AMERICANA AFTER 1820

“Marble is Never Commonplace”

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•  Sole edition: Promoting the usage of marble in banks, bathrooms, churches, gardens, libraries, railroad stations, stores, and just about anywhere else it could be employed architecturally or decoratively. The volume is illustrated withphotographs of a wide variety of interiors and exteriors.

•  Publisher's brown marbled, textured paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped title. Clean and unworn. Not a commonplace copy!  (26833)

Making Meat into aBalanced Meal

•  1928 revision of this uncommon promotional pamphlet from the National Live Stock & Meat Board, with color-printed charts of beef, veal, pork, and lamb cuts. The menus offer suggestions for starchy foods, succulent or green vegetables, and sauces or accompaniments to go alongside various meat preparations, since “nearly all meals are built around meat” (p. 2). The pamphlet also includes time charts for cooking different cuts. Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Not in Brown, Culinary Americana.   Publisher's printed paper wrappers; pamphlet creased once vertically, slightly age-toned overall.  (26062)

For a U.S. Navy Shipyard — LithographedFOLDING Frontispiece

•  Technological innovation in the design, building, and maintenance of drydock facilities is proposed here. The volume includes the proposal itself, lists of companies and agencies in New York doing business with the Navy, testimonials concerning the proposed dry dock, and "Dry dock—New York Harbor. Report of the Secretary of the Navy, relative to the construction of a dry dock in New-York harbor . . . House document, 28th Congress, 1st session, no. 146 (pp. [32]–44)"—plus bibliographical references. The handsome frontispiece folding plate showing the proposed facility (lithographed by "Miller's Lith.") is intact.

•  Original printed wrappers; dusty. Number stamped in upper outside corner of the front wrapper.

First U.S. Edition: Icelandic Travel Book

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•  First U.S. edition: Overview of “three of the most singular and interesting countries on the face of the earth” (p. iii). Printed as no. 131 in the “Family Library” series, the volume is illustrated with two oversized, folding maps, a view of the Great Geyser of Iceland, and a vignette of the coast near Stappen (on the additional title-page).

Binding:  Publisher's olive-brown vermiform cloth of Krupp's style Mis1, spine with gilt-stamped series and individual title.

•  Sabin 32058. On binding: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50, Mis1.   Binding as above, head of spine chipped, front joint with small spot of insect damage. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and small call-number ticket on front pastedown, title-page pressure-stamped, no other markings. First map creased, outer edge slightly tattered. Pages age-toned. A nice copy.  (26418)

Travelling the Great Northern Route — 21 Plates & a Large Folding Map

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•  First edition of this guide to travelling by railroad and steamer toNiagara Falls and beyond, from the “Great Northern Route. American Lines” series. This particular journey is described as “one of the favorite summer excursions so indulged in by all classes of the American people” (p. 25). The volume is illustrated with an oversized, folding map (28 x 20 cm) of the routes from Albany to Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and Montreal (with an engraved image of the Falls), as well as a frontispiece and 20 other wood-engraved plates depicting scenic views to be found along the way. The plates are mostly by Benjamin C. Vanduzee and J.P. Hall, after John Van Cleeve.

Provenance:  Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription of Ida M. Hardy, dated 1867. The book itself, alas, provides no indication whether Ms. Hardy was a traveller of the actual or armchair sort.

•  Sabin 57368. Not in Phillips, List of Maps of America.   Publisher's brown cloth of Krupp's style Lea8, covers blind-stamped, front cover with gilt-stamped title; a little sunned with corners bumped and binding slightly cocked. Front pastedown with inscription as above, front free endpaper with mostly erased pencilled inscription. Mild smudging to some page edges; a few leaves with light waterstaining to lower outer portions. One leaf torn, repaired some time ago with cellophane tape, touching but not obscuring five words; map with short tear from lower edge, upper edge a bit crumpled. A solid copy, with map and all plates.  (26666)

  MultiplyIN YOUR HEAD by 27 . . .

•  Self-published; first edition. “Energy is the price of success.”   “Address all orders for this book to H.D. Orton, Shelby, O. Single copies by mail, One Dollar. For sale by all Booksellers.”

•  Publisher's brown cloth shelf-back with printed paper on the boards; small rent in cloth. Very nice copy.  (26558)

Famous Religious & Social Debate

•  First edition of this account of the famous and important debate between the social reformer, atheist, and idealist Robert Owen (founder of New Llanark, etc.) and preacher, Christian, and educator Alexander Campbell (founder of Bethany College), that occurred in in Cincinnati in April, 1839. Includes an “appendix, written by the parties.”
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•  Shoemaker 39945; Goldsmiths', Robert Owen, 1771-1858: Catalogue of an exhibition of printed books held in the Library of the University of London, 79a. Uncut copy, in original quarter cloth, with paper spine label. Binding worn, covers detached (such bindings are notoriously delicate), and with the usual amount of foxing to pages. Housed in a cloth clamshell box. A good copy.

Whenthe “North-West” Was INDIANA

•  Important address to the citizens of Indiana.

•  Fragile condition. Some pages loose, lacks back wrapper, fore-edges chipped.

Published in Exile in “New-York”

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•  In this address to his fellow Venezuelans, Paéz (1790–1873), the exiled general and former president—who would serve as president yet again in the early 1860s—denies any part in revolutionary conspiracies against the regime of General José Gregorio Monagas (1798–1858), then ruling Venezuela. Páez probably drew upon the pen of D. Antonio José de Irisarri (1786–1868) for the composition of this publication.

Handsomely printed on a single sheet, in two columns.

Rare: We fail to trace this piece of exile writing via OCLC, RLIN, NUC Pre-1956, or Palau.

•  In good/very good condition, save for short tears to margins. Good Venezuelan item.

Christmas Nights' Entertainments! (um, “Shop Early”?)

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•  Handsome U.S. edition of this famous 17th-century bishop's work on Christmas; translated from the Spanish. It also travels in English under other, less “seasonal” titles: Pastor in search of the science of salvation and New odyssey, by the Spanish Homer, or The travels of the Christian hero. The work first appeared in English in 1735; here it has a frontispiece of St. Joseph cuddling/supporting the Christ Child, who sits/reclines on his workbench.

Binding:  Publisher's brick red cloth, elaborately stamped in black and bold on front cover (“Catholic Presentation Library”) and spine; stamped in blind on rear cover.

Prize book / Provenance: In manuscript on a slip of paper attached to the front free endpaper, “Premium / awarded to / Master Frank Von Au / for / Regular Attendance. / June 30, 1898.”

•  Bound as above, cloth of front joint starting to open; bright and fresh. Presentation slip as above, and presentee's name also rubber-stamped on front fly-leaf. Light foxing to guard tissue between frontispiece and title-page; offsetting to these, therefrom. A clean, nice copy.  (25786)

Constitutional Law — SECESSION?

•  1st edition. Author was Royall Professor of Law at Harvard. Preliminary thoughts on the effect of secession on debts, and other initial thoughts caused by the events of 1861.

•  Removed from a nonce volume. (180)



 

Parry’s First Voyage — Plates, Maps, Stories

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•  First edition of Parry's classic account of his first and most successful voyage of Arctic exploration (1819–20), which resulted in the mapping of extensive stretches of coastline. The volume is illustrated with 14 plates and six maps, four of which are oversized and folding; the appendix includes tables of navigational and chronometer data, lunar observations, and a report on the state of health and disease among the men.

The copper-engraved, oversized frontispiece map shows Baffin's Bay, Barrow's Straits, Prince Regent's Inlet, and the North Georgian Islands, as well as the bay named after Parry's two ships.

•  Arctic Bibliography 13145; Hill (2nd ed.) 1311; Sabin 58860. Recent quarter calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels, and gilt-stamped anchor decorations in compartments. Title-page and a few others, plus reverse of 1 map, lightly stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages gently age-toned, with occasional offsetting from engraving and the odd spot or smudge. One map with small portion of inner margin reinforced; final two leaves with inner margins reinforced; one plate with tears into image and mounted. Final advertisement leaf bound in before final text leaf. All edges marbled.

Seeking theNorthwest Passage, 1824–25

•  First U.S. edition. Sir William Edward Parry (1790–1855) made a successful naval career and earned a knighthood exploring the Arctic. This was his third voyage, and his second in command of the expedition. He gives a detailed description of his travels in the Arctic Sea north of Canada, adding much to the knowledge of that area, while still not finding a navigable route. His subsequent voyage in 1827 had the aim of attaining the north pole; it was not successful in that aim but set a record for reaching the highest latitude that remained unbroken until 1876.

The Journal was first published in London in 1826 and shortly followed by this first American edition. It includes a foldout map showing Parry's route.

•  Shoemaker 25670; Sabin 58867. On Parry, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XLIII, 392–93. Quarter cloth over paper with paper spine label, antique style. Map tattered on the edges, affecting ruled border, and with two closed tears. Lightly cockled with bumped corners; foxing and old damp-staining. A leaf of advertisements has been bound in at front—see our second illustration, here.  Ownership inscription on title-page.

For more books of CANADIAN interest,  click here.
For more VOYAGES, TRAVELS, & books on
"EXOTIC" PLACES,  click here.

Romance in the Wilds ofKentucky

•  First edition of this best-selling novel set on the Kentucky frontier. Among the characters are an uprooted Virginia family and their slaves, a lone Native American hunter, a would-be newspaperman, and a young man susceptible to madness. Click the images for enlargements.

Part of the “Harper's library of select novels” series, the work appears here with vol. I in the second printing (vol. II had only one printing); the binding is BAL's state A, with the front cover of vol. II incorrectly marked “No. XXV.”

•  American Imprints 14120; Wright, I, 2024; BAL 15715.   Publisher's green cloth, covers and spines stamped in black; corners bumped, spots of discoloration, spines sunned (and a little bubbled) with extremities rubbed. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call number on endpapers, title-pages pressure-stamped. No other markings; endpapers foxed and pages with intermittent moderate spotting.  (26533)

A Boy's Delights — A Delightful Manuscript

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•  Illustrated manuscript notebook by a talented musician and printer-publisher, fifteen years old at the time of the journal's composition. The young Payne used this volume for handwriting practice (inscribing some very fancy characters indeed), recording mathematical rules, and copying tables of weights, measurements, and exchange rates. He also used it for sketching curiosities of interest such as optics (a telescope, spyglass, draughtman's camera, opera glass, etc.), games and puzzles (“The perplexed Carpenter,” “The board & Ball”), tools, machines, and inventions (including a pyrometer, galvanic cup, telegraph machine, printing press, etc.), guns, and “Designs of Iron Clads Ships Steamers & etc.” In terms of “pure” art, there are numerous sketches of buildings, animals, Native American objects such as canoes and tepees, etc. Also present is a page of “Hocus Pocus” (conjuring tricks and sleights of hand), as well as one carefully reproducing a collection of “Coins Possessed by Fred G. Payne.” Some of the designs and information were copied from the Happy Hours periodical, while others were original.

Payne (1856–1919) grew up on a Connecticut farm and went on to become a prominent band leader, composer, and arranger; he founded both the Lewiston Brigade Band and Payne's Second Maine Regiment Band, and Edwards says that he “did as much for band music in Maine as any man of his time.” He was also the proprietor of a printing business in Lewiston, ME, and an active Mason who held such positions as Master of Rabboni Lodge, High Priest of King Hiram Chapter, Illustrious Potentate of Kora Temple, etc. His son, of the same name, served as Governor of Maine from 1949 to 1952 and U.S. Senator from Maine from 1953 to 1959.

Overall, an engaging reflection of a creative young mind — and of the scientific and mechanical developments which might intrigue a bright, late-19th-century American teenager.

•  On Payne, see: Edwards, Music & Musicians of Maine, 334.   Publisher's quarter sheep with marbled paper–covered sides, worn and abraded. Hinges (inside) tender. Sewing a bit shaky, with some leaves loosening. Pages age-toned but generally clean otherwise.  (25895)

TO Part XVIII . . .

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