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A NEW YORK CITY HISTORY NOT IN HOWES, RICHLY EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED AND FINELY BOUND, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ELIZABETH WILLETS LAMBERT. First edition. One volume in two. New York: Virtue & Yorston, 1872. Octavo in 4s (9" x 5 15/16", 228mm x 151mm). [Full collation available.] With 186 insertions: 121 engraved plates (of 20; plus 85 wood-engravings integral with the text) of which 3 are hand-colored, an engraved map, a folding engraved map, an artotype, 58 lithographs (of which 14 are chromolithographs, of which 1 is folding) of which 3 are double-sided and 1 folding, 3 gelatin-silver photographs, and an autograph clipped from a letterpress document. Bound in slightly later morocco (re-backed, with the original back-strips laid down) with the (1915) seal of New York city gilt at the center of each board within a quintuple gilt fillet border and a dotted gilt roll border with gilt corner-fleurons. On the spine, five raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel, author and number gilt to the third, and "EXTRA ILLUSTRATED" to the tail. Gilt fillet to the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelle. Brown end-papers. Top edges of the text-block gilt. Re-backed, with the original back-strips laid down. Rubbed, with wear to the extremities. Altogether quite clean, with occasional offsetting. Splits to the folds of the large engraved map in vol. I. Title-page in vol. II (trimming "History of" from the beginning of the title) and many of the insertions set into paper frames, and most with graphite markings verso indicating their placement. The engraving mounted opposite I.374 with a manuscript caption in ink, and a handful of engravings in vol. II with short graphite captions. Armorial bookplate of Elizabeth Willets Lambert to the front paste-down of both volumes. As New York grew from a Dutch encampment at the southern tip of the Lenni Lenape island of Manaháhtaan ("the place for gathering bow-wood") into the first capital of the United States in 1785, the biggest port in the nation with the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, and over the course of the XIXc the premier destination for immigration, New Yorkers' egos began to match the grandeur of their city. William Leete Stone Jr. (1835-1908), a New York City native educated at Brown University (his maternal uncle was the Rev. Dr. Francis Wayland, Brown's president), filled the gap of antiquarian interest left by the end of Valentine's Manual in 1870 and published the present work in 1872. Richly illustrated, it surveys the city from Hudson (not Verrazzano, who entered New York harbor in 1524) right through to the year of publication, and includes appendixes of potted histories and primary documents. An early owner of the book -- perhaps even Lambert (on whom more below) -- used the roughly 800-page book as a mere scaffolding for a collection of engravings, lithographs, photographs and even an autograph (that of Richard Varick, who served 11 consecutive 1-year terms as mayor from 1789 to 1801) that evidence not only a proud New Yorker but a one committed to collecting illustrations. There is not space to discuss each insertion (over 160). Elizabeth Willets Lambert (1864-1942) came from a distinguished Quaker family (her great uncle was the founder of Swarthmore College) and married Dr. Samuel Waldron Lambert, who served as head of Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as the president of the New York Academy of Medicine (responsible for the reprinting of the original blocks of Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica). Mrs. Lambert was a distinguished collector in her own right, largely -- if the evidence of records of her bookplate is brought to bear -- of New Yorkiana and culinary books (a major strength of the Academy of Medicine). Not in Howes; Nestler, Bibliography of New York State Communities 856. Seller Inventory # JLR0666
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