•  NSTC 2D970.   Publisher's gray-blue paper wrappers; front wrapper with tiny hole, spine creased with one chip, edges and corners rubbed. Pages age-toned, otherwise clean. A solid, clean copy of a scarce item.  (36558)

•  Sabin 19078; Hamilton 692. On Dearborn, see: Stauffer & Fielding, American Engravers, v. 1, 62–3.   Black paper–covered boards imitating leather, gilt ruling/stamping/lettering on spine, covers framed in blind with floral stamps at corners; well-rubbed with paper flaking on spine to expose some gatherings. Provenance marking as above, light age-toning with very occasional light staining, foxing, or corner creases, one plate with chipped edges, all folds strong. A fun read and lots of VERY engaging illustration.  (37071)

The volume is illustrated with43 lithographed plates done by Weber & Co., including a portrait of “A New Mexican Indian Woman,” a fish of the Gila River, a map of “the actions fought at San Pasqual in upper California between the Americans and Mexicans Dec. 6th & 7th 1846,” and a view of cliffside hieroglyphics, as well as a series of 14 botanical images.

•  Cowan & Cowan 195; Graff 1249 (other 1848 issues only); Haferkorn 38; Howes E145; Sabin 22536 (for House ed. only); Wagner-Camp, Plains & Rockies, 148:2; Zamorano 80, 33.   Recent black cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Oversized, folding map lacking. Plates and pages with some light to moderate foxing; one leaf with tear from upper margin, extending into text without loss. Clean, strong.  (27364)

Provenance: “Foglieta Claro[rum] Illustrium” has been written in ink along the bottom edge with “Don Berardi della Ferra” and another name scribbled out on the title-page, as well as a signature dated 1669 below the colophon, in what appear to be three different early hands; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 588/31; EDIT16 CNCE 19333; Sabin 24942. Not in Adams. On Foglietta, see: Treccani (online).   Contemporary limp vellum, title inked on spine and bottom edge, evidence of now-absent ties; spine darkened and crackling just enough to show evidence of binding waste, some spotting on covers, endpapers repaired. Provenance notes and booklabel as above. Light to moderate age-toning and mostly faint marginal waterstaining throughout, with intermittent foxing and a handful of spots. Three leaves including the title-page have been repaired. Exactly what one expects a nice 16th-century book to look like!  (39368)

Here Frémont presents to the U.S. Senate his formal report on his third expedition to the West. The map referred to in the title wasissued separately under title “Map of Oregon and Upper California. . . 1848" and is not present; hence the affordable price here.

The original edition, not a reprint. A government publication: [U.S.] 30th Cong., 2d sess. House. Misc. [doc.] 5.

•  Sabin 25837; Howes F366; Wagner-Camp-Becker, Plains and Rockies, 150:2.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards with leather label on front cover. Occasional light foxing.  (24883)

While suffering from financial difficulties throughout his life, Frewen continually worked with influential people, many of whom are here discussed in detail, including his wife Clara Jerome, aunt of Winston Churchill. One way and another there is plenty of huntin', shootin', and fishin'; and there are plenty of politics.

Provenance:  A tantalizing “Wealdside 1924” in ink on the front pastedown. The Weald is of course of huge extent, and there are therefore potentially a number of possible “Wealdsides”; but it is notable that the Frewen family dates back to Elizabethan times in East Sussex — and, perhaps, that Moreton Frewen died in 1924.

•  Howes F380; Graff 1442.   Light green publisher's cloth, cover ruled and lettered in black, spine and back also stamped in black; gently rubbed and text slightly cocked, with a thumbnail-sized pink stain along the edge of the back cover and speckling the bottom edge. Light age-toning with offsetting to fly-leaves; inscription as noted. A good read in a good solid copy.  (37037)

Gerard's observations cover botany, linguistics, culture, and commerce, as well as geography. The area of his travels is depicted by an oversized, folding map of his own design.

•  NSTC 2G5453; Howgego, II, G7.   Contemporary brown cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; rebacked and 95% of original spine reapplied, with the publisher's name at the foot of the spine chipped. Front pastedown and back of map each with institutional rubber-stamp (no other markings), front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated [18]49. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Last preface page with small inked annotation. Pages slightly age-toned; map with light offsetting and one short tear starting along fold, not touching image.  (24291)

•  Publisher's printed paper wrappers, in original printed dust wrapper; dust wrapper partially split along front outer fold and nicked at corners. Pages age-toned.  (28931)

Added to this edition is Francsco Negri's Latin translation of Giovio's Commentario de le cose de' Turchi  (“De rebuvs et vitis imperatorum Turcarum usque ad Solymanum”; vol. 2, pp. 390–[472]).

Provenance:  17th-century ownership signature of “Ant. de Sedorne” on title-page; two 19th-century stamps on same, one unidentified and the other of the “Seminarium Sancti Nicolai de Cardueto”; and stamp on verso of same, of the Redemptorist Fathers of the Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary (deaccessioned).

•  VD16 G2077; Adams G666.   Early vellum with precursor yapp edges, author/title inked old-style on top page edges as well as on spine; text block recased and new ties attached. Text browned in places, light waterstaining in some lower portions, stamps as noted above, else a good++ copy andan impressively thick fistful of book.  (34405)

16 steel-engraved maps

While the title-page gives the Boston publication line described above, the printed front cover gives Philadelphia: Thomas, Cowperthwait, & Co., 1838; this is a later edition, following the first of 1832.

A first impression is that “child” readers had, in 1832, much greater powers of attention to print than is now common, but indeed the history here is — the stories are — absorbing and evocative.

•  American Imprints 50587.   Publisher's quarter sheep and printed green paper–covered boards, rubbed and worn; pages cockled and foxed, yet paper good and untattered. One page with stray ink marks, not obstructing legibility. A good, solid, pleasing copy.  (33716)

•  Publisher's grey cloth–covered boards, front cover and spine with gilt- and red-stamped decorative title, in original dust jacket and color-printed box; jacket price-clipped with light edge wear and two short tears just starting from foot of spine, box gently faded with edges and extremities rubbed and cream-colored portions showing mild spotting, volume with front board slightly sprung, book itself otherwise clean and unworn. A nice copy, complete with both jacket and box. (40966)

“Your Brother has just called with this album, in which, he tells me, it is your wish that I should write something.

I am so much flattered by your request that I lose no time in complying with it: but I am much at a loss what to say that shall deserve a place in so gay a book — & in such good Company.

But as it becomes every well bred lion to roar for the entertainment of the company when he is bid — whether he be in a growling mood or not — I take up my pen accordingly.

Yet I daresay you will often have the mortification of hearing the visitors to this your 'menagerie' exclaim — 'Well! I am sure I never saw such a stupid wild beast before — I dont [sic] believe he is a real lion after all — I have heard many a donkey make quite as good an exhibition!'”

Hall (1788–1844) was a Scot, a naval officer, and author of several accounts of voyages and travels including Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great Loo-Choo Island in the Japan Sea (1818), Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico in the years 1820, 1821, 1822 (1824), and Travels in North America in 1827–28 (1829). Miss Walsh (b 8 July 1812) was the daughter of Robert Walsh (Philadelphia lawyer and abolitionist) and Anna Maria Moylan Walsh (who died in 1826).

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

•  Very good condition.  (34491)

As Hall writes that he will be easy to find because he is “about as well known here — though I hope in a different spirit — as in Yankee Land,” we date the letter to some time shortly enough after publication of Travels in North America for oblique reference to its angry reception there to be both natural and “fresh”; and, indeed, we wonder if his correspondent is American?

Provenance:  Ex–Allyn K. Ford Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, recently deaccessioned.

•  Very good condition. Old folds, a few spots of pale tea-colored stains. Written in a pale ink that is yet quite legible.  (33346)

Hall's journal was first published in 1824; the present fifth edition was the second volume issued in the "Constable's miscellany of original and selected publications in the various departments of literature, science, & the arts" series. The text has been expanded from the second edition.

•  Sabin 29718; Palau 112072 (first ed.). Contemporary half calf over marbled paper sides, spine ruled in double gilt fillets with gilt-stamped devices in compartments; worn and abraded with leather cracking over spine, and joints cracked but holding, Lacking map. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription. First and last few pages lightly spotted.  (3436)

Vol. I opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the author, done by Henry Cook after Hervé; vol. III is illustrated with an oversized, folding plate of a water-engine intended for millwork, devised by the author, and a plate of another of his inventions: the automated “chamber fire escape”, which enables anyone to lower him- or herself from a high window. This is the third edition, following the first of 1807.

•  NSTC H625; Sabin 30461.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; vol. I with joints and extremities refurbished, vols. II and III with spines and edges rubbed, old strips of library tape reinforcing spine heads. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, vols. II and III with paper shelving labels at top of spines (vol. I showing signs of now-absent label). Vol. I title-page with offsetting from frontispiece; vol. III with pp. 69–72 excised (two leaves of a rather long religious-themed letter from Harriott to his son) and with upper portion of one leaf crumpled, reinforced some time ago. Some light age-toning, intermittent small spots of foxing and ink-staining, pages generally clean. Utterly absorbing.  (30651)

Many of the 52 lithographed plates are in duotone; some were done by Ackerman Lithography and some by P.S. Duval & Co., after views of scenery, buildings, and natives drawn by Lieut. Gibbon.

Two volumes of maps, not present here, were issued separately.

•  Sabin 31524; Palau 113897. Publisher’s textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; vol. I with spine sunned and cloth chipped at spine extremities; vol. II with corners bumped, cloth peeling away from spine and chipped at spine extremities, spine with gilt dimmed and small area of unobtrusive discoloration from now-absent label. Front pastedowns each with pencilled owner’s name and institutional rubber stamp (no other markings); front free endpaper of vol. II starting to tear along inner margin. Mild to moderate foxing and spotting; a few text gatherings unopened. One plate in vol. I with short tear from outer margin, turning into a narrow scrape extending about halfway into the upper portion of the image; one leaf in vol. II with tiny portion (less than one word) affixed to opposing plate. Not a perfect set, but a perfectly fascinating one.