•  Medina, Mexico, 9502; Palau 97721; Sabin 16551. Publisher's treed sheep binding, gilt spine extra, spine label mostly perished. All edges carmine. A very good copy.

•  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; front joints repaired and now strong, 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.

•  Tan cloth over boards, red and black stamped, with vignettes of a biplane, a roadster, a motorbike, and a speedboat in the corners and the author/title in a large oval center medallion. A little rubbed, a little “used,” one page dog-eared; gift inscription dated 1931 on front free endpaper.  (32710)

•  Publisher's quarter leather over printed boards, respined with cloth tape; clean, solid copy.  (3612)

The volume is printed with the original language and spelling preserved, and is illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece of a fisherman taken from de Worde's 1518 edition that is cited as the earliest known depiction of an angler fishing with a rod, as well as with six woodcuts (provided at the back of the volume in the form of four plates) showing types of poles, hooks, etc. As the title-page proclaims, the work was printed with the types of John Baskerville, making it one of the last such printings done in England. A later hand has helpfully added pencilled marginalia clarifying archaic or obscure terms and suggesting subject headers.

•  NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42.   Later half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-decorated raised bands, and gilt-stamped fishing creel devices in compartments; spine label with small edge chips and mild rubbing to paper. Pencilled annotations as above, pages and plates otherwise pleasingly clean.  (28566)

This copy uncut and in original boards: RARE THUS.

•  NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42. Beyond the scope of Gaskell, Baskerville.   Publisher's dun-colored light boards. Uncut copy. Light overall rubbing; spine with minor loss of paper. Old bookseller's description affixed to front free endpaper; small oval stain to corner of half-title and frontispiece, a bit of light offsetting from plates. A very nice copy in a later open-back cardboard slipcase.  (30461)

One of the “Collector's Series in Science” publications.

•  Publisher's quarter cloth. In original slipcase, which is sunned (and pictured above). Very Good condition.  (22449)

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, slightly age-toned, spine and one corner creased, with a few minimal nicks or bumps to edges. Pages clean.A nice copy.  (29383)

The details (and the math) are fascinating: Government document, 19th Congress, 1st Session. Rep. No. 66. Ho. of Reps.

•  Removed from a nonce volume; inner margin a little irregular. Spot at top margin. Ink numeral in upper margin of recto.  (12476)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of Ethel Randolph Thayer [Starr], a New England artist better known as Polly Thayer.

•  NSTC 2B64516.   Bound as above, spine slightly dimmed, extremities rubbed, one corner partially refurbished; occasional offsetting from plates. Index with small pencilled marks of emphasis. A handsome and uncommon representation of the long-running Byron “mania.”  (29989)

•  Publisher's quarter leather with printed paper sides; respined with cloth tape, front hinge (inside) open, covers rubbed with paper loss at corners and a bit to printed matter. Text with a bit of staining and the odd torn corner; some pencilling.  (4197)

The volume is illustrated with alovely copper-engraved frontispiece depicting tree-fellers at work and with four folding plans showing how to calculate the scale and design of landscape features. At the back of the work is a brief overview of the rules for making cider, and an additional recipe for birch beer (alcoholic) is given in the chapter on birches.

•  ESTC T131054; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 6265.   18th-century calf, covers framed in double blind fillets with blind roll along joint, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and date labels and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; joints and portions of spine leather unobtrusively repaired, edges and extremities rubbed, sides with a bit of light scuffing, gilt mildly rubbed. Scattered faint foxing, most pages clean.  (30312)

The added engraved title-page is signed “F.H. Van Houe fecit,” marking this as the earlier state of the engraving.

•  ESTC R18563; Wing (rev. ed.) C6388.   Full period-style Cambridge mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in blind fillets and dotted rolls with blind-tooled corner fleurons, board edges with gilt roll, spine with gilt-stamped title, etc., and spine compartments gilt extra. All edges marbled. Pages mildly cockled and gently age-toned, otherwise clean. A very attractive copy, and a nice snapshot of period pomology.  (30099)

•  19th-century quarter sheep over paper-covered boards, worn and abraded with small discolorations; spine leather chipped, with remnants of gilt-stamped leather title label. Edges untrimmed. Some offsetting and a very few spots to pages; small area of worm damage in upper margins.

•  Publisher's embossed cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; corners and spine extremities showing minor wear, with gilt oxidized. Front free endpaper with pencilled inscription; some page edges with small blotches. Binding very handsome in its subtle way. Impossible! to get a good image of! (12986)

For more POST-1820 AMERICANA,  click here.
For a bit more AGRICULTURE,  click here.
For more "GIFTABLES" — mostly $100
      & UNDER,  click here.

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)

The plates are signed “F. Kearny,” an artist born in Perth Amboy, NJ, who studied drawing with Archibald and Alexander Robertson and engraving with Peter Maverick. From 1810 to his death in 1833 he practiced engraving in Philadelphia.

There are two states of gathering “U”: this copy has the typographical error “tibbon” with the stop-press correction to “ribbon” on p. 235.

The volume ends with advertisements for several sporting and fishing goods suppliers.

•  Shoemaker 27838; Howes K108; Henderson, American Sporting Books, 6; Phillips, Sporting Books, 21; Streeter Sale 4084; Bennett, Practical Guide, 60–61. On Stauffer, American Engravers, I, 148–49.   Publisher's sprinkled sheep with simple rope roll in blind on board edges, some abrasion to leather; round spine with gilt double rules forming “spine compartments,” black leather title label. The usual light and scattered foxing noted in all copies, nothing more. A very nice copy.  (28553)

Held in most of the expectable libraries but currently uncommon in commerce.

•  Sabin 70769. Recent black moiré cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page and several others rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages clean.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 31549; Felcone, New Jersey Books 1801-1860, 732.   Stitched into plain brown paper wrappers as issued. Foxing and browning as usual.  (31407)

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)

Jacob (1686–1744) was a legal writer known for his Every Man His Own Lawyer. He also dabbled in poetry, drama, and literary criticism; in the same year as the present work's appearance, he published a parody called The Rape of the Smock, and was subsequently immortalized by Pope's unkind remarks regarding both his grammar and his status as “the Blunderbuss of Law.”

•  ESTC T90927; Goldsmiths’ 5344. On Jacob, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Contemporary mottled sheep, framed and panelled in blind, rebacked with very complementary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped title, author, and date; minor scuffing now nicely refurbished and front hinge (inside) unobtrusively reinforced. Pages mildly age-toned and cockled, with a few instances of light staining towards back of volume; one early pencilled correction. Last few leaves with upper outer corners torn away, touching a few page numbers and in one case one letter. Overall a solid and pleasing copy.  (30232)

Click the title page image for an enlargement.

Provenance: Property, in 1836, of Henry G. Hubbard of Detroit.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 25848.   Contemporary sheep. Spine with compartments divided by gilt rules. Leather much rubbed with a little chipping. Browning from turn-ins onto endpapers and title-page. Top margins closely trimmed with loss of page numbers in some places. Inked ownership inscriptions on recto of front free endpaper and title-page. (5442)

Five Thousand Receipts was first printed in America in 1826, and enjoyed as enthusiastic a reception in the United States as it previously had in England. This is the fourth American edition, here in the Kay variant giving “122 Chestnut Street – near 4th” as the publisher's address.

Provenance: Francis Kelsey, New York City.

•  Bitting 299; Lowenstein 122; Shoemaker 39366.   Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations; worn and abraded, joints open and fragile, front cover darkened, leather lost at spine extremities. Front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription; front fly-leaf with small hole and pencilled annotations. Pages with varying degrees of age-toning and spotting, several signatures deeply browned. Some corners dog-eared. One leaf with upper outer corner torn away, with loss of a few words; one leaf with tear from lower margin extending into text without loss; one leaf with internal closed tear, without loss. Used, as this usually was!  (27405)

132 well-filled pages

Near the end of the book is a full-page drawing of an apparatus labeled “percolater,” which looks suspiciously like a still, followed by three pages of notes on French measures. This last set of memoranda may suggest that Mayer did not grow up with those measures, and that he might have been English is suggested by the fact that English words appear sprinkled throughout while four leaves are written entirely in that language.

A ten-centimes ticket to the Tuileries and an advertisement for a means of reproducing engravings are laid in among the pages.

•  Original quarter sheep over blue marbled boards, with paper label on front cover; spine and board edges worn, hinges (inside) open. Previous owner's inscription and pressure-stamp on endpaper. All text is written in a clear but not entirely consistent hand, the English-language recipes and two others in bright blue (as opposed to the book's “regular” brown) ink.  (2551)

Also included is a woodcut map showing Europe, the Atlantic, and the New World.

•  Palau 159680; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 609/77; Medina, BHA, 123. Old vellum; red leather, gilt-lettered spine label; some staining, and chipping to edges and label. Old, careful repairs to interior worming occasionally cost individual letters (but never sense) or a little loss to an illustration. Old rubber-stamps and red and black ownership label on title-page; inked notations on title-page and front pastedown. All edges speckled red.

Provenance:  Ex-German Society of Pennsylvania Library, a German-American social organization.

•  Publisher's green cloth stamped in blind on covers and in gilt on spine (with a knight, bishop, and castle in addition to author and title); a little cocked and bottom edges worn. Front free endpaper separated and rear one chipped. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title- and two other pages, no other markings. Clearly a book that was often read and consulted with some soiling and staining resultant; text not chipped though printed on inexpensive paper.  (26923)

•  New. Publisher's illustrated boards.  (27539)

•  Medina, Mexico, 5174; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 55; Viñaza 356; Maggs, Bibl. Amer., II, 2154; Sabin 52413; Palau 190159; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 2738.   Contemporary vellum, now shrunk to smaller than the size of the text block, with newer endpapers, ties lacking, light to moderate staining and wear to interior; housed in a custom slipcase of quarter vellum and cranberry-colored cloth with a cloth chemise. A good copy of an important and scarce book, complete and with a good provenance.  (31417)