This is in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, with sidenotes, scattered woodcut initials, and a few woodcut tailpieces; an engraved allegorical vignette signed J.G. graces the title-page.

•  For the history of printed treatises on this subject at Franeker, see: L. Fuks and R.G. Fuks-Mansfeld, Hebrew Typography in the Northern Netherlands, 1585–1815.   Contemporary vellum over boards (rubbed and lightly scuffed); spine with morocco label (rubbed and faded) and old library sticker, boards double-ruled in blind with a blind-embossed central cartouche. Interior age-toned with occasional thumb-soiling, minor stains, and one negligible hole from an ink spot; two old institutional bookplates, pressure-stamp to title-page (and publication date changed to 1702, MDCCII, by adding another “I” in early ink), lower edges with rubber-stamp, librarian's pencilled shelf-marks to verso of title-page and neatly inked five-digit number to bottom of next leaf. A solid, handsome volume.  (29609)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with inked inscription: “Duchess of Somerset [/] 1875" (presumably Margaret Shaw-Stewart Seymour, widow of the 11th Duke of Somerset, d. 1880). Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Publisher's red cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title, front cover with gilt-stamped oval medallion title frame, back cover with gilt-stamped urn and flowers vignette; spine sunned with cloth chipping at joints and frayed at extremities. All edges gilt. Title-page with small portion of outer edge repaired some time ago. Mild age-toning and offsetting around guard tissues; last few leaves foxed. An attractive (if somewhat alarming) production.  (37890)

•  New. Publisher's blue cloth shelfback and French swirl marbled paper over boards; white paper label on front cover.  (35760)

NUC and WorldCat locate only two copies in the U.S. Searches of CCPB and the OPAC of the Spanish national library locate three Spanish libraries reporting ownership; COPAC finds no copies in Britain.

The number of “splendid ceremonies” books produced in colonial Peru is small: There is no census but we suspect the number to be around 20.

Other interesting aspects of the work are that it is an important source on the social and artistic life of Lima in the decade following the Tupac Amaru rebellion and that it is from one of Latin America's famous presses of “orphan children.”

•  John Carter Brown Library, Catalogue, 1493-1800, III,324; Medina, Lima, 1697; Sabin 73902; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 2546.   Contemporary limp vellum with neatly inked title on spine; all edges inked decoratively. Old blurred stamp on front free endpaper, old single numerals very faintly on title-pages. Small tear in margin of plate, not into image. Overall a very good copy, very clean and with wide margins.  (34668)

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth with a young farmer's vignette stamped in white, black, and gilt on the cover, spine with gilt-stamped title and bird vignette.

•  BAL 16671.   Binding as above, dust jacket lacking, very minor rubbing to extremities and front cover vignette. Front pastedown with ownership inscription of Alice Grace Stone. Clean and fresh.  (35049)

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf with early inked inscription of Marjorie S. Ingraham of South Lynnfield, MA.

•  BAL 16687.   Publisher's dark green cloth, covers with color-printed illustration; light wear to edges and extremities, covers with a few small scuffs. Fly-leaf with inscription as above and with tiny paper adhesions at top and lower edges. Pages and plates clean. A landmark American children's book, here in a delightful copy.  (38674)

The volume is illustrated with woodcut arms on the verso of the second title-page and bears many woodcut initials and tailpieces throughout This copy retains Ortuño's engraved frontispiece (often missing) of St. Francis.

Binding:  A very interesting contemporary Mexican sprinkled calf binding, probably by a “provincial” binder. Covers with a single gilt-roll border having a modest corner device in each corner, that tool reused to form a four-part center design on each cover; same gilt-roll used on spine to accent the slightly raised bands and form spine compartments, one of these compartments with a spine-label and one having the covers' corner device gilt-tooled at its center. Board edges also with a gilt-roll design; all edges green. Highly unusual endpapers of a pattern in blue and red resembling images of strings in string theory: This is the first time we have ever seen this pattern.

•  Garcia Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 56; Viñaza 341; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2286; Palau 269110; Medina, Mexico, 4500; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VI, 210–211; Sabin 71488; Leclerc 2334; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2891.   Binding as above, in good condition; light offsetting from it to early and late leaves. A few small areas of discoloration where candle wax spilled on a page, and a bit of other light toning; p. 135 with “Per Omnia Secula Seculorum” neatly written in bottom margin. Very good.  (34611)

14 maps of important battle locations

•  Howes R311; Sabin 71530.   Publisher's ribbed brown cloth, covers with blind-stamped foliate frames surrounding publisher's arabesque cartouche, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorative bands; corners rubbed, spine heads chipped and reinforced with brown cloth tape, lower board edges showing very faint water damage, lower back cover of vol. I and lower front cover of vol. II slightly warped, endpapers stained by bleed-through of binder's glue. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, rubber-stamp on title-pages and a few others, no other markings. Vol. I: Two plates with small spots of light staining; light waterstaining to lower outer corners of a few leaves, including one plate. Vol. II: mild waterstaining to lower portions, extending into text; signatures in latter portion unopened. A slightly rough copy, still solid and readable and decent on shelf.  (29427)

Provenance:  The title-page verso bears a limitation statement “De Auteur erkent geene exemplaren voor echt, dan die dus, eigenhandig, door hem zelf, getekend zyn,”signed, “C. Ris.” Title-page recto has signature of American scholar and collector Howard Osgood.

•  Springer-Klassen 5102.   Later limp speckled paper wrappers, spine reinforced with cloth tape, in buckram-covered slipcase with author and date gilt-stamped on spine, remnants of shelving label. Front and back free endpapers partially excised. Title-page institutionally pressure-stamped, with early inked ownership inscription between two lines of title. Lightly cockled, outer corners curled; occasional light foxing, more pronounced towards back of volume.  (31093)

•  NSTC 2R11677; Lowndes 2099; Hugo, The Bewick Collector, 434.   Contemporary half dark green morocco with red marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; some rubbing and with a bit of green discoloration to paper of front cover. Minor offsetting to frontispiece and title-page; mild to moderate foxing in first third of volume and to last few pages.  (21934)

Binding:  Signed binding done byFrancis Bedford, stamped as such in turn-ins on front pastedowns and on front free endpapers: 19th-century calf framed in triple gilt fillets with small corner rondels, spines gilt extra with gilt-stamped red leather title-labels and green leather volume labels, board edges with double gilt fillets, turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear of each volume.

•  Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), 87; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1832.6; Hugo, The Bewick Collector, 86 (for first ed.).   Bindings as above, rebacked preserving original spines; edges and extremities rubbed, spines showing moderate wear, half-titles (only) lacking. Front fly-leaves and title-page of vol. II with light spotting in lower halves; a few instances of faint spotting elsewhere in each volume, pages otherwise clean and white. A handsome copy of this important step in the establishment of Robin Hood's legendary status.  (37995)

The wood engravings are printed from the original blocks from Bewick's atelier; however, many of the tailpieces differ from those of the first edition. Also, this edition adds “Sir Peny” from a Cottonian manuscript that was not included in the first edition.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with difficult to decipher inked ownership inscription dated 1849, half-title with pencilled inscription: “Ex Armario Gulielmi Blaine Wootten.” Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  NSTC 2R11684; Hugo, The Bewick Collector, 488; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1833.9; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), 87.   Publisher's plain dark blue cloth, spine with printed paper label; cloth worn and faded, spine extremities and top of label chipped. Inscriptions and ex-libris as above. Pages slightly age-toned, with edges untrimmed and dust-soiled; first and last few leaves lightly foxed. Externally an unprepossessing, internally an attractive copy.  (37871)

The contents of these two volumes appear to be based almost entirely on John Roach's Beauties of the Poets of Great Britain, although Roach is not cited as the editor, the pieces are in a different order than originally presented, and there are a few minor changes: “The Negro Boy” is not included here, while several “runic odes” by Mathias and Penrose have been added. The expected highlights of Pope, Gray, Cowper, Burns, Chatterton, Goldsmith, etc. are present, as well as lesser-known pieces such as Mrs. Carter's “Address to Meditation,” Mary Darby Robinson's “Trumpeter,” and Helen Maria Williams's “Sonnet to Twilight” and “Sonnet to Hope” (the latter memorized by Wordsworth, whose first published poem was “Sonnet, on seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams Weep at a Tale of Distress”).

The volumes are illustrated with 18 wood-engraved plates signed by Sears, Willis, and others — not the 1793 originals.

Provenance:  Ownership note of “Adams Jewett, M.D.” to top of title-page.

•  This ed. not in NSTC, Lowndes, or Allibone. Not in British Library OPAC, not in NUC Pre-1956, not in OCLC, not in COPAC.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spines with printed paper labels. Each title-page with early inked ownership inscription in upper margin as above. Some pages with offsetting; spots of light to moderate staining; one page with pencilled annotation.  (25339)

Binding:  Original black cloth with cheerful red, green, blue, and yellow star print, spine with printed paper label, inside front cover with inset photograph of D'Ambrosio.

•  Binding as above. A fresh, clean copy of an uncommon tribute.  (35689)

Considerable attention is paid to art: painting, japanning, gilding, making casts and impressions, and the symbolism of flowers, birds, trees, and insects. An extended discussion of the history and ceremonial dress of the Orders of the Garter and St. Andrews may derive from and bear witness to Mrs. Robertson's social longings! And because young ladies need to secretly write to beaus or friends, there are recipes forinvisible ink.

Pages 20, 41, 52–53, 62–66, 87, and 119 all haveAmericana content showing the spread into daily life in Europe of New World crops and natural products.

“This book was first printed in Edinburgh in 1766 by Walter Ruddiman, and sold by the author herself at Perth, as well as by other booksellers. Second and third editions followed, also by Ruddiman for Robertson, the second with an additional engraved title page” (catalogue record, National Library of Scotland). This is the “fourth edition, with large additions.” It is the first edition printed in York and was printed in the same year as the Edinburgh second and third editions.

Searches of ESTC, NUC, and WorldCat locate only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership of this edition.

•  Cagle, Matter of Taste, 966; Bitting 400; Axord 432; Maclean 124; Noling 349; ESTC T122647.   Contemporary plain sheep, worn and with some stains on boards; rebacked, with raised bands, modest gilt ruling, and red leather spine label; new endpapers. A nice copy.  (37210)

Provenance:  Booklabel of Raymond Clavreuil on front pastedown of vol. I.

•  ESTC T78965; Sabin 71973.   Brown speckled calf, two gilt leather spine labels, double rules accenting raised bands and covers framed in gilt fillets, all edges speckled red; bindings lightly rubbed and one cover with (limited) old stain to top. Marked as above, light age-toning; very small amount of pencilling on endpapers and off-setting to early/late leaves from turn-ins; a few tears in folded maps artfully repaired from back, folds strong. A handsome, sturdy set of a classic. (36140)

•  American Imprints 52683; Sabin 71961. This edition not in Palau. Publisher's pebbled brown cloth bindings: black tape at top of one spine and onto the covers. Bindings show modest wear, publisher's paper spine labels slightly chipped; text blocks slightly skewed in bindings and light waterstaining in lower inner margins of vol. I. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. (28891)

The author, who spent most of his life in Derby, was a sculptor as well as a Derbyshire historian, and he appears to have supplied theoriginal illustrations here himself. The two pairs of plates (one lithographed, one steel-engraved) are done in notably different styles — we suspect that two different engravers worked from Robinson's sketches. Robinson wrote one additional Twitcher piece in 1881, describing a visit to the Royal Agricultural Show, not included in this gathering.

All the Twitcher books are now scarce: WorldCat finds very few U.K. holdings of these titles and virtually no U.S.

Provenance: First text page with early pencilled ownership inscription of Mr. H. Mills in upper outer corner.

•  Crismas: NSTC 2R14138; Visit: NSTC 2R14139; Second Visit: NSTC 2R14140; Watter Cure: NSTC 0643751.   Later quarter green calf and fine combed marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; minor shelfwear. Pencilled ownership note as above. Light age-toning; first two works with mild foxing and last leaves with avery light, old waterstain across a lower corner. A highly personal production in text *and* illustration; an entertaining and very uncommon gathering.  (36501)

Scarce. OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 report only one U.S. holding of this item.

•  Contemporary quarter morocco with mottled paper-covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-ruled raised bands; spine slightly darkened, edges and corners showing traces of wear. Front pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings). Publisher’s printed paper wrappers bound in; front fly-leaf partially adhered to front inside wrapper. Pages lightly age-toned, else clean. A good copy.  (19365)

•  Publisher's blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and fish vignette with blind-stamped decorative borders; spine slightly darkened, small spots of light discoloration, extremities rubbed. Sewing just barely starting to loosen but holding; pages clean. A more than decent copy of this interesting and, shall we say, “highly personal” work.  (35139)

The book is illustrated with 100 engraved plates and numerous in-text engravings, as well as a frontispiece map of the Holy Land in each volume. The plates are mostly figural illustrations taken from paintings in catacombs and on sarcophagi, illuminated manuscripts, mosaics, ivory figurines, murals, etc. The title-pages are printed in black and red ink, and decorated with an engraved vignette.

•  Publisher's red cloth, stamped in gilt on the spines and front covers. Spines sunned and front cover of vol. II slightly sunned along fore-edge also; cloth of spines frayed at extremities and chipped in other places. Hinges (inside) of vol. I a little weak, stitching exposed; corners bumped with cloth damage; pages very shallowly bumped. Ex-library, with shelf labels on spines, institutional bookplates on front pastedowns, pressure-stamp to title-pages and one other page in each volume. Paper very good; pages clean and bright.  (24688)

•  Allen & Allen, Feodor Rojankovsky: The Children's Books and Other Illustration Art, DP1.a.   Publisher's color-printed paper–covered boards with blue cloth shelfback; corners and spine extremities rubbed, spine gently sunned, cream paper very slightly darkened with a few faint spots. Pages fresh and clean. A very nice copy of a landmark work of children's illustration.  (38684)

•  Brunet, IV, 1224; Cohen, Guide de l’amateur de livres à gravures du XVIIIe siecle, 510–11; Lewine, Bibliography of eighteenth century art and illustrated books, 252.   Later quarter oxblood morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; light wear to paper. Frontispiece mounted some time ago, title-page with short tear from lower margin, repaired; pages age-toned, with foxing and soiling/staining in various degrees throughout; despite flaws, a charmer. Uncut copy.  (29322)

This edition was designed by the great American typographer (or “typster,” as he labeled himself) Bruce Rogers, and he left his mark on its final page; it was limited to 425 copies printed at the Riverside Press in Cambridge, MA. Bound in maroon paper–covered boards with a white paper spine label printed in black, this is copy 405 and is in its original dust wrapper and with its box, beingrare thus.  The spare label is tipped in at the back.

•  Work of Bruce Rogers, 101.   Bound and in its box as above; dust jacket and box label sunned, box edges rubbed. The pristine text is, which can be read with enjoyment by peeping, is unopened and uncut.  (30539)

•  Arndt & Eck 762; ESTC W5504; Evans 22858 & 22493.   Contemporary mottled sheep with remnants of original clasp, rebacked quite some time ago with calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and publication labels; original leather edges rubbed, spine leather with cracks, spine extremities chipped, joints expertly strengthened and hinges (inside) reinforced. Pages age-toned; first and last few leaves waterstained, scattered staining elsewhere. One leaf with small hole, just barely touching one character without loss.  (27903)

“This edition follows exactly the text of the original Belfast issue of 1897 except that certain misprints have been corrected,” according to the edition statement; the text is ornamented with reproductions of the originalthree wood engravings by W.M.R. Quick. The present example is numbered copy 719 of 1250 printed.

Provenance:  Calligraphic bookplate of Norman J. Sondheim, American collector of fine press books.

•  McKitterick/Rendall/Dreyfus 33.   Publisher's half sheep and pink, red, and brown mottled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine gently sunned, extremities a bit rubbed. Front pastedown with bookplate as above; light foxing to endpapers, with a very few faint spots elsewhere. Lovely Nonesuch production of a “must read it to believe it” novel!  (32039)

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Rosenbach, Children's, 603; Shoemaker 5091.   Publisher's plain salmon-colored paper over light paste boards. Some plates browned as in all copies; glue stains showing through frontispiece. A few leaves mildly foxed. A nice book, a charming book.  (38470)

Garrison and Morton say of the first edition in English: “Sir Frederick Still considered this work 'the most progressive which had yet been written;' it gave an impetus to research which influenced the future course of paediatrics.”

Translator Murray (1740–91) was a Swedish student of Linnaeus and later a professor of botany and medicine at Göttingen.

Provenance:  Bookplate of Adamus Elias Schmidt, dated 1784.  Early 19th-century signature of a Philadelphia doctor (erased) at top of title-page.

•  G&M 6323.   Contemporary half calf, well worn: leather dry and gone to red with joint leather lost, cords holding, paper of covers worn through to boards in some places. Text with age-toning. Not a pretty copy but complete, and solid for now. Housed in a red cloth clamshell case.  (22256)

Rosenbach was the leading bookseller in America during the first half of the 20th century, helping to form the collections of Huntington, Folger, Widener, Doheny, Bell, Lilly, Clements, and many others. His personal collecting included American Judaica and Early American children's books. This is the highly illustrated and very bibliographically detailed catalogue of his personal collection of the latter. The collection was donated to the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The introduction is by A.E. Newton, Rosenbach's friend and customer, and a man whose own books on the joys of collecting helped fuel the fashion for it in the 1920s and 30s.

•  Blue pigskin, embossed in black on covers with an early American design; rebacked in plain blue morocco; abraded joints nicely refurbished. In the original black cloth slipcase but without the paper label. A good+ copy.  (34040)

This early edition of Rosignoli’s work, first published in Bologna in 1696, is decorated with floriated capitals, headpieces, and tailpieces, with an engraved frontispiece lacking in this copy. The volume opens with a dedication to Don Teobaldo Maria Visconti and closes with a thorough index.

•  Sommervogel, VII 154.   Contemporary stiff vellum, spine with title inked in early hand; engraved frontispiece lacking and text block separating from spine from base upwards (with sewing visible). Light discolorations to many pages, inked jottings to front and back pastedowns. A scarce edition of a scarce text.  (36670)

•  Peterson A20; NSTC 0651818.   Original cream limp vellum, spine with gilt-stamped author/title; spine very slightly darkened, top rear and bottom front silk ties perished but their partners present. (The ties on Kelmscotts seem to always be a problem.) Housed in a quarter crushed brown morocco solander (i.e., clam shell) case with rust-colored cloth sides and a spine with five raised bands; title in gilt in one compartment, author in gilt in another; remaining compartments with a blind-tooled foliate center device.A lovely example of an iconic Kelmscott volume, fitly housed.  (36887)

Provenance:  From the collection of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Hatch, Mosher, 184; Bishop, Mosher, 47.   Vellum-cased boards with green silk accents, spine modestly lettered in gilt; very lightly dust-soiled and spotted, outer green silk uniformly faded, ties appearing to have been trimmed off at edges. Interior creamy and clean. A textually interesting work and a spectacular example of an unusual printing method from an American press.  (37302)

•  ESTC T33309.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Half-title with “Tracts” inked in an early hand in the upper margin; first text page with neatly inked provenance annotation (dated [19]40) in inner margin and stamped numeral in lower margin. Pages lightly age-toned, with offsetting to margins of first three leaves and a very few scattered spots of light staining. Early inked marginalia (shaved in two instances) — this of a skeptical nature — and underlining. (21075)

•  Brunet, IV, 1421. Contemporary black half morocco over blue pebbled cloth, spine beautifully gilt extra, leather edges ruled in gilt; volume clean and virtually unworn. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings); some soiling and offsetting to front pastedown and free endpaper. Many leaves lightly to moderately foxed, a few more heavily — the paper here was not as good as it might have been. One leaf with short tear from upper margin, touching page number but not text. An attractive production. (19301)

This is a later edition, following the first of 1728, with this particular printing being uncommon: ESTC locates only four institutional holdings (two in the U.K. and two in the U.S.), while COPAC does not find any additional U.K locations. WorldCat adds two more U.S. locations, for a total of only four.

Binding:  Contemporary treed sheep, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, board edges with gilt roll; tooling very attractive along lines that “feel” just a touch “provincial.”

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked inscription: “Mrs. Hinckley 1809.”

•  ESTC N3296; this edition not in NCBEL, but see II:565 for earlier editions and translations into French and German.   Binding with edges rubbed, spine leather showing small cracks, joints carefully repaired with tissue, caps rebuilt, corners reinforced, leather consolidated. Occasional minor staining; inscription as above. A very readable copy in an attractive period binding.  (28806)

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only five U.S. institutional holdings.

•  Martin & Walter 30351.   Remnants of original simple sewing present; spine chipped and splitting. Title-page with paper shelving label in lower inner corner and pencilled monogram in upper outer corner. Edges untrimmed and slightly ragged; title-page with lower outer corner creased. Minor spots of faint foxing mostly confined to margins, pages otherwise clean.  (30838)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription of Richard Wattel; back free endpaper with inked note: “H.h Price ex dono Rich. Wattel 17 June 1810.”

•  Gregg, Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration, L8d; ESTC R8556; Wing (rev. ed.) R2214; Sweet & Maxwell 241.   Contemporary sheep framed in double blind fillets; rubbed, especially at spine and extremities, with sewing starting to loosen and text block separating from spine, back joint just starting from foot. Frontispiece with small smudge in lower portion (not touching main figure); pages lightly age-toned.  (34493)

Rumker’s catalogue of stars visible in the southern hemisphere had both a purely scientific aim and a practical one. The systematic study and cataloguing of the stars visible with the aid of observatory-based telescopy in the southern hemisphere was in its infancy in the 1820s: The Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope was established in 1820 and was the first permanent astronomical observatory in the southern hemisphere. Thus one can see the importance of Parramatta being up and working in 1822. On the practical side, Gov. Brisbane was a naval officer who knew the importance of the stars in navigation. Rumker’s work and his catalogue served both science and the Royal Navy, as he offered “Constants of Aberration and Nutation”; a “Comparison of my Observations with those made by La Caille”; and notes on “Double Stars,” “Magnitudes and Colour of the Stars, Nebula's, &c.,” and so forth — with the grand quotation of our caption being taken from his Preface.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only nine copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance:  Presented to Alexander Dallas Bache, a great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin and at the time of publication of this work a professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania: “Professor A.D. Bache / with the author's Compts.” in ink on the front wrapper.

•  Publisher's blue-green wrappers, covers stained and separating; text block stitched as issued. Overall age-toning; occasional foxing; faint waterstaining in upper third of most pages. Overall a good++ copy.  (35203)

•  NSTC 2A17980 (for all years 1855–61).   Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with small inked numeral in upper outer corner, otherwise clean.  (17033)

At the time of his death, Rush left an estate of more than one million dollars and his books to The Library Company of Philadelphia, which established the Ridgway Branch in his wife's name. Of historical note, James's father, the noted physician and politician Benjamin Rush, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, as was James's maternal grandfather, Richard Stockton.

Provenance:  Ownership signature of S.J.P. Anderson, “Hanover College, In., Jan. 1836"; later 19th-century bookplate of James J. Anderson, Nashville, IL. S.J.P. was among other things afamed pulpit orator for whom a book like this would have been of special interest; he was sufficiently well known as such that the makers of “Brown's Bronchial Troches” long published his testimonial that their lozenges were “EFFECTUAL in removing Hoarseness and Irritation of the Throat, so common with SPEAKERS and SINGERS.”

•  American Imprints 21025; Sabin 74251 (note); ANB online (James Rush). On Rush's contribution to American elocution studies, see: L. Hale, Dr. James Rush, in K. Wallace, ed., History of speech education in America, pp. 219–37.   Publisher's full plain sheep, modest gilt tooling to spine and board edges. A foxed copy, with also a light semicircular waterstain across gutter in lower margins; still, complete and sound with its paper unsoiled, untattered, and strong.  (34827)

•  American Imprints 21026; Howes R522; Sabin 74264.   Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Pages age-toned, with minor spotting; a good, clean copy.  (27208)

•  Sabin 74265; Howes R523; Allibone 1893.   Publisher's brown cloth, blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; rubbed with cloth split at joints and front cover with spot of discoloration. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, old inked call number on endpapers and flyleaf (which has small old adhesions of paper to verso); no other markings. Very light to moderate waterstaining to upper inner portions of central third of the volume.  (26480)

As our caption notes, this vast repository purports to have been made as “a bare narrative” of its “fact[s]”; but it now resonates with a richness far beyond mere chronicle. It repays both extended and “dip-in” reading for pleasure.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) R2316, R2318–19, & R2333; Lowndes 2152.   Recent half speckled calf, old style; marbled paper sides; round spines, raised bands, gilt center devices in spine compartments, bands accented with gilt beading. Binding signed by Starr Bookworks. General gentle age-toning, with some pages and sections browned due to nature of paper, including some plates; intermittently recurring instances of old waterstaining, sometimes with some cockling and most notable in vol. VI, there affecting the fold-out plate of the “Battail of Naseby”; minor worming in upper margins also of vol. VI (not anywhere close to text), and a short closed tear. Occasional foxing and other spotting, variously; occasional early marginalia. Old library pressure- (not perforation-) stamps in some blank margins, with light shelfmark pencilling to title-page versos and a number slenderly inked in each volume to lower margin of first text page. A strong, satisfactory, very nice antiquarian set.  (22477)

This letter to Mrs. Cowper (née Georgianna Tollemache) colorfully, vividly, and indulgently describes the energetic merrymaking of those girls who have not gone home for Christmas holiday. There are about 14 or 15 of them and on the wet day before that of the letter they played at noisy “hide & seek all day” in the enormous building: “The house has about three quarters of a mile of up and down corridors” and presently there are “seven or eight dozen empty rooms” because of the absent girls. As per our caption, he also writes in detail about teaching songs and dances to his charges.

On a personal note, he will go and have dinner with the Cowpers on Monday, he promises.

The text of the letter was published from the Cook and Wedderburn transcripts in the Bodleian Library (The Winnington Letters, ed. by Van Akin Burd, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1969; pp. 531–32). There are two small differences in the original that are not found in the printed version.

Provenance:  In the stock of Thomas H. Telford, an antiques and book dealer; sold in 1933 to Mrs. W.S. Bowen of Westfield, N.J.

•  Written on Winnington embossed stationery. Not the easiest hand to read but clearer than not. Old folds, fore-edges a little crumpled, short fold tears. Overall very good.  (34781)

•  Publisher's teal cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; spines with gilt slightly dimmed and minor extremity wear, front cover of vol. II with a small light smudge. A solid and pleasant set, with its pages very crisp and clean.  (33164)

•  Publisher's red cloth, spines gilt-stamped, in matching slipcase; volume spines sunned, slipcase showing minimal shelfwear. Overall very clean and crisp.  (33160)

Uncommon.  ESTC, OCLC, and NUC Pre-1956 report only nine U.S. holdings, one of which has been deaccessioned.

•  ESTC W22234; Evans 29452; Sabin 74292.   Contemporary mottled paper, recently rebacked with plain brown cloth; paper abraded around board edges. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedown with early inked numerals (calculation). Pp. 49/50 bound in out of order. Pages browned and foxed but strong and supple.  (25253)

This is the second edition, following the (scarce) first of 1852; the front cover differs from the title-page in giving the publication information as Chicago.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with several early pencilled inscriptions, including one reading “To Vestilla from W.B. Lear, July 13th 1857.” A folded section from a smaller hymnal is laid in.

•  Publisher's quarter sheep and printed paper–covered boards; binding darkened and rubbed, front joint starting from head, front cover creased. Front free endpaper partially excised and back free endpaper lacking; front pastedown with inscriptions as above, back pastedown with early inked annotations and numerals. First three leaves with central tear affecting several words. Laid-in hymnal pages with upper edges chewed. Moderate foxing and intermittent waterstaining; some corners dog-eared. Interesting for its graphically appealing cover and the array of its “juvenile” repertoire choices.  (30255)

While this work is certainly held in the expectable Irish libraries, it islittle held in British or American libraries. In fact, searches of NUC, ESTC, and WorldCat locate only two copies in the U.S., both in the northeast.

•  ESTC T179610.   Period-style half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title. Half-title lacking; title-page with early inked inscriptions in upper portion (one inked over), lower corners torn away, and edges chipped as next few leaves' are; first dedication page with early 20th-century inscription in inner margin. Pages darkened, especially at edges, and a good many bumped; last four leaves tattered with old repairs to lower corners taking a few letters but not sense, and once-separated final leaf with repairs also to upper and inner margins. A copy with some rough aspects, but one now sound anda book that's scarce.  (34108)

•  ESTC R36940; Wing (rev.) R2356A. On Russell, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Unbound, spine delicately reinforced. Pages age-toned and creased, with a few tiny pinpoint holes. Tissue repair to tear from inner margin extending across both leaves, touching but not obscuring a few letters. P. 2 with numerals in an early inked hand in the outer margin.  (14472)