The deed was witnessed by Richard Peters and John Callahan, and signed by Charles West with his seal next to the signature. In 1787, the document was additionally signed and sealed by Mathew Irwin of the Office for Recording of Deeds for the City and County of Philadelphia.

•  Upper edge uneven; a few small holes along fold lines; some spotting. A pleasing and attractive item of Philadelphiana.

Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.

Garret D. Wall was a lawyer in, and later a Senator from, New Jersey.

•  Written in a clear hand. Fold along horizontal middle of document. Light stain and residue of mounting into an album. Lacks integral address leaf. Old price and dealer code (Sessler’s) in pencil in lower margin.

•  All documents on stamped paper. Excellent condition. Binding with light abrasion to edges; gilt on the silver closures partially perished. A handsome, significant production.

•  Stationer's blank book: quarter sheep with marbled paper sides. Binding scuffed and rubbed. Joints open but covers firmly attached. Internally very good.

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•  Disbound with sewing almost entirely gone, now in Mylar folder. Several small tears covered with cellophane tape; tape repairs to spine. Upper margin waterstained.

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Handwritten recipes include soups (from consommé to black bean to salmon bisque), fish (salmon croquettes to oyster omelet), chicken (chicken pudding!), sauces, breads, salads, cakes and pies, and miscellaneous concoctions like cement for china. Some food recipes are identified as to source (Mrs. Rorer, Mrs. Holmes, etc.).

Names appearing in the church notes, peeping out from under the clippings, are T.M. James, H.S. Mills, and Mrs. James Wilson Marshall — with Heath, Wilson, Smith, Ferguson, Hawley, and Ridgeway additionally appearing as surnames only.

•  Stationer's blank book, all pages ruled in blue with a red left-margin line. All leaves loose, covers present, spine perished and replaced with cloth tape. Some chipping of the inner and outer margins of some leaves. A delicate volume: A miracle that it has survived!

This is the second edition, following the first of 1851; the author says in a laid-in letter (see below) that at the time of writing (1867), the work was “altogether out of print.” Other remarks are on the work itself, and Mexico's past, present, and possible future.

Presentation copy:  Inscribed by the author to the Rev. E.A. Dalrymple of Baltimore, MD. In addition to the inscription on the front free endpaper, a three-page letter from the author is laid in at the front of the volume.

•  Allibone 1253 (for first ed.); Brunet 28598; Diccionario Porrúa de historia, biografía y geografía de México (5a ed.), II, 1809; Field 1038; Palau 158999; Sabin 47100.   Publisher's blind-stamped dark brown cloth, front covers with gilt-stamped decorative vignettes, spines with gilt-stamped titles; front cover of vol. II waterstained and warped with cloth starting to split along joint, back cover of vol. I with adhesions, corners rubbed, spine extremities chipped, spines sunned and with paper shelving labels. Front pastedown of vol. I with old affixed cataloguing; front free endpaper with inscription as above; front pastedowns of both vols. institutionally rubber-stamped. Offsetting from frontispieces onto title-pages; intermittent light browning and spotting. A few gatherings in vol. II unopened; some upper outer corners dog-eared. Despite condition “issues,” a significant work in a presentation set accompanied by a significant little letter.  (24443)

Scarce item. OCLC records only one copy (this one) in North America; not recorded in NSTC.

Meade was, briefly, a member of the 3rd Philadelphia Battalion, but saw no military action himself; his grandson was Gen. George Gordon Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac.

•  On Meade, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XII, 473–74. Creased along folds, with a few ink blotches and very minor offsetting. Later pencilled note beneath signature.

In the 17th and and 18th centuries “Canary wine” was a popular sweet wine from Tenerife that found much favor among the English, colonial and other.

•  Generally very legible. One small portion of lower blank are torn with loss of paper. Old “clear,” non-cello, non-press-apply tape repair to missing area and to corners for mounting in an album. With pencilled dealer’s code (Sessler’s). Good or good+ condition.

As is to be expected, the text is in italic with spaces and guide letters provided for (unaccomplished) initials.

The register (leaf G2 recto) lists a gathering *4 that is not found here or in any known copy, so the reference would seem to be incorrect.

Evidence of readership: VERY Extensive marginalia in the Solinus, in a neat hand.

Binding:  19th-century straight-grain red goat with single gilt fillets defining “spine compartments” and “title-labels”; gilt circle devices in compartments. Single gilt rule border on covers; gilt double fillets on board edges. Blue marbled endpapers. All edges speckled blue.

•  Renouard, Alde, 83; Adams M1053; Schweiger, II, 607 (“seltene Ausg.”).   Volume expertly rebacked retaining old spine. Minor worming in upper outer area of all leaves to fol. 16, costing some letters but more typically parts only of same. Marginalia in Solinus as above. A good and, for its notes, important copy.  (24667)

Blockley, in which the land in question was located, was a township located in West Philadelphia from about 1677 until its consolidation with the city in 1854. The name has lingered, although it has been superceded in general usage by the broader term “University City.”

•  Parchment crisp and untorn, with outermost folded portions lightly spotted; front with early inked title as given above, plus pencilled numerals. An evocative document connected to some very prominent names, in excellent condition, with its seal protected for its intended reuse by a diamond-shaped paper covering.

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TWO nicely accomplished pen-and-ink drawings of ships

One leaf bears a number of small photographs of young men, labelled “1915” — possibly classmates from St. Paul’s?

•  Publisher’s cloth wrappers, front cover gilt-stamped “Autographs”; edges and extremities chipped. Text block partially separated from spine. Some fading to colored pages, with occasional very slight offsetting or ink smearing.

Click the image for enlargement.

•  Very good condition. Written in a small but clear hand.  (24650)