CABINET OF USEFUL ARTS AND MANUFACTURES; DESIGNED FOR THE PERUSAL
1820. Item #88505
[JUVENILE -- OCCUPATIONS]. THE CABINET OF USEFUL ARTS & MANUFACTURES; DESIGNED FOR THE PERUSAL OF YOUNG PERSONS. Dublin: Printed by Christopher Bentham, 19 Eustace-street, 1820. First edition. 10 full-page wood-engraved illustrations, plus tailpieces. vii, [9]-180 pp. The full page illustrations are included in the pagination. Except for two plates illustrating important resources (the beaver and the seal), the plates represent trades. 12mo., 13.5 x 9 cm. In a scruffy, contemporary binding of rustic appearance: worn and soiled gray paper over chipped, scabbard boards, with a leather backstrip laid down. The front hinge is split but the bookblock is sound. Contemporary ink ownership ("Isaac Brown, Jan 1st, 1825") on reverse of frontispiece and some juvenile pencil squiggles in a few margins. Scattered, light foxing and a few creased corners throughout the text leaves. Manufacturing trades are represented by glass, porcelain, linen, rope-making, wool, silk, hats, leather, paper, sugar, and salt, while the useful arts are represented by printing calico, founding type, letterpress printing, and book binding. Coming at the end of the volume, and seeming to fall somewhere between a useful art and manufacturing, is brewing. A rare first edition of this title (OCLC first search lists only 10 copies), with later editions over the following decade printed at Dublin, London, and New York. (Osbourne Collection, p. 110: Dublin, Thos. Courtney, 1821; Kress C.1389: Dublin, W. Folds & Son, 1825).
Price: $1,250.00