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Though Nares is quite capable of picking nits with a level of scrupulousness to match that of the most pedantic of scholars, he is also prone to flights of fancy such as pondering—after noting that a married woman’s moveable goods are unquestionably the property of her husband— “whether the female tongue is to be reckoned among the moveables . . . I believe it is pretty generally held to continue ‘in potestate Mulieris,’ even after marriage, and I know nothing to prevent it” (p. 148). This is followed up with references to Ovid, the Wife of Bath, and the much-storied Flitch of Bacon!

•  Contemporary half calf with marbled paper sides, spines with gilt-stamped helm decorations and gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels (the volume labels recently supplied, in sympathetic style). Board edges showing light to moderate wear, with leather cracking at joints and crackled over the spines generally. Top edges gilt. Front pastedowns with bookplates now partially torn away; title-page of vol. II with an early inked ownership inscription in the upper margin. Delightful reading, as well as an overall attractive set.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate and front free endpaper with pencilled inscription of George M. Haverstick, an early proprietor of the company that eventually became the Whitall Tatum glass factory in Millville, New Jersey.

•  ESTC T92500; Sabin 52167. On Mary Peisley Neale, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary treed calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt rules, expectably acid-pitted overall; spine chipped, front cover with spots of discoloration and abrasion, edges and extremities rubbed. Occasional scattered light spots, most noticeable on last three pages; some lower outer corners bumped. One pencilled text correction. An interesting item, and not tremendously common in the U.S.  (29674)

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The frontispiece portrait of Nelson was engraved by George Vertue after a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller. The volume also includes all publisher's advertisements as well as the rather uncommon Poem in Memory of Robert Nelson Esquire.

This was produced to be a handsome work, printed in large type on good paper with wide margins — the better to appeal to a “quality” audience?

•  ESTC T85360; Goldsmiths’-Kress 5249. Poem: ESTC T25431; Foxon P538.   Contemporary speckled calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons; rebacked with speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, raised bands, and blind-tooled foliate compartment decorations. Original leather abraded, front cover with small chip to outer edge and area of faint discoloration from a now-absent label; title-page institutionally rubber-stamped (no other markings). Some signatures browned and foxed, most pages clean.  (25999)

•  Publisher's color-printed paper wrappers, spine chewed and overall with soiling; back cover with tear from upper edge into text without impairment to reading. Paper age-toned; some text pages ragged at edges, again, without harm to reading.  (26935)

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•  Garrison & Morton 1612 (London ed.).   Original textured olive cloth, covers framed in blind, front cover with gilt-stamped title; binding faded with areas of moderate discoloration, most notably at head of spine and adjacently on front cover. Ex–social club library: hand-inked paper shelving label on spine, call numbers on endpapers, rubber-stamp on title-page and two others, no other markings. Pages clean.  (27884)

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This volume for connoisseurs offers two distinct parts: first, the text printed and all the illustrations present as fully colored, delicately washed in shades of pink, blue, purple, grey, white, and earth tones; and second, a set of the illustrations in proofs uncolored and without text. Most of the illustrations in both suites areinitialed by Caruchet.

Jean Emmanuel Charles Nodier (1780–1844) was a French author and librarian, appointed to the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in 1824. His literary stylemuch influenced the Romantics, including Victor Hugo and Alfred de Musset. This legend, first published in La Revue de Paris (1838), is representative of his fantastical oeuvre. It was later adapted into a French opera (Béatrice, 1914) and a film (1923).

Signed Binding: Crushed half milk chocolate morocco over marbled paper boards signed “V. Champs,” gilt author, title, and date to spine; patterned marbled endpapers (different from the covers). Original gilt and hand-colored stiff cream wrappers bound in, showing Béatrix full-figure on the front, her hands extended outward beneath the gilt title.

Provenance:  An initialed ink inscription beneath the Justification du tirage states this copy was “Offert à Madame Conquet” — who must have been related toM.L. Conquet, “the great Paris publisher of works of the romantic school,” whose publications were famous for being very limited editions and for the “high artistic quality of their illustrations” (“Books and Authors,” The New York Times, 26 March 1898).

•  Carteret, V, 141; Vicaire, VI, 179.   Binding as above. One small nick on the front leather near the spine, and board extremities (paper and leather) lightly rubbed. The publisher's authentication embossed stamp below the limitation statement. Text clean, unblemished. Simply, excellent.  (30135)

Binding:  Striking medieval-style vellum, front cover with inset chromolithographic illustration in jewel tones in raised, stamped and gilt frame; hand-painted foliate decorations in pink, green, blue, and yellow with stamped and gilt “studs” laid on, artfully scattered. Calligraphic title incorporating onlaid raised decorative capitals; spine with painted foliate decoration; back cover with fully-filling reverse-painted griffin in blue-green and gilt. Studs and other raised elements appear to be clay or ceramic; upper edges gilt and gauffered.

•  Binding as above, moderately dust-soiled and darkened, ties now lacking; gilt elements, front cover inset, and some paint a bit rubbed, with a few studs chipped and three absent — none of this much diminishing the effect. Frontispiece recto with early inked gift inscription. Pages age-toned with a very few light smudges; almost, entirely clean. A pretty and remarkable binding, very appropriate for this romantic history.  (30306)

The volume begins with a most handsome emblematic engraved title-page signed C. De Mallery involving a ship at sea against a sky labeled “Lutetia” (for Paris) surmounting an elaborate architectural frame containing the title and incorporating elegant symbolic ladies and more, followed on the next leaves by a dedication to the esteemed French collector Jacques-Auguste de Thou (Thuanus, 1553–1617). Beautiful floriated woodcut initials, factotum initials, head- and tailpieces decorate the text, which is anexquisite example of printing.

It seems that there were related texts printed at the same time that are sometimes found bound with this in a variety of combinations, but this not universally.

•  Adams S1061; Schweiger, I, 287.   Period-style full dark brown mottled calf tooled in blind, gilt title and tools to spine, red edges. Small hole from natural flaw in upper corner of title-page and one other leaf; oval-shaped spot in lower margin of title-page from an erasure (?), offset onto the front fly-leaf; light age-toning and occasional foxing in some margins, with a few stray ink marks from printing and maybe two or three dots from oxidization of the paper. Accounting for these minor expectable flaws, the present volume isreally very, very nice and the portraits areterrific.  (30177)

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This is the first edition of the first book-form printing, with most of the recipes having previously appeared in issues of Harper’s Bazaar.

Provenance: Bookplate of Henry H. Bynam, Pittsburgh, partly chipped away.

•  Bitting 351; Brown, Culinary Americana, 2479; Cagle & Stafford 581.   Publisher’s olive pebbled cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities rubbed, spine slightly darkened with head and foot chipped. Front pastedown with private collector's bookplate as above; front fly-leaf, with pencilled annotations, now separating. Two pages with small areas of offsetting from now-absent laid-in item, one page with inkstain (affecting but not obscuring text), pages otherwise clean. A good copy of an evocative cookbook.  (28524)

Efforts to canonize Maria de Jesus began almost immediately following her death and received the support of numerous well-respected clerics, including Bishop Palafox. Copies of letters to Pope Clement X in support of her sainthood fill the final 16 numbered (in roman) leaves. The efforts continued into the 19th century but failed.

The period 1670 to 1800 saw a dramatic growth among books printed in Mexico in the hagiographical genre and this work was one of the first published in that sub-set of biographical writings.

Binding:  Early 18th-century Mexican sheep, dark brown and mottled; spine gilt extra. Very, very handsome in a most “antiquarian” way!

WorldCat locates only four copies in U.S. libraries, one in Spain, one in Mexico, and one in Chile. The Catálogo Colectivo del Patrimonio Bibliográfico locates two additional copies in Spain.

•  Palau 212277; Medina, Mexico, 1144; Andrade 672; Sabin 58567.   Bound as above; gilt flaked off here and there; spine a little crumpled. Worming in some margins, occasionally in text and occasionally touching some letters. Expert repairs: leather spine readhered to back of text block; tears in leather at joint, hinges, and panel areas reinforced subtly with toned repair tissue; worming repaired with long-fiber tissue and wheat starch paste. Foxing and old stains, neither dark nor distressing.  (29692)

According to Cagle & Stafford: “First edition, late printing, Boston, no date, but after 1887 when Miss Parloa's Kitchen Companion, mentioned on the title-page, first was published.” The famed head of the School of Cooking in Boston, editor for several years of the venerable magazine Good Housekeeping, and pioneer in “domestic economy,” Parloa here offers extensive information on seasonal shopping, kitchen furnishings, and cuts of meat (the latter two topics illustrated with a number of in-text wood engravings) in addition to the recipes and how-tos; a section of blank leaves for note-taking is provided at the back.

Binding: Publisher's dark green cloth, front cover pictorially stamped with rules, flower and foliate designs, and a platter-bearing female cook in black and maroon; spine with gilt-stamped title and black-stamped decorations.

•  Bitting 356; Brown, Culinary Americana, 1519; Cagle & Stafford 595.   Binding lightly worn overall, edges and extremities rubbed; no frontispiece present and apparently none is called for here as (unlike in other printings) the list of illustrations does not mention it. Intermittent mild to moderate spotting, some page edges slightly ragged. A few recipes with early pencilled annotations and a solid copy — an excellent example of a used but not battered cookbook.  (28483)

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•  Palau 216717. Removed from a nonce volume. Light waterstaining, mostly to inner corners. Trimmed closely, with shouldernotes and first or last few letters shaved in some instances. One leaf with tear from upper margin extending into text, repaired some time ago, obscuring a few words.

•  Publisher's elaborately blind-embossed and gilt-stamped paper in imitation of leather. Spine chipped and worn at tips. Some loss of paper to covers, with a half-inch off on bottom front corner.

•  Palau 220783.   Contemporary quarter maroon sheep and red pebbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; spine attractively darkened, edges and extremities rubbed, sides with spots of discoloration. Front free endpaper with private shelf-code sticker; title-page with private collector's rubber-stamp. Pages age-toned, with some scattered small smudges or spots of light staining.  (29936)

This first American printing followed a London edition of the same year and was part of Putnam's "Library for the People."

•  Textured red cloth, covers stamped in blind with an attractive branch and leaf pattern, spine gilt-stamped; spine faded. Sewing starting to loosen. Lacking map. Front free endpaper with inscription “Rachel Wiston / 1887 / Aunt Sarah Hunt.” Scattered spots of foxing, mostly to first and last few pages.

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Binding: Publisher's brown cloth, covers framed in blind, front cover with gilt-stamped urn of flowers, back cover with same design in blind. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 655.   Bound as above, corners bumped/rubbed and base of rear joint and spine a little rubbed; gilt bright. Endpapers with early pencilled inscriptions, frontispiece with adhesion of a sliver of paper from title-page along inner margin, title-page with brown spot in lower margin offset onto lower edge of frontispiece. Sewing loosening with some early and final leaves starting to separate, title-page all but separated. Pages generally clean, with a few scattered spots; one upper margin with pencilled inscription mostly erased. A read and cherished copy, still sweetly sentimental and interesting to look at.  (30368)

Many entries are for beauty and household products that would be specially “pitched” to women.

Publishers' advertisements at back offer other useful volumes, and tout this one as, “not by any means a clap-trap book, though it exposes many clap-traps.”

•  Publisher's black pebbled cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with blind-stamped title; limited fading and rubbing, sewing starting to loosen. Front pastedown with inked inscription, front free endpaper with intriguing “Fraters Florere” rubber-stamp. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (26631)

Not overtly present is any discussion of the particular events of the war, but it is part of this lady's life in this era: On 5 June, “Willie took Johnny with him to the office after dinner to see the soldiers go”; on 23 August, we hear that “Will [is] feeling so bad about Pres — we think he must have been taken prisoner” (he was, this “darling brother” whose release was learned of on 13 September and whose regiment was in Kentucky in October); and on 28 August, “Willie received a letter from Doc, saying he was a prisoner after Charleston. We feel relieved that it is no worse.”

•  Publisher's limp textured sheep with foldover flap, flap gilt-stamped “Diary 1864"; much rubbed, front “cover” detached and one “seam” of flap half open. All edges marbled. Most diary pages filled in a reasonably legibly inked hand; calendar with a few dates circled in ink. Offers a very matter-of-fact perspective on late 19th-century social and domestic life.  (30667)

•  Not in ESTC. Once sewn, now in a Mylar folder. Last leaf with closed tear partially repaired some time ago, costing or or obscuring a few letters to each line of about two paragraphs on either side of leaf. Age-toned, dust-soiled, creased.

•  Not in ESTC. Creased and dust-soiled, with a small hole in lower margin not touching text and a few pinholes within text. Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper, now in a Mylar folder.

•  Creased and slightly dust-soiled but in overall good condition. Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper; now in a Mylar folder.

A “Collection Discount” will be applied should anyone take
ALL THREE of the “Pollack Case” Broadsides.

In addition to a total of eight plates (six steel-engraved and two wood), the text isillustrated with 34 wood engravings.

Binding:  Publisher's red straight-grained cloth, both covers with gilt-stamped arabesque motifs and Queen Victoria vignette, spine gilt extra. All edges gilt.

•  Faxon 386.   Binding as above, corners and spine extremities rubbed; back free endpaper neatly excised. Someone (a would-be au courant gift-giver?), added one final “I” to the roman numeral on the title-page; pp. 33/34 of second part absent with no discernible interruption. First two and last few signatures (including one plate) with offsetting and browning, pages and plates otherwise clean. A pretty and interesting gift book in pleasing condition.  (30502)

The printer was Margaret Rhames, scion of a prominent Dublin printing family. WorldCat and ESTC locate only four U.S. institutional holdings of this edition, which preceded the London first.

•  ESTC N5208; Wellcome, IV, 440.   Period-style half calf and antique marbled paper–covered sides, corners tipped in vellum, spine with gilt-stamped leather labels. Title-page with ownership initials (“WS”) inked in upper outer corner; pages age-toned, with mild to moderate foxing. A solid, pleasingly bound copy of an uncommon and interesting piece of medical history.  (30607)

•  Publisher's red cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black, spine with gilt-stamped title label (gilt just showing in our photograph); cloth very slightly rubbed over corners and spine extremities, with a small smudge to front cover near head of spine and spine stamping a bit dimmed. Reverse of frontispiece with inked gift inscription dated [18]87. One leaf with short tear from outer margin, not quite touching text. (14353)