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MUSIC & DANCE
The ESSAYS that Made Lamb's Reputation — 1st U.S. Edition 
Lamb, Charles. Elia. Essays which have appeared under that signature in the London Magazine. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, & Carey (pr. by Mifflin & Parry, and J.R.A. Skerrett), 1828. 12mo (I: 18.4 cm, 7.25", II: 16.8cm, 6.6"). 2 vols. I: 292 pp. II: 230 pp. (both vols. without ads.).
Click the images for enlargements. 
true
first edition of the unofficial second series, of Lamb's pseudonymously
published essays for the London Magazine. These eloquently written pieces
mingle humor and pathos as they describe the experiences of the author and his
acquaintances while attending boarding school, playing whist,
listening
to music, visiting Quaker meetings, etc. Food is a recurring
topic (“A Dissertation upon Roast Pig”); there are two essays on
Valentine's Day (one in each volume), and several on plays and actors.
The first series made its first appearance in book form in London, 1823. The authorized second series was not published until 1833, under the title The Last Essays of Elia; the pieces selected for the unauthorized American second series offered here are different from those contained in that volume, and mistakenly include three essays written by other hands.
• Shoemaker 33813 & 33814; NCBEL, III, 1225; NSTC 2L2346. Vol. I: Uncut copy. Publisher's quarter once-red cloth and paper sides, covers printed with “Elia” within a simple frame, spine with printed paper label; binding rubbed and lightly soiled, spine sunned to yellow. Repaired tear to one leaf, touching text without loss; remarkably clean and sound. Vol. II: Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rubbed, and head of spine chipped with old refurbishing. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call number ticket on front pastedown, front free endpaper with inked numerals, title-page pressure-stamped. Author's name inked on title-page; front free endpaper and title-page reinforced at fore-edge (the latter from the back). Both volumes age-toned, with intermittent spots of staining; advertisements absent. The set now housed in a quarter blue morocco and blue cloth–covered clamshell case with marbled paper–covered sides and gilt-stamped spine. (26434)
With
“Musical Notation in a Nutshell”
Mason, Lowell. The hallelujah: A book for the service of song in the house of the Lord; containing tunes, chants, and anthems, both for the choir and the congregation; to which is prefixed the singing school.... New York: Mason Brothers; Boston: B.B. Mussey & Co. (pr. by John A. Gray, stereotyped by Thomas B. Smith), © 1854. Oblong 8vo. 368 pp.
Click the image for an enlargement. • Publisher's printed paper–covered boards, rebacked with brown library cloth, spine with inked title and shelving label; paper dimmed and rubbed with spots of staining, front cover with early inked “1854" in upper outer corner. Pastedowns and title-page verso institutionally rubber-stamped, first preface page with rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin; free endpapers with early pencilled inscriptions. Pages age-toned with spots of staining, some leaves creased and some corners bumped. One instance of laid-in dried plant matter. (29617)
A “Bargain”
Mason & WebbMason, Lowell, & George James Webb. The psaltery, a new collection of church music, consisting of psalm and hymn tunes, chants, and anthems.... Boston: Wilkins, Carter, & Co., [1848?]. Oblong 8vo. 352 pp. (lacking title-page & pp. 9/10).
Click the image for an enlargement. • Publisher's green printed paper–covered boards, rebacked with brown library cloth, spine with inked title and shelving label; paper rubbed and stained, front cover with early inked “1830" in upper outer portion. Back hinge (inside) reinforced. Pastedowns and preface institutionally rubber-stamped, second text page with rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin. Title-page lacking; pp. 9/10 (practice technique exercises) excised. Scattered pencilled marks of emphasis. Some corners bumped; one leaf with tear from outer margin, extending into music without loss. Battered but musically complete, and the instructional parts as interesting as the musical ones. (29618)
“Shout, Shout, America!” McCarty, William. Songs, odes, and other poems, on national subjects; compiled from various sources ... Part first – patriotic ... Part second – naval ... Part third – military. Philadelphia: Wm. McCarty, 1842. 12mo [signed in 6s] (15.6 cm, 6.1"). 3 vols. I: 468 pp. II: 467, [1 (blank)] pp. III: 468 pp.
Click the images for enlargements. Provenance: Front free endpaper of vol. I with inked inscription: “Presented to the 'German Society Library of the State of Pennsylvania' by the Compiler,” signed “Wm. M'Carty.”; same to vol. III. Vol. II from a second 19th-century Philadelphia subscription library!
• American Imprints 42-3093; Sabin 42997. A married set. Vols. I & III: Publisher's brown cloth, covers framed in blind, spines with gilt-stamped title and two different vignettes; corners and spine extremities chipped (foot of vol. I revealing printed music beneath the cloth). Ex–social club library with remnants of shelving labels on spine heads, 19th-century bookplates and call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages. Vol. II (Naval) sometime rebound in navy leather over blue cloth, leather edges blind-tooled, spine with gilt-stamped leather title label; spine sunned, rubber-stamp of a different 19th-century library on title-page and a number of other pages, small repair to dedication leaf of vol. II. All volumes with occasional short marginal edge tears or corners chipped away; some pages lightly age-toned. All meaty, all sound for use, all evocative; despite “mixed” nature, a very pleasant set. (3283)
First Peformed at Ludlow Castle 1634 — Comus with the Music Milton, John, & Henry Lawes. The masque of Comus. Cambridge: Printed for the members of The Limited Editions Club at the University Press, 1954. 4to (26.6 cm, 10.4"). Frontis., [6], 3–57, [3], [12 (music)], [2] pp.; 5 plts.
Click the images for enlargements. The illustrations consist of six full-page watercolors by Edmund Dulac. The LEC bibliography says they were “printed in process offset,” but this is in error: The mailing notice (not present with this offering) asserts they were “reproduced in six printings by the Sun Engraving Company,” and a member of the family that owned that enterprise observes to us that it did not in fact have offset presses — while it was noted for its color letterpress productions, including the original (1940) Szyk Haggadah. The design is by John Dreyfus, who chose a monotype Bembo font printed by the University of Cambridge Press; the engraving of the music was done by G.T. Friend.
The binding is quarter gold-stamped vellum with marbled paper sides; top edges are gilt.
• Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 250. Binding with a light, small stain on back cover. Clean inside; bookseller's small label on rear pastedown. Original slipcase, with light scuff marks and minor paper loss at head and foot of mouth. A fine book, in a very good slipcase. (23002)
“A
Second Edition of
My
Mutilated Poems”Neal,
John. The battle of Niagara: Second edition — enlarged:
With other poems. Baltimore: N.G. Maxwell (pr. by B. Edes), 1819. 18mo (15.6 cm,
6.2"). Add. engr. t.-p., 272 pp. 
“Goldau:
Or the Maniac Harper,” along with a few shorter works. Neal, who went on to become a prominent voice in 19th-century American literature, describes in the preface here his distress over the first edition, which he calls “crowded and disfigured with innumerable errors — chiefly typographical, however; though in some cases, whole lines were left out . . .” Alas, this edition also required an errata leaf.
• BAL 14856; Shaw & Shoemaker 48824; Wegelin 1066. On Neal, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XIII, 398–99. Period-style quarter tan cloth over light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Dedication page and a few others (not including title) stamped by a now-defunct institution. Waterstaining to upper margins and some inner page parts, with final leaves darkened and a few spotted with foxing. Some upper edges chipped; final leaf with inner margin repaired.
Lovely Christian Gift Book — BEAUTIFUL Hand Coloring Newell, Daniel. The Christian family annual. Vol. 3. New York: Daniel Newell, [1845]. 8vo (22.6 cm, 8.9"). Engr. t.-p., [4], [9]–432 pp.; 11 col. plts., 13 plts.
Click the images for enlargements. songs
(with music), and meditations, edited and published by
the Rev. Daniel Newell. The volume is illustrated with an engraved title-page
and24
steel-engraved plates, including 11 hand-colored images of flowers and birds.
BENEDICTINES Come to the New World
A
FINE Engraved Title-Page & 18 Splendid Plates[Plautius, Caspar]. Nova typis transacta navigatio novi orbis Indiae occidentalis.... [Linz], 1621. Folio (32.6 cm, 12.875"). )(4 (-)(4, blank) A–M4 N4 (-N4, blank); Engr. t.-p., [2] ff., 101, [1] pp.; 18 plts. 
Click the images for enlargements. 
This book bears an ornate, emblematic engraved title-page, with portraits of St. Brendan and Boyl and more, and no fewer than 18 leaf-filling plates by Wolfgang Kilian. These plates, which mixfancy and realism in entirely engaging ways, include a portrait of Columbus, a scene of St. Brendan celebrating mass on the back of a whale, botanical images of the marvelous Peruvian potato, and numerous views of 
the missionaries’interaction with the natives, some friendly, and some not—the unfriendliest being notably violent and gory. Also, on p. 35–36 is given an example of purportednative American music, with both words and notation. This copy is one (probably the first) of two states of this sole edition (with only three leaves in the preliminaries), without the additional foldout plate found in some copies. 
A
very covetable illustrated Americanum of the early 17th century, in an enjoyable copy.
“Put on My Gingham Dress . . . Went with Millie Down to the Depot” (Pocket Diary, 1864). Manuscript on paper, in English. “Pocket diary for 1864.” New York: Willy Wallach, [1864]. 12mo (10.1 cm, 4"). [396] pp.
Click the images for enlargements. 
Chicago,
first in a boarding house and then in a house she went hunting for on the North
Side; she mentions an Aunt Eliza Morgan, her husband was Willie, and her children
seem to have been called John, Arty, and Nellie. The family was sufficiently
well-to-do that the writer could indulge “a sudden fit to go to the opera”
(one of her regular pastimes, regarding whichshe
expresses opinions on specific artists and overall performances)
along with other excursions. While she describes enjoying the opera and family
visits very much, she also regularly mentions having the blues, feeling poorly,
and even crying herself to sleep one night. She kept a detailed record of monthly
expenses, present at the back of the volume, with notable expenditures on kid
gloves.
Not overtly present is any discussion of the particular events of the war, but it is part of this lady's life in this era: On 5 June, “Willie took Johnny with him to the office after dinner to see the soldiers go”; on 23 August, we hear that “Will [is] feeling so bad about Pres — we think he must have been taken prisoner” (he was, this “darling brother” whose release was learned of on 13 September and whose regiment was in Kentucky in October); and on 28 August, “Willie received a letter from Doc, saying he was a prisoner after Charleston. We feel relieved that it is no worse.”
• Publisher's limp textured sheep with foldover flap, flap gilt-stamped “Diary 1864"; much rubbed, front “cover” detached and one “seam” of flap half open. All edges marbled. Most diary pages filled in a reasonably legibly inked hand; calendar with a few dates circled in ink. Offers a very matter-of-fact perspective on late 19th-century social and domestic life. (30667)
The
Interesting Estate
of the Choir
MasterPopayán,
1621Ramírez
Carrillo, Alonso. Manuscript document,
unsigned. On paper, in Spanish. Peñafiel, Spain, 1621. Folio (31 cm; 12.25").
15 ff.
Certified, contemporary copy of the original.
• Sewn. In good condition. Very legible notarial hand.
The
Choir Master
OwnedVineyardsRamírez
Carrillo, Alonso. Document (“escritura
pública de donación”). In Spanish, on paper. Peñafiel,
Spain, 24 April 1615. Folio. [10] pp.
Click the image for an enlargement. A contemporaneous certified copy of the original document.
• Written in a clear notarial hand. Very good condition.
Mid-19th-Century Music for
the Young Russell, Benjamin A., & Charles Walton Sanders. The robin red breast; a new juvenile singing book. New York: Ivison & Phinney; Chicago: S.C. Griggs & Co.; Buffalo: Phinney & Co.; et al., 1855. Oblong 8vo. 199, [1] pp.
Click the image for enlargement. This is the second edition, following the (scarce) first of 1852; the front cover differs from the title-page in giving the publication information as Chicago.
Provenance: Front pastedown with several early pencilled inscriptions, including one reading “To Vestilla from W.B. Lear, July 13th 1857.” A folded section from a smaller hymnal is laid in.
• Publisher's quarter sheep and printed paper–covered boards; binding darkened and rubbed, front joint starting from head, front cover creased. Front free endpaper partially excised and back free endpaper lacking; front pastedown with inscriptions as above, back pastedown with early inked annotations and numerals. First three leaves with central tear affecting several words. Laid-in hymnal pages with upper edges chewed. Moderate foxing and intermittent waterstaining; some corners dog-eared.Interesting for its graphically appealing cover and the array of its “juvenile” repertoire choices. (30255)
“A Voyage to Abyssinia” — Good Lively & Readable AccountSalt, Henry. A voyage to Abyssinia, and travels into the interior of that country, executed under the orders of the British government, in the years
1809 and 1810; in which are included, an account of the Portuguese settlements on the east coast of Africa .... Philadelphia: M. Carey; Boston: Wells & Lilly (pr. by Lydia R. Bailey), 1816. 8vo (23.5 cm, 9.25"). 24, 454 pp.; fold. map.,
illus. 
music,
along with the factual details of his diplomatic achievements — or lack
thereof, in terms of concrete agreements — followed by an appendix comparing
vocabulary words from various languages spoken along “the Coast of Africa,
from Mosambique to the borders of Egypt, with a few others spoken in the Interior
of that Continent” (p. 395).
This is an untrimmed copy in original boards, with 24
pages of advertising for Carey publications bound in at
the front of the volume. The preliminary map, engraved by John Bower, has
hand-colored border lines; this American edition does not call for the plates
found in the English first, but does include in-text depictions of several
“Ethiopic inscriptions.”
• Shaw & Shoemaker 33864; NSTC 2S3118. Publisher’s quarter tan paper over light blue paper–covered sides; front cover detached and back joint cracked, binding spotted, paper cracked and split along spine, spine label now absent and replaced with hand-inked title, spine with later paper shelving label. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1829. Half-title with portion of outer margin torn away (not touching text) and laid in. Map lightly foxed, with two short tears along folds. Pages age-toned, with occasional spots of foxing.
Up to Date!
Taylor, Virgil Corydon. The chime; an extensive collection of new and old tunes, consisting of arrangements from the old masters, and modern European writers; gems from the Continental school, with valuable selections (kindly permitted) fromliving American composers: Also, a variety of new pieces by the author.... New York: Daniel Burgess & Co., 1854. Oblong 8vo. 367, [1] pp.
Click the image for an enlargement. • Publisher's printed paper–covered boards, rebacked with brown library cloth, spine with inked title and shelving label; paper dimmed and rubbed, front cover with early inked “1854" in upper outer corner. Front pastedown with large early inked ownership inscription; front fly-leaf and title-page with faint pencilled inscriptions; first preface page with rubber-stamped numeral in lower margin. Three instances of laid-in dried plant matter. Pages age-toned, with occasional light spotting and intermittent pencilled marks of emphasis and annotations; some corners dog-eared. Moderately battered, but still a nice overview of mid-19th-century music. (29616)
BALLET
Terry, Walter. Ballet guide. Background, listings, credits, and descriptions of more than five hundred of the world's major ballets. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1976. 8vo. Illus.
• Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, in a very good dust jacket; price clipped from front flap of dust jacket.
Music
Overview
(Very Thorough). Sachs, Curt. Our musical heritage: A short history of music. New York: Prentice Hall, 1948. 8vo.
• Publisher's cloth. Good-plus condition.
Boccaccio
on Chestnut Street —
English Libretto
Von Suppe, Franz.
Boccaccio. Opera comique, in three acts...performed for the first time in the
English language by H.B. Mahn's comic opera company, at the Chestnut Street Theatre,
Philadelphia, April 5th, 1880. [Philadelphia]: H.B. Mahn, [1880]. 8vo. 37, [1]
pp. • Good in original printed paper wrappers, faintly waterstained; pages with small edge tears and chips. (2485)
You,
Too!
Can Playthe
Parlor OrganWhitney, W. W. Improved easy method for the parlor organ. Harrisburg, PA: J. H. Troup Piano & Organ House, (1886). Oblong 4to. 99, [1] pp. 
• Publisher's quarter cloth with printed and illustrated sides. Endpapers printed. Covers soiled, worn over edges, corners bumped. Hinges (inside) reinforced, covers a bit wobbly. Complete. Good overall. (6090)
Do-It-Yourself . . .Wohlfahrt, Heinrich. Guide to musical composition. For those who wish, in a short time, and without the aid of a teacher, to acquire the power of inventing melodies, and of providing them with suitable accompaniments... Boston: Oliver Ditson, (copyright 1859). 12mo. 96 pp. 
Single-click the image, for an enlargement. • Publisher's cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title; spine faded and cloth lightly worn. Pages clean. (10646)
Collecting some 40 Years Ago . .
.
Maggs Bros., booksellers, London. Music: A catalogue of manuscripts & printed books. Part two: Late 18th to end of the 19th century. London: Maggs Bros., 1970. 8vo. 180 pp.
• Original printed wrappers. Some damage to spine paper.
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