| |
|
|
|
|
|
Catalogue
83
The Americas
|
|
|
|
|
1.
AA, PIETER VAN DER (1659-1733). De Gedenkwaardige West-Indise
Voyagien, Gedaan door Christoffel Columbus, Americus Vesputius,
En Lodewijck Hennepin. Behelzende een naaukeurige en waarachtige
Beschrijving der eerste en laatste Americaanse Ontdekkingen, Door
de voornoemde Reizigers gedaen, met alle de byzonderee voorvallen,
hen overgekomen. Mitsgaders een Getrouw en Aenmerkelijk Verhaal
van de Opperhoofden der Spanjaarden onderlinge oneenigheden doenmaals
in America, als ook de onmenschelijke Wreedheden door haer aen d'Inidanen
gepleegd. In't Italiaans Beschreeven door Hieronymus Benzo, Milanese
... Leyden, 1704. $1,100
Small 4to; pp. [3]-86, [9] (Index); extra engraved title and five
large, folding engraved plates; engraved tail-pieces; later marbled
paper over boards; spine perished; text in Black Letter, with annotations
in Roman; light age-browning throughout; some light spotting in
margins of plates.
JCB I (3):54; Sabin 4806; vide European-Americana 704/17. Although
this copy collates precisely with the JCB and Sabin citations, it
would appear to be the first part of the two parts cited in European-Americana;
i.e. it contains the four voyages of Columbus, Benzoni's work on
the Spaniards and the natives of the New World, and Vespucci's four
voyages; it does not have Hennepin's work, which is listed on the
title page and which would form the second part of these accounts.
This is the first separate printing by Van der Aa; it was also contained
in his massive Naaukeurige versameling der gedenkwaardigste Reysen
naar Oost en West-Indien ... published in 1707. A scarce work.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2. [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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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 of a scarce work.
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5.
[AUCTION CATALOGUE]. Catalogue of the American Library of
the late Mr. George Brinley, of Hartford, Conn. Part I [Part II],
Hartford, 1878, [1880]. Two parts bound in one. $175
Tall thick 8vo; pp. vi, [2], 306; pp. xiv, (2), 200; contemporary
hard-grain morocco, marbled paper over boards, marbled endpapers;
original printed paper wrappers of both parts bound-in at end; binding
very worn and front cover loose; private blind-emboss on front blank;
edge of first leaf chipped; text little toned.
McKay 2488, 2621. These are the first two parts of one of the greatest
auctions of Americana ever held; there were five parts in all, and
the auctions were held from 1878 until 1893. The catalogues were
compiled by G. Hammond Trumbull, and the auctions conducted by Joseph
Sabin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
