•  De Vasculis: Adams B54; Renouard, Estienne, 44:21; Schreiber, Estiennes, 51 (1535 ed.). De Re: Adams B43; Renouard, Estienne, 44:20; Schreiber, Estiennes, 50 (1535 ed., also the source of the quotation above).   19th-century brown polished calf, spine lettered and ruled in gilt with compartments stamped in blind, covers framed in single gilt fillet around a tulip roll in blind, board edges with gilt dashes, turn-ins ruled in gilt, all edges speckled brown; gently rubbed with a few stains, corners bowing inwards. Very light waterstaining across some corner-tips and barely noticeable pin-sized wormholes/tracks to most leaves; three leaves with small spots and one with an imperfect corner (probably from manufacture); final blank (only) lacking as above. Provenance indicia as above, a few leaves gently creased along corners. Early examples of a landmark series in children's book production, from a famous press and a famous library.  (39463)

Posthumous second edition in English, “translated from the French, with notes and engravings, illustrative and supplementary, by Andrew Ure.”

Uncut, partially unopened copy.

•  Uncut, partially unopened copy. Publisher's quarter cloth with paper covered boards; some discoloration to cloth, light chipping to board edges. Ex–social club library: paper label at top of spine, 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. A clean copy with the plates good and crisp; as noted above, an uncut, partially unopened copy.  (27388)

Arthur Fenner was the fourth Governor of Rhode Island from 1790 until his death in office in 1805 and Dorrance was a justice of the Court of Common Pleas. The root of all the litigation was whether Dorrance had swapped the cadaver of a suicide for a hat.  Needless to say, there is political animosity at work here.

The whole was “carefully compiled from notes correctly taken by several gentlemen who were present during the whole course of the trial.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 2156; Cohen, Bibliography of Early American Law, 11968.   Removed from a nonce volume, lacking the wrappers. Age-toning and a few spots of foxing. Else very good.  (39246)

Binding:  Publisher's blue textured cloth, covers framed with wide embossed strapwork and foliate borders, front cover with gilt-stamped decorative title and vignette of a small child reading a large book. All edges gilt.

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

•  NSTC 2H27679.   Binding as above, spine and edges rubbed and darkened with hinges (inside) cracked, upper outer corners bumped, areas of discoloration to back cover, none of this condemning and gilt vignette still bright. Pages faintly age-toned with occasional minor smudges; plates clean and appealing.  (41207)

The last page offers a “Per Contra” claiming, “Jamie Gemmill yet is leevin” — with a note on where you can find him to buy him a drink!

Provenance: Neat inscription John Andrews, Paisley,” on front wrapper.

•  Original self wrappers (unbound; removed); sewn with sewing loosening. Very good.  (38503)

Boston’s

•  Venus: ESTC T73277; Ode: ESTC T41985 (first ed.). Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Second work lacking half-title and title-page. Inner margins of two leaves reinforced; last line of advertising page shaved. Title-page and last few leaves with moderate foxing; one page (not the title) stamped by a now-defunct institution, with some offsetting to opposing page. (5875)

children in various national costumes

This is anuncommonly nice copy, still housed in its original publisher's box, which features the front cover image reproduced in color.

•  Not in Brown, Culinary Americana.   Publisher's spiral-bound wrappers, front wrapper color-printed with image of Dutch girls baking, in publisher's box (as above); one edge of box rubbed and corners of box bottom reinforced. Front fly-leaf with inked gift inscription and pencilled date (March 24, 1956). A clean, fresh, virtually unworn copy — and very uncommon as such.  (29584)

This is numbered copy 110 of 500 printed andsigned at the colophon by the artist.

•  Publisher's blue linen–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped vignette, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label, in striped paste paper–covered slipcase; volume crisp and clean.  (35259)

•  Rosenbach, Children's, 421; Welch 249.12; Shaw & Shoemaker 19892 & 20586.   Publisher's light boards with salmon-colored paper covering. Browning as in all copies seen today. One leaf with short tear from lower margin, just touching text. Solid, and engaging from multiple perspectives.  (38925)

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Binding as above, very lightly soiled, and interior with a few spots of light foxing only; a clean, lovely copy, apparentlyuntouched by childish hands (or only by awfully careful ones).  (40740)

This copy withCruikshank's four wood-engraved plates hand-colored, which Cohn notes was not always the case.

Provenance: Front pastedown with small book label featuring an illustration of a bird with the head of a fish wearing a jester’s hat brandishing a sword and with large feathered tail, the initials “N.H.L.T.” at the corners. Most recently in the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Cohn, George Cruikshank: A Catalogue Raisonné, 625; Osborne Collection, p. 1019.   Contemporary textured red cloth, covers stamped in blind with foliate corner decorations, front cover with central gilt-stamped title (main title within decorative garter motif), spine with gilt-stamped title; corners rubbed, spine dimmed and a very little chipped. Small, illegible pencilled inscription on front pastedown; back pastedown with binder's ticket of Westley's & Co. Pages with a handful of small spots, overall clean.  (40808)

This attractively accomplished production features title-pages printed in red and black and16 delightful engraved plates counting the double-spread added engraved title-page serving as the frontispiece of vol. I. Offering views of the countryside and the fountains, many of the images incorporate figures such as a hunter and his hounds, riders on horseback, and well-dressed ladies and gentlemen strolling or dancing — as well as one ofa life-sized “insect” allegedly “brought away from the Kidneys of a Woman by the Drinking of the Pouhon Waters.” The unsigned plates, sometimes attributed to the author himself and sometimes to Hecquet, bearcaptions given in French, German, and English.

Provenance:  Title-pages each with early inked inscription of Frances Osborn. Later in the residue of the stock of the F. Thomas Heller bookselling firm (est. ca. 1928).

•  Graesse, I, 109; Wellcome, IV, 407. Not in Blake, NLM 18th Century (which only lists an English-language edition).   Contemporary quarter mottled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings rubbed, scuffed, and with leather refurbished. Added engraved title-page for vol. I here tipped in as a double-page spread. Vol. I with waterstaining to outer margins of first few leaves, including added title-page and title-page; vol. II with waterstaining to upper outer portions of first few leaves; some plates with waterstaining to margins, not affecting images. Pages otherwise crisp and clean. A pleasurable production, showcasing a pleasurable place! (40619)

COSTUME!

•  Publisher's quarter vellum and light blue buckram sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; vellum darkened and spotted, sides with mild wear and discolorations; front hinge (inside) slightly tender. Front free endpaper with a very faded (all but illegible) early inked inscription; margins with scattered light smudges, pages and plates otherwise clean. A volume clearly pored over . . .  (35542)

This is an untrimmed copy in original boards, with 24 pages of advertising for Carey publications bound in at the front of the volume. The preliminary map, engraved by John Bower, has hand-colored border lines; this American edition does not call for the plates found in the English first, but does include in-text depictions of several “Ethiopic inscriptions.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 33864; NSTC 2S3118. Publisher’s quarter tan paper over light blue paper–covered sides; front cover detached and back joint cracked, binding spotted, paper cracked and split along spine, spine label now absent and replaced with hand-inked title, spine with later paper shelving label. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1829. Half-title with portion of outer margin torn away (not touching text) and laid in. Map lightly foxed, with two short tears along folds. Pages age-toned, with occasional spots of foxing.  (19413)

•  Publisher's half vellum with printed paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; dust jacket lacking as now seen with most copies, vellum dust-soiled with a little rubbing, paper slightly darkened and with two small chips., small chip to paper at bottom edge of front cover and one to lower outer corner of back cover. Internally clean and crisp. Enjoyable.  (34010)

•  Lightly in later wrappers; small ownership stamp eradicated from title-page. A very good exemplar.  (24386)

•  Disbound, with a bit of pinhole worming not affecting text; lightly laid into later wrappers.  (24388)

•  Removed from a bound volume; a few wormholes.  (24392)

•  Folded and never sewn; as issued.  (24389)

First published in 13 monthly parts in 1860, the machinations of Rosa and her mamma appear here “printed for subscribers from the plates of the Original Edition issued by Bradbury, Agnew & Co.” The volume is illustrated with12 hand-colored, steel-engraved plates and 8 wood-engraved plates by famed caricaturist John Leech. The colored scenes, some involvingyoung ladies in elegant dress and some horses and hounds, are carefully and artistically tinted; the social scenes are more delicately shaded than the vivid hunting scenes. In addition to the color and black-and-white plates, numerous in-text wood-engravings decorate the text.

Binding:  Publisher's crimson cloth, front cover with black- and gilt-stamped hound decorations and a gilt-stamped vignette of two flirting equestrians, spine with black and gilt Cupid vignette.

•  NCBEL, III, 968. On Surtees, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Binding as above, extremities slightly rubbed, spine much sunned but covers bright and fresh. Signatures unopened. A clean, unread copy, with lovely plates.  (30470)