
AMERICANA TO 1820
A-B Bibles C-E F-J
K-M N-Q R-S T-V W-Z
[
]
Highlights of the New World
for
Youthful Edification & Entertainment
Taylor, Isaac. Scenes in America, for the amusement and instruction of little tarry-at-home travellers. London: J. Harris & Son (pr. by H. Bryer), 1821. 12mo (17 cm, 6.69"). viii, 122, [2 (adv.)] pp.; fold. map, 28 plts.
$425.00
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First edition: a view of the Americas intended to engage juvenile readers. These scenes were written and illustrated by the Rev. Isaac Taylor (1759–1829), a nonconformist minister who, like his father, was an accomplished engraver. The stories — and accounts of creatures such as beavers and rattlesnakes — come from South, Central, and North America, including items from Mexico, Canada, and Patagonia; strong abolitionist themes are notable, and sympathy for indigenous peoples abused by conquering invaders, although also present are underlying assumptions that English ways are sanest and most logical. The text is
illustrated with 28 copper-engraved plates laid out in double-page spreads, each side of the opening with three images, as issued uncolored in this copy.
Provenance: Half-title with inked inscription of M.A. Nelson, dated 1821; most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.
Osborne Collection, p. 190; Opie H 140; Gumuchian 5535; Sabin 94469. Publisher's printed tan paper–covered sides with red roan shelfback, hinges (inside) tender; sides dust-darkened, spine and extremities rubbed with leather chipped and cracking. Interior with expectable age-toning and foxing/spotting, and title-page with some offsetting from map; map in good sturdy condition.
Overall a very reasonable, indeed attractive copy of this first edition. (41180)

Early American Edition: German Reformed Hymnal
Tersteegen, Gerhardt. Geistliches Blumen-Gärtlein inniger Seelen; oder Kurze Schluss-Reimen, Betrachtungen und Lieder, ueber allerhand Wahrheiten des inwendigen Christenthums; zur Erweckung, Stärkung und Erquickung in dem verborgenen Leben mit Christo in Gott; nebst der Frommen Lotterie. Germantaun: Gedruckt und zu finden bey Peter Leibert, 1791. 12mo (14 cm, 5.5"). [12], 126, [20], 127–534, [8] pp. (pagination erratic, several pages out of order).
$500.00
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Gerhardt Tersteegen (1697–1769) was a pillar of German pietism, a popular and innovative poet noted for his use of free verse, and (along with Joachim Neander) one of the two most significant German hymnographers of the 18th century. First published in 1729, his “Spiritual Flower Garden for Ardent Souls” contains “end-rhymes,” “meditations,” and hymns. The first American edition appeared in 1747; this is the fourth.
Evans 23823; ESTC W21016; Arndt & Eck 805. Contemporary mottled sheep, covers framed in blind, with remnants of original clasp, spine with later gilt-stamped leather title and publication labels; leather mildly rubbed, spine leather with small cracks, spine and joints unobtrusively repaired. Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription dated 1835; afterwards, ex–theological library: Old-fashioned bookplate on front pastedown, title-page pressure-stamped, pocket on back pastedown. Pagination erratic; several pages appearing out of order. A few corners bumped or dog-eared; a good many sections moderately browned and stained as is commonly seen with these Germantown imprints. (27905)

Classic Illustrated German
BOTANICAL GUIDE — Some Early Hand-Coloring
Theodorus, Jacobus, called Tabernaemontanus. Neu vollkommen Kräuter-Buch: Darinnen uber 3000 Kräuter, mit schönen und kunstlichen Figuren, auch deren Underscheid und Würckung samt ihren Namen in mancherley Sprachen beschrieben: dessgleichen auch wie dieselbige in allerhand Kranckheiten beyde der Menschen und des Viehs, sollen angewendet und gebraucht werden angezeigt wird. Basel: Johann Ludwig König, 1731. Folio (38.4 cm, 15.1"). 3 vols. in 1. [12], 663, [5], 665–1529, [97 (index)] pp.; illus.
$2500.00
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Massive German pre-Linnaean herbal, printed largely in black letter and copiously illustrated. The first portion was originally published by Theodorus, an accomplished physician and botanist, in 1588, and the second by Caspar Bauhin in 1613 after Theodorus's death; this is the fifth edition of the enduringly popular completed work, additionally enlarged by Caspar and Jean Bauhin.
As the title boasts, some
3000 plants are described herein — including, among the Americana, tobacco, New World gourds and melons, and “Indian corn” — many among which are illustrated with attractive woodcuts reproduced from Bock, Fuchs, Mattioli, and others.
53 of the numerous illustrations have been hand-colored in a pleasing and competent but not professional style, in naturalistic hues of green, brown, blue, yellow, red, violet, and charcoal. There does not appear to be any immediately obvious pattern underlying which illustrations have been selected for this coloring!
Nissen 1931; Pritzel 9093. Contemporary mottled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and small paper shelving label, joints cracked; much abraded and acid-pitted, leather chipped along spine and lost at spine extremities, free endpapers lacking, the whole holding. Mild to moderate foxing, some corners bumped, about 40 leaves with small area of worming in lower margin. Limited area of light waterstaining across gutter, up into text but typically not far, from p. 197 on, this rising higher and approaching “moderate” at ca. p. 1350 and darkest/largest to last leaves and register; variously light waterstain additionally across upper outer corner from ca. p. 1000 with some leaves at rear in register showing this along full length. Two leaves (423/24, 429/30) with outer margins trimmed short, possibly tipped in from another copy; first two leaves of second volume with outer margins slightly ragged; one leaf with long tear from upper margin, passing through one illustration without loss; one leaf with very small burn mark in between columns, just touching one letter; one leaf with tear from outer margin extending into text, without loss.
A worn and aged but still appealing, venerable, and entirely usable copy, with the added interest of contemporary coloring. (36429)
Considering
the
A--------n
R---------n
Thickell, Richard. Anticipation: containing the substance of
His M------y's most gracious speech to both h-----s of P----l-----t, on the opening of the approaching
session.... London: Pr. for T. Becket, 1778. 8vo. vi pp., [1] f., 74 pp. .
$325.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
Although this is labelled “Second Edition,” it is printed from the same setting of type as the first edition. (Another edition of 1778, also labelled “Second Edition,” is indeed entirely reset and has a shorter collation.) The work attempts to convey the substance of several Parliamentary speeches concerning the American controversy, with at least one Cassandra saying the Franco-American alliance cannot last, and another doubting the war can have any lasting effect on the British economy.
Adams, American Controversy, 78-102b; Sabin 95788. Sewn, later wrappers applied; some foxing. Four leaves chipped along the outer margin, not affecting text. Without the final blank (only); with the half-title. A very good, clean copy. (25497)
Thomas, Joseph. A poetical descant on the primeval and present state of mankind; or, the pilgrim’s muse. Winchester, Va.: A. Foster, pr., 1816. 12mo (13 cm; 5.25"). 219, [1 (errata)] pp.
$850.00
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Somebody had to be North Carolina’s first native born poet and the task/honor was Joseph Thomas’s, and he did it with A Poetical Descant! It is scarce, having been printed in small format in a small town by a very small-time printer for a rather small audience. Thomas’s other publications include a hymnal and short works of theology (totally fitting given that he was an itinerant preacher), and an autobiography.
Wegelin, American Poetry, 1168; Shaw & Shoemaker 39076. Recent quarter cloth with blue-green paper sides, in the style of early 19th-centry American books. Ex–mercantile library with a few stamps, including on title-page. Two letters of title abraded and mostly invisible, yet, still, a clean copy. (10217)

BEWICK-Illustrated HERBAL
Thornton, Robert John. A new family herbal: Or popular account of the natures and properties of the various plants used in medicine, diet, and the arts. London: Richard Phillips (pr. by Richard Taylor & Co.), 1810. 8vo (24.1 cm, 9.5"). xvi, 901, [1 (adv.)] pp.; illus.
$850.00
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First edition: “A more complete and perfect herbal than has hitherto appeared . . . intended to unite the various advantages that have been derived to science from [Andrew Duncan's] 'Edinburgh New Dispensatory'” (p. vii). Compiled by an English physician and botanist remembered for his magnificent Temple of Flora, the present pharmaceutical treatise lists and describes the uses of 283 plants
illustrated with 261 wood engravings by Thomas Bewick. According to Johnston, this represents Bewick's “only attempt at botanical wood engravings,” based on designs by Peter Charles Henderson. Dr. Thornton was the author of A Grammar of Botany and The Philosophy of Botany, as well as The Temple of Flora,
In addition to the expectable lavender, chaste tree, burdock, lungwort, etc., also present here are discussions of Chinese smilax, coffee, tea, the Peruvian bark tree, ginseng, sarsaparilla, pimento (“Jamaica Pepper”), and tobacco.
Provenance: Front cover with gilt-stamped armorial device of Dr. Alfred Freer of Stourbridge, Worcestershire: out of a ducal coronet, an antelope's head.
NSTC T941; Hugo, Bewick Collector, 253; Johnston, Cleveland Herbal, Botanical, and Horticultural Collections, 745; Nissen 1954; Pritzel 9238; Rohde, Old English Herbals, 224 (listing Crosby ed. only). Contemporary calf, covers framed in blind roll and single gilt fillet, spine with blind-tooled compartment decorations; binding rubbed and scuffed overall, spine label now absent with traces remaining, repair work to splits in spine leather and to short tear from inner margin of front free endpaper, joints and extremities refurbished. Front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription (“C.M.W.”) dated 1912. Dedication tipped in. Pages gently age-toned with scattered foxing; small inkstain to upper fore-edge of first 30 ff., barely extending onto pages. One contents leaf with short tear (just touching text, without loss) and old repair in lower outer corner. A now solid, even rather distinguished-looking copy of a desirable pharmacopeia
exquisitely illustrated. (36043)

Feuding Friends & Jesuit's Bark
Torti, Francesco. Ad criticam dissertationem De abusu chinae chinae Mutinensibus medicis perperam objecto a clarissimo quondam viro Bernardino Ramazzino. Mutinae: Typis Bertholomaei Soliani, 1715. 8vo (23 cm, 9"). viii, 191, [1] pp.
$750.00
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Torti, a professor in the University of Modena, was the first to systematically study
the effect of cinchona in the treatment of malaria. He recommended the use of the drug for a period of eight days beyond the febrile stage of malaria and in 1712 published Therapeutice specialis ad febres quasdam perniciosas, inopinatò, ac repentè lethales, una verò china china, peculiari methodo ministrata, sanabiles, which pushed that advice and seriously displeased his senior colleague Bernardino Ramazzini, who in 1714 took Torti to task in his De abusu chinae chinae.
The present work is Torti's reply to Ramazzini's De abusu chinae chinae. Needless to say the Modena University colleagues and friends were soon erstwhile friends.
Blake, NLM 18th Century, p. 455; Alden & Landis 715/174; Waring, Bibliotheca therapeutica, I, 341. 18th-century quarter vellum with block-printed paper sides; outside lower corner of front board bent but not breaking. Internally a very good copy. (40092)

A Big Book Documenting a Big Era
Trevor-Roper, Hugh, ed. The age of expansion: Europe and the world 1559–1660. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., © 1968. Folio. 360 pp.; col. illus.
$25.00
“Three themes dominate the period covered by this book . . . the consolidation of the new nation-states . . . religious persecution and the wars between Catholic and Protestant . . . the expansion of Europe over the whole world” (from the dust-jacket).
The volume is extensively illustrated in color and black-and-white; this is a work of art reference as well as historical reference.
Publisher's terra-cotta cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title, corners bumped yet cloth pristine, in dust-jacket; wrapper with wear at corners and spine extremities, one short edge tear to upper front edge. Pages age-toned; clean and unmarked. (26183)

Owned by (At Least) Two American Doctors
Trotter on “Nervous Diseases”
Trotter, Thomas. A view of the nervous temperament; being a practical inquiry into the increasing prevalence, prevention, and treatment of those diseases commonly called nervous, bilious, stomach & liver complaints; indigestion; low spirits, gout, &c. Troy, NY: Wright, Goodenow, & Stockwell (colophon: Salem, NY: Pr. by J.P. Reynolds), 1808. 12mo (17.5 cm, 6.89"). 338, [2] pp.
$275.00
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First American edition of this comprehensive overview of Georgian thought on physical, mental, environmental, and inherited causes of “nervous diseases,” as well as their cures. Written by a Scottish naval surgeon (and poet), this influential treatise — first published in London in the previous year — addresses the interconnectivity of mind and body as well as questions of gender, class, and urbanization; it is
one of the earliest books on psychiatric concerns printed in the United States.
Provenance: Title-page with affixed printed slip of Alfred Baylies (1787–1873) of Taunton, MA, an eminent physician after whom a local Masonic lodge was named; one text page with his now-faint inked ownership inscription. Most recently in the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., one of the nation's leading forensic psychiatrists and a director of Penn's Center for Studies in Social-Legal Psychiatry, sans indicia.
Shaw & Shoemaker 16348; Austin, Early American Medical Imprints, 1929. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped green leather title-label; spine and edges rubbed, front joint just starting from head with binding sturdy and holding well. Moderate foxing throughout. One leaf with a small hole, not touching text; one leaf with paper flaw running through text without affecting legibility.
A solid copy in its original binding, with nice provenance. (41514)

Party Strife!
New York State Senate 1806
“Uniform Republican, A”. Broadside. Begins, “To the Republican electors of the Western District. Fellow-citizens, At the same time that a bold and aspiring faction at the seat of government of the United States, is making the most daring and unprincipled attack upon the president and the friends of his administration, we find another faction actuated by the same motives, and impelled by the same spirit, commencing an attack upon the administration of this state.” New York state: no publisher/printer, [1806?]. Folio (vertical chain lines; 41 cm, 16.5"). [1] f. (verso blank).
$975.00
A wall posting of the so-called “Lewisites” or “Quids,” the faction of the Democratic-Republican party that supported Gov. Morgan Lewis of New York against the faction led by New York City Mayor DeWitt Clinton. It is a direct reply to a handbill circulated by “A Republican of 1776,” who assailed the character of three candidates for State Senate in the Western District, Evans Wharry, Freegift Patchin, and Joseph Annin.
Much of the text presents a defense of the incorporation of the Merchants' Bank. Printed in triple columns.
Rare: We fail to trace any copies via OCLC; only one holding listed in Shaw & Shoemaker.
Shaw & Shoemaker 11490. As issued, with old folds, edges slightly irregular. Two tiny holes within text, at the point where two folds intersect, and costing only a portion of two letters. Fingernail-sized stain. Four words have been redacted by the previous owner in ink, but can still be easily read. (24636)

The First Anglo-Dutch War, New Amsterdam, Prisoner Exchanges, & Much More
United Provinces of the Netherlands. Verbael gehouden door de Heeren H. van Beverningk, W. Nieupoort, J. van de Perre, en A.P. Jongestal, als gedeputeerden ... van de heeren Staeten generael der Vereenigde Nederlanden, aen de republyck van Engelandt. Gravenhage: By Hendrick Scheurleer, 1725. 4to (25.5 cm; 10"). xx, 416, 415–518, 517–716 pp.
$725.00
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We have here the minutes of negotiations between Dutch ambassadors and the English Republic regarding the First Anglo-Dutch War, various commercial disputes, and matters in North America, 1653–54. The documents are chiefly in Dutch, but some are in English, French, or Latin; for example pp. 198–214 contain a draft in English followed by one in Latin “of Articles of Union, Peace and Confederation to be made between the Common-Wealth of England and the States General of the United-Province of the Neitherlands [sic].”
Muller notes that this account “chiefly” concerns New-Netherland and that “it contains all the speeches and reports”; Asher adds that the information here is “not to be found in the letters of the Pensionary J. de Witt and other ministers.”
Provenance: 20th-century bookplate of J.W. Six; later in the collection of Frank Marshall Vanderhoof (American scholar, university librarian, private collector; 1919–2005).
Alden & Landis, European Americana, 725/147; Asher, Dutch books and pamphlets, 335; Sabin 98926; Frederik Muller, America (1872 catalogue), 1100. Contemporary Dutch vellum over boards, round spine, raised bands, blind rules on covers, center cartouche blind-embossed. The usual foxing and browning found in so many copies. Solid, attractive, and a very good copy. (35777)

The American Flag — Sole Edition
United States. Congress. House. Report of the select committee appointed on the 12th ult. to inquire into the expediency of altering the flag of the United States. January 2, 1817, read, and ordered to be printed. [Washington]: no publisher/printer, [1817]. 12mo. 3 pp.
$975.00
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Sole printing of the committee report that led to the adoption of the composition of the U.S. flag as 13 stripes to represent the original colonies and one white star on the blue field for each state fully admitted to the union.
A landmark piece of Americana.
Shaw & Shoemaker 42734. Removed from a nonce volume and now in modern boards covered with blue paper, and with a red leather gilt label on the front cover. Very good copy. (34955)

Abolishing “Traffick” Proposing “Colinization”
United
States. Congress.
[drop-title] Joint resolution for abolishing the traffick in slaves, and
colinization [sic] of the free people of colour of the United States.
February 11, 1817. Read, and committed to a committee of the whole House on
Monday next. [Washington: William A. Davis, 1817]. 8vo. 2 pp.
$100.00
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Resolution authorizing the president to negotiate with foreign governments to abolish the slave trade and to negotiate with Great Britain to establish a colony in Sierra Leone for free blacks. Government document: House document (United States. Congress. House); 14th Congress, 2nd session, no. 77. Printed at head of title: [77].
Shaw & Shoemaker 42596; Library Company, Afro-Americana, 10583. Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly pencilled librarian's notation on p. [1]. Very mild foxing. (18436)
(AGAIN??) Back to Africa?!
United States. Congress. [drop-title] Report on colonizing the free people of colour of the United States. February 11, 1817. Read, and committed to a committee of the whole House on Monday next. [Washington: William A. Davis, 1817]. 8vo. 5 pp.
$200.00
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An early document of the American Colonization Society, founded in December 1816. Concerns the feasibility of negotiating with Great Britain to establish a colony of free blacks in Sierra Leone. Government document: House document (United States. Congress. House); 14th Congress, 2nd session, no. 78. Printed at head of title: [78].
Shaw & Shoemaker 42738; Library Company, Afro-Americana, 10602. Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly pencilled librarian's notation on p. [1]. Leaves separated. (18440)

North Carolinians . . . Petition Congress
United States. Congress. House. Committee of Commerce and Manufactures. Report of the Committee of Commerce and Manufactures, to whom were referred...petitions of sundry merchants, traders and farmers on the waters of Roanoke and Cashie Rivers...together with a report thereon, made...January 12, 1807. City of Washington: A. & G. Way, 1807. 8vo. 7 pp., fold. table.
$250.00
United
States. Congress.
House. Report of the committee, to whom was referred the petition
of the legislative council and House of Representatives of the Indiana territory,
praying to be admitted into the union upon an equal footing with the original
states. March 31st, 1812. Read, and referred to a committee of the whole House
on Monday next. Washington City: Pr. by R. C. Weightman, 1812. 8vo (21.2 cm, 8.4").
[4] pp.
$325.00
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Concerns a resolution to admit Indiana into the Union as a state. The territory was then in the midst of great population growth of settlers and still being convulsed occasionally by wars and battles with the Native American population, etc., but was of stature to seek admission as a state — which it achieved in 1816.
Shaw & Shoemaker 27339. In modern wrappers, old sewing holes; age-toned. (18645)

President Adams Sends
TWO Messages on the “XYZ Affair”
United States. Dept. of State. Message from the President of the United States, accompanying sundry papers relative to the affairs of the United States, with the French Republic. 18th January, 1799.... [Philadelphia: Pr. for the House of Representatives, 1799]. 8vo (20.1 cm, 7.9"). 123, [1 (blank)] pp. [with] Message from the President of the United States, accompanying a report of the Secretary of State, containing observations on some of the documents, communicated by the President, on the eighteenth instant. 21st January, 1799. Philadelphia: John Ward Fenno, 1799. 8vo. [2], 45, [3 (2 blank)] pp.
$685.00
Click the images for enlargements (at right is a detail).
President John Adams introduces both items; the first work consists primarily of the correspondence of Elbridge Gerry, American envoy at Paris, with Talleyrand, prior to the former's recall from France. Evans assigns this to William Ross's press. The second piece is a report by the Secretary of State on developments following the transactions cited in the first.
18th: ESTC W026145; Evans 36551. 21st: ESTC W026008; Evans 36546. Recently attractively bound in quarter blue goat over blue cloth, leather edges rolled in gilt; spine with gilt-stamped title, place, and date, raised bands accented with gilt-stamped abstract floral design and straight and wavy rules. Title-page hinged on with long-fiber tissue, outer margin repaired with same. Varying degrees of foxing, with some leaves untouched, some slightly spotted, and some notably darkened. (3745)
For the XYZ Affair, click here.

The Louisiana Purchase PLUS
United States. Dept. of State. Message from the President of the United States, transmitting the correspondence between the United States and the government of Spain, relative to the subjects of controversy between the two nations. Washington: William A. Davis, 1817. 8vo. 77 pp.
$125.00
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Meaty document dealing with the Louisiana Purchase, U.S. relations with Spain, U.S. boundaries, and the cession of
Florida to the U.S. that would occur in 1819. There is even discussion of the fate of the province of
Texas. [14th Cong., 2d sess. Senate. Doc.] 114.
Shaw & Shoemaker 42663. Removed from a nonce volume. Title-page with edges browned and with War Department stamp; pages with minor offsetting. (34943)
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