AMERICANA
AFTER 1820
AMERICANA
AFTER 1820
AMERICANS . . . “Never Retreat either in Battle
(California Statehood). Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, with the views of the minority of that committee on Bill S.350, for the admission of California into the Union as a state. Washington: Pr. by Wendell & Van Benthuysen, 1849. 8vo (22 cm; 8.5"). 18 pp. 
Single-click the image, for an enlargement. • Removed from a nonce volume and now in wrappers. A very good copy.
The California Poets California Writers Club. Poems. 1933. Berkeley: Pr. by The Professional Press, 1933. 8vo. 67, [1] pp.
Provenance: Bookplate inside front wrapper of Lorraine & Horace Haynes.
• Publisher's light-blue wrappers. Bookplate as above. Near fine. (23669)
A Restoration Movement Leader on
Believers' Baptism Campbell, Alexander. Christian baptism: Antecedents and consequents. Bethany, VA: Alexander Campbell, 1851. 12mo (18.1 cm, 7.15"). 444 pp.
• Norona & Shetler, West Virginia, 236. Not in Sabin. Period-style quarter tan cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Title-page institutionally rubber- and pressure-stamped, dedication with inked annotations along inner and lower margins, one (blank) page rubber-stamped, last index page pressure-stamped. Light staining to margins of first and last few pages (from a previous binding), otherwise clean. (25839)
Canal FeverCarey, Mathew. [drop title] Canal policy, no. I–III. Second edition. [Philadelphia, 1824]. 8vo (23.5 cm, 9.25"). 4, 8 pp. [bound with] Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth. Philadelphia, Jan. 13, 1825. The subscribers, the acting committee of ... respectfully submit the following address on the subject of a canal to connect the waters of the Susquehannah with those of the Alleghany, to the consideration of their fellow citizens. [Philadelphia, 1825]. 8vo. 7, [1 (blank)] pp. [with] Carey, Mathew. Fulton—no. IV. Canals and railways. [Philadelphia, 1825]. 8vo. 4 pp. [with] Carey, Mathew. Canal policy — Fulton — no. V. [Philadelphia, 1825]. 8vo. 4 pp. [with] Carey, Mathew. Fulton, no. VI. Internal improvement. [Harrisburg, 1825]. 8vo. 6, [2 (blank)] pp. 
• Set of pamphlets on canal construction, including “The importance
of the views of the Canal policy of New York, presented by DeWitt Clinton .
. . ”. “Fulton — no. IV. Canals and railways” is a continuation
of the series “Canal Policy.”Click
the image for an enlargement.
The Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Internal Improvements in the Commonwealth was established in Philadelphia, in December 1824, to disseminate information on the latest improvements in the development of transportation systems including roads, railways, canals, bridges, etc.; William Strickland, Mathew Carey, Richard Peters, Jr., Joseph Hemphill, Stephen Duncan, and Gerard Ralston were among its members.
• Shoemaker 15654, 21855, 19953, 19955, & 19949. Light blue paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper title-label. Light age-toning and spotting, more pronounced in last few leaves. Final (blank) leaf with early inked ownership signature; child’s pencilled drawings on one blank page.
Soldier Humor Illustrated Cary, Melbert B., Jr. ( ed. & pub.). Mademoiselle from Armentières, volume two. New York: Press of the Woolly Whale, 1935. 8vo. xlv, [9], 111, [1] pp.; illus.
Click the interior images for enlargements. • Publisher's quarter crimson morocco and gilt black cloth, top edge gilt; fine save for one corner bump (sans glassine wrapper). Pictorial endsheets and illustrations, tipped-in facsimile. (18011)
The
“American Historical Society”
Cass, Lewis. A discourse pronounced at the Capitol of the United States, in the Hall of Representatives, before the American Historical Society, January 30, 1836 by Lewis Cass, President of the Society. To which are prefixed its constitution and the names of the officers. Washington: P. Thompson, 1836. 8vo. 
• Recent wrappers. Lightly foxed.
Love & MUCH More Casseday, Davis B. The Hortons. Or American life at home. Philadelphia: James S. Claxton, 1866. 12mo. viii, 5-362 pp.
Any early buyer may have to wait for this until its cataloguer (CDB) has finished actually reading it!
• Wright, II, 474. Contemporary quarter morocco and marbled paper sides, worn and abraded, spine chipped and cracking, front and back covers pressure-stamped by a now-defunct library. Text block separated from spine, front cover partially detached. Title-page and several others stamped; pages with light waterstaining and scattered small spots. (4362)
Ojibway
— OTTAWACatholic
Church. Catechism. Ojibway. A short compendium of the Catechism for the Indians, with the approbation of the Rt. Rev. Frederic Baraga, Bishop of Saut Sainte Marie, 1864. Rev. N. L. Sifferath, Missionary of the Ottawa and Otchipwe Indians. Buffalo, N.Y.: C. Wieckmann, (Aurora Printing House.), 1869. 12mo (18.3 cm, 7.2"). 62, 2 pp.
Click either image above for an enlargement. 
• Sabin 80996; Pilling, Algonquian, 462; Pilling, Proof-sheets, 3601a. Not in Banks; not in Evans. Original buckram, showing minor water damage; upper page margins waterstained, obviously to very lightly. Title-page with library stamps and some rough old pen-markings; first two leaves a bit torn at binding.
Cecil & Flavel'sGift for Mourners Cecil, Richard. A friendly visit to the house of mourning. New York: American Tract Society (pr. by D. Fanshaw), [1832–46?]. 16mo (10.8 cm, 4.25"). Frontis., 45, [1] pp. [with] Flavel, John. A gift for mourners. New York: American Tract Society (pr. by D. Fanshaw). 16mo. 79, [1] pp.
Click
the images for enlargements.
Binding: Publisher's blind-stamped black moiré cloth of Krupp's style Moi1, front cover with gilt-stamped title within gilt-stamped floral frame. All edges gilt.
• Binding: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50,
p. 39. Binding as above, corners and spine extremities rubbed, back
cover with a few small spots; gilt bright. Front free endpaper with early
pencilled inscription as above, front fly-leaf with pencilled ownership inscription.
Some pages foxed. A
pretty “Gift.” (26650)
AMERICAN Edition — Complete & Attractive Chalmers, Alexander. The British essayists: With prefaces, historical and biographical, by A Chalmers. Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1856–57. 12mo (18 cm, 7"). 38 vols. (1, 2, 5, 6, 13, 14, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 27, & 32 with frontis.)
Click the image above for an enlargement. An early purchaser has recorded the cost of binding the set (60 pence per book) in a pencilled note on the front fly-leaf of vol. I: “Aug. 15th 1864 in 38 vol bound in fine 1/2 moroco [sic] per vol c/60 d.”
The essays and authors here were all once fashionable as well as interesting; they are no longer at all fashionable, but they are interesting in ways that their authors and original readers never imagined.
Bindings: Contemporary half morocco over attractive marbled paper–covered sides, each spine with gilt-stamped title, volume number, and elegant arabesque decorations. Top edges gilt.
• On Chalmers, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Bindings lightly rubbed, a few with leather showing slight cracking over spines. Frontispiece with bookplate of private collector. Pages age-toned, with edges slightly embrittled; some occurrences of staining and pencilled underlining, with the majority of pages clean. An attractive set; many hours’ worth of reading. 
For anyone who savors slices'o'life, and slices'o'time, very rich fare.
For more SETS, click here.
“Innocent
Entertainment, Mingled
with Correct
Information & Sound
Instruction”
Chambers, Robert; & William Chambers, eds.
Chambers' repository of instructive and amusing papers. Boston: Gould & Lincoln, 1853. 16mo
(18.6 cm, 7.3"). 4 vols. I: [12 (8 adv.)], 31, [1], 32, 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1] 31, [1], 31,
[1] pp.; illus. II: [10 (6 adv.)], 31, [1], 31 (lacking pp. 3–30), [1], 31 (lacking pp. 3–30), 31, [1],
31, [1], 31, [1], 32, 31, [1] pp.; illus. III: [4], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31,
[1], 31, [1] pp.; illus. IV: [4], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1], 31, [1] pp.;
illus. .
Click the images for enlargements. • Publisher's blue textured cloth, covers blind-stamped, spines with gilt-stamped title and compartment decorations; worn and scuffed with spines sunned and heads each with strip of dark cloth tape extending onto boards. Ex–social club library: Each volume with 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, call number on endpaper, title-page pressure-stamped. Vol. IV lacking front free endpaper. Vol. II with one leaf with inner margin reinforced, several leaves with outer edges chipped, pp. 3–30 lacking from two articles. Paper slightly brittle, with occasional short edge tears; pages age-toned. (26396)
Presentation Copy Signed by ABOLITIONISTMaria Weston Chapman Chapman,
Maria Weston, ed. The Liberty bell. By friends of
freedom. Boston: Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Fair, 1844. 12mo (19.5 cm,
7.75"). Frontis. (incl. in pagination), viii, 232 pp.
Click any image where the hand appears on Chapman, along with several of her sisters, founded the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society and was one of the staunchest supporters of the abolitionist cause, braving mob scenes and social condemnation to attend anti-slavery meetings, circulate petitions, organize the Anti-Slavery Fair, and publish the present annual. Not many solid, presentable copies of the Liberty Bell make their way to the market, and this one is especially notable for its having been inscribed by Chapman herself.
Provenance: Front free endpaper with presentation inscription reading “Eunice Dorman [?] from her friend M.W. Chapman,” dated February, 1844 (“39 Summer St.”).
• On Chapman, see: McHenry, Famous American Women, 68–69, and DAB, IV, 19. Publisher’s brown cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped bell vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorative bands; cloth worn along board edges and corners and chipped away at spine extremities, exposing underlying boards or support. Front cover and outer edge with a few small dents, back cover with line of light, unobtrusive staining. Pages lightly foxed, otherwise clean, with some corners dog-eared.
A desirable copy. (21279)
Quick-Setting
Knox Sparkling Gelatine Charles B. Knox Gelatine Co. Knox Gelatine desserts salads candies and frozen dishes. [Johnstown, NY]: Charles B. Knox Gelatine Co., © 1933. 12mo. 71, [1] pp. (pagination incl. covers); col. illus.
very attractive chromolithographed images. The recipes include dishes for children's parties and for convalescents.
Click the images for enlargements. • Not in Brown, Culinary Americana (lists 1943 and 1945 eds. only). Publisher's printed paper wrappers; foot of spine very slightly rubbed, else in amazingly fresh bright condition. A beautiful copy. (26049)
Go Fish The child's book of nature; being figures and descriptions illustrative of the natural history of beasts, birds, insects, fishes, &c. Lancaster [MA]: Carter, Andrews, & Co., (copyright 1830). 16mo (13.2 cm, 5.3"). 16 pp.; illus.
Click the images for enlargements. The book is illustrated with
17 hand-colored, in-text wood engravings of different types of fish and one uncolored title-page vignette.
• American Imprints 852. Not in Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books. Publisher's printed paper wrappers, creased, paper worn and split along spine, edges rubbed. Moderate spotting throughout.
Charming. (24547)
A
CURIOUSManuscript
Playlet — The Lovers
(China, Really? Not
Hardly!). Anonymous. Manuscript, "The Lovers, A
Tragedy in Five Acts. Founded on an incident in Eastern History." On paper,
in English. [Philadelphia?, ca. 1830]. Folio (32 cm, 12.5"), 14 ff. (12.5 written
on). 
The play's length is that of a "filler" piece in a jam-packed 19th-century theatrical night of three or four plays (or parts thereof) and other "entertainments"—or, the length of a school or home production. 
The style is distinctly amateur/naive. E.g., the euphonious exotic names are far from consistently Chinese and one character is "carried [from his 'chinese cottage'] to the ganges"; the author confuses exit and exeunt ("Exeunt Priest")—we wonder if this blithe vagueness as to geography and world cultures, and the seeming lack of even basic classical education, suggest a lively-minded and enthusiastically play-going but unrigorously schooled female writer?
Provenance: Gift inscription: "Horace W. Smith, Esq. to W.W., 1863." A pencil note says "By J. Howard Payne in his handwriting, W.W."—but the handwriting does not match that of Payne's MSS. at Yale and Brown Universities.
• First leaf dust-soiled and now separated. Edges of some leaves chipped costing a few letters and, very rarely, an entire word; lost letters and words are easily supplied by context. Comfortable, for working with.
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Part VI . . . |