The Mule: A Treatise on the Breeding, Training, and Uses, To Which He May Be Put
Washington: French & Richardson, 1867. First edition thus. Hardcover. 107 pp. Duodecimo. [19 cm]. Burgundy cloth over boards with gilt stamped title and mule stamped on front cover. Blind stamped mule to back cover. Title stamped in gilt on spine. Text block cracked at page 48. Cloth on front board is slightly warped and damp stained. Extremities rubbed; fraying to spine ends, and bent corners. The front free end paper is missing. Publisher French and Richardson's paper label obscuring prior publisher ame "Dick & Fitzgerald" on title page. Plate 13 has children's orange crayon obscuring it, and the blank verso of plate 12 has a child's name written in orange crayon. Very good. Item #64704
"There is no more useful or willing animal than the Mule. And perhaps there is no other animal so much abused, or so little cared for." --from the preface.
An odd Victorian book imploring kind treatment of the Mule and seeking government regulation of livestock care. With fourteen black and white plates exemplifying correct mule handling. Scarce imprint from French and Richardson, a once prominent early Washington D.C. book store and publisher whose building was forcibly razed to make way for the fraught bureaucratic nightmare construction of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building.
Price: $300.00