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SAMPLE BOOKS
 In the 19th and even into the 20th century, books were often sold door-to-door by salesmen (and -women) bearing "sample books" like those in this offering. These were mini-versions of the books being sold that had been specifically designed for an agent's show-and-tell—bearing, usually, the volume's title-page, table of contents, and most thrilling illustrations and "bits" (sometimes from proofs or early states), with standard and perhaps optional binding samples glued to the pastedowns. Also present might be "bound-in leaves of recommendations, advertisements, and conditions of sale, tipped-in sales speech slips, handbills, and broadside puffs, loosely inserted leaflets and pamphlets of sales advice, and leaves and chits of manuscript additions solicited by agents from their territories' influential citizens" (Arbour, xi). Buyers should be aware that consecutive reading of extensive blocks of text is not possible with the "samples" below—they were DESIGNED to be tantalizing!
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Sample for a
New Edition of a Popular ILLUSTRATED AMERICANUM Catlin, George. Letters and notes on the manners, customs and condition of the North American Indians. Philadelphia: J.W. Bradley, 1860. 8vo (22 cm, 8.66"). Pp. 11–32 only (lacking title-leaf, pp. 7–10), 39 (of 40) plates.
Click the images for enlargements. 
residence and travel amongst a number of the wildest and most remote tribes” (p. [17]), illustrated with
39 wood engravings, of which 30 are brightly hand-colored, depicting hunting scenes, battles, costumes, and customs, observed by Catlin during eight years (1832–39) among nearly 50 tribes.
We found
just one similar example, at Yale; this has 40 plates. (The 1857 Philadelphia edition had 41.)
Binding: Publisher's black leather, covers with blind-embossed rococo frame and central cartouche; smooth spine, marbled endpapers. Alternate, less expensive cloth binding sample for the same title, featuring a
splendid gilt-stamped vignette of a native American in battle dress on horseback, on front pastedown.
Evidence of readership: Old pencil scribbles and a few instances of handwriting practice to a leaf or so of text and to the backs (never the fronts) of a number of plates.
• This sample book not in Arbour. For the 1860 edition of Catlin, see: Field 261; Howes C-241; Wagner-Camp 84:20. Binding as above, leather rubbed and faded overall. Quires and plates loose, detached completely from binding and each other; clearly lacking at least one plate, title-leaf, and pp. 7–10. Text and plates both soiled and stained though differently, the former most affected in gutters and with darker stains (and typically longer tears) than seen elsewhere; the plates are affected more towards outer edges, usually apparently more by “moisture” than “water,” with some chipped at corners, one tattered and this “stabilized” with old cello tape from rear, one with a long tear just skirting image, and others with the odd small rip at an edge. Some tissue guards present or partly so. 
Artwork vibrant, often stunning. (30076)
ENJOYABLE
Dictionaries for
Adults
& Children(Saleman’s
Sample Book). Lewis, William Dodge, ed.
The new Winston simplified dictionary and reference library. Philadelphia: Universal
Book & Bible House, copyright 1937. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.9"). Frontis., [approx.
145] pp.; 25 plts. [with] Brown, Thomas Kite,
Jr., ed. The new Winston
simplified dictionary for young people. Philadelphia: Universal Book & Bible
House, 1937. Frontis., [approx. 126] pp.; 20 plts.
The outer binding is red textured cloth with the front cover stamped in black and gilt, and the interior front cover sample for the children’s version is a different red textured cloth stamped in black. The leaves for subscribers’information are unused.
• Not in Arbour. Publisher’s cloth as described above, gently worn with corners rubbed and small scrape to front cover. Interior clean.
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