The present volume (XIV) covers 2 January 1808 through 16 April 1808, in other words till just before news arrived of Napoleon's treachery in Spain, with coverage of the war in Europe; British military actions in the Caribbean, Uruguay, and Argentina; ship arrivals; cargoes unloaded; notices from the provinces; Miranda's revolt in Venezuela; and even a comet seen in Europe.

Provenance:  Ex-John Carter Brown library, properly deaccessioned.

•  Sewn, removed from and now loosely laid into its original Mexican mottled sheep binding, this with a modestly gilt spine bearing a green leather gilt title-label and with an old paper label on its front cover. Some issues lightly soiled or with a bit of spotting/staining, else generally clean and very good.  (29691)

•  Exposicion: Palau 54257. Política peculiar: this edition not in Palau. Contemporary acid-stained calf simply gilt with brown leather label on each spine; scattered wormholes and some loss of leather over corners and at base of spine. Endpapers stencilled red and green. Some interior worming, most noticeable in endpapers and first title-page, resulting in loss of parts of letters without loss of sense. Scattered light foxing and a few leaves shallowly dog-eared. Inked ownership inscription on title-pages. All edges speckled red.

Scarce: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only one U.S. institutional holding but we know of two other U.S. libraries with copies.

•  Sewn, never bound; title-page with affixed paper shelving label in lower inner corner, not touching text, and with pencilled monogram in upper outer corner. Dust-soiling, ffirst and last few leaves with light foxing; page edges untrimmed.  (30702)

•  NSTC 2F12262, 2J13268, & 2B13609.   Green cloth over boards, gilt rules and lettering to spine; cloth worn away at spine extremities and corners and splitting over front joint; preliminary pages (including frontispiece) and pp. 1–2 separated from binding. Private ownership signature at top edge of title-pages; a (different) private owner's pressure- and rubber-stamps; institutional bookplate. Off-setting to six pages from old newspaper articles or leaves laid in; old newspaper article (a review of a much later biography of Fouché) still inserted; Inner margin of pp. 327–8 repaired, not affecting text. Spotting and staining of various sorts and a few dog-ears; not a swell copy but a perfectly serviceable one.  (14222)

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only four U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Sewn, never bound; outer leaf with affixed paper shelving label in lower inner corner and with pencilled annotations. Page edges untrimmed and somewhat ragged and dust-soiled; foxed.  (30694)

•  NSTC O363. Recent quarter red morocco over marbled paper with gilt-lettered spine. Upper outer corner of pp. 9–10 lost, repaired with paper resulting in no loss of text. Shallow chipping and tattering (with one tissue repair on title-page), not touching text or figures. Some brownstaining in margins. Rubber-stamps of a now-defunct library, including one on title-page. All edges gilt. (10986)

•  Blue Lights: Wegelin 1132; Shaw & Shoemaker 42070. Vision: Shaw & Shoemaker 23893. Patriotic Effusions: Wegelin 1045; Shaw & Shoemaker 48509. Waterloo: Shaw & Shoemaker 35871. Letters: Shaw & Shoemaker 23699. Contemporary sheep, covers framed in single gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorative bands; binding a little rubbed at joints and extremities. Front pastedown with early inked ownership inscription; free endpapers excised. Trimmed closely, in occasional instances just touching outermost letters. Some age-toning and spotting; one leaf with ink stain not obscuring text, two leaves with tears from outer margins extending into text. Intermittent pencilled underlining and small marks. Pp. 49–56 of Letters bound in at end.

Click the images for enlargements.

Binding: Publisher's ribbon-embossed green geometric-patterned cloth of Krupp's style Gt2; original printed paper labels.Do please click to enhance the image of this handsome American binding cloth— it's hard to show, but worth trying to see!

•  American Imprints 49627. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England & America, 1823–1850, Gt2.   Bindings as above, cocked; edges, extremities, labels rubbed, chipped, spotted — far from fresh, but also far from devastated. Ex–social club library: bookplate on each front pastedown, call numbers in a 19th-century hand (lined through) on pastedown and front free endpaper, title-pages and a few others rubber-stamped. No other institutional markings. Front hinge (inside) of vol. I starting, text block pulling away from spine, first few leaves starting to separate. Front fly-leaf with pencilled numeral and pencilled doodle/sketch of a chubby child; occasional faint pencilled annotations. A few scattered spots of staining, pages mostly clean.  (26294)

Illustrator Rafaello Busoni created the book's numerous in-text and nine full-page lithographs in two colors, and signed the colophon. Designer George Macy chose a monotype Cochin font to be used at the Printing House of Leo Hart, and decreed a binding of imported cream linen stamped in brown, with French handmade marbled paper sides in various hues of brown.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 261.   In original slipcase; some soiling and spots generally, with shelf-scrape marks; sturdy and on shelf satisfactory. Of the well-protected book, a near-fine copy, with the newsletter and retained half of the order form laid in.  (29120)

•  Sabin 101158; Shaw & Shoemaker 21936. 19th-century quarter green morocco with marbled paper sides; round spine with raised bands, gilt center ornaments in three compartments, title in gilt in one compartment.Ex–Library Company of Philadelphia, properly deaccessioned. Joints rubbed, top of spine pulled; foxing and staining. Uncut.