Click the interior image for an enlargement.

We find only two U.S. locations and a copy at the British Library.

•  Publisher’s printed paper wrappers; edges nicked, paper split and chipping along spine, text block cracked. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate. Lower margins of title-page and preface waterstained, inner margin of frontispiece waterstained; upper margin of title-page with portion torn away. Some plates lightly foxed or browned, one with waterstaining in lower margin. Pages untrimmed. One’s sense is that this was USED as a guidebook!

The work is illustrated with a number of wood engravings done after designs by Westall. The front pastedown of this copy bears an early inked inscription reading “Presented to Mary Esther By Imogine.”

•  Publisher’s textured cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and decorative motifs; cloth rubbed over edges and extremities. Light to moderate foxing throughout.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 16129. Contemporary mottled sheep, rubbed, joints on vols. I and II open; spines with heads and gilt-stamped leather title labels chipped, and remnants of paper shelving labels. Front pastedowns with bookplates of a now-defunct institution; front pastedowns and free endpapers with pencilled gift inscriptions. Pages foxed throughout, with some leaves notably browned.

The outer binding is red textured cloth with the front cover stamped in black and gilt, and the interior front cover sample for the children’s version is a different red textured cloth stamped in black. The leaves for subscribers’information are unused.

•  Not in Arbour. Publisher’s cloth as described above, gently worn with corners rubbed and small scrape to front cover. Interior clean.

Paul Hogarth illustrated the book with black-and-white vignettes which open and close each chapter, and eight full-page color wash drawings. John Lewis designed the book choosing a monotype Walbaum font. The binding is quarter red calf over light-brown buckram sides, gilt-lettered on the spine, and gilt-stamped on the front cover with a design of various fox-hunting implements; tucked away at the lower edge of the back cover is a gilt design of a sly-looking fox in full trot.

This edition is limited to 1600 copies and is signed by the artist on the colophon.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 506.   Binding as above, in original glassine wrapper and slipcase; wrapper with tears at bottom edge. Slipcase with slight bumping at inner front edge. A fine copy, in a near fine slipcase.  (22104)

Paul Hogarth's eight full-page watercolors and over a dozen black-and-white vignettes vividly illustrate the bomb-churned landscape of no-man's land, the explosions of rifle and gunfire, and the irony of well-fed generals enjoying life behind the lines. Dennis J. Grastorf designed the book using a 12-point Baskerville font with two points leading space in between the lines. The binding is a natural-tone rough linen, stamped in black on each cover with a bugle design. David Daiches wrote the introduction.

This edition is limited to 2,000 copies and this offering includes the monthly newsletter. The colophon is signed by the artist.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 519.   Binding as above; slipcase with two short scratches on back. Fine, in a fine slipcase.  (22078)

Very uncommon. OCLC and ESTC report only one holding, at Stanford.

•  Original printed boards, worn, paper almost entirely lost over spine. Without endpapers, apparently as bound. Sewing loosening, with several leaves separated. Scattered spots of mild foxing. Despite faults noted, a charmer.

A collection of relevant letters and documents in Latin and Dutch (“Tablinum dat is: Brieven ende documenten, dienende tot de Friesche historie”) is appended at the back. The volume is attractively printed in double columns (primarily black-letter), with an engraved title-page, 16 engraved portraits of Classical, medieval, and Renaissance figures, and a striking, full-page engraved coat of arms as well as decorative capitals and head- and tailpieces.

Moderately uncommon in libraries, with OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locating only ten U.S. holdings (one of which has been deaccessioned), this is quite uncommon on the market.

Provenance:  Bookplate of “I.M.” (Isaac Meulman) on front pastedown, with his device and motto, “Grijpt als 't rijpt.” Meulman, a 19th-century merchant collector in Amsterdam, gathered an extraordinary library of Dutch history and theology, much of which was purchased at his sale by the Evangelisch Luthersch Seminarium of his home city.

•  Pirenne, Bibliographie de l'histoire de Belgique, 1232.   19th-century quarter vellum and speckled paper–covered sides, spine with very neatly inked title, author, and date information; joints starting from head, sides rubbed/scuffed with corners bumped, spine with inked call number and light discolored patch from now-absent label at foot. Half-title with small inked numeral in lower margin; lower edges of closed book institutionally rubber-stamped. One leaf with short tear from outer margin, touching shouldernote without loss of text; four leaves with lower outer corners torn away, not affecting text. Some instances of light offsetting; scattered faint spotting confined almost entirely to upper and outer margins. Front pastedown with bookplate as above, speckled with old staining. A strong copy with a pleasing provenance.  (24980)

•  Publisher's quarter cream paper and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; without dust jacket, but clean and fresh.  (24663)

George Him both illustrated and designed the book, and also signed the colophon. The book is heavily illustrated with a considerable number of black-and-white line-and-wash drawings and 14 full-page color illustrations which were hand-colored by the pochoir process at the studio of Walter Fischer. These drawings are both beautiful and witty. In one color plate, for example, we see a line of picketing Egyptian soldiers carrying placards reading, “Egypt for the Egyptians,” and “Caesar Go Home,” the latter appearing in “Egyptian Hieroglyphs”; in another plate, we are treated to a breathtaking scene of the library at Alexandria being consumed by fire; in yet another drawing, we see an amusing little rendering of Belzanor's description of a seven-armed wife-eating Roman soldier!

Him chose a monotype Plantin font for the text which was printed in Bloomfield, Connecticut, at the Sign of the Stone Book. The binding is full bright red “vellum book-cloth” stamped on the front with a double-eagle (one American, one Roman) design in gold, and stamped on the spine in black and gold leaf with a design of a Roman legionary standard bearing the title and the author's initials. The endpapers are “nugget-gold” Tweedweave.

This offering does not include the monthly newsletter or the mailing notice.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 381.   A fine copy with the slipcase, which is covered in “nugget-gold” paper and stamped in black and gold. Slipcase showing traces of rubbing at top and bottom. A great treat for a Shaw-lover!   (21756)

Harold Lamb wrote the introduction. Of the author's attention to the minutiae of daily life in the Rome of A.D. 63–66 he writes, “The city itself appears in exact historical detail. Praetorians idling at their posts pass the time with their favorite dice games; girl attendants at Petronius' bath finish their duties punctiliously and break away to their own diversions as soon as the door curtain falls behind the master. Sienkiewicz knows how the dishes, including blackbirds, were prepared for a nobleman's feast; he knows what the oriental dancers wore on their heads and what the priests of Cybele carried in their hands, and what you see when you round a corner of the Vicus Sceleratus.”

Salvatore Fiume created the 35 drawings which were reproduced in three-tone process and mounted by hand. Giovanni Madersteig designed this edition, which is limited to 1500 copies, choosing a monotype Old Face font; the composition and printing of the text and illustrations was done by Madersteing at the Officina Bodoni in Verona.

The binding is full natural linen printed, in grey-blue, with an overall pattern derived from an old wood engraving. The signatures of Salvatore Fiume and Giovanni Madersteig appear on the colophon.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 302.   In the original slipcase, spine sunned with a long closed crack to paper and paper cracked/chipped; case good overall. Book with spine lightly faded and rear pastedown with small gold bookseller's label; volume in the original dust jacket (spine sunned to darker than sides are); near fine.  (22293)

•  Publisher's red cloth in color-printed dust wrapper; minor shelfwear to corners and spine extremities, otherwise clean and fresh.  (23194)

•  Publisher's red cloth with a gilt-stamped bust of Mrs. Smith on front cover; small area of spine at base torn away. Ex-library, with stamps on bottom edges of closed volume, call number label on spine, bookplate on front pastedown, perforation-stamps on title-page and all plates, slip on back free endpaper. Not a great copy, but a complete and certainly serviceable one.  (13324)

•  Sabin 85145. Publisher's cloth, covers stamped in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title and ship vignette; spine sunned, with gilt dimmed, cloth showing a touch of rubbing at corners and spine extremities, and a small insect hole to the back joint. A few pages with mild foxing, generally a nice, clean copy. (18404)

An epitome of the “antiquarian” both in form and content, this is a marvelous compendium of royal history and lore.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Publisher's textured ochre cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black and gilt; spine and back cover with light dustsoiling. All edges marbled.  (23191)

Uncommon. OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find no holdings of this Philadelphia imprint.

Provenance: Pencilled ownership note, “Miss Emily Larned.”

•  Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 680 (for first Baltimore ed. only); not in American Imprints.   Publisher's printed blue paper wrappers, showing minimal wear to corners and spine extremities, faint spotting to front wrapper, overall in excellent clean condition. Front inside wrapper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Pages clean save for light offsetting towards back of book.  (24580)

Binding:  Publisher's cream cloth, front covers and spines stamped in two shades of gilt.

•  Bindings pleasingly clean and showing virtually no wear or discoloration, lacking the rarely found cloth dust jackets. Front fly-leaf of vol. I with inked gift inscription dated 1898. Hinges (inside) of vol. II cracked. Pages and plates clean. (20484)

•  Evans 27743; Howes S-999; Sabin 91742; Trumbull, Connecticut, 1425.   Period-style quarter calf with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and blind-tooled floral decorations in compartments. Previous owner's signature on the title-page. Rubber-stamps of the Mercantile Library, and inked marks and underlining inside, with scattered marginalia. Frontispiece portrait lacking, with eight plates (three of which are fold-out) present; each of the three folding plates with a split along one fold. Occasional marginal tears and small chips to corners; waterstaining and foxing, yet paper strong and reading easy.  (3996)

•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in light green, white, and gilt; corners and spine extremities very slightly rubbed, binding otherwise clean and fresh, signed “H.” Endpapers with some offsetting and discoloration; front pastedown with small bookseller's ticket. A charming and interesting Christmas book.  (22045)

Binding: Signed binding designed by Emma Redington Lee Thayer of Decorative Designers and stamped with the “DD” monogram, of green cloth with front cover stamped in light green, white, and gilt, spine stamped in gilt and light green.

•  Binding as above, slightly cocked, with cloth a touch worn over corners and spine extremities, otherwise clean and attractive. A handsome copy.  (13581)