On the leaf prior to the title-leaf, publisher Didot lists the issue options with prices for Aminta: The choices were “papier ordinaire,” “papier fin,” “papier vélin,” and “grand papier vélin.” Prices were 50 centimes, 90 centimes, 2 francs, and 3 francs, respectively. Not listed as an option were copies on pure vellum, but in fact, as Gamba notes, there were exactly two on that coveted substance — this being one of them.

Didot promises that the text is “assai migliorato col riscontro delle prime e più corrette edizioni.” The preface is that of Pierantonio Serassi, which first appeared in the 1789 Bodoni edition.

Provenance:  First owner would have been either the Duke of Abrantes or Mr. Bertin; later in the collection of Mortimer Shiff whose library sold 1938 (with his bookplate); ownership signature of A.C. Lindstrom, 1941, on verso of front free endpaper; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard (sans indicia).

A gorgeous work and remarkably one printed using stereoplates!

•  Gamba, Serie dei testi di lingua (1839 ed.), 960.   20th century green vellum, utterly plain style with gold rules and “AMINTA” to spine. Intermittent, minute clean piercings that we suspect show where small veins once passed through the skins used to prepare the vellum; some clean creasing or cockling to leaves. Excellent copy.  (37378)

•  Contemporary half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, gilt spine extra; sides and edges of paper showing light scuffing, spine leather a bit darkened; attractive. Marbled endpapers; all edges marbled to match endpapers and sides of covers. Front pastedown with small paper adhesions. One signature separated. An attractive edition, a pretty copy.  (19130)

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)

The book is profusely illustrated with pen drawings by Eric Palmquist, who has signed the colophon; of these, some are full-page, and some are spread across two pages with the text printed beneath. Most are smaller in-text drawings, including an extensive series of decorative tailpieces.

This edition was prepared under the supervision of Ragnar Svanström at the Royal Printing House in Stockholm, Sweden, and is limited to 1500 copies. Designer Karl-Erik Forsberg used a hand-set Berling Roman font which he himself designed; Forsberg also drew uncial letters, printed in red ink, for use on the title-page and for the canto-opening initials.

The binding is half natural Swedish linen stamped on the spine in red and black; the sides are covered with Swedish paper hand-grained to look like wood, and bear a small gold-stamped design of a warship, the Norse drakkar.

This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed; it wassigned by the illustrator.  The relevant Club newsletter is laid in.

Binding:  Quarter tan Swedish linen with streaked red paper–covered sides, front cover with gilt-stamped Viking ship, spine with decorative title in black and red, in the original matching slipcase with printed paper spine label.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 232.   Binding as above, spine slightly sunned, slipcase with moderate shelfwear to edges and one edge opening. A solid, attractive copy of a handsome book.  (29946)

This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed, signed at the colophon by the illustrator; the appropriate LEC newsletter, in its (unstamped) envelope, is laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 483.   Binding as above, in original glassine dust wrapper and publisher's slipcase; wrapper with spine darkened and torn with loss, front panel crumpled; book clean and fresh, one leaf not with damage but a natural paper flaw at edge; slipcase showing only minimal shelfwear. A very nice copy.  (30124)

•  Publisher’s cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding lightly scuffed overall, spine with extremities worn and one compartment gently faded, back joint with small ink blotch and corner of front cover with traces of old adhesion, as a sticker. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate and institutional bookplate, front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1859, title-page verso stamped (no other markings). Pages slightly age-toned. (19078)

Binding:  Publisher's quarter parchment over handsome, textured, swirl-printed tan paper; spine with gilt-stamped author and title. Edges uncut.

•  Bound as above; corners bumped, spine darkened and rubbed, joints also rubbed. Title-page with small paper adhesion, one other page with light smudge, a little light dust-soiling along the uncut lower edges, otherwise clean.  (29724)

•  Publisher's vellum, spine with gilt-stamped author's name; spine and edges slightly darkened. Pages gently cockled, otherwise clean and crisp. A very nice copy.  (36923)

•  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)

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 252. The plate leaves (only) are a bit cockled (which seems to be usual); a very good set. Slipcase included, label with a spot or two.

illustrated with six halftone plates by Edmund Marion Ashe

Signed binding: Publisher's maroon textured cloth, front cover with blind-stamped lion rampant outlined in black, gilt-stamped title, and outlined heart and roundel decorations. Signed by American illustrator and book designer Thomas Maitland Cleland (front cover blind-stamped “C”).

•  Binding as above, mild rubbing at extremities and joints, front cover clean and beautiful. Scattered small smudges, pages predominantly clean. A nice copy.  (28579)

The present work is a series of short stories (“The Missionary Sheriff,” “The Cabinet Organ,” “His Duty,” “The Hypnotist,” “The Next Room,” and “The Defeat of Amos Wickliff”) set in Iowa The black and white illustrations are by A.B. Frost and Clifford Carleton.

Binding:  Publisher's blue-gray cloth stamped in white with an overall pattern of an exuberant vine hiding the repeating image of an eagle with a palm branch in one talon and arrows in the other. Title and author in gilt on cover and on spine.

•  Wright, III, 2046.   Binding as above, very bright and nice; without the dust jacket. Very good condition.  (34607)

one of 220 copies printed, of which only 130 copies were for sale

•  Two Decades of Hamady & the Perishable Press, 23.   Publisher's gray Fabriano paper wrappers, front wrapper with title stamped in blind. A clean, fresh copy.  (30800)

•  Fine, Janus Press 1975–80, 41.   Publisher's navy cloth, front cover with illustration on paper as above; spine very slightly sunned, outer front corners showing most minimal wear. Van Vliet's lithograph bright and beautiful.  (32333)

The volume was designed and printed by Will and Sebastian Carter at the Rampant Lions Press in Cambridge, in Palatino types on paper made by J. Barcham Green; it was bound by Wigmore Bindery. This iscopy 142 of 270 numbered copies, of a total edition of 417 (including 12 lettered copies and 135 copies numbered I through CXXXV).

•  Publisher's marbled paper–covered boards with brown buckram shelfback, spine with gilt-stamped title, in matching paper and cloth slipcase; cloth with crease at spine head, slipcase with small dent to one outer edge and light wear to extremities. A nice copy of an elegant edition.  (33781)

•  American Imprints 9398.   Contemporary tan paper–covered boards with brown cloth shelfback; cloth worn, paper lost over rear board and wrinkled/chipped on front board. Front pastedown and free endpaper with early inked and pencilled inscriptions; tracing and annotation as above. Pages age-toned; one plate with upper portion excised, just shaving top of image.A quirky copy of a quirky work.  (36683)

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

This isnumbered copy 173 of 275 printed. The text was set in Garamond type with decorative initials in red and page ruling in blue, and printed by Robert Ashwin Maynard on Japanese vellum.

•  Harrop, Gregynog Press, 6.   Publisher's yellow buckram, spine with gilt-stamped title; sides mildly dust-soiled, spine slightly darkened, back cover with two areas of discoloration near upper edge. Pages gently age-toned and entirely clean.  (35245)

•  Wegelin, American Poetry, 1168; Shaw & Shoemaker 39076. Recent quarter cloth with blue-green paper sides, in the style of early 19th-centry American books. Ex–mercantile library with a few stamps, including on title-page. Two letters of title abraded and mostly invisible, yet, still, a clean copy.

The title-page is printed in black with two blue lines; the portrait of Emerson is in blue on a pale ochre field; the colophon incorporates a large blue “H.”

Lawrance Thompson (1903–73) was a member of the English faculty at Princeton University and the official biographer of Robert Frost.

•  New. Publisher's gray cloth shelfback with orange-red marbled paper sides. Deckle edges. In the original gray cloth openback slipcase.  (35754)

This is the first printing of Thoms' edition; the work was issued separately, and later reprinted as part of the three-volume Collection of Early Prose Romances (1828). WorldCat locatesonly four U.S. institutional holdings.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard (sans indicia).

•  NSTC 2H28672. This edition not in Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering (see 1828.22 for three-volume collection); likewise Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), (see p. 92 as above).   Modern pebbled black morocco, front cover with gilt-stamped green morocco title-label, in matching morocco and marbled paper–covered slipcase; slipcase rubbed, volume spine sunned and rubbed. Pages faintly age-toned with scattered small spots of light foxing.  (37602)

•  McKitterick/Rendall/Dreyfus 47. Full marbled handmade cloth; leather label at head of spine with title in gilt, label missing one corner. All edges untrimmed. Bookplate on front pastedown of volume.

The added engraved title-page here is embellished with engravings from the designs of Richard Westall, and the frontispiece and added title-page were engraved by John Scoles. Among the four wood-engraved illustrations for the seasons, three are definitely by Alexander Anderson. “Spring” and “Summer” are signed “Anderson” and “Winter” is signed “A.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 42282; Pomeroy, Alexander Anderson, 565a.   Uncut and partially unopened copy. Publisher's printed paper over boards softly rubbed, obscuring some printing detail; very fragile, with joints cracked and weak, paper of spine cracked and chipped. Initials “JSH” inked on front free endpaper; a different monogram inked at top of title-page. All plates in nice impressions and frontispiece with protective tissue guard; some foxing/offsetting to this and engraved title-page opposite. Very evocative.  (9907)

• Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 488.   Binding as above, spine ruled in gilt with gilt-stamped title, in textured paper–covered slipcase with green spine label; slipcase showing minimal shelfwear with one corner of spine label lifting, volume crisp and clean. A very nice copy.  (36085)

•  New. Bound, as issued, in quarter blue linen with marbled paper boards, title stamped in gold on spine. With the glassine wrapper.  (35759)

Binding:  Tapley-Rutter Company has created two mirror-image volumes, one quarter black over terra cotta buckram, the other quarter terra cotta over black, with gilt lettering on spines and along the spine cloth over the front covers. A split image of marching soldiers, in gilt, spans the spines in their case.

Planned by Eugene M. Ettenberg, the text was printed by Case, Lockwood & Brainard using Linotype Janson, Palatino semi-bold, Columna, and Open Roman and Greek capitals. Numbered copy 733 of 2000 signed at the colophon by the illustrator. Both the prospectus and the appropriate Club newsletter are laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 476.   Bound as above, in publisher's terra cotta slipcase with cream and bronze label; three leaves of the two volumes each with a small marginal spot, possibly original from time of printing. A beautiful pair of books.  (36404)

The "Buzaglo" referred to in the poem is the eponymouscast-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.  (3689)

Binding:  19th-century publisher's hunter green cloth, spine lettered and ruled in gilt with a black tree design; front cover stamped in black and gilt with a continuation of the branches and a setting sun.

•  Wright, III, 5485.   Bound as above, lightly rubbed at corners and edges, text gently cocked, front hinge repaired with cloth tape some time ago, lacks front free colored endpaper; black inkblot on front cover, white paint spots on rear cover and same cover with ink streaks. Light age-toning; ex–social library with paper call number label on spine, shelfmark in 19th-century hand on front endpaper, rubber-stamp to title-page. A solid and “good” copy.  (36202)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper and front fly-leaf each with contemporary pencilled inscription: “Miss L. Hart, Poughkeepsie, New York.”

•  Publisher's textured olive cloth, covers with embossed strapwork medallion surrounded by blind-stamped ivy border, spine with gilt-stamped title and ivy decoration; cloth attractively faded, extremities slightly rubbed, binding cocked with sewing loosening slightly. Pages with scattered instances of spotting, generally clean.  (34793)

Provenance:  Elegant calligraphic bookplate of Norman J. Sondheim, American collector of fine press books.

•  Dreyfus, History of the Nonesuch Press, 8.   Publisher's batik-printed heavy paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label; joints and extremities mildly rubbed. Extra spine label tipped in at the back of the volume. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. An attractive copy of a little book that intrigues for multiple reasons.  (36134)

Binding:  Publisher's quarter matte black buckram with sepia English-finish printed buckram–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 447.   Binding as above, in original glassine wrapper and tan paper-covered slipcase with printed paper spine label; wrapper with corners rubbed, slipcase showing minor shelfwear, volume clean and fresh.  (35247)

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, faded and chipped, front wrapper separated. Pages browned and embrittled, some leaves separated.  (33312)

Binding:  Periwinkle publisher's cloth, gilt lettering on spine and front cover; white, black, and red illustration on front cover of two teenagers addressing a crate for shipment.

•  BAL 20522.   Binding as above, mildest rubbing, minor scratches to front cover illustration. Spotting on a handful of pages. Without d/j. A popular offering of early 20th-century juvenile literature, and an attractive copy.  (35990)

•  NSTC 0647541.   Contemporary half green goat and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations, top edge gilt; joints and extremities rubbed, inner portion of leather on front cover with patches of light discoloration. Front free endpaper with adhesions from now-absent label. Pages mildly age-toned, with a few instances of light spotting. Indeed a very romantic view (in both text and image) of Spanish fact mixed with fiction.  (34883)

Binding:  Publisher's lime green cloth with a black and while collage-inspired paper label on each front cover; the pair housed in lime green cloth slipcase with black paper sides and paper labels on front and spine.

•  Chambers 70.   Bound as above, ink on pastedowns somewhat tacky with some offsetting, one leaf attached to pastedown with partial tear to fold; light to moderate age-toning affecting Japanese paper, otherwise bright and clean. Definitely an engaging piece of art.  (37197)

Binding:  Publisher's green calf, done by the Tapley-Rutter Company, with marbled paper–covered sides, spine gilt extra, in original slipcase.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 502.   Fine, in a near fine slipcase (paper cracked along a small portion of one edge, and carefully laid back down).   (21808)

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 196.   Binding as above, in matching slipcase, rubbed; volume's spine sunned with lettering dimmed, gilt foil rubbed to silver at board edges. Pages clean, with text and illustrations bright.  (35674)

It may interest the reader to know that half of the writings in this volume are by women.

Sole edition. The volume was a fund-raising effort: “The principal reason that these stories have been gathered together and given to the public, is to start a fund wherewith to erect a fountain on the Campus of the University of California to be in harmony with the great Hearst architectural plan.”

Binding:  Publisher's blue cloth stamped in gilt with title and a scene of a rolling hill with trees on it. Binding signed “Kales.”

•  BAL 15035.   Binding as above: gilt a little rubbed or dulled. Overall, very good.  (34834)

•  Publisher's cream paper wrappers in folded heavy taupe paper wraps, front wrapper with gilt-stamped title. Front free endpaper with pencilled annotations. A clean, crisp copy.  (32675)

•  Folded, never bound; uncut and unopened. Very good condition.  (37113)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked inscription reading “A Thanksgiving Appreciation to Miss Alta Anderson from the Parents and Pupils of the Emerson St. Presbyterian S.S. Nov. 28, 1917.”

Signed binding: Publisher's deep violet-blue cloth, front cover with wide gilt border of floral and vine design, spine with gilt-stamped title and fleurons. Signed “EE,” with the second E reversed: Edward B. Edwards, who also designed the interior frames.

•  Binding as above, spine slightly dimmed. Pages and plates clean. A lovely copy.  (28954)

•  Goldsmiths’-Kress 7892.2; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VIII, 444. Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding scuffed and rubbed, with leather cracking over joints and spine extremities chipped. All edges speckled red. Front free endpaper and fly-leaf partially affixed to front pastedown; front pastedown with inked initials. Pages beautifully clean.  (13629)

Following the poetry section there is a series of advertisements for products such as Pratt's Astral Oil and double-deodorized benzine. This is an interesting, attractive little relic of an era when manufacturers of such humble products sought surprisingly often to associate themselves with Much Higher Things — often going to real trouble and expense to do so!

•  Beige printed wrappers with “1888" written on the front cover in ink and a small pink stain at top edge; light age-toning.  (36736)

The work is here illustrated witha copper-engraved frontispiece and four plates, generally bucolic, done by Joseph de Longueil after Francesco Giuseppe Casanova and Charles Eisen. The text is additionally decorated with pictorial headpieces and fruit and floral tailpieces.

•  Brunet, V, 1303; Cohen & de Ricci 1022; Graesse, VII, 359; Schweiger, II, 1221/22.   Contemporary mottled calf framed in gilt triple fillets with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped floral compartment decorations; joints and extremities rubbed, spine leather with small cracks, sides with expectable moderate acid-pitting. All edges gilt. Front hinge (inside) tender; a few scattered light spots, pages overall clean. An early, attractive edition of an excellent translation, withcrisp, lovely, well-impressed plates.  (30949)

•  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)

Many sources, including OCLC, attribute this work to de Jouy himself, but the Monthly Review of May, 1825 admits that the “similarity of title, of decorum, of form, and of manner,” as well as the title-page’s claim that this is a continuation of de Jouy’s work, all misled their reviewer and a number of others into that incorrect and much-perpetuated citation. The travelogue has more recently been attributed to Louet de Chaumont, among others, while Barbier and Quérard suggest that it may have been compiled by de Villemarest from de Chaumont’s notes and manuscripts.

•  NSTC 2H18614. Publisher’s plain paper-covered boards, sometime rebacked with speckled paper and old printed paper labels laid on, the set now in a recent case with sides covered in blue cloth and speckled paper; extremities rubbed, covers with spots of discoloration, retained spine labels chipped and darkened. Front pastedowns each with institutional bookplate (no other markings). Hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago. Vol. II with one signature separated. Pages untrimmed and clean save for scattered small spots of foxing. A strong, agreeable set.  (20256)

The volume opens with a Kelmscott Press–like double-page spread with wide decorative border and wood-engraved portrait of the poet (signed “CUE”), and features a decorative capital at the start of each ballad.

This is numbered copy 159 of 385 printed (of which only 350 were for sale), on heavy paper with deckle edges.

•  Publisher's plain olive paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label; minor shelfwear, overall solid and tight.; without the publisher's plain dust jacket. Outer margins of first leaves (including “title”) with a noticeable smudge or stain, otherwise clean.  (30554)

This is numbered copy 538 of 2000 printed — this volume, designed by Stephen Harvard, being the first ever set by the Stinehour Press in the then-new Galliard typeface, created by Matthew Carter after the work of the 16th-century punchcutter Robert Granjon; Carter also designed the endpaper ornaments.

Bound in green linen imported from Holland, spine with gilt-stamped title and front cover with gilt-stamped author's name, the volume issigned by Harvard at the colophon. The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 513.   Binding as above, in original dust wrapper and matching slipcase; back upper edge of wrapper torn, slipcase and volume clean and crisp. A very nice copy.  (32031)

Dibdin notes that the text is “printed in a correct and magnificent manner” — a commonly felt sentiment still, today, in regards to most Foulis Press productions.

Provenance:  Partially rubbed armorial bookplate of Alexander Gordon of Culvennan, Esquire.

•  ESTC T139215; Gaskell 360; Dibdin, Greek and Latin Classics p. 558.   Polished calf with spine compartments stamped and lettered in gilt, all edges speckled red; moderate rubbing, a few spots on front cover, offsetting on first and last few leaves from binding. Gentle age-toning; lacks blank following dedication. Marked as above, light pencilling on endpapers. An elegant edition of Virgil from a fine 18th-century Scots press.  (36157)

In the early decades of the 20th century, Tice was a sensation because of her provocative art and as the embodiment of bohemian Greenwich Village — gaining, indeed, the sobriquet “The Queen of Greenwich Village.”

Binding:  Publisher's black goat, round spine with raised bands lettered in gilt and with a gilt-stamped female nude figure in center area of spine; front cover with two gilt-stamped reclining female nude figures reminiscent of those on big-rig mud guards! Elegant gilt turn-ins, top edge gilt and other edges deckle. Housed in a brown paper–covered open-back case.

•  Case rubbed but sound; binding as above with spine a little pulled, corners a little bumped, and front joint (outside) a little abraded. First leaves separated and tipped in; possibly, cancels? All illustrations eye-popping in several senses; all tissue guards present.  (33447)

WorldCat and ESTC do not locate any U.S. institutional holdings of this edition (another variant, printed in the same year, has 194 pages).

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of George Gropius (“und seinen Freunden”), front free endpaper with early pencilled inscription: “Lewis Tiger's Book.”

•  ESTC T167805; Graesse 392; Brunet, V, 1362.   Later marbled paper–covered boards, much rubbed and worn, paper lost over spine and back cover, back cover partially covered in cloth tape. Bookplate as above, front free endpaper with pencilled doodling along inner margin. Frontispiece and pp. 127/28 lacking. Sewing loosening. Occasional mild to moderate foxing; one page with light stain partially obscuring text without loss of sense. This is a book that was read (and read and read). . . .  (30400)