PROVENANCE! . . . the history of ownership of an object . . .
PROVENANCE! 
BOOKS with discoverable
provenance do NOT necessarily command a
premium price over other copies of the same edition. For example, the
famous Sunderland Library at Blenheim was pleased to gather anything
interesting — it was wonderfully omnivorous! And that many of the books
below are "Sunderland Copies" makes them cost no more — it only gives
them a bit more charm for the same price, as the Sunderland sale was a
major 19th-century biblio-event.
 Yet
not USUALLY in ways that make
one pay more.
|
Harper’s ILLUMINATED
Family Records including Two for “Colored Servants”
(A
FAMILY BIBLE). Bible.
English. 1846. Authorized (i.e., "King James Version"). The illuminated
Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments...With marginal readings, references,
and chronological dates. Also, the Apocrypha....Embellished with sixteen hundred
historical engravings by J.A. Adams, more than fourteen hundred of which are from
original designs by J.G. Chapman. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1846. Folio
(34.6 cm, 13.75"). Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., [4], 844, [2], 128, [6], frontis.,
add. engr. t.-p., [2], 256, 3, [1], 8, 14, 34 pp.; illus.
Single-click any image where the hand appears on
At the bottom of the reverse of the “Death” leaf are two names inscribed in a different but also carefully ornate hand, within a circular title reading “Colored servants.”
• 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.
This entry is repeated in the
Animal Stories — Fly-Fishing, Too!Aelianus, Claudius. [4 lines in Greek, then] Aeliani de natvra animalivm.... Londini: Gulielmus Bowyer, 1744. 4to (26.2 cm, 10.4"). 2 vols. I: xiv, xxvii, [35 (index)], 603, [1] pp. II: [605]–1128, [88 (index and addenda)] pp.
• 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.
A
Learned HUGUENOT Discusses the
Thrice-Holy
HymnAllix, Pierre. Dissertatio de Trisagii origine. Rothomagi: Apud Joannem Lucas, 1674. 8vo (18.2 cm, 7.125"). A–I4; 70 pp., [1 (blank)] f. 
Click the interior images for enlargements. 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.
He Tries toCover It ALL!
Amelot de la Houssaye, Abraham-Nicolas, sieur. Memoires
historiques, politiques, critiques, et literraires. Par Amelot de la Houssaie. Ouvrage imprimé sur le propre manuscrit de l'auteur. Amsterdam: Michel Charles Le Cene, 1731. 12mo. 2 vols. I: 561 pp. II: 462 pp., [11 (adv.)] ff.
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)
Inscribed by
the Author Angney, Lydia F. California and other poems. Gilroy, CA: Pr. for the author by A.C. Eaton, 1900. 8vo. 96 pp.
“Californianum” — this copy with a laid-in slip of paper reading “Christmas Greeting to Frank & Annie, from Aunt Lydia.” Lydia Francis Witham Angney authored two volumes of poetry, both published in Gilroy, the home of the annual Garlic Festival, and endured a long widowhood following the death of her husband W. Z. Angney. W.Z. served in the Mexican War and played a major role in the U.S. occupation of New Mexico and in the territorial government, then moved on to California, settling in Gilroy to raise tree fruit in his orchards, but being sent to the state senate and called on by the governor for other civic duties. He died in January 1878.
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)
Wildcats, Bears, Rabbits, Otters, Skunks, Buffalo,
& “Wapite”Audubon, John James, & John Bachman. The quadrupeds of North America. New-York: V.G. Audubon, 1854. Royal 8vo (27.5 cm; 10.75"). 3 vols. I: viii, 383, [1 (blank)] pp., 50 plts. II: [2] ff., 334 pp., 49 plts. III: v, [1], 348 pp., [1] f., 51 plts.
155 fine handcolored lithographed plates by W. E. Hitchcock and R. Trembly after J.J. and J.W. Audubon, lithographed by J.T. Bowen. 
A lovely set. (23904)
Great Facsimile of aTruly Rare Book Augustino, da Siena; & Alfred Fairbank. Augustino Da Siena: the 1568 edition of his writing book in facsimile. London: Merrion Press, 1975. Small 4to. 21, [82] pp.
signed by Fairbank, of a limited edition of 750 copies: 300 published by the Merrion Press, copies 301–750 by David Godine.
Prepared to honor Fairbank on his 80th birthday and containing Fairbank's 6000-word introduction to this facsimile of a famed writing manual that as of 1975 survived in only two copies: Opera nella quale si insegna à scriuere varie sorti di lettere;Venetia: Francesco de Tomaso di Salo, 1568. The facsimile is from the copy in the British Library.
• Publisher's French silk cloth with gilt title on spine and gilt decoration on front board. Publisher's dust jacket with protective clear wrapper. Promotional four-page prospectus included. Great copy. (21899)
Cortlandt Bishop Copy
Balzac, Honoré de. La Vendetta. Paris: A. Ferroud, F. Ferroud, Successor, 1904. Tall 8vo.
• 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 Private Edition, One of 12 Copies OnlyA Family Copy Barham, R. Harris. The Ingoldsby legends or mirth and marvels by Thomas Ingoldsby Esquire [with] The Ingoldsby legends ... Second series. London: Richard Bentley, 1840 & 1842. 8vo. 2 vols. I: [6], v, [3], 338, [2] pp. with inserted extra-engraved title (a proof before letters), numbered colophon leaf, engraved title, and six etched plates; II: vii, [3], 288 pp. with engraved title and seven etched plates.
Click any image where the hand appears on
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 and
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.
A Luxurious Production — An Interesting ProvenanceBartlett, William Henry. The pilgrim fathers; or, founders of New England in the reign of James the First. London, Edinburgh, & New York: T. Nelson & Sons, 1866. 8vo (21.5 cm, 8.5"). Frontis., add. engr. t.-p. (incl. in pagination), x, [13]–230 (pagination skips 219/20) pp.; 26 plts.
28 steel-engraved plates (including the frontispiece and additional engraved title-page) and a number of in-text woodcuts, all done after designs by the author, who was best known as an artist and topographical draftsman.
Binding: Publisher’s embossed morocco, spine with raised bands and blind-tooled decorations in compartments; all edges gilt.
Provenance: Presented to a library by Robert E. Keighton, a distinguished professor of homiletics from whom Dr. Martin Luther King is reported to have taken most of his nine seminary courses in pastoral rhetoric.
• Sabin 3789; NSTC 2B10634; King connection noted in: Lischer, Richard. The Preacher King: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Word that Moved America (Oxford, 1997), p. 64. Binding slightly rubbed at edges, extremities, and joints. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, title-page pressure-stamped, contents page with inked notation in inner margin and stamped numeral in lower margin, back pastedown with pocket. Some light foxing, including spots to a few plates; plates with minor offsetting around guard leaves.
Greek–Dutch! — A Dictionary,
1822Bergman, Jean Théodore. Handwoordenboek der Grieksche taal, volgens etymologische orde, ten dienste der scholen. Te Zutphen: H.C.A. Thieme, 1822.
8vo in 4s (22.5 cm, 8.8"). 2 vols. in 1. XXII, 532, [4], 533–996 pp. (pagination skips 305–08, text apparently uninterrupted).
Click any image where the hand appears onProvenance: 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.
St.
Bernard from
theGiunta
Press
Bernard, of Clairvaux,
St. Opera, in duos tomos distincta. Quibua adiecimus eiusdem auctoris
opuscula: quae, ut caetera eius scripta, coelestem, ac divinam sapiunt eruditionern.
Nuncrens impressa accuratissime recognita, & repurgata: sedulaq collatione,
ad antiquiorum exemplarium sidem, natiue integritati restituta. Cum amplissimis,
ac locupletissimis indicibus, utrique tomo inseruientibus. Venetiis: Apud Iuntas,
1583. 4to. 2 Vols. I: [76], 435 ff. II: 503 ff.
Click the interior images for enlargements. Provenance: Bookplate of William Ely; earlier, unidentified armorial bookplate also.
• Late 17th- or early 18th-century leather, plain sides, gilt spine extra; gilt darkened, with leather abraded, worn, and dry. Tops and bottoms of spines pulled with small loss of leather; labels damaged with loss. Vol. I with small worming to one section of index, with loss of some letters; this volume with old ink notations in same(?) hand as an undeciphered signature on the title-page of vol. II. Vol. dII with variable waterstaining; both volumes with old pencilling. All edges red. (23988)
First Printing in Europe of the
BhagavadgitaBhagavadgītā. Bhagavad-Gita, id est Thespesion melos sive almi Krishnae et Arjunae colloquium de rebus divinis, Bharateae episodium. Textum recensuit, adnotationes criticas ed interpretationem latinam adiecit Augustus Guilelmus a Schlegel. Bonnae: in Academia Borussica Rhenana Typiis Regis, Prostat apud E. Weber, 1823. 8vo (23 cm; 9"). xxvi, 189 pp.
Click either imageProvenance: 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.
Bloeme, A. Question du jour pour l'epargue francaise. Le bilan actuel des travaux et l'avenir du canal de Panama. Bordeux: Imprimerie Bordelaise, 1889. 8vo. 64 pp.
Scarce: Not traced via OCLC, RLIN, NUC-1956, METABASE. One copy in the OPAC of the Bibliotheque National.
• Not in Palau. 20th-century quarter leather. Private ownership stamp on title-page. Clean. (21259)
Lovely French Printing — GORGEOUS! French BindingBoileau
Despréaux, Nicolas. Œuvres diverses du Sieur D*** avec le traité du sublime ou du merveilleux dans le discours, traduit du Grec de Longin. Paris: Claude Barbin (pr. by Denys Thierry), 1674. 4to (25.3 cm, 10"). π2A–R4S8T–Y4Z
Click any image where the hand appears on
• Brunet, I, 1056; DeBacker, Auteurs du XVIIe siècle, 1020; Tchemerzine, II, 271. Binding as above, nearly perfect save for just a touch of rubbing to the spine extremities, in cloth-covered slipcase, worn, with cloth starting to split over edges. Frontispiece and title-page separating from binding; title with red-tinted signs, near edges, that the marbling process did not go entirely smoothly; upper margins of several other leaves with hints of very faint waterstaining. Otherwise, clean and quite lovely.
This Jesuit Got in aGreat Deal of Trouble[Bougeant, Guillaume-Hyacinthe]. Amusement philosophique sur le langage des bêtes. La Haye: Antoine van Dole, 1739. 8vo (16 cm, 6.25"). 135, [1], 8, [48 (adv.)] pp.
Following the piece is the text of a letter from Bougeant to Abbé Savalette of the Jesuit Council, in which Bougeant describes his regret at having brought about so much turmoil, renounces the positions taken in the Amusement, and notes that he would have chosen to suppress the work if it had been in his power to do so. The volume closes with a lengthy catalogue of books published by Pierre Humbert in Amsterdam from 1734 through 1740.
Provenance: Front pastedown with small bookplate of Augustine Legillon, dated 1809.
• DeBacker-Sommervogel I, 1879. Contemporary speckled calf with expectable acid-pitting; remarkably skillfully rebacked with the original gilt extra spine restored, and bearing a gilt-stamped leather title label. Advertising leaves with a few inked annotations in an early hand. Overall a very nice copy.
“Large Scale” in Several Respects . . .62 Engravings & Bedford Bound Brayley, Edward Wedlake. The history and antiquities of the abbey church of St. Peter, Westminster: Including notices and biographical memoirs of the abbots and deans of that foundation. London: J.P. Neale for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1818–23. Folio (37.9 cm, 14.9"). 2 vols. I: [18], 227, [19], 72, [10] pp.; 13 plts. II: [2], 304, [40] pp.; 49 plts.
Click any image where the hand appears on 
Provenance: Each front pastedown with armorial bookplate of William Arthur, sixth Duke of Portland.
• NSTC 2B46491; Allibone 240; Brunet, II, 1215. Binding as above, minor shelf wear to lower edges and corners, vol. I with front board expertly reattached and with small dent to outer edge of front cover. Joints delicate, due to size and weight of volumes, but holding. A few pages and plates with faint foxing, otherwise clean. (24100)
With
aCharming! Gilt! Cover
VignetteBrowne, Daniel Jay. The American bird fancier; considered with reference to the breeding, rearing, feeding, management, and peculiarities of cage and house birds.... New York: C.M. Saxton, (copyright 1850). 12mo (19.2 cm, 7.5"). Frontis., 107, [1], 12 (adv.) pp.; illus. 
Single-click
either image,
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.
The
Brinley Copy — ANOT
“Impartial”
Connecticut Calvinist
Bulkley,
John. An impartial account of a late debate at Lyme in the
colony of Connecticut, (on the three following heads, viz. I. The subjects of
baptism. II. The mode of baptizing. and III. The maintenance of the ministers
of the Gospel) giving a summary of what was there delivered, on both sides.
Publish’d at the desire of some then present. Together, with a disswasive
not to depart from the wholesome truths, which people have been instructed in.
Also giving some account of the rise of the Antipedo-Baptist perswasion. N.
London [i.e., New London, Conn.]: Pr. and sold by T. Green, 1729. 8vo (15 cm;
6"). [1] f., 199, [1] pp. (lacks “half-title”).
Click the interior images above for enlargements. 
The use of the the adjective “Impartial” in the title would seem more than a tad disingenuous.
The main body of the publication ends with a sort of appendix, entitled: “A narrative of one lately converted from dreadful errors.” The last page contains an errata statement and bookseller’s advertisement.
• Evans 3142; Trumbull, Connecticut, 419; Johnson, New London, 255; ESTC W12925. Full 19th-century brown morocco, gilt spine extra; gilt double-fillet border on covers; gilt rule on board edges; gilt inner dentelles; marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. Front cover expertly reattached; lacks the half-title. Ex-library with pressure-stamp on title-page, bookplate on front pastedown, and rubber-stamp on lower edges of closed book. Five-digit number in ink in lower blank margin of p. 1. That said, a handsome copy with a great provenance. (22353)
 TO
Part II |
SUPER-EXCELLENT
copies!
THE SIGNATURE in a 16th- or 17th-century scholar's working copy — or
a 19th- or 20th-century bibliographer's copy — a cookbook bearing an
18th- or 19th-century century woman's name, with a note as to where
she bought it — the 19th-century volume specially bound and inscribed
to be a gift, or even a copy of a "souvenir" pamphlet with some long-ago
tourist's name written on the cover — such ownership indications connect
us to earlier book users and lovers in ways that bear notice.