
BIBLIO-GIFTABLES
A Ba-Bn Bo-Bz Bibles Ca-Cn Co-Cz D E
F G Ha-Hd He-Hz I-J K L Ma-Mb
Mc-Mz N O P Q-R Sa-Sh Si-Sz
Ta-Tg Th-Tz U-Wa Wb-Wh Wi-Z
Christian
“Pearls” Set
in Blue
& Silver
McClure, James B., ed. Pearls from many seas. Chicago:
Rhodes & McClure Publishing Co., 1904. 8vo. Frontis., 528, [14] pp.; illus.
$35.00
Early printing of this “galaxy of thought from four hundred writers of wide repute”:
Inspiring excerpts from Christian literature, gathered by the Rev. McClure.
Publisher's dark blue cloth, front cover and spine stamped in silver; corners and
spine extremities slightly rubbed. Front hinge (inside) cracked and back hinge tender; endpapers
partially adhered to pastedowns. (22222)
For more RELIGION, click here.
For more books in handsome
PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
For
POST-1820 AMERICANA,
click here.

“What Is Dis, A Chin-Chin to a Show Down?”
McHugh, Hugh. Out for the coin. New York: G.W. Dillingham Co., 1903. 8vo. 107, [1], xx (adv.) pp.; 6 plts.
$32.50


A young would-be investor inherits seven racehorses and their trainer from an uncle in Kentucky. Comic hijinx result, as he'd promised his wife he'd stay away from horses and the track. The novel is written in choice contemporary slang (“cuckoo on the curb,” “that old jojo,” “tipped to a sag”), for which this particular author had a reputation, and it is illustrated with six black-and-white plates by Gordon H. Grant. Fifth in a series of 11 books featuring John Henry, “A man about town.”
Click the images for enlargements.
Binding: Publisher's tan cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in black and white; designed by Thomas Watson Ball and with his “B” cipher. The cover depicts a richly dressed man at a tickertape machine. Top edge gilt.
Bound as above; black stamping showing light wear: a solid, clean copy. (22208)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For another HORSE BOOK or two, click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS,
LANGUAGE, ETC., click here.
This also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.
Memorial biographies of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Boston: Pub. by the Society, 1880. 8vo (24.5 cm, 9.6"). 533 pp.
$100.00
First edition of the first volume in a series compiled and published by the oldest genealogical society in the United States. Among the biographies present are entries on Harrison Gray Otis, Albert Gallatin, William Ingalls, and Daniel Webster.
Publisher’s cloth, spine with printed paper label; spine and back cover scuffed, spine label darkened and chipped. Front pastedown with institutional stamp. Many signatures unopened. Pages slightly age-toned, else clean; paper embrittled, with a few short edge tears.
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For more BIOGRAPHIES, mostly 20th-Century
“General Reading” & Inexpensive, click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.

Victorian Arabica
Nicely Presented
Meredith,
George. The shaving of Shagpat. New York:
Pr. by the George Grady Press for the Limited Editions Club, 1955. 4to.
$60.00
The centenary edition of Meredith's Arabian-inspired fantasy, with an introduction by Sir Francis Meredith Meynell and illustrations by Honore Guilbeau, who signed the colophon. The
printing here is handsome, with accents and chapter indications in blue throughout and with touches of other colors — leaf green and curry. This is copy number 288 of 1500 printed.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club 260. Publisher's quarter leather over printed paper-covered sides; spine extremities slightly rubbed, in slipcase showing a bit of scraping and refurbished at top fore-edge. Very nice. (13276)
For ARABICA, click here.
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
For more LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB books, click here.
If you don't mind those Chipped labels . . . QUITE
Satisfactory!
Metastasio, Pietro. Opere scelte di Pietro Metastasio. Drammi (vols. I, II, & 3); Azioni e feste teatrali; Opere sacre [,] poesie varie e traduzioni. Milan: Societa Tipografica de' Classici Italiani, 1820. 8vo. 5 vols. I: Frontis., LV, [1], 565, [3] pp. II: 642, [2] pp. III: 646, [2] pp. (lacking half-title). IV: 626, [2] pp. V: [4], 617, [11 (index)] pp.
$200.00
Five-volume set of collected works by the celebrated 18th-century poet and librettist, with the first three volumes dedicated to his historical plays.
Contemporary vellum, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-stamped decorative bands; bindings lightly soiled, with spine labels chipped and rubbed, spines with shelving numbers in white. All page edges stained gold. Front pastedowns with institutional bookplates, title-pages with shadows of pencilled numerals. Vol. III lacking half-title. Intermittent light foxing, most pages clean. (14112)

A VERY PRETTY American Binding
Methodist Episcopal Church. Hymns. Hymnal of the Methodist Episcopal Church. New York: Phillips & Hunt; Cincinnati: Walden & Stowe, 1882. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). viii, 775, [1] pp.
$125.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Hymns only, without music; effectively, a neat and handsome volume of religious verse.
Binding: Contemporary black or very dark navy morocco, covers framed and panelled in gilt triple fillets with floral and fan-shaped corner decorations, surrounding a (blank) cartouche; spine with gilt-stamped title and arabesque decorations, board edges with gilt roll, gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.
Binding as above with a few small scuffs, back cover with areas of faint discoloration and light scrapes. Pages clean. Very giftable. (29151)
For POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For HYMNALS, click here.
For RELIGION, click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
BINDINGS, click here .
For LITERATURE, click here.
First Peformed at Ludlow Castle 1634 — Comus with the Music
Milton, John, & Henry Lawes. The masque of Comus. Cambridge: Printed for the members of The Limited Editions Club at the University Press, 1954. 4to (26.6 cm, 10.4"). Frontis., [6], 3–57, [3], [12 (music)], [2] pp.; 5 plts.
$180.00
Click the images for enlargements.
John Milton was commissioned to write this masque by his good friend, Henry Lawes, for John, Earl of Bridgewater, on the occasion of his becoming President of Wales. It was first performed by Lawes himself and the Earl's children at Ludlow Castle in 1634. The masque's five songs were set to music composed by Henry Lawes, and this music is printed in two parts (for treble and bass clefs) on 12 pages immediately following the text. The prefatory materials to this edition, which is limited to 1500 copies, include an introduction to the play proper by Mark van Doren and an explanation of the music by Hubert Foss.
The illustrations consist of six full-page watercolors by Edmund Dulac. The LEC bibliography says they were “printed in process offset,” but this is in error: The mailing notice (not present with this offering) asserts they were “reproduced in six printings by the Sun Engraving Company,” and a member of the family that owned that enterprise observes to us that it did not in fact have offset presses — while it was noted for its color letterpress productions, including the original (1940) Szyk Haggadah. The design is by John Dreyfus, who chose a monotype Bembo font printed by the University of Cambridge Press; the engraving of the music was done by G.T. Friend.
The binding is quarter gold-stamped vellum with marbled paper sides; top edges are gilt.
Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 250. Binding with a light, small stain on back cover. Clean inside; bookseller's small label on rear pastedown. Original slipcase, with light scuff marks and minor paper loss at head and foot of mouth. A fine book, in a very good slipcase. (23002)
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For more LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB
books, click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
For THEATER/THEATRE, click here.
For more MUSIC (& DANCE), click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.

American Romance with
Mystic Oriental Overtones — In a Signed Binding
Mitchell, John Ames. Amos Judd. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901. 8vo. [4], 152 pp.; 8 col. plts.
$65.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Early, illustrated edition of a popular novel originally published in 1895 and later made into a movie titled “The Young Rajah,” starring Rudolph Valentino as a young, psychic Indian prince spirited away and adopted by a New England farming family. The romantic tale is decorated with a color-printed title-page vignette and seven other color-printed plates, from paintings by Arthur J. Keller.
Signed binding: Publisher's brick-colored cloth, front cover and spine with decorative gilt-stamped title and twining vine and flower motifs, front cover with “AR” monogram of designer Amy Richards (fl. 1896–1918).
Binding as above, slightly cocked and with corners a little bumped, spine very gently darkened and back cover with small spots, front cover with a few pinprick-type holes not detracting overly from overall appearance of design. Top edges gilt. A few page margins with faint smudges, otherwise clean. (29769)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For our INDIA gathering, click here.
For more ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.
For more books in handsome
PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For more of WOMEN's interest, click here.
This book appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.

A
“Philadelphianum”
(Published in Boston)
Mitchell,
Silas Weir. The hill of stones and other
poems. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1883. 16mo. iv, 98 pp.
$75.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
First edition: Romantic poems, including one Arthurian piece, written
by a neurologist born in Philadelphia and known for his work on nerve injuries
and erythromelalgia (“Weir Mitchell’s disease”).
An early hand inked neat responses to a few lines in “The
Quaker Graveyard.”
Publisher's cloth, front cover black- and gilt-stamped, spine simply gilt-stamped, binding gently worn with minor spotting to spine and lower edge of front cover. Ownership inscription to front free endpaper. A nice copy. (2901)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For more of PHILADELPHIA
interest, click here.
For a “shelf” dedicated to the
FRIENDS/QUAKERS, click here.
For more AMERICAN PUBLISHER'S
CLOTH BINDINGS, click here.
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For more MEDICINE, click here.

Euphony Cacophony Versification & CompLit
Mitford, William. An inquiry into the principles of harmony in language, and of the mechanism of verse, modern and antient. London: Pr. by L. Hansard ... for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1804. 8vo. xv, [1], 343 pp. (lacks the half-title).
$325.00

Mitford (1744–1827), a historian of ancient Greece, sometime member of Parliament, and principally a gentleman of means, here presents the second edition of his study of versification in English — including Anglo-Saxon and Middle-English, and with comparisons to Classical Latin and Greek, French, Italian, and Spanish. There is even a chapter on Oriental and Celtic versification! First published anonymously in 1774 as An essay upon the harmony of language, intended principally to illustrate that of the English language, the work in this edition boasts “ improvement and large addition.”
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Recent quarter calf, round spine; raised bands accented with gilt beading, gilt center devices in spine compartments, and two green spine labels. Combed-pattern marbled paper sides. Lacks the half-title, only; occasional light foxing. A very good copy of an interesting and now uncommon book. (22228)
For DICTIONARIES/GRAMMARS, ETC., click here.
For LITERATURE, click here.
For ANGLO-SAXON, click here.
For GREEK & LATIN CLASSICS, click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.

“Early American” for THIS Sort of
Chess Book
Monroe, J. Science and art of chess. New York: Charles Scribner; London: Sampson Low, Son & Co., 1859. 12mo (19 cm; 7.5"). 281 pp., illus.
$450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition, not a modern reprint. Designed for the beginner and novice, this was published during the early days of interest in the U.S. in chess as a social event. The first American chess congress was held in New York in 1857 and that certainly helped expand interest in the game. (Oddly, the founding of the first chess club in America did not come until 1877.)
Provenance: Ex-German Society of Pennsylvania Library, a German-American social organization.
Publisher's green cloth stamped in blind on covers and in gilt on spine (with a knight, bishop, and castle in addition to author and title); a little cocked and bottom edges worn. Front free endpaper separated and rear one chipped. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title- and two other pages, no other markings. Clearly a book that was often read and consulted with some soiling and staining resultant; text not chipped though printed on inexpensive paper. (26923)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For GAMES, PUZZLES, & SPORTS, click here.
For “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.
This also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.
An
Early-20th-Century
Edition of This Speller
Monroe, Lewis B. Practical speller. New York:
American Book Co., (copyright 1903). 8vo. 172 pp.
$27.50
Later edition of this spelling workbook, originally published in
1875, with groups of words linked thematically so as to interest students.
Original quarter cloth with decoratively printed paper sides,
paper chipped over edges. One instance of pencil marking; otherwise clean
and unused. (4954)
For
CHILDREN / EDUCATION, click here.

Words for an
Important Irish Poet
from an
Important Irish Press
Montague, John; & Liam Miller. A tribute to Austin Clarke on his seventieth birthday 9 May 1966. [Dublin: Dolmen Press, 1966]. Tall 8vo. 27, [1] pp.
$25.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: One of 1000 copies printed of this Dolmen Editions homage to the Irish poet Austin Clarke. Contributing authors include Thomas Kinsella, Hugh MacDiarmuid, Padraic Colum, Ted Hughes, Anthony Kerrigan, Liam Miller, and others; a checklist of Clarke's works is provided.
Publisher's printed paper wrappers; spine and edges gently sunned, edges with minor shelfwear. Half-title with pencilled (relevant) annotations; pages crisp and clean. (29718)
For more of IRISH interest, click here.
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For COLLECTED PRESSES
& TYPOGRAPHY,
click here.
A
Philadelphian's
Privately
Printed
“Ghostly”
Vision
Moore, Charles Leonard. Ghost of Rosalys: a play. Philadelphia: Pr. for the author (Times Printing House), 1900. 12mo. 174 pp.
$25.00
Single-click
the image, for an enlargement.
First edition.
Full library blue cloth, gilt-stamped on the spine, covers pressure-stamped with the name of a now-defunct library, spine with shelving label. Small tear to head of spine. Binding lightly soiled. Bookplate and library pocket present. Possible authorial inscription on front fly-leaf. Remnants of paper adhered to top edge of title-page. Pages clean. Very good. (7372)

A Very Autobiographical Comedy
Moore, George. The coming of Gabrielle a comedy. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1921. 8vo (21 cm; 8.25"). 132, [1] pp.
$50.00
Click the images for enlargement.
First U.S. edition of this comedy about literary identity and the attentions paid to a successful author, based on a real-life incident in which a European baroness began to write to Moore following the appearance of his Evelyn Innes. This was a limited edition of 895 numbered copies, of which the present example is no. 351.
Publisher's quarter cream parchment paper and blue paper sides, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped leather title-labels, in original blue-gray paper dust jacket with black-stamped title and edition information; binding in beautiful condition, jacket with small edge chips and spine head splitting. Pages clean. A nice copy. (29707)
For LITERATURE, click here.
For THEATER/THEATRE, click here.
For inexpensive GENERAL READING, click here.
For BIOGRAPHIES, mostly 20th-Century
“General Reading” & Inexpensive, click here.

Lalla Rookh, the Irish Melodies, & More
Moore, Thomas. The poetical works of Thomas Moore including his melodies, ballads, etc. Paris: A. & W. Galignani, 1827. 8vo (23.3 cm, 9.1"). Frontis., [4], vi, [2], xxii, 383, [1] pp.
$200.00

First edition of this Parisian single-volume compilation of Moore's verse, with an engraved portrait of the author done by J.T. Wedgwood after Sieurac, and a biographical and critical sketch of Thomas Moore written by J.W. Lake. The volume opens, of course, with the beloved Lalla Rookh; and, though the publishers here were the Galignanis, it is noted on the back of the half-title that “Jules Didot, Senior,” was the actual printer.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Binding: Contemporary straight-grain black morocco, covers framed and panelled in gilt and blind, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-framed compartments, spine compartments blind-tooled in foliate designs, turn-ins with gilt double fillets. All edges gilt.
NCBEL, III, 264. Bound as above, edges and extremities with minor rubbing, bottom spine compartment with small crack, leather (only) starting at front joint (joint itself strong). Front pastedown with early inked ownership inscription. Moderate foxing, more pronounced to first and last few leaves; two pages with offsetting from dried plant matter laid in.
A lovely volume. (24906)
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING
BINDINGS, click here .
For more of IRISH interest, click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.

The More Things Change . . .
( . . . The More They Stay the Same). Report of the speeches delivered at the public meeting of the inhabitants of Edinburgh opposed to the government scheme of education, held in the Music Hall, on Wednesday evening the 31st March 1847. Edinburgh: Grant & Taylor, 1847. 8vo. 34 pp.
$90.00
Uncommon: Speeches objecting to “Government interference in the matter of education,” by Edward Baines, Jr., Bailie Duncan, the Rev. Andrew Thomson, the Rev. J.R. Campbell, Dr. Lindsay Alexander, Duncan McLaren, etc.
Click the image for an enlargement.
NSTC 2E4287. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with small inked numeral in upper outer corner. (17041)
For CHILDREN / EDUCATION, click here.
For more SCOTLAND & SCOTS, click here.
Or for OVER 100 items of Scottish interest
NOT IN THE ILLUSTRATED SCOTS WEB CATALOGUE
& offered
via unillustrated, PDF-format, printable list click here.
Munn, B.T. La petite belle; or the life of an adventurer. Skaneateles, NY: [Truair, Smith, & Bruce], 1877. 8vo (19.6 cm, 7.75"). Frontis., 368 pp.
$125.00
The last page of this unfinished work announces that the present book is Vol. I, but no more was ever published — rather ironically, as the title-page proclaims “A life is not fully rounded out till its close.” The author, a Spiritualist who lectured on that topic, set the novel in the small New York town where it was published.
Wright, III, 3879. Publisher’s green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; cloth showing minor wear overall. Frontispiece with outer edge waterstained; four leaves with some offsetting from laid-in scrap of cloth. Pages with a few scattered small spots, mostly clean.
Produced
under the Supervision of
Bruce
Rogers
Murdock, Harold. Earl Percy's dinner-table. Boston: Houghton Mifflin &
Co., 1907. 8vo (26 cm, 10.25"). Frontis., [6], 77, [1] pp.
$105.00
Printed at the Riverside Press under the direction of Bruce Rogers, this
is number 202 out of 550 in this limited edition. Murdock's pleasant, readable
fantasia on historical events near the beginning of the Revolution presents
an immediate and personal perspective from the British side.
Publisher's red cloth, spine with paper label, in excellent
condition save for slight discolorations to spine label. With laid-in prospectus.
Pages mildly cockled; scattered, pinpoint spots of something(?) that got into
the slurry during the paper-making.
A handsome, clean copy.

Cookery by a Famous
Epicure & Cuisinier
Murrey, Thomas Jefferson. Valuable cooking receipts. New York: White, Stokes, & Allen, 1886. 12mo. 128 pp.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargement.
Home cookery, written by the famed “Terrapin Tom,” a caterer and one-time manager of the restaurant that served the House of Representatives. Murrey here provides a comprehensive survey of good but not excessively fussy, classic 19th-century cuisine, as well as a few more unusual items such as hop sprout salad, canned quinces, chili sauce (mild American-style), and Reed-Birds a la Lindenthorpe (cooked inside large potatoes). He mentions in several places the utility of various “weeds” as good salad greens, and offers brief remarks on etiquette and dinner menus (including the ideal bill of fare to be wholly supplied by the state of Maryland, and the author's version of a Dickensian “Christmas Carol” meal). This is an early edition, following the first of 1880.
Binding: Publisher's brown cloth, front cover with black-stamped title and gilt-stamped vignette of an 18th-century mob-capped lady tasting from a steaming cauldron.
Bitting 337 (for first ed.); Brown, Culinary Americana, 2452 (likewise). Not in Cagle & Stafford. Binding as above, minimal rubbing to extremities. Back pastedown with 19th-century Brentano ticket. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean. A very nice copy. (30093)
For more POST-1820 AMERICANA, click here.
For more MARYLAND'ia, click here.
For more books in handsome
PUBLISHER'S CLOTH, click here.
For more LITERATURE, click here.
For more COOKERY, click here.
For another BIRD book or two, click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.

Chicanery & Deception
Myers, Robin, & M. Harris. Fakes and frauds: Varieties of deception in print and manuscript. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2006. 12mo. xi, [1], 144 pp.
$39.95
For more “How-To,” click here.
For a little more SCIENCE, click here.
For more ANGLO-AMERICAN LAW, click here.
For our shelves of inexpensive GENERAL
READING, click here.
For more BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS, click here.
This book also appears in the GENERAL
MISCELLANY click here.
PLACE
AN ORDER | E-MAIL
US | PRB&M HOME