Antiquarian & Rare Books

Selections from the Book of Mormon in the Deseret Alphabet. New York: Russell Bros, 1869. 9 inches, octavo. Publisher's quarter dark blue (nearly black) leather, spine blind-stamped with gilt title and gilt beehive, over pale blue paper-covered boards. Front cover printed with beehive vignette and engraving of the Salt Lake Temple within an ornamental border, rear cover unprinted. [8], 116pp. Two blank leaves each, front and rear. Key to the Deseret Alphabet facing title. Collating complete.

Part I of the Book of Mormon (Nephi through Words of Mormon), in Brigham Young's phonetic Deseret Alphabet, one of only four 19th century books printed in the alphabet. The cover depicts the Salt Lake Temple complete with its six spires, though construction, begun in 1853, would not finish until 1893.

Flake-Draper 608

Constancy Amid Change. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1944. 9.5 inches, octavo. Blue cloth hardcover with gilt titling to front cover and spine. 211 pp.

Presentation copy, inscribed by the author to notable Utah family.

To San Francisco and Back. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, n. d. [1878]. 7.25 inches, duodecimo. Green cloth, bevelled boards, gilt title to spine and front cover. 2 p.l., 220pp, plus 4pp publisher's advertisements. Illustrated throughout.

The work's most substantial content falls in chapters IX–X, "The Mormon City" and "Salt Lake City," recounting Jones's 1870 visit, largely devoted to his views on Mormon polygamy. Additional chapters on San Francisco, Yosemite, and Post Civil War "Negro Labour" in the South.

Flake 4496 · OCLC 6141782

Mrs. Chapone's Letters. New York: Published by Richard Scott. D. Fanshaw, Printer, 1819. 4¾ inches, 32mo. Full period calf binding, gilt-decorated spine with red morocco lettering piece. vi + 170 pp. Frontispiece and illustrated title page dated 1819. Title page engraving signed Anderson — attributed to Alexander Anderson (1775–1870) per Internet Archive catalog record — followed by standard title page dated 1818.

This small format, early American edition, is illustrated by Alexander Anderson, the pioneering American wood engraver.

Sermons on Several Occasions. Philadelphia: Printed by J. Crukshank, and sold by John Dickins, No. 118 North Fourth-Street, 1794. 6¾ inches, duodecimo. Contemporary calf, modern rebacking preserving original boards; modern endpapers, one original endpaper at front, and two at rear preserved. Collates complete: pp. [4], 258, [2], 257-29.

John Dickins, the seller of record, was the first official book agent of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America