8vo. Frontispiece, title-page, sample text, illustrations, advertisements, and subscription forms at end with four filled out in pencil. (Few minor stains to frontispiece margins, light marginal wear to title-page.) Original brown cloth gilt, leather and cloth spine samples on pastedowns (extremities rubbed, spine slightly skewed, extreme ends and fore-corners worn). Provenance: H.C. Melville, Boston Hotel (original subscriber listed at end).

RARE PUBLISHER'S PROSPECTUS SAMPLE OR SALESMAN'S DUMMY FOR THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. One of the earliest samples obtainable including some pages printed from proofs with the form-codes not yet paginated. Second issue, promising "Nearly 600 Octavo Pages". By 1879, the total number of prospectuses printed was only 1,637. The Melvilles were a prominent Bostonian family that produced several American patriots and the American novelist, Herman Melville (1819-1891). It is unclear which Melville this subscriber was as the author did not have a middle initial, so presumably this is a relative. BAL 3337; Howes C-481; Zamorano Eighty 18.