Lacon; or Many Things in Few Words; Addressed to Those Who Think.

From the presses of New York to a Kentucky pioneer’s library

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This 1836 New York edition of a popular gift book reached Bardstown, Kentucky two years after publication. As seen on the front free endpaper, “J. B. McCown Bardstown Kentucky November 1st 1838” owned this copy. Born in Bardstown, later of Greenville, Kentucky, Joseph Bell McCown (1791–1869), was a Scottish pioneer and War of 1812 veteran.

Advertised as the “First American Stereotype Edition,” this edition of Lacon is in a publisher’s deluxe binding executed by Charles Wells, the book’s publisher and a practicing bookbinder. Gothic Windows to Peacocks #76 records the title in a different binding, English and signed “Barritt & Co.” Based in New York, Wells likely imported the plates from London, bound some of the volumes himself, and printed his own title page for these copies.

In full crimson morocco, both covers are paneled in gilt with a decorative roll-tooled border and an elaborate central arabesque composed of acanthus and anthemion motifs framing an empty oval reserve. The spine is divided into gilt-ruled compartments, three with a central gilt floral or foliate tool, one compartment lettered “Lacon” in gilt, and additional zigzag rolls along the bands. All edges are gilt, with gilt roll-tooling to the turn-ins. The binding reflects the fashionable 1830s “gift book” aesthetic, here applied to a collection of moralizing and pious maxims rather than the usual annuals or poetry.

Price: $250.00