KING'S HAND-BOOK OF BOSTON by (BOSTON). KING, MOSES - 1879

Cambridge, Mass: Moses King, 1879. Second Edition. 205 x 145 mm. (8 x 5 3/4"). 4 p.l., 302 pp., [10] leaves (ads).
Publisher's reddish-brown cloth, gilt and blind-stamped upper cover and spine. Extensively illustrated with several plates and numerous full-page and in-text illustrations, with numerous illustrated ads (two on colored paper). Corners rubbed to boards, light wear to extremities, occasional mild foxing or marginal smudge, but a very good copy with nothing approaching a major flaw.

This is an extremely well preserved example of an early guide to the city of Boston, full of every piece of information the visitor, new arrival, or armchair tourist could hope to find. Schools and churches, parks and monuments, and purveyors of all kinds of goods and services are listed here along with impressively detailed descriptions. The hand-book is indeed "profusely illustrated," and includes some wonderful renderings of old Bostonian buildings and green spaces..