•  ESTC T88657; Dibdin, I, 232; Schweiger, I, 2. Contemporary vellum-covered boards, covers framed and panelled in blind with central blind-stamped strapwork medallions, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; front joints repaired and now strong, vellum soiled. Front free endpapers with early inked owner's name as above; shadow of shelf number once pencilled on title-page, erased. Spotting of various sorts and minor smudging in upper margins of some pages; leaves otherwise clean.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked signature of Henry D. Gilpin, the U.S. Attorney General who argued the Amistad case; title-page with inscription of T.L. Gilpin.

•  American Imprints 12098; Westwood, Bibliotheca Piscatoria, 77.   Publisher's mushroom-colored cloth, lightly rubbed overall, spine sunned with original printed paper label now present only in remnants. Title-page with early inked ownership inscriptions of Henry D. Gilpin. Pages darkened and spotted. A solid, sturdy copy with nice provenance.  (27329)

The volume is printed with the original language and spelling preserved, and is illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece of a fisherman taken from de Worde's 1518 edition that is cited as the earliest known depiction of an angler fishing with a rod, as well as with six woodcuts (provided at the back of the volume in the form of four plates) showing types of poles, hooks, etc. As the title-page proclaims, the work was printed with the types of John Baskerville, making it one of the last such printings done in England. A later hand has helpfully added pencilled marginalia clarifying archaic or obscure terms and suggesting subject headers.

•  NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42.   Later half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-decorated raised bands, and gilt-stamped fishing creel devices in compartments; spine label with small edge chips and mild rubbing to paper. Pencilled annotations as above, pages and plates otherwise pleasingly clean.  (28566)

fishing

•  Not in Brinkman. Contemporary cartonné binding covered in decorative printed paper, shown above right; spine showing a small undarkened area where label is now lacking. Front joint tender. Lacking two leaves, pp. 33/34 and 39/40; some signatures loosening. Pages with a very few small spots, otherwise clean and pleasing.

48 wood-engraved illustrations

Binding:  Publisher's dark gray-green vermiform cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped cattle-herding vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and eagle design. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early pencilled inscription of Frances Stephens of Pennsylvania.

There is quite a lot of how-to, here!

•  See Welsh, Miniature Books, 2053 for 1840 London edition.   Binding slightly cocked, showing minor wear (only) overall. Front free endpaper with inscription as above, back endpapers with additional pencilled inscriptions. Soiling, generally light; spots, generally small; a solid and pleasing copy of a book that was often loved to pieces.  (29676)

“nothing had been published in regard to the subject” before the present work

Illustrated with10 full-page stipple-engraved plates done by J. Erxleben, this guidebook covers efficient tank construction, freshwater aquarium inhabitants readily obtainable in the wild (goldfish, sticklebacks, sunfish, minnows, crawfish) as well as likely marine candidates (crabs, anemones, gobies, blennies, pipefish), and the basic overall principles of balancing species (fish, plants, snails, etc.) so that the tank seldom needs to be cleaned or have its water changed. It should be noted that the author is not wholly reliable in his identifications of American vs. British natives — but then again, the fad of aquarium-keeping was brand-new at the time, very few people could lay claim to more than Edwards' two years of aquarium experience, and all previous published works on the subject had been thoroughly British.

Binding:  Publisher's textured olive-green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and publisher; front cover framed in blind around a gilt-stamped central medallion offering a decoratively lettered title accented with images of small swimming fish, shells, and seaweeds.

•  NSTC 2E5035.   Bound as above; extremities rubbed and spine slightly sunned with small area of discoloration around paper shelving label at head. Ex–social club library: shelving label as noted, call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on endpapers and two pages (not title-page), no other markings. Back pastedown with small ticket of New York bookseller, partially effaced. A few leaves with very short tears from outer margins, not touching text; pages clean.  (29024)

The plates are signed “F. Kearny,” an artist born in Perth Amboy, NJ, who studied drawing with Archibald and Alexander Robertson and engraving with Peter Maverick. From 1810 to his death in 1833 he practiced engraving in Philadelphia.

There are two states of gathering “U”: this copy has the typographical error “tibbon” with the stop-press correction to “ribbon” on p. 235.

The volume ends with advertisements for several sporting and fishing goods suppliers.

•  Shoemaker 27838; Howes K108; Henderson, American Sporting Books, 6; Phillips, Sporting Books, 21; Streeter Sale 4084; Bennett, Practical Guide, 60–61. On Stauffer, American Engravers, I, 148–49.   Publisher's sprinkled sheep with simple rope roll in blind on board edges, some abrasion to leather; round spine with gilt double rules forming “spine compartments,” black leather title label. The usual light and scattered foxing noted in all copies, nothing more. A very nice copy.  (28553)

Handsomely printed, the volume begins with a fine engraved frontispiece opposite the title in black and red. Engraved head- and tailpieces appear in expected places; each page is heavily laden with printed notes.

•  Brunet 759; Schweiger, II, 328. Contemporary vellum over paste boards with blind-embossed center device on covers; that on front cover slightly loose due to a vandal’s attempt to excise it! Top of spine pulled (uncommon on a vellum-bound book); vellum soiled and binding a little sprung. Bookplate removed and glue residue visible on pastedown. The odd spot or small stain only; some light foxing and dust-soiling.

delicately tinted fore-edge painting on the gilt edges depicting a red-jacketed fisher

Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of John Train.

Binding:  Signed binding by Riviere & Son of full brown morocco, spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped title, board edges with gilt double fillets, turn-ins with one wide and one narrow gilt roll. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC 0337624 (for 1877 Golden Treasury ed.).   Binding as above, joints and lower corners carefully repaired with toned long-fiber tissue. Offsetting to endpapers from turn-ins; unobtrusive repair to upper inner portion of front free endpaper; back free endpaper starting to separate. Pages clean and gently age-toned. A lovely portable edition of Herrick's lyrics, in a simple but elegant Riviere binding with attractive fore-edge painting.  (30083)

Jacob (1686–1744) was a legal writer known for his Every Man His Own Lawyer. He also dabbled in poetry, drama, and literary criticism; in the same year as the present work's appearance, he published a parody called The Rape of the Smock, and was subsequently immortalized by Pope's unkind remarks regarding both his grammar and his status as “the Blunderbuss of Law.”

•  ESTC T90927; Goldsmiths’ 5344. On Jacob, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary mottled sheep, framed and panelled in blind, rebacked with very complementary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped title, author, and date; minor scuffing now nicely refurbished and front hinge (inside) unobtrusively reinforced. Pages mildly age-toned and cockled, with a few instances of light staining towards back of volume; one early pencilled correction. Last few leaves with upper outer corners torn away, touching a few page numbers and in one case one letter. Overall a solid and pleasing copy.  (30232)

Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and scenic vignette stamped in gilt and blue, spine likewise.

•  Binding as above, light wear to joints and extremities, front cover cloth noticeably bubbled but not torn, spine with inked shelving number. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate. A few signatures unopened; pages and plates very clean.  (29140)

•  ESTC T139002; Schweiger, Handbuch der classischen Bibliographie, I, 217; not in Dibdin. On Oppian, see: Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, 395.   Recent quarter calf over marbled paper; spine gilt with a red leather title label. A brittle copy and some pages and gatherings now pulled loose. A little soiling in some top margins, and a few occasions of spotting. A few spots of very shallow chipping. Rubber-stamps from a now-defunct library, including one on title-page. All edges speckled red.  (3011)

•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover with moose vignette stamped in brown, spine with brown- and black-stamped title and additional moose; rubbed, spots of soiling, spine sunned and with inked shelving number. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate (no other library markings); back pastedown with bookseller's small ticket. Pages clean. Still fun and you can still learn stuff.  (27088)

Click the images for enlargements.

Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, front cover with black-stamped hunting scene and title framed in gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding as above, corners and spine head lightly rubbed. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages clean.  (27113)

The book is profusely illustrated with pen drawings by Eric Palmquist, who has signed the colophon; of these, some are full-page, and some are spread across two pages with the text printed beneath. Most are smaller in-text drawings, including an extensive series of decorative tailpieces.

This edition was prepared under the supervision of Ragnar Svanström at the Royal Printing House in Stockholm, Sweden, and is limited to 1500 copies. Designer Karl-Erik Forsberg used a hand-set Berling Roman font which he himself designed; Forsberg also drew uncial letters, printed in red ink, for use on the title-page and for the canto-opening initials.

The binding is half natural Swedish linen stamped on the spine in red and black; the sides are covered with Swedish paper hand-grained to look like wood, and bear a small gold-stamped design of a warship, the Norse drakkar.

This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed; it wassigned by the illustrator.  The relevant Club newsletter is laid in.

Binding:  Quarter tan Swedish linen with streaked red paper–covered sides, front cover with gilt-stamped Viking ship, spine with decorative title in black and red, in the original matching slipcase with printed paper spine label.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 232.   Binding as above, spine slightly sunned, slipcase with moderate shelfwear to edges and one edge opening. A solid, attractive copy of a handsome book.  (29946)

illustrated with eight color-printed plates done by Frank Vincent DuMond

Signed binding: Publisher's dark blue cloth, top edge gilt, front cover with Art Nouveau dragonfly and flower design stamped in green, white, and gold; spine with decorative gilt-stamped title. Front coversigned by Margaret Armstrong with her “MA.”

•  Binding as above, minimal wear to corners and spine extremities, front cover gilt very slightly rubbed in one small spot. Some signatures towards back of volume unopened; final signature opened in somewhat ragged fashion. Pages and plates very clean. An attractive copy of a beautiful book.  (28581)

Click the images for enlargements.

Provenance:  Inside front wrapper, faint pencilled inscription, “Lydia Smith from Theodosia Warfield.”

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, spine resewn some time ago. Scattered light spots, corners bumped. Pp. 3/4 torn at inner margin with loss of paper and three letters, not affecting ease of reading.  (27838)

Provenance: The publisher-issued bookplate and box label proclaim that this copy belonged to L. Haskell Sweet, a New York businessman.

•  Coigney 308.   Publisher's quarter vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; original glassine dust wrapper and original charcoal-colored paper-covered box with personalized label present, wrapper with chips, short tears, and some creasing, and box split at seams with two side elements fully detached (one lost). Vellum of the volume's spine faintly darkened and spotted, book otherwise clean and fresh with top edges gilt; sweet identification as above. A good catch.  (28332)

Bindings: Straight-grained maroon morocco, covers framed in gilt triple fillets, spines with gilt-stamped author and title; board edges with gilt roll, turn-ins with gilt double fillets. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front pastedowns each with armorial bookplate of collector John Train; front fly-leaves with early inked ownership inscriptions of Lucy S. Sanford and T. (or J.?) Lister.

•  NSTC 2W4371. Bound as above, rubbed at joints/extremities, hinges (inside) tender; text block of vol. II starting to separate from spine and front free endpaper with outer edge chipped.  Pages generally clean; moderate foxing to some plates, with offsetting to surrounding pages. Unusual and very attractive.  (30156)

Willis himself was the founder of the magazine that became the Home Journal, and was celebrated in his day for his essays and travel writings as well as several collections of his journalistic work. The Cambridge History of American Literature calls him the “prince of magazinists,” and remarks on “the evanescent sparkle and glancing brilliance” of A L'abri, later known as Letters from under a Bridge. These charming, witty essays touch on Willis's Yale education (and its lack of practical application!); fishing; a dinner with Lady Blessington, Benjamin Disraeli, Count D'Orsay, and Lord Durham; the possibility of local railroad construction to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie; the relationship of American to British literature, etc. Whatever the ostensible topics of the individual letters, each touches in affectionate and amusing fashion on some aspect of life in the Susquehanna region.

A publishing practice, demonstrated: Bound in at the back of this volume are yellow printed paper wrappers for John Smith's Letters, and the title-page and preface for Fireside Education — both items published by Colman in the same year as the present work.

•  BAL 22752 (spine label in first state, cloth described as “Brown S cloth “); American Imprints 59260; Fearing, Check List of Books on Angling, Fishing, Fisheries, Fish-Culture, etc., 135; Sabin 104504. On Willis, see: Cambridge History of American Literature online.   Publisher's brown cloth embossed with floret and dash pattern, spine with printed paper label; corners rubbed, and spine cloth chipped with paper label chipped and darkened. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Foxing throughout; occasional pencilled marginalia and marks of emphasis.  (25806)