Monthly Archives: July 2013

The Reviewers Cave • 1768

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Reviewers.cave

The Reviewers Cave. [Etched by P. J. De Loutherbourg (1740-1812)]. The frontispiece to The Powers of the Pen by Evan Lloyd (1734-1776). Second edition published London, Printed for the Author, … 1768. [Call number: RCPXR 3829.67.373] The etching is described in detail in Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires prepared by Frederic George Stephens, v. 4, no. 4247, (London, 1883). The description begins begins:”An etching showing a vast cave, where, recumbent on clouds overhead, the Genius of Dulness lies fast asleep. Many reviewers sit on benches, nearly filling the cavern; they include an ass who brays …” The description in full:

4247

Frontispiece [larger file]

Description [larger file]

Example of note by H.D. Lyon (1917-2004), London antiquarian bookseller

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From the obituary of H.D. Lyon published in the Times (London) on 7 August 2004:

Lyon.writing

Lyon.note.Ex.1494.429.124q

Lyon’s note on front free endpaper of: John Anderson (1798-1839). Historical and genealogical memoirs of the house of Hamilton; with genealogical memoirs of the several branches of the family. Edinburgh, John Anderson, jun., London, Simpkin & Marshall, 1825. Presentation copy to William Beckford from the Duke of Hamilton, with Beckford’s manuscript notes. Binding has ticket: Bound by Carss & Co[mpan]y. Glasgow. • Lyon notes on the lower margin of Bernard Quaritch’s Hamilton Palace Library bookplate “Lot 241 in part 1 of sale £19/10/-” [Call number: (Ex) 1494.429.124q. Purchased from Lyon by the Princeton University Library in 1968.]

Obituary:
“H. D. Lyon.” Times [London, England] 7 Aug. 2004: 40.

Binds & Sells all sorts of Stationary Wares

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AC128.Subseries. 1E.Ledgers.1769.ticket

John Dean Book-binder & Stationer at the Sign of Dean Swift in Front Street between Walnut & Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia, Binds & Sells all sorts of Stationary Wares. Journal, Bill-book, Sale-book, Ledger. Adams, Sc.

Trade card of John Dean, mounted on front paste-down of Ledger of the Trustees of the College of New Jersey, May 1st, 1769 (Call number: Mudd Library: AC128, Subseries 1E: Ledgers).

Engraved by Dunlap Adams, “Engraver in Front Street between Chesnut and Walnut streets,” as per his advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette, September 6, 1764.

Further details: Francis James Dallet, “A Colonial Binding and Engraving Discovery: the College Ledger of 1769,” Princeton University Library Chronicle, v.31, no.2 (Winter, 1970) [link to issue]

AC128.Subseries. 1E.Ledgers.1769.upper.cover

AC128.Subseries. 1E.Ledgers.1769.upper.cover.detail

Mrs Jane Mecom Her Book No. 11

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Ex_QC516_F852_c2_TP_Copy

Benjamin Franklin’s sister, Mrs Jane Mecom, is the subject of a captivating article by Jill Lepore in The New Yorker for July 8 & 15, 2013. [link]. Perhaps Franklin sent his sister this book now in the Princeton University Library: Experiments and observations on electricity, made at Philadelphia in America, by Benjamin Franklin, L.L.D. and F.R.S. To which are added, letters and papers on philosophical subjects. The whole corrected, methodized, improved, and now first collected into one volume … London: Printed for David Henry; and sold by Francis Newberry, MDCCLXIX. Call number: (Ex) QC516 .F852 copy 2. [Given in 1954 by Margaret Van Doren Bevans, Barbara Van Doren Klaw, and Anne Van Doren Ross, daughters of the American historian and Franklin biographer, Carl Van Doren.]