•  ESTC T75210. Marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Half-title lacking. Upper margin of title-page showing small abrasions and traces of affixed paper; title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution. (10278)

Kelly, the son of an Irish tavern-keeper, launched his London literary career by contributing to newspapers while working as a copying-clerk to an attorney. After marrying a needlewoman, he moved to Middle Temple Lane, where the DNB says “he laboured untiringly as literary hack.” Next he gained fame as a theater critic, publishing two books criticizing the actors of the Drury Lane Theatre and of Covent Garden; Garrick, whom Kelly had prudently praised in the first book, then encouraged Kelly to write plays himself.

Kelly’s first production, this play enjoyed great success both onstage and in print. Garrick wrote the prologue and epilogue to the 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.”

•  ESTC T230322; CBEL, II, 845.   Quarter cloth over marbled paper-covered sides, worn, spine with shelving label. Half-title and two other pages very faintly stamped by a now-defunct institution. First and last few leaves with light foxing.  (2039)

Lake was “chaplain and tutor to the princesses Mary and Anne, daughters of James, duke of York” and originally wrote this “devotional manual . . . for his royal pupils” (ODNB).

Provenance: On front free endpaper in an 18th-century hand; “Wm. A. Put Bo[ugh]t of Nau Winkle & Co.”

•  ESTC T134200.   Contemporary acid-stained calf, round spine, no raised bands, gilt double-rules creating spine compartments, one with a red leather gilt title-label; front cover reattached using the long-fiber method. Light age-toning. A very nice copy.  (33142)

This is the 40-page variant (Martin and Walter note a 35-page printing), with a warning on the final page regarding pirated, incorrect versions of the piece.

•  Martin & Walter, III, 18722 (variant ed.).   Removed from a nonce volume, first signature separated. Title-page with paper shelving label in lower corner, touching one letter of publication line, and with pencilled monogram in upper outer corner; also with short tear from lower margin, not touching text. Pages age-toned and lightly spotted; shouldernotes (only) occasionally shaved and price reduced for this reason.  (30826)

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only three U.S. institutional holdings of this particular Instruction.

•  Martin & Walter 19033.   Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with paper shelving label, touching the first few letters of the publication line, and with inked numeral and pencilled monogram in upper outer corner. Page edges untrimmed; pages slightly age-toned.  (30825)

•  Wellcome, III, 458; Garrison-Morton 154; ESTC T139902; Lowndes II, p.1321 (“a sumptuous edition”); Osler, Bib. Osleriana, p. 283, no. 3178; Bentley Blake Books 481; Ryskamp, William Blake, Engraver, 22. On the parts, see: Arents Collection of Books in Parts, p. 74.   Contemporary calf ruled and tooled in gilt and blind with gilt board edges and gilt turn-ins, rebacked old style; marbled edges, and blue silk marker in all volumes. Extremities rubbed and corners bumped with small loss to leather. At least one small marginal tear in each volume; offsetting from letterpress on a few leaves; very mild to quite moderate foxing (or none) on illustrations, offset onto surrounding leaves; and other occasional minor stains. Most plates protected by tissue. A monument of labor, art, and excellent “system” devoted to an exploded but fascinating theory; in fact, a wonder.  (30974)

•  ESTC T52110. Removed from a nonce volume and now in a Mylar folder. Edges untrimmed. Sewing all but gone, with a number of leaves separated. Title-page with early inked inscription in lower margin, chips to inner margin, dust-soiling, and old taped tear from outer margin; old repair at inner margin of last two leaves with loss of a few letters. A bit of interior foxing/spotting.  (7746)

Considerations on Slavery

Elizabeth Webb, "an acknowledged minister among the people called Quakers," first encountered Prince George of Denmark's chaplain Boehm while on a visit to Great Britain; the missive with which she opened her subsequent correspondence with him, here, greatly inspired him and a number of his friends.

Provenance: With inscription reading "Miss Hannah Amelia Moore / Book a Present from her worthy / Friend Ruth Patton / 1789."

•  Law: ESTC W32233; Evans 16817; Hildeburn 3987. Webb: ESTC W13440; Evans 18295; Hildeburn 4409. Benezet: ESTC W6416; Evans 18355. Contemporary quarter sheep over paper-covered sides, the whole worn and abraded but the little volume quite sound. Light age-toning, occasional darker spots. Small chip in bottom margin of title-page; one leaf with paper flaw in lower corner, resulting in the loss of a very few letters.  (10951)

This now-uncommon textbook is illustrated with five folding engraved plates of diagrams. WorldCat showsjust one U.S. institution (Society of the Cincinnati) reporting a copy, and only a handful of overseas holdings.

Provenance:  Title-page with early inked inscription “de Ratzenried” and front pastedown with von Ratzenried armorial bookplate (coat of arms showing greyhounds and a moon with clouds) labelled F.C.V.R.: possibly Franz Carl Anton von und zu Ratzenried.

•  Contemporary mottled calf, board edges with gilt roll, spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title-label, and compartments gilt extra; light wear overall, edges and joints moderately rubbed. All edges speckled red. Bookplate and inscription as above. Pages with occasional small pencilled marks of emphasis, otherwise clean; one plate with outer edge slightly tattered. A very nice copy, in contemporary binding, of this scarce practical compendium.  (40246)

The work is a classic in the field of early European accounts of China, of missions to and in China, and of travel in general. Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the first edition and may have done so for the work's sections on education.

•  ESTC T140502; Goldsmiths'-Kress 3379?; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1356; Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, I, 40-41.   Recent quarter calf, round spine, raised bands, gilt ruling above and below each band; gilt center devices in four spine compartments. Marbled paper sides. Light age-toning to title-page; apart from an old touch of inkstaining at the tips of pages in one section, a very few stray stains only. A very nice copy.  (40384)

WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only seven U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Martin & Walter 8746.   Folded as issued, never bound, edges uncut. Title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, red-pencilled annotation in upper inner corner, and pencilled monogram in upper outer corner. A few instances of light spotting.  (30941)

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only three U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Simply sewn, edges untrimmed; spine with small split, sewing loosening. Title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner and pencilled monogram in upper outer corner. Minor age-toning and offsetting; final leaf with paper flaw resulting in shortening of upper outer corner.  (30909)

•  Evans 16773; Hildeburn, The Issues of the Press in Pennsylvania, 1685–1784, 4006. Five-digit number stamped above the title; pp. 1 and 2 separated from 3 and 4, and gutter margin repaired, reattaching the halves. Semicircular tear in lower, inside area of all pages, costing a total of 9 or 10 words.  (3144)

Uncommon:  WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only three U.S. libraries reporting ownership.

•  Saricks, I, 385.   Removed from a nonce volume, title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner, pencilled monogram in upper outer corner and that latter corner curled. Pages age-toned with some dust-soiled; last few leaves with crumpled edges or creased/dog-eared corners.  (36788)

The work is handsomely printed (although erratic in its pagination and signature markings), in double-column format, featuring title-pages in black and red with an engaging small engraved vignette of a ship between pillars reading “Plus” and “Ultra.”

Provenance:  Ownership stamp of Carlos Sanz in several places.

•  Sabin 40053; Palau 135738; Alden & Landis 737/135; Medina, BHA, 3071; Borba de Moraes, II, 150; LeClerc 872.   Contemporary vellum over pasteboards, a little soiled especially to spnes, retaining button and loop closures; hinges (inside) open in a few places but bindings strong. Occasional waterstain or other sign of exposure to dampness; a few gutter margins (only) of first volume with a short wormtrack; some cockling of paper.  (34810)

While the two are said to have remained cordial, the debate was so “bitter” that the Duke of Brunswick (Lessing's supporter) “intervened, silencing Lessing” (Oxford Companion to German Literature, 2nd ed., p. 554)!

Printed here are Lessing's portions of the eleven exchanges in that debate.

•  Goedeke, IV, 447; Holzmann 2383.   Recent boards covered in brown paper specked with black in the style of the era; age-toning and some dampstaining, not beyond “typical.” Overall, a good copy of a complete set of Lessing's eleven arguments.  (33323)

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only four U.S. institutional holdings of this first edition.

•  This ed. not in Martin & Walter (cf. IV 2: 8376).   Sewn, never bound; title-page with affixed paper shelving label in lower inner corner, not touching text, and with pencilled monogram in upper outer corner. Page edges untrimmed and somewhat ragged; top edges mostly unopened; dust-soiling to outer leaves and untrimmed edges, with corners of a good many untriummed leaves turned in. A nice copy.  (36785).

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only two U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with affixed paper shelving label in lower inner corner and pencilled monogram in upper outer portion. Pages age-toned with a few light spots.  (30814)

It is handsomely printed using several point sizes of roman and italic, with center justification in the top portion and full justification below. Around the printed area are wide margins on the four sides, which margins contain16 large, crisp, evenly spaced impressions of the city of Toledo's double-headed eagle, with crown above, sword in its right talon and mace in its left.

Boadsides were an important source of income for handpress-era printers in Europe and Spanish America and the printers offered “package deals” to the families of the graduate and post-graduate degree postulants; the packages were geared to the students' families' economic means. Broadsides could be large (folio) or small (8vo), have an engraving or not, have a border of type ornaments or not, and be printed on standard paper or colored paper (usually blue); if one splurged, one could get the announcement printed, as here, on silk. The usual total number of copies printed for each candidate is unknown at this time, but is likely to have been only one or two dozen, and we also don't know if more than one silk copy was printed when that top option was in fact ordered. In extravagant cases, one can imagine one for the degree candidate, one for the parents, one for each godparent, etc.; still, such cases would probably have been few.

Certainly, the printers would have been willing to rake in as much money as possible, on each happy occasion, and these richly beautiful silk mementos — doubtless proudly displayed for years going forward in homes or offices — would have been excellent ongoing advertisements. Equally clearly, however, the number of copies of all of the defense broadsides surviving is small, and the survival of those on silk is very small.

No copies of this broadside are traced via the usual bibliographies, nor via NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, KVK, CCPB, or the OPACs of University of Toledo and the national library of Spain.

•  Rose-colored silk, with old folds; sun-fading variously and rather attractively approaching pinks and apricots. Sides “accented” by an attractive retained green and white selvage edge; bottom edge hemmed and top one, possibly once so, now with fraying and a bit of ravelling; near the broadside's center, a round hole costs six letters. Still, at 230+ years old, frankly gorgeous.  (39844)

Americana contents includemany New World plants such as yucca, New World sunflower (baltimora), potato (solanum), tomato (solanum lycopersicum), and cacao (theobroma)

Provenance: From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Johnston, Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 642.   Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in single blind rule, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and elaborate gilt-tooled foliate compartment decorations between raised bands; rubbed and scuffed with spine head chipped and otherwise spine least affected, front joint and spine with snall areas of worming. First and last pages with offsetting to margins; otherwise scattered spots of foxing only and the volume otherwise clean. A solid, in fact attractive copy.  (40660)

•  Examination: ESTC T33662; Sabin 41680. Short Considerations: ESTC T48138. Removed from a nonce volume and now in a Mylar folder; sewing mostly gone with last few leaves separated. Title-page with small numerical stamp and both early and later inked notations; inner margin of first text page with institutional stamp; pages otherwise clean. Collation of second piece matches other recorded holdings.  (6071)

•  ESTC T117287; Pforzheimer 611.   Period-style calf, covers framed and panelled in gilt rolls with gilt-stamped corner fleurons and central decoration, spine with with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Title-page with early inked ownership inscription (William R. Williams) in upper outer corner; preface with early inked initials in upper corners, partially effaced, resulting in small holes to upper outer corner (touching two letters of text without obscuring sense). Occasional early inked corrections and annotations; partial topical index filling final blank. One leaf with short tear from upper margin not extending into text, another with portion of lower foremargin torn away just touching (but not really “affecting”) print; scattered light smudges and a handful of pages with old marginal stains, ink-drop to fore-edge (closed) in Latin section, otherwise clean.  (30851)

Provenance:  On the front pastedown, the bookplate of Brian Douglas Stilwell.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership of this edition (Harvard, Kansas, University of Texas-HRHRC, Princeton Theological).

•  Brooks 507; Giani 44 (pp. 47–48).   Binding as above, rubbing to extremities and to spine/joints; somewhat noticeable scrape to length of front board and bump to bottom edge, very small spot of discoloration to top edge of front board, small scrape to rear board and rubbing to fore-edge. Without the initial and final blanks (i.e., two blank leaves total). Provenance marks as above; occasional light foxing to leaves, interior otherwise in very nice condition.  (40159)