•  Shaw & Shoemaker 16129. Contemporary mottled sheep, rubbed, joints on vols. I and II open; spines with heads and gilt-stamped leather title labels chipped, and remnants of paper shelving labels. Front pastedowns with bookplates of a now-defunct institution; front pastedowns and free endpapers with pencilled gift inscriptions. Pages foxed throughout, with some leaves notably browned.

This is the separate issue of vol. I, which was issued without the map and has “The End” at the bottom of p. 331—the two-volume issue has “End of first volume” instead.

This copy includes a pencilled marginal comment, commanding, “Read this if thou canst be an atheist — or a fool.”

•  ESTC W36508; Bristol B10094; not in Evans. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and double gilt rules; binding with small scrapes and rubbed patches, upper board edge darkened, and leather starting to crack over the spine and joints. Without the folding map. First and last few leaves foxed.

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Binding:  Publisher's brown cloth, front cover with black-stamped hunting scene and title framed in gilt, spine with gilt-stamped title.

•  Binding as above, corners and spine head lightly rubbed. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, rubber-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Pages clean.  (27113)

An appendix of examples of Hottentot and Caffre language is also supplied.

The engraved plates include illustrations of a rhinoceros, a hippopotamus, dwarf mice, and Hottentot weaponry, as well as an oversized folding landscape and a map of the territory covered by the author.

•  ESTC T131019. Recently rebound in quarter calf over marbled paper sides, spines with gilt-stamped title labels. Title-page and two others of vol. I stamped by a now-defunct institution; one page with outer margin reinforced. Small hole to map. Title-page of vol. II with topmost left portion of title repaired and replaced in facsimile; title-page and five others stamped. Pagination skips in vol. II from 136 to 139. A few minor spots of foxing to plates; one plate with short edge tear carefully repaired.

•  ESTC T131282. On the Royal Society, see: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., XXIII, 791–93. On Sprat, see: The Dictionary of National Biography, LIII, 419–24. Recent quarter red morocco over marbled paper. Beading on spine bands and gilt quatrefoils in compartments; gilt-lettered title, author, and date. A foliate gilt roll at edge of leather on covers. Leaves sometime exposed to moisture and cockled, with shallow chipping and light to moderate soiling. Perforation-stamp on title-page, and rubber-stamps, including one on title-page, of a now-defunct library. All edges speckled red.

The oversized, folding maps of France and the world featurehand-colored provincial and continental borders; two additional oversized, steel-engraved plates depict the gods atop Mt. Olympus and the seven wonders of the world.

Early editions of this work are uncommon.

•  Quérard, La France littéraire, 341.   Contemporary marbled paper–covered boards, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels; bindings faded and with some soiling/rubbing (most notably to spines). rubbed. Half-title of vol. I, pp. vii/viii of preface, and printed volume labels all bound in at back of vol. II; some signatures of vol. I unopened. Title-pages with traces of mostly effaced inscriptions; first and last few leaves of both volumes very lightly waterstained. One plate with two short tears from lower edge, not touching image. Solid and interesting.  (27048)

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)

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•  Not in American Imprints. Binding: Krupp, Bookcloth in England and America, 1823--50, p. 40.   Publisher's brown fine-ribbed cloth of Krupp's style Rib2, covers blind-stamped with foliate and arabesque designs, front cover with gilt-stamped title; spine sunned, edges and extremities worn, sides with spots of light discoloration. Foxed moderately (not worse) throughout; front fly-leaf with pencilled gift inscription dated 1845.  (26633)

In addition to the five plates (three lithographed by A. Hoen & Co. after drawings by J.H. Emerton, one by A. Gast & Co. after a drawing by Riley, and one by Sinclair & Son after a drawing by C.S. Minot), the report is illustrated with a number of in-text woodcuts of locusts and other insects, their anatomy, and their eggs and egg-masses, as well as machines and devices designed to eradicate them. Appendices include a detailed comparison of insectivorous birds and their potential benefits.

Provenance: With affixed note on Entomological Commission letterhead, addressed to the Rev. E.H. Dalrymple of Baltimore, MD, and signed by C.V. Riley; front free endpaper bearing the mailing label to Dalrymple.

•  Publisher’s quarter cloth and printed paper wrappers; wrappers darkened, with small edge nicks, cloth starting to split from top of front joint. Front wrapper and front inside cover institutionally rubber-stamped, front free endpaper with label as above. First map and title-page partially torn along inner margin; plates 2 through 5 with small nick in upper edge, not approaching image. Pages clean.

Valentina Wasson’s upbringing in mushroom-loving Russia inspired this work, although directly Russian-related material is scant compared to the masses of international lore compiled here. Befitting a labor of love, the volume was handsomely printed by the prestigious Stamperia Valdonega (following Hans Mardersteig’s design) on heavy paper with deckle edges. Its pochoir plates reproduce beautiful life-sized watercolor paintings of mushrooms done by naturalist Jean-Henri Fabre, and other numerous plates depict other works of interest such as Gainsborough’s “Mushroom Girl.”

Provenance: From the library of chef and culinary collector Louis I. Szathmary, with the laid in, retained carbon of a letter from him to Ralph Geoffrey Newman (the late, noted, Chicago bookseller); this thanks Newman for “the interesting information on the Mushroom book.” A duplicate copy of Newman’s purchase invoice, with Szathmary’s cheque photocopied onto it, is also present.

This is copy number 412 of a limited edition of 512.

•  Green publisher’s cloth, spines with gilt-stamped labels, housed in the original neat buckram-covered slipcase. Corners and spine extremities show slight traces of wear with bindings otherwise crisp and clean; slipcase likewise shows only the faintest of wear. (In our rather bad photograph, the slipcase looks a tad bowed; in real life, it is NOT.) Glassine wrappers present (somewhat yellowed, a bit short as issued, and one with a bit missing at top of that spine). Top edges gilt. Pages and plates clean. A lovely association copy of this significant and uncommon mycological text.