GENERAL MISCELLANY

Popular Philosophical Dialogues

•  Essays on social and moral problems including educating women and children, improving the condition of the rural poor, and giving and taking criticism, presented in a framing text involving several personable imaginary figures whose interspersed dialogues enliven the philosophical exposition. Helps, a civil servant, was much admired in his day for this popular work, which was at least partly inspired by his time as a member of the Cambridge Conversazione Society (a.k.a. the Apostles). Click the images for enlargements.

Present here is an early U.S. edition of the first series; two series were published, the first in 1847–49 and the second in 1859. Much of the second volume of this series is dedicated to the question of slavery.

•  Allibone 818. On Helps, see: Dictionary of National Biography online.   Publisher's blind-stamped brown cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; moderate rubbing most noticeable at vol. I spine head, and vol. II with strip of dark cloth tape at head of spine extending onto sides. Ex–social club library: front pastedowns with 19th-century bookplate and call-number sticker, front free endpapers lacking, title-pages pressure-stamped, no other markings. Pages age-toned, with intermittent spots of staining and light pencilled bracketing.  (26412)

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Direct-ActionIndependent Steam Engines
    [Actually: Pumps]

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•  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.

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Direct-ActionCompound Engines

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•  Patent granted to William M. Henderson of Philadelphia for “improvement in direct-acting compound engine.” 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 of the device as improved upon, and the following 2 ff. are Henderson’s official description of it.

•  Laced together with a silk ribbon. Some browning, especially adjacent to ribbon and wafer.

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Mrs. Hening onAfrican Missions

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•  “The object of the writer . . . has been, to present . . . the leading historical facts of the mission of the Protestant Episcopal church in western Africa.” — Preface to first edition, with copyright date 1849. The ardor of the missionaries and the sheer arduousness of their effort are both palpable here; many missionary deaths are recounted, and an appendix discussing the effects of the African climate on “the European constitution” gives this interest as to the history of medicine.

•  Library Company, Afro-Americana, 4726.   Publisher's blind-stamped cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine and board edges sunned, cloth torn (repaired) and chipped at spine, spine with call number label. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, title-page and map each with rubber-stamp, back free endpaper with circulation slip. Map and a few other leaves lightly foxed.  (19500)

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This Is anAppealing Little Volume!
    [ For a Variety of Reasons . . . ]

•  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)

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The Famous Heredia Catalogue — withAuction Prices

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•  First edition:  Auction catalogue of the extensive, impressive library of bibliophile Ricardo Heredia y Livermore, Conde de Benahavís (1831–96). Heredia built “perhaps the greatest collection of Spanish books ever formed” (as noted by an old cataloguing slip laid into this set), incorporating the former Salvá y Mallén collection; this catalogue serves as an important reference work for a wide swathe of Spanish literature, theology, belles-lettres, etc.

The listings are augmented in the first three volumes by numerous in-text reproductions of illustrations and title-pages from the books. This copy includesauction prices neatly inked alongside every book.

•  Contemporary treed sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-ruled bands; sides showing minor rubbing, edges, joints, and extremities moreso. All hinges (inside) cracked or tender, some endpapers with pencilled notations. Vol. I: Two pages with light offsetting from now-absent item, one leaf with lower outer corner torn away. Vol. IV with bookplate of Alvaro de Fontagud y Aguilera. Pages gently age-toned, most noticeably in vol. IV, with occasional light smudges; each volume with last page browned.  (29161)

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The Amazon & Its “Aborigines” — 52 Lithographed Plates

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•  Original government issue of these “Minute, accurate, and very interesting accounts of the aborigines of the Andes, and the Amazon and its tributaries” (Sabin). These two volumes are parts I and II of Senate Executive Document no. 36, 32d Cong., 2d sess., consisting of Lieut. Herndon’s description of following the Amazon itself and Lieut. Gibbon’s account of his travels along the Amazon’s tributaries in Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil.

Many of the 52 lithographed plates are in duotone; some were done by Ackerman Lithography and some by P.S. Duval & Co., after views of scenery, buildings, and natives drawn by Lieut. Gibbon.

Two volumes of maps, not present here, were issued separately.

•  Sabin 31524; Palau 113897. Publisher’s textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; vol. I with spine sunned and cloth chipped at spine extremities; vol. II with corners bumped, cloth peeling away from spine and chipped at spine extremities, spine with gilt dimmed and small area of unobtrusive discoloration from now-absent label. Front pastedowns each with pencilled owner’s name and institutional rubber stamp (no other markings); front free endpaper of vol. II starting to tear along inner margin. Mild to moderate foxing and spotting; a few text gatherings unopened. One plate in vol. I with short tear from outer margin, turning into a narrow scrape extending about halfway into the upper portion of the image; one leaf in vol. II with tiny portion (less than one word) affixed to opposing plate. Not a perfect set, but a perfectly fascinating one.

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Sutton's Hospital inCharterhouse
    & The FamousCharterhouse School

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•  First edition of this history of the Charterhouse, a charitable hospital and (eventually) elite boys' school founded by Thomas Sutton on the site of a former Carthusian monastery. The volume is illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of Sutton, a copperplate engraving of a Carthusian monk done by F.H. Van Houe, and an allegorical copperplate engraving of the House of Prayer. It is partly printed in black-letter.

Provenance:  Rolle family armorial bookplate.

•  ESTC R10688; Wing (rev.) H1578; Allibone 813.   Contemporary sheep, covers framed in blind double fillets; leather rubbed and scuffed, partially cracked along front joint. All edges marbled. Pastedowns peeled up, front pastedown with early inked inscription; inside front cover with armorial bookplate. Title-page with inked numeral in upper outer corner. (21012)

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Riviere Binding — Fore-EdgeFisherman Painting

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•  “Golden Treasury” series edition of this collection of Herrick's verse, arranged with notes by Francis Turner Palgrave. The volume is decorated with adelicately 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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The Highland Piper's Advice to Drinkers
Pr. in Airdrie & with anUnusual Style of Vignette

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Decorative woodcut title vignette of two figures in patterned clothing standing between two trees. Much of the typeface is a bit light but very legible. An additional song, “March to the Battle field” is printed on page 7.

The 1820 date is indicated by the Huntington Library. The Airdrie printer/booksellers Neil remark that they sell “a variety of  song Toy and School Books. Cards &c.”

•  Weiss, Chapbooks, 277.   Original self wrappers; removed. Edges slightly darkened. Very good.  (17561)

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A Well-Meaning butNot Very High-Rising MUSE

•  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.

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Blair, Blazoned

•  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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Cutting Way Back onPresidential Authority

•  Hillhouse, a United States Senator from Connecticut, put forth these seven amendments in the hopes of diminishing corruption and partisan politics. One of the most interesting suggestions isthat the President of the U.S. be chosen by lottery from among the existing senators, to serve a one-year term! Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Following Hillhouse's discussion of his purpose and reasoning, the actual amendments have a separate title-page.

First edition.  Second and third editions were printed at New Haven by Oliver Steele & Co. in the same year as this first.

•  Sabin 31883; Shaw & Shoemaker 15230.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Pages with a few scattered spots of light staining and occasional early inked corrections; old stitching holes in inner margins. Page edges untrimmed. In fact, quite a nice copy.  (25210)

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“The First Age of Pennsylvania”

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•  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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Evaluating the American Colonization Society, 1833

•  Assessment of the American efforts in Liberia, with accounts by British and American visitors evaluating the success of the colony and its troubled beginnings. Ends with an account of the British African Colonization Society's endeavors so one can have a basis for measurement and comparison. Click the image for an enlargement.

The map is of the colony of Liberia with an inset plan of Monrovia.

•  Sabin 32351; Library Company, Afro-Americana (rev. ed.), 4863.   Removed from a nonce volume. Small water splatter stain in lower inner area of title-page, else notably nice and clean.  (26898)

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College Sermons — Presentation Copy

•  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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Missionary Travel tothe Arctic — An Account of Lapland

•  One of two 1748 German translations of Beskrifning öfwer de til Sweriges krona lydande Lapmarker, originally published in Stockholm in the preceding year. The translation of this important, early account of travel to the Arctic and life above the Arctic Circle was done by Templin.

Printed in black-letter, the volume is illustrated with an oversized, folding map of Lapland and a folding plate of Laplanders at work and at play, in addition to the double-page engraved title.

Scarce: Searches of OCLC and RLIN show only two U.S. locations.

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of a 19th-century collector; front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated 1770; title-page with early inscription of J.H. Gronau.

•  Not in Howgego, Encyclopedia of Exploration. Contemporary half calf over paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; leather worn, paper discolored, one spine compartment with dark adhesion now chipping. All edges marbled. First text page with inked numeral in lower margin. Free endpapers excised, with offsetting from turn-ins to edges of front and back fly-leaves; back fly-leaf with corners torn away. Engraved title-page, map, and plate browned.

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Black Morocco Binding, Skulls & Crossbones Gilt on Spine — Plates after Hollar

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•  Of the 46 Dance of Death plates in this work, 30 are copies of Wenceslaus Hollar's designs after the Holbein originals and the remaining 16 are from various spurious editions of Holbein's woodcuts. Each plate is accompanied by bilingual explanatory text in English and French.

D. Deuchar etched the plates of this edition and the plates are of the state without the engraved borders. The images are small, measuring approximately 3" x 2.125" (7.5 x 5.5 cm); they are centered on paper that measures approximately 7.5" x 6" (19.5 x 15.3 cm), with the six images above and directly below being “close-ups.”  Though small, the illustrations are detailed and wonderfully Renaissance in setting and feeling.

Following the last plate, this volume has two uncalled-for plates: One with “Mortalium Nobilitas Memorare novissima & in aeternum non vocabis” below the etching within the platemark, and the other, a bi-level image, showing nobles beset by death above and commoners beset below.

Provenance:  Booklabel of “E.M. Pelay, Rothomag.” on front pastedown; Autograph Letter in French from Librairie Techener, Paris, 1898, to client concerning this copy and its being complete.

Binding:  19th-century crushed half black levant morocco over black and white marbled paper; binding signed on verso of front free endpaper withminute stamp of [Leon] Lemardeley. Spine with raised bands, gilt above, below, and on each; gilt-tooled skull and crossbones in three compartments, a flame in two others, and author and title in the remaining one. Gilt rule where the half leather meets the marbled paper on each cover. Green and red French swirl marbled endpapers. Silk ribbon place marker. All leaves tipped to stubs. Uncut copy.

•  Warthin, The Physician of the Dance of Death, pp. 79–80; NSTC B3545. Binding as above, signed as above; front joint, front hinge (inside) and corners refurbished/strengthened with toned long-fiber tissue, edges and back joint lightly rubbed. Age-spotting on pages and plates, generally light; some off-setting from the plates. Bookseller's catalogue description clipped and pasted to front pastedown. Dealer's letter pasted to rear pastedown. Two uncalled-for plates.  This is a pleasing, better than “decent” copy priced well below excellent ones in contemporary bindings.  (25933)

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The “Mousetrap” — But Not Agatha Christie's . . .

Holdsworth, E

•  Uncut, unopened copy. A satire of the Welsh people, supposedly written at the instigation of Henry Sacheverell. The title means, "The Mousetrap, or The Welshmen's scuffle with mice." One of several piracies that appeared in the year of publication, this copy has seven stars on a shield as the title-page ornament.

•  ESTC T41625?; Foxon H282. Removed from a nonce volume. Very good copy.

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Beadle's Dime Biographical Library: Tales of American Exploits
ILLUSTRATED: One Plate Hand-Colored

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•  Composite volume assembling six Beadle & Co. imprints from the “Dime Biographical Library” with a new main title-page bearing the name of Loudon Ridge, NH printer J.S. French. The biographies are illustrated with five plates and a double-page map of battlegrounds in Mexico, one of the plates (“The Battle of the Miami”) beingrather dreamily hand-colored. None of these accounts of military and exploratory adventures are particularly common in their original forms, especially Ellis's life of Daniel Boone; WorldCat finds no holdings under this New Hampshire imprint.

Provenance: One blank leaf and one map pressure-stamped by a 19th-century New Hampshire bookseller.

•  Publisher's half black straight-grained sheep in imitation of morocco with black textured cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; minor wear to extremities, minute insect hole at foot of back hinge, front hinge (inside) cracked. Pressure-stamp as noted above. Scattered spots of minor staining, a few leaves age-toned, otherwise clean. An attractive and unusual collection; a copy in lovely condition.  (28343)

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AMERICAN POEMS

•  Toward the end of this volume of early U.S. poetry is a prose chapter entitled “The Shaking Quakers” — a well-observed account of two visits that the author made to the Niskayuna Shakers. The visits in all likelihood occurred in 1784–86, while Honeywood was studying law in Albany.

•  Wegelin 996; Shaw & Shoemaker 669; Sabin 32786; Richmond 2274. Period-style quarter tan cloth with light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Title-page and several others rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution. An uncommon book, with many interesting points, including some charming little head- and tailpieces.

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ToAmputate or Not?

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•  First American edition of a work not to be confused with the same author's Physician’s Vade-Mecum of which the first American edition also appeared in Albany (1809). From amputation to syphilis, to piles, exostosis, abscesses, tumors, deafness, gunshot wounds, burns, and so many other topics, Hooper (1773–1835) crammed a great deal into his handy go-with pocket volume. He was successful both as a physician and as a medical writer, and although the Royal College of Physicians prevented his obtaining a D.M. at Oxford, he was successful in obtaining an M.D. from St. Andrews. The DNB says of him that as a writer he was “most industrious,” noting that “his books had a large sale.”

At rear are “Select Formulae of Prescriptions, Latin & English, and a Glossary of Terms.”

Provenance:  Early 19th-century signature on title-page of “John Stevens, No. 6" at top of title-page.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 28770. On Hooper, see the DNB, XXVII, 306–307.   Publisher's acid-stained sheep with red leather spine label, modest gilt ruling on spine; leather joints and worn corners repaired with toned tissue. Occasional foxing only. In all, a nice copy of a volume that was a must for American doctors at the beginning of the 19th century.  (29572)

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Inscribed by Hoover

•  Third printing (stated) of Hoover's exhortation to fight the Red Menace.

Presentation copy: This copy inscribed “To Sister Mary Jane / Best wishes / J. Edgar Hoover / Xmas 1958.”

•  Publisher's cloth, dust jacket in protective sleeve taped to covers; dust jacket with minor scuffing at corners and spine extremities, one crease to back, price clipped. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate; endpapers with offsetting from tape. Pages clean.  (24821)

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Horace's Poetry withIllustrations “after” Ancient Art
(Modern Printing Processes Get a Workout!)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of thislavishly decorated, deluxe production of Horace's works in the original Latin, with a life of the author written in English by the Rev. Henry Hart Milman. Each page of the preface appears in a color-printed, antiquity-inspired frame (ochre, maroon, blue, green, or violet, with several different styles of frame used); the poems appear in simpler frames, but with each section preceded by a chromolithographed title-page (with a total of eight color plates), and almost every text page bearing an in-text wood engraving done by George Scharf after “remains of ancient art” (an index of the original sources and their locations is present at the back of the volume).

The decorative elements were created by architect and pioneering design theoristOwen Jones.

Signed binding: Early 20th-century half morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title, front free endpaper stamped “Whole Art Bindery” (slightly blurred). Top edge gilt. The original printed paper wrappers (done in imitation of Roman floor tiling) are bound in at front and back, along with salvaged portions of the original paper spine.

•  NSTC 2H30539.   Binding as above, spine gilt lightly rubbed in spots, spine and portions of sides gently sunned. Pages faintly age-toned; clean save for a very few scattered light smudges. A wonderful book.  (28468)

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“If in aPicture (Piso) you should see . . . ”

Horatius Flaccus, Quintus

Of the art of poetry

•  Uncut copy. Earl of Roscommon's translation, whose aim was to restore quality to poetry via a new translation of Horace's ideas on the subject. First published in 1684. There were two issues of this edition: This is a copy of the issue with the first word of the last line of imprint beginning, "Fryars" and with A2 unsigned.

•  ESTC T36655; Foxon D309. Mills College, Horace Checklist, 414. Removed from a nonce volume. Stamp in one margin of a 19th-century library. Very good copy.

Philadelphia “Prep”

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•  Important, early, American college-preparatory/college-level edition. The preface, explanatory matter, and notes are in English. The editor, Dugdale, taught in Philadelphia, and several teachers at the University of Pennsylvania whom he asked to review the volume recommend it to schools and colleges in the preface.

This is the rarer of two Philadelphia editions of 1815: It is not listed in NUC Pre-1956 and Shaw and Shoemaker located only one copy (at The American Antiquarian Society); we do know of some other copies. The other edition has the imprint reading “Impensis E. Kimber.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 34951.   Original treed sheep, leather label; spine, with gilt-stamped red leather label, a little pulled at bottom. Significant degrees of browning and foxing, as expectable of the paper used. Front free endpaper missing; volume opens on title-page. An interesting volume in attractive condition. (7008)

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CREE

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•  First edition of one of the first Cree grammars in English. Horden, who began his life as an ironworker, received his calling in 1851 and was sent to Canada with only two weeks notice — during which time he was expected to find a wife. He succeeded in finding both a wife and a fruitful career, eventually becoming the first bishop of Moosonee, diocese of Rupert's Land.

Horden's approach here is rooted in descriptive grammar and is expressed in terms of classic Latin-based structure. He urges his language-learning students to begin with his grammar, but to “use the living voice of the Indians as much as possible” as their guide (p. vi).

A copy of the issue intended for field use: With the flexible, water resistant binding.

•  Pilling, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages, 237; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Cree-73 (giving incorrect page count); Pilling, Proof-Sheets of a Bibliography of the Languages of the North American Indians, 1853; NSTC 0353034. Not in Vancil, Cordell Collection.   Publisher's flexible khaki green covers of water resistant cloth embossed in blind with decoration and stamped in blind with “Cree Grammar.” Slight dog-earing of the lower corner of the front cover. As a copy of the uncommon “field use” edition, especially interesting.  (3347)

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Islam  Judaism Christianity ETC.

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•  Hottinger, a Swiss-born Orientalist who published a number of works on theology and philology, here surveys five topics: “I. De muhammedismo. II. De saracenismo.III. De Chaldaismo. IV. De statu christianorum & judaeorum tempore orti & nati muhammedisimi. V. De variis, inter ipsos muhammedanos, circa religionis dogmata & administrationem.” And he adds a sixth section “Accessit, ex occasione genealogiae muhammedis plenior illustratio Taarich Bene Adam.”

First of two editions, and by far the less common.  An interesting work on Judaism, Islam, Muhammad.

•  VD17 23:237169Q; Brunet, III, 347.   Recent quarter calf with sides covered in German-style brown paper speckled with black, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-stamped cream-color leather author/title and place/date labels; raised bands accented with gilt rules. Title-leaf a little dust-soiled, and text with the occasional spot or instance of a slightly irregular edge (due to paper flaws, not damage); old four-digit number inked on dedication page and no other markings. A very nice copy.  (27523)

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3-D Circus Exploits

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•  Amazing double-page pop-up circus scene, apparently inspired by the novel Cirkus Humberto, which was in turn inspired by the real-life Czech National Circus Humberto. Beneath the “Humberto” banner in this large view, a wind band plays while a beautiful blonde steers three white horses into the ring; in the midground, two mahouts guide four elephants and at the same time hold a rope from which an acrobatic damsel swings freely in the air, while another pretty girl rests on two of the elephants' linked trunks; in the foreground, the lion tamer shows off a tiger and a lion amidst a harlequin playing with a ball-hoisting seal, a bear balancing atop a globe, a monkey riding a zebra, and two more clowns leading a donkey (there are more clowns printed flat on the pages, as well). The front cover bears a regal, full-color lion's head.

This is an intact, attractive copy — the dangling acrobat has vanished from at least some reported examples, but flies bravely here.

•  Publisher's color printed paper–covered boards with cloth shelfback; boards very slightly warped at upper inner corner, edges and extremities rubbed. Acrobat figure with one leg creased; all elements otherwise sans wear or tears, with colors vivid. A delightful, uncommon “moveable book.”  (30243)

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An Englishwoman's Translation ofThis German Landmark

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•  Early edition of this ambitious translation, done byElise C. Otté (with assistance from Benjamin Horatio Paul and William Sweetland Dallas for vols. 4 and 5, respectively) and first published in 1845 through 1848, with this edition being part of the “Bohn's Scientific Library” series. The work was written by German naturalist, explorer, and diplomat Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt, famed for his scientific observations of Latin America as well as for the present, groundbreaking overview of natural science. Humboldt's exploits and writings served as an inspiration for countless other scientists (including Charles Darwin), and his encyclopedic approach to describing our world as a whole, in terms of all of its natural phenomena, helped launch science's ongoing search for the unifying principles of the universe.

This translation caused a bit of controversy: Tipped in at the front of vol. I is a printed rebuttal by Bohn of accusations made by the publisher of a rival translation by Mrs. Sabine, regarding the accuracy of Otté's work — which Bohn defends, of course.

•  NSTC 2H36378; Sparrow, Milestones of Science, 106 (first ed.).   Publisher's embossed red cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and series identification; spines sunned with heads and feet pulled (in one instance chipped), corners bumped, cloth with spots of minor discoloration; vol. V with binding darkened overall and cloth starting at heads of joints. Married set: Vols. I–IV each with institutional bookplate on front pastedown; vol. V from another set, with a different bookplate. Vols. I–IV institutionally rubber-stamped on front free endpapers and title-pages. Many signatures unopened in vols. I–IV; sewing starting to loosen in vol. V.  (23913)

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A Boy’s Verses

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

•  Second edition of Hunt’s first published work, a collection of youthful efforts by the Romantic poet. Present are “The Negro Boy” and the “Parody on Dr. Johnson's ‘Hermit hoar’,” among other pieces, as well as the lengthy subscription list. The handsome frontispiece was engraved by Bartolozzi after a painting by R.L. West.

•  NCBEL, III, 1217; NSTC H3100. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title-label and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Half-title with affixed advertisement for another Leigh Hunt publication; slight offsetting to two leaves from laid-in article on dance, pages otherwise clean save for very minor age-toning. Attractive.

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White Savage? — Trustworthy Memoirs?

•  First U.K. edition, printed in the same year as the Philadelphia first edition: Controversial captivity narrative, in which Hunter claims to have been captured as a very young child and raised by Kansas Indians, eventually leaving his tribe when he was about 19 years old. The work was first acclaimed, then attacked as a fraud; in recent years, scholars have returned to the debate with somewhat more faith in the tale’s authenticity (see Drinnon’s White Savage: The Case of John Dunn Hunter). The memoirs are followed by an “account of the soil, climate, and vegetable productions of the territory westward of the Mississippi,” including much information about medicine as practiced by the Native Americans of Hunter’s alleged acquaintance. Click the image to the left for an enlargement.

•  Ayer, Narratives of Indian Captivity, 142; Howes H813; Sabin 33921. Contemporary half morocco over cloth, rebacked using original spine with gilt-stamped title and decorations in compartments; leather worn and chipped. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Pages slightly age-toned, with occasional instances of small spots of staining, and a few stray pencil marks.

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TO Part XVII

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