•  Brooks 1100; De Lama, II, 196. Not in Brunet, not in Graesse.   Original Bodoni orange paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped title and author and paper now more brown than orange — rubbed at extremities and spine with loss of paper in top 7". Bookplates, ownership markings, and inscription as above. Pages clean. An uncommon item, with extended, interesting provenance.  (40199)

Booth Tarkington (1869–1946) is one of just three writers to receive more than one Pulitzer Prize in fiction. Immensely prolific and popular, he was known for his quintessentially Midwestern fiction; Monsieur Beaucaire, set notably far from the American heartland, was his second published work.

This first edition wasinscribed by the author on the front flyleaf: “’And live men are jus’ — names!’ said M. Beaucaire. Booth Tarkington, Kennebunkport, Oct. 17, 1940.” (Tarkington spent much of his later life in Kennebunkport, ME.)

The novel is illustrated with six plates (including a frontispiece) by C.D. Williams, printed in violet with dark green frames and and all having tissue guards. The other decorations in the book were designed by Charles Edwin Hooper.

Binding:  Publisher’s red cloth with gilt lettering and decoration to spine and front board; illustrated endpapers and top edge gilt. Housed in a chemise within quarter red morocco openback slipcase with five raised bands, gilt lettering and decoration to spine.

•  Wright, III, 5370; Merle Johnson, p. 489; Russo & Sullivan, pp. 6–9.   Bound as above; corners slightly bumped, slipcase edges lightly rubbed. Very minor gutter crack at p. 44 and a more notable one at p. 62, without affecting strength of binding. Charmingly cased and signed by its celebrated author, a nice copyattractive and smart.  (37920)

Provenance:  Covers with armorial supra-libros of Henry Welbore Agar-Ellis, 2nd Viscount Clifden (1761–1836), with his motto: “Non haec sine numine.” Front pastedown of deep blue with armorial bookplate and “C” shelf-list tag at one corner, front free endpaper with bookplates of Robert Wayne Stilwell and Brian Douglas Stilwell.

•  Brooks 514; Brunet, V, 673; Giani 46 (p. 48).   Binding as above, rebacked with original spine laid down and recent gilt-stamped red leather labels; corners and lower edges rubbed. Bookplates as above. Free endpapers with offsetting from turn-ins. Pages notably clean clean and crisp. A striking copy of this dramatic presentation. (40163)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of private collector Brian Douglas Stilwell.

•  Brooks 379; Brunet, V, 673; Giani 11 (p. 39); Renouard, IV, 305.   Binding as above, unobtrusively rebacked preserving original spine; light wear to joints and extremities, sides with small scuffs refurbished with a restrained hand. Bookplate as above; front free endpaper with pencilled reference annotations. The wide-margined, crisply printed and engraved pages are notably clean. Distinctive for its occasion and and desirable for its lovely production.  (40138)

•  Brooks 650; Giani 92 (pp. 57/58).   Contemporary green calf, covers framed in gilt double fillets with gilt-tooled corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-tooled compartment decorations between gilt-ruled raised bands, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls, all edges gilt; spine and board edges browned, spine label chipped, joints and extremities rubbed. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean.  (40176)

•  This ed. not in Brunet.   Contemporary vellum-covered boards, spine with delightful hand-inked title andship and whale silhouettes; extremities rubbed, one corner bumped, spine with small chip affecting one word of title. All edges sprinkled red. Front pastedown with the Haverford College institutional bookplate (properly deaccessioned in 2017 with rubber-stamp marking) and adhered traces of now-absent bookplate, title-page and one other pressure-stamped. A very few instances of light spotting and one pencilled annotation in Italian, pages otherwise clean. An engaging copy.  (38979)

•  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)

•  Brooks 1017; Brunet, V, 667; De Lama, II, 175; Giani 179 (page 72).   Bound as above, rebacked with original spine sunned to brown reapplied; sides with scuffs (some showing signs of refurbishing) and with edges and extremities moderately rubbed.A monument of both literature and typography in a very clean and handsome copy. (40192)

WorldCat locates only five institutional copies of this edition.

Binding: Speckled grey cloth stamped in brown and blue with blue lettering; unsigned, but well designed.

•  Bound as above, slightly cocked and spine ends bumped. Ownership stamp to front free endpaper with offsetting to pastedown; interior otherwise clean. A lovely, clean copy.  (37488)

The ambivalence of the presentation of the relationship has led some scholars to say that the novel falls within the nineteenth-century genre of non-sexual romantic friendships between men, while others come down squarely saying it is a novel of homosexuality.

Joseph and His Friend was Taylor's only novel that was serialized before publication (The Atlantic Monthly, January–December 1870). There are “points” in the first edition. The present copy is BAL printing A, purple C cloth, with tan endpaper.

•  BAL 19713; Wright, II. 2433; Young, Male Homosexual in Literature, 3752.   Publisher's cloth as above; frayed at joints (outside) and along board edges, at points exposing underlying board, and at top and bottom of spine. Fore-edge of front free endpaper bent. Age-toned as expectable, with a few light stains; a good copy.  (40313)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper (now separated) with bookplate of Dr. Martin J. Loeb, a prominent New York physician and philanthropist, with an explanatory “Legend of the Bookplate” label affixed to opposing fly-leaf.

•  BAL 19807.   Publisher's brown morocco, bevelled boards, covers framed in decorative blind rolls, spine with raised band and gilt-stamped title, turn-ins with gilt roll; light wear overall with extremities rubbed and spine title dimmed. All edges gilt. BAL binding C, the others being cloth. Front free endpaper (with bookplate) separated; back pastedown with small (upside-down!) numerical paper label. Foxing, as the paper is inclined to it, and a little soiling; a “decent” copy.  (40360)

Provenance:  19th-century signature of Richard H. Downing on verso of frontispice; most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

WorldCat locates only three U.S. libraries reporting ownership (Yale, Free Library of Philadelphia, AAS).

•  Shoemaker 2310; not in Welch; not in Rosenbach, Children's.   Buff printed paper covers; text block recased. Wrappers and text age-soiled and with stains; still, a (now) solid and appealing period piece.  (38923)

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)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with garter-encircled pressure-stamp of Manchester bookseller Edwin Slater; front fly-leaf with early inked gift inscription to Ellen I. Moscrop [?] “from her sincere friend, Arabella Ble[???].” Most recently in the collection of Hubert Dingwall.

•  Ray, Illustrator and the Book in England, 191.   Binding as above, spine gently sunned; joints and edges mildly rubbed, corners somewhat more so. Stamp and inscription as above. Foxing/spotting variously, pages ranging from quite clean to bearing a few small spots to being more broadly affected, although the hue of this is generally light and the action is mostly confined to margins. Quintessentially and delightfully Victorian: a lovely collection of some of this beloved artist's best work.  (38851)

Provenance:  Green 1880 copy with pencilled inscription of Mariou Pierce of “B'ville, Mass.” (Baldwinsville), dated 1916. 1885 copy with Carroll Institute of Reading, PA,  PRIZE AWARD BOOKPLATE, noting gift in that year to Frederick Clymer for excellence in arithmetic. Later in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  NSTC 741843.   Bindings as above; one spine with gilt dimmed, two volumes with extremities rubbed, hinges of green copy tender. Bookplate and inscription as above. Pages clean. An unusual gathering, of interest to scholars and lovers of binding and publishing history as well as to aficionados of late 19th–century illustration.  (40629)

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 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)

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

•  NSTC 2T6768.   Binding as above, spine sunned to a rosy tan color, extremities lightly rubbed. Old cataloguing affixed to front free endpaper verso (i.e., to paper, not silk). Small line of staining to upper margins of most leaves, pages and plates otherwise clean save for three instances of offsetting from plates. A pretty little book; a nice thing in 1848 and a nice thing now.  (38635)

Provenance:  On the front pastedown of each volume, a charming bookplate of Alfred and G. Ivy Clark, the former (1873–1950) being the pioneer in music recording and cinema whose work with Thomas Edison produced the first “moving pictures” having continuity and plot; he also helped Emile Berliner with the development of the gramophone, and he assembled one of the most important collections of Chinese ceramics in the West.

•  Bound as above; spines slightly darkened, front joint of vol. II neatly and unobtrusively refurbished. Interiors age-toned, some offsetting to pages opposite illustrations, several leaves in vol. I pulling from the binding but still attached; in vol. II, small closed tear to frontispiece, the corner of one plate torn away not affecting illustration and laid in, small slim marginal waterstain to last few leaves. HANDSOME.  (38687)

Each sketch opens with a wood-engraved plate, and also includes smaller vignettes. Two of the four wood-engraved plates were signed by Joseph Swain, and many of the other in-text illustrations here were likely that prolific engraver's work.

Binding:  19th-century half dark red morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with raised bands continued in blind onto boards, gilt-stamped title, and gilt-stamped trefoil decorations in compartments; binding stamped by Donnelley.

Provenance:  Original front wrapper with inked inscription of R[obert] G[eorge] Moger (ca. 1811–85), a Highgate physician and philanthropist. Most recently in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  NCBEL, III, 858.   Binding as above, front joint and extremities a little rubbed, upper outer front corner bumped. Pages slightly age-toned. A pleasing piece of Thackeriana.  (39838)

Binding:  19th-century half red morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges ruled in gilt double fillets, spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped title, and gilt-stamped floral compartment decorations. Signed binding: front free endpaper stamped by Root & Son.

Provenance:  From the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  NCBEL, III, 856.   Binding as above, joints and extremities rubbed. Pages mildly age-toned; two leaves with very small chips from outer margins; two pages with one small spot of staining each. A very nice copy of a work of both literary and artistic interest.  (39846)

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)

•  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)

For this volume, Frederick William Thomas (1867–1956), an English Indologist and Tibetologist, collected and translated all the Tibetan literary texts then known. Several translations are prefaced by explanations of the text's origin and/or or notes on previous studies of it.

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear. A portion of Howard's receipt for purchase, dated 1955, is laid in.

•  Publisher's navy blue cloth with gilt lettering to spine; edges rubbed and extremities bumped, fading to front board, minor gutter crack at p. 96. This offering is pt. I only. A sound, decent copy of this first volume of an intriguing series.  (38078)

•  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.  (10217)

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, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  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)

Patrick Murdoch's short biographical piece on Thomson is included here, as well as a preface by James Nichols and notes from the editor. Stunning engravings signed by English engravers John Gilbert and William Greatbach appear throughout, protected by tissue guards.

Binding:  Dark teal(?) morocco darkened to black with beveled boards and intricate decoration in blind; gilt lettering and additional blind decoration to spine. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt and gauffered. Binder's ticket of Poulter of Leamington on front pastedown.

Evidence of Readership: Two rather interestingly late-dated notes of reading completion (August and September 1942), in pencil in margins.

Provenance:  Signature and initials of V.C. Turnbull on verso of front free endpaper; another owner's notes on place/price of purchase on the same page.

•  Bound as above, refurbished. Lacks half-title; frontispiece and several plates lightly foxed, offsetting to tissue guards from plates, and small, sparse spots of staining to several leaves. Pencillings as above plus one pencilled marginal rule. A lovely collection, delicately detailed plates, and an excellent binding.  (37350)

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)

Binding:  Early 19th-century quarter sheep with marbled paper–covered sides, spine neatly, handsomely ornamented with gilt-stamped title and date in roman numerals, blind-tooled raised bands, and elegantly gilt-stamped stylized floral motifs in five compartments.

Provenance:  From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Brunet, V, 836; Cohen-de Ricci 991–992. On Le Barbier, see: Ray, I, 76–77.  Bound as above; joints and spine extremities refurbished, sides lightly rubbed and edges more so. Pages faintly age-toned; edges untrimmed. Plates with spots of foxing mostly confined to margins. A beloved 18th-century work in an interesting French form, with striking plates and very attractive on the shelf. (40598)

Binding:  Contemporary green morocco, covers framed in gilt triple fillets with gilt-tooled corner fleurons surrounding a central foliate medallion, spine gilt extra. Turn-ins with gilt roll. All edges gilt. Signed binding: “Bain, Binder” small stamp in lower margin of verso of front free endpaper.

Provenance:  Prize copy: front fly-leaf with inked inscription reading “Jno. Hy. Lloyd [/] Prize for proficiency in English and British History. July, 1872 [/] A.R. Abbott [/] Grove House”; beneath inscription, affixed paper label inscribed “George B. Lloyd.” Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  McLean, Victorian Book Design, 68 & 146.   Binding as above, showing light wear overall with joints, spine bands, and extremities rubbed, spine slightly darkened. Front fly-leaf with inscription and label as above. Fly-leaves and half-title foxed; a few faint spots of foxing scattered through pages. A distinguished example of this quintessentially Victorian present.  (38060)

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

Binding:  Original red paper–covered boards with black lettering and double-ruled border to title on front board.

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

WorldCat has located only ten institutional copies.

•  Bound as above; rubbed, soiled, and scraped with wrinkling to rear board. Minor gutter crack at the seventh illustration. Pages untrimmed. Housed in a modern red cloth slipcase, faded, with lettering on spine reading “Illustrations to Puckle's Club — Original Boards — 1820. A copy complete, clean, and in original boards, containing wonderful engravings.  (37777)

While Wing claims that there was a previous Sheldonian edition in 1696, identical except for the absence of the “typis Junianis” on the title-page, all other sources we consulted give the publication date as 1698, and no institutionally held copies of a 1696 edition could be located (ESTC gives a “place-holder record” based on the Wing number). In addition, The History of Oxford University Press, which agrees with 1698 as the first appearance of the work, notes that due to alarm over Thwaites' having dedicated it to the nonjuring George Hickes, it was almost suppressed and had to be issued with a new title-page removing the Vice-Chancellor's imprimatur — which might well explain the confusion.

This production was modestly but beautifully embellished withengravings done by Michael Burghers, being a dramatic engraved frontispiece (signature trimmed in this copy) and a pairing of large headpiece and decorative capital opening both the preface and the text, all of which preserve Burghers' attribution.

•  Darlow & Moule 1606; Wing (rev. ed.) B2198; NCBEL, II, 1792; ESTC R4371. See Terry, Poetry & the Making of the English Literary Past, p. 114.   Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons, rebacked in 20th century with gilt-stamped title, black-ruled raised bands, and black-stamped floral decorations in spine compartments; original leather worn and (expectably) acid-pitted. Modern plain endpapers; frontispiece tipped in. Frontispiece and title-page with a sprinkling of unobtrusive pinhole worming in upper portions, and a few instances only of light soil, spotting, or staining. Paper strong and bright, notable as having provided a good base for crisp taking of the ink of the type and engravings.  (39008)

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)

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)

Topics found in this collection of correspondence are wide ranging: Dante and terze rime, poetic style, preference for the Tuscan dialect, the fountains and viaducts of Rome, proper use of honorifics in letters, the letter “H” in Tuscan Italian and whether it is aspirated or not, teaching the alphabet to beginners, how a prince should react to those who speak ill of him, and the use of Greek words and terms.

This edition “con nuova aggiunta ristampati, & con somma diligenza da molti errori corretti” is printed in italic, and divided into seven “books,” each “book” beginning with a woodcut factotum initial. The printer's handsome woodcut device graces the title-page and the volume ends with three useful indices.

Provenance:  Black-stamped supra-libros (faded to “silver”) of Paulus von Pruan (1548–1616), the Nuremberg merchant and collector, and his signature on the front free endpaper; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Adams T789; EDIT16 CNCE 30511.   Contemporary limp vellum (lacking front pastedown) with slightly yapp edges; evidence that an old manuscript leaf was repurposed in construction of spine and of now-absent ties. Occasionally a little old very light staining or foxing; clean and nice. A desirable copy.  (38143)

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

The AAS tells us that it was issued as one of a set of four toy books that Johnson published in 1832.

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  Rosenbach, Children's, 778.   Orange paper wrappers; rear one detached and reattached using archival tissue that at points overlays type. First leaf creased at bottom edge, some light foxing, otherwise internally very good; two leaves are still partially uncut.  (38781)

•  VD16 T1606; Benzing, Hagenau, 39, 184. On Heinrich Gran's device, see: Heitz & Barack 2.   20th-century boards covered with vellum-like paper. Light age-toning with very light waterstaining across corners at end and some light foxing to margins elsewhere; very good and in fact for a “student book” remarkably good. A rare and attractive item.  (37834)

This little pamphlet was extracted from a longer (and also more specifically Christian) collection of ghost stories originally published ca. 1806 by Tregortha, an itinerant Methodist preacher who later became a printer and bookseller. The present York printing is extremely scarce, with WorldCat and NSTC both findingonly one reported location (the British Library). Our suggested publication date is based on that listing.

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

•  NSTC N860.   Later red leather–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped title; lightly worn, with a few small scuffs. Pages age-toned with scattered light spots, some upper outer corners bumped. One lower outer corner torn away, not touching text; final leaf with upper two-thirds torn away and repaired with blank paper with significant loss of text, though the verso does show the printer's “finis” vignette as almost entirely preserved. Unusual, intriguing, and priced with an eye more on its faults than on its fascinations. (40705)

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)

This is numbered copy 1063 out of 2000 printed,signed at the colophon by the illustrator. The monthly newsletter is laid in.

Binding:  Publisher's quarter green calf with marbled paper–covered sides and gilt lettering to spine, done by the Tapley-Rutter Company.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 502.   Binding as above. In original green paper–covered slipcase with cream label printed in black; some fading to sides. A bright and appealing copy.  (39031)

This is the first edition, first issue, with the copyright page marked May, 1919, “D-T,” and the endpapers printed in green.

•  BAL 3683; McBride 247.   Publisher's cloth, front cover with affixed color-printed illustration framed in wide gilt border, in original sage-colored dust jacket with affixed color-printed rondel vignette; volume showing (only) minimal shelf wear, jacket with upper edges chipped, one small hole in back wrapper, and extremities reinforced with cellophane tape some time ago. Top edge gilt. Some signatures unopened. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean. Classic Twain, classic Pyle.  (38399)

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)

WorldCat has located one institutional copy in the U.S. (Temple).

•  Original tan cloth with gilt lettering to spine and front board, top edge gilt, with original brown slipcase; very minor rubbing to slipcase corners. In excellent condition!  (39526)

•  Original tobacco-brown morocco with gilt lettering to spine and front board, top edge gilt, with unusually handsome marbled endpapers and deckled edges. Two facing pages with faint marginal stain, perhaps from something that was once laid in. A bright, tight copy in a wonderfully clean and elegant binding.  (39522)

This is copy no. 7.

Provenance:  Presentation copy to Arthur H. Scribner, a president of Charles Scribner's Sons and a Princeton alumnus, signed by Van Dyke, “March 17, 1898, Dies Sancti Patricii.”

•  Quarter “vellum” paper over gray paper–covered boards, dark teal lettering to front board; corners a bit bumped, very faint dirtying of boards. Interior bright, with fore- and bottom edges untrimmed. An unassumingly simple production from a good press, now uncommon and here inscribed by the author.  (38239)

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)

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

•  EDIT16 CNCE 60555; Mortimer, Italian 16th-Century Books, 523 (note); USTC 862550. This edition not in Adams.   Contemporary limp vellum, title inked on spine with red painted shelfmark, title inked on fore- and bottom edges in an early hand; vellum stained and cockled, heavily chipped at spine head and very loosely attached, endpapers torn and soiled with evidence of worming and a few bibliographical notes in ink and pencil. Booklabel as above; light age-toning throughout, with waterstaining to lower and outer portions of the very faint to moderate level that reduces price but not pleasure. This was printed on inexpensive paper, as evidenced by one leaf with a small hole and a few examples of uneven edges; it has also been well read, with a few loosely attached quires, worn edges, occasionally a spot or a tear. A scarce edition that in this copy has had plenty of adventures and is ready for more; the illustrations arewonderful.  (39635)

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)

Binding: Contemporary olive calf, covers framed in blind and gilt rolls with gilt-tooled corner fleurons, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped black leather title-label. Board edges with gilt roll and turn-ins with blind roll; all edges marbled.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of Robert Alfred Herman, a fellow of Trinity College, known for his success in coaching students in the grueling Cambridge Mathematical Tripos; also with small bookseller's ticket of D. McWatters. Later in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  NCBEL, III, 516; NSTC 2C34000 (for first ed.).   Bound as above; back joint starting from foot, boards with unobtrusive mottling, edges and joints showing mild to moderate rubbing. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. A suitably elegant appearance of this early edition.  (39876)

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)

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)

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of Francesco Paolo Ruggiero (1798–1881), an influential lawyer and minister of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, bookplate dated 1850.

•  Brooks 551 & 459; De Lama, II, 96 & 74–75; Giani 59 (p. 51, with a typographical mistake listing the book as number “50") & 30 bis (p. 44). Ero: Brunet, V, 1335–36.   Contemporary half brown calf and attractive tan and brown marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations; extremities rubbed, back outer edge with small dent, one spot of staining to leather on front cover. Bookplate as above. Mild foxing. A very nice little book.  (40166)

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)

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf, title-page verso, and final text page with rubber-stamps of James A. Peden (possibly the Florida-born diplomat who served as Minister Resident to Argentina, 1854–58); title-page with early inked inscriptions of Peden, Peter Spence, and Robert Ross (the latter two lined through in ink by an early hand); upper margin of first advertisement page with Peden inscription; first page of text with Spence inscription in upper margin and Peden rubber-stamps between lines of page header. Most recently in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  ESTC N20652; see Evans 167 (for Brown imprint).   Period-style quarter dark brown calf with blush, tan, dark brown and cream marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. Pages gently cockled and age-toned, with some light foxing; lower outer portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of about 20 words of text and significant loss to one footnote. A few instances of pencilled brackets and annotations, with one inked annotation towards close of volume. A handsome copy of this English-language debut. (39863)