
BIBLIO-GIFTABLES
A Ba-Bn Bo-Bz Bibles Ca-Cn Co-Cz D E
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Ha-Hd
He-Hz I-J
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Ma-Mb
Mc-Mz
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Q-R Sa-Sh
Si-Sz
Ta-Tg Th-Tz
U-Wa
Wb-Wh Wi-Z
That
Boy Stands
on the Burning Deck
Yes,
“We are Seven!”
Is Here
B., J.H., ed.
The
child's bijou. Buffalo: Breed, Butler & Co.,
1861. 16mo (7.8 cm, 3.1"). 96 pp.
$200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First
edition: Miniature
collection of relatively sophisticated children's poetry, including verse by
Wordsworth (“We Are Seven”), Caroline Howard Gilman, Mary Howitt,
Felicia Hemans, Eliza Cook, Susan Bogert Warner (a.k.a. Elizabeth Wetherell),
and others.
Binding:
Publisher's gray-green textured cloth, spine gilt extra, front and back cover
each blind-stamped with ornate cartouche-like panel composed of arabesque
and strapwork designs; all edges gilt.
Bound as above, spine gilt attractively oxidized,
corners lightly rubbed; front hinge (inside) starting from foot and front free endpaper with very
faintly pencilled ownership inscription dated 1880. One leaf torn across, with 19th-century
stitched repair. Light foxing. (30213)
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Pre-Fire: Help for the Masonic Secretary
Bailey,
J.C.W. The secretary's special help;
a monitor for the secretary of the lodge. Chicago: Brother J.C.W. Bailey, Northwestern
Masonic Publishing House, 1867. 12mo (17 cm, 6.7"). 95, [1 (adv.)] pp.
$175.00
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Pre-fire
Chicago imprint: Uncommon second
edition (the first was the previous year) of this manual from “Bailey's
Series of Practical Masonry,” a guide to maintaining lodge records, organizing
procedures, handling membership dues, etc.
W.P.A., Chicago Ante-Fire Imprints, 1128. Publisher's light violet-brown cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped crossed quills; slightly faded overall with a few small dark smudges, spine sunned. One early inked correction. Intermittent mild to moderate foxing; a few corners dog-eared. (29458)
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Women's
Lives . . .
Baird, Robert. Transplanted flowers, or memoirs of Mrs. Rumpff, daughter of John Jacob Astor, Esq. and the Duchess de Broglie, daughter of Madame de Stael. New York: John S. Taylor, 1847. 12mo. Frontis., 159, [1] pp.
$87.50

Later edition of these accounts of the lives of Eliza Astor Rumpff and Albertine Ida Gustavine de Stael-Holstein, Duchess de Broglie, preceded by an engraved portrait of the former and by Lydia Sigourney's poem "Transplanted Flowers." Memorialized more briefly are Mrs. Grandpierre and Mrs. Monod. Publisher's blind-stamped textured cloth, spine gilt-stamped; binding lightly worn, with spine gilt rubbed and dimmed. Front pastedown with bookplate of J.E. Vanderhoef, front free endpaper with early inked inscription of Susan A. Baker. Some foxing to endpapers and a few scattered spots to pages; internally mostly clean. (8958)

A Different Take on Cromwell vs. the King
[Bancks, John]. The life of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland: Containing particularly his decent, his first advances to popularity, his wonderful success in the civil wars, Battle of Worcester, &c. &c. Stourbridge: Heming & Tallis, [ca. 1815]. 12mo (19 cm, 7.5"). Frontis., [2], [7]–28 pp.
$125.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Rare version of Cromwell's life and military successes: WorldCat and Copac find
no institutional holdings of this sole edition thus. The biography is attributed to “A Gentleman of the Middle Temple,” but the text is for the most part adapted from of A Short Critical Review of the Political Life of Oliver Cromwell by John Bancks (or Banks, 1709–51), a bookseller, poet, and biographer; there seems to have been some confusion with the Restoration-era playwright John Banks (d. 1706).
The present rendition was excerpted from the first eight chapters of the Critical Review, and closes with a discussion of Cromwell's burial; much of Bancks's editorializing regarding the conduct of the king and other political matters has been removed, providing an interesting contrast to the original work. (According to the DNB, the work in its first state earned
Bancks accusations of being an enemy of the monarchy due to its sympathetic tone towards Cromwell — a major difference from all previous biographies.)
This edition features a wood-engraved frontispiece done by Turnbull after Harper.
Not in NSTC. On Bancks, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Recent light blue paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Frontispiece recto (back) with rubber-stamped numeral and pencilled annotation, no other markings. Pages age-toned with spots of minor staining, edges slightly ragged, corners bumped. An intriguing oddity. (28744)
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SIGNED
Binding by
Amy Richards
Barr, Amelia
E. A daughter of Fife. New York: Dodd, Mead, & Co., (© 1886,
but really ca. 1895–1905). 12mo. 335, [1] pp.
[SOLD]
Later edition (no date on title, unchanged copyright date, later
binding): Scottish romance from a
popular
novelist and women's rights activist.
Binding:
Publisher's green cloth, spine and front cover stamped in darker green and “silver” in an art nouveau design of tall thistle-like flowers. Binding
signed “AR” — Amy Richards, fl. 1896–1918.
Click
the image for an enlargement.
Wright, III, 317 (for the first ed.). Binding slightly
cocked, very good condition. Front fly-leaf with pencilled gift inscription
dated 1899, front free endpaper with later pencilled inscription. Clean and
quite nice! (12905)
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“IRELAND
PICTORIAL”
Bartlett, William Henry, & Markinfield Addey.
Ireland pictorial descriptive and historical. New York: Patterson & Neilson, © 1881. Folio. 2
vols. I: Add. engr. t.-p., vii, [1], 232 pp.; 1 map, 58 plts. II: Add. engr. t.-p., v, [1], 232 pp.; 59
plts.
[SOLD]
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“Comprising
one hundred and twenty engravings on steel of
[Ireland's] picturesque scenery, remarkable antiquities, and present aspects,
from original drawings by W.H. Bartlett and a complete account of its cities,
towns, mountains, waters, ancient monuments, and modern structures by Markinfield
Addey.” This is the first edition thus; the first portion (only) was previously
printed in 1850.
Provenance:
Front pastedowns with bookplate of Proinnsías Ó Bríain
(collector Francis Massey O'Brien, a bibliophile and bookseller in Portland,
Maine), front free endpapers with his inscriptions and those of J. Henry De
Costa, front fly-leaf of vol. II with additional inscription and pencilled
annotation on O'Brien's knowledge of the set's provenance.
Binding: Publisher's textured
green cloth, covers framed in blind, front covers with gilt-stamped title
and harp and armor vignette, spines with gilt-stamped title. All edges gilt.
Bindings as above, joints and extremities with spots of mild to
moderate rubbing. Added engraved title-page with pencilled ownership inscription dated 1882 in
upper portion. Scattered small smudges and spots of foxing, occasional mild offsetting. Vol. I
with offsetting to two pages from laid-in item; vol. II with pages gently age-toned.
(30080)
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“Come, Let Us March”
Bascom, E.H. The school harp: a collection of pleasing and instructive songs. Music and words, original and selected. Designed for the use of schools and singing classes. Oblong. Boston: Morris Cotton, (Stereotyped by A.B. Kidder), 1855. 12mo. viii, 96 pp., [2] ff.
$30.00
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Sole edition. A fine school music text, with several pages of instruction; some of the music is simple but a good deal is moderately complicated, in three or four parts and in keys like E flat.
Publisher's quarter leather over printed boards, respined with cloth tape; clean, solid copy. (3612)
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This Example Worthy of a
Medieval Lady
Bédier, Joseph, ed.
Le roman de Tristan et Iseut. Paris: L'Édition d'art, 1926. 8vo. [8], xii, [2], 222, [8] pp.
$300.00
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Gorgeously bound version of the beloved Celtic Arthurian legend, here in Bédier's French rendition — an attempt to reconstruct the ideal original version of this oft-retold romance. The text is attractively printed, each chapter opening with a large foliate capital.
Binding: 20th-century hand-painted vellum, front cover with sailing ship between decorative bands accomplished in a style reminiscent of the Bayeux Tapestry, spine with title and decorations, back cover with castle tower and distant ship motif. Publisher's original tan paper wrappers with Celtic motifs bound in.
Binding as above, vellum slightly darkened, clean and tight. Front pastedown with small rubber-stamped monogram “MG.” Pages gently age-toned, else clean.
One of the great medieval romances, and a truly lovely object. (30283)
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Real . . . REVELATIONS!
Bennett, Stuart. Trade bookbinding in the British Isles, 1660-1800. New Castle, Del.: Oak Knoll; London: British Library, 2004. Folio. 176 pp.
$85.00
Major new, path breaking work revising what we know about trade and publisher's bindings in England, Scotland, and Ireland in the period to 1800. Excellently researched and written and appropriately and fully illustrated in
color with examples of the bindings under discussion. A must for all collectors and libraries interested in the literatures and historical writings of Great Britain prior to the 19th century. New, publisher's cloth, in dust jacket. (10888)
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A
Lady of five thousand a-year!
A Challenge!
A Gilded Coach!
The Berkshire Lady's garland. In
four parts. Glasgow [Scotland]: Printed for the Booksellers, [ca. 1840].
12mo. 8 pp.
$75.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Woodcut title vignette of a woman seated beside a building and
holding a basket on her lap. "[No.] 26" is printed at the imprint
information.
WorldCat locates ten copies worldwide.
Original self wrappers (unbound; removed). Very good. (17572)
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An Artist-Apothecary Depicts the
Wonders of a Princely Garden
A Large, FULL-COLOR Set of Facsimiles
Besler, Basilius. The Besler florilegium: Plants of the four seasons. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1989. Folio (39 cm, 15.5"). 542 pp.; col. plts. (incl. in pagination).
$150.00
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First English-language edition of this beautiful reproduction of the original copperplates from Besler's 1613 Hortus Eystettensis, a tribute to the palace garden of Johann Conrad von Gemmingen, Prince Bishop of Eichstätt. An impressively large, lavishly illustrated volume (with more than 350 of the plates in full color) has an introduction and commentaries on the plates by Gérard G. Aymonin and a foreword by Pierre Gascar; the work was translated from the French by Eileen Finletter and Jean Ayer.
Publisher's cream-colored cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and plant vignette, in original cream-colored dust jacket with color-printed floral designs on covers and spine, in original printed paper–covered slipcase. Binding and jacket in beautiful clean, fresh condition; slipcase with paper edges faintly yellowed and with tiny nick to front inner edge, otherwise clean.
A lovely copy of a book sure to delight both botanically and aesthetically. (30402)
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Interesting
& Illustrated — Metallurgy
/ FIREWORKS!
Biringucci, Vannoccio. The pirotechnia of Vannoccio Biringuccio. New York: Basic Books, 1959. Small folio. 477 pp.
$60.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Reprinting of the 1942 edition produced by the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, which was a complete translation of Biringuccio's Venice,1540 work on metallurgy and fireworks. The translation is by Cyril Stanley Smith and Martha Teach Gnudi and includes copies of the original woodcut illustrations. Smith and Gnudi added historical notes, bibliography, and an introduction. This edition contains a new introduction by Smith.
One of the “Collector's Series in Science” publications.
Publisher's quarter cloth. In original slipcase, which is sunned
(and pictured above). Very Good condition. (22449)
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