•  Shaw & Shoemaker 2175; Allibone 547.   Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Last page institutionally pressure-stamped; title-page with traces of paper adhesions to inner margin. Uncut copy; pages lightly age-toned, with a bit of soiling and light to moderate spotting.  (25830)

The cataloguer at the Penn State University library describes its uncolored example: “The form is generally dated ca. 1830, but could have been in use as early as 1814. The lower design depicts Jesus with the disciples, while the upper scene shows Jesus' baptism. The form stretches between two pillars, flanked by columns of smoke, all within line border. Distinctive mix of [stipple] engraving and etching, probably on copper plate, by Egelmann.”

The present copy is handsomely hand-colored with the entirety of the baptismal certificate written out, not “filled in,” in red ink in a clear hand. That is, the “form” part of the engraving has been neatly, precisely excised and replaced with fresh paper to record Louisa's baptism.

•  Weiser & Heaney, Pennsylvania German Fraktur, 495; Stopp, Printed Birth and Baptismal Certificates of the German Americans, IV, pg. 2784.   Gently age-toned, small amount of spotting to lower right corner, a bit of waterstaining to upper right corner. Excellent repair to a few tears around the margins, plate expertly altered/repurposed within the manuscript portion as described above.  (36105)

Provenance:  Daughters with inked ownership inscription of Josephine Sparre, dated 1856; Women with early inked inscription of A.M. Kirwan of Well Park, Drumcondra (Ireland).

•  Publisher's red pebbled cloth, covers elaborately stamped in blind, spines with gilt-stamped titles and embossed decorations; volumes with edges and extremities rubbed, small scuffs and spots of discoloration to sides, spines gently sunned, Daughters cloth somewhat lighter overall. Daughters: Offsetting from frontispiece to title-page. Mothers: Frontispiece lightly foxed; light pencilled marks of emphasis. Wives: Front free endpaper lacking; frontispiece foxed. Inscriptions as above; occasional small spots of foxing, smudges, and edge chips scattered throughout; box with scuffs and wear, cracks to leather at top refurbished. A removable dais has been added to the foot of the box in order to fit the presently contained volumes more snugly; markings to the cloth lining of the box suggest that, at one time, taller volumes resided there. Some of Ellis's most successful and influential writing in a desirable uniformly bound set, within the rarely surviving and quite charming display case. (41250)

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)

The title-page here is decorated with a small printer's device of a snail, perhaps making haste slowly, and the text features shouldernotes for ease of use.

Evidence of Readership: A past reader has added a few paragraphs of commentary in French on the verso of the front endpaper as well as two marginal notes in pencil and one in ink.

Provenance:  19th-century “Ex libris Lebers” in ink on verso of front free endpaper. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Barbier 4030.   19th-century quarter brown morocco and brown, tan, and yellow marbled paper–covered boards, spine lettered and stamped in gilt, stormont marbled endpapers, all edges stained red; lightly rubbed with some loss of paper and leather. Provenance and readership markings as above, light age-toning with a few spots; a few leaves with waterstaining at corners, two short marginal tears, and one marginal repair.  (38054)

This Bodoni production is now uncommon, with searches of WorldCat findingonly three U.S. institutions (University of Illinois, University of Kansas, Yale) reporting holdings.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with bookplates of Brian Douglas Stilwell and Robert Wayne Stilwell.

•  Brooks 1298.   Contemporary quarter brown morocco and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and acanthus motifs; binding rubbed. Very minor spots of foxing to title-page, wide-margined pages otherwise clean.  (40205)

The volume, one of the third edition, is illustrated by apensive engraved frontispiece of Mrs. Goldophin,by William Humphreys, from an original painting by Matthew Dixon. The work also includes five genealogical tables.

Binding:  Black morocco–covered boards with beveled edges, covers framed by two sets of blind double-rules and with an embossed center medallion; spine with raised bands, gilt lettering, blind-stamped devices in compartments, and blind rules extending from bands onto covers. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Signed by Hayday.

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

•  Kelly, Checklist of Books Published by William Pickering, 1847.5 (not noting the 1848 reprints); Keynes, William Pickering (rev. ed.), 65.   Bound as above. Minor rubbing to spine-ends and joints, scuffs and faint scrapes to boards, corners bumped. Light stains to very edges of frontispiece, offsetting to title-page, and gutter crack to p. 290. Lovely and sturdy overall.  (37862)

•  VD17 23:288787R; Landwehr, French, Italian, Spanish, & Portuguese Books of Devices & Emblems, 287; Henkel & Schöne, Emblemata: Handbuch Zur Sinnbildkunst des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, 300; Adams, Bibliography of French Emblem Books of the 16th & 17th Centuries, F.247; Faber du Faur 1846.   Contemporary vellum with later silk ties; vellum lightly worn and spotted, spine head with traces of early, hand-inked shelfmark. Light waterstaining to upper outer portions of roughly the first third of the volume; minor spots of staining scattered throughout. Some inner margins unobtrusively repaired or reinforced; two small spots of pinhole worming running through most of volume with six instances (touching some images) repaired; engraved “Devises” title-page with short closed tear. Lacking two plates from the Autumn section (XXVI & XXVII): Despite this, and the minor faults described, a copydeserving of admiration.  (40766)

WorldCat reportsonly four U.S. institutional holdings of this attractive Antoine-Augustin Renouard printing. While this copy does include the half-title, the engraved portrait cited by OCLC as appearing in some copies is not present here (with the volume showing no signs of its ever having been present).

Binding:  Contemporary mottled calf, covers framed in gilt roll, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; board edges with single gilt fillet, turn-ins with gilt roll resembling but not identical to cover roll. All edges gilt.

•  Binding as above, showing rubbing to spine, joints, and extremities. Portrait reported in some copies not present here; pages with scattered instances of mild spotting. An elegant little testament to the enduring influence of this work, progressive for its day.  (38421)

The “lady” was Eliza L. Cabot Follen (1787–1860), the Boston-born author, translator, and abolitionist.  She used her own translation — “a free one; but sedulous care has been taken never to depart from the spirit of the author” (v) — and one of her concerns in selection is to de-Catholicize the archbishop, allowing his more universal appreciation — for, as she says, his “writings necessarily contain many things that could not be acceptable to Christians of all denominations [and have therefore] been uniformly omitted” (v).

Fénelon's appearance in Follen's selective epitome would surely have amused him, and it pleased the book-buying public: This is the work’s third edition.

Provenance:  A note states that “this book belonged to Grandmother Dyer[:] Ann Eliza Morse”; Charles Dyer Norton has also signed an endpaper in ink.

•  American Imprints 7028. On Fénelon, see: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th ed., X, 252–54.   Mid-19th-century plain black calf with gilt spine compartments tooled in an interesting pattern, single gilt rule around covers, a little gilt on board edges, marbled endpapers and edges; some wear and abrasions but spine gilt still bright. Provenance markings as above, some leaves creased across and a little interior staining and spotting especially at rear. A nice old book.  (36673)

Provenance:  Armorial bookplate of Ezra Otis Swift on the front pastedown; most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  NSTC 2B47098 & 2P5931.   Quarter black roan in imitation of morocco and dark pink paper–covered boards, gilt lettering on spine; rubbed with some loss of leather and paper. Edges uncut. Light age-toning with a handful of marginal stains. Bookplate and label as above; bookplate offsetting onto free endpaper. A scandalous historical poem from a respectable press.  (39422)

•  Written in a very clear hand, with the paper and wax seal below the king’s signature (wax desicated and paper loose, but present). Two blank leaves at end. Very good condition.  (5578)

Title woodcut vignette is of a young man in a straw hat, sharpening a scythe which is balanced on his shoulder; “[No.] 53” is printed at the foot of the chapbook's title-page.

•  Unbound; removed. In the song “My Mither”, an owner has crossed out two words & one phrase in pencil and written pencil amendments in the margin. Very good.  (37145)

Binding:  Publisher's pebbled brown leather, covers and spine with blind-stamped framework containing foliate motifs, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title, turn-ins with border composed of several gilt rolls. Marbled endpapers; all edges gilt.

Provenance:  From the library of Robert L. Sadoff, M.D., sans indicia.

•  Binding as above, edges and extremities mildly rubbed and refurbished. Frontispiece recto with early inked gift inscription “from F.B.H.” Internally slightly age-toned; plates clean. A luxurious production in very good condition; an aesthetically pleasing combination of art and literature. (39853)

Binding:  Contemporary limp suede with envelope flap, portion of original tie still present.

Provenance:  Front pastedown and free endpaper with early inked ownership inscriptions of Gryff[yth?] Price.

•  ESTC T145812; Sweet & Maxwell 367.   Binding as above, rebacked with mottled sheep with gilt-stamped leather title-label; edges rubbed, flap leather cracking and refurbished with same leather used on spine as well as internally reinforced with marbled paper. Endpapers with offsetting to margins, inscriptions as above. Pages with a very few instances of faint foxing. A nice copy, easily imaginable as an Irish lawyer's portable reading and reference.  (34809)

The binding is full blue linen stamped in gold on the spine and front cover, with additional ornamentation to both covers in deep pink. Top edges are gilt, others deckle; one leaf is left unopened.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 49.   Binding as above; spine sunned and with thumbnail sized dark patch at head and foot. Some cracking along the top edges and spine of the slipcase, which is still sturdy; spine of case sunned, paper label a little soiled. Pages clean; no ownership markings or labels. A very good, clean copy.  (22313)

WorldCat locates only nine institutional copies, these in a rather odd array of places with perhaps some being accounted for by H.L. Mencken’s having reviewed the volume not entirely unkindly in Smart Set.

•  For Mencken’s remarks, see: Smart Set, “The Bards in Battle Royal”; vol, 37 (1912).   Publisher’s red cloth with gilt lettering to front board and spine; publisher’s emblem blind-stamped to rear board, light rubbing to extremities. Top edge gilt, other edges deckle; small stains to bottom edge of pages. A pleasing collection of down-home’y poetry.  (37793)

•  NSTC 0458171.   Later full navy morocco, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine gently sunned. Top edges gilt. Two pages with small spots of faint staining, overall gentle age-toning. A nice example of the Roxburghe Club'simpeccable publication standards.  (33492)

woman

Printed mostly in roman type with some italic, this has headings in gothic and some long passages also in gothic.

Provenance:  18th-century ownership signatures at top of main title-page of J.W. Tarleton and J. Skynner (both lined through), and 19th-century signature of Wm. Saunders. Oldham Free Public Library (Lancs.) stamp on verso of same.

•  ESTC T136807; Sweet & Maxwell 12.Ia.6 and 12.Ia.10.   Late 20th-century quarter brown calf with brown stone-pattern marbled paper sides; all edges gilt. Slim waterstain in upper margin of last four leaves; same leaves foxed. Overall a very good copy.  (34007)

The text is printed in Latin, double-column, with a handful of large woodcut initials, a few tail ornaments, and one letterpress diagram. The title-page, printed in red and black, features Blaeu's large device of an astrolabe flanked by Time and Hercules. An index on the final two pages lists Grotius's correspondents and the corresponding letters, which are arranged chronologically in the text.

•  Meulen, Grotius, 1210; Brunet, II, 1766; Graesse, III, 163.   Contemporary northern-European style vellum over boards ruled in blind, panels with blind-stamped central cartouches, spine with seven raised bands and remnants of later paper labels, red speckled edges; vellum soiled and lightly rubbed at extremities with corners bumped. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown and later library marking in pen on second leaf; light foxing, a light waterstain across the lower outer corner of perhaps a dozen leaves, and scattered darker stains, with a few leaves browned; small tear in outer margin of title-leaf and another margin, small hole from natural flaw in outer margin of one leaf and small bit of paper torn away from lower corner of another. Very mild worming in middle of two leaves and final leaf, the latter repaired; additional very minor, “slim” worming mostly to margins at rear.A solid, handsome important book.  (30293)

Binding:  Decorated publisher's binding: blue cloth with “silver”-stamped lettering and fleur-de-lis decorations to front board and spine, front cover with large “silver”-stamped vignette of a medieval gentleman holding a cage with two owls. “Silver” work actually aluminum and very bright!

Provenance:  On front free endpaper, two ownership stamps of Sarah E. Lembeck.

•  BAL 6747 (state A imprint, state A binding).   Bound as above; spine cocked and extremities and joints lightly rubbed. Stamps as above. Crease to p. 42; interior otherwise unspoiled. A handsomely medieval-esque production.  (37506)