first edition Hardcover
1956 · New York
by TOYNBEE, Arnold J.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1956. Hardcover. Fine/Very Good. First edition. Fine in very good dustwrapper with evidence of sticker removal on front panel. [With]: Original brass binding die stamp for the front board of the book. Approximately 5.5" x 2.75". A little tarnished, else about fine. The die reads (in reverse lettering): "Toynbee / An Historian's Approach to / Religion". The provenance presents a mildly interesting story: a local colleague was buying books out of the trunk of a gentleman's car and came across a bag of brass die-stamps from the Oxford University Press from the late 1930s through the early 1950s, when Oxford did much of their printing in the U.S. My colleague inquired and the gentleman revealed that his next stop was the scrap yard where he was going to sell the dies to be melted down for the brass. My colleague paid him double the scrap price for them. We paid a bit more. In any event, a unique artifact from this book by a noted historian. (Inventory #: 406809)