(“A” is for “ALL STRIKING”).
[Busby, Thomas Lord]. Costume of the lower orders of the metropolis. [London: Samuel Leigh, ca. 1820]. 24mo (14.6 cm, 5.75"). Engr. t.-p., 23 col. plts. [SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Dress of the lower-class denizens of the streets of London, depicted in23 hand-colored plates: vibrant, expressive representations of characters including the ballad singer, the watchman, the chimney sweep, and the scissors grinder, along with sellers of matches, watercress, milk, mackerel — not to mention the raree showman, plus the (metaphorical?) horn-blower of the engraved title-page. Many sources attribute these plates to Thomas Busby, and the title-page is signed “T.L.B. ”; the images here are not identical to those in Busby's Costume of the Lower Orders of London, and Lipperheide hints that they might have been done by another hand inspired by Busby's work, with 13 of them differing in subject matter entirely. (In the same vein, these are not the images of Rowlandson's Characteristic Sketches of the Lower Orders, although the Lilly Library notes similarities between some of the designs here with those in Beall E40).
Binding: Signed 19th-century half brown morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges ruled in double gilt fillets, spine with gilt-stamped title and gilt-stamped decorations above and below two raised bands surrounding title. Top edge gilt. Front free endpaper stamped “Morrell binder.”
Provenance: Back pastedown with ticket of New York bookseller William Salloch; most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Lipperheide 1026. Not in Abbey, Life in England in Aquatint and Lithography; Beall, Cries and Itinerant Trades, E43. Bound as above; front board reattached, volume showing minimal wear otherwise. Some light offsetting to guard leaves; a few plates with small spots of minor foxing, plates otherwise pleasingly clean. Uncommon, with images both visually striking and sociologically intriguing. (39553)
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Murder by PoisonUnidentified
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
Click the images for enlargements.
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 containsimportant 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)
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
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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)
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PORTABLE STOICISM
Epictetus, & Jean-Baptiste Lefebvre de Villebrune, ed. [two lines in Greek, transliterated as] Epicteti Enchiridion [then] curante J.B. Lefebvre de Villebrune. Parisiis: Typis Philippi-Dionysii Pierres, Regis Typographi Ordinarii, 1782. Sq. 12mo (11.6 cm, 4.6"). [6], 8, 46 pp. [SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
First Villebrune edition, and nicely printed, we must say, by the Printer in Ordinary to the King. While perhaps not the rendition of Epictetus most acclaimed by scholars, Villebrune's was the one that graced Benjamin Franklin's library — the editor having sent Franklin several copies. This travel-sized Enchiridion is printed with wide margins inminiscule yet lovely Greek (with a preface in Latin); the half-title gives “Epicteti Enchiridion, sive totius philosophiae moralis epitome castigatissima.” Brunet notes that there were two issues, one with final notes and one without, this example being of the latter. The work is not widely held in either state, with WorldCat locatingonly two U.S. institutional holdings.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Brunet, II, 1013; Schweiger, I, 107; Wolf & Hayes, Library of Benjamin Franklin, 1000. 18th-century dark hunter green morocco framed in gilt triple fillets, board edges and turn-ins with gilt rolls, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt rules, and gilt compartment decorations; moderately worn overall, joints and extremities refurbished, spine rubbed and slightly browned. Red endpapers. All edges gilt. Pages gently age-toned, otherwise clean. What's technically known as “a sweetheart.” (38265)
An Early Victory forEqual Protection & Civil Rights: Rejecting Anti-Chinese Legislation
Field, Stephen J. The invalidity of the “Queue Ordinance” of the city and county of San Francisco. Opinion of the Circuit Court of the United States, for the district of California, in Ho Ah Kow vs. Matthew Nunan, delivered July 7th, 1879. San Francisco: J.L. Rice & Co., 1879. 8vo (23.3 cm, 9.2"). 43, [1] pp. $2800.00
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First edition: The case in which U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Johnson Field (acting as an individual jurist in district court) found that shaving male prisoners' heads, a punitive practice used particularly to discourage queue-wearing Chinese immigrants from serving jail time rather than paying fines for violating the 1870 Sanitary Ordinance, wasunconstitutional.
Following the opinion is an appendix providing “history of the legislation of the Supervisors of the city and county of San Francisco against the Chinese . . . compiled by one of the counsel in the above case [i.e., B.S. Brooks] from the records of the Supervisors and the newspapers of the city.” The text was printed from a revised copy, according to the title-page.
Publisher's printed paper wrappers; corners and edges chipped, paper partially lost over spine, front wrapper with short tear from outer edge (not touching text), back wrapper with outer edge shortened. The whole now housed in a quarter navy morocco clamshell case with deep blue cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-ruled raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Pages slightly age-toned. A landmark document of American Constitutional law. (34196)
“Whatever You Do, Junior, Don't Blow Up the House”
Grotz, Christopher. The art of making fireworks, detonating balls, &c. New York: Printed & published by S[olomon] King, 386 Broadway, 1822. 12mo (18 cm, 7"). 26 pp. [SOLD]
Click the images for enlargements.
Uncommon edition of a work teaching children how to blow themselves up. The extended title lays out in detail the mayhem the purchaser of this book could perpetrate, as “containing plain and easy directions for mixing and preparing the ingredients, and making and finishing the most simple devices in this ingenious art: together with how to make and fill air and fire balloons; and how to prepare and make detonating balls, spiders, segars, boots and shoes, Waterloo crackers, &c.”
The first American appearance in 1821 came from the same publisher as this second American edition, but was printed by W. Grattan. That printing had a colored frontispiece not found here and not called for by Shoemaker, nor by the cataloguing for the copy recorded in NUC Pre-1956.
This edition is not listed in WorldCat and the copy noted in Shoemaker & NUC (at Harvard) is not found via its OPAC. Of the 1821 edition we locate only five copies (Yale, Free Library of Philadelphia, U.S. Patent Office, Essex Institute, and the American Antiquarian Society).
Provenance: From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Shoemaker 8903; Rink, Technical Americana, 3185 (erroneously calling for a plate and erroneously locating a copy at the Free Library of Philadelphia). Late 20th-century quarter red morocco with green stone-pattern paper sides. Small area of lower outside corner of title-leaf torn away and nicely repaired. Pages gently age-toned, with spots of mild to moderate soil, staining, and foxing. (38527)
Stern warnings regarding venereal disease, masturbation, premature sexual activity, and other sex-related issues — with much of the book making dire insinuations regarding the reader's potential ill-health, as well as the likelihood that any practitioner other than Dr. Hayes will make the reader's woes even worse. The volume opens with a folding reproduction of a certificate commemorating the alleged presentation of “the most beautiful and expensive gold and jewelled medal ever conferred upon any one, be he prince or potentate” (p. xii) to Hayes by three (seemingly nonexistent) officers of the National Medical Association; the three other plates depict two views of the medal itself, and “Victims of Self-Abuse, and Their Offspring.” At the back are a list of medicines and how to formulate them, as well as testimonials to Hayes's miraculous curative abilities. First published in 1868, this popular treatise appears here in a surprisingly flashy binding for its subject.
Binding: Publisher's very bright blue cloth, front cover with overall oak-and-acorn and geometric pattern stamped in gilt and black, with decorative title and sun vignette, spine similar. All edges gilt.
Binding as above, slightly cocked, extremities lightly rubbed; sewing of first signature loosening. Four leaves with short tear in upper margin, not touching text; several more creased across one corner; one page with light smudges, pages otherwise clean. A simultaneously disturbing and amusing look at quack medicine of the 19th century. (35120)
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Holbein’s Dance of Death — HIS ALPHABET with “New” Borders
Holbein, Hans. L'alphabet de la mort de Hans Holbein entouré de bordures du XVIe siècle et suivi d'anciens poëmes français sur le sujet de trois mors et des trois vis publiés d'après les manuscrits par Anatole de Montaiglon. Paris: Edwin Tross, 1856. 8vo (21.8 cm, 8.625"). [96] pp.; illus. $450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Tross's careful and elegant 19th-century edition: The Dance of Death concept experienced a revival in French Romantic literature of the era and the main text here, in French and Latin, is prefaced by Anatole de Montaiglon's introduction (in French). The reproductions of Holbein's initials were done by Heinrich Loedel, and each page is given anexquisite death-themed, wood-engraved border by Léon le Maire after designs from a Book of Hours printed by Simon Vostre. The alphabet is represented (excluding J and U) by magnificent engraved historiated letters, five of which are repeated.
Binding: Chocolate brown morocco, covers framed and panelled in blind with gilt-tooled corner fleurons and gilt strapwork central medallions; spine with blind-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped title and date and cover fleurons repeated in compartments; turn-ins with wide composite gilt rolls. All edges gilt; striking and distinctive marbled endpapers. Signed by binder L. Claessens with tiny stamp in roll on lower front turn-in.
Provenance: From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Bound as above and in lovely condition; extremely minor spots of rubbing and scraping to boards, one raised band with a short cut(?) and a sliver of leather lost. An overall wonderful copy of this beautiful reprint. (37923)
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Janus Press Edition — Signed by Poet & Photographer
Kinnell, Galway. The Seekonk woods. Concord, NH: Pr. at the Janus Press for William B. Ewert, 1985. 8vo (26.7 cm, 10.5"). [12] pp.; 3 plts. [SOLD]
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First book-form printing of this poem, following its initial appearance in TheNew Yorker; its Rhode Island–born author (1927–2014) was often compared to Walt Whitman, and this piece highlights his signature earthiness. The text is illustrated with three full-page photographs by Lotte Jacobi, selected from her archive at the University of New Hampshire and printed from the original negatives.
The text was designed by Claire Van Vliet, set by hand in Trump Mediaeval, and printed by Van Vliet and Christy Bertelson on Barcham Green Tovil paper at the Janus Press in West Burke, VT.
This isnumbered copy 102 of a total of 170 printed, signed at the colophon by both Kinnell and Jacobi.
Fine, The Janus Press 1981–1990, 40/41. Publisher's natural buckram, spine with printed paper label. A crisp, clean copy. (35933)
“The Conveyancers Light” — Pleasing Property Law Provenance
(Legal “Presidents”). H., J. The compleat clark, and scriveners guide. Containing exact draughts and presidents of all manner of assurances and instruments now in use. London: Pr. by T.R. for H. Twyford, N. Brookes, J. Place, & R. Wingate, 1655. 4to (22.5 cm, 8.9"). Add. engr. t.-p., [8], 664, [16 (index)] pp. [SOLD]
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Uncommon first edition of this guide to conveyancing for the 17th-century legal practitioner. The additional engraved title-page (signed by Fross) gives the title “The Conveyancers Light or Exact Presidents for All Manner of Instruments and Conveyances as They Have Occasionally Beene Composed by the Advice of Many Eminent Lawyers Both Antient & Moderne”; the bulk of the volume is dedicated to providing actual examples of documents such as “a Covenant to suffer a Recovery of Copy-hold Land by a Plaint in a Court Baron, after the order of a Recovery at the Common Law” (p. 321) as well as texts for wills, warrants, debt collections, “very good” mortgages, etc. ESTC and WorldCat locate only 10 U.S. institutional holdings of this useful and important reference work — now, also, an interesting work of social history.
Evidence of Readership: An early hand has crossed out the “and Scriveners” line on the title-page and added “conveyancers,” similarly altering the title at the head of the first chapter. Two instances of early inked annotations in outer margins and one additional text supplied in an early hand at the bottom of the last text page; one phrase lined through and a few underlined.
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of Eric Poole, almost certainly the law professor who published English Property Law.
ESTC R205341; Wing (rev. ed.) C5633; Sweet & Maxwell 480. 19th-century half vellum and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands; paper slightly faded and rubbed, back cover with paper repaired along spine and marbling pattern painted ( with impressive care) onto repair. Pages age-toned, with portions notably darkened and spotted; first and last sections with edges tattered, pinhole wormwork or slim tracking in lower margin of most leaves, and one leaf with short tear from upper margin touching header. Front pastedown with bookplate as above. (34732)
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The Baron withHand-Colored Plates
[Raspe, Rudolf Erich]; Alfred Crowquill [pseud. of Alfred Henry Forrester], illus. The travels and surprising adventures of Baron Munchausen. New York: James Miller, 1864. 12mo (17.7 cm, 7"). Col. frontis., col. t.-p., 251, [1] pp.; 8 col. plts., illus. [SOLD]
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Rudolph Erich Raspe's dauntless Baron is presented here withten vibrant, hand-colored plates by English artist Alfred Henry Forrester (1804–72), credited under his pseudonym, “Alfred Crowquill.” The plates, which include a frontispiece and title-page, bring to life some of the Baron's most well-known adventures, such as confronting lions, falling from the moon, and riding a half-horse. The text is also embellished with in-text illustrations and decorative initials.
The German writer anonymously introduced the nobleman, Baron Munchausen, in 1785 based on a real-life baron, Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen, who was known for telling inflated versions of his exploits. His fictional Baron also entertains by narrating his implausible adventures.
Binding: Textured blue cloth, front board with corner maple leaves in blind and elaborate gilt center medallion with lettering. On the spine, the Baron appears to be cutting the rope he's hanging onto that dangles from the Moon, with a lion and alligator waiting underneath him. Undoubtedly he'll come out alive!
Bound as above; mild rubbing to extremities and rear board, spine cocked very slightly. Some occasional light foxing and general age-toning to interior. Fantastic fun for lovers of adventure and art. (39527)
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LEC: 50 Rilke Poems
Rilke, Rainer Maria. Selected poems of Rainer Maria Rilke. New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1981. 8vo (24.2 cm, 9.5"). xxxiii, [1], 129, [3] pp.; illus. $75.00
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The Limited Editions Club takes on “Germany's greatest modern poet”: 50 poems from Rilke's early career, selected, translated, and annotated by Carlyle Ferren MacIntyre, with a preface by Harry T. Moore. The poems areprinted in English and German on facing pages, with mutedly melancholy, gray-toned, stippled full-page and in-text illustrations (four of the former, six of the latter) done by Robert Kipniss and lithographed by George C. Miller & Son. Katy Homans designed the volume; the text was printed in Dante type (both roman and italic) on Mohawk eggshell wove paper, and the binding was done by A. Horowitz & Son.
This is numbered copy 1063 of 2000 printed, signed at the colophon by the artist. The appropriate LEC newsletter is laid in.
Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 518. Publisher's quarter navy buckram and light blue paper–covered boards, spine with author stamped in silver, in original matching slipcase; slipcase showing minor shelfwear with spine and edges gently sunned, volume spine likewise gently sunned, otherwise crisp and solid. (37247)
Shape book in the form of pansies gold and purple: A promotion of Hood's Sarsaparilla, following one page dedicated to tips on growing pansies. The sales spiel is illustrated withsteel-engraved views and vignettes printed in dark blue and dark green. A tipped-in slip advertises B.F. Taylor's general merchandise store in Wheelock, VT.
Publisher's half-tone color-printed paper wrappers as above, with a river scene glowing in the “eye” of one of the pansies; spine rubbed, one tiny spot of staining or fading near front upper edge. Pages gently age-toned. A patent medicine give-away not, originally, meant to be much less ephemeral than the little flower it celebrates. (36568)
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An Arte of Substantial Value — An Amazing Acrostic — A Woman Printer
Tapia Zenteno, Carlos de. Arte novissima de lengua Mexicana. Mexico: por la Viuda de D. Joseph Bernardo de Hogal, 1753. Small 4to (20.5 cm, 8.125"). [10] ff., 58 pp., plus acrostic leaf. [SOLD]
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Dr. H. de Leon-Portilla describes this book as a “breve compendio gramatical de prosodia y morfologia solamente. En los cinco capitulos en que está dividido el libro, el autor pasa revista a la fonetica, y las partes de la oracion.” Of additional interest to scholars of colonial literature are the Latin epigram and a Spanish acrostic poem (both by Dr. Miguel José Moche, Vice-Rector of the Pontificio y Real Colegio Seminario, with the latter piece in the form of two concentric wheels) near the end of the preliminaries. Tapia Zenteno was not only an important Mexican linguist and professor of Mexican languages at the Royal University, but also a Comisario of theInquisition.
A work from the famousHogal press, this volume was produced under the supervision ofJosé Bernardo's widow, Rosa Teresa de Poveda, one of the famous “widow printers” of colonial Mexico. The acrostic leaf is a marvelous display of innovative use of the compositor's case to stand in for the engraver's burin! But the preliminaries do sport a fine engraving, as well; this is of the coat of arms of Manuel Rubio Salinas, the archbishop of Mexico, and the work of Antonio Moreno.
Binding: Contemporary Mexican acid-stained sheep, gilt wave roll used to create spine compartments with gilt star in five of the compartments and a gilt red leather label in the sixth.
Provenance: Contemporary signature of José Mata on title-page; 19th- or early 20th-century stamp of the Redemptorist house in Cuernava: “Domus Cuernavacensis, C.SS.R. ”
Medina, Mexico, 142; H. de Leon Portilla, Tepuztlahcuilolli, 2693; Palau 327485; Sabin 94353; Garcia Icazbalceta, Lenguas, 74; Vinaza 334; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3600. Not in Ugarte, Obras escritas en lenguas indigenas de Mexico. Bound as above with edges and joints rubbed, sides lightly scuffed, spine with label chipped and extremities pulled; text block skewed in binding. Modern paper at end to pad the binding where a second text was removed; new rear endpapers. Some captions and catchwords (more of the former) affected but never taken by the binder's knife, with some sidenotes touched also; acrostic leaf closely cropped at bottom, costing a small arc of the circle but nothing else. Foxing and staining, never severe but noteworthy in margins of four early leaves; light soiling. An early hand has inked indexing indicia in the margins of three pages, to aid in finding passages of interest. Very good. (39574)
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“The Bat . . . Is a Murderous Plaything”
“Thine, Bawlingly.” Something for the admirers of base ball. New York: Glenn Horowitz, 1990. 16mo (21.5 cm, 8.5"). 12, [4] pp.; illus. $125.00
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Dedicated to the memory of Bart Giamatti and reprinted from the Salem Register of 15 August 1867: a comic account of the trials and tribulations of the game of baseball in its formative years. This is one of 150 copies printed at the Kelly/Winterton Press.
Publisher's paper wrappers. A fresh, clean copy. (37134)
United States Patent Office. [binding title] “Patents on copper printing rolls.” [Washington]: 1876–1904. 8vo (28.8 cm, 11.35"). [68] pp.; 36 plts. [SOLD]
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A lawyer's gathering of 25 important British and U.S. patents related to technological developments in printing, dating from 1876 through 1904. The patents here include “Engraving-Machine” and various specifications on the Pantograph (by John Hope, of the Hope & Sons textile printing company, whose “pantograph engraving machine . . . revolutionized the business of roll-engraving,” Bicknell, History of the State of Rhode Island, 141), “Phototypography” (by Hannibal Goodwin, famed for later inventing roll film), and “Calico-Printing Machine” (by James Blair, the Scottish inventor of the aforementioned roller). Also represented is John Jacobson, holder of several photographic patents, and British engraver Gabriel Raphael Hugon.
The patent record copies are accompanied by36 plates illustrating the various devices. Atyped index is stitched in at the front; the title given above comes from this volume's spine label.
A full list of contents is available upon enquiry.
Provenance: Front and back pastedown each with rubber-stamp of A. Bell Malcolmson, attorney and counsellor at law; final page with pencilled annotation: “Bind for Mr. Malcolmson.” Malcolmson is recorded as having been involved, in 1908, with a case regarding patent infringement of a method for duplicating typewritten work.
Contemporary tan cloth, spine with gilt-stamped red leather title-label; cloth spotted and moderately discolored, extremities and spine label lightly rubbed. Preliminary index pages, of onion skin, each with short tear from outer margin; one text leaf with small chip to upper margin; some leaves creased; occasional pencilled annotations and marks of emphasis. (30399)
Life WentSeriously Wrong beginning in Her Mid-Teens
Watkins, Lucy. Helen Beresford, or the child of misfortune. London: Printed & sold by Dean & Munday, [1811–37?]. 12mo (18 cm, 7"). Frontis., engr. title-leaf, pp. [7]–54. [SOLD]
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Watkins' melodramatic chapbook tale takes us from young innocence through joy, infidelity, abandonment, depravity, and ultimately, death. This is rightfully subtitled “An original & pathetic narrative.”
Thehand-colored engraved frontispiece shows Helen stabbing a man in a street and the hand-colored title-page vignette depicts her in a mean alleyway begging heaven for food.
Provenance: From the collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
NUC and WorldCat locate only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership (IEN, NhD, NjP, CtY).
20th-century quarter red morocco with marbled paper sides; spine and joints lightly rubbed. Front free endpaper with faded merchant's rubber-stamp in upper outer corner. Last lines on pp. 21, 25, and 26 closely cropped with loss of parts of some letters and of a few words; priced accordingly. A nice survivor, and a rather fun ~ if still sad and occasionally quite shocking ~ read. (39821)
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(Worcester, Edward Somerset, Marquis of). The earl of Glamorgans negotiations and colourable commitment in Ireland demonstrated; Or, the Irish plot for bringing ten thousand men and arms into England, whereof three hundred to be for Prince Charls's Lifegard. Discovered in several letters taken in a packet-boat by Sir Tho: Fairfax forces at Padstow in Cornwal; which letters were cast into the sea, and by the sea coming in, afterwards regained; and were read in the Honorable House of Commons, and ordered to be printed. London: Edward Husband, 1645. 4to (19 cm, 7.5"). 35, [1] pp. $950.00
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False news, conspiracy theories, and fears of alien invasion seem to have always been with us — they were definitely alive and well in England during the era of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and are on display in their full regalia in this pamphlet from the ever-reliable author “Anonymous.”
ESTC R200673; Wing (rev. ed.) W3533. Quarter red morocco with French-swirl marbled paper sides and gilt spine lettering; binding signed (with small rubber-stamp on verso of front free endpaper) by the Macdonald Company of New York. Leather of joints lightly rubbed in places. Text soiled/stained throughout; fore- and top margins of all leaves with repairs to areas of lost paper, not affecting sidenotes; in all, Good. (37988)
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