Cotton [ Ex Libris Prof. James Chittick ]

Description

First edition industry work on cotton production, owned by Columbia Professor and textile expert James Chittick.

 

Peake, R.J. Pitman’s Common Commodities Of Commerce : Cotton From The Raw Material To The Finished Product. Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, LTD : London. Undated [c. 1909] . First edition.

 

This text explaining the global cotton industry at the start of the 20th century preserves both the state of the trade before the spread of the bole weevil in the United States and the high water mark of the British Empire  ahead of the First World War. In addition to discussing the varieties of cotton grown in different areas of the world as well as the development and use of numerous labor saving machines to process it, the book covers the creation of the International Congress of Delegated Representatives of Master Cotton Spinners’ and Manufacturers Association, which held its first meeting in Zurich in 1904.

This copy was formerly owned by Columbia University Professor James Chittick, author of Silk Manufacturing and Its Problems (1913) and frequent New York expert in court proceedings involving textile imports and manufacture. Although most commonly called to testify in cases involving garment companies, Chittick was also the defendant in a 1916 case accusing him of abusing his position as treasurer to defraud the recently created British War Relief Association. Ultimately dismissed later the same year, the accusation appears to have covered over the Association’s other legacies. The first War Relief association to be incorporated in New York City which “collected for the purchase of hospital supplies, clothing, surgical dressings, etc., more than $100,000″ along with textile donations has become a forgotten footnote from the period with its name more closely associated with other groups using the same designation during the Second World War.

Small 8vo, 122pp + 4pp index + 2pp map + 16pp ads, patterned cloth boards with title and author tool stamped. Corners bumped, wear to top and bottom spine. Wear along front spine joint. Penmark to front pastedown. Dated 1918 ownership signature and later bookseller sticker on front free endpaper. Bookblock and pages toned. Illustrated with color frontispiece, 17 black and white photographs and diagrams, and a two page map of world cotton production. Good condition.

 

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