Sadleir's analysis suggested to him the following probable sequence: a) the private edition, b) copies of the public edition with p. 236 in the same form as it appears in the private edition, c) copies of the public edition with p. 236 blank; and d) copies of the public edition with the complete new version of the text on p. 236.

However, the remnants of the binding preserved at the back of the present first volume — see note below andtop-right image above — are red moiré silk (as opposed to the brown cloth of the public edition), with the side panels and spine ornately blocked with a gilt design and the title within the gilt frame (the spine is rather worn, but legible). This suggests that only some of the twelve private copies were bound in leather, and others, or at least one, were bound in this special silk cloth, gilt extra.

Barham began writing the short pieces making up this series as contributions to his friend and classmate's Bentley's Miscellany. The subject matter was “at first derived from the legendary lore of the author's ancestral locality in Kent, but soon [was] enriched by satires on the topics of the day and subjects of pure invention, or borrowed from history or the ‘Acta Sanctorum’. . . . The success of the ‘Legends’ was pronounced from the first, and when published collectively in 1840 they at once took the high place in humorous literature which they have ever since retained” (DNB).

Provenance: With R.H.D. Barham’s signature as noted above, and with the armorial bookplate of Sir David Lionel Salomons (1851–1925) in each volume.

•  NCBEL, III, 365; Sadleir 156a; Tinker 216 (public edition); Carter, Binding Variants, p.92. Bindings a bit darkened and slightly discolored at extremities, light rubbing to joints, some foxing to the prelims of the first volume, with an old tide-mark in the lower gutter areas of the plates; a tipped-in bookseller's description in the first volume. A very good, very interesting example of a very rare thing.

•  NSTC 0854657 (for first U.S. ed.).   Publisher's light blue cloth, front cover stamped in dark blue and green, spine with title stamped in blue; binding slightly cocked, board edges faded, spine darkened and with old inked shelving number. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate. Pages very faintly age-toned, else clean.  (24675)

Illustrated with a frontispiece image (repeated on back wrapper) showing the mob scene in front of the Astor Place Opera House, engraved by W.N. Dunnel. Includes eyewitness testimonies and lists of the killed and wounded.

Provenance:  Rubber-stamped “Property of E.A. Cruikshank” on the title-page and on the inside of the back wrapper.

•  Sewn, in original printed wrappers; edge chipping, back wrapper separated, small dark spot on front wrapper. Some dog-earing and ragged lower edges. Good+.  (24589)

Click the image to the left for an enlargement.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 7830; not in Rosenbach; not in Welsh. Later 19th-century quarter sheep with paper of covers in imitation of treed sheep. Insect damage to leather of front cover with small loss of leather paper. A little rubbing and tiny holes on spine. Some wear to edges and corners. Minor insect damage to first two leaves and small loss of paper in outer margin of one leaf. Ownership signature on front free endpaper. Foxing. (701)

Binding: Half tan cloth and marbled paper sides; round spines with five gilt-ruled raised bands, compartments gilt extra, oxblood-colored gilt-stamped leather title labels and black gilt-stamped leather volume labels. Endpapers done in same marbled paper as binding sides, with all page edges marbled in the same colors and pattern; red and yellow headbands.

•  NCBEL, II, 1101 (for the first printing of Chalmer’s ed.). Bindings as above, leather showing moderate wear with a few abrasions; upper page edges dust-darkened. Each volume with ownership inscription inked on reverse of front free endpaper. Pages mostly clean with occasional instances of age-toning or light spotting.

Click either image
for an enlargement.

The title is within a typographic border; text is printed in double-column format, in roman type.

•  Palau 2864. 19th-century half sheep with marbled paper sides; binding shows wear. Lower margin of title-leaf and leaves of the preliminaries with minor worming; repaired with pasted-over paper. Some side- and shouldernotes shaved with loss. Sporadic soiling, not severe.

•  ESTC T88657; Dibdin, I, 232; Schweiger, I, 2. Contemporary vellum-covered boards, covers framed and panelled in blind with central blind-stamped strapwork medallions, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. Boards sprung with front joint of vol. I open and separating from bottom, vellum soiled. Front free endpapers with early inked owner’s name as above; shadow of shelf number once pencilled on title-page, erased. Spotting of various sorts and minor smudging in upper margins of some pages; leaves otherwise clean.

All 16th-century editions are scarce. Via NUC, OCLC and RLIN we locate only this copy of this edition (now deaccessioned) and that at Princeton.

Binding: Contemporary alum-tawed sheep over wooden boards with partially bevelled edges. Elaborately blind-embossed with a roll and a center panel ornament. Front cover with initials “H. S.” and date “1597” in gilt. Rear cover with gilt putti in the areas where initials and the date appear on the front.

Evidence of readership: Marginalia in the prefatory index; very scattered early underscoring.

•  VD16 A969; Goedeke, II, 8. Binding as above, lacking clasps and with old paper spine label; ex-library with bookplate and call number in old, faded, white numbering on spine. Title-page browned and tipped in; loss of paper to fore- and bottom margins of same. Some age-toning to paper and several leaves with natural paper flaws, repaired with archival tissue; three other leaves also with natural paper flaws repaired at time of binding or shortly after printing. Approximately 12 leaves with inkstains, sometimes obscuring text. One leaf (178) with a hole costing a significant loss of text. A marginally acceptable copy as regards text, in a good binding.

We offer a copy of the last of those variants—the decidedly rare Signers’ Edition. Bound in full morocco, it contains two original Bible leaves, one from the Old and one from the New Testament. (The “Colonial Edition” contains only one leaf, from the Old Testament, and it was bound in quarter leather.)

Single-click either image, for an enlargement.

The Old Testament leaf here is from Isaiah (XXV:9–12, XXVI:1–XXVIII:1) and the N.T. leaf is from I Corinthians (VII:1–VIII:7).

Found only here in the Signers’ Edition are a facsimile of Aitken's printing of the Declaration of Independence and a special frontispiece that presents facsimiles of all of the signatures of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Not content merely to double the ordinary offering of Aitken Bible leaves, the Signers' Edition added a special insert on Benjamin Franklin that was to contain a third original leaf—this, from Franklin's 1745 printing of the Confession of Faith. Unfortunately, that leaf was never tipped into this copy—not present, it yet does not seem to have been removed.

All editions of this fine leaf book end with Edwin Grabhorn’s still-notable essay on typography in America at the time of the Revolution.

•  Full crushed morocco. Without the slipcase, and without the leaf from Franklin’s printing of the 1745 Confession of Faith; with some spots to covers and one to one leaf.   Notwithstanding, quite a good copy.

The text is a plea for Temperance and includes the ten commandments concerning drink.This is one of the earliest Temperance tracts written in an indigenous American language and given the importance of alcoholism as a medical problem among native Americans, is something of a landmark work.

Click the images for enlargements.

Rare. Searches of on-line databases, NUC Pre-1956, and the sources cited below locate only three institutional copies, none of which are in medical libraries.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 36578; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 4134; Pilling, Iroquoian, 176. Not in Field; not in Ayer.   Sewn. Pinned into later plain wrappers. Our caption, from Othello (II, iii 286–87), DOES NOT appear in the pamphlet offered — we just couldn't resist it, and believe that Williams would have approved.  (24599)

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1092–95 (for other eds.).   Contemporary vellum, spine with inked title; lightly soiled, front cover with partially effaced early inked ownership inscription and back cover with faded early inked inscription. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped, front free endpaper lacking, title-page with early inked ownership inscription partially effaced (resulting in small holes). Pages age-toned, with occasional foxing.  (24349)

This sole edition is ornamented with a woodcut printer’s device and a woodcut headpiece and initial; the text is referenced with sidenotes.

Rare: Only two copies traced in the U.S. via OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956.

Provenance: Bookplate of Virtue & Cahill Library (the library of Portsmouth’s Catholic Cathedral) no. 8783, with a large overlaid rubber-stamp thereon starkly, blackly noting the dispersal and eventual sale of the library “following enemy action”—the cathedral having been bombed by the Germans in 1941.

•  On Allix, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, I, 334–35. 19th- or early 20th-century half calf over marbled paper, spine with gilt title; edges of leather with a dog’s tooth roll in blind. Leather rubbed, especially on joints and edges. Some soiling and waterstaining, mostly light and most notable on early leaves, with some small wormholes in the margins; a little fine chipping and some shallow dog-ears. Old inked ownership inscription on title-page, crossed out but still legible.