Binding:  Publisher's gray paper–covered boards with tan cloth shelfback, front cover with gilt-stamped title and green-stamped wreath, spine with green-stamped title, in publisher's original cardboard box.

Provenance:  Prize copy, inscribed on frontispiece recto as presented to Rosemary Heisler by her teacher “Deaconess Christman” for “reciting perfectly the X Commandments, Sunday School of Christ Church,” in November [19]09.

•  Spine cloth faintly spotted; box darkened with two sides of lid lost. Frontispiece with inked inscription as above, box inked “Rosemary.” Sewing loosened, leaves holding but starting to separate, two leaves creased. Pages clean. A bit timeworn, still sweet!  (30664)

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)

one of 500 copies printed by Vance Gerry

•  Publisher's textured green paper wrappers, sewn as issued. Clean and crisp.  (30658)

Uncommon: WorldCat locates only one U.S. institutional holding of this 1911 (as per the imprimatur) edition.

Binding:  Cream-colored plasticized boards (with cream cloth intentionally visible at joints), front cover with color-printed overlay of an angel delicately tinted in light blue and pink with gilt backdrop beneath a rose and grapevine motif, turn-ins with gilt roll, moiré silk endpapers. All edges gilt.

•  Binding as above, corners slightly rubbed, minor discoloration to sides and spine head. Lacking pp. 19–30 (though with its not being entirely clear whether these were ever present). Pages age-toned; lower outer corners of first few leaves bumped. A beautiful little prayerbook.  (30391)

Binding:  Splendid18th-century embroidered binding of gold wire and silver and colored threads over white silk, each cover featuring one pink flower with a long green stem and leaves at its center. Raised wide swirls of silver with touches of gold surround this in relief, the whole cartouche being set on a background of densely laid-on metallic (silver?) threads semé in gold; a thin gold border edges the covers, with spine sewn in a relatively simple pattern of leaves and crossbars. Boards cut flush with text block, text of calendar section interleaved with blanks for memoranda. All edges gilt.

Contained in this little book, surrounded on each page by a simple woodcut border, are the birthdays of European royals, including newborns; woodcut illustrations of moon cycles and numismata; tables of international currency values, tariffs, and taxes; names of government officials in Liege; a town calendar of events, meetings, and saints' days; and anadvertisement for the publisher, who sold the present almanac in various bindings and other such “cute New Year's Gifts,” including Paris almanacs, at his local shop.This was the fanciest binding style offered chez Dessain, according to his ad!

Provenance:  Ex musaeo Hans Furstenberg (gilt-stamped russet leather bookplate, front pastedown), the famous collector of 18th-century French books.

WorldCat finds similar little almanacs from the same period, butnot this.

•  Binding as above; worn at edges, longest stitches across spine loosening, silver thread tarnished as virtually always and colored threads fading. Minor offsetting from bookplate onto title-page, else in good condition.  Housed in a 19th-century marbled paper–covered slipcase.  (30397)

Provenance:  Each front fly-leaf with early inked inscription of Henry Moore, Worcester College, Oxford; front pastedowns with bookplate of H.M., presumably also Moore.

Binding:  Publisher's mottled crimson calf, covers framed in gilt beaded roll, spines with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations, board edges with gilt roll.

•  ESTC T134377; Brunet, IV, 660; Dibden, II, 290; Gaskell 274; Schweiger, I, 236.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities rubbed, spine leather darkened and showing small cracks. Vol. I with occasional instances of early inked marginalia in Greek. Vol. II with paper flaw to one leaf that has torn slightly, affecting about three letters. Pages gently age-toned with a very few scattered light spots, otherwise clean. A nicely printed text in a pleasing small format.  (30208)

This set is displayed in itsoriginal wooden three-tiered bookcase, measuring 22.5 x 6.5 cm (8.9 x 2.5").

•  Publisher's black faux leather, spines stamped (faintly) with titles and decorative patterns, in accompanying case as above; volumes showing light shelfwear only, the occasional corner a little bent, case sturdy and very little worn. Upper edges darkened, occasional minor foxing, pages otherwise clean. Cherishable.  (30661)