•  Fair in printed paper wrappers, front cover torn nearly in half.   (438)

•  Good in printed paper wrappers. Front cover with small holes, light foxing to some pages.

This volume is in the large ambitious quarto format of the journal's first years, not the octavo format of the later, “New Series”

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early inked presentation inscription to New Salem Academy from the Honorable Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779–1856), the Massachusetts lawyer who established the New England Museum.

•  Sabin 64182.   Contemporary quarter sheep and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped date; rubbed and stained overall, spine leather with cracks and chips, spine head with remnants of small paper label, refurbished: spine caps readhered, front cover reattached, edges reinforced, leather consolidated. Front free endpaper with inscription as above. A later hand has laid in a number of leaves of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein, along with some account of the lacking portions; occasional pencilled annotations in text as well. One leaf with inner margin neatly reinforced; some tears repaired and loose leaves secured. Pages occasionally creased; varying degrees of browning and foxing. Outer edges trimmed closely, occasionally with loss of final letters. Upper portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of weekly header and about three paragraphs of text; one leaf chipped along fold, with loss of several letters; lower outer portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of roughly two paragraphs. Nos. 13, 14, 32, and 34 each lacking final leaf; no. 33 lacking. Pp. 395/96 bound in out of order. Several pieces of dried plant matter laid in at various points. This volume of the Port Folio is as meaty and full of just plain interesting stuff as they all were, despite its lacking bits; and, it represents the journal's beginnings.  (29227)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early inked presentation inscription to New Salem Academy from the Honorable Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779–1856), the Massachusetts lawyer who established the New England Museum.

•  Sabin 64182.   Contemporary quarter sheep and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped date; worn and stained, front cover with (child's?) pencilled name, spine head with remnants of paper shelving label, spine leather cracked. Volume refurbished, with leather consolidated, joints repaired, edges reinforced with repair tissue. Lacking one issue, no. 12, apparently never bound in; one stanza of one poem excised. Some leaves creased, with occasional tears into text; varying degrees of age-toning and foxing; scattered small holes. Lower outer portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of several lines. A few pencilled marks of emphasis; a later hand has laid in several sheets of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein. Dried plant matter laid in. Price reduced recognizing absent No. 12; but a volume of interest both simply as a substantial Port Folio and as the one produced in such a significant year for the proprietor.  (29238)

Provenance & Evidence of Readership: Front pastedown with early inked and pencilled inscriptions of Simon Elliot, front free endpaper with early pencilled presentation inscription of Dr. Willard Putnam, first text page with inked inscription of Simon Elliot along upper inner margin. A later hand has laid in several sheets of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein; there are occasional pencilled marks of emphasis and a few annotations. Laid-in letter from a modern bookseller noting that he is sending the present volume and will look for another.

•  Sabin 64182.   Contemporary quarter red sheep; marbled paper all but entirely worn away from sides, spine sunned and scuffed. Some early leaves with lower corners creased or stained along inner margins and starting to separate; scattered light to mild foxing. One leaf with one paragraph excised, affecting a few lines of the biography on the reverse; pp. 29/30 of vol. VI, no. 2 excised; upper portion of pp. 409/10 of vol. VI torn away with loss of a few lines. Some pages printed slightly askew, resulting in occasional shaving of letters or even (infrequently) lines. A slightly battered copy, but still — like all Port Folios, meaty and full of just plain INTERESTING stuff.  (29347)

•  Plain robin's-egg blue wrappers printed in black, a little darkened. Excellent condition. (28507)

Evidence of Readership: An early owner of this copy who seems to have sided with Jeffrey has made occasional annotations in pencil, one of which decries “these commentators [who] will never allow poor Shakespeare any invention, always endeavoring to prove him pilfering . . . “

Both volumes are illustrated with wood engravings by J. Berryman, reproducing medieval and Renaissance images; vol. II also includes a total ofnine plates, one being an oversized, folding rendition of a fanciful 15th-century engraving of a Flemish morris dance. The title-pages are printed in red and black.

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf of vol. II with pencilled ownership inscription of prominent 20th-century Philadelphia collector E.M. Boyle.

•  NSTC D1619; NCBEL, III, 1644.   Period-style quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped red morocco title-label, compartments with blind-tooled and gilt-stamped decorations, back pastedowns with binder's tickets. All edges marbled. Regular but not heavy early pencilled annotations, some offset onto opposing pages; a few scattered small smudges, pages otherwise clean. One leaf with small central hole affecting about four letters. A very attractive copy, with interesting and engaging signs of readership.  (30112)

•  Fine.  (19234)

•  On Dunlap, see: Oxford Companion to the Theatre, 211. American Imprints 24237; BAL 5026; Howes D571; Sabin 21303.   Publisher's quarter green diced cloth and tan paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities rubbed, corners bumped, spines sunned, sides with spots of staining and discoloration. Front hinges (inside) tender. Ex–social club library: spines with paper shelving labels, front pastedowns with 19th-century bookplates and inked shelving numbers, title-pages and one other in each volume rubber-stamped, no other markings. Some outer corners of vol. II lightly waterstained; a very few instances of small spots of staining.  (27558)

theatrical and musical performances

Provenance: Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription of Joshua Gilpin, a Quaker from Philadelphia who established the first paper mill in Delaware, in 1787.

•  Disbound with front cover, front free endpaper, and frontispiece separated; back cover lost, and signature sewing exposed/going, with many leaves loose. Now contained in a simple, acid-free phase box. Edges untrimmed. Minor offsetting and a few stray marks; mostly clean.

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Provenance:  The Huth copy, with his gilt-stamped white oval “Ex Musaeo Huthi” bookplate.

•  ESTC T50473.   Period-style (impeccably so) mottled calf framed in double gilt fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped decorations at extremities; bookplate as above transplanted from original binding. Pages untrimmed save for last two leaves; lightly age-toned, with a few scattered spots of foxing. Inner margin of title-page unobtrusively repaired; one leaf with small burn hole in lower outer corner, not touching text. A handsomely clad copy with excellent provenance.  (30324)

•  Pictoral wrappers, chipped and fragile.

•  VD16 F 2908. See Brunet, II, 1401 for 1585 and 1596 eds. On Fenton, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary vellum, covers framed in blind, spine with early hand-inked title; vellum moderately dust-soiled, joints repaired, upper corners and edges rubbed. Early pages with inked underlining; a few subsequent instances of pencilled bracketing. Scattered light staining, pages mostly clean.  (27755)

Signed binding: Contemporary half tan morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with raised bands each accented above and below with single gilt rule and single black rule; gilt-stamped title, spine compartments framed in gilt with gilt dots in each corner and each with gilt center device. Front free endpaper stamped “Bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.” Top edge gilt; silk ribbon place marker.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Binding as above, spine slightly sunned, corners and extremities showing minor rubbing. Front pastedown with private collector’s armorial bookplate. Pages clean.

•  Fair in printed paper wrappers, front cover lacking, sewing starting to go.

•  Spine and covers chipped, rear cover separating, lower corner of front cover dog-eared. Title-page chipped at one corner.

This is an intact, attractive copy — the dangling acrobat has vanished from at least some reported examples, but flies bravely here.

•  Publisher's color printed paper–covered boards with cloth shelfback; boards very slightly warped at upper inner corner, edges and extremities rubbed. Acrobat figure with one leg creased; all elements otherwise sans wear or tears, with colors vivid. A delightful, uncommon “moveable book.”  (30243)

Kelly’s first production, this play enjoyed great success both onstage and in print. Garrick wrote the prologue and epilogue to this rather provoking tale of an entire circle of friends attempting to get themselves successfully paired off, most of them foolishly determined to marry people they don’t love for the sake of nobly sparing everyone else’s feelings, and all of them completely misunderstanding the true natures of the various relationships.

This is almost certainly the first edition; of the four printings in 1768, one identifies itself as the fourth edition and the other two both seem to have been labelled "A new edition."

•  NCBEL 2, 845. On Kelly, see: DNB. Recent wrappers. Lacking half-title. Three pages including title stamped by now-defunct library. Pages with previous sewing-holes and some light foxing towards the end.