Difficult to photograph, easy to enjoy in hand.

Fore-edge painting: A pleasantly bucolic scene of Ripley Castle in Harrogate (according to an endpaper annotation), with a few human figures dotted about the landscape.

•  Binding as above, covers with minor scuffs, spine bands and extremities rubbed; leather consolidated, hinges (inside) skillfully repaired with long-fiber tissue. Scattered mild to moderate foxing in first and last sections; faint smudging to two pages.  (28711)

The title-page is printed in black and red, the text in black only, with one headline in red. The actual printing was accomplished by Robert Hardie and Company, Edinburgh, and is of a high quality, with a scattering of typographic head- and tailpieces and decorative initials.

•  Bound in 20th-century half brown morocco with tan cloth sides; spine with raised bands, one compartment with gilt title and others with gilt center ornaments; multicolored head- and tailbands. Displaying the typical rippling or cockling that vellum is prone to, and in parts showing a bit more of it due apparently to onetime old water exposure (though with little discoloration from that), this was later vulnerable to the entry of soot into its text block, most margins and many printed portions having been affected. A remarkable, still remarkably impressive production; and, given what it apparently has experienced via more than one misadventure, a truly remarkable survivor.  (25671)

•  Original self wrappers [unbound; removed]. There is a small chip out of the inner edges of the leaves and the top corners of the first two leaves are lightly creased. Very good.  (17404)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  NSTC 2A2513.   Removed from a nonce volume. Closely trimmed with shouldernotes and signature marks variously shaved; clean.  (30249)

•  ESTC R172299; Wing (rev.) A3084B. Small portion of upper inner margin torn away. Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper; now in a Mylar folder.

•  ESTC W35823; Evans 35119. Contemporary sheep, spine with red leather title label; abraded with a few wormholes (including one track across spine) and front joint opening. Some pages quite stained, not impairing reading; a couple instances of chipping in margins with loss of letters. Front free endpaper excised. Pp. 433–44 pinned together in the inside margin. Pencil doodlings on half-title and p. [5].

•  Very good; front cover bright and unmarked, spine notably faded, corners and spine extremities gently worn. All edges gilt. Pages very clean. (1908)

WorldCat locates ten copies worldwide.

•  Original self wrappers (unbound; removed). Very good. (17572)

This edition ends with leaf 6M4 and does not match Darlow and Moule 957 (Edinburgh: M. & C. Kerr, 1793), described as a folio with text ending on 9R2, although that entry's statement that “The insertion of the Apocrypha interrupts the signatures” would seem to explain the absence of the non-integral Apocrypha; the accompanying Scotch Metrical Psalms of 1795 are also present in Darlow and Moule's listing. Herbert finds additional Kerr printings of 1793, but none that match the format and collation of this copy.

Scarce: ESTC, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 find only two U.S. holdings.

Provenance: The beautifully written ownership note, “Rebecca Jane Emack,” at top of first text leaf.

•  ESTC T91818; this ed. not in Darlow & Moule or Herbert.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped thistle decorations, leather edges tooled in blind. Upper portion of title-page neatly excised and probably something off the bottom also; early inked ownership inscription as above. Light staining and foxing; several instances of laid-in dried plant matter.  (25336)

Click the image for an enlargement.

An interesting and uncommon entry in the corpus of the Scottish Enlightenment and one with an American connection — as among the “modern Calvinist “ writers approvingly cited is “the Reverend Mr Jonathan Edwards minister of Stockbridge in New England.”

WorldCat and ESTC combine to locate fewer than 10 copies in U.S. libraries.

•  ESTC T54876.   Removed from a nonce volume; laid into modern wrappers. A few instances of faint spotting, pages almost entirely clean.  (27638)

•  ESTC N5425; Garrison-Morton 2199 (for first ed.). Contemporary speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; leather cracked and chipped on spine and joints, with minor rubbing to sides and edges. Front free endpaper with private collector’s rubber-stamp and inked name, front pastedown with small inked numeral. One front and one back fly-leaf excised. One leaf with short tear from outer margin just touching one letter; one leaf with paper flaw affecting a few letters without loss of legibility. Pages clean save for some age-toning and scattered iinstances of light staining to outer margins.

•  ESTC T27073.   Removed from a nonce volume. Half-title and last two leaves lightly soiled, half-title with small early inked numeral, pages otherwise clean.  (27653)

Binding:  Publisher's red cloth, front cover with gilt-framed title and chromolithographic illustration of a fetching young girl in cap and cape.

•  Binding as above, corners rubbed, spine darkened; frontispiece separated. Frontispiece and title-page with light spotting, offsetting to pp. 5 (blank) and 6 from a now-absent laid-in slip, pages otherwise generally clean.  (28434)

•  Shoemaker 8196; NSTC 2B53063.   Period-style quarter light grey cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. One leaf with short tear from outer edge, not touching text. Pages age-toned with a scant handful of scattered small spots, otherwiseremarkably clean.  (30339)

•  NSTC 2B57765. Removed from a nonce volume. The front edges of the title and verso are darkened, else very good. (16759)

a woodcut vignette of a man playing a barrel organ with a monkey on a leash at his feet

•  NSTC 2T11878. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page separated; title-page and some others with short edge nicks, otherwise clean and fresh. (16777)

The frontispiece portrait, engraved by R. White, depicts Queen Anne.

•  ESTC T54583. Contemporary calf, blind-panelled and spine with printed paper title and shelving labels; worn and abraded, with loss of leather to head of spine. Title-page with line reading "Present State" excised, repaired some time ago by backing upper part of page with similarly colored paper; title-page and one other with inked ownership inscriptions. Endpapers and pastedowns doodled on in an early hand, with lower inner portion of front free endpaper torn away; frontispiece with a few small ink marks. Pages age-toned.

The 16 pages of ads for other Wiley & Putnam publications (with blurbs from reviews) are various and wonderful.

•  American Imprints 45-1322; NSTC 2C14031.   Publisher's brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with foliate and arabesque motifs, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding cocked, extremities rubbed, spine head chipped with cloth lost at top above title. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. Front free endpaper partially torn away; otherwise, two short edge tears not extending into text only. Pages mildly age-toned; a few small stains and a very few pencilled corrections and marks of emphasis, otherwise clean.  (28345)

Provenance: Elegant old lozenge-shaped ink-stamp on title-pages: “John Brymer Heir-Loom.”

•  ESTC T138400.   Contemporary speckled sheep with modest gilt double fillet border on covers; spine with red leather label, gilt, and bands accented with fillets to match covers. Top spine compartment darkened and joints starting but volume sound. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. A clean volume with only a little foxing and the very occasional old instance of staining.  (28889)

•  NSTC 2C39351.   Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page only with small spots of faint foxing; outer margins with tiny edge chips. Pages clean.  (15144)