In a more serious vein, Head (1887–1963) was the author of Antiquities of Yale and the New Yale Guide, as well as a poet and a patron and supporter of both the Brick Row Book Shop and the Yale University Library. Several of the items here makeYale references, like the barroom ghosts who “puffed at their pipes and their stogies / And pulled at their Phantoms of Ale, / Recalling the things that were Bogies / When they were assembled at Yale”; Ex is specifically about four different gentlemen expelled from Yale for reasons including bad grades, vandalism, and bawdiness.

•  Folded as issued. 10 of the pamphlets with small inscription “M. Clark” or “Clark” pencilled on front wrapper. Apologia with two pencilled corrections. Upper edges of Hot from Hollywood chewed. Minor age-toning, occasional small spots and edge nicks. Overall a clean, crisp collection of these uncommon pieces.  (36453)

Provenance:  An armorial bookplate of Samuel Edward Herrick with the motto “virtus omnia nobilitat” appears on the front pastedown of both volumes with the inked note “Gift of Jno. M. Fiske Xmas 1892" at the bottom (Fiske and the Rev. Herrick were both members of the City Missionary Society of Boston); a one-page letter from Fiske to a Mr. Doer written on Boston Custom House Stationary and tipped into the first volume notes, if he already owns the set, “I have the assurance of friend Bartlett of Hornhill that he will exchange it for something not already on your shelves.” Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  NSTC 2C12319. On Cavendish & Singer, see: DNB (online).   Half red roan in imitation of morocco and Papier Tourniquet paper–covered boards, spines lettered and compartments stamped in gilt, overprinted marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, others uncut; gently rubbed, hinges (inside) starting to crack. Light age-toning with the very occasional stain, light foxing or offsetting around plates. Provenance and readership indicia as above, some pencilled notes very faint. A nice edition of an influential work.  (39444)

WorldCat locatesonly three U.S. institutional holdings of this edition.

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

•  Adams C1190; EDIT 16 CNCE 71312; Brunet, I, 1701; Index aurel. 134.670.   19th-century half calf over marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped olive morocco title-label and gilt-tooled bands, all page edges speckled in brown; binding rubbed and worn, joints cracked but holding. First gathering very possibly supplied from a different copy. Front pastedown with two older cataloguing slips affixed; front free endpaper and (tipped-in) fly-leaf with later inked annotations in Latin and Italian. Occasional small spots of foxing and ink staining; a limited circle of light waterstain(?) to last leaf; a very few small early inked marks of emphasis in margins. A solid, eminently readable copy of animportant, readable, and uncommon early prose romanzo d'amore.  (37524)

•  Brunet, I, 1756; Palau 54187.   Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled bands; binding lightly scuffed (most notably at spine), spine with tiny pinholes, front joint just starting from head. Front pastedown with attractive small ticket of a prominent Madrid bookseller. Pages generally lightly age-toned with scattered faint spotting; some leaves browned.  (29248)

Documents such as these showing the growth and development of haciendas in the central part of Mexico are fairly common but extremely uncommon for the Yucatan. Similarly colonial-era documents in Nahuatl are fairly commonly available in the marketplace but comparable ones in Maya are rare. This is the first gathering of land documents for the Yucatan and the first manuscripts in Maya that PRB&M has had in its decades of dealing in Mexican colonial-era manuscripts — see images below for the latter.

(We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the state archive of the Yucatan in explaining the significance of the stamps of the Land Inspection Section that appear in some of the documents. It is good to be assured that they are indication of private, not government, ownership.)

•  Each cahier is housed in a Mylar sleeve and the five are contained in a blue cloth clamshell box. Condition is extremely variable: as above, one cahier has extensive worm/insect damage, another has faded ink, and others are just fine. Stamps are present as mentioned above. A rare surviving compilation and one that is instructive from multiple perspectives.  (40308)

This is the genuine first edition, not a modern reprint.

Binding:  Publisher's olive cloth, front cover with Art Nouveau water lily design and gilt-stamped title, spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding as above, minor rubbing at extremities. Front free endpaper with pencilled Christmas gift inscription dated 1902; back free endpaper with rubber-stamped numeral (no other markings). Pages and plates clean. A very nice copy.  (28585)

Signed by the crown with a wooden stamp, “Yo el Rey.”

This copy sent to Santiago, Chile, and docketed there.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Clean and untattered.  (25817)

Present here is much information on domestic thrift, mixed with some recipes.

Provenance:  Pencilled inscription “M.E. Pratt to Ella Sandford,” dated “Prattsville, June 12th 1850.”

•  Bitting 86; Cagle & Stafford 154; Lowenstein 212–13.   Publisher's linen shelfback with printed paper over boards; rubbed and worn with small areas of loss of cloth or paper covering. Foxing and stained with kitchen use; a few clippings (one, a “Remedy for Diptheria”) laid in. A good copy.  (37004)

WorldCat reportsno institutional holdings of this first edition. Of the second edition (1895), WorldCat locates only one copy (at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center!).

•  Not in Brown, Culinary Americana; not in Cook, America's Charitable Cooks.   Original printed paper wrappers as above; wrappers separated and much chipped (though not into cover vignette), with old cellophane tape repairs. Pages age-toned and slightly brittle, with some edges chipped or with short tears, some corners dog-eared. Annotations as above. Worn; still, an uncommon and evocative item.  (38108)

Provenance:   Elegant old lozenge-shaped ink-stamp on title-pages: “John Brymer Heir-Loom.”

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with small stamp of B[asil] M. Pickering, who took over the business after his father's death; later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Brunet, I, 1108; Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1844:29; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1844.4; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), p. 85; McLean, Victorian Book Design, 13; Pickering & Chatto, William Pickering (catalogue 708), 222.   Bound as above, joints and extremities showing moderate rubbing. Scattered spots of faint to mild foxing, pages generally clean and fresh.  (39585)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of John Turner Ettlinger. Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 1853:22; Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1853.8; Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), pp. 32 & 86.   Bound as above; spine slightly darkened, rubbing to joints and edges nicely refurbished. Bookplate as above, front free endpaper with Ettlinger's pencilled inscription. Pages very faintly age-toned, otherwise clean. A solid, satisfactory copy of this attractive and important edition. (40309)

All the expectable princesses, duchesses, and countesses are present, along with a handful of women represented in other categories — the preponderance falling under the “Vocal Performers” and “Actors” headings.

The first volume is illustrated with12 plates each offering four rows of small portraits, some intriguingly expressive; each volume opens with an engraved frontispiece portrait of a royal George.

•  NSTC 2C23867.   Recent textured maroon cloth, spines with gilt-stamped black leather title and volume labels; title-pages institutionally pressure- (not rubber-) stamped. Scattered light spots of staining, pages generally clean; first few leaves of voI. II with outer margins chipped. A hefty, substantive evocation of Georgian life and times.  (30012)

WorldCat findsno institutional holdings of this charitable publication.

•  Cook, America's Charitable Cooks, 116.   Publisher's tan cloth–covered boards, front cover with decorative title stamped in olive; cloth dust-soiled and showing mild bubbling, with extremities rubbed. A few corners dog-eared. Occasional small pencil marks; scattered spots of staining. An uncommon item, showing only minimal kitchen wear.  (38307)

a Chartist poet, author, and proponent of political and sexual freedom for women

Provenance:  Residue of the stock of Seven Gables Bookshop (1930–79), via the son of Michael Papantonio (2009).

•  Very good condition. Tipped onto a slightly larger sheet. With the integral blank.  (25726)

Miss Corke's identity remains a mystery despite two of her other publications being noted on the title-page; searches for those titles found no copies listed in WorldCat or COPAC.

The present work is also not listed in WorldCat, and via COPAC we find only one copy — at the Bodleian.

Provenance: From the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  NSTC 0946400.   Publisher's dark green cloth stamped on front cover with ferns in black and author and title in gilt; binding darkened and rubbed, slightly cocked. Occasional light foxing; oil-like stain in lower area of the final 20 leaves. An interesting late-Victorian women's social and medical work.  (39657)

•  Good. Ex-historical society copy (rubber-stamps, "New Jersey Historical Society," on front cover and title-page). Pencil marks to front cover. Some chipping to front cover and first page.  (290)

This is numbered copy 538 of 2000 printed, signed at the colophon by the illustrator; the appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 479; BAL 4068; Williams & Starrett 1.   Binding as above, in original glassine dust wrapper and publisher's slipcase; binding very clean and fresh, wrapper also, slipcase showing very minor shelfwear only. A very nice copy.  (31258)

•  Forster 32; Toy 156.   Publisher's brown cloth, covers stamped in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities slightly rubbed, spine with small spots of discoloration. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean; a nice copy.  (33301)

Binding:  Publisher's terra-cotta cloth, front cover stamped with gilt rose and ribbon design, spine with similar motifs; front coversigned “G.W.E.” — George Wharton Edwards.

•  BAL 4200.   Binding as above, gently faded overall, slightly cocked, edges and extremities rubbed. Top edge gilt. Front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription. A few scattered faint spots, pages overall clean.  (35835)

•  NSTC 2LON6926; Davis, Kendrew of York, 12; Osborne Collection p. 629. Not in Beall.   Publisher's tan printed paper wrappers. Stitching strong and pages clean. Very nice copy.  (38787)

Provenance:  Stamps of two U.S. Redemptorist libraries (one in Ilchester, MD; the other in New York state).

•  VD17 1:001581Y; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1899; Robbins 283; Graesse, Magica, 47; Coumont, Demonology and Witchcraft, D45.3.   Contemporary limp vellum with slightly yapp edges, evidence of now-lacking ties; vellum soiled, front joint (outside) with excellent repair, new endpapers. Scattered waterstains; discoloration in some margins from old damp; some gatherings and individual leaves browned, as in all other copies seen. Title-page trimmed at top, not quite into plate; without the folding table in Book II; old library stamps in some margins and an old sticker. A solid, satisfying copy.  (33026)

•  Not in Brown, Culinary Americana. Front wrapper says “Mother's Club,” but all online references to the organization give either “Mothers' Club” or “Mothers Club.”.   In original hand-inked wrappers, on original plastic rings; wrapper design faded, edges worn with short tears. Pages clean, unmarked, and unstained. A surely uncommon if not now unique item, with no holdings discoverable.  (38138)

The text is printed in an unusual, elegant late-19th-century font on china paper and decorated with a frontispiece, engraved title-page, and seven in-text vignettes; the frontispiece is signed “J.W.S.”

Binding:  Publisher's cream cloth, front cover stamped in gilt, white, tan, yellow, red, and shades of green in a delicately stunning japonesque, Eastlake'y style that we findeasier to appreciate than to describe.

Provenance:  Front pastedown inscribed in ink “Esther Le Fevre [/] Sunday School.”

•  Wright, III, 1529.   Binding as above, housed in half of publisher's original matching cloth-covered box; box half with small splits to edges and corners, volume cloth with spots of light foxing (on the front cover, almost entirely confined to edges). Inscription as above. Pages clean; two pages with small traces of paper adhesion in outer margins. Very, very, very attractive.  (39420)

Provenance:  A shelfmark has been added on the top edge and title on the bottom edge in ink, with the shelflabel of Domenico Olivieri di Parma on the front pastedown; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Adams D437; Bongi, Annali di Gabriel Giolito, II, 295–7; EDIT16 CNCE 17123; Graesse, II, p. 389; Schweiger, II, 332.   19th-century quarter vellum and beige paper–covered boards, gilt-stamped green leather spine label, pink ribbon placemarker; expectable dust-soiling on covers, one limited stain on front. Light to moderate age-toning, three gatherings with rather light marginal waterstaining; title-page and a few other leaves with small stains of various darkness, a missing corner, a marginal repair, or a short tear. Provenance indicia as above, one inked note on front free endpaper, ink on edges occasionally bleeding slightly into margins. A neatly, in fact elegantly packaged overview of the Trojan War and Greek historians.  (39331)

From the preface: “This fifth edition of the Lonkundo Hymn Book is a result of the joint labor of the missionaries and the native Christians.” One of those missionaries was “Alice Ferren Hensey, 1907–31, a talented musician and poet . . . [she] translated many hymns and songs, and taught them to new Congo Christians” (Smith). This is a mission press production and was actually printed in Bolenge.

•  On the Disciples of Christ Congo Mission, see: Fifty Years in Congo by Herbert Smith.  Publisher's green cloth-covered light boards, spine sun-faded. Some dust-soiling and dog-earing, but withal, a nice copy.  (40440)

•  Fine.  (19234)

Binding:  Publisher's sage green paper–covered sides with dark green cloth shelfback, front cover with decorative title and train vignette both stamped in gilt and dark green, spine with gilt-stamped title. Top edge gilt, outer edge deckle.

•  Binding as above; edges, joints, and extremities rubbed, front cover mottled. Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription. Pages and plates clean.  (29126)

But for many, of far more interest is the “Poem, by Sarah Helen Whitman. Recited before the Rhode-Island Historical Society on the evening of January 13, 1847; previous to the delivery of Judge Durfee's discourse” (sectional title at rear). Whitman (1803–78) was variously a poet, essayist, Transcendentalist, spiritualist, and romantic interest of Edgar Allan Poe! The author of her page on the Poetry Foundation website characterizes her as “intelligent, gifted, witty, and warm” and says “She was widely read.” The fact is she is one of few women given space in the Bibliography of American Literature, that bastion of white male authors.

Provenance:  Gift inscription on front wrapper, “Jno. McClellan, Esq. with the respects of E. Dyer, Jr.”

•  BAL 21359B; Sabin 21425.   Yellow printed wrappers. Very good.  (40377)