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)

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Provenance: Inscribed in 1891 to W.D. Lighthall, prominent citizen of and author of Hochelagans and Mohawks: A Link in Iroquois History, by George S. Wilson.

•  TPL 9325; Banks, 109; Pilling, Iroquian, 50; Calderisi, 16. Contemporary roan, rebacked; abrasions along edges. Half-title with short tear at binding and with pencilled inscription as above. Tear at foremargin of one blank leaf; pp. 274–75 with small area of adhesion.

Provenance: On a rear blank, “Amos Clarke his book”; another signature with a plea to borrowers below that. Opposite, “Southington September 7th 179[?]” and the note, “Read your Book Every opportunity.”

•  ESTC W37924; Evans 38424. On Rowe, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Quarter sheep over paste boards, covers much abraded and chipped; spine leather torn at base and lacking at head. Dog-ears, shallow chipping, and brownstaining—with loss of individual words in a few places. Early inked notations on endpapers.

Sarles's biography of his much-mourned wife incorporates her poetry, prose, and letters.

Binding: Presentation binding of full maroon morocco, covers framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine gilt extra; front cover gilt-stamped “Jennie W. Smalley.” This book is generally seen in the publisher’s green cloth binding.

•  Sabin 77060. Binding as above; leather lightly discolored in patches on both covers, with corners, spine extremities, and joints a bit rubbed. All edges gilt; turn-ins tooled with gilt rolls. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean, with a few small spots of foxing to frontispiece portrait.

The pieces here were translated from Swiss German into Latin by Laurentius Surius. A large printer’s device, showing Hercules and the lion, appears following the colophon. This first edition is uncommon: RLIN, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 show only three U.S. and three international holdings.

Provenance: From the library of Dr. Johann August Wilhelm Neander, a prominent 19th-century theologian and convert to Christianity from Judaism; front pastedown with Neander’s bookplate.

Binding: Contemporary embossed and blind-tooled calf, with portions of original decorated brass clasps remaining. The embossed roll framing the covers is dated 1546, and bears the initials RR (or possibly PHR?).

•  Adams S21128; VD16 S6098. Not in Brunet. Binding as above, spine with later hand-inked paper label; leather rubbed at joints and extremities and cracking at spine, brass clasp hardware present with clasps themselves now absent. Front pastedown with bookplate as above and with early inked annotations, front and rear endpapers excised. Title-page with small early inked annotation to publication information. Pages age-toned; pinhole worming to first half of volume, with loss of some letters not affecting sense.

The pairing of Zelaa’s two efforts in one volume is both uncommon and intellectually reinforcing. But here, it is more than that: It is a personal memento of a life’s work as well, forthis copy bears the bookplate of the editor himself.

Provenance:  Bookplate of José María Zelaa é Hidalgo. 20th-century rubber-stamp with initials only of a private Mexican collector.

•  Sigüenza: Medina, Mexico, 9637; Palau 312964. Zelaa: Medina, Mexico, 10540; Garritz 940; not in Palau. Publisher's sheep, gilt spine; small amount of leather missing from base of spine. Collector’s stamp partly offset to title-page; otherwise, the occasional stray stain only. “Association copies” don’t get much more “associated” than this.

Binding: Brown embossed morocco ca. 1850–60, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-tooled decorations; all edges gilt and gauffered; binding signed by Field.

Provenance: Armorial bookplates of Robert H. Menzies, early inked ownership inscriptions of Caroline Syers.

•  NSTC 2M31627; Lowndes 2477. On Pickering, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Bindings as above, extremities showing only minimal wear. Bookplates on front pastedowns and ownership inscriptions on front fly-leaves, as above. A very handsome production, a very nice set.  (24404)

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Provenance:  This copy has a laid-in typed letter from Paul Bennett (the typophile) describing having received his copy of this book from Van Courtright Walton (book and type designer) of the University of Texas Press, plus two slips “with the compliments of the University of Texas Press,” one signed by Frank Wardlaw and the other by Van Courtright Walton.

•  Publisher's cloth in original dust jacket, jacket slightly sunned with minor offsetting to interior from red spine label.  (24485)

Commonly referred to as the "Blue Book" (for the color of its original wrappers), the Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops was written by Von Steuben, the first Inspector General of the United States Army, based on his experience training Washington's troops at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. First printed in 1779, it remains in use, in modified form, even today—and its combination here with another contemporary document of obvious importance for soldiers and officers, with a Pennsylvania provenance and in an original binding, provides a very pleasing artifact of military history.

Provenance: Among several early ownership inscriptions on the front pastedown and title-page is one reading "John Ebling Captain." Several different John Eblings, most hailing from Berks County, PA, are recorded as having served in Pennsylvania companies.

•  Act: Shaw & Shoemaker 13330/13331 (second listing giving this pagination but not identifying second work). Regulations: Shaw & Shoemaker 13649. Both: Sabin 91457. Contemporary mottled sheep, showing expectable damage from acid binding treatment, wear, and a few pin-type wormholes. Early inked ownership inscriptions as described above, one dated 1828. Many corners dog-eared; pages gently age-toned with some darker spotting. Second work with plates, preliminary leaves, title-page, and pp. 81/82 lacking; some leaves loosening. With faults but still fascinating.

Provenance: Front pastedown with the bookplate of journalist, editor, and book collector Clement K. Shorter; front free endpaper and fly-leaf bearing bookplates of Geoffrey Ecroyd, Mary Priscilla Smith, Austin Smith, and Walter Hirst; title-page with inked inscription of Robert Smyth.

•  ESTC T154477; NCBEL, II, 1065; Teerink 812. Later half morocco and cloth sides, spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped title; minor wear only to edges and spine extremities, some slight discoloration to small patches of leather. Bookplates as described above. Page edges untrimmed. A scattering of light spots throughout, otherwise clean. Nice.