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

•  Contemporary half sheep in imitation of morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and decorations; rubbed (though spine gilt bright) and front hinge (inside) cracked. Six leaves lacking, as per collation, and an unknown number of plates; upper outer corner of pp. 41/42 torn away with loss of perhaps seven letters. Upper inner portions stained from a thumb's breadth to at worst case an eighth of the page, throughout; other staining and foxing quite minimal, and more often to text than to images. Despite its incompleteness and other evidence of enthusiastic use, this copy of this rarity still offers both considerable charm and several varieties of usefulness.  (38650)

•  ESTC W007021; Evans 34675; Howes T 326; Sabin 96421. Recently rebound in quarter blue goat over blue cloth, leather edges with gilt roll-tooling; spine with gilt-accented raised bands and with gilt-stamped title, author, place, and date. Some pages spotted.

•  NSTC 2L25966; not in Goldsmiths’-Kress. Recent paper-covered boards. Title-page with small inked numerals in upper outer corner. Shouldernotes shaved. Pages clean.  (15269)

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)

Binding:  Marvelous contemporary sponge-mottled sheep binding, round spine richly gilt by repeated use of a small portion of a roll featuring a fine vinous pattern with fruit or berry.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locateonly three U.S. libraries reporting ownership (UC-San Diego, Lehigh, and Brown {not the JCB}).

•  Medina, Lima, 1790; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 2682; Sabin 97718; Palau 344278.   Binding as above; joints and edges rubbed, tiny spots of worming. Private ownership stamp whited-out on title-page. Worming in the inner margins in the lower outer corner of the index, with loss of blank paper only.  (37980)

Much of the text presents a defense of the incorporation of the Merchants' Bank.

Rare: We fail to trace any copies via OCLC; only one holding listed in Shaw & Shoemaker.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 11490.   As issued, with old folds, edges slightly irregular. Two tiny holes within text, at the point where two folds intersect, and costing only a portion of two letters. Fingernail-sized stain. Four words have been redacted by the previous owner in ink, but can still be easily read.  (24636)

Muller notes that this account “chiefly” concerns New-Netherland and that “it contains all the speeches and reports”; Asher adds that the information here is “not to be found in the letters of the Pensionary J. de Witt and other ministers.”

Provenance:  20th-century bookplate of J.W. Six; later in the collection of Frank Marshall Vanderhoof (American scholar, university librarian, private collector; 1919–2005).

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 725/147; Asher, Dutch books and pamphlets, 335; Sabin 98926; Frederik Muller, America (1872 catalogue), 1100.   Contemporary Dutch vellum over boards, round spine, raised bands, blind rules on covers, center cartouche blind-embossed. The usual foxing and browning found in so many copies. Solid, attractive, and a very good copy.  (35777)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 14060. Removed from a library-style pamphlet binding and in new wrappers.  (2759)

The presenter of the volume was R.T. McLain, chief clerk of the Department of Agriculture; the Hon. J. Gregory Smith, the recipient, was the president of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.

Binding:  A presentation binding of black morocco over boards with slightly bevelled edges. Covers with a gilt triple fillet border and a gilt floral vine inner “border.” Recipient's name in gilt in center of front board. Round spine, raised bands, gilt spine extra; gilt roll on board edges, different gilt roll on turn-ins. Pink endpapers of a textured paper, printed with an overall pattern of small gilt interlocking circles. Green silk place marker. All edges gilt.

A very nice example of a mid-19th-century presentation binding.

•  Binding as above, lightly rubbed at the joints (outside) and board edges. McLain's presentation card pasted to front pastedown, above Smith's bookplate. A very good copy of a book that is, as we say here, “interesting for more than one reason.”  (35244)

•  Not in American Imprints.   Removed from a nonce volume. Light staining, age-toning. Very good.  (35302)

•  Very Good condition, in recent wrappers.  (7771)

The work begins with a title-page in black and red, bearing the printers' large woodcut device incorporating images of Time and Fortune. The text is printed in the expected double-column format in roman and italic.

•  Palau 276638.   18th-century mottled calf, round spine, modest gilt tooling on spine. Front joint (outside) open along top three inches; front pastedown loosening from the board. Scattered foxing and staining. Sporadic worming in inner margins not touching the text. All edges richly saffron, unusually bright.  (29157)

These ephemeral guidebooks are not widely institutionally held in the U.S., although a different, quarterly publication of the same title (published by E.A. Pierce & Co.) appears to be somewhat more common.

•  Publisher's printed yellow paper wrappers; creased and lightly soiled, with inked date on spine and pencilled annotations on back wrapper. Text block just starting to pull away from wrappers. Pages age-toned; three leaves separated. A useful snapshot of the American economy in the spring of 1921.  (37198)

Following the poetry section there is a series of advertisements for products such as Pratt's Astral Oil and double-deodorized benzine. This is an interesting, attractive little relic of an era when manufacturers of such humble products sought surprisingly often to associate themselves with Much Higher Things — often going to real trouble and expense to do so!

•  Beige printed wrappers with “1888" written on the front cover in ink and a small pink stain at top edge; light age-toning.  (36736)

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 18239; NSTC W529. Recent paper wrappers. Some instances of light foxing and offsetting.  (11195)

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 goodbusiness 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)

•  Publisher's (appropriately) green morocco, front cover with gilt-stamped title and publication information. All edges gilt. A clean, tight copy.  (35703)

•  Publisher's red textured cloth with title and ALL authors' names gilt-lettered on spine; covers double-ruled in blind, gilt circlet surrounding title on front cover, yellow endpapers with printed publisher's advertisements; binding gently rubbed and lightly soiled, spine pulled at top with loss of cloth and text moderately cocked. Marked as above, interior clean.  (36185)

The fore-matter offerings here are: “On Picasso's Desire and T.S. Eliot's Sweeney Agonistes” by J[udith?] M[alina?]; “Reply” by William Carlos Williams; and “In response to a request for a manifesto on music, 1952" by John Cage.

The first year's program announces these productions: Gertrude Stein's “Ladies' Voices,” Pablo Picasso's “Desire,” T.S. Eliot's “Sweeney Agonistes,” Kenneth Rexroth's “Beyond the Mountains,” and Paul Goodman's “Faustina.”

Also present are a few advertisements, and lists of “Who's Who in the Casts,” the staff, and the directors and sponsors of the theater. The image on the front wrapper is a reproduction of a sketch by Picasso of the design for his famous sculpture “Man with a Lamb.”

Curiously, this group of avant garde artists apparently did not feel sufficient solidarity with the working man to have the program printed at a union shop. In fact, it has the feel and look of an “in house” production.

WorldCat finds onlyfive copies.

•  Printed on cheap brown paper and saddle stitched; upper inner corners of wrappers (only) chipped. A very good copy.  (36241)

•  NSTC 2W24750.   Removed from a nonce volume. Pages age-toned. An unusual ephemeral literary item from the man known as the “Father of American ornithology.”  (37236)

This text with a sizable subject index records de Witt's public resolutions from 2 August 1653 to 19 December 1668 on a variety of topics, including the price of gold, the East India Company, and England. In the dedication, vande Water, the printer of this work, notes that he is producing it so that the documents will not be lost to the future.

Evidence of Readership: Notes referring to specific pages written on front free endpaper and a newspaper clipping dated 25 April 1926 laid in text.

•  STCN 216098602.   Speckled calf, gilt spine with stamped and lettered compartments, all edges speckled red; top of spine artfully repaired, joints strengthened, gently rubbed. A few gatherings age-toned and one section at rear with band of very light waterstaining to foremargin; small holes in foremargin of two leaves, possibly created during manufacture, small tear to bottom margin of another. A well-organized look at what was considered important during the middle of the Dutch Golden Age.  (35705)