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With an Essay on
Recovery from Small Pox
Hale, Matthew. Several tracts. London: Printed by J. P[layford] for W. Shrowsbery, 1684. 8vo (17 cm, 6.7’’). Four parts in one, separate titles, signatures and pagination, [4], 49, [3] pp.; [6], 26 pp.; [2], 17, [1] pp.; [2], 37, [1] pp.
$750.00
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The first collected edition of these works of Sir Matthew Hale (1609–76), an English barrister, Lord Chief Justice of England, and author of many important works on English common law still cited in court today. The first of the four essays in this edition — with the second and fourth being reissued (ESTC) — is A Discourse on Religion that discusses the ends, uses, and life of religion and the “superstructions” to it, touching on ritual, religious “animosities” and different behaviors between groups including Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Quakers, etc. A Discourse touching Provision for the Poor presents
the laws currently in force “for the Relief and Imployment of the Poor,” with mention of workhouses and the education of children; A Letter to his Children is Hale's deep and sensible trove of suggestions to hone and enhance the skills of children gearing towards adult society, e.g., “There is not the meanest persons but you may stand in need of him in one kind, or at sometime or another, good words make friends.”
The final essay, a letter to one of his sons recovering from smallpox, is a most important personal testimony to the way smallpox affected the sick and their families in the 17th century. Hale recapitulates to his son — whom he still was not allowed to see “by reason of the Contagiousness of your Disease” — the days of his sickness, from the early symptoms; he proceeds to provide moral suggestions for his future behavior, keeping in mind his suffering and nearness to death.
ESTC R35715; Wing (rev. ed.) H259; McAlpin, IV, 169. Modern marbled paper–covered boards with maroon leather gilt-tooled spine label. Text with age-toning sometimes unto browning, and variable dust-soiling and variable evidence of old dampstaining; a sound and serviceable copy trimmed not quite square to type area. (41336)

“An Absolute Pedagogical Necessity for the Children of
All Well-To-Do Graphic Designers”
Hamady, Walter. John's apples. Mt. Horeb, WI: Perishable Press, 1995. Folio (30.3 cm, 12" & 27.9 cm, 11"). [1] f., [1] f.
$350.00
Click the images for enlargements.
One broadside and one typed sheet
promoting the 121st publication of the Perishable Press: a volume of poems by Reeve Lindbergh illustrated with paintings by John Wilde, “ostensibly a children's book concerning apples.” The limited edition is here described as “an attempt to show how books grow from idea to artifact,” with “surprises to delight the receptive and confound the costive.”
The broadside showcases Walter Hamady's inimitable style, both textually and typographically: The header is a jumble of decorative letters from the words “John's Apples,” and faint shadow text runs behind the main body of text, which in addition to the statements of purpose includes a pithy comment from the painter's ten-year-old granddaughter. The printing was done in gray-green, red, and black on cream-colored handmade paper with one deckle edge.
The typed sheet, which starts out with “Some critical acclaim and just plain comments about John's Apples aka the apple book,” offers blurbs and quirky reader responses to John's Apples. While this is a fairly simple and straightforward production by the Perishable Press's standards, Hamady clearly could not resist at least a touch of his usual flair, typing a number of lines in diagonal directions with reckless disregard for the straight and level.
Broadside with two nearly invisible mailing folds; one corner very slightly creased, otherwise unworn and clean. Sheet likewise with mailing folds, otherwise crisp and fresh.
Appealing and uncommon Perishable Press ephemera. (31234)
For the HAMADY PERISHABLE PRESS, click here.
[Hare, Francis]. A letter to a member of the October-Club: Shewing, that to yield Spain to the Duke of Anjou by a peace, wou’d be the ruin of Great Britain. The second edition, with additions. London: A. Baldwin, 1711. 8vo (20.8 cm, 8.25"). vi, 42 pp.
$800.00
Generally attributed to Francis Hare, Bishop of Chichester, this anonymously published political analysis expresses concern not only that putting the Duke of Anjou on the Spanish throne would tilt the balance of power in Europe too far towards France, but also that such action would greatly damage the livelihoods of English textile workers, among others dependent on international commerce; also questioned are
Swift’s views on the ramifications of trade with Portuguese America. This is the second, expanded edition.
ESTC T58140; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 711/126; Teerink-Scouten 1034. Blue-green paper wrappers, old style. Title-page with small numeric stamp, faint traces of other annotations. Small area of worming in inner margins, touching a very few letters. A few scattered spots, otherwise clean; edges untrimmed. (6369)

More than One Lifetime's Worth of Adventure & Interesting Ideas
Harriott, John. Struggles through life, exemplified in the various travels and adventures in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, of John Harriott, Esq. London: Pr. for the author, 1815. 12mo (18 cm, 7.1"). 3 vols. I: Frontis., xvxv, [1], 443, [1] pp. II: xii, 428, [2] pp. III: vii, [1], 479, [1] pp. (lacking pp. 69–72); 1 fold. plt., 1 plt.
$750.00
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Autobiography of
one of the founders of the Thames police, a clever and independent mariner who went adventuring around the world before settling down to become an Essex justice of the peace and eventually Resident Magistrate of the Thames River Police (a.k.a. the Marine Police Force, sometimes called England's first official police force). Here he looks back on his remarkably varied youthful escapades, including travelling in the merchant-service, visiting “the Savages in North America,” meeting the King of Denmark, serving in the East India Company's military service, and narrowly escaping such dangers as tigers, poisonous snakes, floods, fires, and scamming fathers-in-law. If the narrator is to be believed, the two issues that caused him the chiefest distress in life were pecuniary difficulties and other people's unchivalrous treatment of women. He also has much to say about law and
business in the New World and the Old, slavery in America, forcible incarceration in private madhouses (with excerpts from a first-person account of such), and the nature of farming in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, as well as the state of affairs in Washington, DC, and, of course, the history of the creation of the Thames police.
Vol. I opens with a steel-engraved portrait of the author, done by Henry Cook after Hervé; vol. III is illustrated with an
oversized, folding plate of a water-engine intended for millwork, devised by the author, and a plate of another of his inventions: the automated “chamber fire escape”, which enables anyone to lower him- or herself from a high window. This is the third edition, following the first of 1807.
NSTC H625; Sabin 30461. Contemporary speckled sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; vol. I with joints and extremities refurbished, vols. II and III with spines and edges rubbed, old strips of library tape reinforcing spine heads. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates, call number on endpapers, pressure-stamp on title-pages, vols. II and III with paper shelving labels at top of spines (vol. I showing signs of now-absent label). Vol. I title-page with offsetting from frontispiece; vol. III with pp. 69–72 excised (two leaves of a rather long religious-themed letter from Harriott to his son) and with upper portion of one leaf crumpled, reinforced some time ago. Some light age-toning, intermittent small spots of foxing and ink-staining, pages generally clean.
Utterly absorbing. (30651)

On a Most Ancient & Honourable Company — Presentation Copy
Heath, John Benjamin. Some account of the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the city of London. London: Privately printed, 1854. 8vo (26.8 cm, 10.55"). xvi, 580 pp.; 8 (1 fold.) plts.
$350.00
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Uncommon, privately printed second edition of this
illustrated history of the Company of Grocers — one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London — and some of its prominent members from its medieval origins through the early 1850s, written by Heath, governor of the Bank of England from 1845 to 1847. The illustrations include a map of Cheape Ward showing the Grocers' Hall and garden and an oversized, folding facsimile of the charter of incorporation, while the “Notices of Eminent Members” include renditions of their coats of arms. Also present are selections from some of the literature associated with the Grocers: speeches, plays, poems, etc.
Presentation copy: Half-title inscribed “Thomas Alex[ande]r Roberts Esq. [/] Presented by J.B. Heath July 1854.”
NSTC 2H15366; Cagle 736 (for first and third eds. only.); Goldsmiths'-Kress no. 25858.17 (first ed.). Publisher's olive green textured cloth, covers and spine blind-stamped, front cover with gilt-stamped armorial vignette, back cover with gilt-stamped device and motto, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine slightly sunned, extremities mildly rubbed. Hinges (inside) of this hefty volume now cracked, with joints tender but holding. One plate (the map dated 1560) with pencilled annotations. Some plates faintly age-toned; pages with a few instances of light foxing. A work
full of valuable and interesting detail in a nice, clean, and (as handled with care) sound copy. (37084)

Improvements in TWO KINDS of Pumps — Patented!
A Very LARGE & Attractive Document
Henderson, William M. Patent No. 38308: Improvement in pumps. [Washington, D.C.: United States Patent Office, 1863] . Folio (appr. 50 × 27 cm, 20" × 14.5"). [3] ff.
$750.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Patent granted to William M. Henderson of Baltimore for improvements in “double action suction and force pumps.” F. [1] is the patent itself on an engraved form, with the hand signature of Secretary of the Interior I.P. Usher; f. [2] is
a drawing of the device as improved upon, and [3] is Henderson's official description of it.
This is a very large and beautiful version of the U.S. “letters patent” document, with an elegant engraved eagle, the calligraphic blazon “The United States of America,” and a handsome engraving of the Patent Office building in Washington (drawn by A.A. von Schmidt and engraved by W.H. Dougal) occupying almost the entire top half of the first page.
Henderson's story as an inventor, involving emigration from England, “field work” building railway bridges in Chile, and residence in the late-19th-century U.S. industrial centers of Baltimore and Philadelphia, is interesting both as individual and as
representative of American inventors' careers in a very inventive era.
Henderson's papers are held at the Hagley Museum, & Library, Wilmington, DE: see, https://invention.si.edu/william-m-henderson-papers-1847-1893. Laced together with a light blue silk ribbon; folded. Some foxing, especially on drawing; soiling on exterior fold with traces elsewhere; and spotting to ribbon and blue-green wafer. (8638)

“Direct-Action Independent Steam Engines”
IMPROVEMENTS, Described
Henderson, William M. Patent No. 65,911: Improvement in steam pumps. [Washington, D.C.: United States Patent Office, 1867] . Folio (appr. 40 × 28 cm, 15.75" × 11"). [3], [1 (blank)] ff.
$475.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Patent granted to William M. Henderson of Philadelphia for “improvements in the mode of constructing and operating direct-action independent steam engines.” F. [1] is the patent itself on an engraved form, with the hand signature of acting Secretary of the Interior W.I. Otto; f. [2] is
a drawing, with some coloring in blue and red, of the device as improved upon, and f. [3] is Henderson's official description of it.
Henderson's papers are held at the Hagley Museum, & Library, Wilmington, DE: see, https://invention.si.edu/william-m-henderson-papers-1847-1893. Laced together with a red silk ribbon. Some browning, especially adjacent to ribbon and matching red wafer; and a few tiny tears in edges. Short closed tears along the folds, without loss. (8635)

Direct-Action Compound Engines
IMPROVED, 1870
Henderson, William M. Patent No. 105,941: Improvement in direct-acting compound engine. [Washington, D.C.: United States Patent Office, 1870] . Folio (appr. 37 × 25 cm, 14.5" × 10"). [2], 2, [1 (blank)] ff.
$475.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Patent granted to William M. Henderson of Philadelphia for “improvement in direct-acting compound engine.” F. [1] is the patent itself on an engraved form, with the hand signature of acting Secretary of the Interior W.I. Otto; f. [2] is
a drawing of the device as improved upon, and the following 2 ff. are Henderson's official description of it.
Henderson's papers are held at the Hagley Museum, & Library, Wilmington, DE: see, https://invention.si.edu/william-m-henderson-papers-1847-1893. Laced together with a brown silk ribbon. Some browning, especially adjacent to ribbon and the bright green wafer. (8634)
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The Famous Heredia Catalogue — with
Auction Prices
Heredia, Ricardo. Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. Ricardo Heredia. Paris: Ém. Paul, L. Huard, & Guillemin, 1891–1894. 8vo (27 cm, 10.6"). 4 vols. I: xxiii, [1], 332 pp.; illus. II: xi, [1], 482, [2] pp.; illus. III: viii, 340 pp.; illus. IV: viii, 524 pp.
$900.00
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First edition: Auction catalogue of the extensive, impressive library of bibliophile Ricardo Heredia y Livermore, Conde de Benahavís (1831–96). Heredia built “perhaps the greatest collection of Spanish books ever formed” (as noted by an old cataloguing slip laid into this set), incorporating the former Salvá y Mallén collection; this catalogue serves as an important reference work for a wide swathe of Spanish literature, theology, belles-lettres, etc.
The listings are augmented in the first three volumes by numerous in-text reproductions of illustrations and title-pages from the books. This copy includes
auction prices neatly inked alongside every book.
Contemporary treed sheep, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-ruled bands; sides showing minor rubbing, edges, joints, and extremities moreso. All hinges (inside) cracked or tender, some endpapers with pencilled notations. Vol. I: Two pages with light offsetting from now-absent item, one leaf with lower outer corner torn away. Vol. IV with bookplate of Alvaro de Fontagud y Aguilera. Pages gently age-toned, most noticeably in vol. IV, with occasional light smudges; each volume with last page browned. (29161)

MUCH! Is Addressed Here . . .
[Hoadly, Benjamin]. The fears and sentiments of all true Britains; with respect to national credit, interest and religion. London: A. Baldwin, 1710. 8vo (20.7 cm, 8.15"). 16 pp.
$250.00
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First edition: Treatise in favor of preserving a high level of public credit, segueing from that topic to the tangled web of contemporary politics, religion, and finance. The piece is attributed to Hoadly, Bishop of Winchester.
ESTC T831; Kress 2665. Sewn, edges untrimmed, now in a Mylar folder. Title-page with numeral in lower margin inked in an early hand. Upper edges slightly darkened; a few small spots but mostly clean. (6752)

A Builder's Vade Mecum
Hoppus, E. Hoppus's tables for measuring made easy to the meanest capacity, a new set of tables: Which shew at sight, the solid content of any piece of timber ... the superficial content of boards, glass painting ... with some very curious observations concerning measuring. London: Printed for J. Johnson, R. Baldwin, F & C. Rivington, [et al.], 1809. Very tall 12mo (21 cm, 8.25"). lii, 214 pp.; [1] folded plt., tables.
[SOLD]
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“The fifteenth edition, greatly improved”; early 19th-century edition of this famous measuring guide for builders by Hoppus, Surveyor to the Corporation of the London Assurance. First published in 1736 with the title Practical Measuring Now Made Easy to the Meanest Capacity by a New Set of Tables Ready Calculated After a Plain, Easy and Correct Method, this practical measuring guide continued through various editions after Hoppus's death in 1739. Vertical in format and so suitable for tucking into a (large) pocket, it was a ready reference for builders and others in the building and related trades.
Contemporary plain sheep; front joint (outside) split but board strongly held. A good, nice copy
with its frontispiece plate present. (39840)

Book of Designs for
Bakers & Confectioners
Hueg, Herman. Ornamental confectionery, and practical assistant to the art of baking in all its branches, with numerous illustrations. New York: H. Hueg & Co., © 1896. 12mo (14.5 cm, 5.75"). 48, 48 pp.; illus.
$175.00
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Illustrated promotional pamphlet: This
ephemeral sidekick to Hueg's popular
Ornamental Confectionery and the Art of Baking offers baking tips, recipes, and decoration patterns, combined with a product and book catalogue with price list. Some of the depicted cake structures and designs are jaw-droppingly ornate! Originally published in 1893, the pamphlet is now notably less common than its hardcover sibling.
Cagle & Stafford 389 (for first ed.). Not in Brown, Culinary Americana. Publisher's printed blue paper wrappers, spine and edges rubbed, front cover with spots of discoloration; offsetting inside wrappers from staples. Pages very slightly age-toned.
Delightful for those who like to bake, those who like to eat, or those who just like to appreciate implausible confectionery accomplishments. (35008)
"Intruso, El." Respuesta de otro pensador mejicano sobre bagages y coches de providencia. [Mexico]: Alejandro Valdes, 1820. 4to. [2] ff.
$300.00
“El Intruso” discusses two problems: Beasts of burden are being commandeered by the military and the coaches for hire business is perpetrating various abuses of its own. The coach business is a monopoly of Manuel Antonio Valdés y Munguía, father of Alejandro Valdés, the printer of this piece!
Searches of OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 locate only four copies in the U.S.
Medina, Mexico, 11808; Garritz, Impresos novohispanos, 3654; Steele 46; Sutro 134. Removed from a volume with ragged inner margin. Faint rubber-stamp in one margin. (10727)

No More Betting the Estate on the
Outcome of a Tennis Match
Ireland. Laws, statutes, etc. Acts and statutes made in a Parliament begun at Dublin the twenty first day of September, anno Dom. 1703. In the second year of the reign of ... Queen Anne ... and continued ... to the twenty third of June, 1707 ... And further continued ... until the twelth [sic] of July, 1711, being the sixth session of this present Parliament. Dublin: Printed by Andrew Crooke, 1711. Folio (29 cm; 11.5"). [4], 8, [2], 9–16, [2], 17–20, [2], 2–28, [2], 29–38, [1], 39–41, [2], 42–45, [2], 45–54 [i.e., 53], [1 (blank)] pp.
$1875.00
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A scarce assemblage of acts, including granting the Queen “additional duty on beer, ale, strong waters,” and other things. Other legislation seeks to curb frauds “committed by tennants”; prevent “ingrossing, forestalling, and regrating of coals imported into this kingdom”; better prevent “excessive and deceitful gaming”; suppress lotteries; and regulate sheriffs and sheriffs' clerks.
Printed largely in black letter and each act preceded by its own title-page.
ESTC T193918. Near-contemporary brown calf, rebacked in caramel-colored calf with a red leather gilt title-label; modestly tooled in gilt on covers with a double-rule and a center rope rectangle with flower corner devices, gilt rolls on board edges. Some cockling of paper and discoloration of endpapers (from the tannin of the turn-ins, and occasional marginal thumb- or other soil from use. (34488)
Royal Household Affairs
Partial Payment for Her Majesty's
Tapestry
Isabel I, Queen of Spain. Document on paper, in Spanish, signed "Yo la Reyna." Granada, 8 May 1501. Folio (31.2 cm, 12.25"). [1] p.
$4000.00
On the top half of this page the Queen orders Sancho de Parades, her chamberlain, to pay Germán de Paris and his partner Jacques 22,600 maravides remaining on the 78,600 maravides that she owes them for a tapestry. The woven piece is a gift for a church, and includes 12 depictions of the royal coat of arms.
On the bottom half is a signed receipt, in Spanish, dated Granada 8 May 1501, wherein Germán de Paris and Jacques acknowledge receiving the above mentioned payment.
The usual slash of cancellation (faintly visible above), indicating that this has been entered into the account books. Remnant of stiff paper at top of verso indicating it was once mounted in an album. (19360)

Economic Development through
Better Roads — CUBA, 1795
Jáuregui, Juan Tomás de. Memoria sobre proporcionar arbitrios para la construcción de caminos en esta jurisdicción. En La Havana: en la imprenta de Estevan Bolona, 1795. 4to (25 cm; 10"). 12 pp.
$4850.00
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Jáuregui (d. 1809) was the “primer consul del Real Tribunal del Consulado” in Cuba, and it was the Consulado's “Junta de Gobierno” that ordered this report published — although his was the minority report. At the crown's urging, such Consulados had been created throughout the Empire to aim at economic development and commercial improvement of the various regions of the New World under Spanish control, in good Enlightenment fashion.
Public works and land use are traditionally fraught with concern and intransigence on the part of the various parties involved, and in the Cuban case at hand, this was certainly so; the Junta had appointed a four-member committee “para meditar los arbitrios que conceptuasen mas oportunos y menos gravosos para la formacin de caminos” (“to decide the tax rates that will be least burdensome but still will bring about the most timely creation of [good] roads”). Jáuregui's opinion was clearly and concisely expressed and shows a progressive tax structure differentiating
users of the roads and the wear each category was most likely to create.
Handsomely printed on extremely good quality paper.
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, COPAC, CCPB, and the OPACs of the national libraries of Mexico and Spain locate only three copies: two in the U.S. and one in Chile. One of the U.S. copies is incomplete. How many copies may be in Cuban libraries is unknown.
Sabin 35823; Trelles, Bibliografía cubana de los siglos XVII y XVIII (2nd ed.), 166; Medina, Habana, 130. A fine copy in original plain wrappers. Housed in a quarter dark red morocco clamshell case. (34735)

Toys & Games & Fun at the Fin de Siecle
Johnson Bros., Harborne, England. The “Acme” and “Chad Valley” series of New games for winter evenings. Season 1898–9. Harborne, England: Johnson Bros. [published in the Printing Department of Chad Valley Works], 1898. 8vo (21.5 cm, 8.5"). 40 pp., illus.
$75.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Pages 8 through 31 “hype” the games, panoramas and dioramas, and gift books available from the Johnsons, while pages 32 through 40 list other products such as flushable toilet paper, date stampers, brush racks, family printing devices, etc. A relatively simple price list fills pages 4 through 7, but the display pages offer
half- to full-page green-printed illustrations of the firm's eye-filling book covers, game pieces and box-tops, “moving” and “illuminated' panoramas, etc.
Original textured cream-colored wrappers printed in green and red; paper of wrappers starting at head and foot of spine with staples offsetting to covers and first/last leaves.
Interior clean and very, very nice. (40799)

The Check Is in the Mail
Joseph Anthony & Co. Autograph Letter Signed to Benjamin Bourne. Philadelphia, PA: 28 January 1800. 4to (10" x 7.75"). 1 p., without the integral address leaf.
$75.00
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The merchant company of Joseph Anthony & Co. tells Bourne that on 18 January it sent him a post note for $170; it laments the irregularity of post mail, which is due (it thinks) to carelessness of the post riders.
Provenance: Ex–Allyn K. Ford Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, recently deaccessioned.
Very good condition. Docketed on verso. (33398)

Bookselling Reminiscences
Kaye, Barbara. The company we kept. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, ©1995. 8vo (23.5 cm; 9.25"). 10, 224 pp.
$27.50
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MORE Bookselling Reminiscences . . .
Kaye, Barbara. Second impression, rural life with a rare bookman. [New Castle, DE]: Oak Knoll Press & Werner Shaw, ©1995. 8vo (23.5 cm; 9.25"). x, 350 pp.
$15.00
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First American edition of the second volume of reminiscences of Percy Muir's widow; well described as “a lively and entertaining account of the antiquarian book world and English village life in the post-war years.” A good sequel to Kaye's previous work The Company We Kept.
New. Grey publisher's cloth, fine in original dust jacket. (36764)

One Year's Worth of
Well-Spent Half Hours
Knight, Charles. Half-hours with the best authors. [London: Charles Knight, 1847–48]. 8vo (22.8 cm, 9"). 4 vols. in 2. I: Frontis., engr. t.-p., [2], 312 pp., frontis., engr. t.-p., [2], 312 pp. II: Frontis., engr. t.-p., [iii]–iv, 312 pp., frontis., engr. t.-p., [iii]–iv, 316 pp.
120220-2
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First edition: Engaging periodical compilation of poetry, history, Christian meditations, natural history, art and literary criticism, biography, and fiction, set forth in
52 weekly issues meant to be consumed in half-hour portions, with each weekly number containing seven half-hours. (Indices and quarterly title-pages are bound in here.)
Knight, who was devoted to books and to literature from the time he was a small child, was a much-admired printer and publisher, as well as an author, reformer, and would-be educator.
Many of his publishing endeavors were aimed at improving and enlightening the working class.
NSTC 2K7731. On Knight, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth, style Wav3. Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with muse motif and title, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; lightly worn overall with some fading, vol. II spine head with traces of a strip of cloth tape. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Paper slightly embrittled (more so in second volume), with a few short edge tears. Externally ordinary; internally worthwhile. (26860)
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“The Invigorating Effects of MIND in a Life of Labor” — Voices of American Working Women
Knight, Charles, ed. Mind amongst the spindles. A miscellany, wholly composed by the factory girls. Selected from the Lowell Offering . . . with an introduction by the English editor, and a letter from Harriet Martineau. Boston: Jordan, Swift & Wiley, 1845. 16mo (17.3 cm, 6.8"). 214 pp.
[SOLD]
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Founded in the 1820s, the factory city of Lowell, MA, boasted its own monthly literary periodical, filled with poems and stories written by the “factory girls” — the working-class women of the textile mills. This collection of highlights from the magazine, which identifies the authors by initials or first names only, largely focuses on the virtues of dedication, hard work, thrift, self-improvement, and patriotism, with special emphasis on the importance of enduring hardship patiently.The work was first published in London in 1844, with an informative introduction by its editor, Harriet Martineau; this Boston printing, including that contextualizing introduction, is
the first U.S. appearance of a significant and uncommon expression of the thoughts and dreams of women laborers in the early 19th-century American factory system.
Provenance: Bookplate of the Wilmington Institute Free Library (originally incorporated in 1754).
Goldsmiths'-Kress 34077; Sabin 49192. Publisher's straight-grained brown cloth, covers framed in triple blind fillets surrounding central blind-stamped foliate medallions, spine with gilt-stamped title and foliate motifs; extremities rubbed, spine with paper hand-inked shelving label and with affixed letter “S” partially obscuring title. Front pastedown with bookplate as noted; back free endpaper with affixed library slip noting the book was “not for circulation,” with offsetting to back pastedown. Last text page with early inked initials and with pencilled purchase note. Scattered mild foxing. A nice example of this pioneering collection, in its original publisher's binding, and
once held by a public library designed to support exactly the kind of working-class self-improvement on which the volume focuses. (38169)
Knott, John M. The currency and the late Sir Robert Peel. [London, 1850]. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). 23, [1 (blank)] pp.
$400.00
Printed for private circulation, this pamphlet appeared in two issues, one circa 1850 and one circa 1855; given the lack of publishing information, it is difficult to discern which of the two this copy represents — but both are scarce. Knott herein provides much of the content of his exchanges with Sir Robert Peel on topics associated with the Free Trade vs. Protection debate.
Goldsmiths'-Kress 36939; NSTC 2K8200. Recent paper wrappers. Half-title faintly dust-soiled and with small inked numeral in upper corner; pages otherwise clean. (11311)
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