25431; Foxon P538.   Contemporary speckled calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons; rebacked with speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, raised bands, and blind-tooled foliate compartment decorations. Original leather abraded, front cover with small chip to outer edge and area of faint discoloration from a now-absent label; title-page institutionally rubber-stamped (no other markings). Some signatures browned and foxed, most pages clean.  (25999)

The volume opens with an oversized, color-printed map of Ireland on green paper; it is further illustrated with a frontispiece and 31 other plates mostly representing churches and abbeys but also Irish landscapes (“The Shannon above Limerick”), historical moments (“Massacre at Drogheda”), and prominent figures. One split image contrasts a tormented Irish family with the same family happy and prosperous in America; interestingly, that same split plate is reproduced at the back of the volume as two facing plates with new captions — “Ireland As She Is” and “Ireland As She Ought to Be.”

Binding:  Publisher's pebbled blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped vignette of a radiant monolith surrounded by shamrocks; back cover with same vignette in blind, and spine with decorative gilt-stamped author, title, and publisher. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Back free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription of Maggie Brennan of Philadelphia; we note, but dare not speculate on the import of, her surname's matching that of one of the authors here.

•  NSTC 0558744 (for 1878 ed.).   Bound as above, front cover and spine aged to dark brownish blue and volume moderately rubbed overall. Folding map with tear from inner margin, extending inside frame (close to but not touching actual image). Pages browned in from edges due to nature of paper, but not brittle; dried plant matter laid in at three spots and an old tassel at another. A very solid copy, with hinges holding (unusual for copies of this hefty volume).  (29569)

•  Removed from a nonce volume. (180)

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Despite this strongly worded treatise against persecution (which argues that all men should be able to make a free and open choice of faith and worship), the statutes remained in place for many years to come.

•  Wing (rev.) P1298A; ESTC R12742. Recent marbled paper–covered boards. Title-page with tiny, unobtrusive numeral inked in upper outer corner, first text page with numeral stamped in lower margin (no other markings). Title-page and first text page with moderate foxing, others clean.

Many institutions report microform holdings, but very few hold actual copies.

•  Sabin 59986; Shaw & Shoemaker 1114. Contemporary-style quarter tan cloth over blue paper-covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Paper embrittled and somewhat fragile; pages age-toned and foxed.

WorldCat and Shaw & Shoemaker locate a combined total of fewer than a dozen copies.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 18345.   Sewn, as issued, but without the wrappers; edges tattered. Waterstaining, heavy on first and last few pages. Uncut.  (25966)

Provenance: With pencilled dealer's code of Sessler's on the verso; in the collection of Philadelphia collector Robert R. Dearden, Jr.

•  Very good condition. Written in a very clear hand. With pencilled dealer's code on the verso.  (29105)

•  Not in ESTC. Once sewn, now in a Mylar folder. Last leaf with closed tear partially repaired some time ago, costing or or obscuring a few letters to each line of about two paragraphs on either side of leaf. Age-toned, dust-soiled, creased.

•  Not in ESTC. Creased and dust-soiled, with a small hole in lower margin not touching text and a few pinholes within text. Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper, now in a Mylar folder.

•  Creased and slightly dust-soiled but in overall good condition. Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper; now in a Mylar folder.

A “Collection Discount” will be applied should anyone take
ALL THREE of the “Pollack Case” Broadsides.

•  NSTC 2P27024. On Prinsep, see: DNB. Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly age-toned. Traces of soiling and small inked numeral on title-page. A few instances of pencilled sidelining.

Click the images for enlargements.

The work contains 48 letters on the nature of legal study, with advice for the law student on topics as diverse as cultivating a classical learning, the relevance of philosophy and history to the study of law, the dangers of indulging in “general literature,” overcoming deficiencies and handling discouragement, eloquence, integrity, memory, study habits and the importance of a good work ethic, working in an attorney's office — etc.

Raithby (1766–1826) was admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn on 26 January 1795, was subsequently called to the bar, and practiced law in the court of chancery.

Provenance:  Ownership marks of Samson Levy, Esq., in several forms and places; pencilled signature of John M. Allen; several other signatures crossed out.

A note on the flyleaf says here, “Exchanged with my Friend R. Peters Esq. / This Day One I purchased of P. Byrne(?) bound in Calf - 20th Feb.y 1810.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 11238.   Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped decorations and title gilt-stamped on a black leather label. Binding rubbed/worn with spine leather chipped/cracking, front cover off and back joint cracked/weak. Ink marks and writing on title-page and facing (blank) page. Variable foxing, annotations as above, a few brief passages highlighted with marginal ink-rules.  (7455)

Clicking on the righthand image above, and reading the last, italicized paragraph, is rewarding

OCLC and ESTC locate only six U.S. institutional holdings.

•  ESTC R40093; Wing (rev. ed.) R682; Smith, Anti-Quakeriana, 303.   Period-style calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page and first text page institutionally perforation-stamped, first text page with inked and rubber-stamped numerals in lower margin. Title-page with several tears repaired (with loss of a few letters from table of contents) and a sliver of the bottom edge replaced (with loss of lower portion of publication date); pages generally age-toned and soiled, first one with upper margin repaired. Edges trimmed closely and tattered. A “survivor.”  (26010)

Uncommon: No U.S. copy of this issue located via OCLC and ESTC locates only the Harvard copy. There were other, less complete editions of 40 pp., 58 pp., and 78 pp.

•  ESTC N15187.   Recent full calf, period style; spine with raised bands accented in gilt, oxblood leather gilt-lettered title, publication date and place in gilt at base; covers framed and paneled in gilt rules with gilt-stamped corner fleurons. Shallow chip to top outer corners of final two leaves. One word on p. 32 is blotted out in ink by an early owner with the correction supplied above it. Penned signature (partly cropped) at top edge of p. 79. Pp. 79–92 duplicated, nothing missing.  (23766)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Sabin 70572.   Sewn. Waterstained; soiling to outer leaves. Early reader's two small ink notations on title-page, just below the imprint. Uncut, partly unopened copy, with one signature opened unevenly.  (24487)

Provenance:  Alberto Pareño's copy with his initials on the spine of the book.

•  Uncut copy. Bound in 20th-century blue buckram. A very good copy.  (29298)

Click the interior image for enlargement.

•  Evans 13585; ESTC W30498; Howes R-372; Trumbull, Connecticut, 1305; Adams, Amer. Pamphlets, 134j; Sabin 72151; Allibone 1839. On Robinson-Morris, see: Oxford DNB online.   Period-style quarter calf with marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title and elegant small decorations at head and foot. Pages age-toned; three leaves with minor staining. Title-page with repaired chip to outer margin, traces of early inked inscriptions in center of page, and partially shaved inscription in upper margin. Last text page with inked inscription in lower margin, partially shaved at beginning of inscription.  (24866)

•  Sewn as issued. Once folded in six parts. Long 2 1/2 inch tears extending from fore-edges, to first three leaves. Two dog-eared corners, a few short tears to final leaf, two small holes with loss of a few words of text. (557)

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As our caption notes, this vast repository purports to have been made as “a bare narrative” of its “fact[s]”; but it now resonates with a richness far beyond mere chronicle. The set repays both extended and “dip-in” reading for pleasure.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) R2316, R2318–19, & R2333; Lowndes 2152.   Recent half speckled calf, old style; marbled paper sides; round spines, raised bands, gilt center devices in spine compartments, bands accented with gilt beading. Binding signed by Starr Bookworks. Occasional early marginalia. Occasional foxing. Very old waterstaining in vol. VI, with cockling of paper; minor worming in upper margins of same volume (not anywhere close to text). Old library pressure- (not perforation-) stamps in some blank margins. A very nice set.  (22477)

•  Sweet & Maxwell, A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth, I, 602. Quarter green sheep over marbled paper, somewhat rubbed and front free endpaper partially detached. Scattered foxing and age-spotting, occasional pencilled marginalia. More than presentable!

This is one of the landmark cases of English constitutional history

Click the images for enlargement.

The volume opens with a copper-engraved portrait of the seven bishops: Sancroft, Thomas Ken, John Lake, William Lloyd, Jonathan Trelawny, Francis Turner, and Thomas White.

•  ESTC T103539.   Contemporary speckled calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons and contrasting panel of plain calf, edges and corners rubbed; recently rebacked with complementary speckled calf, spine with raised bands. Pages age-toned with some light spotting. Some corners bumped in use and one leaf a bit crumpled in the press; complete with the handsome frontispiece.  (26524)

•  ESTC N22343. Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper; now in a Mylar folder. In good untattered condition, with noticeable (but not print-obscuring) stain in lower center portion.

•  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.

Indited in secretary hand with witnesses' signatures in both italic and secretary, the deed is followed by two blank pages on the interior (as usual); the witnesses were John Morroy (Morrey?) and John Best (Lest?), who both had fine signatures. Not unexpectedly, the widow signed with her mark. A docket on the last leaf's verso reads, “Xher [Christopher] Libthorpe To George Rothe” and another, in a second hand, adds, “and a Deed from Pickering to Post for a lot,” with a computation below on the same page.

The watermark appears to be a heart-shaped shield crowned by a fleur de lis, or trefoil; however we find no match in Briquet or Gravell.

•  Parry, E.C., “A Widow's Might,” Old York Road Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. XXVII, 1966. For the early history of Philadelphia, its incidents and denizens, see: Watson, Annals of Philadelphia (1850).   Previously folded in multiple places, and now along bifolium crease only; four small holes in the upper corner where previously stapled or pinned. “Lacing,” a result of the iron gall ink's exposure to moisture, is in evidence here but does not affect the legibility or stability of the deed, which is neatly repaired in two places at the outer edge of the first recto near the remnants of the red wax seal. An attractive relic of colonial American, Pennsylvania/Philadelphia, commercial, and women's history.  (29823)

•  Not in ESTC. On Fraser, see: Dictionary of National Biography, XX, 216–22. Excellent clean condition, with two small sewing holes at inner margin, one very small spot of foxing, and ink traces from printing process to outer edge. Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper; now in a Mylar folder.

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            LAW INCLUDED,  click here.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

First edition.

•  Sabin 15716; Shaw & Shoemaker 610.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Title-page with small inked “pseud.” comment next to author's name. Pages age-toned with offsetting and some light spotting (darkest to title-page); one leaf with upper margin repaired some time ago. Page edges untrimmed; one signature unopened.  (25211)

•  Evans 27743; Howes S-999; Sabin 91742; Trumbull, Connecticut, 1425.   Period-style quarter calf with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and blind-tooled floral decorations in compartments. Previous owner's signature on the title-page. Rubber-stamps of the Mercantile Library, and inked marks and underlining inside, with scattered marginalia. Frontispiece portrait lacking, with eight plates (three of which are fold-out) present; each of the three folding plates with a split along one fold. Occasional marginal tears and small chips to corners; waterstaining and foxing, yet paper strong and reading easy.  (3996)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Sabin 92310; American Imprints 34408.   Publisher's green pebbled cloth with some discolorations, sunned spine with gilt-stamped title; corners/edges rubbed. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call-number ticket on front pastedown, title-page pressure-stamped, no other markings. A few early leaves separated; two leaves with outer margins reinforced some time ago.  (26425)

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

The signers' facsimile signatures appear below the main italic text and within the decorative border.

Bidwell and WorldCat locateonly five institutional copies, none west of Charlottesville, VA.

•  Bidwell, “American history in image and text” (Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, v. 98, pt. 2, 1988), 15; Printing the Mind of Man 220 (for first edition).   Printed on white-coated card stock. Very Good condition.  (28506)

The prosecution of the War of 1812 had left the U.S. in debt and, invited by committee chairman John W. Eppes to opine, the Secretary of the Treasury A.J. Dallas here offers an extended analysis of how the national debt was incurred, notes that “it becomes the object first and last in every practical scheme of finance, to re-animate the confidence of the citizens,” and observes it as a state of things that must not continue that specie is being hoarded, banks are not lending, and a regularized national currency is lacking, so that “the monied transactions of private life are at a stand; and the fiscal operations of the government labour with extreme inconvenience.” Fortunately, he says, there are solutions, and he outlines these in a series of proposals including “taxes, duties, imposts, and excises,” reaching even unto “addition[s] of 100 per cent. on the present auction duties . . . [and] on the existing duties upon carriages.”

Occupying pp. 21–22 is record of the “schedule of new taxes referred to in the letter of the secretary of the Treasury . . . in which the taxes proposed . . . are principally adopted.”

But Secretary Dallas realized that the solution was not as simple as raising taxes or even doing that and instituting new ones. It would be necessary to issue bonds, and to do that the U.S. needed to establish a national bank: These propositions are canvassed here.

The act incorporating a national bank passed Congress in 1816.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 33249.   Disbound and now laid into marbled paper wrappers, pamphlet age-toned and foremargins with noticeable foxing and staining; paper good and the whole readable in several senses.  (29861)

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

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 42596; Library Company, Afro-Americana, 10583.   Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly pencilled librarian's notation on p. [1]. Very mild foxing.  (18436)

The patent record copies are accompanied by36 plates illustrating the various devices. Atyped index is stitched in at the front; the title given above comes from this volume's spine label.

A full list of contents is available upon enquiry.

Provenance:  Front and back pastedown each with rubber-stamp of A. Bell Malcolmson, attorney and counsellor at law; final page with pencilled annotation: “Bind for Mr. Malcolmson.” Malcolmson is recorded as having been involved, in 1908, with a case regarding patent infringement of a method for duplicating typewritten work.

•  Contemporary tan cloth, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label; cloth spotted and moderately discolored, extremities and spine label lightly rubbed. Preliminary index pages, of onion skin, each with short tear from outer margin; one text leaf with small chip to upper margin; some leaves creased; occasional pencilled annotations and marks of emphasis.  (30399)

The title-page offers a handsome vignette of the Theatre, not one of the commonest ones.

•  ESTC T118673; Madan, Oxford Books, 17.   Period-style calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons and rather elaborate additional decorations in blind; spine with gilt-stamped title and publication information and different blind-tooled decorations. Endpapers a little smudged and title-page mounted, with edges darkened. Early inked ownership inscription in upper margin of first text page mostly torn away, with loss of a few words. Pp. 227–30 lacking, being the last bit of the printing of the Church of England's 39 Articles and the first part of the section, “De Eligendis Publicis Lectoribus.” Pages faintly age-toned, with occasional light spotting; mostly clean.  (25553)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Disbound; three holes in inner margin, not touching text. Ink notation and numeral on first page. Some dog-earing and tattering in corners and outer margins. Pencillings in several margins. Occasional mild spotting. Now housed in a simple archival phase box. (13455)

This variant reads “II. Bookes”on line 7 of the title-page; R4 is cancelled and not present here, as is the case in most copies. The second portion has a separate title-page printed in red and black, giving Anarchia Anglicana: Or, the History of Independency as the title and the pseudonymous Theodorus Verax as the author.

Relations: ESTC R205117; Wing (rev.) W334A. Appendix: ESTC R233193; Wing (rev.) W321A. Anarchia: ESTC R27579; Wing (rev.) W317. High Court: ESTC R207365;Wing (rev.) W325. History, fourth part: ESTC R18043; Wing (rev.) M81B. Fourth part: Issued as part of Wing W324, “and possibly separately” as well according to ESTC. Contemporary calf, covers framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, sometime rebacked with first leaves tipped (back) in; spine with new gilt-stamped title, sides rubbed and abraded. Front free endpaper lacking. Front pastedown with old institutional bookplate and pencilled notations, title-page with faded rubber-stamp (and with author’s name added in an early hand), back pastedown and lower edges of closed book rubber-stamped. Two title-pages with one short tear from outer edge each, not touching text; title-page verso with shadows of pencilled numerals. Lower and outer margins trimmed closely, in some cases touching catchwords, signature marks, or shouldernotes.

•  Original printed wrappers. Five-digit number stamped on front wrapper. (287)

Click the image for an enlargement.

• Wing (rev. ed.) W792; Thomason E.413[7]; Sabin 101330; ESTC R21688.   Removed from a nonce volume. Old two-digit number in upper outer corner of title-page. Sewing starting to separate. In modern wrappers. (20998)

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Scarce. Only 11 institutions, all in the U.S., report holdings via OCLC.

•  Sabin 37866; American Imprints 22538.   Period-style quarter tan cloth with light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Frontispiece portrait lacking. Light to moderate foxing.  (23903)

•  Last leaf pressure-stamped by a now-defunct institution; light age-toning, with outer portion of first page darkened. One spot of pinhole worming to all four leaves.