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Musical Décimas of
Love & Lost Love
Camastra, Caterina. Amapolas. Tacámbaro: Taller Martín Pescador, 2020. Small 4to (26 cm, 10.25"). 40 pp.
$250.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Dra. Camastra was born in Brescia and educated in Italy, England, and Mexico, where she now lives and works as a translator, professor, researcher, and poet.
The present work, written in décimas, concerns love and loss of love. In his prologue to these poems, Alexis Díaz-Pimienta writes “He aquí, entonces, un poemario-florilegio” (p. 9) and that Camastra has a “manera tan musical de hablar el español que tiene, ese su castellano italianizado, o su italiano mexicanizado, me es imposible leer sus verso sin oírla respirar, o sentirla reír incluso entre las líneas.” And David Huerta also is very enthusiastic: “¡He aquí a una italiana, Caterina Camastra, que escribe poemas en español y lo hace con maestría, y con brillo! El libro Amapolas es una feliz resurrección del siglo XVI con muchas gotas mexicanas de sabores populares, jaranas y ritmos bailables.” He summarizes by saying that she is “Una poeta diestra en las modulaciones populares y cultas, unidas en el vaso de una artista consumada.”
The work is printed in an edition of only 100 copies: Florencio Ramírez was the compositor and Juan Pascoe and Martín Urbina were the printers at Pascoe's Taller Martín Pescador. The poems are set in 16 point Bembo with the prologue in 12 point Bembo, cast by Bradley Hutchinson in Austin; the heavy, rich paper is Tamayo De Ponte and the four vignettes are renderings of ornaments used in colonial Mexican books in the period 1566 to 1605.
Bound in stiff textured charcoal paper wrappers and sewn on vellum strips in a colonial Mexican–style binding. New. (41409)
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& TYPOGRAPHY, click here.
MEXICO is one of our great specialties.
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The Broadway (of New Haven) Broadsides — Scarce Small Press Items
Capet, Uther [pseud. of Arthur Head]. [20 pieces from the Profile Press.] An adventure achieved by one, Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, about the year 1430 A.D. being at that time thirteen years old. New Haven: The Profile Press, 1930. 8vo (22 cm, 8.65"). [4] ff. (2 copies of the above). [with (all following the same author's, unless specified; all New Haven: The Profile Press, 1930)] The American scene. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [4] ff. [and] Apologia pro arte poetica sua. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [4] ff. [and] B., R.T. The ballad of Tuttle's. 8vo (24.5 cm, 9.65"). [1] f., fold. [and] The color: A retelling of some well-known tales of the American Negro. 16mo (22.2 cm, 8.75"). [4] ff. [and] Colourations: Four sonnets. 16mo (21.7 cm, 8.5"). [4] ff. [and] Ex: Four characters of mooted fame with prologue & epilogue. 8vo (24.8 cm, 9.75"). [4] ff. [and] Field, Eugene. Little Willie. Folio (32 cm, 12.6"). [1] f. [and] Four English stories drawn from contemporary sources. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Four stories from the Jewish-American. 16mo (22 cm, 8.65"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Four stories from the modern American. 16mo (22 cm, 8.65"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Four stories from the old Spanish. 16mo (22 cm, 8.65"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Hot from Hollywood. 8vo (25 cm, 9.9"). [4] ff. [and] Ode in imitation of Horace. 8vo (24.6 cm, 9.7"). [1] f., fold. [and] On the menstrual phase of literature and art. 16mo (20.4 cm, 8"). [1] f., fold. [and] Pullman recreations. 16mo (21.2 cm, 8.4"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] Stenographic sallies. 16mo (21.5 cm, 8.4"). [2], 4, [2] pp. [and] A Western fairy tale. Folio (32 cm, 12.65"). [1] f. (2 copies).
$475.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Collection of largely humorous verse and prose pieces in broadsides and small pamphlets, printed for the author and “issued at odd intervals” from Head's Bookshop on Broadway in New Haven. These items were issued in limited editions that ranged from
25 to 110 copies; An Adventure is represented here by numbered copies 15 and 44 of 50 printed and signed by “Capet,” while Apologia is numbered copy 89 of 110 printed and signed. Many of the items reflect particular early 20th-century sensibilities —
pretty blonde stenographers are the subject of “new position” jokes, the “American Negro” tales involve foolishness and philandering (and the word “coon”), a blustering Hollywood director thinks “Hunchback of Notre Dame” is a college play about a football hero. On the other hand, An Adventure is a Gothic fantasia about a young Malatesta's brush with the bloody ending of the tale of Paolo and Francesca da Rimini, while Colourations comprises four wholly serious sonnets.
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 make
Yale 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)

Chromolithographed Illustrations by
Eleanor Vere Boyle
Carové, Friedrich Wilhelm; Sarah Austin, transl.; Eleanor Vere Boyle, illus. The story without an end. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1879. 4to (25.8 cm, 10.15"). Frontis., vi, [2], 40 pp.; 15 col. plts., illus.
$350.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Based on the original German by Carové, Austin's version of this idyllic children's story is decorated with
a frontispiece, 15 chromolithographed plates and additional in-text illustrations done from designs by “E.V.B.” This was acclaimed Victorian fairytale artist Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825–1916), whose otherworldly, Pre-Raphaelite–influenced illustrations, particularly the color-printed plates, beautifully reflect the text's ethereal meditations on the peace and joy to be found in the natural world by imaginative observers. An 1868 edition was the first appearance of this popular story featuring Boyle's artwork, with the present example being its fourth printing.
Binding: Publisher's red cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title, front cover with a
stunning gilt- and black-stamped dragonfly, spiderweb, ivy, and butterfly design. All edges gilt. Original guard leaves present.
Ray, Illustrator and the Book in England, 108; Osborne Collection, pp. 329/30 (both for first ed.). Bound as above; spine sunned and worn, sides with small areas of light discoloration, corners rubbed. Front free endpaper with early inked gift inscription to Muriel. A very few instances of small, faint spots or smudges, pages and plates overall clean and pleasing.
Intact copies with all plates present in unmodified original bindings are now uncommon. (40768)

A Thoughtfully Cautious Gift
Cavendish, George; Samuel Weller Singer, ed. The life of Cardinal Wolsey ... Metrical visions, from the original autograph manuscript. Chiswick: C. Whittingham, 1825. 8vo (23.2 cm, 9.125"). 2 vols. I: [5], x–xxvii, [5], 344 pp. (lacking half-title); 6 plts. II: lxxii, 304 pp.; 3 plts.
$125.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Chiswick Press edition of what some consider to be the first major English biography along with Cavendish's verse tragedies, here with supplementary material including illustrative letters and documents; a dissertation on the true author of the Life by Reverend Joseph Hunter; and “Extracts from the life of . . . Queen Anne Boleigne, by George Wyatt” with a series of letters about her. Elizabethan scholar Singer (1783–1858), who edited these texts, also owned a bookshop, wrote a history of playing cards, and served as the librarian to the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street. The volume is illustrated with
nine plates of portraits, facsimiles, and scenes from the cardinal's life.
Evidence of Readership: A past reader has added several lengthy marginal notes as well as a few smaller ones in pencil in both volumes, usually in relation to
women mentioned in the text.
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)

Star-Crossed Italian Lovers — Peregrino & Genevera
Caviceo, Jacopo. Il peregrino. Vinegia: Pietro di Nicolini da Sabbio, 1538. 8vo (15 cm, 5.9"). [16] pp., 271, [1 (blank)] ff.; illus.
$2250.00
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“Nuovamente ristampato, e con somma diligenza corretto, et alla sua pristina integrita ridotto”: an uncommon early edition of Caviceo's best-selling, often translated, and widely influential romance. The author had a complicated life which included dropping out of law school shortly before he could be expelled, becoming a court historian and diplomat in Parma, being banished from that city for seducing a nun (and possibly more than one), voyaging in the Middle East and India, and embroiling himself in various political intrigues before working his way to the post of Vicar General in cities including Rimini, Ravenna, and Florence. His classically inspired novel, first published in 1508 and dedicated to Lucrezia Borgia, is a romance in which Peregrino tells the ghost of Boccaccio all about his globe-spanning quest to satisfy his passion for the fair Genevera — with the plot incorporating the author's own travel experiences.
In addition to the woodcut architectural border on the title-page (previously used in the printer's 1536 edition of Boccaccio's Laberinto), the text is decorated with one large and two small woodcut illustrations, the large cut showing our lovelorn hero tormented by two satyrs playing fantastical string and wind instruments, under the banner “Ancora spero solver me.”
WorldCat locates
only 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 an
important, readable, and uncommon early prose romanzo d'amore. (37524)

Adventures of an Unfortunate Spaniard
Céspedes y Meneses, Gonzalo de. Poema tragico del español Gerardo, y desengaño del amor lascivo. Primera, y segunda parte. Madrid: Don Pedro Marin, 1788. 4to (20.8 cm, 8.4"). [4], 447, [1] pp.
$975.00
Click the images for enlargements.
A popular, oft-translated and much reprinted picaresque novel,
from the pen of a Spanish Golden Age novelist and historian. It tells
the story of the protagonist's desperate love
for four women! John Fletcher used the work as source material
for both The Spanish Curate and The Maid in the Mill. This is
a revised edition, following the first of 1615; it is not widely held in U.S.
institutions.
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)
This appears in the HISPANIC MISCELLANY click here.

The Development of a
Hacienda in the YUCATAN — 1626–1866
(Chalmuch Hacienda, Yucatan, Mexico). Manuscript cahiers on paper of land transfers and inventories, in
MAYA and Spanish. Chalmuch, Merida, elsewhere in Yucatan: 1626–1866. Folio (31 cm, 12.5"). 132 ff. (14 blank).
$5500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Law suits between Yucatan hacienda owners ONE A WOMAN and between hacienda owners and Indians; estate inventories and land transfers (three in Maya); materials showing usefully characteristic environmental effects — from the early 17th century and continuing through the middle of the 19th, these documents chronicle the development of the Chalmuch hacienda, situated approximately 12 kilometers west of the center of Merida.
In the Yucatan — for geographic, geologic. ecologic, and economic reasons, particularly the quality of the soil and the lack of water for irrigation — haciendas had a later appearance than in other parts of Mexico, especially in the center and north, where their development began in the decade after the fall of the Aztec Empire. It was not until the 17th century that haciendas began to be established in the Yucatan Peninsula.
The earliest document in these five sewn-files is dated 18 May 1626 and concerns the settlement of a law suit between Bernardo de Sosa Velazquez and the Indians of the towns of Santiago, Cauqall, and Vac regarding unused lands and hills. The suit was settled in favor of Sosa with the provisos that he occupy the lands, build on and populate them, and bring in cattle within one year. The addition of new land to this original sitio is the substance of the remaining documents. Among them are two estate inventories and three documents of the first third of the 18th century in Maya (land transfers).
In the 1850s and ‘60s there was a land dispute between Doña Pastora Castillo, owner of the Oxcun hacienda, and Bernardo Cano, owner of the Chalmuch hacienda (represented by Sr. José Vicente Solís, his agent), concerning the need for a survey of boundaries. The dispute dragged on and in 1866, during the attempted reforms of Maximilian's Empire, these documents were presented before the state's Land Inspection Section and were certified by the Chief of Inspection with his stamp. The Land Inspection Section was responsible for the preparation and revision of plans, the comparison of land documents, and the measurement of land held by each hacienda, as well as certification of location, boundaries, and owners.
Provenance: From the private archive of the Chalmuch hacienda.
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.
Manuscripts from the Yucatan are notorious for having suffered environmental and ecological damage: damp and insect problems. These are no exception, but as such they are excellent for teaching purposes as well as traditional research. One cahier has extensive worm/insect damage, another has faded ink from exposure to long-term humidity, and others are just fine. Here is the opportunity to show (and for students to practice) how to use light sources of various wave-lengths for making faded writing jump off the page and how to carefully interleave a document with thin Mylar sheets to save leaves from further damage during reading and page-turning.
(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)

A Southern Hero Enters the “Brawl with Boston” — Illustrated by CHRISTY
Girl Heroes, Prominent!
Chambers, Robert W. The maid-at-arms. New York & London: Harper & Brothers, 1902. 8vo. Frontis., vi, [6], 342, [6] pp.; 7 plts.
[SOLD]
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First edition of this novel from the “Cardigan” series, set in New York state during the American Revolution and written by an author best known for his important supernatural work The King in Yellow. The plot here stars George Ormond, a Southerner of good family; it also features a character named Catrine Montour, based in part on the half-French, half-Native American “Queen” Catherine Montour (1710–1804), while the climactic rescue involves two maidens riding to the aid of an officer captured by Senecas. The
eight halftone plates were done by Howard Chandler Christy, and the belles are much in the style of his famed Christy Girls.
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)
For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here.

Legal Age for Marrying
Charles IV, King of Spain. Begins: Don Carlos ... Con fecha de diez de Abril de este año he tenido a bien expedir mi Real Decreto del tenor siguiente.” [Madrid: No publisher/printer, 1803]. Folio. [4] pp. (last blank).
$250.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Clarification of an earlier royal decree concerning legal marriage age for
“españoles” outside of Spain (and who were not orphans) was required and obtained from the courts. Now the king orders local officials in the Spanish Empire to obey and publish the original decree with its amendments.
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)

Return to Your Homes, Fallen Women
(Cheap Repository). Onesimus; or, the run-away servant converted. A true story. London: Sold by J. Marshall, R. White, & S. Hazard, [1796]. 12mo (17.7 cm, 6.96"). 16 pp.
$200.00
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“Shewing what a wonderful Improvement in his Condition ONESIMUS experienced after he became a Christian”: A chapbook version of the New Testament tale, from the Cheap Repository's “Sunday Reading” series. After the main story comes an exposition on the moral, aimed at those who have gotten themselves into bad ways of life — in particular, “those unhappy women, who . . . have run away from their proper home . . . and who are now ruined in their character, who are also plunged by their growing necessities into a life of open and allowed sin, and are perishing both as to body and soul” (p. 11).
The title-page features a woodcut vignette of Paul, chained in the dungeon, handing Onesimus the letter to deliver to his master Philemon. This printing is uncommon, with a search of WorldCat locating only a handful of U.S. institutions reporting actual hard copy holdings.
Provenance: From the chapbook collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.
ESTC T48869. Removed from a nonce volume, title-page with early inked numeral in upper outer corner and pencilled publication date annotation in lower margin. Pages clean. (41156)

Scarce 19th-Century Massachusetts Women's Aid Cookbook
Church of Christ (Millis, MA). Church Aid Society. The Millis cook book, a collection of tested receipts, contributed by the ladies of Millis. West Medway, MA: H.A. Bullard, 1894. 8vo (20.5 cm, 8.1"). 100 pp.
$150.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: Early New England example of the charitable fundraiser cookbook genre, assembled by the Church Aid Society of the Church of Christ of Millis, MA, with the wrappers bearing an engraved illustration of the church building and a horse and buggy out front; the usual array of local advertisements are present, along with a laid-in newspaper clipping on “Pickles that Will Add a Tang to Next Winter's Meals.” Pencilled annotations to the present copy include a list of ingredients for what appears to be a type of mince pie featuring apples, beef, and “all kinds spice”; a note on baking time for one recipe; and an addition of 2 lbs. sugar to a cucumber pickle recipe.
WorldCat reports
no 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)

Pickering BCP Facsimile — Large & Lavish
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer. The book of common prayer: King James, anno 1604, commonly called the Hampton Court Book. London: William Pickering (pr. by Charles Whittingham), 1844. Folio (35.1 cm, 13.8"). [260] pp.
$950.00
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Pickering's beautiful type facsimile of Robert Barker's 1604 edition — a.k.a. the Hampton Court Book — here in a Rivière binding. Charles Whittingham printed the work on handmade paper in black-letter type for Pickering, who, inspired by the printing of Aldus Manutius, published in 1844 a series of six such facsimiles of important editions of the Book of Common Prayer, each of which was
illustrated with wood-engraved initials and ornaments done by Mary Byfield, and limited to
only 350 copies printed on paper (with another two on vellum). The original title-pages were reproduced for each in
red and black, and in the case of the present example, the almanac pages likewise printed in red and black. Each book in this homage to important editions of the BCP was
an outstanding example of the Victorian-era Gothic design movement, and Kelly notes that these volumes are “considered to be among the finest work of Whittingham.”
Binding: Signed 19th-century dark brown morocco framed and panelled in single gilt and double blind fillets with gilt-tooled corner fleurons, surrounding a central arabesque medallion; spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped fleur-de-lis decorations in compartments, and gilt-stamped publication information. All edges gilt. Front lower turn-in stamped by Rivière.
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)

An Acclaimed “Elizabethan” Pickering Production
Church of England. Book of Common Prayer. The book of common prayer and administration of the sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the church according to the use of the United Church of England and Ireland together with the psalter or psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in churches. London: William Pickering, 1853. 12mo (18.4 cm, 7.25"). [720] pp.; illus.
$450.00
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Accessible, beautiful Pickering edition of the BCP, inspired by the 1569 edition of A Book of Christian Prayers, a.k.a. “Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book.” Mary Byfield engraved this version of the frontispiece portrait of Queen Elizabeth, as well as the woodcut borders, done after designs by Dürer, Holbein, and others; Kelly notes that
this volume is considered Byfield's masterpiece. The printing was elegantly accomplished by Charles Whittingham, predominantly in a clear and legible yet historic-feeling roman with blackletter captions in the borders.
Binding: Publisher's red morocco, covers with ornate blind-stamped frame, front cover with gilt-stamped decorative title, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-tooled compartment decorations, board edges with gilt roll, turn-ins with blind roll. All edges gilt and gauffered. Front free endpaper stamped “Bound by J. Wright.”
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)



Capturing an Age
One Biography at a Time
[Clarke]. The Georgian era: Memoirs of the most eminent persons, who have flourished in Great Britain, from the accession of George the First to the demise of George the Fourth. London: Vizetelly, Branston, & Co., 1832–34. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.65"). 4 vols. I: Frontis., 582 pp.; 12 plts. II: Frontis., [2], 588 pp. III: Frontis., [2], 588 pp. IV: Frontis., 588 pp.
$450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First
edition: Concise
yet entertainingly anecdote-laden biographies recounting the accomplishments
and characters (foibles and all) of the most prominent figures of the age: nobles,
churchmen, politicians, dissenters, military and naval officers, jurists, physicians,
voyagers and travelers, scientists, writers, economists, architects, artists
and musicians, etc.
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 with
12
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)
For
more BIOGRAPHIES, mostly 20th-Century
“General Reading” & Inexpensive, click
here.

From Soups to Sundries Plus SHAKESPEARE et al.
Congregational Church (Lenox, MA). Ladies. Cook book compiled by the ladies of the Congregational Church, Lenox, Mass. Pittsfield, MA: Eagle Publishing Co., 1897. 8vo (20.7 cm, 8.15"). 56 pp.
$225.00
Click the images for enlargements.
SCARCE fundraising cookbook from a Massachusetts church group: 31 pages of recipes, each section opening with a
food-related literary quotation, followed by several pages of local advertisements and blank leaves for adding recipes (unused here). Each printed recipe is attributed. One handwritten sheet with recipes for lemon pie, sponge cake, “Pork Cake,” and piccalilli (here labeled “Picolillia,” and described as “capital”) is laid in.
WorldCat finds
no 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)
For POST-1820 AMERICANA,
click here.
For COOKERY, click here.

“I am anxious you should do a writing portrait . . . ”
Cook, Eliza. A.L.s. (“Eliza”) to “My dear Sec.” London: 6 June 1860. 12mo (7.25" x. 4.5"). 1 p.
$275.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Cook (1818–89) was
a Chartist poet, author, and proponent of political and sexual freedom for women. She writes, “I am again here for a few days . . . and want to know if you can receive me on Friday about eleven. I am anxious you should do a writing portrait to see which will afford you most satisfaction. I will bring the proofs of the sonnet with me.”
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)
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A Really Scarce Book & an
Author Who is an Enigma
Corke, Miss. 'What shall we do with them?' A history of the London and Brighton convalescent home. London: J. Nisbet & Co., 1882. 12mo (18.5 cm, 7.25"). Frontis., vii, [1 blank], 157, [1] pp.
$150.00
Click the images for enlargements.
This rare history of the still-extant London and Brighton convalescent home was clearly written as a fund raising publication: “It is hoped that the profits of the sale of this volume will considerably augment the Free Fund of the Crescent House” (title-page). The convalescent home was, and still is. for elderly and needy women; a previous fundraising endeavor for the purchase of the “Crescent House” on the Marine Parade, in Brighton, had been heavily subscribed and accumulated over GBP4,500, as attested to by the published list at the rear of this volume.
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)
A Woman DEAD
Yet “Living”
Cox, Samuel Hanson. The dead are the living. A sermon preached on Lord's day afternoon, October 1, 1843, on occasion of the funeral of Mrs. Mary L., the wife of the Rev. Ward Stafford, A.M.[,] of this city. New-York: John F. Trow & Co., Printers, 1843. 8vo. 30 pp., [1 (blank)] f.
$25.00
A sermon and eulogy on the death of Mary Stafford “but a few years a wife . . . a disciple of Jesus Christ . . . an instructoress of youth.”
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)

Too
Vicious & Offensive for its Time
Crane, Stephen. Maggie a girl of the streets. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1974. 8vo. 105, [3] pp.; 6 plts.
$100.00
Click the images for enlargements.
“First proper publication” of Crane's original unexpurgated, unrevised text, here with an introduction by Shirley Ann Grau and six full-page gravures printed by Photogravure and Color Company from copper etchings by Sigmund Abeles. The volume was designed by Abe Lerner and printed by A. Colish in Bell and Franklin Gothic on Curtis rag paper, and bound by Tapley-Rutter in quarter black goat and gray striped buckram.
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)
For LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB books, click here.

“Just 25 Yards of Sail to
Carry TWO People Across the ATLANTIC OCEAN!”
Crapo, Thomas. Strange, but true. Life and adventures of Captain Thomas Crapo
and wife. New Bedford: [self-published] Capt. Thomas Crapo, 1893 [but, really, 1899 or later]. 8vo (20 cm, 7.9"). 151, [1] pp.; illus.
$60.00
Click the images for enlargements.
A
whaler's account of his life and times, culminating with the voyage he and his wife made from New Bedford, MA, to Penzance, England. Joanna Crapo was the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a dory boat, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. This is an early reissue of the first edition, with a postscript written by Mrs. Crapo sometime after the captain's death in 1899.
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)

Years & Years' Worth of
Self-Sacrifice — On Both the Man's & the Woman's Part
Crawford, F. Marion. A rose of yesterday. New York & London: Macmillan & Co., 1897. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). [4], 218, [10 (adv.)] pp.
$75.00
Click the images for enlargements.
A seemingly impossible romance between two mature individuals, one unhappily married; Crawford, a prolific and best-selling author, includes
extended meditations on divorce and on women's rights, with the latter focusing on the perceived undesirability of trading the right to vote for the privilege of being supported by a man. This is an early reissue, marked “tenth thousand,” of the first edition of the same year.
Binding: Publisher's terra-cotta cloth, front cover stamped with gilt rose and ribbon design, spine with similar motifs; front cover
signed “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)

Ephemeral
MIMEOGRAPHED DeMolay Cookbook
DeMolay Mothers' Club. Success is automatic with a DeMolay Mother's Club cook book. [U.S.: ca. 1950?]. 12mo (20.3 cm, 8"). [26] ff.
$55.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Recipes from women associated with the DeMolay fraternal organization, founded in Kansas City in 1919. This small-scale, lovingly
self-produced mimeographed booklet — presumably a fundraising effort — opens with Spiced Peach Salad Molds (leading a pack of other gelatin-based salads and molds), and includes Fisherman's Pie (made of tuna fish, hard-boiled eggs, a can of peas, and a can of mushroom soup topped with mashed potatoes), along with a recipe for oven-fried chicken to serve 50 and a range of desserts including Maple Pecan Chiffon Pie, a variation on the classic Ritz [Cracker] Pie, and Busy-Day Cake with Lazy Daisy Frosting. The cover, although now faded, appears to have borne
a hand-drawn design, and there is no publication information provided; however, many of the recipes were contributed by Hilda Stone, Priscilla Carroll, Virginia Sanborn, Arlene Curtis, Doris Crouse, and Alma VanHorn.
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)

Judith & Holofernes — A “Last-Era” Bodoni
Di Calboli Paulucci, Francesco. La Giuditta: Canti del marchese Francesco di Calboli Paulucci fra gli Arcadi Euricrate Acrisioneo; membro ordinario Dell'Accademia Italiana, ecc. Parma: Co' Tipi Bodoniani, 1813. Large 4to (31.9 cm, 12.56"). [8], xiii, [3], 207, [1] pp.
$425.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: A lengthy verse retelling of Judith's triumph in a large handsome font, two verses to a broad page, dedicated to Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Massa. Bodoni began the preparation of this edition, and Luigi Orsi finished it after his death; one of his final works, this impressive large quarto embodies
the later, absolutely unadorned Bodoni aesthetic.
A search of WorldCat finds only seven U.S. institutions reporting ownership.
Brooks 1146; De Lama, II, 218–19. Contemporary speckled paper–covered boards, framed in single blind roll, spine with later gilt-stamped red leather title and publisher labels; spine darkened, edges and extremities chewed, back joint starting from head and foot. Front pastedown showing small line of adhesion from now-absent affixed label. A very few faint spots of foxing only, indeed happily few as Bodoni productions can go; internally, an attractive, wide-margined example, with its page edges untrimmed. (40201)

Congo Mission Press Hymnal — LONKUNDO
Disciples of Christ Congo Mission. Bonkanda wa nsao ya Nzakomba. Bolenge, Congo Belge: Disciples of Christ Congo Mission, 1918. 12mo (28 cm; 7.125"). 231 hymns.
$275.00
Click the images for enlargements.
The fifth edition of the Disciples of Christ Congo Mission's Lonkundo Hymn Book. The Disciples of Christ Congo Mission (DCCM) arrived in the Congo in 1889 with the intention of developing an indigenous church that would provide change to the whole Congo social order. After developing a written form of the local language, Lonkundo, the DCCM began publishing hymnbooks and educational pamphlets, although Eva Nichols Dye, an early DCCM missionary, would later lament the inaccuracy of their understanding of the language.
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, 190731, 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)

Daughter Jean is the
Interesting One
Duke of Gordon's three daughters; To which are added, The Brewer laddie; and The Hero may perish. Glasgow [Scotland]: Printed for the Booksellers, [1840s]. 12mo. 8 pp.
$45.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
The Duke of Gordon's three daughters leave Castle Gordon for Aberdeen. Lady Jean runs off with Captain Ogilvie, who is stripped of his rank as a punishment. After bearing him three children, Lady Jean grows weary of living in poverty and returns to her father's castle; however, all ends well: Ogilvie discovers that all his brother's children have died; he is now “heir of Northumberland”; and Lady Jean becomes Countess of Northumberland.
Title woodcut vignette of a man in doublet and hose with a plumed helmet and a sword; “[No.] 18” printed at foot of title. Very scarce chapbook edition.
Unbound; removed. Very good. (37146)
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New Homes, NEW HEARTS
Duncan, Norman. The suitable child. New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1909. 4to. Frontis., 96 pp.; 4 plts.
$45.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition: Two intertwined stories of learning to love again after loss, set at
Christmas-time aboard the westbound express train from Winnipeg. Written by a Canadian-born journalist, this sentimental tale (meant for grownups who love children rather than the children themselves) is here illustrated with a frontispiece and four plates by Elizabeth Shippen Green, mounted on green paper, with additional in-text decorations done by Harold J. Turner and printed in green.
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)

Very Quick & Easy
Duran, Helen C. Mexican recipe shortcuts or casserolization of the classics (a quick & easy Mexican cookbook). Palmer Lake, CO: Filter Press, 1983. 8vo (21 cm, 8.25"). viii, 40 pp.; illus.
$28.50
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition. Written by “a busy mother of four and author of Blond Chicana Bride's Mexican Cookbook,” this extremely entertaining guide to Americanized shortcut versions of classic Mexican dishes opens with a recommendation for kids' parties: “tacos” where the seasoned meat, along with sauce and cheese, is poured directly into cut-open bags of corn chips — a strikingly early, if not the first, printed recipe for the walking taco, a.k.a. frito pie, a dish which made its debut at the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee.
The booklet is illustrated with images taken from a number of 19th-century travel books and periodicals, along with pen and ink sketches by Helen Mattison of Albuquerque.
Publisher's printed paper wrappers, front wrapper with two small, faint spots of staining and slight smudging. Small area of faint staining to upper edge of some leaves, one page with spots of staining, otherwise clean.
An amusing combination of the “harried housewife” genre and the growing American appetite for Mexican-ish foods. (36189)

BAL Author, before Her Whirlwind Episode with POE
Durfee, Job, & Sarah Helen Whitman. A discourse, delivered before the Rhode-Island Historical Society on the evening of Wednesday, Jaunary [sic] 13, 1847. Providence: Charles Burnett, jr., 1847. 8vo (22.5 cm, 9"). 42, 5, [1] pp.
$130.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Durfee (1790–1847), Chief Justice of Rhode Island, expounds on “the Rhode-Island Idea of Government” (p. 40), and his words were “Published at the request of the Society” (title-page). This was first printed in the Journal of the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction (Providence: Charles Burnett, Jr., 1847), vol. II, no. 1.
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)
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