We locate only five libraries (three in Pittsbugh) reporting ownership of the work.

Provenance: Inscribed to Mrs. John R. McCune by the writer of the volume's biographical sketch of the author, “Frank H. Wade, M.D.,” and his wife.

•  Publisher's white cloth elaborately stamped in gold, all edges gilt; binding and text both remarkably clean and fresh.  (29567)

Click the image for an enlargement.

After a brief respite back in the U.S., where he was welcomed as a hero, Walker, the quintessential filibusterer, returned to Central America wanting to capture Honduras. He died there trying.

The map (14" x 16") is in four colors and is titled “Colton's Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador & Costa Rica.

•  Publisher's brick colored textured cloth stamped in blind. Top and bottom of spine pulled and frayed. Some foxing at front and rear. Newspaper articles at front and rear of volume. Some added owner's notes about Walker on blanks. Clean.  (21372)

•  BAL 20798; Grolier, American 100, 82; Russo & Sullivan, Bibliographical Studies of Seven Authors of Crawfordsville,Indiana, 315–17; Wright, III, 5720.   Publisher's textured brown cloth with bevelled edges, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding slightly shaken, edges and extremities rubbed, sides with spots of discoloration. Hinges (inside) tender. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, title-page pressure-stamped, dedication page with inked numeral, back free endpaper with slip. Front free endpaper with faint early inscription, front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription. Pages age-toned; a few leaves with light staining, most clean.  (26381)

Scarce. Only 11 institutions, all in the U.S., report holdings via OCLC.

•  Sabin 37866; American Imprints 22538.   Period-style quarter tan cloth with light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Frontispiece portrait lacking. Light to moderate foxing.  (23903)

The four years' worth of issues gathered here allows not only for reading of complete serializations and for analysis of fashion changes, but also for study of the magazine's evolution over time, as sections and columns came and went or were revamped.

Binding:  Contemporary half blue-green calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-stamped and -ruled raised bands, and blind-tooled compartment decorations. All edges marbled.

•  Bindings showing mild to moderate rubbing and scuffing overall, but sturdy. Endpapers and first and last few leaves with moderate spotting, scattered spots elsewhere; intermittent age-toning and offsetting; December 1864 issue (only) lacking. One leaf in first volume with short tear from upper margin, without loss; one outer corner torn away and reaffixed, with slight loss to one or two letters. An engaging set.  (32043)

Presentation copy: Inked presentation inscription of E.B. Washburne on p. 1.

•  Recent speckled brown wrappers. Some shallow chipping and tears. Neat, handsome old library rubber-stamps.

•  Recent paper wrappers. Reverse of the title-page and one other page with institutional stamps; a few pages with pencilled marginalia, otherwise clean.

This lovely book hopefully, lovingly announces itself asthe first issue of what is hoped to be an annual publication by the school, containing salutatories, memoirs, reports, and programs for commencements from the inaugural class to that of 1859. Later issues did appear but “annualness” was never actually achieved; vol. 10 appeared 1890–1900.

Laid in are two programs for commencement exercises on June 18th and 19th of 1856, one of which has an advertisement for New Market Seminary (N.J., and run by a woman “late of Wesleyan”) pinned to the front.

Binding:  Original deep purple morocco single-ruled in blind and double-ruled in gilt with title gilt at center of each cover, symmetrically framed above and below by floral and linear ornaments in the English style; gilt board edges and turn-ins and multi-colored marbled endpapers. Spine with raised bands, compartments accented by gilt tooling sympathetic to the covers.

Provenance:  Ink ownership signature of Addie G. Marlay on front free endpaper and pencil note of sale to Marlay on title-page.

•  Binding as above; joints worn and starting but holding well, light offsetting from binding onto pastedowns. Mild foxing on some leaves mostly at end. Advertisement for “Demorset's Family Magazine” inserted between two leaves. An early, proud, and significant record of women's education in the U.S.  (31532)

Numbered copy 389 of 2000 printed, this issigned at the colophon by the artist. The appropriate LEC newsletter and prospectus are laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 469.   Binding as above, in original paper-covered slipcase with gilt-stamped spine label; slipcase showing minor shelfwear, volume clean and lovely.  (30719)

•  Garrison A45.1.a, binding A, jacket A. Publisher’s blue cloth, front cover and spine stamped in gold, in original printed paper dustwrapper with price; binding clean and unworn save for minor wear to spine extremities, dustjacket with cream portions slightly darkened and small edge nicks to front panel and spine.

45 engraved plates done by Thomas Sinclair & Son, including 29 chromolithographic plates

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of private collector the Rev. Edwin A. Dalrymple, a Baltimore collector, mid–19th century; his collection given to the Maryland Diocesan Library; that library sold in 2006.

•  Not in Graff, Howes, or Sabin. Marston, Supplement to Bibliotheca Piscatoria, 243.   Vol. V only (complete as a stand-alone text). Publisher's textured brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title and U.S. seal with “Essayons” motto of the Corps of Engineers, rebacked with brown cloth preserving almost all of original spine; edges and extremities rubbed. Front pastedown with bookplate as above and with institutional rubber-stamp. One leaf with tear from outer margin, not touching text; pages slightly and evenly age-toned, quite clean; plates crisp and clean and lovely. A significant account of the American West, with gorgeous color images.  (31178)

Binding:  Publisher's deeply waved terra-cotta cloth of Krupp's style Wav6, front cover with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped frame.

•  Binding: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50, p. 43.   Binding as above, corners/edges slightly rubbed and spine pulled at top; interior with an upper corner bumped. A very attractive, clean copy.  (26714)

Binding:  Publisher's muted brown cloth, front cover and spine with stylized rose, leaf, and thorn design stamped in gilt, black, and red. Unsigned.

•  Binding as above, corners and spine extremities lightly rubbed, spine with two small scrapes, and gilt slightly dimmed; an eye-catching binding design and attractive overall. Frontispiece recto with early inked gift inscription. A few faint smudges, one leaf with short tear from lower margin not touching text. Quite a nice copy.  (28865)

With an advertisement on the back for "Wilkes's Spirit of the Times. The American Gentleman's Newspaper. A Chronicle of the Turf, Field Sports, the Army and the Stage."

•  Miles 485. Original wrappers. Removed from a nonce volume.

Willis himself was the founder of the magazine that became the Home Journal, and was celebrated in his day for his essays and travel writings as well as several collections of his journalistic work. The Cambridge History of American Literature calls him the “prince of magazinists,” and remarks on “the evanescent sparkle and glancing brilliance” of A L'abri, later known as Letters from under a Bridge. These charming, witty essays touch on Willis's Yale education (and its lack of practical application!); fishing; a dinner with Lady Blessington, Benjamin Disraeli, Count D'Orsay, and Lord Durham; the possibility of local railroad construction to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie; the relationship of American to British literature, etc. Whatever the ostensible topics of the individual letters, each touches in affectionate and amusing fashion on some aspect of life in the Susquehanna region.

A publishing practice, demonstrated: Bound in at the back of this volume are yellow printed paper wrappers for John Smith's Letters, and the title-page and preface for Fireside Education — both items published by Colman in the same year as the present work.

•  BAL 22752 (spine label in first state, cloth described as “Brown S cloth “); American Imprints 59260; Fearing, Check List of Books on Angling, Fishing, Fisheries, Fish-Culture, etc., 135; Sabin 104504. On Willis, see: Cambridge History of American Literature online.   Publisher's brown cloth embossed with floret and dash pattern, spine with printed paper label; corners rubbed, and spine cloth chipped with paper label chipped and darkened. Front free endpaper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Foxing throughout; occasional pencilled marginalia and marks of emphasis.  (25806)

This work is rarely found in the deluxe binding: The handsomely gilt-stamped publisher's cloth is the norm.

•  NSTC 2W24418; Allibone 2762.   For binding, see: Morris & Levin, Art of Publisher's Bookbindings, 44. Binding as above, showing minor wear to extremities and front cover vignette, original silk bookmark detached and laid in. Volume slightly shaken with text block starting to pull away from spine; this is the kind of volume that wants to do that, and the reader will want to “cradle” it in hand — that done, no worries. Front fly-leaf with early pencilled gift inscription and with a Maine druggist's small ticket. Mild to moderate foxing. Both funny and decorative, in a publisher's binding that may fairly be called “DAZZLING.”  (26748)

The volume isillustrated with 13 photographic plates: portraits, landscapes, copies of artworks, etc., intended to offer interesting and practical lessons in particular aspects of the art. In addition, a number of in-text wood engravings depict aspects of composition and pieces of equipment.

•  Recent black moiré silk, spine with gilt-stamped title; new, archival guard tissues opposite photographs. Title-page and a number of others institutionally rubber-stamped. Pages gently age-toned, a few outer margins with small chips. First few leaves with inner margins reinforced, one later leaf with inner and lower margins thus; four leaves with small burn mark. First plate with short edge tear touching frame (only) of image and with small chip to upper outer corner of image; two darker plates (the two using Woodbury's Patent Process) with slight bloom, sepia-toned plates all clean and beautiful. Perfectly captures the state of the art.  (30326)

•  Publisher's brown paper–covered boards, front cover with title and author's signature stamped in black, and with affixed printed paper illustration; without dust-jacket, paper mottled, edges and extremities rubbed, front cover with two small scrapes. A few faint smudges to some pages, otherwise clean.  (29138)

This has a very pretty engraved title-page, acting as frontispiece; between the arched words “Bridal Greetings,” above and below, is a bridal bouquet of emblematic flowers, signed F.E. Jones.

Binding:  Publisher's textured red cloth, covers framed in blind, front cover with gilt-stamped rose vignette, spine gilt extra. All edges gilt.

•  Not in Faxon.   Binding as above, cocked, extremities lightly rubbed, front cover with tiny dark spatter; joints each with small instance of insect damage. Front free endpaper with pencilled annotation. Moderate foxing throughout.  (30370)

Binding:  Signed binding of blue-grey cloth, front cover with silver- and gilt-stamped design featuring a radiant sun illuminating a football and two oars, artistically intertwined with knotwork and a “Sons of Eli” banner, stamped with Margaret Armstrong's “MA.”

•  Gullans & Espey, Checklist of Trade Bindings Designed by Margaret Armstrong, 270.   Binding as above, spine with gilt-stamped title and Y decorations; slightly cocked, extremities rubbed. Three leaves with light smudges in outer margins, otherwise clean. A handsome copy of a delightful look at bygone collegiate days.  (31030)

•  Folded, never bound. Uncut, mostly unopened.  (456)

For other AFRO-AMERICANA,
  click here.

Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.

The printed Career is followed in this little volume by an extended manuscript section containing neatly written excerpts from Wooley’s Science of the Bible or an Analysis of the Hebrew Mythology.

•  Contemporary half calf over textured cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands; front cover detached, leather scuffed. All page edges marbled. Upper portion of front free endpaper torn away; two front fly-leaves partially excised. Back free endpaper with pencilled owner’s name. Printed portion very slightly age-toned, with faint creasing to first section.

A biblio-treasure, this has the distinction of beingthe earliest of three known books from the Seneca Mission Press while at its original location at the Buffalo Creek Reservation, and it was preceded only by a periodical (in translation, “The Elevator”). Asher Wright, a Baptist missionary to the Seneca tribe in western New York State, produced a variety of works in the Seneca language.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Eugene Musial (collector and bookseller in the Buffalo region); also the cleverly cryptic personal rubber-stamp of the partly-Seneca Seneca scholar and archaeologist, Arthur C. Parker. Musial has added on the front fly-leaf a wood-engraved image of the Seneca Mission House, Buffalo Reservation.

A wonderful copy: Not cut down with completely original margins! The best copy we have ever seen.

•  Pilling, Iroquoian, p. 176; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 4253; Newberry Library, Ayer Indians, Seneca 32; American Imprints 42-5329; Sabin 105546; Streeter sale II:913; Siebert Sale 512.   20th-century red morocco with marbled endpapers in bright condition. UNCUT and partially unopened copy; limited staining to edges or corners of some leaves at end. Overall, a very good copy.  (32885)

•  Sabin 106302n.   Publisher's textured cloth in a brick color, hinges (inside) cracked; ex-library with a bookplate, no stamps. Clipping about this “quaint” dictionary affixed to a blank, with offsetting to endpaper verso opposite; interior clean.  (31960)