Editore: London: Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden, 1855., 1855
Da: David Hallinan, Bookseller, Columbus, MS, U.S.A.
vi, 402, 32 pages. Hardcover: H 19.25cm x L 12.25cm. Contemporary green cloth; strong staining to rear board with lighter staining to front board; slight cloth loss at frayed spine head; slight wear to bumped board corners; spine's gilt stamping still fairly bright. Soiling and stains to toned text block edges; some leaves still uncut at top edge with rough cut fore-edges. Interior foxing/toning. Tearing to surface paper along front hinge which is otherwise firm; rear hinge shaken; text block is firm. Half-title page has pencil mark at upper left with boldly written (oversized) "Sharp" signature in pencil at top half which this bookseller attributes to Confederate Army Brigadier General Jacob H. Sharp (1833-1907) - General Sharp's signatures favor a conjoined "Sh" in starting the surname (an element which distinguishes them from fraternal handwriting). Top margin of page 9 has two-line pencil inscription "Decr 5th 1863 | T.J. Sharp" - Thomas Jacob Sharp (1826-1864), the elder brother of General Sharp, served in Companies E and H, 10th Mississippi Infantry and had the rank of captain when killed at the Battle of Atlanta. Book was acquired from a multi-generational Columbus, Mississippi estate with direct descent from the Sharp family.
Editore: New York - Boston: C.S. Francis & Co., 1859., 1859
Da: David Hallinan, Bookseller, Columbus, MS, U.S.A.
Only a fair copy and sold as is but WITH MISSISSIPPI CIVIL WAR ASSOCIATIONS. Fourth edition revised and enlarged (as stated upon title page). xxiv, 586, [4] pages (publisher's two leaf advertising section concludes the book). Hardcover: H 24cm x L 15.5cm. Contemporary brown cloth soiled and stained; spine cloth chipped and torn; board edges worn; some flaking to spine's title/author lettering but still easily legible. Front free endpaper features four-line antiquarian ink inscription "J.V. Harris | Columbus | Miss | May 17th, 1859" followed by three-line pencil inscription of his niece's husband "Sharp | Tom Bigbee Rangers | 1st, Miss. Batt." Same inscription (in stronger pencil) repeated at top of title page; other varied Sharp pencil inscriptions/signatures on last advertising page and opposing rfly recto and again on rfep verso. Shallow chipping to spine quire heels of leaves towards book's rear. Unfortunate staining and foxing/toning throughout. Binding shaken between front fly and opposing title (missing half-title and/or frontis?); also shaken at rear flyleaves; text block with some stress points but remains reasonably firm. Aforementioned leadoff inscription is that of Lowndes County, Mississippi planter, slaveholder, and antebellum state senator Brigadier General Jeptha Vining Harris (1816-1899) who was among the Confederate forces that surrendered at the Siege of Vicksburg. Paroled and exchanged in mid-July 1863 Harris mustered out the following month but in August 1864 he was appointed a colonel of a state militia force in Macon, Mississippi. Jeptha Harris was one of eleven siblings with an older brother being Columbus, Mississippi attorney and judge William Littleton Harris whose daughter Sarah Hunt Harris was married to the book's secondary owner/inscriber Confederate Army Brigadier General Jacob H. Sharp (1833-1907) who started his Civil War service as a private in the Tombigbee Rangers (Company A, 44th Regiment, Mississippi Infantry) in 1861 but ascended in officer appointments cumulating as general in July 1864. It should be noted that General Sharp also had a brother Captain Thomas J. Sharp (1826-1864) who served in Companies E and H, 10th Mississippi Infantry and who was killed at the Battle of Atlanta. As Thomas Sharp was never in the Tombigbee Rangers the inscriptions/signatures can be firmly attributed to Jacob Sharp. Book was acquired from a multi-generational Columbus, Mississippi estate with direct descent from the Sharp family. Book now presented in a trimmed clear Dura-Lar (polyester film) sheet forming a dj which aids the shaken hinges and modestly enhances the book's compromised shelf presence.
Editore: Lacks title leaf but is [Winchester, VA: Printed at the Office of the Winchester Virginian, 1831]., 1831
Da: David Hallinan, Bookseller, Columbus, MS, U.S.A.
Prima edizione
VOLUME I ONLY of a two volume set. First edition (as evidenced by book's surviving collation). Lacks preliminary leaves (with presence of four remnant stubs) with first full leaf present being pages i-ii initiating "Introductory Lecture" on page i. Collates as [fp], i-ix, [blank], 1-162, 1-442, [errata], [rear fly], [rfep], [rp]. Bibliographical sources indicate that there should be six preliminary text pages as [i-vi] so, in addition to missing ffep (and perhaps a flyleaf) it is missing title (as [i-ii]) and two text pages (as [iii-vi]). Hardcover: H 23cm x L 14.25cm. Contemporary full brown leather; boards well scuffed with peeling and staining; board edges worn particularly at corners; splitting at front joint/hinge with board slightly pliable but holding; scuffing to rear joint but firm; spine scuffed with maroon and black title/volume labels mostly intact (small losses at edges) but with their gilt lettering still legible; old toned and worn slender paper strip affixed at to of front board with two-line note in antiquarian ink "Don't take this away. | Sharp + Sharp." Text block edges toned; dark stain to top edge. Pencil writing, scribbling, and calculations on front pastedown along with antiquarian ink inscription "Sharp + Sharp" at center; varying creasing/curling to top fore-edge corner of initial leaves inclusive to page 84; toning, foxing, and staining to leaves; creasing to rear leaves; old ink and pencil writing on rear free endpaper and rear pastedown; losses at bottom of rfep as well. Text block is firm. Pagination and textual changes distinguish the book's three editions: this 1831 first edition pagination matches bibliographical sources; a second edition published in Winchester in 1836-1837 (of which Volume I is paged as xx, 165, 458); and a final third edition published in Richmond by Shepherd and Colin in 1846. Jacob H. Sharp (1833-1907) attended the University of Alabama from 1850 to 1851 thereafter returning to Columbus, Mississippi and reading law under the tutelage of William L. Harris (1807-1868) whose daughter Sarah Hunt Harris (1836-1917) he married on June 8, 1858. Upon being admitted to the Mississippi bar Jacob Sharp soon partnered with his older brother, attorney and state senator Thomas J. Sharp (1826-1864), forming the Sharp & Sharp law practice in Columbus in later 1850s. Dissolving the partnership upon the outbreak of the Civil War, the two brothers enlisted as privates in the Tombigbee Rangers (later reorganized into the Forty-fourth Mississippi Infantry) but both were promoted to officers, Thomas as a Captain serving with the 10th Mississippi Confederate Volunteer Infantry Regiment who was killed at the Battle of Ezra Church in Georgia in July 1864, and Jacob who rose to Brigadier General with his Sharp's Brigade of the Army of Tennessee seeing much action throughout the conflict before surrendering at Bennett Place, North Carolina in April 1865. Thereafter returning to Columbus, Jacob Sharp resumed his legal career, became owner and publisher of a local newspaper, and entered state politics being elected to six terms to the Mississippi House of Representatives where he was also Speaker for 1886-1888. Sold as is. Significant nineteenth century American law book intended for members of the Virginia bar but popular throughout the South with the additional provenance of the Confederate officer brothers and Mississippi politicians.