When Sir Francis Drake sailed along the North American Pacific Coast in what would be England's first circumnavigation, he was reported to have stopped for a while at a cove. The location of that cove has long been subject to debate. Most people believe it was in California. Drake also said he left a brass plate at the spot, laying his claim to the land he called "New Albion" for the Queen of England. Drake's plate has long been the Holy Grail for California historians, making it a spectacular day when a store clerk walked into a Berkeley history professor's office in 1938 with just such a plate. Of course, there would be suspicions, but the plate and its message appeared to match Drake's description. It was subject to various testing, and in 1938, Colin Fink and E.P. Polushkin published the following report:  Drake's Plate of Brass Authenticated. The plate truly was the one Drake had left in California three and one-half centuries earlier, they concluded. Item 63. $50.

 

Alas, such a wondrous find was too good to be true. It took four decades for updated technological research to be applied, The updated examinations are described in The Plate of Brass Reexamined (1977) and The Plate of Brass Reexamined. A Supplement (1979). The brass was of a recent American vintage, and the cutting methods also were not those of 16th century England. Item 68. $60. Still later, the truth behind the faux plate would be revealed. A club of local historians had produced and planted the fake plate as a prank, in hopes that someone would find it and bring it to a friend, a Berkeley professor who had been looking for the plate for ages. It took a couple of years, but eventually it was, and after publicity surrounding its find and a payment for it of several thousand dollars, the pranksters became afraid to reveal what they had done.

 

Item 214 is one of those early fire department publications:  Souvenir. Portland Fire Department, Portland, Oregon. This one goes back to 1905, when fire trucks were still being pulled by horses. Those were fast horses, but still… it took a bit longer to reach the flames. It includes illustrations of engines and hook and ladders, a fireboat, and numerous street scenes, along with portraits of city and fire department officials. There are essays on the fire department, fire safety, and a chart showing the location of every alarm box in the city. $450.

 

The Argonaut Book Shop may be reached at 415-474-9067 or ArgonautSF@PacBell.net. Their website is www.argonautbookshop.com.