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Fine Editions Ltd
Books and Ephemera of Aesthetic Merit
Membership(s): IOBA
Fulton, Robert A treatise on the improvement of canal navigation exhibiting the numerous advantages to be derived from small canals. And boats of two to five feet wide, containing from two to five tons burthen. With a description of the machinery for facilitating conveyance by water through the most mountainous countries, independent of locks and aqueducts: including observations on the great importance of water communications, with thoughts on, and designs for, aqueducts and bridges of iron and wood. Illustrated with seventeen plates
$1,774.00
London: published by I. and J. Taylor, At the Architectural Library, High Holborn, 1796. First Edition. Paper-Covered Boards. First Printing, early issue (with verso of p. 143 blank; later issues carry the “Addition” on canals in mountainous areas) of Fulton’s ambitious scheme to create a network of inland waterways in the newly independent United States. Demy 4to (281 x 219mm): xvi,143,[3]pp, with seventeen plates (showing the narrow canal boat, inclined planes, and iron and wooden bridges), in addition to which Sabin mentions a portrait, but we have not been able to locate a copy bound with one. Original slate blue paper-covered boards neatly respined with buff paper, original paper title label printed in black laid down. Sabin 26201. Bibliotheca Chemico-Mathematica I, 8181. Skempton 517. Honeyman Coll. 1383. Ottley 174. Singer IV, p. 570 and figs. 313-315. Binding somewhat stained and slightly bumped, hinges neatly reinforced, pages occasionally spotted, but a tall, wide-margined copy, uncut and in the original boards. Near Fine+.
As early as 1794, Fulton had patented (no. 1988) a machine to convey boats from one canal level to another, but this treatise, emphasizing the social advantages of waterway transport, first fully detailed his grand plan for a network of small canals and inclined planes (rather than locks) for raising and lowering small boats to accomodate changes in elevation. President George Washington was sent a copy and acknowledged its receipt in a letter to Fulton dated December 14, 1796. Fulton replied to Washington, on February 4, 1797, stressing the advantages of his proposed network of small waterways, rather than turnpike roads or river navigation, to “penetrate the Interior Country And bind the whole In the Bonds of social Intercourse.” Fulton’s ingenious inventions, including the world’s first commercially successful steamboat (the Clermont), knit the new nation’s disparate regions together. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).
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First Edition of Neal's The History of New-Englan
Daniel Neal The history of New-England Containing an impartial account of the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the country, to the year of Our Lord, 1700 ; to which is added, The present state of New-England : with a new and accurate map of the country, and an appendix containing their present charter, their ecclesiastical discipline, and their municipal-laws
$4,200.00London: Printed for J. Clark, at the Bible & Crown in the Poultry, R. Ford, at the Angel in the Poultry, and R. Cruttenden, at the Bible and Three Crowns, in Cheapside, 1720. First Edition. Binding: Hardcover (Quarter Leather). Book Condition: Very Good Condition. Size: Small Octavo. 712 pages. 2-volume set (complete). Pagination: [1], x, [2], 330; [4], 331 – 712, xv, [1], which lines up with Howe’s listing for the first edition. Sabin, 52140; Howe N-26; European Americana 720/178 The books have been professionally re-bound, quarter-bound with the five panel spines in dark brown leather and the boards in a dark brown cloth. The spines are stamped with the title “Neal’s New England” in the second panel, a floral device in the third panel and the volume numbers in the fourth. The end papers have been replaced sympathetically with tan laid paper. The title page of Vol. 1 has been reattached with Japanese paper. Scattered foxing, but text mostly clean. There are a few (five by my count, but I may have missed some) pages with penciled notes in the margin or underlining. Note by an early owner in brown ink on the free front end paper of Vol. 2: “Horatio Aldin. | purchased for him in London | by his friend Geo. Oats Esqr. 1826”. Volume 1 includes the folded map of New England bound between the Table of Contents and the text (between signatures A and B). The map is in excellent condition with no loss around the edges, but there is a 2” split along the top horizontal fold through the “Bay of Funda” (with a small piece of what appears to be acid-free paper tape just under the fold) and a one-half inch split at the bottom of the vertical fold, not affecting the map. The verso of the last leaf of Vol. 2 is a single advertisement page for “BOOKS printed for John Clark, Richard Ford and Robert Cruttenden,” which include three of Isaac Watts’ books and a notice of a planned collection of previously unpublished works by John Owen. Neal was an Independent (or Dissenting) minister, educated at Thomas Rowe’s Dissenting Academy. He was friends with other prominent Dissenters of his time, including Philip Doddridge and Isaac Watts. His “History” found an immediate audience in New England, resulting in an honorary degree from Harvard just a year after the work’s publication.
Offered for Sale by: Quaint Book Shop -
Scarce 1857 Dred Scott decision, Grolier Club #68
Scott, Dred Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States And the Opinions of the Judges Thereof in the Case of Dred Scott Versus John F. A. Sandford. December Term, 1856
$495.00Gene W. Baade Books on the West
Washington DC: Benjamin C. Howard, 1857. First Thus. Soft cover. Poor. Item #2507047 1857 Washington printing said to be issued at or about the same time as the New York edition. Original string-tied printed wraps. LACKING ORIGINAL PAPER COVERS, TITLE PAGE, AND LAST LEAF (page 239) the last two of which have been replaced by your bookseller as new pages. In this famous and convoluted case Scott, a slave who had also lived in free Wisconsin Territory and Illinois, sued for his freedom (as did his wife). A lower court in Missouri ruled in his favor. This ruling was reversed by the Missouri Supreme Court, whereupon Scott appealed to the US Supreme Court where he lost in a 7-2 decision when the winds of slavery politics blew to smithereens the up-to-then accepted “doctrine” that, “once free” (as in having lived in a free state or territory), “always free.” This decision has come down through US history as one of the biggest failures of the US Supreme Court. As noted above, the title page is missing. I have supplied. cutting to proper dimension, a modern page of the same, which is laid in. This copy is also missing the last page (p.339), but I have supplied the entire text of the last page and also cut it to proper dimension and laid it in. Otherwise the copy, string-tied as noted, has water tidelines upper half of the first leaf, which tideline extends to a decreasing degree into the 63pps. Clarity of readability is not compromised. Quite minor foxing to a few margins. Minor edge chipping to first and last pages. To be obviously handled with care, but a quite serviceable reading copy if you desire this text in its original form pps (3) – 228. Very scarce. This document in book form is #68 in the famed Grolier Club’s One Hundred Influential American Books Printed before 1900 published in 1947.
Offered for Sale by: Gene W. Baade Books on the West -
Author-inscribed family copy of lumbering memoir
Warren, George Henry THE PIONEER WOODSMAN AS HE IS RELATED TO LUMBERING IN THE NORTHWEST
$250.00Gene W. Baade Books on the West
Minneapolis: Gov’t Printing Office & Smithsonian, 1914. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Item #2105092 1st printing. 1/2 leather & cloth boards. 184pp. Illustrated with nice photogravures. Family copy with unusual custom bookplate on the front paste down of the author’s son & daughter-in-law, Frank and Alice Warren, which has three half-tone photos on it showing a cabin, a lighthouse, & a forest road. On the frontispiece (showing a stream & some trees) there is a space for an inscription, this one being the author’s presentation to Alice, his daughter-in-law, & dated Aug. 10, 1914. This book is a superb memoir of early timber cruising in northern Wisconsin & Minnesota beginning in the 1870s. A remarkable life as a woodsman who eventually became what I believe to have been a leader in the industry in that Great Lakes area. The leather joints have been repaired and are holding well, but note some deterioration at head & toe of spine. A good, tight copy. This book was printed on beautifully textured paper from Italy.
Offered for Sale by: Gene W. Baade Books on the West -
Original letters from Idaho historian Annie Bird
Bird, Annie Laurie CORRESPONDENCE/LETTERS Idaho History
$395.00Gene W. Baade Books on the West
Nampa: Private Correspondence, 1946. Soft cover. Very Good. Item #2206008 Historian Bird of Nampa, Idaho, over a period of many years corresponded with rare book dealer Jerome Peltier of Clarks Old Book Store in Spokane. In this clutch of letters and cards, 23 in all, depending on what you count, but a minimum, Bird tries to answer questions from Peltier. While much of the content is personal (she talks about school teaching – was a high school teacher of history-her cats, a few trips, and even teaching Sunday School) the content discussed some figures of Pacific Northwest History Bird was researching, particularly William Wallace, who was governor of both Idaho and Washington Territories. Bird is trying to add to the data she is compiling, but often comes up on dead ends. A published articles is included, in duplicate, sent at two different times. There are no letters from Peltier, only Bird to Peltier. Most are from 1946-48, but a handful also as late as the 1960s. The letters are original as typed and signed by Bird, and have their accompanying mailing envelopes. Peltier corresponded with countless historians and saved everything they sent him, it seemed. Now there was a rare book dealer who just soaked up history, particular that of the Pacific Northwest. Here is what the Idaho State Archives says of Bird: Annie Laurie Bird was born August 21, 1893 in Billings, Montana. Bird moved with her parents to Idaho in 1905, where they homesteaded in Owyhee County. The family moved to Caldwell in 1906 and to Nampa in 1918. Annie Bird attended the College of Idaho and Columbia University and was awarded a Doctor of Letters Degree from Northwest Nazarene College in 1970. A teacher in Nampa for 35 years, Bird became a regionally-noted historian, writer, and researcher. She was the author of many books and articles. State newspapers also published her poetry. Annie Laurie Bird died on December 26, 1972 in Nampa, Idaho. Books by Annie Laurie Bird: Boise, The Peace Valley. Caldwell, Idaho, Caxton Printers, 1934. reprint Nampa, Idaho, Canyon County Historical Society, 1975 >My Home Town. Caldwell, Idaho, Caxton Printers, 1968 Old Fort Boise. Parma, Idaho, Old Fort Boise Historical Society, 1971 Thomas McKay. Caldwell, Idaho, Caxton Printers, 1972.
Offered for Sale by: Gene W. Baade Books on the West
