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Catalogue 263 Recent
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Section II: Canada to Evans |
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Papers
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35. [Canada – Eastern Townships]: LIST OF UNSOLD LANDS: THE PROPERTY OF THE BRITISH AMERICAN LAND COMPANY. THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS OF CANADA, DISTRICT OF ST. FRANCIS [caption title]. Montreal: Printed by John C. Becket, [1842]. Broadside, 22½ x 17¾ inches. Printed in six columns. Minor creasing, a few small closed tears at edges, not affecting text; approximately six-square-inch loss to upper left corner, not affecting text. Very good. A Canadian broadside advertising lands available in the Eastern Townships, printed at the beginning of the region’s transformation into a French-speaking area. In the early 1800s, the Eastern Townships were an almost exclusively Anglophone region of Quebec. The American Revolution precipitated the flight of over 40,000 Loyalists to Canada in the 1780s, including a small handful to the largely unsettled region of Quebec between the St. Lawrence River and the U.S. border, known as the Eastern Townships. The Loyalists cleared much of the rich land for farming, which attracted a large number of immigrants from New England in the first decades of the 19th century. In the 1840s a rapid shift occurred in the region as French-speaking Quebecois from poorer areas began pouring in and the English speakers began emigrating to the U.S. and other parts of Canada. Francophones became a majority in the 1870s and today constitute over 85% of the population. The present broadside, printed in English, lists hundreds of lots for sale by the British American Land Company and includes over a column’s worth of detailed descriptions of lands open for purchase. The following towns and areas are represented: Ascot, Auckland, Brompton, Compton, Clifton, Clinton, Ditton, Dudswell, Eaton, Hereford, Melbourne, Newport, Orford, Shipton, Stoke, Weedon, Westbury, and Windsor, in the County of Sherbrooke; Barford, Barnston, Bolton, Hatley, Potton, and Stanstead, in the County of Stanstead; Brome, Ely, Farnham, Granby, Milton, Roxton, Shefford, and Stukeley, in the County of Shefford; Acton, Aston, Chester, Durhan, Grantham, Ham, Kingsley, Simpson, Tingwock, Warwick, Wendover, and Wickham, in the County of Drummond; Sutton, in the County of Missisquoi; Hemmingford, in the County of Beauharnois; and improved farms in the district of St. Francis Territory, Port St. Francis, and the town of Sherbrooke. Not listed on OCLC and apparently unrecorded. Very rare. $1750. Detailed Report on Canadian Indians 36. [Canadian Indians]: BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN PROVINCES...COPIES OR EXTRACTS OF CORRESPONDENCE SINCE 1st APRIL 1835, BETWEEN THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES AND THE GOVERNORS OF THE BRITISH NORTH AMERICAN PROVINCES, RESPECTING THE INDIANS IN THOSE PROVINCES. [London. 1839]. iv,171pp. including tables. Folio. Original printed wrappers. Wrappers chipped at edge and lightly stained. Near fine. Prints the reports issued from 1835 to 1839 by the British governors of Upper Canada, Lower Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island regarding the Indians in those provinces. The reports touch on all aspects of Indian life, from land to economics to social structures. OCLC locates only six copies. Such Parliamentary reports are scarce. TPL 2268. OCLC 8940582, 25279890. $1500. 37. [Carey, Mathew]: CAREY’S AMERICAN POCKET ATLAS; CONTAINING NINETEEN MAPS...WITH A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF EACH STATE. Second Edition, Greatly Improved and Enlarged. Philadelphia: Printed by H. Sweitzer, for Mathew Carey, 1801. [8],112pp. plus nineteen folding maps and two folding letterpress tables. Contemporary sheep, expertly rebacked and cornered to style, the flat spine divided into six compartments by double gilt fillets, original red morocco title label in the second compartment. Very good. A fine copy of the rare second edition of one of the best contemporary guides to the United States. The first edition was published in 1796. The text and illustrations consist of maps and descriptions of the United States as a whole, and the states of New England, the Midwest, and the South. The text provides useful information on each state, including history, topography, educational institutions, descriptions of leading towns, etc. The folding tables provide an account of the Federal census (of "free white males" and "free white females") for 1801, and a summary of the value of the exports by State from 1791 to 1800. The publisher notes that in "the present edition, the Maps have been very considerably improved. The chief roads through out the United States laid down – and nearly seven hundred places added, none of which were in the former edition." The maps are captioned as follow:
The Story of a Barbary Slave 38. [Cathcart, James Leander]: CLAIM OF JAMES LEANDER CATHCART. [Washington. 1820]. 54pp. Printed self-wrappers, stitching absent. Contemporary ink ownership inscription of the "Honble. Mark Richards" on titlepage. Toned and lightly foxed, else very good. A rare and remarkable pamphlet printing the compensatory claims of James Leander Cathcart relating to his captivity in Algiers (1785-96) and his subsequent diplomatic services for the U.S. in its negotiations with the Barbary states (1796-1807), with substantial related correspondence. James Leander Cathcart (1767-1843) began his adventures early, immigrating to America from Ireland as a child and at the age of twelve joining the crew of an American privateer in the Revolutionary War. Captured by the British, Cathcart was held for three years on prison ships in Wallabout Bay before escaping and joining the merchant service. In 1785, Barbary pirates captured the schooner Maria, on which Cathcart was sailing, and took him and twenty others as slaves to Algiers, where Cathcart spent the next eleven years in bondage. During his captivity, however, Cathcart’s good fortune, cleverness, and facility for language (he had learned Spanish and French from fellow prisoners in Wallabout Bay and quickly picked up Arabic and Turkish in Algiers) eventually brought him into relatively comfortable circumstances and positions of responsibility, including that of chief Christian secretary to the Dey and Regency of Algiers in 1792. In that capacity, Cathcart helped the United States envoy Joseph Donaldson negotiate with the Dey for peace and release of the American prisoners, which was finally secured in 1795. In 1796, on a ship he purchased with earnings from his various clerkships, Cathcart sailed to Philadelphia with the rest of the surviving crew of the Maria, dispatches of U.S. consul Joel Barlow, and a letter from the Dey to President Washington. The following year, Cathcart was appointed consul at Tripoli, and in 1798 he was named special diplomatic agent to Tunis, where he traveled with William Eaton to negotiate with the new Pasha. The DAB notes that it was at Cathcart’s suggestion that Eaton espoused the cause of the exiled Pasha during the First Barbary War, leading to Eaton’s famous adventure from Tripoli to Tunis. Cathcart continued to receive consular appointments to the different Barbary states, but having incurred the ire of their various rulers, he was no longer received by them and was reassigned to Madeira in 1807 and Cadiz in 1815. From 1818 to 1820, Cathcart served as naval agent for the protection of live oak timber in Florida, and his final years were spent working for the U.S. Treasury in Washington. The present pamphlet contains Cathcart’s 1820 petition to the U.S. for compensation he had never received for his diplomatic services during and since his captivity in Algiers, printed with tables and letters dating from 1795 to 1820. The various writings together create a detailed and fascinating account of Cathcart’s captivity and later diplomatic career. A rare volume, with OCLC locating only two copies, at the Boston Athenaeum and the New Hampshire Historical Society. Not listed in Sabin or American Imprints. This copy was owned by Mark Richards (1760-1844), who served as U.S. Representative from Vermont from 1817 to 1821, and bears his signature. OCLC 57257557, 63517421. DAB III, pp.572-73. "Mark Richards," BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000217. $1750. The Most Magnificent Plate Book 39. Catherwood, Frederick: VIEWS OF ANCIENT MONUMENTS IN CENTRAL AMERICA, CHIAPAS AND YUCATAN. London: F. Catherwood, 1844. [2],24pp., plus chromolithographed title by Owen Jones printed in red, blue, and gold; lithographic map printed in red and black; twenty-five tinted lithographic plates after Catherwood. Folio. Original half straight-grain green morocco and green moiré cloth-covered boards, titled in gilt "Catherwood’s Views / in Central America / Chiapas and Yucatan" at center of upper cover, titled in gilt on spine. Backstrip dried and heavily rubbed and chipped, especially at spine ends; worn at corners. Titlepage, dedication page, and map rather heavily foxed. Some foxing on the plates, mostly confined to the borders. "In the whole range of literature on the Maya there has never appeared a more magnificent work" – Von Hagen. This beautiful and rare plate book was printed in an edition of 300 copies. It is seldom found in presentable condition, and it is one of the first and primary visual records of the rediscovery of Mayan civilization. Until the publication of the work of Alfred Maudslay at the turn of the century, this was the greatest record of Mayan iconography. Frederick Catherwood was a British architect and artist with a strong interest in archaeology. These combined talents led him to accompany the American traveller and explorer, John Lloyd Stephens, on two trips to the Mayan region of southern Mexico in 1839 and 1841. These explorations resulted in Stephens’ two famous works, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan and Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. These immensely popular works, foundation stones in Mayan studies, were both illustrated by Catherwood and inspired him to undertake the larger portfolio. Views... was produced in London, although issued with both London and New York titlepages. Catherwood recruited some of the most distinguished lithographers in London to translate his originals onto stone: Andrew Picken, Henry Warren, William Parrott, John C. Bourne, Thomas Shotter Boys, and George Belton Moore. The beautiful titlepage was executed by Owen Jones. Three hundred sets were produced, most of them tinted, as in the present copy (there is a colored issue on card stock, which is exceedingly rare). The views depict monuments and buildings at Copan, Palenque, Uxmal, Las Monjas, Chichen Itza, Tulum, and several scattered sights. The work of Stephens and Catherwood received great praise, but neither lived to enjoy it long. Stephens died in 1852 of malaria contracted in Colombia, and Catherwood went down on a steamship in the North Atlantic in 1854. "Catherwood belongs to a species, the artist-archaeologist, which is all but extinct. Piranesi was the most celebrated specimen and Catherwood his not unworthy successor" – Aldous Huxley. Not in Abbey. PALAU 50290. SABIN 11520. TOOLEY 133. Von Hagen, Search for the Maya, pp.320-24. GROCE & WALLACE, p.115. HILL 263. $75,000. 40. Chapman, Silas: CHAPMAN’S SECTIONAL MAP OF WISCONSIN. Milwaukee: Silas Chapman, 1879. Wall map, 36 x 32 inches, full period hand-color. Backed with modern linen, trimmed in maroon cloth, and on contemporary rollers. Three small age spots in western part of state, faint streaking in margin areas. A lovely map, brightly colored, in very good condition. An attractive and boldly colored wall map of Wisconsin. The counties are each delineated and individually colored, though the northernmost part of the state is still made up of a few very large regions, and does not exactly resemble the current configuration of counties. Several Indian reservations are shown, including those of the Menominee and Oneida, and the many railroad lines in the state are identified. Silas Chapman produced several maps of the Midwest from the 1850s through the 1870s, including pocket and wall maps of Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. This map is not in Rumsey; Phillips’ Maps; Checklist of Printed Maps of the Middle West to 1900: Wisconsin; nor on OCLC. Rare. $2500. A Storehouse of Important Maps 41. Charlevoix, François J.: HISTOIRE ET DESCRIPTION GENERALE DE LA NOUVELLE FRANCE, AVEC LE JOURNAL HISTORIQUE D’UN VOYAGE FAIT PAR ORDRE DU ROI DANS L’AMERIQUE SEPTENTRIONALE. Paris. 1744. Three volumes. [8],xxvi,lxi,[3],664; [4],xv,[1],582,56; [4],xix,[1],xiv,543pp. plus twenty-eight maps (most folding) and ninety-six plates. Half title in each volume. Titlepages printed in red and black. Quarto. Contemporary mottled calf, spines richly gilt, raised bands, gilt leather labels. Hinges expertly repaired. Map of Nouvelle France in first volume repaired on the verso. An occasional bit of foxing or staining, but generally quite clean internally. A handsome set. First edition of this classic work of Canadian history, including important material on French settlement in the Mississippi Valley. The journal consists of thirty-six letters, six of which concern the southern colonies. "The principal work of this great Jesuit traveller and historian and the pre-eminent authority on the French period in the West" – Howes. "This work is one of the best authorities concerning various Indian tribes, some of which no longer exist. The laborious accuracy with which the work was executed can be estimated by the fact that the maps, dated 1743, are marked with the latest discoveries, in 1742, in the extreme north of America" – Lande. Most of the maps in this work were drawn by French cartographer Nicholas Bellin, including his important map of North America, a frequent source for later mapmakers, as well as some of the most definitive and up-to-date maps available of Canada. Besides its great importance as an historical and cartographical work, Charlevoix is also of considerable interest for the section entitled "Description des Plantes Principales de l’Amerique Septentrionale," which occupies the first fifty-six pages of the second volume. Here the author describes ninety-six plants, mainly ones native to Canada, but including herbs of the Mississippi Valley as well. Most of the plants described are of medicinal value. The text is accompanied by twenty-two folding plates illustrating all ninety-six species discussed. LANDE 125. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 120. PILLING, PROOF-SHEETS 756. TPL 4697. HOWES C307, "b." MICHIGAN RARITIES 8. CLARK I:59. SABIN 12135. KARPINSKI, p.137. GREENLY, MICHIGAN 11. SERVIES 377, 378, 379. $21,000. 42. Charlevoix, Pierre François-Xavier: HISTOIRE DE L’ISLE ESPAGNOLE OU DE S. DOMINGUE. ECRITE PARTICULIEREMENT SUR DES MEMOIRES MANUSCRITS DU P. JEAN-BAPTISTE DE PERS, JESUITE, MISSIONAIRE À SAINT DOMINGUE, & SUR LES PIECES ORIGINALES, QUI SE CONSERVENT AU DÉPÔT DE LA MARINE. Paris. 1730-1731. Two volumes. xxviii,482,[59]pp. plus eight maps (seven folding); xiv,506,[61]pp. plus eleven maps (four folding). Quarto. 18th-century calf, raised bands, spines gilt, gilt morocco labels. Front hinges cracked, front joints tender. Old, small institutional ink stamps on verso of titlepage in each volume. A very good set. Charlevoix was a French Jesuit who spent some time in Quebec before arriving in St. Louis, travelling south to New Orleans and thence to Santo Domingo. This is his extensive history of Santo Domingo, highlighted by handsome detailed engraved maps of Santo Domingo, Haiti, Venezuela, and the entire Caribbean area. Covers the years from 1492 to 1724, with much material relating to the indigenous and black populations. One of the most important single histories of a Caribbean island from this early period. SABIN 12127. LeCLERC 1371. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 730/45. PALAU 67166. $3500. Artifacts from a Premier Mayan Collection 43. [Charnay, Désiré]: CATALOGUE DE LA COLLECTION ARCHEOLOGIQUE PROVENANT DES FOUILLES ET EXPLORATIONS DE M. DESIRE CHARNAY AU MEXIQUE ET DANS L’AMERIQUE CENTRALE PENDANT LES ANNEES 1880, 81 ET 82. Paris. 1883. 14pp. Original green printed wrappers, stapled. Lightly edgeworn. Internally clean and bright. Very good. In a cloth clamshell box. An exhibition catalogue of Désiré Charnay’s archaeological collection held in 1883, at the Trocadero in Paris. Featuring 102 antiquities from Charnay’s own collection, the present pamphlet provides a list of items acquired during Charnay’s travels in Mexico and Yucatan during the years 1880 to 1882. Some of the artifacts include plans from discovered Toltec palaces, Aztec statues and funeral urns, and numerous bas-reliefs found in small Yucatan villages. Each item is numbered and accompanied by a physical description, as well as brief historical explanations. Charnay is best known for his massive photographic work, Cite et ruines americaines... (Paris, 1862-63), which established his place as an important early photographer of Meso-American ruins. OCLC 19018872. $2750. 44. Chastellux, François J.: TRAVELS IN NORTH AMERICA, IN THE YEARS 1780, 1781, AND 1782. London. 1787. Two volumes. xv,462; xii,432pp. plus two folding maps and three folding plates. Modern three-quarter calf and marbled boards. Quite clean internally. Near fine. The first British (and first English-language) edition. A classic American travel narrative, called by Howes "the first trustworthy account of life in the United States." Chastellux was second in command of the French forces in America during the American Revolution. A member of the French Academy and an enlightened and perceptive man, his work describes his travels in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, and his visits with Washington and Jefferson, with much material relating to the Revolution. The maps trace the author’s route, one showing Virginia and the other illustrating America from New Jersey to New England. HOWES C324, "aa." CLARK I:212. SABIN 12227. $2250. First American Chess Book 45. [Chess]: [Blagrove, William]: THE ELEMENTS OF CHESS; A TREATISE COMBINING THEORY WITH PRACTICE, AND COMPRISING THE WHOLE OF PHILIDOR’S GAMES, AND EXPLANATORY NOTES, NEW MODELLED; AND ARRANGED UPON AN ORIGINAL PLAN. Boston: Printed for W. Pelham, 1805. 208pp. plus folding frontispiece. Contemporary tree calf, expertly rebacked, backstrip and morocco label preserved. Contemporary ownership signatures to endpapers. Occasional foxing, light even tanning. A good copy. The first book on chess by an American, and the second published in America on the subject. The folding engraved frontispiece details two different views of the chess boards – one showing the course of the numbers and the other illustrating the position of the pieces. Includes detailed instructions for beginners and the author’s own theories on strategy. The work is attributed to William Blagrove, a nephew of the publisher and an amateur of the game. $1100. With an Original 1859 Photograph 46. Childs, C.G.: VIEWS IN PHILADELPHIA, AND ITS VICINITY; ENGRAVED FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS. Philadelphia. 1827-1830. [38] leaves plus twenty-five fine engraved plates. Extra engraved titlepage. Stereo view photograph tipped in. Contemporary three-quarter red sheep and marbled boards, neatly rebacked in matching red morocco. Ink signature of Frederick Graff, dated 1827, on titlepage. Slight foxing on extra-engraved titlepage, else fine internally. Frederick Graff’s copy of Child’s Views in Philadelphia. This work, originally issued in six parts, each with four plates, features engravings of prominent churches, the state house, Bank of Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania, United States Mint, and the Academy of Natural Sciences, among other important buildings. The present copy also contains an original salt print photograph of the Friends’ Meeting House at Merion, tipped in beside the volume’s corresponding engraving. The photograph is annotated on the verso as having been taken by Frederick Graff on May 15, 1859. Frederick Graff, whose 1827 ownership inscription is present on the titlepage, was a prominent Philadelphia architect and engineer. In 1805 he was elected superintendent of the Philadelphia Water Works, and served as chief engineer for the greater part of his life. Graff was responsible for the removal of the Water Works to Fairmount, as well as for the layout and ornamentation of the famous gardens surrounding the complex. A superb association copy of one of the nicest series of city views produced in the 19th century. SABIN 12731. HOWES C383. DAB VII, pp.467-68. $3500. Jeff Davis Celebrated in Baltimore 47. [Civil War Sheet Music]: Toulmin, Alfred F.: MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO PRESIDENT JEFFERSON DAVIS. CONFEDERACY MARCH [caption title]. Baltimore: Published by George Willig, [1861]. Title-leaf (with lithographic portrait of Jefferson Davis), plus five pages of musical score. Dbd. Early ink bookseller’s stamp in lower outer corner of title-leaf. Very good. An interesting example of the strong pro-Confederate sentiment in Baltimore, this piano march glorifying Jefferson Davis and the C.S.A. was published in Baltimore in the first year of the Civil War, probably in the period between Davis’ election and the actual outbreak of hostilities in the spring of 1861. The titlepage contains a large, handsome lithographic portrait of Confederate President Davis. The music was written by Alfred F. Toulmin of the Patapsco Institute in Ellicott City, Maryland. OCLC locates only three copies, at the University of Alabama, Duke, and the Library of Virginia. This copy bears the ink stamp of A&S Nordheimer of Montreal, a prominent 19th-century dealer in sheet music and musical instruments. Rare, and an interesting example of pro-Confederate sentiment in Maryland. OCLC 19550242. $2000. A Wonderful Collection 48. [Civil War Song Sheets]: WAR SONGS OF THE UNION ARMY 1861-65 [spine title]. Boston & New York. [ca. 1861-1865, 1882-1884]. Over 225 broadsides, most approximately 9¼ x 5¾ inches, with decorative and/or pictorial borders and/or vignettes, a few borders colored by an amateur hand. A few leaves with separate broadsides printed on verso. Plus two [4]-page pamphlets (bound with broadsides). Bound in 20th-century green cloth and marbled boards, spine gilt. Binding lightly worn at extremities. Some leaves lightly to moderately worn and soiled, but overall very good. A bound collection of over 225 American Civil War song sheets, nearly all of them published by either Horace Partridge in Boston or J. Wrigley in New York. Throughout the 19th century the lyrics for the latest popular songs, often set to familiar tunes, were printed on small single sheets and purchased widely by the public. The sheets collected here represent a wide spectrum of songs published for Northern audiences during the Civil War, ranging from pro- and anti-abolitionist pieces ("Emancipation Proclamation Song" vs. "De Nigger on de Fence"), commemorations of battles, soldiers’ and mothers’ laments, humorous ballads ("Jeff in Petticoats"), songs about the draft from both white and black perspectives, and numerous dialect songs, particularly in black minstrel and Irish styles. While most of the songs are anonymous, several are printed with the names of the authors, who include Stephen Foster and Oliver Wendell Holmes. In addition to the Civil War-era song sheets, the collection includes one song sheet and two pamphlets with song lyrics relating to the Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign and governorship of the controversial Benjamin Butler in 1883 and 1884. Approximately fifty of the song sheets have not been located in institutional collections and appear to be unrecorded. An extraordinary collection of an early and rarely surviving form of American mass media, offering a rich view of the intersection of oral and printed culture during the years of the Civil War. $12,500. The Last Indian Lands 49. [Claiborne, J.F.H.]: PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF CHOCTAW COMMISSIONERS. COL. CLAIBORNE’S STATEMENT [caption title]. [Natchez, Ms.? 1843]. 17pp. Dbd. Early fold. Light dampstain in lower margin, not affecting text; very light scattered foxing. Very good. A rare document on the prosecution of fraudulent land claims on Choctaw lands arising from the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830 and their illegal assignment to land speculators in Mississippi. Claiborne, evidently an honest man, took on the thankless task of sorting out the mass of bogus claims. Not surprisingly, the speculators did their best to slander him and hinder in his work as much as possible. "A rare and important document" – Gilcrease-Hargrett. "In 1842 [Claiborne] was appointed president of a commission to adjudicate the claims of the Choctaw Indians to several thousands of acres of valuable land, which were also claimed by speculators, whose designs he thwarted" – DAB. Besides Claiborne’s statement, this pamphlet prints official correspondence and articles regarding the situation. Natchez imprints are rare. GILCREASE-HARGRETT, p.111. DAB IV, pp.112-13. $1500. 50. Clap, Thomas: CONJECTURES UPON THE NATURE AND MOTION OF METEORS, WHICH ARE ABOVE THE ATMOSPHERE. Norwich: Printed by John Trumbull, for the subscribers, 1781. 13pp. plus final page with an illustration and printed text. Half title. Dbd. A few early ink computations on the half title. Old soiling and light staining. Good. A pioneering early American work on meteors, the first American work devoted solely to that subject, by the versatile educator, scientist, and clergyman, Thomas Clap. Clap (1703-67), who was president of Yale, was a great adherent of observational astronomy. He viewed the transit of Mercury in 1742, but missed the transit of Venus in 1761 due to poor viewing conditions in New Haven. In April 1759 he tracked the course of Halley’s comet. Clap had been conducting research on meteors since his early days as a minister in Windham, Connecticut, making firsthand observations and interviewing eyewitnesses who saw meteors in New England. In the 1750s he developed a theory that meteors shared several characteristics with comets, and that they could orbit the earth at a close distance without ever crashing into it. The present posthumously-published pamphlet is the first and only separate publication of Clap’s theories on meteors. The illustration on the final leaf shows Clap’s theory of a meteor’s orbit. Scarce, and a valuable early contribution to American science. EVANS 17113. NAIP w020074. Leonard Tucker, "President Thomas Clap of Yale College: Another ‘Founding Father’ of American Science" in ISIS, Vol. 52, no. 1, March 1961, pp.55-77. $2750. 51. Cohen, Myer M.: NOTICES OF FLORIDA AND THE CAMPAIGNS. Charleston. 1836. 240pp. plus folding map. Frontispiece portrait. 12mo. Original patterned brown cloth, spine gilt. Cloth somewhat faded and stained, worn at spine ends, endpapers replaced. Two small closed tears on map repaired on verso with tape (not visible when map is opened). Scattered foxing and tanning. Good. Cohen served three months as an officer with the South Carolina volunteers in the campaign against the Seminole Indians, and herein offers his personal account of events and the eventual failure of the effort. Chapter X offers the author’s journal of the final days of the campaign; events at St. Augustine, Camp McCrea, Volusia, and Tampa; the action at Peas Creek and Charlotte Harbor; and Cohen’s return to Charleston. Contains much information relating to Florida and the natives. The frontispiece portrait of Osceola is the first published portrait of the famous Indian chief with a claim to being based on life, since Cohen had met Osceola during truce negotiations in Florida. The map of Florida, which contains interesting details relevant to the Seminole Wars, was published by Burges and Honour of Charleston. HOWES C545. FIELD 339. STREETER SALE 1232. SABIN 14231. CLARK III:145. FIELD 339. SERVIES 1863. $5000. A Rare Confederate Regimental 52. Coker, James Lide: HISTORY OF COMPANY G, NINTH S.C. REGIMENT, INFANTRY, S.C. ARMY AND OF COMPANY E, SIXTH S.C. REGIMENT, INFANTRY, S.C. ARMY. Charleston. 1899. 210pp. 12mo. Original grey cloth, gilt. Minor shelf wear, light rubbing. Internally clean and bright. A very good copy. From the August Kohn Library with engraved bookplate on front pastedown and later ownership ink stamp of Julian Hennig on front pastedown. An important Confederate regimental history "prepared and published by request of the survivors of these companies." Coker, a former Major in the Confederate Army and commanding officer of the Sixth Regiment, provides a précis of the war’s genesis along with unit rosters for both companies, listing the names of each soldier, rank, and whether wounded or dead. The Ninth Regiment was disbanded at Yorktown in 1862, and the survivors, along with the remnants of another company of the Sixth, were formed into Company G, the Sixth S.C. Regiment, on which the bulk of this work concentrates. The narrative, which covers the period from the first engagement at Manassas to the surrender at Appomattox, includes chapters on "The Fredericksburg Campaign," "Sherman’s Barbarities," and Coker’s wounding near Chattanooga in 1863. Howes states only 150 copies were printed. HOWES C554, "aa." TURNBULL IV:394. DORNBUSCH II:912. $1750. Life Annuities in the Compagnie des Indies 53. [Compagnie des Indies]: ARREST DU CONSEIL D’ESTAT DU ROY, CONCERNANT LES RENTES VIAGERES CONSTITUÉES PAR LA COMPAGNIE DES INDES...[caption title]. [Paris. 1729]. 3pp. Ornamental headpiece. Self-wrappers. Very good. "This decree concerns the life annuities in the Compagnie des Indies" – Maggs. Good evidence of French administration of speculative ventures in the West Indies. WROTH, ACTS OF FRENCH ROYAL ADMINISTRATION 1179. MAGGS, FRENCH COLONISATION OF AMERICA 340 (this copy). $1000. 54. [Connecticut]: ACTS AND LAWS OF THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT, IN AMERICA. New London: Printed by Timothy Green: 1784. 8,6,[2],265,267-307pp. Folio. Contemporary sheep. Moderately scuffed and worn. Toning and scattered foxing. Contemporary ink inscriptions in end leaves; several blank end leaves partially or fully excised. Overall very good. Early acts and laws of the state of Connecticut, printed with Connecticut’s colonial charter and the Articles of Confederation. The first section (through page 265), issued with a separate titlepage, is the second edition of the text, printed by Timothy Green in New London, and may have been printed in 1785 or later, according to Evans. In the present copy, five end leaves are inscribed in contemporary manuscript with various notes and recipes for food, dyes, and medicine. EVANS 18410, 18411. JOHNSON 1143, 1144. $1000. 55. Conrad, T.A.: MONOGRAPHY OF THE FAMILY UNIONIDAE. OR NAIADES OF LAMARCK, (FRESH WATER BIVALVE SHELLS,) OF NORTH AMERICA. ILLUSTRATED BY FIGURES DRAWN ON STONE FROM NATURE. Philadelphia: J. Dobson, 1836. [2],iv,110 (of 118) pp. plus sixty (of sixty-five) colored plates. 19th-century three-quarter morocco and cloth, spine gilt. Binding slightly edgeworn and darkened. Small ownership stamp on titlepage and an occasional very light fox mark, else internally very clean. Very good. A mostly complete copy of this extremely rare and attractive color plate book on fresh water bivalves. Timothy Abbott Conrad was an early and important American naturalist whose reputation is now mostly lost to history. His work is an important complement to Thomas Say’s American Conchology, and Conrad assisted Say’s widow in completing the final part of that work, which was unfinished at the time of Thomas Say’s death. The very lovely plates in this work, done after Conrad’s own drawings, were lithographed by P.S. Duval, one of the leading illustrators of Philadelphia, and are quite handsomely drawn and shaded. Most every plate contains several colored illustrations of shells. Conrad’s text gives the scientific details of the shells, as well as his personal observations and comparisons with Say’s findings. This work was originally issued in thirteen parts between 1836 and 1840, but is most often found in single-volume form. Each part contains five plates. The present copy, then, contains twelve of the thirteen parts, lacking only the final five plates and accompanying text. "A book of both scientific and artistic merit" – Bennett. Extremely rare on the market, the first copy we have ever seen offered for sale. BENNETT, p.26. McGRATH, pp.36, 39. NISSEN (ZOOLOGY) 944. SABIN 15903. $7500. In Original Wrappers 56. [Crèvecoeur, Michel Guillaume St. Jean]: LETTRES D’UN CULTIVATEUR AMERICAIN...DEPUIS L’ANNEE 1770, JUSQU’A 1781. Paris: 1784. Two volumes. xxiv,422,[2]; [4],392pp. Half title in second volume, as usual. Original plain paper wrappers, manuscript labels. Wrappers worn at spine ends and hinges. Ink institutional stamp on titlepage of first volume and half title of second volume, reappearing a few times in the margin of a text leaf. An occasional light fox mark, some worming toward the rear of the second volume, but overall a handsome set, in original, unsophisticated condition, untrimmed. In a cloth clamshell box, gilt leather label. The first French edition, second issue, following the first London printing of 1782, with additional material included. This second French issue of 1784 (published shortly after the first issue) lacks the errata sheets found in the first issue (though the text is corrected accordingly) and uses different ornaments on the titlepage and chapter heads. It is printed on thicker paper, and the pagination of the second volume is different between the two issues as well. When creating this French edition, Crèvecoeur did not merely translate the London edition, he substantially rewrote it, adding a second volume and changing the identity of the narrator from the farmer, "James," to a person more readily identifiable as Crèvecoeur himself. It is also more pro-American and anti-British in tone than the London printing. Crèvecoeur came to America during the French and Indian War and served with the French forces. Afterwards, he settled in the British colonies, becoming a farmer. This work, which describes his experiences in America, is justly famous for its vivid picture of a colonial world slipping into the chaos of war, revolution, and nationhood. Two of the essays, "What is an American?" and "Distresses of a Frontier Man," particularly address the confusion of the times. Crèvecoeur gives a negative assessment of slavery in his section on South Carolina, and one of the "letters" is written from Culpeper County, Virginia. There is also much on the natural history of British North America and ethnographic information on American Indians. "As literature unexcelled by any American work of the eighteenth century" – Howes. Certainly one of the chief works of literature, in an edition quite different than its London predecessor, and one of the most important observations on America during the era of the Revolution. HOWES C883. CLARK I:218. MONAGHAN 502. DAB IV, pp.542-44. SABIN 17496. MEISEL III, p.352. $1750. A Manuscript Journal 57. Cross, Stephen: [AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL, ENTITLED "JOURNAL UP TO LAKE ONTARIO," MAINTAINED BY NEWBURYPORT SHIPBUILDER STEPHEN CROSS RECORDING HIS SERVICE IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR, INCLUDING HIS CAPTURE BY THE FRENCH AND HIS EXPERIENCES AS A PRISONER OF WAR IN CANADA AND FRANCE IN 1756 AND 1757]. [Various places in New York, Canada, en route from Canada to France, and France]. 1756-1757. [51]pp. Folio (final 17pp. in quarto). Contemporary marbled wrappers. Wrappers worn and chipped. Text leaves moderately age-toned (a few leaves browned), chipped with some stains, two leaves with tape repairs, one quarto leaf detached. In good condition. In a cloth clamshell case, leather label. A remarkable first-person account by Newburyport shipbuilder Stephen Cross of his experiences in the French and Indian War, including a detailed account of his journey to Fort Oswego, his service there attempting to build boats while under regular attacks by the enemy, the fall of the fort to the French, and his experiences as a prisoner of war who was transported from Canada to France. The journal begins in March 1756 when he agreed "to go to Oswego onto Lake Ontario to build some vessels for the King’s service, to transport the army across the lake and assist in attacking the French Forts Frontenack and Niagara." Cross and seventeen other men from Newburyport travelled to upstate New York via Boston, Providence, Newport, Block Island, New York City, and Albany. Cross relates in detail the journey and stop-overs as well as reports and rumors of Indian attacks in the region. The shipbuilder also provides harrowing descriptions of trying to haul timber and build ships in a remote, muddy fort surrounded by forest "constantly infested with the enemy." Cross worked in these conditions throughout the summer of 1756, in the midst of continuing Indian attacks and desertions by British soldiers. On August 14, Fort Oswego fell to the French and Cross and his compatriots were captured. Cross’s firsthand account of this defeat provides a detailed view of the military actions of the day as well as the aftermath.
Cross provides additional observations of the hectic and at times horrifying aftermath of Gen. Montcalm’s victory over the British.
After his capture, Cross continues to provide nearly daily entries of his experience as a prisoner of war en route to France, with observations of maritime transport as a prisoner, life on board the vessel, near shipwrecks, and various plots to escape in addition to general hunger and continuing strife. The journal ends in January of 1757, when Cross is ill in hospital. After his recovery and eventual release, Cross eventually returned to Massachusetts, where he became one of the first selectmen in Newburyport and an active patriot in the Revolutionary War. An engaging, and at times harrowing, manuscript journal of service in the French and Indian War, with detailed accounts of the fall of Fort Oswego and life as a prisoner of war. The original manuscript is accompanied by a typescript of the diary and a photocopy of the published journal. Sarah E. Mulliken, ed., "Journal of Stephen Cross of Newburyport, entitled ‘Up to Ontario,’ the activities of Newburyport shipbuilders in Canada in 1756" in Essex Institute Historical Collections 75 (1939), pp.334-57; 76 (1940), pp.14-41. (A photocopy of these publications, and transcriptions of the journal, accompany the manuscript journal.) $13,500. The First Reports of the Supreme Court 58. Dallas, Alexander James: REPORTS OF CASES RULED AND ADJUDGED IN THE COURTS OF PENNSYLVANIA, BEFORE AND SINCE THE REVOLUTION. Philadelphia. 1806/1798/1799/1807. Four volumes. x,502; [2],iv,480,xix; [8],519,[1],xiii; [6],xxxiv,472,[14]pp. Half title in first volume. Uniform contemporary calf, red gilt morocco labels. Somewhat rubbed and scuffed. Small ownership printed label affixed to head of spines. Minor foxing and tanning. Contemporary ownership signature on fly leaves. A very good set. The first published reports of the United States Supreme Court, covering the cases which appeared before the Court from its inception in 1790, through 1800, and covering the chief justiceships of John Jay and Oliver Ellsworth. The first volume, which is made up entirely of cases in Pennsylvania before the establishment of the Supreme Court, is present in the second edition. The other three volumes, which contain Supreme Court cases, are all first editions. The period for which cases are covered ends with the seat of government’s move to Washington and John Marshall’s assuming the chief justiceship (the succeeding series of reports, by William Cranch, takes up where Dallas leaves off). Alexander Dallas was born in Jamaica and came to the U.S. as a young lawyer in 1783. He quickly rose to prominence as an attorney, writer, Secretary of Pennsylvania, district attorney under Jefferson, and Secretary of the Treasury under Madison. As one of the chief lawyers arguing before the Supreme Court, he decided to collect and report its cases as well as those of Pennsylvania courts. The first volume, originally published in 1790 (here in the second edition of 1806), collects important cases from before the Federal period. The second volume, issued in 1798, includes the very first Supreme Court cases on pages 399-480. Much of this is concerned with the first great constitutional case, Chisholm vs. Georgia, which contested the right of a citizen of one state to sue a citizen of another, and which greatly expanded the federal power over states by determining that such a right existed. The third volume, published in 1799, is almost entirely (the first 466 pages) devoted to the Supreme Court from 1794 to 1799. Herein is a series of landmark constitutional cases, including Georgia vs. Brailsford (1794); Glass vs. Sloop Betsy, which tested the constitutionality of the Neutrality (1794); Penhallow vs. Doane’s Administrators (1795); and perhaps most importantly, Hylton vs. U.S., the first case in which the Court exercised its constitutional right of passing on the constitutionality of a law made by Congress. The fourth volume contains only a short segment (pp.12-46) covering cases in 1800. By the time this was published, Dallas was too absorbed in his work as district attorney and no longer in the city where the Court sat, and he had surrendered the role of being its reporter to William Cranch, who published the first of his series of reports on Marshall’s court in 1804. A landmark series of reports, the first of the United States, tracing the first decade of the Supreme Court and containing decisions of the greatest importance. DAB V, pp.36-38. EVANS 33598, 35374, 22445. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 12384. NAIP w033792. $2500. With the Remarkable 59. Delafield, John, Jr.: AN INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF THE ANTIQUITIES OF AMERICA...WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING NOTES, AND "A VIEW OF THE CAUSES OF THE SUPERIORITY OF THE MEN OF THE NORTHERN OVER THOSE OF THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE." BY JAMES LAKEY, M.D. New York: Published for Subscribers, by J.C. Colt, 1839. 142pp. plus ten lithographed plates (five colored) and eighteen-foot folding lithographic frontispiece. Quarto. Original gilt pictorial cloth, a.e.g., expertly rebacked with original backstrip laid down. Scattered foxing, moderate age-toning. Very good. In a folding cloth case, leather label. A remarkable work of comparative mythology and anthropology. In his pursuit of an explanation for the origin of American races, Delafield undertakes a comparative analysis of American and Asiatic dialects and anatomical features, with frequent and detailed considerations of creation and deluge myths. The frontispiece alone is a remarkable achievement. It opens to a length of about eighteen feet and reproduces virtually 1:1 the Botturini Codex, now in the Museo Nacional de Anthropologica in Mexico City. The codex depicts a visual record of the entrance into America of the Aztecs, commencing with their departure from an island, through their slow journey southward to Anahuac. It recounts racial glories of mythic stature, and civilizations long since vanished. As early as the Field sale, the frontispiece was noted as very scarce. This work exists with two imprints, the other being Cincinnati, Burgess & Co. Howes relegates to the Cincinnati issue the status of "anr. issue," with no explicit statement of priority. HOWES D226. SABIN 19333. PILLING, PROOF-SHEETS 1012 (note). FIELD CATALOGUE 509. $1750. A Rare Southern Des Barres Chart 60. Des Barres, J.F.W. [publisher]: Gauld, George, surveyor: A CHART OF THE BAY AND HARBOUR OF PENSACOLA IN THE PROVINCE OF WEST FLORIDA SURVEYED BY GEORGE GAULD A.M. London: J.F.W. Des Barres in THE ATLANTIC NEPTUNE, Aug. 1st, 1780. Copper-engraved sea chart with aquatint, and details heightened in original color. 21 1/2 x 29 7/8 inches. Very good. A very rare and highly important sea chart of Pensacola Harbor from The Atlantic Neptune, the finest marine atlas of North America’s east coast, produced during the Revolutionary War. This superbly drafted map features the magnificent natural harbor of Pensacola on the Florida panhandle. Des Barres based this rendering on manuscript survey maps by British military engineer George Gauld. The town, with its fort and carefully laid out streets, is featured in the left center of the map. Another settlement, "Campbell Town," is located further up the harbor toward the entrance of the "Scambia" (Escambia) River. The borders of various land grants are demarcated, and the countryside is elegantly detailed with aquatint features, and colored in a light brown-green wash. The chart precisely captures the features of the coast, showing how the harbor is protected by two sandy bars of land, the outer being Santa Rosa Island. The chart features a great deal of quantitative hydrographic information, and instructions to mariners are written in the lower right of the map, ensuring that it was by far the most accurate and comprehensive pilot for the harbor produced in the 18th century. The present example is the second of two variants of this chart distinguished by the heightening of the townscapes in a brilliant red hue of original color. It is important to note that the very year that this map was printed, the region was caught up in the dramatic action of the Revolutionary War. The Spaniards, who had just joined the war on the American side, seized the British garrison at Fort Barrancas, and West Florida remained in their possession for the duration of the war. Joseph Frederick Wallet Des Barres was born in Switzerland, from which his Huguenot ancestors had fled following the repeal of the Edict of Nantes. He studied under the great mathematician, Daniel Bernoulli, at the University of Basel, before immigrating to Britain where he trained at the Royal Military College, Woolwich. Upon the outbreak of hostilities with France in 1756, he joined the British Royal American Regiment as a military engineer. He came to the attention of Gen. James Wolfe, who appointed him to join his personal detail. During this period he also worked with legendary future explorer James Cook on a monumental chart of the St. Lawrence River. Upon the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War, Britain’s empire in North America was greatly expanded, and this required the creation of a master atlas featuring new and accurate sea charts for use by the Royal Navy. Des Barres was enlisted to survey the coastlines of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. With these extremely accurate surveys in hand, Des Barres returned to London in 1774, where the Royal Navy charged him with the Herculean task of producing the atlas. He was gradually forwarded the manuscripts of numerous advanced surveys conducted by British cartographers in the American Colonies, Jamaica, and Cuba. The result was The Atlantic Neptune, which became the most celebrated sea atlas of its era, containing the first systematic survey of the east coast of North America. Des Barres’ synergy of great empirical accuracy with the peerless artistic virtue of his aquatint views, created a work that "has been described as the most splendid collection of charts, plates and views ever published" (NMM). The Neptune eventually consisted of four volumes. Des Barres’ dedication to the project was so strong that often at his own expense he continually updated and added new charts and views to various editions up to 1784, producing over 250 charts and views, many appearing in several variations. All of these charts were immensely detailed, featuring both hydrographical and topographical information, such that in many cases they remained the most authoritative maps of the regions covered for several decades. Following the completion of the Neptune, Des Barres returned to Canada, where he remained for a further forty years, becoming a senior political figure and a wealthy land owner, living to the advanced age of 103. NMM, HENRY NEWTON STEVENS COLLECTION 173B. NMM III:144, p.384. SELLERS & VAN EE, MAPS AND CHARTS OF NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 1663. GUTHORN, BRITISH MAPS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 46 (ref). $22,500. The First American Encyclopedia 61. Dobson, Thomas, ed: ENCYCLOPAEDIA; OR A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, AND MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE; CONSTRUCTED ON A PLAN, BY WHICH THE DIFFERENT SCIENCES AND ARTS ARE DIGESTED INTO THE FORM OF DISTINCT TREATISES OR SYSTEMS, COMPREHENDING THE HISTORY, THEORY, AND PRACTICE OF EACH, ACCORDING TO THE LATEST DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS...THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, IN EIGHTEEN VOLUMES, GREATLY IMPROVED. ILLUSTRATED WITH FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY-TWO COPPERPLATES. Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1798. Twenty volumes, consisting of eighteen volumes of the Encyclopaedia... and two volumes of plates, with nearly 550 engraved plates. Large quarto. Uniformly bound in mid-20th-century three-quarter calf over ribbed cloth boards, spine gilt. Some outer joints tender, minor wear and soiling of boards. Bookplate of Abraham I. Underhill in some volumes. Light age-toning, minor occasional soiling and foxing, moderate offsetting from plates to facing text pages. Lacks plates 39, 238, 445 (never bound in volume). A very good set. The first encyclopedia published in America, based on the third edition of the British Encyclopaedia Britannica, with numerous articles revised or rewritten. Originally sold by subscription and issued in parts between 1790 and 1797, the titlepages to all eighteen volumes of the present set are dated 1798, and Evans assigns individual numbers to each of these separate volumes. Thomas Dobson, the publisher of the work, issued an additional three-volume supplement in 1803. A major feat of late 18th-century American printing and publishing, Dobson’s encyclopedia consists of articles concerning ecclesiastical, civil, military, and commercial matters, "including elucidations of the most important topics relative to religion, morals, manners, and the economy of life: together with a description of all the countries, cities, principal mountains, seas, rivers, &c throughout the world; a general history, ancient and modern, of the different empires, kingdoms, and states; and an account of the lives of the most eminent persons in every nation, from the earliest ages down to the present times." Evans writes that "this American edition is something more than a reprint of the third edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, on which it is based, as it contains much original matter, and some of the longer articles are written anew, ‘by gentlemen eminent in the respective sciences in this country.’" Examples of entirely new articles included those on America (rewritten by Jedidiah Morse), anatomy, and chemistry. "That the scholars of this country could critically review and correct the scientific authorities of Great Britain in these, and other important branches of study, is significant of a high standard of scholarship" – Evans. The engravings illustrating the work are remarkable for their detail and execution, and represent the high point of copperplate engraving in the United States in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. NAIP lists sixteen individual engravers associated with the project, many well-known in their time. Appropriately for the text, the plates cover a multitude of topics including natural history, medicine, geography, science, engineering, and much, much more. Some of the images, such as the anatomical plates, constitute the earliest illustrations on individual subjects published in the United States. In numerous aspects of publishing the work, Dobson was willing to spare no expense for high quality American craftsmanship. In addition to employing American engravers, superfine paper manufactured in Pennsylvania was utilized and types were cast by Blaine and Company especially for the work. A remarkable production in all senses, a complete set is scarce on the market. "From various causes, chief among which were, its irregular manner of publication [by subscription], and the period of years required in its printing, copies of the work are uncommonly found even in the older and larger libraries, and all have some peculiarities or defects...When the risks of publication are considered, the courageous and admirable manner in which the publisher carried out the work to a conclusion, gives the name of Thomas Dobson, of Philadelphia, a high rank in the book-publishing annals of this country" – Evans. EVANS 22486, 33676-33693. RINK 116. NAIP w031873. NEWBERRY LIBRARY, CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE 23. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, CIRCLE OF KNOWLEDGE 21. $4500. 62. [Dorr, David F.]: A COLORED MAN ROUND THE WORLD. By a Quadroon. [Np, but probably Cleveland]: Printed for the Author, 1858. 192pp. Frontispiece. Original blindstamped cloth, spine gilt. Cloth faded and rubbed, chipped at spine ends and worn at corners. Pencil notes on endpapers, faint pencil markings on last few leaves of text. Closed tear in foredge of contents leaf, with no loss. Foxing. Good. A scarce and interesting book, written by a slave from New Orleans who accompanied his master, Cornelius Fellowes, on a trip to Europe and the Middle East in the early 1850s. Fellowes promised Dorr his freedom upon their return but then reneged, prompting Dorr to escape to Ohio. He published this book at his own expense. Dorr records his impressions of London, Paris, the Netherlands, Germany, Rome, Naples, Constantinople, Athens, Venice and other cities in Italy, Jerusalem, Egypt, and Damascus. The text is exceptionally well written. "A literary oddity...[Dorr’s] viewpoint is the most interesting part of this book" – Smith. SMITH D69. SABIN 20639. $1750. First Major American Color Plate 63. [Doughty, John and Thomas]: THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. VOL. I. [with:] ...VOLUME II. Philadelphia: J. & T. Doughty, 1830-1832. vii,[1],298,[2]; vii,[1],292,[2]pp., plus forty-eight colored lithographic plates, and uncolored engraved portraits of Charles Willson Peale in first volume and of William Bartram in second volume. Two extra uncolored engravings bound in. Engraved titlepage in each volume. Quarto. Contemporary three-quarter calf and marbled boards, spines richly gilt and with the name "John Paine" stamped in gilt at the foot of both spines. Spine and hinges repaired. Small old institutional ink stamp at upper outer corner of titlepage of both volumes. A few of the early plates in the second volume a bit wrinkled, but on the whole the lithographs are brightly colored and in very good condition, showing none of the spotting or browning usually found. Very good. The first two volumes of this very rare American sporting book, among the first to be illustrated with lithographic plates. The Cabinet of Natural History..., "an amalgam of natural history, sporting accounts, travel narratives, and practical advice for the countryman" (Reese), was started by brothers Thomas and John Doughty in Philadelphia. It was issued in monthly parts and ran from the end of 1830 until the spring of 1834 when it ceased publication with an abbreviated third volume, not present here, containing but five more colored lithographs. However, despite its relatively short life, The Cabinet of Natural History... left behind an important legacy: Bennett calls it the "first major sport print color plate book produced in America," the text includes first-hand accounts of hunting expeditions of all kinds and are amongst the earliest of their kind (some of which were reprinted by the Derrydale Press in 1928), the plates include the "first colored sporting prints made in America" (Henderson), and most importantly the work includes a significant number of original lithographs by one of the great names in 19th-century American art. The first volume (made up of twelve parts) was certainly the work of both Doughty brothers, with virtually all the plates being the work of Thomas, but by the time the third part of the second volume had been issued, the partnership had been broken up. Thomas had moved to Boston to pursue his career as a painter, and as of May 17, 1832, John Doughty was the sole proprietor. Evidently Thomas’ input was sorely missed, and by mid-summer John was advising his subscribers that unless the level of support improved, he would have to discontinue the publication. In the end the periodical continued for almost another year, with some excellent images from artists such as M.E.D. Brown and James Goodwyn Clooney, before John Doughty’s prediction was realized and the publication came to an abrupt halt with Part IV of the third volume. As a painter Thomas Doughty "holds a place unique among artists of this country as having ‘initiated the American discovery of the American landscape’" (Looney). His importance as a print maker has yet to be fully recognized or adequately defined for though "there are many prints to which Doughty’s name is attached as artist only, there are only a few for which he was initially completely responsible...These are the twenty-three lithographs made specifically for Volume I of... The Cabinet of Natural History..." (Looney). "Artistically, Vol. 1 is much the most important, for it contains the original plates by Thos. Doughty, famous painter and founding father of the Hudson River School" – Bennett. "A mine of information on contemporary sport and natural history mostly in the East" – Phillips. "The coloured plates are important – being the first coloured sporting prints made in America. There is only one earlier American book with coloured plates that I know of, and that is a treatise on Medical Botany – published in Philadelphia in 1817. Many of these coloured plates of animals and birds are charming, the colouring is soft, correct as to details, and all are well drawn" – Gee. "It marks the beginning of dominance of lithography in book illustration..." – Reese. BENNETT, p.35. McGRATH, p.187. PHILLIPS, SPORTING BOOKS, p.69. HENDERSON, p.37. GEE, pp.48-49. REESE, STAMPED WITH A NATIONAL CHARACTER 12. HOWES D433. MEISEL III, p.404 (vols. I & II only). SABIN 9795 (vols. I & II only). WOOD, p.275. Robert F. Looney, "Thomas Doughty, Printmaker" in Philadelphia Printmaking (West Chester, 1976), pp.130-48. J.K. Howat, The Hudson River and Its Painters (1972), p.31. $6000. 64. [Ensign & Thayer]: ENSIGN & THAYER’S TRAVELLERS’ GUIDE THROUGH THE STATES OF OHIO, MICHIGAN, INDIANA, ILLINOIS, MISSOURI, IOWA, AND WISCONSIN; WITH RAILROAD, CANAL, STAGE, AND STEAMBOAT ROUTES; ACCOMPANIED WITH A NEW MAP OF THE ABOVE STATES. New York: Ensign, Bridgman & Fanning, 1854. 33,[2]pp. plus folding map, 22 x 27 inches, with period hand-coloring. 16mo. Publisher’s elaborately decorated calf binding, stamped in gilt on front cover, stamped in blind on rear cover. Top of spine (3/8 inch) chipped from back, but still present. Titlepage lightly soiled, tanned at margins. Map in very good condition, with a few small clean tears on folds (no loss), a few light stains and foxing in margins. A fine copy. A fine copy of this traveller’s guide to the midwestern states. The text provides brief descriptions of each of the states listed in the title, including 1840 and 1850 population figures for individual counties. Travel routes via stage, railroad, and waterway are indicated, as are distances between locales on the various rivers of the region. The "Map of the Western States by J.M. Atwood," with vibrant hand-coloring, illustrates the midwestern states including portions of Nebraska and Indian Territory. Text and map are bound together in a handsome publisher’s binding, and the elaborately gilt front cover includes stamps for the map title, a railroad train, and a steamboat surrounded by a fine floral border. HOWES E165. GRAFF 1253 (1852 ed). BUCK 347 (1839-53 eds). RUMSEY 4592 (1856 ed). $1250. Southern Defense of Slavery 65. Estes, Matthew: A DEFENCE OF NEGRO SLAVERY, AS IT EXISTS IN THE UNITED STATES. Montgomery: Press of the "Alabama Journal," 1846. 260pp. 12mo. Contemporary half calf and boards. Rubbed, some chipping at toe of spine. Scattered foxing. Else a very good copy. A meandering defense of the "peculiar institution," employing many of the usual arguments, including biblical endorsements of slavery and the phrenological superiority of whites. The author includes his theories concerning the fate of the "unimprovable races," adding: "The Indian is already at a rapid progress towards extinction; the Hindoos, the Chinese and others of that grade, will soon follow." At the end of his narrative Estes addresses economic advantages particular to slavery in the United States. Useful insight into popular views on slavery. Scarce. HOWES E200. ELLISON 559. SABIN 23046. $3000. With a Handsome Map of St. Barts 66. Euphrasén, Bengt Anders: BESKRIFNING OFVER SVENSKA VESTINDISKA ON SR. BARTHELEMI, SAMT OARNE ST. EUSTACHE OCH ST. CHRISTOPHER. Stockholm: Anders Zetterberg, 1795. [8],207pp. plus folding plate and folding map. Contemporary three-quarter calf and speckled boards. Spine worn and rubbed. Later ink ownership signature on front pastedown. Internally bright and clean. Very good. The first edition of Euphrasén’s description of the flora and fauna of St. Barts, St. Christopher, and St. Eustachius, and includes the large folding map of St. Barts. Sabin records a 1798 German edition, which was not issued with plates. The work is divided into sections by island and is presented as a series of brief descriptions rather than a cohesive narrative. The author was for many years the pastor of the church at Lorient in St. Barts, and this book is one of the primary sources for the island in its Swedish period, as well as containing the first map of that vaunted refuge of jet-setters. An attractive early scientific investigation of the Lesser Antilles region. Scarce. OCLC locates a total of ten copies. BEINECKE LESSER ANTILLES 470. BELL E161. SABIN 23107 (another ed). OCLC 12245731, 186869671. $6000. Classic Midwestern Travel 67. Evans, Estwick: A PEDESTRIOUS TOUR, OF FOUR THOUSAND MILES, THROUGH THE WESTERN STATES AND TERRITORIES, DURING THE WINTER AND SPRING OF 1818.... Concord, N.H. 1819. 256pp. Woodcut frontis. Original printed boards, later cloth reinforcement at spine. Boards slightly rubbed. Copyright notice pasted to verso of titlepage (as issued). Else a near fine copy, untrimmed and in original condition. In a cloth chemise and slipcase, leather label. This book is generally considered one of the best accounts of travel in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys of this period. Evans went to Detroit early in the year, backtracking to Pittsburgh, then descending the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans, from whence he returned to New England by sea. "Evans apparently had no other purpose for the trip than pleasure and experience. His comments on people, scenes, customs, manners, etc., personal as they are, are entertaining and illuminating. He was an intelligent observer" – Graff. GRAFF 1269. MICHIGAN RARITIES 54. HOWES E220, "b." HUBACH, p.51. FIELD 509. BUCK 115. CLARK II:201. THOMSON 382. SABIN 23148. GREENLY, MICHIGAN 56. $3500. 68. Evans, Oliver: THE YOUNG MILL-WRIGHT’S & MILLER’S GUIDE. In Five Parts.... Octoraro, Pa. 1807. viii,364pp. plus twenty-five plates (two folding). Antique-style calf. Foxing, light tanning, some occasional staining, but overall a very good copy. One of the most important native-grown works of early American technology, this is a complete treatise on the mechanics and hydraulics of mills, with directions for constructing the author’s patented improvements in mills. Part Five was written by Thomas Ellicott. The plates are remarkably detailed and depict all manner of mechanical milling devices, as well as cross-sections of the intricate internal workings of a flour mill. The NUC locates nine copies of this edition, with only the 1795 Philadelphia first edition predating the present issue. "...One of the earliest books of its class" – Sabin. This book was issued by Francis Bailey, from the same press from which he issued the Octoraro Bible. A most unusual imprint for this early American flour mill manual. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 12525. RINK 1421. SABIN 23182 (ref). $2000. |
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