1843 EARLY RHODE ISLAND COLONIAL HISTORY CALLENDER ELTON CLOTH SCARCE RARE 3RD For Sale

ITEM DETAILS

Title: The Early History of Rhode-Island

Author: John Callender; edited by Romeo Elton

Publisher: Thomas H. Webb & Company, Boston; Bartlett & Welford, New York; John Heaton, Leeds

Publication Date: 1843

Edition: Third edition

Condition: Good

ITEM DESCRIPTION

Handsome 1843 third edition of John Callender’s landmark colonial history of Rhode Island, issued under the added title “The Early History of Rhode-Island” and edited by Brown University scholar Romeo Elton. This volume brings together Callender’s famous century sermon on the civil and religious affairs of the colony from the first settlements in the 1630s through the end of the seventeenth century, Elton’s substantial memoir of the author, biographical sketches of leading figures, and a long documentary appendix drawn from Rhode Island records. The work traces the founding of Providence and Aquidneck, the careers of Roger Williams and William Coddington, the struggle for religious liberty, the rise of Baptist and Quaker communities, and the evolution of the colony’s government through the first hundred years.

This 8vo volume runs to 270 pages of text and documents, preceded by Roman-numeral prelims, and includes a facsimile frontispiece leaf reproducing a manuscript note by Roger Williams concerning Native land rights, engraved for the Rhode Island Historical Society. The contents and appendix sections present a rich trove of primary material: early charters and laws, letters from Oliver Cromwell and the General Assembly, Indian deeds such as the 1637–38 conveyance of Aquedneck (Aquidneck) Island, and a detailed list of presidents under the first patent and governors under the second charter down to the 1830s. For collectors of Rhode Island, early Baptist history, or American religious liberty, this Elton-edited edition has long been regarded as the standard nineteenth-century reference.

Physical condition is good overall for a roughly 180-year-old Rhode Island history, but there is visible exterior wear typical of an original mid-nineteenth-century cloth binding. The original dark brown (almost black) ribbed cloth boards retain their elaborate blind-stamped panel design and the gilt spine titling and small anchor device remain legible and still fairly bright, though rubbed. Spine ends show fraying and small cloth losses, particularly at the foot, with a bit of exposure along the lower joints and some rubbing to the raised bands. Board edges and corners are rubbed with small bumps and rounding, and the cloth shows light surface rubbing and a few small marks from handling and shelving. The text block edges are toned and lightly dust-soiled from age, but the book still presents well on the shelf for an 1843 imprint in original cloth.

Interior shows the expected toning and foxing but remains solid and entirely legible throughout. Front pastedown bears an attractive “Sa-Go-Ye-Wat-Ha Chapter, D.A.R., Seneca Falls, N.Y.” bookplate with manuscript number, and there is a small old pencil notation at the upper corner of the facing endpaper, indicating earlier use in a Daughters of the American Revolution chapter library. Yellow coated endpapers show some creasing, light soil, and age spotting, with mild cracking to the paper along the inner hinges, but the underlying structure is still holding and both boards remain securely attached. Through the text there is scattered foxing ranging from light speckling to somewhat heavier patches on some leaves, a few small marginal stains or thumb-marks, and minor waviness to the paper toward the fore-edge, but no large losses; the printed pages, appendix tables, and the Indian deed facsimiles are all intact. No loose or detached gatherings were observed, and there is no underlining or intrusive modern annotation beyond the older institutional marks noted above.

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270 pages.

Measures approximately 8 3/4 inches tall by 6 inches wide.

KEYWORDS

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