Binding:  Publisher's brick-colored cloth, front cover decoratively stamped in black and gilt withthree affixed CHROMOLITHOGRAPHIC illustrations of children at play.

•  Binding as above, spine and extremities moderately worn, small spots of light discoloration mostly confined to spine and edges. Pages faintly age-toned with intermittent light spotting; six images with early hand-coloring as above. Really, a very pleasing copy anda covetable gift for anyone who appreciates the joys of childhood.  (30281)

•  Recent paper wrappers. Reverse of the title-page and one other page with institutional stamps; a few pages with pencilled marginalia, otherwise clean.

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•  Shaw & Shoemaker 30511; Richmond 1416.   Full original calf, plain style, rubbed overall with small chips on front cover; chip at head of spine, front joint starting. Paper browned, and some stains; a bit of blue crayon doodling in blank area of top left corner of p. 50. Early leaves with stitch holes in inner margin, not touching text; three leaves with tears, not affecting text. Ex–theological library with area of spine blacked out where call number once was; library name and five-digit number rubber-stamped on front pastedown, accession number inked and rubber-stamped at base of p. [iii]. (21139)

The advertisement leaves are devoted specifically to books of phallic subject matter.

•  NSTC 0803266; Allibone, Critical Dictionary, 1505. Publisher’s green cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped medallion, spine with gilt-stamped title; cloth rubbed at corners and pulled at spine extremities, board edges lightly discolored. Pencilled owner’s name in upper margin of title-page. Title-page and two others pressure-stamped; preface with inked annotation and stamped numeral. Pages slightly age-toned, else clean.

NUC Pre-1956 locates only one copy; RLIN adds no others.

•  Quarter recent leather over marbled boards; spine with gilt-stamped title label and five raised bands, two inscribed lines above and below each gilt band. Edges stained green. A handsome copy. (24884)

•  Garrison A.19.1.f. Publisher’s cloth, front cover and spine stamped in gold; lacking the very scarce dustjacket, with spine sunned, and cloth wrinkled over lower portion of back cover. Pages clean.

•  Garrison A28.I.a. Publisher’s green cloth, front cover stamped with a French country scene in white, red, and gold, spine with gilt-stamped title; original box lacking, cloth a bit rubbed over corners and spine extremities, with spine title dimmed. Front free endpaper with inked owner’s inscription dated 1919. Faint waterstaining to outer margins of pp. 21–35.

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The title-page proclaims “This book is not to be sold, but given away.”

•  ESTC N9602. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Title-page with repairs to margins and one page crease; title-page verso rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution. First few leaves with inner margins repaired. Pages untrimmed, and gently age-toned.

Click either image for enlargement.

In the document at hand, Whitcomb in his capacity of justice of the peace attests on the verso of the leaf to the authenticity of the document on the recto. His attestation is approximately 1.5" high by 8" wide, with a clear signature.

The document on the recto is a printed legal form by which Artemus How of Bolton, Worcester County, Massachusetts Bay Province, sells 50 acres of land to Bezeleel Hale. Interestingly, both Artemus and his wife Abigail signed the instrument of sale.

•  On Whitcomb, see: Appleton’s Cyclopaedia. Good/Good+ condition: short fold tears. Three small areas of discoloration from old tape used to tip item into an album. With old pencilled dealer’s code (Sessler’s).

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 39807; Smith, Americans Abroad, W66. Contemporary paper-covered boards, spines with printed paper labels; darkened and worn, vol. I with covers detached and paper cracked over spine, vol. II with front joint open though presently holding Front pastedowns with bookplates of the Salem Library Company; vol. I with early inked inscriptions to endpapers and half-title. Light to moderate foxing, no other stains.

Fifth edition of the Voyage from London and second edition of the Continuation.

•  Voyage from London: Sabin 103534; Alden & Landis 739/343; ESTC T29204. Continuation: Sabin 103535 & 103538; Alden & Landis 739/340; ESTC T34033 & T34025.   Recent full calf antique-style with gilt concentric panels on covers and gilt corner-devices on same; round spine with raised bands, each accented by gilt rules. 19th-century wood-engraved portrait of Whitefield added as a frontispiece. A very pleasing volume.  (21775)

Here he not only rebuts Gibson's charges, but also accuses the Church of England of preaching false doctrine.

•  ESTC T44854; Sabin 103577.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Lacking half-title and final advertisement leaf; p. 3 incorrectly numbered 1, matching ESTC's description. Pages lightly age-toned, a few with small areas of staining in outer margins.  (25955)

•  NSTC 2W17788.   Original wrappers, front wrapper chipped at edges, back wrapper chipped at inner edge and with paper remnants affixed at top. Leaves loose (wrappers included). Long tear in fore-margin of title-leaf and small chips in inner margins of title- and final leaves. Some short marginal tears. Small chips to lower outer margins. Lengthwise fold mark. (8931)

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Whitworth was perhaps the most effective English ambassador to Russia in the first half of the 18th century. His Account was originally written for the foreign office and remained in manuscript till Walpole printed it. The DNB (on-line) writes of it, “Succinct and perceptive, it was a survey of Petrine Russia which held its readership through to the century's end and beyond.”

Horace Walpole (1717–97), the 4th earl of Orford, is best remembered as the author of the Gothic novel The Castle of Otranto. Among bibliophiles he is also remembered for his private press, variously known as the Officina Arbutana or the Strawberry Hill Press. Walpole's almost fantastic wealth allowed him the connoisseur's luxury of maintaining this noble enterprise, which he operated in the arena of the rebirth of fine printing in Great Britain that was being carried on by the Foulis brothers, Baskerville, and others.

Provenance:  20th-century bookplate of William & Helena Hand.

•  Hazen (1973 ed.), Bibliography of the Strawberry Hill Press, 5; ESTC T138827; Rothschild 2560; Cox, I, 195.   Contemporary sprinkled calf, gilt spine extra, gilt dull; joints and hinges with good repairs. Two old booksellers' descriptions taped to front pastedown. Off-setting from the turn-ins on the front and rear free endpapers and fly-leaves, title-page, and errata leaf; else, quite clean. A handsome book.  (26862)

The text is in Latin printed in roman and italic, decorated with a few woodcut ornaments and one initial at the beginning of the dedication. The engraved title shows Widl holding a lamp and an open a book with the words “Poesis sacra et profana” written across the opening, as he floats above our book's title which appears in an abstract cartouche flanked by four figures standing in an architectural frame supported by portraits of Pindar, Horace Flaccus, Sarbiewski, and Balde.

WorldCat locates only two copies in the U.S.

Provenance:  Albertus Henricus Krussi(?) (his ownership signature in ink, front flyleaf and engraved title).

Evidence of readership: Heavy underlining, occasional annotations, and scribbles on the rear flyleaf verso in early ink.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, VIII, 1107; W. Kühlmann, “Neo-Latin Literature in Early Modern Germany,” in Camden House History of German Literature, p. 297.   Period-style calf, boards with single-ruled border; round spine with gilt-stamped red morocco label and blind-stamped devices in “compartments” defined by a gilt roll of a chain pattern; red speckled edges. Trimmed close and bound tightly, often affecting but not taking a few letters at the gutter, with light water- or dampstaining in upper outer corner extending into the middle of many pages; intermittent inkstains from the annotator's pen; one corner tip torn away and other corners creased, visible from the edges. Miniscule wormholes barely visible in upper and outer margins extending from preliminaries to mid-text. A substantial little book in several senses.  (29853)

Binding:  Publisher's quarter red textured cloth over gold paper–covered sides, front cover with George Wevill's (signed) chromolithographic illustration in red, green, black, brown, and blue of a “perfect” orator wearing a toga — and also, wearingmagnificent Victorian whiskers!

•  Binding as above, moderately worn overall with small spots of discoloration. Title-page with inked ownership inscription dated 1872. Pages slightly age-toned; three leaves with faint lines of waterstaining in outer margins. With endpapers, 10 pages of ads present — and interesting.  (28444)

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•  NSTC 2F755 & 2W16139.   Disbound. A few light brown spots on title-page. A very good copy.  (11078)

Willis himself was the founder of the magazine that became the Home Journal, and was celebrated in his day for his essays and travel writings as well as several collections of his journalistic work. The Cambridge History of American Literature calls him the “prince of magazinists,” and remarks on “the evanescent sparkle and glancing brilliance” of A L'abri, later known as Letters from under a Bridge. These charming, witty essays touch on Willis's Yale education (and its lack of practical application!); fishing; a dinner with Lady Blessington, Benjamin Disraeli, Count D'Orsay, and Lord Durham; the possibility of local railroad construction to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie; the relationship of American to British literature, etc. Whatever the ostensible topics of the individual letters, each touches in affectionate and amusing fashion on some aspect of life in the Susquehanna region.

A publishing practice, demonstrated: Bound in at the back of this volume are yellow printed paper wrappers for John Smith's Letters, and the title-page and preface for Fireside Education — both items published by Colman in the same year as the present work.

•  BAL 22752 (spine label in first state, cloth described as “Brown S cloth “); American Imprints 59260; Fearing, Check List of Books on Angling, Fishing, Fisheries, Fish-Culture, etc., 135; Sabin 104504. On Willis, see: Cambridge History of American Literature online.   Publisher's brown cloth embossed with floret and dash pattern, spine with printed paper label; corners rubbed, and spine cloth chipped with paper label chipped and darkened. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Foxing throughout; occasional pencilled marginalia and marks of emphasis.  (25806)

This work is rarely found in the deluxe binding: The handsomely gilt-stamped publisher's cloth is the norm.

•  NSTC 2W24418; Allibone 2762.   For binding, see: Morris & Levin, Art of Publisher's Bookbindings, 44. Binding as above, showing minor wear to extremities and front cover vignette, original silk bookmark detached and laid in. Volume slightly shaken with text block starting to pull away from spine; this is the kind of volume that wants to do that, and the reader will want to “cradle” it in hand — that done, no worries. Front fly-leaf with early pencilled gift inscription and with a Maine druggist's small ticket. Mild to moderate foxing. Both funny and decorative, in a publisher's binding that may fairly be called “DAZZLING.”  (26748)

The two folding tables are printed on very thin tissue or “tracing”-like paper.

•  Publisher's marbled paper boards, a little abraded and dust-soiled and with evidence of an old shelving label sometime removed from front cover; respined with black tape. Ex-library with stamps on new front endpaper, a front fly-leaf, and base of title-page; four-digit number stamped in lower margin of contents page. No other markings.  (30272)

This has a very pretty engraved title-page, acting as frontispiece; between the arched words “Bridal Greetings,” above and below, is a bridal bouquet of emblematic flowers, signed F.E. Jones.

Binding:  Publisher's textured red cloth, covers framed in blind, front cover with gilt-stamped rose vignette, spine gilt extra. All edges gilt.

•  Not in Faxon.   Binding as above, cocked, extremities lightly rubbed, front cover with tiny dark spatter; joints each with small instance of insect damage. Front free endpaper with pencilled annotation. Moderate foxing throughout.  (30370)

This has a very few, very elegant headpieces, tailpieces, and historiated initials.

•  ESTC T138654. Contemporary calf double-panelled in blind, outer and innermost panels speckled; blind-stamped corner fleurons, center panel framed in blind roll; spine with raised bands and painted gilt cross decorations. Leather worn, with medium-sized abrasions, and cracked over joints; binding still holding reasonably solidly. Front pastedown showing traces of now-absent bookplate; title-page with small inked notation in upper outer corner, and first text page with personal stamp. Pages gently cockled, with a few scattered spots, but generally clean.

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This Boston edition most likely appeared shortly after the Philadelphia edition printed in the same year; among the prominent American women’s rights activists known to have read and been influenced by the Vindication are Judith Sargent Murray, Abigail Adams, and (later) Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

•  Evans 25054; ESTC W2450; PMM 242 (for first ed.); Windle, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, A5d. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped devices between raised bands. Half-title mounted; a few leaves with old repairs to lower inner margins. Pages age-toned, with offsetting, staining, and spotting.

Binding:  Publisher's cream-colored paper, front cover with black-stamped lyre decoration, back one with black-stamped laurel wreath; spine with black-stamped decorations (no title). All edges gilt.

•  Binding moderately rubbed, spine darkened. Two leaves with tears from margins extending into text, without loss; pages and plates clean. Inherently a bit fragile, this is standing up well to the years.  (27087)

This is the sole American edition. First printed in England in 1804.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 30564; NSTC W2651. Contemporary speckled sheep. Spines divided into compartments by double gilt rules with large red leather title labels and small round black volume labels, both edged with gilt fillets and gilt-lettered. Fine cracking to spines with shallow chipping from head and foot; edges rubbed, corners bumped. Pages with light browning around impression and on edges, with darker browning from turn-ins towards beginning and end of each volume. Large bite from rear free endpaper of vol. II; generally, text problem-free, with but a few shallow tears and chippings and a few light waterstains.

Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.

The printed Career is followed in this little volume by an extended manuscript section containing neatly written excerpts from Wooley’s Science of the Bible or an Analysis of the Hebrew Mythology.

•  Contemporary half calf over textured cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands; front cover detached, leather scuffed. All page edges marbled. Upper portion of front free endpaper torn away; two front fly-leaves partially excised. Back free endpaper with pencilled owner’s name. Printed portion very slightly age-toned, with faint creasing to first section.

•  NSTC 2W33589. Recent plain paper-covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Frontispiece, title-page, and several other pages stamped by a now-defunct institution. Lacking all but one plate (the frontispiece). Page edges untrimmed.

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Uncommon: OCLC locates only six copies of this in the U.S., including this copy deaccessioned from one of those six reporting institutions.

Provenance:  From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.

•  19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper. Ex-library with minimal markings; adhesive shelving label to spine, blacked over. Text age-toned but paper very good; a nice wide-margined copy.  (16899)

Appended to Xerez's account (fols. [43v] to [55r]) is a translation of Miguel de Estete's account of Pizarro's army's journey from Cajamarca to Pachacamac and then to Jauja. Estete too was present at Cajamarca and is said to have been the first Spaniard to lay hands on Atahuallpa.

killed and scalped by Indians at Fort Niagara in

Click the image for enlargement.

Scarce edition.  No. “13" at foot of title.

•  Original self wrappers (unbound; removed). Good (slightly darkened).  (17590)

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Provenance:  Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription of prominent 20th-century Philadelphia collector E.M. Boyle, front fly-leaf with gift inscription dated 1833 and pencilled ownership inscription dated 1893.

Binding:  In an excellent American binding of straight-grained black morocco framed in double gilt fillets and a wide gilt border composed of five undulating fillets surrounding a blind-tooled chain roll, spine gilt extra, board edges and turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt. Endpapers of glazed yellow stiff paper.

•  American Imprints 17193.   Binding as above, minimal wear to extremities. Front hinge (inside) starting, first few leaves with sewing loosening; still holding and very reasonably solid overall, with original silk bookmark present and intact. Inscriptions as above. Pages gently age-toned. First edition of a classic of its genre, in an outstanding American binding that isremarkably bright and fresh.  (29974)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 22127.   Full original sheep, spine showing flex marks with small chips at extremities and a gilt-stamped leather title-label; first and last leaves with offsetting from leather turn-ins. Short tear at top margin of one leaf, without touching any text; some scattered spots of foxing. Ex-library with (attractive) old pressure-stamp to half-title, five-digit accession number rubber-stamped on front pastedown and base of p. [iii], evidence that an inked call-number on spine was sometime obscured. A clean, nice, solid copy. (21126)

•  Sabin 106261; Palau 379641. Contemporary mottled sheep and calf as above, corners and edges worn, all joints cracking, both volumes with minor worming to front covers and pinholes to spines; vol. I with loss of leather over spine head (half of top compartment). Pencilled check marks scattered throughout; front free endpaper and recto of last text page of vol. II with annotations.