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

Apparently the last annual report was in 1852.

•  Sabin 38542.   Disbound. Clean.  (38336)

Guatemalan by birth, Ladron de Guevara (d. 1804) studied civil and canonical jurisprudence at the Tridentine Seminary in Mexico, where he graduated from the university and became a lawyer at the royal court. One of theleading lawyers in Mexico, he ascended quickly to high office, and was appointed governor in absence of the viceroy four times; according to Beristain, he was called the “American Ulpian” (after the Roman jurist) by at least one contemporary.

Binding:  Contemporary gilt-tooled Mexican “cat's paw” calf binding, with a single chain roll used to accent the spine edges, form a center panel on each board, and connect the corners of those panels to the board corners; gilt flower “bouquets' spring into the panels from their corners, and a floral wheel graces each center. Spine slightly round, without raised bands; spine tooled with rules and devices in gilt to form seven compartments (no compartments left for lettering). All edges blue.

•  Palau 129542; Medina, Mexico, 5451; Beristain, II, p. 61.  Binding as above, lightly rubbed; gilt of spine faded and darkened, gilt on covers largely still bright. Plain endpapers, rear free one excised; hole to blank area of title-leaf neatly repaired a long time ago, just touching the tops of some printed letters and with the tiny losses restored in ink. Text remarkably clean. A volume beautifully printed, handsomely bound, and socially interesting. (40926)

Lake was “chaplain and tutor to the princesses Mary and Anne, daughters of James, duke of York” and originally wrote this “devotional manual . . . for his royal pupils” (ODNB).

Provenance: On front free endpaper in an 18th-century hand; “Wm. A. Put Bo[ugh]t of Nau Winkle & Co.”

•  ESTC T134200.   Contemporary acid-stained calf, round spine, no raised bands, gilt double-rules creating spine compartments, one with a red leather gilt title-label; front cover reattached using the long-fiber method. Light age-toning. A very nice copy.  (33142)

The work is now uncommon: Searches of WorldCat locateonly three U.S. institutions reporting ownership (the Universities of Kansas and Illinois and the Bridwell Library) and only a handful of additional European locations. This is an untrimmed copy, in contemporary wrappers.

•  Brooks 1297.   Contemporary plain paper wrappers, sunned with edges worn. Title-page with light foxing.  (40204)

Of particular interest are Lambert’s poems describing the sorrows of the post–Civil War South from a personal, intimate perspective and, without regard to race, the poems sympathetic to “fallen” or sinful women. Heavily held in institutions, especially those specializing in American poetry of the 19th century, her volume Poems is scarce in commerce.

•  Recent mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and publication labels. Two portraits (of the author and her sister) lacking; guard leaf from latter portrait remains, with ghostly offset imprint of image. Occasional small edge nicks; most pages clean, with the last few signatures moderately browned. An intriguing volume, and writer.  (27813)

The front page bears two vignettes of brunette beauties, one in the process of applying tonic and one with an impeccably arranged hairstyle.

•  Folded as issued, back page with upper outer corner bent and small nick to upper edge. Gently age-toned.  (29194)

Uncommon: WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956 locate only two U.S. institutional holdings of this 1671 edition, one of which was deaccessioned and is in fact this copy.

•  Contemporary mottled sheep framed in blind double fillets, recently rebacked with complementary calf, spine with raised bands and blind-tooled compartment decorations; edges and extremities rubbed, sides with old scuffs. Title-page and first text page with institutional perforation-stamp, title-page also with pencilled annotation as above, first text page with rubber-stamped numerals in lower margin, no other markings. Pages clean.  (31049)

The volume is illustrated witha frontispiece and eight engraved plates done by several different hands after artists including Tissot, Millais, Tenniel, Keene and others, with the frontispiece and title-page vignettes being particularly nice steel engravings done by Charles Henry Jeens from Tissot designs.

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

•  Publisher's brick-colored textured cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped vignette of a medieval lancer framed in gilt triple fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title; slightly cocked with front hinge a bit tender, edges and extremities rubbed, spine gently darkened. Top edge gilt. Binder's ticket of Burn & Co. on back pastedown. Pages and plates clean. An outstanding example of a quintessentially Victorian-era perspective on Celtic lore.  (38052)

Considerations on Slavery

Elizabeth Webb, "an acknowledged minister among the people called Quakers," first encountered Prince George of Denmark's chaplain Boehm while on a visit to Great Britain; the missive with which she opened her subsequent correspondence with him, here, greatly inspired him and a number of his friends.

Provenance: With inscription reading "Miss Hannah Amelia Moore / Book a Present from her worthy / Friend Ruth Patton / 1789."

•  Law: ESTC W32233; Evans 16817; Hildeburn 3987. Webb: ESTC W13440; Evans 18295; Hildeburn 4409. Benezet: ESTC W6416; Evans 18355. Contemporary quarter sheep over paper-covered sides, the whole worn and abraded but the little volume quite sound. Light age-toning, occasional darker spots. Small chip in bottom margin of title-page; one leaf with paper flaw in lower corner, resulting in the loss of a very few letters.  (10951)

•  Folded as issued. Very good condition.  (26013)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplate of Mrs. John Peebles of Portsmouth, OH; front free endpaper with inked inscription of Mary D. Willcox of Lawrenceville, NJ (dated 1906).

•  Brown, Culinary Americana, 3725 (giving second ed. only); not in Cagle & Stafford.   Publisher's oilcloth-covered boards, front cover with title stamped in blue; binding shaken and dust-soiled, cloth cracked along joints. Pages age-toned with occasional small spots of staining; two inked spelling corrections and one recipe quantity correction. Visually unprepossessing, but content-wise a treasure. (40995)

OCLC locates only one U.S. institutional holding of this novel.

•  Manne, Nouveau dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes, 162; Le Mayeur, Les Belges, 340.   Contemporary plain paper-covered boards, spine with hand-inked volume label; binding stained, spine rubbed with small insect hole. Vol. I only. Inner margin of title-page repaired with loss of first letter of publisher's information line. Faint spotting and staining; trimmed closely, often shaving pagination and signatures. As interesting to see how this was produced, as it is frustrating to be unable to finish the story!  (26937)

A woodcut headpiece opens each story in this printing, which is now uncommon: WorldCat findsonly one U.S. institution reporting a copy (Princeton) and just a handful of other locations, all in France.

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  Gumuchian 2337.   Appropriate plain lilac paper wrappers not original to the chapbook, these a little worn and chipped; old stitching holes in gutter margins and one signature separated. A clean, pleasing copy of a seldom-seen item. (40712)

•  Removed from a nonce volume. Wanting final leaf of advertisements. Light foxing and traces of soiling. Closely trimmed by the binder, with loss of last letters of lines on a few pages, but without loss of sense.  (9216)

adds a preliminary volume of background information on England's politics and economy during the 15 years prior to the start of the main history

•  NSTC 2M17389.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; vols. III and IV with spine heads chipped. Ex–social club library: paper shelving label on each spine head, call number on endpapers, title-pages and a few others rubber-stamped, no other markings. Light waterstaining to upper and lower inner portions of vols. I and II, upper only of vol. III; pages otherwise clean save for very faint age-toning. Paper a bit embrittled, with occasional short edge tears or corner chips, but the set quite suitable for use with reasonable care.  (28336)

Connie King writing in the Library Company of Philadelphia's Winter 2010 newsletter, New & Noteworthy, says of this work: “What makes this . . . tawdry book . . . [extra interesting] is its extra roles as a mail order catalog for condoms and as an advertisement for abortion services. By mailing 'Dr. Mauriceau' five dollars, one might buy a dozen condoms, and have them sent to 'any part of the United States' (p. 144). Only slightly more delicately does he offer his [or Ann Lohman's] services 'to effect miscarriage' at his office at 129 Liberty Street in New York City.”

•  Original publisher's fine grain dark blue cloth, covers stamped in blind, no lettering, spine sunned. A very nice copy of a famous “under the counter book.”  (40370)

•  Very good; light wear with some chipping around board edges. Hinges slightly tender. A few pages with small ink stains. Ownership inscription in pencil to front flyleaf. (1923)

Following the Omaggio poetico is the first appearance of Valperga di Caluso's Libellus carminum, 15 poems in Latin including one to his friend Alfieri, published (as was the former item) under the pseudonym the author preferred for his literary works.

According to Renouard's 1794 catalogue of Bodoni imprints, the edition of Omaggio poetico was limited to 210 copies; it is now relatively uncommon in the U.S., with the Turin-printed Libellus carminum even more so — a search of WorldCat fails to locateany American institutional holdings of the latter.

Binding:  Contemporary mottled calf; spine gilt-extra, with gilt-stamped red leather title-label, board edges with distinctive gilt roll. Stone pattern marbled paper endpapers; all edges carmine.

•  Brooks 458; De Lama, II, 74; Giani 28 (p. 44).   Bound as above: spine with spots of worming and head chipped, these affecting appearance remarkably little; otherwise light wear, small scuffs. Front and rear free endpapers with pencilled bibliographical annotations. One leaf with paper flaw in outer margin, not touching text. Of interest both for Bodoni's usual elegance in printing and for the contents' connections to some of the most eminent figures of Italian belles-lettres of the day. (40151)

Binding: Signed binding (with Bilbao’s ticket on front pastedown) of oxblood morocco, front and back covers framed in a wide gilt roll surrounding gilt-stamped coat of arms of Francesco de Assisi de Bourbon, Duc de Cadiz (consort to Isabella II of Spain); spine with four raised bands, compartments gilt extra, with author, title, and date gilt-stamped. Board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls; all page edges gilt; blue moiré endpapers.

Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of Maria Christina, Queen of Spain.

•  Palau 350495. Binding as above, showing light wear, spine slightly faded; pastedowns with some offsetting, endpapers with spots of foxing. Rare and attractive.  (5876)

•  Publisher's tan linen shelf-back with rust-colored boards. Boards lightly chipped. A very good copy.  (36591)

An extremely popular work (it went through 25 editions after its first appearance in 1771), the work describes the adventures of an unnamed man, who, after engaging in a heated discussion with a philosopher friend about the injustices of Paris, falls asleep and finds himself in a Paris of the future.

Though condemned by French and Spanish authorities andforbidden by the Inquisition, the work was nonetheless a roaring success in Europe, going through numerous editions in multiple languages — and serving as a groundbreaking, genre-defining example of a futuristic paradise set in a real-world location. The present example is an unidentified imprint of the greatly expanded three-volume text of 1786, followed by Mercier's allegorical L'homme de fer. Wilkie suggests that this “nouvelle édition avec figures" was printed by Changuion in Amsterdam; each of the three books of the main work opens with its own tipped-in engraved plate, making thisone of the earliest illustrated editions.

•  Wilkie, Mercier's L'An 2440, 1787. Not in Brunet, not in Graesse.   Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with raised bands, gilt-stamped leather title-label, and gilt-tooled compartment decorations; spine and edges much rubbed, with spine extremities chipped. Front and back pastedowns with traces of red wax adhesions; endpapers with offsetting from turn-ins. Minor age-toning throughout; one page with early inked annotation. Though battered, a solid, early, nicely illustrated example of this landmark work.  (38525)

WorldCat lists only three institutions reporting ownership this issue of this work (Kansas State University, Harvard-Schlesinger, Nicollete Country Historical). One was printed for the Ladies Circle of the Washington Street Baptist Church of Dover, NH, and the other for the Congregational Church of Granite Falls, MN.

•  Cook, America's Charitable Cooks, 233 (for PA edition only, not describing this MA printing). Not in Brown, Culinary Americana.   Original printed paper wrappers, detached and chipped, with spots of staining. Pages stained but very readable. A production that reflects an interesting point of development and the increasing professionalization of the originally amateurish charitable cookbook genre — with all regional variations of this item now being rather uncommon.  (38119)

250 recipes making use of slow cooking

•  Bitting 326 (for 1909 & 1911 eds.); Brown, Culinary Americana, 2637 (first ed. only). Not in Cagle & Stafford.   Publisher's dark green cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black with title and images of fireless cookers; mild rubbing to extremities, very faint scratches to back cover. Front hinge (inside) with small area of insect damage near head. A clean, solid copy.  (30292)

Each lithographed vessel for a beauty productdisplays a witty moral maxim behind a moveable flap (a concept that the Murrays may have adapted from the original 1821 London edition of The Toilet), providing the book's manipulator with emblematic instruction on true beauty, so that “A Wash to Smooth Wrinkles” is revealed as Contentment; “A Universal Beautifier” as Good Humor; “A Solution to Prevent Eruptions” as Moderation; and “An Elastic Girdle” as Benevolence — well, that's a stretch!

Each virtue is further described by rhyming couplet or two at the bottom of the page.

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

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 29838 (2nd ed.); Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 683 (n.d., ca. 1825).   In olive marbled wrappers; general rubbing, and small split to rear joint. Lacking one moveable flap (revealing Humility as “The Enchanting Mirror”); interior age-toned, foxing to endpapers, variable spots of staining to leaves, one corner turned in, hole to rear free endpaper. A modestly delightful example of a ladies' emblem book.  (39687)