•  ESTC T88657; Dibdin, I, 232; Schweiger, I, 2. Contemporary vellum-covered boards, covers framed and panelled in blind with central blind-stamped strapwork medallions, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Boards sprung with front joint of vol. I open and separating from bottom, vellum soiled. Front free endpapers with early inked owner’s name as above; shadow of shelf number once pencilled on title-page, erased. Spotting of various sorts and minor smudging in upper margins of some pages; leaves otherwise clean.

Allen was a famous lexicographer and was co-editor of the Webster's New International Dictionary; his gastronomical dictionary composes about half the volume, with the other sections also consisting largely if not exclusively of arrays of alphabetical entries.

•  Publisher's olive cloth, front cover stamped in dark green and black, spine with title in black; small area of discoloration to lower portion of outer edges,  (22220)

Provenance: Front free endpaper with inked inscription reading “Henry Pratt’s Book, Bought in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eleven, third month twelfth day”; front pastedown with inked inscription reading “Matilda Miller’s Book 1898.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 14380; Sabin 2180; Howes A352. Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather much worn and abraded, spine with inked call number. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate (affixed above and not obscuring inscription), front free endpaper and fly-leaf with inscriptions as above, title-page unobtrusively pressure-stamped, first text page with inked annotation in inner margin and stamped numeral in lower margin. Pages age-toned and spotted. Upper outer corner of one leaf torn away, with loss of a few words; four leaves torn, touching a number of lines of text but not generally affecting sense. Occasional small pencilled check marks.

Single-click either image,
for an enlargement.

Provenance: Front pastedown and free endpaper with inked inscriptions belonging to “Caroline and Jane (of) Millport” and (twice) “J. Emory Botsford (of) Millport NY.” These bird lore–seeking Botsfords were surely kin to Anna Botsford Comstock (1854–1930)—identified by the online Encyclopedia Britannica as a prominent American “naturalist, illustrator, and educator” and by a Cornell “Sciencenter” publication as “the first female Cornell professor and arguably the mother of nature education.” A pleasant thought, if not a matter of true importance! (See: http://search.eb.com/women/articles/Comstock_Anna_Botsford.html and http://seti.sentry.net/archive/bioastro/2002/Jul/0145.html.)

Binding: Publisher’s pebbled blue cloth, covers and spine gilt- and blind-stamped,. Front cover with gilt-stamped pictorial vignette of a woman at a casement window, surrounded by birds on boughs and caged.

•  Binding lightly rubbed, gilt bright. Endpapers browned, pages clean. A nice copy.

Rare. Searches via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC locate only five copies worldwide: Two in the U.S. (both at same university!) and three in France.

•  Duveen D494. Recent calf with covers framed in single gilt fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Leaves with some dustsoiling and dampstaining; now heavily sized, many with margins repaired and a few with stray pencil marks. Lacks final blank leaf (only). In fact, a rather nice copy of a very uncommon item.

The work was edited by Jacques Goupyl, and is laid out with the Latin translation by Jean Ruel in side-by-side columns with the Greek text.

Provenance: Early title-page inscription, “F.M. ex dono Eduardi Davenant.”

•  Adams D656; Durling 1135; Index aureliensis 154.341; Pritzel 2295.   18th-century speckled calf (front cover) and sheep (back cover) rebacked with lighter-colored sheep preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label; boards scuffed and worn. Title-page with inked inscription as above (and in same hand, “Illuminat mentem Lectio.” First two leaves creased; first and last few leaves with light to moderate waterstaining. A very few marginalia in a tiny, neat, early inked hand. (20639)

natural history

This volume’s oversized, folding frontispiece shows the front facade of the “new East India House now building in Leadenhall Street”; there is also one in-text engraving of Lethington House in East Lothian, residence of the Maitland family.

Provenance: Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription of Joshua Gilpin, a Quaker from Philadelphia who established the first paper mill in Delaware, in 1787.

•  Disbound with front cover, front free endpaper, and frontispiece separated; back cover lost, and signature sewing exposed/going, with many leaves loose. Now contained in a simple, acid-free phase box. Edges untrimmed. Minor offsetting and a few stray marks; mostly clean.

A preface to another volume in this series notes that “by means of some new literary connexions in america, we shall possess peculiar advantages in presenting to our Readers, accounts of the most interesting circumstances belonging to the United States”—and it was an American reader, in fact, who owned the present example.

Provenance: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate (bearing the motto “Factis dictisque simplex”: Make what you say simple) of Joshua Gilpin, a Quaker from Philadelphia who established the first paper mill in Delaware, in 1787.

•  Paper-covered boards, worn and chipped, covers all but off, leather lost over spine; sewing going, with many signatures loose. Edges untrimmed, some signatures uncut; occasional offsetting or small spots, with pages mostly clean. Now housed in a simple, acid-free phase box.

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