•  Adams G147; Goldsmiths'-Kress 55; Mortimer, French 16th-Century Books, 244; Schweiger, II, 952.   Binding as above, joints and corners rubbed with three scratches to front cover, refurbished; front free endpaper excised, front fly-leaf with pencilled notes. Moderate age-toning throughout with the occasional spot; one shallow chip to margin of title-page and two leaves of text neatly repaired. Provenance indicia as above. An elegantly handsome book with good provenance.  (38885)

•  Publisher's cloth, front cover and spine stamped in white, black, orange, and gilt; lacking the dust jacket, with binding slightly cocked, spine stamping a bit dimmed. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription.  (13027)

Binding:  In the style of a percaline mosaïquée, but the gilt and mosaic are applied to a textured pebbled cloth. Spine gilt extra with added “mosaic” of green, white, red and blue. Front cover with a blind-stamped border incorporating elegant corner-pieces; within this, “Souvenir de Versailles” gilt-stamped in an arc above a large on-laid crowned coat of arms flanked by banners and flags, this embellished in gilt with rich use of blue, white, red, blue, and green. Rear cover with similar blind-stamped border and a different large gilt-stamped center device strikingly incorporating an on-lay of blue stamped in gilt with a military medal. All edges gilt.

•  On this type of binding, see: Morris & Levin, The Art of Publishers' Bookbindings, pp. 94–97.   Binding as above, rubbed to the underlying boards at the corners of the boards and top of spine slightly pulled with one bit of rubbing. Scattered pale brown stains mostly on interleaves and sometimes visible on versos of plates; some discoloration in some margins of plates and occasionally into one; overwhelmingly a clean copy, remarkably bright and unfoxed. A strong and nice example of this category of “souvenir” and of a gilt mosaic binding.  (30464)

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

•  ESTC T13872; Gumuchian 2682.   19th-century tree calf, rebacked with original spine laid on, this gilt extra with black leather title label; covers framed in a gilt foliate roll, board edges with gilt dot-and-dash roll, turn-ins with gilt pineapple roll, marbled endpapers. Binding rubbed and refurbished, top of spine pulled with loss exposing loose headband. Light to moderate age-toning, sometimes more deeply and variably toned around page edges; expectable foxing and offsetting from and around a few plates, two with short marginal tears; and otherwise, two small marginal chips, a stain or two, and one bent corner. Readership and provenance indicia and extra plate as above. Overall a pleasing book to peruse, and certainly one that ischock-full of beautiful images.  (38728)

Binding:  Publisher's quarter white linen with blue-green paper sides, printed paper label on spine; the variant binding without the embossed medallion on the front cover and bearing instead a paper label that gives full publication details and describes the book as in “imperial 8vo” costing “two guineas net.” Top edge gilt, others deckle.

•  Bound as above, without the d/j. A very good copy.  (34706)

•  Publisher's cream cloth, covers and spine with gilt-stamped floral and geometric pattern; binding slightly cocked, lower outer corners showing minor wear, offsetting to rear free endpaper from a leaf of paper(?) once laid in. Top edge gilt, other edges uncut. Dust jacket and slipcase lacking, thus the more affordable as a book; a clean, solid, enjoyable copy.  (33516)

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)

There is, to us, a surprising and very interesting section on grapes and wines. The first part of our caption delights partly in discovery that maize, the “corn” of the U.S., is here called “turkey wheat” — with further note that you can make bread of it, but that the result is pleasing only to “barbarous” tastes! The entry as a whole showsGerard at his characteristic best, at once scientifically systematic and engagingly discursive.

Provenance:  Neatly lettered name of “W. Younge” at top of title-page; it is tempting to attribute this to William Younge, physician of Sheffield and Fellow of the Royal Linnean Society, whose online correspondence shows him to have been an eager collector of botanical books.

•  STC (rev. ed.) 11752; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 636/25; Nissen, Botanischebuchs, 698n; Pritzel 3282n; Johnston, The Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 185; Woodward, Gerard's Herball: The essence thereof distilled (London, 1964). On the source of the blocks, see: Hunt Botanical Catalogue and Bowen, K. L., & D. Imhof, The illustration of Books Published by the Moretuses (Antwerpen, 1997). For “Turkey Wheat, “ see: Gerard, p. 81; for polenta, p. 71.   Late 17th-century English calf, plain style; rebacked professionally in the 20th century, later endpapers. As usual, without the first and last blank leaves. Three leaves with natural paper flaws in blank margins. A very good copy.  (34500)

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers. Clean and crisp.  (31231)

•  Clean and fresh.  (31233)

•  Publisher's textured navy paper wrappers, in original brown paper envelope printed in red; envelope corners slightly worn. Wrappers and pages clean and crisp.  (31228)

•  Gill (second ed.) 37.   Publisher's pink paper wrappers printed on front in blue, housed in matching pink and blue paper envelope. Pamphlet in fine condition; envelope with bumped edges and corners and a few spots of smudging.  (35362)

This is numbered copy 801 of 2000 printed, signed at the colophon by the artist. The appropriate Club newsletter is laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 500.   Binding as above, in publisher's green paper-covered slipcase. A handsome copy.  (31987)

numbered copy 80 out of just 100 printed

•  Publisher's Mexican bark paper wrappers bound on cream thongs; front wrapper with small splash of bright red. Pages very clean and crisp.  (31328)

Binding:  Quarter natural-grain goatskin vellum with black buckram sides and gilt lettering to spine; top edge is gilt.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 315.   Binding as above; vellum darkened lightly in spots, spine-head warped slightly (but in no way broken) from being pulled out of the slipcase. In original red cloth–covered slipcase with cream spine label printed in black; clean and strong and one side with a small black spot, label with faint waterspot. Volume with one light finger smudge to front free endpaper, else clean. Another masterful LEC production, simply handsome, and in a very pleasing copy.  (38941)

Binding: Bound by Hayday in green pebbled morocco, spine with raised bands; two compartments with title and author and four with rich and elaborate gilt decoration; wide gilt composite borders to boards, board edges with gilt hatching, gilt zig-zag design on turn-ins. All edges gilt.

•  Bound as above; light rubbing particularly to spine-head, one slim scrape to front board and several to rear one. Endpapers lightly foxed, silk placemarker present with end a little frayed, old pencilling to verso of front free endpaper. Interior and illustrations clean and unmarked. A very good presentation copy of this classic.  (37320)

•  Publisher's teal cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title and decorative floral motifs; back cover and corners showing very slight scuffing. Back hinge cracked and front hinge starting; front free endpaper excised. Still, an attractive copy.  (18393)

The work isillustrated with a total of 12 engravings, including portraits of the first five presidents and an engraved half-title page.

Provenance:  Ownership signature on two front fly-leaves of Giles Satterthwaite, dated 1824; his note also, “Prise [sic] $1-75.”

•  Sabin 27871; Shoemaker 12704.   Contemporary sheep, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; binding worn and abraded, spine leather much chipped and cracked with some fragments carefully reattached in first panel; joints, corners, and headcaps restored. Pagesfoxed and age-toned throughout, loosening in some signatures, torn and chipped in margins and corners of a few pages; inner margin of one front fly-leaf reinforced. Ownership inscriptions as noted.  (5503)

16 steel-engraved maps

While the title-page gives the Boston publication line described above, the printed front cover gives Philadelphia: Thomas, Cowperthwait, & Co., 1838; this is a later edition, following the first of 1832.

A first impression is that “child” readers had, in 1832, much greater powers of attention to print than is now common, but indeed the history here is — the stories are — absorbing and evocative.

•  American Imprints 50587.   Publisher's quarter sheep and printed green paper–covered boards, rubbed and worn; pages cockled and foxed, yet paper good and untattered. One page with stray ink marks, not obstructing legibility. A good, solid, pleasing copy.  (33716)

The little volume also offers astriking wood-engraved frontispiece in orange and black by Jean Gabriel Daragnès (1886–1950) who additionally provided the wood-engraved headpieces, and the colophon notes the item was printed by Ducros, Lefèvre, & Colas.

•  Red and black printed cream wrappers, gently worn around edges; light age-toning with a few occasional spots, frontispiece offset onto title-page. A very nice copy.  (36392)

Edmund Evans (1826–1905), an English wood engraver and Greenaway's frequent collaborator, engraved and color-printed the quaint illustrations. During the height of their partnership, Evans worked with Greenaway on two to three books a year; their career-long association was highly beneficial for them both. The nine songs here enhanced by their joint work were written by Myles B. Foster (1851–1922), son of the prominent English illustrator and engraver of the same name. Each song includes melody, lyrics, and piano accompaniment.

•  Thomson, Kate Greenaway: A Catalogue of the Kate Greenaway Collection, 31.   Publisher's printed paper–covered bevelled boards in green, yellow, and charcoal, with green cloth shelfback; binding showing mild dust-soiling, edges rubbed. One leaf with two short tears and one chip all in lower margin, touching page number but not text or image. Pages gently age-toned, with a handful of scattered small spots of foxing. Aged, but unabused by childish hands — a very nice copy.  (39059)

•  Ray, Illustrator and the Book in England, 256; Thomson, Kate Greenaway: A Catalogue of the Kate Greenaway Collection, 83; Schuster & Engen, Printed Kate Greenaway: a catalogue raisonné, 135.   Publisher's color-printed green glazed paper–covered boards with plain maroon cloth shelfback; sides showing small scuffs, edges and extremities rubbed. Olive green endpapers; all edges stained yellow. Signatures just starting to loosen slightly. A very nice copy.  (39414)

Sickness is a theme here

The volume is illustrated with a total of three wood-engraved depictions of New England buildings.

•  Publisher's pebbled terra cotta cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title; spine darkened and worn with gilt rubbed, sides with small spots of discoloration, cover gilt nice and bright. Some light smudging to margins, pages otherwise clean. All edges gilt.  (27649)

•  NSTC G1998; Osbourne Collection, p. 123; Vancil, Cordell Collection, 101. Not in O'Neill.   Contemporary sheep, rebacked in calf, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges mildly scuffed. Front pastedown with inscription as above and with pencilled annotations, front free endpaper with edges chipped; title-page with offsetting to margins and with lower edge trimmed closely, just touching bottom edge of date; two pages (preliminary advertisement and preface) with small inkblot affecting a few letters without obscuring sense. Faint waterstaining to lower inner margins, pages otherwise clean. A nice copy of a work often demolished by schoolchildren.  (38912)

Trigger warning:  This is a 19th-century book and does use the “n” word more than once in very derogatory ways.

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

•  Adams G1187; Index Aurel. 104.188; Moreau, Éditions parisiennes du XVI siècle, II, 1360. On Gregory, see: Holweck, Biographical Dictionary of the Saints, pp. 446–7; our quotation is from this source.   Modern boards covered in a 16th-century leaf from a biblical index with accents in red, new endpapers; booklabel as above. Light age-toning with a handful of marginal stains, one red; uneven edges (probably from manufacture), one small wormhole touching letters throughout most of text with two additional near the end. Title-page and final leaf have been attached to stubs for binding; five other leaves with small, early marginal repairs. A neatly printed book with many embellishments; a very attractive thing of its kind.  (39284)

Finally, the printers are the usual admirable suspects: Bracamonte, Beteta, and Arevalo. It is interesting to see them represented by such UNusual ephemera!

•  Medina, Guatemala, 761; 814; 852; 1523; 1525; 1557; 1577; 1580; 1596; 1613, 1626; 1758 1898; 1806; 1918; 2138.   All items are in very good condition, in Mylar sleeves, the entire collection in a quarter morocco clamshell case.  (33845)

Binding:  Decorated publisher's binding: blue cloth with “silver”-stamped lettering and fleur-de-lis decorations to front board and spine, front cover with large “silver”-stamped vignette of a medieval gentleman holding a cage with two owls. “Silver” work actually aluminum and very bright!

Provenance:  On front free endpaper, two ownership stamps of Sarah E. Lembeck.

•  BAL 6747 (state A imprint, state A binding).   Bound as above; spine cocked and extremities and joints lightly rubbed. Stamps as above. Crease to p. 42; interior otherwise unspoiled. A handsomely medieval-esque production.  (37506)