Provenance:  Each front pastedown with armorial bookplate of William Arthur, sixth Duke of Portland.

•  NSTC 2B46491; Allibone 240; Brunet, II, 1215.   Binding as above, minor shelf wear to lower edges and corners, vol. I with front board expertly reattached and with small dent to outer edge of front cover. Joints delicate, due to size and weight of volumes, but holding. A few pages and plates with faint foxing, otherwise clean.  (24100)

The book includes eight folding maps, respectively, of the world, Africa, North America, South America, England and Wales, the Empire of Germany, and Europe.

•  ESTC N7888.   Contemporary calf, covers framed in double gilt fillets, rebacked in recent calf; raised bands defined by gilt rules above and below each band, and gilt-stamped title on a red leather label. Significant wear to corners and edges of front and rear covers; shallow chip at top edge of front cover. Title-page mounted, with upper, outer, and lower edges reinforced; early inked ownership notation (“His Book” but without a name attached!) on title-page. Some instances of mild foxing and the odd spot; light waterstaining to a number of early and later leaves, mostly in margins; offsetting from leather affecting only first three and final three leaves, at edges. First map with two repairs at top and bottom edge; closed tear at bottom and creases down center. A couple of maps with very shallow edge tears. All maps generally clean and overall in very good condition, excepting the map of Europe of which the right portion has been torn away along the fold and is now missing. Much interest and pleasure here.  (23789)

Single-click either image,
for an enlargement.

Provenance: Front pastedown and free endpaper with inked inscriptions belonging to “Caroline and Jane (of) Millport” and (twice) “J. Emory Botsford (of) Millport NY.” These bird lore–seeking Botsfords were surely kin to Anna Botsford Comstock (1854–1930)—identified by the online Encyclopedia Britannica as a prominent American “naturalist, illustrator, and educator” and by a Cornell “Sciencenter” publication as “the first female Cornell professor and arguably the mother of nature education.” A pleasant thought, if not a matter of true importance! (See: http://search.eb.com/women/articles/Comstock_Anna_Botsford.html and http://seti.sentry.net/archive/bioastro/2002/Jul/0145.html.)

Binding: Publisher’s pebbled blue cloth, covers and spine gilt- and blind-stamped,. Front cover with gilt-stamped pictorial vignette of a woman at a casement window, surrounded by birds on boughs and caged.

•  Binding lightly rubbed, gilt bright. Endpapers browned, pages clean. A nice copy.

•  Bibliography of the fine books published by the Limited Editions Club 1929–1985, 194.  Bindings as above, spines very slightly rubbed. In original cloth-covered slipcase sunned where exposed on a shelf, slightly scuffed on the sides, and paper spine label detaching from bottom edge with lower right corner chipped (but no loss to printing). Top of case not quite solid—the top right edge is cracked within its cloth covering, though this is not immediately apparent. A fresh, handsome set.

In this edition Lic. Pablo de Mendibil has edited the letters into four large chapters and added lithographic portraits of Hidalgo, Morelos, Bravo, Guerrero, and Guadalupe Victoria. They are variously from originals by Gauci or unidentified artists, and are lithographed by either R.Cooper or Englemann & Co.

•  Sabin 47810; Palau 163362 (under Mendibil).   Mid–19th century half red leather, flat spine, machine-made marbled paper on covers and as endpapers, marbled edges. Leather abraded and refurbished; interior clean and nice.  (21727)