Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Provenance:  Inked inscriptions of James Mack of Windham, VT (1784–1860) on front free endpaper and rear fly-leaf. Although both inscriptions are dated 1840, one gives “Col. James Mack” and the other “Major James Mack.”

•  American Imprints 25154.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; joints, edges, and extremities rubbed, spine leather darkened and cracked, boards very slightly sprung. Inscriptions as above. Light to moderate age-toning and foxing, more pronounced to frontispiece and title-page. Now housed in a cloth clamshell case with gilt-stamped leather spine label.  (25116)

Advertisements on the last page, notably forpatent medicines.

•  Drake 13678.   Uncut copy; later stitching; corners cut. Slight dog-earing, title-page a little tattered. Early inked ownership signature at top of title-page and some marginalia or interlineations.  (9959)

•  Original self wrappers [unbound; removed]. There is a small chip out of the inner edges of the leaves and the top corners of the first two leaves are lightly creased. Very good.  (17404)

BAL notes that the book went through an unknown number of reprintings; the present example has the frontispiece in black and light brownish-grey, Craighead and Jenkins on the copyright page, “Dick and Fitzgerald's List of Publications” as the first ad with “Inquire Within for Anything you Want to Know” at the head, “Dick & Fitzgerald” as the spine imprint, the publisher's monogram blind-stamped on the back cover, and yellow endpapers.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription of P.P. French, dated 1859 with note, “R.R. car” (back free endpaper with pencilled anecdote about this copy's purchase aboard a train); front pastedown with simple rubber-stamp of Amos T. French (a trustee of the Tuxedo Park Library and son of one of the main proponents of the fraudulent Wyoming Pacific Improvement Co.); bookplate of Francis Massey O'Brien (bibliophile and bookseller in Portland, Maine).

Evidence of Readership: In addition to the above, other pencillings to fly-leaves/endpapers and four illustrations with pencilled captions, Carroll's story with pencilled annotation at head.

•  BAL 7094; Wright, II, 163.   Publisher's olive green pebbled cloth, covers with decorative blind-stamped frames; front cover with gilt-stamped comic vignette of a bearded gentleman hauling a harp on his back while Lilliputian types swing from his beard and dance on his harp. Spine gilt with title, publisher, and a different harper-and-harp device, sunned; binding overall slightly shaken, minimal wear to extremities. One leaf with short tear from lower margin, not touching text. Some pages lightly age-toned, annotations as above, pages otherwise clean. A classic of 19th-century light-hearted literature and comic illustration.  (30074)

•  Bindings as above, joints and extremities with spots of mild to moderate rubbing. Added engraved title-page with pencilled ownership inscription dated 1882 in upper portion. Scattered small smudges and spots of foxing, occasional mild offsetting. Vol. I with offsetting to two pages from laid-in item; vol. II with pages gently age-toned.  (30080)

Those copies with the Kilkenny impirnt (Killkenniae: ex typographi Jacobi Stokes) are far fewer than those with the Cologne imprint, but it is clear that all copies were printed at Kilkenny by Stokes.

Not a common work:  NUC Pre-1956 and OCLC combine to locate only eight copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance:  On title-page, ownership inscriptions of the Revs. Thomas Qualy (1829) and Jacob Cleary. Additional Cleary ownership inscriptions on p. 1 (1873) and iii (1891), the latter a gift inscription on the occasion of that owner's giving the volume to a Rev. Thomas Kelly.

•  Bradshaw Irish Coll., nos. 5222-5223; ESTC t036179.   Recent full brown calf with covers panelled in the Cambridge style, author/title/etc. lettering in gilt directly to spine; spine with gilt rules above and below bands and gilt devices in the compartments. Title-page soiled and small portion of lower inside blank margin torn away and repaired; same page has old library call number in ink and the date of publication in ballpoint! Ownership notes as above. Very light waterstain in lower blank margins of preliminary leaves. Generally a very nice, clean copy.  (24805)

TheIrish-born Burnside, then treasurer of Clearfield, Pennsylvania, was later a justice of the Pennsylvania state supreme court.

A notary’s seal is affixed to the document, which was signed by both Burnside and Patton.

•  Creased and slightly age-toned, with the folios separated and some offsetting from seal; a few small holes, touching text without notable loss.

An Englishman through and through, Carr seems sincerely to have liked Ireland and the Irish he met. His book is full of extended and very readable detail — some original, much quoted — on (e.g.) language matters and Irish poetry, Irish agriculture and industry, Irish management of charities, Irish “sights” and ruins, Irish marriage cust marriage customs — and the implications of a potato-based diet.

Provenance: Contemporary inked inscription reading “Tho.s Wynne.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 10096. On Carr, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped title-label; leather moderately rubbed, joints cracking and spine label dimmed. Title-page with owner's name as described above; title-page and one other stamped. Pages, except for central leaves, with waterstaining in lower margins; two pages with smeared spots of ink. (11960)

Binding:  Publisher's diamond-textured charcoal gray cloth, covers stamped in blind. Front cover with a gilt center device of a harp with shamrock and a quote from Exodus; rear cover with a center cartouche of the initial of the American Tract Society embossed in blind.

Provenance:  20th-century signature of Francis Massey O'Brien (Portland, Maine), bibliophile and bookseller.

•  Bound as above, spine extremities and corners rubbed; otherwise very nice indeed. Scattered brown stains in some margins and occasionally into text.  (29951)

Binding: Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in gilt; cover with handsome vignette of “Holy-Cross Abbey” seen from across the water.

Provenance:  Gift inscription of Christmas, 1892; C.J. O'Callaghan to Thomas F. Donahue. 20th-century bookplates of Francis Massey O'Brien (Portland, Maine), bibliophile and bookseller.

Evidence of readership: O'Brien's extensive notes on the blank endpapers and fly-leaves.

•  Bound as above; spine faded. Interior clean. A good ++ copy.  (30065)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 6317.   Recent quarter brown cloth and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Title-page spotted and creased; title-page with early inked ownership inscription in upper portion and added authorial identification, two trials each with similar inscription in header; one leaf with inscription in outer margin and one likewise in lower margin; one leaf with inscription overlying text. A few early pencilled corrections and annotations. Foxed; some corners creased or chipped. Title-page and last leaf with inner portions repaired. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, not touching text.  (29996)