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PHILADELPHIA 
“Oh, We MUST Sing” — An American Couple's Wedding Present?
in a Fine American Binding 
Reed, Thomas. Hymns, selected, and original; for the use of the citizens of Mount Zion: while passing through the wilderness, to their inheritance of glory. London: Pr. by William Brickhill, sold by E. Walker & Sons, 1848. 12mo (16.2 cm, 6.4"). 269, [1] pp.
Click the images for enlargements. Provenance: Front pastedown with elegant gilt-stamped green morocco bookplate of an unusual shape, dated 15 November 1859, bearing the names of J.W. (John Wesley) and M.E. (Mary Elizabeth Smalley) Sarles. The Rev. Sarles was pastor first of the Central Baptist Church of Brooklyn and then of the Piscataway Baptist Church of Stelton, New Jersey.
Binding: Contemporary green calf, front cover with central gilt-stamped village church vignette surrounded by flowers and vines; this further framed with an elegant frame of beading, trefoiled arabesques, and foliate decorations. Back cover with identical framing surrounding a gilt-stamped lyre vignette. Spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. (Our exterior image, above, shows the spine and both covers.) Board edges with gilt roll, turn-ins blind-tooled with a different roll, all edges marbled. 
The style of the covers, their sensibility, and one tool used can be associated with the Philadelphia firm whose work is illustrated by Willman Spawn as #46 in his catalogue of the Maser Collection at Bryn Mawr.
• NSTC 2R4901. Binding as above; see: Spawn, Bookbinding in America 1680–1910. Spine head pulled and bottom compartment scuffed, corners slightly rubbed, back cover with a few small scuffs and two small spots of faint discoloration, back joint just starting from top; all this much less distressing than it may sound. Hinges (inside) tender. Front free endpaper with early inked numeral; title-page and last index page institutionally pressure-stamped; first preface page with small inked annotation in inner margin. Back pastedown with abrasions. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. 
Beautiful. (23930)
The Trent Affair
Rush, Benjamin. Letter on the rebellion, to a citizen of Washington from a citizen of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: John Campbell, 1862. 8vo. 23, [1 (blank)] pp.
• Sewn as issued. Once folded in six parts. Long 2 1/2 inch tears extending from fore-edges, to first three leaves. Two dog-eared corners, a few short tears to final leaf, two small holes with loss of a few words of text. (557)
Sad Tales of
Orphans, Widows, & Mistreated Stepchildren Rush, Caroline E. Robert Morton, or the step-mother: A book founded on fact. Containing Edmund and Ione, Letters from the South, &c. &c. Philadelphia: Pub. for the author by Crissy & Markley, 1850. 12mo (19.4 cm, 7.6"). Frontis., vi, [2], 191, [1] pp.
Click the image for an enlargement. pro-slavery stance and defense
of Southern culture. The title piece and “Edmund and Ione” are moral tales encouraging (broadly speaking) kindness to children and the poor. In “Letters from the South,” the author describes her visits to Charleston and Savannah; she says of Charleston, “The blacks are very kindly treated, so far as I am able to judge. In no instance have I been a witness to the slightest cruelty . . . In the cities of Philadelphia and New York, I have been witness to misery and wretchedness far exceeding even what I have heard of the South” (p.
123).
The frontispiece lithograph was printed by P.S. Duval's firm after a design by W. Croome.
• Wright, I, 2260; Sabin 74247. Not in Clark, Travels in the Old South. Publisher's blind-stamped brown cloth, spine embossed, with gilt-stamped title; binding slightly cocked, cloth faded and discolored, extremities rubbed. Front free endpaper with two gift inscriptions, one inked and dated 1888, one pencilled and dated 1891. Frontispiece guard-leaf and title-page foxed; a few leaves spotted or stained (not many). Occasional traces of pencilled underlining. (24418)
EstablishingSt.
Paul's — Agreements
Rules
Rents
St. Paul's Church (Philadelphia, Pa.). Articles of agreement, &c. for raising a sum of money, to purchase a lot of ground, and erecting thereon a church, (since known by the name of St. Paul's church.) in the city of Philadelphia...to which is added, the Act for incorporating St. Paul's church in the city of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Pr. by John Ormrod, 1798. 8vo (21 cm, 8.375"). 16 pp.
Also printed here the church's act of incorporation and its rules and regulations, as established in 1783. This last section contains an important manuscript addition concerning pew rental that was left out of the first printing of 1794 and was also omitted in this edition because the 1794 printing was too closely followed by Ormrod, the printer of this second edition.
• Evans 34359. Modern boards covered with marbled paper and with a paper label on front cover. Faint, old stamps of defunct library. A very good copy of a scarce pamphlet detailing economic aspects of American religious life in the 18th century.
An
Edition with
Barton’s
AdditionsSaint-Pierre, Jacques Henri Bernardin de. Studies of nature...translated by Henry Hunter. Philadelphia: Abraham Small, 1808. 3 vols. I: Frontis., [4], xliii, [1 (blank)], 417, [3] pp.; 1 fold. map. II: [2], vii, [1 (blank)], 504 pp.; 3 fold. plts. III: [4], 493, [3 (2 blank)] pp.
four plates including a map of the Atlantic hemisphere and illustrations of various flora.
• Shaw & Shoemaker 16129. Contemporary mottled sheep, rubbed, joints on vols. I and II open; spines with heads and gilt-stamped leather title labels chipped, and remnants of paper shelving labels. Front pastedowns with bookplates of a now-defunct institution; front pastedowns and free endpapers with pencilled gift inscriptions. Pages foxed throughout, with some leaves notably browned.
Written & Published
Here in Philadelphia 
English Version
Salazar, J[osé] M[aría]. Observations
on the political reforms of Colombia. Tr. from the manuscript by Edward Barry.
Philadelphia: Pr. by William Stavely, 1828. 8vo. 47, [1 (blank)] pp.
Writing in hopes of influencing the congress of Grand Colombia, which in 1826 was considering revising the constitution, Salazar offers his noteworthy, extended thoughts on what political organization would be best.
This is a very scarce book. Palau did not know of this English translation, and fewer than eight U.S. libraries report owning a copy of it.
• Palau 286648 (for the Spanish-language edition); Sabin 75576; Shoemaker 35093a. Recent quarter dark green morocco with marbled paper sides. Pages 3 through 6 are supplied in xerographic facsimile. Browning and foxing.
Around the World with aLITTLE TRAVELLER Steerwell, J. The little traveller. Philadelphia: W. Marshall & Co., 1835. 16mo (17 cm, 6.7"). [7]–30 pp.; illus.
Click any interior image for an enlargement.
12 hand-colored wood engravings of Laplanders, Highlanders, Greeks, Persians, Chinese, American Indians, etc., with the first engraving signed “HB” and the rest unattributed. The section on “Negroes” notes the “cruel” and “disgraceful” nature of slave trade; the one on the Scots notes they do love their bag-pipes; we hear that the Persians “exercise great hospitality to strangers.”
Uncommon. OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find no holdings of this Philadelphia imprint.
Provenance: Pencilled ownership note, “Miss Emily Larned.”
• Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 680 (for first Baltimore ed. only); not in American Imprints. Publisher's printed blue paper wrappers, showing minimal wear to corners and spine extremities, faint spotting to front wrapper, overall in excellent clean condition. Front inside wrapper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Pages clean save for light offsetting towards back of book. (24580)
Aitken-Published MANUAL on GUERILLAWARFAREWASHINGTON
Stevenson, Roger. Military instructions for officers detached in the field: containing, a scheme for forming a corps of a partisan. Illustrated with plans of the manoeuvres necessary in carrying on the petite guerre. Philadelphia: Pr. & sold by R. Aitken, 1775. 12mo. [4] ff., vii, [1 (blank)], 232 pp., [2] ff., xii plts.
Click the interior images for enlargements. That Aitken chose to issue a manual on guerrilla warfare was prescient. That he chose to dedicate it to Gen. Washington was good politics and good business. Howes says this is the first book dedicated to Washington.
The work is illustrated with 12 etched plates, 7 of which are folding; this is an early American illustrated book.
• Howes S981aa; Sabin 91607; Evans 14475; Hildeburn 3290. Publisher's sheep, rebacked and original spine laid down; later spine label. Early (i.e., to 1823) ownership inscriptions on preliminary blank leaves and on title-page. Some loss of paper to initial blanks and a paper repair to same. Some bug-spotting, light age-toning, occasional light waterstaining. (20470)
NOT Unopinionated Stuart-Wortley, Emmeline Charlotte Elizabeth Manners. Travels in the United States, etc., during 1849 and 1850. By the Lady Emmeline Stuart Wortley. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1851. 8vo. 463, [1], 6, 6, 4 pp.
Of Philadelphia: “All night a sound as of a masque and procession of one hundred menageries let loose, filled one's ears. The deserts of Africa seemed to have disgorged half their denizens on the beautiful streets of fair Philadelphia; while bells, horns, gongs, and rattling fire-engines, helped to swell the hideous chorus . . . To any one not participating in these sentiments, Philadelphia can not be an eligible place of residence, I think: Sancho Panza certainly would shun it; for blessed, he declared, was the man who invented sleep.”
With 16 pages of publisher's advertisements at the end.
• Sabin 93220; Howes W-687; Clark, Travels in the Old South, III, 419. Publisher's brown cloth, stamped in gilt on the spine, in blind on covers. Cloth of spine frayed at head and foot; spot of black ink on spine, partially covering two gilt letters. Pages foxed throughout, intermittently water- or dampstained at lower edges, free of chips or tears. Faint early ink inscriptions on front free endpaper. Good+. (24570)
Privately
Printed for thePhilobiblon
ClubThorp, Williard. Lost tradition of American
letters. Philadelphia: Privately printed for the Philobiblon Club, 1945. 8vo.
[2], 26, [2] pp. 
• Quarter cloth and marbled paper sides, spine gilt-stamped with title. Pages crisp and binding clean; the whole very nearly pristine. (4925)
Cock Robin: The Very Scarce First U.S. Edition The tragi-comic history of the burial of Cock Robin; with the lamentation of Jenny Wren; the Sparrow's apprehension; and the Cuckoo's punishment .... Philadelphia: Johnson & Warner (pr. by J. Bouvier), 1811. Square 8vo (12.5 cm, 4.9"). 16 pp., 8 plts.
Click the image for an enlargement.
The first American edition is MUCH rarer than the second (Philadelphia, 1821).
Scarce in libraries: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only 10 U.S. holdings.
• Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 448; Shaw & Shoemaker 24052. Original pale salmon-colored paper over light paste boards, binding lightly dust-soiled overall, front cover scuffed. Pages age-toned, first and last plates (affixed to covers) with offsetting. (24522)
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VIII . . . |