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Catalogue
74
America
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1. [ALMON, JOHN]. A Collection of Interesting, Authentic
Papers, Relative to the Dispute between Great Britain and America;
shewing the Causes and Progress of that Misunderstanding, from 1764
to 1775. London, J. Almon, 1777. First edition. $2,500
8vo; pp. 280, [3] (Index); printed in double columns; light foxing
to margins; neat bookplate on front paste-down; contemporary full
calf; spine is worn; front joint cracked but covers secure. An important
work.
Sabin 951; Howes A180; Church V: 1141; Adams American Controversy
I: 77-13; Winsor VIII: 498; JCB III: 2377. This work is usually
referred to as the Prior Documents, the name taken from its running
headlines. "It was intended to precede the first volume of
the Remembrancer, and contains a collection of authentic papers
on the various questions in dispute, from the resolutions of 1764,
which gave rise to the Stamp Act, to the battle of Lexington, in
1775." -(Church) Scarce and important.
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2.
[ALMON, JOHN]. New Commission of the Governor of Quebec;
and other Instruments of Authority, derived from the Crown relative
to America. [London, John Almon, c.1776). $1,500
8vo; pp. 82, [2] (catalogue of books for sale); marbled paper wrappers;
wanting final blank; a very good copy.
Casey I: 537; Gagnon II:1506; Sabin 52579; Lande 676; TPL 6564;
copies also located at NYPL; Queen's Univ.; UofT (Fisher); LAC;
and Harvard (Houghton). An interesting work from an important period,
as [Sir] Guy Carleton, who already had become involved with the
question of his French-Canadian subjects (i.e. the Quebec Act) now
found himself facing the American revolutionaries. The works included
here consist of the following: The New Commission of the Governor
of the Province of Quebeck [granted to Sir Guy Carleton]; the Former
Commission of Captain General and Governour in Chief of the Province
of Quebeck [granted to James Murray]; the Articles of Capitulation
granted by Sir Geoffry [sic] Amherst of the Canadians in September,
1760; The King's Proclamation of October 7, 1763; the Commission
of Vice-Admiral [to James Murray]; Abstract of the Quebec Act [of
1774]; A Commission of his late Majesty King George the Second to
Sir Danvers Osborn, Baronet, to be Captain-General and Governour
in Chief in and over the Province of New York in America, in the
Year 1754; the first Charter, granted by King Charles II, to the
Lords Proprietors of Carolina; the second Charter, granted by King
Charles II, to the Lords Proprietors of Carolina. Whilst some of
the references cited give a tentative date of 1779, the date we
have ascribed to the work is based on information contained in the
publishing catalogue, the final leaf of which appears to be lacking
in most copies.
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First French Book with Title-Page
to Mention the United States
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3. [AMERICAN REVOLUTION]. Recueil d'Estampes représentant
les différents événemens de la Guerre qui a
procuré l'Indépendance aux Etats unis de l'Amérique.
Paris, Ponce et Godefroy, (c.1784). $4,250
4to; unpaginated; sixteen engraved plates, including engraved title-page;
recent paper over boards; light foxing throughout; a very good copy
of a very scarce work.
Sabin 68421; Howes C582. This collection of engraved plates provides
a visual history of some of the key events of the American Revolution.
The views include several small vignettes on first and final plates;
the capture of a tax-collector; the Battle of Lexington; the surrender
at Saratoga; the taking of Senegal, Grenada, Tobago, and Dominica;
the capture of Pensacola by Galvez; Cornwallis' surrender; the skirmish
at St-Eustache; the siege of Fort St-Philippe in Minorca; the attack
on St. Christopher; a map of the various European settlements in
what became the United States; four small maps of the English concessions
to France and Spain by the Treaty of 1783; the final leaf consists
of a review of the Treaty of Versailles, with several small vignettes
and a listing of all the plates.
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4.
[AMERICAN REVOLUTION]. Constitutions des Treize Etats-Unis
de l'Amérique. Paris, 1792. "New edition". $4,000
8vo; f, pp. 324; pp. 317; two parts in one; contemporary half mottled
roan and marbled paper over boards; spine gilt; binding little worn
at edges; text sporadically foxed; light dampstain at upper corner
of final gathering; overall a very good copy.
Howes C716; Sabin 16120; Barbier I:735. The original French edition
of the constitutions was published through the efforts of Benjamin
Franklin in 1783. It was translated by the Duc de la Rochefoucauld,
and annotated by him, and included the Declaration of Independence,
the Articles of Confederation, and the treaties made between the
United States and the countries of France, Sweden and the Netherlands.
These are in here as well, but the significance of this edition
lies in the fact that the text of the Federal Constitution and that
of the Bill of Rights appear for the first time. This is not surprising;
the work was very possibly employed as a piece of propaganda during
this critical year of the French Revolution, when the Tuileries
was invaded, the revolutionary Commune established, the royal family
imprisoned, the Republic proclaimed in September, and power seized
by the Jacobins, who began to draft their own constitution.
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5.
AMES, NATHANIEL. An Astronomical Diary: Or, Almanack For
the Year of our Lord Christ, 1763. Being the 3d Year after Leap-Year.
Calculated for the Meridian of Boston, New-England, Lat. 42 Deg.
25 Min, North, Containing Eclipses; Ephemeris; Aspects; Spring Tides;
Judgment of the Weather; Feasts and Fasts of the Church; Courts
in Massachusetts-Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode-Island
.... A brief Chronology of Remarkable Events in the Present War,
--- Of the settlement and Increase of New-England. Of Raising Flax-Seed.
Portsmouth, Printed and Sold by D. Fowle, [1762]. $400
Small 8vo; pp. 24, including cover-title; sewn as issued; text age-browned
and sporadically foxed; cover-title in ornamental frame; uncut;
curling; chipping of edges of leaves; preserved in a cloth box with
morocco label on spine.
Drake 4620; Sabin 1309; vide Evans 9055 (slightly different imprint);
vide Lande S2345 (Boston imprint): "There is an unusual poem
of three pages with considerable Canadian interest, entitled 'A
Brief Chronology of Remarkable Events, relating chiefly to the present
War'." This poem covers the political and military "high
spots" from 1749 to September 1762. "Great Things are
come to pass in America, which every Year gradually unfolds and
opens more and more to our View." - (final page).
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