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

•  Howes D120.   Publisher's pebbled brown cloth, covers framed in blind with central gilt-stamped horse and rider medallion on front, spines with gilt-stamped title; edges/extremities lightly rubbed and spines each with a patch lightened (moreso to vol. I). Ex–social club library: call number on endpapers, title-pages rubber-stamped. Minor offsetting from some plates, pages otherwise clean.  (26900)

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.

Click the images for enlargements.

Defoe's novel not quite filling out the 32 pp. of such a little book as this was to be, a tale of “Virtue Rewarded” (not Pamela's!) was appended; and the title-page verso offers a primer-style presentation of letters, “points,” and figures.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 31310; Welch 275.79. This ed. not in Rosenbach, Children.   Lacking wrappers and final leaf, with the latter interrupting “Virtue Rewarded” but not the main story. Pages age-toned and spotted, with corners bumped and dog-earred; engravings variously impressed, with some sharp and clear, others less so.  (27837)

American children

Page [48] bears an advertisement reading: “Book-store. Printing-office. Library. W. & J. Gilman, printers, booksellers, and librarians . . . publish and sell a variety of useful and entertaining books for children and youth.”

WorldCat and Shoemaker combine to locate eight copies.

•  Shoemaker 12353; Brigham, Robinson Crusoe, 103.   Publisher's wrappers; front one dust-soiled, with old writing, detached and reattached using cello-tape; rear wrapper lacking. Staining, generally light, and dog-earing; faded and watery old blue inkstain in upper margins of pp. 23 to end. A well-used but still interesting copy of a Crusoe for children!  (28123)

•  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)

•  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: 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)

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)

Binding:  Publisher's red cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and samovar vignette, drawn from a real samovar in the author's possession.

•  Not in Brown, Culinary Americana or in Cagle & Stafford (in either form).   Binding as above; minimal shelfwear, dust jacket lacking. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription. Pages very clean. A fresh, solid copy.  (30357)

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)

Evidence of Readership: An early owner of this copy who seems to have sided with Jeffrey has made occasional annotations in pencil, one of which decries “these commentators [who] will never allow poor Shakespeare any invention, always endeavoring to prove him pilfering . . . “

Both volumes are illustrated with wood engravings by J. Berryman, reproducing medieval and Renaissance images; vol. II also includes a total ofnine plates, one being an oversized, folding rendition of a fanciful 15th-century engraving of a Flemish morris dance. The title-pages are printed in red and black.

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf of vol. II with pencilled ownership inscription of prominent 20th-century Philadelphia collector E.M. Boyle.

•  NSTC D1619; NCBEL, III, 1644.   Period-style quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped red morocco title-label, compartments with blind-tooled and gilt-stamped decorations, back pastedowns with binder's tickets. All edges marbled. Regular but not heavy early pencilled annotations, some offset onto opposing pages; a few scattered small smudges, pages otherwise clean. One leaf with small central hole affecting about four letters. A very attractive copy, with interesting and engaging signs of readership.  (30112)

Binding:  Publisher's sage-green cloth, front cover stamped in black, terra-cotta, and gilt with swirl design surrounding chrysanthemums and a pegasus medallion; spine similarly stamped, with double flute player vignette. All edges gilt. Not a signed binding, but, as noted on verso of title-page, a production of “Trow's Printing and Bookbinding Company, New York.”

•  Binding as above, corners and spine extremities a bit rubbed, spine gilt a bit dimmed. Front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated 1884. Pages and plates clean. Overall a very attractive copy.  (26902)

•  Sabin 21232; Gaer, California Literature of the Gold-Rush, 25; Cowan & Cowan, Bibliography of the History of California, 187.   Publisher's textured maroon cloth, front cover with very decorative gilt-stamped title presentation; lightly rubbed, spine sunned and with some other sort of discoloration at top. Ex–social club library: front free endpaper and fly-leaf with inked numerals in a 19th-century hand; title-page, one plate, and one other page rubber-stamped. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean. A nice little book.  (26296)

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)

•  Publisher's dusty rose (loosely) paper–covered limp wrappers, front cover with printed paper label; volume very clean, original slipcase discolored with joints split and much of spine detached but present. A nice exemplar.  (28334)

•  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)

The authorial attribution is tentative; WorldCat notes that the present text “is not the poem published under the title “My Brother” in Mary Elliott's Grateful Tributes (1819). Text of issue is designated as an 'uncertain ascription to Mary Elliott' by Mary Elliott's bibliographer Marjorie Moon.”

Provenance:  Inside front wrapper with beautifully inked inscription reading “Samuel Gara his Book Bought in Lancaster August the 23rd, 1827 by his Mother.”

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, age-toned, paper splitting along spine and sewing loosening; inside front wrapper with inscription as above. Pages age-toned, with mild foxing. In delicate condition, but a very appealing item.  (30251)

Four volumes in one as issued; each piece was printed in a limited edition of 900 copies.

•  Publisher's blue-green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped Art Nouveau-style title and mermaid decoration; dust jacket lacking, binding a little soiled and slightly cocked with edges and extremities lightly rubbed, corners and center of back cover at top bumped, spine darkened. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean. A decent “used” book.  (29695)

•  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)

Although Sternick says the first edition appeared in 1864, this appears to be erroneous — the copyright page here gives 1866, and WorldCat fails to locate any copies anywhere printed prior to 1866.

•  Sabin 64917; cf. Sternick 589.   Publisher's textured oxblood cloth, covers framed in blind, spine with decorative gilt-stamped title; extremities a bit rubbed. A clean, attractive copy of this romanticized Western American story.  (30359)

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)