Biddle (Owen) The Young Carpenter's Assistant; or, a system of architecture, adapted to the style of building in the United States, 44 engraved plates, 2 folding, plates 7 & 8 bound upside down, contemporary ink signature at head of title and first leaf of text, foxed as usual (text heavily), final folding plate torn and repaired, later ownership inscription "Owen Biddle, Valley Forge, 1928" in pencil on front free endpaper, contemporary tree sheep, rubbed and scuffed, rebacked and recornered, later endpapers, [Hitchcock 179], 4to, Philadelphia and Richmond, Va., Benjamin Warner, printed by William Dickson of Lancaster, Pa., 1817.

⁂ First published in 1806 this was the second architectural book printed in America and the first one south of New England. Biddle acknowledges the English works of both Peter Nicholson and William Pain but makes no mention of Benjamin Asher's Country Builder's Assistant which is generally regarded as the first original American architectural book, first published in 1797 in Massachusetts. There were several editions of Biddle but all are scarce.