AMERICANA TO 1820

Washington in aBeautiful Striped Binding
      (He'd have Wanted the Cloth for a Waistcoat)

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•  Bancroft's biography of Washington, originally published in 1807, appears here as two volumes in one in an attractive gift binding. Each volume is illustrated with two wood-engraved plates; the second volume has a separate title-page.

Binding:  Publisher's green-blue vertically striped ribbed cloth (predominantly seen in the 1840s, never common). Covers with gilt-stamped foliate and drawer pull frame, spine gilt extra with American eagle and portrait of Washington. All edges gilt.

•  For early eds.: Sabin 3097; Howes B86. On striped bindings, see: Krupp, Making a Case for Cloth, p. [11].   Binding as above, very lightly rubbed, most notably at corners. Front free endpaper with old, closed cuts/slashes and early inked presentation inscription. Plates browned; some signatures foxed, most pages clean. A lovely copy.  (26759)

This Philadelphia Bank's Articles of Association . . .

•  Sole edition and very rare. The bank was capitalized with $1,000,000, aimed at making loans to merchants and farmers, and drew its original 16 directors from the powers that were in Philadelphia at that time, both Christian and Jewish.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 4846. Sewn as issued. Waterstaining to lower margin of most pages; mildew damage to same areas.

. . . and Its Incorporation (Banking).  Anon.  Philadelphia [National] Bank. Pennsylvania. Laws, statutes, etc. An act to incorporate the Philadelphia Bank. Philadelphia: Pr. by W. W. Woodward, 1804. 8vo. 21, [1 (blank)] pp.
$800.00

•  The legislature enables the bank to come into existence and prohibits conflicts of interest by barring sitting governors and legislators from serving on the Bank's board of directors. This act of incorporation seems to be as rare as the Bank's Articles.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 7007. Original light boards covered with marbled paper. Back cover and two leaves gnawed by a rodent, with loss of paper.

TWO Quaker Classics forPhiladelphians, 1788

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• Important work by a prominent Quaker theologian noted for scholarship as well as for advocacy of religious tolerance, here issued by Joseph James together with a brief explanation of Quaker practices. The Catechism and Confession was first published in 1673 and subsequently reprinted numerous times, with the current example following but a handful of previous American editions.

Provenance: Front fly-leaf inscribed “Thomas G. Arnolds Book Coventry,” inked in an early hand.

•  ESTC W37335; Evans 20950; Sabin 3366.   Contemporary speckled sheep, worn and very slightly sprung, spine scuffed with foot chipped. Pages age-toned and variably waterstained, with occasional edge nicks and crumpled corners; yet not brittle or nasty and the volume quite pleasant for reading.  (24391)

A Marblehead Puritan Printed in London
forBoston Distribution

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•  Barnard (1681–1770) was a Puritan pastor of a church in Marblehead, Mass., and famous for his passion and ability as a preacher. This work is uncommon in that it was printed in London for two Boston booksellers.

•  Sabin 3471; ESTC T65667; not in Alden & Landis.   Contemporary sheep, modestly tooled in blind; leather dry and abraded. Ex-library with call number on spine, shelf marks in pencil, bookplate on front pastedown, and rubber-stamp on title-page. (20159)

Anacharsis in English — Anything But Dry!

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•  Translated from the French by William Beaumont for the original English printing. Really a textbook on the daily life and culture of ancient Greece, primarily centered around Athens, this lengthy work is "so written, that the reader may frequently be induced to imagine he is perusing a work of mere amusement, invention, and fancy" (p. iii). Footnotes citing a multitude of classical sources back up Barthelemy's imagined journey, which is illustrated with an attractive engraved map by du Bocage.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 5809. Recently rebound in period-style tan cloth over light blue paper sides, spines with paper labels. Contemporary ownership inscription to front fly-leaf in each volume. Map with light offsetting and short tear just starting along one fold. First 20 leaves of vol. II waterstained and last 10 foxed; scattered incidences of spotting in all volumes, pages generally clean. A nice-looking set, and still — as it always was! — a work offering a pleasant way to absorb ancient history.

Another of Benezet's Causes

•  Benezet's causes were many: ending black slavery, improving relations between the Anglo settlers and the native peoples, matters spiritual, and, as here, temperance. The deleterious effects on health, family, and society are well essayed. Click the images for enlargements.

While the title-page merely says the piece is “by a Lover of Mankind,” Benezet's authorship was well established by Evans.

•  Bristol B3689; Shipton & Mooney 42555; Hildeburn 2980; ESTC W26174. Not in Blake.   Recent quarter calf, old style, with marbled paper sides. Text cockled, with stray stains and age-toning; title-page crumpled. Original edition, not a modern reprint.  (27123)

Written While Living in Rhode Island & Drawing Its Landscape

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•  First edition; a second was published the same year. Includes “An essay towards a new theory of vision. First published in the year MDCCIX,” with a separate title-page, in vol. II, on pp. [211]–358.

Presented here is Berkeley's defense of revealed religion: It ranks as a major example of English literature and of American literature too, for he wrote it while living in America waiting for money for his projected university in Bermuda. “Alciphron, a set of dialogues located notionally in England, but drawing much of the landscape description from Rhode Island,” sold well and aroused controversy after his return to Britain. The New Theory of Vision is “a work of lasting importance in the psychology of perception[; it] was transitional between Berkeley's already informed interests in mathematics and natural philosophy and a growing independence of mind in metaphysics and epistemology” (both quotations from DNB on-line).

Each volume's main title-page bears an emblematic engraved vignette with a Biblical and a classical motto beneath; the text is embellished with a few nicely engraved initials, headers, and tailpieces; and of course “Vision” offers its several diagrams.

Provenance: “A. Thorpe – York” inscribed on title-pages.

•  ESTC T86056; NCBEL, II, 1852. Not in European Americana.   Contemporary sheep, spines with raised bands and gilt-stamped red leather labels; covers framed and paneled in blind-stamped triple fillets with blind-stamped corner fleurons; all edges red. Leather rubbed with some loss to corners, edges, turn-ins; vol. I with pulls at both spine extremities, small gouge to front cover, front joint opening with cover almost off. Old institutional bookplates and rubber-stamp to pastedowns, title-pages, and lower edges of closed volumes; ink ownership signature to title-pages as above and a few additional ink and pencil marks; some very scattered spots or staining with pages generally clean. (21366)

For more SETS,  click here.

Radical, Republican, Yalie

•  Bishop (1763–1844) was a radical, Republican, Yale graduate, abolitionist, staunch supporter of Jefferson, and celebrant of American expansionism (via the Louisiana Purchase). There is some confusion as to where this was printed: Some sources (Howes, for example) misplace “Sidney's Press” as being in Hartford while others correctly place it in New Haven, thus creating the illusion of two printings in different cities. In fact, there is only the New Haven printing. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 5881; Howes B472 (“aa”); Sabin 5596.   Uncut copy in modern boards covered with stone pattern marbled paper. Title-page torn in lower blank area with loss of paper but not text. Bug-spotting, a few stray stains, age-toning; stab holes in inner margins from original stitching. A very decent copy.  (24888)

TO Part III . . .

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