Binding:  Publisher's textured green cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped vignettes. All edges gilt.

•  NSTC 2A1051.   Binding as above, moderate rubbing to edges and extremities with top of spine pulled, gilt vignettes showing slight rubbing. Early pencilled ownership inscription in upper portion of first text page; some plate leaves a bit more age-toned than others or than text leaves. Overall both attractive and entertaining.  (37284)

The text is in double-column format below a large copper engraving that is renowned asone of the earliest politico-satirical “cartoons” created and printed in Mexico.  Unsigned, this is entitled “El Torrente Flegueton” and features skeletons, bats, a demon, harpies, etc. The text supposedly describes the elaborate final funeral pyre that the Yorkinos constructed in the shape of a Solomonic temple with statues, each element of which is explained poetically via either an “oda,” romancillo, “decima, or “anacreontica.”

On the scarcity of early Mexican politico-satirical engravings and woodcuts, Helia Bonilla writes, “Interesa también señalar que, entre la muy escasa producción de estampas satíricas que circularon durante la época, hay al menos otras tres que salieron de la imprenta de Valdés” andthis is one of those three.

As to the date of printing, the Sutro library assigns [1832?], the British Library [1834?], and several Mexican scholars opt for ca. 1828. 1834 is impossible as Valdes died in 1832. We suspect the date to be 1830 to 1832.

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, CCPB, and the OPACs of the Mexican National Library and CONDUMEX locateone copy in the U.S., one in Britain, and one in Spain.

•  Sutro 657. On early Mexican politico-satirical cartoons, see: Helia Bonilla, “Las indagatorias en torno a una caricatura denunciadad en 1829" in Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas, 88 (2006), 213–38; and Luis Alberto de la Garza, “Hombres de bien, demogogas y revolucion social en la Primera Republica” in Historias, 15 (1986), 43–54.   Folded as issued, apparently never sewn or bound in a volume; old repairs to fore- and upper inner margins not touching text or image. Eight pin-type wormholes in margins and and text, costing nine letters but certainly not impairing ability to read and understand; some age-toning, soiling, and scattered bug-spotting. Overall, a rather good copy of an uncommon and important item.  (34578)

The text is divided into sections by author, each of whom the editor introduces with a brief biography. A short abstract printed in roman precedes each poem, printed in italic. Fine woodcut head- and tailpieces, and a variety of initials in historiated, patterned, and factotum designs, decorate the text; and the title-page features the woodcut printers' device of Truth personified, flanked by an eagle, a lion, a bull, and an angel, representing the Four Evangelists.

Provenance:  Ownership inscription on front fly-leaf of Luigi Pagani Cesa, possibly the Italian jurist born at Belluno in 1855, who served as a member of Parliament for 1904–13; and the words “penso che” (“I think that . . .”) written above, in an earlier hand?

•  Adams A1691; CNCE 2806.   Later glazed cream-colored boards, title and date inked on upper spine, small paper label on lower spine, marbled red edges; boards soiled and front joint opening. One spot of worming on front pastedown and on colophon leaf; traces of former mounting on colophon leaf verso. Title-page with one letter added in manuscript (o, in Bentivoglio). Trimmed close at margins almost grazing headline on a few leaves. Very minor stains on a few leaves, generally bright and crisp.  (30836)

•  Publisher's quarter cream textured cloth with light blue fleur-de-lis printed paper sides, spine with printed paper label; lacking the blue dust-wrapper, small spot of staining at head of spine, otherwise a very nice example.  (28209)

•  Cock-a-hoop 196.   Publisher's light taupe paper–covered boards with red cloth shelfback, front cover with rooster vignette stamped in red, spine with gilt-stamped title; minor rubbing to spine foot and lower outer corners. A few page edges slightly darkened and one very limited, very faint stain affecting endpapers' lower outer corner at rear, pages otherwise clean.A nice copy of this interesting production.  (37173)

•  Publisher's printed salmon-colored paper wrappers, front and back wrappers with engraved vignettes; spine and edges mildly rubbed, back wrapper with small scuffs. All edges gilt. First and last few leaves lightly foxed.  (29059)

This edition is not in VD16 and only one copy is located via WorldCat. COPAC records are too abbreviated to determine if any library owns a copy.

Provenance:  Two 16th-century ownership signatures on title-page: Simon Albach, undated, and Marcus Albinastes, 1583. Ex–Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School library with its bookplate (properly deaccessioned); later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard (sans indicia).

•  This edition not in VD16; not in Index Aurel.   Mid-20th-century marbled paper wrappers, gently rubbed and a corner chipped; old library bookplate as above. “Very rare” inked on endpaper opposite title-page in a very old hand. Title-page and a few margins with finger oil or other stains, one very short tear and inked underline with one-word note partially trimmed, foxing to endpapers only.  (37436)

The work is uncommon, and particularly so in this case, as the present example isone of only five copies believed to have been printed on vellum. (The Folger Shakespeare Library's copy on vellum similarly has had the preliminary matter suppressed.)

Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate only one vellum copy (Folger Library as above).

Provenance:  Pencil note at rear indicating service in the stock of Quaritch Booksellers (“collated & complete, pp. B. Quaritch, Ltd. D.Jun.”) Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard (sans indicia).

•  For 1601 first ed.: ESTC S109105; STC (2nd ed.) 3672.   Green quarter morocco and green cloth sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine sunned and cloth showing small spots of light discoloration around edges, with corners and small portion of lower back edge rubbed. Older printed cataloguing slip affixed to front pastedown. Pages gently cockled, with scattered spots or areas of light mildew bloom, apparently arrested; last two facing leaves with facing scattered pinpoint spots. A handsome production in rare form.  (37305)

•  Publisher's quarter vellum with dun-colored paper sides, top edge gilt. Bindings dust-soiled, not unpleasantly, with very light overall wear; one chip to paper of vol. II. A good++ set.  (34058)

Cabanès (1862–1928) was a medical doctor, historian, and successful writer of a goodly number of works of fiction and history, with a subspecialty of historical medical mysteries. Carrington was a leading British publisher (“abroad”) of late-Victorian and Edwardian pornography/erotica for “bibliophiles,” much of it flagellatory; there have been significant essays on him and his works, butWikipedia provides one irresistible sentence: “Carrington went blind as a result of syphilis and the last few years of his life were spent in poverty as his mistress stole his valuable collection of rare books.”

The chapters in this publication are: A youthful indiscretion of Louis XIV, The fistula of a great king, The maladies of Louis XV, The semi-impotency of Louis XVI, The first pregnancy of Marie-Antoinette, Louis XVI in private life, One of the judges of Marie-Antoinette: the surgeon Souberbielle, What was Marat's disease, Talleyrand and the doctors, The accouchement of the empress Marie-Louise, The ancestors of Marshal Mac-Mahon, and Gambetta's eye.

Nicely printed, with title-page in black and red and text block issued untrimmed, this is a copy of the trade edition: There was a deluxe issue on Japan vellum limited to 30 copies.

Provenance:  “Virginia Pritchard Hilton-Green, my father's book.”

•  Publisher's blue cloth stamped in blind. Minor rubbing; small tear at base of front joint (outside). Inside clean.  (35372)

In a more serious vein, Head (1887–1963) was the author of Antiquities of Yale and the New Yale Guide, as well as a poet and a patron and supporter of both the Brick Row Book Shop and the Yale University Library. Several of the items here makeYale references, like the barroom ghosts who “puffed at their pipes and their stogies / And pulled at their Phantoms of Ale, / Recalling the things that were Bogies / When they were assembled at Yale”; Ex is specifically about four different gentlemen expelled from Yale for reasons including bad grades, vandalism, and bawdiness.

•  Folded as issued. 10 of the pamphlets with small inscription “M. Clark” or “Clark” pencilled on front wrapper. Apologia with two pencilled corrections. Upper edges of Hot from Hollywood chewed. Minor age-toning, occasional small spots and edge nicks. Overall a clean, crisp collection of these uncommon pieces.  (36453)

•  Publisher's quarter crimson morocco and gilt black cloth, top edge gilt; sans glassine wrapper, rubbing to tip of spine. Pictorial endsheets and illustrations, tipped-in facsimile of souvenir program from an Army entertainment of 1916. Gilt bright and a good, clean, pleasing copy.  (36762)

Provenance:  Late 17th-century ownership inscription at top of title-page of “T. Engle”; 18th-century ownership inscription below that of “E. Ward”; on endpaper, “December, 1787,” with lines in French in an 18th-century hand.

•  Rius 11; Peeters-Fontainas 227; Suñé Benages 15; Palau 51988.   Contemporary limp vellum, soiled, ties perished; Don Quixote inked on spine, faded. Lacking one leaf of text only, supplied in very good facsimile (pp. 575–76). First and last gatherings guarded with strips of Renaissance vellum manuscript.  (23423)

The suite of illustrations had previously been published in Roscoe's Novelist's Library (London, 1833) in vols. 13–15, which volumes were The Adventures of Don Quixote.

Binding:  Fine rich tobacco gold–hued crushed morocco, triple-ruled in gilt on both boards with gilt-stamped corner devices; gilt roll on board edges, wide gilt-roll and gilt dentelles on turn-ins, marbled endpapers. Top edge gilt.

Provenance:  20th-century “Deus amici et nos” bookplate of Howland Pell.

•  Cohn, George Cruikshank, 711, note; cf. 710.   Binding as above. Plates darkened around edges, not unattractively; some plates with a bit of foxing, others quite free of it. Very nice.  (37295)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early inked presentation inscription to New Salem Academy from the Honorable Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779–1856), the Massachusetts lawyer who established the New England Museum.

•  Sabin 64182.   Contemporary quarter sheep and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped date; worn and stained, front cover with (child's?) pencilled name, spine head with remnants of paper shelving label, spine leather cracked. Volume refurbished, with leather consolidated, joints repaired, edges reinforced with repair tissue. Lacking one issue, no. 12, apparently never bound in; one stanza of one poem excised. Some leaves creased, with occasional tears into text; varying degrees of age-toning and foxing; scattered small holes. Lower outer portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of several lines. A few pencilled marks of emphasis; a later hand has laid in several sheets of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein. Dried plant matter laid in. Price reduced recognizing absent No. 12; but a volume of interest both simply as a substantial Port Folio and as the one produced in such a significant year for the proprietor.  (29238)

Issues 1 and 2 have thelaid-in photographs and 22 includes the separate leaflet supplement, “Vals de Monterey [sic] Viejo.” The first number, as noted, is the second issue, with Doxey's imprint; the second contains “relics” of R.L. Stevenson.

Binding:  Publisher's muslin bindings designed by Florence Lundborg, with her monogram on vol. I; covers illustrated and printed in color, each volume with a different cover image.

•  Publisher's cloth bindings, lightly rubbed; all wrappers present, that of Issue 15 with a large hole that appears actually to be a paper flaw, not “damage.” All pages untrimmed. A very nice set.  (37159)

Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, front board with Armstrong's design of a trellis entwined with a red flowering vine and with two scrolls; the larger scroll has a tan field bearing the title in gold and the smaller one has a field of the binding's brown bearing the author's name in gold. Top edge gilt.

•  BAL 4948; Gullans & Espey, Checklist of Trade Bindings Designed by Margaret Armstrong, 73.   Binding as above; as usual, without the d/j. Signs of something once having been pinned to front free endpaper, minor cracking in gutter between quires, else very good.  (35379)

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black, gilt, and yellow, with a frame of apples and greenery surrounding a decorative title and small gilt motifs.

•  Binding as above, corners and spine extremities very slightly rubbed, dust jacket lacking. Endpapers and a few pages sprinkled with spots of faint staining, pages generally clean A popular and entertaining author, in an attractive and well-preserved binding.  (35257)

The volume opens with acopper-engraved frontispiece done by Harrewyn, featuring a satyr and a jester in addition to muses crowning Furetière with a laurel wreath; the title-page is printed in red and black, and the text is ornamented with two woodcut headpieces, two tailpieces, and two decorative capitals. This nicely printed edition is not widely held in the United States; WorldCat locatesonly four American institutional holdings and these perhaps unexpected ones, with no holdings added by NUC Pre-1956.

•  This edition not in Brunet.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped floral decorations in compartments, board edges with gilt roll; worn and rubbed, leather lost at extremities, front joint cracked and back joint starting (sewing holding). All edges speckled red and brown. Front pastedown and free endpaper with modern collector's inscriptions, front pastedown with early inked numerals and later pencilled annotations; one obscured name in text annotated in pencil in the margin. Pages gently age-toned with occasional tiny spots of foxing. Externally worn, interior beautifully preserving the author's irrepressible, biting wit.  (36242)

Dandyism was a “hot topic” in Spain at the end of the 18th century and Gómez Marín, more famous for his Defensa guadalupana . . . contra la disertacion de D. Juan Bautista Muñoz, clearly shows dandyism and reaction to it had spread to Mexico as well, with this printing showing that it was still of interest and a pleasing target half a century later. Obviously also as a point of continuing interest, the work deals withthe strained relationships between Europeans and Mexicans and the social and racial hierarchy in Mexico.

A great teaching item for multiple reasons.

We findno copy of it via the online databases, not even the Sutro's OPAC.

•  Sutro, pp. 866–67.   Folded, never trimmed or the two copies separated. Minor pinhole type worming, a sliver of old instain along one edge, and a very few small spots of foxing. Very good, in factvirtually pristine.  (37061)

Searches of WorldCat, COPAC, and KVK locateonly one copy worldwide  (in the National Library of the Netherlands).

•  Original red clamshell box with spine label in silver metal holder; author, title, and imprint date on handmade paper adhered to front board. All contents in very good condition.  (34731)

Horse cures apparently a specialty.

•  Not in Bitting, Brown, or Cagle & Stafford (see Bitting 515 for 1868 printing).   Publisher's printed yellow paper wrappers with original hanging loop present in upper inner corner; wrappers showing light wear. Mild to moderate foxing. An interesting (and seldom seen) example of the genre.  (36570)

Binding:  1920s-era half brown morocco with marbled paper sides and matching marbled endpapers; round spines, raised bands accented with gilt rules and gilt beading, and a gilt center device in each spine compartment. Top edges gilt, others uncut; binding unsigned, but elegantly accomplished.

•  Bound as above. Vol. I lacks half-title, colophon leaf, and the two states of the frontispieces before the lettering. Vol. II lacks the cancelled title-page, the two states of the frontispieces before the lettering, and the instructions to the binder. A lesson of a set, as the lacking elements that so affect the price of this handsome duo are so not-obviously “missing”:  One must *know* they're supposed to be there!  (35436)

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 487.   Binding as above, with ochre linen shelfback and gilt-stamped title, in yellow paper–covered slipcase with gilt-stamped title; slipcase with a few small scuffs and light shelfwear to edges, still nice, and volume clean and fresh.  (36861)

This edition, which is limited to 1500 copies, was designed by Francis Meynell and printed by Charles Batey, Printer to the University at Oxford. Meynell's choice for the font is the rarely used Fell, which can only be used at Oxford; the letters are large and have a rather archaic feel to them.

The binding is quarter rust-colored linen, stamped in gold, with sides covered in linen printed with a repeating pattern.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 236.   In the original slipcase, covered with paper printed with the same pattern as that of the binding; case in very good condition, volume without the dust wrapper. A very attractive book and slipcase too; a near-fine copy.  (33381)

•  American Imprints 32748; Wright, I, 2442a.   Publisher's pebbled green cloth, covers with blind-stamped strapwork design, spine with gilt-stamped title and an image of the “house”; cloth darkened and spotted, edges and extremities rubbed, spine dimmed with none of that .shocking Lacks front free endpaper; mild to moderate spotting and staining. Worn, but a solid copy of this satire entertaining for a good many reasons NOT all its originally intended ones.  (36873)

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 445.   Publisher's quarter red cloth and firework-printed paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label, in original glassine wrapper and matching slipcase; glassine wrapper with small portion torn away from lower back edge and nicks to lower edge and spine head, slipcase with one nick to paper at one edge of foot, volume clean and lovely. Overall in beautiful condition.  (34066)

The French acrobat-mime Mazurier was, according to one contemporary critic, “not only the monkey, but the monkey of taste and discrimination, claiming approbation far more from a due representation of the restless, impulsive freakishness of the animal, than by extravagant bodily leaps and exertion, although there is quite sufficient of both” (The Examiner, 14 Nov. 1825).

•  As issued, three edges untrimmed. Gently age-toned with a few light spots and smudges. An uncommon, amusing, and eminently displayable theatrical item.  (37050)

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)

Unkind though that “unintentionally” may make it to put this here — still??

“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:  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)

•  Drake 4274.   Very good. Evidence of having been bound with other pamphlets or almanacs.  (21374)

Dagmar Freist in Governed By Opinion: Politics, Religion and the Dynamics of Communication in Stuart London characterizes this work as “the fullest account of this [1640s] satirical perception of the London booktrade [as lawless].” She further opines that “without a doubt, the pamphlet was drafted for a smallstreet-theater performance, given, for instance, stage directions such as 'Enter Poet.'” The work is “packed with allusions to well-known people, circumstances, and cliches.”

In the underground London pamphlet world of the mid-17th century, “bawling hawkers” were wandering booksellers who sold pamphlets, newspapers, and books, while “trotting mercuries” were men and women who wereknown to cross-dress and who sold “new books” as opposed to “good books.” They were also notorious scolds.

The title-page has two woodcut images: to the right a man smoking a pipe and wearing a ruff, in large close-up, and to the left a standing woman holding a cup in one hand with her other resting on a large triangle bearing images of a ewer and another cup — both figures with rather elaborately dressed hair!

Having said all of the above here is where I confess that I (DMS) originally catalogued this item as an original 1641 printing only to be gently informed by John Overholt of the Houghton Library that it is a type facsimile of the original, one of a number of type facsimiles that J. Sturt caused to be printed and which he openly sold. Originally it bore his imprint information, but that has been removed. The type used is a good approximation of the original and the paper is old, and in this copy without a watermark.When used in conjunction with the digitized “certified original” copy in EEBO, this is a great teaching tool.

Provenance:  19th-century diamond-shaped bookplate of Henry Cunliffe.

•  For this edition: Hazen, “J. Sturt facsimilist,” in The Library, 4th ser., XXV, pp. 72–79; McKitterick, Old Books, New Technologies, pp. 89–90. For the original: Wing (rev. ed.) D2088; ESTC R23145; Freist, pp. 85–86.   Late-19th- or early-20th century half red morocco with marbled paper sides, plain endpapers. Leaves no longer conjugate and each one sewn in with a blank sheet separating it from the next; and with added blank leaves at rear for bulk in binding. Minor spotting, some foxing, and age-toning, a grin-provoking spine title, andone of the best imprint lines ever seen.  (37235)

First published in 1843 and first printed with illustrations in 17 monthly parts 1853–54, the misadventures of the enthusiastic Mr. Jorrocks appear here “printed for subscribers from the plates of the Original Edition issued by Bradbury, Agnew & Co.” The volume is illustrated with 16 hand-colored, steel-engraved plates and 31 wood-engraved plates by famed caricaturist John Leech. The colored scenes, many involving horses or hounds or both, are carefully and artistically tinted; the social scenes are more delicately shaded than the vivid hunting scenes. In addition to the color and black-and-white plates, numerous in-text wood-engravings decorate the text.

Binding:  Publisher's crimson cloth, front cover with horse and hound vignettes stamped in black and gilt, spine with black and gilt portrait of Jorrocks himself.

•  NCBEL, III, 967. On Surtees, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Binding as above, spine much sunned but covers bright and fresh. Signatures almost entirely unopened; contents pages and a few other early signatures awkwardly opened with resulting edge tears, including to upper margins (only) of five uncolored plates. One colored plate with tiny scuff in image. Despite described faults, still a solid, bright, beautifully illustrated copy with a great deal of charm.  (30448)

See the end of the first paragraph in our first “Surtees” entry, for a general note on him.

First published in 1847, these vividly rendered hunting scenes appear here “printed for subscribers from the plates of the Original Edition issued by Bradbury, Agnew & Co.” The volume is illustrated with8 plates by Phiz, hand-colored, and 13 steel-engraved plates by W.T. Maude. While Phiz's caricatures are sharp and witty, the coloring itself is rather elegantly restrained. In addition to the color and black-and-white plates, numerous in-text wood-engravings decorate the text, the whole providing many depictions of the hunt.

Binding:  Publisher's crimson cloth, front cover and spine stamped with hunting vignettes and hound decorations in black and gilt.

•  NCBEL, III, 967. On Surtees, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Binding as above, spine much sunned but covers bright and fresh, minimal wear to extremities. Signatures unopened. Save for the dimmed spine, a beautiful and bright copy.  (30434)

See the end of the first paragraph in our first “Surtees” entry, for a general note on him.

First published in 1853 as a 13-part serial, the Sporting Tour appears here “printed for subscribers from the plates of the Original Edition issued by Bradbury, Agnew & Co.” The volume is illustrated with13 hand-colored and 30 steel-engraved plates by famed caricaturist John Leech. The colored scenes, most of which depict hunting or riding scenes, are carefully and attractively done with nicely shaded tints. In addition to the color and black-and-white plates, numerous in-text wood-engravings decorate the text.

Binding:  Publisher's crimson cloth, front cover and spine stamped with horse and hound vignettes in black and gilt.

•  NCBEL, III, 967. On Surtees, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Binding as above, spine much sunned but covers bright and fresh. Signatures unopened. One leaf holed in text with loss of a few words and with some light discoloration around this, without loss of sense. Save for the dimmed spine, a beautiful and bright copy.  (30426)

See the end of the first paragraph in our first “Surtees” entry, for a general note on him.

First published in 13 monthly parts in 1860, the machinations of Rosa and her mamma appear here “printed for subscribers from the plates of the Original Edition issued by Bradbury, Agnew & Co.” The volume is illustrated with12 hand-colored, steel-engraved plates and 8 wood-engraved plates by famed caricaturist John Leech. The colored scenes, some involving young ladies in elegant dress and some horses and hounds, are carefully and artistically tinted; the social scenes are more delicately shaded than the vivid hunting scenes. In addition to the color and black-and-white plates, numerous in-text wood-engravings decorate the text.

Binding:  Publisher's crimson cloth, front cover with black- and gilt-stamped hound decorations and a gilt-stamped vignette of two flirting equestrians, spine with black and gilt Cupid vignette.

•  NCBEL, III, 968. On Surtees, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Binding as above, extremities slightly rubbed, spine much sunned but covers bright and fresh. Signatures unopened. A clean, unread copy, with lovely plates.  (30470)

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth, covers framed in blind, front cover with gilt-stamped decorative title and basket vignette, spine with gilt-stamped author and title.

•  Light wear only to joints and extremities, cloth showing small spots of faint discoloration. Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription dated 1910, front fly-leaf with same owner's inked inscription. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean.  (30499)

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers; wrappers darkened with corners bumped, front wrapper with small ink spots, short edge tears, and faint rings of discoloration. Faint intermittent foxing with one signature (only) more notably age-toned.; final leaf with portion torn out of outer margin, not touching text. A pleasing touchstone for Victorian literature and its “production.”  (33259)

•  Publisher's paper wrappers. A fresh, clean copy.  (37134)

Unfussy but handsome, the publications themselves were just as clearly as the poems prepared for “occasions” also — i.e., for limited personal distribution by a charming and social man who frankly referred to himself, on the title-page of one of his printed collections, as a “master of ceremonies.”

Four of these publications are not found at all via NUC, ESTC, WorldCat, and COPAC; two more are found only at Yale with four others found only at Yale, the BL, and the Bodleian. In no case are more than a handful of copies recorded.

Almost all our offered effusions — NOT the Bishop items or “Some say he dried the widow's tear,” This is the judge,” “The Lawyer,” or the “New Century” — are to be found reset in a little volume sans title-page but with an index, held at the Bodleian and catalogued as “[A collection of 81 poems by J. Townley].” This has been digitized, review of it showing that tucked-in, original, separately printed copies of “The Lawyer” and “The New Century” were roughly, unreadably scanned with it!

Viewing the online surrogate of the poems' compiled resetting alongside the individual originals in hand makes strikingly clear not just the infinitely greater charm of the latter, but the much greater wealth of social illumination that is embodied in them.

•  Condition overall is very good. Details are supplied in the list of items that may be seen HERE.  (32807)

•  Publisher's printed copper-colored paper wrappers; back wrapper lacking, front wrapper separating from foot and with small nicks to outer edge. One leaf with closed slit across, not spoiling sense of text; outer edges waterstained. A nice encapsulation of mainstream “presentable” thought on the literature, culture, politics, etc. of the day.  (35088)

miracle drug

This is no. 1120 of 1500 copies, designed by Bert Clarke and printed at The Thistle Press in monotype Caslon Old Style, with an introduction by Norman Strouse and15 full-page color plates & numerous illustrations in text by Lynton Lamb, who signed the colophon. The handsome book is bound by Russell-Rutter Company in full forest-green cloth with a spine label set in the gilt-stamped outline of a medicine bottle.

The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 307.   Binding as above, in publisher's yellow slipcase with paper label; minor shelf-wear and discoloration. Spine base lightly scuffed, elsefine.  (30469)

This work is rarely found in the deluxe binding: The handsomely gilt-stamped publisher's cloth is the norm.

•  NSTC 2W24418; Allibone 2762.   For binding, see: Morris & Levin, Art of Publisher's Bookbindings, 44. Binding as above, showing minor wear to extremities and front cover vignette, original silk bookmark detached and laid in. Volume slightly shaken with text block starting to pull away from spine; this is the kind of volume that wants to do that, and the reader will want to “cradle” it in hand — that done, no worries. Front fly-leaf with early pencilled gift inscription and with a Maine druggist's small ticket. Mild to moderate foxing. Both funny and decorative, in a publisher's binding that may fairly be called “DAZZLING.”  (26748)

•  Publisher's brown paper–covered boards, front cover with title and author's signature stamped in black, and with affixed printed paper illustration; without dust-jacket, paper mottled, edges and extremities rubbed, front cover with two small scrapes. A few faint smudges to some pages, otherwise clean.  (29138)