Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2012 Issue

Americana from Kaaterskill Books

Americana.

Kaaterskill Books recently published their Catalogue 15 Americana. It contains a varied collection of material relating to America, primarily late 18th to early 20th century. Political debates take center stage, but science, medicine, even an 1850s report by the Chicago Board of Sewerage Commissioners finds its way into these pages. Apparently they examined sewer systems in several European cities, and while this would not be my first choice of how to explore Europe, it will do so long as its on the taxpayers' dime. Here, now, are a few more items from this latest Kaaterskill catalogue.

Giacomo Beltrami made a most amazing trip to America in 1822-23. He was an Italian, past his 40th year, when he began an extensive trip down America's inland waterways. He traveled down the Ohio River, planning to continue south to New Orleans when that river joined the Mississippi. However, he instead hooked up with Stephen Long's expedition north. Beltrami had become fascinated with America's Indians and wished to learn more about them. Eventually, he ran into differences with Long's expedition (Long would later describe at least part of Beltrami's work as fiction), but the Italian explorer (like Columbus), did not turn back. He figured whoever found the as yet undiscovered source of the Mississippi River would gain great fame. So he continued upstream, first with some Indian guides, and when they quit, by himself. He then only had minimal assistance from Indians he found along the way, who were confused by this strange man with a red umbrella. Eventually he found a lake which he believed to be the source of both the Mississippi and the Red River of the North. He was wrong on both accounts, and Beltrami was frequently ridiculed by historians. He has had to live with Field's comment, “Beltrami must have moved in a gigantic world, if he saw external objects through the same media with which he viewed his own person and accomplishments.” That said, his long, often one-man journey was a remarkable feat of courage and strength for which much credit is due. His account in English, from 1828, is entitled, A Pilgrimage in Europe and America leading to the Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi and Bloody River. Item 12. Priced at $1,000.

Item 137 is an advertising broadside from the Hipwell Manufacturing Company near Pittsburgh, circa 1900: Buy from a Manufacturer and Save a Middleman's Profit. Hipwell was a supplier of sheet metal, lamps, and electric supplies, but at this time had expanded into telephone equipment. They sold telephones, switchboards, and related equipment. Hipwell was founded in 1887, and remained a family owned business until 2001, and survived a few more years under new ownership manufacturing flashlights before finally succumbing to Chinese imports. $375.

Item 16 is a one leaf explanation to Congress in the closing days of President James Buchanan's administration: Assembling of Troops in Washington City. Buchanan had essentially sided with the South throughout his administration, both from personal sympathies and out of hope of preserving the Union. However, he did not approve of secession and ultimately would support the Union cause after he left office. In the days after Lincoln's election and as secession by southern states began, he was lost, not knowing what to do. As he told Lincoln on leaving office, he was thoroughly pleased to be turning over the office. In this March 2, 1861 explanation for calling several hundred troops to Washington, Buchanan explains that it is a small number, and their purpose is simply to maintain order and security in the city as it prepared for the inauguration of the new president. Buchanan did not want to rock the boat. $150.

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    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
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    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
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    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
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    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
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    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
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    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
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  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
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    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
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    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.

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