•  O’Callaghan 288–89; Hills 1161. Binding as above, carefully and reasonably rebacked, with portion of uppermost spine compartment left free of gilt; a few small scuffs, and some minor refurbishing over extremities. All edges gilt. First few leaves with outer edges ragged; pages very faintly age-toned, otherwise clean. A gorgeous copy, with the interesting manuscript additions described above.

•  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.

This sole edition is ornamented with a woodcut printer’s device and a woodcut headpiece and initial; the text is referenced with sidenotes.

Rare: Only two copies traced in the U.S. via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956.

Provenance: Bookplate of Virtue & Cahill Library (the library of Portsmouth’s Catholic Cathedral) no. 8783, with a large overlaid rubber-stamp thereon starkly, blackly noting the dispersal and eventual sale of the library “following enemy action”—the cathedral having been bombed by the Germans in 1941.

•  On Allix, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, I, 334–35. 19th- or early 20th-century half calf over marbled paper, spine with gilt title; edges of leather with a dog’s tooth roll in blind. Leather rubbed, especially on joints and edges. Some soiling and waterstaining, mostly light and most notable on early leaves, with some small wormholes in the margins; a little fine chipping and some shallow dog-ears. Old inked ownership inscription on title-page, crossed out but still legible.

Provenance:  Alfredo Chavero's copy, with his bookplate on front pastedown and his stamp on the title-page.

•  Contemporary half black morocco over green and grey stone-patterned boards. A very good copy.  (21739)

Provenance:  From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.

•  Brunet 18324.   Contemporary calf, spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped compartment decorations at top/bottom, and later black leather gilt-stamped labels; covers blind-tooled in concentric compartments. Rubbed with bits of leather lost at extremities; offsetting from leather along margins of endpapers and title-pages. Marbled endpapers, free ones missing in both volumes; front pastedowns each with library bookplate and both title-page versos with call number in pencil. Initial pages of vol. II toned. A good solid set. (21186)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title; light shelf wear to corners and spine extremities.  (22223)

Click the images for enlargements.

The original Whole Duty is now generally ascribed to Allestree although, as the DNB says, “it has by some been supposed that Allestree joined [his good friend and biographer] Bishop [John] Fell” in writing it.” Allestree (1619–81) was a royalist Church of England clergyman; Bishop Fell reports that “few of his time had either a greater compass or a deeper insight into all parts of learning” (DNB). The hand responsible for the present alterations of his most famous work has not yet been identified.

The volume begins with a copper-engraved frontispiece depicting Moses giving the law and Jesus giving grace and truth, and an additional engraved title-page. The frontispiece to the original edition, done byHollar, is reproduced here as a full-page illustration. The section of “Private Devotions: Containing directions and prayers for morning and evening . . .” has a separate title-page.

Provenance: Large ownership note of Nathan Levering on imprimitur page; the start, perhaps, of his second signature (much smaller) to the bottom of the title-page.

This edition is uncommon, as are most of the other printings from this time period.  OCLC and ESTC locate only three U.S. institutional holdings, two of which have since been deaccessioned.

•  ESTC T80506. On Allestree, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary speckled calf framed in gilt double fillets, recently rebacked, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-dotted raised bands; corners and edges rubbed. Lower edges (closed) institutionally rubber-stamped; frontispiece and several pages pressure-stamped; dedication with inked annotation and numeral. Front fly-leaf with early inked annotation consisting mostly of numerals; title-page verso with inked ownership inscription as above. Foxing and the occasional stain; one leaf with short tear from outer margin touching text without loss; one index leaf with tear affecting a few words. In fact, a decent copy of this interesting book.  (25857)

Provenance: Riggs family: Front pastedown with armorial bookplate of philanthropist Elisha Francis Riggs, who funded the Riggs Library at Georgetown University; volume inherited by T. Lawrason Riggs, founding chaplain of St. Thomas More Chapel, Yale University; donated to St. Thomas More Chapel Library; deaccessioned 2008.

•  ESTC S106924; STC (2nd ed.), 1169; Gibson, Bacon, 171. On Bacon, see: Dictionary of National Biography.   18th-century calf framed in gilt single fillet, spine with recent gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, board edges with gilt roll; a little rubbed and covers with portions darkened. All edges stained yellow. Front pastedown with bookplate as above. Some pages gently age-toned, with occasional minor spotting. Small hole to added engraved title-page just beneath publication information, not affecting text. Final blank leaf (only) lacking.  (24666)

•  Bound by Granghaud in full red morocco with tooling in gilt and black. Wide turn-ins with gilt dentelles; marbled endpapers; top edge gilt. In marbled, morocco-edged slipcase.

The present edition forms volumes 8 and 9 of the series Historia de la conquista del Nuevo Mundo.

Provenance:  Bookplate of the great 19th-century Mexican collector J. M. Andrade on the front pastedown of each volume.

•  This edition not in Sabin.   19th-century quarter red morocco with red textured cloth sides. Spine with raised bands and very good gilt tooling including center devices in spine compartments. Interiors clean. A very good set.  (25271)

Provenance: Front fly-leaf inscribed “Thomas G. Arnolds Book Coventry,” inked in an early hand.

•  ESTC W37335; Evans 20950; Sabin 3366.   Contemporary speckled sheep, worn and very slightly sprung, spine scuffed with foot chipped. Pages age-toned and variably waterstained, with occasional edge nicks and crumpled corners; yet not brittle or nasty and the volume quite pleasant for reading.  (24391)

Click the images for enlargements.

Following Barclay's standard work and with a sectional title-page, the final 34 pages offer: “The ancient testimony of the people called Quakers, revived; by the order and approbation of the yearly meeting. Held for the provinces of Pennsylvania and New-Jersey, 1722. Troy, N.Y., Printed by Thomas Collier, 1803.”

Provenance:  In ink on the front free endpaper: “Moses Underhill's Book. 1808.” In a different hand, just below that: “Given to Abraham M. Underhill.” In pencil on the front fly-leaf: “North Street Library. No. 31. to be returned in 30 days to the North Street Library.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 3752.   Publisher's sheep; variable foxing, staining. A rather good copy of a very scarce book.  (25738)

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only five U.S. holdings.

Provenance:  Ownership label of George Williams (1814–78), who served as Vice-Provost of King's College from 1854 to 1857.

•  Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped red leather title-label. Title-page with small affixed slip with ownership inscription of George Williams of King's College. Occasional edge nicks and short tears, and a number of leaves with old creases or the odd smudge; last leaf with old, small repairs to margins, and one other leaf with very good repair from blank reverse to an interior tear (no text lost or even affected). (25368)

Sadleir's analysis suggested to him the following probable sequence: a) the private edition, b) copies of the public edition with p. 236 in the same form as it appears in the private edition, c) copies of the public edition with p. 236 blank; and d) copies of the public edition with the complete new version of the text on p. 236.

However, the remnants of the binding preserved at the back of the present first volume — see note below andtop-right image above — are red moiré silk (as opposed to the brown cloth of the public edition), with the side panels and spine ornately blocked with a gilt design and the title within the gilt frame (the spine is rather worn, but legible). This suggests that only some of the twelve private copies were bound in leather, and others, or at least one, were bound in this special silk cloth, gilt extra.

Barham began writing the short pieces making up this series as contributions to his friend and classmate's Bentley's Miscellany. The subject matter was “at first derived from the legendary lore of the author's ancestral locality in Kent, but soon [was] enriched by satires on the topics of the day and subjects of pure invention, or borrowed from history or the ‘Acta Sanctorum’. . . . The success of the ‘Legends’ was pronounced from the first, and when published collectively in 1840 they at once took the high place in humorous literature which they have ever since retained” (DNB).

Provenance: With R.H.D. Barham’s signature as noted above, and with the armorial bookplate of Sir David Lionel Salomons (1851–1925) in each volume.

•  NCBEL, III, 365; Sadleir 156a; Tinker 216 (public edition); Carter, Binding Variants, p.92. Bindings a bit darkened and slightly discolored at extremities, light rubbing to joints, some foxing to the prelims of the first volume, with an old tide-mark in the lower gutter areas of the plates; a tipped-in bookseller's description in the first volume. A very good, very interesting example of a very rare thing.

Provenance:  Early 19th-century armorial bookplate of Robert Chambers; manuscript ownership “Ex libris G.R.W.”— William R. Wittingham, fourth Anglican bishop of Baltimore (a Latinophile who used “Guillelmus” for “William”), dated Sept. 22, 1856; later in the diocesan library of Maryland; deaccessioned 2006.

•  VD16 B 727.   Contemporary limp vellum with evidence of ties; slightly yapp edges. Occasional light foxing. 19th-century library stamps on the front free endpaper and title-page. A clean solid copy.  (24432)

Provenance: On verso of frontispiece amidst much scribbling and crossing out — e.g., numerals and “I owe beyonde my power” — “Sr Charles Mordaunt's Book.” Inside front cover, bookplate of John Odiarne Luxford.

Provenance: Covers gilt-stamped “Gymnasium Velavicum.”

•  Contemporary vellum-covered boards, covers framed in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped bands and decorations within compartments; vellum chipped over spine extremities and showing moderate dust-soiling. Upper portion of front free endpaper excised; half-title crumpled, with inner and outer margins chipped. Pagination skips from 304 to 309, with signature complete and text apparently uninterrupted. Some edges and corners waterstained and a few lower margins inkstained, with occasional instances of edge chipping. Creasing to a handful of index leaves.

Click either image
for an enlargement.

Provenance: From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christianity.

Uncommon: Of U.S. institutional copies we trace fewer than 10.

•  19th-century German black mottled paper over boards. Binding shows wear. Ex-library with call number tag on spine; bookplate.