WOMEN 
Women as Writers, Editors, Translators, Illustrators, Printers, & Binders
Books By, For, & About Women
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Ellis on “the Whole Law of Woman's Life” — Complete Set
in the
SCARCE PRESENTATION CASE
(“A” is for “ALL FOUR in a SNAZZY BOX”). Ellis, Sarah Stickney. (The Englishwoman's Family Library). The daughters of England, their position in society, character & responsibilities. The mothers of England[,] their influence & responsibility. The wives of England, their relative duties, domestic influence, & social obligations. The women of England, their social duties, and domestic habits. London: Peter Jackson & Fisher, Son, and Co., [ca. 1845]. 8vo (17.7 cm, 6.96"). 4 vols. Daughters: Frontis., 400 pp. Mothers: Frontis., [8], 390 pp. Wives: Frontis., 371, [1] pp. Women: Frontis., 343, [1] pp.
$5500.00
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Ellis's popular “Women of England” series: Moral education aimed not at fine ladies but rather at middle-class women, of “that estimable class of females who . . . enjoy the privilege of liberal education, with exemption from the pecuniary necessities of labor” (Women, p. iv). These volumes seek to teach Englishwomen to be observant, kind, and humble as girls; thrifty, domestic, and comforting as wives; dedicated instructors and guides as mothers; good, soothing Christian influences on those around them throughout their lives; and above all, patient and submissive — in short
the embodiment of the Angel in the House, though these books preceded the publication of that poem. Ellis grants the necessity of some degree of education for women primarily in order to make them better housekeepers and more interesting companions to men, noting that “so far as cleverness, learning, and knowledge are conducive to woman's moral excellence, they are therefore desirable, and no further” (Daughters, p. 105) — but still she reinforces women's agency, responsibility, and need for self-awareness and self-management, particularly in the daunting task of choosing husbands who will respect them and treat them well.
The four volumes, each with its own engraved frontispiece, appear here
in the publisher's leather-covered wooden display casewith shaped roof-like pediment, gilt decorations, gilt-stamped “Library” title, glass-fronted door, and push-button metal catch. The works were first published separately in 1839 (Women), 1842 (Daughters), early 1843 (Wives), and late 1843 (Mothers); the case, apparently first advertised in 1843, could be “had separately” and assembled sets then ensconced in it, or one could buy handsome, variously bound complete sets already encased when new.
Uniform sets are uncommon, and contained in cases like this one are even more so.
Provenance: Daughters with inked ownership inscription of Josephine Sparre, dated 1856; Women with early inked inscription of A.M. Kirwan of Well Park, Drumcondra (Ireland).
Publisher's red pebbled cloth, covers elaborately stamped in blind, spines with gilt-stamped titles and embossed decorations; volumes with edges and extremities rubbed, small scuffs and spots of discoloration to sides, spines gently sunned, Daughters cloth somewhat lighter overall. Daughters: Offsetting from frontispiece to title-page. Mothers: Frontispiece lightly foxed; light pencilled marks of emphasis. Wives: Front free endpaper lacking; frontispiece foxed. Inscriptions as above; occasional small spots of foxing, smudges, and edge chips scattered throughout; box with scuffs and wear, cracks to leather at top refurbished. A removable dais has been added to the foot of the box in order to fit the presently contained volumes more snugly; markings to the cloth lining of the box suggest that, at one time, taller volumes resided there.
Some of Ellis's most successful and influential writing in a desirable uniformly bound set, within the rarely surviving and quite charming display case. (41250)

Burd's Festive Little Women
(ALL of Us were Jo)? Alcott, Louisa M.; Clara M. Burd, illus. Little women. Philadelphia: John C. Winston Co., 1926. 4to (23.5 cm, 9.25"). Col. frontis., xiii, [1], 496, [2] pp.; 4 col. plts., illus.
$100.00
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Delightful edition of the beloved classic: Clara Miller Burd — noted as both an illustrator and a stained glass artist who worked for Tiffany — supplied the illustrations, including a color-printed frontispiece and four color plates, a number of full-page stipple engravings, and a rendition of the Alcott home in Concord, MA for the endpapers. This is
the first edition to feature Burd's art, and also offers an introduction by Albert Lindsay Rowland. This copy has an inked inscription reading “Marjorie [/] From 'Lookie' Christmas 1930.”
Binding: Publisher's dark green cloth, front cover with foliate frame stamped in gilt and light green surrounding a chromolithographed paper onlay depicting the March girls peacefully at work in the woods, spine with foliate motifs repeated.
Binding as above; gently rubbed, spine slightly darkened, lower corners bumped. Inscription on front fly-leaf as above. Pages faintly age-toned, with foxing surrounding plates (plates themselves unaffected).
Loved and still lovely, with an appealingly sentimental inscription. (41375)
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Signed Binding —Pure Gold
Albin, Thomas, ed. Pure gold from the rivers of wisdom. Edited by the author of “Affection's keepsake.” New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1841. 32mo (10.5 cm; 4.25"). [1 (ads)] f., 126 pp., [2 (ads)] pp.; frontis. (included in pagination).
$40.00
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First American edition, “From the twentieth London edition.” A near-miniature gift book anthology of quotations from the writing of famous and little-known authors: The quotations range from more than a page and a half to a single short sentence, but all have moral pith and sage advice on living happily and uprightly. The women and men of letters who are excerpted range from Hannah More to Dr. Johnson and on to St. Augustine, Seneca, Jeremy Taylor, Southey, Fenelon, William Penn, Jane Taylor, and the ever lurking Anonymous. But NOT Shakespeare!
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)

Early Printing: WOMEN Are Inherently Flawed, But
Can Be Virtuous
Allestree, Richard. The ladies calling in two parts. Oxford: Pr. at the Theater, 1673. 8vo (18.1 cm, 7.12"). [26], 141, [3], 96, 89–94, 99–[100] pp. (engr. frontis. lacking).
$225.00
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Conduct book for women, from the author of The Whole Duty of Man — generally considered to be Richard Allestree, although Richard Stern and Lady Dorothy Pakington have also been suggested, among others. Allestree (1619–81) was a royalist Church of England clergyman; Bishop Fell reports that “few of his time had either a greater compass or a deeper insight into all parts of learning” (DNB). Like his Whole Duty, the present treatise enjoyed massive popularity, and became one of the most influential examples of its kind in setting forth ideal feminine behavior in all stages of life. Present here is the second edition (stated as “second impression” on the title-page), following the first of the same year.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with inked inscription of Henry Ebel, plausibly the author and psychohistorian (1938–2008).
ESTC R4982; Wing (rev. ed.) A1142; Madan, Oxford Books, 2963. On Allestree, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. Contemporary polished calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; binding sometime varnished with leather much worn and abraded, front joint cracked and back joint starting, spine extremities and label chipped, corners rubbed. Title-page with early inscription cut away and leaf later repaired, with partial loss of impression line; lacking frontispiece. Pages age-toned with light waterstaining to early lower margins; about 24 leaves (non-consecutive) with vertical smears of blue ink affecting but not obscuring text; a few leaves towards back with minor worming in lower outer corners. Unprepossessing physically, still a very readable copy still in a contemporary binding. (40981)

With a Woman's Illustrations
Anacreon. Anacreontis Odaria, ad textus Barnesiani fidem emendata. Londini: Gul. Bulmer & Soc., 1802. 8vo (21.5 cm, 8.4"). [2], 130 pp.; illus.
$750.00
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First Forster edition and first Bulmer printing thereof: a handsome example of the ever-popular songs of Anacreon, edited and prepared by Edward Forster (1769–1828) based largely on Barnes' influential text. This production made excellent use of the Greek font cut for printer William Bulmer by William Martin, who had trained under Baskerville; Martin's distinctive sans serif type was designed without ligatures. Lavinia Banks Forster, the editor's wife, supplied the illustrations — the elegantly printed text is ornamented with
20 copper-engraved vignettes. The Annual Review & History of Literature for 1803 described the resulting volume as an “exquisite specimen of typographical skill,” while Dibdin called it an “elegant work” that “confers great credit on the printer.”
Binding: Contemporary red straight-grained morocco, modestly tooled using a single binder's tool for all decoration — a single rule. It is used to frame the boards, create the spine compartments, decorate the board edges, and enliven the turn-ins. Very interesting green marbled endpapers, perhaps “arsenic green”? All edges gilt.
Provenance: Early 19th-century ownership signature on front fly-leaf of Robert Harry Hughes, Jesus College, Oxford; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Dibdin, I, 266–67; NSTC A1179; Schweiger, I, 25–26. Bound as above; darkening to spine and small adjoining area on boards and along top area of boards; joints and edges rubbed. Pages age-toned with instances of mild to moderate foxing.
A handsomely printed and pleasingly bound volume. (39276)

Forster's IMPROVED Anacreon
Anacreon; Edward Forster, ed.; Lavinia Banks Forster, illus. Anacreontis Odaria, ad textus Barnesiani fidem emendata. Accedunt variae lectiones cura Edvardi Forster ... Londini: Ex officina B.R. Howlett, veneunt apud J. Murray, 1813. 8vo (18.7 cm, 7.36"). [2], 130 pp.; illus.
$350.00
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A later and less expensive edition of the first item above, being the second, revised edition, following the first of 1802.
Binding: Contemporary black calf, covers framed and panelled in blind fillets with blind-tooled corner fleurons, gilt arabesque motifs in outer panel, rich blind roll in inner panel; spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped motifs echoing covers; board edges and turn-ins with gilt Greek key roll. All edges gilt.Provenance: Front fly-leaf with inked inscription of J.[F.?] Mackarness, dated 1839.
Dibdin, I, 266–67 (for first ed.); NSTC A1179; Schweiger, I, 26. Binding as above, joints and extremities with variable rubbing. Pages gently age-toned with occasional offsetting from engravings or faint spotting, otherwise clean.
A desirable copy of this extremely attractive production. (40741)

Murder by Poison
Unidentified
Angus, Charles (defendant). The trial of Charles Angus, Esq. on an indictment for the wilful murder of Margaret Burns, at the Assizes held at Lancaster, on Friday, 2d Sept. 1808, before the Hon. Sir Alan Chambre. Liverpool: Printed by William Jones, [1808]. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). [2] ff., 288 pp.
$850.00
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Murder by poison seems to be a perpetually fascinating topic for the lay, the medical professional, and Agatha Christie — and this trial of Angus for using that method of doing in Miss Burns is no exception. Its record was taken in shorthand by William Jones, Jun., and contains
important material relating to medical jurisprudence and forensic medicine.
The trial was a sensation: Angus, a Scots merchant and slave-trader in Liverpool, was charged with the murder of his children's governess, Margaret Burns, who was also his wife's half-sister. The case presented more than a few bizarre features: a corpse with a hole in its stomach, a baby who disappeared, a ghastly surgical instrument with a catalogue of deadly purposes, conflicting medical evidence, and a poison never identified.
Binding: Circa-1865 half-black calf with green marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped red leather label, gilt rules to form compartments, and blind-stamped center device in five compartments.
Provenance: Contemporary signature on title-page of James Kendrick; embossed ownership stamp of J.H. Williams, rector of Llangadwaladr; bookseller's label of Wildy & Sons, London; late 19th- or early 20th-century armorial leather bookplate of Alexander MacGregor; most recently in the collection of Robert Sadoff, M.D.
Binding as above, edges rubbed, small scuffs. The endpapers, curiously, appear to have been marbled over typeprint.
Very good. (39633)
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A Lotta Money
on the Line A Lady's Dowry
Arias de Saavedra, Francisco. Manifestacion de los derechos de la menor dona Grimaneza de la Puente en el juicio que en segunda instancia; ha promovido en esta real audiencia, con el Señor Marques de Corpa oydor de ella: sobre el entero de la dote de la Marquesa de la Puente su hija finada, para que se reforme la sentencia de vista declaratoria de la simulacion del instrumento dotal. Lima: En la Imprenta Real de los Niños Expósitos, 1793. Small 4to (21 cm; 8.25"). [3] ff., 175, [1 (blank)] pp., [1 (errata)] f.
$475.00
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A complicated matter of the
dowry of Marquesa de la Puente, a member of one of the richest and most important families of Peru in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
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)

Jane Austen's Works — A Handsome,
Limited Edition
Illustrated by the Brock Brothers
Austen, Jane. The novels and letters of Jane Austen. New York & Philadelphia: Frank S. Holby, 1906. 8vo. 12 (of 12) vols. I: Frontis., [6], vii–lix, [6], 255 pp.; 5 plts. II: Frontis., [8], 302 pp.; 6 plts. III: Frontis., [4], v–vii, 3–283 pp.; 5 plts. IV: Frontis., [8], [3]–299 pp.; 5 plts. V: Frontis., [4], v–vii, [5], 338 pp.; 5 plts. VI: Frontis., [8], 347 pp.; 5 plts. VII: Frontis., [6], vii–viii, [4]–339 pp.; 5 plts. VIII: Frontis., [8], 359 pp.; 5 plts. IX: Frontis., [4], v–viii, [4]–338 pp.; 5 plts. X: Frontis., [4], vii–viii, [4]–362 pp.; 5 plts. XI: [10], 3–392 pp.; 3 plts. XII: Frontis., [8], 3–393 pp.; 3 plts. (1 fold.).
$3575.00
Click any interior image for enlargement.
PRB&M offers a small prize to anyone who can, without looking anything up,
identify all the scenes shown . . .
The complete set in 12 volumes of the Chawton edition, limited to 1,250 numbered and registered copies — this is copy no. 1,029. An elegant, limited reissue of the same publisher's 10-volume Old Manor House edition, published the same year, this like that was edited by R. Brimley Johnson and introduced by William Lyon Phelps, the Lampson Professor of English Literature at Yale and an early champion of Austen's works. The introduction is itself a good read and gives insight into the life and character of the author, as well as a critical appraisal of the “qualities that place the novels of Jane Austen so far above all her contemporaries except Scott.”
The first 10 volumes consist of the novels — Sense and Sensibility (vols. I & II), Pride and Prejudice (vols. III & IV), Mansfield Park (vols. V & VI), Emma (vols. VII & VIII), Northanger Abbey (vol. IX), Persuasion (vol. X). Volumes XI and XII contain the minor works and letters. A bibliography of Austen's writings is included in vol. I.
Illustrated with
69 plates, including a wonderful series of color drawings to accompany the text, done by the brothers Charles Edmond and Henry Matthew Brock, this is
additionally embellished with portraits of the author, pictures of her residences in Bath and Winchester, a view of her burial place inside Winchester Cathedral, a facsimile autograph letter, and a facsimile title-page of the first edition of Sense and Sensibility. Each plate is accompanied by a protective tissue guard, printed with a descriptive caption in red ink. Title-pages are printed in red and black, and each has its own unique engraved vignette.
The delights in this production abound. On the whole, very satisfying!
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)

Additions to a
Spaniard's Take on Roman Law
Ayllón Laynez, Juan de. Illustrationes sive additiones eruditissimae ad varias resolutiones Antonii Gomezii. Lugduni [Lyon]: Sumptibus Anisson & Posuel, 1692. Folio (32.7 cm, 12.9"). [4] ff., 380, [14] pp.
$800.00
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Later edition of Ayllón Laynez's additions to the Variarum resolutionum juris civilis, communis et regii by Antonio Gómez, a law professor at Salamanca. Gómez's text on civil, common, and royal law was first published at Salamanca in 1552, but it is likely that Ayllón Laynez was working from one of the many 17th-century printings. His additions — to selected chapters from each of Gómez's three books on matters of
heredity, marriage, and torture, inter alia — were first printed at Utrera, Andalusia, in 1654.
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 locating
just 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)
(4) Women's Lives . . .
Baird, Robert. Transplanted flowers, or memoirs of Mrs. Rumpff, daughter of John Jacob Astor, Esq. and the Duchess de Broglie, daughter of Madame de Stael. New York: John S. Taylor, 1847. 12mo. Frontis., 159, [1] pp.
$87.50
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Later edition of these accounts of the lives of Eliza Astor Rumpff and Albertine Ida Gustavine de Stael-Holstein, Duchess de Broglie, preceded by an engraved portrait of the former and by Lydia Sigourney's poem "Transplanted Flowers." Memorialized more briefly are Mrs. Grandpierre and Mrs. Monod. 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)
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Milkmaids, Bathing Beauties, Muses, ETC.
Bamlach, Christian. Pudelnakerd erotische Szenen aus der Gründerzeit. Dortmund: Harenberg, © 1981. 12mo (17.5 cm, 6.9"). 155, [5] pp.; illus.
$45.00
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Early edition: Remarkable collection of female nude photographs dating from the turn of the (20th) century, with an afterword by Bamlach. This is no. 246 in the series Die bibliophilen Taschenbücher, “pocket books for bibliophiles.”
Publisher's yellow bookcloth wrappers, front wrapper with affixed photographic label. Very clean and crisp. (30630)

“Les connoissances qui multiplient nos desirs, multiplient nos besoins” —
Scarce French Philosophy
[Barbier, de Vitry-le-Français]. Pensées diverses, ou reflexions sur l'esprit et sur le coeur. Paris: Chez le Breton, 1748. 12mo (15.4 cm, 6.1"). xxxii, 148 pp.
$350.00
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Sole edition: 547 pithy, witty philosophical maxims on life, thought, emotion, society, and the nature of men and women, occasionally incorporating commentary on
contemporary French actresses and female authors. The author was apparently no relation of the bibliographer Antoine Alexander Barbier, but rather the father of the editor and bureaucrat Barbier-Neuville. While at least one reference suggests that his “Thoughts” were reissued in the following year under the title Réflexions diverses propres à former l'esprit et le coeur, that work is properly attributed to Simon Bignicourt, making this the first and only edition; it is nicely printed, with each section opening and closing with a head- and tailpiece. This work is now scarce, with a search of WorldCat locating
no U.S. institutions reporting holdings, and only four European listings.
Provenance: From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).
Barbier, Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, 13963; Licquet, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de la ville de Rouen, 2858. Contemporary mottled calf in an interesting striped pattern, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped floral compartment decorations; edges and extremities rubbed, front joint cracked and open (sewing holding). All page edges stained red. Title-page with early inked annotation re: author. Pages gently age-toned and cockled. (39986)

Important Account of
The Augustinian Missionaries in Western Mexico
From the Press of Paula de Benavides
Basalenque, Diego. Historia de la provincia de San Nicolas de Tolentino de Michoacan. Mexico: por la viuda de Bernardo Calderon [i.e., Paula de Benavides], 1673. 4to (20.8 cm, 8.125" ). [12], 219 [i.e., 221], [3] ff.
$16,500.00
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Diego Basalenque emigrated to New Spain with his parents from Salamanca when he was nine, joined the Augustinian order at the age of fifteen, and professed his religion two years later in Mexico City on 4 February 1594. A man of many talents, he was a teacher, administrator, and historian especially remembered for his skill in languages: He was proficient in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and
several Mexican tongues. There is evidence that he authored multiple works on a variety of topics, including mathematics and theology, but only three were published, all posthumously.
Basalenque wrote his Historia de la provincia de San Niçolas de Tolentino de Michoacan in 1644 but left it in manuscript at his death in 1651. Father Salguero, prior of the Augustinian province of MIchoacan in the 1660s and 70s and Basalenque's biographer (Mexico, 1664), saw the work published at the shop of
the very talented and well-connected widow-printer Paula de Benavides, widow of printer Bernardo Calderon. It is both a chronicle and a prosopographical account of the the Augustinians in Mexico from 1533 to 1643, and is divided into two main chapters: 1533 to 1602 when the province of the province of San Nicolas of Tolentino of Michoacan was created out of the province of The Most Holy Name of Jesus (“Santísimo Nombre de Jesús”), and 1602 to 1643. The facts and dates for events prior to ca. 1590 are mostly recounted from Juan de Grijalva's Crónica de la orden de N.P.S. Augustín en las provincias de la Nueva España, en quatro edades desde el año de 1533 hasta el de 1592 (Mexico, 1624) but those of the 17th-century are wholly Basalenque's.
His biographies of the 17th-century Augustinians are extremely valuable as they are based on his having known and lived with them; personality traits are discussed and family history and genealogy are detailed.
The history is printed mainly in roman but with some italic type, in double-column format, with woodcut head- and tailpieces and a type-ornament border on the title-page, which page further offers
a woodcut vignette portrait of St. Nicholas of Tolentino. There are errors in foliation: 47 and 48 are duplicated and 133 and 134 are incorrectly numbered 132 and 133.
In this copy opposite the title-page is an added facsimile map of the province taken from an edition of Augustin Lubin's Orbis Augustinianus, sive, Conventuum ordinis eremitarum Augustini chorographica et topographica descriptio; no map was issued with the book originally.
Medina, Mexico,1084; Pinelo-Barcia, Epitome, II, Col. 755; Beristain, I, p. 143; Ternaux 902; Andrade 632. Recased in contemporary limp vellum with slightly yapp edges showing evidence of now-lost ties; rear free endpaper lacking and all edges mottled. Case marks on front pastedown; last leaf torn cleanly and expertly repaired, one leaf with an old limited ink smear that does not impede reading.
A clean, very nice copy of a history offering much first-hand reporting, from a significant press and sometime enhanced, by a former owner, by addition of that helpful map! (41363)

“In Former Times, in the Warmest of Climes, a
Gentleman Gloried in Several Crimes”
Bayley, Frederic William Naylor; Alfred Crowquill, illus. Blue Beard. London: W.S. Orr & Co., [ca. 1842]. 8vo (17.7 cm, 7"). [4], 47, [3] pp.; 13 plts.
[SOLD]
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“With illustrations, humorous and numerous”: Based on Perrault's fairy tale, Bayley's comic rhymed version of the story of the violent bridegroom is
illustrated with 13 full-page tinted wood-engraved plates by “Alfred Crowquill” (pseudonym of Alfred Henry Forrester), as well as in-text vignettes engraved on wood by Henry Vizetelly after Crowquill's designs. The title “BLUE BEARD” is rendered in blue on the title-page, and the plates' images are rendered on pale blue and green backgrounds; the bloody key on the title-page has been hand-colored red.
This is an uncommon, early standalone edition, from the “Comic Nursery Tales” series (under which banner it also appeared with Beauty and the Beast and Robinson Crusoe).Binding: Publisher's color-printed tan pictorial paper–covered boards, simply rebacked with plain paper. All edges gilt.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription of Mi[chael?] H. Beague; later in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Osborne Collection, p. 21; Opie C 748; NSTC 2B12476; Gumuchian, 489. Bound as above, sides darkened, extremities rubbed; back cover with spots of discoloration. Title-page with tiny spot of paper adhesion from frontispiece (resulting absence to frontispiece image is unobtrusive). Pages with a very few scattered spots of faint foxing, otherwise clean.
A nice copy, seemingly all but untouched by childish hands. (41044)

Romance, Sex, & Procreation:
HOW-TO's for Two out of Three
Becklard, Eugène; Philip M. Howard, transl. Physiological mysteries and revelations in love, courtship and marriage; an infallible guide-book for married and single persons, in matters of the utmost importance to the human race. New York: Holland & Glover, 1844. 16mo (11.5 cm, 4.52"). [2 (blank)], 256, [2 (blank)] pp.; 16 plts.
[SOLD]
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Early U.S. edition of
a popular guide to human sexuality written for a broad audience, here “translated from the third Paris edition, with the revision and additions of the sixth Paris edition.” This curious work skips back and forth between matters of the heart and of the body, covering a wide range of topics connected to love and marriage; there are sections that focus at length on specific concepts, and sections offering snippets of a few lines apiece on seemingly randomly selected items, with one such section offering
“Love Matches,” “Double Uterus,” “Disease,” and “Courting” all on one page. Addressed to both men and women, these “revelations” are often scientifically questionable, at best: spicy food and vigorous dancing will prevent conception, pregnancy resulting from rape is physiologically impossible, and an infant will most strongly resemble the parent “whose orgasm was highest” (p. 165) during congress — but the author does acknowledge good reasons why women might want to avoid pregnancy, defends the idea that women not only can experience sexual pleasure but are entitled to expect it, and points out “the very unjust usages of society” regarding demands of female vs. male continence, as well as providing actual contraceptive techniques like sponges for women. Details on intercourse go no further than warnings against “all attitudes of enjoyment but the natural one” (p. 40).
Paginated continuously with the first work and displaying the same running header (“Becklard's Physiology”) is Onanism and Its Cure, “an infallible text book for the cure of all diseases in the male or female, produced by over indulgence in onanism, or masturbation” according to its separate title-page, which notes that the work was translated by James Guierson from the French of Henriot, Tissot, Deslandes, and Becklard. It includes directions on what foods to eat following immoderate coition, as well as recommending quinquina and cold baths for remedying passions. The two works together are illustrated with
a total of 16 wood-engraved plates, including one labelled “Terrors of Absolute Continence” and a remarkable image of
a couple occupied with their pets rather than with each another, captioned “Offspring Prevented.”This is the second New York printing of the Physiological Mysteries, following the first of 1842, and
the first edition both to append Onanism and to add the plates.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with early inked inscription of William H. Harriman.
American Imprints 44-583; Hoolihan, Annotated Catalogue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine & Health Reform, 266. Publisher's blind-stamped brown cloth, spine very attractively gilt with title and decorations; edges and extremities lightly rubbed. One leaf with lower outer corner torn away, not touching text; intermittent spots of mild to moderate foxing.
Plates on yellow paper, perhaps partly for easy finding? (41243)

Retrieving Her Ranchos
Benavides, Tomás. Informe en derecho que Tomas Benavides ha presentado ante la exma. tercera sala del Supremo Tribunal de Guerra para que le sirva revocar la sentencia de primera y segunda instancia, que se han pronunciado en favor de D. Mariano P. Tagle. Mexico: Imp. de la Calle de Cordobanes Num. 5, a cargo de J. V. Hernandez, 1854. Small 4to. 24 pp.
$250.00
For EUROPEAN (Heritage!) LAW, click here.

The First Lady of
Fly Fishing?
Berners, Juliana. The treatyse of fysshynge wyth an angle. London: William Pickering, 1827. 8vo (18.1 cm, 7.2"). Frontis., [2], xiii (pagination skips v–viii), [1], 41, [1] pp.; 4 plts.
$650.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First Pickering edition of the first known English work on fishing. Reprinted from the Boke of St. Albans, the famed sporting book originally published by Wynkyn de Worde in 1496, this essay on angling is generally attributed — although not certainly so — to Dame Juliana Berners (or Barnes), supposed prioress of Sopwell nunnery circa 1450. If that attribution is correct, this is not only the earliest printed English work on fishing, but also one of the earliest published English works by a female author. Regardless of its source, it seems to have served as an inspiration both to Izaak Walton and to William Pickering, who printed several editions of Walton, including a particularly lavish production in 1836.
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. The title-page proclaims this as printed with the types of John Baskerville, making it one of the last such printings done in England, and most cataloguing follows suit; but Kelly identifies the font used as the elegant "Fry" Baskerville variant developed by typefounder Isaac More.
Evidence of Readership: A later hand has helpfully added pencilled marginalia clarifying archaic or obscure terms and suggesting subject headers.
NSTC 2B20037; Keynes, Pickering, 42; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1827.1 (p. 21). 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)

Printed Using “Fry” Baskerville Types — Uncut Copy
Berners, Juliana. The treatyse of fysshynge wyth an angle. London: Printed ... for William Pickering [by Thomas White], 1827. 8vo (19 cm, 7.5"). Frontis., [2], xiii (pagination skips v–viii), [1], 41, [1] pp.; 4 plts.
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
As above, but:
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)
For a bit more FISHIN' & HUNTIN', click here.



Hannah's Legacy — Illustrated N.T. Sentimental Womanly Provenance
(Bible A Woman's Inheritance). Bible. N.T. English. Authorized. 1841. The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; with the marginal readings; and illustrated by marginal references, both parallel and explanatory, and a copious selection, carefully chosen, and newly arranged. New York: John C. Riker, 1841. 16mo (11 cm, 4.4"). Frontis., add. engr. t.-p., [2], 350 pp.; 4 plts.
$200.00
Click the images for enlargements.
A small, hand-size English New Testament based on that of the Polyglott Bible. Riker printed several variations on this edition from 1831 onwards; in this case, the added engraved title-page still gives the publication date as 1831, but the main title shows 1841. The text is printed in double columns with a central column of references, and
illustrated with a frontispiece, an additional engraved title-page, wood-engraved headpieces, and four steel-engraved plates, the latter done by Illman and Pilbrow after various artists.
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)

In a
GOOD AMERICAN Binding — Sarah Leverett's French Bible
(Bible Womanly Provenance). Bible. French. 1839–40. Martin. La Sainte Bible...revue...par David Martin.... New York: Stéréotypé par Henry W. Rees, pour la Société Biblique Americaine, D. Fanshaw, Imprimeur, 1839–40. 8vo. 819 [1 (blank)] pp., 261, [1 (blank)] pp.
$525.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Only the second edition in the U.S. of the Martin edition of the French Bible. (Prior to 1835, the American Bible Society favored using the text of the 1805 French Bible.)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)
For the “case” of BIBLES & TESTAMENTS, click here.



A Neat Construction & Pleasing to Play With
Blackson, Ruth Scott. Life of a weave. Nottingham, England: Artist Studio, 2012. 16mo ( 6" x 11").
$1000.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Ruth Scott Blackson's near-kinetic artist's “flag” book “Life of a Weave” is best appreciated for its movement in the moments after it is opened, as thin woven strips of light polymer paper in bright pink and yellow burst a'quiver from an accordion binding.
The weave is, indeed, lively! And there is a suggested “narrative” here, too, as the weave's “story” when read from cover to cover becomes more and more complicated . . .
Binding: Yellow spine paper over grey boards, the covers further supplied with deep rose-pink paper slip-on over-sheaths which, according to the artist, were constructed by “a specific type of folding in case you ever wanted to change the covers. They slip on and off quite easily, nice and versatile and good for non-adhesive books.”
Fine and
one-of-a-kind. (40353)

A NOVEL “Which Proves That War is Solving Civilization's Problems
& Has Made Love Again Triumphant”
(Margaret Armstrong Binding)
Bradley, Mary Hastings. The wine of astonishment. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1919. 8vo (19.2 cm, 7.56"). 312, [2] pp.
$75.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Romance set at the start of WWI, with the main difficulty separating the two lovers being at first financial issues and then her subsequent “marriage of friendship.” Stamped in purple and green with a grapevine and heart design, the
binding is signed MA, for Margaret Armstrong: the dust jacket is in the style of Maxfield Parrish, although unsigned. This is the second printing.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with pencilled inscription of Harry E. Young, dated 1921.
American Fiction, 1901-1925, B-858; Gullans & Espey, Checklist of Trade Bindings Designed by Margaret Armstrong, 38. Publisher's tan paper–covered sides with title stamped in black and grapevine design in green and purple, light green cloth shelfback with matching grape motif, in original color-printed dust jacket; jacket, with spine and back panel slightly dust-soiled, front joint rubbed, three short edge tears and a few tiny edge nicks, in overall very good, attractive condition. The volume itself, in its Armstrong binding, shows a faint narrow band of offsetting across its back cover (only) from “protective” plastic wrapping the dust jacket; otherwise, very clean and fresh.
A nice copy of the now-uncommon first edition of a socially interesting novel in an “MA” binding. (37550)

Works of the
Brontë Sisters
Brontë,
Anne; Charlotte; & Emily. The Shakespeare
Head Brontë. Oxford: Basil Blackwell & Houghton Mifflin Co. (pr. at
the Shakespeare Head Press), 1931. 11 vols. 8vo (24 cm, 9.45"). I [Charlotte]:
Frontis., x, [2], 312 pp.; 2 plts. II: Frontis., [6], 284 pp.; 2 plts. III:
Frontis., [8], 351 pp.; 2 plts. IV: Frontis., [6], 362 pp.; 2 plts. V: Frontis.,
[8], 319, [1] pp.; 2 plts. VI: Frontis., [6], 313, [1] pp.; 2 plts. VII: Frontis.,
[10], 283, [1] pp.; 1 plt. I [Anne]: Frontis., [8], 220 pp.; 2 plts. II: Frontis.,
xi, [1], 282 pp.; 2 plts. III: Frontis., [6], 278 pp.; 1 plt. I [Emily]: Frontis.,
xii, 385, [1], 9, [1] pp.; 1 plt.
$1500.00
Click the interior images for enlargement.
Large-paper issue of this 11-volume set of the works of all three Brontë sisters, illustrated by Jack Hewer with a total of 30 architectural and landscape views. The novels are complete here, including Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, and The Professor. (There were several additional volumes of miscellaneous writings, letters, and biography published in this “Shakespeare Head” series, which was not complete until 1938; they are not part of this set.)
The lovely illustrations are of real places fictionally transfigured in the novels . . .
Of the 1000 copies printed of this, 500 were printed on large paper and reserved for issue in America. The present example (numbered 452) is of the large paper size and in green cloth; it is not clear to us by what rule copies were bound in this green cloth and which in the orange reported elsewhere.
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)
Brook, Mary. Reasons for the necessity of silent waiting, in order to the solemn worship of God...third edition. London: Mary Hinde, 1775. 8vo (20 cm, 7.9"). [2], 31, [1 (blank)] pp.
$325.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Third edition of Brook’s explication of the principles underlying Quaker worship practices, issued by a woman printer — Mary Hinde, successful printer and publisher of numerous Quaker items.
ESTC T65811. Recent wrappers. Pages age-toned, with a few small spots. (9302)
For a page dedicated to the FRIENDS/QUAKERS, click here.

These Cooks Really Set Their
HANDS to This Production
Brooklyn Methodist Home.
Brooklyn Methodist Home cook book. [Brooklyn, NY]: Brooklyn M.E. Church Home, (copyright 1939). 8vo (23.7 cm, 9.33"). 320 pp.; illus.
$65.00
Click the images for enlargements.
“A cook book sponsored by the managers of the Methodist Home,” a shelter for the elderly, in tribute to the Home's 56th anniversary. Unlike some generically mass-produced charity cookbooks of the era, this delightful spiral-bound volume successfully reproduces
the feel of a cherished handwritten collection: Each page offers a copy of a manuscript or typed recipe (sometimes two), many with small accompanying doodles. Some items are much more legible than others, but all were clearly loved by the contributors, all of whom — including the current chef at the home — provided their names and in some cases their addresses, the latter including Scranton, PA; Ridgewood, Maplewood, and Midland Park, NJ; Lynbrook, Hempstead, and Albany, NY; Mansfield, MA; North Scituate, RI; Des Moines, IA; Thorburn, Nova Scotia; and the Canal Zone, as well as Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Not in Brown, Culinary Americana. Original spiral-bound printed textured paper wrappers, front cover printed in black; wrappers slightly dust-soiled with extremities showing minor wear. First and last leaf with light offsetting and last few leaves with light waterstaining to lower margins, pages otherwise clean and unmarked.
Not just a nice example of early 20th-century American cookery, but also a glimpse into the personalities of these charitable-minded ladies of New York, New Jersey, and beyond. (40941)
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For “GIFTABLES” mostly $150
& UNDER, click here.
Browne, Isaac Hawkins. Poems upon various subjects, Latin and English. London: J. Nourse, 1768. 8vo (24 cm, 9.4"). [10], 160 pp. (frontis. lacking).
$150.00
First edition of these poems, published posthumously by the author’s son; of two similar issues printed in the same year, this was the one meant for the general public, with the other intended for private circulation only. Browne was a notably witty and amiable conversationalist whose company (though not his public speechmaking) was prized by Dr. Johnson; he is best remembered today for his poems “A Pipe of Tobacco” (“Blest leaf! Whose aromatic gales dispense / To templars modesty, to parsons sense”) and “De Animi Immortalitate,” a meditation on the immortality of the soul — both of which are included here, the latter with Soame Jenyns’s English translation.
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)
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An Old Story — A German Tale for a Scots Audience
Burger, Gottfried August. The lass of Fair Wone, Or, the parson's daughter betrayed. Glasgow: Pr. for the booksellers, [ca. 1840?]. 12mo. 8 pp.
$35.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Uncommon chapbook: “A celebrated ballad, translated from the German,” being an English rendition of “Der Pfarrers Tochter von Taubenhain.”
A nobleman pursues a virginal country maid, and the liaison ends very, very badly for the latter. The title-page bears a woodcut vignette of a woman picking mushrooms, with [no.] “70" at the foot of the title.
Not in NSTC. Removed from a nonce volume. Pages faintly age-toned, with small edge nicks. (37155)
For SCOTLAND & SCOTS, click here.
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A Beautiful Country Girl & a Spanish Bullfighter
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The pretty sister of José. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1889. 12mo (19.1 cm; 7.5"). iv, 127, [8] pp (publisher's
catalogue), [12] leaves of plates.
[SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition, second state. A “tale of Spanish love and romance” by the author of children's classics such as The Secret Garden and The Little Princess.
Twelve beautiful plates illustrated by C.S. Reinhart accompany Burnett's tender story, including a tissue-guarded frontispiece.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)
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