Provenance:  Front pastedown with the “Ex Mini-Libris Levitan” bookplate of Rabbi Kalman L. Levitan, the first president of the Miniature Book Society and one of the most prominent miniature book collectors in the United States. Also with the red morocco bookplate of Neva and Guy Littell, the latter president of the R.R. Donnelley & Sons binding company.

Binding:  Late 19th- or early 20th-century Jansenist style red morocco; spines with gilt-stamped title, board edges with gilt fillets, turn-ins with wide gilt inner dentelles; crimson silk pastedowns and free endpapers. Top edges gilt. Binding signed by Zaehnsdorf.

•  NSTC 2T2346; Welsh, Bibliography of Miniature Books, 6608.   Binding as above, corners slightly rubbed, spines darkened; top boards expertly reattached. Front pastedowns each with the two private collectors' bookplates as above, front free endpaper and front fly-leaf of vol. II with Littell ownership inscriptions. Some signatures in vol. II unopened. Pages clean save for a very few scattered faint spots. A lovely little set.  (25177)

The portrait of the author was engraved by Pierre Lombard, while the added engraved title-page is unsigned. Each of the four books here (in two volumes) has a separate title-page; the main title-pages are printed in black and ruled in red. The text is in English, Greek, and Latin. A printed addenda slip is affixed to the final text page of vol. II, above the catalogue of books sold by Richard Royston. Leaf L6 in vol. II is a cancel (and separated).

Provenance:  Vol. I added title-page recto with inked ownership inscription dated 1781 (“T. Moore”); vol. II front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription dated 1696 (“Guilel. Rayner”) and another (of “T. Moore's”) dated 1781.

•  ESTC R20123; Wing (rev.) T324; Allibone 2348. On Taylor, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Recent quarter calf and marbled paper–covered sides, leather edges tooled in blind, spine with gilt-stamped title and volume labels and gilt-stamped decorations between raised bands. Ownership inscriptions as above. First few leaves of vol. I (including regular and added title-pages) with tiny spots of worming; slightly larger sections of same to inner margins of some subsequent leaves; a number of pages in both volumes with scattered spots of worming, touching letters but not affecting sense. Light waterstaining to outer margins of some leaves. One leaf in vol. II separated. Significant and attractive.  (24889)

Binding:  Prize binding from King Edward VI's School: Contemporary walnut-brown calf, framed and panelled in blind double fillets with blind-stamped corner crosses and gilt-stamped English Royal coat of arms (with the quarter of France and dragon supporter) as central medallions; spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels and blind-stamped crosses in compartments.

Provenance: Front fly-leaf of vol. I with inked inscription dated 1863, noting this set's presentation to R.K. Rodwell as an “Extra Prize for the best English Essay.”

•  NSTC 2T3717.   Bound as above, spines and extremities rubbed. Endpapers and frontispiece lightly spotted. All edges stained red.  (21923)

The six pages of advertisements offer multiplereviews of the Harper works listed, not just publication information!

Provenance: Front free endpaper with ex libris inscription initialed “GRW”: William [Guillelmus] R. Whittingham, Bishop of Baltimore.

•  Shoemaker 40623; NSTC 2E8969. Publisher’s quarter cloth and paper-covered sides, spine with printed paper label; binding faded and worn, spine label chipped and darkened. Front pastedown with institutional rubber-stamp, no other markings; pages untrimmed, and foxed throughout.

Provenance:  Ownership inscription on front fly-leaf: “Ernst Rauschenbusch, Elberfeld, 18 Aug. 1792.” 19th-century signature on front free-endpaper of “A[ugust] Rauschenbusch.” Ernst was the grandfather of Walter Rauschenbusch, he of the social gospel movement; and August was Walter's father.

•  Wing (rev. ed.) T784; ESTC R38803.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards, vellum age-soiled. Internally very good.  (24655)

The volume was written on a single paper stock but by a (small) number of copyists. It bears an unidentified marca de fuego in the lower margins which usually indicates a religious library's ownership, increasing the possibility that the manuscript originated in the scriptorium of one of the orders. The purpose for compiling the documents is unclear, but since the various orders were in almost continuous litigation, and would often invoke the memory and spirit of a past monarch, a compendium such as this would have been extremely useful—especially when operating in opposition to the new, foreign monarchs, who, with their French ways of doing things, were to be challenged and "educated."

Provenance: Gavito collection; marca de fuego as above and below.

•  Contemporary limp vellum with yapp edges; recased and new endpapers applied. Clean, crisp, unwormed text. Marca de fuego reading "CDS" within a rectangular braided border.

Provenance: An interesting array of ownership inscriptions: “Abigail Davis Book Given her By her Friend [Master?] Vaughan” — “Abigail Davis Book”— “Abigail Davis” — “Abigail Vaughan, Her Book,” this last written largest of all.  (“Reader, I married him”?)

•  Evans 27179; ESTC W33646.   Contemporary sheep, binding overall showing scuffs and small cracks. Endpapers and fly-leaf with early inked ownership inscriptions; title-page verso institutionally rubber-stamped. Pages age-toned and spotted, with intermittent pencilled bracketing; a few leaves starting to separate. (20808)

This has an engraved title-page with vignette incorporating David as harpist, and a steel-engraved frontispiece signed by J. Eddy as engraver, “W. Heath, del.”

Provenance:  Inked ownership note to blank of “Charlotte Russell / July 14th — 1831.”

•  Publisher's brown cloth shelfback with paper-covered boards; binding fragile, showing considerable wear with tears in the cloth. Foxing and age-toning; page edges lightly chipped and worn. Ex-library: call number on binding, bookplate, pressure-stamps and other identifications, pencilling. Uncut copy.  (23938)

Provenance: Presentation copy signed by the author: “To Mr. Breiser[?] with the regards of Maximilian Toch,” dated [19]17.

•  Publisher's olive cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title in decorative lettering embellished with an artist's palette, spine with decorative gilt-stamped title; cloth showing minor wrinkling and light discoloration over back cover and part of spine, corners and spine extremities slightly rubbed. Front free endpaper with inscription as above. Pages faintly age-toned, else clean.  (24491)

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.

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)

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.

The work was limited to 100 copies, all printed on Japan vellum. It has an engraved vignette on the black and red printed title, small illustrations or vignettes on 50 text pages, 11 vignette borders or headpieces (three of them in color, 10 of them in anextra state), and 10 tipped-in color plates. The illustrations are by Henri Gervex, J.A. Gonzalès, L. Kratké, Albert Lynch, Adrien Moreau, and Félicien Rops.

Binding:  Full red crushed morocco with five raised bands. Covers with a triple-rule gilt border; spine gilt extra with gilt beading on bands. Triple gilt fillet on board edges. Wide turn-ins richly tooled in gilt and with cream and blue leather inlays that are also gilt-tooled. Blue silk pastedowns and free endpapers. Marbled paper fly-leaves. All edges gilt. Binding signed “David.”

Provenance:  Red leather bookplate of Cortland Field Bishop, the famed collector of the early 20th century and, at one time, owner of the TWO most important auction galleries in NY/USA.

Original full-color wrappers bound in.

•  Vicaire, VII, 924.   Uncut copy. Bound as above with original wrappers bound in. Light refurbishment of front joint (outside). A fabulous copy.   (26675)

Provenance: With the armorial bookplate of D. Feliciano Ramirez de Arellano, Marqués de la Fuensanta del Valle, and bookseller's ticket from a Lisboa dealer.

•  Palau 361040. Contemporary treed calf, spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title label, covers showing only light wear; joints and board edges rubbed, leather lost over spine head and cracking over foot, spine also with small traces of paper label. Hinges slightly tender.

Provenance:  Augustinian monastic library of Morelia (marca de fuego on upper edge of closed book; on verso of title-page in an 18th-century hand: “pertenece al convento de San Augustin de Valladolid”); private use of Fr. Manuel Aigustin Farias (noted on the verso of title-page in an 18th-century hand, prelim. p. 12, first p. 1); later owned by José Martín de Infanzón (prelim. p. 9).

•  Medina, Mexico, 1684; Palau 361217; Sabin 99386; Andrade 1073; Tovar de Teresa, Bibliografía novohispana de arte, 105; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 68.   Early vellum over boards, rebacked; new endpapers and title-page backed for strength. Stray stains and ink markings variously, the latter in margins; minor worming in some lower margins, with waterstaining notable in the final section and a brown stain perhaps of another nature in upper gutter-ward areas of the same section, sometimes into text. Final six leaves with loss of lower outer corner, including some text; paper replaced and text in excellent facsimile. Volume now housed in a quarter blue morocco tray case with gilt spine.  (26824)

Like the first, this second edition of Vettori’s criticism of Cicero is in Latin with quotations and examples in Greek. It is self-described on the title-page as “quae corrupta, mutila, & praeposterè sita admiserat prima editio, haec 2. sedulò castigauit, suóque loco restituit.” The volume begins with the printer’s device on the title-page bearing the motto “Et fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus,” and prints the text in a clear roman type accented with historiated and portrait woodcut initials and woodcut head-pieces. A handsome production.

Provenance: 17th-century near-calligraphic ownership inscriptions on title-page of the Jesuit College at Tudela, Spain; and of G.M. Desmarsall.

•  Adams V687. Recent deep walnut full calf old style, by Grace Bindings (signed in blind at inner area of rear cover, lower turn-in): Round spine with raised bands accented in gilt and with blind-tooled devices in compartments; oxblood leather label, gilt-lettered; fillets extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils and covers framed in blind double fillets. Lacks one internal blank leaf (only). All edges marbled. A very good copy.

Presentation copy: Inked presentation inscription of E.B. Washburne on p. 1.

•  Recent speckled brown wrappers. Some shallow chipping and tears. Neat, handsome old library rubber-stamps.

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.

Click the images for enlargements.

Provenance:  Covers gilt-stamped with the device of Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere.

Binding:  Contemporary calf framed in gilt triple fillets and blind roll, rebacked preserving original spine gilt extra with gilt-stamped leather title-label; covers gilt-stamped with supra-libros as above. All edges marbled.

Uncommon: OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find only six U.S. locations.

•  Bound as above; spine leather with small chips and cracks, sides with small unobtrusive areas of rubbing and light discoloration. Binding overall solid and still attractive; interior clean and nice.  (25320)

•  Publisher's vellum over boards, spine with raised bands and faux hand-inked title, in original red cloth slipcase. A beautiful, clean, unworn copy in a perfect slipcase.  (26750)

Binding: Publisher's red cloth, front cover handsomely stamped in black and gilt.

Provenance:  Front fly-leaf with inked ownership inscription of Thomas D. Embree (later a prominent Democrat in Bates County, MO) dated 1891, back fly-leaf with inscription in the same hand reading “Bates Co. Teachers' Institute, Butler Mo.”

•  Marple, Iowa Authors & Their Works, 312.   Spine very slightly sunned, sides with a few small, unobtrusive spots of discoloration — overall a bright copy showing virtually no shelf wear. Front and back fly-leaves with inscriptions as above. A few scattered spots of light foxing, pages otherwise clean.  (26761)

The second work here is a solid work of Lutheran doctrine on the omnipresence of God and His presence in the Eucharist.

Provenance: 17th-century signature on title-page of Caspar Lutz; late-19th-century signature of Howard Osgood on same (and his bookplate on the front pastedown). Pressure-stamp of a theological library on title-page (properly deaccessioned).

Evidence of readership: Scattered underlining in both works and a few instances of marginalia of a few words. Marginalia of second work in a different hand and sometimes cropped by binder.

•  I: VD16 W2708; Hillerbrand, Anabaptism; 2426. II: VD16 W883; Kuczynski, Thesaurus, 3664.   Full dark walnut modern calf old style: Spine with raised bands accented with gilt beading on ech band and blind rules above and below each band, the latter extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils; burgundy leather author label and gilt place/date at base of spine; blind-tooled device in spine compartments. Blind double fillets framing covers. Browning to text, paper good and supple.  (25819)

Uncommon: OCLC locates only six copies of this in the U.S., including this copy deaccessioned from one of those six reporting institutions.

Provenance:  From the collection of 19th-century scholar Dr. Johann August Neander (1789–1850), a convert from Judaism who became a leading scholar of Christian church history.

•  19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper. Ex-library with minimal markings; adhesive shelving label to spine, blacked over. Text age-toned but paper very good; a nice wide-margined copy.  (16899)