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Catalogue 254 New Acquisitions |
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Section VI: Magic to Munson |
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Papers
on Book Collecting by William S. Reese
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128. [Magic]: COMING! PROF. H.B. REYNOLDS THE WORLD RENOWNED NECROMANCER AND MAGICIAN! WILL APPEAR IN [blank space]. FREAKS THAT WOULD DIM THE VISION OF HERRMANN, DEBARY BEN ALLI, HERCHEL, COBALL, AND GEURNER, WILL BE PERFORMED BY PROF. REYNOLDS, IT BEING HIS FIRST AND ONLY TOUR THROUGH THE COUNTRY...DON’T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY OF SEEING THAT WHICH WILL NEVER APPEAR BEFORE YOU AGAIN. Providence: What Cheer Print, [nd, but ca. 1885]. Broadside, 29¼ x 10½ inches, with 6½ x 8¼-inch wood engraving, signed by Jackson’s Print, of Prof. Reynolds onstage with flying demons, a cauldron, and various displays on a table. Printed on inexpensive advertising paper, now a light brown tone. Three minor holes, one barely affecting the image. In very good condition. A marvelous and extremely rare example of late 19th-century American advertising ephemera for Prof. H.B. Reynolds, "the world renowned sorcerer, necromancer and magician." The wood engraving shows the Professor on stage with a few of the elements to be seen during his performances. These include demons, birds, and cards in various stages of flight, a boiling cauldron, two separate card displays, and a table with three objects used in the act (including an additional demon’s head). Measuring nearly two and a half feet in height, the text of the broadside details the wonders the audience will see. These include "original and more marvellous illusions than was [sic] ever performed by the Ancient Egyptians or the Necromancer of India...The wonderful power of producing realities from nothing and commanding articles to be constructed from the ashes of the earth...His marvellous power of conjuring is manifested by merely asking for or moving his hand that his desires are complied with...." Reynolds also claimed to be "cabalistic in his superiority of multitude of mankind, allowing himself to be bound with 100 feet of cord in the hands of the most expertitious in knot tying; when in a moment of unseen gesture he frees himself from the cords that bound him and is found within the silent enclosure of a structure whose walls have been permanently secured with screens and nails, locked and sealed, and bound with ropes." Although much detail is provided regarding Reynolds’ skills and attributes, the actual place of performance is not indicated. Space was intentionally left blank for the name of the venue to be added when available, but the price of admission ("15 and 25 cts., Children under 10 years, 15 cents") and performance times ("Doors open at 7 p.m. Oracles 8 p.m.") are noted. Printed in Providence, the name of the printing house, What Cheer Print, is derived from the Narragansett Indian’s greeting to Roger Williams in June 1636 ("What cheer, Netop" [friend]). A fascinating example of late 19th-century American advertising ephemera. Extremely rare, not in OCLC or RLIN, but one copy in the Smith Magic Collection at Brown University. $1500. 129. Malan, Cesar: THE SWISS PEASANT. THE ONE THING NEEDFUL. Park Hill [Ok.]: Mission Press, 1848. 24pp. 24mo. Dbd. Small spot on titlepage. Very good. The titlepage is in English and Cherokee, and the text entirely in Cherokee. The translations were done jointly by Samuel Austin Worcester and Stephen Foreman. "A translation into Cherokee of Tract no. 180 and anonymous Tract no. 6 of the American Tract Society" – Hargrett, Oklahoma. OCLC locates seven copies. PILLING, PROOF-SHEETS 3789. PILLING, IROQUOIAN, p.159. FOREMAN, p.20. HARGRETT OKLAHOMA 127. AYER, INDIAN LINGUISTICS (CHEROKEE) 53. GILCREASE-HARGRETT, p.46. SIEBERT SALE 1009. SABIN 44088. GRAFF 2665. $850. 130. Mapleson, T.W. Gwilt, [illus]: THE SONGS & BALLADS OF SHAKESPEARE ILLUMINATED BY T W GWILT MAPLESON ESQ. New York: Lockwood & Co., [1849]. [23] leaves of chromolithographic plates, most double-sided, on stiff card stock, mounted on stubs. Tissue guards. Pictorial half title. Small quarto. Original red morocco, ornately stamped in gilt, spine gilt in six compartments, raised bands, a.e.g. Extremities rubbed. Morocco on rear board lightly stained. Modern ink gift inscription and abrasion from tape removal on front free endpaper. Near fine. Nineteen selections from Shakespeare, lavishly printed and bordered by the great American illuminated book designer, T.W. Gwilt Mapleson. A lovely example of an interesting American color plate book. $1500. The First American Horse Book 131. Markham, Gervase [et al]: THE CITIZEN AND COUNTRY-MAN’S EXPERIENCED FARRIER. CONTAINING, I. THE MOST BEST APPROVED METHOD OF ORDERING, DIETING, EXERCISING, PURGING, SCOURING, AND CLEANSING OF HORSES...TO ALL WHICH IS ADDED, A VALUABLE AND FINE COLLECTION OF THE SUREST AND BEST RECEIPTS IN THE KNOWN WORLD FOR THE CURE OF ALL MALADIES AND DISTEMPERS...BY J. MARKHAM, G. JEFFERIES, AND DISCREET INDIANS. Wilmington, De.: James Adams, 1764. 364pp. Contemporary calf, raised bands. Top spine compartment perished, calf worn at corners and rubbed. Dampstains in first twenty leaves. A few instances of marginal worming, not affecting text. Scattered foxing. 19th-century ink annotation in several leaves. Contemporary ink signature of Isaac Marshall on front pastedown. A very good copy of this fragile work. In a half morocco box. This is the first American work on horses to be composed, at least in part, from American experience. Although British agricultural writer Gervase Markham’s work served as a basis for this compilation, it was only the starting point. A letter from the American editor, John Millis, to printer James Adams survives, in which Millis describes how he combined "many things of his own experience" as well as lore collected from other farriers, presumably including the "discreet Indians." "The author concerns himself with the running horse and the hunter as well as with the ordinary horse of daily usefulness" – The Colonial Scene. Millis includes in the book a leaf of attestation dated at Kennet, Chester Township, extolling the usefulness of his book, and signed by four witnesses, including noted American horticulturist Humphrey Marshall. This book is also one of the first works of the press in Delaware, where printing began in 1761. Millis seems to have largely marketed it himself. He "employed several tavern keepers to take in subscriptions" and had 600 copies printed. Rink notes eight copies in his bibliography, to which we can add the Streeter copy, the present one, and two copies sold by us in 1993 (the Mellon-British Art Center Yale copy) and 2000. A rare and interesting work. EVANS 9718. RINK, DELAWARE IMPRINTS 23. AUSTIN 1191. STREETER SALE 4083. HENDERSON, AMERICAN SPORT, p.120. The Colonial Scene (joint exhibition by the American Antiquarian Society and the John Carter Brown Library, 1950), pp.30-31. $4750. 132. Marshall, Humphrey: ARBUSTRUM AMERICANUM: THE AMERICAN GROVE, OR, AN ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE OF FOREST TREES AND SHRUBS, NATIVES OF THE AMERICAN UNITED STATES, ARRANGED ACCORDING TO THE LINNAEAN SYSTEM...ALSO, SOME HINTS OF THEIR USES IN MEDICINE, DYES, AND DOMESTIC OECONOMY .... Philadelphia. 1785. xx,174pp. Small octavo bound in fours, 8 1/4 x 5 1/8 inches. Original blue paper boards, expertly backed to style. Neat repairs to inner margins. Small hole in lower outer margin of titlepage, not affecting text. Else very good, untrimmed. In a green cloth chemise within a half green morocco and cloth slipcase. Provenance: John Gough (early engraved bookplate printed in blue). The first work on trees to be both written and published in America, indeed the DAB calls it "the first truly indigenous Botanical Essay published in the Western hemisphere." Marshall, a cousin of John Bartram and a Quaker active in business who shared the family interest in flora, describes a number of American trees never before noted. This meant that this work was of considerable interest in Europe, to botanists as well as gardeners. This first edition is dedicated to the "American Philosophical Society," specifically to the president of the Society, "Benjamin Franklin, Esquire," and the three vice-presidents. The work takes the form of an introduction (including a note that the author was contemplating publishing a similar work on herbaceous plants), a five-page view of the "Classes of the Sexual System of Linnaeus," a six-page glossary of the botanical terms used. This is followed by the catalogue proper, which is broken down alphabetically, then by class and order number, then by species: e.g., a general description of the Acer or Maple tree, followed by six entries for the species that grow in the United States. A French edition was published in 1788, which demonstrated the interest abroad and carried Marshall’s statement that he was willing to be an agent to ship American seeds to Europe. According to the preface in the French edition, customers already included the gardens of Louis XVI. STAFLEU & COWAN TL2, 5457. OAK SPRING SYLVA 16. EVANS 19068. PLESCH, p.326. MEISEL III, p.354. SABIN 44776. HUNT 674. CLEVELAND BOTANICAL COLLECTIONS 558. NORMAN 1444. PRITZEL 5834. DAB XII, pp.311-12. $3750. 133. Marsillac, Jean de: LA VIE DE GUILLAUME PENN, FONDATEUR DE LA PENNSYLVANIE; PREMIER LÉGISLATEUR CONNUE DES ÉTATS-UNIS DE L’AMÉRIQUE. Paris: De l’imprimerie du Cercle Social, 1791. Two volumes. 264; 294pp. Contemporary tree calf, spine finely gilt, leather labels. Old inoffensive stains on front board of first volume. Outer joints beginning to wear. Lower joint of first volume beginning to separate from spine, rear board scuffed. Internally clean and fresh. A very good copy. An early life of William Penn by a leading French Quaker who lived for several years in the U.S. Never published in English, Howes notes a German translation published in Strasbourg in 1798. HOWES M323. SABIN 44820. FAY, pp.28-29. ECHEVERRIA & WILKIE 791/56. $850. A Huge and Early Martinique Imprint 134. [Martinique]: AU NOM DE LA REPUBLIQUE FRACAISE. EXTRAIT DES REGISTRES DES DELIBERATIONS DE L’ASSEMBLEE REPRESENTATIVE DE LA MARTINIQUE [caption title]. Republique-ville [i.e. St. Pierre]: J.B. Thounens, Imprimeur de la Municipalite et de la Societe Patriotique, [1794]. Broadside, 41½ x 20¼ inches, made up of three folio sheets pasted together. Text in three columns. Fine, untrimmed. A remarkable broadside – almost certainly the only known copy – and a remarkable survival, printing laws and rules relating to personal estates for residents of the island of Martinique in early 1794, just at the end of French rule and shortly before it was occupied by the British during the Napoleonic Wars. The broadside is signed in the bottom margin by Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, the Vicomte de Rochambeau. Rochambeau (1755-1813) was a lieutenant-general in the army of the French Republic, governor general of Martinique, and the son of the Comte de Rochambeau, who commanded French troops in North America during the American Revolution. The early 1790s was a period of great uncertainty in the French Caribbean, as fear of slave revolts and British attacks caused great political, social, and economic instability in the region. The laws printed on this broadside address the issues of the financial accounts and goods of emigrés leaving the island, explaining how their finances would be administered and accounted for in their absence. The laws are chiefly concerned with taking complete accounts of the goods and of emigrés, the sequestration of the property, and with setting up a process by which emigrés’ creditors would be paid. Printing began on Martinique in 1784 and, according to Bradford Swan, J.B. Thounens was "one of several printers working in the French islands" at the outbreak of the French Revolution. Thounens was also the official government printer on Martinique. OCLC locates only three Martinique imprints by J.B. Thounens from this time period – two of them broadsides (both smaller in size than the present broadside) and one a pamphlet. All three examples are identified in only a single copy, at Hamilton College. We can find no record of the present broadside, which would have been printed for temporary public display. The heat and humidity of the Caribbean region, to say nothing of war and revolution, are the enemies of printed material, and the fact that this remarkable broadside has survived in this unique copy is amazing indeed. Exceptionally rare and important. Bradford Swan, The Spread of Printing: The Caribbean Area, p.32. $9500. 135. [Martinique]: DEVIS GÉNÉRAL DES TRAVAUX DE LA DIRECTION DU GÉNIE. Fort Royal, Martinique: Thoubeau, 1841. [2],v, [1],43pp. Slim quarto. Contemporary plain wrappers. Internally clean and bright. Text signed at end by a colonial official. Near fine. A scarce Martinique imprint, outlining proposed expenses for work commissioned by the department of military engineers under La Barriè. Costs include estimates on lumber, tapestries, paint, and other materials. Owing to the climate and high humidity, all such imprints are quite scarce. Not on OCLC. $900. The Earliest Newport View Book 136. Mason, George Champlin: NEWPORT AND ITS ENVIRONS ILLUSTRATED BY A SERIES OF VIEWS. Newport: Chas. E. Hammett, Jr., 1848. 25 leaves, including dedication leaf, illustrated titlepage, eleven plates, and twelve leaves of descriptive text. Oblong folio, 12½ x 17¼ inches. Publisher’s brown cloth, front cover stamped in gold, a.e.g. Covers and spine lightly worn, corners and top and bottom of spine abraded, minor spotting. Inner hinges beginning to wear, but solid. Contemporary ownership inscription in pencil on dedication leaf, 20th-century inscriptions in pencil on titlepage. Occasional minor foxing, minor stains, and minimal dust soiling. A very good copy. The earliest book of Newport views, authored and drawn by the prominent Newport architect, George Champlin Mason. George Champlin Mason was a native of Newport and a man of many talents: an artist, writer, and prolific architect. Eventually he took his son into partnership for the design of some of the fine homes and estates in Newport dating from the second half of the 19th century. When in his twenties, the elder Mason spent two years abroad, where he studied drawing and architecture in Paris, Florence, and Rome. On his return, Mason prepared the drawings for his first published work, Newport and Its Environs, an oblong folio volume that consists of twelve lithographs and an elaborate titlepage. It was designated "Volume I," although there is no sign that a second volume ever materialized. "All of the views bear Mason’s signature and tend to emphasize – with their attention to cows, ducks, sheep, streams, and fishing – the pastoral quality of Newport’s surroundings" – Deak. As quoted above, Deak calls for twelve lithographs, plus the elaborate titlepage. This description is likely in error. The titlepage vignette is captioned "Fort Dumpling" and is the subject of the first descriptive leaf, suggesting the titlepage is actually the first plate. A list of the twelve plates, including "Fort Dumpling," also appears across the top of the titlepage. A complete list of the present plates, in order of appearance, follows: 1) "Fort Dumpling." Appears as a titlepage
vignette. It is unknown who executed the lithography, but in the lower margin of each text leaf, "Francis Hart, Printer" of New York is credited with the letterpress. Quite rare. OCLC, citing eleven plates and no descriptive text, locates four copies. Bartlett locates only an 1854 related series of pen and pencil sketches by Mason, titled Newport Illustrated. The earliest collection of Newport views, done in the form of a "pastoral" lithographic tour, and among the first to showcase the town as a recreational haven. SABIN 45442. BRADFORD 3247. DEAK, PICTURING AMERICA 558. BARTLETT, p.182 (ref). OCLC 36985187. $5000. 137. [Massachusetts]: RESOLVE FOR DISTRICTING THE COMMONWEALTH, FOR THE PURPOSE OF CHOOSING FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVES...JUNE 30, 1792. [bound with:] RESOLVE FOR DISTRICTING THE COMMONWEALTH, FOR THE PURPOSE OF CHOOSING ELECTORS OF PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT...JUNE 29, 1792. [Boston. 1792]. 12pp. Dbd. Early ink inscription on title-leaf. Very good. A rare pair of handbills; together, the NUC and OCLC locate only five copies of the two resolutions bound together with continuous pagination, as here. The document deals with the knotty question of creating districts for representatives. In the next few years Elbridge Gerry would give birth to the phrase, "Gerrymandering," with his odd Massachusetts districts; more recent politicians have continued this fine art. EVANS 24525, 24526. SABIN 46093. $1250. Paper Money 138. Mendenhall, Thomas: AN ENTIRELY NEW PLAN FOR A NATIONAL CURRENCY; SUITED TO THE DEMANDS OF THIS GREAT, IMPROVING, AGRICULTURAL, MANUFACTURING & COMMERCIAL REPUBLIC...TO WHICH IS ADDED, A PLAN FOR A REAL NATIONAL BANK. Philadelphia. 1834. 32pp. Dbd. Foremargin trimmed bit close. Occasional fox marks. Very good. An argument for paper currency to be backed by the pledge of the government and not necessarily to be redeemable in specie. The last seven pages contain Mendenhall’s plan for a national bank to replace the defunct Bank of the United States. AMERICAN IMPRINTS 25666. KRESS C3788. $750. 139. Merlin, Lewis: THE TREASURE OF HEALTH, OR A WONDERFUL COLLECTION OF THE MOST VALUABLE SECRETS IN MEDICINE, FOR THE CURE OF ALL DISEASES, WOUNDS, AND OTHER ACCIDENTS TO WHICH THE HUMAN BODY IS SUBJECT, WITH THE METHOD OF PREPARING, AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR USING, THE NECESSARY REMEDIES...CAREFULLY COLLECTED BY A BENEVOLENT SOCIETY IN EUROPE. FAITHFULLY TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH AND OTHER FOREIGN LANGUAGES, AND PUBLISHED FOR THE BENEFIT OF HUMANITY, BY LEWIS MERLIN. Philadelphia: Printed for the Society, 1819. 341,[1]pp. 12mo. Contemporary calf, spine gilt, morocco label. Calf moderately worn. Tanning and light scattered foxing. Good. A medical handbook, intended for use by heads of families, farmers, "physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, ministers...seafaring men," etc. (pp.xi-xii). Austin notes that no French edition has been identified. An unusual and early compilation. AUSTIN 1289. $750. 140. [Mexico]: ALBUM MEXICANO. COLECCIÓN DE PAISAJES, MONUMENTOS, COSTUMBRES Y CIUDADES PRINCIPALES DE LA REPÚBLICA. Mexico: Litografía Debray Sucs C. Montauriol, [ca. 1885]. Twenty-four (of twenty-eight) tinted lithographic plates. Titles of plates printed in English, Spanish, and French. Oblong folio, 9½ x 13 inches. 20th-century three-quarter cloth over marbled boards. Boards slightly worn at edges. Moderate soiling and foxing, particularly in margins of plates. Each plate annotated in a near-contemporary hand in German, below the image and in the area of the printed caption. One annotation affecting the image of one plate. Lacks four plates ("Palacio Municipal," "Vista General de Toluca," "Catedral de Puebla," and "Panorama de Pueblo"). A good copy. A fine example of a late 19th-century lithographic album printed and published in Mexico. The views include major sites and buildings in Mexico City, Veracruz, Guanajuto, and Guadalajara. Up-to-date aspects of Mexican life, such as trains and train stations, the school of mines, hotels and cafes, and fashionably dressed men and women, are portrayed, while historical references include the Plaza of Guadalupe and Statues of Christopher Columbus and King Carlos IV. Possibly published for the tourist trade or perhaps for international distribution, each plate has captions printed in English, Spanish, and French. In this copy, each plate is annotated in German in a near-contemporary hand as well. A good copy of a late 19th-century Mexican lithographic album, unfortunately lacking four of twenty-eight plates. MATHES, MEXICO ON STONE, pp.44, 60. PALAU 5553. OCLC 4385227. $2500. A Collection of Material 141. [Mexico]: [SAMMELBAND OF FOUR EXTREMELY RARE MID-19th-CENTURY MEXICAN PAMPHLETS REGARDING GOVERNMENT, STATUTES, ELECTIONS, AND THE 1857 CONSTITUTION OF MEXICO]. [Various places, publishers, dates, and paginations, as detailed below]. Small quartos of varying sizes. Contemporary tree calf, boards and spine finely gilt. Two leather spine labels, gilt, with the following: "Constitucion 1857" and "Propried. del lic. Manuel Lama." Boards lightly worn. Slight age-toning. Worm tracks in gutter and throughout volume in upper portion of leaves (affecting a few letters on practically every page, but unobtrusive and largely marginal). Overall in good to very good condition. A remarkable sammelband of four extremely rare mid-19th-century pamphlets concerning government, statutes, elections, and the constitution in Mexico. Of special interest are three of the publications directly documenting the development and final form of the 1857 Mexican constitution, Mexico’s second constitution as a sovereign state, after the first constitution of 1824. Following the exile of President Santa Anna in August 1855, a new government was formed. "On February 19, 1856, a new Congress was convened to deliberate on and bring forth yet another charter for the Government of Mexico. It was composed of the most eminent jurists of the time, and as a first step it issued a provisional statute to be in force until it could complete the Constitution itself...The Congress adopted the Constitution of February 5, 1857, following a year of debates. This charter was slated to enjoy a long life before it was replaced by the Constitution adopted in 1917" – Claggett and Valderramma. The 1857 Constitution is considered a triumph for the liberal forces in Mexico at the time, with a number of the provisions protecting the rights of individuals. "Finally, the new constitution affirmed complete freedom for all citizens. For the first time since the 1814 Apatzingán constitution, every Mexican, however poor (but excluding vagrants and criminals), was given the right to vote and to be elected, and a declaration of human rights, including the inviolability of private property, was also specified...Most liberals saw in the adoption of the constitution of 1857 a realization of their life-long dreams" – Cambridge History of Latin America. Other articles are concerned with the form of government, separation of powers, the organization of the judicial branch, and the relationship between the federal government and the powers of the individual states. The present volume includes both the provisional statute (Estatuto Orgánico Provisional, item 2 below) and the final version of the federal constitution approved by Congress (Constitucion Federal, item 4 below, with additional commentaries related to decrees concerning the Church). The first pamphlet in the volume (El Ciudano Miguel Silva...) includes the "Plan de Ayutla" and the "Plan de Acapulco." These two documents, written in response to reactionary measures of Santa Anna in the early 1850s, can be seen as preliminary texts for the eventual 1857 constitution. "In February 1854, several army officers in the south, led by Colonel F. Villareal, rose in arms and on 1 March, at Ayutla, the revolution was provided with a programme, which was amended ten days later at Acapulco. Its main points were as follows: the removal of Santa Anna; the election of a provisional president by representatives appointed by the commander-in-chief of the revolutionary army, and, finally, a demand for an extraordinary congress to produce a new constitution...This Ayutla-Acapulco manifesto made no mention of the well-known liberal demands and nobody could have suspected that out of this army uprising with limited objectives liberal Mexico would be born" – Cambridge History of Latin America. The third pamphlet in the volume (...Ley Orgánica Electoral), dated two months after the approval of the constitution, details electoral law. All of the pamphlets in this sammelband volume are extremely rare; none are recorded in OCLC, RLIN, or the catalogue of the Sutro Collections. The four separate works contained in this volume include the following: 1) El Ciudano Miguel Silva, Consejero Decano, y en Actual Ejercicio del Gobierno de Michoacan, á Todos Sus Habitantes, Sabed: que por la Secretaría de Estado y del Despacho de Gobernacion Se Me Ha Comunicado el Siguiente Decreto. Secretaria de Estado y del Despacho de Gobernacion [caption title]. [Morelia? 1856]. 23pp. First leaf trimmed across lower corner (just touching a single letter on pp.[1]-2. Later pencil inscription on p.16. The text contains two sections, consisting of a message by Secretary of State José María Lafragua dated May 20, 1856; and two separate plans: the March 1, 1854 "Plan de Ayutla," and the March 11, 1854 "Plan de Acapulco." Not in Sutro, OCLC, or RLIN. 2) Estatuto Orgánico Provisional de la Republica Mexicana. Decretado por el Supremo Gobierno el Dia 15 de Mayo de 1856. Mexico: Imprenta de Vicente Garcia Torres, 1856. 32pp. Later pencil inscriptions on titlepage. Text signed in print at end by Miguel Silva and Pascual Ortiz (secretary) and dated in Morelia on June 17, 1856. One of several printings of these provisional constitutional reforms promoted by the moderate Mexican president, Ignacio Comonfort, who states that these provisional statutes emanate from the plans proclaimed in Ayutla and reformed in Acapulco. All printings of the Estatuto Orgánico Provisional are extremely rare. Not in Sutro, OCLC, or RLIN. RLIN does record five other printings, including two variant editions by the printer of the present copy. Claggett and Valderrama note a twenty-four-page variant edition, also printed by Garcia Torres in 1856. 3) El C. Miguel Zincunegui, General de Brigada, Consejero Encargado del Gobierno de Michoacan, a Todas Sus Habitantes, Sabed; que...Ignacio Comonfort, Presidente Sustituto de la República Mejicana, á Los Habitantes de Ella, Sabed: que el Congreso Estraordinario Constituyente Ha Decretado Lo que Sigue...Ley Orgánica Electoral [caption title]. [Morelia? 1857]. 15pp. Later pencil inscription on titlepage. Text signed in print at end by Miguel Zincúnegui and Pascual Ortiz (secretary) and dated in Morelia on April 4, 1857. Not in Sutro, OCLC, or RLIN. OCLC records a fifteen-page edition of the Ley Orgánica Electoral, possibly printed in Mexico City, at Yale in microfiche format. 4) Constitucion Federal de los Estados-Unidos Mejicanos, Sancionada y Jurada por el Congreso General Constituyente el Dia 5 de Febrero de 1857. Morelia: Reimpresa en la oficina de Octaviano Ortiz, 1857. 57,15,35,40pp. Verso of titlepage with "Advertencia" indicating that the present printing is official, confirmed by a separately applied government seal. Text signed in print on p.57 (first section) by Iganacio Comonfort, José María Iglesias, and five others, and dated in Mexico City on March 4, 1857. Following this printing of the 1857 federal constitution are three separately paginated sections entitled "Reflecsiones sobre los decretos episcopales que prohiben el juramento constitucional," written by José Manuel T. Alvires in April, May, and June of 1857. Not in Sutro, OCLC, or RLIN. Sutro records a thirty-six-page edition printed in Mexico City the same year, assumedly without the "Reflecsiones." A remarkable compilation of four extremely rare Mexican imprints documenting the development and final form of the 1857 Mexican constitution, that country’s second constitution as a sovereign state. CLAGETT & VALDERRAMA, REVISED GUIDE TO THE LAW & LEGAL LITERATURE OF MEXICO, pp.1-10. Cambridge History of Latin America III, pp.452, 457-59. $7500. "...a production of unrivaled 142. Michaux, François André: THE NORTH AMERICAN SYLVA; OR A DESCRIPTION OF THE FOREST TREES OF THE UNITED STATES, CANADA, AND NOVA SCOTIA.... Philadelphia: Robert P. Smith, Publisher..., 1853. Three volumes. 156 handcolored engravings. Half title in first volume. [with:] Nuttall, Thomas: THE NORTH AMERICAN SYLVA.... Philadelphia: Robert P. Smith, Publisher..., 1853. Three volumes. 121 handcolored lithographs. Uniform contemporary green morocco stamped in gilt (with botanical design on front and rear covers), spines gilt, gilt inner dentelles, a.e.g. Front hinge of second volume of Michaux set cracked, extremities lightly rubbed. A few fox marks, mostly on text leaves, with the plates generally clean and brightly colored. Overall a very good set, in uniform contemporary bindings. An early issue of Michaux and Nuttall’s classic work of American natural history. Originally published as separate works, these titles merged into a regularly produced combined work of six volumes beginning in 1851. The Nuttall appears to have the same collation as the first edition of 1842-49. The Michaux has virtually the same collation as the 1850/51 and 1852 issues which precede it. The beautiful color plates were printed in Paris, many after Redouté. The Nuttall contains 121 plates, as in the first issue of 1842/46/49. The Michaux contains 156 color plates, as called for on the titlepage, six more plates than in previous issues. This publication is the most important work relating to American trees prior to the 20th century. It is the product of the efforts of two of the greatest naturalists to work in 19th-century America, François André Michaux and Thomas Nuttall. The beautifully executed plates illustrate leaves and nuts or berries of American trees across the entire continent. Sabin says of the work, "It is no exaggeration to remark that it is the most complete work of its kind, and is a production of unrivalled interest and beauty." Michaux’s work is based on his extensive travels in the eastern half of America, and those of his father, from the 1790s on. Both men were friendly with Jefferson and other leading figures, who aided them in their work and travels. The plates were executed by the great French flower painter, Redouté, and his associate, Bessa. The sheets of the first effort at reprinting the work were destroyed by fire, but the copper plates were separately stored and thus survived to be employed in a later combined edition issued by Rice and Hart of Philadelphia Thomas Nuttall was one of the most intrepid American naturalists of his day, travelling extensively in the Mississippi Valley and the Far West in the 1820s and ’30s to gather botanical specimens. His work, designed to supplement that of Michaux, covers eastern species overlooked by the Frenchman, and new species Nuttall had gathered in the Midwest and West. His work was first published in Philadelphia in 1842-49. The more up-to-date method of using colored lithographs for the plates was employed in the Nuttall volumes, since the publisher did not have engraved plates in stock, as was the case with the Michaux work. A handsome set, in the publisher’s original binding, of a classic of American natural history. BENNETT, p.76 (ref). MEISEL III, pp.379-81, 437. SABIN 48695, 56351. OAK SPRING SYLVA 20 (ref). Graustein, Thomas Nuttall (Cambridge, 1967). TAXONOMIC LITERATURE 5966, 6930. MacPHAIL, ANDRÉ AND FRANÇOIS ANDRÉ MICHAUX 6d, 24c. Savage, André and François André Michaux (Charlottesville, 1986). $12,000. A Rare Emigrants’ Guide 143. Miller, Andrew: NEW STATES AND TERRITORIES, OR THE OHIO, INDIANA, ILLINOIS, MICHIGAN, NORTH-WESTERN, MISSOURI, LOUISIANA, MISSISIPPI [sic] AND ALABAMA, IN THEIR REAL CHARACTERS, IN 1818.... [Keene, N.H.]: Printed for the Benefit of Emigrants and others, intending to visit the Western Country, 1819. 96pp., lacking the extremely scarce folding table. 24mo. Contemporary half calf and marbled boards. Binding heavily rubbed, worn at extremities and spine ends. Early ownership inscription of "Louisa M. Hawkins" on the front free endpaper. Pages 81-82 torn at bottom edge, touching final four lines on both pages, with loss of about twenty words. Overall, a good copy, in original binding. In a half morocco box. A rare little guide in which Miller collects information on the newly settled territories in the West from travellers, military officers, Indian agents, and correspondents, to benefit prospective emigrants. "Miller gives quite a complete picture of the status of the different Ohio towns as they were in 1816, and of the different routes to the East. He gives the same kind of information for the country to the West and North, but settlement thus far had been so slight that there was not much to report. It is an excellent guide, giving a good contemporary account of the Old Northwest and especially Ohio, and Sabin’s characterization ‘A little volume of much rarity but of little use’ though correct as to rarity, is thoroughly misleading otherwise..." – Streeter, describing a different issue. A very rare work. Thomson had only seen one copy, and it was also lacking the table, as in this copy. HOWES M601, "c." SABIN 49008. GRAFF 2794. THOMSON 826. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 48692. JONES 205. STREETER SALE 1329 (ref). $3000. 144. Mills, William, Dr.: MARROW OF PRACTICAL MEDICINE, AND FAMILY GUIDE: CONTAINING A BRIEF AND ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARACTER, CAUSES, AND SYMPTOMS OF THE DISEASES OF MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN, WITH THE MOST APPROPRIATE TREATMENT, "WITHOUT POISON OR BLOODSHED." TO WHICH IS ADDED A DESCRIPTION OF MEDICINAL PLANTS AND HERBS, THEIR MEDICAL QUALITIES, AND APPROPRIATE DOSES: WITH PLAIN AND FULL DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING THE VARIOUS COMPOUND MEDICINES RECOMMENDED FOR THE CURE OF DISEASES, &c. St. Clairsville, Oh.: Published by the Author, 1848. 420pp. Contemporary calf, gilt morocco label. Minor rubbing and repairs to spine and edges, minor worming to inner front and rear boards. Front free endpaper torn, missing lower half; rear endpaper lacking. Overall, good plus. A domestic medicine work by an independent botanic practitioner. Berman & Flannery refer to Marrow of Practical Medicine... as a prime example of the 19th-century botanico-medical works that resist normal classification (p.46). Alex Berman and Michael A. Flannery, America’s Botanico-medical Movements (New York, 2001), p.46. $850. First American Edition 145. Milton, John: PARADISE REGAIN’D: A POEM IN FOUR BOOKS...FROM THE TEXT OF DR. NEWTON. Philadelphia: Printed by W. Young, 1790. 80,[4]pp. 12mo. Contemporary marbled paper wrappers. Backstrip perished. Minor foxing. Else very good. First American edition of Paradise Regained. A scarce volume, with only five copies located between the NUC and OCLC. EVANS 22671. $850. Paintings of the Free Children 146. [Milton, S.]: [THREE WATERCOLOR PORTRAITS OF BLACK CHILDREN, EVIDENTLY FREE DAUGHTERS AND SON OF NEW YORK STATE SLAVES]. [Kinderhook, N.Y. ca. 1820 or earlier]. Three watercolor paintings on watermarked Whatman paper, each approximately 5 x 5 inches, all cut from the same sheet of paper. All three pictures are signed in the lower right image: "S. Milton." Excellent original condition; one of the paintings is dotted with foxing. Superb display pieces. Unframed. Three charming and quite beautiful, professionally executed, watercolor cameo portraits of black children, whom anecdotal evidence suggests are the son and two daughters of slaves owned by the prominent Van Alen family of Kinderhook, New York. The children appear to be about three years old, wearing striped and checked smocks, the girls with ribbons in their hair. These lovely paintings are said to have been made circa 1820 or earlier in the home of either David Van Alen or his father, Lourens L. Van Alen, wealthy merchant farmers, and close relatives of their neighbor, President Martin Van Buren. Records at the Columbia County Historical Society, located in the restored Van Alen house, verify that the family were slave owners until New York State abolished slavery in 1827. Because of permutations in the New York slavery laws (which, in general, emancipated Blacks born after 1799), the parents were slaves, but their children were probably free (more below). Little is known about slavery in 19th-century New York State, and mention of it is usually found in legal documents and business ledgers, with passing references in the newspapers. The New York slave class is seldom seen in the pictorial record, making these remarkable portraits of the children of New York slaves an important and valuable addition to the graphic history of the last years of the peculiar institution in New York. According to papers accompanying the pictures, the portraits were painted as gifts for the children’s parents by an itinerant artist, S. Milton (of whom nothing more is known), a guest in the Van Alen home. The names of the black children and their parents are unrecorded. When slavery ended, the former slaves stayed with the family, working as household staff until the 1870s, at which time the Van Alens took possession of the paintings. The portraits were descended through collateral branches of the family, the Brooks and Herricks, until dispersed in the mid-1900s. The Dutch West India Company introduced slavery to New York (New Netherland) in 1625. By the 1790s, despite a substantial population of free Blacks, New York was the largest slave-owning state north of the Mason Dixon Line, with a black slave population numbering more than 20,000. The 1799 New York state legislature, at the urging of the New York Manumission Society, led by Aaron Burr, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton, began to very gradually pass a series of emancipation acts which would have directly effected the slaves serving the Van Alens. Most children born of slaves after 1799, such as the three children in the portraits, were now free. On July 4, 1827, New York officially abolished slavery, freeing more than ten thousand Blacks, the largest emancipation in American history prior to the Civil War. Paintings concerning American slavery almost always focus on the southern states. Very little early 19th-century artwork reflects the presence of slaves or, for that matter, Blacks, in New York State, making these very fine cameo portraits as rare, for purely aesthetic reasons, as they are desirable. Columbia County Historical Society, Kinderhook, New York. Van Alen Family files. www.slaveryinamerica.org/geography/slave_laws_NY.htm $9500. 147. [Milwaukee]: MILWAUKEE CITY DIRECTORY, FOR 1851-2; CONTAINING A LIST OF ITS CITIZENS, AND PUBLIC OFFICERS; TOGETHER WITH INTERESTING STATISTICS CONCERNING ITS POPULATION, BUSINESS, ASSOCIATIONS, CHURCHES, SCHOOLS; ALSO, BUSINESS ADVERTISEMENTS, THE NEW CITY CHARTER, etc., etc. Milwaukee: Parsons & Van Slyck, 1851. xxxii,268pp. Original quarter calf and printed paper boards. Ownership signature on detached front board. Moderate foxing, bookplate of Essex Institute on front pastedown. Very good, and quite rare. The first of the Van Slyck directories, and the third Milwaukee directory overall, with a printed notice of incorporation for the city, as well as an attractive view of the noted United States Hotel. All Milwaukee imprints of this period are quite rare, Spear locating only four copies of the present directory. SPEAR, p.193. $1000. With Original Mounted Photographs 148. [Mitchell, Donald Grant]: PICTURES OF EDGEWOOD; IN A SERIES OF PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROCKWOOD, AND ILLUSTRATIVE TEXT.... New York: Charles Scribner and Company, 1869. 65pp. plus ten mounted albumen photographs (including frontispiece portrait) and three lithographic views (two colored, another uncolored and double-page). Half title. Quarto. Original green cloth, gilt title on front board. Corners and spine ends worn, cloth soiled and a bit bubbled. Some foxing in the text and on the photographic mounts, but the images themselves are still clean and bright. Good. One of 300 copies, though most concur that far fewer were actually produced. Mitchell (1822-1908) was an author, agriculturalist, and landscape gardener born, raised, and educated in Connecticut. He often wrote under the name "Ik Marvel." Edgewood, his farm (which eventually grew to 360 acres) on the outskirts of New Haven, was the subject of several books, none more beautifully illustrated than this. The ten albumen prints, by noted photographer George G. Rockwood, beautifully illustrate the grounds of the farm, the surrounding countryside, and a number of the farm buildings, including Mitchell’s "bee-house" and the farm house. A chapter of the book is devoted to Mitchell’s beekeeping efforts. One of the photographs shows West Rock and the town of New Haven beyond it. The lithographs show the layout of the farm. Rockwood is best known as a portrait photographer and pioneer of cartes de visite, but his photographs here show his excellent ability with landscape scenes. Of Mitchell, the DAB says: "His natural taste, cultivated by his residence abroad, recoiled from the ugliness of much in American life, and he set himself the task of arousing his countrymen to a sense of beauty in farming, home building, and town planning. ‘Edgewood’ became an object lesson to pilgrims from all over America, and his series of Edgewood books propagated his gospel." The New England Association of Park Superintendents awarded Mitchell a Silver Cup in 1904. The city of New Haven’s current Edgewood Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. in 1910, incorporated some of Mitchell’s farm. A very rare work on the market, important both as an early photographically-illustrated book, and as a work of landscape architecture. SABIN 49676. DAB XIII, pp.41-42. $4250. 149. [Mitchell, S. Augustus]: MAP OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COMPILED FROM THE LATEST AUTHORITIES. Philadelphia: S. Augustus Mitchell, 1834. Folding pocket map, 17 x 20½ inches, with full period color. Five insets (see below). Bound into 16mo. gilt-stamped brown leather covers. Boards soiled and worn at edges. Statistical table laid down on inside front cover, Mitchell business label pasted onto rear board. Minor repairs. Else very good. This is the second pocket map edition of D.H. Vance’s map of New York State with the imprint of S. Augustus Mitchell. Mitchell had purchased the plate from Anthony Finley in 1831, removed Vance’s name, added a new border, and included it in his edition of the A New American Atlas (1831). The map was first issued as a pocket map by Mitchell in 1832. With the 1832 edition, Mitchell replaced the inset, "Profile of the Erie Canal," with four insets: "Vicinity of Albany," "Vicinity of New York," "Vicinity of the Falls of Niagara," and "Vicinity of Rochester." With this 1834 edition the statistical table at the right was replaced by an inset "Map of the Hudson River." Numerous new towns are present throughout, and distances in miles along roads between towns have been added. New York’s first railroads are also included for the first time. The title has been moved from the upper left to the lower left corner. This edition is not listed in Rumsey or in Phillips. $950. Sailing Directions for Martinique 150. Monnier, P.: DESCRIPTION NAUTIQUE DES CÔTES DE LA MARTINIQUE.... Paris: l’Imprimerie Royale, 1828. [2],182pp. plus folding map. Half title. Contemporary red three quarter morocco and calf, ornate gilt borders and spine. Minor foxing on front matter, slight browning on edges. Very good. A description of the coast of Martinique coupled with an account of a geographical survey. The text includes a useful pilot’s guide and synopsis of Martinique’s hydrography. The folding map triangulates distances throughout the region. Scarce. SABIN 50001. LeCLERC 1434. $900. Robert Morris Account Book 151. Morris, Robert: [GRIST MILL LEDGER AND MATHEMATICAL EXAMINATION BOOK, 1789 – 1844]. [Pennsylvania. 1789-1844]. Two volumes. 692pp. Folio. Dbd. Lacks entries for letters C, D, G, H, L, M, P, Q, T, U, and V in index at beginning of first volume. Pages soiled and stained, some leaves removed, others blank. In good condition. In two cloth clamshell cases, leather labels. These two volumes, a financial ledger and a mathematical examination book, were the property of Robert Morris, the first financial secretary of the United States, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and personal financier of the Revolutionary War. The first volume is a ledger recording transactions related to a grist mill owned by Morris and located in Bristol Township, Pennsylvania. The ledger details both expenses and income, and reflects the great variety of financial ventures into which Morris entered. Entries record the purchase of items such as stockings, shoes, linen, flannel, books, turnips, a copper kettle, meat, coffee, sugar, and many other items. Income was received primarily for grinding, but also for the sale of several items such as buckwheat, cornmeal, rice meal, superfine flour, hay, and potatoes. One intriguing entry records money received for "damage done to cow and bull by shooting." The ledger is organized chronologically, with an alphabetical index of customer names at the beginning. Leaves for eleven letters of the alphabet are lacking. The first entry of the volume is signed by Morris and reads: "My Daughter Lacy Roberts I propose to Charge her with 300 Dollars for Sundry articles furnished her at the time of going to house keeping which is to be counted as so much of her portion of my estate." Robert Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, did indeed have a daughter by this name. Although the ledger contains entries recorded through 1844, well after Morris’ death, the vast majority of the entries cover a thirteen to fifteen-year period, with only a few documenting transactions after 1804. The second volume is a mathematical examination book written entirely in Morris’ hand. The name Jacob Scheetz appears in the book several times, suggesting that Morris used the book as an instructional aid while tutoring Scheetz. The book includes methods for calculating interest, various algebraic equations, geometrical problems complete with diagrams, arithmetical progressions, reduction of vulgar fractions, and various other mathematical exercises. This volume is dated 1798. Morris was born in Liverpool, England in 1734. When he was thirteen, he emigrated to North America to join his father, a tobacco exporter in Oxford, Maryland. After a brief period of formal education in Philadelphia, Morris was employed by Thomas and Charles Willings, owners of a well-known shipping and banking company. He became a partner in the firm in 1754 and for almost four decades was one of the company’s directors as well as an influential Philadelphia citizen. Morris married Mary White in 1769, with whom he had five sons and two daughters. During the Stamp Act crisis in 1765, Morris joined other merchants in protest, but it was not until the outbreak of hostilities a decade later that he fully committed himself to the Revolution. In 1775 the Continental Congress contracted with his firm to import arms and ammunition. He was also elected to the Pennsylvania council of safety (1775-76), the committee of correspondence, the provincial assembly (1775-76), the state legislature (1776-78), and the Continental Congress (1775-78). As a delegate to the Continental Congress, he voted against independence, which he considered premature, but upon the second vote he purposely absented himself to facilitate an affirmative ballot by his delegation. An influential congressman, Morris specialized in financial affairs and the procurement of military supplies. Although he and his firm profited handsomely, Morris was responsible above all others for providing the Continental Army with the supplies needed to defeat the British forces. He worked closely with Gen. Washington, obtained money and supplies from the states, borrowed money in the face of overwhelming difficulties, and on occasion even obtained personal loans to further the cause. Immediately following his Congressional service, Morris sat for two additional terms in the Pennsylvania legislature (1778-81). During this time, Thomas Paine and others attacked him for profiteering as a member of Congress. A Congressional delegation investigated his accounts and vindicated him, but his reputation suffered and was never fully restored. Morris entered the most important phase of his career by accepting the office of Superintendent of Finance (1781-84) under the Articles of Confederation. Congress, recognizing the perilous state of the nation’s finances and its impotence to find a solution to this problem, granted him near dictatorial powers and acquiesced to his demand that he be allowed to continue his private commercial enterprises. He slashed all governmental and military expenditures, personally purchased army and navy supplies, tightened accounting procedures, prodded the states to fulfill quotas of money and supplies, and when necessary strained his personal credit by issuing notes over his own signature or borrowing from friends. To finance Washington’s Yorktown campaign in 1781, Morris obtained a sizable loan from France. He used part of it, along with a portion of his personal fortune, to organize the Bank of North America, chartered in December of that year. The first government incorporated bank in the United States, the institution greatly assisted in the financing of the war. Although Morris was reelected to the Pennsylvania legislature for 1785-86, his private ventures consumed most of his time. He did attend the Annapolis Convention in 1786 and the following year the Constitutional Convention. He sympathized with the Federalist cause, but was notably silent for a man of his eminence. Although he attended practically every meeting, he spoke only twice in debates and did not serve on any committees. In 1789, declining Washington’s offer of appointment as the first Secretary of the Treasury, he instead became a U.S. Senator (1789-95). During the later years of his public life, Morris speculated wildly, often on overextended credit, in lands in the west and at the site of the future capitol in Washington, D.C. In 1794 he began constructing a mansion designed by Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant on Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street. Not long thereafter, Morris attempted to escape creditors by retreating to The Hills, a country estate along the Schuylkill River that he had acquired in 1770. Arrested at the request of creditors in 1798, and forced to abandon completion of the mansion, Morris was thrown into Philadelphia’s debtors prison. By the time of his release in 1801, his property and fortune had vanished, his health had deteriorated, and his spirit had been broken. He remained in poverty until his death in 1806. Two manuscript volumes which represent well Morris’ experiences in business and financial matters. $13,500. With Fine American Color Plates 152. Munson, Laura Gordon: FLOWERS FROM MY GARDEN. SKETCHED AND PAINTED FROM NATURE...WITH AN INTRODUCTORY POEM BY MRS. L.H. SIGOURNEY. New York: Anson D. F. Randolf, 1864. Eighteen handcolored lithographic plates, each accompanied by a poem on a separate text leaf. Large quarto. Original maroon morocco, stamped in blind and gilt, neatly rebacked with original backstrip laid down, raised bands, a.e.g. Extremities and covers rubbed. Colors bright and fresh. Light dampstain in upper inner corner (not affecting text or image), occasional minor foxing. Overall, a very good copy. Fine colored lithographs of flowers, with poetry by Hooper, May, Hunt, Longfellow, Mrs. Hale, and Felicia Hemans. OCLC locates seven copies of this scarce title. BENNETT, p.81. McGRATH, p.209. OCLC 4063649. $5500. |
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