Bird Children: The Little Playmates of the Flower Children by Elizabeth Gordon
Chicago: P.F. Volland Company, 1912. 95 p. 8vo. First edition. Illustrated by M.T. Ross. 84 colour plates with accompanying poem. Housed in cardboard box. A near fine copy.
Birds and Beasts by Camille Lemonnier
Toronto/London: The Musson Book Company, Ltd./George Allen & Co. Ltd, 1911. 196 p. 16mo. First Canadian edition. Illustrated by E.J. Detmold. 6 colour plates. Translated by A.R. Allinson. Decorative brown cloth. Light wear to outer extremities, upper outside corners bumped. Some soiling to boards. Pages age darkened, especially outer edges. Signatures started; binding is still tight. Abrasion to front pastedown. Previous owner’s signature to first free endpaper. Remains a very good copy.
A collection of animal stories by the famed Belgian Symbolist poet and writer, accompanied by six of Detmold’s wonderful illustrations.
Blazing the Trail Through the Rockies: The Story of Walter Moberly and His Share in the Making of Vancouver by Noel Robinson and Walter Moberly
Vancouver: News-Advertiser, n.d. c. 1914-15. 117 p. 4to. 43 b&w illus. including “the last spike” on p. 109. Illustrated green paper wraps, chipped at top and bottom of spine, with mark of discolouration and small stain to front cover, bookseller’s sticker and inscription on back of rear cover.
One of B.C.’s forgotten heroes, Moberly (1832-1915) experienced the Cariboo Road, snow-covered mountain peaks, meetings with a grizzly bear, Sir John A. MacDonald and Brigham Young, railway building, a fall through the ice while playing “shinny” (hockey), onions for supper, fragile canoes, and life in early Vancouver – and lived to tell the tale. One the more prosaic side, Moberly was a civil engineer who laid out the site for New Westminster in 1859 as well as surveying several roads and trails throughout B.C.
Bog-Trotting for Orchids by Grace Greylock Niles
New York and London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904. xiv, 310 p. 8vo. First Edition. Illustrated throughout with black and white and full colour plates (incl. photos of the region). Of the fifteen genera of Orchidacecae in New England, all save Listera, Tipularia, and Aplectrum are represented. Extensive index. Brown cloth. Tear in page xi, not affecting text. A few minor stains.
Chronicles the author’s experiences exploring the Hoosac Valley in the Taconic Mountains, Bennington County, Vermont and Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Includes chapters on sweet pogonias, limordorums, the bogs of Etchowog, the Westville swamps, hail storms, Mount Carmel, moccasin-flowers, saucy jays, polypores, white oaks, alpine blossoms, natural bridges, and the Orange Mountains of New Jersey.
“All Winter I had been promising myself the pleasure of watching the flowers unfold in the Bogs of Etchowog.”
British America by John McGregor
Edinburgh/London: William Blackwood/T. Cadell, 1832. 2 vols. xxvi, 484; xiv, 605 p. 8vo. First edition. Folding chart of British possession in North America. 8 maps (2 fold-out) and a plan of Louisburg Harbour. Green half leather with marbled fore-edges. Owner’s sig. on front endpapers. A little thumbing to first half of vol. 1, with a few dampstained edges. Spot in vol. 2, p. 328 affects map opposite.
Canada as it was in a reign of William IV. Includes a history of BNA up to the time of publication, with a discussion of geographical boundaries, natural history, as well as individual sections on Newfoundland, P.E.I., Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Canada (Ontario and Quebec). TPL 1721.
Broadheads and Broadhead Collecting by Bill McCrary
Madison, WI: Bill McCrary, 1987. 234 p. 4to. First edition. Illus. Examples pictured (in photographs or drawings). Printed in a limited edition of 200 copies. Signed by author. Softcover. A very good copy.
Includes chapters on broadhead types, design, collecting, beginner’s advice, techniques, and a short bibliography.
Buffers End by Rowland Emett
London: Faber & Faber Ltd, 1949. N. pag. 4to. First edition. Collection of Emett’s fabulous and elaborate drawings of kinetic sculptures. Red cloth. Dust jacket, minor tears.
Emett is best known for his Emett Machines, functioning objects in the manner of his drawings, such as the car from the film, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Emett Train for the Festival of Britain.
Buttermakers Short Course by Mr. and Mrs. W.J. McLaughlin
Owatonna, Minn.: Published by the authors, 1917. 168 p. 8vo. first edition. B&w illus. Index. Very minor rubbing to edges of covers and spine, corners bumped. Lib stamp and sticker to front free endpaper.
By Track and Trail: A Journey Through Canada by Edward Roper
London: W.H. Allen, 1891. xiv, 455 p. 8vo. First edition. Folding map. Many illustrations by the author. Decorative blue cloth, restored at head and heel of spine. Owner’s sig. A very good copy.
Records the author’s experiences travelling from Montreal up through Thunder Bay across Manitoba, Assiniboia, an through the Rocky Mountains to British Columbia (where he is very impressed with Vancouver Island, especially Victoria and its English customs.) Later he returns much the same way, visiting Calgary, Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, Muskoka and Peterborough.
Throughout he repeatedly complains about the “villainous management” in Canadian hotels, as well as offers much advice on era travel, including how to get your baggage checked properly on a C.P.R. train. There is much comparison of English and Canadian manners and customs, with notably remarks on Canadian settlers and First Nations inhabitants. Author also records a dreaded night outside of Port Hammond, devoting an entire chapter to the experience titled, “Mosquito Time.” There is also much fishing and hunting, including salmon and trout out West and shooting Big-Horn near Glacier House, British Columbia. His depictions of Muskoka are excellent.
Caledonia: 100 Years Ahead
154 p. 11″/28 cm. Maps and b&w photos. Clergy List, 1979. Card covers. An acceptable copy. British Columbia. Anglican Church of Canada.
Canada First: A Memorial of the Late William A. Foster, Q.C.
Toronto: Hunter, Rose & Company, 1890. iv, 221 p. 12mo. First edition thus. Frontis port. Introduction by Goldwin Smith. Index. Red cloth. Spine sl. faded, with small stains and minor tears in top. Owner’s sig. to front paste-down endpaper. Remains a very good copy.
In Canada First (1871), Foster described a Canadian national identity forged out of the process of nation-building, particularly Canadians’ continuing confrontation with an inhospitable northern environment. Pride in their accomplishments and a belief in their destiny would give Canadians a sense of purpose before the forces of national disunity and dismemberment. – The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Canada Pacific to Atlantic “The National Way” by the Canadian National-Grand Trunk
Canadian National-Grand Trunk. c. 1925. 172 p. 8″/20 cm. Fold-out map of Canadian National and Grand Trunk railway systems. Frontis (stained). B&w plates-scenic images. Paper wraps, edges a bit worn.
Canada’s Romantic Heritage: The Story of New France by E.C. Woodley
Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons (Canada) Limited, 1940. 288 p. 8vo. Map on endpapers. Frontispiece + 24 b&w plates. Appendix. Bibliography. Green cloth. Dust jacket, chips and tears in edges. Date stamp to front free endpaper.
Subjects include Giovanni Verrazano, Jacques Cartier, colonization, 1st Nations, Samuel de Champlain, Laval, Talon, Paladins, Le Moynes, Louis de Buade, the Ohio Valley, Acadia, Louisbourg, the Plains of Abraham, and the seigneurial system.
Canada: A Visual History by D.G.G. Kerr and R.I.K. Davidson
Toronto: Thomas Nelson & Sons (Canada) Limited, 1966. N. pag. 12″/31 cm. Contains almost 600 photographs from every major collection of photographic archives in Canada. 1st edition. Hardcover. Black cloth. Dust jacket, chipped.
‘Revisions’ copy sent from one author to the other with penned changes throughout. With typed letter signed by Davidson to Kerr discussing the revisions ‘most of which are trivia and an indication, I fear, of a picayune mind’. Signed by Kerr on title page.
Canadian Cities of Romance by Katherine Hale
Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, Limited, 1933. 240 p. 10¼”/26 cm. 12 colour illus. by Charles W. Simpson. Drawings by Dorothy Stevens. Ltd. ed., #297 of 700. Hardcover. Blue cloth, spine faded, with a few small stains to front cover, some scuffs to back cover, tiny holes in top and bottom of spine, hinges cracked, corners bumped. Small owner’s stamp to front free endpaper.
An evocatively written collection of essays on major Canadian cities. Impressive for making London, Ontario sound romantic.
Canadian Dairying by Henry H. Dean
Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1920. ix, 305 p. 7½”/19 cm. Frontispiece. Photographs. Many diagrams in text. Fifth edition. Appendices-incl. floor plans for cheese factory. Hardcover. Ex lib. usual markings.
Canadian Methodism: Its Epochs and Characteristics by Rev. Egerton Ryerson
Toronto: William Briggs, 1882. viii, 440 p. 8vo. First edition. Frontis port of the author. First edition. Green cloth. Some wear, bumped corners, rubbed spine ends. Some stains to interior, especially on endpapers and frontis tissue guard.
Minister, educator, politician and public education pioneer in early Ontario, Egerton Ryerson was one of Methodism’s most vocal advocates. Here he discusses Methodism’s origins in Canada, its character, divisions, as well as the clergy reserve controversy. The essays were reprinted, with much additional matter, from the Canadian Methodism magazine.
Canadian Pacific Railway Annotated Timetable 1895.
Montreal: Canadian Pacific Railway, 1895. 70 p. 8vo. Railway map at rear. Slight dampness stains to cover, continuing onto title-page. Red stains to edge of text block, map and map reverse.
All the information you would need to catch a train from Montreal to Quebec (or elsewhere in Canada) in 1895. Includes schedules for the Short Line from Montreal to Halifax, the Transcontinental Rail Route from Montreal to Vancouver, the Lake Route, the Ontario Route from Toronto to North Bay, as well as a Canadian Pacific line from Quebec to Montreal. Contains great descriptions of Canadian communities as they then were eg. Toronto: “Its people are nearly all English and Scottish, and while the city has strongly marked English characteristics, it is distinctly western in the intensity of its activity and energy” (p. 59). Also includes advertising for Upper Lake Steamships, telegraph service, Dominion Express Company, etc.
Canadian-German Folklore: Pioneer Hamlets of York
The Pennsylvania German Folklore Society of Ontario, 1977. 207 p. 9″/23 cm. Maps, illus. and photos. Index of people and places. Volume Number 6. Paper wraps. Historical sketches, 1956-1977.
Candlelight Days by Adeline M. Teskey
London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne: Cassell and Company, Ltd., 1913. viii, 344 p. 12mo. First edition. Light brown cloth. Foxed.
Catalog No. 14. Kewaunee Laboratory Furniture for Educational Institutions, Commercial Laboratories, Industrial Plants and Hospitals.
Kewaunee, Wis.: Kewaunee Mfg. Co., 1920. 226 p. 8vo. First edition thus. Each page and item is illustrated. 2 colour samples of finishes. Classroom and laboratory lay-outs. Also includes photos of schools that have purchased Kewaunee Furniture. Index. Binding cracked at signature, front hinge tender. With revised price list inset loose. Stamp on t.p. from ‘exclusive distributors for Canada: McKay School Equipment Ltd., Toronto.’
Includes many gorgeous desks, tables, and oak storage cabinets arranged by subjects – physics, chemistry, biology, electrical, physiography – including museum cabinets, apparatus cases, flume hoods, skeleton cases, instructors desks, aquariums, lantern slide cabinets, mineral cabinets, and map cases, among many other products.
Catalogue of the John Clarence Webster Canadiana Collection (Pictorial Section) New Brunswick Museum by
Saint John: The New Brunswick Museum, 1939. xvi, 363 p. 8vo. First edition. Catalogue No. 1. Appendix. Errara. Ex-library, with small tears in top of spine. A good+ copy.
Webster, along with his wife Alice, were pioneering collectors and scholars of New Brunswick historical documents.
Catalogue of the Onodi Collection in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England by T.B. Layton
London: Headly Brothers, 1934. xx, 131 p. 4to. First edition. B&w plates and illus. Published in conjunction with the Royal College of Surgeons of England by the Journal of Laryngology and Otology. Blue cloth. A bit of rubbing and some minor spotting to spine. Remains a very good copy.
Catalogue of the William Inglis Morse Collection of Books, Pictures, Maps, Manuscripts ect. at Dalhousie University Library Halifax, Nova Scotia by Eugenie Archibald
London: The Curwen Press, 1938. 119 p. 10″/25 cm. Frontis and 6 plates. Foreword by Carleton Stanley. Preface by William Inglis Morse. Ltd. ed. #246 of 250. Hardcover. Blue linen. Very slight fading to top and bottom of covers. Small chip in top of front endpaper.
Morse was an intelligent collector who left a “scholar’s library” to Dalhousie. It was supplemented until 1942, with the complete donation including monographs, serial titles, fine bindings, engravings, manuscripts, maps, sheet music, and furniture. Early settlement of Acadia, Maritime history, the history of printing, humanities, sciences, Norse legends.
Catherine Bell Van Norman: Her Diary: 1850
Burlington, Ont.: Burlington Historical Society, 1981. 61 p. 9″/23 cm. Map. Portraits. Genealogical table. Index. Card covers. Inscription on front free endpaper.