•  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)

Posthumous second edition in English, “translated from the French, with notes and engravings, illustrative and supplementary, by Andrew Ure.”

Uncut, partially unopened copy.

•  Uncut, partially unopened copy. Publisher's quarter cloth with paper covered boards; some discoloration to cloth, light chipping to board edges. Ex–social club library: paper label at top of spine, 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. A clean copy with the plates good and crisp; as noted above, an uncut, partially unopened copy.  (27388)

Binding:  Publisher's boards of papier maché and plaster, formed using a metal mold and colored black, creating a gothic “carved wood binding.” Title blind-embossed on black roan spine. All edges gilt.

McLean states of the English edition of this work that “It was . . . the first of the so-called 'papier maché' bindings, contrived to look like carved ebony.” This first American edition bears the first “papier maché” binding accomplished in the U.S.

•  Ray, The Illustrator and the Book in England, 231; McLean, Victorian Book Design (second edition), pp. 99, 210; Maggs Bros., Bookbinding in the British Isles, part 2, 245; Abbey, Life, 222.   Very nicely preserved copy with just a few small cracks in the binding, leaves expertly reattached/recased; spine intact with surface of front cover a little rubbed in one small portion. Unlike the broken, chipped, and damaged copies we have seen, this is a treasurable exemplar. Housed in a quarter red cloth clamshell case with tan cloth sides and black leather gilt spine label.  (30100)

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)

48 plates

•  NSTC 0155519.   Publisher's blue cloth, front cover with pictorial onlay; lower outer front corner bumped, spine sunned with extremities a bit rubbed and corners less so. Last two leaves opened roughly, with chips to outer edges; otherwise, pages age-toned but very clean. A comprehensive and entertaining illustrated guide to seafaring for juveniles.  (30296)

•  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.

•  Venus: ESTC T73277; Ode: ESTC T41985 (first ed.). Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Second work lacking half-title and title-page. Inner margins of two leaves reinforced; last line of advertising page shaved. Title-page and last few leaves with moderate foxing; one page (not the title) stamped by a now-defunct institution, with some offsetting to opposing page. (5875)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers framed in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine sunned with stain at head, lower corners bumped. Front hinge (inside) slightly tender. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label on spine, 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. Pages clean; in fact a nice copy.  (28344)

•  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.

This volume is illustrated with10 steel-engraved plates and one hand-colored map.

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)

•  Laced together with a silk ribbon. Some small spots of browning on drawing and elsewhere adjacent to ribbon; a little soiling exterior and along edges; and a few tiny tears in edges.

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Laced together with a silk ribbon. Some foxing, especially on drawing; soiling on exterior fold with traces elsewhere; and spotting to ribbon and wafer.

•  Laced together with a silk ribbon. Some browning, especially adjacent to ribbon and wafer; and a few tiny tears in edges. Short closed tears along the folds, without loss.

•  Laced together with a silk ribbon. Some browning, especially adjacent to ribbon and wafer.

•  American Imprints 46-3993; NSTC 2L4514. Recent black moiré silk, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels. Vol. II half-title and title-page with faint spots of waterstaining, pages otherwise clean. A very nice example of one of the best-selling scientific works of its time. (30342)

Binding:  Publisher's blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and train vignette stamped in black and gilt, vignette extending onto spine.

•  Binding as above, extremities very slightly rubbed, spine dimmed. Light waterstaining to inner margins of front fly-leaf and half-title, otherwise clean. A volume “got up,” given its content, with remarkable style and charm!  (29124)

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)

The edition in hand is printed in roman and italic, with factotum initials and a handful of woodcut tailpieces. The title-page in the first volume is printed in red and black, and black only in the second, with both volumes featuring the printer's device of an armillary sphere: mark of the Elzevirs, who printed the 1678 edition in Amsterdam?

•  On Marino, see: DBI online.   Quarter calf over paper-covered boards, recently rebacked with original spine leather laid down; spine tooled creating compartments accented with gilt center ornaments, author and title gilt on black morocco spine in second one. Scuffed, chipped, and soiled but sturdy; foxed throughout though never more than moderately; edges uncut.  (30910)

250 recipes making use of slow cooking

•  Bitting 326 (for 1909 & 1911 eds.); Brown, Culinary Americana, 2637 (first ed. only). Not in Cagle & Stafford.   Publisher's dark green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black with title and images of fireless cookers; mild rubbing to extremities, very faint scratches to back cover. Front hinge (inside) with small area of insect damage near head. A clean, solid copy.  (30292)

Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, front wrapper with affixed color-printed illustration; corners and edges rubbed, wrappers sunned and lightly soiled, front wrapper with small area of discoloration from now-absent label. Ex–social club library with its attractive bookplate, back inside wrapper with charge-slip, inked numeral in lower margin of preface, no other markings. Pages clean; a few corners bumped.  (27469)

•  Publisher's brown cloth, covers and spine with blind-stamped decorations and gilt-stamped vignettes; extremities rubbed, spine head chipped, gilt lightly rubbed. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label on spine, 19th-century bookplate, front free endpaper lacking, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Small crescent burn mark to upper margin of title-page, a very few small smudges elsewhere, otherwise clean.  (28291)

•  Not in Von Hunersdorff, Coffee. Publisher's embossed gilt-paper binding, moderately worn with the spine and board edges a bit darkened; still a very attractive, unusual binding. Front pastedown with small bookseller's ticket and with remnants of a school prize bookplate. Pages mostly clean, with scattered hints of light foxing. (10592)

•  Not in Bitting, not in Cagle.   Publisher's moiré plum-colored cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title; spine and edges worn with hinges (inside) starting. Pages age-toned with occasional smudges; some corners dog-eared and one leaf with ragged edges. Recipe index with several instances of “cider” lined through in pencil and rubber-stamped “ciderette” instead. Lots and lots and lots of information and, in the format, some sense of how it was worked with.  (28522)

The "Buzaglo" referred to in the poem is the eponymous cast-iron stove designed by London inventor/ironmaster Abraham Buzaglo, which the author of the poem contends will, once installed, quell party strife in the House of Commons by warming the uncomfortable chill that provokes and riles the more partisan members.

•  Recent marbled paper wrappers. Very light foxing on first three leaves. Two page numbers shaved.

Published at the beginning of renewed interest in the U.S. and England in “scientific agriculture.”

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 25812.   Publisher's blind-embossed green cloth, rebacked with much of old spine unobtrusively reapplied. Binding a little soiled and spine darkened with gilt of title dimmed; tips of corners chipped. Instances of dust-soiling at some top margins; one leaf with loss and soiling along outer edge without affecting text. Ex-library with old rubber-stamp on the title-page and several other pages.  (24439)

It was not uncommon for Congress in this era to buy important or sensitive patents, whether for security reasons, to prevent their antisocial use, or to promote the common good; and although Morton's “discovery” claim was disputed by Prof. Jackson and a thorough investigation was pursued with much testimony taken from a wide variety of witnesses and “experts,” the Select Committee reporting here, the Army, Navy, and Treasury departments, and virtually all other deciding parties concurred that remuneration should be awarded in the huge sum of $100,000. The record of the discussion, both colorfully narrative and cooly documentary, is here at great length, including the Committee's sweeping yet detailed historical account from the Greek era forward and encompassing Chinese medicine as well, of various herbs and plants — including cannabis — that have been used to alleviate pain or to approximate a true anesthetic quality.

Congress refused to pay, apparently for reasons partly based in a point of procedure; but the argument produceda great, early account of the discovery and use of anesthetics both historically and in the U.S.

•  Removed from a nonce volume, scattered foxing; very good condition and, frankly, utterlyabsorbing reading.  (32215)

The patent record copies are accompanied by36 plates illustrating the various devices. Atyped index is stitched in at the front; the title given above comes from this volume's spine label.

A full list of contents is available upon enquiry.

Provenance:  Front and back pastedown each with rubber-stamp of A. Bell Malcolmson, attorney and counsellor at law; final page with pencilled annotation: “Bind for Mr. Malcolmson.” Malcolmson is recorded as having been involved, in 1908, with a case regarding patent infringement of a method for duplicating typewritten work.

•  Contemporary tan cloth, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label; cloth spotted and moderately discolored, extremities and spine label lightly rubbed. Preliminary index pages, of onion skin, each with short tear from outer margin; one text leaf with small chip to upper margin; some leaves creased; occasional pencilled annotations and marks of emphasis.  (30399)

Scarce: OCLC, RLIN, and NUC-Pre1956 locate only six U.S. holdings.

•  Brunet, V, 1118. Contemporary limp paste paper–covered wrappers, spine with hand-inked label; paper chipped at edges and front joint open; spine label darkened and peeling. Front pastedown with bookseller’s ticket and institutional bookplate; front free endpaper and title-page with institutional stamp; front free endpaper with ownership inscriptions dated 1829. Pages untrimmed.

The volume isillustrated with 13 photographic plates: portraits, landscapes, copies of artworks, etc., intended to offer interesting and practical lessons in particular aspects of the art. In addition, a number of in-text wood engravings depict aspects of composition and pieces of equipment.

•  Recent black moiré silk, spine with gilt-stamped title; new, archival guard tissues opposite photographs. Title-page and a number of others institutionally rubber-stamped. Pages gently age-toned, a few outer margins with small chips. First few leaves with inner margins reinforced, one later leaf with inner and lower margins thus; four leaves with small burn mark. First plate with short edge tear touching frame (only) of image and with small chip to upper outer corner of image; two darker plates (the two using Woodbury's Patent Process) with slight bloom, sepia-toned plates all clean and beautiful. Perfectly captures the state of the art.  (30326)