Meade was, briefly, a member of the 3rd Philadelphia Battalion, but saw no military action himself; his grandson was Gen. George Gordon Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac.

•  On Meade, see: Dictionary of American Biography, XII, 473–74. Creased along folds, with a few ink blotches and very minor offsetting. Later pencilled note beneath signature.

The last leaf, filled on both sides, lists a “Grand Assortment” of books available from “J O H N M E I N”;  these are of a variety of sorts, but the one that gets an all-caps headline is a new edition of Fordyce's Sermons for Young Women!

•  Evans 10687; Drake 3164; ESTC w22665.   Sewn in original marbled wrappers. Usual foxing and light age-toning of almanacs of this era and region. Some dog-earing and “thumbing”; small piece of wrapper missing from lower spine. Else very good.  (18214)

Blockley, in which the land in question was located, was a township located in West Philadelphia from about 1677 until its consolidation with the city in 1854. The name has lingered, although it has been superceded in general usage by the broader term “University City.”

•  Parchment crisp and untorn, with outermost folded portions lightly spotted; front with early inked title as given above, plus pencilled numerals. An evocative document connected to some very prominent names, in excellent condition, with its seal protected for its intended reuse by a diamond-shaped paper covering.

All sources say of this work that it “is of doubtful authenticity” and may well be fiction — but, it is sensational for sure!

The folding frontispiece plate is a woodcut captioned “Shocking Barbarity” and shows Mills standing over his wife who is lying on the ground; he has a knife and is raising a fist in anger. The plate has hand coloring in two blues and a yellow (but rather interestingly, not red); three coffins flank the image on each side.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 41440; McDade, Murder, 682.   In 20th-century quarter tan cloth with marbled paper sides. Age-toning and spotting/staining, with some edge tears, throughout; additionally, creases in frontispiece. Apparently a pored-over copy.  (26823)

This would, of course, have been a hometown publication for Monroe.

•  Sabin 50017; Shoemaker 34179. Untrimmed and unbound, spine reinforced with tape. Title-page with early inked ownership inscription, and very faint numerical stamp. Light foxing, some dog-earing to lower corners.

•  ESTC N45792; Sabin 50020; Howes M-727. Quarter blue morocco and blue cloth period-style, spine with gilt-stamped title within gilt-ruled raised bands and with gilt-stamped fleurons at head and foot. Title-page and several others stamped by a now-defunct institution; lacking final blank. Light waterstaining to lower outer margins of pages in latter half of book. A few pages with pencilled marginalia, in some instances offset onto opposing pages.

The Search is in verse and Joseph in prose. The frontispiece is an engraving by B. Tanner after Stothard's original. Tanner was one of America's premier early engravers upon steel and copper. A student of Peter Maverick's, he settled in Philadelphia in 1805 and continued in the Quaker City until 1845. In addition to engravings for book illustration, he produced line and stipple portraits, scenes, and views. Here his offering is printed on a lighter weight stock than the rest of the volume and, as in all copies we have seen, is browned.

•  Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 442; Shaw & Shoemaker 23434. On Tanner, see: Stauffer, American Engravers upon Copper and Steel, I: 243–45. Beyond the scope of Welch. Publisher's salmon paper over paste boards. Clean with no tears. Frontispiece browned as noted, with two lighter spots. A very good copy.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 10615; Sabin 34815; Sowerby 3353. Stitched in original blue-green paper wrappers with spine paper entirely gone and front wrapper reinforced; front wrapper with stamps and pencilled notation. Variable foxing, some staining and soiling also. Ex-Franklin Institute with a few stamps (including to title-page). Uncut copy.

Of this first, 1797 American edition, vols. II–VI were printed 1798–99. Printed with ample notes, it has a series of chronological tables at the end. An eight- page Vindication of the Quakers disputing Mosheim's view of that denomination is also appended at the end of vol. VI, just before the list of subscribers. These latter include such noted names as John Adams, then President of the United States, and John Jay, then governor of New York.

•  Evans 32513 and 34154; ESTC W31794. On Mosheim, see: Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 944. Contemporary sheep, spine modestly gilt with nice gilt-lettered morocco labels and old-fashioned paper library shelf labels; leather scuffed of old and with joints open, sewing holding. Foxing, browning, and staining, variously, the latter obscuring letters in a few places without loss of sense; some endpapers partially detached. Bookplates on some pastedowns. Untattered and a good, useable set.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 4172; Goedeke, Grundriss zur Geschichte der deutschen Dichtung aus den Quellen, 572; Arndt, First Century of German Language Printing in the United States of America, 1337. Andachten: Shaw & Shoemaker 4360; Arndt 1338. Anhang: Shaw & Shoemaker 4171; Arndt 1334. Contemporary sheep, spine with later and sympathetic gilt-stamped title and author labels, binding with brass and leather clasps (intact); leather rubbed and some chipped away with joints open though holding, and spine leather showing some cracking. Front pastedown, free endpaper, and fly-leaf with early inked ownership inscriptions; back pastedown with later pencilled notation; front free endpaper separated and back free endpaper lacking. Pages age-toned and spotted (as usual in German imprints of this period); some corners dog-eared. One leaf with portion of outer margin torn away, with loss of a few words. Condition actually rather typical, for this sort of volume!

In libraries, this is a common item on microfilm—very uncommon, as a reality.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 44957. Stitched in paper wrappers, front wrapper with printed paper label; pencilled notations to upper margin of front wrapper, small smudge to back wrapper. Ownership inscription to front fly-leaf. A little foxing only.