•  Publisher's half-tone color-printed paper wrappers as above, with a river scene glowing in the “eye” of one of the pansies; spine rubbed, one tiny spot of staining or fading near front upper edge. Pages gently age-toned. A patent medicine give-away not, originally, meant to be much less ephemeral than the little flower it celebrates.  (36568)

Sole edition.

Binding:  Publisher's white linen with blue leaf and flower vine pattern; paper title-label on front board.

WorldCat locates only eight libraries worldwide reporting ownership (Universities of Delaware, Iowa, Missouri, and North Carolina; Vanderbilt, Indiana, and Texas Tech Universities; and Swarthmore College).

•  Bound as above, very elegantly; volume clean, virtuallypristine.  (40439)

Each volume commences with a copper-engraved frontispiece and title-page vignette, the former done by Robert White after a painting by Lely, the latter signed M[ichael] Burg[hers]. Burghers also engraved a substantial number of head- and tailpieces for the work, as well as decorative capitals.

•  ESTC N9847, N9850, T147811; Brunet, I, 81; Allibone 385.   Contemporary speckled calf panelled in blind with plain calf, decorated with blind-tooled corner fleurons, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; edges and extremities rubbed, joints cracked or starting, some acid-pitting to speckled portions, spines each with small paper shelving label. Each front pastedown with institutional bookplate over private collector's bookplate, and with early inked gift inscription. Title-pages with small institutional rubber-stamp in lower margin; half-titles lacking. Pages generally clean; occasional minor spotting mostly confined to margins. One instance of early inked marginalia.  (24574)

The first volume is illustrated with12 plates each offering four rows of small portraits, some intriguingly expressive; each volume opens with an engraved frontispiece portrait of a royal George.

•  NSTC 2C23867.   Recent textured maroon cloth, spines with gilt-stamped black leather title and volume labels; title-pages institutionally pressure- (not rubber-) stamped. Scattered light spots of staining, pages generally clean; first few leaves of voI. \ II with outer margins chipped. A hefty, substantive evocation of Georgian life and times.  (30012)

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

The stories areillustrated with a total of ten hand-colored, wood-engraved plates, some of which are signed N. Orr Co., done after designs by Jacob A. Dallas. The added engraved title-page reads “The Fairies in Council,” giving the same date and publication information as the main title-page.

Binding: Publisher's dark green textured cloth, covers blind-stamped with publisher's “GGE” shield, spine with gilt-stamped fairy-surrounded decorative title and a large harp-playing fairy in lower portion.

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with inked inscription of Maggie Tarlsbury, dated 1862.

•  Binding cocked, gently worn overall with small closed tear to back cover cloth, gilt dimmed yet still pleasing. Front pastedown with bookseller's ticket of Hudson Taylor, Washington City; inscription as above. Pages age-toned, with a few very short edge tears not extending into text and occasional small spots. Early printings of this collection, with its graceful bows to American children, are now scarce. (40996)

This copy bears the full-page woodcut portrait of Pope Clement VII on the verso of the fourth preliminary leaf, which is not found with all copies. Additionally, the title-page bears an interesting 14-piece composite woodcut border and the verso of that page has a stunning full-page woodcut of the coat of arms of Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, to whom the letter is addressed. The coat of arms is surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The text is printed in roman with side- and shouldernotes; the lay-out is elegant and there is one large, handsome woodcut initial.

As usual, the letter is here bound with Peter Martyr's De Rebus, et insulis noviter repertis, which provides an account of the recently discovered islands of the West Indies and their inhabitants. It is often considered a substitute for the lost Cortés letter.

One of the most important early descriptions of Mexico and of the first encounter of the West with the Aztec civilization, this is a work of bedrock importance to the New World. No complete copy has appeared for sale since 1985.

•  Alden & Landis, European Americana, 524/5; Sabin 16947; Harrisse, BAV, 125. Sanz 933–34; Medina, BHA, 70; Church 53; Burden 5; JCB, German Americana, 524/4; Streeter Sale 190.   18th-century half vellum and sprinkled paper over boards, gilt red leather label. Map supplied in expert facsimile; blank leaf H8 lacking. Bookplate of John Carter Brown (Library) on front pastedown, with deaccession stamp. Occasional very minor soiling in the text, else very good — a copy clean and even crisp.  (26808)

The colophon notes that “this book has been produced asa complete exercise in book production at the Department of Printing, Oxford School of Art. Peter Tysoe who planned the typography and executed the twelve woodcuts has thereby been afforded an opportunity to assist in all the various stages of production . . . The typeface used for the text is 12-pt. Bembo set solid and composed on the Monotype with a three-unit minimum space.”

Uncommon: WorldCat locatesonly one institutional copy, not in the U.S.

•  Publisher's boards covered with cream “vellum” paper, front board with black woodcut within gilt frame and black lettering; paper of boards lightly soiled/foxed, spinea little darkened. Endpapers and half-title foxed; text block not so, with all text and illustrations clean and nice. A very satisfactory copy of this scarce, limited edition.  (38192)

Provenance:  Calligraphic bookplate of Norman J. Sondheim, American collector of fine press books.

•  McKitterick/Rendall/Dreyfus 12.   Quarter vellum with gold paper sides; edges rubbed, wrapper lacking. Top edge gilt on the rough. Minor offsetting to endpapers, otherwise clean.  (32037)

Binding: A. Horowitz & Sons bound the work in quarter brown cloth with gray Fabriano Ingres paper, the front cover stamped in brown to reproduce the front cover of a 1920s literary magazine.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 523. Binding as above, in original glassine dust jacket with very minor chipping to corners. Also in original slipcase of brown cloth and gray paper with brown printed lettering to spine. A clean, fresh, indeed wonderful copy.  (39039)

The work, including the illustrations, is printed on the outside of double leaves unopened at fore-edge. The justification (pp. [2–3]), title (pp. [4–5]), and copyright notice (pp. [6–7]) extend across two pages. The text is set in Madura, the title in Jefferson Gothic, and the preliminaries in Gill Sans Medium Condensed.

The “triads” are three-line minimalist poems that now seem very 1950s/60s “coffee house” in style.

•  Chambers, Gogmagog, 18.   Publisher's light boards covered with patterned Japanese Hana-asa paper. A fine copy.  (35836)

Provenance:  From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, sans indicia.

•  Osborne Collection p. 33; Pearson, Banbury Chap Books, p. 33.   As issued, age-toning at edges; spine splitting at very top but all sewing present and holding. A good+++ copy.  (38797)

•  Forster 32; Toy 156.   Publisher's brown cloth, covers stamped in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities slightly rubbed, spine with small spots of discoloration. Pages faintly age-toned, otherwise clean; a nice copy.  (33301)

•  NSTC 2C42639; Goldsmiths’-Kress 26080; not in Maggs, Bibl. Asiatica. On Crawfurd, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Publisher’s dark green cloth, blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title; spines very slightly sunned and showing faint traces of now-absent paper labels, cloth lightly rubbed at corners and spine extremities. Hinges cracked (inside). Front pastedowns rubber-stamped (no other institutional markings). Title-pages with pencilled owner’s name in upper margins; contents pages with inked owner’s name dated 1865. Frontispiece, plates, and a few pages in proximity to plates lightly to moderately foxed; one plate in vol. II torn from inner margin, tear not touching image. Absorbing reading, evocative images.  (19179)

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

•  Publisher's quarter very light grey linen and printed paper–covered sides; small faint spot of staining at lower edge of front cover, otherwise clean and unworn. Pages age-toned (not unattractively or indeed inappropriately!). A thoroughly delightful production in a very nice copy.  (41201)

Signed Binding: Publisher's teal pebbled cloth, front covers with striking chariot and armorial scene in light blue, tan, and gilt. The “Cibeles” statue found in Madrid's Cibeles Plaza and the coat of arms (and gilt monogram) of the city of Madrid appear with de la Cruz's name stamped in gilt below; spines offer gilt-stamped title and black-stamped griffin decoration. Cover of vol. II is signed “J. Orba.” All page edges are stamped in a Greek key pattern in blue and gilt.

Provenance:  Half-titles each with old-fashioned rubber-stamp of José Carmona y Ramos.

•  Palau 65340.   Bindings as above, edges and extremities showing minor shelfwear, back cover of vol. I with small spots of faint discoloration, front joint of vol. II rubbed. Collector's stamp as above, each front pastedown with small paper label bearing hand-inked numeral. Pages age-toned; edges slightly embrittled, occasionally with small chips or short tears. Scattered light smudges in vol. I; vol. II with mild to moderate foxing. A peacocky set.  (29262)

Provenance:  On the verso of the half-title, an inscription reading, “F.G. Coleridge, from his affect[ionate] cousin Edwin E. Coleridge, Christmas Day, 1849.” Francis George Coleridge (1794–1854) and Edwin Ellis Coleridge (1803–1870) werenephews of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Underneath, there appears to be an inscription written in Greek. A penciled note indicates F.G. Coleridge was the grandfather of “Dorothy H. S[mith?].” However, our research could not find a granddaughter named Dorothy. The initials “G.S.,” also in the same penciled hand, are below that. Most recently from the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  McLean, Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing, pp. 70–71, 143; Not in Ing, Charles Whittingham.   Bound as above with rubs and scrapes refurbished; spine darkened and rubbed with missing or darkened gilt, small hole to spine-head. Interior mildly age-toned and with some minor, occasional, light spotting and dirtied edges; minor gutter crack at the half-title. Provenance as above. A nice, still-sturdy Riviere binding and a beautiful, colorful interior.  (38395)

Binding: Original brown cloth with beveled edges, stamped in gilt and black with gilt lettering to front board and spine; gilt vignette of the Academy to front board.

Provenance: Cunningham, an affectionate and appreciative graduate of the Academy, has inscribed the front free endpaper“With the compliments of the author, 6/22, '83.” Later in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Extremities lightly rubbed, minor bumping; gilt bright on spine and brighter on cover. Very nice, clean copy “personalized” by the author.  (37760)