COMMERCE / ECONOMICS
FINANCE / BANKING / TRADE / WORK / LABOR
A-B
C-E
F-G
H-K
L-M
N-R
S
T-Z
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Woman Entrepreneur, “Patent Medicines Division” (1855)
S.A. Osburn (Firm). [drop-title] Osburn's detergent balsam, or, the great remedy, for nursing sore mouth, canker, thrush, scarlet fever, inflamed sore throat, &c., &c. [Rochester, NY]: No publisher/printer, 1855. Tall 12mo (20 cm; 7.75"). 3, [1] pp.
$225.00
Click the image for an enlargement.
The Library Company of Philadelphia's catalogue record for this work reports “Nehemiah Osburn (1801–92), prominent Rochester businessman, built Osburn House at Main and St. Paul,” and that his wife Sarah Ann Van Schuyver Osburn (1806–92) was a successful businesswoman, her eponymous firm specializing in patent and popular medicines for ailments of the mouth.
“To prevent fraud, the written signature of the proprietor, S.A. Osburn, will be written upon the wrapper[of the bottle], without which none is genuine. Sold, wholesale and retail, by N. Osburn, corner of Main and St. Paul Streets, Rochester, N.Y., general agent for the United States” (p. [4]) — this copy without that signature.
Printed testimonials on p. 4 are dated 1847 and 1855, and a charming wood engraving on p. 1 shows a woman administering medicine to a sick woman in her bed.
Searches of WorldCat locate only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership (PPL, NRU-Med, MWA, NRMW).
Folded, as issued.
A clean, attractive piece of medical-commercial ephemera. (38410)

An American Boy Makes Good, Sees Changes — His Life Through His Diaries
Sampson, George G. Manuscript on paper, in English: Collection of 26 diaries. Maine, Worcester, New York City: 1886–1912. 32mo to 16mo (4" x 2.5" to 6" x 2.75"). 26 vols.
$1700.00
Click the images for enlargements.
George Sampson was an ordinary New England farm boy by birth, whose diaries here reflect his personal experience of two decades-plus of sometimes sweeping change in ordinary American life as well as his own transformation from a rural schoolboy into a professional man whose life is urban. As his 26 years of record-keeping begin in 1886, George is in Franklin County, ME, with extended family all around and many named neighbors; the diaries for many years show us a large, hardworking household whose members, all of them, commit themselves day after day (and year after year) to the unending, relentless, and remarkably various array of chores required by the propagation, planting, cultivation, reaping, and sale of market crops along with what seems to be extensive mixed animal husbandry — not to mention what was required simply to maintain and improve an array of farm properties including home gardens, orchards, woodlots, hayfields, and an additional acreage nearby used primarily for large-animal care.
The meticulously recorded, sometimes “how-to” detail on these activities can be surprisingly exhausting even to read, even as it is fascinating, informative, and impressive.
Yet when George is young he also records
plentiful times of fun and play; and as he gets older he records enjoyment of a full array of social, community, and church occasions — including, once, a circus, and eventually incorporating concerts, picnics, “sociables,” an occasional lecture, and attendance at a great many “lodge meetings.”
By 1893, our diarist has become serious about his studies, leaving home for the first time to attend school; by 1898, he is also teaching; and 1901 finds him at Bates College, where he works as hard intellectually as at home he had done bodily, and where he works in the dining hall to pay for his board. But, again, he records a full, fully enjoyed, and
fully detailed palette of recreations — e.g., glee club activities and attendance at football games; lectures and concerts; suppers and card parties with friends; lawn parties, dances, and candy pulls; and theater and concert trips. (
Oh, and dating. )
George graduates from Bates in 1905 and, by the final diary in 1912, he is an accomplished secondary-school physics teacher in Worcester, MA, with a master’s degree from Clark University, and he is taking additional (presumably doctoral) courses at Columbia University during a teaching sabbatical.
Each volume here opens with a printed section offering calendars, postal rates, almanac facts, etc.; usually, George has used the back pages for personal accounting, addresses of friends, and other memoranda. For space reasons, his entries must be laconic, but he has filled most space there is. Only the final few diaries have significant unused sections.
A long descriptive analysis is available on request.
Virtually all diaries are bound in leather or leatherette, a few with the lower third of the rear covers removed neatly, and the “set” lacking only the volume for 1906. Some volumes are written in pencil, later ones mostly in ink, in a legible hand.
Very good. (39290)

Printed on “Rice Paper” on the
Archbishop's Press in MANILA
. . . i.e., the Ex-Jesuit Press . . .
Sancho de Santa Justa y Rufino, Basilio. Alocucion que en el dia veinte de enero del año mil setecientos ochenta y tres, cumpleaños del Rey nuestro señor D. Carlos III (que Dios gu[ard]e.) pronuncio a la Real Sociedad Patriotica de Manila. Manila: En la Imprenta del Seminario Eclesiastico, por Ignacio Ad-Vincula, 1783. Folio (29.5 cm; 11.5"). [1] f., 23, [1] pp.
$5500.00
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After consecration and service in Spain, Sancho de Santa Justa arrived in Manila in 1767 to take up his duties as archbishop, which included
overseeing the expulsion of the Jesuits. He was a native of Aragon and a member of the Society of Scholarum Piarum. In this address on the occasion of Charles III's 67th birthday, he expresses himself no friend of many of the Enlightment's ideas but
a staunch supporter of the King, his economic policies, and especially of the newly instituted practice of free commerce in the Spanish empire. On the other hand, he rails against England, its foreign commercial practices, and its ascension as a maritime powerhouse.
As the title states, this was pronounced before “la Real Sociedad Patriotica de Manila.” That august body was “congregada por estatuto en el salon del Real Palacio, y presidida de su protector el muy ilustre señor D. Joseph Basco, y Bargas, Balderrama y Rivera cavallero del Orden de Santiago, capitan de navio de la real armada, gobernador, y capitan general de estas Islas Filipinas, y presidente de su real audiencia, y chancilleria, director g[ene]r[a]l de las tropas de S.M. en estos dominios, superintendente general de la Real Hacienda, y Renta de Tabaco, y subdelegado de la de Correos &c. &c.”
The work is printed on “rice paper” (i.e., Asian paper probably from the mulberry tree) as was common in Manila during the period to ca. 1820. The typography is definitely provincial and plain, using only one decorative woodcut initial and no ornamentation on the title-page. The type is roman in a variety of sizes with a practice of using all capitals for emphasis.
The press on which this work was printed had been that of the Jesuits until Archbishop Sancho de Santa Justa carried out the king's order and expelled them; he then appropriated the press for his private use, as here. What had been only the fourth press to operate in the Islands, now with a new name, became the fifth.
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate only six libraries worldwide reporting ownership: three in the U.S. {John Carter Brown, Indiana University, Newberry) one in the U.K. (Briish Library), one in Spain (national library), one in the Philippines (national library).
Medina, Manila, 317; Retana, Aparato bibliográfico, 379. Recent marbled paper–covered boards (green and mauve stone pattern); red leather label on front cover. A few minor paper repairs to edges of a few leaves; a very few small pinhole type wormholes, not costing any letters; the brown spotting and staining peculiar to rice paper. Old, brief note lightly red-inked to title-page. Over all a very good copy. (33130)

A Cookbook Collector's Own
PERSONAL Recipe Collection
Schofield, Eloise. Manuscript on paper, in English. U.S.: [1950s–60s]. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). 59–181, [1] pp.; illus.
$450.00
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A remarkable culinary florilegium compiled by prominent cookbook collector Eloise Schofield. Recorded mostly by hand on
122 well-filled pages of a ledger book, these 19th- and 20th-century recipes cover a very wide range, opening with an “Orange Pie” recipe given in verse and including local specialties such as fried eel from Provincetown, “State of Maine Mincemeat,” and Nantucket corn pudding; quirky historical dishes and home remedies (for earache, weeping eyes, burns, etc.), often with their sources and dates attributed; and more general everyday items, passed on by family members and friends (“My mother's Harlequin Cake”). Annotations offer Schofield's thoughts and recollections: “This isn't at all bad”; “Bob's grandmother always had it [lemon conserve] on hand”; “Here is a very old recipe — waste not want not”; “My father loved to eat; he always lifted each cover off the pots every evening to see what was cooking”).
Interspersed among the recipes are clippings and artwork affixed to the pages, including an advertisement for the “Anna Held” carnation petticoat for sale by John Wanamaker, as well as a number of other color-printed or black and white advertisements; several cat photos taken from periodicals or other sources; “Hints for Housekeepers,” from an 1865 magazine; a recipe for “Gertie's Christmas Cake,” written in Schofield's hand on an old-fashioned holiday greeting card; a color reproduction of a portion of a 1799 embroidery sampler; a recipe for “Spong Cake” in an older hand, labelled by Schofield “Found in an 1887 Cook Book”; ETC.
Schofield's delight in culinary history is clear on every page — for instance, “Tripe was a favorite around 1900 and the Parker House became famous for its tripe besides the rolls. Here is a Tripe Batter highly recommended by an old lady” (p. 114).
Contemporary half roan and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding cocked, worn and scuffed overall, spine leather split and chipping. Pp. 1–58 excised, very likely having been the ledger's contents before repurposing; gutter of first signature present reinforced some time ago. Pages age-toned with scattered smudging and offsetting. A gift of densely packed pleasure in terms of both aesthetics and domestic content, this is
the most endearing example of such a book that we have ever seen. (41503)

“COMPLEAT . . . for travellers, merchants &
LOVERS OF BOTH LANGUAGES”
Schulz, [Johann Christoph Friedrich]. Compleat English pocket dictionary English and German, for travellers, merchants & lovers of both languages, &c. Augsburg: Printed for C. Henry Stage, [1796]. Square 12mo (vertical chainlines; 15 cm, 5.91"). 2 vols. I: x, 887, [1 (blank)] pp. II: 795, [1 (blank)] pp.
[SOLD]
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Schulz “was born (1 January 1762) in Magdeburg and died (27 September/9 October 1798) in Mitau. During his brief life, he became one of the most popular authors of his day, translating and writing both novels and non-fiction, and serving as an important eyewitness to current events” (unsigned biography, University of Manchester site [see reference area below]). His substantial dictionary is here English to German in vol. I and the reverse in II. The printer has presented text in English in roman type and that in German in Fraktur, all printed in double-column format in both volumes; the title-page of vol. II reads “Vollständiges englisches Taschenwörterbuch, deutsch und englisch ... Zweyter Theil.”
While there is no publication date on either title-page, we have taken as the probable publication date what is printed on the dedication, which is dated 7 Marz 1796.
Provenance: Vol. I has the handsome, contemporary bookseller's label of Pierre Beaume, of Bordeaux, on the front pastedown.
Searches of WorldCat and ESTC find apparently six German libraries reporting ownership of vol. I only and no German library reporting holding both volumes or even just vol. II. The same searches found only three libraries in the Anglo world reporting ownership, each having both volumes: Indiana University, the British Library, and the University of Wales.
ESTC T124033; Alston, Bibliography of the English Language from the Invention of Printing to the Year 1800, 13, 60. For a brief biography, see: https://users.manchester.edu/FacStaff/SSNaragon/Kant/bio/fullbio/schulzjcf.html. Contemporary full sheep with modest gilt-bead tooling to spines and to red and black leather spine labels; board corners and spine extremities renewed, and joints strengthened with long-fiber and toned. Textblocks age-toned and with some offsetting from leather of turn-ins to some edges of early and late margins; vol. I with old light marginal waterstaining to first few leaves; vol. II with limited Inkstain in a few outer margins not into text and pp. 793/794 crumpled, its top and lower margins torn and repaired with old paper.
A very pleasing set and one that is now also SOLID FOR USE. (41252)

Behind the Scenes: Shaw vs. Chesterton — Postcards Signed by Shaw
Shaw, George Bernard. ALS: Two postcards sent to Richard Mealand. Ayot St Lawrence: 1933. (14.2 x 9.2 cm & 11.3 x 8.8 cm). 2 cards.
$650.00
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Two handwritten cards from Shaw to Mealand, regarding “this proposed G.B.S. – G.K.C. page.” At the time, Mealand was editor of Nash's Pall Mall Magazine (owned by the National Magazine Company, to which these cards are addressed); G.K.C. was Gilbert Keith Chesterton, famously one of Shaw's favorite philosophical sparring partners and possibly his most beloved enemy. The first card, from 15 May 1933, takes a lightly ridiculing tone in stating that the author cannot possibly interrupt his “serious work” to engage in such commercial business unless paid “an enormous sum” — whatever Mealand is paying Chesterton, to be specific; the second, from 21 June 1933, notes that Shaw's reply to Chesterton has already run long and “too heavy for the occasion,” and suggests his plans for revising it.
Sent from Shaw's home in Ayot St. Lawrence and postmarked in Hertfordshire, both cards are
inscribed in Shaw's distinctive hand and signed with his initials.
Cards crisp and clean, one with pair of staple holes.
Delightful and characteristic Shavian ephemera. (37045)
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. A comparative statement of the two bills, for the better government of the British possessions in India, brought into Parliament by Mr. Fox and Mr. Pitt...second edition. London: J. Debrett, 1788. 4to (28.5 cm, 11.25"). 39, [1 (blank)] pp.
$800.00
Second edition. Sheridan entered Parliament in 1780, crowning his previous career as a successful playwright and theatre manager with a long and distinguished record of public service. He originally read the main portion of this statement before the House of Commons as part of the debate, after noticing that the gentlemen discussing the two bills in question appeared not to have paid “any very minute degree of attention” (p. 6) to the details of either one.
The texts of both bills are present here, along with Sheridan’s analysis of how each would address “the question of right between the public and the [East India] Company” (p. 39).
ESTC T30944; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 13610. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title label and spine with gilt-stamped leather author label. Half-title and several other pages stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages with edges untrimmed and a few small spots of staining; mostly, clean. (10859)

He Was a Member of
Sor JUANA's Circle
Sigüenza y Góngora, Carlos de. Parayso occidental plantado y cultivado por la liberal benefica mano de los muy catholicos y poderosos reyes de España, nuestros señores, en su magnifico Real Convento de Jesus Maria de Mexico. Mexico: Juan Ribera, 1684. Small 4to. [12], 206 ff., coat of arms.
$15,000.00
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“Polymath” is the term most often applied to Siguenza y Gongora (1645–1700), and indeed he was a cosmographer, philosopher, chronicler, poet, biographer, historian, cartographer, and priest.
Here he is wearing the hats of a chronicler and a biographer, as he, “an intellectual friend of Sor Juana [Ines de la Cruz] and at the same time a man of science and religiosity, [writes] the history of the convent of Jesus Maria and the biography of some of its notable nuns.” His Parayso occidental is “a classic example of baroque[-era] writing on the monastic life of nuns [in Mexico]” (both quotations from Lavrin, p. 205). As such, the volume is important; and even apart from its association with the Spanish world's Tenth Muse,” it is
a basic starting place for the study of nuns, the economics of nunneries, and the political life of the same.
As is increasingly the case with Mexican imprints of the 17th century, it is
little found in the marketplace.
Provenance: 18th-century ownership signature on title-page and first leaf of preliminaries of the Conde del Fresno de la Fuente.
Medina, Mexico, 1328; Palau 312973; Asuncion Lavrin, “Cotidianidad y espiritualidad en la vida conventual novohispana: Siglo XVII,” in Memoria del Coloquio Internacional Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz y pensamiento novohispano (1995). Late 19th-century Mexican quarter dark green morocco with mottled green paper sides; binding rubbed and abraded, front endpapers with an old paper label and remnants of one removed. Pencilling on front fly-leaf and title-page verso; top margins closely cropped occasionally costing top of letters of running heads and foliation. Worming, chiefly in margins but occasionally into the text, not costing words, sometimes repaired; first and last few leaves with old repairs to corners and margins and a bit of text restored in pen and ink. Withal, a good++ copy of important work that is not often on the market. (34203)

By a
Bible Scholar & Church Historian
(Later, the Property of a Scholar Collector)
Simon, Richard. Histoire de l'origine & du progres des revenus ecclesiastiques... par Jerome a Costa. Francfort: Chez Frederic Arnaud [& Londres: Chez Jean de Beaulieu], 1684. 12mo (15.5 cm, 6.1"). [4], 346, [10 (index)] pp.
$600.00
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First edition of this pseudonymously published work on the history of Church finances, written by a controversial French Oratorian priest much attacked for his published arguments that Moses had not written the whole of the Pentateuch. Simon, an accomplished Hebrew scholar, was later lauded by the New Catholic Encyclopedia as the “father of Biblical criticism.”
Provenance: Signature on title-page of Howard Osgood, a prominent late 19th- and early 20th-century Hebrew scholar and noted collector.
Goldsmiths'-Kress 2558; Wing (2nd ed.) S3801B. Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label, board edges stamped with gilt roll; corners and spine extremities worn, front joint cracked and back joint starting, sewing holding. Front pastedown with small French bookseller's ticket and early inked numeral. Title-page with small early inked owner's name and with institutional pressure stamp, reverse with pencilled numerals. Pages clean. (19511)

The Exciseman Ends Up in
HELL
Sir Neil and Glengyle, the highland chieftains; a tragical ballad. And
the drunken exciseman. [Scotland]: Printed for the Booksellers, [18––].
12mo, 8 pages.
$75.00
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The first, five-page “tragical” ballad here recounts the tale of the Highland Chieftain Sir Neil, who is supplanted by Glengyle in the affections of the woman he has been wooing. When the woman's brother is falsely informed that Sir Neil has been boasting of favors received from his sister, he forces the chieftain to fight him. In spite of Sir Neil's efforts to avoid hurting him, the brother is killed. Glengyle then sets out to avenge his sweetheart's brother by challenging Sir Neil, and Sir Neil, fighting with great reluctance, is killed.
This is followed by a comic ballad (one-and-a-half pages) about a drunken exciseman who is carried underground by some miners and is persuaded that he has gone to hell.
The title-page bears a woodcut vignette of a soldier in a tunic, cloak and cap, and a “No 5" (with the “N” shaved away) printed at its top left — not at the center foot of the page, as in a variant we have seen.
NSTC 2N2681. Removed from a bound volume. Good++ condition. (8418)

War with England => Free Trade in American Corn & Wheat
Spain. Laws, statutes, etc. Real provision de su magestad, y señores del consejo, por la que se declara que el comercio de granos ultramarinos debe quedar libre.... Zaragoza: Imprenta Real, 1771. Folio. [4] pp.
$275.00
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END of the War of the Austrian Succession — Easing Wartime Taxes
Spain. Sovereigns, 1746–59 (Ferdinand VI). Decree. Begins, “No esperè a se concluyesse la Paz, y estrituyesse el Exercito a Espana ...”. Buen Retiro: No publisher/printer, 1749. Small folio (29 cm; 11.5"). [2] ff. (last p. blank).
$250.00
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The king announces that with the signing of the peace treaty ending the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), he is ordering the cancelling of several wartime economic measures, especially relating to taxes and special duties.
Dated in text 2 December, this would surely have been a most welcome Christmas present!
Removed from a binding with sewing holes in inner margins. Date of decree in ink at top of first page. Very good. (34853)

The Accountants “de Buenos Ayres” WHINE, Whine . . . !?
Spain. Sovereigns, etc., 1759-88 (Charles III). Begins: "El Rey. En Representacion de cinco de Enero de mil setecientos ochenta y seis hizo presente, acompañando varios documentos, el Tribunal de Cuentas de Buenos Ayres...." [in manuscript at end, Madrid, 4 July] 1788. Folio. [2] ff. (final page blank).
$250.00
Encouraging Local Industry
Spain. Sovereigns, 1759–1788 (Charles III). Real cedula de su magestad de 14. de diciembre de 1784. concediendo por punto general la libertad de que sin distincion de personas, se puedan fabricar todo genero de tegidos de lino, y cañamo en los terminos que se propone. Vich: Juan Dorca y Morera, 1785. Folio. [4] ff., [1 (blank)] f.
$400.00
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Finds that local manufacture of linen and textiles is beneficial and removes restrictions on it; the "locality" is Vich, near Barcelona. The title-page has a nifty woodcut of the royal arms. Originally printed in Madrid.
Modern half vellum over burgundy cloth sides. Contemporary inked notation at top right corner of title-page. Very good. (21056)

Dyers & Loomers are
Engaged in Essential Services!
Spain. Sovereigns, 1759–1788 (Charles III). Real cedula...por la qual se manda por via de declaracion general, á beneficio de las manufacturas, que se guarde á los maestros tintoreros.... Madrid: Pedro Marin, 1775. Folio. [3] ff.
$325.00
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Exempts master dyers, and wool- and silk-loomers, from military service. Woodcut of the royal arms on title.
Lightly in later wrappers; small ownership stamp eradicated from title-page. A very good exemplar. (24386)
Protecting the
Spanish Fashion Industry
Spain. Sovereigns, 1759–1788 (Charles III). Real cedula...por la qual se prohibe general y absolutamente la introduccion en estos reynos, y señoríos, de gorros, guantes, calcetas, fajas, y otras manufacturas de lino, cañamo, lana, y algodon, redecillas de todos generos, hio de coser ordinario...y concede à los comerciantes en estos generos un año de termino para el despacho de los ya introducidos en estos reynos.... Madrid: Pedro Marin, 1778. Folio. [6] ff.
$300.00
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Royal decree forbidding importation of caps, gloves, stockings, sashes, and other goods made of linen, wool, and cotton. A very nice woodcut of the royal arms on the title.
Disbound, with a bit of pinhole worming not affecting text; lightly laid into later wrappers. (24388)

We Are SERIOUS, Here!
Spain. Sovereigns, 1759–1788 (Charles III). Real cedula...por la qual, en consequencia de los que dispone la ley 62. titl. 18. lib. 6. de la Recopilacion, se manda cortar el abuso de la inobervancia que ha tenido hasta aqui, y que se guarde, y cumplay aora en la parte en que prohibe la introduccion en estos reynos de toda especie de vestidos, ropas interiores, y exteriores.... Madrid: Pedro Marin, 1779. Folio. [4] ff.
$315.00
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Protecting Cotton Growers
Spain. Sovereigns, 1759–1788 (Charles III). Begins: “Ambrosio Funes de Villapando ... Por quanto hemos recibido una Real Pragmàtica-Sancion de su Magestad en fuerza de Ley ... por la qual se prohibe la introduccion, y uso en estos Reynos de los Tegidos de Algodòn, ò con mezcla de èl, de Fàbrica Estraña....” Barcelona: 1771. Folio. [4] ff.
$385.00
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Earn Your Keep!
Spain. Sovereigns, etc., 1788–1808 (Charles IV). [begins] El rey. Debiendo aplicar por todos los medios posibles mi paternal amor y cuidado a mis vasalos ... He vendio por mi real decreto de veinte y tres de diciembre del ano proximo pasado en mandar ... [in manuscript: Madrid: 21 February] 1789. Folio (30.5 cm; 12"). [3] pp.
$250.00
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The king asks all government officials to pay attention to the requirements of their jobs and to earn their salaries.
Searches of NUC and WorldCat find
no copies.
Not in Medina, BHA. Folded as issued; lower margin irregular with mild damp damage. (33489)

Sumptuary Standards Barcelona Edition
Spain. Sovereigns, 1788–1808 (Charles IV). Real cedula...por la cual se manda observar los dispuesto en las de trece de abril de mil setecientos noventa, y diez de agosto de mil ochocientos y dos, que tratan de la reforma de galones y adornos en las libreas.... Barcelona: Juan Francisco Piferrer, 1804. Folio. [4] ff.
$200.00
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A Bespoke Cedulario for
Use in New Spain & Guatemala
(Spanish Royal Decrees). An assemblage of 43 manuscript and printed royal and viceroyal decrees and some 25 related documents. Barcelona, Madrid, Valldolid (Spain), Aranjuez, Mexico City, & elsewhere: 1701–79. Small 4to, folio, & larger. Approximately 135 ff.
$8275.00
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Explaining why manuscript cedularios were made in the era of the printing press is called for here, and the answer is simple: The number of copies that were printed of any given royal cédula tended to be smaller than the number of lawyers, clerks, judges, and other legal sorts who needed a copy. And within months of the issuance of the decree, no printed copies were available for love or money. Owning the various editions of the Recopilación de leyes de Indias was insufficient, for most cédulas related to
specific issues peculiar to one person, place, institution, or event, and such specificity is not included in the recopilaciones, though the royal decrees provided good, useful precedents to cite.
QED: Every colonial-era lawyer had to resort to maintaining his own cedulario.
This cedulario was assembled in Mexico during the 18th century, probably around 1778 or 1780, for the use of a lawyer before the audiencia, or perhaps for an audiencia judge or a judge's staff member. The decrees relate to a wide variety of topics: criminal cases, the army and navy, confiscation of property, the use of stamped paper, the royal treasury, royal officials in Nicaragua, cabildos, proselytization of Indians, commodities, dress codes, bigamy, and other social matters in the regions of Mexico, New Galicia, and Guatemala. Of the 43 items, 22 are printed decrees (all but one printed in Spain) and the remaining 21 are manuscript. Fifteen bear
true (rather than stamped) royal signatures: six are signed by Felipe V, and nine are by Ferdinand VI. Of the 28 documents not signed by a king, 17 are printed and 11 are manuscript.
The documents are sewn and were once bound; binding removed some time ago. 18th-century numbering of documents shows that 10 documents were removed som time before the collection came into our hands. There are some stains, a few holes at folds, a few edges a little tattered — nothing worse.
A sound and interesting collection. (34851)

Burial Fees Attacked
Spelman, Henry. De sepultura. London: Printed by Robert Young, 1641. 4to (19 cm, 7.5’’). [2], 38 pp., lacking first and last blank as usual.
$425.00
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The first edition of Sir Henry Spelman’s famous condemnation of the financial contributions demanded of mourners by their churches for burials — an influence on several pamphlets by John Milton. Spelman (1562–1641), one of the most important English antiquaries of the early modern period, was acquainted with Robert Cotton and a great collector of medieval documents and records; published in the year of his death, his De sepultura deprecates the act of requesting money for burial rites because, as the pamphlet's first sentence says, “It is a worke of the Law of Nature and of Nations, of humane and divine Law, to bury the Dead” (p.1). The “selling of graves and the duty [tax] of buriall” he sees as Christian customs, “not heard of [. . .] among the Barbarians” (p. 2); he cites numerous medieval ecclesiastical and state sources from England and sometimes France that forbid the exaction of money for burial and blessings to the dead, as well as the opinions of major English canonists. He also quotes from church constitutions of his time, with citation of prices (separate for children under 7) requested by parsons and church-wardens for interment. Very interesting is a paragraph printed in Anglo-Saxon type, Spelman being knowledgeable in that language, which reproduces
a law from the reign of Cnut.
Provenance: 17th-century autograph of “William (?)ram (?)” and three early pen trials on title-page; large 20th-century armorial bookplate of Edward Jackson Barron, member of the Society of Antiquaries to front pastedown; even larger 20th-century engraved bookplate of Moses H. Grossman, designed by Henri Bérengier (1881–1943), laid in; modern manuscript date to lower blank margin of last verso.
ESTC R19887; Kress 606; Goldsmiths’-Kress 766.1; Wing (rev. ed.) S4924. Early 20th-century half calf over marbled paper boards with author/title/date blind-stamped to spine; joints strengthened and well refurbished. Title-page and last verso dust-soiled and text generally with significant age-toning but paper yet good; one small pinehole-type wormhole through lower margins.
A nicely provenanced, neatly bound, appealing copy of an important text on a once vexed subject. (41335)

Solicitation for Funding a
Victorian Mental Health Institution
Staffordshire General Lunatic Asylum. [drop-title] Charitable institution for the insane of Staffordshire and the adjacent counties. [Stafford: R. & W. Wright, Printers, 1850?]. Folio (32.8 cm; 13"). [1] f., [1] plt.
$450.00
Click the images for enlargements.
A two-page solicitation for donations to build Coton Hill Hospital, a new institution designed by architect Frederick Sandham Waller to accommodate the first two of the historical “three classes” of Staffordshire mental health patients: “Class I. — Persons of superior rank, who shall respectively contribute to the charge of maintenance according to their pecuniary abilities. Class II. — Persons in limited circumstances, though not paupers, whose payments shall be assisted and relieved out of the funds of the Charity, and the excess of payments imposed on the more affluent. Class III. — Persons being paupers, sent by Justices of the Peace for the County, pursuant to the provisions of the said Act of Parliament.”
Founded in 1814, the Asylum was by the time of this appeal overwhelmed by the number of County residents needing care, especially from Class III; and, after the failure of efforts to find adjoining land allowing enlargement of facilities on the old mixed principle, decision was taken to build a new center for Class I and II patients within a half-mile's distance. The original provision that better-off patients paying according to their abilities would subsidize the care of the others was explicitly to be maintained, as per the solicitation in hand.
Conjoined is a
full-page engraving of the proposed design, signed “Warrington, sc.” The completed Coton Hill opened in 1854. Its main portions have been demolished though the chapel in the engraving and a gatehouse still stand.
Provenance: “Dr. J.S. Butler” stamped at the top of p. 1; we note that there was a Dr. J.S. Butler who was a noted psychiatrist in Connecticut in the 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s.
Searches of NUC, WorldCat, and COPAC locate only one copy worldwide, although we know of one other.
The two leaves starting to separate at top, with gentle age-toning and small chipping and closed tears to edges and fold; one tear barely touches platemark and there is light offsetting to the plate from something once laid between the leaves.
An attractive, unusual, and informative prospectus. (38890)

Putting DOWN the
REVOLUTION in Connecticut
Steadfast, Jonathan [pseud. of David Daggett]. Count the cost. An address to the people of Connecticut, on sundry political subjects, and particularly on the proposition for a new constitution. Hartford: Hudson & Goodwin, 1804. 8vo (23.6 cm, 9.25"). 21, ii, [1] pp.
$150.00
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Daggett, a Federalist lawyer and politician, argues against the creation of a new state constitution for Connecticut; he claims that those promoting such a thing do so for personal and political gain, and suggests they are “pigmy politicians, the mushroom growth of an hour” (p. 16). The appendix provides “a View of the Fiscal Concerns of Connecticut.”
First edition.
Sabin 15716; Shaw & Shoemaker 610. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Title-page with small inked
“pseud.” comment next to author's name. Pages age-toned with offsetting and some light spotting (darkest to title-page); one leaf with upper margin repaired some time ago. Page edges untrimmed; one signature unopened. (25211)

Printed by W. Thomas Taylor / Signed by Stern
Stern, Madeleine B. Nicholas Gouin Dufief of Philadelphia: Franco-American bookseller, 1776-1834. Philadelphia: The Philobiblon Club, 1988. 8vo. (22 cm; 8.75"). 81 pp., illus., portrait, facsimiles.
$50.00
Click the images for enlargements.
Limited to 300 (unnumbered) copies, signed by Stern and printed by W. Thomas Taylor, Austin, Texas, who also designed the work (“The types used are Baskerville & Bulmer”). Stern gave this talk before the Philobiblon Club; the text “Appeared previously in the American Book Collector in a somewhat shorter form” (Preface). Includes bibliographical references (pp. 73–81).
Stern was the life and business partner of Leona Rostenberg, their firm of Rostenberg & Stern having been one of America's most respected during the post –WWII period and known for its dealing in early printed books Dufief (1776?–1834) was a refugee from the French Revolution who from 1793 to 1818 lived in Philadelphia, where he taught French and ran a bookstore.
Among the libraries he acquired was the large residue of Benjamin Franklin's!
New. Publisher's light brown cloth with paper spine label. (35753)

An
AMERICAN Dissatisfied with New-Granada
Steuart, John. Bogotá in 1836–7. Being a narrative of an expedition to the capital of New-Grenada, and a residence there of eleven months. New York: Pr. for the author by Harper & Bros., 1838. 8vo (cm). viii, [13]–312, [2] pp.
$500.00
Click the images for enlargements.
First edition of this travel account, in which Steuart describes his journey from New York to Bogotá and Carthagena. The author, who opens by debunking “Extravagant Ideas prevalent regarding South America” (p. 13), is highly critical of the local virtue, temperament, religious observances, apparel, and cuisine (complaining particularly of excessive cumin and garlic), reserving his praise primarily for the excellent chocolate. In his concluding remarks, he expresses much pessimism regarding any possibility of successful international commerce with the South American states.
Binding: Publisher's ribbon-embossed green floral-patterned cloth of Krupp's style Ft6.
American Imprints 53109; Palau 322394; Sabin 91388. Not in Smith, American Travellers Abroad. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50. Publisher's green floral-patterned cloth, spine with printed paper label; corners and spine foot rubbed, spine head pulled, paper label darkened with edges chipped. Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription; occasional pencilled annotations and marks of emphasis. Light to moderate foxing. (25425)
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