The Backwoods of Canada: Being Letters from the Wife of an Emigrant Officer, Illustrative of the Domestic Economy of British America. by Traill (Catharine Parr) [Mrs. Catherine Parr Strickland Traill]

London: Charles Knight, 1836. . First edition, first printing. (viii, 352 pgs.). 12mo. Frontispiece & 20 engraved illustrations in the text, all present. Contemporary half-calf & marbled boards. All edges sprinkled. Title and series title on leather spine labels lettered in gilt. Pictorial bookplate of William Phelps on inner front board, as well as his small illustrated ownership sticker in the upper corner. The upper cover is detached, there is a fingernail-sized chip from the upper spine, moderate rubbing of boards and edges, otherwise a very good copy; some offsetting of plates, most noticeably the frontispiece, and scattered light foxing. Issued as a volume in Knight's series: THE LIBRARY OF ENTERTAINING KNOWLEDGE, so indicated on the title page and on the upper spine label. There is no half-title page in this copy, and no sign that there ever was one (it would have offset onto the adjacent leaf). There are two blank leaves preceding the frontispiece, followed by the title page, contents, and introduction. [OFFERED WITH] Another copy, evidently also of the first printing. Lacking the front cover and first leaves, this copy begins with the half-title leaf, followed by contents, then the frontispiece, then the introduction. It is bound in half-calf & marbled boards, marbled end papers, all edges marbled. Spine is partly loose, modest edge wear; other than the missing upper cover and first leaves, a very good copy. The two copies are, by comparison, exactly the same in terms of contents. They both have the same appendix, and both end on page 352. The paper on this incomplete copy seems slightly heavier, and there is less offsetting. The bleed-through from the versos is less noticeable. The leaves are trimmed to a slightly smaller size. (The first copy's height is just over 16 cm; this second copy is 15.5 cm.) Perhaps, two different varieties of the first printing. For the pair: