There is at least one other variant of the first piece, also printed in 1700, “For A.H.” according to its colophon. It seems likely that the two speeches were in the present case issued together — the paper and type match, and the second speech is paginated “(2)” — although these examples were later separated and existing cataloguing records are inconsistent regarding the number of leaves that should be present. Sets of the two pieces together are scarce.

•  ESTC R182313 / R33479; Goldsmiths’-Kress 03732; Wing Q160. Removed from a nonce volume, now in a Mylar folder. Leaves darkened and creased, both lower margins irregularly torn with loss of approximately 20 words. First speech with nick affecting two letters of the title.

•  Not in Shaw & Shoemaker. Removed from a nonce volume; stapled and respined with archival tissue. Six-digit number stamped on title-page.

Clicking on the righthand image above, and reading the last, italicized paragraph, is rewarding

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

•  ESTC R40093; Wing (rev. ed.) R682; Smith, Anti-Quakeriana, 303.   Period-style calf, covers framed in blind double fillets, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands and gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page and first text page institutionally perforation-stamped, first text page with inked and rubber-stamped numerals in lower margin. Title-page with several tears repaired (with loss of a few letters from table of contents) and a sliver of the bottom edge replaced (with loss of lower portion of publication date); pages generally age-toned and soiled, first one with upper margin repaired. Edges trimmed closely and tattered. A “survivor.”  (26010)

Uncommon: No U.S. copy of this issue located via OCLC and ESTC locates only the Harvard copy. There were other, less complete editions of 40 pp., 58 pp., and 78 pp.

•  ESTC N15187.   Recent full calf, period style; spine with raised bands accented in gilt, oxblood leather gilt-lettered title, publication date and place in gilt at base; covers framed and paneled in gilt rules with gilt-stamped corner fleurons. Shallow chip to top outer corners of final two leaves. One word on p. 32 is blotted out in ink by an early owner with the correction supplied above it. Penned signature (partly cropped) at top edge of p. 79. Pp. 79–92 duplicated, nothing missing.  (23766)

Click the interior image for enlargement.

•  Evans 13585; ESTC W30498; Howes R-372; Trumbull, Connecticut, 1305; Adams, Amer. Pamphlets, 134j; Sabin 72151; Allibone 1839. On Robinson-Morris, see: Oxford DNB online.   Period-style quarter calf with marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title and elegant small decorations at head and foot. Pages age-toned; three leaves with minor staining. Title-page with repaired chip to outer margin, traces of early inked inscriptions in center of page, and partially shaved inscription in upper margin. Last text page with inked inscription in lower margin, partially shaved at beginning of inscription.  (24866)

Click the images for enlargements.

•  ESTC T33309.   Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Half-title with “Tracts” inked in an early hand in the upper margin; first text page with neatly inked provenance annotation (dated [19]40) in inner margin and stamped numeral in lower margin. Pages lightly age-toned, with offsetting to margins of first three leaves and a very few scattered spots of light staining. Early inked marginalia (shaved in two instances) — this of a skeptical nature — and underlining. (21075)

•  Sabin 74265; Howes R523; Allibone 1893.   Publisher's brown cloth, blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; rubbed with cloth split at joints and front cover with spot of discoloration. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown, old inked call number on endpapers and flyleaf (which has small old adhesions of paper to verso); no other markings. Very light to moderate waterstaining to upper inner portions of central third of the volume.  (26480)

As our caption notes, this vast repository purports to have been made as “a bare narrative” of its “fact[s]”; but it now resonates with a richness far beyond mere chronicle. It repays both extended and “dip-in” reading for pleasure.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) R2316, R2318–19, & R2333; Lowndes 2152.   Recent half speckled calf, old style; marbled paper sides; round spines, raised bands, gilt center devices in spine compartments, bands accented with gilt beading. Binding signed by Starr Bookworks. Occasional early marginalia. Occasional foxing. Very old waterstaining in vol. VI, with cockling of paper; minor worming in upper margins of same volume (not anywhere close to text). Old library pressure- (not perforation-) stamps in some blank margins. A very nice set.  (22477)

Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.

•  ESTC R36940; Wing (rev.) R2356A. On Russell, see: The Dictionary of National Biography. Unbound, spine delicately reinforced. Pages age-toned and creased, with a few tiny pinpoint holes. Tissue repair to tear from inner margin extending across both leaves, touching but not obscuring a few letters. P. 2 with numerals in an early inked hand in the outer margin.

This is an untrimmed copy in original boards, with 24 pages of advertising for Carey publications bound in at the front of the volume. The preliminary map, engraved by John Bower, has hand-colored border lines; this American edition does not call for the plates found in the English first, but does include in-text depictions of several “Ethiopic inscriptions.”

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 33864; NSTC 2S3118. Publisher’s quarter tan paper over light blue paper–covered sides; front cover detached and back joint cracked, binding spotted, paper cracked and split along spine, spine label now absent and replaced with hand-inked title, spine with later paper shelving label. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate, front free endpaper with inked ownership inscription dated 1829. Half-title with portion of outer margin torn away (not touching text) and laid in. Map lightly foxed, with two short tears along folds. Pages age-toned, with occasional spots of foxing.

•  Sweet & Maxwell, A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth, I, 602. Quarter green sheep over marbled paper, somewhat rubbed and front free endpaper partially detached. Scattered foxing and age-spotting, occasional pencilled marginalia. More than presentable!

•  ESTC N22343. Tipped onto a leaf of 19th-century paper; now in a Mylar folder. In good untattered condition, with noticeable (but not print-obscuring) stain in lower center portion.

•  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)

First edition, with two others appearing shortly thereafter.

•  Adams, American Controversy, 74-73a. Sabin 80040. Recent boards with marbled paper covering. Paper spine label. Title-page with small 19th-century library stamp and call number in neat ink; page backed. A very nice copy.

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.

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

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•  Not in NSTC.   Removed from a nonce volume. Very good. (16769)

•  19th-century half tan calf with marbled paper sides, spine with gilt-ruled raised bands, gilt-stamped floral decorations in compartments, and gilt-stamped leather title label; leather rubbed and chipping over joints and extremities, paper chipping over board edges, spine somewhat dulled. Hinges slightly tender, binding overall still sturdy. A few stray pencil marks. All page edges marbled—rather handsome!

An epitome of the “antiquarian” both in form and content, this is a marvelous compendium of royal history and lore.

Click the image for an enlargement.

ESTC and OCLC locate only six U.S. institutional holdings of this item.

•  ESTC R203631; Wing (rev. ed.) S5005. On Spittlehouse, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Later plain paper wrappers, spine reinforced with cloth tape. Title-page, first text page, and two other pages institutionally pressure-stamped; first text page with inked annotation in inner margin and numeral in lower margin. Light offsetting and spotting; first and last pages dust-soiled.  (25970)

The crux of this major political tract is Steele's polemical charge that "The Protestant Succession in the House of Hanover is in danger under Her Majesty's administration." Needless to say Queen Anne was not pleased, nor were her loyal Tories, who came to her defense. Swift, for example, wrote an important reply—The Publick Spirit of the Whigs. Eventually, the ascension of the House of Hanover to the throne saw Steele's return to a position of economic and social well-being.

•  ESTC T34402; Rothschild 1950; Kress 2931. Modern marbled wrappers.

•  ESTC N1989; Sabin 92070. Removed from a nonce volume, with sewing holes; now in a Mylar folder. Half-title with small numerical stamp, pencilled notations, a bit of staining and two smears/blots of old red ink. Interior slightly age-toned but clean.

•  TPL 5826.   Publisher's printed paper–covered boards, outer corners chipped and a lighter spot to front cover where there once was an old label of some sort affecting one word of type (“Price”); old, light waterstaining (with a darker edge) and some soiling to same cover, with evidence of the onetime moisture visible also to back cover and intermittently in the interior (especially to early leaves). Fragile. (25512)

Provenance: Front pastedown with the bookplate of journalist, editor, and book collector Clement K. Shorter; front free endpaper and fly-leaf bearing bookplates of Geoffrey Ecroyd, Mary Priscilla Smith, Austin Smith, and Walter Hirst; title-page with inked inscription of Robert Smyth.

•  ESTC T154477; NCBEL, II, 1065; Teerink 812. Later half morocco and cloth sides, spine with raised bands and gilt-stamped title; minor wear only to edges and spine extremities, some slight discoloration to small patches of leather. Bookplates as described above. Page edges untrimmed. A scattering of light spots throughout, otherwise clean. Nice.