Hays notes in her preface that “Women, unsophisticated by the pedantry of the schools, read not for dry information, to load their memories with uninteresting facts, or to make a display of a vain erudition . . . they require pleasure to be mingled with instruction, lively images, the graces of sentiment, and the polish of language” (vol. I, p. iii). These last things, she strives to supply herself!

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 12742; Sabin 31061.   Period-style quarter tan cloth over blue-grey paper-covered sides, spines with printed paper labels. Title-page of each volume with the blind pressure- (not perforation-) stamp of a social club library. As in all copies we have had, pages age-toned, with a few foxed or spotted; occasional short edge tears, not extending into text. Three leaves in vol. II with tears in margin with loss of paper only and four other leaves in the same volume with loss of paper and either a few letters (pp. 10710) or words (approximately half the words on each of five lines on pp. 15152 and a word or threeon each of five lines on 22930).A good resource and a good “read.”  (28716)

No one here was sent to what came to be the “far” West — it wasn't yet time for that — but concerned as these young women surely were about unsaved frontier folk and “papal ascendancy,” they clearly felt themselves to be off on real adventures in places that were not, well, New England . . .

Apparently the last annual report was in 1852.

•  Sabin 38542.   Disbound. Clean.  (38336)

•  Publisher's cream paper–covered boards, spines with stamped titles and heraldic rampant lion decorations; spines darkened (uniformly so), some spines chipped or scuffed. Preface and last text page of each volume with pencilled ownership inscription of J.C.B., dated 1923, except vol XV, marked as read in 1959 by J.D. Bowman. Vol. VI with newspaper clippings affixed to free endpapers, offset onto pastedowns. Vol. VIII with frontispiece separated and laid in, first few lower outer corners bumped, small pencilled marks of emphasis. Vol. IX with small scuff to front cover, small pencilled marks of emphasis, newspaper clipping affixed to back pastedown. Vol. XI with lower portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of portions of eight lines. Vol. XIII with front joint cracked and spine paper partially detached, reinforced some time ago with cellophane tape. Vols. XIV and XIX with back endpapers bearing inked and pencilled annotations. An enjoyably readable tour of famous lives in a “period” edition.  (33428)

The work was almost certainly produced for export to the emerging market in Mexico and the circum-Caribbean. It is only the fourth edition of the letters to be printed in the U.S., the other three being in English.

Searches of NUC and WorldCat locate only five U.S. libraries reporting ownership (Yale, AAS, Princeton, Penn State, and University of Texas). An American Catholicum, it isnot reported as held by any U.S. Catholic library.

•  Shoemaker 23405. Not in Parsons.   20th- or 21st-century quarter brown calf over rust-brown stone marbled paper; marbled paper also used for endpapers which, under their marbling, show reuse of a commercial blank customs form with wording still visible! Evidence of onetime label adhesion at small area of leather on rear board with slight discoloration. Occasional foxing or areas of brown stains, else very good. A sturdy, attractive, interesting little book.  (38373)

The frontispiece (retaining its tissue guard) is an engraving by Thomas Phillibrown showing a young male writer in a sea-side cave with a quill pen, leaning on his writing pad and looking for inspiration.

Binding:  Signed binding (embossed stamp on front fly-leaf) by B. Bradley of Boston. Green cloth, spine stamped in gold with vines, grapes, and title; stamped in blind on covers featuring birds and vines. Yellow calendared endpapers. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Mid- to late-19th-century pencil signature of L.A. Nichols.

•  American Imprints 41-128.   Binding as above. Minor discoloration in a few inner and foremargins; offsetting from frontispiece to title-page despite tissue (or because of it). Very good.  (36017)

Provenance: Title-page with early inked name “Timothy Tynell” in upper margin and ink smear to inner margin; early inked gift inscription (“J. Sadler given to him by W. Clanton”) between verses on p. 3.

•  ESTC T86344.   19th-century half calf over marbled paper, much worn and abraded with covers detached, last few leaves starting to separate, and leather partially lost over spine; an ex-library, reading copy worthy of rebinding — covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct institution, title-page and several others rubber-stamped, back free endpaper with pocket. Lacking extensive (25 pp.) subscribers' list (only). Pages with light to moderate spotting and a few short edge tears, not touching text.  (17696)

The wood-engraved frontispiece is signed “Whitney” (i.e., Elias James Whitney). Authorship is revealed by the ever efficient cataloguers of the American Antiquarian Society who discovered in Eleventh Annual Report of the American Tract Society (1836), p. 18, that “The narrative of Mary Lothrop [was] written by the lady of Rev. Rufus Anderson, of Boston,” i.e., Eliza Hill Anderson.

Provenance:  “Maria Preston” on front pastedown and “Maria Preston, Dummerston Vermont” on back endpaper.

•  American Imprints 13713.   Quarter bound in brown leather over marbled paper–covered boards, gilt lettering and ruling on spine; spine with loss of leather at ends, covers and corners well-rubbed, front joint (outside) cracked and front cover loosening with back one firmly attached. Age-toning; soiling and spotting, and creasing; marked as above, with some pencilling on endpapers. A good representative example of 19th-century Christian children's literature, well used in precisely the ways that children's books often are.  (36015)

Binding:  Original black goat elaborately stamped in gilt on covers and spine. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Miniature bookplate of Grace Broecker, a major collector of miniature books: a portion of her collection is now at the Huntington Library.

•  Welsh, Bibliography of miniature books, 4279.   Binding as above. Upper outer corner of front cover abraded exposing minute hint of the board. Very good.  (35633)

Provenance:  Bookplate of the Clements Library, properly deaccessioned.

An interesting production of the “Orphans' Press” of Lima.

•  Medina, Lima, 1764; Vargas Ugarte, Impresos peruanos, 2645.   Early decorative wrappers bound into 20th-century gray cloth binding; old, somewhat inexplicable stamp (in English) to front wrapper. A very good copy, complete with the errata leaf.  (35488)

Binding:  Publisher's dark brown vertical leather-grained cloth (Krupp Lea8); covers with blind-stamped ruled frame and symmetrical foliate “drawer handles” top and bottom. Spine with title and foliate decorations gilt-stamped. Yellow endpapers.

•  Wright, I, 112. On the book cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823–50, Lea8.   Binding cocked, corners and spine extremities rubbed. A few corners dog-eared; intermittent light to moderate foxing, pages otherwise clean. In fact a nice copy, in the original cloth.  (38152)

•  Publisher's brown cloth, spines with brown paper label; several labels with ssmall brown spots, cracks, and edge chips, not too conspicuous and not affecting printing. Two leaves (pp. 343–346 of vol. X) detached from binding; long tear down center of pp. 283/284 (vol. IV), without loss of text; except for two leaves with some offsetting from laid-in scrap of paper, interiors clean. Outer and lower edges deckle, with a few signatures opened unevenly and some unopened. A very good set.  (24537)

This is numbered copy 1063 of 1600 printed and signed at the colophon by the artist.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 503.   Publisher's rust-colored buckram in tan paper–covered slipcase with gilt lettering on both spines; slipcase with lightest wear to corners and one small light stain on back, volume very crisp and clean.  (36865)

heredity, marriage, and torture

The text is in Latin, decorated with woodcut initials, factotum initials, and intricate head- and tailpieces. The title-page, printed in red and black, features a large device of a fleur-de-lis in an elaborate cartouche.

Rare, WorldCat & NUC Pre-1956 locatingjust two copies in the U.S.

•  Palau 20846.   Modern boards covered with 18th-century religious manuscript on vellum, with red speckled edges and ink title to spine; tight, with paper cockled and boards a bit sprung. Title-leaf with small marginal tear and three repairs; the next 88 pages repaired/reinforced in upper outer margin; minor worming variously, mostly marginal and often unnoticeable; small hole from natural paper flaw on one leaf. Foxing generally, other spotting occasionally. A used, occasionally abused, still strong copy of a scarce work.  (30297)

WorldCat locates only five copies in the U.S.

•  Medina, Mexico, 7555.   Removed from a nonce volume, some age-toning and foxing with final leaf wanting to separate from the rest; some leaves torn or insect gnawed at edges, with light waterstaining in some foremargins. Good condition.  (36913)

•  Publisher's blind-stamped textured cloth, spine gilt-stamped; binding lightly worn, with spine gilt rubbed and dimmed. Front pastedown with bookplate of J.E. Vanderhoef, front free endpaper with early inked inscription of Susan A. Baker. Some foxing to endpapers and a few scattered spots to pages; internally mostly clean.  (8958)

•  Publisher's yellow bookcloth wrappers, front wrapper with affixed photographic label. Very clean and crisp.  (30630)

•  Publisher's paper wrappers, front wrapper color-printed, back wrapper concluding text. Spine, edges, and one corner of cover rubbed; front wrapper and pages with tear from outer margin without loss. Still charming.  (36525)

•  Publisher's paper wrappers, very slightly darkened, spine and one corner of cover rubbed. One vertical crease and a few others throughout; pages faintly age-toned. A nice demonstration of Eulalie's appeal.  (36533)

Dolores Campuzano

•  Sutro 893. Removed from a nonce volume.  (3886)

All documents are certified copies by notaries, and written in a standard public notarial hand liberally and interestingly usingblack, blue, red, and gold ink with calligraphic touches. The originals dated from 1652 to 1788.

The painted and illuminated Coats of Arms: The volume begins with a full-page accomplishment onvellum, in full color, of the Berdugo Avila coat of arms. The coats of arms of ancestors that are incorporated therein are found in the text in appropriate places:Berdugo (fol. 8v), Avila (fol. 13r), Haro (16v), and Torre (21v). These are accomplished inreds, gold, silver, blue, black, and white, and each is followed by a full heraldic explanation of its symbolism and origins. All of these coats of arms are worthy examples of Mexican Colonial illuminated art on paper and vellum.

Binding:  Acid-stained Mexican calf (ca. 1790) with single gilt rope roll on periphery of boards; gilt spine extra, no raised bands. Bright blue-striped floral/foliate “wallpaper” pastedowns, all edges red.

Provenance:  The Berdugo Avila Haro family; in the 20th century in the library of Dirk Stenger of Dusseldorf and then later in the stock of the the Antique Book Shop in Buenos Aires.

New World cartas de hidalguia are much rarer than those done in Spain, and are as yet a little-studied area of Colonial art.

•  Binding as above; free endpapers lacking and poor quality paper ones substituted for the “wallpaper,” with some old “repair” to pastedown “wallpaper” at gutters. Bookstore label on font pastedown; Stenger's neat round ownership stamp on front free endpaper and verso of the vellum coat of arms. This is a meaty example of an iconic kind of Spanish-world document offering social history, legal history, and painted and illuminated art, with the text presented in an attractive and readable hand and the whole in a good, attractive original binding.  (37599)

The printer Elizabeth Allde was the widow of printer Edward Allde, who was active from 1584 to his death in 1628; he was successor to his printer father John Allde (variously Allde, Aldaye, Alde or Aldye), fl. 1555–92, a Scottish stationer and printer. Elizabeth was active from 1628 to 1633, at which latter date she passed the business to Richard Oulton (or Olton), her son-in-law. He continued the firm for another ten years only.

Provenance:  On the front free endpaper: “From the Hon. Rev. Lowther Barrington, Buckinghamshire, Eng., 1835.”

•  STC (rev. ed.) 1920; ESTC S112939.   Recent full brown calf, late 17th-century style; raised bands accented with gilt rules above and below each band, modest blind fillet on boards, red spine label. Text cockled, waterstained, and with some browning; one leaf with small hole in text with loss to words in two lines on each side. Far from a perfect copy but complete, sound, solid, anddifficult to find.  (34388)

The volume is printed with the original language and spelling preserved, and is illustrated with a woodcut frontispiece of a fisherman taken from de Worde's 1518 edition that is cited as the earliest known depiction of an angler fishing with a rod, as well as with six woodcuts (provided at the back of the volume in the form of four plates) showing types of poles, hooks, etc. As the title-page proclaims, the work was printed with the types of John Baskerville, making it one of the last such printings done in England. A later hand has helpfully added pencilled marginalia clarifying archaic or obscure terms and suggesting subject headers.

•  NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42.   Later half calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-decorated raised bands, and gilt-stamped fishing creel devices in compartments; spine label with small edge chips and mild rubbing to paper. Pencilled annotations as above, pages and plates otherwise pleasingly clean.  (28566)

This copy uncut and in original boards: RARE THUS.

•  NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42. Beyond the scope of Gaskell, Baskerville.   Publisher's dun-colored light boards. Uncut copy. Light overall rubbing; spine with minor loss of paper. Old bookseller's description affixed to front free endpaper; small oval stain to corner of half-title and frontispiece, a bit of light offsetting from plates. A very nice copy in a later open-back cardboard slipcase.  (30461)

Provenance:  Tipped-in leaf with inked inscription: “Hannah M. Williams / Presented by directive from her grandmother Williams when on her death bed with this injunction to be read with careful attention”; in pencil below is “A precious legacy.” Williams (or a contemporary) apparently took the directive seriously; there are several instances of pencilled bracketing, marks of emphasis, and marginalia in the “precious legacy” hand.

Binding:  Contemporary diced-grain red sheep, covers framed in gilt roll surrounding gilt-stamped acanthus and acorn design, spine with gilt-stamped title (“Polyglott Testament”) and decorative motifs, board edges with gilt roll. All edges gilt.

•  See Hills, English Bible in America, 768 for 1831 ed.; 1841 not listed.   Bound as above, rubbed at joints and extremities with front hinge (inside) cracked yet sound. Front pastedown and free endpaper with pencilled inscriptions dated 1853; inscription leaf as above; one front fly-leaf with pencilled annotations (and with hole in lower center). Additional annotations as above; one plate with “My Saviour” pencilled in lower margin. Intermittent mild foxing and a bit of other staining; a few corners bumped. Worn, yes — still luminous in its own way, and an interesting example of two early 19th-century women's engagement with the Bible.  (35204)

Smith endeavored to provide an extremely literal, word-for-word rendition to enhance her and her sisters' understanding of the text. Regarding the rather tangled results, she notes in her preface that “readers of this book may think it strange that I have made such use of the tenses . . . It seems to me that the original Hebrew had no regard to time, and that the Bible speaks for all ages.”

Priding herself as a student of ancient languages particularly on her Hebrew, this translator closely followed the Masoretic text for the O.T. and consistently used “Jehovah” for the Tetragrammaton.

•  Herbert 2002; Hills 1918; Rumball-Petre 201; Wright, Early Bibles of America, 234–35. On Smith, see: McHenry, Famous American Women, 383 (under entry for Smith, Abby Hadassah), and Sampson, With Her Own Eyes: The Story of Julia Smith, Her Life, and Her Bible.  Publisher's pebbled brown cloth, title and translator's name simply gilt-stamped within blind-stamped panel; recently rebacked and original spine reapplied (spine slightly rumpled), one corner restored, other corners mildly rubbed. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Front pastedown with affixed newspaper clipping on the Smith sisters. One page with short tear from lower edge, not extending into text; pages clean. A nice copy of a very desirable Bible.  (27574)

Binding:  This copy is exquisitely bound in full black leather in good imitation of morocco, elaborately stamped in gold on the covers forming a five-element frame or border, with gilt tooling on the board edges and with gilt inner dentelles. The spine has slightly raised bands and elaborate gold stamping in its compartments. This is the second copy of this Bible that we have had and we are convinced that this is a publisher's deluxe leather binding.  A choice of colors was apparently available, for the other copy we had was of an olive-green color.

Provenance:  The name “Sarah B. Leverett” is lettered in gilt on the front cover, and the same name is given in precise gothic calligraphy on the front free endpaper.

•  Not in O'Callaghan; not in Darlow & Moule.   Bound as above, corners a little bumped with a bit of long ago refurbishing thereto, dulling outermost elements of gilt border (only) on front cover, just at those corners. Evidence to endpapers of the volume's once having been sewn into a chemise or wrapper; old notes just discernible (not really readable) in a minute hand on front free endpaper (i.e., “behind” Sarah's name); see our image. Faint waterstaining in lower inside area for the first few pages (only). The whole very attractive and well preserved.  (2666)

Binding:  Contemporary black morocco, covers framed in gilt roll and single gilt fillet with red- and gilt-stamped IHS central medallions surrounded by gilt-stamped flames, with gilt-stamped corner fleurons; spine with gilt-tooled bands and compartment decorations. All edges gilt.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with gilt-stamped red leather ex-libris label of Ann Hall, dated 1798.

•  ESTC T95085; Darlow & Moule 953.   Binding as above; extremities rubbed, sides with small scuffs and scratches, medallions rubbed and gilt dimmed in spots, spine leather cracked. Corners of front pastedown and free endpaper chewed; front free endpaper with early inked doodles; pages trimmed closely enough to occasionally touch a signature marking. and some corners bumped. One leaf with tear from outer margin, extending into text without loss; two pages with small ink blots in lower and outer margins, not affecting text; four leaves with lower outer corners crumpled. Worn, yet still a very pleasing example of its type.  (35351)

•  ESTC T117728.   Contemporary calf, spine with raised bands and recent gilt-stamped leather title-label; corners and spine extremities unobtrusively refurbished. Front pastedown with bookplate as above and with early inked numeral; title-page with inscription as above. Some signatures slightly age-toned; one page with line of discoloration in upper margin. Printing license, title-page, and a few others creased; a few corners dog-eared A clean, solid copy of an important reference work for Irish statutes and legal practices.  (34380)

•  NCBEL, III, 865.   Original green cloth, spines with printed paper labels, lacking the dust wrappers (which are scarce and almost never seen); labels darkened, a few starting to peel up at corners. Pages untrimmed, with some signatures unopened. A beautiful, clean example of this set.  (24629)

•  ESTC T65811. Recent wrappers. Pages age-toned, with a few small spots.  (9302)

•  Bitting, p. 64; Brown, Culinary Americana, 2435.   Publisher's printed paper–covered boards with brown cloth shelfback; sides darkened and rubbed but still charming; hinges (inside) reinforced some time ago with cloth tape. A good many finger-marks and a handful of instances of minor spotting, one corner dog-eared, and pages otherwise clean and free of signs of kitchen (ab)use.  (38631)

•  ESTC T116967. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Frontispiece lacking; title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Inner margins of the first two leaves and outer margin of the final leaf repaired.  (10692)

The Introduction was published byElizabeth Watts, later Lynch, the widow and successor of bookseller Richard Watts; the volume opens and closes with advertisements for other legal works either at the press or just published by Watts. This edition is uncommon: ESTC and WorldCat locate only eight U.S. institutional holdings.

•  ESTC T116235; Sweet & Maxwell (2nd ed.), I, 335:1.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered boards, spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped title. Pages faintly age-toned, with occasional mild to moderate spotting. One leaf with paper flaw affecting a few letters, without loss of sense. A solid, comfortable copy of a significant legal work.  (34385)

Binding: Publisher's red pictorial cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black, brown, and gilt.

•  Good++: Some soiling to binding; light to moderate foxing internally.  (8539)

Binding:  Publisher's green decorative cloth printed on front cover with a guitar and lady's fan in gilt and with a flowering vine design in dark green and gold; spine lettered in gold.

•  BAL 2073, state 2; Wright, III, 814.   Bound as above, slightly cocked; top and bottom of spine rubbed with loss of green coloring of cloth, now a bit frayed, and spots of discoloration on rear cover. Interior lightly age-toned, overall unmarked and readable. A nice copy.  (35454)