
AGRICULTURE
A
Temperance Catechism —
Improving Your
Swine — “Hull's
Physic”
(AMERICAN!
ALMANACS!)
.
Abell, Truman. New-England farmer's almanac, for
the year ... 1834 ... Fitted to the latitude and longitude of the town of Windsor,
Vt. but will serve without sensible variation, for all the adjacent states.
Windsor, Vt.: Ide & Goddard, [1833]. 12mo. [24] ff.
$30.00
Click
the image for an enlargement.
First
almanac published by Ide & Goddard. Title-page has
a wood engraved illustration of a globe, telescope, map, books, and inkwell
with quill pen; also illustrated with small vignettes above each month's calendar.
Includes information on the sessions of the courts in New Hampshire and Vermont,
college vacation schedules, advice on diet and regimen, suggestions on how to
be a good neighbor, a brief manual of temperance principles, general information
on insects, poultry, hogs, growing field beets, cutting corn stalks, and preserving
yeast Irish jokes, we almost add, “of course.”
Advertisements on the last page, notably for
patent
medicines.
Drake 13678. Uncut copy; later stitching; corners cut.
Slight dog-earing, title-page a little tattered. Early inked ownership signature
at top of title-page and some marginalia or interlineations. (9959)
For more ALMANACS, click here.
. . . or HERE.
Quaint
Rural Customs
Carleton, Will.
Farm festivals. New York: Harper & Brothers, copyright 1881. 8vo. 167,
[1], 6 (adv.)] pp.; 18 plts. (incl. in pagination), illus.
$50.00

First edition of a popular “Farm”
volume by this successful and beloved poet. A copy of Carleton's
poem "Captain Young's Thanksgiving," including illustration, has been affixed
to the back fly-leaf and free endpaper.
BAL 2482 (second printing state, with plates included in pagination).
Publisher's brown cloth, front cover stamped in gilt and green, spine with
gilt-stamped title; front cover lightly scuffed, with corners rubbed. Front
fly-leaf with inked gift inscription "to My Daughter," dated 1890; newspaper
clipping about Carleton affixed to front fly-leaf, poem affixed to back fly-leaf
as described above. Several insurance advertisements, religious leaflets,
and other ephemera laid in. (14367)
“The
Little Sleeper”
& “Paul's
Run Off with the Show”
ILLUSTRATED
Carleton, Will.
Farm legends.
New York: Harper & Brothers, c. 1887. 8vo. 187, [1], 4 (adv.) pp.;
17 plts., illus.
$50.00

Another in the “Farm” series, with engraved plates and in-text
illustrations by various hands.
Very good; traces of wear to corners and spine extremities, one small spot to
front cover. Slightly cocked. Front flyleaf with gift inscription. (1250)



Preparing to Be Viceroy & to Be
FAR AWAY from Spain
Chinchon, Conde de (i.e., Luis Jerónimo Fernández de Cabrera y Bobadilla). [Power of attorney, begins:] Sepan quantos esta carta de poder vieren, como you don Luis Geronimo Ferna[n]dez de Cabrera y Bobadilla ... Conde de Chincon ... ortogo todo mi poder cumplido ... Odon [Spain]: No publisher/printer, 1628. Folio (32 cm; 12.5"). [6] ff.
$775.00
Click the images for enlargements.
In 1628 the Conde de Chinchon had just finished serving as the Treasurer General of the Consejo de Aragon and was preparing to travel to Peru to be the viceroy and captain general of that New World region. He served in that role from 1629 to 1639.The Count had extensive land, business, and political matters that had to be overseen while he was in Southern Hemisphere, and in this printed form
specifically printed for him he gives his power of attorney to Jose de Carvajal Agurto, “my secretary”; Juan de Olabarria, “my accountant”; and Juan de Alderete. They are empowered to administer his estates, collect rents, and to do “other diverse things.” Considerable detail is given concerning the extent of their power, including appearing in his stead before courts and councils, dealing with lawyers, agents, and the clergy, and much more.
Never before have we seen a power of attorney printed specifically for a newly appointed viceroy and specifically stating that he needs it because he is to be a viceroy in the New World.
Signed by several witnesses and with the Count's paraph.
Bound in half cordovan morocco with marbled paper sides. Light waterstaining at edges and along center fold. (32324)

A
Large-Format Almanac
Columbian
almanac for 1855. Being the third after bissextile,
or leap year; and, after the 4th of July, the 79th year of American Independence.
Containing 365 days. Philadelphia: Joseph McDowell, [1854]. Square 8vo. 34,
[2] pp.; illus.
$37.50
Click the image for an enlargement.
Title-page decorated with vignette consisting of an eagle clasping
arrows and an olive branch in its talons and holding a banner with the national
motto in its beak, while shooting stars form the background. Each month is accompanied
by woodcuts showing scenes of farm life; an additional full-page woodcut shows
a young boy feeding a dog. Last page includes the publisher’s advertisement.
This includes, among other interesting morsels historical, moral, and agricultural,
a long essay on
shooting
stars.
Later sewing; spine reinforced with archival tissue. Title-page
and last page with shallow tears in blank area of outer margin. Shallow dog-ears,
occasional edge chips. Small hole on pp. 27/28, touching but not costing three
letters. Light foxing. (27818)

English
Tree-Tending/ Formal,
Mathematical Planting
Cook, Moses. The manner of raising, ordering, and improving forest-trees: With directions how to plant, make, and keep woods, walks, avenues, lawns, hedges, &c. London: Pr. for Eliz. Bell, John Darby, Arthur Bettesworth, et al., 1724. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.75"). Frontis. (incl. in pagination), xx, 273, [3] pp.; 4 fold. plts.
$900.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Acclaimed and influential treatise by Cook, head gardener to the Earl of Essex and a professional nurseryman. This is the stated third edition, corrected, following the first of 1676; it includes “Rules and Tables shewing how the Ingenious Planter may measure Superficial Figures, divide Woods or Land, and measure Timber and other solid Bodies, either by Arithmetick or Geometry: With the Uses of that excellent Line, the Line of Numbers, by several new Examples; and many other Rules, useful for most Men.”
The volume is illustrated with a
lovely copper-engraved frontispiece depicting tree-fellers at work and with four folding plans showing how to calculate the scale and design of landscape features. At the back of the work is a brief overview of the rules for making cider, and an additional recipe for birch beer (alcoholic) is given in the chapter on birches.
ESTC T131054; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 6265. 18th-century calf, covers framed in double blind fillets with blind roll along joint, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and date labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; joints and portions of spine leather unobtrusively repaired, edges and extremities rubbed, sides with a bit of light scuffing, gilt mildly rubbed. Scattered faint foxing, most pages clean. (30312)
“Very
Useful for Such
as are Curious in
Planting
& Grafting”
Cotton,
Charles. The planters manual: Being instructions for the raising, planting, and cultivating all sorts of fruit-trees, whether stone-fruits or pepin-fruits, with their natures and seasons. London: Henry Brome, 1675. 8vo (16.3 cm, 6.4"). Add. engr. t.-p., [6], 139, [5 (4 adv.)] pp.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of this first English translation of Robert Triquet's classic treatise on stone and pome fruits, including lists of varietals, their uses, and how best to grow them — including grafting and espaliering techniques. The author, a poet as well as an ardent outdoorsman and naturalist, may be best remembered for his friendship with Izaak Walton, to whose Compleat Angler he added a second part. Here, interestingly, he prefaces this translation from the French with a diatribe against the “effeminate manners, luxurious kickshaws, and fantastick fashions” (p. [5]) making their way into England from France.
The added engraved title-page is signed “F.H. Van Houe fecit,” marking this as the earlier state of the engraving.
ESTC R18563; Wing (rev. ed.) C6388. Full period-style Cambridge mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in blind fillets and dotted rolls with blind-tooled corner fleurons, board edges with gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped title, etc., and spine compartments gilt extra. All edges marbled. Pages mildly cockled and gently age-toned, otherwise clean.
A very attractive copy, and a nice snapshot of period pomology. (30099)

“New, Useful, & Entertaining”
Daboll,
Nathan. New-England almanac, for the year ... 1808 ... By Nathan
Daboll. New-London [Conn.]: Pr. by Ebenezer P. Cady, [1807]. 12mo. [18] ff.
$75.00
Representing the Farmer's Weekly Museum 1796
[Dennie, Joseph]. The lay preacher; or short sermons, for idle readers. Walpole, NH: David Carlisle, Jr., 1796. 12mo (17 cm, 6.75"). 132 pp.
$400.00
First collected edition of these pieces, most of which originally
appeared in the Farmer's Weekly Museum, "a rural paper of Newhampshire"
per Dennie and "one of the best New England papers of its day" according to
the DAB. The author, who quickly abandoned a mediocre legal career
but enjoyed an extended stint as one of the fashionable literati of the time,
produced a fair number of Federalist writings; his bent towards political commentary
is partially but not wholly submerged in these short, often humorous religious
exhortations. A good example is the essay on the text "Little children, keep
yourselves from idols," which tarries briefly with the topic of women's fascination
with the looking-glass before moving on to the more exciting "Green Draggons
of sedition," which are responsible for encouraging Americans to "forget WASHINGTON
. . . your first love" and to dabble in "scribbling saucy toasts, and
vamping rash resolves against the treaties and laws of your land" (p. 37).
Provenance: Front fly-leaf
is inscribed "P Doddridge to his sister Harriett" in an early hand. There
is a Doddridge County in New Hampshire, but who "P" and "Harriett" were, we
cannot say.
ESTC W20627; BAL 4633; Evans 30335; Sabin 19585. On
Dennie, see: Dictionary of American Biography, V, 23537. Contemporary
mottled sheep rebacked with plain cloth, abraded (most notably over edges
and corners); hinges taped (inside) some time ago. Some offsetting and a few
scattered light spots; one page with portion of text insufficiently inked
during printing. Chip out of one page margin, just touching but not obscuring
outermost letters. (4706)
CRANBERRIES
Eastwood, B. A complete manual for the cultivation of the cranberry, with a description of the best varieties. New York: C.M. Saxton, Barker, & Co., 1860. 8vo. Engr. t.-p., 120 pp; 9 plts.
$125.00

Early reprint, following the first edition of 1856.
Publisher's embossed cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; corners and spine extremities showing minor wear, with gilt oxidized. Front free endpaper with pencilled inscription; some page edges with small blotches.
Binding very handsome in its subtle way. Impossible! to get a good image of! (12986)

Attracting Danes (& Norwegians?) to the
Dakota Territory
(Emigrants' Guide). Den for udvandrere til Amerika mest lovende plads er for tiden den sydøstlige deel af Dakota. Hvorledes man kan reise derhen og hvad man kan gjøre der. Trykt for Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul jernbane-compagniets regning efter manuskript fra Amerika. Köpenhamn: K J. P. Hvidbergs bogtrykkeri, 1883. 12mo. 31, [1] pp.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
An advertising brochure issued by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway company and published in Copenhagen aimed at prospective Danish emigrants headed for Dakota territory, with information on soil, climate, communications, and population, this also tells about terms and conditions for acquiring land. And, of course, it includes the always popular
letters of recommendation from earlier settlers. The last page bears an advertisement for the “steamship company Thingvalla,” allegedly the only shipping company that offered
a direct connection between Norway and America.Searches of NUC and WorldCat locates
no copies.
Removed from a nonce volume. Minor foxing towards the end. Nice copy. (31383)
In
a Nice Green Wrapper
The
Family Christian almanac for the United States, for
the year of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 1844 ... calculated for Boston,
New-York, Baltimore, and Charleston. Astronomical calculations, in equal or
clock time, by David Young, Hanover, New-Jersey. ; Boston, lat. 42° 21’
N. Long. 71° 4’ W. N. York, lat 40° 42’ 40". Long. 74°
1’. Baltimore, lat. 39° 17’. Long. 76° 38’. Charleston,
lat. 32° 47’. Long. 79° 57’. New York: American Tract Society;
D. Fanshaw, pr., [1843]. 12mo. 35, [1] pp.; illus., music.
$35.00
The two wood engravings in the text are signed “Hooper” (W.W. Hooper?). Front
wrapper exists in two states: State 1 has vignette of farmhouse, cart, and ship landing; state 2 has
vignette of mowers in a field. This copy is of state 2.
Click the image for an enlargement.
The two wood engravings in the text are signed “Hooper” (W.W. Hooper?). Front
wrapper exists in two states: State 1 has vignette of farmhouse, cart, and ship landing; state 2 has
vignette of mowers in a field. This copy is of state 2.
This features tidbits on A Religious Home, The Persecuted Waldenses, the United States
Mail (a distributor of pernicious literature), Drugged Liquors, Missions, and how to make Apple
Molasses — etc.
Not in American Imprints?; Drake 8049.
Publisher's green printed wrappers with vignette and a publisher’s catalogue. A good++ copy.
(27934)

“The Yaks are Strong & Hardy”
Gerard, Alexander. Account of Koonawur in the Himalaya,
etc. etc. etc. London: James Madden & Co., 1841. 8vo (23 cm, 9"). xiii, [3], 190, [2], [195]–308 (i.e.,
310), xxvi, [2 (adv.)] pp.; 1 fold. map.
$1750.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition: Description of the Kannaur (or Kunáwár) region of the Himalayas, taken from the late Capt. Gerard's papers and edited by George Lloyd. Charles William Wason, in the Monthly Review (1841 collected volume), opened his review of this work by saying “CaptainAlexander Gerard, and his brother Dr. J.G. Gerard, have been deservedly ranked amongst the most enterprising scientific travellers to whom Great Britain has given birth,” and he went on to predict that this volume “will be regarded as a precious contribution to science, and to geographical knowledge.”
Gerard's observations cover botany, linguistics, culture, and commerce, as well as geography. The area of his travels is depicted by an oversized, folding map of his own design.
NSTC 2G5453; Howgego, II, G7. Contemporary brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; rebacked and 95% of original spine reapplied, with the publisher's name at the foot of the spine chipped. Front pastedown and back of map each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings), front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated [18]49. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Last preface page with small inked annotation. Pages slightly age-toned; map with light offsetting and one short tear starting along fold, not touching image. (24291)

Industrial
*&* Domestic
Arts in
Ancient Times
Illustrated,
Informative,
Very Prettily
Bound
Gilroy, Clinton G. Pastoral life and manufactures of the ancients. New York: Pr. for the proprietor by William H. Starr, 1868. 8vo (23.9 cm, 9.4"). xxii, [2], 464 pp.; 10 plts. (1 double), 1 col. map.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
NSTC 2G8697; Goldsmiths'-Kress 34096.14 (for earlier ed.). Publisher's green textured cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped vignette of a girl in ethnic dress holding a spindle, spine with gilt-stamped title and sheep, moth, and goat motifs; corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed, spine gilt rubbed in spots, covers with small spots of discoloration. All edges gilt. Ex–social club library with its old round rubber-stamp on title-page, recto of one plate, and two other pages; call number on endpapers; no other markings. Scattered faint spots of foxing, pages mostly clean. (27720)
Guridi
y Alcocer vs.
Lopez
de Cancelada
Guridi y Alcocer,
José Miguel. Censor Extraordinario. Contestación de
don José Miguel Guridi Alcocer lo que contra él y los Derechos
de las Cortes se ha vertido en los números 13 y 14 del Telégrafo
americano.... [colophon: Cadiz: En la impr. de Don Agapito Fernandez Figueroa,
1812]. 4to (20 cm; 7.5"). 47, [1 (blank)] pp.
$725.00
Click
the image for an enlargement.
Guridi y Alcocer was a Mexican representative to the Spanish Cortes.
Juan López de Cancelada was a member of the Consulado de Mexico. This
put the two men immediately at odds, for each group loathed the other. López
de Cancelada had something of an upper hand when seeking to smear Guridi y Alcocer
and the other Mexican deputies to the Cortes for he owned and was publisher
of a newspaper, El Telégrafo Americano, at Cadiz.
Guridi y Alcocer here defends himself and various of his statements in the
Cortes from Cancelada's attacks in that newspaper, both personal and political.
Guridi sought to open the (whole) New World to free trade, arguing for free
access to European seeds, plant stocks, and exports generally. He also sought
administrative reform, reduction in regulations, and the ending of colonial
status.
WorldCat locates only two copies Worldwide.
Palau 111215; Sutro 87. Removed from a nonce volume.
One small tear in a margin, repaired. Clean and nice. (26042)

More than One Lifetime's Worth of Adventure & Interesting Ideas
Harriott, John. Struggles through life, exemplified in the various travels and adventures in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, of John Harriott, Esq. London: Pr. for the author, 1815. 12mo (18 cm, 7.1"). 3 vols. I: Frontis., xvxv, [1], 443, [1] pp. II: xii, 428, [2] pp. III: vii, [1], 479, [1] pp. (lacking pp. 69–72); 1 fold. plt., 1 plt.
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Autobiography of
one
of the founders of the Thames police, a clever and independent
mariner who went adventuring around the world before settling down to become
an Essex justice of the peace and eventually Resident Magistrate of the Thames
River Police (a.k.a. the Marine Police Force, sometimes called England's
first official police force). Here he looks back on his remarkably varied youthful
escapades, including travelling in the merchant-service, visiting “the
Savages in North America,” meeting the King of Denmark, serving in the
East India Company's military service, and narrowly escaping such dangers as
tigers, poisonous snakes, floods, fires, and scamming fathers-in-law. If the
narrator is to be believed, the two issues that caused him the chiefest distress
in life were pecuniary difficulties and other people's unchivalrous treatment
of women. He also has much to say about law and business in the New World and
the Old, slavery in America, forcible incarceration in private madhouses (with
excerpts from a first-person account of such), and
the
nature of farming in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, as well
as the state of affairs in Washington, DC, and, of course, the history of the
creation of the Thames police.
Vol. I opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the author, done by Henry
Cook after Hervé; vol. III is illustrated with an
oversized,
folding plate of a water-engine intended for millwork, devised
by the author, and a plate of another of his inventions: the automated “chamber
fire escape”, which enables anyone to lower him- or herself from a high
window. This is the third edition, following the first of 1807.
NSTC H625; Sabin 30461. Contemporary speckled sheep,
spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; vol. I with joints and extremities
refurbished, vols. II and III with spines and edges rubbed, old strips of
library tape reinforcing spine heads. Ex–social club library: 19th-century
bookplates, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, vols.
II and III with paper shelving labels at top of spines (vol. I showing signs
of now-absent label). Vol. I title-page with offsetting from frontispiece;
vol. III with pp. 69–72 excised (two leaves of a rather long religious-themed
letter from Harriott to his son) and with upper portion of one leaf crumpled,
reinforced some time ago. Some light age-toning, intermittent small spots
of foxing and ink-staining, pages generally clean.
Utterly
absorbing. (30651)

Everything
You Need to Know
about the
Healthy
Joys of Country Life
— from a
Literary Lawyer's Perspective
Jacob,
Giles. The country gentleman's vade mecum. London: William
Taylor, 1717. 12mo (15.8 cm, 6.25"). Frontis., [10], 132 pp.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Sole
edition of this useful and eminently portable overview
of practical topics such as animal husbandry, hunting, fishing, gardening (including
care of fruit and other types of trees), and the cost of timber and stone as
well as labor for carpenters, masons, or glaziers — along with rules for
management of a large family, and a seasonal calendar which includes monthly
good health practices. The volume opens with a copper-engraved frontispiece
depicting a well-laid-out country estate with formal garden, frolicking deer
in the woods, and laborers at work in the fields; towards the back of the volume
are a compilation of thoughts on natural philosophy, “A General Description
of England, and particularly of London; with an Account of the Taxes, Revenues,
Government, Great Offices, and Courts of Judicature of England, &c.,”
and a poem “In Praise of a Country Life.”
Jacob (1686–1744) was a legal writer known for his Every Man His Own Lawyer. He
also dabbled in poetry, drama, and literary criticism; in the same year as the present work's
appearance, he published a parody called The Rape of the Smock, and was subsequently
immortalized by Pope's unkind remarks regarding both his grammar and his status as “the
Blunderbuss of Law.”
ESTC T90927; Goldsmiths’ 5344. On Jacob, see: Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography online. Contemporary mottled sheep,
framed and panelled in blind, rebacked with very complementary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped title, author, and date; minor scuffing now nicely refurbished and front hinge (inside)
unobtrusively reinforced. Pages mildly age-toned and cockled, with a few instances of light
staining towards back of volume; one early pencilled correction. Last few leaves with upper
outer corners torn away, touching a few page numbers and in one case one letter. Overall a solid
and pleasing copy. (30232)
ILLUSTRATED
ALMANAC
Low, Nathanael. Low's almanack, and astronomical and agricultural register; for the year of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 1819. Boston: Munroe & Francis, [1818]. 12mo. [36] pp.; illus.
[SOLD]
Click
the images for enlargement.
Low (1740–1808) was a New England physician and astronomer
who founded his popular almanac in 1762; it survived him by 19 years, ending
its run in 1827. The present 1819 edition, which includes an agricultural calendar,
features a total of 16 woodcut illustrations — 12 in the astronomical
portion (several of which are signed “B”), along with the title-page
astrological vignette, a cut of a rural cottage, an image of the common water-plantain
for reference in an article on that plant's use to cure rabies, and a woodcut
of a floating balloon bedecked with waving American flags accompanying the poem
“Balloon
Voyage across the Irish Channel” supposedly by “Windham
Sadler, jun.” — a near-reference to the aeronaut who in 1812 attempted
a cross of the Irish Channel.
Provenance: Inscription
of “Henry M. Pierce / Jersey City / NJ.”
Shaw & Shoemaker 44628; Drake, Almanacs, 3826.
Recent limp navy cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and date; extremities
very slightly rubbed, otherwise very clean and fresh. Front free endpaper
with inked ownership inscription as above. Pages age-toned with a few scattered
spots; some pages trimmed closely, with headers occasionally touched but not
taken. Nice! (29641)
Kay's
Improved
& Enlarged
Edition of
the
Universal
Receipt Book
[A Best-Selling How-To
Guide]
Mackenzie,
Colin. Mackenzie's
five thousand receipts in all the useful and domestic arts: Constituting a complete
practical library ... A new American, from the latest London edition. With numerous
and important additions generally; and the medical part carefully revised and
adapted to the climate of the U. States; and also a new and most copious index.
By an American physician. Philadelphia: James Kay, Jr. & Bro., and Pittsburgh:
C.H. Kay & Co., (© 1829). 8vo (22 cm, 8.6"). 456 pp.; illus.
$160.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Early U.S. edition: All-encompassing compendium of 19th-century
practical knowledge — anything you can't do using instructions from this
manual, you probably shouldn't be trying in the first place, though one assumes
that in many cases there are more effective modern means now established! The
work starts out with metallurgy (including everything you need to know in order
to assay the value of silver, cast bronze finely, or color steel blue), proceeds
to art (make your own crayons, or paint a miniature on ivory), and ranges to
subjects such as farriery, tanning,
horticulture,
and husbandry, before closing with an assortment of miscellanea not covered
by any previous header. Culinary topics include brewing, wine-making, preserving,
and confectionary, as well as good basic recipes for such classics as potted
beef, quince pudding, mock turtle soup, and “tomata catsup”; the
carving appendix is illustrated with in-text wood engravings. The medicine section
is quite lengthy, and covers ailments both mild and severe.
Five Thousand Receipts was first printed in America in 1826, and enjoyed
as enthusiastic a reception in the United States as it previously had in England.
This is the fourth American edition, here in the Kay variant giving “122
Chestnut Street – near 4th” as the publisher's address.
Provenance: Francis
Kelsey, New York City.
Bitting 299; Lowenstein 122; Shoemaker 39366. Contemporary
sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations;
worn and abraded, joints open and fragile, front cover darkened, leather lost
at spine extremities. Front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription;
front fly-leaf with small hole and pencilled annotations. Pages with varying
degrees of age-toning and spotting, several signatures deeply browned. Some
corners dog-eared. One leaf with upper outer corner torn away, with loss of
a few words; one leaf with tear from lower margin extending into text without
loss; one leaf with internal closed tear, without loss. Used, as this usually
was! (27405)

Science Balanced Out with
Angelic Photographs
Mellin's Food Company. The home modification of cow's milk. Boston: Mellin's Food Co., 1908. 8vo. 60, [2] pp.; illus.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Early edition: Instructions on how to adapt cow's milk for the use of human infants, focusing on the benefits of the Mellin's Food additive. The text, of which much is dedicated to chemical analysis, is illustrated with numerous photographic portraits of babies and children nurtured on Mellin's Food–enhanced milk, labelled with the children's names — and also with artistic evocations of the joys of farm life, bearing poetic captions.
Publisher's tan cloth, front cover with title and Art Nouveau decorative design (unsigned) stamped in brown and dark blue; spine and front cover with a trio of tiny spots and edges significantly darkened, the discoloration just touching outer edges of title stamping. Pages still clean; children's pictures
still adorable. (29815)

Making Meat into a
Balanced Meal
National Live Stock & Meat Board. Food combinations: Meat and what to serve with it. Chicago: National Live Stock & Meat Board, [1928]. 8vo. 16 pp.; illus.
$45.00

1928 revision of this uncommon promotional pamphlet from the National
Live Stock & Meat Board, with color-printed charts of beef, veal, pork,
and lamb cuts. The menus offer suggestions for starchy foods, succulent or green
vegetables, and sauces or accompaniments to go alongside various meat preparations,
since “nearly all meals are built around meat” (p. 2). The pamphlet
also includes time charts for cooking different cuts.
Click
the image for an enlargement.
Not in Brown, Culinary Americana. Publisher's
printed paper wrappers; pamphlet creased once vertically, slightly age-toned
overall. (26062)
For
COOKERY, click here.

Under No Circumstance Permit
U.S. Flour, Soap, or Lard into Our Country
P., F.J. [drop-title] Ligeras reflecciones sobre una de las principales causas de la miseria pública. [colophon: Mexico: Imprenta de la Testamentaria del finado Valdes, 1834]. Small 4to (19 cm; 7.5"). 12 pp.
$550.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
A thoughtful yet anything but even-handed analysis of the principal causes of the financial crisis that was Mexico in 1834: too many government sinecures, the destruction of the traditional hacienda system, unequal trade agreements, inadequately documented loans from foreign banks, the tobacco monopoly being bankrupt, and what F.J.P. regards as “the
drunkenness and laziness” of the average Mexican. The analysis also strongly defends the Church and its wealth and dismisses the idea of the idea of mortmain as existing in Mexico.
This author wants trade barriers and tariffs, says the new textile machinery benefits the few not the many, demands that imports from the U.S. should be stopped, and so on.
Clearly, besides being a defender of Church wealth and of the Church as a major economic player, he is an isolationist, a xenophobe, and a powerful writer!
Searches of NUC and WorldCat find
no copies in any U.S. libraries.
The nice little tailpiece here depicts an elegant Lady Commerce (or Industry?).
Not in Sutro. Removed from a nonce volume. Very good condition. (32051)
Breeding
Neat Cattle
[Pennsylvania
Agricultural Society]. Hints for American husbandmen, with communications
to the Pennsylvania Agricultural Society. Philadelphia: Clark & Raser, 1827.
8vo (22.8 cm, 9"). [178] pp.; 3 plts. (of 4; also lacking frontis.).
$450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Uncommon collection of essays and letters on topics relating to
the maintenance of cattle and sheep, including the growing of various grasses,
grains, and root crops; fat content in milk; and principles of "improved breeding."
Shorthorn breeder John Hare Powel contributed a number of pieces (the DAB
actually attributes this entire volume to him), and the productivity of his
cows served as inspiration for an article by three other members of the society.
Also present are pedigrees of certain animals from the Herd Book, as well as
engraved plates depicting a sheep, a type of plough, and Bennett's machine.
Shoemaker 30185; on Powel, see: Dictionary of American Biography,
XV, 14344. Contemporary paper wrappers, front with printed paper label
and separated from spine but present; chipping, soiling, and pencilling, with
staining especially to lower edge of front wrapper. Pages untrimmed; varying
degrees of foxing and staining; lacking frontispiece and one plate —
a still-interesting volume priced according to its faults.

The Father of “The Father of American Surgery”
Nails Down a Land Deal
Physick, Edmund. Manuscript Document Signed. Philadelphia: 15 September 1773. Oblong 12mo (3" x 7.75). 1 p.
$250.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Edmund Physick was the father of Philip Syng Physick, who is acknowledged as the “Father of American Surgery.” Edmund was the “Keeper of the Great Seal” for the Penn family, which meant he managed the Penn properties and interests in the colonies. In fact, at one point during the Revolution Edmund negotiated a treaty between British General Howe and George Washington that halted fighting on one of the Penn family properties outside of Philadelphia. Here he issues a receipt to Thomas Shields for £24 15s “curr[e]nt money of Pennsylvania in lieu of fifteen pounds sterling for 300 acres of land on both sides of Corking Creek & adjoining land applied for by Lancelot Johnson in North[umberlan]d County to be Surveyed to him by Warr[an]t.”
Provenance: With pencilled dealer's code of Sessler's on the verso; in the collection of Philadelphia collector Robert R. Dearden, Jr.
Very good condition. Written in a very clear hand. With pencilled dealer's code on the verso. (29105)

Around EUROPE in
Six LARGE Volumes & MANY PLATES
Pinkerton, John. A general collection of the best and most interesting voyages and travels, in all parts of the world; many of which are now first translated into English. Philadelphia: Kimber & Conrad (pr. by Brown & Merritt), 1810–12. 4to (28.2 cm, 11.1"). 6 vols. I: [4], 851, [1] pp.; 8 plts., 1 fold. map. II: [4], 833, [3] pp.; 11 plts., 1 fold. map. III: [4], 810 pp.; 9 plts. IV: [4], 831, [1] pp.; 21 plts. V: [4], pp.; 13 plts. VI: [4], 913, [1] pp.; 4 plts.
$1000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First American edition of “a collection of great merit and importance,” according to Sabin: an extensive gathering of travelogue and exploration highlights including Willoughby's voyages to northern Russia and Siberia, Regnard's journey to Lapland, Maupertius's voyage to the polar circle, shipwreck accounts, Phipps's journal, Lister's and Young's travels in France, Spallanzani's travels in the two Sicilies, an account of Spain's early commerce with America, Gonzales's voyage to England and Scotland, Hassel's tour of the Isle of Wight, etc. The whole was compiled by a celebrated cartographer and antiquarian, and first published in London in 1808–14. This first U.S. edition ran to only six volumes, compared to the 17 of the original, and was never completed; containing everything promised above and more, it closes with “End of Europe.”
These volumes are illustrated with a total of
68 plates, including two folding maps; present here are the “Death of Sir Hugh Willoughby,” done by B. Tanner after R. Corbould, “Scene in Lapland” by Peter Maverick, “A Norwegian killing a Bear” by J. Boyd, Laplanders and a “magical drum” by W. Kneass, Samoieds (one bearing a baby on her back) by S. Seymour, “Lady of Iceland” by Kneass, “A Spanish Inn” by B. Tanner, and many others. The United Kingdom is represented with views of St. Michael's Mount, Stonehenge, and other picturesque locations (“Lake of Killarney” by W. Harrison), as well as minute descriptions of the beauties of Wentworth Castle among other architectural attractions. Incorporated throughout the various texts are accounts of mining,
farming, commerce, quirky medical customs, fishing practices, superstitions and divinatory techniques, religious and cultural conflicts, etc.
Library Company, Afro-Americana, 8233; NSTC P1878 (first ed.); Sabin 62957; Shaw & Shoemaker 21090. Contemporary treed sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels; mild scuffing, chipping, and rubbing with some unobtrusive refurbishing; some volumes with leather (only) cracked across joints and one or two with joints themselves starting to crack though all are safe for comfortable use with care. Pastedowns each with 19th-century social club library bookplate (and no stamps), front fly-leaves with early inked shelving number. Pages age-toned with intermittent light staining, mild to moderate foxing, and offsetting from plates; some pages and plates in vol. I with outer portions waterstained; a number of plates darkened; folding map in vol. I with outer portion waterstained and outer margin slightly tattered. One leaf in vol. III with short tear from outer margin, touching text without loss; one leaf in vol. V torn halfway across, without obscuring sense. A handsome and solid copy of a significant work, its volumes
large enough to be impressive and not too large for the lap. (32013)

Dealing Judicially with
Contraband Smugglers
Portugal. Sovereign (1750–77, Joseph). [drop-title] Eu El rey. Faço saber aos que este alvará virem: que tendo mostrado a experiencia as demoras, e embaraços, que ha, por occorrencia de outras dependencias, na execuçaõ das penas impostas aos contrabandos.... [Lisbon]: No publisher/printer, 1764. Folio (29 cm; 11.5"). [1] f., i.e., [2] pp.
$350.00

By this Alvará (13 September 1764) the king addresses matters of jurisdiction in cases against dealers in contraband sugar. (“Alvará, porque V. Magestade ha por bem ordenar que as diligencias preparatorias dos processos verbaes dos Contrabandos, apprehendidos na Alfandegado do assucar da cidade de Lisboa, se fação per ante o Juiz Conservador geral do Commercio. . . . ”)
There are two issues: in this issue on p. [1], the catchword is “hendidos,” and in the other catchword is “hendi-.”
WorldCat locates only the copy at the John Carter Brown Library.
Removed from a volume. Light brown stain in lower margin and an even lighter stain in top one; old foliation number neatly inked in upper outer corner of recto. A good exemplar. (28246)

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.
$1250.00
Interest in the production of silk in the New World began with the Spaniards in the 16th century, though despite the best efforts of many in Mexico, the enterprise came to naught. Either undaunted by or unaware of the failure of these earlier efforts, the English in the 18th century attempted the introduction of sericulture into their regions of North America. This early English treatise on the possibilities of silk culture in British North America was aimed at planters and owners of land on which the essential mulberry trees could be planted, and entrepeneurs looking to enter a new business at ground level.
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.

Three Plates with Cottage Designs
(Rural
Housing Issues). Third annual report of the directors
of the Association for Promoting Improvement in the Dwellings and Domestic Condition
of Agricultural Labourers in Scotland. Edinburgh: Pr. for the Association by
William Blackwood & Sons, 1857.
$139.50
Click the images for enlargement.
Uncommon pamphlet, detail-packed as to both present housing realities and desirable changes, illustrated with three plates containing plans and elevations for cottage designs
by architect William Fowler.
NSTC 2A17980 (for all years 1855–61). Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with small inked numeral in upper outer corner, otherwise clean. (17033)

Simple
Title. Pretty
Fascinating Reading.
Smith, Edward. Foods. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1873. 8vo. Frontis., xvi, 485, [1], 14 (adv.) pp.; 8 plts. (1 fold.).
$75.00

First U.S. edition, from the “International Scientific Series”: scientific examination of the cultivation and properties of a wide variety of foods, including tea, coffee, and wine. The volume, which includes several 14th-century recipes, is illustrated with plates and in-text wood engravings.
Click the images for enlargements.
Original edition, not a modern reprint.
Publisher's oxblood cloth, covers decoratively stamped in black, spine black- and gilt-stamped; corners and spine extremities rubbed, sides with small areas of minor discoloration, spine sunned with paper shelving label at head, a little cocked. Ex–social club library: call number on endpapers, rubber-stamp on title-page and four others. Final blank leaf excised. Clean, sound for use. (27367)
(Soapmaking
Scrapbook). Manuscript/print extracts on paper, in English. [Northeast
U.S., 1899–1902]. 8vo (20.3 cm, 8"). [106 (44 blank)] ff.
$175.00
Florilegium of late 19th– and early 20th–century science pertaining to soapmaking, composed of both hand-inscribed material and clippings from various periodicals. In addition to such articles as “The Specific Heat of Glycerin Waste Lyes and Crude Glycerin,” the volume contains an advertisement for a patented soap frame, chemical analyses of various soap-related commercial products, information on running a boiler room efficiently, and
statistics
regarding the fat yield of a steer; also present are occasional motivational pieces entirely unrelated to soap.
Pebbled cloth, lightly worn. Leaves with minor cockling, some staining and offsetting. Some pages with portions excised; one leaf excised entirely.

War with England => Free Trade in American Corn & Wheat
Spain. Laws, statutes, etc. Real provision de su magestad, y señores del consejo, por la que se declara que el comercio de granos ultramarinos debe quedar libre.... Zaragoza: Imprenta Real, 1771. Folio. [4] pp.
$275.00
Click the images for enlargements.

Omens & Charms — Signs & Dreams
Spofford, Thomas. The Yankee. The Farmer’s almanack for the year of our Lord and Saviour 1832 ... Calculated for the meridian of Boston, (Mass.) lat. 42° 21’ north, but will serve for any of the states of New England; for New York, and Michigan Territory. .../ By Thomas Spofford. [7 lines of verse]. Boston: Willard Felt & Co. sold by him, and by David Felt, 1831. 12mo. 36 pp.
$25.00
At head of title: An astronomical diary for 1832. Vol. 2. No. 8. Whole no. 16. Title vignette. Poetry, anecdotes, “omens, charms, and divination”; also, “signs, dreams, &c.” Last page contains a stationers’ advertisement by the publishers.
Click the image for an enlargement.
Drake 4017. Uncut, stitched, partly unopened. (21434)
Tull, Jethro. The horse-hoing husbandry: Or, an essay on the principles of tillage and vegetation.... London: Pr. for the author, and sold by G. Strahan, T. Woodward, A. Miller, J. Stagg, and J. Brindley, 1733. Folio (30.2 cm, 11.875"). [4], x, 200 pp.; pp. [201–202]. 6 fold-out plts. [bound with] Tull, Jethro. A supplement to the essay on horse-hoing husbandry.... London: Pr. for and sold by the author, and may be had at Mr. Mills's, London, at John Aitkins's, Esq, in Edinburgh, and at the Bear in Hungerford, Berks., 1736. Folio. pp. [203–205], 206–69; [1] pp.
$1500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Improvements in farming founded on a scientific basis made British agriculture one of the strongest in Europe in the 18th century. Though called to the bar, Jethro Tull (1674–1741) never practiced law, but devoted himself to farming on land that had belonged to his father. From the beginning he set about trying to discover ways of doing things better, including inventing a number of implements, as this work reveals both in text and in image. His work proved very successful—Tull’s “seed drills” revolutionized planting techniques—and it saw a number of editions; it was translated into French, whence it proved influential on the Continent. This volume’s
six beautifully engraved, pleasantly intelligible plates (“W. Thorpe, sculp.) illustrate some of Tull’s inventions, including improved plows and drills for planting seeds.

First printed in London in 1731, Horse-hoing is here (likely) the fourth edition. Bound with it is the first edition of the interesting Supplement issued in 1736, directed largely to answering Tull’s detractors. The first title is fairly widely held, in libraries; the latter, much less so.
Goldsmiths’-Kress 7065; ESTC T81915 and N24607. Contemporary calf with remnants of gilt; dry, flaking, and partially gone to red, with some chips to edges, corners, and spine tips; old repairs to joints. Remnants of bookplate on front pastedown. Old water/mildew damage to lower margins, occasionally making its way a bit into text; several leaves repaired, long since. Plates generally quite clean and always pleasing, with faintest waterstaining to lower portion of plate 6 (only). All edges speckled red. (11286)

“Horse-Hoeing”
— COBBETT's
Introduction
Tull, Jethro. The horse-hoeing husbandry: or, a treatise on the principles of tillage and vegetation, wherein is taught a method of introducing a sort of vineyard culture into the corn-fields, in order to increase their product and diminish the common expense. By Jethro Tull. London: William Cobbett, 1829. 8vo. xxiv, 466 pp., 1 plt. (included in pagination).
$300.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Second Cobbett edition of this work on scientific farming that was first published in 1731 to some little controversy concerning “plagarism.” This edition contains William Cobbett's lengthy introduction “explanatory of some circumstances connected with the History and Division of the Work; and containing an account of certain experiments of recent date.” Illustrated with a single full-page woodcut diagram accompanying the chapter on roots.
Published at the beginning of renewed interest in the U.S. and England in “scientific agriculture.”
Goldsmiths'-Kress 25812. Publisher's blind-embossed green cloth, rebacked with much of old spine unobtrusively reapplied. Binding a little soiled and spine darkened with gilt of title dimmed; tips of corners chipped. Instances of dust-soiling at some top margins; one leaf with loss and soiling along outer edge without affecting text. Ex-library with old rubber-stamp on the title-page and several other pages. (24439)
Vanière, Jacques. Praedium rusticum. Editio nova longè auctior & emendatior. Tolosæ: Petrum Robert, 1742. 12mo (17.3 cm, 6.8"). [4] ff., 319, [7 (index)] pp.
$350.00
Attractive edition of the Jesuit Vanière's agriculturally themed neo-Latin poetry, originally published in 1696. This printing features woodcut headpieces, along with decorative capitals and a title-page vignette. Goldsmiths’-Kress 7892.2; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VIII, 444. Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding scuffed and rubbed, with leather cracking over joints and spine extremities chipped. All edges speckled red. Front free endpaper and fly-leaf partially affixed to front pastedown; front pastedown with inked initials. Pages beautifully clean.
Ybrillos, Spain. Ecclesiastical Cabildo. Manuscript. On paper, in Spanish. Calahorra, 12 July 1750. Folio (31 cm; 12.25"). [17] ff. [bound with and after] Castildelgado, Spain. Manuscript. On paper, in Spanish. Castildelgado, 22 April 1664. Folio (31 cm; 12.25"). [10] ff.
$575.00
The ecclesiastical cabildo presents for approval its revised statutes as per the bishop’s request. The first version had failed to address the question of burials: The new statutes do so.
The
Castildelgado document is the settling of a dispute with the town of Ybrillos
over pasturing rights.
Bound in limp vellum with remnants of ties. Written in clear notarial hands. A very little tattering; in very good condition.

See
also, perhaps, GARDENING
click here.
Or click here
for a database including 
not in PRB&M's
illustrated catalogues . . .
keywords,
e.g. = AGRICULTUR, FARM, PLANTATION .
. .
possibly
excepting
the term, ALMANAC . . .
if these are not wanted?