Provenance:  Old signature, “Hall Harrison,” on title-page.

•  Evans 32952, 34688, & 36479; ESTC W11750; Sabin 15502, 15503, & 15504. Contemporary treed calf, rebacked with calf, spine with gilt-stamped bands and gilt-stamped leather title and publication labels; leather of boards (but not spine) crackled, chipped/chipping, and discolored from a fire, with rear board most affected and with one corner lost (3/4" up and across from the point, this showing in our extra photograph). Front pastedown with old institutional bookplate; title-page with early inked ownership inscription as above and old institutional rubber-stamp. Offsetting from binding at beginning and end, intermittent mild offsetting and faint spotting generally, a few leaves towards the back browned, with pages otherwise clean; the fire that affected the boards did not reach the interior, here.  (25667)

The title-page offers a handsome vignette of the Theatre, not one of the commonest ones.

•  ESTC T118673; Madan, Oxford Books, 17.   Period-style calf, framed and panelled in blind with blind-tooled corner fleurons and rather elaborate additional decorations in blind; spine with gilt-stamped title and publication information and different blind-tooled decorations. Endpapers a little smudged and title-page mounted, with edges darkened. Early inked ownership inscription in upper margin of first text page mostly torn away, with loss of a few words. Pp. 227–30 lacking, being the last bit of the printing of the Church of England's 39 Articles and the first part of the section, “De Eligendis Publicis Lectoribus.” Pages faintly age-toned, with occasional light spotting; mostly clean.  (25553)

The work was issued in quarto and octavo format, both handsomely printed by Bensley.

Scarce. Only 11 institutions, all in the U.S., report holdings via OCLC.

•  Sabin 37866; American Imprints 22538.   Period-style quarter tan cloth with light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label. Frontispiece portrait lacking. Light to moderate foxing.  (23903)

Tipped in at the front here is asmall separate flyer that is both prospectus to the volume and an appeal to the public regarding the benefits of the proposed Manual Labour School and Male Orphan Asylum. This was written by Peter Wallace Gallaudet, who had served for a time as Washington's assistant and became the founder and moving spirit of the institution's society.

Binding:  Publisher's ribbon-embossed brown cloth of Krupp's style Ft9, both covers with decorative gilt-stamped title in a foliate medallion. Very representative of a type of binding now rapidly disappearing.

•  Sabin 101724; not in Amer. Imprints.   Binding as above, cloth with lighter/darker areas and splitting over joints; corners rubbed and one bumped/creased with damage to cloth; spine sunned and with remnants of an old label at head. Ex–social club library with 19th-century bookplate: Inked call number on pastedown, free endpaper, and small cover sticker; rubber-stamps on endpaper, fly-leaf, frontispiece, title-page, and plates. Last few leaves waterstained along upper inner portions. “Ex-library” for sure, but in fact a bit interesting for that — and not as distressed a thing in hand as full recital of its faults makes it sound.  (26328)

•  Front hinge starting (inside, only); gluestains on front pastedown. Priced accordingly.  Top edge gilt.

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•  Shaw & Shoemaker 39807; Smith, Americans Abroad, W66. Contemporary paper-covered boards, spines with printed paper labels; darkened and worn, vol. I with covers detached and paper cracked over spine, vol. II with front joint open though presently holding Front pastedowns with bookplates of the Salem Library Company; vol. I with early inked inscriptions to endpapers and half-title. Light to moderate foxing, no other stains.

•  NSTC 2W33589. Recent plain paper-covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Frontispiece, title-page, and several other pages stamped by a now-defunct institution. Lacking all but one plate (the frontispiece). Page edges untrimmed.

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Provenance: With laid-in invoice from the Davenant Bookshop in Oxford, dated 1924.

•  McKittrick/Rendall/Dreyfus 17. Publisher’s quarter brown buckram over tan paper- covered sides, spines with printed paper labels; gently worn, two labels chipped, one volume with cloth of a darker shade and noticeable rippling thereto. Two volumes with hinges slightly tender. Page edges untrimmed, some signatures uncut. It should be remarked that, by some unexpected trick of the camera, our righthand picture above makes this set look a bit smarter than it is; that said, though — it isrightly priced for its real condition and still worthy of purchase.