OCLC and ESTC locate only six U.S. institutional holdings.

Binding:  Contemporary treed calf with covers framed in gilt single fillet, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label. The sunburst tool with floral center used on the spine resembles that used by the Hallhead and McKenzie binderies on Dublin College books, lacking the border. Marbled endpapers; green silk placemarker present.

Provenance: Title-page with early inked inscription of “M. M'Causland” (possibly Marcus McCausland [1787–1862]).

•  ESTC T132869; Schweiger, II, 822; McDonnell & Healy, Gold-Tooled Bindings Commissioned by Trinity College Dublin, 27–30 & 295–99; Lowndes 1607; Graesse, VI, 241; Dibdin, II, 109; Brunet, V, 87.   Binding as above, board edges lightly rubbed, leather lost at head of spine, small abrasion to front cover, some spine gilt chipped; still, quite nice. Inscription as above; pages otherwise clean and unmarked. Pp. 197/98 incorrectly paginated as 167/68.  (25949)

Binding: Contemporary half calf with marbled paper–covered sides, spines with blind-stamped decorative devices between raised bands and with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels. All edges marbled.

•  Bound as above; fore-edges of the two inside, touching boards as the volumes stand on the shelf, bumped hard at centers (one can’t quite imagine how); otherwise, only very minor wear. Front free endpaper with inked inscription dated 1865. Nice on shelf and in hand.

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Binding: Publisher's horizontally gilt-striped brown textured cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped fairy vignette and back one with similar vignette in blind; spine with gilt title and gilt-stamped decorations top to bottom. All edges gilt.

•  Sabin 82525.   Binding with corners mildly rubbed, spine extremities and cloth of rear joint chipped; gilt vignette on front cover partly oxidized, very attractively. Frontispiece, additional title-page, and title-page a bit darkened; very occasional light spotting only, elsewhere. A sweet little book.  (26611)

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Binding: Publisher's ribbon-embossed green geometric-patterned cloth of Krupp's style Gt2; original printed paper labels.Do please click to enhance the image of this handsome American binding cloth— it's hard to show, but worth trying to see!

•  American Imprints 49627. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England & America, 1823–1850, Gt2.   Bindings as above, cocked; edges, extremities, labels rubbed, chipped, spotted — far from fresh, but also far from devastated. Ex–social club library: bookplate on each front pastedown, call numbers in a 19th-century hand (lined through) on pastedown and front free endpaper, title-pages and a few others rubber-stamped. No other institutional markings. Front hinge (inside) of vol. I starting, text block pulling away from spine, first few leaves starting to separate. Front fly-leaf with pencilled numeral and pencilled doodle/sketch of a chubby child; occasional faint pencilled annotations. A few scattered spots of staining, pages mostly clean.  (26294)

•  Palau 137466; Sabin 68390. Victorian acid-stained sheep with gilt spines extra. Marbled edges. Tape adhered to one title-page at inner margin. Ownershjp signatures on title-page. A nice set.

Binding

Provenance: Infante Duc de Montpensier (sixth son of King Louis Philippe), husband of the Infanta Maria Louisa (Queen Isabella’s sister), with his bookplate.

•  Palau 236716. Binding as described above, covers showing only very minor wear, spine slightly faded. Front pastedown with bookplate described above. Pages gently age-toned, a few showing mild foxing but most clean. Very attractive.

Binding: Brown embossed morocco ca. 1850–60, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-tooled decorations; all edges gilt and gauffered; binding signed by Field.

Provenance: Armorial bookplates of Robert H. Menzies, early inked ownership inscriptions of Caroline Syers.

•  NSTC 2M31627; Lowndes 2477. On Pickering, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Bindings as above, extremities showing only minimal wear. Bookplates on front pastedowns and ownership inscriptions on front fly-leaves, as above. A very handsome production, a very nice set.  (24404)

Binding:  Publisher's ribbon-embossed brown cloth with flower and acanthus leaf design (Krupp's style ft1), spine with gilt-stamped title.

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•  American Imprints 53164; Adams, Manual of Historical Literature, 168. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England & America, 1823–1850, ft1.   Binding as above; corners rubbed and small rubbed spot on front cover, spine extremities chipped, spine head with small lightly discolored area from now-absent label. Ex–social club library: bookplate and early inked call number on front pastedown, title-page pressure- and (faintly) rubber-stamped. No other markings. Front hinge (inside) partially reinforced with paper some time ago. Scattered light staining. A nice book.  (26289)

Provenance:  Front pastedown with the “Ex Mini-Libris Levitan” bookplate of Rabbi Kalman L. Levitan, the first president of the Miniature Book Society and one of the most prominent miniature book collectors in the United States. Also with the red morocco bookplate of Neva and Guy Littell, the latter president of the R.R. Donnelley & Sons binding company.

Binding:  Late 19th- or early 20th-century Jansenist style red morocco; spines with gilt-stamped title, board edges with gilt fillets, turn-ins with wide gilt inner dentelles; crimson silk pastedowns and free endpapers. Top edges gilt. Binding signed by Zaehnsdorf.

•  NSTC 2T2346; Welsh, Bibliography of Miniature Books, 6608.   Binding as above, corners slightly rubbed, spines darkened; top boards expertly reattached. Front pastedowns each with the two private collectors' bookplates as above, front free endpaper and front fly-leaf of vol. II with Littell ownership inscriptions. Some signatures in vol. II unopened. Pages clean save for a very few scattered faint spots. A lovely little set.  (25177)

Binding:  Prize binding from King Edward VI's School: Contemporary walnut-brown calf, framed and panelled in blind double fillets with blind-stamped corner crosses and gilt-stamped English Royal coat of arms (with the quarter of France and dragon supporter) as central medallions; spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels and blind-stamped crosses in compartments.

Provenance: Front fly-leaf of vol. I with inked inscription dated 1863, noting this set's presentation to R.K. Rodwell as an “Extra Prize for the best English Essay.”

•  NSTC 2T3717.   Bound as above, spines and extremities rubbed. Endpapers and frontispiece lightly spotted. All edges stained red.  (21923)

The first printing of the Imitation appeared in 1473 and there followed hundreds of European editions before the first American appeared 1749. It was as popular with the American audience as it had been in Europe, and it appeared here in English and German translation and even in an extracted form, almost always redone for Protestants.

This is the first printing of the Imitation in Connecticut.

•  Shoemaker 9094; Parsons 778. On the translator, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary sheep with a near-contemporary over-covering of another sheep binding—with a rectangle cut out to expose the original spine label. Over-covering very plain. Expectable foxing and a certain amount of staining; a "decent" copy made interesting by the careful early "conservation" of the binding.

The state of the Russian military forces is here described at length. The commerce section includes chapters on viniculture, sericulture, and apiculture, as well as mining and salt harvesting; at the back of the third volume are extensive tables of Russian imports and exports, merchant ships arrived and sailed, duties and taxes, and names of the most active St. Petersburg merchants. Coins and measures are also examined.

Binding:  Contemporary treed calf, flat spines with gilt tooling of several sorts creating compartments, each with a large device; gilt-stamped green leather title and volume labels.

•  ESTC T109837; Allibone 2434. On Tooke, see: Dictionary of National Biography online.   Bound as above, two volumes with front covers off and all other joints weak; covers showing some gouges and spines some chips, the set apparently having been exposed not only to normal wear/rubbing but sometime long past to something (heat? “repairs”?) that darkened and roughened them irregularly. Ex–social club library: front pastedowns each with 19th-century bookplate and inked numerals, title-pages pressure-stamped. Intermittent light foxing and light to moderate offsetting throughout; vol. III with waterstaining in upper margins. Map lightly foxed but otherwise in excellent condition. A set of booksstill striking, and priced to permit the next owner to contemplate repairs.  (26366)

Binding: Mid- to late-19th-century binding, with binder’s ticket of the True American Bindery of Trenton, NJ.

•  Half morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spines with gilt-stamped titles and blind-stamped decorative devices; edges and sides moderately rubbed with a bit of paper skinned from cover of vol. II. Most pages with some degree of foxing.  Handsome on shelf, solid in hand.

The work was limited to 100 copies, all printed on Japan vellum. It has an engraved vignette on the black and red printed title, small illustrations or vignettes on 50 text pages, 11 vignette borders or headpieces (three of them in color, 10 of them in anextra state), and 10 tipped-in color plates. The illustrations are by Henri Gervex, J.A. Gonzalès, L. Kratké, Albert Lynch, Adrien Moreau, and Félicien Rops.

Binding:  Full red crushed morocco with five raised bands. Covers with a triple-rule gilt border; spine gilt extra with gilt beading on bands. Triple gilt fillet on board edges. Wide turn-ins richly tooled in gilt and with cream and blue leather inlays that are also gilt-tooled. Blue silk pastedowns and free endpapers. Marbled paper fly-leaves. All edges gilt. Binding signed “David.”

Provenance:  Red leather bookplate of Cortland Field Bishop, the famed collector of the early 20th century and, at one time, owner of the TWO most important auction galleries in NY/USA.

Original full-color wrappers bound in.

•  Vicaire, VII, 924.   Uncut copy. Bound as above with original wrappers bound in. Light refurbishment of front joint (outside). A fabulous copy.   (26675)

Binding:  Contemporary quarter garnet red morocco with fawn brocade–covered sides, spine gilt extra with title and arabesque motifs. Original green wrappers bound in.

•  Caillet, Manuel bibliographique des sciences psychiques ou occultes, 11198.   Binding as above, spine faintly sunned and with one small spot darkened; joints a bit rubbed and cloth corners/edges somewhat moreso, with instances of spotting/discoloration to cloth that should be mentioned but are not obtrusive. Front pastedown with attractive 20th-century bookplate. Some signatures unopened. A lovely book in quite a nice copy.  (26821)

The present volume was the last to appear of four issues of this annual, which commenced its run in 1824. The binding style, which incorporates a wallet-pocket and pencil holder, is uncommon, though the first such American bindings date from the late 1790s.

•  Faxon 763 (for the 1826 edition); Shoemaker 26110. Green straight-grain morocco wallet binding, framed in wide gilt rolls; worn, with portions of binding faded to brown and hinges tender. Back pastedown with pencilled ownership inscription; some engagement pages filled in. Several leaves removed, some leaving traces. Some plates with spots of foxing. Clearly not only used but actually carried around on a regular basis; still appealing and intriguing.

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Provenance:  Covers gilt-stamped with the device of Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere.

Binding:  Contemporary calf framed in gilt triple fillets and blind roll, rebacked preserving original spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; covers gilt-stamped with supra-libros as above. All edges marbled.

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only six U.S. locations.

•  Bound as above; spine leather with small chips and cracks, sides with small unobtrusive areas of rubbing and light discoloration. Binding overall solid and still attractive; interior clean and nice.  (25320)

This work is rarely found in the deluxe binding: The handsomely gilt-stamped publisher's cloth is the norm.

•  NSTC 2W24418; Allibone 2762.   Binding as above, showing minor wear to extremities and front cover vignette, original silk bookmark detached and laid in. Volume slightly shaken with text block starting to pull away from spine; this is the kind of volume that wants to do that, and the reader will want to “cradle” it in hand — that done, no worries. Front fly-leaf with early pencilled gift inscription and with a Maine druggist's small ticket. Mild to moderate foxing. Both funny and decorative, in an American publisher's binding that may fairly be called “DAZZLING.”  (26748)

•  Whaton & Kelly 6655; Cagle & Stafford, American Books on Food and Drink, 840.   Publisher's ribbed brown cloth, covers elaborately embossed in blind. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, lacking the front free endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. A rather handsome book, and one in nice condition.  (26509)