•  Brooks, Compendiosa Bibliografia di Edizioni Bodoniane, 279; Steinschneider, Catalogus hebraeorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana, 2152.   Binding on vols. I–IV: Contemporary calf, covers framed and panelled in blind rolls with original leather cracked, chipping, and darkened (III–IV especially severely); rebacked, spines with gilt-stamped title, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Binding on the Scholia:  Recent, full period-style calf framed and panelled in blind rolls; spine with gilt-stamped title, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped compartment decorations. All title-pages with very old institutional rubber-stamps; early portions of vol. I with lightly pencilled annotations and bracketing, and vol. II with small pencilled marks of emphasis. Old soft corner creases or mild cockling variously throughout to vols. I–IV and, where these things (or a natural paper flaw) are most notable, a grey soil has entered at the loose or open places to mark the margins at their edges.  Otherwise, scattered light foxing, golden, not brown; and the occasional old spill (e.g., I Samuel) or smudge only.   Not “fresh” — but substantial, impressive, and with its lovely typography still lovely.  (25513)

This example particularly showcases the “True Relation,” as the separate title-page for that item is the first leaf present here; the title-page and preface for the Defence are absent.

•  ESTC T189434; Lowndes 616–17; Allibone 490.   Recent quarter mottled calf and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges blind-tooled, spine with gilt-stamped leather labels, gilt-dotted raised bands, and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments. First three pages institutionally pressure-stamped, lower (closed) edges rubber-stamped; title-page with inked and rubber-stamped numerals in lower margin. Frontispiece, main title-page, preface to Christian's Defence, and final leaf lacking (the last interrupting the text of a brief account of Drelincourt's life). Title-page stained with inner margin reinforced and tear repaired some time ago. Pages browned, foxed, and stained, first and last few with edges tattered; some corners dog-eared. Two leaves torn, without loss of text; one leaf with outer margin chipped, affecting four words without loss of sense. A book often “read to death” . . .  (25807)

•  Marbled boards. Ex–defunct library: library label and blind-stamp on front cover; title-page and one other stamped. Text of hymn appears to be complete, although signature A is lacking and pagination begins at 9 (title-page present). First four leaves with waterstaining at bottom and outer margins, fading thereafter.

•  Brunet, II, 856; Graesse 440. Period-style calf framed in blind, spine with raised bands and otherwise very plain– no label. Title-page with faint early inked inscriptions. Colophon with margins repaired, one repair at inner margin just touching a letter of text. Waterstaining to inner portions and lower outer corners of much of volume (not affecting title-page or preface, and generally faint); some pages browned. Numerous instances of early inked marginalia and underlining. (20816)

Freemasonry in America

•  Sabin 100650; Shaw & Shoemaker 2166. Recent quarter calf with marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and blind-stamped Masonic devices in compartments. Lacking the plate and pp. 17–20, 51–58, and 71/72 of the first part. Title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages sometime exposed to moisture or mildew, thus variously browned, age-toned, and brittle, with some tears; our second double-page photo was taken to show the worst such damage. P. 84 of the second part with two names carefully excised.

•  Richmond 545; Egbert, II, 182.   Original brown cloth, gilt-lettered on front cover; spine and part of cover sunned, small loss of cloth at spine extremities and corners, thumb-sized waterspot and another discoloration to front cover. Ex-library: call number on spine (blacked out), bookplate, pressure-stamp on title-page and penciled notations on verso, rubber-stamps on pastedown and at base of p. [iii], date due slip in the back. Front hinge (inside) cracked, title-page and following two leaves detached (but present). Waterstain at top left part of frontispiece and shallow chip at inner edge. Marginal tear extending from outer edge of title-page and one other page. Good.  (24436)

This volume’s oversized, folding frontispiece shows the front facade of the “new East India House now building in Leadenhall Street”; there is also one in-text engraving of Lethington House in East Lothian, residence of the Maitland family.

Provenance: Front pastedown with inked ownership inscription of Joshua Gilpin, a Quaker from Philadelphia who established the first paper mill in Delaware, in 1787.

•  Disbound with front cover, front free endpaper, and frontispiece separated; back cover lost, and signature sewing exposed/going, with many leaves loose. Now contained in a simple, acid-free phase box. Edges untrimmed. Minor offsetting and a few stray marks; mostly clean.

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Binding: American binding of straight-grain black morocco framed in wide gilt roll with smaller blind roll and blind-tooled corner decorations, spine gilt extra, board edges with gilt rolls; gilt inner dentelles. All edges gilt. The binding has tools that are the same as seen on examples in the Maser Collection at Bryn Mawr College and the Papantonio Collection at the American Antiquarian Society that were executed by Wilson & Nichols.

Provenance:  Presentation inscription on the front fly-leaf, “Rv. G.T. Bedell [probably Gregory, Rector of St. Andrew's, Philadelphia] / with the regards / of Thos. N. Stanford” [probably the New York publisher]. Later in an institutional library; deaccessioned.

In a neat old hand, virtually every hymn has its author identified; in one place, two alternate lines are supplied.

•  Shoemaker 30362. On binding: Maser, Bookbinding in America, 37; Papantonio, Early American Bookbindings, 47.  Binding as above, rubbed at points and front cover with two scuffed areas affecting tooling, one of the gilt, one of a blind bit; back cover with other, less striking scuffed spots; spine head pulled. Spine leather overall pebbled, or roughened, by exposure to significant heat; gilt tooling much dimmed, though still “readable.” Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, deaccession noted. Front fly-leaf with early inked gift inscription as above and pencilled annotation dated 1845. Pencilled annotations to hymns as noted above; title-page with shadow of pencilled annotation in upper margin. Spots of staining to first and last few leaves. Priced according to its afflictions, not its continuing points of interest. (25654)

•  Brunet, II, 1291 (for an 1810 ed. only, not citing this ed.). Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; front joint entirely open with leather chipped along base of joint, spine leather and gilt rubbed in spots, corners bumped, small dent to outer edges. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate; front pastedown and free endpaper with institutional rubber stamp (no other markings). Pages faintly age-toned, else clean.

•  NSTC 2F12262, 2J13268, & 2B13609.   Green cloth over boards, gilt rules and lettering to spine; cloth worn away at spine extremities and corners and splitting over front joint; preliminary pages (including frontispiece) and pp. 1–2 separated from binding. Private ownership signature at top edge of title-pages; a (different) private owner's pressure- and rubber-stamps; institutional bookplate. Off-setting to six pages from old newspaper articles or leaves laid in; old newspaper article (a review of a much later biography of Fouché) still inserted; Inner margin of pp. 327–8 repaired, not affecting text. Spotting and staining of various sorts and a few dog-ears; not a swell copy but a perfectly serviceable one.  (14222)

•  Evans 37442; Sabin 25602; ESTC W17376.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; joints fully open and holding by cords, leather peeled up from board edges, gilt dimmed on spine label. Front fly-leaves with faint pencilled and inked inscriptions; back fly-leaves with inked ownership inscriptions, one dated 1801. Pages age-toned, last few waterstained; one leaf torn with loss of several words from one line. A “survivor” copy, priced accordingly.  (22636)

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Sabin 55624. Original printed paper front wrapper (only, and detached; back wrapper lacking); wrapper torn, with inked inscription in upper margin. Wrapper, title-page, and next four leaves gnawed by a rodent with loss to printed border of wrapper and a letter or two on the title-page — main text not affected. Pages creased, with some instances of light spotting.

Also contained here is the famous Oracula Magica Zoroastris cum Scolliis Plethonis et Pselli as edited by Johannis Opsopoeus.

•  STCN 168904; Brunet, II, 1465; Caillet 10165; Hoffmann III, 396; Landwehr, Hooghe, 72; Schweiger, I, 287 .   Contemporary half brown calf with mottled paper sides; spine with gilt-accented raised bands, red leather gilt label, and gilt devices in compartments; all edges interestingly marbled. Binding worn and top of spine pulled. Without the added engraved title-page, and a small, early paper repair on title-page; not a perfect copy, but certainly a decent one and priced accordingly.  (26691)

•  Stapled in original printed cardstock, with decorative silk tassel. Darkening and dust-soiling, definitely more noticeable in person than the photos suggest on some monitors here; still a worthy souvenir.  (26059)

Rare in the U.S.: We trace only the Getty copy of this edition, and earlier editions are no less rare.

•  Landwehr, German Emblem Books, 317. Boards covered in music-printed paper from an 18th-century antiphonal, spine with gilt-stamped leather title and author labels. Engraved title and pp. 49/50 (emblem VII) lacking. Title-page and next leaf with long-ago repaired holes, one on the latter affecting an initial on the verso; title-page with old inked device(?) and 19th-century institutional stamp on verso, showing through in part to recto; a small hole in a third leaf, taking perhaps a letter or two. Final blank leaf and two other leaves also stamped. One leaf torn from margins into text, repaired with Japanese tissue. Pages slightly age-toned, some with mild foxing or the odd spot. Faults noted, this is yet a worthwhile and studyable/enjoyable volume.

Provenance:  Each volume's front fly-leaf (facing title-page) with inscription dated 1791, reading “John Humphrey, his book 1791 Price 10s”; each volume's pastedown with small bookplate of Richard McIlvain.

•  ESTC N2800.   Contemporary treed calf, spines with gilt-stamped leather title labels; worn, with all front covers and free endpaper of vol. IV detached. Some instances of light offsetting and foxing, with pages generally clean; some leaves chipped or with marginal tears, one tear causing loss of a few letters from a heading.  (14671)

Binding: Tan calf, covers framed in gilt double fillets and gilt roll with gilt-stamped corner stars, central gilt-stamped coat of the Warre family arms; board edges with gilt roll, gilt inner dentelles, fine marbled endpapers. Spine with raised bands accented with gilt rolls and gilt-stamped floral decorations in compartments. All edges gilt. Signed by Spottiswoode & Co.

Provenance:  The preprinted presentation leaf, completed in manuscript, notes (in Latin) that the recipient was Crichton Jordan Milne and the donor headmaster was Edward Warre.

•  Binding damaged by old fire with spine label chipped nearly away, corners/edges abraded, and significant cracking/darkening of leather overall; still sound and indeed attractive. Interior very good, having been protected from that fire by the heavy gilt to the page edges which prevented smoke entry. Presentation leaf as above, with information dated 1905.  (12687)

•  Not in Gottlieb, Early Children's Books & Their Illustration.   Publisher's quarter rose and ivory cloth, covers with title stamped in brown surrounded by green latticework, dust jacket lacking; binding darkened and spotted. Front free endpaper with small inked ownership inscription. Sewing starting to loosen; light offsetting from facing images occasionally noticeable; some pages with tears at inner margins; a good copy only — yet, still, a charming thing!  (27046)