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Fairly rare book. 'Containing songs of love and romance; narratives and legends, lyrics of patriotism and adventure; poems of sentiment, religion, tragedy and comedy; beautiful descriptions of scenes in nature; songs for the fireside, childhood and youth; fairy tales and floral gems; popular melodies; wit and humor; masterpieces of eloquence, pathos, etc., etc.' The book is 'Embellished with Superb Phototype Engravings.' There are several color illustrations including a frontispiece in front of a colorful half-title page, protected by a tissue guard, another color illustration in front of the first page of text, and another facing page 40 within the text. They are all in excellent condition. There are a larger number of full-page black and white illustrations throughout the book, probably about a dozen or so. They are all in excellent condition. There is a section of songs with music and lyrics one can play and sing to. It runs from page 561 to 651. That's followed by around 10 pages of an Index Of First Lines, which takes us to the last page which is an advertisement for 'Agents Wanted for the Most Valuable and Salable Books.' The pages are in very nice condition overall. They are very clean. Scrolling through, I don't think I saw any conspicuous soiling. There was a bit of newspaper left between two facing pages. Now there is a small area of tanning on both. The top corners of around 35 consecutive pages had a bump/crease just off their tips. When I tried to unfold the little creases the paper came off at the tip. So you have now about a dozen of these pages with a tiny loss at the top corner and a handful of others with a small crease, all very far from the print. I found maybe a half dozen to a dozen tiny edge tears, two are off the outer edge of the black and white frontispiece preceding the title page, the paper of the book's pages is on the thin side. There are no markings in the book. There are no attachments of any kind. There is an old penned inscription from one friend to another on the blank verso of the frontispiece to the half-title page. There is no other writing to be found anywhere in the book. The end papers and inside covers are illustrated with a green and white pattern. The rear end paper has a little loss off its top edge. The blank end paper that precedes it has a tiny hole. The second front end paper, a blank one, after the illustrated one, appears to have been removed, a strip of paper remains next to the juncture. The binding of the pages is very good, very solid, throughout. The binding at the juncture between the rear inside cover and rear end paper is good, between the two rear end papers there is a thin crack over the top inch or so. Between the front inside cover and front end paper there is a crack over the top 1/4 of the juncture, so it gives a little bit of looseness to the front cover, but it is still solidly bound. I'm going to be more brief in my description of the covers. You can see them in the photos. There is a little loss on the front side of the spine. There is clear wear at the spine ends. The cover edges look good, one or two little dents, some color loss at the bottom ones. There are spots of rub-through at all four corners. The inlaid lettering and illustrations on the front cover or both in very nice condition. The lettering and illustration on the spine has held up well. The book is square and the spine is straight. One oddity, one of the numbers in the only date on the copyright page is absent, so it reads '189 ,' with a space between the '9' and comma that follows it. Doesn't look like anything was remove, it's just blank, perhaps a printing error. The book was published in 1890, and given that there is no other or later date or printing referenced I feel pretty certain that the blank space should have a zero in it, that this book was published in 1890, it is likely a first edition. Seller Inventory # 004962
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