This is a stunning printing of Washington's famous message.  The text is printed in gold ink in four-column format within an elaborate engraved border printed in silver on bright white calendered paper. The firm of “White & Durand” is listed in the 1834–35 New York city directory as specializing in “specimens of xylographic engraving and printing in colours” and seems to have done a good business in labels for drug store bottles. An earlier incarnation of the firm “A.B.C. Durand, Wright & Co.” had specialized in banknote engraving as early as 1825, and certainly the border here is of that style and quality.

The firm was renamed in the 1835–35 city directory to “Wright & Prentiss.”

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and the OPACs of the American Antiquarian Society and the Library of Congressfail to locate any other copies.

•  Date attribution based on admiring notice in an 1834 trade journal. Minor indications at some edges of the item having been pinned or tacked for display; faint instances of old staining at edges, in one case slightly into border.An excellent copy of an important and absolutely lovely production.  (33580)

nothing new since my last, exceptCapt. Barney in the ship Hyder Aly taking the King ship Monk of 10 nine pounders, in an action of 30 minutes. The Hyder Aly mounted 6 nines & 10 sixes, there never was more execution done by the same force in the same time. The Monk had every officer except two, killed or wounded, amongst the latter was the Capt. She had in all 21 kill'd & 32 wounded. The Hyder Aly had 4 kill'd & 11 wounded, from such slaughter no doubt you'd conclude one of them boarded, but it was not the case, a fair action within pistol shot.

Although the land battles of the American Revolution had ended with the surrender at Yorktown, sea battles continued until receipt of the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The account above refers to Comm. Joshua Barney's capture on 8 April off Cape May, NJ, of the sloop of war General Monk. In a wonderful twist of fate, the intrepid Barney had only arrived in Philadelphia in March — having been occupied since the previous May with his escape, recapture, and second escape from Portsmouth prison! into which stronghold he had been clapped by the British for his previous maritime (infr)actions.

Having, then, been given command of the Hyder Ally (a.k.a., Hyder Ali) only a few weeks previously, and having been charged with clearing the Delaware River and Bay of privateers, Barney had met the General Monk while pursuing that task — and, in a Revolutionary War naval action eclipsed only by that of the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis, took on and thoroughly defeated a King's ship of superior firepower in a bloody, 26-minute battle.

Following this capture of the General Monk, Congress voted Barney a sword for his gallantry and offered him command of his prize after renaming her General Washington. In November, 1782, he was ordered to sail to France in the Washington with dispatches for Benjamin Franklin who was negotiating the Treaty of Paris. He returned with news of the signing of the preliminary peace treaty and with money from the French.

Barney was an American Hornblower!

•  On Barney, see: Dictionary of American Biography and Appleton's Cyclopedia.   Very good condition. Small blank portion of the integral address leaf torn with loss where the sealing wax was attached. Old dealer's (Sessler's) coding in pencil at base of letter.  (31069)

•  Austin, Early American Medical Imprints, 1658; Sowerby, Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 922; Shaw & Shoemaker 9289.   20th-century quarter red calf with stone pattern marbled paper sides, round spine, no raised bands; gilt double-rules used to form six spine compartments, five of which have a gilt center device, the sixth containing the author/title label, with the date of publication at base of spine. Plain endpapers. Internally very good. Fascinating not only as to theory, but also for its detailed and very readable notes on symptoms, treatments, and specific epidemic “outbreaks.”  (39068)

In that yearAntonio Ricardo printed the first book in South America, the Doctrina christiana y catecismo para instruccion de los Indios. Antonio Ricardo was an Italian who began working as a printer in Mexico in 1570 in the shops of other printers, almost certainly principally in that of Pedro Ocharte. In 1577 he became the fifth independent printer in the New World but operated under his own name only until 1579, during which time he worked closely with the Jesuits and printed books for students at the Society of Jesus' Colegio de San Pedro y San Pablo; at the urging of the Society he left Mexico in 1580 to establish his press in Peru. There, however, because of a dispute between the Jesuits and the viceroy, he did not receive license to print until 1584, when the first thing he printed, at the insistence of the viceroy, was a four-page explanation of the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. This was quickly followed bythree tri-lingual books in Spanish, Quechua, and Aymara, all works by members of the Society of Jesus. The Tercero cathecismo is only the third book printed in South America and it shows Ricardo as aware and proud of his position as the first printer in South America. He pointedly identified himself as such on the book's title-page: “Antonio Ricardo, primer impressor en estos Reynos del Piru.”

The Tercero cathecismo's importance is multifaceted and goes far beyond its place as an icon in American printing history, for it provided doctrinally approved sermons both for those priests serving the Spanish population who were less than proficient sermonizers and also, specifically, for thosepriests and missionaries working among the indigenous population whose command of Quechua and/or Aymara was not sufficient for them to be safe and fluent deliverers of the word of God and instruction in Christian ethics and practices. Modern study of these sermons additionally considers which indigenous terms were used to convey European concepts (precursor to the Chinese rites controversy of the late 17th century Jesuit missionaries in China), which Spanish words became loan words in Quechua and Aymara, what indigenous practices were of concern to the religious authorities, and of course which dialect of each language was chosen to be the norm of proselytization.

Ricardo was fond of printing his texts witha mix of type faces and a wide variety of large woodcut initials. The inventory of the type, ornamental letters, woodcut illustrations, etc., that he owned when he sold the press shows that he had amassed huge quantities of all of those elements of the black art. (The inventory is in the Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library, the gift of Edward Harkness.) The Tercero cathecismo prints the Spanish text in italic and the indigenous-language texts in roman, with the Spanish printed margin to margin at the top of the pages and the Quechua and Aymara below it in parallel columns to the left and right respectively. And yes, there is goodly use of several woodcut headpieces, many large woodcut initials (some historiated); curiously, no tailpieces.

Provenance:  18th-century ownership inscription in an upper margin of the library of Colegio de Santa Rosa; which one, not clear.

As one would expect of any book that was among the first productions of a press in a remote region, the Tercero cathecismo is a rare book. Searches of NUC Pre-1956, WorldCat, COPAC, CCPBE, and KVK locate only eight U.S., four European, and two South American libraries reporting ownership. However, we know of one other U.S. and one other European library owning copies.

•  Backer-Sommervogel, I, 34; Sabin 94838; Medina, Lima, 3; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 3; Johnson, The Book in the Americas, 34; Medina, Lenguas quechua y aymará, 4; Viñaza 81.   Recased in possibly original limp vellum; new free endpapers and fly-leaves; evidence of long-gone ties. Title-page in facsimile. Thirteen leaves supplied from a shorter copy (ff. 57, 138, 143, 146, 151, 135, 160, 161, 168, 186, 191, 194, 199); heavy staining to ca. fol. 25 and again at the end, other staining scattered. Worming, mostly pinhole but some meander, with loss of letters, parts of words, and occasionally whole words, seldom with injury to reading; a few leaves with repaired margins and repairs to wormed areas.Obviously a sophisticated copy and one that has seen hardships, nonetheless, a copy ready to repay ownership and study.  (36505)

The anonymously published work is signed “An Antiepiscopalian”; the title-page here bears a hand-inked attribution to Matthew Wilson.

An important entry in the literature of the “American Bishops” controversy in the lead-up to the American Revolution.

Evidence of Readership: Title-page with early inked ownership inscription and annotations, later lined through, with authorial attribution in the later hand; one leaf with early inked annotation along outer margin. Verso of last leaf presents calculations andsomeone's reading list; later X'ed out; among the titles read, intended for reading, or just imaginably noted as not for reading are The Rival Mothers, Pamela or Virtue Rewarded, and Love in a Village.

•  ESTC W13420; Evans 10947; Felcone 126; Hildeburn 2370; Sabin 11876.   Recent binding: boards appealingly covered in paper printed with 18th-century music, front cover with printed paper label. Two pages (not including title) institutionally rubber-stamped. Lacking pp. 17/18, with final leaf tattered and text on p. 19 lined-through-by-show-through of X'es “deleting” manuscript notes on the verso (still, readable); annotations as above. Pages age-toned and lightly spotted, with edges untrimmed.  (28100)

Atmore acknowledges, in the preface, hisindebtedness to William Penn for some of the phrases and advice found here.

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 47024. Not in Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books; out of scope of Welch, Bibliography of American Children's Books Printed Prior to 1821.   Publisher's grey-blue paper wrappers printed with duplicate of title-page on front cover (within a border) and with advertisement for Cunningham's juvenile books on back cover; front wrapper with small edge nick, back wrapper with rubbed spot over part of stitching, spine chipped. Pages age-toned with mild to moderate foxing.  (38482)

•  Library Company, Afro-Americana (rev. ed.), 753; Sabin 2641 (giving second ed. only); Shoemaker 4517.   Marbled paper wrappers, lightly worn overall. Title-page with two small pencilled annotations, pages age-toned. Frankly, riveting.  (40077)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 7007. Original light boards covered with marbled paper. Back cover and two leaves gnawed by a rodent, with loss of paper. (3512)

•  Sabin 3471; ESTC T65667; not in Alden & Landis.   Contemporary sheep, modestly tooled in blind; leather dry and abraded. Ex-library with call number on spine, shelf marks in pencil, bookplate on front pastedown, and rubber-stamp on title-page. (20159)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 5809. Recently rebound in period-style tan cloth over light blue paper sides, spines with paper labels. Contemporary ownership inscription to front fly-leaf in each volume. Map with light offsetting and short tear just starting along one fold. First 20 leaves of vol. II waterstained and last 10 foxed; otherwise only scattered incidences of spotting in all volumes, pages generally clean. A nice-looking set, and still — as it always was! — a work offering a pleasant way to absorb ancient history.  (2736)

The flap with “Come, read and learn” on the outside and the title and publication data on the inside is present and integral. It is not uncommon for this fragile flap to have been lost.

•  Rosenbach, Children, 428; Welch 1363; Shaw & Shoemaker 14251 and 21546; Hamilton, Early American Book Illustrators, 248; Pomeroy, Alexander Anderson, 330.   Publisher's olive printed paper–covered wrappers. Minor chipping to one top margin of rear cover; adhesion of olive paper from a different copy to the underside of the flap! A very few light stains. A very nice copy of this fragile item.  (33551)

Beddoes (1760–1808) had a “fervent belief that true medical science must have a chemical basis and with this in mind, he set up a Pneumatic Institute where diseases were treated with the administration of gases. He appointed Humphry Davy (1778–1829), then a lad of nineteen, as superintendent, and it was here that Davy, in the course of his experiments on the medical properties of gases, discovered the anesthetic effects of nitrous oxide” (Heirs of Hippocrates).

In this, hisfirst medical work,  Beddoes fully recognized the importance of applying new developments in chemistry to medicine. The initial section on calculus described a new therapy for stones in which the recently discovered carbon dioxide plays a prominent role. Beddoes considered scurvy and obesity to be caused by a deficiency of oxygen, while consumption and catarrh were caused by excessive oxygen.

On pp. [171]–252 are “Two memoirs translated from the French of Dr. Girtanner.” Credit for the translation is given on p. 44 to “Mr. Woodhouse, of the Middle Temple.”

Provenance:  1816 ownership signature of James M. Taylor; most recently in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Evans 31782; Austin 169; ESTC W21341; Heirs of Hippocrates 717.   Publisher's speckled sheep, round spine, gilt rules forming spine compartments, red leather spine label; some abrading of leather. Browning, and a brown stain in lower margin of many leaves; the usual foxing and age-toning.  (39732)

“Gaudentio,” under persecution by the Inquisition, reveals his fantastic voyages and travels through Egypt and an imaginary African land. While constantly assuring the stern inquisitors of his staunch adherence to Catholicism, he gives elaborate, admiring descriptions of the government, religion, and customs of his African utopia, particularly its training and education of women.

Provenance:  Pastedown with contemporary bookplate of James Butler.

•  Evans 35183; ESTC W10142. Not in Parsons; not in Finotti; not in Bowe, List of Additions and Corrections . . . to Parsons.   Contemporary sheep, missing pieces of leather from front cover and top and bottom of spine; spine with nice old red leather gilt label and front cover reattached using Japanese long-fiber method. Silverfish or roach damages to front free endpaper, fly-leaf, and title-page (costing small, small portion of two letters); damage also to lower outer corners of early leaves and upper inner area of leaves to p. 10 of preface with none of this impairing the reader. Age-toned, some foxing, occasional brown spots; an “old book” of the classic sort.  (37157)

•  Evans 36946; ESTC W10143; Minick, Maryland, 560. Not in Parsons; not in Finotti; not in Bowe, List of Additions and Corrections . . . to Parsons.   Publisher's sheep with modest gilt ruling on spine; spine label gone, front free endpaper loose. A few leaves starting to extrude; occasional spotting, but overall strong and good+ to very good.  (37183)

This, the final book published by Boudinot, strongly supportsfair and compassionate treatment of Native Americans. The work includes comparisons of Hebrew and Native American languages (Charibee, Creek, Mohegan, and “northern languages”), traditions, and lore; the appendix comprises “Historical Sketches of Louisiana” and “Fraser's Key to the Prophecies.”

Binding:  The binding of this copy is most curious. There are three distinct areas of the leather that are clearly inlaid repairs, the leather being of a darker color but the same style as the rest; and three of the gilt-tooled chalice or urn devices that appear on the spine are partly on this inserted leather.

Provenance:  Contemporary ownership signature of James Linn in upper margin of title-page.

•  Felcone 433; Howes B643; Pilling, Algonquian, 54; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 421; Rosenbach, Jewish, 180; Sabin 6856; Shaw & Shoemaker 37057; Singerman, Judaica Americana, 252. Not in Field. On Boudinot, see: Dictionary of American Biography, II, 477–78.   Contemporary acid-stained sheep, spine with elegant though dimmed gilt-stamped leather title-label and compartment stampings; volume scuffed and abraded. Foxing, with some soiling/staining. Still-sturdy copy of this early and oft-cited Amerindian Lost Tribes treatise.  (39632)

The Princeton Library catalogue record for this work states that P.J. Conkwright, the legendary designer and typographer at the Princeton University Press, designed the book. One would suspect that it was printed at the Press as well.

•  New. Bound as issued; marbled paper boards, black cloth spine with title stamped in gold. Glassine dust wrapper, chipped and torn over spine but present.  (35761)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 1953. On Brown, see: Dictionary of National Biography, VII, 37–38 (under William Laurence Brown). Relatively unworn library buckram; library name pressure-stamped on covers and its bookplate to front pastedown. Hinges reinforced at rebinding with cloth and first few pages fragile along line of reinforcement; front free endpaper separated. Title-page and a few others faintly stamped, title-page with crossed-out ownership inscription. Some offsetting; a very few instances of pencilled underlining; corners occasionally dog-eared or chipped. Overall a fairly decent copy, suffering a bit from earlier "conservation." (2740)

Provenance:  Front pastedowns each with armorial bookplate of William Holland Wilmer, grandson of the eponym who served as president of the College of William and Mary; Dr. Wilmer (1863–1936) received his MD from the University of Virginia.

•  Publisher's navy cloth, front covers framed in blind with gilt-stamped title and central portrait medallion of a Classical-looking Thomas Jefferson, spines with gilt-stamped publication information; bindings showing moderate shelfwear and variable traces of damp-staining (not visible in any way to interiors). Bookplates as above. Pages gently and evenly age-toned, otherwise clean, with some signatures unopened. One leaf with short tear from lower margin, not touching text. One page with small pencilled annotation in margin regarding jump in continuity from p. 152 to p. 153 of vol. 5: although no pages are lacking, a small portion of text appears to have been left out by the typesetter. A good, respectable set, with nice provenance.  (39808)

Binding:  Bound by the Tapley-Rutter Company in “full Schumacher cloth with an all over multicolor Colonial pattern.” On the spine, a burgundy leather label with gilt lettering.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 491.   Binding as above, in original brown paper–covered slipcase; slipcase showing minimal shelfwear, volume fresh and clean. A handsome, crisp copy.  (39040)