•  Publisher's rust ribbed cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine gilt-stamped; spine sunned, corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed. Preface with rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin. Intermittent light foxing due to paper of the era. Excellent copy.  (21944)

•  Exposicion: Palau 54257. Política peculiar: this edition not in Palau. Contemporary acid-stained calf simply gilt with brown leather label on each spine; scattered wormholes and some loss of leather over corners and at base of spine. Endpapers stencilled red and green. Some interior worming, most noticeable in endpapers and first title-page, resulting in loss of parts of letters without loss of sense. Scattered light foxing and a few leaves shallowly dog-eared. Inked ownership inscription on title-pages. All edges speckled red.

The volume is illustrated with six copper-engraved plates (five of which are folding) as well as an additional engraved title-page, 13 full-page engravings, and two in-text images. There is an extensiveindex.

•  Bitting 89; Palau 66773; Vicaire 174.   Contemporary vellum, spine with inked title; vellum darkened, spine title faded, spine with lined-through call number. Front pastedown with old cataloguing and Canadian bookseller's label affixed; front free endpaper and back pastedown with institutional rubber-stamps and the former with a slip affixed noting acquisition detail. One leaf with outer margin chipped, not touching text; faint waterstaining in upper margins of a few leaves.  (23368)

An early purchaser has recorded the cost of binding the set (60 pence per book) in a pencilled note on the front fly-leaf of vol. I: “Aug. 15th 1864 in 38 vol bound in fine 1/2 moroco [sic] per vol c/60 d.”

The essays and authors here were all once fashionable as well as interesting; they are no longer at all fashionable, but they are interesting in ways that their authors and original readers never imagined.  

Bindings: Contemporary half morocco over attractive marbled paper–covered sides, each spine with gilt-stamped title, volume number, and elegant arabesque decorations. Top edges gilt.

•  On Chalmers, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Bindings lightly rubbed, a few with leather showing slight cracking over spines. Frontispiece with bookplate of private collector. Pages age-toned, with edges slightly embrittled; some occurrences of staining and pencilled underlining, with the majority of pages clean. An attractive set; many hours’ worth of reading. For anyone who savors slices'o'life, and slices'o'time, very rich fare.

Single-click the image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  ESTC T138271; Lowndes, II, 404; Allibone, 2036. Recent quarter morocco over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages slightly age-toned, one with pencilled underlining/emphasis.

Single-click the image where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  ESTCT61515; Allibone, 2036; Lowndes, II, 404. Recent quarter morocco over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution; pages age-toned.

Chapman, along with several of her sisters, founded the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and was one of the staunchest supporters of the abolitionist cause, braving mob scenes and social condemnation to attend anti-slavery meetings, circulate petitions, organize the Anti-Slavery Fair, and publish the present annual. Not many solid, presentable copies of the Liberty Bell make their way to the market, and this one is especially notable for its having been inscribed by Chapman herself.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with presentation inscription reading “Eunice Dorman [?] from her friend M.W. Chapman,” dated February, 1844 (“39 Summer St.”).

•  On Chapman, see: McHenry, Famous American Women, 68–69, and DAB, IV, 19.   Publisher’s brown cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped bell vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorative bands; cloth worn along board edges and corners and chipped away at spine extremities, exposing underlying boards or support. Front cover and outer edge with a few small dents, back cover with line of light, unobtrusive staining. Pages lightly foxed, otherwise clean, with some corners dog-eared. A desirable copy. (21279)

This particular copy seems to have incurred someone’s personal wrath, as the plate illustrating the allegory of Wisdom has had its central (nude) female figure excised.

•  Contemporary mottled calf framed in triple gilt fillets, spine gilt extra, all page edges marbled; binding with expectable acid-pitting and minor cracking of the leather over the spine and joints. One (and only one) signature foxed, leaves otherwise clean. A handsome book, defaced in a way that is depressing but also interesting.

Click either image for an enlargement.

Provenance: Pencilled note on endpaper, “From Ralph E. McCoy’s Library”; McCoy, emeritus Dean of Libraries at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, published widely on the First Amendment freedoms.

•  Howes C336; Sabin 12379; Shaw & Shoemaker 17193. Later quarter plain brown paper over contemporary tan paper–covered sides; edges and corners rubbed. Front free endpaper (modern) with pencilled note of McCoy’s ownership; front fly-leaf with pencilled gift inscription dated 1849. Offsetting and foxing throughout. A very sound copy.

The play's length is that of a "filler" piece in a jam-packed 19th-century theatrical night of three or four plays (or parts thereof) and other "entertainments"—or, the length of a school or home production. The style is distinctly amateur/naive.  E.g., the euphonious exotic names are far from consistently Chinese and one character is "carried [from his 'chinese cottage'] to the ganges"; the author confuses exit and exeunt ("Exeunt Priest")—we wonder if this blithe vagueness as to geography and world cultures, and the seeming lack of even basic classical education, suggest a lively-minded and enthusiastically play-going but unrigorously schooled female writer?

Provenance: Gift inscription: "Horace W. Smith, Esq. to W.W., 1863." A pencil note says "By J. Howard Payne in his handwriting, W.W."—but the handwriting does not match that of Payne's MSS. at Yale and Brown Universities.

•  First leaf dust-soiled and now separated. Edges of some leaves chipped costing a few letters and, very rarely, an entire word; lost letters and words are easily supplied by context. Comfortable, for working with.

•  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 pp. 33/34 and 39/40; some signatures loosening. Pages with a very few small spots, otherwise clean and pleasing.

Single-click the far-lefthand image, where the hand appears on
mouse-over, for an enlargement.

•  Not in NSTC. Recent wrappers. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Portion torn away from upper margin of front fly-leaf, perhaps to remove an inscription.

The Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical was an assemblage of rulings given equal force with the canon law, although the rulings themselves were not based on canon law.

•  STC (rev. ed.) 10076; ESTC S101555.   Removed from a nonce volume. A very nice, clean copy with an array of marginal markings — Xs, asterisks, “vid.,” and the odd hand-with-pointing-finger. (21226)

Provenance: The front fly-leaf bears an inked inscription reading “From this Book our 4 Dear Children were Babtized [sic] by the Rev. S. Good, Rector of St. Anns Blk. Friars, And afterwards Christened by their Dear Uncle the Rev. Charles Brown, Rector of Whitestone, near Exeter, Devon.” The children's baptismal dates range from 1806 through 1814.

•  ESTC T93069; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1791/7. Binding as above, leather slightly worn over joints and extremities. Front fly-leaf with collector's small bookplate, reverse with inscription as above, title-page with owner's name and date (1806) inked in upper margin. Pages clean.

Binding: Contemporary straight-grain dark blue morocco now tending to olive, covers framed with a gilt single fillet; round spine with raised bands, blind roll on each band, and each band defined by gilt rules above and below it. Spine with compartments stamped in blind, gilt-stamped title, and gilt-stamped decorations at head and foot; place and date of publication in gilt at base of spine. All edges gilt; fore-edge painting as above.

•  ESTC T081415; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1758/1. Binding as above, corners a bit rubbed and joints somewhat more so, with upper and outer cover edges showing some fading. Front pastedown with small shelving number slip and small bookplate of a private collector. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean save for minor bleed to some outer margins from the fore-edge painting. Beautiful.

Binding:  Contemporary red straight-grain morocco, covers framed in gilt rolls and fillets, board edges with gilt roll of hashmark pattern. Spine gilt extra, turn-ins with Greek key gilt roll. All edges gilt. Housed in a black cloth slipcase with printed paper label.

•  NSTC L1859. Griffiths, Book of Common Prayer, 1814/3 (giving incorrect pagination, but correct collation by signature).   Binding as above, gilt dimmed in some places, front cover with faintly incised circular markings; edges, extremities, and joints rubbed. Some age-toning, occasional smudges. Final two leaves darkened, with short edge tears.  (24017)

Provenance: Front free endpaper with inked gift inscription reading “Compliments of Jos. W. McMurrin / July 19th 1896.” Joseph William McMurrin (1858–1932), a Mormon missionary and general authority, served as one of the seven presidents of the First Quorum of Seventy.

•  Crawley 688 (for 1852 stereotyped ed.); Flake & Draper 626; Sabin 83067.   Publisher's textured blue cloth, framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding unobtrusively rebacked, showing virtually no wear. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Front free endpaper with inscription as above. (20999)

Rare.  OCLC lists only four U.S. holdings and one deaccessioned copy (the present example).

•  Brunet 22420; Graesse, II, 154. Not in Adams.   19th-century quarter olive morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped author/title; edges and extremities rubbed. Top edge gilt. Front pastedown with bookplate as above; title-page and first text page each with early inked ownership inscription. Four leaves with small repaired tears from outer margins and three likewise from upper margins, not touching text in any case. Extensive early inked marginalia in first document, scattered examples elsewhere.  (23536)

Both works are printed in roman type with large woodcut initials featuring cherubs and each has its title-page printed in black and red. The Examen is divided into two parts, each with its own collation and pagination, with the second part being “Sanctae romanae ecclesiae bibliothecariorum catalogus, iuxta chronologicum ordinem. . . .”

Evidence of readership.  In the first part of the Examen an early reader has underlined in sepia ink passages or phrases s/he found significant but added no marginalia.

•  Contemporary vellum. Bookplate removed from front pastedown. Very good copies of both titles.

•  ESTC T137815; Schweiger, II, 231. Contemporary quarter long-grained sheep over marbled paper; spine gilt. Marbled endpapers. All edges speckled brown. Sheep somewhat abraded and peeling, covers rubbed and chipped around the edges. Light foxing on frontispiece and title-page. Light soiling on last blank page. (11867)

The Journal's appendix contains such diverse information as short word lists of the Yoruba and Fellatah languages, meteorological tables, and a list of Clapperton's Arabic manuscripts. The engraved plan shows the course of the Kowara or Quarra River.

•  Shoemaker 38187. Recent speckled calf old style. Light foxing. A very good copy.

The complete Oxford editions are generally seen bound as seven volumes, but the work appears here as one very large volume, in an attractive contemporary binding.

•  NSTC 2H39552. Contemporary diced dark blue/black calf, covers framed in blind rolls and single gilt fillet, gilt spine extra; slight wear to corners and extremities, joints just starting at top and bottom. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate and with institutional bookplate. Pages clean. All edges marbled. Handsome!

signed pictorial binding done by "B.S."

•  Publisher's cloth, front cover stamped in black, white, and gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title; spinal extremities and one bit of stamping very slightly rubbed, else clean and nice. (12247)

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Provenance: Howard Osgood.

•  Brunet, IV, 683.   Contemporary calf, spine elegantly gilt extra, board edges with gilt rolls; leather acid-pitted, edges and extremities a bit rubbed. Title-page with small inked owner's name and institutional pressure-stamp. Damp-spotting to first and last few pages; some leaves starting to separate, many with lower outer corners crumpled. Intermittent underlining and marks of emphasis in red pencil throughout. (20861)