This edifying story isillustrated with a maritime vignette on the front cover, a frontispiece, and five rather large in-text engravings, one of which has some early hand coloring (the “nimble” colt pictured is now chestnut).

•  American Imprints 11639. Not in Rosenbach, Children's.   Publisher's printed paper–covered sides with sheep shelfback, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding darkened and rubbed overall, especially at extremities, spine with gilt mostly lost and head chipped. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Scattered spots of minor foxing and staining. Clearly read and loved, but not abused.  (29987)

•  BAL 2482 (second printing state, with plates included in pagination). Publisher's brown cloth, front cover stamped in gilt and green, spine with gilt-stamped title; front cover lightly scuffed, with corners rubbed. Front fly-leaf with inked gift inscription "to My Daughter," dated 1890; newspaper clipping about Carleton affixed to front fly-leaf, poem affixed to back fly-leaf as described above. Several insurance advertisements, religious leaflets, and other ephemera laid in. (14367)

•  Publisher's tan cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in red; corners and spine extremities rubbed, spine darkened, back cover with small stain. Pages age-toned, with one small inked annotation.  (25184)

•  Publisher's quarter crimson morocco and gilt black cloth, top edge gilt; fine save for one corner bump (sans glassine wrapper). Pictorial endsheets and illustrations, tipped-in facsimile.  (18011)

Binding:  Publisher's gray-green cloth, front cover and spine stamped with “silver” (aluminum) waves and gilt title (unsigned). Top edges gilt. This is binding state B according to BAL, with the back cover unstamped.

•  BAL 2961; Wright, III, 952.   Binding as above, minor rubbing to corners and spine extremities. Front free endpaper with inked gift inscription dated 1957 and with pencilled inscription from Mackinac Island dated 1899. A clean, attractive copy.  (28871)

•  Not in Weale & Bohatta.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities rubbed, spine leather with tiny cracks, one spine head chipped, one joint starting. Ex-library with bookplates, rubber-stamp on lower edges of pages of the closed volumes. One volume with text block separating from spine and sewing loosening; this with the most leather rubbed away and the darkest instances of the usually-light waterstaining and spots of foxing seen occasionally throughout. Endpapers bear early inked ownership inscriptions and annotations. An elegant quartet.  (12406)

•  Publisher’s printed paper wrappers, detached and darkened, front wrapper with tear from inner margin, paper split and chipped along spine, front wrapper with paper shelving label. Title-page with institutional stamp (no other markings). A few plates with very light spots of foxing. Very interesting!

We foundjust one similar example, at Yale; this has 40 plates. (The 1857 Philadelphia edition had 41.)

Binding:  Publisher's black leather, covers with blind-embossed rococo frame and central cartouche; smooth spine, marbled endpapers. Alternate, less expensive cloth binding sample for the same title, featuring asplendid gilt-stamped vignette of a native American in battle dress on horseback, on front pastedown.

Evidence of readership: Old pencil scribbles and a few instances of handwriting practice to a leaf or so of text and to the backs (never the fronts) of a number of plates.

•  This sample book not in Arbour. For the 1860 edition of Catlin, see: Field 261; Howes C-241; Wagner-Camp 84:20.   Binding as above, leather rubbed and faded overall. Quires and plates loose, detached completely from binding and each other; clearly lacking at least one plate, title-leaf, and pp. 7–10. Text and plates both soiled and stained though differently, the former most affected in gutters and with darker stains (and typically longer tears) than seen elsewhere; the plates are affected more towards outer edges, usually apparently more by “moisture” than “water,” with some chipped at corners, one tattered and this “stabilized” with old cello tape from rear, one with a long tear just skirting image, and others with the odd small rip at an edge. Some tissue guards present or partly so. Artwork vibrant, often stunning.  (30076)

•  Publisher's blue textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; worn and scuffed with spines sunned and heads each with strip of dark cloth tape extending onto boards. Ex–social club library: Each volume with 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, call number on endpaper, title-page pressure-stamped. Vol. IV lacking front free endpaper; vol. II with one leaf with inner margin reinforced, several leaves with outer edges chipped, pp. 3–30 lacking from two articles, and text block splitting at center — due to an old pin's having been thrust in at the gutter! Paper age-toned and slightly brittle, with occasional short edge tears.  (26396)

This is the genuine first edition, not a modern reprint.

Binding:  Publisher's olive cloth, front cover with Art Nouveau water lily design and gilt-stamped title, spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding as above, minor rubbing at extremities. Front free endpaper with pencilled Christmas gift inscription dated 1902; back free endpaper with rubber-stamped numeral (no other markings). Pages and plates clean. A very nice copy.  (28585)

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.

The limitation statement asserts that a total of 1250 copies were produced — but the present example is stamped “Exemplaire no. 12392.”

•  Publisher's color-printed ivory wrappers, in glassine jacket and original textured paper–covered slipcase; glassine chipped at extremities and slipcase split along one edge. Wrappers faintly darkened overall and moreso at spine, where they are also a just trifle rubbed/chipped; interior clean and illustrations bright.  (28308)

•  Shoemaker 20049. Not in Rosenbach.   Wrappers lacking. Pages with scattered light spots, more pronounced to first and last pages.  (27835)

•  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.

Provenance:  George Richard Mackarness M.A. (bookplate); Wallace Parham (bookplateand sticker).

•  Gewirtz, But One Use, 55; ESTC T141242; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1717/2.   Binding as above; leather cracking slightly along joints and scuffed in a few places, chips at top of spine. Lacking volvelle, as is almost always the case; later manuscript note citing Walpole's “Anecdotes of Painting” laid in. Age-toning/soiling across page-bottoms and lower outer corners, with only a bit of soiling/spotting otherwise; reds remain very bright and impressions dark and crisp. Ink inscription “From my mother Jan. 1855" on front fly-leaf verso. A wondrously beautiful piece of devotional art in very nice condition.  (30126)

This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 452.   Binding as above, spine with gilt-stamped title, in original glassine dust jacket and original slipcase; volume very clean and fresh, glassine wrapper with spine gently sunned and small chips at foot, slipcase label slightly darkened and slipcase otherwise all but unworn. A very nice copy.  (30114)

Each volume commences with a copper-engraved frontispiece and title-page vignette, the former done by Robert White after a painting by Lely, the latter signed M[ichael] Burg[hers]. Burghers also engraved a substantial number of head- and tailpieces for the work, as well as decorative capitals.

•  ESTC N9847, N9850, T147811; Brunet, I, 81; Allibone 385.   Contemporary speckled calf panelled in blind with plain calf, decorated with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; edges and extremities rubbed, joints cracked or starting, some acid-pitting to speckled portions, spines each with small paper shelving label. Each front pastedown with institutional bookplate over private collector's bookplate, and with early inked gift inscription. Title-pages with small institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin; half-titles lacking. Pages generally clean; occasional minor spotting mostly confined to margins. One instance of early inked marginalia.  (24574)

The first volume is illustrated with12 plates each offering four rows of small portraits, some intriguingly expressive; each volume opens with an engraved frontispiece portrait of a royal George.

•  NSTC 2C23867.   Recent textured maroon cloth, spines with gilt-stamped black leather title and volume labels; title-pages institutionally pressure- (not rubber-) stamped. Scattered light spots of staining, pages generally clean; first few leaves of voI. \ II with outer margins chipped. A hefty, substantive evocation of Georgian life and times.  (30012)

Binding:  Publisher's lavender paper–covered light boards, covers framed in purple floral roll, spine with purple roll and all edges gilt.

•  Lightly rubbed, lightly faded, paper mostly lost from spine. Front hinge (inside) cracked, sewing loosening, free endpapers lacking. Light staining to upper outer corners of first and last few leaves, only; otherwise clean. We judge that the rarity of this little book and its “siblings” is the direct result of inherent fragility!  (27192)

There are two states of this edition; in the present state p. 1 has the words “Introductory dialogue” set in solid roman capitals, and the first line of the poem reads “Father Time! ’tis well we are met” rather than “Father Time! ’tis well we’re met.” The paper in vol. I is watermarked with the dates 1813, 1814, and 1815, while in vol. II the watermarks are 1814 and 1815.

Binding: Signed binding by Riviere & Son: 19th-century mottled calf, covers framed in gilt triple fillets with gilt rosettes at corners; round spines with raised bands, the whole gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels; double-rule gilt fillets on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.

•  Abbey, Life, 263; NSTC 2C32764. Bindings as above, carefully and neatly rebacked preserving original spines, corners and joints showing slight wear. Vol. I with short edge nicks to upper margins of two leaves, not touching text; last few leaves and plates of vol. II with small area of light staining to outer margins, not touching text and not obtrusive in images. A beautiful set.

Binding: Signed binding by Riviere & Son: 19th-century mottled calf, covers framed in gilt triple fillets with gilt rosettes at corners; round spines with raised bands, the whole gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels; double-rule gilt fillets on board edges; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt.

•  Abbey, Life, 264. Tooley 410;.NSTC 2C32763. Binding as above, neatly rebacked preserving original spine, showing only very minor traces of wear. Without the advertising leaf. Some faint offsetting and spotting surrounding plates, otherwise clean.

The volume is illustrated with alovely copper-engraved frontispiece depicting tree-fellers at work and with four folding plans showing how to calculate the scale and design of landscape features. At the back of the work is a brief overview of the rules for making cider, and an additional recipe for birch beer (alcoholic) is given in the chapter on birches.

•  ESTC T131054; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 6265.   18th-century calf, covers framed in double blind fillets with blind roll along joint, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and date labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; joints and portions of spine leather unobtrusively repaired, edges and extremities rubbed, sides with a bit of light scuffing, gilt mildly rubbed. Scattered faint foxing, most pages clean.  (30312)

This copy bears the full-page woodcut portrait of Pope Clement VII on the verso of the fourth preliminary leaf, which is not found with all copies. Additionally, the title-page bears an interesting 14-piece composite woodcut border and the verso of that page has a stunning full-page woodcut of the coat of arms of Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, to whom the letter is addressed. The coat of arms is surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The text is printed in roman with side- and shouldernotes; the lay-out is elegant and there is one large, handsome woodcut initial.

As usual, the letter is here bound with Peter Martyr's De Rebus, et insulis noviter repertis, which provides an account of the recently discovered islands of the West Indies and their inhabitants. It is often considered a substitute for the lost Cortés letter.

One of the most important early descriptions of Mexico and of the first encounter of the West with the Aztec civilization, this is a work of bedrock importance to the New World. No complete copy has appeared for sale since 1985.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 524/5; Sabin 16947; Harrisse, BAV, 125. Sanz 933–34; Medina, BHA, 70; Church 53; Burden 5; JCB, German Americana, 524/4; Streeter Sale 190.   18th-century half vellum and sprinkled paper over boards, gilt red leather label. Map supplied in expert facsimile; blank leaf H8 lacking. Bookplate of John Carter Brown (Library) on front pastedown, with deaccession stamp. Occasional very minor soiling in the text, else very good — a copy clean and even crisp.  (26808)

48 wood-engraved illustrations

Binding:  Publisher's dark gray-green vermiform cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped cattle-herding vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and eagle design. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early pencilled inscription of Frances Stephens of Pennsylvania.

There is quite a lot of how-to, here!

•  See Welsh, Miniature Books, 2053 for 1840 London edition.   Binding slightly cocked, showing minor wear (only) overall. Front free endpaper with inscription as above, back endpapers with additional pencilled inscriptions. Soiling, generally light; spots, generally small; a solid and pleasing copy of a book that was often loved to pieces.  (29676)

This is numbered copy 972 of 2000 printed, signed at the colophon by the illustrator; the appropriate LEC newsletter and prospectus, in an unstamped and unmailed LEC envelope, are laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 479; BAL 4068; Williams & Starrett 1.   Binding as above, in original glassine dust wrapper and publisher's slipcase; binding very clean and fresh, wrapper with spine chipped, slipcase showing very minor shelfwear only. A nice copy.  (30127)

Binding:  Publisher's brown pebbled cloth, front cover with elaborately blind-embossed arabesque brazier design and gilt-stamped title, spine with blind-stamped strapwork and gilt-stamped title.

•  NSTC 0163385.   Binding as above, very slightly cocked with minimal wear to extremities. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. A nice copy of a once very popular reference work.  (30271)

•  NSTC 2C42639; Goldsmiths’-Kress 26080; not in Maggs, Bibl. Asiatica. On Crawfurd, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Publisher’s dark green cloth, blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title; spines very slightly sunned and showing faint traces of now-absent paper labels, cloth lightly rubbed at corners and spine extremities. Hinges cracked (inside). Front pastedowns rubber-stamped (no other institutional markings). Title-pages with pencilled owner’s name in upper margins; contents pages with inked owner’s name dated 1865. Frontispiece, plates, and a few pages in proximity to plates lightly to moderately foxed; one plate in vol. II torn from inner margin, tear not touching image.Absorbing reading, evocative images.

Signed Binding: Publisher's teal pebbled cloth, front covers with striking chariot and armorial scene in light blue, tan, and gilt. The “Cibeles” statue found in Madrid's Cibeles Plaza and the coat of arms (and gilt monogram) of the city of Madrid appear with de la Cruz's name stamped in gilt below; spines offer gilt-stamped title and black-stamped griffin decoration. Cover of vol. II is signed “J. Orba.” All page edges are stamped in a Greek key pattern in blue and gilt.

Provenance:  Half-titles each with old-fashioned rubber-stamp of José Carmona y Ramos.

•  Palau 65340.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities showing minor shelfwear, back cover of vol. I with small spots of faint discoloration, front joint of vol. II rubbed. Collector's stamp as above, each front pastedown with small paper label bearing hand-inked numeral. Pages age-toned; edges slightly embrittled, occasionally with small chips or short tears. Scattered light smudges in vol. I; vol. II with mild to moderate foxing. A peacocky set.  (29262)

Binding:  Contemporary deep reddish-brown sheep in imitation of morocco, exuberantly flourished in gilt both as to both covers and the spine; front cover gilt extra with arabesque and floral designs surrounding a vignette of a girl bearing a basket of flowers on her head, spine with gilt-stamped title and similar motifs, back cover with blind-tooled foliate decorations and gilt-stamped arabesque motifs. All edges gilt. This binding is illustrated as “lamina XXVIII” in Manuel Romero de Terreros' Encuadernaciones artisticas mexicanas, siglos XVI al XIX.

•  Palau 66293; Sabin 65337 (for 1847 & 1852 eds.).   Binding as above, mild rubbing overall, especially to spine; front joint just starting from head. Hinges (inside) cracked across paper, with text block starting to pull away. Pages gently age-toned, with some light foxing generally to or around plates and a few corners crumpled. One plate with ragged outer edge, not touching image. Silk bookmarker laid in; many guard leaves still present. More solid than description might imply, and an all-around remarkable, beautiful volume.  (29091)