The American Oaks by Trelease, William - 1969

First edition hardcover. 1866, New York. Condition is Very Good: Library sticker on spine, pencil note on copyright page, no other library markings. Some pencil notes on front blank, none elsewhere. Occasional foxing in text. Binding is sound. Light general wear to boards. A nice copy of an uncommon book. Author aims to offend as many people as possible and succeeds. Paginates: blanks, frontis, 312, [2], blanks, plus 11 unpaginated plates. Extremely obscure item. Please see images of the book you will receive. Notes: Author is brother of Samuel Comstock - infamous mutineer of the whaleship Globe. Such a lovely family. More notes: Satire aimed at (?) Charles Farrar Browne who was a humorist working under the name Artemus Ward. Browne (Ward) was reportedly a favorite of Abraham Lincoln. More notes: Most, but not all, first editions of this time period have the date on the title page and this copy does not. I have looked at WorldCat, online libraries and sale copies; I cannot locate any copy with a date… Read More

New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1925. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Presentation copy, inscribed and dated in the year of publication by Wendell Endicott on the front flyleaf. An avid sportsman, Endicott (1880-1954) attended Harvard University (1899-1901) and served as a director of Sears, Roebuck and Company in Chicago during the 1920s and '30s. This book includes his reminiscences of battling the "Silver King" (Atlantic tarpon) and other game fish along the Florida Keys, as well as a selection of fishing facts and suggestions. Octavo: 273 p. with 80 illustrations from photographs by the author. Original dark green cloth-covered boards over a light green spine, with gilt stamping. Just a hint of foxing to the prefatory and concluding pages, with some faint evidence of moisture along the top edge of the last three dozen pages. Tiny period bookseller's label to the front flyleaf. The spine is a touch faded, with some rubbing to the corners and tips; else about very good.

Tan calf spine and corners. Brown textured boards. Gilt banding on the spine with the title plate missing.
First Volume of a two-volume set Milton's poetry was slow to see the light of day, at least under his name. His first published poem was "On Shakespeare" (1630), anonymously included in the Second Folio edition of William Shakespeare's plays in 1632. An annotated copy of the First Folio has been suggested to contain marginal notes by Milton.[53] Milton collected his work in 1645 Poems during the excitement attending the possibility of establishing a new English government. The anonymous edition of Comus was published in 1637, and the publication of Lycidas in 1638 in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago was signed J. M. Otherwise. The 1645 collection was the only poetry of his to see print until Paradise Lost appeared in 1667.
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual who served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and… Read More

Original dust sheet. Green cloth with gilt title on the spine.
One hundred and seventy-six early Turners, most in colour and reproduced for the first time, and 22 other reproductions.
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (23 April 1775 – 19 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colourisations, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolours, and 30,000 works on paper. He was championed by the leading English art critic John Ruskin from 1840, and is today regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Turner was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, to a modest lower-middle-class family. He lived in London all his life, retaining his Cockney accent and assiduously avoiding the trappings of success and fame. A child prodigy, Turner studied at the Royal Academy of… Read More

In the original dust sheet. Tan board with gilt title on the spine.
The Major Natural History Paintings Southern,
John (Archibald Thorburn) Archibald Thorburn FZS (31 May 1860, Lasswade, Midlothian - 9 October 1935, Hascombe, Surrey) was a Scottish artist who specialised in wildlife, painting mostly in watercolour. He regularly visited Scotland to sketch birds in the wild, his favourite haunt being the Forest of Gaick near Kingussie in Invernesshire. His widely reproduced images of British wildlife, with their evocative and dramatic backgrounds, are enjoyed as much today as they were by naturalists a century ago. Archibald was born at Viewfield House, Lasswade, Midlothian, the fifth son of Robert Thorburn (1818–1885), portrait miniaturist to Queen Victoria. His first education was at Dalkeith and in Edinburgh, after which he was sent to the newly founded St John's Wood School of Art in London. His stay there was only brief, since on the death of his father he sought the guidance of Joseph Wolf. It… Read More

First edition hardcover. 1866, New York. Condition is Very Good: Library sticker on spine, pencil note on copyright page, no other library markings. Some pencil notes on front blank, none elsewhere. Occasional foxing in text. Binding is sound. Light general wear to boards. A nice copy of an uncommon book. Author aims to offend as many people as possible and succeeds. Paginates: blanks, frontis, 312, [2], blanks, plus 11 unpaginated plates. Extremely obscure item. Please see images of the book you will receive. Notes: Author is brother of Samuel Comstock - infamous mutineer of the whaleship Globe. Such a lovely family. More notes: Satire aimed at (?) Charles Farrar Browne who was a humorist working under the name Artemus Ward. Browne (Ward) was reportedly a favorite of Abraham Lincoln. More notes: Most, but not all, first editions of this time period have the date on the title page and this copy does not. I have looked at WorldCat, online libraries and sale copies; I cannot locate any copy with a date… Read More

New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1925. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Presentation copy, inscribed and dated in the year of publication by Wendell Endicott on the front flyleaf. An avid sportsman, Endicott (1880-1954) attended Harvard University (1899-1901) and served as a director of Sears, Roebuck and Company in Chicago during the 1920s and '30s. This book includes his reminiscences of battling the "Silver King" (Atlantic tarpon) and other game fish along the Florida Keys, as well as a selection of fishing facts and suggestions. Octavo: 273 p. with 80 illustrations from photographs by the author. Original dark green cloth-covered boards over a light green spine, with gilt stamping. Just a hint of foxing to the prefatory and concluding pages, with some faint evidence of moisture along the top edge of the last three dozen pages. Tiny period bookseller's label to the front flyleaf. The spine is a touch faded, with some rubbing to the corners and tips; else about very good.

Tan calf spine and corners. Brown textured boards. Gilt banding on the spine with the title plate missing.
First Volume of a two-volume set Milton's poetry was slow to see the light of day, at least under his name. His first published poem was "On Shakespeare" (1630), anonymously included in the Second Folio edition of William Shakespeare's plays in 1632. An annotated copy of the First Folio has been suggested to contain marginal notes by Milton.[53] Milton collected his work in 1645 Poems during the excitement attending the possibility of establishing a new English government. The anonymous edition of Comus was published in 1637, and the publication of Lycidas in 1638 in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago was signed J. M. Otherwise. The 1645 collection was the only poetry of his to see print until Paradise Lost appeared in 1667.
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual who served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and… Read More

Original dust sheet. Green cloth with gilt title on the spine.
One hundred and seventy-six early Turners, most in colour and reproduced for the first time, and 22 other reproductions.
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (23 April 1775 – 19 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colourisations, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolours, and 30,000 works on paper. He was championed by the leading English art critic John Ruskin from 1840, and is today regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Turner was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, to a modest lower-middle-class family. He lived in London all his life, retaining his Cockney accent and assiduously avoiding the trappings of success and fame. A child prodigy, Turner studied at the Royal Academy of… Read More

In the original dust sheet. Tan board with gilt title on the spine.
The Major Natural History Paintings Southern,
John (Archibald Thorburn) Archibald Thorburn FZS (31 May 1860, Lasswade, Midlothian - 9 October 1935, Hascombe, Surrey) was a Scottish artist who specialised in wildlife, painting mostly in watercolour. He regularly visited Scotland to sketch birds in the wild, his favourite haunt being the Forest of Gaick near Kingussie in Invernesshire. His widely reproduced images of British wildlife, with their evocative and dramatic backgrounds, are enjoyed as much today as they were by naturalists a century ago. Archibald was born at Viewfield House, Lasswade, Midlothian, the fifth son of Robert Thorburn (1818–1885), portrait miniaturist to Queen Victoria. His first education was at Dalkeith and in Edinburgh, after which he was sent to the newly founded St John's Wood School of Art in London. His stay there was only brief, since on the death of his father he sought the guidance of Joseph Wolf. It… Read More