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Henderson, William M. Patent No. 65,911: Improvement in steam pumps. [Washington, D.C.: United States Patent Office, 1867]. Folio (appr. 40 × 28 cm, 15.75" × 11"). [3], [1 (blank)] ff.
$150.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Patent granted to William M. Henderson of Philadelphia for “improvements in the mode of constructing and operating direct-action independent steam engines.” F. [1] is the patent itself on an engraved form, with the hand signature of acting Secretary of the Interior W.I. Otto; f. [2] is a drawing, with some coloring in blue and red, of the device as improved upon, and f. [3] is Henderson’s official description of it.
Laced together with a silk ribbon. Some browning, especially adjacent to ribbon and wafer; and a few tiny tears in edges. Short closed tears along the folds, without loss.
This
Is an
Appealing
Little Volume!
For a Variety
of Reasons . . .
Hennequin, P.P. Voyages
et aventures d'un jeune marin. Paris: Belin le Prieur (pr. by de Fain), 1835.
8vo. Frontis., [4], 338, [2] pp.; 2 plts.
$150.00


Very uncommon first edition of this novel about a young man's adventures
at sea, illustrated with three marvelous, unsigned steel engravings one
stormy shipwreck scene, one ferocious battle between two ships, and one "ducking"
on land.
Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped decorative
motifs and gilt-stamped leather title label. Front pastedown with bookseller's
ticket. Light waterstaining to lower inner margins of first and last sections
(you can see the degree of this, at left), pages otherwise generally clean.
A charming gift for a French speaker with maritime interests!
(9091)

Riviere
Binding Fore-Edge
FISHERMAN
Painting
Herrick, Robert. Chrysomela a selection from the lyrical poems of Robert Herrick. London: Macmillan & Co., 1892. 8vo (15.7 cm, 6.2"). xxviii, 199, [1] pp.
$500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
“Golden Treasury” series edition of this collection of Herrick's verse, arranged with notes by Francis Turner Palgrave. The volume is decorated with a
delicately tinted fore-edge painting on the gilt edges depicting a red-jacketed fisher, up to his calves in the water and casting his line, in an otherwise deserted bucolic setting. (That the edges are gilt, and so highly reflective, makes getting a good photo difficult! though it only enhances the effect of the fore-edge as viewed in hand.)
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)
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First in a Grolier Club Series: Important American Printers
Hewlett, Maurice. Quattrocentisteria: How Sandro Botticelli saw Simonetta in the spring. New York: The Grolier Club, 1921. Folio. v, [1], 19, [1] pp.
$50.00
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Attractive edition of this exercise in romantic, art-historical fiction, the text opening with an initial, calligraphic, decorative capital printed in red and sporting a long “tail.”
John Henry Nash of San Francisco printed 300 copies of this, on Van Gelder paper, as his contribution to “a series of six books done by eminent American printers at the invitation of the Grolier Club,” according to a preliminary notice.
Publisher's quarter tan cloth and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; spine and board edges darkened, edges and extremities rubbed, cloth at spine head chipped above page-level. Additional spine label affixed to back pastedown; rough-cut pages a bit cockled at edges as can rsult with that treatment; clean. (28236)
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Hill, Elizabeth Chase. Gleanings: Girlhood and womanhood. Concord, NH: Republican Press Association, 1887. 4to (19.2 cm, 7.5"). Frontis., [2], 76, [2] pp.
$280.00

Uncommon, posthumously printed writings from Mrs. John M. Hill,
a Concord, NH, resident who grew up in South Berwick, Maine (the first permanent
settlement in that state) and attended school in Exeter, NH. The work was
privately
printed as a holiday gift for friends of the author; the
poems and short pieces display intelligence, but not much by way of polished
craft — unsurprising given that most of them were written during Hill’s
adolescence. One unfinished poem ends abruptly with “. . . my Muse would
plume her wing, / And higher as she rises sweeter sing — ”; the note beneath humorously reads “Muse did n’t get any further up that trip”
(p. 25).
Provenance:
Front pastedown with bookplate of Burton W.F. Trafton, Jr.’s library
at Old Fields in South Berwick, ME; pastedown also with binder’s ticket
from Crawford & Stockbridge of Concord, NH. Front fly-leaf with inked
gift inscription dated Christmas, 1887.
Publisher’s brown cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped
title and dark brown–stamped decorative bands, bottom band labelled
“Christmas 1887"; corners and spine extremities rubbed, binding showing
very little wear otherwise. First two signatures with sewing loosening; pages
very slightly age-toned but otherwise clean.
Hill, John. An account of the life and writings of Hugh Blair .... Philadelphia: James Humphreys, 1808. 8vo (21.7 cm, 8.5"). 229, [1 (blank)] pp.
$125.00
First U.S. edition, following the Edinburgh first of 1807, of this laudatory biography written by a professor at the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Blair, a Scottish preacher, critic, and rhetorician, is best remembered for his sermons (which were praised by Dr. Johnson) and his involvement in the Ossian debate, in which he defended the poems’ authenticity.
Provenance: The Rev. Edwin A. Dalrymple; the Maryland Diocesan Library.
Shaw & Shoemaker 15224. Contemporary quarter cloth over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding moderately darkened and worn, cloth chipped over head of spine, spine showing shadow of a now-absent shelving label. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (as above); title-page additionally with early inked gift inscription in upper margin (this cut into by binder). Some light spotting and age-toning.
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“The First Age of Pennsylvania”
Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. [Vol. I]. Philadelphia: M'Carty & Davis, 1826. 8vo (22.1 cm, 8.75"). 432, [4 (2 blank, 2 contents)] pp.
$100.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of the first collected volume of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's transactions. Following the society's constitution and list of officers are Rawle's inaugural discourse, Vaux's “Memoir on the Locality of the Great Treaty between William Penn and the Indian Natives in 1682,” Wharton's “Notes on the Provincial Literature of Pennsylvania,” James's “Brief Account of the Discovery of Anthracite Coal on the Lehigh,” Morris's “Contributions to the Medical History of Pennsylvania,” and Bettle's “Notices of Negro Slavery, as Connected with Pennsylvania,” among other works. Part II has a separate title-page; the “Account of the First Settlement of the Townships of Buckingham and Solebury” has an errata slip tipped in.
Vol. I not in Shoemaker (see 30192 for vol. II). Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; moderately rubbed and scuffed overall, spine darkened, spine head reinforced some time ago with library cloth tape. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label on spine, 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, title-page and two others rubber-stamped, one page pressure-stamped. Mild age-toning, scattered small spots of foxing.
Despite condition notes reflecting onetime residence in a lending library, this is a nice old thing. (29879)
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College Sermons — Presentation Copy
Hoffman, Charles Frederick. Christ, the patron of all true education. New York: E. & J.B. Young & Co., 1893. 8vo. Frontis., [2], 209, [1] pp.
$100.00
Sole edition: Sermons delivered at Hobart College, 1893, Geneva, NY, and S. Stephen's College, Annandale, NY.
Provenance: With a tipped-in, printed slip reading “With the kind regards of The Author.”
Publisher's purple cloth, front cover and spine gilt-stamped; spine and edges sunned, back cover with its double layer of cloth partially torn through the top layer (interesting, as to binding structure). Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, preliminary leaf with early inked ownership inscription and pressure-stamp of a religious institution, title-page with small rubber-stamp. Pages clean. (20829)
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Something Different from
the Creator of Ruritania
Hope, Anthony, pseud. Helena's path. New York: McClure Co., 1907. 8vo. Frontis., [6], 241, [1] pp.
$40.00
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First edition of this romance from the author of The Prisoner of Zenda, Sir Anthony Hope Hawkins. The volume opens with an unsigned, color-printed plate; the sprightly, chivalrous tale features two strong-willed protagonists and their cast of entertaining friends — including a barrister who must bear the brunt of Lord Lynborough's amused disdain for the law.
Despite Hope's having been English and even knighted, this work was apparently never printed in England.
Binding: Publisher's red cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped garden design, spine with gilt-stamped title. Signed binding: Front cover with monogram of a J crowned with E (unidentified designer).
Binding as above, cocked, with minimal rubbing to extremities. Front free endpaper with inked gift inscription dated Christmas 1904. A few corners bumped, one torn away. Pages very clean. A bright, pretty copy. (29132)
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Dartmouth's Laureate
Hovey, Richard. Dartmouth lyrics. Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., (copyright 1924). 8vo. xiv, 94 pp.
$65.00
First edition. Poems by “Dartmouth's Laureate," edited by Edwin Osgood Grover.
BAL 9401. Green publisher's cloth, front cover stamped in white and gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title; clean and solid, with only very slight traces of wear to extremities. Front free endpaper with inked owner's name. (16665)

Attractive Little Book!
Howells,
William Dean. Criticism and fiction. New York: Harper &
Brothers, 1892. 12mo. Frontis., title-leaf, 188 pp., [2] ff.
$25.00
Second edition.
Binding: Publisher's green cloth elaborately stamped in gilt on front cover with an overall pattern of torches with bows, surrounding a central cartouche with the title and author in gilt.
Click the images for enlargements.
BAL 9577 (for first edition). Binding as above, lightly rubbed at base of spine, small area of minor discoloration on spine. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. (26805)
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New England Catechism
Humphrey, H. The New England primer: containing the Assembly's catechism; the account of the burning of John Rogers; a dialogue between Christ, a youth, and the devil ... adorned with cuts. Worcester: William Allen; S.A. Howland, [ca. 1842]. 16mo (11.4 cm, 4.5"). 64 pp.
[SOLD]
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Long before the McGuffey reader there was the New England primer: It served many generations of American children learning to read. A best-selling combination of the authorized ABC school book and the official church manual, it was codified in the 17th-century by Separatist publishers searching for a common religious ground in New England. “Not till the great Westminster Assembly formulated its longer and shorter catechisms, did the New England Churches find a common faith . . . . Copies of the little book were as much a matter of 'stock' in the bookshops of the towns . . . as
the Bible itself.” (Ford, pp. 12–18).
It contains the Westminster shorter catechism, an alphabet of lessons followed by children's prayers and hymns, as usual, illustrated with a wood-engraved portrait of Isaac Watts, D.D., facing the title-page. Two small wood-engraved vignettes in text offer a mother and child and the burning of John Rogers, and an
illustrated alphabet with a small wood-engraved vignette for each letter is spread over two double-page openings.
The Rev. Heman Humphrey (1779–1861) was the second president of
Amherst College, and active in the temperance movement.
On the history of the primer, see: Ford, New-England primer. Publisher's illustrated blue-green paper boards, black cloth spine; edges worn, boards soiled with a spattering of ink stains. A bit of paper torn away from outer margin of one leaf losing a few words of text and part of image on following page, with little loss of sense in either case; two short tears on a following leaf; offsetting from boards onto endpapers and a few other stains.
Actually, for a working children's book, this copy was a pretty lucky one! (31226)
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