•  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; front joints repaired and now strong, 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.

Signed binding: Publisher's mushroom-colored cloth, front cover with jungle vignette stamped in blue and title in green, spine with green-stamped title. Binding signed with “H”: Frank Hazenplug (1874–1931).

•  Binding as above, minor wear to edges and extremities. Front pastedown with inked gift inscription dated 1927. Pages age-toned with occasional smudges, endpapers spotted.  (28932)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked signature of Henry D. Gilpin, the U.S. Attorney General who argued the Amistad case; title-page with inscription of T.L. Gilpin.

•  American Imprints 12098; Westwood, Bibliotheca Piscatoria, 77.   Publisher's mushroom-colored cloth, lightly rubbed overall, spine sunned with original printed paper label now present only in remnants. Title-page with early inked ownership inscriptions of Henry D. Gilpin. Pages darkened and spotted. A solid, sturdy copy with nice provenance.  (27329)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of Alexander Oswald Brodie (not, please note, the American officer and governor of Arizona Territory); title-page with Brodie's inked inscription, dated 1839, Dresden.

•  Brunet, I, 604; Gibson, Bacon, 185b; Willems 1058. On Bacon, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   Contemporary vellum with yapp edges, spine with early inked title; spine lettering rubbed, back cover darkened. Both pastedowns lifted, front pastedown with bookplate beneath; free endpapers lacking. Title-page with inscription as above; pages with a very few small scattered spots, almost entirely clean. A handsome copy.  (30360)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

The volume is illustrated with three engraved views, all three incorporating volcanos. As usual, this copy does not include the oversized map, which was printed and published separately.

•  Palau 21943; Sabin 2771; Nicaraguan National Bibliography 1476.   20th-century quarter red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; minor wear to corners and spine extremities. Plates with light waterstaining to lower portions; frontispiece, title-page, and plates backed with linen.  (25454)

Click the image for an enlargement.

The stories areillustrated with 16 hand-colored wood-engravings; some instances of this are more “bright” than “expert” and all are charming with some lovely.

The Pet Fawn is scarce: WorldCat reports only two U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers framed in blind, spine with embossed title and gilt-stamped fleurons; spine and extremities rubbed, cloth partially split at back joint with small scrape towards head. Pages age-toned with scattered light spots of foxing. Final leaf creased. Overall, remarkably unscathed by childish use.  (30376)

Provenance & Evidence of Readership: Front pastedown with bookplate of Sir John Dashwood-King. This copy was fairly extensively annotated in ink and pencil by an early hand, with both marginalia and marks of emphasis.

•  ESTC R206906; Wing (rev. ed.) B3195. On Blith, see: Dictionary of National Biography online; his designation as “a lover of Ingenuity,” in our caption, is from the engraved title-page.   Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, nicely rebacked with calf, spine with gilt-stamped title in exceptionally good period style; sides with minor abrasions, now toned. Pastedowns and free endpapers lacking. Engraved title-page with early inked annotations and pencilled doodle on recto, outer edge slightly ragged affecting image at upper corner; secondary title-page with early inked ownership inscription and a few tiny ink spatters. Pages age-toned and some browned, with early inked and pencilled annotations as above. A significant work, here intriguingly engaged with by a contemporary reader.  (30320)

•  Publisher's green cloth. As new.  (29580)

•  Shoemaker 8196; NSTC 2B53063.   Period-style quarter light grey cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. One leaf with short tear from outer edge, not touching text. Pages age-toned with a scant handful of scattered small spots, otherwiseremarkably clean.  (30339)

This edifying story isillustrated with a maritime vignette on the front cover, a frontispiece, and five rather large in-text engravings, one of which has some early hand coloring (the “nimble” colt pictured is now chestnut).

•  American Imprints 11639. Not in Rosenbach, Children's.   Publisher's printed paper–covered sides with sheep shelfback, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding darkened and rubbed overall, especially at extremities, spine with gilt mostly lost and head chipped. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Scattered spots of minor foxing and staining. Clearly read and loved, but not abused.  (29987)

•  Publisher's blue textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; worn and scuffed with spines sunned and heads each with strip of dark cloth tape extending onto boards. Ex–social club library: Each volume with 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, call number on endpaper, title-page pressure-stamped. Vol. IV lacking front free endpaper; vol. II with one leaf with inner margin reinforced, several leaves with outer edges chipped, pp. 3–30 lacking from two articles, and text block splitting at center — due to an old pin's having been thrust in at the gutter! Paper age-toned and slightly brittle, with occasional short edge tears.  (26396)

The 16 pages of ads for other Wiley & Putnam publications (with blurbs from reviews) are various and wonderful.

•  American Imprints 45-1322; NSTC 2C14031.   Publisher's brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with foliate and arabesque motifs, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding cocked, extremities rubbed, spine head chipped with cloth lost at top above title. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. Front free endpaper partially torn away; otherwise, two short edge tears not extending into text only. Pages mildly age-toned; a few small stains and a very few pencilled corrections and marks of emphasis, otherwise clean.  (28345)

The advertisement on the back cover of this volume notes that William G. Comstock (the author's son and publisher) offered for sale 100,000 white Italian mulberry trees; 10,000 Chinese mulberry plants; and 2,000,000 “silk worms eggs,” among other items of sericulture.

•  American Imprints 36859.   Publisher's quarter brown cloth and printed paper–covered sides, moderately rubbed and soiled; spine sunned and a strip of black cloth tape across its head. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on pastedown, front free endpaper with inked number covered over by black tape, pressure-stamp on title-page. No other markings. Pages clean.  (26271)

The volume is illustrated with alovely copper-engraved frontispiece depicting tree-fellers at work and with four folding plans showing how to calculate the scale and design of landscape features. At the back of the work is a brief overview of the rules for making cider, and an additional recipe for birch beer (alcoholic) is given in the chapter on birches.

•  ESTC T131054; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 6265.   18th-century calf, covers framed in double blind fillets with blind roll along joint, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and date labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; joints and portions of spine leather unobtrusively repaired, edges and extremities rubbed, sides with a bit of light scuffing, gilt mildly rubbed. Scattered faint foxing, most pages clean.  (30312)

The added engraved title-page is signed “F.H. Van Houe fecit,” marking this as the earlier state of the engraving.

•  ESTC R18563; Wing (rev. ed.) C6388.   Full period-style Cambridge mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in blind fillets and dotted rolls with blind-tooled corner fleurons, board edges with gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped title, etc., and spine compartments gilt extra. All edges marbled. Pages mildly cockled and gently age-toned, otherwise clean. A very attractive copy, and a nice snapshot of period pomology.  (30099)

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,” possibly the scholar who was older cousin and college tutor of Thomas Fuller, author of the History of the Worthies of England.

•  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)

“nothing had been published in regard to the subject” before the present work

Illustrated with10 full-page stipple-engraved plates done by J. Erxleben, this guidebook covers efficient tank construction, freshwater aquarium inhabitants readily obtainable in the wild (goldfish, sticklebacks, sunfish, minnows, crawfish) as well as likely marine candidates (crabs, anemones, gobies, blennies, pipefish), and the basic overall principles of balancing species (fish, plants, snails, etc.) so that the tank seldom needs to be cleaned or have its water changed. It should be noted that the author is not wholly reliable in his identifications of American vs. British natives — but then again, the fad of aquarium-keeping was brand-new at the time, very few people could lay claim to more than Edwards' two years of aquarium experience, and all previous published works on the subject had been thoroughly British.

Binding:  Publisher's textured olive-green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and publisher; front cover framed in blind around a gilt-stamped central medallion offering a decoratively lettered title accented with images of small swimming fish, shells, and seaweeds.

•  NSTC 2E5035.   Bound as above; extremities rubbed and spine slightly sunned with small area of discoloration around paper shelving label at head. Ex–social club library: shelving label as noted, call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on endpapers and two pages (not title-page), no other markings. Back pastedown with small ticket of New York bookseller, partially effaced. A few leaves with very short tears from outer margins, not touching text; pages clean.  (29024)

The volume is illustrated with43 lithographed plates done by Weber & Co., including a portrait of “A New Mexican Indian Woman,” a fish of the Gila River, a map of “the actions fought at San Pasqual in upper California between the Americans and Mexicans Dec. 6th & 7th 1846,” and a view of cliffside hieroglyphics, as well as a series of 14 botanical images.

•  Cowan & Cowan 195; Graff 1249 (other 1848 issues only); Haferkorn 38; Howes E145; Sabin 22536 (for House ed. only); Wagner-Camp, Plains & Rockies, 148:2; Zamorano 80, 33.   Recent black cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Oversized, folding map lacking. Plates and pages with some light to moderate foxing; one leaf with tear from upper margin, extending into text without loss. Clean, strong.  (27364)

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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•  Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine sunned with stain at head, lower corners bumped. Front hinge (inside) slightly tender. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label on spine, 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. Pages clean; in fact a nice copy.  (28344)