numerous in-text engravings

•  NSTC 0174363.   Publisher's textured green cloth, covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; faint discoloration to outer edge of front cover and lower outer corner of back cover, tiny spots of insect damage near joints (one carrying through about 60 pp., not touching text). Hinges (inside) tender, as is often seen with this book, with pastedowns and free endpapers showing evidence of past dampness in lower portions, not affecting interior; two leaves with corners lost away from text. Title-page with early inked ownership inscription in upper portion, first text page (only) with pencilled marks of emphasis; pages clean. British bookseller's invoice from 1983 laid in. A pleasing copy.  (30671)

•  Publisher's plain paper wrappers. Clean and fresh. (29721)

A handsome edition of a great, indeed landmark English novel.

•  ESTC N47632; Lowndes, III, 613; NCBEL, II, 900 (first few eds. only). Contemporary half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, bindings overall worn and rubbed with leather lost over corners and front joint of vol. I cracked though holding; now housed in a handsome clamshell case of quarter calf with marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations. Front free endpapers with pencilled ownership inscription (dated 1875 in vol. I); front pastedowns with 20th-century collector’s bookplate. Light to moderate foxing to pages in proximity to plates, with occasional small spots to other pages; plates spotted and browned although not beyond expectable degrees. Worthy. (15202)

•  Publisher's red cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped decorative title; cloth gently faded, extremities and spine gilt slightly rubbed. Eight plates lacking (of 16). Frontispiece recto with private collector's rubber-stamp, back free endpaper with same owner's small bookplate pasted in upside-down. Pages lightly age-toned with light offsetting opposite some plates, first few leaves with faint waterstaining in upper portions. A few corners dog-eared. Although not all called-for plates are present, there are no obvious excisions or absences.  (30003)

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 498.   Binding as above, in original glassine wrapper and slipcase; binding and wrapper all but unworn, slipcase spine label wrinkling very slightly.A gorgeous, fresh, clean copy.  (30640)

•  Publisher's tan cloth with terra-cotta printed medieval pattern, dust wrapper lacking; spine sunned, corners with minor soiling. Title-page with minor offsetting from frontispiece. Showing some external wear, but still a clean, solid, engaging copy of an entertaining work — in fact, a joy.  (26068)

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth, front cover pictorially stamped in white, red, and gilt; spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding as above; dust jacket lacking, minor rubbing to extremities, back cover with crease in cloth (not board). Front pastedown with private collector's bookplate dated [19]15. A nice copy!  (28612)

The facsimile was limited to 252 copies, of which 218 were sold by subscription while the remaining 34 were destined for national libraries, collaborating scholars, and special individuals (identified in the limitation statement). This is copy 88 of the 218 subscription copies.

•  Palau 70182.   Full brown morocco, spine gilt with neat lettering, two rolls, and devices in compartments; covers with double-fillet gilt border (a small portion of this lost on front cover, corners bumped and a little rubbed). Top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Original front wrapper bound in. A very pleasing copy of a handsome homage.  (29223)

Binding:  Percaline mosaïquée binding of publisher's violet cloth, covers framed in blind, front cover with gilt-stamped Last Supper vignette surrounded by smaller vignettes and decorations stamped in gilt, white, green, red, and pink; back cover with elaborate IHS display stamped in gilt, green, blue, red, and white; spine gilt extra and stamped in red and green. All edges gilt.

•  Binding as above, spine and edges of front cover somewhat sunned, front cover with a few small spots of discoloration, extremities rubbed, “presence” very nice. Hinges (inside) tender, requiring some caution (not unexpected in a volume of this size).; one plate separated, one starting to separate. Intermittent faint foxing only; in fact a sumptuous and pleasing presentation, with an intriguing inscription, in a copy that can be called not only “clean” but “bright.”  (30993)

Binding: Contemporary treed calf. Spine with gilt-stamped red leather title label, gilt-stamped compartment lines, and floral devices within compartments.

•  Brunet, II, 576. Binding somewhat rubbed and starting to crack over joints, though very firm; some onetime water exposure visible on front cover (a not entirely unattractive effect). Pages with a bit of very minor spotting, and some offsetting from plates. An attractive copy of a pretty book.

•  VD17 1:620459Z.   Contemporary stiff vellum. Ex-library with call number on spine and bookplate, but no other markings. A very good copy.  (14709)

The translator, W. Kenneth Thompson, selected thirteen episodes from Bassi's text, and illustrations includingone double-page plate and twelve miniatures, reproduced from photographs of the manuscript in five-color facsimiles printed by offset lithography at The Meriden Gravure Company in Meriden, CT. Giovanni Mardersteig designed the text in his own Monotype Dante on Manunzia paper, and oversaw production with his son Martino at the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, Italy. The edition was limited to 1950 copies, of which this is no. 164, as written in ink below the colophon.

•  Bound as above, spine very lightly sunned with light pencil smudge; case with one side a little soiled and a limited patch of staining. Text very fresh and clean.  (30549)

Languages charted in these tables include “Tartares Mouantcheoux,” Tamoul, Telongou, Persian (ancient and modern), Armenian, Russian (ancient and modern), Coptic, Hebrew, etc., with the engraving done by master artisan Robert Bénard (fl. 1750–85).

•  Half green calf with green marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; slight wear to corners and spine extremities. Lacking one plate (#25); another with a small hole outside image and a circlet of darkening around that, from a cigarette ash (#6). Light soiling and spots, a corner or two a little chipped or bent; a handsome gathering.  (24823)

Click the images for enlargements.

The work is illustrated with a frontispiece and three copper-engraved plates done by Louis le Grand after designs by Gravelot.

•  Sabin 20201; Palau 73986; LeClerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 3180; Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 1003–04.   Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; corners, joints, and spine extremities rubbed, spine with two pinpoint holes and surface cracks to leather. Front free endpaper partially separated, with pencilled annotation on verso; inner margins of one plate and opposing page with small area of offsetting from now-absent laid-in item, pages otherwise clean. All edges marbled in blue. An attractive copy.  (25799)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Publisher's cloth, front cover and spine decoratively gilt-stamped; spine, lower edges, and corners a touch rubbed. Top edge gilt. A few leaves and plates with waterstaining to lower outer corners, scattered spots of light foxing. (18409)

Designed by Michael and Winifred Bixler of Boston, the text is set in Monotype Dante and Wilhelm Klingsporschrift, printed by Daniel Keleher at Wild Carrot Letterpress in Hadley, MA, on white Monadnock high-finish paper. Fritz Eichenberg contributed the illustrations, allwood engravings numbering one full-page engraving opposite the title-page, one double-page and seven full-page engravings in the text, with another small engraving above the colophon. Of 2,000 copies this is number 1496, signed by Eichenberg and Bixler in the colophon, and bound by Robert Burlen and Son in full dark-gray Toile Athena cotton imported from France by Clarence House of New York, stamped in copper with cover typography designed by Antonie Eichenberg.

The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 526.   Binding as above, in publisher's brown slipcase with title stamped in copper on spine. One page number smudged in printing. Fine.  (31264)

Provenance:  Elegant calligraphic bookplate of Norman J. Sondheim, American collector of fine press books.

•  Grabhorn Bibliography 481; Howes D521; not in Flake & Draper.   Publisher's quarter red morocco and printed paper–covered sides in red, black, and cream, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges and extremities lightly rubbed. Front pastedown with handsome bookplate as above. Pages and plates crisp and clean. A nice copy of a handsome and significant book.  (30530)

Binding:  Publisher's blind-embossed black leather, covers each with gilt-stamped wreath and gilt single fillet frame, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations.

•  Binding as above, edges and extremities rubbed; front pastedown with Bordeaux bookseller's small 19th-century ticket. First text page with early inked ownership inscription in upper portion. Pages faintly age-toned, some early corners creased. Worn, but sturdy and still attractive.  (32309)

Binding:  Publisher's sage green paper–covered sides with dark green cloth shelfback, front cover with decorative title and train vignette both stamped in gilt and dark green, spine with gilt-stamped title. Top edge gilt, outer edge deckle.

•  Binding as above; edges, joints, and extremities rubbed, front cover mottled. Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription. Pages and plates clean.  (29126)

•  Portfolio worn, in two pieces, with old repairs. Text and illustrations in very good condition.  (31085)

•  Publisher's embossed cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; corners and spine extremities showing minor wear, with gilt oxidized. Front free endpaper with pencilled inscription; some page edges with small blotches. Binding very handsome in its subtle way. Impossible! to get a good image of! (12986)

“nothing had been published in regard to the subject” before the present work

Illustrated with10 full-page stipple-engraved plates done by J. Erxleben, this guidebook covers efficient tank construction, freshwater aquarium inhabitants readily obtainable in the wild (goldfish, sticklebacks, sunfish, minnows, crawfish) as well as likely marine candidates (crabs, anemones, gobies, blennies, pipefish), and the basic overall principles of balancing species (fish, plants, snails, etc.) so that the tank seldom needs to be cleaned or have its water changed. It should be noted that the author is not wholly reliable in his identifications of American vs. British natives — but then again, the fad of aquarium-keeping was brand-new at the time, very few people could lay claim to more than Edwards' two years of aquarium experience, and all previous published works on the subject had been thoroughly British.

Binding:  Publisher's textured olive-green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and publisher; front cover framed in blind around a gilt-stamped central medallion offering a decoratively lettered title accented with images of small swimming fish, shells, and seaweeds.

•  NSTC 2E5035.   Bound as above; extremities rubbed and spine slightly sunned with small area of discoloration around paper shelving label at head. Ex–social club library: shelving label as noted, call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on endpapers and two pages (not title-page), no other markings. Back pastedown with small ticket of New York bookseller, partially effaced. A few leaves with very short tears from outer margins, not touching text; pages clean.  (29024)

numbered copy 100 of 400 printed by the important Welsh press

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of Norman J. Sondheim, the collector of press books.

•  Welsh sheepskin as above, the soft leather showing light (expectable) rubbing to edges and spine, with small spots of discoloration. A very little light foxing, most leaves clean. A nice copy of an uncommon item.  (30616)

The cataloguer at the Penn State University library describes its uncolored example: “The form is generally dated ca. 1830, but could have been in use as early as 1814. The lower design depicts Jesus with the disciples, while the upper scene shows Jesus' baptism. The form stretches between two pillars, flanked by columns of smoke, all within line border. Distinctive mix of [stipple] engraving and etching, probably on copper plate, by Egelmann.”

The present copy is handsomely hand-colored with the blanks for names, dates, and places accomplished nicely in red ink in a clear hand.

•  Weiser & Heaney, Pennsylvania German Fraktur, 495; Stopp, Printed Birth and Baptismal Certificates of the German Americans, IV, pg. 2784.   Excellent repair to a lower area into the image; other repairs to the margins. Bug spotting in lower outer corner.  (31977)

Illustrated by E. McKnight Kauffer.

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Gallup, T. S. Eliot: A bibiography (rev. & ext. ed.), A9a.   Publisher's yellow wrappers printed in black. Light dust-soiling. Very good copy.  (27434)

For LITERATURE, including
            a run of Eliot,  click here.

•  Uncut, partially unopened set. Publisher's light brown cloth, partly sunned, covers stamped in blind, spines lettered in gilt; corners and spine extremities rubbed with black tape at top of each spine extending onto covers and one volume rubbed in places to the boards. Ex–social club library: each volume with a 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings.  (28760)

The volume is illustrated with43 lithographed plates done by Weber & Co., including a portrait of “A New Mexican Indian Woman,” a fish of the Gila River, a map of “the actions fought at San Pasqual in upper California between the Americans and Mexicans Dec. 6th & 7th 1846,” and a view of cliffside hieroglyphics, as well as a series of 14 botanical images.

•  Cowan & Cowan 195; Graff 1249 (other 1848 issues only); Haferkorn 38; Howes E145; Sabin 22536 (for House ed. only); Wagner-Camp, Plains & Rockies, 148:2; Zamorano 80, 33.   Recent black cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Oversized, folding map lacking. Plates and pages with some light to moderate foxing; one leaf with tear from upper margin, extending into text without loss. Clean, strong.  (27364)

•  NSTC 2F1886; Printing & the Mind of Man 308.   Publisher's dark green textured cloth–covered boards, covers framed in blind, spines with gilt-stamped title; extremities rubbed, sides with small scuffs, spine heads and feet refurbished, vol. I upper front cover showing traces of waterstaining, vol. III with front joint repaired. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise generally clean; vol. II with scattered spots of light foxing, mostly confined to margins; vol. III half-title with offsetting. A few plates with faint spots of foxing, likewise mostly confined to margins. Front free endpaper of vol. I with pencilled annotations. A solid and attractive set.  (30792)

The author here, a member of the Order of Minims, here attempts to produce a brief and accurate life St. Paphnutius of Thebais that will "unconfuse" his biography, which had been overlain with events from the lives of two other saints named Paphnucio. He also delves into the conjunction of St. Paphnutius's life with that of St. Thais, whom he rescued.

A handsome engraving opposite the author's prologue shows St. Paphnutius in prayer, leaning on a boulder, with a book in his hands; on the boulder is the upper portion of a skull, next to which is a rough cross made out of two small tree branches. There are at least three states of the engraving! In one state the margin below the illustration is a full one and has, in all capital italics: San Paphnucio. This state is usually printed in sepia ink. In another state the lower margin has clearly been shortened by cutting away a portion of the copper, but the words "Montes de Oca grabo en M.co" are clearly visible as are the tops of the letters of a picture legend; that legend begins much further to the left than the simple "San Paphnucio" of the first-described state. In the third state the plate is almost identical to that just described, but more copper has been cut from the lower margin, leaving "Montes de Oca grabo en M.co" but totally eliminating the lettering of the legend. The states with Montes de Oca's name are usually printed in black ink. Montes de Oca was, of course, one of Mexico's greatest and most prolific engravers of the nineteenth century.

Offered here is a copy with the plate in the full-margined state, without Montes de Oca's name present, and printed in sepia ink.

•  Medina, Mexico, 10481; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 773. On Montes de Oca, see: Diccionario Porrúa de historia, biografía y geografía de México (5a ed.), II, 1957. Clean, crisp copy with a little light waterstaining at top of first leaves, and a good impression of the plate.

•  Publisher's blue-gray cloth, front cover with title in black, spine with title in gilt; binding slightly cocked, extremities lightly rubbed, spots/areas of faint discoloration, clean overall and nicer than this recital makes it sound. Pages gently age-toned.  (31173)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The binding is full blue linen stamped in gold on the spine and front cover, with additional ornamentation to both covers in deep pink. Top edges are gilt, others deckle; one leaf is left unopened.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 49.   Binding as above; spine sunned and with thumbnail sized dark patch at head and foot. Some cracking along the top edges and spine of the slipcase, which is still sturdy; spine of case sunned, paper label a little soiled. Pages clean; no ownership markings or labels. A very good, clean copy.  (22313)

Hand-set in Aurora Uncial and printed on Rives paper with deckled fore-edge, the text is printed in red and black and features digital reproductions oforiginal gouache paintings in very bright colors.

•  Publisher's sunny orange and yellow-streaked paste paper over boards with midnight blue endpapers. Protective mylar cover. Very minor wear at spine corners. Light and bright.  (31279)

A special issue copy: Present here is an uncalled-for frontispiece. It is of four Capuchin martyrs, issigned by the artist Navarro, is engraved on copper, and is printed au sanguine — the color reserved foronly the most special copies of 18th-century books. This frontispiece is not called for by Medina and is not present in any of the copies reported as held in the U.S.

•  Medina, Mexico, 4991; Palau 45600; Sabin 11098; Maggs, Bibliotheca Asiatica, 611.   Full antique calf, spine gilt, leather label. Careful repairs, using archival tape, accomplished to old worming to most leaves; wormwork sometimes minimal and sometimes more extensive but never preventing reading.  Quite a good copy.  (12725)

only the first 40 of those in portfolio form with ephemera, as seen here

Laid in here is DePol's birthday greeting to Anderson, also numbered copy 34 and bearing an illustration signed by the artist; present in their own enclosure are 13 other handsome examples of announcements, handbills, bookplates, holiday greetings, keepsakes, etc. from the Pickering Press.

•  Publisher's sienna paper wrappers and folded portfolio, front of portfolio and front wrapper each with title stamped in brown; portfolio spine creased and almost imperceptibly sunned, front cover with one tiny spot. Internally pristine.  (31075)

•  Folded as issued. Clean and virtually unworn.  (31232)

•  NSTC 0262094.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers framed in blind double fillets, spines with gilt-stamped title; vol. 1 with small areas of light discoloration, both volumes with mild edgewear. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. A nice set.  (32641)

•  Publisher's limp textured maroon cloth, front cover gilt-stamped “Writing Album”; cloth slightly rippled, front cover with indented circular imprint, joints and edges refurbished. All edges gilt. Printed title-page with pencilled list (incomplete) of pages bearing content. Pages generally clean with occasional small smudges, some of the colored paper slightly faded. The vivid expression of a place in time, representing a kind of education and cultivated life long gone, this is also, at the micro level, the evocative relic of a specific kinship/social set that might possibly be identified.  (31073)

This is anuncommonly nice copy, still housed in its original publisher's box, which features the front cover image reproduced in color.

•  Not in Brown, Culinary Americana.   Publisher's spiral-bound wrappers, front wrapper color-printed with image of Dutch girls baking, in publisher's box (as above); one edge of box rubbed and corners of box bottom reinforced. Front fly-leaf with inked gift inscription and pencilled date (March 24, 1956). A clean, fresh, virtually unworn copy — and very uncommon as such.  (29584)

These books feature a grand total of 114 full-color plates depicting all the dishes. The glossy double-sided plates are divided sectionally in vol. I, gathered at the beginning of vol. II, and grouped as prospective dinner menus in vol. III; all three volumes are additionally illustrated with black-and-white photographic images from Pei-Mei's career.

•  Vol. I: Publisher's brightly color-printed paper–covered boards, vols. II and III in publisher's original dust wrappers over green and yellow cloth, respectively; vol. I with moderate shelfwear to edges and extremities, vol. II wrapper with extremities rubbed and a few small edge nicks, vol. III wrapper with spine extremities chipped and small scuff to back joint. Front free endpaper of vol. I with inked gift inscription dated 1977. Pages of vols. II and III very clean and white, vol. I slightly age-toned but otherwise clean. Very attractive copies of a set seldom found all volumes together.  (30289)