THE MARKET ASSISTANT, Containing a Brief Description of Every Article of Human Food Sold in the Public Markets of the Cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn; Including the Various Domestic and Wild Animals, Poultry, Game, Fish, Vegetables, Fruits &c.,&c. with Many Curious Incidents and Anecdotes. By Thomas F. De Voe.

Published by Hurd and Houghton in New York, printed at the Riverside Press in Cambridge, 1867.

GREAT ASSOCIATION COPY: This copy was owned by ISAAC ADAMS, with his SIGNATURE, PLACE, DATE, and BOOKPLATE on the front free endpaper. "Isaac Adams / Sandwich N.H. / April 2d / 1867". Isaac Adams was an important figure in the history of American book publishing. From the History of Information website: "The Adams Power Press was the machine that transformed 19th-century book production. The machine lowered the cost of making books, meaning more people could buy and read books. By 1836, it became the leading machine used for printing books in America."

Hardcovers, original blind-stamped green cloth covered boards with gilt titling to the spine, 5x7.5 inches, 455 pages plus 15 pages of Publisher's Ads at the rear. Illustrated with a steel engraved frontispiece, with other in-text illustrations.

GOOD condition: The covers have bubbling to their green cloth covered boards, and some light spine end and corner tip wear, otherwise they are solid with bright spine gilt. Internally, the pages are lightly toned as normal, the very small number "D1590" is written on the front flyleaf, there is some light shorelining to the very top edge of the latter pages, and a few finger tip size spots. Overall a complete, solid, nice copy, with bubbling to the covers cloth.

RARE 1867 edition of The Market Assistant, made special with the signature, inscription and date of Isaac Adams..

About ISAAC ADAMS (from Wikipedia):

******Isaac Adams, b.1802 d.1883, was an American inventor and politician. He served in the Massachusetts Senate and invented the Adams Power Press, which revolutionized the printing industry.

Adams was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, the son of Benjamin Adams and Elizabeth (Horne) Adams. In 1828 he invented the Adams printing press which he introduced in 1830 as "Adams Power Press". The machine "worked a revolution in the art of printing," and beginning in 1836, became the leading machine used in book printing for much of the nineteenth century. It substantially reduced the cost of book production, and made books more widely available."******

It is interesting to note that this book, "The Market Assistant" was likely printed on an Adams Power Press. The Riverside Press was an early adopter of the Adams Power Press. As of 1874 the Riverside Press was reportedly using 18 Adams presses alongside 2 Hoe cylinder presses.