Binding:  Publisher's apple green paper–covered boards in original matching slipcase with gilt-stamped spine title. All edges gilt.

•  Binding as above: lower front and back edges each with tiny bump, extremities showing very slight rubbing, slipcase with edges rubbed and a few small spots of discoloration. Front free endpaper with pencilled annotations in French. Pages and plates clean. Really in quite remarkable condition.  (30574)

Provenance:  Late 17th-century ownership inscription at top of title-page of “T. Engle”; 18th-century ownership inscription below that of “E. Ward”; on endpaper, “December, 1787,” with lines in French in an 18th-century hand.

•  Rius 11; Peeters-Fontainas 227; Suñé Benages 15; Palau 51988.   Contemporary limp vellum, soiled and beginning to separate, ties perished; Don Quixote inked on spine, faded. Lacking one leaf of text only, supplied in very good facsimile (pp. 575–76). First and last gatherings guarded with strips of Renaissance vellum manuscript.  (23423)

WorldCat and Lindsay & Neu combine to locate only four U.S. libraries reporting ownership (Folger, Newberry, Duke, Brigham Young).

•  Lindsay & Neu 3721; see also 3636.   Recent paper–covered boards, front cover with printed paper label. Title-page verso with inked numeral; all four leaves institutionally pressure-stamped. Inner margins reinforced. Clean.  (27785)

Provenance:  From the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Palau 200858.   Contemporary limp vellum a bit too short for the text block. Title-page soiled and small piece torn from lower outer corner; text block separating from binding at the front hinge (inside). Browning (sometimes heavy) from impurities in water during paper manufacture. NOT a beauty, but, therefore, relatively affordable/possessable.  (38640)

•  Original printed wrappers; dusty, with chipping, and front one now separated. Paper lost at top of spine along front joint. The whole, fragile and wanting to separate between signatures. (Our interior image tends a bit to pink tone that is not actually present, FYI.) Now housed in a simple acid-free phase box.  (4701)

•  EDIT16 CNCE 22234; Palau 110317; USTC 835287. Not in Adams.   Contemporary limp vellum, evidence of ties now gone; spine with some sections chipped away, remnants of blue and white printed label, and inked title; binding stained, rubbed, and worm tracked with title-page, last two leaves of text, and endpapers also tracked. Interior overall rather nice with age-toning, intermittent foxing or faint marginal waterstaining, and a few leaves creased along corners. Otherwise a few flawed leaves, probably from paper manufacture, and pagination erratic; provenance indicia as above, front free endpaper with early inked annotation in Italian, and one marginal accent in ink Sound, despite noted binding flaws, and an interesting work.  (39705)

•  Publisher's blue cloth and original dust jacket, the latter torn, worn, and soiled; front cover with short slim line of light discoloration at base. Insertions and markings as above. Very Good, and a special copy for its provenance. (30077)

An early owner has mounted on the title-page an armorial plate bearing an image of the two leopards of Normandy on a shield superimposed by a crown, the whole flanked by attendants holding long branches (palms? laurels?) in one hand and the shield in the other.

Handsomely decorated with engraved initials and tailpieces.

•  Brunet 24296.   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 gilt-lettered title-label, blind fillets extending onto covers from each band to terminate in trefoils and covers framed in double blind fillets. Ex–Mercantile Library of Philadelphia with stamps, mostly faint, including to title-page; title-page re-margined along top and inner edge with an interior hole filled also (no words affected). Title-page with early inked ownership initials; a few other instances of early inked notations within text. Some leaves chipped, others mildly to moderately waterstained; we have chosen to show pages bearing more waterstains rather than fewer. Armorial device mounted to title-page, as noted; we cannot be sure what this covers, but it is elegant!  (21215)

Binding:  19th-century half brown morocco and papier tourniquet paper–covered sides, gilt lettering on spine with ruling in blind, covers with blind beaded roll along leather edges; French curl marbled endpapers, top edge gilt, green ribbon placemarker.

Provenance:  20th-century bookplate of the Sondley Reference Library of Asheville, NC, on front pastedown and its embossed stamps on frontispiece, title-page, and two leaves of text; clipping of a bookseller's description on endpaper. Most recently in the library of American collector Albert A. Howard, small booklabel (“AHA”) at rear.

•  Bound as above, gently rubbed. Moderate age-toning with light spotting, a few unevenly trimmed leaves of text and one missing corner from paper manufacture, foxing to first and last few leaves of volume. A strong and attractive copy of a book that's still a “good read.”  (38427)

Searches of NUC and WorldCat find only three U.S. libraries reporting ownership (Cleveland Public, Notre Dame U., U. of Minnesota).

•  Modern half calf with pastepaper-covered sides, flat spine with longitudinal title-label of caramel-colored morocco lettered in gilt; gilt ornaments at top and bottom of spine. Binding signed “GM” in the rear turn-in. Title-page foxed/soiled; text clean.  (39609)

This publication demonstrates that change among many others, as it traces the Society via its own documents from its founding at the "Cantonment of the American Army, on Hudson's River, 10th May, 1783," through the incorporation of the Pennsylvania branch, to the death of Gen. Washington. Included here are the by-laws of the Pennsylvania chapter.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 1339. Sewn, as issued. Front wrapper missing, rear wrapper present. A few spots of waterstaining. Uncut copy. New protective paper corset provided and the whole housed in a cloth clam shell case with a leather spine label lettered in gilt. A very good copy.  (2946)

Chiswell was the oldest surviving son of the famed London bookseller of the same name and his wife Mary Royston, daughter of another prominent bookseller, Richard Royston. He earned his own wealth as a member of the Levant Company trading with Turkey, making several journeys through the Middle East (and writing at least three never-published travelogues), eventually serving terms as the director of the Bank of England and as an M.P. Vanbrugh (1664–1726) is remembered for several successful comedies including The Relapse, The Provok'd Wife, and The Country House, as well as for having designed Blenheim Palace, Castle Howard, the original Haymarket Theatre, and many other notable buildings.

•  In the original box as above, housed in a modern buckram case with hand-inked spine label; the original box, lacking three of four closure hooks, has been expertly restored and is now safely strong. One of the two seals is cracked across, but wholy present; the grant, rolled and slightly darkened, is overall clean and striking. A proud and obviously treasured survival.   (41231)