The presenter of the volume was R.T. McLain, chief clerk of the Department of Agriculture; the Hon. J. Gregory Smith, the recipient, was the president of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.

Binding:  A presentation binding of black morocco over boards with slightly bevelled edges. Covers with a gilt triple fillet border and a gilt floral vine inner “border.” Recipient's name in gilt in center of front board. Round spine, raised bands, gilt spine extra; gilt roll on board edges, different gilt roll on turn-ins. Pink endpapers of a textured paper, printed with an overall pattern of small gilt interlocking circles. Green silk place marker. All edges gilt.

A very nice example of a mid-19th-century presentation binding.

•  Binding as above, lightly rubbed at the joints (outside) and board edges. McLain's presentation card pasted to front pastedown, above Smith's bookplate. A very good copy of a book that is, as we say here, “interesting for more than one reason.”  (35244)

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)

This is the first edition of his first published work, a description of Japan, and is based on previously published and unpublished sources that were available to him thanks to his association with the Elzevir firm and friendship with Willem Blaeu. The second part of the work, “Descriptio regni Siam,” is a translation into Latin of J. Schouten's Beschrijvinge van de regeringe, macht, religie, coustuymen, traffijcquen, en andere remercquable saken, des koninghrycks Siam.

Both texts treat of religions, customs, political organization, society, and history. As a coda to the “Descriptio regni Siam,” pp. 225 to the end provide “Brevis informatio de diversis gentium religionibus,” including large sections on the religions of Africa and Asia (including China); a page on those of Mexico, Peru, and Chile; sections on ancient Greece and Rome; and pages on Russia, Armenia, and Islam.

The volume begins with an engraved title-leaf showing a royal audience chamber with many people kowtowing to the emperor, and, in another portion of the page, Asian scholars with a book and map.

Provenance:  19th-century Hungarian stamp on verso of title-page “Teleki Pal Gr Pribekfalva.”

•  Copinger, Elzevier, 4802; Willems 1095; Berghman 1927; Rahir 1109.   Contemporary vellum, soiled. Title-leaf loose but present; lightly reattached. A very little old underlining in ink; a good copy.  (35534)

“The affectionate interest which I have always entertained for the welfare & happiness, of the eldest daughter, & proper representative, of one of the most estimable, and accomplished ladies who ever adorned the society of Philadelphia, induces me to comply with a request of the possessor of this volume, to inscribe some lines upon one of its pages.

It were impossible to contribute wiser counsel, or more excellent lessons, than those already recorded in this Album, by her honoured Father, & several of his, & her Mothers [sic] friends.

I will only commend her to the most faithful observation of that advice, and to the strictest imitation of the pure & bright example, furnished in the character of her departed & lamented Mother, whose unostentation piety, gave especial grace & dignity to her life, and has no doubt yielded for her immortal spirit, a precious & enduring rest, in Heaven.”

Provenance:  The Walsh album sold at Anderson Galleries 28 November 1921 (sale 1609) as lot 60. Later in the Allyn K. Ford Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, recently deaccessioned.

•  Very good condition.  (34490)

First edition. Printed in double-column format in roman and italic, the volume begins with a large engraved coat of arms of the Count Duke Olivares on the title-page signed “I. de Courbes F[ecit]”; also by Courbes, opposite “fol. I,” is a large in-text engraved portrait of the author.

The prefatory matter includesepigrams by Manuel Barbosa, Francisco Bermudez de Pedraza, Ramón de Morales, and Michael Verdejo Carvajal.

Provenance:  Gift inscription to Lic. Jose Maria Herrera from Ezequiel Montes, dated 13 August 1860.

Searches of WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only two copies of vol. I in the U.S. and none of vol. II.

•  Palau 356893. On Vela, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 996, frame 355.   19th-century full mottled calf, gilt spine; title-page with old repair away from text. Some sections age-toned. Occasional small areas of light waterstains. Worming in some margins, in a few instances with old repair; worming in text, but this remarkably between lines or columns and not costing any words. Over all, a very good copy.  (34941)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of Jan-Olof Grady.

•  Brooks 400; Brunet, V, 1309; De Lama, II, 57; DeBacker-Sommervogel, I, 1706; Schweiger, II, 1231.   Modern half brown calf and Stormont marbled paper–covered boards, original 19th-century mottled calf spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped compartment devices laid down; original spine leather edges chipped, binding otherwise clean and unworn. All edges stained red. Some light foxing or other spotting, pages overall crisp and fresh.  (40142)

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)

Provenance: With the armorial bookplate of D. Feliciano Ramirez de Arellano, Marqués de la Fuensanta del Valle, and bookseller's ticket from a Lisboa dealer.

•  Palau 361040. Contemporary treed calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title label, covers showing only light wear; joints and board edges rubbed, leather lost over spine head and cracking over foot, spine also with small traces of paper label. Hinges slightly tender. (4260)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with affixed slip reading “Louis Duval Archiviste du département de l'Orne.” Duval (1840–1917) was a prominent librarian and archivist, and co-founder of the still-active Société historique et archéologique de l'Orne.

•  Not in Brunet, not in Graesse.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rubbed and scuffed overall (but gilt sill pleasing), with spine extremities chipped. All edges stained red. Ex-library (properly deaccessioned): Front pastedown with institutional label, gutter of first text page with pencilled gift annotation, back free endpaper with affixed bar code (lined through); front free endpaper with slip as above. One leaf with minor paper flaw to outer margin; a handful of scattered small spots of foxing, pages otherwise nearly pristine.  (38444)

This is a copy of the first edition. The cataloguers at the John Carter Brown Library note: “Two concurrent editions of this work exist: in the first the title page reads “S. Antonio de Padua”; in the other it reads “San Antonio de Padua.” Significant typographical, diacritical, and resetting differences, as well as a lack of printed errata on leaf [3] verso, 1st count, exist in the second edition.

(In 1995 Bill Reese & PRB&M partnered in acquiring a number of important colonial-era Mexican books and manuscrpts. Among them was a copy of this 1673 Vetancurt Nahuatl grammar, and PRB&M wrote the explanation of the work's importance that is used above. Because it is the joint property of the William Reese Company & PRB&M, you may see it used in either firm's catalogues and on-line listings, neither of us pilfering from the other.)

Provenance: Very earlymanuscript ownership inscription of Manuel Bardon in Nahuatl on title-page; slightly later ownership signture of Fray Alonso de Escamilla on the recto of the first leaf of the approval (i.e., aprobacion); later marcas de fuego of the Convento de San Francisco de Mexico on top and bottom edges.

•  Viñaza 204 (failing to note error in foliation, as do all bibliographies except Graff); Medina, Mexico, 1103; Newberry Library, Indian Linguistics in the Edward E. Ayer Collection, Nahuatl 237; García Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 80; H. de León-Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2816; Sabin 99385; Pilling 4002. Graff 4475 (this copy; giving correct collation); Ugarte, Obras escritas en lenguas indigenas de Mexico, 422. On the marcas de fuego, see: Sala, Marcas de fuego, p. 7; and Catálogo Colectivo de Marcas de Fuego (BF 12053). On Vetancurt, see: Archivo biográfico de España, Portugal, e Iberoamérica, fiche 118, frames 17–36 and 73–74.   Contemporary limp vellum with remnants of leather ties, minor wear; black- and red-printed waste-paper endpapers from a roman breviary; minor dampstaining. Wear and some staining to the last four leaves. Overall a very good copy.  (39462)

We locate only five libraries (three in Pittsbugh) reporting ownership of the work.

Provenance: Inscribed to Mrs. John R. McCune by the writer of the volume's biographical sketch of the author, “Frank H. Wade, M.D.,” and his wife.

•  Publisher's white cloth elaborately stamped in gold, all edges gilt; binding and text both remarkably clean and fresh.  (29567)

Provenance:  Lower margin of final advertisement leaf with two 17th-century inked ownership inscriptions: “Robt. Fotherby[?] Lincoln,” and “Thomas Coninghams Book.”

•  Wing (rev. ed.) W417; ESTC R39415.   Recent plain grey paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page perforation-stamped, also chipped and torn, now neatly mounted; first dedication page with rubber-stamped and inked numerals in lower portion; no other such markings. Pages age-toned; first two leaves with lower inner margins stained, five leaves with upper outer portions crumpled, last two leaves with edges chipped and darkened, a few leaves towards back with sewing loosening. Final page with inked inscriptions as above.  (31058)

Searches of WorldCat locate only four North American libraries (URochester, IndianaU, Princeton, and Toronto Public) reporting ownership.

Evidence of use: Inside front cover enhanced with one rather good pencil sketch of a horse in traces, with blinders, and another smaller one, rather childish, of a galloping(?) horse witha whip-flourishing side-saddle rider aboard. Above the latter is pencilled, “Mary, Clara, Shirley.”

Provenance:  Inscription “Mary Clara Elizabeth” with surname uncertain; later in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Moon, John Harris's Books for Youth, 963(1).   Binding as above, cloth faded and with some stains; part of paper label chipped off and missing. Pages with some childish pencilling apart from the sketches described above, and with stray light brown stains. A few leaves just starting to loosen. A good+ copy. Sketches and plates, grand.  (38915)

Updike's Merrymount Press consistently produced quality pieces with simple but poignant design — this being one of them. W.A. Dwiggins, prominent type and book designer, created the cover pattern and interior decorations.

Binding:  Gray, blue, and green pictorial paper–covered boards featuring repeating images of (underwater?) foliage and an angler with a bite, black cloth spine with gilt lettering. Top edges stained green. Issued with glassine wrapper and slipcase.

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

•  Agner, Books of WAD, 28.13.   Bound as above; glassine wrapper with edges chipped and lower outer front corner lost, slipcase unmarred. Volume uncut and unopened, clean and nice.  (37894)

Provenance: The publisher-issued bookplate and box label proclaim that this copy belonged to L. Haskell Sweet, a New York businessman.

•  Coigney 308.   Publisher's quarter vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; original glassine dust wrapper and original charcoal-colored paper-covered box with personalized label present, wrapper with chips, short tears, and some creasing, and box split at seams with two side elements fully detached (one lost). Vellum of the volume's spine faintly darkened and spotted, book otherwise clean and fresh with top edges gilt; sweet identification as above. A good catch.  (28332)

Provenance:  Covers gilt-stamped with the device of Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere.

Binding:  Contemporary calf framed in gilt triple fillets and blind roll, rebacked preserving original spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; covers gilt-stamped with supra-libros as above. All edges marbled.

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only six U.S. locations.

•  Bound as above; spine leather with small chips and cracks, sides with small unobtrusive areas of rubbing and light discoloration. Binding overall solid and still attractive; interior clean and nice.  (25320)

This romance is illustrated with 12 black and white plates (including the frontispiece) by productive English illustrator Christine “Chris” Hammond. Stanley J. Weyman's stories were immensely popular during his day (1855–1928), but they are now often forgotten among other Victorian works. This is a first American edition, published one year after the London first.

Binding:  Publisher's navy cloth with gilt lettering to spine. On front board, gilt lettering and a moonlit water scene stamped in light blue, black, and white. Top edge gilt.

Provenance:  On the front free endpaper, the name-stamp of Sarah E. Lembeck, with her initials also written in pencil and stamped in ink.

•  Binding as above; light rubbing to extremities and small scrape to front board. Provenance as above, some ink transfer to front pastedown. A nice copy in an interesting, moody, Arts & Crafts–style binding.  (37561)

•  Publisher's red textured cloth with title and ALL authors' names gilt-lettered on spine; covers double-ruled in blind, gilt circlet surrounding title on front cover, yellow endpapers with printed publisher's advertisements; binding gently rubbed and lightly soiled, spine pulled at top with loss of cloth and text moderately cocked. Marked as above, interior clean.  (36185)

While Ford used the Stokes name on this Antwerp printing (and again later in the same year on a Parisian printing to which he resorted after Whistler's representatives successfully halted the Belgian production and confiscated most of the existing copies), Stokes denied having been involved in any way.

Provenance:  Inked inscription of noted educator and book collector Jahu Dewitt Miller on final blank page.

•  For the story of Ford's pirated edition, see: E.R. & J. Pennell's Life of Whistler, 1908, V. II chap. 34, pp. 100–13.   Publisher's heavy gray paper wrappers, front wrapper with title stamped in red; spine creased and sunned, corners rubbed, rear wrapper very unobtrusively reinforced. Now housed in a violet cloth–covered chemise and a quarter deep purple morocco and violet cloth–covered slip case, with outer box edge and case spine and front cover sunned, case showing light shelfwear overall. Front two fly-leaves with short tear from upper margin; a very few instances of light spotting, generally not occurring within text. With laid-in auction catalogue information regarding publication and textual details; final blank page with inked inscription as above. Now very uncommon.  (36545)

The imprint is false, the ESTC noting, “from the typography, printed in England”; printed clandestinely.

Provenance:  Bookplate of the Virtue and Cahill Library, Portsmouth, England.

•  Wing (rev.) W1809; ESTC R30193; McAlpin, III, 101; Clancy, English Catholic Books 1641-1700, 1064 on White, see: Dictionary of National Biography, LXI, 79–81.   19th-century plain brown calf with round spine and without raised bands, simple double-fillet frame on each cover; joints (outside) starting and paper open across hinges (inside) yet volume solid. Leather title-label on spine with a strip scraped away, possibly intentionally. Large, rather interesting library bookplate spanning front endpapers.  (37089)

The journal's editor, Wieland (1733–1813), was a complex figure of the German Enlightenment: a poet, novelist, political theorist, and pedagogue. His critical review/journal was of considerable influence.

Provenance:  Duplicates (with no markings) of the Harold Jantz Collection (i.e., ex–Duke University).

•  Volume 2 for 1774: Modern marbled boards; considerable foxing and some waterstaining. Volume 3 for 1774: Contemporary wrappers of brown paper sprinkled with black; uncut; considerable foxing and some waterstain lines. Volumes for 1775: the two are bound in one volume of brown leather, spine darkened to black and flaking; plain endpapers. Binding shows wear, but text clean. Volumes for 1776: Contemporary calf, gilt spines; covers with some stains and abraded at edges, some distressing of the spines. Interesting “wallpaper” endpapers in blue-green and white of a floral and wave pattern. Good++ condition. Very definitely a mixed, partial set and definitely an interesting array of presentations.  (35274)

Provenance:  19th-century stamp of the Medic. Chirug. Bibliothek Altenburg (on front wrapper and title-page, but NOT on plates). Most recently in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Original blue-green wrappers. Waterstaining to wrappers at spine and onto covers and at rear on portions of the folding plates. Else very nice.  (39793)

Evans notes that this is “the first folio volume, other than Laws, andthe largest work up to this time printed in the United States.” This was a subscription printing, and includes Benjamin Franklin's father and brother, among other dignitaries, in its list of names; the sheets came from several different presses, and thus “it has fallen out . . . that the Pages for a considerable way, are numbered over again” (p. 666). The title-page is printed in red and black. The binding featuresa very unusual 18th-century repair job: to reinforce the joints, an early hand stitched along either side of the front joint and part way down the back.

Provenance:  Title-page with inked ownership inscription of T. White, dated 1726, and with inked presentation inscription to Susanna White, dated 1782. Front pastedown with inked inscription of Timothy Badger, 1782; also with 19th-century institutional bookplate and presentation inscription.

•  Evans 2828; ESTC W30456; Sabin 104075; Streeter Sale 675.   Contemporary mottled sheep framed and panelled in blind fillets with corner fleurons, a blind roll around the central panel; small scuffs, extremities rubbed, joints cracked and fragile, with early sewn repairs as above. Front free endpaper partially separated. Inscriptions as above; preface with additional early inked inscription in upper margin and inked numeral in lower margin, a very slim “mag strip” in one gutter margin and no other institutional markings. Pages age-toned and offset with varying degrees of spotting and staining; some corners dog-eared. Three leaves each with short tear from upper margin, just touching text without loss; a few leaves crumpled without tearing. First portion of volume with intermittent early inked marginalia, one note partially shaved. A milestone of early American printing and an interesting copy.  (31011)

Provenance:  19th-century ownership signature of Ashton Case on front pastedown; opposite on the front free endpaper, “Mama's present to dear Emily, Nov. 27th 1823.” Most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Moon, John Harris's Books for Youth, 988; Osborne Collection p. 216; Opie A1247.   Publisher's quarter red roan with stone pattern marbled paper sides and gilt-stamped spine title; moderately rubbed overall, spine sunned. Inscriptions and booklabel as above. A nice copy.  (38926)

Provenance:  A bookplate engraved by Bird for the Institute of 1770, a social club at Harvard University, covers a previous bookplate on the front pastedown of each volume, along with a red and white shelving label that covers a small blue label.

•  Shoemaker 17119; Smith, American Travellers Abroad, W112.   Brown publisher's cloth, neatly rebacked and with gilt-stamped brown leather spine labels; rubbed and stained. Moderate to heavy foxing and staining; a few leaves creased across corners or with very short marginal tears, two leaves with chipped edges from paper manufacture. Provenance and readership indicia as above. Fun reading and snatches of fun commentary; clearly, fun was had by at least one previous reader!  (38688)

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 30564; NSTC W2651.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spines divided into compartments by double gilt rules, with red leather title labels and small round black volume labels; binding rubbed and bumped with small loss of leather, glue action to pastedowns and first/last few leaves, large bite from one rear free endpaper. Moderate age-toning throughout, with only the rare short tear, chip, or stain. Early provenance evidence as above, with more recent readers adding a pencilled note and a few scribbles on two endpapers, and tucking in both a newspaper recipe for green cloth dye and a small advertisement for “A Good Cold Cream.” In fact quite a satisfactory set.  (11313)

Provenance:  Early 20th-century bookplate of James Rolt; most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  ESTC T3347; Roscoe, John Newberry and His Successors, J391 (1); Hugo, Bewick Collector, 72 & 4072; Osborne Collection, p. 88.   Late 19th- or early 20th-century half tan calf with marbled paper sides; binding lightly rubbed. Bookplate and label as above; front fly-leaf with “No. 72 Hugo's Collector” inked in an early hand, accompanied by pencilled annotation re. Bewick. Small inkstain on title-page and one other, light soiling to text and foxing; leaf of advertisements soiled. Overall a good++ copy and well worthwhile.  (38917)

WorldCat, Copac, STCN, and NUC Pre-1956 do not find any locations of this Jansson-Waesberg edition; Palau does not list it.

Provenance:  Front free endpapers each with early inked inscription mostly inked over, title-page verso with inked inscription “de los libros . . . D. Emanuel Lopez Forrecilla y dela Fuente.”

•  Not in STCN. See Palau 377674–377683 for other eds.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards, spines with early hand-inked title; minor staining and back outer (yapp) edge of vol. I chipped, ties on both volumes still partially present. Pages age-toned with intermittent spotting; vol. I with light waterstaining to margins of some leaves and a few early inked corrections and marks of emphasis. Vol. II: Text block pulling away from spine, first few leaves separating, some leaves with worming in inner margins touching text without obscuring sense, one leaf with tear from outer margin extending into text without loss. All edges stained red, and both volumes with inscriptions as above.  (29082)