Coffee: Its History, Cultivation, and Uses. Illustrated with Original Designs by Eminent American Artists, and a Map of the World Showing the Several Places Where Coffee Is, or May Be Produced, and Where It Is Also Used.
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1872.
First edition. Presentation copy signed by "the author" on the front free endpaper and inscribed to G.W. Hull in the year of publication, with "1st copy" inscribed in the same hand to the pastedown. Likely a pre-publication copy; possibly the first one the author himself received, although authors have been known to embellish. viii, 9-102 pp. Illustrated with chromolithographic frontispiece depicting coffee berries, in text wood engravings, and foldout world map with handcolor at rear. Bound in publisher's tan cloth with pictorial stamping in black and gilt, yellow endpapers. Good+ with light sunning and soiling to covers, chipping to head and tail of spine, and 1 inch split to lower end of front joint. Hinges starting, bookseller ticket to front pastedown, moderate toning to contents. Penciled correction to text on p. 47, pp. 87/88 mistrimmed (not affecting text). Frontispiece detached and foldout map split in three sections.
Robert Hewitt Jr. was a New York real estate investor and coin collector whose strong interest in the coffee trade grew from his business connections. His attractive and expensively produced little book includes a history of coffee's global spread, methods of preparation and adulteration, facts and figures, and more. The Standard-Times greeted the book as "the first complete and satisfactory disquisition on the fragrant theme of coffee."
Price: $950