William Reese Company

William Reese Company
americana
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rare books
american art
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literature
photography
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409 temple street new haven, connecticut 06511
(203) 789-8081 fax (203) 865-7653 [email protected]
www.williamreesecompany.com
New York Antiquarian Book Fair 2016
Americana
Magnificent Photographs
1. Adams, Ansel E., and Mary H. Austin: TAOS PUEBLO. San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1930. [6] preliminary pages
followed by [14]pp. of text and twelve original mounted photographs, printed on Dessonville paper by Ansel Adams, various
sizes to 9 x 6½ inches, each with a corresponding caption leaf. Large folio. Publisher’s half tan morocco and cloth, spine
with raised bands, marbled endpapers. Light spotting to covers, light wear. Very good. In a morocco box.
From an edition limited to 108 copies (this is copy number 92) signed by Mary Austin,
containing magnificent photographs by Ansel Adams.
Possibly the most famous of modern photographic works on the West, TAOS PUEBLO
was a collaboration between the young photographer, Ansel Adams, and one of the most
evocative writers on the Southwest, Mary Austin. An elegant design by the Grabhorn
Press provides a counterpoint to Adams’ photographs of the adobe Pueblo. The book
distilled the romance and naturalism that many Americans found in the Indian pueblos
of New Mexico, and defined the style that was to make Adams the most popular of
photographers of the American West.
“It was at Taos and Santa Fe that Ansel Adams first saw the Southwest. The time was
the spring of 1927....His visit resulted in a Grabhorn Press book now of legendary
rarity. It includes Ansel Adams’ photographs and Mary Austin’s essay on Taos Pueblo.
Genius has never been more happily wed. Nowhere else did she write prose of such
precise and poetical authority....Their TAOS PUEBLO is a true and beautiful book
by two consummate artists” - Adams.
Produced in a small edition, the book is difficult to obtain today. One of the greatest
books produced by the Grabhorn Press and featuring beautiful photographs by Ansel
Adams, it is a landmark of American photographic depiction of the Southwest.
GRABHORN BIBLIOGRAPHY 137. ROTH, THE BOOK OF 101 BOOKS 58.
Ansel Adams, PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SOUTHWEST, 1970, p. xxv.
$60,000.
A Magnificent John Quincy Adams Letter Attacking the Institution of Slavery
and Predicting the Progress of the United States:
“...It shocks the moral sense of every soul not contaminated by the practice of oppression.”
2. Adams, John Quincy: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AS A MEMBER OF
THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, TO ELIJAH HAYWARD, HARSHLY CRITICIZING THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY, FORESEEING ITS END IN THE UNITED STATES, AND PREDICTING A BETTER
FUTURE FOR MANKIND]. Washington, D.C. April 20, 1837. [4]pp. on a folded folio sheet. One horizontal and two
vertical folds. Small separations at cross-folds. Light, old stains. In very good condition.
A truly remarkable letter from former president John Quincy Adams, giving full voice to his opposition to slavery and
lashing out at the immorality of slave holders, while at the same time displaying his optimism for the future improvement
of mankind and the rise of the United States. Adams castigates the defenders of slavery and looks forward to the day
when “Slavery shall vanish from the Earth; and the race of man, descended from one father shall live as a band of brothers
upon Earth.” He also puts forth interesting views on the progress of the United States and the importance of technology,
marvelling at the advances in transportation and observing
that “speed is power,” while fairly accurately predicting the
present-day population of the country. Written while he was
serving in the United States House of Representatives, and
deeply embroiled in the struggle to preserve the right of the
people to petition government against slavery, this is the most
powerful John Quincy Adams letter regarding slavery that we
have encountered or are aware of.
Adams was personally opposed to slavery but not a vocal
public abolitionist. Regardless, as early as 1831 (his first
year in Congress and two years removed from the presidency)
he began submitting petitions to the House of Representatives that were sent to him by citizens who sought to abolish
the slave trade in the District of Columbia. The mid-1830s
saw a great rise in petitions to Congress to abolish slavery,
especially calling for an end to the slave trade in the District
of Columbia (the belief being that Congress could exercise
this power in the District, if not in individual states). As a
result, the right to petition came under assault beginning in
late 1835, and Adams worked to defend the right against the
efforts of southern slave holders and northern supporters of
Andrew Jackson. Adams’ efforts “made him the most famous
- or notorious - of combatants on the floor of Congress during the next decade” (Nagel). In May of 1836 the House of
Representatives passed the Pinckney Resolutions, the third of
which contained the so-called “Gag Rule,” which instructed
that all petitions or memorials relating to slavery in any way
would be laid on the table without being printed, discussed,
or referred to committee. Adams’ vocal opposition to the Gag
Rule only increased the flood of anti-slavery petitions that poured into his office. The Gag Rule was finally overturned in
1844, largely due to Adams’ efforts. In 1841, Adams once again occupied the public stage in opposition to slavery, arguing
before the Supreme Court on behalf of the Africans who took over the slave ship Amistad.
The present letter was written less than a year after the passage of the Gag Rule, and shows Adams at his most eloquent
and powerful on the subject of slavery. He wrote this letter to Elijah Hayward of Ohio, who had recently written Adams
to congratulate him on his speech in the House in opposition to the Gag Rule. A lawyer, Hayward was also involved in
politics, wrote history, and had served as Commissioner of the General Land Office. Fellow Massachusetts natives, Hayward
and Adams were well acquainted but not close friends. Adams notes in the letter that he is proud of his Massachusetts
nativity, and that “from her originated that Ordinance for the Northwestern Territory the first abolition of slavery on this
Continent, which has already given to this Union four of its most flourishing states, in which there is neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude, unless as punishment for crime.” He continues with a strong attack on slavery and a denunciation
of its defenders:
“The right of man to property in man has been for many years secreted out of all decent moral and intellectual company....It shocks the moral sense of every soul not contaminated by the practice of oppression. John Randolph declared
the Declaration of Independence, the great charter of mankind, ‘a barrage of abstractions,’ but John Randolph died with
“Remorse” upon his lips, and emancipated his slaves by his will, ‘because in his conscience he believed they ought to be
free.’ Slavery is a part and parcel of the divine right of kings, and no thinking man can read Hobbes and Sir Robert Filmer,
without perceiving that all the arguments which they urge in favour of despotic power in Government, and against the
theory of human rights, are the identical and only arguments, by which a colour of justification can be given to slavery.
This must eventually be the sense of all mankind; but that in this country with an appeal to God that all men are born
with an inalienable right to Liberty; and that this is a self-evident truth - that a nation founding its existence upon the
proclamation of that Law, should suffer its ears to hear from its own degenerate sons, that one sixth part of its own people
are chattels, to whom no rights can belong,...my dear Sir, when Daniel O’Connell in the British Parliament, pronounces
us in the face of Heaven and Earth a nation of Hypocrites and Liars, we may answer him with Billingsgate upon Earth,
but will Bishop England just from Hayti tell us what we shall say to Heaven?
“No - never, never can Slavery again be reconciled to the rights, or to the duties of man. Our slave-trading Professors, and
Governors, and Chancellors and Bishops, may cauterize their own consciences and those of their accomplices, while they
live, with sophistication worthy of Belial in Pandemonium, but with John Randolph, ‘Remorse’ will be their dying word,
without even the atonement of emancipating their Slaves at death. They may and I fear will rust the chains of slavery
upon their unhappy fellow creatures whom they hold in bondage. They may, and I fear will restore the extinguished curse
of slavery in Mexico, and thereby fortify and reinforce and spread its odious dominion in our own country; protracting
its final doom for unblest ages to come - but in the chancery of Heaven that doom is sealed - Slavery shall vanish from
the Earth; and the race of man, descended from one father shall live as a band of brothers upon Earth; at least without
shedding each others blood.”
As he writes in this letter, Adams was convinced slavery would ultimately be abolished in the United States and would
vanish from civilization. Elsewhere in the letter he sets forth his vision for an improved human condition:
“I believe the day will come when there will be neither War, Slavery nor hereditary kings upon Earth - how many centuries
it will take to accomplish this Revolution it is not given to me to foretell. If the population of the North American Continent should increase for two centuries to come in the same proportion as it has regularly done for the half century since
the Establishment of the Constitution of the United States, in two hundred years from this day there will be three thousand
millions of the human race living on its surface. There is room for them all, and for as many more on the continent of
South America. The steamboat and the railway have already approximated distances so that we travel five hundred miles
in a day - Speed is Power - and the multiplication of that Power in the last half century has at least kept pace with that of
population. And in the same half century, notwithstanding the bloody wars that have raged, the uniform tendency of the
minds and hearts of civilized men towards each other has been from cruelty to benevolence, from harshness to humanity.
The question whether man has in any case whatever the right to take the life of man is sinking deeper and deeper into the
consciences of men. The right of offensive war has not only fallen into disfavour but has become exceedingly problematical. Personal imprisonment for debt is gradually disappearing from all Christian Codes. Even the right of defensive war
has been denied in theory and the denial has been supported by powerful argument.”
Adams closes on a hopeful and uplifting note, prognosticating that in two hundred years there may be:
...”three hundred million souls upon this Continent, and we contemplate what this mass of physical moral and intellectual,
congregated human power may effect for the improvement of the Earth, and of the condition of its mortal and immortal
inhabitant, may we not in humble hope invoke the blessing of the Father of Spirits upon every purpose intended to promote the universal emancipation of man?”
A powerful, moving, and visionary John Quincy Adams letter on slavery, the most contentious issue of the age, foreseeing
an end to that institution and a better future for mankind.
William Lee Miller, ARGUING ABOUT SLAVERY. THE GREAT BATTLE IN THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS
(New York, 1996). Paul C. Nagel, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. A PUBLIC LIFE, A PRIVATE LIFE (Cambridge, Ma.,
1999), pp.354-81.
$200,000.
The Elections to the First Continental Congress
3. “Agricola” [pseudonym]: TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW-YORK. GENTLEMEN, IT IS AN INVIDIOUS TASK TO BE EMPLOYED IN
DETECTING AND EXPOSING THE MANY FALSEHOODS
AND ABSURDITIES, CONTAINED IN THE NUMEROUS
PUBLICATIONS THAT DAILY INFEST THIS CITY...[caption
title and first lines of text]. New York. July 12, 1774. Broadside,
14½ x 10¼ inches. Loss of the “o” and “e” in the first two words of
the title. Minor soiling and wear. Tipped to a larger sheet. About
very good.
Broadside concerning the election of delegates to the First Continental
Congress, responding to Alexander McDougall’s “To the freeholders,
freemen, and inhabitants of the city and county of New-York” and
another broadside entitled “To the freeborn citizens of New-York,”
authored by someone signing himself as “A Moderate Man.” There
was significant debate over whether or not to elect representatives
to the first Continental Congress, followed by further debate over
the best method to go about electing those representatives once the
idea took hold. This broadside refutes the two others that deal with
this subject, in blistering language. The author writes: “It must be a
lame cause, that will admit of such lame advocates. When the blind
lead blind, it is no wonder they both fall into the ditch.”
ESTC records only two copies, at the New York Public Library and
the Library Company of Philadelphia. We are aware of one other
in a private collection. Rare.
EVANS 13097. ESTC W1195.
$12,500.
A Firsthand Description of the Bombardment of Fort Sumter, as It Happened
4. Aldrich, Edward S.: [SUPERB AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM SURGEON EDWARD ALDRICH TO
HIS SISTER-IN-LAW, GIVING A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT OF THE BOMBARDMENT OF FORT SUMTER
AS VIEWED FROM A PASSENGER SHIP IN CHARLESTON HARBOR]. Charleston Harbor. April 13, 1861. [5]
pp. Significant tanning, expertly de-acidified. Very good.
A fascinating letter from Dr. Aldrich to his widow’s sister, relating the events of the critical opening battle of the Civil
War. Edward Sherman Aldrich was born in 1811 in Providence, Rhode Island. He married Corrine Brown and served as
a surgeon attached to the U.S. Army during the Second Seminole War in Florida, where they lived for a time. He traveled to California during the Gold Rush era and belonged to the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance. His wife died
in 1857, but he continued to look after her widowed sister, Ellen Brown Anderson, to whom this letter was written. He
was on his way to Charleston to volunteer as a physician for the Confederate cause when the ship was forced to stop in
Charleston Harbor to await the outcome of the battle. This letter humorously describes a lady on the ship who was having
a problem adapting to her first sea voyage; the balance of the letter describes the action during and after the bombardment
of the fort, including an encounter with the U.S.R.C. Harriet Lane.
Dr. Aldrich writes: “We discovered at day light yesterday that the fight had commenced - The scare & the excitement it
creates with all of us on board is indescribable.” He continues with interesting eyewitness observations on the fort itself:
“Nine o’clock today the fort is on fire from the shells of the batteries. Eleven o’clock the old once honored stars & stripes
have disappeared by fire never again to wave over the ramparts of Fort Sumpter. The fort has been one dense smoke for
hours still the lower tier of cannon flash away and the batteries pour in to her in rapid succession - At twelve the firing
has ceased, and we can discern with the glass the Confederate flag gaily floating from all the ships in the Harbor. Soon
the same flag will wave over Sumter....Today Sunday, we have arrived. Fort Sumter is deeply indented with hundreds
of bullet holes. No less than three hundred shells exploded in & upon the Fort when the flag of the Fort came down &
white flag of truce went up.”
Dr. Aldrich describes the encounter with the Harriet Lane, evincing his support for the Confederates in the process:
“Yesterday the Harriet Lane headed for us & fired a cannon across our bow for the ship to lay too. The Captain obeyed
the summons. The Lane steamed around us with all the men beat to quarters, with port holes open & bristling cannon,
looking quite warlike & dangerous. This maneuver on the part of the officers evinced great coolness & courage to sail
around an unarmed vessel instead of going to the assistance of their brethren. But it certainly shew much discretion - she
did go near enough over to get a shot from one of the batteries which made her steam away like a quarter horse without
taking time to return the compliment though armed to the teeth, and commanded by half a dozen nice brave officers all
in their new clothes & nice swords belted on - how very brave. They hailed us, what ship, where from, & where to - All
which the nice gentlemen knew before - I wish I had been commander with only one thirty two pounder armed ship. I
would have blown Miss Lane out of the water. The ships of war belonging to the perjured government lay off the harbor
manned by brave officers & fierce soldiers, with abundance of all the munitions of war - with small rifle cannon & barges
for taking men on shore for attacking the rebels reinforcing Fort Sumpter.”
Aldrich writes near the end: “Tomorrow I shall call on the Surgeon General & soon learn my destination. My health is
perfect - And I am ready for duty....”
A rare firsthand account of the Battle of Fort Sumter, from a Confederate doctor ready to begin his service for the Southern
cause. $12,500.
An Extraordinary Ephrata Musical Manuscript, with Superb Fraktur Titlepage
5. [American Music]: [German Americana]: DIE BITTRE SUSE ODER DAS GESANG DER EINSAMEN TURTEL TAUBE, DER CHRISTLICHEN KIRCHEN HIER AUF ERDEN...[manuscript title]. Ephrata. 1747. [264]pp.
plus 7pp. printed register. Small quarto. Contemporary three-quarter calf and marbled boards. Spine heavily worn, split
in center. Later 19th-century ownership inscription on front fly leaf. Slight wear and foxing to some leaves, and some ink
burn, resulting in splits to some leaves. Very good. In a half morocco and cloth slipcase, spine gilt.
A unique and spectacular manuscript hymnbook created by the religious community at Ephrata, Pennsylvania, founded by
Johann Conrad Beissel. This manuscript is from the period when the community was at its zenith, and is an outstanding
example of the Frakturschriften for which the Ephrata Cloister is known. It contains over 250 pages of manuscript music,
some of it likely original compositions. The printed register at the end contains 375 hymn listings, and an additional
fifteen pieces of music precede the main body of the work.
Johann Conrad Beissel (1692-1768) was born in Germany and orphaned at an early age. A charismatic and engaging personality, he tried on several religious movements, and eventually emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1720 after being banished
from his homeland for radical religious beliefs. Beissel spent part of the 1720s with the Dunkards in Germantown and
Lancaster County before his controversial beliefs about celibacy and Sabbath-keeping caused a rift with his fellow congregants. He then established himself as a hermit on the banks of the Cocalico River, where he was eventually joined by other
like-minded individuals who wished to follow his teachings, and so founded the Ephrata Cloister in 1732. “What began
as a hermitage for a small group of devoted individuals grew into a thriving community of nearly 80 celibate members
supported by an estimated 200 family members from the region at its zenith in the mid-18th century. During that period
much of the activity surrounded the charismatic founder and leader, Conrad Beissel. His theology, a hybrid of pietism and
mysticism, encouraged celibacy, Sabbath worship, Anabaptism, and the ascetic life, yet provided room for families, limited
industry, and creative expression” - Ephrata website. “Both within and without Ephrata, Beissel aroused controversy. His
opposition to the institution of marriage early divided his congregation, as did his refusal to tolerate the community’s
money-making industries. His adoption of the Jewish sabbath and work on Sunday violated provincial laws and aroused
the opposition of civil officials. That women left their husbands and homes to be with Beissel produced their husbands’
ever-lasting hostility and even provoked one to attack Beissel physically. Beissel’s willingness to permit women to spend
nights in his cabin and his initial housing of men and women in the same building led to rumors of sexual promiscuity
that prompted a neighbor to try to set fire to the cloister” - ANB.
The community became known for its self-composed a cappella music, Germanic calligraphy known as Frakturschriften,
and the complete publishing center which included a paper mill, printing office, and book bindery. Printing at Ephrata
began in 1745, the third geographical location of printing in Pennsylvania. In fact, the largest book printed in America
before 1800, numbering more than 1,500 pages, was published at the Ephrata printing shop in 1748. The first printed
hymnbook of the cloister was called the “Turtle-Taube (Turtle Dove),” and contained more than 400 of the community’s
hymns, most of which Beissel had written. It was issued in 1747, the same year as this manuscript.
In addition to the press, the Cloister also had a scriptorium which produced beautiful manuscript hymnals and other
works. Beissel composed many original hymns for the community, which then produced manuscript volumes containing
both the words and, separately, the music. He is said to have composed more than 4,000 lines of poetry, almost all of it
religious, some of it set to music also of his composition. “For the community’s worship, he developed distinctive types of
choral harmony and antiphonal singing, and he frequently required the members to sing in this style on late night walks
around Ephrata” - ANB. Manuscript production at Ephrata was used as a form not only of book production, but also as
a meditation and spiritual act. Beissel established a monastic style of living for the Cloister in 1735, three years after its
founding, and the earliest output of the scriptorium dates to this time. Most of the fine manuscript work was likely done
by the Sisters (the Cloister was segregated by gender), while the Brothers maintained the printing press. The scriptorium
flourished during the 1740s and 1750s, declining near the end of that decade. The present manuscript was produced while
the scriptorium was at the pinnacle of its output and handiwork.
This volume, with its elaborate fraktur titlepage, was likely a presentation copy rather than a standard, everyday hymnbook.
The Ephrata community produced virtually the only original hymn texts and tunes during the colonial era. It was meant
to be used with the printed words from the 1747 edition of DAS GESANG DER EINSAMEN UND VERLASSENEN
TURTEL-TAUBE.... A bearded face has been drawn in each of the two upper corners of the fraktur, a highly interesting and unusual feature of the work. It is inscribed on the front fly leaf with a later ownership inscription which reads,
“Abm. Burger’s Book / January 29, 1830,” which is followed by a gift inscription: “A Present of a Music Book from / Abm.
Burger / to / Elder Lucius Crandal / Plainfield / Essex County / N.J. / December 17th 1854.” These lines were probably
written by Abraham Berger (1795-1856), a member of the Snow Hill Congregation in Quincy, Pennsylvania, an offshoot
of the Ephrata community located about ninety miles to the southwest. When Ephrata was in its decline in the late 18th
and early 19th centuries, Snow Hill was in its prime, and as a result, many of the books and manuscripts were transferred
from Ephrata to Snow Hill. This would explain how and why Berger may have acquired the volume.
The gift recipient, Lucius Crandall (1810-76), was an elder and minister in the Seventh Day Baptist Church, first at
Plainfield, New Jersey, and later at congregations in Rhode Island and New York. The Ephrata Cloister congregation,
following its incorporation in 1814, became known as the Seventh Day Baptists of Ephrata, also referred to as the German
Seventh Day Baptists. While Ephrata had no official ties or affiliation to the Seventh Day Baptist Church with which
Crandall was affiliated, the two denominations formed a close relationship. This was true to the extent that in the later
19th century, Crandall’s denomination included the annual reports of the Ephrata and Snow Hill congregations in their
own annual reports. Ministers and members would travel from Crandall’s Seventh Day Baptist Church to the Cloisters at
Ephrata for feast days and baptisms, etc., providing a link between the two men.
The Winterthur Library and Museum in Delaware has a significant collection of these hymnals, as noted by Kari Main
in her excellent 1997 article on the subject (she compares eight hymnals). Columbia University has half a dozen manuscript hymnals, as well, and further collections can be found at the Ephrata Cloister, The Free Library of Philadelphia,
the Library of Congress, and the Hershey Museum. Many of these derive from the great Samuel Pennypacker collection,
dispersed at auction in 1908. Such manuscript works are incredibly rare on the market today, and the present copy is an
especially fine example of these remarkable manuscripts.
Kari M. Main, “From the Archives: Illuminated Hymnals of the Ephrata Cloister” in WINTERTHUR PORTFOLIO,
Vol. 32, No. 1, pp.65-78. ANB (online). Website of the Ephrata Cloister, http://http://www.ephratacloister.org/history.
htm. $48,500.
Rare Account of Lower California by a German Jesuit
6. [Baegert, Jacob]: NACHRICHTEN VON DER AMERIKANISCHEN HALBINSEL CALIFORNIEN: MIT
EINEM ZWEYFACHEN ANHANG FALSCHER NACHRICHTEN.... Mannheim: Churfurstl. Hof-und AcademieBuchdruckerey, 1773. [16],358pp. plus two engraved plates and folding map. Contemporary black half calf and marbled
boards, spine gilt. Extremities lightly worn, small paper label at foot of spine. Small ink stamp on titlepage and verso of
map. Minor scattered foxing. Very good.
Second issue with some corrections, after the first printing of the previous year, of this rare account of Lower California
by the German Jesuit, Jacob Baegert. Baegert lived in Baja California for seventeen years (1751-68) and spent most of his
time at the Mission of San Luis Gonzaga, leaving after the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. He provides some important
details on the culture of the Indians of Baja California, including the Pericues, Guiacuras, and Cochiemes. Wagner states
that the German Jesuits were especially dissatisfied toward the end of the Jesuit regime in California, and Baegert’s bitterness is evident in his book: “...it was a land full of ferocious beasts and even more ferocious Indians, the soil was poor,
the water undrinkable, and there was no fuel to be had.” The fine and important map was made by the fellow Jesuit, Ferdinand Consak, and is described by Streeter as “most helpful in giving the location of the many Jesuit missions in Lower
California. It also shows the route along the west coast of Mexico followed by Baegert in going to California in 1751 and
his route out in 1768, after the expulsion of the Jesuits.” The top right corner of the territory (present-day Arizona) is
labeled, rather ominously, “Los Apaches Barbari.” The excellent plates, which were apparently not issued with all copies,
depict male and female California Indians. The NUC locates only three copies of this second issue.
A prime early account of Baja California, with an important map and plates of the region.
HOWES B29. HILL 46. COWAN, p.27. SABIN 4363. BELL B5 (1772 ed). STREETER SALE 2442. BARRETT 129.
WAGNER SPANISH SOUTHWEST 157. MEADOWS, BAJA CALIFORNIA 1. GRAFF 137 (1772 ed). $9000.
An Extensive Archive of a Connecticut Soldier in the Civil War
7. Bartlett, Halsey: [LETTER ARCHIVE FOR 6th CONNECTICUT INFANTRY SOLDIER HALSEY BARTLETT,
KILLED IN ACTION BY A CONFEDERATE SHARPSHOOTER AT BERMUDA HUNDRED]. [Various places
including New Haven, but mainly Beaufort and Port Royal, S.C.]. 1861-1864. Fifty-seven autograph letters, signed, most
with printed transcriptions. Typical age toning and foxing, else very good condition.
A wonderful Civil War archive consisting of fifty-seven letters spanning 1861 through 1864. Forty-nine letters of the letters are written by Halsey Bartlett, with eight letters by Bartlett’s fellow soldiers or contemporaries after Bartlett’s death
on the battlefield. Halsey Bartlett was from Killingly, Connecticut, and enlisted in the Union Army as a private on Aug.
21, 1861. On Sept. 3 he mustered into Co. “A,” 6th Connecticut Infantry, and went to training camp in New Haven.
Finding himself in an army camp four days after mustering in, he wrote a letter to his mother and sister (the majority of
the letters contained within are addressed to them) and describes life in camp, including the singing of hymns, the rations
for the day, and the name of the regiment’s commander, Col. John Chatfield, who was “in the Bull Run Battle.” By midOctober, Bartlett and the men of the 6th Connecticut find themselves heading south to join Gen. Thomas W. Sherman’s
Port Royal Expedition in South Carolina. While aboard the Steamer Marion on Oct. 27, 1861, he writes to his mother,
echoing the sentiment found in so many early Civil War letters, that he does not believe “this war will last more than six
months. Fremont has a large force under him. He is coming down the Missippi [sic] River and this Division under Gen.
Sherman of 75000 is to meet him and one Great Battle is to be fought which will end the war.”
That “Great Battle” was never realized, and on Jan. 16, 1862 he writes that his regiment has “not been in any Battle yet,”
but that would change three months later, with their participation in the Siege of Fort Pulaski: “April 7, 1862....While I
am writing I can hear Heavy Cannons firing from some place. It sounds up in the direction of Fort Pulaski. There is a
battle somewhere.” The regiment was engaged in the Battles of Secessionville and Pocotaligo before taking part in the
second assault on Fort Wagner (Morris Island, South Carolina, July 18, 1863), where their commander, Col. Chatfield,
was wounded and later died. Seven weeks after the failed assault, the Union Army was still laying siege to the fort. In
a letter dated Sept. 6, 1863, Bartlett, writing from Hilton Head, states he was “on Guard last night and I could hear the
Guns from our Batteries on Morris Island and it seemed that they had opened every Gun for such a noise I have never
heard in the shooting line...no cessation whatever from Eight o’clock last night until daylight this morning.” Later that
night the Confederate garrison abandoned the fort. Eight days later he writes: “Morris Island is all ours now and hope
other strongholds about Charleston will ere long will be ours.”
The following spring the 6th Connecticut moved north into Virginia, where they participated in the Bermuda Hundred
Campaign. Writing again to his sister on May 29, 1864, Bartlett thanks He that “ruleth the whole Nation above and below
that I am still alive for I have been in some very hard battles since I came here....Many who came here with us who were
in the best of health are no more. Oh this cruel war when will it be over? I feel now is the time to prepare for the great
change before it is too late and by all that I can do with Gods help I will try to live alright so that if we do not meet again
on Earth we can meet on the other shore where all is love and sin is no more.” Sadly for Private Bartlett, his war would
end less than three weeks later in the bloody Wilderness Campaign. In a letter from Sergeant Earl W. Fisher to his uncle
(likely Bartlett’s father), dated June 18, 1864, less than three weeks after Bartlett’s last letter, Fisher relays the sad news:
“It has become my very sad duty to inform that cousin Halsey was Killed yesterday while on Picket-duty in front of our
Battry. He was instantly Killed by a Rebel sharp shooter while in the Rifle pits. The ball entering in the right side and
passing up through the heart. He only spoke and asked the boys to carry him off quick and died....I thought you could
break the very sad news to Aunt much better than I could so I write to you the facts as they are to me.”
There are several more letters concerning the death of Bartlett, one of which is written by the lieutenant commanding the
company, Hiram L. Grant, regarding the pay that was owed to him when he died and the fate of his effects.
Civil War correspondence archives from soldiers killed in battle are rare, especially an archive consisting of almost fifty
letters from the fallen soldier. The letters are stored in plastic sleeves and neatly arranged chronologically in two binders,
making it easy to follow Bartlett’s journey through the war, and to his untimely demise on a Virginia battlefield.
$7500.
A Remarkable Early Philippine Imprint and Linguistic Work
8. Bergaño, Diego: ARTE DE LA LENGUA PAMPANGA.... Sampaloc, [Philippines]: Convento de Ntra. Sra. de Loreto,
1736. [32],219,[3]pp. Printed on rice paper. Small quarto. Antique-style mottled
calf, ornately gilt, by Palomino. First few leaves brittle with slight cracking and
minor loss, else in excellent condition. Very good. In a half morocco box.
A remarkable survival of early Philippine printing, the extremely rare first book
printed in Sampaloc (at that time a separate village but now in central Manila)
and the second edition of the first grammar of the Panpanga language of Bataan
and Bulacan in Manila Bay. Panpanga bears similarities to Tagalog (which is
the subject of most early Philippine linguistic works) but with more Malay and
Sanskrit words. The work was first printed in Manila at the Jesuit Press in 1729.
The compiler, Diego Bergaño (1690-1747), was the Augustinian Provincial for
the Philippines and Prior of the Convent at Bacolor.
Printing started in the Philippines remarkably early, in 1593 (the unique example of the founding imprint is in the Rosenwald Collection at the Library of
Congress), and was conducted by presses run by the different religious orders.
Because of the climate and limited press runs, early imprints are notoriously rare,
and generally in very poor condition when found. This is especially true of works
printed on rice paper, as this is. A number of imprints recorded by Medina are
known from references only, with no surviving copies. In the case of this work,
only four copies are noted in OCLC, three in England and one in Germany.
Medina based his entry on the copy in the British Library.
An important early imprint and linguistic work, in remarkable condition for a
work of its origin.
PALAU 27815. RETANA, INVENTARIO 88. TAVERA 274. BRUNET I, 783784, “ouvrage rare”. MEDINA, IMPRENTA DE MANILA, 197. $38,500.
A Superb Copy from the Library of Napoleon’s Naval Minister
9. [Bougainville, Louis Antoine de]: VOYAGE AUTOUR DU MONDE, PAR LA FRÉGATE DU ROI LA BOUDEUSE ET LA FLUTE L’ÉTOILE, EN 1766, 1767, 1768 & 1769. Paris: Saillant & Nyon, 1771. [8],417,[3]pp. with
twenty-three maps and plates. Half title. Quarto. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt, leather label. Minor shelf wear. Small
contemporary bookplate of the Duc de Decrès on front pastedown. Very minor foxing in margins of half title and last leaf.
A remarkably bright and clean copy. Fine.
First edition of this important work. Bougainville first undertook an expedition to the Falkland Islands and Patagonia, at
his own expense, to secure them for French colonization. To avoid possible conflict due to Spain’s envy of this acquisition,
France gave up the territory to her. The narrative of that expedition was related in THE HISTORY OF A VOYAGE TO
THE MALOUINE ISLANDS... (Paris, 1770). After delivering the Falklands to Spain, Bougainville was ordered across
the Pacific to the East Indies, and then home. The completion of the three-year voyage marked the first official French
circumnavigation and inspired much French interest in the Pacific islands. The party collected abundant natural history
information concerning the regions visited; a chapter on the Falklands gives the history of their settlement as well. The
expedition stopped at many South Sea islands, among them Tahiti, and included is a long section on that island as well
as a vocabulary of the natives. Bougainville was in Buenos Aires when the order arrived for the expulsion of the Jesuits
from Paraguay, which he describes in detail. An extraordinary capstone to this remarkable voyage was that Bougainville
lost only seven out of two hundred men.
“Bougainville also touched at the Moluccas, Batavia, and Mauritius before he arrived once again
in France in 1769. Although Bougainville made only a few important discoveries, he created a
great deal of interest among the French in the Pacific, which resulted in the voyages of MarcJoseph Marion de Fresne and Jean François de La Pérouse. The largest island in the Solomons
and two straits in the Pacific bear his name, and the tropical flowering vine called bougainvillea
was also named for him. Bougainville later took part in the American Revolution, survived the
French Revolution, and was made a senator and count of the Empire by Napoleon I. Bougainville’s accounts of Pacific Islanders in this work echoed Jean Jacques Rousseau’s concepts of the
‘noble savage,’ and inspired Denis Diderot to write his denunciation of European contact with
indigenous peoples” - Hill.
This copy belonged to Admiral, later Duc, Denis Decrès, Napoleon’s Minister for the Navy
and the Colonies from 1801 to 1814, with his bookplate on the front pastedown. Decrès was
the Minister directly responsible for Nicholas Baudin’s voyage to Australia. Therefore, there
could have been much instructive value in the present volume for Decrès, who perhaps used
Bougainville’s experiences with regard to Baudin, to assist in the various enquiries into voyage
events, many of them relating to Baudin’s unfortunate command. A highly distinguished French
naval provenance for one of the country’s legendary travel narratives.
HILL 163. SABIN 6864. O’REILLY & REITMAN 283. BORBA DE MORAES, p.115. DU
RIETZ 117. COX I, p.55.
$15,000.
Invaluable Collection of Early Australian Voyages
10. [Brosses, Charles de]: HISTOIRE DES NAVIGATIONS AUX TERRES AUSTRALES.... Paris. 1756. Two
volumes. [2],xiv,463pp. (and pp.437-50, pagination repeated); [2],513,[1]pp., plus seven folding maps. This set lacks the
6pp. of errata sometimes found. Quarto. Contemporary calf, rebacked, gilt leather labels. Corners slightly worn. Older
institutional stamps removed from titlepages, contemporary authorship note on each titlepage. Minor foxing and age toning, some light scattered soiling. About very good.
A fundamentally important work on early exploration and discovery in the Pacific. Charles de Brosses was president of
the Burgundian Parlement, and a shareholder in the French India Company. His work is the first collection of voyages
to deal exclusively with the Pacific, and was intended to spur French commercial activity and colonization in the region.
Brosses includes a long essay on the advantages to be gained from discoveries and an actual plan for a voyage and settlement. His ideas influenced Bougainville on the French navigator’s Pacific explorations and colonization of the Falklands.
Captain Cook took a copy of Brosses’ work with him on his first voyage, which is ironic because part of the author’s aim
was to preempt and challenge British exploration in the Pacific. John Callendar largely copied Brosses’ work for his
TERRA AUSTRALIS COGNITA (1768). Brosses coined several important terms in this work, including “Australasia”
and “Polynesia,” though the idea of calling the southeastern Pacific “Magellanica” has not survived.
“This is an extremely important and thorough collection of voyages, and one of the outstanding works relating to the early
history of Australasia. It contains an account of all voyages, beginning with the second expedition of Vespucci in 1502 and
ending in 1747, in which navigators touched upon the supposed southern continent of Magellanica, which is now represented by Australia and some scattered islands in the Antarctic regions. It also contains the voyages of Magellan, Drake,
Hawkins, Nodal, Schouten, Tasman, and others. The work...is of special importance because in it Brosses proposes that
France should settle Australia with her foundlings, beggars, and criminals” - Hill. The collection contains several significant maps, including Vaugondy’s “Carte reduite de l’Australie pour servir a la lecture de l’Histoire des Terres Australes.”
There are also maps of the Caroline Islands, New Guinea, and the Straits of Magellan, among others.
A rare and important work.
SABIN 8388. HILL 190. KROEPELIEN 132. TOOLEY, MAPPING OF AUSTRALIA AND ANTARCTICA, pp.215,
294. AUSTRALASIAN BIBLIOGRAPHY PART I, p.59. O’REILLY & REITMAN 93. COX I, pp.17-18. SPENCE 154.
NMM I:39. DUNMORE, FRENCH EXPLORERS IN THE PACIFIC I, pp.45-50. $8500.
Among the Earliest Caricatures of the Forty-Niners
11. [California Gold Rush]: Read, James A. and Donald F., illustrators: JOURNEY TO THE GOLD DIGGINS BY
JEREMIAH SADDLEBAGS. New York: Stringer & Townsend, [1849]. 63,[1]pp. Pictorial title and 112 wood engraved
comic illustrations. Oblong octavo. Original green lower wrapper (upper wrapper, which repeats the title, is lacking).
Good. In a modern cloth slipcase.
Rare first edition of among the earliest caricatures of the Forty-Niners. A classic of California Gold Rush comic book
literature. “Of the American comic books on the subject of the gold rush, the best known, although it is scarce, is this.”
This is the story of an “Argonaut who risked the hard journey to the gold fields, found that it was all a good deal more
difficult than he had thought, avoided death by a hair’s breadth time and again, and came home poorer than he went. It
is the best of the American comic books on this theme” (Cowan). “Jeremiah Saddlebags underwent every possible mishap
in this classic spoof of the adventurers of the Forty-Niner” - Streeter.
Two issues of the first edition were published, without priority, in Cincinnati and New York. A scarce example of the best
known work of Gold Rush comic book literature. $9500.
First Edition of the Best Nahuatl Grammar
12. Carochi, Horatio: ARTE DE LA LENGVA MEXICANA CON LA DECLARACION DE LOS ADVERBIOS
DELLA. AL ILLUSTRIS Y REUERENDISS. Mexico: Juan Ruyz, 1645. [6],132 leaves. Small
quarto. 20th-century blue morocco, spine ornately gilt, gilt inner dentelles, a.e.g. Internally
clean. Fine.
This first edition of Carochi’s grammar, a legendary rarity that is widely held to be the best Nahuatl
grammar in the classical tradition. Palau calls it “actualmente rarísima,” while Pilling, writing in
1885, noted: “It is excessively rare, and was so even 200 years ago.” Its continuing importance
is shown in that in 2001, James Lockhart, a leading U.S. scholar of Nahuatl, published a new
grammar of Nahuatl that he based on Carochi’s work because Carochi’s language is so close to
classical Nahuatl and his grasp of nuances was extraordinary. Lockhart notes of Carochi that his
work “[is] studded with authentic examples [of the spoken language] from the time” (Lockhart,
NAHUATL AS WRITTEN [Stanford, 2001], p. viii). Carochi, an Italian Jesuit missionary who
arrived in Mexico in 1605 and died there in 1666, is considered to have been one of the three best
scholars of the colonial era to turn his attention to the study of the native languages of Mexico.
Juan Ruíz, the printer of this fine work, was an important figure in colonial Mexican book arts,
and his are among the most elegant books produced during the 17th century in the New World.
Here he provides handsome typography, accented with wonderful and large woodcut initials,
some historiated, a xylographic tail-piece, and an extremely well done half-page, woodcut coat of
arms of the work’s dedicatee. Copies of this rarity that we have examined in U.S. libraries almost
universally have evidence of hard or abusive use, leading to missing pages or portions of pages,
sometime to entire sections. This copy exceeds the norm in its condition.
MEDINA (MEXICO) 594. PALAU 44870. SABIN 10953. LeCLERC 2310. VIÑAZA 187.
GARCÍA ICAZBALCETA, LENGUAS 16. LÉON-PORTILLA, TEPUZLAHCUILOLLI 544.
DEBACKER-SOMMERVOGEL II:761. $22,500.
One of a Few Copies with Handcolored Plates of American Indians
13. Catlin, George: ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND CONDITION OF THE NORTH
AMERICAN INDIANS WITH LETTERS AND NOTES WRITTEN DURING EIGHT YEARS OF TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE
AMONG THE WILDEST AND MOST REMARKABLE TRIBES
NOW EXISTING.... London: Henry Bohn, 1848. Two volumes. viii,264;
viii,266pp., plus 313 handcolored etchings on 180 plates, including three
maps (one folding). Large, thick octavo. Contemporary three-quarter
red morocco and marbled boards, spines gilt. Extremities lightly worn.
Bookplates on front pastedown. Minor scattered foxing and soiling, some
occasional light offsetting. Very good.
A later edition of Catlin’s LETTERS AND NOTES..., styled “7th edition” on the titlepage. The London publisher, Henry Bohn, took over
publication in 1845 and altered the title to that given above. What is
important in this copy is the colored plates. According to Sabin (who
knew Bohn well, personally, and was certainly in a position to know), “Mr.
Bohn had twelve or more copies colored after the fancy of the artist who
did the work, but tolerably well. Such copies are worth $60 a set.” In
fact, a set brought $24 at the Field sale in 1875. By comparison, a copy of
CATLIN’S NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN PORTFOLIO sold for only
$1.50. Howes states that various editions published by Bohn appear with
the plates colored. It would seem likely that Sabin is correct and only
about a dozen were produced. The plates themselves are clean, fresh, and
very handsomely colored. It is impossible to identify the colorist, but it
was quite possibly was one of the Catlin copyists working in England at
that time, John Cullum or Rosa Bonhuer. The plates illustrate scenes of
Indian life in the West or are portraits of individual Indians.
The book was and is one of the most widely circulated works on American
Indians written in the 19th century, and the illustrations so beautifully
presented herein remain the most important body of illustrative material
for wild Indian life in the American West.
FIELD 260. HOWES C241. McCRACKEN 8K. CLARK III:141. SABIN 11537. STREETER SALE 4277 (1866 ed).
PILLING, PROOF-SHEETS 685. WAGNER-CAMP 84:12. $45,000.
Earliest Obtainable Oklahoma Imprint, First Part of the Bible Translated into Cherokee
14. [Cherokee Language]: Worcester, Samuel Austin, and Elias Boudinot, [translators]: THE GOSPEL OF JESUS
CHRIST ACCORDING TO JOHN. TRANSLATED INTO THE CHEROKEE LANGUAGE. Park Hill: Mission
Press. John F. Wheeler, printer, 1838. 101pp. 12mo. Original cloth spine and marbled boards. Very minor soiling and
wear. Presentation inscription from Elias Boudinot on front flyleaf. Some light foxing but internally clean. Very good plus.
Rare first edition of this early Park Hill Mission imprint. Printed entirely in Cherokee except for part of the title, which
is in English, this work uses Sequoyah’s syllabary (generally called the “Cherokee alphabet”). This is the fourteenth surviving Oklahoma imprint and the third piece to come off the Park Hill Mission press. The first press in the territory was
established at Union Mission in 1835, and eleven imprints survive, printed between late 1835 and June of 1837. The press
moved to Park Hill in the summer of 1837, and two imprints survive from that year - an almanac and a primer. This is
the first imprint from 1838, and it is the first translation of any part of the New Testament into Cherokee.
The translators were Samuel Austin Worcester and Elias Boudinot. Dr. Samuel A. Worcester (1798-1859), a missionary
among the Cherokee for thirty-four years, had long recognized the potential of printed Cherokee to aid in the dissemination of religious knowledge. In December 1827 the MISSIONARY HERALD printed Worcester’s eleven-line Cherokee
translation of the first five verses of Genesis (rooted in the linguistic genius of Sequoyah) and contained the news that
eighty-six pieces of Cherokee type were being cast in Boston. This type would be used to print the famous CHEROKEE
PHOENIX newspaper and numerous other works in the Cherokee language. Elias Boudinot (1802-1839) , known by his
Cherokee name of Gallegina Uwati and also known as Buck Watie, was a promising young Cherokee of mixed parentage
who had recently returned to Georgia after completing his education at the Foreign Mission School in Cornwall, Connecticut. He assisted Worcester with the present production and also served as editor of the PHOENIX. Boudinot later
concluded that the Cherokees would be forced west of the Mississippi no matter what they did, and signed a treaty he felt
gave them the best deal in lands in Oklahoma, an act for which he was eventually assassinated.
The present copy of this rare little volume contains a presentation inscription from Boudinot to Mrs. Elizabeth Gerlick,
written in both Cherokee and English. The English inscription reads, “Presented to Mrs. Elizabeth Gerlick by her friend
Elias Boudinot, Cherokee Chief.” Boudinot was assassinated in 1839, the year after this was published. Such a presentation inscription is, therefore, incredibly rare and desirable.
HARGRETT, OKLAHOMA 20. AYER INDIAN LINGUISTICS (CHEROKEE) 10 (4th ed). PILLING, PROOF SHEETS
4225. PILLING, IROQUOIAN, p.173. $14,000.
Important and Rare Account of Whaling in the Pacific
15. Colnett, James: A VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH ATLANTIC, AND ROUND THE CAPE HORN INTO THE
PACIFIC OCEAN, FOR THE PURPOSE OF EXTENDING THE SPERMACETI WHALE FISHERIES, AND
OTHER OBJECTS OF COMMERCE, BY ASCERTAINING THE PORTS, BAYS, HARBOURS, AND ANCHORING BIRTHS, IN CERTAIN ISLANDS AND COATS IN THOSE SEAS AT THE THE SHIPS OF THE BRITISH MERCHANTS MIGHT BE REFITTED. London: Printed for the author, by W. Bennett, 1798. Stipple-engraved
portrait frontispiece of the dedicatee, Sir Philip Stephens, by J. Collyer after William Beechey; six folding engraved maps,
plate of sperm whale, two plates of coastal profiles. Quarto. Early calf, gilt, rebacked to style. Very good.
This account was privately printed for subscription, and is one of the rarest of Pacific voyage narratives. It offers a full
description of Colnett’s second Pacific voyage in the Rattler, during which he opened up the South Pacific sperm-whale
fields and made two visits to the Galapagos islands. He describes the voyage out via Rio de Janeiro, around Cape Horn,
along the coasts of South America and Mexico, and into the Gulf of California. He did not stop at Hawaii on this visit,
though the lengthy preface contains references to his first voyage, on which he made an extended stay in Hawaiian waters
during the winter of 1787-88. Colnett’s ship, Rattler, a Royal Navy sloop, was purchased from the Admiralty and altered
to serve as a whaler. The voyage lasted from January 1793 until October 1794. In addition to the informative and lively
text, this work is remarkable for the quality of the maps and plates. The folding plate within the text shows a diagram of
a sperm whale, complete with scale and labelled segments, the two folding plates at the back show coastal profiles of six
different locations. The large folding maps show the islands of Felix and Ambrose (on one map), the Pacific Coast of the
Americas as far as California (one map), and individual maps of the islands of Revillagigedo, Cocos, the Galapagos, and
Quibo.
Colnett first visited the Pacific as a midshipman on Cook’s second voyage. Later he made several commercial voyages to
the Northwest Coast, where in 1789 his brush with the Spanish commander at Nootka Sound instigated the “Nootka Controversy.” An account of that incident is also given herein, as is his meeting with the Spanish commander at the Sandwich
Islands. “This narrative is particularly important for the part Colnett played in the dispute between England and Spain
over claims to the Northwest” - Forbes.
HILL 338. HOWES C604, “b.” SABIN 14546. FORBES 280. STRATHERN 120. STREETER SALE 3494. COWAN I,
p.52. $16,000.
First Collected State Constitutions
16. [Constitutions]: THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE SEVERAL INDEPENDENT STATES OF AMERICA;
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE; THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION BETWEEN THE SAID
STATES; THE TREATIES BETWEEN HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY AND THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA. Philadelphia: Printed by Francis Bailey, 1781. [2],226pp. Bound to style in old calf, spine gilt, morocco label.
Very good.
The first collected constitutions of the several states, and an important step on the road to the formulation of the Federal
Constitution. Many constitutional historians, most recently and persuasively Willi Paul Adams, have argued the role of
the state constitutional conventions and constitutions in providing models for the framers of the 1787 constitution. In
many cases it would have been this work which provided a convenient reference to the state constitutions. Printed in an
edition of only 200 copies, this book is quite rare, and one of the most desirable works in American constitutional history.
On Dec. 29, 1780 Congress appointed a committee of three to “Collect, and cause to be published, two hundred correct
copies of the Declaration of Independence with the Constitutions or forms of government of the Several States, to be
bound together in boards.” The MONTHLY REVIEW noted, “It contains a greater portion of unsophisticated wisdom
and good sense, than is, perhaps, to be met with in any legislative case that was ever yet framed. It is, in short, the book
which may be considered the Magna Charta of the United States.”
HOWES C716, “aa.” BRINLEY SALE 4188. EVANS 17390. SABIN 16086. NAIP w020083. MATYAS, DECLARATION
OF INDEPENDENCE, 81-01. COHEN 3017. $25,000.
Key Work on Hudson Bay
17. Dobbs, Arthur: AN ACCOUNT OF THE COUNTRIES ADJOINING TO HUDSON’S BAY, IN THE
NORTH-WEST PART OF AMERICA: CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THEIR LAKES AND RIVERS,
THE NATURE OF THE SOIL AND CLIMATES, AND THEIR METHODS OF COMMERCE, &c. SHEWING
THE BENEFIT TO BE MADE BY SETTLING COLONIES, AND OPENING A TRADE IN THESE PARTS:
WHEREBY THE FRENCH WILL BE DEPRIVED IN A GREAT MEASURE OF THEIR TRAFFICK IN FURS,
AND THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN CANADA AND MISSISSIPPI BE CUT OFF: WITH AN ABSTRACT
OF CAPTAIN MIDDLETON’S JOURNAL, AND OBSERVATIONS UPON HIS BEHAVIOUR DURING HIS
VOYAGE AND SINCE HIS RETURN...THE WHOLE INTENDED TO SHOW THE GREAT PROBABILITY
OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. London: Printed by J. Robinson, 1744. [2],ii,211pp. plus folding engraved map “A
New Map of Part of North America.” Quarto. Handsome 20th-century panelled calf, elaborately gilt spine, leather label,
raised bands. Fold lines of map expertly backed with tissue, with some small areas of unobtrusive paper repair. Short
horizontal tear in outer margin of titlepage, not affecting text. A few short marginal tears in text, with one repaired tear
at F2. Overall, a very good copy.
A large paper copy of this important attack on the Hudson’s Bay Company monopoly in the Americas, with a valuable
early account of the search for a northwest passage. Dobbs, later colonial governor of North Carolina, was an active opponent of the monopoly of the Hudson’s Bay Company, pointing out that if they did not alter their policies, the French
would quickly occupy the central plains to the west of their traditional areas of influence (as, in fact, they did). This and
other works on a similar theme by Dobbs led to the investigation of the monopoly by a British Parliamentary committee
in 1749. Dobbs never saw the Bay, and his information was largely based on French publications and Canadian sources,
particularly that of Métis trader Joseph La France. According to Peter C. Newman, the account of La France’s exploits is
this work’s “most valuable historical contribution” (EMPIRE OF THE SUN, [2000], p.213). The second main thrust of
Dobbs’ narrative concerns his advocacy of the necessity of searching for a northwest passage: he gives an account of the
early exploration of the area and of the opportunities that further exploration would offer. In addition, he fires the opening broadside in his attack on Christopher Middleton for his leadership of the 1741-42 expedition in search of a northwest
passage. This controversy, played out in print, lasted for more than three years.
FIELD 433. HOWES D373, “b.” KERSHAW 422. LANDE 1144. NMM 796. PEEL 8. SABIN 20404. TPL 193. STREETER
SALE 3637. VERNER & STUART-STUBBS 21. WAGNER NORTHWEST COAST 549. $17,500.
An Important Book-Length Manuscript on Constitutional Theory and South American Independence Movements
by the Progenitor of the DuPont Dynasty, Sent to Thomas Jefferson for Comments
18. [Du Pont de Nemours, Pierre Samuel]: [MÉMOIRE] AUX RÉPUBLIQUES ÉQUINOXIALES, ET A CELLES
QUI LEUR SERONT NATURELLEMENT CONFÉDÉRÉES. [Paris]. March 1815. [2, manuscript title],[viii, manuscript letter],138,[3, index]pp., with original foliation of main text in manuscript. Quarto. Original plain brown wrappers
bound into contemporary three-quarter morocco and marbled boards, gilt morocco label on front board. Minor shelf wear.
Mild foxing, moderately but evenly toned, binder’s ticket on front pastedown. Very good.
An important manuscript treatise on constitutional theory, and a proposed system of government for the new republics
emerging from the independence movements of South America, by French-American writer, economist, publisher, government official, and aristocrat Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours. Du Pont wrote numerous influential treatises on political
and economic theory. This, his last major work, was never published and only survives in the present manuscript. This is
almost certainly the manuscript Du Pont loaned to Thomas Jefferson for his comments and advice in the spring of 1816.
Du Pont first came to prominence with his major economic treatise, PHYSIOCRATIE, OU CONSTITUTION NATURELLE DU GOUVERNEMENT LE PLUS AVANTAGEUX AU GENRE HUMAIN, written in 1768, in which
he coined the term “physiocracy.” He went on to become an economic advisor to Jacques Necker and King Louis XVI,
serving as Inspector General of Commerce. Although he initially supported the French Revolution with other moderates
like Lafayette, he soon became its victim, and was awaiting execution in 1794 when the Terror ended with the downfall of
Robespierre. Still at odds with the French government, he emigrated to the United States in 1799 with his son, Eleuthere
Irenée du Pont, who there founded E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., creating one of the great family dynasties in America.
Pierre Samuel du Pont continued to write important works of political theory, and became a friend and correspondent of
many leading figures in the United States, most notably Thomas Jefferson, whom he had first encountered in Paris in the
1780s. Between 1800 and 1817 they exchanged dozens of letters on various topics, including this manuscript. In 1800,
at Jefferson’s request, he drew up plans for a national educational system. In 1802 he returned to France, where he was
an important promoter of the Louisiana Purchase. He remained in France and took an active part in the restoration of
the monarchy in 1814. In the spring of 1815 he fled Paris during Napoleon’s Hundred Days and returned to the United
States, where he remained until his death in 1817.
Du Pont’s last major work, the RÉPUBLIQUES ÉQUINOXIALES was never published, and until the emergence of this
manuscript from the estate of a Du Pont descendant, only known through references in his correspondence. Du Pont
and Jefferson corresponded about the work in 1815 and 1816. The first reference appears in a letter dated May 26, 1815
where, amid a broader discussion of various political developments in South America, Du Pont alludes to what would prove
to be one of his final literary undertakings and the impetus behind it:
“Ten or twelve large republics are being created on your continent. They will establish themselves and grow stronger,
although a few might be temporarily vanquished by the strength or weakness of European Spain. Three of these republics,
which are already united, have done me the honor of consulting me....They had no idea yet about representative governments, and they had experienced the danger of tumultuous assemblies.”
In mentioning this “consultation,” Du Pont refers to an occasion which must have occurred in Paris at some point in
1814. The collapse of Spanish government during the Napoleonic era had opened the door for independence movements
in the Spanish colonies in the Americas. At that stage Manuel Palacio-Fajardo, representing the state of New Granada,
approached Du Pont and asked him to draft a constitutional guide book for the practical and economical management of
his fledgling republic.
The manuscript has a dedicatory inscription to “Don M. Palacios” on the fly leaf. The main body of the manuscript,
presumably executed in at least one secretarial hand, with the dedicatory epistle to Manuel Palacios-Fajardo in a second,
distinctive (and likely authorial) hand. The colophon is dated with a holographic signature: “Paris 13 Mars 1815, Du Pont
[de Nemours].” The manuscript shows abundant corrections in ink, with period repairs and pasted corrigenda to certain
passages. The slightly later engraved ownership bookplate and various later owners’ inscriptions tie the manuscript to
the Du Pont family, including Frances “Fanny” du Pont (née Solana), Alexis and Elizabeth du Pont, and [A.I.] du Pont.
Shortly after completing the manuscript Du Pont fled Paris to escape the returning Napoleon. By the time he wrote
Jefferson in late May he was in Delaware. In December 1815, Du Pont visited Monticello and left a manuscript of the
RÉPUBLIQUES ÉQUINOXIALES with Jefferson for his perusal. Du Pont had asked Jefferson on several earlier occasions to proofread and critique his latest writings, but only shortly after its dispatch, he asked Jefferson to return the
manuscript. He explains the reason for this in his letter of December 20:
“If you have read the MÉMOIRE AUX RÉPUBLIQUES ÉQUINOXIALES, I would be grateful if you could send it back
to me, either directly if your franking privilege allows it, or through either the president or the secretary of state, who
could get it to me under their countersignatures. I will send you another copy of it, which I am having prepared right
now. But I need to give the former one to Don Pedro Gual, who has been sent to the United States by the republics that
consulted me and that are united as New Granada. It may be that General Palacio has not received either of the two copies
I sent him; and the opportunity of transmitting one personally to a civil officer of these republics is not to be neglected.”
Jefferson returned the manuscript sometime around the beginning of the new year, 1816, as may be inferred from his Dec.
31 and Jan. 3 replies to Du Pont. Having delivered the desired copy to deputy Don Pedro Gual, Du Pont then resent the
manuscript of RÉPUBLIQUES ÉQUINOXIALES to Jefferson for his commentary. On March 31, 1816, Du Pont writes:
“I have the honor of sending you again my little gospel for the use of the Spanish republics, which I brought to you four
months ago. Thank God I have had and will still have several copies of it to give away, as I have only one secretary....This
book on republics, newly born, to be born, or to be restored, is one of my writings for which I most desire your approval
and blessing. I would like to find a good writer to translate it into Spanish.”
On April 24, 1816, Jefferson wrote Du Pont a long letter from his second home, Poplar Forest, discussing the manuscript
in depth. Jefferson was critical of Du Pont’s proposed system. In his observations on the dangerously oligarchic structure
Du Pont recommended, Jefferson directly criticizes the arguments found in chapter twelve of the present manuscript,
“Assemblée communal, seconde section: des assemblées de canton,” and in its concluding chapters, feeling that the upper
levels of government were too far removed from “the people.” However, he praised Du Pont’s “moral principles” and
provides a ringing statement of his democratic theories of government. Jefferson evidently returned the manuscript to
Du Pont with this letter.
Until now the unpublished treatise, RÉPUBLIQUES ÉQUINOXIALES, has been known solely through the foregoing
letters. Nevertheless, there are several crucial indications that the present manuscript is the working copy, now coming
to light after two centuries in the care of the Du Pont family. The title and dates of composition, which match those
signaled in the Jefferson correspondence; the dedicatory inscription and letter to M. Palacios, whom Du Pont identified
as his intended recipient in his letter to Jefferson of Dec. 20, 1815; and, finally, the colophon, which Du Pont signed and
dated, together allow for little doubt that this particular copy is identical with the literary work which Du Pont himself
described, and thereafter sent twice, to his friend, Thomas Jefferson.
The overall scope and narrative content of this newly rediscovered manuscript demonstrate that it must be the formerly
“lost” treatise. It is clear that the chapter headings in the present copy (as outlined below) conform to Du Pont’s more
general interests and views on agriculture, economics, constitutional theory, and anthropology; these were themes which
he discussed with an unwavering consistency throughout his other works.
The body of the manuscript consists of sixteen chapters (several having complex groupings of subsections). The chapter
headings are as follows: 1) “Objet et motifs de cet ouvrage”; 2) “Apperçu général”; 3) “Principes de la société”; 4) “Application de ces principes aux nouvelles républiques américaines”; 5) “Des mâitres et des esclaves”; 6) “Des engagés pour
dettes”; 7) “Avantages de la liberation des esclaves”; 8) “Dignité et droits des propriétaires des terres et de mines”; 9)
“Obligations attachées a la haute dignité des propriétaires des terres”; 10) “Principes des finances”; 11) “Des rapports
entre les différentes classes d’hommes et de citoyens - articles de la constitution”; 12) “Hierarchie des administrations
publiques inférieures”; 13) “De la représentation nationale”; 14) “De quelques institutions nécessaires”; 15) “De la grande
confédération américaine”; 16) “Résumé de ce travail.”
One final observation on the “state” or “edition” of this manuscript: it seems likely that this particular copy represents a
second (or possibly third) authorial recension of the text of RÉPUBLIQUES ÉQUINOXIALES. This is evidenced not
only by the frequent revisions and corrections throughout, but also by a statement Du Pont makes in the manuscript’s
prefatory letter to Don Manuel Palacios, wherein he remarks on the superiority of this present state of the text: “J’ignore
si la première copie du Mémoire ici joint a pu vous parvenir, et je vous envoie une seconde en peu corrigée.”
A monumental political work by the progenitor of the Du Pont family, a work thought lost for almost 200 years.
Gilbert Chinard, THE CORRESPONDENCE OF JEFFERSON AND DuPONT DE NEMOURS (Paris, 1931). Founders
Online provides access and translations of dozens of letter between Du Pont and Jefferson. $75,000.
The Greatest Early Work on the French in the Antilles
19. Dutertre, Jean Baptiste: HISTOIRE GENERALE DES ANTILLES HABITÉES PAR LES FRANÇOIS.... Paris:
Chez Thomas Jolly, 1667-1671. Four volumes bound in three. [20],593,[3]; [16],539; [16],317,[8]; [6],362,[13]pp., plus
eighteen plates (many folding) and five folding maps. Extra engraved titlepage in first and second volumes. Plate of arms
in first, third, and fourth volumes. Contemporary calf, leather labels, spines gilt extra. Minor rubbing, some light edge
wear. Final text leaf in first volume torn but no loss. Overall a fine, particularly fresh set in the original bindings.
The best edition, after the original abridged edition of 1654. This extensive work is full of detailed descriptions of life in
the French Antilles, including natural history, slavery, plantation activities, and the like. The fine engraved plates depict
sugar plantation work, slaves manufacturing indigo, animals, spiders, land and naval battles between the French and British in the Caribbean, etc. The maps are of St. Christopher, Guadeloupe, St. Croix, Marigalande, and Martinique. “This
voluminous account of the French settlements in the West Indies contains numerous passages which indicate the importance
of tobacco in the political economy of the islands” - Arents. According to Rich, Dutertre was forced to publish the original
1654 edition before the work was complete: “The first edition of Father Du Tertre’s HISTORY OF THE ANTILLES,
or rather the project of that work, which the Rev. Father was obliged to put to press in haste, because he understood that
some other person was about printing it under some other name, thereby depriving him of the credit of it.”
SABIN 21458. JCB (3)III:154-155. ARENTS 299. HANDLER 7. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 667/37. RICH 299.
$24,000.
Rare Spanish Voyage to the Northwest Coast, with Superb Indian Images
20. Espinosa y Tello, Jose: RELACION DEL VIAGE HECHO POR LAS GOLETAS SUTIL Y MEXICANA EN EL
AÑO DE 1792 PARA RECONOCER EL ESTRECHO DE FUCA.... Madrid: La Imprenta Real, 1802. Text volume:
[16],clxviii,185pp. plus folding letterpress table. Folio atlas: Title-leaf, contents leaf, nine engraved maps (four folding),
and eight engraved plates (two folding). Text: Quarto. Contemporary calf, spine gilt. Moderate edge wear, rubbing to gilt
on spine. Small 19th-century bookplate on front pastedown. Small, unobtrusive ownership stamp on titlepage, minor occasional foxing. Atlas: Folio. Contemporary marbled wrappers, sewn. Very good. in matching half morocco boxes.
An important Spanish voyage to Nootka Sound and the Northwest Coast. The two ships, Sutil and Mexicana, were associated with the Malaspina expedition, but pursued a separate course and made their own observations. The first part of the
text is a review by Martin Fernandez Navarrete of all Spanish voyages to the Northwest Coast, deemed by Lada-Mocarski
“unsurpassed in importance.” The second part, the actual account of the expedition, is by Jose Cardero, the expedition
artist. The ships made a complete survey of the shore at the east end of the strait of Juan de Fuca on the coast of presentday British Columbia, arriving at Nootka Sound in the spring of 1792 and working through the summer.
The atlas contains some notable maps and plates. The maps show the California coast from Baja to the northwest, Vancouver Island and the waters around it, the coast of Alaska and British Columbia, a more detailed map of California from
Cape San Lucas to Cape Mendicino, the port of San Diego, Monterey Bay, Nootka, and two more bays near Juan de Fuca.
The plates include two wonderful folding illustrations of scenes at Nootka showing native houses, boats, and scenery; two
portraits of Nootka chiefs; a plate of the famous shaman prayer box; and two plates of native woodcarving.
A work of the greatest rarity (rated “dd” by Howes, his highest level of rarity), one of the scarcest of Pacific voyages, and
the last great Spanish exploration of the Northwest Coast.
HOWES G18, “dd.” HILL 570. LADA-MOCARSKI 56. STREETER SALE 2459. WAGNER NORTHWEST COAST
252, 861. GRAFF 1262. PALAU 82853, 82854. REESE & MILES, CREATING AMERICA 98. SABIN 69221.
$35,000.
Classic Work on Pirates of the Caribbean
21. Esquemeling, Alexander: BUCANIERS OF AMERICA: OR, A TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE MOST REMARKABLE ASSAULTS COMMITTED OF LATE YEARS UPON THE COASTS OF THE WEST-INDIES, BY THE
BUCANIERS OF JAMAICA AND TORTUGA, BOTH ENGLISH AND FRENCH. London: William Crooke, 1684.
[12],115,151,[1],124,[11]pp. plus four engraved portraits (including frontispiece), four engraved plates (two folding), and
double-page engraved map of Panama. Small quarto. Early 20th-century three-quarter morocco and marbled boards, gilt
spine, marbled endpapers, a.e.g. Minor edge and corner wear, spine gilt rubbed. Inner margin of first two leaves strengthened, one plate trimmed and mounted, light foxing. Overall, a clean copy. Very good.
The first English edition of the first extensive account of the pirates of the West Indies, with all plates and map present.
A fourth part was issued separately the following year. One of the most engaging examples of early British Americana, this
work has served as the basis for countless novels, stories, and dramas, as well as establishing the popular legends of many
famous pirates. One buccaneer, Sir Henry Morgan, followed a very modern course and sued the author for defamation.
He was awarded £200 for damages.
CHURCH 689. SABIN 23479. STEVENS, HISTORICAL NUGGETS 1002. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 684/54. WING
E3894. HILL 578. BEINECKE LESSER ANTILLES COLLECTION 82. $8500.
An Important Report to Charles IV from His Primary Minister
22. Floridablanca, Moñino y Redondo, Jose Conde de: GOBIERNO DE ESTADO DEL CONDE DE FLORIDABLANCA [manuscript title]. Spain. Nov. 6, 1789. [128]pp. In Spanish. Folio. Contemporary vellum, pigskin loop
closures. Minor soiling to binding. A few small tears, minor scattered soiling. Written in a neat and legible humanist-style
hand. Bookplate of Dr. Don Vicente Bas de Tejada on final leaf. Very good.
A manuscript report addressed to King Charles IV of Spain from his chief minister, detailing the state of Spanish affairs,
including involvement in the Americas. An impressive report, providing unique insight into Spanish, European, and
world history. The Count of Floridablanca served as the reformist chief minister to both Charles III and IV, and is now
regarded as one of Spain’s most effective statesmen. He undertook a complete reform of the government, revamped the
educational system after successfully lobbying the Pope’s support to expel the Jesuits from Spain, established commercial
freedom in the American Colonies, and deftly maneuvered Spain’s involvement in both the American Revolution and the
French Revolution.
The report details, among numerous other topics, the negotiations between Portugal and Spain relating to the boundaries
in the New World (including the United States, Brazil, Paraguay, Mexico, Africa, and Asia). The report documents the
treaty of 1777, which redistributed land between Spain and Portugal, including the return of la Colonia de Sacramento
to Spain. It likewise enumerates the successful achievements of the junta of state formed in 1787. It also discusses the
intervention of various European courts, including those of France and England; and an extensive discussion of the American Revolution, the support of the “insurgents” by the French in 1778, including the Franco-American Alliance, and the
position of several European courts related to the American independence, describing in great detail the events and names
of people involved. The report was clearly of extreme secrecy, only one known copy was made: “...executado muy reservadamente y a puerta cerrada” [executed very discreetly and behind closed doors] and sent to Pedro Rodrigues, the Conde
de Campomanes (1723-1802), who was serving as the president of the council of Castile at the time.
A highly significant manuscript. $21,000.
Franklin Leaves England for America on the Eve of the Revolution
23. Franklin, Benjamin: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TO SIR ALEXANDER DICK, CONCERNING HIS DEPARTURE, AND A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION FOR BENJAMIN
DUFFIELD]. London. March 13, 1775. [2]pp. plus integral address leaf. Quarto, on a folded folio sheet. Old fold lines.
Some slight separation at folds. Address leaf with some wear and loss from wax seal. Very good.
An interesting letter written by Benjamin Franklin to Sir Alexander Dick in Edinburgh, taking his leave from England
on the verge of the American Revolution, and recommending the son of his friend, Benjamin Duffield. Franklin writes:
“John Dalrymple the other day inform’d me that you and your dear family were lately well, which to hear gave me great
pleasure. Being on the point of embarking for America, I would not leave Britain without taking leave of a friend I have
so much reason to esteem and love. I pray God to bless you and yours with every kind of felicity. If at any time I can on
the other side of the water render acceptable service to you or any friend of yours, it will be a pleasure to me to receive
your commands. May I take the liberty of recommending to your countenance and protection an ingenious young man,
son of a friend of mine at Philadelphia, now studying physic at Edinburgh. Your kind advice may be of great use to him,
and I am persuaded he will always retain a grateful sense of any favourable notice you may think fit to take of him. His
name is Duffield, and he will have the honor of presenting this to your hands. With Sincere Affection & Attachment I
am ever, Dear Sir, Your obliged & most obedient humbl. Servant B. Franklin.”
Franklin has added a postscript: “Our Friend Sir J. Pringle was well last evening.”
In 1773, Benjamin Franklin was serving as an agent for the Pennsylvania Colony in London when he came into possession
of letters that further strained the increasingly tenuous relationship between England and her American colonies. Written
by Thomas Hutchinson, the English-appointed governor of Massachusetts, these letters called for reductions in liberties
allowed to English citizens residing in America. Franklin promptly forwarded these letters to America, where they were
published, resulting in a public outcry. Called before the English Foreign Ministry in January 1774, Franklin was severely
berated for this act and dismissed as deputy postmaster general for North America.
In spite of this affront, Franklin continued to strive for reconciliation between the English colonists and their mother
country. Hoping to avert the passage of the Boston Port Bill, he went so far as to personally guarantee payment for the
tea dumped during the Boston Tea Party. Even after the bill passed and Boston’s port was closed, Franklin maintained
his conciliatory stance. Subsequently, he began collaborating with William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, hoping that this treaty
might fare better than previous endeavors. When Pitt presented the
bill in February 1775, it was vehemently attacked by the ministers
and their supporters. Lord Sandwich, one of the most vocal opponents of the bill, turned his attention towards Franklin, who was
present, and stated “he fancied he had in his eye the person who
drew it up, one of the bitterest and most mischievous enemies this
country has ever known.”
This personal attack was the last straw, and Franklin emerged from
that session an ardent devotee of colonial independence. He set sail
for Philadelphia on March 21, a week after this letter was written
and just three weeks before the first shots were fired at Lexington
and Concord, signaling the start of the Revolutionary War. Landing at Philadelphia on May 5, the talk of war and the creation of a
new nation was everywhere. The next day Franklin was elected a
delegate to the second Continental Congress, and he quickly emerged
as one of the most radical members of that body.
Sir Alexander Dick (1703-85), to whom Franklin writes here, was one
of Franklin’s warmest friends in Great Britain. A physician, Dick
practiced medicine in Edinburgh and was the president of the College of Physicians there from 1756 to 1763. He was also a member
of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and one of the founders
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Benjamin Duffield (1753-99)
was the son of one of Franklin’s friends, a Philadelphia clock- and
watchmaker named Edward Duffield. Benjamin Duffield traveled
to Edinburgh in 1774 to complete his medical studies, and Franklin
had a hand in introducing him to several important persons there.
Apparently he ran into some trouble because he sent Franklin a letter from Bordeaux in 1779, apologizing for past transgressions and
indicating he had finally managed to scrape together the money to come home to Philadelphia. In the end he did return
to Philadelphia, acquiring a large medical practice and becoming an early lecturer in the field of obstetrics.
Franklin’s postscript refers to Royal Society member Sir John Pringle, another Scottish doctor who was a good friend of
both men. A wonderful and unpublished letter from this key period in Franklin’s diplomatic career. $37,500.
Francis Parkman’s Copy: A Premier Western Association
24. Fremont, John C.: REPORT OF THE EXPLORING EXPEDITION TO THE ROCKY
MOUNTAINS IN THE YEAR 1842, AND TO OREGON AND NORTH CALIFORNIA IN
THE YEARS 1843-44. Washington. 1845. 693pp. plus twenty-one plates and five maps (three
folding, one in a pocket attached to rear inner board). Original cloth, expertly rebacked preserving
original spine. Institutional bookplate on front pastedown, blindstamp on titlepage, duplicate and
discard stamps on pastedown and verso of titlepage, occasional foxing. Lacks one botanical plate;
large folding map reinforced, with some splits along folds. A very good copy in a half morocco
folding box.
An incredible association copy of the Senate issue of the Fremont report, once owned by Francis
Parkman, with his ownership signature on the titlepage and front fly leaf. The present copy also
contains the bookplate of the Parkman Collection from Harvard College Library. The titlepage
was dated just after Parkman’s return from the West and during the writing and serial publication
of THE CALIFORNIA AND OREGON TRAIL, “Parkman undertook a trip into the Wyoming
Territory from March to October 1846. In this foolhardly but exhilarating adventure, he was accompanied by his cousin Quincy Adams Shaw. The two men explored along the California and
Oregon Trail, traveling in the process from St. Louis to the environs of Fort Laramie, where they
camped and hunted with the Sioux and studied frontier and Native-American tribal life. Once
back in the East, Parkman found that is was most stressful to combine a modicum of law office work in New York City
and steady writing of serial installments of THE OREGON TRAIL (published in the KNICKERBOCKER MAGAZINE,
Feb. 1847-Feb.1849” (ANB).
The Fremont report is certainly one of the most important single pieces of Western Americana. In various editions this
report was more widely read than any other account of the West before the gold rush, and the text and map had a profound effect on the routes frequented during the great period of emigration. The maps include the huge folding “Map
of...Oregon & North California in the Years 1843-44,” with many lakes and rivers traced in color. Fremont also made
substantive contributions as a naturalist, mainly through the work of John Torrey, who accompanied the expedition.
WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 497. RITTENHOUSE 229. WHEAT GOLD REGIONS 3266. TWENEY 89, 22. HILL
640. ZAMORANO 80, 39. MINTZ 165. COWAN, p.223. HOWES F370. SABIN 25845. WAGNER-CAMP 115:1. GRAFF
1437. TAXONOMIC LITERATURE 1852. Coats, THE PLANT HUNTERS, p.322. ANB 17, p.51. $15,000.
The History of Peru by a Half-Inca Prince
25. Garcilaso de la Vega, “El Inca”: PRIMERA PARTE DE LOS COMMENTARIOS REALES,
QUE TRATAN DEL ORIGEN DE LOS YNCAS, REYES QUE FUERON DEL PERU, DE
SU IDOLATRIA, LEYES, Y GOVIERNO EN PAZ Y EN GUERRA.... Lisbon: En la Officina de
Pedro Crasbeeck, 1609. [10],264 leaves plus engraved plate. Small folio. 18th-century red morocco,
gilt. Corner bumped and lightly worn, head of spine slightly chipped, hinges rubbed. Bookplate of
Henry Stevens of Vermont on front pastedown, old ink ownership stamp on titlepage. Minor paper
repairs to first few leaves, minor scattered foxing and soiling. Very good.
First edition of the “Royal Commentaries” of the great half Spanish, half Inca historian, Garcilaso
de la Vega. The Inca was the foremost historian of early Peru, and his works are the basis of our
knowledge of Incan history. Born in Cuzco, the son of a Spanish nobleman and an Indian princess, he was a second cousin to the last Incan rulers of Peru. He left Peru as a youth and lived in
Spain the rest of his life. The PRIMERA PARTE... deals entirely with the Incan empire and the
conquest of Peru. The Spanish critic, Menendez y Pelayo, called it “the most genuinely American book that has ever been written, perhaps the only one in which a reflection of the soul of the
conquered raced has survived.”
EUROPEAN AMERICANA 609/44. MEDINA BHA 549. PALAU 354788. SABIN 98757.
$17,500.
Firsthand Account of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
26. Gass, Patrick: A JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGES AND TRAVELS OF A CORPS OF DISCOVERY, UNDER
THE COMMAND OF CAPT. LEWIS AND CAPT. CLARKE [sic] OF THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES,
FROM THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER MISSOURI THROUGH THE INTERIOR PARTS OF NORTH AMERICA
TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN, DURING THE YEARS 1804, 1805 & 1806. Pittsburgh: Printed by Zadok Cramer, for
David M’Keehan, Publisher and Proprietor, 1807. 262pp. 12mo. Contemporary calf spine and patterned paper boards,
spine gilt. Boards heavily worn. Later ownership label on front pastedown, contemporary ownership inscriptions on endpapers. Two leaves (C3, C4) loose and slightly worn. Some light scattered foxing and soiling, but on the whole quite clean
internally. Very good. In a cloth clamshell case.
A rare, unsophisticated copy of the first edition of the earliest published firsthand account of the Lewis and Clark expedition: “one of the essential books for an Americana collection” (Streeter). The origins of Gass’ journal are explained in
an April 7, 1805 letter from Meriwether Lewis to President Thomas Jefferson: “We have encouraged our men to keep
journals, and seven of them do so, to whom in this respect we give every assistance in our power.” Because of the delay
in the publication of the official account, Gass’ journal became the first to appear in print, and as such was eagerly taken
up by readers starved for information about the discoveries. “Patrick Gass was a rough reliable frontier soldier when he
joined the Lewis and Clark expedition. He was made a sergeant when Sergeant Floyd died. He writes a terse soldier’s
narrative with rugged honesty....For seven years his story offered the only real information the nation had of the Oregon
country and of the Louisiana Purchase. It is a work of primary importance” - Webster A. Jones. First editions of Gass’
journal have become scarce, particularly in good condition.
STREETER SALE 3120. GRAFF 1516. SABIN 26741. HILL 685. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 12646. SMITH 3465.
WAGNER-CAMP 6:1. HOWES G77, “b.” LITERATURE OF THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION 3.1.
$16,000.
In a Full Royal Binding for George III, with an Astounding Provenance:
Two Kings, a Royal Duke, a Royal Bastard, and a Wig Maker
27. [Great Britain]: [George III]: [Royal Navy]: ANNO REGNI GEORGII II. REGIS MAGNÆ BRITANNIÆ,
FRANCIÆ, & HIBERNIÆ, VICESIMO SECUNDO. AT THE PARLIAMENT BEGUN AND HOLDEN AT
WESTMINSTER, THE TENTH DAY OF NOVEMBER, ANNO DOMINI 1747...AN ACT FOR AMENDING,
EXPLAINING, AND REDUCING INTO ONE ACT OF PARLIAMENT, THE LAWS RELATING TO THE
GOVERNMENT OF HIS MAJESTY’S SHIPS, VESSELS, AND FORCES BY SEA.
London: Printed by Charles Eyre and William Strahan, 1780. 62pp. Small quarto. Dark blue
morocco, gilt, gilt inner dentelles; cover embellished with gilt-tooled Star, Garter, Royal
Motto, and royal initials of King George III. Light wear to extremities. Multiple bookplates
and remarkable provenance, as detailed below. Very good. In a clamshell box, gilt leather label.
Two Acts of Parliament concerning the Navy and Naval Affairs which have been specially
bound for King George III. The first act, passed under George II, explains and condenses
several acts of Parliament into one clearer and more manageable act. The second act, paginated continuously but with its own titlepage, is an act to explain and amend the previous
act. We locate one copy on OCLC, at the Society of the Cincinnati. This work does not
appear to be listed in the ESTC.
This copy is remarkable due to its provenance. The binding is stamped with the arms and
initials of King George III, tooled in the Star and Garter and topped with a crown. The front
endpapers bear many bookplates, beginning with the bookplate of the Duke of Sussex, son
of George III and the most famous book collector among his sons, with a clipping from the
Sussex auction. Here it was evidently bought by his brother, the Duke of Clarence, and has
his bookplate (a naval officer most of his life, he would have been particularly interested in
the subject). Clarence later became William IV, and the volume passed to the First Earl of
Munster, illegitimate son of William IV and his mistress, Dorothy Jordan. Although he was
treated well and made a member of the Privy Council by his cousin, Victoria, the Earl killed
himself in 1842. The volume was acquired by the 2nd Lord Stanley of Aderley, a prominent
political figure and well known collector. From the Stanley family the volume passed to another famous English book collector, Robert Hovenden, who made a fortune in the wig business and spent his profits on
books. After him it was owned by Dr. Francis Gray Smart, another collector and antiquary. Sometime after Smart’s death
in 1913 the volume came into the hands of the great English collector, Maj. J.R. Abbey, best remembered for his great
bibliographies of English illustrated works (his collections now reside at the Yale Center for British Art). Abbey’s penciled
notes are on the fly leaf. This volume was sold with his remaining books and manuscripts at auction in the late 1960s.
A wonderful volume with a truly stupendous provenance.
OCLC 70821711. $8500.
One of the Author’s Rarest Books
28. Green, Jonathan H.: TWELVE DAYS IN THE TOMBS; OR, A SKETCH OF THE
LAST EIGHT YEARS OF THE REFORMED GAMBLER’S LIFE. New York. 1851.
259pp. 12mo. Publisher’s embossed cloth, spine gilt. Spine and edges faded, corners scuffed.
Mild foxing. Good.
Green’s memoirs, detailing his life as a gambler, and of his swift reformation after twelve years
as one of the most skilled players in the United States. After his reformation he became an
active crusader against illegal gambling, writing several important works exposing the tricks
of the trade and encouraging rehabilitation from vice. His works are some of the most elusive
and important devoted to early American gambling. Sabin incorrectly lists this edition as
published in 1850. Rare.
SABIN 28535 (ref). $5000.
The Great Classic of Constitutional Thought: The Streeter Copy
29. Hamilton, Alexander; James Madison; and John Jay: THE FEDERALIST: A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS WRITTEN IN FAVOR OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION, AS
AGREED UPON BY THE FEDERAL CONVENTION, SEPTEMBER 17, 1787. New
York: Printed and sold by John and Andrew M’Lean, 1788. Two volumes bound in one. vi,227; vi,384pp. 12mo. Contemporary calf, rebacked. Boards worn at extremities. Early 19th-century newspaper clippings mounted to the front and rear
pastedowns concerning authorship of the essays. Vol. I: name clipped from title at an early date, repaired, with one word
in ink facsimile; two short edge tears in title-leaf; small paper loss to lower corner of A1 without loss to text; short tear
in E3 with loss to one letter of the recto catchword; large tear in G5 repaired with cellotape; small marginal paper loss to
foredge of H5; natural paper flaws to G3 and L2. Vol. II: name erased from title at an early date with small area of paper
loss at head of leaf; small marginal tear to Ii3 without loss of text; rear endpapers chipped along foredges. Provenance:
William Coxe, Jr., 1762-1831 (early signature on each title, early ink marginalia including adding the names of authors
to each essay, underlinings, etc.); Thomas W. Streeter (book label, part II of his sale, Parke Bernet, April 20, 1967, lot
1049). In a black morocco box.
Thomas Streeter’s copy of the rare first edition of the most important work of American political thought ever written,
and, according to Thomas Jefferson, “the best commentary on the principles of government.”
The first edition of THE FEDERALIST comprises the first collected printing of
the eighty-five seminal essays written in defense of the newly-drafted Constitution.
The essays were first issued individually by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison,
and John Jay in New York newspapers under the pseudonym of Publius to garner
support for the ratification of the Constitution. The first thirty-six numbers of THE
FEDERALIST were here published in book form in March 1788, with the remaining
forty-nine, together with the text of the Constitution, in May of that year. Upon
its publication, George Washington noted to Alexander Hamilton that the work
“will merit the Notice of Posterity; because in it are candidly and ably discussed the
principles of freedom and the topics of government, which will always be interesting
to mankind” (George Washington, letter to Hamilton, August 28, 1788).
The genesis of this “classic exposition of the principles of republican government”
(Bernstein) is to be found in the “great national discussion” which took place about
the ratification of the Constitution, and the necessity of answering the salvos in print
from the Anti-Federalists and other opponents of a strong federal government. The
original plan was that James Madison and John Jay were to help Hamilton write a
series of essays explaining the merits of their system, whilst also rebutting the arguments of its detractors. “Hamilton wrote the first piece in October 1787 on a sloop
returning from Albany....He finished many pieces while the printer waited in a hall
for the completed copy” - Brookhiser. In the end, well over half of the eighty-five
essays were written by Hamilton alone. Despite the intense time pressures under
which the series was written “what began as a propaganda tract, aimed only at winning the election for delegates to New York’s state ratifying convention, evolved into
the classic commentary upon the American Federal system” (McDonald).
THE FEDERALIST is without question the most important commentary on the
Constitution, the most significant American contribution to political theory, and
among the most important of all American books.
EVANS 21127. GROLIER AMERICAN 100, 19. STREETER SALE 1049 (this copy, sold for $1100). CHURCH 1230.
HOWES H114, “c.” COHEN 2818. SABIN 23979. FORD 17. PRINTING AND THE MIND OF MAN 234. R.B.
Bernstein, ARE WE TO BE A NATION? THE MAKING OF THE CONSTITUTION (1987), p.242. R. Brookhiser,
ALEXANDER HAMILTON: AMERICAN (1999), pp.68-69. F. McDonald, ALEXANDER HAMILTON: A BIOGRAPHY,
p.107. $200,000.
A Forty-Niner Paints Indians in Arizona
30. [Hart, Robert Benjamin]: [COLLECTION OF FIVE ORIGINAL WATERCOLORS OF PIMA INDIANS AND
THEIR LANDS IN ARAVAIPA CANYON, ARIZONA, MADE BY FORTY-NINER ROBERT HART ON HIS
JOURNEY TO THE CALIFORNIA GOLD FIELDS]. [Aravaipa Canyon, Az. late July 1849]. Five original watercolors
on card stock, detailed below. A bit of residue on the verso of the images. One drawing with four pin-sized holes. Very
good. Each matted and housed in a red morocco backed box.
An extraordinary group of watercolors made by a Virginian travelling the Southern Route to the California gold fields
in 1849, among the earliest illustrations depicting the Pima Indians of southern Arizona, and showing their lands in the
Aravaipa canyons.
A very interesting group of five original watercolors showing Pima Indians and their lands in Arizona, made by a young
‘49er on his way to the California gold fields by the Southern Route. The Southern Route, also called the Gila Trail, was
the least travelled overland route by those headed to California in 1849, and original artwork from those overlands is very
rare. These watercolors are also notable as being among the earliest images of the Pima Indians of which we are aware.
Although unsigned, these watercolors were apparently produced by Robert Hart (b. 1834), whose family owned and operated several gold mines in Spotsylvania and Louisa counties in Virginia in the 1840s. In the summer of 1849, Hart,
along with his cousins Andrew Bronaugh and Henry Hart, went west to participate in the California Gold Rush. They
went overland, and decided to travel by the Southern Route, also known as the Gila Trail, which took them through New
Mexico and Arizona, and through the lands of the Pima and other Indian tribes. The Hart-Bronaugh party passed through
southern Arizona in late July, 1849, and arrived at the California gold fields the next month. Robert Hart did not stay
long in California, leaving in the fall of 1850. He soured on mining and on living conditions in the mines, and returned
to the East Coast by boat and across the Isthmus of Panama.
Records from the 1850 census indicate that young Robert was back in Virginia, living with his aunt, Mary Frances Jenkins
Holladay at her home, known as “Woodside,” in Louisa County. Following Hart’s return home from California, he worked
with his father, Robert, and his uncle, Colonel James Hart, at the Old Rough and Ready Furnace in Louisa County. After
his father’s passing Hart moved with his family to Christian County, Kentucky. These watercolors were found at “Woodside” by a Hart-Jenkins family member, and have remained in the family since they were re-discovered.
The watercolors are accompanied by typed excerpts from the diary of Robert
Hart. These excerpts were included in a family history published by Robert
M. Jenkins in 2000. The watercolors included in this collection conform to
diary entries made by Hart in the period July 28 to July 31, 1849, when he
and his fellows were travelling through Pima lands.
The illustrations (all but one untitled) are as follows:
1) Watercolor showing five Pima Indians and an Anglo-American, 5¾ x 8
inches. The white man in the picture is seated with his arm resting on
a table which also holds an inkwell. Some surmise that it may portray
Robert Hart himself, though the figure in the watercolor appears much
older than Hart, who was only fifteen when he went west to California.
The scene appears to take place inside a Pima tent. Four of the Pima are
fully dressed and the illustration wonderfully portrays their clothing and
headdresses. The fifth Pima stands with his back to the viewer, wears a
simple loin cloth, and holds a long spear.
2) Watercolor showing three horses, one with a rider, passing along a river
in a small canyon, 6 x 3¼ inches. This illustration has four small pinsized holes. The rider is on the horse nearest to us, and has a rifle slung
across his lap. The horses are shown walking through a shallow stream
that passes through a steep-walled canyon.
3) “Glade in Aravipa Canons.” Watercolor showing four men setting up camp
in a glade in Aravaipa Canyon, 2 5/8 x 4 3/16 inches. This illustration
shows a lush glade with four men (three of them seated) depicted in the
bottom center of the image.
4) Watercolor showing a narrow passage through a steep canyon, 5¼ x 3 3/8
inches. Almost certainly another scene from Aravaipa Canyon, showing
the beautiful but difficult terrain through which Hart and his companions
passed.
5) Watercolor showing a small waterfall, 4½ x 2¾ inches. This image, showing a small trickle of a waterfall, conveys the deep brown tones of the rock
walls and the dark green vegetation growing thereon.
In his diary entry for July 28, 1849 (a typed transcription of which accompanies the watercolors), Hart wrote of his encounters with the Pima, the type of which appears to be depicted in the first watercolor described above: “We today remained
with the Pimos [sic], with whom we have had two trades of mules and horses. And our camp has been thronged with them
all day with various articles for trade....The Chief has been to see us. They none of them wear any clothing, only around
the hips, and their skin is sun proof. For it is far hotter than ever I felt and has, from the heat of the sand, blistered my
feet through my shoes.” Another of Hart’s diary entries, from a few days before, may well relate to the scene depicted
in watercolor number two, above: “Our trail takes us down this branch and, after following it 15 or more miles, we again
reached the river. How unlike we left it! From flat land about it, the rocks had taken place and there was nothing but
mountains of rock or incredible height binding it in.” $17,500.
Classic Photographically Illustrated Book on the American West
31. Hayden, Ferdinand V.: Russell, Andrew J., photographer: SUN PICTURES OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN SCENERY, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL FEATURES, AND SOME
ACCOUNT OF THE RESOURCES OF THE GREAT WEST; CONTAINING THIRTY PHOTOGRAPHIC
VIEWS ALONG THE LINE OF THE PACIFIC RAIL ROAD, FROM OMAHA TO SACRAMENTO. New York:
Julius Bien, 1870. viii,150pp. Thirty mounted albumen photographs. Large quarto. Half title. Contemporary three-quarter
green morocco and cloth, spine gilt, a.e.g.; rebacked, preserving the original spine. Corners heavily worn. Bookplate of
noted collector Kenneth E. Hill on front pastedown. Images bright and clean, internally fresh. Very good.
This impressive book, one of the standard pieces of photographically illustrated Western Americana, was prepared by the
famous geologist, Ferdinand V. Hayden. The photographs, taken by A.J. Russell, appeared in a larger format the previous
year in Russell’s extremely rare album, THE GREAT WEST ILLUSTRATED. The views, depicting scenes along the line
of the Union Pacific, are intended to illustrate the geology which can be observed from the train. Despite the title, all
the photographs are of locales within the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada (twelve in Wyoming, sixteen in Utah, and two in
California). Hayden wrote: “The pictures have been arranged so as to commence with the first range of mountains west
of Cheyenne, and to continue thence to the Salt Lake Valley with the view that the book may be used as a guide by those
who will avail themselves of the grand opportunities for geological study....”
“In using Russell’s photographs as illustrations in SUN PICTURES OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN SCENERY, geologist
Hayden took the long view of history, emphasizing the value of pictures as documents of geological change while professing indifference to the more recent past. For Hayden, the geologic features of the West were like an open book, affording
the educated reader the opportunity to understand millions of years of geologic history” - Sandweiss.
HOWES H337. SABIN 31007. TRUTHFUL LENS 81. FLAKE 3920. MARGOLIS, TO DELIGHT THE EYE 7.
SANDWEISS 177. $15,000.
Early American Travels and Observations on Indians
32. Hennepin, Louis: NOUVEAU VOYAGE D’UN PAIS PLUS GRAND QUE L’EUROPE AVEC LES REFLECTIONES DES ENTERPRISES DU SIEUR DE LA SALLE, SUR LES MINES DE ST. BARBE, &c.... Utrecht. 1698.
[70],389pp. plus folding map and four folding plates. 12mo. Handsome tan crushed morocco, gilt extra, leather spine labels,
marbled endpapers, a.e.g., by Lucien Broca. A few tiny marginal paper repairs. Otherwise, internally clean. Near fine.
First edition. This edition of Hennepin’s writings is a continuation of his NOUVELLE DECOUVERTE... of the previous year. In this work he added new material drawn from contemporary sources on Indian manners and customs and
various North American travels. The first eight chapters describe the adventures and murder of La Salle, while the last
concern the British treatment of the Recollets after the taking of Quebec in 1629. Lengthy passages are taken from Le
Clercq’s ETABLISSEMENT DE LA FOY of 1688. Despite the fact that Hennepin has been severely and justly criticized
for imposture and plagiarism, his works, according to Thwaites, still stand as “invaluable contributions to the sources of
American history; they deserve study, and to this day furnish rare entertainment. We can pardon much to our erratic friar,
when he leaves to us such monuments as these.”
No other narratives of French exploration in the interior of North America enjoyed as wide a popularity or stimulated as
much controversy and criticism among later scholars as those of Hennepin. A Recollet missionary, Father Hennepin went
to New France in 1675, and in 1678 he set out with La Salle to explore the fertile basin of the Mississippi River. While
La Salle turned back to raise funds to continue the voyage, Hennepin went on to ascend the river from Fort Crevecoeur
(Chicago) and penetrated farther northwest into the interior than any white man to that time. He discovered St. Anthony’s
Falls near the present site of Minneapolis, and provided the first eyewitness account of Niagara Falls.
EUROPEAN AMERICANA 698/101. ARENTS 432. CHURCH 774n. HARRISSE 177. HOWES H417. SABIN 31351.
STREETER SALE I:104. STREIT II:2775. $11,000.
With Extraordinary Plates Depicting the Activities and Bases of the Dutch East India Company
33. Heydt, Johann: ALLERNEUESTER GEOGRAPHISCH UND TOPOGRAPHISCHER SCHAU-PLATZ, VON
AFRICA UND OST-INDIEN. Wilhermsdorf & Nuremberg: C. Tetschner, 1744. 12 leaves (including engraved title-leaf
and frontispiece), 345pp., 2 leaves, plus 115 maps and plates. Large oblong folio. Contemporary vellum, lettered in gilt
on spine. Soiling and minor scratches. A few leaves and minor soiling and dampstains. Else a very good copy, with wide
margins, entirely unsophisticated.
A very rare work, seldom found complete. The large, lavish, and handsome engravings depict the ports and bases of the
Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Asia and Africa, primarily based on original drawings by the author. Heydt (1702-
50) was a German engraver and traveller who worked in the Far East from 1734 to 1741. The single most illustrated
place is Batavia (modern day Jakarta), the main base of the VOC in Asia, with forty-seven plates devoted to the port, city,
and buildings. Another large group is dedicated to Ceylon, and about twenty depict different locations in the East Indies
(including fine views of Malacca, with a city plan, Sumatra, the Moluccas and other locations). A series of plates shows
scenes at the Cape of Good Hope. There is also a plate showing Nagasaki in Japan and another of Ormus in the Persian
Gulf. Besides these there are several maps, included a double-hemisphere map of the World, Ceylon, the East Indies
showing northern Australia, Africa, and the north Atlantic. The fine plates are one of the richest iconographic depictions
of the Dutch settlements and colonies in Asia and Africa, all beautifully drawn and engraved.
MENDELSSOHN I, pp.700-10. BELL H172. LANDWEHR, VOC BIBLIOGRAPHY 469 (with a complete list of
plates). $28,500.
A Charleston Lawyer Argues for Slavery
34. [Holland, Edwin Clifford]: A REFUTATION OF THE CALUMNIES CIRCULATED AGAINST THE SOUTHERN & WESTERN STATES, RESPECTING THE INSTITUTION AND EXISTENCE OF SLAVERY AMONG
THEM. TO WHICH IS ADDED, A MINUTE AND PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE ACTUAL STATE AND
CONDITION OF THEIR NEGRO POPULATION. Charleston: Printed by A.E. Miller, 1822. 86,[2, errata]pp. 20thcentury half morocco and cloth, gilt, by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Modern bookplate on rear pastedown, text tanned and a
bit foxed, with a few instances of marginal bracketing in pencil. Overall, a very good copy.
Edwin Clifford Holland (1793-1824) was a lawyer, poet, essayist, and noted editor of the CHARLESTON TIMES. He
gained some measure of fame for his collection, ODES, NAVAL SONGS, AND OTHER OCCASIONAL POEMS... which
contains his patriotic poem, “The Pillar of Glory.” In the present work Holland argues for the continuation of slavery in
the American South, writing that if taken away, “it will become the solemn and imperious duty of the slave-holding states,
to resist. The Union to the latter, is not worth preserving, if they are to fall victims to such a policy....”
HOWES H588, “aa.” SABIN 32500. ROSENBACH 8:1145. $6500.
Massachusetts-New York Boundary Dispute
35. [Hutchinson, Thomas]: THE CASE OF THE PROVINCES OF MASSACHUSETTS-BAY AND NEW-YORK. RESPECTING THE BOUNDARY LINE
BETWEEN THE TWO PROVINCES. Boston: Printed by Green and Russell,
1764. 30pp. and leaf with table. Stitched as issued. A fine, uncut copy. In a cloth
slipcase with bookplates of Matt B. Jones and Harrison D. Horblit on the chemise.
The dispute over the New York and Massachusetts border went back to the period
of Dutch control in the latter colony, and had remained an issue through a century
of British control of both provinces. Hutchinson, as governor of Massachusetts,
moved to resolve the question. Here he sets out the position of Massachusetts in
the discussion. Quite rare. Howes states that only five complete copies are known,
though there are several more copies listed in ESTC. Goodspeed’s sold the present
copy in 1941, from the Matt B. Jones collection.
HOWES H850, “b.” SABIN 34068. EVANS 9731. STREETER SALE 697. $9000.
Very Early Laws and Imprints of Illinois,
Among the First Things Printed There
36. [Illinois]: LAWS PASSED BY THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL AND HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES OF ILLINOIS TERRITORY.... [with:] LAWS PASSED
BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF ILLINOIS TERRITORY.... Kaskaskia.
1816-1818. Three volumes. 84,iii; 60; 104pp., final volume extra-illustrated with a
folding table. 20th-century three-quarter morocco and marbled boards, spines gilt. Extremities lightly worn. Some light
tanning and wear to text. Very good.
A run of early laws printed in Illinois Territory, covering the fourth, fifth, and sixth legislative sessions of the territory,
including an imprint by Matthew Duncan, first printer in Illinois. Printing in Illinois began in 1814, and these imprints
are among the first dozen items off the presses in the territory. The Fourth Session’s laws were printed by Matthew
Duncan; the Fifth Session’s laws were printed by Cook & Blackwell; and the Sixth Session’s laws were printed by Berry &
Blackwell. This is the first issue of the laws for the Fifth Session, which were reprinted due to a shortage of copies. The
folding table present in the laws of the Sixth Session concerns the militia and appears to be from another document. A
rare run of early Illinois laws.
SHAW & SHOEMAKER 37911, 41125, 44420. BYRD, ILLINOIS 6, 8, 12. $12,500.
The Statistics on the Louisiana Purchase, 1803
37. [Jefferson, Thomas]: APPENDIX TO AN ACCOUNT OF LOUISIANA, BEING AN ABSTRACT OF DOCUMENTS, IN THE OFFICES OF THE DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, AND OF THE TREASURY. [Washington.
1803]. [2],xc pp. plus folding table. Modern half calf and marbled boards. Minor foxing. A very good copy.
The true first edition of the separately-printed Appendix of Jefferson’s AN ACCOUNT OF LOUISIANA..., one of the
most important books in Western Americana. Although the Philadelphia 1803 edition has been called the first edition of
this work, it is in fact the second, issued after this undated, unimprinted Washington edition. A contemporary inscription
in the Yale copy of the larger work, AN ACCOUNT..., reads: “Sam. Mitchell Washington Nov 14, 1803.” On the verso
of the titlepage the same hand has written:
“This pamphlet was written by Mr. Wagner, chief-clerk in the office of Mr. Madison Secretary of State; the materials were
collected by the President of the U.S. [Mr. Jefferson] who received them in answer to certain interrogatories put by him
to discreet and intelligent men in Louisiana. The various answers to these executive queries were put into the hands of
Mr. Wagner to be compiled and digested in the Congress by Mr. Jefferson on 15th November, 1803.”
The APPENDIX bears a similar signature on the titlepage: “Sam Mitchell Nov. 28 1803.” The Philadelphia edition was
printed from the Washington edition, and in the next year a flood of second, third, and fourth generation editions from
Baltimore, Providence, Albany, Carlisle, Wilmington, and Raleigh, North Carolina appeared, indicating the nation’s eagerness to overcome the general lack of previous information on Louisiana.
The APPENDIX contains much valuable information on Louisiana, including a printing of Le Baron de Carondelet’s laws
dated June 1, 1795, which concludes with several pages on the correct policing of slaves.
WAGNER-CAMP 2b:1a. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 5199. HOWES L495. $7500.
Jefferson Refuses a Demand “for certain services performed”
38. Jefferson, Thomas: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JAMES L. EDWARDS OF BOSTON, REFUSING DEMANDS FOR PAYMENT FROM A NEWSPAPER PUBLISHER]. Monticello. Sept. 5, [1811]. [1½]pp. on a single leaf, with separate leaf folded as cover, addressed and franked with Jefferson’s
signature. Pen and ink on paper. Quarto. Clean, partial split along one fold, old 1/16-inch archival repairs to three corners,
else fine. Cover leaf with modest soiling, traces of seal. In a blue half morocco and cloth slipcase.
An interesting Jefferson letter in which he rebuffs a request for payment of a thousand dollars by the editor of the SAVANNAH REPUBLICAN newspaper. He stridently objects to the payment demand, and seeks to defend his honor and
reputation in setting his correspondent straight.
Jefferson subscribed to a number of newspapers while he was
president, including the SAVANNAH REPUBLICAN. He cancelled almost all of these subscriptions, including that for the
...REPUBLICAN, when he left office at the beginning of 1809,
taking care to pay all his outstanding bills. It appears from this
letter that Norman McLean, one-time editor of the ...REPUBLICAN, promised his successor, James Edwards, that he would
pay Edwards money he owed him once he collected $1000 owed
McLean by Jefferson. Edwards wrote to Jefferson on Aug. 20,
1811 asking for the money that Jefferson owed McLean. In the
present letter Jefferson stridently objects to the request and insists
that his account with McLean is settled. A review of Jefferson’s
memorandum and account books corroborates Jefferson’s claim.
McLean was seemingly trying to forestall Edwards’ requests for
payment by claiming that Jefferson still owed him money, and that
he would pay Edwards when he was paid by Jefferson.
Jefferson writes:
“Sir,
“Your letter of August 20th has truly surprised me. In that it is
said that, for certain services performed by Mr. James Lyon and
Mr. Samuel Morse, formerly editors of the Savannah Republican, I
promised them the sum of 1000 D. This, Sir, is totally unfounded.
I never promised to any printer on earth the sum of 1000 D., nor
any other sum, for certain services performed, or for any services
which that expression would imply. I have had no accounts with
printers but for their newspapers, for which I have paid always
the ordinary price and no more. I have occasionally joined in moderate contributions to printers, as I have done to other
descriptions of persons, distressed or persecuted, not by promise, but the actual payment of what I contributed. When
Mr. Morse went to Savannah, he called on me and told me he meant to publish a paper there, for which I subscribed, and
paid him the year in advance. I continued to take it from his successors, Everett & McLean, and Everett & Evans, and
paid for it at different epochs up to December 31, 1808, when I withdrew my subscription. You say McLean informed you
‘he had some expectation of getting the money, as he had received a letter from me on the subject.’ If such a letter exists
under my name, it is a forgery. I never wrote but a single letter to him; that was of the 28th of January, 1810, and was on
the subject of the last payment made for his newspaper, and on no other subject; and I have two receipts of his, (the last
dated March 9, 1809) of payments for his paper, both stating to be in full of all demands, and a letter of the 17th of April,
1810, in reply to mine, manifestly showing he had no demand against me of any other nature. The promise is said to have
been made to Morse & Lyon. Were Mr. Morse living, I should appeal to him with confidence, as I believe him to have
been a very honest man. Mr. Lyon I suppose to be living, and will, I am sure, acquit me of any such transaction as that
alleged. The truth, then, being that I never made the promise suggested, nor any one of a like nature to any printer or
other person whatever, every principle of justice and of self-respect requires that I should not listen to any such demand.”
Jefferson sent James Lyon a copy of the letter the same day:
“You will perceive at once its swindling object. My confidence in your character leaves me without a doubt of your honest
aid in repelling this base and bold attempt to fix on me practices to which no honors or powers in this world would ever
have induced me to stoop. I have solicited none, intrigued for none.”
Jefferson died severely in debt, and he was plagued by money problems throughout his life. He was no doubt sensitive
to the problem of his outstanding accounts and, as this letter shows, overly sensitive to demands for money which he did
not owe. An evocative letter.
WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON (1907) XIII, pp.82-84. $45,000.
“A monumental geographical work important equally for its text as well as its maps” - Streeter
39. Jefferys, Thomas: THE NATURAL AND CIVIL HISTORY OF THE FRENCH DOMINIONS IN NORTH AND
SOUTH AMERICA. London: Printed for Thomas Jefferys, 1760. Two parts bound in one volume. [8],168; [4],246pp.,
plus eighteen engraved folding maps and plans by Jefferys. Titles printed in red and black. Folio. Expertly bound to style
in half 18th-century russia and period marbled boards, spine gilt with raised bands. Very good.
An important mid-18th-century work on French Canada, Louisiana, and the French colonies in the Caribbean. The introduction to the first part makes clear the reasons for the publication of the work at the end of the French and Indian War:
“The Possessions of the French upon the Continent of North America, were always an interesting object to Great-Britain,
as it is always necessary to know the Situation, Strength and Resources of contiguous Dominions that belong to a powerful
State, whose Opposition of Interest makes her a natural Enemy, and whose military and commercial Knowledge makes
her formidable as well in Peace as in War. But the Knowledge of this Territory is now become yet more important, as
Providence has thought fit by a Series of Successes almost miraculous, to make it our own.”
The editor goes on to note that the text is compiled from the “best Accounts that are already extant, either in our own or
other Languages, and improved by Materials that have from Time to Time been communicated to the Editor.” The text
includes notes on the geography and history of the area described together with useful notes on the natural history and
economic potential of the newly acquired lands. The maps by Thomas Jefferys are justly celebrated for their accuracy as
well as aesthetic appeal.
First edition, corrected second issue. This copy matches the second issue in that it includes the inserted pages *129-*138
which give an account of the French attempt to retake Quebec in 1760, and includes the overslip on page 80 in the second
part, listing the parishes of Guadeloupe.
LANDE 471. SABIN 35964. FIELD 775. HOWES J83. STATON & TREMAINE/TPL 319. STREETER SALE I:128
WALDON, p.454. $28,000.
The Exceedingly Rare Arrowsmith Map of Texas
40. Kennedy, William: TEXAS: THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PROSPECTS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS.
London: R. Hastings..., 1841. Two volumes. lii,378; vi,548pp., complete with all four maps:
1) “Map of Texas Compiled from Surveys Recorded in the Land Office of Texas and Other Official Surveys by John Arrowsmith.” 23¼ x 19½ inches. With both insets, showing the Republic of Texas and Mexico, and the inset of Galveston
Bay. Contemporary hand coloring to political borders in red, yellow, green, and blue; three colonies outlined in early
ink on the bottom of the map. Small tear closed and repaired in upper right portion, else very good.
2) “Map of the Republic of Texas and the Adjacent Territories Indicating the Grants of Land Granted Under the Empresario System of Mexico.” 12¼ x 15 inches.
(3 & 4) Full-page maps opposite pp.38 (Map of Matagorda Bay) and 50 (Aransas Bay). Original publisher’s cloth, stamped
in blind and gilt. Spines lightly sunned, corners rubbed. Internally clean. Near fine. In a cloth slipcase.
Perhaps the single best work published on Texas during the Republic period, Kennedy’s book covers both the geography
and natural features of Texas, and its history during the revolution and early Republic. Kennedy, an Irish poet, later went
to Galveston as the British consul there and encouraged
European emigration. Many of the basic documents
of the revolution saw their first European publication
here. “This book...was pronounced to be the best
history of Texas extant. The Texan Congress passed
a resolution of thanks to the author....The physical
description of Texas...[is] the best published up to that
time....No historian of Texas has more eloquent paragraphs” - Raines.
The map is one of the most important of the Republic period, engraved by John Arrowsmith in London.
“The large map by John Arrowsmith ranks with those
of Tanner and Emory as the best maps of Texas during
the period of the republic” - Jenkins. “Arrowsmith’s
map was probably the first to show the full extent of
Texas’s claim of the upper Rio Grande...the popularity
and general acceptance of the map has been documented
by the fact that many map makers copied liberally from
Arrowsmith’s map, including some of its errors. The
map certainly was the best information on Texas geography available in Europe during a decade in which the
political fate of the new Republic was of international
concern” - Martin & Martin.
A seminal work on Texas in the Republic period.
GRAFF 2308. CLARK III:189. HOWES K92. RADER
2159. RAINES, pp.132-33. SABIN 37440. STREETER
TEXAS 1385. BASIC TEXAS BOOKS 117. WEBB,
TEXANA 8. LC EXHIBITION 115. MARTIN &
MARTIN 32. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 451.
$25,000.
With an Important Series of Maps
41. Laet, Joannes de: NOVUS ORBIS SEU DESCRIPTIONIS INDIAE OCCIDENTALIS LIBRI XVIII.... Leiden:
Elzevier, 1633. [32],690,[18]pp. plus fourteen double-page maps by Hessel Gerritsz. Sixty-eight woodcuts in text. Half title.
Engraved title with elaborate emblematic and architectonic border. Folio. Contemporary calf, covers with double-fillet
border in blind, spine in seven compartments with raised bands, the bands flanked by pairs of fillets in blind, painted figure
“4” carefully painted in an attractive early calligraphic hand in white paint in the uppermost compartment, red-stained
edges, expert restoration to head and foot of spine. In a modern cloth chemise, and red half morocco and cloth slipcase,
lettered in gilt on the spine.
An exceptional copy of the first Latin edition of “arguably the finest description of the Americas published in the seventeenth century” (Burden).
The maps include the first to use the names Manhattan, New Amsterdam
(for New York), and Massachusetts, and “one of the foundation maps of
Canada” (Burden).
This work is one of the most important 17th-century New World histories.
It is a cornucopia of early knowledge of the Americas and was compiled by
de Laet, a director of the newly formed Dutch West India Company, with
access to all the latest geographic knowledge. Pierre François Xavier de
Charlevoix, writing in the 18th century, noted that the work as a whole
“is full of the most excellent and curious details of the natural history, and
the character, manners, and customs of the American aborigines, derived
from the reports of the European mission establishments in America.”
The present first edition in Latin was preceded by two editions in Dutch
(the first of which was published in 1625). De Laet continued to add to
and improve the work throughout his lifetime: the present edition contains
fourteen maps as opposed to the ten in the 1625 edition, and the text has
been considerably expanded.
This copy is unusual in two respects: firstly, its outstanding condition; and
secondly, for the early, certainly 17th-century, annotations by an Englishspeaking owner who appears to have had some contact with the Americas, or
at least with the products of the region. The front free endpaper includes
an accomplished small ink drawing of a plant labeled “Cassavi” with a twoline note beside it: “Mammosaporta / a Jamaica fruite.” The second blank
includes a reference to an important scientific work by Mario Bettino first
published in 1645, MARII BETTINI APIARIUM MATHEMATICUM.
The index of the subjects of the woodcuts on the page preceding the first
page of the main text includes two references which correctly identify “a
Kinge Crab. novis Anglis” and a pineapple as a “Queene Pine.”
The maps are by Hessel Gerritsz and are some of the very best to appear up to that time. Gerritsz had trained under Willem Blaeu, but had
been chosen in preference to his old master when the appointment of
cartographer to the Dutch West India Company was made. The charming in-text illustrations are chiefly of biological
or botanical specimens and are generally surprisingly accurate for their time, and each of the eighteen constituent books
is turned over to the consideration of a different region of the New World. The quality of the maps can be gauged from
the fact that they served as a prototype for the mapping of America, with a number of them being reused in various later
17th-century atlases.
The maps are titled as follows:
1)
2)
3)
4)
“Americae sive Indiae occidentalis tabula generalis.” Burden 229: “The best west coast delineation to date.”
“Maiores minoresque insulae. Hispaniola, Cuba, Lucaiae et Caribes”
“Nova Francia et regiones adiacentes.” Burden 230: “One of the foundation maps of Canada.”
“Nova Anglia, Novum Belgium et Virginia.” Burden 231: “The first [map] to use the names Manhattan and N. Amsterdam. It is also the earliest to use...Massachusets [sic].” CUMMING 35. SCHWARTZ & EHRENBERG, p.105.
5) “Florida. et regiones vicinae.” Burden 232: “Its influence was quite considerable.” CUMMING 34.
6) “Nova Hispania, Nova Gallicia, Guatamala.” Burden 215: “The delineation of the coastlines here was the most accurate to date.”
7) “Tierra Firma item Nuevo Reyno de Granada atque Popayan”
8) “Peru”
9) “Chili”
10) “Provinciae sitae ad fretum Magellanis itemque fretum Le Maire”
11) “Paraguay, o prov. de rio de la Plata: cum adiacentibus Provinciis, quas vocant Tucuman, et Sta. Cruz de la Sierra”
12) “Provinciua de Brasil cum adiacentibus provinciis”
13) “Guaiania sive provinciae intra rio de las Amazonas atque rio de Yviapari sive Orinoque”
14) “Venezuela, atque occidentalis pars Novae Andalusiae”
BORBA DE MORAES, p.451. SABIN 38557. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 633/65. STREETER SALE 37. STREIT
II:1619. JCB (3)II:246. TIELE 628. BELL L33. VAIL 84. RODRIGUES 1352. ASHER 3. WILLEMS 382. ALDEN
II:337. BRUNET III:741. BEINECKE, LESSER ANTILLES COLLECTION 31. $30,000.
Classic of the New Orleans Campaign of 1814
42. Latour, Arsene Lacarriere: HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF THE WAR IN WEST FLORIDA AND LOUISIANA
IN 1814 - 1815.... Philadelphia. 1816. Text volume plus atlas. Text: xx,264,cxc pp. Atlas: Title-leaf plus eight colored
maps and plans (seven folding). Text volume: Frontispiece portrait. Original paper boards, paper label with manuscript
title. Spine perished, boards lightly soiled. Bookplate on rear pastedown. Contemporary ink signature and annotations on
front free endpaper, minor foxing. Atlas: Original paper covered boards, paper label with manuscript title on front cover.
Spine largely perished. Modern bookplate on rear pastedown. The bookplate of Frank Cutter Deering laid in each volume.
A near fine set, in original condition and untrimmed. Together in a half morocco and cloth box, spine gilt.
One of the most important books on the War of 1812 in the South and West, describing the campaign around the battle
of New Orleans. “Major Latour’s account of the military events is minute and interesting, and the appendix contains an
invaluable collection of state papers” - Sabin. “Chief authority, well-documented, on these operations” - Howes. The eight
maps (Sabin states that there are only seven) consist of battle plans and “A General Map of the Seat of War in Louisiana
and West Florida,” executed by Major Latour in his capacity as engineer. Streeter describes the maps and plans (which
are sometimes found bound in a separate atlas, as here) as “invaluable,” and Clark calls the HISTORICAL MEMOIR... “a
detailed and precise narrative of the 1814-15 campaign from the first arrival of British forces on the Louisiana coast until
their complete evacuation.” The portrait of Jackson, not found in all copies, is present here.
SABIN 39214. CLARK II:158. STREETER SALE 1075. HOWES L124, “aa.” SHAW & SHOEMAKER 38034, 38035.
SERVIES 878. $7500.
Remarkable Field Press Announcements of the Lincoln Assassination
43. [Lincoln Assassination]: [Stanton, Edwin]: [TWO ARMY FIELD PRESS PRINTINGS OF TELEGRAPHS
REPORTING THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN, THE ATTACK ON WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
AND NEWS OF THE FINAL SURRENDER OF THE CIVIL WAR]. Greenville, Tn. April 16 and 18, 1865. Two
broadsides, 10 x 8 inches and 7¾ x 5 inches respectively. Light foxing, a couple of spots of staining, old folds. Very good.
Two fascinating Army field press printings of telegraph messages reporting the assassination of President Lincoln and the
attack on Secretary William H. Seward, with other important news of the day, including Gen. Sherman’s offer of surrender terms to Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. Each broadside is titled, “Latest by Telegraph,” with the individual
dispatches addressed to either Maj. Gen. David S. Stanley or Maj. Gen. John A. Dix, some from Secretary of War, Edwin
Stanton. These messages were printed on an Army field press at the headquarters of the Fourth Army Corps, commanded
by Stanley, in Greenville, Tennessee.
The first broadside was printed on April 16, 1865, printing three telegraph dispatches from the previous day. The first
dispatch, dated April 15, contains three dispatches pertaining to the Lincoln assassination and the attack on Secretary of
State William H. Seward. The first dispatch gives a detailed account of the Lincoln assassination:
“President Lincoln and wife with their friends, last evening, visited Fords theatre, for the purpose of witnessing the performance of ‘Our American Cousin’.... Before the third Act, and while there was a temporary pause for one of the actors
to enter, the sharp report of a pistol was heard, which momentarily attracted the attention of the audience, but suggested
nothing serious, until a man rushed to the front of the President’s box waving a long dagger in his hand, and exclaiming,
‘SIC SEMPER TYRANUS,’ and immediately leaped from the box.... There was a rush towards the President’s box, when
cries were heard of ‘stand back,’ ‘give him air,’ ‘has any one stimulants?’ etc. After a hasty examination, it was found that
the President had been shot through the head, above and back of the Temporal Bone, and that some of the brains were
oozing out.”
The dispatch continues with a re-telling of the examination of the president’s box, including the “single barreled pocket
pistol found upon the carpet.” At the end of the first dispatch, a one-line message to Maj. Gen. Dix from Secretary of
War, Edwin Stanton dated April 15 delivers the tragic and somber news to the troops in east Tennessee: “Abraham Lincoln
died this morning at twenty-two minutes after seven o’clock.”
The second dispatch is dated at 4:00AM on April 15, again from Stanton to Dix. This telegraph message informs the
troops about the attack on Secretary Seward, and informs them of the details so-far-uncovered about John Wilkes Booth’s
plot to assaassinate the president. The latter part of this dispatch includes a detailed recounting of the attack on Seward.
The third dispatch includes information on the swearing-in of Andrew Johnson, the condition of Secretary Seward (“[his]
wounds are not mortal, but very severe”), plus interesting but unsubstantiated rumors from Cincinnati (regarding John
Wilkes Booth’s brother having to leave Cincinnati for his own safety) and New York, where it was reported that John
Wilkes Booth was arrested near Fort Hawkins.
The second broadside was printed on April 18, and prints telegraph messages received the previous day. The news here
includes the possible surrender of Gen. Johnston’s Confederate troops to Gen. Sherman, the naming of Seward’s attacker
as “Thompson,” the closing of the post office and the Navy Department for Lincoln’s funeral, the improving medical
condition of Secretary Seward, the rumor that Booth was “captured and is on board of a gun boat, on the Potomac,” and
two reports regarding the Johnston surrender: that Gen. Lee has gone to Danville to encourage Johnston to surrender,
and that Gen. John D. Imboden’s men deserted him and joined with Johnston after the former refused to accept the same
surrender terms offered to Gen. Lee.
Fascinating contemporary news from one of the most tragic, crucial, and transitional moments in American history.
$8500.
A Landmark Depiction of the West, with Superb Plates
44. Linforth, James, editor: ROUTE FROM LIVERPOOL TO GREAT SALT LAKE VALLEY...TOGETHER WITH
A GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL DESCRIPTION OF UTAH...ALSO, AN AUTHENTIC HISTORY OF
THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS’ EMIGRATION FROM EUROPE.... Liverpool. 1855. viii,120pp. plus folding map,
thirty plates, and woodcuts in text after Frederick H. Piercy. Quarto. Contemporary three-quarter red calf and cloth, gilt.
Minor edge wear and light soiling to boards, spine expertly repaired. Bookplates of Jay Snider and Michael Sharpe on
front pastedown. Light foxing, folding map discreetly reinforced with tissue along gutter, small stain on a few plates, one
plate with imprint shaved. A very good, handsome copy of a book often found with stained plates.
One of the most important publications devoted to the Mormon emigration, and a landmark in the artistic depiction of
western scenes. The plates are after illustrations by Frederick Piercy. “This elaborately prepared and illustrated book
was published as a monument to the Mormon emigration to Utah, and as a means of attracting further emigrants. Piercy
made a special trip to America [in 1853] to make sketches for the plates, which are some of the best western views of the
period” - Streeter. The outstanding views show New Orleans, Natchez, Vicksburg, Nauvoo, Council Bluffs, Laramie,
Fort Bridger, and Scott’s Bluff. “...One of the most elaborately and beautifully illustrated of western books” - Howes.
“...One of the basic sources of illustrated Western Americana of the period” - Taft. “One of the most illuminating maps
of the West to appear during 1855...it shows Utah in all its glory. This is not only an important map in the history of
Mormons, but is in every sense an important map in the history of the West, giving as it does a carefully drawn picture
of that entire area” - Wheat.
HOWES L359, “b.” WAGNER-CAMP 259. GRAFF 2501. FLAKE 6381. SABIN 41325. STREETER SALE 2296. Taft,
ARTISTS & ILLUSTRATORS OF THE OLD WEST, p.285. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI IV, pp.40-41. CRAWLEY
& FLAKE, A MORMON FIFTY 46. $30,000.
Rarest of the Narratives of Canadian Rebels of 1837 Transported to Australia
45. Marsh, Robert: SEVEN YEARS OF MY LIFE, OR A NARRATIVE OF A PATRIOT EXILE. WHO TOGETHER
WITH EIGHTY-TWO AMERICAN CITIZENS WERE ILLEGALLY TRIED FOR REBELLION IN UPPER
CANADA IN 1838, AND TRANSPORTED TO VAN DIEMAN’S LAND.... Buffalo: Faxon & Stevens, 1848. 207pp.
including one full-page illustration. Original black cloth, stamped in gilt and blind, neatly rebacked with original spine
laid down. Very faint tideline throughout, minor foxing. Very good. In a cloth case, leather label.
An exceptionally rare firsthand account of the Canada Rebellion of 1837-38, and the experiences of an American participant
who was imprisoned and sent to Tasmania. Marsh was one of eighty-two Americans convicted of aiding the Canadian
rebels. Captured after the Battle of Prescott, he was detained at Toronto and Kingston before being sent to Van Diemen’s
Land aboard the British prison ship Buffalo. He reached Hobart Town in February 1840. Marsh was pardoned in 1845
and returned to Buffalo the next year. He describes in detail his imprisonment in Canada, the voyage to Tasmania, and
the “cruel and unmerciful treatment during five years of unmitigated suffering on that detestable prison island.” Also of
interest is Marsh’s description of Tasmania, its inhabitants and products. The illustration is a woodcut of the burning of
the steamship Caroline. “The most detailed, most graphic, and most valuable of the narratives of exiles to Van Diemen’s
Land” - Severance. “Rarest of the Canadian Prisoner Narratives” - Ferguson. Ferguson notes one known copy, that
formerly in the collection of Dr. C. Craig of Launceston, Tasmania, bearing an 1847 publication date. That copy sold at
auction in 1975 for $3871. The copy of the 1848 edition of this title described by Ferguson is stamped in gilt on the front
board: “New Book of Martyrs.” Our copy is stamped in gilt on the front board: “Patriot Exile.” Not in Lande, Sabin,
or TPL. Quite rare and desirable.
HOWES M307, “aa.” FERGUSON 4822. SEVERANCE, UPPER CANADA REBELLION, p.471. SEVERANCE, BUFFALO IMPRINTS, p.601. $17,500.
An Extremely Early Martinique Imprint
46. [Martinique]: Peinier, Louis-Antoine Thomassin: ORDONNANCE CONCERNANT LA LEVÉE D’UNE SOMME
DE 750 MILLE LIVRES ARGENT DES ISLES, SUR LA COLONIE DE LA GUADELOUPE, MARIE-GALANT,
LA DESIRADE & DÉPENDANCES, PENDANT L’ANNÉE 1764 [caption title]. Martinique: De l’Imprimerie de
Pierre Richard, Imprimeur du Roi, Feb. 24, 1764. 8pp. Small quarto.
Minor scattered foxing. Very good.
An exceedingly rare and early Caribbean imprint, written by Peinier,
steward of Guadeloupe and Martinique, and addressed to the French
government. After the Treaty of 1763, Guadeloupe was returned to
France, and Peinier’s address touches on the “happy” return of the French
government to the island. He discusses the difficulties of achieving an
annual tax of £750,000 and presses the Crown for leniency on that debt.
He outlines nineteen articles which will help to achieve a reliable income
for the colony so they may achieve enough funds to fulfill the fee for the
following year. The articles include proposed taxes on slaves age fourteen
to sixty, with a higher fee for those in the sugar industry and slightly lower
for slave owners with coffee or cotton plantations, exemption from duties
on goods imported from France and the imposition of taxes on exported
commodities, and taxes to be paid by individuals, including “mulattos
and negros” who are born free. Peinier closes with a plea to have these
ordinances approved and published so that all will follow them as law,
and proposes that any income made from these taxes which exceeds the
annual fee imposed by France be applied to the following year’s debt.
The beginning of printing in Martinique, as with other Caribbean islands,
is shrouded in mystery. The Walter Beinecke collection contains a printed
form from 1759, and we have seen a small pamphlet printed in 1762. The
earliest we have handled is similar to this in format and dated May 7,
1764, and we are aware of another of similar format at the Bibliothèque
Schoelcher in Martinique, dated May 28, 1764. In contrast, the earliest
imprint recorded by Bradford Swan in his work on Caribbean imprints
is 1784. We cannot locate any other copies of this item. $13,500.
The Collected Peter Martyr
47. Martyr, Peter: DE REBUS OCEANICIS ET NOVO ORBE...ET ITEM DE REBUS ÆTHIOPICIS, INDICIS,
LUSITANICIS & HISPANICI.... Cologne. 1574. [48],655,[30]pp. Early 19th-century paper boards, gilt leather label.
Paper worn away on boards, some wear and rubbing. Ownership inscription and notations on front endpapers. Light
dampstain along bottom edge of text. Very good.
An important edition of Martyr, the foremost chronicler of the New World in its earliest period, including all of his most
important texts on New World discovery. Besides all of the chronicles Martyr wrote as official historian of the Indies from
1511 to 1534, it adds two important works: Martyr’s 1521 Basel letter, which contains the text of the lost first Cortés letter
describing his initial landing and forays into Mexico; and Damiao de Goes’ work, originally published in 1544, included
by Harrisse in ADDITIONS (144). The most accessible edition of one of the foundation works of New World history.
SABIN 1558. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 574/1. MEDINA 235. BEINECKE LESSER ANTILLES COLLECTION 2.
BELL A214. JCB (3)I:253. $7500.
Important Early Imprint
48. [Mauritius Imprint]: ASSEMBLÉE COLONIALE DE L’ISLE DE FRANCE. SÉANCE Du 17 BRUMAIRE AU
MATIN, 3me. ANNÉE DE LA REPUBLIQUE...RAPPORT FAIR A L’ASSEMBLÉE COLONIALE DE L’ISLE
DE FRANCE, AU SUJET DE ST. FÉLIX, DUPLESSIS, TYROL, TESSAN, FAYOL, MARCENAY, GRANGIER,
TOUS ARRETÉS A L’ISLE DE LA RÉUNION, PAR LES COMMISSAIRES DE LA CHAUMIÈRE, & DÉTENUS ÉS PRISONS
DE LA PLACE [caption title]. Port de la Montagne [i.e. Port Louis]:
Chez F.N. Bolle, [1794]. 28pp. Small quarto. Stitched as issued. Contemporary notation on first page, some contemporary underlining in
text. Minor soiling. Very good.
A remarkable early imprint from the colonial press at the French colony
of Mauritius, also known as the Ile de France, in the south Indian Ocean.
The text contains a report of the French Revolutionary Committee of
Public Safety regarding prisoners arrested on the island of Réunion
being held as enemies of the Revolution. The document was printed
in the capital, Port Louis, which was called Port de la Montagne from
1792 to 1795.
The Dutch were the first Europeans to become interested in the island,
taking possession in 1598. After exploiting the island’s dense forests
for a century and introducing the cultivation of sugar cane and cotton,
in 1710 the Dutch abandoned the colony. The French soon claimed
it as “Ile de France,” and the island remained under the control of the
French East India Company until 1767. During the long war between
France and England at the beginning of the 19th century, Mauritius
proved to be an important strategic naval base. The British took charge
of the island in 1810, and the Treaty of Paris confirmed official British
possession in 1814. It remained an important sugar producing colony,
and in the 20th century agricultural production was expanded to include
tea, rice, and other produce.
Printing began on Mauritius in 1768. During the French period, until
1810, only about 400 imprints were produced, mostly in the form of
official documents and newspapers, though there are also almanacs and
a few other items. All are quite rare. No copies located in OCLC; Toussaint locates a copy at the Archives Nationales
in Paris.
TOUSSAINT A247. $8500.
A Very Early Western Military Manual for the Creek War
49. [Military Manual]: [Steuben, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin]: THE MILITARY INSTRUCTOR,
CONTAINING, BARON STEUBEN’S DIRECTIONS RESPECTING THE ARMS OF OFFICERS AND MEN,
FOR FORMING COMPANY AND ITS EXERCISE, VIZ. OPENING THE RANKS FOR INSPECTIONS, &c.
EXERCISE OF A BATTALION; POINTS OF VIEW; FORMATION OF COLUMNS...ALSO THE LAWS OF
THE UNITED STATES RESPECTING THE MILITIA OF THE UNION. ALSO, THE STATUTES OF TENNESSEE ON THE MILITIA OF THIS STATE. Nashville: Printed by Thomas G. Bradford, [1812]. xvi,116pp. 24mo.
Contemporary half calf and marbled paper boards. Boards rubbed. Moderate toning. Tiny paper flaw in lower portion of
leaf G6, affecting nine words of text. A remarkable survival from a frontier press. In a cloth slipcase.
A terribly rare, early, and significant American frontier military manual. This “second edition,” follows a Nashville 1810
edition printed by Bradford, of which no copies are known. This 1812 edition is known in only one other copy.
By 1810 tensions between the United States and England made war a not unlikely possibility and, with continuing troubles
from Indians on Tennessee’s frontier, the state legislature began to think more rigorously about its militia. In 1811 the
legislature authorized printer Thomas Bradford to add amendments to his previous work, “and deliver to the colonel of
each regiment in this state, one copy for himself and one for each field officer, and captain in his regiment, of said book,
strongly and neatly bound, with leather on the backs; within four months from and after the rise of this session of the
general assembly, and shall receive twenty-five cents for each copy so delivered.” With regard to the absence of illustrations in this volume, Bradford explains in his introduction that “plates would have been procured, but they could not be
had.” Bradford includes herein lengthy excerpts from Baron von Steuben’s military manual, with extensive notes (taking
up the first half of the text), followed by the militia laws of the United States, relevant sections of the Tennessee constitution, and Tennessee militia laws dating back to 1796.
No copies are listed in OCLC. Shaw & Shoemaker, Allen, and McMurtrie each locate only the copy at the Tennessee
Historical Society. Very rare.
ALLEN, TENNESSEE IMPRINTS 211. ALLEN, MORE TENNESSEE RARITIES 495. AII (TENNESSEE) 111.
McMURTRIE (TENNESSEE) 92. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 26075. SABIN 94785. $18,500.
An Extraordinary Work of American Folk Art
50. [Miller, Lewis]: FIRST VOLUME, II. LUDWIG MILLER’S REISE JOURNAL IN DEUTSCHLAND...VON
DEM JAHRE 1840-41...[manuscript title]. [Various places in Europe, mostly in Germany. 1840-1841]. Illustrated manuscript travel diary, with text in ink, and illustrations in ink, watercolor, and wash on each page. Three leaves of illustrations bound in at front (two of them large and folding), followed by 114pp. (numbered in manuscript), with an additional
[29]pp. inserted throughout the text. Plus manuscript table of contents on front pastedown. Small quarto notebook, the
pages generally 7½ x 6½ inches. Original three-quarter calf and marbled boards. Boards worn and rubbed. A few leaves
loosened, a large grouping of leaves detached but still bound together and intact. The illustrations are clean, neat, and
bright. Overall, near fine. In a cloth chemise and half morocco box, spine gilt.
A remarkable and beautiful sketchbook illustrating the travels of the major Pennsylvania-German folk artist, Lewis Miller,
through Europe in 1840-41. Miller visited several countries on his tour, but the great majority of views in this sketchbook
are of towns and villages in Germany, with especially magnificent double-page views of Stuttgart and Frankfurt. Miller
also includes sketches of dozens of smaller town and hamlets he visited all over Germany, as well as other large towns, such
as Munich and Darmstadt. The illustrations and accompanying descriptive text provide a crucially important record of
urban and rural Germany in the Industrial Age. They also provide an invaluable view into everyday German life, society,
architecture, manufacturing, farming, and modes of transportation. Miller’s sketchbook is an astonishing visual memoir
of a first generation German-American returning to the land of his ancestors, and an important work by an immensely
talented folk artist.
Art historian Donald Shelley has called Miller “one of America’s greatest folk artists,” and the authors of YOUNG
AMERICA, a survey of American folk art, assert that Miller “epitomizes the role of the folk artist as chronicler of daily
life.” His art is best known through his illustrated diaries and sketchbooks, which together chronicle most of the 19thcentury life of York, Pennsylvania. He also produced sketchbooks of sights and scenes in New York, Virginia, and Europe.
Miller has been described as a “pictorial raconteur” (Shelley) and as a travelling visual reporter. Virtually everything he
portrayed was drawn from firsthand experience, and he often included himself in his scenes. He worked in watercolor,
wash, and ink, and his text captions are in ink. He not only presents the sights he observed in his fascinating illustrations, but interprets them in the accompanying text. In his sketchbooks he presents events both trivial and historic, from
classrooms, churches, and circuses to the funeral processions of eminent Americans, the celebrations of freed slaves, and
the wonders and everyday life in Europe.
In this way Miller is both squarely in the Pennsylvania-German folk art tradition - capturing the ordinary and everyday
- and in that of the urbane, observant travelling artist who explains the foreign and exotic through his own experiences.
His sketchbooks are immensely valuable for their pictorial realism, their vitality, and their accuracy of detail, as well as
for their accompanying descriptive text, filled as it is with historical context, sociological observations, and personal reactions. His work is suffused with important information about the way the people of his era - from all classes and walks of
life - looked and behaved, what they wore and how they worked, what they ate, how they travelled, and how they lived.
Trained as a carpenter, his sketchbooks also give excellent renderings of exterior and interior designs of buildings, from
simple Pennsylvania churches to elaborate European palaces.
Lewis Miller (1796-1885) was born of German emigrant parents in York, Pennsylvania. His father, Ludwig Miller, was a
teacher originally from Schwabish Hall in Wurtemberg. His parents came to Pennsylvania during a period of great German
migration to the mid-Atlantic colonies, and young Lewis was raised in a German-American environment. A fair part of
the text in his journals and sketchbooks is written in German, often in Fraktur style, and the artist occasionally identifies
himself as “Ludwig” Miller. Miller was trained as a carpenter by an older brother and practiced that profession for some
thirty-five years. He apparently never received formal artistic training, but his earliest drawings date from circa 1815.
Miller composed several sketchbooks of his native York, chronicling the people of the community and their everyday life
in their professions, at church, in school, and in social settings, as well as depicting important historic events that touched
on his town. He travelled widely, first in his native York County, then throughout the mid-Atlantic, seeing much of New
Jersey, New York City, Maryland, and Virginia, and he produced several sketchbooks during these journeys. Miller lived
the last years of his life in rural Virginia, producing several portraits of local Virginians. Several of his sketchbooks are in
the Historical Society of York County, while others are in the New-York Historical Society, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Another six are located as in a private collection (as of 1966).
In 1840-41, Ludwig Miller, along with his friends, Dr. Alexander Small and Henry Hertzog, took an extended tour of
Europe. Miller visited Great Britain, France, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, and Bohemia, but he spent most of his
time visiting his ancestral homeland in the German states, as well as going to Prussia and Austria. He produced at least
six sketchbooks of this European tour: the present volume, another at the Historical Society of York County, and four
others in a private collection. It is probable that Miller produced this and most of those other sketchbooks either on his
European tour or shortly thereafter.
Each page in the volume is taken up by one or more illustrations with accompanying text, and virtually all the pages have
been numbered in manuscript by Miller. The numbers for the illustrations given below conform to his pagination. The
first eight illustrations described below have been bound in before the titlepage and are unnumbered, and are therefore
designated by Roman numerals, with subsequent illustrations inserted later in the book (and unnumbered) also designated
by Roman numerals. English language captions are quoted where available, though almost all of the illustrations have
German language captions as well.
A detailed list of the illustrations is available on request.
LEWIS MILLER, SKETCHES AND CHRONICLES: THE REFLECTIONS OF A NINETEENTH CENTURY
PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN FOLK ARTIST, introduction by Donald A. Shelley (York, Pa.: Historical Society of York
County, 1966). Jean Lipman, Elizabeth V. Warren, and Robert Bishop, YOUNG AMERICA: A FOLK-ART HISTORY
(New York: American Museum of Folk Art, 1986). Lori Myers, “Lewis Miller: Through the Looking Glass” in CENTRAL
PA MAGAZINE, December 2002. $65,000.
The Letter Book of James Monroe as Minister to France, with Many Unpublished Letters and Notes
51. Monroe, James: [THE MANUSCRIPT LETTER BOOK OF JAMES MONROE AS MINISTER TO FRANCE,
1794 - 1795]. Paris. September 1794 - December 1795. [324]pp., including 112 letters, eighteen previously unknown and
twelve with previously unrecorded corrections in Monroe’s hand. Folio. Contemporary green vellum. Part of spine lacking,
slightly soiled and rubbed. Parisian stationer’s label on front pastedown. Lightly dampstained, slightly affecting legibility
only in the rear of the volume (on pp.292-322). In a half morocco box.
The retained secretarial copy letter book of James Monroe as Minister to France in 1794 and 1795, containing 112 letters written by Monroe to both American and European leaders. Monroe, a leading Republican politician and later fifth
President of the United States, was sent on a mission to Revolutionary France at a critical point in the foreign affairs of
George Washington’s second administration. Besides much highly important correspondence, the letter book contains
eighteen previously unknown letters and another dozen with added unrecorded annotations in Monroe’s hand. The secretarial copies are probably in the hand of Monroe’s secretary, Fulwar Skipwith.
James Monroe was appointed Minister to France at a difficult moment in Franco-American relations. The intrigues of the
French minister to the United States, Genet, and the extremes of the Paris Terror had deeply strained relations between
the two countries, closely allied just a few years earlier. The French had asked for the recall of Monroe’s predecessor,
Gouverneur Morris. President Washington, appointing the Federalist, John Jay, Minister to England, sought to placate
France by appointing a Republican as Minister there. Monroe, who had been an active party leader as a Senator from
Virginia and often at odds with the administration, was not Washington’s first choice. However, the President sought to
appear non-partisan in diplomatic affairs, and perhaps thought he could control Monroe by strict instructions from the
Secretary of State Edmund Randolph.
Monroe sailed for France in the summer of 1794, arriving in Paris in August, a week after the execution of Robespierre
and the collapse of the Terror. In an atmosphere which seemed far more conducive to good Franco-American relations,
Monroe almost immediately exceeded his instructions by addressing the French National Convention instead of conducting
his discussions quietly. News of this brought strong rebukes from Randolph, and opened the door to ever-increasing tension between the Minister and Washington’s executive branch. As time went on “Monroe often seemed a party spokesman
rather than a representative of his government” (ANB). This tension grew as John Jay negotiated a treaty with England
on Federalist principles largely laid out by Alexander Hamilton. Monroe made no secret of his dislike for Jay and his
treaty, and chaffed at his government’s instructions.
The present letter book includes all of Monroe’s communications to the Washington administration during the critical
first part of his period as Minister, from shortly after his arrival, in September 1794, through the end of the following
year, when relations with France had soured because of American negotiations with England. It thus includes some of the
most important letters from Monroe, both ones published later and others that have never been published to this day. It
also includes his letters to the President and Representatives of the French people and the Committee of Public Safety.
The bulk of the correspondence is to the executive branch of the United States government and the Secretary of State,
Edmund Randolph.
Ironically, Monroe found his own position in France undermined by the American adoption of Jay’s Treaty, which was
viewed with great hostility by the French Directory. He was even further handicapped by Jay’s refusal to share the terms
of the treaty with him (see his letter of March 17, 1795 here, in which he complains to Randolph). Monroe thus found
himself officially arguing for the English treaty ratified by the Federalists at home, while privately agreeing with the
French opposition to it. As the French adopted an anti-American stance because of Jay’s Treaty, it made Monroe’s recall
inevitable. Seen off with regret by the French, who liked him personally, he was greeted with hostility by the John Adams
administration on his return home in the summer of 1797.
Monroe immediately published an account and defense of his conduct as Minister to France, A VIEW OF THE CONDUCT OF THE EXECUTIVE... (Philadelphia, 1797). In the introduction he openly stated his hostility to the actions
of the executive branch he had represented, and his sense of betrayal by Washington and Randolph. “Upon my arrival in
Paris...I found that the work of alienation and disunion had been carried further than I had before even suspected.” He
illustrated his partisan points by publishing much of his private diplomatic correspondence. Most of the letters which were
originally recorded by Monroe in this letter book were published in A VIEW..., and this letter book must have been his
source for his correspondence when writing the book. Not greatly to the credit of either Monroe or his correspondents,
the communications illuminate the political machinations and intrigues of a nation in its infancy.
The unpublished letters are of major significance, and Monroe’s autograph corrections to others further enhance the importance of this letter book. They illuminate his working methods, and specifically his attendance to the written record
of his activities in an extremely difficult time in his professional career.
Most notable is his April 13, 1795 letter to Edmund Randolph. Another, addressed to Thomas Fitzsimons, known for
supplying arms to the continental army during the Revolutionary War, is the only known letter to exist between the two.
A further letter is addressed to Secretary of War Timothy Pickering, advising on the purchase on his behalf of military
books and equipment. It also reports back on the engagement of a French cannon-founder to teach his craft in America.
We read of Monroe’s other activities with the inclusion of a draft (apparently never sent) of letters to William Short, the
American representative in Madrid. These were part of an elaborate plot to gain bargaining power with Spain by spreading false rumors of a Franco-American alliance against Spanish interests in America.
Six unpublished letters concern the repayment to the Dutch financiers Willink, Van Staphorst & Hubbard of money loaned
to the nascent United States government, discussing the difficulties of transporting the funds from France to the Netherlands, and the eventual misplacement of the money. Monroe’s opponents, on his return to America, sought to turn this
against him to undermine his political career. Five of the six are addressed to the Dutch financiers and shed new light on
this poorly understood incident in Monroe’s diplomatic career.
The last seven unpublished letters regard consular matters, supplying details of American citizens in France and British
spies passing as Americans.
After his ministerial career, Monroe served multiple terms as governor of Virginia, later returning to French diplomacy to
negotiate the terms of the Louisiana Purchase. After a further diplomatic career as Minister to England, he returned to
the United States in 1807 and again served as governor of Virginia. From 1811 he served as Madison’s Secretary of State,
and succeeded him as fifth president in 1817.
This letter book is of critical importance to both the career of James Monroe, later the fifth president, and to the history
of American diplomacy in the Federal era. The letter book has remained in private hands until now, and is unknown to
scholars or the James Monroe Museum. A remarkable opportunity to acquire a major American manuscript at the heart
of the issues of the Federal era.
Harry Ammon, JAMES MONROE: THE QUEST FOR NATIONAL IDENTITY (New York, 1971), especially pp.108156. ANB 15, pp.681-84. $75,000.
The “Enlarged Version” of COMMON SENSE: “the Free and Independent States of America”
52. Paine, Thomas: COMMON SENSE; ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF AMERICA...A NEW EDITION, WITH SEVERAL ADDITIONS IN THE BODY OF THE WORK. TO WHICH IS ADDED AN APPENDIX; TOGETHER WITH AN ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS. Philadelphia: Printed and sold
by W. and T. Bradford, [but possibly M. Mills, Dublin,] 1776. 99pp. [bound with:]
[Chalmers, James]: PLAIN TRUTH: ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS OF
AMERICA. CONTAINING REMARKS ON A LATE PAMPHLET, INTITLED
COMMON SENSE.... Philadelphia printed, Dublin, reprinted: M. Mills, 1776.
[4],44pp. Modern three-quarter calf and marbled boards. Contemporary ownership
inscription (“Ambrose Smith”) on each titlepage. Very good.
This is a most important edition of COMMON SENSE..., one of the early issues
of the “Enlarged Version” of its text, first issued by printers William and Thomas
Bradford about five weeks after the appearance of the first edition from the press
of Robert Bell, issued on Feb. 14, 1776. The present edition can lay claim to being
equal to the first edition in importance, since it contains considerable additional
material by Paine which did not appear in the first three printings by Bell.
COMMON SENSE first appeared on Jan. 9, 1776. Its importance was immediately
realized and its contents hotly debated. At the same time, Paine’s relationship with
his publisher, Bell, also became heated, as the author asked for a share in the profits
of his bestseller and Bell denied a profit had been realized. Paine then asked Bell
to wait before doing a second edition so that he could add more material. On Jan.
20, however, Bell advertised a “new edition” which reprinted the original, without
Paine’s additions. Infuriated, Paine went to the Bradfords and proposed to give
them his new material to publish with the original text, comprising an appendix
and “An Address to the People Called Quakers,” increasing “the Work upwards
of one Third.” This is the first ninety-nine-page edition of the enlarged text.
It is probable that this edition of COMMON SENSE, despite the imprint, was
actually printed in Dublin. The similarity in typography to the Dublin edition of
the Chalmers pamphlet, here bound with it, reinforces that possibility. If so, it
could not help but inflame sentiment in England’s other dissatisfied colony.
This copy is bound with a Dublin edition of a vigorous attack on Tom Paine and
COMMON SENSE, written under the pseudonym of “Candidus.” Thomas Adams
identifies the author as James Chalmers. This is the first Irish edition of a pamphlet
originally published in Philadelphia and later reprinted in London.
On the importance of COMMON SENSE it is unnecessary to comment. The political rhetoric of Paine inflamed the
desire for independence, attacking British misgovernment and calling for colonial independence in clear and unmistakable words. The editors of the GROLIER ONE HUNDRED remark: “It is not too much to say that the Declaration of
Independence...was due more to Paine’s COMMON SENSE than to any other single piece of writing.”
A most important edition of America’s greatest political tract.
GROLIER AMERICAN 100, 14. GIMBEL CS-14. HOWES P17. AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE 222g. BRISTOL
B4310. SHIPTON & MOONEY 43121. $25,000.
Notable Early Essay on Travel
53. [Palmer, Thomas]: AN ESSAY OF THE MEANES HOVV TO MAKE OUR TRAUAILES, INTO FORRAINE
COUNTRIES, THE MORE PROFITABLE AND HONOURABLE. London: Imprinted, by H.L. for Mathew Lownes,
1606. [8],131pp. including engraved headpieces, plus four folding tables. Small quarto. Dbd. A couple tears in folds of
tables with no loss; some margins shaved, affecting some text, headlines, or catchwords. Otherwise about fine. In a cloth
chemise and brown half morocco and cloth box.
One of the classic early English works on travel in foreign parts, a by-product of the great Elizabethan expansion into
the world. This is the Marquis of Lothian’s copy, sold at Anderson Galleries in 1932. Palmer was appointed high sheriff
of Kent in 1595. The following year he accompanied the expedition to Cadiz and was knighted. Noted by Rosenbach
as “exceedingly rare,” Palmer discusses in this work the advantages of foreign travel and outlines some commercial and
political principles of which the traveller should be apprised. He outlines reasons for travel, from tourism to spying, and
the economic imperatives for going overseas in the expanding world. Several references are made to America, with notes
on the customs and manners of the Indians, etc.
EUROPEAN AMERICANA 606/85. JCB (2)III:41. COX II, p.322. STC 19156. DNB XV, pp.161-62. $12,000.
First Government Exploration of the Southwest
54. Pike, Zebulon M.: AN ACCOUNT OF EXPEDITIONS TO THE SOURCES OF THE MISSISSIPPI, AND
THROUGH THE WESTERN PARTS OF LOUISIANA, TO THE SOURCES OF THE ARKANSAW, KANS,
LA PLATTE, AND PIERRE JAUN, RIVERS...DURING THE YEARS 1805, 1806, AND 1807. AND A TOUR
THROUGH THE INTERIOR PARTS OF NEW SPAIN...IN THE YEAR 1807. Philadelphia: Published by C. & A.
Conrad, & Co...., 1810. [8],105,[11],[107]-277,[5],65,[1],53,[1],87pp. plus frontispiece, six maps (five folding), and three
folding charts. Contemporary tree calf; rebacked, preserving original spine and gilt leather label. Corners worn. Light
foxing and toning. First folding map with a closed tear in the gutter margin. Very good. In a three-quarter morocco
clamshell box, spine gilt.
The report of the first United States government expedition to the Southwest, and one of the most important of all American travel narratives, including an account of Pike’s travels to explore the headwaters of the Arkansas and Red rivers, his
earlier journey to explore the sources of the Mississippi River, and his visit to the Spanish settlements in New Mexico.
Pike’s narrative stands with those of Lewis and Clark, and Long, as the most important early books on western exploration
and as a cornerstone of Western Americana. The maps were the first to exhibit a geographic knowledge of the Southwest
based on firsthand exploration and are considered “milestones in the mapping of the American West” (Wheat). “The
description of Texas is excellent” - Streeter TEXAS.
HOWES P373, “b.” WAGNER-CAMP 9:1. STREETER SALE 3125. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 297, 298, 299.
GRAFF 3290. FIELD 1217. STREETER TEXAS 1047C. HILL 1357. BRADFORD 4415. RITTENHOUSE 467. SABIN
62936. JONES 743. BRAISLIN 1474. $25,000.
Illustrated with Original Photographs
55. [Railroads]: THE MICHIGAN BRIDGE & CONSTRUCTION CO. DETROIT. MANUFACTURERS OF
IRON, WOODEN, COMBINATION AND SUSPENSION BRIDGES, TRESTLES, ROOFS, TURN-TABLES,
WATER-STATIONS, &c. Detroit: O.S. Gulley, 1871. 40pp., illustrated with thirteen full-page albumen photographs.
Original black pebbled calf, gilt, neatly rebacked in matching style. Contemporary inscription on titlepage. Internally
clean. Very good plus.
Rare photographically illustrated trade catalogue for a Michigan railroad bridge builder. The images depict various examples of iron and wooden railroad bridges, trestling, as well as an image of a roundhouse and types of roofs for railroad
buildings. Though unattributed, the images are artfully composed and in wonderful condition with strong tones. An
interesting and handsome volume. $5000.
The Complete Set, Seldom Found
56. Richardson, Sir John: FAUNA BOREALI-AMERICANA; OR THE ZOOLOGY OF THE NORTHERN PARTS
OF BRITISH AMERICA: CONTAINING DESCRIPTIONS OF THE OBJECTS OF NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTED ON THE LATE NORTHERN LAND EXPEDITIONS, UNDER COMMAND OF CAPTAIN SIR JOHN
FRANKLIN...BY... RICHARDSON...SURGEON AND NATURALIST TO THE EXPEDITIONS. ASSISTED
BY WILLIAM SWAINSON...AND...WILLIAM KIRBY. London (Vols. I-III), and Norwich & London (Vol. IV): John
Murray (Vols. I-II), Richard Bentley (Vol. III), and Josiah Fletcher & Longman, Orme, Brown, Green & Longmans (Vol.
IV), 1829-1831-1836-1837. Four volumes. 110 plates (seventy-two handcolored) by C.M. Curtis after C. Wagstaff, and by
Thomas Landseer, William Swainson, and Waterhouse Hawkins. Half titles. Quarto. Later three-quarter calf and marbled
paper boards, spine gilt. Spines lightly faded, boards lightly rubbed. Light scattered foxing. Very good.
A rare complete set of this important and influential work on Arctic and sub-Arctic natural history. It took eight years to
produce and was issued by three different publishers in two cities, and is most difficult to find complete.
The fine collection of plates is distributed as follows: Volume I contains twenty-eight uncolored etched plates (one folding)
of quadrupeds by Thomas Landseer; Volume II includes fifty excellent handcolored lithographic plates of birds by William Swainson; Waterhouse Hawkins is responsible for all twenty-four plates in Volume III (two are handcolored copper
engravings after Hawkins, the remaining twenty-two are lithographs by Hawkins, ten of these are handcolored, and three
of the remaining uncolored plates have folding flaps); the final volume includes eight handcolored engravings of insects,
all heightened with gum arabic and engraved by C. Wagstaff after C.M. Curtis.
A complete set of the natural history of the Franklin expeditions to the Arctic, produced under the supervision of John
Richardson, surgeon and naturalist with both Franklin expeditions. It is one of the earliest and most complete studies of
the natural history of far North America and the Arctic. Over the course of the two expeditions (which lasted from 1819
to 1822 and 1825 to 1827) Richardson spent seven summers and five winters in the North. Each species is described in
detail, including its habitat, physical characteristics, colors, etc. William Swainson’s beautifully executed and colored bird
plates are particularly noteworthy. The volume on fish is Richardson’s own work, whilst he was assisted by Swainson and
William Kirby on the volumes on quadrupeds and insects, and Swainson alone did most of the work on the ornithology.
Richardson’s “contributions to the natural history of the Arctic are particularly notable” (Wagner-Camp). “The influence
which this work exerted cannot well be overstated...it was the chief source of inspiration of numberless writers upon the
same subject...” - Elliott Coues.
ANKER 493. WAGNER-CAMP 39. PEEL 91. TPL 1454. WOOD, p.536. NISSEN (ZBI) 3385. STREETER SALE 3700.
SABIN 71026-71029. BM (NATURAL HISTORY), p.1698. ARCTIC BIBLIOGRAPHY 14491. FINE BIRD BOOKS,
p.135. $20,000.
With the Rare Supplements
57. Ross, John: NARRATIVE OF A SECOND VOYAGE IN SEARCH OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE, AND OF
A RESIDENCE IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS DURING THE YEARS 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833. [with:] APPENDIX.... [bound with:] Braithwaite, John: SUPPLEMENT TO CAPTAIN SIR JOHN ROSS’S NARRATIVE...
CONTAINING THE SUPPRESSED FACTS.... [bound with:] Ross, John: EXPLANATION AND ANSWER TO
MR. BRAITHWAITE’S SUPPLEMENT. London. 1835. Two volumes. [8],xxxiii,[1],740pp. plus twenty-nine plates and
maps (three colored) and two large folding maps. APPENDIX: xii,120,cxliv,cii,[ii]. plus twenty plates (twelve colored).
SUPPLEMENT: [2],ii,18pp. EXPLANATION: [2],8pp. Quarto. Contemporary calf, spine gilt, gilt leather label, both
volumes neatly rebacked with original spines laid down. Scattered foxing. Very good plus.
A fundamental Arctic narrative, offered with the rare illustrated appendix. Despite the failure of his trip in 1818, Ross
set out in 1829 in the small ship, Victory, to find a northwest passage, but the vessel had to be abandoned in 1832. Ross
and his party were rescued in the summer of 1833 in Lancaster Sound. In the meantime Capt. George Back had set out
in search of Ross. Back’s account of his explorations was published the year after this volume appeared. The greatest
scientific yield of the trip was the discovery of the Magnetic Pole. The many attractive plates are listed in detail in Abbey. A number of them depict the natives and events during the voyage. The lengthy appendix adds significantly to the
work and includes additional color plates of Eskimos and a vocabulary of the Eskimo language, as well as a report about
the natural history of the Arctic.
This set is remarkable for having both the rare SUPPLEMENT TO CAPTAIN SIR JOHN ROSS’S NARRATIVE... by
John Braithwaite (an engineer who supplied the steam boilers for Ross’ ship) and EXPLANATION AND ANSWER TO
MR. BRAITHWAITE’S SUPPLEMENT, Ross’ incredulous rebuttal to Braithwaite’s accusations regarding the ship’s failure.
The second pamphlet is of the greatest rarity, and to find the set with both supplements is notable.
ABBEY 636. ARCTIC BIBLIOGRAPHY 14866. LANDE 1462. HILL 1490. SMITH 8792. TPL 1808. SABIN 73381.
PILLING PROOF-SHEETS 3388, 3391. $7000.
The Earliest Saint Domingue Imprint We Have Handled
58. [Saint Domingue]: MÉMOIRE POUR MESSIRE JEAN-FRANÇOIS DE CANTINEAU...APPELANS, QUANT
AU CHEF QUI LEUR FAIT PRÉJUDICE, DE LA SENTENCE DE PARTAGE RENDUE PAR LE JUGE DU
FORT-DAUPHIN LE 22 SEPTEMBRE 1738, &c...[caption title]. [Cap Français]: De l’Imprimerie Royale de St.
Domingue, [1767]. 47pp. Stitched as issued. Contemporary inscription on first page. Internally bright and clean. Near fine.
An extremely rare and interesting legal brief concerning a notable family of Saint
Domingue, and a very early piece of printing from the island. This is a lawyer’s
brief concerning the trial about the inheritance of the Dureau family in Saint
Domingue. The process concerned the division of the estate of the late Laurent
Dureau, who died in 1745, between his children from two mothers. The endless
quarrels about the inheritance began in 1719 when Laurent Dureau married Marie
Louise Michel; the lawsuit began in 1754 and temporarily concluded with this
document, an interlocutory judgement, in 1767.
Laurent Dureau’s father, Sebastian, was appointed governor of Saint Domingue
by King Louis XIV of France. His son, Laurent, was born in 1694, married three
times, and had six children. His most notable offspring was by his third wife,
Elisabeth: Jean-Baptiste-Joseph-René Dureau de la Malle (1742-1807), who was
known for his translations of Latin literature, and who became member of the
Corps Législatif and the French Academy.
The origins of printing in Saint Domingue, now Haiti, are obscure. The best contemporary source, Isaiah Thomas in his HISTORY OF PRINTING IN AMERICA,
says that a press was established at Port-au-Prince as early as 1750, but this is
uncertain; the earliest imprint we can locate is one from 1767 at the Library Company of Philadelphia. At the same time Thomas says the press at Cap Français was
established “as early as 1765, and probably several years preceding.” However, the
Library Company has a 1752 imprint. It seems likely to us that Thomas reversed
the places, since Cap Français was the largest and wealthiest town in colonial Saint
Domingue, and that printing began there around 1750 and in Port-au-Prince about
1765. The present work is the earliest imprint from Saint Domingue which we
have handled. We could trace only one copy in institutional holdings, at the New
York Public Library. $14,500.
Rare Contemporary Engraved Portrait
59. Schenk, P., engraver: [After Faber, John]: E. TOW O KOAM CONING VAN DE RIVIER VOLKEREN, EIN
DER VIER INDISCHE KONINGEN DIE DEN 2 MAI 1710 ZUR AUDIENTIE GEADMITTIERT BEY IHRE
BRITANISCHE MT ZU LONDEN VERLANGEN ASSISTENTZ GEGEN DIE FRANZOISSEN IN AMERICA,
ZWIESCHEN NEU ENGELLAND UND CANADA etc. Amsterdam. [ca. 1710]. Mezzotint engraving by Schenk after
Faber, on laid paper. Plate mark: 8¼ x 6¼ inches. Sheet size: 9 x 7 inches. Trimmed close to the platemark and remargined,
else very good. Matted.
In 1710, a delegation of four Native American leaders, three Mohawk from the Iroquois alliance (Sa Ga Yeath Qua Pieth
Tow of the Bear Clan, called King of Maguas); Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row of the Wolf Clan, called King of Canajoharie;
and Tee Yee Ho Ga Row, of the Wolf Clan, also called King Hendrick) and one Mohican from the Algonquin nations (Etow
Oh Koam of the Turtle Clan), traveled to the Court of Queen Anne in London. Arranged by Pieter Schuyler, mayor of
Albany, New York, the delegation traveled to London with British military leaders seeking support against the French and
their allied Native interests in North America.
To commemorate the visit, Queen Anne commissioned John Verelst, a Dutch portrait artist residing in London, to paint
their official portraits. They are the earliest known surviving oil portraits from life of Native people of North America.
Although the Verelst portraits (and the subsequent mezzotint engravings based on the portraits by John Simon) are the
most well known images, they were not the only portraits of the Four Kings done in London at the time. Following
Verelst, the Four Kings were drawn by John Faber, the elder (1660-1721), a noted portraitist and printseller in London.
Although the original Faber drawings are lost, the series was issued in mezzotint by Faber in 1710. The present Dutch
engraving by Schenk is based on Faber’s version, though is depicted in reverse.
All contemporary images of the Four Kings are rare and desirable.
W.M.E. Cooke, THE FOUR INDIAN KINGS (Public Archives of Canada exhibition catalogue) (Ottawa, 1977), p.6,
no.11. B. Robertson, PORTRAITS OF THE KINGS, 1985, E7(c). $14,000.
A Classic Slave Narrative
60. [Slave Narrative]: [Sessarakoo, William Unasah]: THE ROYAL AFRICAN: OR, MEMOIRS OF THE YOUNG
PRINCE OF ANNAMABOE. COMPREHENDING A DISTINCT ACCOUNT OF HIS COUNTRY AND FAMILY;
HIS ELDER BROTHER’S VOYAGE TO FRANCE, AND RECEPTION THERE; THE MANNER IN WHICH
HIMSELF WAS CONFIDED BY HIS FATHER TO THE CAPTAIN WHO SOLD HIM; HIS CONDITION WHILE
A SLAVE IN BARBADOES; THE TRUE CAUSE OF HIS BEING REDEEMED; HIS VOYAGE FROM THENCE;
AND RECEPTION HERE IN ENGLAND. London: Printed for W. Reeve, G. Woodfall, and J. Barnes, [1754]. 55pp.
Three-quarter calf and marbled boards in antique style, spine gilt, leather label. Some minor foxing. Very good.
Second edition. A rare early slave narrative, being the memoirs of William Unasah Sessarakoo. “The Memoirs detail how
‘John Corrente,’ a Fanti (Gold Coast) chief and active slave trader, was enouraged by a privateer captain to send his son
to England. Instead, the son was taken to Barbados and sold as a slave; he was ultimately freed through the intervention
of the Royal African Company which wanted to stabilize its business relationship with the father in Africa. The account is
largely devoted to the intricacies of slaving operations on the African coast...” - Handler. According to the caption on a
mezzotint portrait of 1749, the Young Prince was named, “William Unasah Sessarakoo, son of John Bannishee Corrantee,
Ohinee of Annamaboe, Niece of Quishadoo, King of Akroan. He was sold at Barbados as a slave in the year 1744, and
brought to England.” Not in Hough, BEINECKE LESSER ANTILLES COLLECTION, Work, or Cundall. Fewer
than ten copies located in ESTC.
ESTC T78797. SABIN 73755. GOLDSMITHS 8450 (1st ed). EUROPEAN AMERICANA 749/233. HANSON 6268.
$6000.
One of the Most Important British Accounts of the Revolution
61. Stedman, Charles: THE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN, PROGRESS, AND TERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN WAR. London: Printed for the Author, sold by J. Murray, J. Debrett and J. Kerby, 1794. Two volumes. xv,399;
xv,449,[13]pp., plus fifteen engraved maps and plans (eleven folding). Half titles. Quarto. 18th-century speckled calf, gilt;
expertly rebacked to style, spines elaborately gilt, morocco labels, marbled endpapers. An
occasional light fox mark. Very good.
First edition of a work that is fundamental to any collection of books relating to the American Revolution. This work is “generally considered the best contemporary account of the
Revolution written from the British side” (Sabin). Stedman was a native of Philadelphia, a
Loyalist who served as an officer under Howe, Clinton, and Cornwallis, and later became
an examiner of Loyalist claims for the British government. He had firsthand knowledge
of many of the campaigns and persons involved in the effort. He is critical of Howe, and
describes all the major theatres of war, as well as individual battles from Bunker Hill to
Yorktown.
The beautifully engraved maps (the largest of which is approximately 20 x 30 inches) constitute the finest collection of plans assembled by an eyewitness. They depict the sieges
of Savannah and Charlestown, plus the battles of Saratoga, Camden, Guilford, Hobkirk’s
Hill, and Yorktown.
HOWES S914, “b.” JCB II:372. LOWNDES V, p.2504. SABIN 91057. WINSOR VI, p.518.
NEBENZAHL, BATTLE PLANS OF THE REVOLUTION, 29, 55, 57, 76, 87, 90-93,
101, 113, 116, 139, 184, 201.
$15,000.
Magnificent Map of the United States
62. Tanner, Henry S.: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Philadelphia: Published by Henry S. Tanner, 1829. Engraved
map, handcolored in outline, in sections backed on linen. Sheet size: 50 x 63 inches. Engraved by H.S. Tanner, assisted
by E.B. Dawson, W. Allen, and J. Knight, with integral decorative title vignette after J.W. Steel. The map is surrounded
by numerous small panels including two extensions to the area covered by the map, six more-detailed maps of environs of
various eastern cities, eight city plans, a number of elevation profiles of railroads and waterways, and two tables of statistics. Rebacked on linen, expertly conserved by the Green Dragon Bindery. Silk lining edges. Lightly and evenly toned. A
very nice copy. In a modern half morocco portfolio, stamped in gilt.
The first edition of Tanner’s spectacular and very beautiful large-scale map from “the Golden Age of American Mapmaking.” The 1829 first edition of this map is described by Rumsey as “one of the best early large maps of the United States
and the premier map for its period” (Rumsey 975). The map shows the United States from the Atlantic ocean to what
today is western Kansas (noted as “Kanzas” on map). To the west of Michigan Territory and Missouri large areas of land
include the locations of numerous Indian tribes but are designated as “Districts” rather than Territories: District of Huron,
Sioux District, Mandan District, Osage District and Ozark District. Also included are canals, railroads, “McAdamized”
roads and proposed canals and railroads. One of the most attractive and interesting aspects of the map are the numerous
insets: these include sixteen inset city and regional maps (Environs of Albany; Environs of Boston; Environs of New York;
Environs of Philadelphia and Trenton; Environs of Baltimore and Washington; Cincinnati; Charleston; New Orleans; South
Part of Florida; Washington; Baltimore; Philadelphia; New York; Boston; Pittsburgh & Environs; Oregon and Mandan
Districts [8 x 13 inches, with a further inset ‘Outlet of Oregon River’]) the border of the main map also includes fourteen
profiles of portages, canals, and railroads and two tables in the lower right corner: Statistics of the Western Districts,
and Statistics of the United States. According to Tooley, H.S. Tanner is “thought to be the first native-born American
to devote his career to publishing,” and he is responsible for some of the most important maps of the United States to be
published in the 19th century.
AMERICAN IMPRINTS 40603. PHILLIPS MAPS, p.885 (ref). RUMSEY 975. STREETER SALE 3835 HOWES T28.
RISTOW, pp.191-98. SABIN 94318. SCHWARTZ & EHRENBERG, p.253 (“Twice as detailed as Melish’s map of 1816”).
WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI II, 390, p.94 (illustrated), p.96. $15,000.
The Ohio Country in the French and Indian War
63. [Thomson, Charles]: AN ENQUIRY INTO THE CAUSES OF THE ALIENATION OF THE DELAWARE
AND SHAWANESE INDIANS FROM THE BRITISH INTEREST, AND INTO THE MEASURES TAKEN FOR
RECOVERING THEIR FRIENDSHIP...TOGETHER WITH THE REMARKABLE JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN
FREDERIC POST...WITH NOTES BY THE EDITOR EXPLAINING SUNDRY INDIAN CUSTOMS, &c. WRITTEN IN PENNSYLVANIA. London: Printed for J. Wilkie, 1759. 184pp. plus folding map. 19th-century straight-grain
morocco, gilt, spine gilt, gilt inner dentelles. Rear hinge somewhat rubbed. Toned, some light pencil marginalia. Map
mounted on linen. Very good.
The Frank Deering copy, with his bookplate. A work of the greatest importance for the history of the French and Indian
War. Thomson argues that the arrogance and greed of the colonial government of Pennsylvania caused the rupture between the Pennsylvania Indians and the British, and temporarily forced the natives to the French side of the fight in the
Ohio country. “Apparently printed at Benjamin Franklin’s expense as part of his campaign to discredit the Proprietary
government of Pennsylvania” - Streeter. “It was one of the most important works on relations with the Indians that had
been published up to that time” - Graff. Christian Post, a Moravian missionary, travelled to the Ohio country in 1758 to
negotiate with the Indians, and won them back to the British side. His journal of that trip makes up the second part of
this book. The map shows Pennsylvania, with various important western points located.
HOWES T210, “b.” GRAFF 4139. CHURCH 1029. FIELD 1548. VAIL 535. JONES 498. STREETER SALE 966. SABIN
95562. THOMSON 1145. $14,000.
The Most Famous Discussion of American Democracy
64. Tocqueville, Alexis de: DE LA DÉMOCRATIE EN AMÉRIQUE. Paris: Charles Gosselin, 1835. Two volumes.
[4],xxiv,367; [4],459pp., plus handcolored folding map in second volume. Half title in each volume. Contemporary green
half calf and marbled boards, spines gilt. Moderate edge wear and rubbing, spines somewhat sunned. Minor foxing, some
uneven tanning, as usual. Short tear in folding map near mounting stub. Overall very good.
The first edition of the first part of Alexis de Tocqueville’s famous classic, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, one of the
most famous investigations of the American political system. Tocqueville came to the United States in the spring of 1831,
accompanied by his friend and fellow student, Gustave de Beaumont. Their original goal was to study the penitentiary
system of the United States. After visiting prisons in the East they undertook a tour of the South as far as New Orleans,
ascended the Mississippi River, visited the Great Lakes and Canada, and returned via New York, having travelled for nine
months. After writing their report on prisons, Tocqueville began work on the first part of DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA
in 1833-34 and published it, in an edition of less than 500 copies, in January 1835. The book was an instant success, and
numerous editions, many with revisions, quickly followed, and the second part, first published in April 1840, was issued
concurrently with the eighth edition of the first part.
There were probably more than fifty editions published in English and French before 1900, besides numerous other translations. Almost from the beginning the book enjoyed the reputation of being the most acute and perceptive discussion of
the political and social life of the United States ever published. Remarkably, it has sustained its appeal generation after
generation, as new readers find it speaks to their time with a contemporary voice. Whether perceived as a textbook of
American political institutions, an investigation of society and culture, a probing of the psyche of the United States, or a
study of the actions of modern democratic society, it has continued to offer insight and provoke thought since its inception. It has also probably provided commentators with more quotations than any other work about the United States.
HOWES T278. SABIN 96060. CLARK III:111. Library of Congress, A PASSION FOR LIBERTY, ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE ON DEMOCRACY & REVOLUTION (Washington, 1989). $13,500.
A Collection of the Four Treaties Ending the American Revolution, in a Period Binding
65. [Treaty of Paris]: THE DEFINITIVE TREATY OF PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP, BETWEEN HIS BRITANNICK MAJESTY, AND THE MOST CHRISTIAN KING. SIGNED AT VERSAILLES, THE 3d OF SEPTEMBER,
1783. [bound with:] THE DEFINITIVE TREATY OF PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP, BETWEEN HIS BRITANNICK
MAJESTY, AND THE KING OF SPAIN. SIGNED AT VERSAILLES, THE 3d OF SEPTEMBER, 1783. [bound
with:] PRELIMINARY ARTICLES OF PEACE, BETWEEN HIS BRITANNICK MAJESTY, AND THE STATES
GENERAL OF THE UNITED PROVINCES. SIGNED AT PARIS, THE 2d OF
SEPTEMBER, 1783. [bound with:] THE DEFINITIVE TREATY OF PEACE AND
FRIENDSHIP, BETWEEN HIS BRITANNICK MAJESTY, AND THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA. SIGNED AT PARIS, THE 3d OF SEPTEMBER, 1783.
London: T. Harrison and S. Brooke, 1783. 40; 35; 10; 12pp. Quarto. Contemporary half
calf and marbled boards, gilt leather label. Contemporary notation on front pastedown.
Negligible foxing. Fine.
The four treaties comprising the Peace of Paris - three Definitive and one Preliminary which ended the American Revolutionary War and restored peace to Europe. Included
here is the first English edition of the vitally important Treaty of Paris between the new
United States and Great Britain, preceded only by the Paris edition. Also included are
Great Britain’s treaties with France, Spain, and the Netherlands, all of great significance
for the future of North America.
The treaty between the United States and Great Britain, (signed Sept. 3, 1783) is a document of seminal importance, marking the end of the American Revolution and the birth
of the United States as a recognized and legitimate nation. Peace negotiations between
the United States and Great Britain began in Paris on April 12, 1782. The United States
was represented by Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, John Adams, and Henry Laurens. While
most peace treaties address the issues that sparked the conflict, the treaty between the
United States and Great Britain is most concerned with drawing the boundaries of a new
nation. The treaty is often imprecisely worded and raised issues that would take decades to
resolve. Article One officially recognizes the sovereignty and independence of the United
States. The treaty goes on to delimit the boundary between British North America and the United States, from Canada in
the north, across the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi River, and southeast to Florida. The people of the United States
maintain important fishing rights in Newfoundland and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and provisions are made to compensate Loyalists for property lost during the conflict. It is also agreed that citizens of both nations would enjoy navigation
rights on the Mississippi. The treaty was signed on Sept. 3, 1783, and immediately printed.
The U.S.-British treaty was one of several treaties negotiated by Britain during the war, including settlements with the
French, Spanish, and Dutch. The treaties between Britain and those states - in the definitive versions, excepting the
Dutch - are also included in this volume. In her treaty with France, Great Britain returned St. Lucia to the French, ceded
Tobago, and recognized the French claim to the tiny Canadian islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon - still French colonies
today - while recovering Dominca, Grenada, St. Kitts, Nevis and Montserrat in the Caribbean, and Fort St. Jean (i.e.
St. John’s) in New Brunswick, all seized by the French in the course of the conflict. With regard to Spain, Britain kept
Gibraltar, while Spain took back Minorca, took back West Florida (which had been ceded to the English in 1763), and
effectively swapped New Providence Island and the rest of the Bahamas to England for East Florida, another “possession”
which proved impossible to exploit. Protracted British negotiations with the Dutch over preliminary articles of peace held
up the conclusion of the other treaties at Paris. In fact, it was not until a day after the Preliminary Articles of Peace with
the Netherlands were finalized, (on Sept. 2, 1783), that the British signed their definitive treaties with the United States,
France, and Spain. In this truce between the British and the Dutch (the definitive treaty was not signed until 1784), it
was simply agreed to restore the conquests of each, save for Negapatam, the coastal port which since 1660 had been the
principal Dutch possession in the Indian sub-continent, and which Great Britain retained. African colonies also changed
hands, France keeping Senegal and Goree, and Britain and Gambia.
All told, a beautiful contemporary collection of these monumentally important documents, the full legal recognition of
the United States.
ESTC T53346, T53347, T80895, T53339. AMERICAN CONTROVERSY 83-42, 83-41, 83-47, 83-43. HOWES D212,
“aa.” CHURCH 1197. Richard B. Morris, THE PEACEMAKERS: THE GREAT POWERS AND AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE (New York, 1965) is still the best single study of the negotiations which led to the several treaties ending
the American Revolution. $75,000.
The First British Printing of the Constitution
66. [United States Constitution]: PLAN OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION FOR THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA AGREED UPON IN A CONVENTION OF THE STATES WITH A PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.
London. 1787. [2],30pp. Antique-style half morocco and marbled boards, spine gilt. Minor foxing and soiling. Very good.
The first British printing of the Constitution. Howes calls for eight pages of advertisements, which are not present here.
This was presumably printed shortly after news of the American Constitution reached England in early November 1787.
HOWES P413. SABIN 63294. ESTC T138351. $12,000.
The First American Army Regulations
67. [United States Continental Congress]: RULES AND ARTICLES FOR THE BETTER GOVERNMENT OF
THE TROOPS RAISED, OR TO BE RAISED AND KEPT IN PAY BY AND AT THE EXPENCE OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Philadelphia: Printed by John Dunlap, 1776. 36pp. Original plain paper wrappers,
stitched. Spine worn, light wear and slight soiling. Discreet ink stamp inside rear cover. Near fine, untrimmed. In a blue
half morocco and cloth slipcase.
The first edition of one of the first and most important acts of Congress after the Declaration of Independence. On June
14, 1776 a committee was formed composed of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Rutledge, James Wilson, and Robert
R. Livingston. These committee members revised the 1775 code, which had been published for “the Twelve United English
Colonies of North America.” The present revised code was recast so as to more closely resemble the British Articles of
War. The Continental Congress approved the revised Articles of War on September 20, 1776, and they remained in force,
with one major revision, until 1806. This document is the foundation of American military law. At the end is printed
a resolution of Congress, dated August 21, 1776, and signed in print by John Hancock as president, stating: “That all
persons...found lurking as Spies in or about the fortifications or encampments of the Armies of the United States...shall
suffer Death according to the law and usage of nations, by sentence of a Court-Martial....” It was under this ruling that
Major André was executed for treason in 1780.
EVANS 15187. NAIP w022042. HILDEBURN 3466. SABIN 74058. DNB VII, pp.583-84. $25,000.
A Remarkable Collection of Early Virginia Laws and Imprints
68. [Virginia Laws]: [A REMARKABLE COLLECTION OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA LAWS AND IMPRINTS
COVERING THE YEARS 1748 TO 1763]. Williamsburg: William Hunter or Joseph Royle, 1753-1763. Twenty-four
imprints\. Folio. Three-quarter calf and marbled boards in antique style, gilt, leather label. Contemporary manuscript
notes, mainly in earlier laws. Very good to near fine.
An extraordinary run of colonial Virginia laws and imprints from the press of William Hunter, the largest single group
of early Virginia imprints to appear on the market since at least World War II. Hunter was the second printer in Virginia, following William Parks, who died in 1749. Hunter did not begin to print until late 1750, and his early output was
scanty, and he did not get the contract to print the Virginia statutes until 1752. This transition explains why Hunter did
not print the 1748 acts found here until 1753. He was succeeded in 1761 by Joseph Royle, who was the only printer in
Virginia until 1765. This volume contains about one-third of all the imprints recorded by Berg between 1753 and 1763.
Much of the content relates to slavery. The first act printed here is entitled “An Act declaring the Negro, Mulatto, and
Indian Slaves, within this Dominion, to be Real Estate.” Other laws define who shall be slaves, slave duties, provide
regulations for handling runaway slaves, and so on. Other laws relate to tobacco, the College of William & Mary, land
purchases from the Nottoway Indians, and much more.
Beginning in 1754 laws relating to the military begin to appear, commensurate with the start of the French and Indian
War in that year. Such laws concentrate on militia-building, raising revenue for “the Protection of His Majesty’s Subjects
on the Frontiers of this Colony,” with additional laws such as “An Act for preventing and repelling the hostile Incursions
of the Indians, at Enmity with the Inhabitants of this Colony,” an amendment to “An Act for making Provision against
Invasions and Insurrections,” “An Act to enable certain Persons to contract for the Transportation of the Neutral French
to Great-Britain,” “An Act for preventing Mutiny and Desertions,” “An Act for granting an Aid to his Majesty, for the
better Protection and Defence of this Colony...,” among others. All of these are acts critical to the war and to the career
of George Washington and other later leaders of the Revolution. Many more acts relate to land, tobacco, western expansion, and slaves - an accurate catalogue of the obsessions of the Virginia planter class.
Additionally this copy has extensive near-contemporary annotations by a William Green, the marginalia dated 1837 next to
his signature. Green writes about the printing history of Virginia laws and how this particular book relates to previouslyprinted legal works that seem to cover the same span of years. His annotations fill the front pastedown, both sides of the
front free endpaper, and the margins of the first leaf of text, with occasional marginal annotations throughout. A transcript
of his notes on the preliminary leaves is laid in.
A remarkable collection of imprints. Most of these works are located in only three or four copies by Berg. The only Virginia institution with a partial holding is the Virginia State Library. A detailed list of the individual imprints is available
on request. $95,000.
Popular Satire on Early New England
69. [Ward, Nathaniel]: THE SIMPLE COBLER OF AGGAVVAM IN
AMERICA. WILLING TO HELP ‘MEND HIS NATIVE COUNTRY,
LAMENTABLY TATTERED, BOTH IN THE UPPER-LEATHER
AND SOLE, WITH ALL THE HONEST STITCHES HE CAN
TAKE.... London: J.D. & R.I. for Stephen Bowtell..., 1647. [4],80pp.
Small quarto. 20th-century brown morocco, tooled in blind, gilt inner
dentelles, a.e.g. Bookplate and label of Frank Cutter Deering on front
endpapers. Ownership inscription (“William [?] Gable Altoona, Pa.
June 1916”) on front fly leaf. Light toning, minor soiling. Very good.
“A prose satire of the times, which instantly became popular and will
always associate [Ward’s] name with early American literature...” - Church.
Ward came to New England in 1634 and was appointed minister at
Agawam, now Ipswich, Massachusetts. Soon after he compiled the first
code of laws established in New England, which was adopted but never
printed in book form, as John Cotton’s code was mistaken for that of
Ward. This was his next literary effort, containing many New England
references. The work was extremely popular, going through five editions
in the first year of its publication. Scarce.
SABIN 101323. CHURCH 484. WING W787. JCB (3)II:360. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 647/200. ESTC R43813.
$8500.
George Washington’s First Publication
70. Washington, George: THE JOURNAL OF MAJOR GEORGE WASHINGTON, SENT BY THE HON. ROBERT DINWIDDIE, ESQ; HIS MAJESTY’S LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR, AND COMMANDER IN CHIEF
OF VIRGINIA, TO THE COMMANDANT OF THE FRENCH FORCES ON THE OHIO. TO WHICH ARE
ADDED, THE GOVERNOR’S LETTER: AND A TRANSLATION OF THE FRENCH OFFICER’S ANSWER....
Williamsburgh [sic], Printed; London, Reprinted for T. Jefferys, 1754. 32pp. plus folding frontispiece map, handcolored
in outline. Old laid paper and marbled paper have been used to supply cover wrappers for this pamphlet. The map has
neat japanese paper reinforcement on the verso, and along the horizontal fold and two short splits along the vertical folds
at the upper margin (not touching the map), and is otherwise very good. Else very good and clean. In a half leather and
cloth clamshell box and cloth chemise.
The rare third edition overall, and first British edition, of Washington’s JOURNAL, following the virtually unobtainable
Williamsburg first edition, and the second edition printed in Annapolis in the MARYLAND GAZETTE.
In 1753 tensions between the French and British forces in North America rose, as the French sought to establish themselves
more firmly in the land between their colonial spheres of Louisiana and Canada, in the “Ohio Country,” the trans-Allegheny
lands that included western New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and western Virginia. In a strategic sense this threatened to
encircle the British colonies; it also was a threat to the expansionist land hunger of the Virginia planters. On the latter
point few were more passionate than Washington, who was a fervent speculator in western lands all his life.
In late October, 1753, Gov. Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia commissioned Washington, a Major in the Virginia Regiment,
to go to the Ohio Country with a letter for the French commander there, insisting he withdraw his forces immediately.
With frontiersman Christopher Gist as a guide, Washington arrived at the future site of Pittsburgh, which he identified as
an ideal place for a fort, by late November. Here he came into contact with both French traders and Indians, and devoted
considerable effort to persuading the latter to the English side. He recounts his negotiations with the Indians over the
next week in great detail.
Washington then proceeded northwards to Lake Erie, and made contact with the French military forces on December 4
and then proceeded to their fort. The next ten days were spent in fruitless discussion, although Washington managed to
extract a good deal of valuable intelligence. On the 15th of December, with a letter from the French commander to Gov.
Dinwiddie indicating a refusal to move, he set out on his return journey. This dangerous and difficult trip was made in a
little more than a month, a remarkable feat in the depth of winter, illustrative of Washington’s resolve and physical vigor.
He reported back to Dinwiddie at Williamsburg on Jan. 16, 1754. After Washington presented his notes, the governor
had them published. This was Washington’s first publication, and his first real appearance on the public stage.
Washington’s visit to the Ohio was the beginning of a global crisis. His return to the Ohio country in the spring ended in
disaster when armed conflict broke out, the French commander was killed, and Washington forced to surrender. By the end
of the year the obscure frontier stand-off had spiraled into a world war - the first truly global war - which engulfed Europe
and its colonial possessions in what was called the French and Indian War in America, the Seven Years’ War in Europe.
The map in this copy is the less common issue with the caption reading: “The Shawanons are the same with ye Satanas.”
Washington’s JOURNAL is a work of the greatest historical significance both as a Washington item and a document in
the great struggle of the French and British for the North American continent, and is well deserving of Wright Howes’
designation as “the most desirable eighteenth century American rarity.”
HOWES W134, “c.” SABIN 101710. STREETER SALE 1713. CHURCH 999. CLARK I:323. VAIL 472. BROWN,
EARLY MAPS OF THE OHIO VALLEY 19. $125,000.
George Washington Writes from Mount Vernon About Mules and Female Sexuality
71. Washington, George: [AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED, FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON TO RICHARD
SPRIGG, REGARDING A DONKEY]. Mount Vernon. June 29, 1786. [1]p. plus integral address leaf. Quarto on a folded
folio sheet. Old fold lines. Silked on verso. Loss to address leaf, resulting in loss of addressee’s name. Two words effaced
from main text. Lightly tanned. Very good.
An interesting letter written by George Washington during his brief period of retirement at Mount Vernon, before his
election to the presidency, revealing a slightly racy side to his character. He writes to Richard Sprigg, a Maryland politician and lawyer, discussing a “she ass” sent by Sprigg to Mount Vernon, from context, presumably for breeding purposes.
Washington writes:
“Dear Sir, When your favor of the first inst., accompanying the she ass, came to this place, I was from home - both however arrived safe; but Doct. Bowie informs me that the bitch puppy was not brought to his house. Nor have I heard any
thing more of the asses at Marlbro’, nor of the grass seeds committed to the care of Mr. Digges. I feel myself obliged by
your polite offer of the first fruit of your jenny. Though in appearance quite unequal to the match, yet, like a true female,
she was not to be terrified at the disproportional size of her paramour; and having renewed the conflict twice or thrice it
is to be hoped the issue will be favourable. My best respects attend [Mrs. Sprigg] & the rest of your family. With great
esteem & regard, I am Dr. Sir Yr. most ob. serv. Go. Washington.”
This missive is recorded by the Washington Papers, though with the date in error by one day, having been transcribed
and recorded from a George D. Smith catalogue, where it appeared in the early years of the 20th century (Smith died in
1920). Since then, the address leaf and Mrs. Sprigg’s name have been effaced from the document. A rather racy bit of
agricultural correspondence by Washington. $35,000.
Washington’s Sixth State of the Union Address, with His Extensive Report on the Whiskey Rebellion,
and His Ruminations on Government
72. Washington, George: SPEECH OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TO BOTH HOUSES
OF CONGRESS [caption title]. [Philadelphia: Printed by Francis Childs, 1794]. [4]pp. printed on a single folded sheet.
Small tears at fold lines, not affecting text. Lightly toned. Very good. In a half morocco box.
The very rare first printing of George Washington’s sixth State of the Union Address, delivered on November 19, 1794.
Most of the speech, nearly three-quarters of the printed text, is taken up by a discussion of the Whiskey Rebellion in
western Pennsylvania, during which the authority of the federal government was severely tested. Washington’s speech
gives his account of the rebellion and his explanation of his military response to the insurrection, and offers important
insights into his conceptions of the rule of law and the powers of the new federal government.
Washington’s description of the unfolding of events in western
Pennsylvania, when residents protested an excise tax on liquor
by resort to arms, is terse and to the point. He summarizes
the course of the complaints from the frontier and describes
the escalating violence. Washington recounts how Congress
considered the complaints about the tax, but that this consideration only seemed to spur the rebels, writing that “the very
forbearance to press prosecutions was misinterpreted into a fear
of urging the execution of the laws.” Washington castigates
the rebellious American citizens as “the enemies of order” and
malevolent “insurgents,” gripped by a “treasonable fury” and a
“spirit inimical to all order.” His anger is palpable, as he accuses
the insurgents of seeking to “withstand by force of arms the authority of the United States, and thereby to extort a repeal of the
laws of excise, and an alteration in the conduct of government.”
Washington goes on to explain his actions in calling up a large
militia force to march to western Pennsylvania and subdue the
insurrection by force.
What is very interesting in the text of the address is Washington’s
forceful interpretation of the powers and responsibilities of the
federal government and the chief executive, and the ultimate rule
of law. This address thereby becomes a forceful statement by
Washington of his thoughts on the role and power of government. Washington describes the liquor tax as a constitutional
exercising of the legislative power of the Congress, and expresses
his dismay when he found that the courts and local authorities
in western Pennsylvania were unable to control the rebels. He
writes that “crimes, which reached the very existence of social order, were perpetrated without controul; - the friends of
government were insulted, abused, and overawed into silence.”
Washington proclaims that to yield to those who were violently
opposing the tax “would be to violate the fundamental principle
of our constitution, which enjoins that the will of the majority
shall prevail.” Several times he expresses the need to obey the
“authority of laws” and he reiterates his oath to “preserve, protect
and defend the constitution of the United States.”
In the remainder of the address Washington discusses the need
for a better organized militia and more adequate fortifications,
issues which connect with the subject of the Whiskey Rebellion. He goes on to report on relations with Indian tribes on
the frontier, the activities of General Anthony Wayne, and treaty negotiations. Washington also discusses the need to retire
the national debt, the progress of the United States Mint, and his policy of equanimity in relations with European powers.
Evans ascribes the printing of this speech to Francis Childs. Only five copies located in OCLC. Rare, and a very important expression of George Washington’s philosophy of the role and power of the federal government when it faced the
first serious domestic challenge to its authority.
EVANS 27923. $25,000.
On the Run with Jeff Davis:
The Confederate President’s Nephew Reports on the Flight from Richmond
73. Wood, John Taylor: [TEN MANUSCRIPT LETTERS FROM JOHN TAYLOR WOOD TO HIS WIFE, WHILE
ESCAPING WITH CONFEDERATE PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS IN 1865]. [Virgina, North Carolina, Cuba
& Canada]. April 6-July 13, 1865. Ten letters, comprised of [29]pp., plus transcript. Old fold lines, minor toning. Overall,
very good.
Ten gripping letters from Col. John Taylor Wood to his wife, Lola, written during the final collapse of the Confederacy.
Colonel Wood, military aide to his uncle, President Jefferson Davis, accompanied Davis on his flight from Richmond on
April 1, 1865 after word from Gen. Lee about the impending fall of the city. Wood’s letters cover their journey from
Virginia through the Carolinas and into Georgia. On May 10, Davis and Wood were both captured near the town of Irwinsville. Wood soon made his escape, with his uncle’s permission, by bribing one of their captors and hiding in a nearby
swamp until the Federals and their prisoners left the area. He made his way to Cuba with several other fleeing officials,
and from there on to Canada, where his family later joined him. He remained in Canada until his death in 1904, never
returning to the United States.
President Davis continued to believe, for much of his flight, that he would somehow be able to reconstitute Confederate
authority and fight on. Davis and Wood were accompanied by a number of members of the Confederate cabinet, although
these gradually dropped away to attempt their own escapes. Wood’s letters provide a remarkable and graphic description
of the last desperate days of the Confederate government.
In a letter to Lola just after their escape, written from Dansville, Virginia on April 6:
“I am doing more for the President than anyone else & until Mr. Harrison returns or we get settled. I have taken a house
for the President for an office & for a dwelling...without furniture without anything hardly, commencing fresh. The President bears up nobly, he is as defiant as ever....We are still without news from Genl. Lee, have not heard from him since
the fall of Richmond, the enemy are at Burkeville Junction between us & Richmond. Genl. Lee must be near Amelia C.H.
& may retreat towards Knoxville Lynchburg. Until the President hears from him & what his plans are he will not make
any definite arrangements as to where he will locate....Most of the Secretaries are here but have not yet got to work. The
news from Richmond is very contradictory....It is only certain that there was great disorder, rioting in the lower part of
the city several destructive fires were raging on Gary Street....The poor people of Richmond my heart bleeds for them....
The enemy has captured Selma, Ala. defeating our forces with a loss of 2,000 men; we are certainly getting it thick &
heavy now, but by the blessing of Providence we will yet whip them & gain our Independence....I can hardly realize that
the events of the past few days are not a dream.”
Back on the move, Wood writes again on the 10th, this time from Salisbury, North Carolina:
This morning I couldn’t help feeling gloomy & depressed at the condition of affairs. We are going down a precipice....
The news from Ga. is bad, the enemy have captured Columbus the most important point in the state....We have a large
escort with us of good troops....Uncle [Davis] is well and in good spirits.”
On April 20 in Charlotte, North Carolina word reached the party of the death of Lincoln. Writing to Lola on that day
Wood expresses his regret and speaks of Lee’s surrender:
“You doubtless have learned of the armistice, how it will effect us I cannot say for the present. I only hope for the best.
We are contending but for one thing, Independence and nothing else will satisfy me....We have just heard of the death
of Lincoln & of Seward. I cannot rejoice at their deaths for deeds of this kind provoke similar ones & Andy Johnson is
in every point of view is a worse man than Lincoln. A low man, a base man & who is proud of being so. It may bring
about a revolution in the North, the Army will be in favor of elevating Grant or Sherman, the politicians will favor the
regular succession.”
A few days later Wood feels defeated and genuinely surprised by surrender of the Confederacy:
“I write to you with a sad & gloomy heart....You at once will divine the reasons. If I have understood correctly the terms
of the negotiations now pending it is an eventual surrender of what we have been contending for during the past four
years, our independence....I never will consent to these terms & uncle never will....I do feel humiliated, almost heart
broken, and have been so long without a home that it has become a matter of much concern, but to feel that you have no
Country is bitter indeed.”
With the war all but over, the search for Davis and the members of his cabinet intensified, and resources became scarce.
A letter to Lola from Yorkville, South Carolina on April 27 is scrawled hastily on a scrap of paper. After the capture of
Davis and his own escape, on June 15, Wood sends Lola a brief note from Cuba. His final two letters are written from
Montreal on July 11 and 13, 1865. In them he describes some of his travels. He is concerned with her joining him in
Canada, although he does make mention of rumours he has heard about his escape, of which he is clearly insulted:
“I hope my name will not appear again at present in the papers....I am almost tempted to assume some other name but
will not do it. I have done nothing yet to be ashamed of. However I am told there is an account of my escaping from a
Yankee Cruiser...where I am represented as having shown false or bogus papers and thus avoided capture. I have not seen
it, but it is not necessary to tell you dear that it is not true. This is related as having occurred on our way from Florida
to the Island of Cuba.”
This rare, firsthand account of the movements of President Davis and his officials at the fall of the Confederacy offers
some of the most intimate and insightful details available from the historic final days of the Civil War. $22,500.
The First Published Practice Manual for an American Court,
with Massive Annotations Compiled over Two Decades
74. Wyche, William: A TREATISE ON THE PRACTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF JUDICATURE OF
THE STATE OF NEW-YORK IN CIVIL ACTIONS. New York: T. and J. Swords, 1794. xvi,355,[1]p. Lacks half title
and prospectuses (pp.[358-359]). Thick octavo. Half calf and marbled boards in antique style, stamped in gilt, leather
label. Interleaved throughout, with extensive manuscript annotations in a contemporary hand. Contemporary ownership
inscription on titlepage, trimmed a bit at top edge. Light scattered soiling. Very good.
The first American practice manual for the legal profession, based in part on manuscript works by Alexander Hamilton.
The present copy, interleaved throughout, contains massive annotations compiled by an attorney who was evidently in active practice before the New York Supreme Court at least until 1813. This is the self-styled second edition, published the
same year as the first. It may have been the intention of the annotator to publish a new edition, but no such every appeared.
Not much is known about William Wyche, a British emigré to America. On the titlepage of his treatise he styles himself as
being “Of the honorable law society of Grey’s Inn, London; and citizen of the United States of America.” Wyche entered
Grey’s Inn at the end of 1788, but did not stay long enough to be registered as a proper barrister (a term of five years), and
citizenship took two years’ residence, meaning he must have emigrated around or before 1792. His TREATISE... quite
practically translates, in a well-organized fashion, the practices of the New York court system in civil cases. This would
have been eminently helpful for lawyers just starting out and learning to navigate the state’s legal system.
In the preface Wyche discusses the sources he consulted in the compilation of his work, noting: “Some practical sketches
in manuscript, one passing under the name of a personage of high respectability, have been consulted; and whatever appeared of importance has been incorporated.” The manuscript work referred to is undoubtedly one prepared by Alexander
Hamilton in the 1780s. His treatise on practice circulated in manuscript copies (only one of which survives today) but
was never published in the Federal period. It has been published in modern times by both the Hamilton Papers project
and the New York Bar Association as PRACTICAL PROCEEDINGS IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE
OF NEW YORK. A comparison of the texts reveals that Wyche did indeed draw heavily on Hamilton’s pioneering work.
Wyche himself was only briefly part of the New York legal scene. He was not admitted to practice before the New York
Supreme Court until May of 1795. Prior to this he published several books and married in 1794. He appeared in the 1795
and 1796 New York directories, and last appeared in a legal action in January 1796. After that he disappears.
The present copy is of extraordinary interest for the extensive contemporary annotations throughout the text. The volume is interleaved, doubling its size, and bears significant and detailed notes throughout by an unidentified contemporary
author. The annotator was clearly an active practitioner before the Court. The earliest date we note is 1796, shortly
after publication, and the latest is 1813, providing a detailed picture of the evolution of the Court in its early years. A
fertile basis for future research, the notes are quite evocative of the training of American lawyers in the Federal period.
A highly important book and manuscript, providing a key to the basis of legal practice in New York.
ESTC W2533. EVANS 28140. COHEN 9188. Robert Emery, LAW LIBRARY JOURNAL 93:3, pp.469-77. $11,000.