Description
An uncommon original 1885 American Author’s Edition of Military Manners and Customs by James Anson Farrer, published in New York by Henry Holt and Company.
Rather than a conventional drill or military-etiquette manual, Farrer presents a wide-ranging Victorian study of the laws, traditions, moral questions, and accepted practices of warfare. The book examines military conduct from ancient through nineteenth-century conflicts, including the treatment of prisoners, spies, surrendered garrisons, reprisals, battlefield deception, naval warfare, religious attitudes toward war, military discipline, and the limits of obedience to orders.
This copy retains several desirable period features:
* Identified as the “Author’s Edition”
* Published by Henry Holt and Company in 1885
* Printed and electrotyped by W. L. Mershon & Co. of Rahway, New Jersey
* Original red cloth binding with silver-stamped military device
* Gilt spine lettering
* Original patterned endpapers
* Period Henry Holt publisher’s advertisement
* Historic Waterloo Library and Historical Society bookplate
* Partially visible B. T. Batsford bookseller’s ticket beneath the library plate
* Blind-embossed private-library seal of Richard L. Greenburg
The Waterloo Library plate, early Batsford ticket, and private ownership seal give this particular volume a distinctive, traceable history extending through institutional, commercial, and private collections.
The original cloth binding displays authentic age and use, including rubbing, spotting, spine fading, bumped corners, and fraying with cloth loss at the spine ends. The book is ex-library, with catalog markings and remnants of a removed circulation pocket on the rear pastedown. The interior pages are generally clean, bright, and highly readable, presenting considerably better than the exterior.
An appealing original-period copy for collectors of Victorian military history, the laws and ethics of war, nineteenth-century social commentary, antiquarian books, or historic New York library material.
Please view all the photos for the complete condition, binding details, publication information, and provenance.
