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SILK
& SILKWORMS
An
Expert
Promotes
AMERICAN
Sericulture — His
Son Promotes His Business
Comstock, Franklin G. A practical treatise on the
culture of silk, adapted to the soil and climate of the United States. Hartford: Wm. G. Comstock,
1836. 12mo (19.1 cm, 7.5"). 108 pp.; illus.
Click the images for enlargements. The advertisement on the back cover of this volume notes that William G. Comstock (the author's son and publisher) offered for sale 100,000 white Italian mulberry trees; 10,000 Chinese mulberry plants; and 2,000,000 “silk worms eggs,” among other items of sericulture.
• American Imprints 36859. Publisher's quarter brown cloth and printed paper–covered sides, moderately rubbed and soiled; spine sunned and a strip of black cloth tape across its head. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on pastedown, front free endpaper with inked number covered over by black tape, pressure-stamp on title-page. No other markings. Pages clean. (26271)
All 6 Volumes: Everything the
AMERICAN BUSINESSMANHazard, Samuel, ed. Hazard's United States commercial and statistical register, containing documents, facts, and other useful information, illustrative of the history and resources of the American union, and of each state. Philadelphia: Wm. F. Geddes, 1840. 8vo (26.8 cm, 10.5"). 6 vols. I: xix, [1], 432 pp. II: xv, [1], 416 pp. III: xvi, 432 pp. IV: xii, 416 pp. V: xii, 416 pp. VI: xv, [1], 416 pp.
Click the images for enlargements. 
SILK;
the Amistad incident; steamboats and locomotives; tea; the “Generous Indian”
(III, 13) along with notes on less friendly, more violent Native Americans;
banking reports; the Mercantile Libraries (and public libraries) of Philadelphia,
New York, Cincinnati, and Boston; coal mining; imports and exports from and
to various nations; “the troubles in China” (I, 209); public school
system reports; vegetable and mineral resources of various states; whaling;
the founding of Girard College; “the integrity of the legal character”
(II, 233); and many, many other topics — with brief news oddities such
as the death of a healthy, active 103-year-old run over by a frightened horse,
a town of 5575 people containing 300 widows, unexpected snow storms, a gift
apple grown on the tree planted by “the first male white person born in
New England” (III, 272), etc.
• American Imprints 40-3037; Goldsmiths'-Kress 3730-3731;
Sabin 31107. 19th-century half calf and marbled paper–covered
sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings moderately
rubbed overall with some spots of discoloration, three volumes with front
joints cracked, sewing holding. Ex–social club library: some spine heads
reinforced with library cloth tape, 19th-century bookplates, call number on
endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, no other markings. Variously, throughout,
sections of waterstaining, browning, offsetting; the occasional leaf torn
without loss, chipped, or with margin reinforced; varying degrees of age-toning,
with the majority of pages clean. 
Massive
quantities of data on early 19th-century commerce, ready to be made use of
for scholarship or simply to serve a reader's pleasure. (30395)
AMERICAN
Sericulture a
Possible Source of
Revenue?
Pullein, Samuel. The culture of silk:
or, an essay on its rational practice and improvement. In four parts... For
the use of the American colonies. London: Pr. for A. Millar, 1758. 8vo. Frontis.,
xv, [1 (blank)], 299, [1] pp., plt. 
In the period 1750 through 1820 there was considerable interest in the development of this potentially lucrative enterprise. The work in hand is divided into four parts: "I. On the raising and planting of mulberry trees. II. On hatching and rearing the silkworms. III. On obtaining their silk, and breed. IV. On reeling their silk-pods."
The two plates (one being the frontispiece) show various machinery and tools for, and stages of, the production of silk. The author, a "reverend," flourished 1734–60.
• Sabin 66625. Recent quarter calf, antique style. Round spine with raised bands accented with gilt ruling. Gilt center devices in spine compartments. Green morocco title-label. Marbled paper sides. Light foxing. A very good copy.
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