Men and Mysteries of Wall Street First Edition - James K. Medbery - Bauman Rare Books

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Men and Mysteries of Wall Street

James K. MEDBERY

Item#: 102787 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Men and Mysteries of Wall Street

Men and Mysteries of Wall Street

"WALL STREET… THE PARAMOUNT FINANCIAL CENTRE OF THE GLOBE": FIRST EDITION OF MEN AND MYSTERIES OF WALL STREET, 1870

MEDBERY, James K. Men and Mysteries of Wall Street. Boston: Fields, Osgood, 1870. Small octavo, original gilt-stamped pictorial green cloth recased, original brown endpapers.

First edition of this crucial work on the workings of Wall Street by a 19th-century insider, with six illustrations of Wall Street.

"A valuable work on the machinery, methods and language of the stock and gold markets and on bankers and brokers of Wall Street about 1870. Much on individual firms and men, and on types and speculators. Also on panics, 1837-60… One of the better works on Wall Street written by an insider" (Larson 1628). Medbery observes, "that power which, for lack of a better name, common usage denotes Wall Street, has become of overshadowing importance… Indeed, if the United States holds steadfastly to the prosperities of peace, in three decades it will be the controlling financial force of the world… [This work is a] survey of some of the more obvious phenomena of Wall Street, and with especial reference to its speculative transactions." Chapters include "The New York Stock Exchange," "The Machinery of Speculation," "Margins and the Loan Market," "The Great Operators," "The Outsiders," "In the Gold Room," "The Mining Board," etc. Owner stamp of F.M. Antisell, who patented the wrestplank (or pinblock, in American terminology), which holds the tuning pins in a modern piano.

A few spots of soiling to interior, expert restoration to original cloth, gilt bright.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
Association Copy copy that belonged to someone connected with the author or the contents of a book.
Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
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Broadside Sheet printed on one side, typically for public display, usually larger than folio size (a folio being a broadside-size sheet printed on both sides and folded once, to make four pages).
Calf Binding material made from cowhide—versatile, durable, usually tan or brown in color, of smooth texture with no or little apparent grain. Readily marbled (“tree calf”), mottled, diced, colored, polished, tooled in gilt or blind, even scented (known as “russia”). Reverse calf, with a distinctive suede-like texture, is occasionally used.
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Collation Process by which the contents of a book are inspected for completeness, checking against internal evidence, the table of contents and/or plate list, and reference works. Also a shorthand bibliographical description of a book’s composition by its leaves and signatures, rather than its pages. A-C, for example, would indicate a quarto volume composed of three signatures or gatherings of eight pages each for a total of 24 pages.
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Duodecimo (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.
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Half Title Leaf preceding the title page that bears the book’s title, originally used to identify the unbound text block. The book’s binder would often remove and discard the half title at the time of binding. Remaining half-titles are therefore of interest to collectors.
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Morocco Binding material made from goatskin—versatile, durable, with a distinctive pebbled texture and visible grain. Readily stretched (“straight-grain”), crushed (flattened smooth), tooled in gilt or blind, inlaid with leathers of different colors. So-called because much of the raw material originally came from the tanneries of North Africa (other types of goatskin bindings denoting regions of origin include levant, turkey, niger).
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Woodcut Illustration or textual decoration made by cutting away from the surface of a block of wood until the reverse of the image is left in relief; this is then inked and pressed to the paper to leave the image. The woodblock, or multiple blocks, can be fit into the page along with the type, allowing text and illustrations to be printed in the same print run and share the same page (not possible with engravings, which require thicker, damp paper and much more force; nor with lithographs, which require a different printing process altogether). Woodcuts preceded moveable type and are the earliest known printing technology.
Wood-Engraving Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.
Wormhole Tiny pinhole-sized trails left by bookworms as they eat through a text block. Much more common in older books printed on handmade papers with a high rag content than in books printed on manufactured papers made from wood pulp with a higher acidic content.
Wrappers Paper coverings—plain, marbled or printed—attached by stitches, staples or glue to a text block to identify it and afford it some protection (though much more fragile than a binding in plain, cloth or leather-covered boards). More typical of slim and/or inexpensive volumes such as pamphlets. “Self wrappers” are leaves, blank or printed, that are integral to the text block, conjugate with other leaves and from the same stock. “Original wrappers,” those attached at the time of issue, are scarce and extremely desirable to most collectors.