A scarce book: Via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 we trace only six copies in U.S. institutions!

•  NSTC K23. Recent neat green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Some pages with very faint foxing. A decidedly nice copy.

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate “De la bibliotheque de F. Freudenreich.”

•  ESTC T48434; Alston, III, 308; Goldsmiths’-Kress 11089; Sabin 32702. Contemporary speckled calf, neatly rebacked preserving original gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels, spines with gilt-stamped thistle decorations; edges and corners rubbed, sides showing small scrapes and discolorations. Residue on pastedowns from sometime removal of bookplates. Pages age-toned, with occasional small spots, and offsetting from binding to in margins of first and last few leaves. All edges speckled.

As described by the title-pages, the volumes are “Illustrated by upwards of three hundred engravings, from sketches by the author. The steel plates executed [by J. Hamilton and others] under the superintendence of J.M. Butler, the wood engravings by Van Ingen & Snyder.” The plates total 20 altogether, including frontispieces.

•  ESTC T75210. Marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Half-title lacking. Upper margin of title-page showing small abrasions and traces of affixed paper; title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution.

•  First edition in the two states of this GILDED AGE novel of the evils of money-grubbing and corporate influence, featuring a young journalist of stalwart morals. Contemporary critics accused Keenan, who wrote the work in response to John Hay's anti-labor novel The Bread-Winners and published it anonymously, both of bad taste and of veiling real figures too thinly; “Aaron Grimstone” bears striking similarities to industrialist Amasa Stone (Hay's father-in-law who committed suicide by pistol) for instance, while “Horatio Blackdaw”is clearly based on New York Tribune editor Whitelaw Reid.

The two versions of the first edition here offered are one copy of the first edition, first state (in which the suicide scene, like Stone's, takes place in the bathroom with a pistol), and one copy of the first edition, later state (in which the suicide scene has been revised to the studio using gas).

Bindings:  These also are variant, though only in cloth color, the first being blue-gray and the second brown. Each front cover bears a vignette of money bags spilling forth coins stamped in maroon and gilt, with the legend "A Social Parable" below; spines offer title, coins, and legend.

•  Wright, III, 3060.   Bound as above. I (blue):  Spine darkened, joints and corners lightly rubbed. Front fly-leaf with pencilled annotations regarding the work and inked private ownership inscription dated 1885 (“Samuel A. Butz,” possibly the Allentown, PA, attorney). Pages clean. II (brown): Moderately rubbed overall, back hinge (inside) cracked, front fly-leaf with pencilled notes; ex–social club library with shelving label on spine, call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings.An interesting opportunity for a scholar of 19th-century American literature, publishing, journalism, bindings, or any of a number of other topics.

The authorial juxtaposition here is interesting, given that Kellogg and his former teacher Trall had a bitter falling-out; prior to that, both had been sponsored and supported by Ellen White, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

•  Brown, Culinary Americana, 1717.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and small fountain vignette; mildly worn and spine lightly sunned, sides with small faint spots of light discoloration. Title-page with partially obscured rule. Occasional light foxing.  (30195)

This is an early issue of the second edition, following the original publication in 1900. The106 plates (many featuring double images, and 18 being color-printed) depict a jaw-dropping variety of different types of bath, shower, plunge, wet sheet pack, affusion, lavage, irrigation, and massage including the "percussion douche," demonstrated here bya striped-bathing-suit-clad attendant applying a hose to a young man wearing a towel.

Contemporary half roan over beautifully rich marbled paper, this also used for endpapers; spine with gilt-stamped author and title and top edge gilt; corners and joints rubbed, spine head with small paper shelving label. Front pastedown with extremely attractive old institutional bookplate, dedication page with inked numeral in lower margin, back free endpaper with pocket and slip, no other markings. Pages and plates clean and crisp. (29651)

•  Very good; board edges, corners, and spine extremities showing light wear, spine slightly dimmed. (1957)

Vol. I opens with a rather nice mezzotint portrait of Wirt, engraved by A.B. Walter after Charles B. King; vol. II with an oversized, folding facsimile of a letter from John Adams.

•  BAL 11056; Cohen 2161; Howes K87; Sabin 37415.   Publisher's brown cloth, covers framed in blind-stamped strapwork, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; cloth lightly dust-soiled, chipped at corners and spine extremities. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, rubber-stamp on title-pages. Vol. II: one leaf of contents with two short tears. Pages clean.  (29413)

•  Publisher's plain olive brown cloth, spine with printed paper label; without dust jacket as issued. Crisp and clean.  (29708)

The double-page illustration is in color; it is of Münster and its churches and is dated April, 1748. The style is archaic and reminiscent of that used in the Nuremberg Chronicle.

Following Kerssenbroch's treatise are a number of leaves containing transcription of Latin documents from the 15th century and earlier.

The bulk of the text is written on paper with a fool's cap watermark and the counter mark “IV.” The hand is large and legible; the margins are generous.

Binding: Contemporary German half vellum with mottled paper sides (in shades of white, blue-green, and red); neat gilt leather title-label on spine, and all edges carmine.

Provenance:  Ex–Crozer Theological Library; then to Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School; deaccessioned.

•  On Kerssenbroch, see Catholic Encyclopedia (online). Volume bound as above; old bookplate and marks as per provenance. Text clean, ink good, and paper excellent.  (26020)

•  Very good, in publisher's cloth. Front free endpaper torn out. Preliminary pages with a few light creases in fore-margins probably created from paper clips being fastened to them at one time.  (10711)

•  Publisher's oxblood cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title. Edges and extremities lightly worn, spine with area of discoloration. Ex–social club library: call number on endpapers, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages clean.  (27184)

•  Stewart 94. Publisher's wrappers, front wrapper lacking, back wrapper torn and chipped. Publisher's slip detached (torn away, affecting four letters) but present. First and last few leaves lightly foxed. (13989)

For a number of KIPLING
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The volume is illustrated with20 copper-engraved plates by prominent Philadelphia engraver and publisher Joseph Yeager, including one dainty bird and a number of interesting sea creatures.

•  American Imprints 38398; NSTC 2K6659.   Period-style quarter light grey cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. All edges sprinkled. One leaf creased. Offsetting from plates, among which the last is misnumbered; otherwise, clean.  (30332)

•  Sabin 38070; Shoemaker 5776.   Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Pages lightly cockled, with minor offsetting, first and last few leaves darkened. Outer edges waterstained, extending into outer margins in latter portion of volume and across text for the last few chapters — never distressing or impeding reading, but reducing the price of the volume.  (28741)

Knight, who was devoted to books and to literature from the time he was a small child, was a much-admired printer and publisher, as well as an author, reformer, and would-be educator: Many of his publishing endeavors were aimed at improving and enlightening the working class.

•  NSTC 2K7731. On Knight, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth, style Wav3.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with muse motif and title, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; lightly worn overall with some fading, vol. II spine head with traces of a strip of cloth tape. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Paper slightly embrittled (more so in second volume), with a few short edge tears. Externally ordinary; internally worthwhile.  (26860)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of notable book collector Edward Hubert Litchfield.

•  Howes K217.   Publisher's quarter navy cloth and floral-printed white, red, and blue cloth, spine with printed paper label; spine extremities very slightly rubbed. Front pastedown with bookplate as above. Edges uncut. Map clean.  (29709)

The original author's name appears in innumerable variations according to various transcribers' nationalities; Count Georg Wilhelm von Kniphausen (or Knyphausen) of Nienort (or Nienoort) was also known as George Willem (or Guillaume), Comte van Kniphausen, etc.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 28892.   Contemporary treed sheep, recently rebacked with complementary mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; original leather showing expectable rubbing/cracking. Title-page with institutional pressure- and rubber-stamp; no other marks. One leaf with old burn damage (the ash from a pipe??) to lower inner portion, margins repaired, loss of a few letters without obscuring sense; one leaf with closed tear from outer margin and no loss; one leaf with a corner taken, just touching text without loss; upper corners dust-soiled, and pages generally age-toned, with no brittleness or other “issues.”  (27242)

•  Contemporary publisher’s mottled sheep; spine gilt extra. Fine abrasions or chipping to leather, especially to head and foot of spine. Offsetting from turn-ins; lightly foxed throughout. A closed tear without loss in pp. 327–28. All edges marbled.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped red leather title-label (a little darkened). Three leaves with offsetting from now-absent laid-in item. Some upper corners bumped; one leaf with repairs to inner margin, touching but not obscuring text. Endpapers and some edges with a little soiling; generally, quite clean.  (25365)

Binding: Also designed by Angelo, this is accomplished in red- and blue-stamped tan cloth and incorporates a “wallet-like flap” following traditional Arabic Qu'ran binding style. Volume housed in publisher's blue cloth-covered clamshell slipcase (with a drop-down front element), box bearing a rectangular stencilled label of gilt applied on the cloth so “The Koran” is left set forth in the underlying blue.

This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed by A. Colish, signed at the colophon by Angelo. The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 284.   Binding and box as above; volume pristine, slipcase showing mild shelfwear with small scuff to gilt title. A lovely copy.  (30158)