Item #10325 AN ESSAY ON THE LAW OF BAILMENTS. William Jones.
AN ESSAY ON THE LAW OF BAILMENTS.
AN ESSAY ON THE LAW OF BAILMENTS.

AN ESSAY ON THE LAW OF BAILMENTS.

Boston: 1796. 12mo, contemporary full leather [front hinge nearly detached; chipped at spinehead]. 178, [1 Index leaf] pp. Foxed lightly throughout, Good+. Contemporary ownership signature on endpapers: "Peter Van Schaack ex dono General Henry Livingston," of the prominent Livingston family. Van Schaack [1747-1832] was a successful New York lawyer, tainted with Loyalist allegiances during the Revolution. His rights were restored after the Revolution, upon taking a loyalty oath. His signature is followed by two signatures from 1931.

This is the first American printing of Jones's Essay, the first edition having issued from London in 1781. Marvin overlooked this edition. "Of this famous treatise, Justice Story stated that if Jones had never written anything else, 'he would have still left a name unrivalled in the common law for philosophical accuracy, learning, and finished analysis.'" Jenkins. Marvin, however, as Cohen points out, says the book "possesses very great merits as a literary production, but modest value as a legal work for the present day."
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Cohen 2419. Evans 30646. I Harv. Law Cat. 1063. I Jenkins 363. Item #10325

Price: $375.00

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