Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - April - 2009 Issue
Western Americana from the William Reese Company
The Indian Chiefs meet the King of Firewaters.
Here is an item with a most interesting provenance: A Series of Charts, with Sailing Directions, Embracing Surveys of the Farallones, Entrance to the Bay of San Francisco... and the Sacramento River (with the Middle Fork) to the American River, including the cities of Sacramento and Boston, State of California, by Cadwalader Ringgold. Ringgold was a Navy Commander who undertook this survey of the area from the Farollone Islands (off the coast of San Francisco) inland to Sacramento. This is an 1852 third edition (the first was published in 1851) of a book much used during the Gold Rush. This copy contains an inscription "For Hon. J.W. Denver of California, with the respects of the author." James William Denver had a long, though mostly forgotten public and private career. In 1852, he was in the California Senate. From 1855-56, he was a U.S. Congressman from California. He followed this with a stint as Territorial Governor of Kansas. It was during this period, when what is now Colorado was still part of Kansas, that a land developer named his new city at the foot of the Rockies after Denver. In his brief time in Congress, Denver was a strong supporter of a Pacific railroad, actually proposing the construction of three such routes. The book also contains the bookplate of Theodore D. Judah of Sacramento. That would likely be the chief engineer for the Central Pacific Railroad and a major force in building the transcontinental railroad. Judah died in 1863. It would appear that within at most a few years after receiving the book, Denver gave it to Judah, and as both were strong supporters of the transcontinental railroad, it was likely intended to help Judah in promoting the railroad or determining an appropriate route. Item 157. $4,000.
The West has long been used as source for promotional materials. One of the best at this was the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company of St. Louis, best known for Budweiser Beer. Item 198 is a set of five chromolithographic advertisements from 1914-1915 associating the west with beer. They were created by noted western artist Oscar E. Berninghaus. $9,500.
The William Reese Company may be contacted at 203-789-8081 or amorder@reeseco.com. Their website is www.reeseco.com.
