•  Publisher's grey cloth–covered boards, front cover and spine with gilt- and red-stamped decorative title, in original dust jacket and color-printed box; jacket price-clipped with light edge wear and two short tears just starting from foot of spine, box gently faded with edges and extremities rubbed and cream-colored portions showing mild spotting, volume with front board slightly sprung, book itself otherwise clean and unworn. A nice copy, complete with both jacket and box. (40966)

The sheets are printed on Plover Fineweave paper with the text set in Sabon Antiqua. At the head of each is a print of a nicely rendered pen-and-ink drawing of the Hamady farm (where “Mother Father & Daughter are well and thriving”), done by Jack Beal (“Laura's Uncle Jack”).

•  Not in Two Decades of Hamady & the Perishable Press.   Sheets laid into a manila envelope labelled in Hamady's handwriting. Clean and crisp; some pages with markings as above.  (31364)

Vol. I opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the author, done by Henry Cook after Hervé; vol. III is illustrated with an oversized, folding plate of a water-engine intended for millwork, devised by the author, and a plate of another of his inventions: the automated “chamber fire escape”, which enables anyone to lower him- or herself from a high window. This is the third edition, following the first of 1807.

•  NSTC H625; Sabin 30461.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; vol. I with joints and extremities refurbished, vols. II and III with spines and edges rubbed, old strips of library tape reinforcing spine heads. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, vols. II and III with paper shelving labels at top of spines (vol. I showing signs of now-absent label). Vol. I title-page with offsetting from frontispiece; vol. III with pp. 69–72 excised (two leaves of a rather long religious-themed letter from Harriott to his son) and with upper portion of one leaf crumpled, reinforced some time ago. Some light age-toning, intermittent small spots of foxing and ink-staining, pages generally clean. Utterly absorbing.  (30651)

•  Syntax: Moon, John Harris's Books for Youth, 766(4); see also Osborne Collection, p. 630 and Gumuchian 1948 & 1949. Hubbard: Gumuchian 4329; Moon, 560(4); see Osborne pp. 683/84 (for 1st and 2nd eds).   19th-century half vellum and marbled paper–covered sides; paper rubbed, vellum darkened, upper outer corner bumped, none of this awful. Pages lightly age-toned and faintly creased, otherwise clean. An attractive copy, andearly editions of these beloved classics are now uncommon.  (40758)

During the heyday of the fine press movement in America, theGrabhorns printed this handsome edition in 240 copies with illustration and title-page vignette drawn and then hand-colored by the indefatigableValenti Angelo.

•  Heller & Magee, Grabhorn, 93; BAL 7720; Clark A18.31.     Publisher's quarter vellum with gold and blue patterned paper sides, in original paper–covered slipcase; slipcase with edges sunned and with a rough partial split to one edge from one corner, volume internally and externally pristine. Unopened save one fold to show illustration; a fine copy.  (33532)

•  BAL 7841.   Publisher's tan cloth, front cover with affixed color-printed paper illustration; binding somewhat darkened (especially spine), corners and spine extremities rubbed, a few small spots of discoloration to front and back covers. Front pastedown with pencilled gift inscription, front free endpaper with bookseller's small ticket. Pages clean. A very nice book. (20839)

Thomas's monograph describes earwigs, cockroaches, devils-horses, walking-sticks, grasshoppers (this category including locusts), and crickets, and is illustrated with a few in-text wood engravings in addition to the lithographed plate (done by W.H. Holmes) showing 17 different U.S. insects. This copy is uncut and unopened.

•  Schmeckebier, Catalogue & Index of the Publications of the Hayden, King, Powell, & Wheeler Surveys, 21.   Period-style quarter tan cloth with light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Title-page institutionally rubber-stamped; title-page and half-title with outer margins repaired. Page edges untrimmed, signatures unopened. Spots of staining to outer margins of a few leaves. In fact a nice copy.  (25282)

•  Publisher’s cloth, covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; front cover with discoloration to upper edge and small bump to outer edge, cloth rubbed along edges and joints, spine scuffed. Front pastedown institutionally rubber-stamped. Pages and plates clean, and the large volume quite solid.  (19652)

In addition to the printed Poems and Crisis, Gerson Leiber'sfour original ink drawings for Crisis — including one not printed in the piece — are here, with a cover letter (dated 1993 and apologizing for the 24-year delay!), signed by editor and publisher Don Olsen. Also present is Hays's typescript of “Crisis,” addressed to Olsen and stapled to two typed, signed letters from Olsen to Leiber regarding the artwork commission and subsequent printing details.

A card designed and printed by Fredric Aldwyn Brewer at the Raintree Press on behalf of the Indiana University LIbraries, with a warm handwritten message from Brewer thanking the recipient (presumably Leiber) for an engraving, is laid in to Crisis.

Provenance:  From the collection of Gerson Leiber, the artist, engraver, sculptor, and book collector.

•  Poems: Publisher's printed light blue paper wrappers; spine and edges sunned. Crisis: Publisher's brown paper wrappers, front wrapper with black-stamped title and author information. A marvelous look at one example of the collaborative process among writers, artists, and printers.  (33615)

•  NSTC 2H15366; Cagle 736 (for first and third eds. only.); Goldsmiths'-Kress no. 25858.17 (first ed.).   Publisher's olive green textured cloth, covers and spine blind-stamped, front cover with gilt-stamped armorial vignette, back cover with gilt-stamped device and motto, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine slightly sunned, extremities mildly rubbed. Hinges (inside) of this hefty volume now cracked, with joints tender but holding. One plate (the map dated 1560) with pencilled annotations. Some plates faintly age-toned; pages with a few instances of light foxing. A workfull of valuable and interesting detail in a nice, clean, and (as handled with care) sound copy.  (37084)

Binding:  Intricately embossed burgundy calf with gilt lettering to spine; the spine design is derived from a Remnant & Edmonds spine plaque, according to Wolf. Each board has a medallion in the center featuring a woman in a chariot pulled by two galloping horses with several delicate stars in the sky; the medallion is framed by elaborate acanthus and foliate motifs. Blue marbled endpapers; all edges gilt. Signed byBenjamin Gaskill (“Gaskill, Phila”) on spine.

WorldCat locates only eight copies of this 1838 edition.

•  Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks, 190.   Bound as above, mildest rubbing; marbled endpapers rubbed and slightly discolored just along edges from action by turn-ins. First set of contents with pages bound out of order. Interior age-toned as expectable, with instances of foxing especially along top edges throughout and with light evidence of old waterstaining along bottom ones; title-page with short inked line from outer edge, added engraving with small closed tear A nice example of Gaskill's embossing work and a delightful volume overall, “personalized.” (38710)

Illustrated witheight pastels in color by the author, printed by Adrian Lack at the Senecio Press, this is copy 46 in a limited edition of 280 set in Monotype Gill Sans 262 cast by Harry McIntosh on heavy Rivoli paper. It was bound by Rachel and Richard James in quarter bright yellow fine-grain cloth with the title gilt-stamped not on the spine but along the line of the its cloth on the handmade light green Larroque paper covering the boards; black Canson was used for the endpapers. Copies 241–80 were reserved for binders in sheets.

•  Binding as above. Pristine in a mylar wrapper.  (30558)

Reproduced in black and white,Walter Paget's eight illustrations depict dramatic scenes of survival including a boxing match with a prisoner, a bear attack, and a fight with hostile Samoyeds; they are accompanied by one double-page map of the Russian empire.

Binding: Publisher's teal cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and scene of a bearded man either tying or untying the hero stamped in black, brown, and gilt, spine similarly stamped; midnight blue endpapers and all page edges stained to match boards.

•  Dartt, pp. 40-41; Newbolt 58. Bound as above, binding very slightly cocked with edges and extremities lightly rubbed. Text clean.A nice copy of one of Henty's less common titles. (38686)

The listings are augmented in the first three volumes by numerous in-text reproductions of illustrations and title-pages from the books. This copy includesauction prices neatly inked alongside every book.

•  Contemporary treed sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-ruled bands; sides showing minor rubbing, edges, joints, and extremities moreso. All hinges (inside) cracked or tender, some endpapers with pencilled notations. Vol. I: Two pages with light offsetting from now-absent item, one leaf with lower outer corner torn away. Vol. IV with bookplate of Alvaro de Fontagud y Aguilera. Pages gently age-toned, most noticeably in vol. IV, with occasional light smudges; each volume with last page browned.  (29161)

Many of the 52 lithographed plates are in duotone; some were done by Ackerman Lithography and some by P.S. Duval & Co., after views of scenery, buildings, and natives drawn by Lieut. Gibbon.

Two volumes of maps, not present here, were issued separately.

•  Sabin 31524; Palau 113897. Publisher’s textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; vol. I with spine sunned and cloth chipped at spine extremities; vol. II with corners bumped, cloth peeling away from spine and chipped at spine extremities, spine with gilt dimmed and small area of unobtrusive discoloration from now-absent label. Front pastedowns each with pencilled owner’s name and institutional rubber stamp (no other markings); front free endpaper of vol. II starting to tear along inner margin. Mild to moderate foxing and spotting; a few text gatherings unopened. One plate in vol. I with short tear from outer margin, turning into a narrow scrape extending about halfway into the upper portion of the image; one leaf in vol. II with tiny portion (less than one word) affixed to opposing plate. Not a perfect set, but a perfectly fascinating one.

Provenance:  Rolle family armorial bookplate.

•  ESTC R10688; Wing (rev.) H1578; Allibone 813.   Contemporary sheep, covers framed in blind double fillets; leather rubbed and scuffed, partially cracked along front joint. All edges marbled. Pastedowns peeled up, front pastedown with early inked inscription; inside front cover with armorial bookplate. Title-page with inked numeral in upper outer corner. (21012)