[Peter Cottom]. The Whole Art of Book-Binding, Containing Valuable Receipts for Sprinkling, Marbling, Colouring, &c. Richmond: Published by Peter Cottom, 1824. The first American edition, from the third London edition with considerable additions. Twelvemo. iv, [5]-60 pages. Large folding plate bound at back giving the list of prices of the New York Friendly Association Master Bookbinders. Lower portion of the plate missing but a copy of the same sheet from the Huntington Library has been photocopied and included. Publisher's original blue paper over boards with calf backstrip. Titles lettered in gilt on the spine. Boards moderately worn with some soiling. Hinges fragile but boards remain securely attached. The contents are sound but are uniformly toned with scattered light foxing. Still, a nice copy of this scarce work in very good condition, housed in a beautifully constructed modern clamshell case.

Accompanying the book is a one-page typed letter dated May 21, 1969 on Dawson's Book Shop letterhead, Los Angeles, and signed by Muir Dawson which was sent as an inducement to a noted collector to buy this very same copy. It reads, in part: "I have what I feel is almost certainly the first book printed in the United States on how to bind books...No author is given, but a reference I have to an English edition of 1811 gives the author as Oswestry." This is a rare, very early Virginia imprint.