Masch, Gottlieb Matthaeus Carl [Masch, G. M. C.]

Wappen-Almanach der Souverainen Regenten Europa mit Geschlechts-Tabellen und Wappenbeschreibungen mit Geschlechts-Tabellen und Wappenbeschreibungen [Coat of Arms Almanac of the Sovereign Rulers of Europe: with Gender Tables and Descriptions of the Coat of Arms]

Rostock: J. G. Tiedemann, 1842. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. A Very Good or better copy of the first edition, first printing, of this notable German Almanac of the Rulers of Europe with Gender Tables and Descriptions of the Coat of Arms, issued for 1842, complete with fifty-four (54) black and white plates, all present, each with its original gender table and descriptions of the relevant Coat of Arms. The volume shows some spotting to the covers, a name and address stamp to the front free endpaper and some scattered foxing to the pages within; an EXCEEDINGLY SCARCE BOOK with WorldCat locating only eight (8) copies. This copy wears its EXTRAORDINARILY RARE ORIGINAL BINDERY DUST JACKET to which a label was later applied (making this a very early flap style dust jacket without the more intricate folds found on other Bindery dust jackets of the same general era). The dust jacket is in Very Good condition and shows some spotting and some modest chips as well as one long and one short tear where the front panel turns to the spine panel. A few small pieces of archival tape have been applied to the verso to prevent such tears from growing. Another small tear appears where the front panel turns to the front flap, and the spine label is cracked at each turn to an adjoining panel. Notwithstanding the forgoing conditions, the jacket's very existence is remarkable. In Mark Godburn's excellent work [titled "Nineteenth-Century Dust-Jackets" published by Oak Knoll Press in the US and by Private Libraries Association in the UK] Godburn includes an Appendix providing a list of "...all known publishers' dust-jackets issued on hardback books in Great Britain, Europe and the United States to 1870. Both flap-style and sealed, plain and printed, are included. There are about sixty titles overall, and, when multiple years of the same annual are added, the figure is close to one hundred. German jackets predominated before mid-century, but the largest number of titles are British, with nearly forty, about half as many German, a handful of American and one Danish." Had the present book in dust jacket been included, it would have been named therein as the EIGHTH EARLIEST SURVIVING DUST JACKET. Thus, we have here a notable book in an ASTONISHINGLY RARE ORIGINAL DUST JACKET. A RARE FIND FOR COLLECTORS AND INSTITUTIONAL LIBRARIES. Very good / very good. Item #3160

Price: $8,500.00