Adam Smith WEALTH OF NATIONS 1789 First US editio

"Title: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Author: Adam Smith
Publisher: Thomas Dobson (Philadelphia)
Printing Year: 1789 First U. S. edition. Volume I only

Condition/Details: Bound in leather with gilt lettering to spine, this antique volume is a scarce early edition of this seminal work of political economy, considered by many the founding work of the modern school of economics. The first American edition is taken from the fourth London edition. The volume shows external age/wear, and is solidly bound with hand-marbled endpapers and bright pages. The book is lacking preliminary pages with frontispiece, title page, advertisement page and first two pages of index now nearly detached. The hand-colored frontispiece is a later addition. A small clipping providing a description of the history and purpose of the ""Society of the Cincinnati"" has been attached to the page immediately preceding frontispiece. That page as well as the one before it bear the name of the previous owner, James Claypoole (name also appears a third time on advertisement page and a fourth on the back fly-leaf). The name ""Wm. Claypoole"" has been stamped onto the upper right-hand corner of the title page with the date 1876 written in underneath. The Claypooles were an English family of note, with John Claypoole marrying ""the second and most favored daughter of Oliver Cromwell"". The first member of the family emigrated to America in 1683 and settled in Philadelphia. Captain Abraham Claypoole served in the Continental Army and together with like-minded fellow officers founded the above-mentioned organization, whose stated mission was, in the words of the attached text, ""to promote cordial friendship and indissoluble union among themselves"". The book measures approximately 4.75"" x 6.75"" and contains 412 pages. Shipping cost (within the U.S.) for this lot will be: $4.50"