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EstablishingSt. Paul's — Agreements Rules Rents

•  In 1760 the congregation of Christ Church in Philadelphia suffered a schism. The bishop, minister, vestry, and church wardens of Christ Church dismissed William MacClenachan from his position as assistant minister and refused to give a hearing to him in order to allow a defense against the "private" charges brought against him. Part of the congregation was devoted to Rev. MacClenachan and, breaking away, established St. Paul's Church for him. This endeavor required both land and money. Laid out here in black and white are the means by which the congregation intends to raise the monies.

Also printed here the church's act of incorporation and its rules and regulations, as established in 1783. This last section contains an important manuscript addition concerning pew rental that was left out of the first printing of 1794 and was also omitted in this edition because the 1794 printing was too closely followed by Ormrod, the printer of this second edition.

•  Evans 34359. Modern boards covered with marbled paper and with a paper label on front cover. Faint, old stamps of defunct library. A very good copy of a scarce pamphlet detailing economic aspects of American religious life in the 18th century.

How aHacienda Grew

•  The origins of the Hacienda de San Nicolas el Chico in the vicinity of Tulancingo, Mexico, date from the 1590s when the crown reclaimed land and grants of Indian labor and tribute that had fallen into disuse, unclaimed, or into dispute.

In 1643 the crown offered for sale two caballerías of land and the rights to two accesses to water for that land — and Pedro del Castillo of Tulancingo successfully acquired the land and water rights for 200 pesos.

The documents here are mostly originals with a few notarial certified copies of earlier writings, and they document the ownership and growth of a small-size hacienda over the period of approximately a hundred years.

•  Written in a variety of hands. All documents in good to very good condition. With an early 20th century calligraphic “title-page,” this with a tear and some tatters.  (25741)

Presidential Poems from“The Poet & Philosopher”

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•  First edition: Sonnets on the presidents of the United States of America from Washington through Harding, each illustrated with a halftone portrait. This volume was a free giveaway for subscribers to the Poet & Philosopher Magazine, of which Schmidt was at one time the editor, and is now not often seen on the market. An errata slip is tipped in at the front.

Different readers will of course have different favorites; one PRB&Mer's is the poem on Van Buren, beginning, “A panic wild has seized our glorious land!” and moving to its denoument with that president couch[ing his] lance anent / Commercial Ruin, who on the field is slain.”

•  Publisher's blue cloth with all edges rose; gilt-stamped title on front cover and spine, blind-stamped American eagle on front cover; spine very slightly darkened, extremities a bit rubbed, back cover with spots of light discoloration. A solid, clean copy, better-looking than above description might imply.  (26694)

No“Tacks” on Bibles . . .

Scotland.

•  Scarce petition, written by “the Tacks-men of the Paper-Manufactorie,” arguing against a proposal to tax imported paper and foreign Bibles, Psalm books, and “Practical Pieces of Divinity.” Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Not in ESTC; not found either via OCLC or NUC. Removed from a nonce volume. Reverse with early inked inscription. Tattered, with lower quarter lost, as well as several words along the chipped and repaired inner margin. An incomplete survivor, but scarce and still of interest.

“Minuts” — The African & Indian Company

Scotland.

•  Number 78 (of 89) of the 1706–07 minutes, this is a brief account of a committee report “anent the Accompts”of a Scottish company trading to Africa and the Indies, authorized for printing by Andrew Anderson by decree of Sir James Murray, Lord Clerk Register. Many of the Parliamentary documents printed by Anderson and heirs display the same misspelling of minutes as seen in the header of this example.

•  ESTC T78547 (for holdings of complete sets). Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper; now in a Mylar folder. Lower margin and bottom of outer margin slightly tattered to a curve; otherwise relatively minor creasing, soiling.

Boom-Time Art Auction — Some Prices/Purchasers NOTED

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•  Partially priced and sometimes with name of purchaser. Sale occurred March 28–29 and contained 77 lots, all photographically illustrated.

Provenance of all items given.

•  Original green fabrikoid, spine and front cover title rubbed/faded, front joint cracking.  (26157)

We Can Do ANYTHING Here . . . Seybert, Adam. An oration, delivered on the 19th day of May, 1809, at the meeting of the manufacturers and mechanics of the city of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Pr. by order of the committee, [1809]. 8vo. 16 pp.
$90.00

•  Seybert, a medical doctor, issues a rallying call for progress in developing national industry to rival that of Europe: All of the raw products are present for clothing, glassmaking, smelting, and much more.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 18591. Removed from a nonce volume; six-digit number stamped on title-page. Stapled and respined with archival tissue.

Hannah More's Copy — A Friend's Abolitionist Treatise

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•  First edition of the Just Limitation, here in an uncut copy. Granville Sharp (1735–1813) was one of the earliest and most vocal British abolitionists as well as a notable scholar; here, he presents religious and humanitarian arguments against the slave trade. The appended material has a separate title-page and pagination, and includes “An Essay on Slavery, Proving from Scripture its Inconsistency with Humanity and Religion” (reprinted from its first American edition in 1773), “An Elegy on the Miserable State of an African Slave” (written by William Shenstone), “A Letter from Granville Sharp, to Jacob Bryant, Esq.; Concerning the Descent of the Negroes,” a possible model for enfranchisement based on the Spanish regulations adopted in Havana, and various legal and literary excerpts pertaining to slavery.

Provenance:  Front pastedown inscribed “Hannah More 1827.” The hand strongly resembles available images of the signature of celebrated writer, philanthropist, and bluestocking Hannah More (1745–1833) — a prominent champion of the abolitionist cause. More and Sharp were both members of the Clapham Sect, an evangelical social reform group.

•  ESTC T137093; Goldsmiths'-Kress 11499; Library Company, Afro-Americana, 9348; Sabin 79823. On Sharp and More, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Later quarter marbled paper (covering earlier paper) with plain paper–covered sides; faded and worn, spine paper cracking/peeling to reveal original spine beneath, front cover with small area of paper adhesion from now-absent label. Front pastedown with inscription as above, also with early inked numeral, institutional bookplates, and rubber-stamp. Pages uncut; age-toned, with light to moderate foxing.  (26103)

THIS TimePay Attention

•  Second edition. Sheridan entered Parliament in 1780, crowning his previous career as a successful playwright and theatre manager with a long and distinguished record of public service. He originally read the main portion of this statement before the House of Commons as part of the debate, after noticing that the gentlemen discussing the two bills in question appeared not to have paid “any very minute degree of attention” (p. 6) to the details of either one.
Single-click lefthand image,
for an enlargement.

The texts of both bills are present here, along with Sheridan’s analysis of how each would address “the question of right between the public and the [East India] Company” (p. 39).

•  ESTC T30944; Goldsmiths’-Kress no. 13610. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title label and spine with gilt-stamped leather author label. Half-title and several other pages stamped by a now-defunct institution. Pages with edges untrimmed and a few small spots of staining; mostly, clean.

Start the Day Right

•  Uncommon promotional folding leaflet touting the advantages of Shredded Wheat Biscuit for breakfast. Each panel is printed in three columns; one is printed in color, with illustrations of Shredded Wheat served plain or with fruit. (One of us who loves Triscuit crackers had never realized that they were once sold as “the Shredded Wheat . . . Biscuit . . . compressed into a wafer and baked by electricity”!)

•  Folded as issued, one panel printed in color; hole punched through upper outer corner, “cover” illustration with scuff, one tear to lower edge with loss of two letters (“no”). Age-toned.  (26088)

By a Bible Scholar & Church Historian
     (Later, the Property of a Scholar Collector)

•  First edition of this pseudonymously published work on the history of Church finances, written by a controversial French Oratorian priest much attacked for his published arguments that Moses had not written the whole of the Pentateuch. Simon, an accomplished Hebrew scholar, was later lauded by the New Catholic Encyclopedia as the “father of Biblical criticism.” Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Provenance:  Signature on title-page of Howard Osgood, a prominent late 19th- and early 20th-century Hebrew scholar and noted collector.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 2558; Wing (2nd ed.) S3801B.   Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label, board edges stamped with gilt roll; corners and spine extremities worn, front joint cracked and back joint starting, sewing holding. Front pastedown with small French bookseller's ticket and early inked numeral. Title-page with small early inked owner's name and with institutional pressure stamp, reverse with pencilled numerals. Pages clean. (19511)

Around the World “Overland”? — including HAWAII?

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•  First U.S. edition, following the first London of the same year, published under the title Narrative of a Journey Round the World. Simpson, an enterprising businessman and administrator, was Governor-in-Chief of Rupert's Land for the Hudson's Bay Company (and dedicated the present work to the nine directors of that company). In a global trek that took just under 20 months, he voyaged from London to Canada and thence to California, Hawaii, Alaska, and Russia before returning to London. His careful observations include much commentary on the degree of “civilization” among various peoples and the results thereof — often not positive, especially with regards to the impact of missionaries on local culture and morality. Simpson also provides economic and trade analyses, linguistic comparisons, culinary critiques (in particular, his distaste for the garlicky food served in California), and descriptions of local flora and fauna.

•  Cowan & Cowan, Bibliography of the History of California, 589 (London ed. only); Forbes, Hawaiian National Bibliography, 1671; Hill, Pacific Voyages, 1572; Howgego, Encyclopedia of Exploration, II, S25; Hunnewell, Bibliography of the Hawaiian Islands, 67 (London ed.); Sabin 81344.   Publisher's speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather rubbed and discolored but volume sound. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplates and old inked call numbers on endpapers (with no other markings). Endpapers and early/late leaves with waterstaining to lower inner portions; scattered small spots of staining elsewhere.  (26391)

& the Exciseman Ends Up in Hell

•  The first named item in this chapbook is a tale of rashness and death,

•  NSTC 2N2681. Removed from a bound volume. Good++ condition. (8418)

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The Church of England inChina

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•  First U.S. edition of this travelogue, printed in the same year as the London first andillustrated with 12 wood-engraved plates (some signed by Edward Bookhout) plus an oversized, folding map. Smith (1815–71) was the first Anglican bishop of Victoria, Hong Kong; along with his assessment of Anglican and other missions in China, his account includes observations of daily life as well as comments on infanticide, opium addiction and the opium trade, and the difficulties of evangelizing Chinese women.

•  Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 2115. Not in Howgego, Encyclopedia of Exploration.   Publisher's brown cloth, covers framed in blind, front cover with gilt-stamped ship vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title and arabesque decorations; binding slightly cocked and rubbed, spine sunned and covers with small spots of discoloration. Pencilled ownership inscription to front free endpaper and title-page; pencilled numerals on back pastedown. Foxing.  (27047)

Abolition of the Spanish Crown's
TOBACCO MONOPOLY

•  The first printing of the 31-clause decree abolishing the Crown's tobacco monopoly, creating free trade in the commodity "in both [the Old and New] worlds," scrapping the old tax structure and instituting a new one, and addressing what is to be done with the government employees in the Tobacco Branch.

•  Not in Palau (?); not in Maggs, Bibl. Amer.; not in Harper, Catalogue XVI. Excised from a volume and leaves no longer integral, but now rehinged. Light stain in inner margin. Rubber-stamped numbers in upper margins. Manuscript notes indicating that this copy was sent to authorities in Chile. Now housed in a quarter cloth (faux leather) folder with marbled paper sides. A nice copy of an important economic document.

Encouraging Local Industry

•  Finds that local manufacture of linen and textiles is beneficial and removes restrictions on it; the "locality" is Vich, near Barcelona. The title-page has a nifty woodcut of the royal arms. Originally printed in Madrid. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Modern half vellum over burgundy cloth sides. Contemporary inked notation at top right corner of title-page. Very good. (21056)

Improved Edition of  SPANHEIM's Most Celebrated Work
Now, with More Illustrations!

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•  Important treatise on ancient numismatics, written by a prominent scholar, diplomat, and collector who was one of the first to combine genuine interest in coins and medals with antiquarian erudition. This is the second edition, following the first of 1664 but more highly illustrated than that printing; the volume includes numerous in-text copper engravings depicting coins and monuments, at least one of which is signed I. Wyngaerden. The title-page is printed in red and black, with Elzevir's Minerva vignette.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 1964.3 suppl.; Willems 1460.   Contemporary vellum framed in blind double fillets with blind-tooled corner fleurons and central medallion, spine with early inked title; vellum lightly soiled, corners bumped, spine with mostly eradicated traces of old inked shelving number. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate (no stamps). Pages almost entirely clean, a few with chipped or lightly stained outer edges or corners. A good copy.  (25281)

“Have You aTamerlaine in Your Attic?”

•  First edition, second printing (stated) of this classic compilation of engaging anecdotes about book hunting, selling, collecting, binding, etc., written by the Toronto-born and Chicago-based novelist, newspaperman, Baker Street Irregular, and famed bibliophile, Vincent Starrett. Articles are well illustrated.

A difficult book to find in its dust jacket.

•  Publisher's green cloth, in publisher's printed paper dust wrapper; jacket slightly darkened, taped to boards, chipped at back upper edge, and nicked at corners and spine extremities; very neatly applied pen and ink call number on spine of jacket. Front (inside) hinge tender; front pastedown with institutional bookplate. Offsetting to endpapers from cover tape, otherwise clean internally.  (24656)

Putting DOWN theREVOLUTION in Connecticut

•  Daggett, a Federalist lawyer and politician, argues against the creation of a new state constitution for Connecticut; he claims that those promoting such a thing do so for personal and political gain, and suggests they are “pigmy politicians, the mushroom growth of an hour” (p. 16). The appendix provides “a View of the Fiscal Concerns of Connecticut.” Click the interior image for an enlargement.

First edition.

•  Sabin 15716; Shaw & Shoemaker 610.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Title-page with small inked “pseud.” comment next to author's name. Pages age-toned with offsetting and some light spotting (darkest to title-page); one leaf with upper margin repaired some time ago. Page edges untrimmed; one signature unopened.  (25211)

An AMERICAN Dissatisfied with New-Granada

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•  First edition of this travel account, in which Steuart describes his journey from New York to Bogotá and Carthagena. The author, who opens by debunking “Extravagant Ideas prevalent regarding South America” (p. 13), is highly critical of the local virtue, temperament, religious observances, apparel, and cuisine (complaining particularly of excessive cumin and garlic), reserving his praise primarily for the excellent chocolate. In his concluding remarks, he expresses much pessimism regarding any possibility of successful international commerce with the South American states.

Binding:  Publisher's ribbon-embossed green floral-patterned cloth of Krupp's style Ft6.

•  American Imprints 53109; Palau 322394; Sabin 91388. Not in Smith, American Travellers Abroad. On the binding, see: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50.   Publisher's green floral-patterned cloth, spine with printed paper label; corners and spine foot rubbed, spine head pulled, paper label darkened with edges chipped. Front free endpaper with pencilled ownership inscription; occasional pencilled annotations and marks of emphasis. Light to moderate foxing.  (25425)

A Lot of“STORYS” for the Money!

•  Title woodcut vignette of a man leading a prancing black horse by the reins. Also with decorative woodcut border & woodcut tail-piece on p. 12 of a tiger stalking through the underbrush. In the first tale [12 pages] a fiddler becomes lost in the forest and finds his way into a enchanted castle. He wakes up at the foot of a gibbet with a strange violin which turns out to be made of a dead man's bone embossed in silver. Engraved on it is the name of a much-feared local magician. With some trepidation he returns the violin to its owner and in return is given a bottomless purse of money. His four nephews, envying his new-found wealth, murder him for his money. The second story [6 pages] is a vividly dramatic account of the narrow escape of sailors whose ship is set on fire by lightning. John Hetherington, a tailor who cannot resist clipping small pieces out of each piece of cloth his customers bring him, falls asleep after a meal of Welsh rabbit [toasted cheese]. He dreams he has died and is met by the Devil, who unrolls a long patchwork scroll of all the pieces he has stolen. This cures him of the practice of "cabbaging". The final page of the chapbook contains an anecdote about soldiers from an American regiment making fun of a hunchback who gets back at them with a dig about Bunker Hill where the regiment suffered heavy losses. "[No.] 28." printed at the foot of the title.

•  Not located in RLIN. Very good. Original self wrappers (unbound; removed). (17584)

A French ECONOMICSPY

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•  The economic importance of cochineal during the preindustrial era is difficult for the modern reader to comprehend, especially since so many of us have no idea what cochineal is. It is a tiny insect that lives on cacti, most particularly the nopal, and from it is extracted the red dye carmine. During Mexico's colonial period, when Mexico had a near monoply of the commodity, it was that country's second most important export, losing out to only silver.

Thiéry de Menonville was an economic spy and his visit to Mexico had one and only one purpose: To learn how to make cochinea. So he learned about the insect, its host plant (the nopal), and the care and nurturing of both; then he smuggled cuttings of the cactus with the insect in residence to Haiti.

His work details not only his trip to Oaxaca to find the plant and bug but also the proven methods of caring for the host and insect. Two handsome, hand-colored folding plates show the cactus in flower and several views of the color-producing creepy-crawly.

•  Wellcome, Medical Americana, H.56; Blake, 18th Century Printed Books in the National Library of Medicine, p. 449; Pritzel 9214; Leclerc 1413; Brunet 6048; Sabin 95349; Palau 331673.   Modern quarter claret-colored morocco, round spine with gilt beading on bands and gilt rules defining the bands; gilt center devices in spine compartments. Natural paper flaws to lower outer corners of five leaves; tear on pp. 113–14, repaired; pp. 241–301 with worm damage, now repaired, and with irregular inner margins with paper loss, repaired and leaves tipped in. Corners in some sections bumped/crumpled; some soiling/spotting (not to the plates); in fact, a decent copy of an increasingly difficult to find important economic treatise.  (26023)

“The Great Buzaglo”

•  Unusual: ESTC gives listings for fourth and sixth editions, but not for a fifth edition.

The "Buzaglo" referred to in the poem is the eponymous cast-iron stove designed by London inventor/ironmaster Abraham Buzaglo, which the author of the poem contends will, once installed, quell party strife in the House of Commons by warming the uncomfortable chill that provokes and riles the more partisan members.

•  Recent marbled paper wrappers. Very light foxing on first three leaves. Two page numbers shaved.

A Tour ofRUSSIA Conducted by a SPECIALIST

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•  Second edition, following the first of 1799: Extensive overview of the peoples, customs, laws, religion, natural history, etc. of “the arctic eagle” (p. v), compiled from primary and secondary sources by a member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and of the Free Economical Society at St. Petersburg. The Rev. Tooke was an “intelligent and observant Russophile” (DNB) responsible for several original works as well as a number of English translations (with added substance and critical apparati) of significant works on that country, including Georgi's Russia, or, A Compleat Historical Account of All the Nations which Compose that Empire and Castéra's Life of Catharine II, Empress of Russia.

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)

"Scipio's" Opinions

•  Monroe was dismissed from office as minister to the French Republic, then replaced by Pinckney; he subsequently attempted to vindicate his actions and place blame on the president in a publication entitled A View on the Conduct of the Executive on the Foreign Affairs of the United States, Connected with the Mission of the French Republic, which piece is here attacked by the so-called Scipio. Tracy does not confine himself to reproving Monroe's words, but also denounces Paine's letters and one letter translated from French that is attributed to Jefferson.

•  ESTC W007021; Evans 34675; Howes T 326; Sabin 96421. Recently rebound in quarter blue goat over blue cloth, leather edges with gilt roll-tooling; spine with gilt-accented raised bands and with gilt-stamped title, author, place, and date. Some pages spotted.

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BEGGING for Commercial Law Reform

•  First edition: Pamphlet in support of law reforms for merchants and traders. The final portion is subtitled “Remarks on the utility and organisation of Tribunals of Commerce. (By the aid of a Belgian barrister).”

•  NSTC 2L25966; not in Goldsmiths’-Kress. Recent paper-covered boards. Title-page with small inked numerals in upper outer corner. Shouldernotes shaved. Pages clean.

“Horse-Hoing” — 6NIFTY Fold-Out Plates

Single-click any image, for an enlargement.

•  Improvements in farming founded on a scientific basis made British agriculture one of the strongest in Europe in the 18th century. Though called to the bar, Jethro Tull (1674–1741) never practiced law, but devoted himself to farming on land that had belonged to his father. From the beginning he set about trying to discover ways of doing things better, including inventing a number of implements, as this work reveals both in text and in image. His work proved very successful—Tull’s “seed drills” revolutionized planting techniques—and it saw a number of editions; it was translated into French, whence it proved influential on the Continent. This volume’s six beautifully engraved, pleasantly intelligible plates (“W. Thorpe, sculp.) illustrate some of Tull’s inventions, including improved plows and drills for planting seeds.

First printed in London in 1731, Horse-hoing is here (likely) the fourth edition. Bound with it is the first edition of the interesting Supplement issued in 1736, directed largely to answering Tull’s detractors. The first title is fairly widely held, in libraries; the latter, much less so.

•  Goldsmiths’-Kress 7065; ESTC T81915 and N24607. Contemporary calf with remnants of gilt; dry, flaking, and partially gone to red, with some chips to edges, corners, and spine tips; old repairs to joints. Remnants of bookplate on front pastedown. Old water/mildew damage to lower margins, occasionally making its way a bit into text; several leaves repaired, long since. Plates generally quite clean and always pleasing, with faintest waterstaining to lower portion of plate 6 (only). All edges speckled red.

“Horse-Hoeing” — COBBETT's Introduction

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•  Second Cobbett edition of this work on scientific farming that was first published in 1731 to some little controversy concerning “plagarism.” This edition contains William Cobbett's lengthy introduction “explanatory of some circumstances connected with the History and Division of the Work; and containing an account of certain experiments of recent date.” Illustrated with a single full-page woodcut diagram accompanying the chapter on roots.

Published at the beginning of renewed interest in the U.S. and England in “scientific agriculture.”

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 25812.   Publisher's blind-embossed green cloth, rebacked with much of old spine unobtrusively reapplied. Binding a little soiled and spine darkened with gilt of title dimmed; tips of corners chipped. Instances of dust-soiling at some top margins; one leaf with loss and soiling along outer edge without affecting text. Ex-library with old rubber-stamp on the title-page and several other pages.  (24439)

Party Strife!
     New York State Senate — 1806

•  A wall posting of the so-called “Lewisites” or “Quids,” the faction of the Democratic-Republican party that supported Gov. Morgan Lewis of New York against the faction led by New York City Mayor DeWitt Clinton. It is a direct reply to a handbill circulated by “A Republican of 1776,” who assailed the character of three candidates for State Senate in the Western District, Evans Wharry, Freegift Patchin, and Joseph Annin. Much of the text presents a defense of the incorporation of the Merchants' Bank. Printed in triple columns.

Rare: We fail to trace any copies via OCLC; only one holding listed in Shaw & Shoemaker.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 11490.   As issued, with old folds, edges slightly irregular. Two tiny holes within text, at the point where two folds intersect, and costing only a portion of two letters. Fingernail-sized stain. Four words have been redacted by the previous owner in ink, but can still be easily read.  (24636)

Surveying & Selling Public Lands — 13 Maps

•  With “Reports of the Surveyors General, accompanying the annual report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, December 28, 1843” on pp. [49]–106 and “Documents accompanying the annual report of the Survey General of Louisiana, of August 9, 1843” on pp. [107]–158. The report includes maps (all but one, folding) of public surveys of Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Alabama, and Florida. Government document: 28th Congress, 1st Session. Doc. No. 37. Ho. of Reps. Treas. Dept. Click the images for enlargements.

•  In modern wrappers, with sewing holes. Remnants of paper label affixed to top left corner (blank space) of first page. One map torn, with tear limited to blank space in inner margin. Moderate foxing throughout; some corners dog-eared.

The Committee of Commerce & Manufactures
SaysNO

•  The petitioners seek to have Congress make Plymouth, North Carolina, a port of entry. The congressional committee recommends against it.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 14060. Removed from a library-style pamphlet binding and in new wrappers.

An Irish-AMERICAN'S Service & Claims

•  Oliver Pollock, an Irish-born American merchant, claims remuneration for losses sustained in his capacity as commercial agent for the United States at Orleans during the American Revolution.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 14058. Removed from a nonce volume. Librarian's lightly pencilled notation on title-page. Stray brown spots. Very good. (18017)

Treasury Department Copy

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•  Extremely detailed accounting of appropriations and expenditures. Both reports were submitted by Samuel Meredith, the first treasurer of the United States; both of these government documents are not commonly seen in institutional holdings save in microform.

Provenance: A Treasury Department Library copy, with bookplate of that institution on the front pastedown. Gilt-stamped leather labels on spine state “1798” and “First Comp’t Office”; gilt-stamped leather labels on front cover state “Register’s Office” and “Treasurer's Accounts.”

•  Evans 34885, 36541, & 36595. Contemporary or very early19th-century library sheep, spine and front gilt-stamped on green and red leather labels (as described above); binding much rubbed and abraded, with some peeling of leather and loss at head and foot of spine; front cover detached. Remnants of old paper label adhered near inner edge of front cover. Pages clean save for some offsetting.

Convention Constitution Membership

•  The Railway Mail Service Mutual Benefit Association was founded in 1874 to secure life insurance and other benefits for its members. It was the grandfather of the current American Postal Workers Union. A number of delegate speakers are quoted at length, and some of their remarks are witty — Mr. Towers of Texas, for example, noted that he came from “Ft. Worth, the largest city of its size in the United States.”

•  Original printed wrappers, chipped at spine and edges and corners without loss of printing; darkened. A shallow chip or two to title and following page, shallow dog-earing and faint waterstaining to initial leaves including title-page; otherwise, clean and free of chips or tears. (21257)

“United States Register” —For English Reference, 1794

•  Uncommon British reprint of an American work originally printed in Philadelphia. Although no calendrical information is present, much other material commonly found in almanacs is: lists of government officials by state, population statistics (categorized by free white males and females, slaves, and “other persons”), and duties payable on assorted goods.

•  ESTC T105844. Period-style quarter calf with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands. Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Some offsetting to margins of first and final leaves, pages otherwise clean. A nice little Anglo-Americanum, very evocative of its era.

Avoiding aU.S. Navy ENERGY Crisis (1860)

U.S. House of Representatives. Committee on Naval Affairs.

•  Steam-powered naval vessels of the 19th-century needed coal and lots of it. The U.S. Secretary of the Navy sought to obtain a reliable and abundant supply for the Pacific and Caribbean fleets through a contract with the Chiriqui Improvement Company of Nueva Granada; coal from the Chiriqui region of what is now Panama was to be extracted and transported for the navy's use to two ports, one on the Caribbean coast and one on the Pacific. Present here are the majority and minority reports of the House Committee on Naval Affairs. They are detailed and informative and include three highly important maps of the Chiriqui region.

•  Very Good condition, in recent wrappers.

An Archbishop's Entail

•  Jeronimo de Venero y Leyva, the archbishop of Monreal, in the kingdom of Sicily, established an entailed estate in 1626, dying in 1628. The first family member to succeed to the entail was Carlos Venero y Leyva, a priest in Toledo. Thissubstantial cahier deals with the terms of the entail, succession to it, its restrictions, and its endowment; all as specifically relating to Don Carlos and the situation in 1642. Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Bound in a vellum wrapper handsomely indited on the front with two abstracts of the contents, writen in a fine modified gothic script. The documents' texts are written on paper in a hurried notarial hand, sometimes a little difficult to decipher. A clean, attractive manuscript.  (26980)

Trade in Wartime

•  Paginated continuously with Ward’s Treatise of the Relative Rights and Duties, and apparently also issued as the second part of that document, this work discusses international law regarding trade in wartime; the 1793 stoppage by the English of American corn exportation to France is included and analyzed as an example.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 18239; NSTC W529. Recent paper wrappers. Some instances of light foxing and offsetting.

An Educational Fundraiser inWashington's Memory

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First illustrated edition, following the 1833 edition under the title Fac Simile of Washington's Accounts, both renditions having been published “for the benefit of Washington's Manual Labour School and Male Orphan Asylum.” Washington's manuscript expense accounts from 1775 through 1783 are reproduced here in facsimile, along with a life, texts of several speeches, and the “Eulogium on the character of Washington by Major William Jackson.”

In addition to the facsimile pages, there are four plates present, including a frontispiece portrait of Washington that was engraved by P. Haas after Rembrandt Peale; the other plates show Mount Vernon, Washington's tomb, and a sheet of colonial paper money.

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)

Rights Granted, Taken Away, & Granted AGAIN

Waterford (Ireland).

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Waterford’s original charter, granted in 1171 and expanded by King John in 1210, was revoked on more than one occasion over the city’s ongoing resistance to Protestantism. It was first printed in 1752 in two editions, one in the original Latin and the other in an English translation by Timothy Cunningham. The present printing of the charter issued by Charles I, only the second edition in English, covers the legalities of the rights of mayors, sheriffs, and citizens, as well as those of trade issues including the making and selling of usquebagh. The list of city officials extends to 1831 rather than the 1803 described by the title, but these leaves were almost certainly added later to remainder copies, as the paper is different. According to RLIN and OCLC, this rare item is held by only one institution outside of Ireland; no holdings are listed by NUC Pre-1956.

•  NSTC C4545. Period-style calf, framed and panelled in gilt rolls, panels with gilt-stamped corner fleurons, spine with gilt-stamped leather label and gilt-stamped shamrock devices in compartments. Title-page mounted; one leaf with paper flaw with absence of a few letters, one lower outer corner torn away; previous sewing holes visible. Pages with edges untrimmed, and margins/corners variously spotted/soiled for what seem to be various reasons; some leaves chipped or dog-earred, especially in last section, and one leaf in that part pulled away from sewing. Manuscript notes extending the roster of sheriffs added to the bottom of two pages.

TheLatest Agricultural Innovations, with COLOR-PRINTED Plates

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition: “Agricultural mechanics, agricultural chemistry, agricultural and horticultural botany, agricultural and economic geology, agricultural zoology, meteorology, &c.” The volume opens with a portrait and biography ofAndrew J. Downing, “the most eminent of American horticulturists and professors of Rural Architecture” (p. 5). Much interesting material is present here on the cultivation of various fruits and vegetables, the introduction of exotic domesticated animals (Chinese yaks, cashmere goats, camels) into the United States and Europe, statistics of American production, and various mechanical and technical innovations.

Illustrated with four color plates done by Max and Louis N. Rosenthal of the famed Philadelphia firm Rosenthal's,  producers of some of the earliest chromolithographs in the U.S.  The frontispiece here, after a drawing by B.L.C. Wailes, depicts a blossoming cotton plant, while the three other chromolithographed plates show a more mature example, the cotton caterpillar, and rot in cotton. The volume is additionally illustrated with a number of in-text steel and wood engravings.

•  Allibone 2641. Not in Reese, Stamped with a National Character.   Publisher's blind-stamped green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine sunned, chipped at head, and with small darkened area. Ex–social club library: Call number on front pastedown, front free endpaper lacking, title-page and several others (not plates) with old, round, light rubber-stamp. Pages age-toned, otherwise clean.  (26420)

Handsome Copy

•  Early edition, following the first of 1876.

•  Publisher's brown cloth, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title; binding slightly cocked, corners and spine extremities rubbed, gilt partially oxidized (quiet attractively). Back hinge tender. Front fly-leaf with early pencilled ownership inscription. Early portions of text with pencilled emphasis marks and some underlining. All edges red. A nifty period piece.  (20333)

A Revolutionary War GENERAL . . .

or Was He a Colonel?

•  At the beginning of the Revolutionary hostilities Whitcomb was “old,” i.e., in his 50s and he was not called to service until the men of his militia regiment refused to budge without him. He is variously described as having served as a colonel or a general before retiring late in 1776. Click either image for enlargement.

In the document at hand, Whitcomb in his capacity of justice of the peace attests on the verso of the leaf to the authenticity of the document on the recto. His attestation is approximately 1.5" high by 8" wide, with a clear signature.

The document on the recto is a printed legal form by which Artemus How of Boton, Worcester County, Massachusetts Bay Province, sells 50 acres of land to Bezeleel Hale. Interestingly, both Artemus and his wife Abigail signed the instrument of sale.

•  On Whitcomb, see: Appleton’s Cyclopaedia. Good/Good+ condition: short fold tears. Three small areas of discoloration from old tape used to tip item into an album. With old pencilled dealer’s code (Sessler’s).

Corn/LAND Tax Relief! (Urges Manchester)

•  Wilson here makes a learned argument, beginning with Anglo-Saxon law, and covering medieval law and the nature of feudal tenure, against the real-estate tax in the England and against the unjust collection of that tax by the exchequer. This was an especially urgent matter in the mid–19th century as landholders and farmers were doubly burdened by the combination of low grain prices and high taxes, and were increasingly losing political clout to rising industrial and urban interests.

•  Goldsmiths'-Kress 32703.2; NSTC 2R11046 & 2W25177. In recent wrappers; previously removed from nonce volume. Light soiling and staining on outer pages. Closely trimmed by binder with lost of part of last line on last two pages. Inked number on title-page.

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