Search Results: Titles starting with P from Ian Brabner, Rare Americana (ABAA)

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1995. 358pp. First Edition. Profusely illustrated. Hardcover. Fine condition in publisher's pictorial dust jacket. The story of the remarkable P.T. Barnum whose remedy to American plainness was a "prodigious swarm of divas, minstrels, circuses, museums of curiosities, beauty pageants, sideshows, fat-baby and poultry contests-whatever it took to entertain his fell citizens while making him one of the country's first millionaires." The story of "the genius and vision of an unmatched impresario and entrepreneur."

[Everett, Washington. ca. 1915]. Approx 3 x 5½ inches. Cedar "Post Card" Shingle, wedge-shaped. Fine condition. Selling one's product in-hand, and via the U.S. mail, this souvenir post card was distributed at the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in 1915 ("P.P.I.E. 1915"). Upon, Jamison Mill Co., of Everett, Washington was the clever exhibitor advertising their Cedarcream Brand. Also advertising their services were the Sumner Iron Works of both Everette and Seattle, Washington. Sumner Iron Works were the manufacturers of saw and shingle machinery "and complete equipments for steam power plants, dry kilns, Etc. Built especially for Pacific Coast Requirements." The shingle left room to write one's mailing address and message back home. Rather than hang out their shingles, these two companies offered to mail theirs. IB100

London: Secker & Warburg, (1993). 282pp. Sm. 8vo. Hardcover. Near fine dustwrapper with lightly-soiled rear panel else in like condition, not price-clipped. First edition of this 1993 Booker Prize award winner.

[Np: Sherwin-Williams Co., ca. 1930s]. 24pp. 8¾ x 5¾ inches. Color illustrated self-wrappers. Color illustrations and one half tone. Very good to near fine. Trade catalog of Sherwin-Williams paints, lacquers, stains, varnishes, and floor enamels. Two pages display over 50 actual paint samples, a few showing wood grain, stippling, and glazing effects. Samples show company branded "Flat-Tone," "Enameloid," and "Semi-Lustre" house paints; "Flo-Lac" stains and varnishes; "Rogers Brushing Lacquer;" and "SWP House Paint." A "Household Painting Guide," arranged as a handy table, advises which Sherwin-Williams products to use on automobiles, bricks, concrete, doors, fences, furniture, radiators, roofs, etc. Ad on back cover for Burks-Ramsey Supply Co., hardware dealers in Bedford, Virginia.

[Philadelphia, c. 1874-1876]. Broadside. 11 x 8½ inches. 1 inch closed tear at fold. Near fine. It always seems amazing how one's surname is often so closely aligned to one's occupation (Dr. Foot, the podiatrist, etc.). Here we have Charles W. Packer; Philadelphia paper box machine inventor and patent-holder working in tandem with the "Paper Box Factory" of George Bates. Both men list addresses on Fourth Street, Philadelphia. For a manufacturer and/or a merchant, to be able to house - in "card-board"- hats, fashions, shoes, goods foodstuffs, etc. for the purposes of shelf advertisement, storage, transport, or protection from the elements the paper box container must have been a novel concept in the late 1860s, into the 1870s. The "Packer & Bates" device (see the name plate upon the broadside's central image) could make such paper boxes, in various configurations, too. Before there was plastic there was "card-board" (corrugated cardboard would come later) and Packer & Bates' machine could cut… Read More

[Likely Philadelphia: np, 1936]. [1],15pp. 8vo. Printed, stiff paper wrappers. Tiny corner of front cover clipped; very good. A woman print collector discussing her own collection of Philadelphia scenes and architectural views. Includes some discussion of Charles Willson Peale, Thomas Birch, John Lewis Krimmel, and Joseph Pennell.

Washington: USGPO, 1937. 317pp. Hardbound in blue cloth with original dust jacket. Spine sloped. Very good in a good pictorial dust jacket. Great Depression-era report "of a study of combined farming-industrial employment conducted in the Southeast by the Federal Emergency Relief Agency. Comparative social and economic data for part-time farmers and nonfarming industrial workers form the basis of this report" (piii).

[Washington, D.C.: Patriotic Bank of Washington, 1832]. [1]p. Coupon. 2¼ x 3½ inches. Typographic border; completed in manuscript. Wove paper with watermark or countermark "JW". Near Fine. Loan coupon or note issued by the Patriotic Bank of Washington, the first savings bank in Washington, D.C., established in 1815. The coupon bears the name "T. Ap. C. Jones" and indicates an amount due of "146 Dollars, 35 Cents, due 5/8 Sep. 1832." Captain Thomas Ap. Catesby Jones (1790-1858) was a United States Naval officer who was honored for his bravery at the Battle of Lake Borgne in Louisiana during the War of 1812. In 1826, now a Commodore, Jones signed treaties with the Kingdom of Tahiti and the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1843, while commanding the U.S. Pacific Squadron, Jones returned Herman Melville-who had jumped ship while crewing aboard an American whaler bound for the South Pacific-to the United States. Melville based his novel White Jacket on this voyage and the character "the Commodore" on Jones. The… Read More

[Eugene, Oregon]: Printed by the University Press under the direction of Eric W. Allen, School of Journalism [1920s]. 34, [2]pp. First Edition. Self wrappers; hand-sewn. Linoleum print illustrations and decorations. Wraps at top and bottom about 40% separated along fold, a light narrow stain line down length of spine; mild surface soil. A handsome copy. Excellent Arts and Crafts folklore title collecting tales of American folk hero Paul Bunyan in the Pacific Northwest. Linoleum print illustrations and decorative page borders were designed by pupils of Helen N. Rhodes (1875-1938) of the Department of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon. The narrative by university English professor Ida Virginia Turney describes Paul Bunyan's legendary exploits in the logging woods of Washington State and Oregon. In the foreword, Turney writes: "The collection here offered...is the result of the collaboration of class studies in folk-lore and the use of linoleum prints in illustration,-a simple… Read More

[Np. 1876]. 12¼ by 9½ inches. Illustrated Broadside. Small corner loss in margin; very good. This rare, anonymous broadside is an attack in 1876 upon Governor Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, by excerpting from Southern newspapers from Alabama, Georgia and Virginia. Popular argument at the time stated if the Democrats should come into power that they would spend two billion dollars in Southern war claims which would ruin the credit of the United States abroad. Northern voters would presumably be outraged at seeing the governor of Missouri's scrip payable for thirty-five dollars to one Woodford M. Paris for losses based upon: "the cotton tax, damages to land and property during the war, the emancipation of slaves" etc. The 1876 presidential election was contentious. Tilden won the popular vote, but fighting Rutherford B. Hayes in the electoral college, Tilden eventually lost. The Hayes Tilden Compromise would result in the removal of federal troops from the South… Read More

New York: Henry Holt & Co. (1930). Octavo. Color frontispiece, x, 178, [6]pp. Bound in original publisher's dark green cloth with gilt lettering and design. Faint spine slant; gilt spine lettering dulled; a very good and clean copy. Profusely illustrated by William Heath Robinson. Of witches and fairies, people and places; boys and girls; beasts (and so forth) -all told in rhyme and verse.

New York: [Knickerbocker Press], 1898. xiii, [1 (blank)], 84pp. First edition. Sm. 8vo. Publisher's cloth; top edge gilt. Minor rubbing at extremities and old owner's name neatly written to blank endpaper; Very Good. Concise analysis of Cuban political history, their struggle for autonomy in the face of Spanish atrocities, and the causes of the Spanish-American War. Writing after Admiral Dewey's victory at Manila Bay in the Philippines, author Frederick M. Noa sought to build popular support for the war: "The wonder is, not that war should exist between the United States and Spain, but that the inevitable conflict should have been delayed so long." (p50) With bibliography.

Tiburon, California: Cadmus Editions, (1997). 117, [5]pp. Sm. 8vo. Fine in cloth and dust jacket. First American Edition, No. 85 of 150 copies signed by the author and Paul Bowles, the translator, out of a whole hardcover edition of 176 copies. Original Spanish text with facing English translation.

Philadelphia: Portfolio Associates, Inc., 1975. Small 8vo. 185 pages. Softcover. Illustrated. An old, smooth abrasion mark to front cover, else a very good clean copy. Biographical and anecdotal history of African Americans in Pennsylvania, arranged by geographic region and with numerous illustrations. Written by this scholar, author, lecturer, and noted book collector. Increasingly scarce.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988. 263pp. 8vo. Hardcover in publisher's cloth. A fine copy in a near fine dustwrapper. First edition and inscribed: "For Anita Roff with best wishes Nicolas Slonimsky April 30, 1988 Los Angeles." Autobiography of this Russian-American pianist, conductor and composer.

Philadelphia and Toronto: China Inland Mission, c.1931. First edition. Frontis., 58, [2]pp + [5] half tone plates from photographs.7¼ x 5 inches. Wrappers, illustrated with maps. Shallow rubbed areas to front wrap which has been expertly reattached with tissue to the spine. Brief rubbing to extremities; upper cover expertly mended; all contents within clean and sound. Harrowing account of the rescue of two women missionaries captured by Mongolian bandits in Gansu and Shaanxi Provinces, China, told by their rescuer. Helen Hayward of Seattle, Washington and nurse E. Gomeral of the China Inland Mission served there during the drought and famine of 1929-1930. The desolation of their desert plight is emphasized by each chapter title referring to biblical verses about the "Wilderness." This copy has a broadside, 5 x 3 inches, describing the history and workings of the China Inland Mission, directed by Rev. Robert H. Glover, M.D. of Philadelphia. He authored the book's Foreword.

New York: Oliver & Brother, Steam Printers, [c. 1850s]. Yellow paper broadside with ornamental border. Approx. 8 x 9 inches. Corner margin loss; various creases two short tears expertly tissue-mended. Proto-Tide laundry detergent. Magical and astonishing, Perlee's fluid, by his account, practically washed your clothes for you. The soap wasn't that magical -one had to soak their clothes overnight and blue them and boil them- but "colored goods" were promised to be rendered brighter, and woolens were less likely to shrink.  Perlee also declared that his fluid could clean just about anything: "In short, it is beyond a precedent, as its use is universal in the washing world." Online in 2022, the American Cleaning Institute (yes, they do exist) provide a "Timeline of Cleaning." They award the Germans as the first inventors in 1900 of non-soap detergents, but perhaps Perlee has a not-so wishy-washy claim here. The broadside was printed by Isaac J. Oliver and his brother. They were actively printing in New… Read More

[Washington] Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Dept. of Justice. May 1, 1940. Quarto, 56pp. Photo-illustrated wrappers. Very good. Rather scarce illustrated text aimed at those interested in joining the Federal Bureau of Investigation or knowing more of it. Illustrations show agents-in-training throwing one another around, honing their skills at staged crime scenes, firing a Tommy machine gun from a moving vehicle, analyzing evidence, etc. One rather unsettling image shows a toy play town, a mock up, with the caption "Raid Problem Suburban Estate presented in FBI Academy" gives a sense of what J. Edgar Hoover and his cohorts were planning for ca. 1940. OCLC, [5].

San Antonio: Maverick Printing, 1892. 682 pages. Plates. Thick octavo. Tastefully rebound in three-quarter leather and cloth with new endsheets. Overall, a very good copy, some leaves with nominal perimeter chipping. Pencil ownership inscription on original re-inserted endpaper: "M.M. Crane, Cleburne, Tex., Johnson Co." Fourth and best edition of this massive biographical overview of prominent men of Texas during the late nineteenth-century and described by Jenkins as an "essential mugbook of Texas." Revised and enlarged, this edition adds the profiles of notable Texas cattleman. This copy kept by Martin McNulty Crane (1855-1943) who is profiled within at pp194-195. This Texas lawyer and politician was was elected lieutenant governor of Texas in 1892. He is remembered for his favorable position towards North Texas farmers, his work to establish the Railroad Commission, his work on the Greer County case and border dispute and, later in life, his efforts to spearhead the Dallas County Citizens League's… Read More

New York: Pascal Covici, Publisher, [1928]. Publisher's black cloth, with dark red lettering on spine and front cover, without the rare dustwrapper. Small tear at crown of spine; shelf-cocked. A very good clean copy. The translation of Perversité (1925) was actually by Jean Rhys, but attributed to Ford Madox Ford.