Interest in learning Spanish increased in the U.S. in the 1790s as commerce with Mexico, Central America, Cuba, and even Spain became a practical matter after Spain opened some ports to foreign commerce.

Searches of WorldCat and ESTC locate fewer than 10 U.S. institutions reporting ownership of this work. Needless to say, early school books suffered at the hands of children, one of the great enemies of books.

•  Not in Parsons. Evans 33731; ESTC W13901.   Publisher’s sheep; back cover damaged with loss of leather; text foxed and stained, with dampstaining. Far from a pristine copy but acceptable for such a scarce book.  (31031)

This edition, the first to be printed in New Hampshire, exists in two states — this one has “sold also by the booksellers in Boston” on the title-page.  (In addition, there was another 1795 edition printed in Newbury, Vt.)  Regularly reprinted into the 19th century, the Token saw editions in Welsh and Gaelic.

•  ESTC W19733; Evan 28677. On Flavel, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary quarter sheep over brown paper covered boards, significant loss of paper and of edges of boards. Some shallow chipping, notable soiling, browning, and waterstaining (yet no difficulty reading text). A volume that’s been through a good deal, but is probably stable for quite a long while to come. (12461)

In addition to telling of Cromwell's political life and his wars in Ireland, Scotland, and England, this offers a section on the Protectorate that has much to say about his policies and military actions in the Caribbean, especially the taking ofJamaica from Spain.

The title-page is printed in black and red and this copy retains the vertical half-title on A1r, “O. Cromwel’s Life.”

Provenance:  Pacific School of Religion (properly deaccessioned).

•  ESTC R18473; Wing (rev. ed.) F1334.   19th-century quarter leather, binding much rubbed and abraded; lacks the portrait, supplied in facsimile. Age-toned; title-leaf and another leaf with an old cello-tape repair and resulting staining, last leaf torn in upper outer corner with small loss of a few letters. Top margins of some leaves trimmed with loss of page numbers and running heads; other leaves trimmed into heads and pages numbers. Priced for its faults.  (36184)

The vast bulk of this work attempts to convince the English to support the Scots' enterprise and cites political, religious, social, and economic reasons for doing so; clearly, the Scots knew that English naval might in particular would be essential for the success of the scheme. Beyond this, however, a section (pp. 42 to 51) addresses the natural history, native population, agricultural commodities, and indigenous industry of the region; and the work ends with an account of the Scots' settlement, the buildings erected there, and its intercourse with the indigenous people.

Authorship of this work is problematic: It is signed “Philo-Caledon” at the end of the dedication and three other names have have been proposed as possible authors in addition to Foyer's — George Ridpath, Andrew Fletcher, and John Hamilton (2nd Baron Belhaven). Added to the conundrum of authorship, the work was produced in four editions in the same year, each having different numbers of pages, each with a different signature scheme, none with a publisher, and this one without even a place of publication!

•  Wing (rev. ed.) F2047; Sabin 78211; Alden & Landis 699/9; ESTC R18505 ; and Halkett & Laing II:32.   20th-century half dark brown crushed morocco with brown linen sides. This copy has all the hallmarks of having once been through a British bookseller's “hospital”: all leaves are dust-soiled or age-toned; all leaves are uncut but some have been extended and others not, and some leaves with torn margins (but not all) have had lost paper restored; all such repairs and extensions are within the first six leaves, meaning these were probably supplied from another copy. Top of title-leaf trimmed with loss of “A” of the title; another leaf with a tear to the top margin with loss costing tops of several letters of words on one page, and two leaves with the running head guillotined by a binder; some stray stains. An interesting copy for its probable if problematic history and condition.  (34130)

In sum, thiscomplete array of the blocks used for printing a substantial and well-regarded Titanic-era book looks like something that was put on a printing house shelf one afternoon in 1912 at the end of an ordinary project for the pressmen and simply stayed there. Seeing it on its present PRB&M shelf, coherent and unmessed-with more than 100 years later, is like walking up to that shelf through one of time's “wrinkles.”

•  On the Beginnings, see: Cowan & Cowan, Bibliography of the History of California, 193. For a list of all its images and notes on their origins, see: http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hbbegidx.htm.   The paper wrappers present are variously just fine or age-toned or browned, chipped, torn along folds. ALL the blocks are in good condition; this is not a sort of thing easily damaged!  (29741)

featuring an addition “not in any other Edition,” according to the title-page: “An Examination, before the British House of Lords, respecting the Stamp-Act.”

•  Sabin 25602; Shaw & Shoemaker 515. On Temple Franklin and early editions, see: Green & Stallybrass, Franklin,151–60.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; spine extremities a little chipped, front cover a little sprung, hinges (inside) reinforced. Frontispiece and title-page tattered and now mounted, with outer margin of first preface page repaired; a number of corners bumped or dog-eared, with a few in one section at some point delicately rodent(?)-nibbled. Subscribers' list trimmed closely, affecting two names only; pages age-toned with intermittent foxing. In fact, though certainly not “excellent” — quite “satisfactory.”  (25357)

•  Evans 37442; Sabin 25602; ESTC W17376.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; joints fully open and holding by cords, leather peeled up from board edges, gilt dimmed on spine label. Front fly-leaves with faint pencilled and inked inscriptions; back fly-leaves with inked ownership inscriptions, one dated 1801. Pages age-toned, last few waterstained; one leaf torn with loss of several words from one line. A “survivor” copy, priced accordingly.  (22636)

Provenance:  Many previous owners have inked or pencilled their ownership on the endpapers, sometimes several times, including “Sarah Reel,” “Christian Van Lasche” dated 18 December 1796, and “Samuel Van Lasche in the year of our Lord” dated both 1805 and 1806. The Lasche family were early immigrants to Germantown, Christian being a carpenter and pump-maker. Later gilt red leather label of 20th-century woman book collector Estelle Doheny (widow of oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny) on front pastedown.

•  ESTC W37375; Evans 23258.   18th-century calf, plain rounded spine with raised bands ruled in blind above and below, rubbed and corners bumped; moderate age-toning with waterstaining along most margins, variable spotting /soiling and stray ink marks. Otherwise, some creased leaves and torn-away corners including to title-page, one leaf with a long marginal tear taking (on the two sides) a few letters and one word, short marginal tears. Inked ownership indicia as above.  (37269)

Binding: 18th-century speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped foliate compartment decorations between gilt-ruled raised bands.

Evidence of Readership: Intermittent early inked underlining and occasional annotations; final page (colophon) with substantive early inked annotation in Latin.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of Tess M. Hope; title-page with inked ownership inscription of Vitus Herremann, dated 1633; title-page verso with small bookplate “Biblioth. Bosian. Hortens.” (the Leipzig Botanical Garden).

•  Adams F1102; Nissen, Botanische Buchillustration, 667; Baudrier, Bib. Lyonnaise, 102–03; Brunet, II, 1415; Pritzel 3138; Alden & Landis 549/9; Hunt 61. Not in Johnson, Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections.   Bound as above, leather pitted and scuffed, joints and spine rubbed with spine leather showing small cracks. Bookplate and inscriptions as above, front free endpaper and back pastedown with later pencilled annotations; other annotations as noted above. Title-page with lower portion excised, mounted some time ago. Margins of first and last few leaves darkened; occasional light spots and smudges. A solid and interesting copy of a landmark herbal, with evidence of early reader engagement.  (34532)

There is, to us, a surprising and very interesting section on grapes and wines. The first part of our caption delights partly in discovery that maize, the “corn” of the U.S., is here called “turkey wheat” — with further note that you can make bread of it, but that the result is pleasing only to “barbarous” tastes! The entry as a whole showsGerard at his characteristic best, at once scientifically systematic and engagingly discursive.

Provenance:  Neatly lettered name of “W. Younge” at top of title-page; it is tempting to attribute this to William Younge, physician of Sheffield and Fellow of the Royal Linnean Society, whose online correspondence shows him to have been an eager collector of botanical books.

•  STC (rev. ed.) 11752; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 636/25; Nissen, Botanischebuchs, 698n; Pritzel 3282n; Johnston, The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 185; Woodward, Gerard's Herball: The essence thereof distilled (London, 1964). On the source of the blocks, see: Hunt Botanical Catalogue and Bowen, K. L., & D. Imhof, The illustration of Books Published by the Moretuses (Antwerpen, 1997). For “Turkey Wheat, “ see: Gerard, p. 81; for polenta, p. 71.   Late 17th-century English calf, plain style; rebacked professionally in the 20th century, later endpapers. As usual, without the first and last blank leaves. Three leaves with natural paper flaws in blank margins. A very good copy.  (34500)

The two woodcuts (title-page and opposite A1r) are copies of illustrations appearing in Brant's famous work — the first, a version of the Ship and the second, of “The Corrupt Way to Live of Those Who Are Ruined.” The volume is, as one would expect, printed in gothic type (except for the biography). There are spaces with guide letters for capitals; the side margins have letters and numbers to aid in finding passages.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard (sans indicia).

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 510/5; VD16 G777 (& ZV 6437 for the Life); Adams G315; Ritter, Strasbourg, 955.   18th-century German boards covered with black-mottled paper, spine with paper label; rear board and spine now smoke-darkened, the latter totally (with loss of paper) and the former partly, with front joint tender. Light pencilling and inking on front endpapers, portion of front free one cut away, front fly-leaf partially detached; small blank area of top of title-page cut away and repaired long ago, small ink “A” in bottom margin. Light old waterstains with newer darker ones layered over them at most bottom corners, occasional instances of marginal worming. The final section, i.e., the Vita, is loose in the binding.  (37312)

This particular treatise waspraised by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1815, and by John Adams; it appears here in its first Irish and third overall edition, following the first of 1730.

•  ESTC T207893; Sweet & Maxwell (2nd ed.), I, 453:20.   Contemporary speckled calf, joints reinforced some time ago, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-tooled bands. Pages age-toned and lightly cockled, with mild to moderate offsetting and spotting; last few leaves of index waterstained. One leaf with printing flaw: final words of 10 lines at bottom of page printed out of true. Not pristine, but sturdy and still respectable.  (34394)

•  Removed from a volume and old sewing holes visible in inner margins. Last leaf detached and reattached with archival-quality tissue tape. A clean copy.  (3016)

•  Removed from a volume and resewn. A clean copy.  (3017)

A good example of the solid, workaday English law-printing of its period, opening with an attractive foliate initial crowned with a seated griffin.

•  ESTC N57352. Removed from a nonce volume. Pages clean save for some very minor browning in outer margins.  (4935)

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf with decoratively flourished inked inscription: “Jn. M. Davis 1799"; title-page inscribed “Jn. Maynard Davis.” Davis, a maritime insurance expert, was one of the founders of the South Carolina Insurance Company; he is thought to have been the first independent insurance agent in America. His particular focus is noted by the sole obvious mark of emphasis here, which points towards a paragraph of the section on wrecks. Grimke (1752–1819) and Davis (professionally active in 1783 and alive through at least 1822) were both South Carolinian Freemasons during the same time period, though from rival lodges; the former was Grand Master of the Free and Accepted Masons, while the latter was Senior Grand Warden of the Ancient York Masons.

•  ESTC W37120; Evans 30519; Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law, 8466.   Contemporary mottled sheep, covers framed in blind beaded roll, spine with gilt-stamped black leather title-label; moderately rubbed and scuffed overall, spine leather and label with cracks. Pages much foxed and darkened; one leaf with chip out of upper margin; inscriptions and one early inked marginal emphasis mark as above; back fly-leaf with legal term pencilled (“Amerciament”) in an early hand. An important work of early U.S. law, with happy provenance.  (36771)

• ESTC W28659; Evans 28775; Sabin 28933. 19th-century quarter sheep in imitation of morocco, rubbed and worn; covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct institution, spine with paper shelving label. Half-title lacking, title-page and a number of others stamped, back free endpaper with pocket. Pages clean save for stamps. (9536)

Swift’s views on the ramifications of trade with Portuguese America

•  ESTC T58140; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 711/126; Teerink-Scouten 1034. Blue-green paper wrappers, old style. Title-page with small numeric stamp, faint traces of other annotations. Small area of worming in inner margins, touching a very few letters. A few scattered spots, otherwise clean; edges untrimmed.  (6369)

•  ESTC T110138; Sabin 30433. On Harper, see: Dictionary of American Biography, VIII, 285–86. Recent quarter blue morocco with blue cloth sides, spine gilt-stamped with title within gilt-ruled raised bands and with trefoils at head and foot. Half-title lacking; one page (not the title) stamped by a now-defunct institution. Faint traces of waterstaining to lower outer margins of most leaves. A handsome copy of an important document.  (4791)

visiting “the Savages in North America,”

law and business in the New World and the Old, slavery in America

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

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)

Hays notes in her preface that “Women, unsophisticated by the pedantry of the schools, read not for dry information, to load their memories with uninteresting facts, or to make a display of a vain erudition . . . they require pleasure to be mingled with instruction, lively images, the graces of sentiment, and the polish of language” (vol. I, p. iii). These last things, she strives to supply herself!

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 12742; Sabin 31061.   Period-style quarter tan cloth over blue-grey paper-covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. Title-page of each volume with the blind pressure- (not perforation-) stamp of a social club library. As in all copies we have had, pages age-toned, with a few foxed or spotted; occasional short edge tears, not extending into text. Three leaves in vol. II with tears in margin with loss of paper only and four other leaves in the same volume with loss of paper and either a few letters (pp. 10710) or words (approximately half the words on each of five lines on pp. 15152 and a word or threeon each of five lines on 22930).A good resource and a good “read.”  (28716)

Provenance: The Rev. Edwin A. Dalrymple; the Maryland Diocesan Library.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 15224. Contemporary quarter cloth over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding moderately darkened and worn, cloth chipped over head of spine, spine showing shadow of a now-absent shelving label. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (as above); title-page additionally with early inked gift inscription in upper margin (this cut into by binder). Some light spotting and age-toning.  (19368)

Following Hillhouse's discussion of his purpose and reasoning, the actual amendments have a separate title-page.

First edition.  Second and third editions were printed at New Haven by Oliver Steele & Co. in the same year as this first.

•  Sabin 31883; Shaw & Shoemaker 15230.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Pages with a few scattered spots of light staining and occasional early inked corrections; old stitching holes in inner margins. Page edges untrimmed. In fact, quite a nice copy.  (25210)

Includes10 hand-colored wood engravings with blue, green, red, and brown accents, including some nontraditional coloring such as a blue apple pie and blue horses.

Provenance:  Undated ink signature of Susan Browning on title-page; signature of Miss Janette C. Browning dated 1852 on frontispiece.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 34913; Welch 563.15.   Sewn blue printed publisher's wrappers, first and last leaves pasted down; light rubbing at corners. Marked as above, light pencilling and inking on title-page, light waterstaining on inner bottom margin of many leaves, moderate age-toning throughout. A charming little Hartford chapbook.  (36295)

•  Wegelin 996; Shaw & Shoemaker 669; Sabin 32786; Richmond 2274. Period-style quarter tan cloth with light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Title-page and several others rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution. An uncommon book, with many interesting points, including some charming little head- and tailpieces.  (19972)

At rear are “Select Formulae of Prescriptions, Latin & English, and a Glossary of Terms.”

Provenance:  Early 19th-century signature on title-page of “John Stevens, No. 6" at top of title-page.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 28770. On Hooper, see the DNB, XXVII, 306–307.   Publisher's acid-stained sheep with red leather spine label, modest gilt ruling on spine; leather joints and worn corners repaired with toned tissue. Occasional foxing only. In all, a nice copy of a volume that was a must for American doctors at the beginning of the 19th century.  (29572)

The date of printing is based on the fact that the printing firm of Tennery & Stockwell was active at Cambridge, N.Y., in 1804 only.

Provenance:  Ownership signature dated 1806 of M.H. Smith and another undated (i.e., Manassah H. Smith, a lawyer in Warren and Portland, Maine); 20th-century bookplate of Francis Massey O'Brien (Portland, Maine), bibliophile and bookseller.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 6570.   Publisher's acid-stained sheep, abraded; black leather spine label; front joint (outside) starting. Early and late leaves with discoloration in outer margins from migration of leather oils, otherwise typical age-toning and the occasional stain or spot. Generally a very nice copy.  (29949)

Provenance:  Ex–Allyn K. Ford Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, recently deaccessioned.

•  Very good condition. Docketed on verso.  (33398)

The recipes show a penetration of Mexican cooking that extends beyond tacos, tamales, and guacamole to Mexican coffee, avocado soup, salad dressing, fish dishes, and even a soufflé. And it is notable that now the Mexican dishes are no longer segregated.

•  Publisher's tan cloth-covered boards in original dust jacket; jacket evenly sunned with a few edge nicks. A very nice copy of an interesting, attractive, historically oriented cookbook.  (36107)

    Some of both the voyages and the maps make their first published appearances here—among them the New England map depicting the Maryland and Virginia coastlines, engraved by R. Michault after one contained in Richard Blome’s Description of the Island of Jamaica, part of which work appears here translated into French. Altogether, a volume notable both for its strong African and North American content and for the aesthetic appeal of its plates and pleasingly ornamented typography.

Sabin 36944; Alden & Landis 674/159; Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection 68; Baer, 17th-Century Maryland, 78. Recent 17th-century style mottled calf with covers framed in a gilt roll and double-panelled in gilt fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons,; spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels and gilt-stamped decorative devices. Several pages (not including title) and the versos of a few plates stamped by a now-defunct institution. Paper slightly embrittled. Light waterstaining to a number of leaves and plates, mostly in margins; the first map with two repairs. One leaf (blank?) prior to Colonies Angloises excised; lacking the folding map of the Nile. A good copy, in a handsome binding of recent vintage and contemporaneous style. (8746)