Provenance:  Front fly-leaf with pencilled inscription: “Sarah & Thomas [/] From Father E [/] 'Merry Christmas' [/] 1864.” Later in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  Bound as above, a little very light rubbing; gilt bright. Some offsetting to guard leaves and minimal foxing to margins of some plates — actually, remarkably little! A clean and attractive copy of this aesthetically pleasing collection.  (39861)

•  Wright, II, 2174; Sabin 78641.   Publisher's brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with star-shaped design, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decoration; binding cocked and rubbed, spine extremities chipped. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call number on pastedown and fly-leaf, front free endpaper lacking, title-page pressure-stamped. No other markings. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (26565)

Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, front cover with black-stamped hunting scene and title framed in gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding as above, corners and spine head lightly rubbed. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages clean.  (27113)

Binding:  Publisher's light yellow cloth decoratively stamped in maroon and dark green, front cover with color-printed pictorial paper onlay, in color-printed dust jacket as above. Cover and jacket sport three-quarter portraits of a charming, intelligent-looking young woman of the period; not the SAME girl, however!

•  This ed. not in Wright; see Wright, III, 5090 for single-volume first ed.   Bound as above, volume slightly shaken, edges and spine extremities rubbed, tiny spots of insect damage to front joint; jacket darkened with spine head chipped and lower portion of spine torn away. Pages evenly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (41299)

The present martyrology, first printed in 1846, reached seven editions during the 19th century, four of them printed by Leary & Getz, the printing arm of the famous Philadelphia bookstore generally and simply known as “Leary's.” Not unexpectedly, the volume is wildly anti-Cathoic but is also an excellent example of mid-century American bookmaking in its publisher's binding, illustration, and method of printing.

The binding is the publisher's red roan in imitation of morocco. Both covers are gilt-stamped with a triple rule border at the board edges and gilt corner devices; in the center of each board is a gilt vignette of a martyrdom based on one of the plates in the text. All edges are gilt.

The illustrations are wood engravings, mostly unsigned, but a few signed “Lossing.” There are several in-text wood-engraved portraits and there are additionally24 wood-engraved plates (including the frontispiece) that have been hand colored, probably by a stencil method.

The text is printed in double-column format from stereoplates, in roman type, with an interesting six-line capital at the beginning of each chapter.

Provenance:  “Mamie C. Swinton, from 'Aunt Jennie,' August 1870.”

•  Binding as above, rubbed at board edges and joints (outside); top and bottom of spine pulled with loss of leather. Short tears in foremargins of final blank leaves; scattered foxing and some brown spotting. Over all, a good++ copy; a very good representative ofthe genre, “ugly ideas got-up beautifully.”  (37226)

•  Publisher's cloth, lettered in gilt on the front. Near fine.  (26702)

Provenance: Title-page with affixed presentation slip from the State Historical Society; front free endpaper with affixed envelope flap addressed to the Rev. E.A. Dalrymple of Baltimore, MD.

•  Publisher’s cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title. Binding sturdy but with portion of spine cloth missing, exposing underlying material; corners bumped, extremities very lightly rubbed. Front pastedown with institutional stamp. Pages slightly age-toned, else clean.

•  Cohen, Bibliography of early American Law, 12057; Sabin 90872.   As issued: Stitched in printed green wrappers.  (39221)

Stern was the life and business partner of Leona Rostenberg, their firm of Rostenberg & Stern having been one of America's most respected during the post –WWII period and known for its dealing in early printed books Dufief (1776?–1834) was a refugee from the French Revolution who from 1793 to 1818 lived in Philadelphia, where he taught French and ran a bookstore. Among the libraries he acquired was the large residue of Benjamin Franklin's!

•  New. Publisher's light brown cloth with paper spine label.  (35753)

The frontispiece portrait was engraved by James Barton Longacre (1794–1869) after the painting by Joshua Reynolds. Longacre was an American engraver of great talent: From 1844 until his death he was the Chief Engraver of the United States Mint. He is remembered for designing the Indian Head penny, the Shield nickel, the Flying Eagle cent, and other iconic coins of the mid-19th century.

Binding:  Green morocco, both covers blind-embossed with a round center medallion depicting a man and a woman (or goddess) in a garden by a greenhouse, he seated with a rake on one shoulder and a spade by his side, she standing and extending a hand to him to either give or receive a branch of fruit; medallion surmounted by a lyre and framed in elaborate acanthus and foliate motifs. Brown marbled endpapers; all edges sprinkled brown in a pattern resembling marbling.

Provenance:  Inked ownership inscription (David Scott?) dated 1963 on front fly-leaf; title-page with early inked inscription of E.R. Potter.

•  American Imprints 26935. Binding not in Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks.   Binding as above; edges and extremities rubbed, front joint tender and starting, spine slightly sunned. Ownership inscriptions as above. Intermittent mild to moderate foxing; offsetting to title-page from portrait. Aged but elegant, in a notable binding.  (38209)

Binding:  Publisher's ribbon-embossed green floral-patterned cloth of Krupp's style Ft6.

•  American Imprints 53109; Palau 322394; Sabin 91388. Not in Smith, American Travellers Abroad. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50.   Publisher's green floral-patterned cloth, spine with printed paper label; corners and spine foot rubbed, spine head pulled, paper label darkened with edges chipped. Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription; occasional pencilled annotations and marks of emphasis. Light to moderate foxing.  (25425)

The second part (pp. 267–403), which contains its own title-page, is a collection of testimonies by “inspired writers,” or Shakers professing their faith in the book's divine source.

“Read and understand all ye in mortal clay,” exhorts the title-page — “Received by the church of this communion, and published in union with the same.”

Provenance:  In the library of Colgate Rochester Divinity School; inscription on front free endpaper “To be returned to Amelia G. Mace, Office.”

•  Sabin 32664, 79708; and 90701.5 for revised collation.   Contemporary sheep, recently rebacked in plain calf with gilt-ruled bands and gilt-stamped green leather title-label. Ex-library copy, with rubber-stamp on all paper edges and p. [1]; rubber-stamped five-digit number at base of p. [iii]; inscription on front free endpaper in blue ink (see above); and faint traces of a librarian's penciling at inner margin of p. [iii] and verso of title-page. Small bookseller's ticket at lower outer corner of rear pastedown. Some foxing, especially to endpapers; offsetting from leather affecting title-page and following page, at edges; very good condition.  (24495)

The second volume contains “The Sands of the Green River” (Neith Boyce), “The Unsullied Brow of the Viceroy” (Edwin Lefévre), “The Saving of Jim Moseby” (Anthony Leland), “The Escape” (Dabney Marshall), “Dick” (Maria Louise Pool), “The Primrose Dame” (John Regnault Ellyson), “When His Majesty Nicholas Came to England” (Clinton Ross), “At 'The Temple of Unending Peace'” (Alfred Dwight Sheffield), “The Tumbrils” (Nathaniel Stephenson), “Gil Horne's Bergonzi” (Maurice Thompson), “Her Last Love” (Clarence Wellford), “A Little Boy of Dreams” (Beatrice Witte), and “The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing” (Edith Franklin Wyatt).

Bindings:  Both volumes in publisher's pinkish-tan cloth, all edges gilt. Vol. I's spine in dark blue, each cover with A.E. Borie's Art Nouveau design of a woman walking down the street while reading, stamped in black, green, yellow, and blue. Vol. II's spine in red, covers each with striking black and red reproduction of Claude Bragdon's Chap-Book poster of the “Sandwich Man”: a vignette of a bowler-hatted man in triplicate, wearing Chap-Book sandwich boards.

•  Kramer, Stone & Kimball, 119 & 168.  Vol. I: Binding as above, minimal shelfwear, faint smudging to sides. Pages with a few instances of pencilled marks of emphasis, mostly but not entirely confined to the first essay, pages otherwise clean. Vol. II: Binding as above, very slightly cocked, sides with faint spots of discoloration, light wear to extremities. Two stories with faded inked marks of emphasis, and one with a few pencilled marks; a very few small spots of staining, pages otherwise clean.  (29013)

In some ways even more militantly abolitionist than Uncle Tom, this novel's complicated plotdrew liberally on real-life figures and events that Stowe cited in a long and detailed Appendix, to create and assert a realism as to slavery and its effects that readers would find undismissable..

Provenance:  Front free endpaper of vol. I with inked inscription: “To Miss Matthews As a Phillipoena Pay[men]t From G.S.R. October 7 1856.” (“Phillipoena” was a German-derived game involving love and friendship penalties or “forfeits” between couples; make of that what you will!) Most recently in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

Binding:   Publisher's straight-grained very dark brown cloth, covers framed in blind-stamped leaf and vine decorations, spines with gilt-stamped title and “Boston” at feet; plain yellow endpapers.

•  BAL 19389; Wright, II, 2391.   Bound as above, slightly cocked, lightly rubbed overall and moreso at corners; spine extremities chipped. Varying degrees of foxing; some signatures starting to loosen. Inscription as above!  (41279)

An abolitionist document important in its own right, not just as “support” of a fiction's faithfulness to fact.

•  BAL 19357 (for first London ed.).   Contemporary pebbled paper with roan shelfback, spine with gilt-stamped title, foliate designs, and “L, C” at foot; rubbed. Pages slightly age-toned, with occasional small spots of foxing. A solid copy of an early printing.  (34942)

•  Later pale green cloth. All edges marbled. Cloth ribbon placemarker.  (33239)

Provenance: “Miss Carrie G. Skinner, Fort Ann Village, NY.”

•  American Imprints 43-4820; Sabin 93131.   Publisher's violet cloth, covers blind-stamped with central gilt-stamped urn vignettes, spine with gilt-stamped title and decorations; cloth sunned especially at edges and spine, corners bumped, front joint with small spots of old insect damage. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription, as above. Foxed; a few poems with early pencilled annotations (brief) — one is, simply, “Splendid.”  (27650)

•  Garrison A7.1.a. Publisher’s olive paper–covered boards, front cover and spine stamped in gold; lacking the now seldom-seen dustwrapper, spine very slightly darkened, extremities showing touches of wear. Top edge gilt. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1903. Pages clean. A good-looking copy.  (15733)

Binding:  Publisher's ribbon-embossed brown cloth with flower and acanthus leaf design (Krupp's style ft1), spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  American Imprints 53164; Adams, Manual of Historical Literature, 168. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England & America, 1823–1850, ft1.   Binding as above; corners rubbed and small rubbed spot on front cover, spine extremities chipped, spine head with small lightly discolored area from now-absent label. Ex–social club library: bookplate and early inked call number on front pastedown, title-page pressure- and (faintly) rubber-stamped. No other markings. Front hinge (inside) partially reinforced with paper some time ago. Scattered light staining. A nice book.  (26289)