{"product_id":"1863-smokers-text-book-miniature-brilliant-type-hamer","title":"The Smoker's Text-Book","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"container\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"markdown markdown-main-panel tutor-markdown-rendering force-compact-layout enable-updated-hr-color\" id=\"model-response-message-contentr_3fae3d94f96c9d4e\" aria-live=\"polite\" aria-busy=\"false\" dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"10\"\u003e(Tobacco) Hamer, John (editor, printer and publisher). The Smoker's Text-Book. Leeds: The Editor, 7, Briggate, Leeds, 1863. \u003cstrong\u003eFIRST EDITION\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"11\"\u003e64mo - 2-3\/4\" x 2-1\/4\". viii, 112 pp. Preceded by an engraved title page. Printed in \"Brilliant\" micro-typography. Original publisher's brown cloth-covered beveled boards, with titles and a decorative border stamped in gilt to the upper board; spine panel decorated and lettered in gilt;\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003elower board replicates the upper board's decorative border, stamped in blind from the same die. All edges gilt (A.E.G.). Dark brown endpapers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"12\"\u003eThe structural and surface condition of the volume is \u003cstrong\u003eVERY GOOD\u003c\/strong\u003e. The original cloth binding remains secure, displaying light, routine rubbing to the gilt elements, spine extremities, and corners. Internally, a small tipped-in leaf facing the front free endpaper exhibits offsetting caused by the adjacent bookplate. The text block is otherwise remarkably fresh, with minor finger-marking restricted to the engraved title page and three isolated, inconspicuous spots of foxing on a single internal leaf.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"13\"\u003eProvenance: From the library of the prominent American jurist and Shakespearean bibliophile Judge Willis Vickery (1857–1932), with his custom gilt-stamped red morocco bookplate affixed to the front pastedown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 data-path-to-node=\"14\"\u003eMicro-Typography and Victorian Smoking Culture\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"15\"\u003eThis miniature volume represents a tour de force of mid-Victorian micro-typographic printing, conceived, compiled, and executed by Leeds printer John Hamer. The text is set entirely in \u003cb data-path-to-node=\"15\" data-index-in-node=\"185\"\u003eBrilliant type\u003c\/b\u003e, a specialized three-point font cast by the Miller \u0026amp; Richard foundry of Edinburgh. At the time of publication, this matrix was celebrated as the smallest functional movable metal type in the world, requiring exceptional presswork to prevent the tiny counters of the letters from filling with ink. A contemporary tipped-in note at the front of the text block explicitly validates this technical achievement for the buyer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"16\"\u003eIn terms of content, the work is an elegant defense of tobacco consumption, combining prose and verse to celebrate the historical and social attributes of smoking. Hamer dedicated the compilation \"To all true smokers, of every land and clime,\" responding directly to the growing nineteenth-century anti-tobacco movement. The opening essays counter charges of indolence with philosophical pragmatism, asserting that smoking is an innocent relaxation far removed from genuine moral turpitude, and framing it as considerably less injurious than \"gluttony, drunkenness, cheating, lying, swearing, high-way robbery, or treason.\" The text is introduced by a detailed \u003cb data-path-to-node=\"16\" data-index-in-node=\"654\"\u003eengraved title page\u003c\/b\u003e rich in smoking iconography, depicting tobacco flora, Middle Eastern nargileh pipes, and a central pair of balance scales wherein a humble smoking pipe outweighs a royal crown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 data-path-to-node=\"17\"\u003eBibliographic Context and Institutional Inventory\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"18\"\u003eDue to their diminutively scaled bindings and close association with active smoking environments, copies of \u003ci data-path-to-node=\"18\" data-index-in-node=\"108\"\u003eThe Smoker's Text-Book\u003c\/i\u003e were highly prone to heat damage, wrapper staining, and structural loss. While the title was later reprinted in larger formats during the late nineteenth century, this genuine 1863 64mo first edition remains a pronounced rarity, particularly when preserving its original beveled cloth and the delicate morocco provenance of a major American collector like Willis Vickery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"19\"\u003eThe title is recorded in standard tobacco bibliographies, including the \u003cb data-path-to-node=\"19\" data-index-in-node=\"72\"\u003eArents Tobacco Collection\u003c\/b\u003e catalogues. A current global institutional sweep via the \u003cb data-path-to-node=\"19\" data-index-in-node=\"155\"\u003eOCLC\/WorldCat database\u003c\/b\u003e confirms the scarcity of this initial Leeds imprint, locating \u003cb data-path-to-node=\"19\" data-index-in-node=\"240\"\u003eonly ten copies in permanent public collections worldwide\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-path-to-node=\"20\"\u003e\u003cb data-path-to-node=\"20\" data-index-in-node=\"0\"\u003eA HIGHLY DESIRABLE, STRUCTURALLY UNCOMPROMISED EXAMPLAR OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY MICRO-PRINTING, CONSTITUTING A KEY COMPONENT FOR COMPREHENSIVE COLLECTIONS DEVOTED TO TOBACCOIANA, MEMORANDUM TOY BOOKS, AND THE HISTORY OF METALLIC TYPOGRAPHY.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c!----\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e# 001255\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Wallace \u0026 Clark, Booksellers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46047475826837,"sku":"","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0459\/2589\/2245\/files\/smoker_s_text-book_01_20250523.jpg?v=1748058957","url":"https:\/\/wallaceandclark.com\/products\/1863-smokers-text-book-miniature-brilliant-type-hamer","provider":"Wallace \u0026 Clark, Booksellers","version":"1.0","type":"link"}