Presentation Copy
The Prince's Visit: A Humorous Description of the Tour of His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, through the United States of America, in 1860. New York: B. Frodsham, 1861. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed to Dr. E. Parmly from the author.
New York: B. Frodsham, 548 Broadway, 1861.
Price: $1,500.00
About the item
First edition, presentation copy, inscribed to Dr. E. Parmly from the author. Mounted engraved plates and mounted engraved additional title-page with tissue guards. 94, [2] pp. 8vo (8-5/8 x 5-3/4 inches). Presentation Copy. Contemporary red morocco, elaborately tooled in gilt, with the Prince of Wales's heraldic badge to the upper cover and Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh's Garter supralibros to the lower cover with the motto "Honi Soit Qui Mal Pense," the spine in six compartments separated by five raised bands, gilt-lettered in two and the rest gilt-tooled, inner gilt dentelles, all edges gilt and GAUFFERED, by E. Walker & Sons, New York, stamped in gilt on front pastedown, with tooling. A bit worn, particularly at extremities with some leather rubbed away, some foxing throughout. Sabin 16778; TPL 8908.
Item #317356
Inscribed on the front free endpaper: "Dr. E. Parmele [sic, Eleazar Parmly] / Presented by / The Author." Eleazar Parmly was a prominent 19th-century dentist. A rare presentation copy.
In an elaborate full morocco gilt publisher's presentation binding, by the great American binder Edward Walker. With gauffered edges, unusual for an American binding of the period. Walker was author of The Art of Bookbinding, Its Rise and Progress (1850), the first book by an American on bookbinding (though not a binding manual per se). Walker's book described the operation of his New York bindery, the largest such establishment in New York at the time.
Notes appended at back of the book pages 79-94 to explain the quaint expressions used in America, but possibly unknown abroad.
