• Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    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
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
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    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.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
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    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
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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.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    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: 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.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    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.
  • Forum Auctions
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    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.
    Forum Auctions
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    28th March 2024
    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.
    Forum Auctions
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    28th March 2024
    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.

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2021 Issue

The Tribulations of Mr. N***, or Travel Through the Slave Trade

On April 1st, 1702, I sailed from Chef de Bois, two miles away from La Rochelle, for Guinea on board a vessel of the King loaded with 50 guns.” That’s the perfect travel book incipit—straight to the heart of the action! Welcome on board an infamous slave ship bound to Africa and then the West Indies. This opening line is taken from Voyages Aux Côtes de Guinée & en Amérique (Amsterdam, 1719), an anonymous and very bizarre relation published far from the King’s censorship.

 

Although this book is listed in Brunet (20041) and Leclerc’s Bibliotheca Americana, its author has never been identified, and he’s only referred to as “Mr. N***” on the title page. Between 1702 and 1712, he went four times to Guinea (Africa), the West Indies and back to Europe as a private slave-trader. His relation is a peculiar patchwork. Facts, varied thoughts and harsh attacks on the “monks”, are here intermingled with descriptions of birds, trees and very precise maritime terms. All of a sudden our author writes: “Now, I’ll entertain you with a tale...” And here we go, reading about a crab grabbing a man’s intimate parts. The dozens of gorgeous engravings are not originals; they are reproduced from Rochefort’s Histoire des Antilles (Rotterdam, 1658). As far as the frontispiece is concerned, it represents an intriguing scene that seems nowhere to be found in the relation. All that made me question the veracity of this relation but some passages are very convincing and particularly interesting since Mr. N***’s freedom of tone is unique.

 

The first and most interesting part of the book regards Africa and the purchase of slaves: “We don’t buy Negroes without checking them out first; we watch them, examine them closely; we watch their heads, we open their mouths to see if there are missing teeth, we ask them to stretch their arms to make sure they are okay, we look at their parts to make sure everything is here, and we make them take a few steps to see if they have strong legs; every defect diminishes the price of a Negroe. (...) A handsome and good one is worth 200 French pounds; a little bit more than half of it for a female.” We know that slaves sometimes revolted and tried to escape as soon as entering the slave ships. Mr. N*** actually witnessed such a poignant uprising: “It happened on a Dutch vessel. Around 5 P.M, the Negroes seized several guns, pistols, swords, iron bars and wooden sticks. They jumped on the Whites who were on board, killing a couple and wounding several others. The uprising lasted for a good hour and a half but eventually the Whites took over—and it was high time, as the ship was about to wreck on the shore since the Negroes had cut off the cables. (...) The next morning, several Negroes were hanged from the foremast where they were left for the full day to teach the other Negroes a lesson.” Yet slaves were valuable, and Mr. N*** knew better than to ill-treat them because “when those animals have some grief, they sit on their butts, stick their chins between their knees, put their hands over their ears and die that way, refusing to eat or drink anything.” Mr. N*** and his associates bought their slaves from different African Kings along the African shore, and he describes a well organized business. “The first two days (In Senegal) were perfect; and we bought around 150 slaves.” Some died on the way to America, of course. And it did affect Mr. N***, of course; but in an unexpected way: “The crew ate a lot of sharks but I didn’t really touch them myself, as I’d noted that those animals usually fed on the dead bodies of the slaves we threw overboard.”

 

During slavery, sexual abuse was permanent but we are only beginning to explore this topic, and at the time, it was never evoked in travel books. But Mr. N*** had no taboo. “Despite all our efforts to prevent such thing, some people will always find a way to satisfy their lewd needs. One strong young sailor make a hole with his knife in the wall separating the males from the females—and that’s how he was able to satisfy his passion.” A female slave who witnessed this “chic choc”, denounced the two “star-crossed lovers”, and the sailor was punished. In the West Indies, many sailors and colonists experienced health problems when drinking too much and “abusing of the female Negroes.” The Monks, whom Mr. N*** hates, were also buying slaves at the market: “They’d always pick up the nicest, and the younger girls, and the best built; they never bought one who was over 30. Those brave men love tender flesh, and they look at them very closely—the front and the behind.” Like Saint Thomas, they probably needed to see before they’d believe.

 

Mr. N*** was clearly a Protestant—printing his book in Holland far from the police of books, he let his hatred for the Catholics run wild. The “monks,” he says, had infected the New World like a plague. “They are full of corruption, swelled with pride, ignorant, sick in their heads and prompt to quarrel (...). They are wolves in sheep clothing, deprived of faith, tenderness, patience and charity. They’ll overthrow everything to satisfy their sordid and shameful thirst for luxury; such are the masters of the Inquisition that they use to maintain and assert their authority.” Talking about the French island of Martinique, he states: “This place would be a Paradise if it weren’t for the monks. There’s no snake there; but it is infested with monks, which is worst. You have the black ones, who resemble crows; the black and white ones, who resemble magpies; the grey ones, and some white and grey like cranes; the first ones are the Jesuits, the next ones the Jacobins, the next ones the Capuchins, and the last ones the Carmelites.” Unfortunately, Mr. N***’s attacks are not always as witty nor as short—some go on for six pages! Cursing the Pope, and his creatures, denouncing the superstitious ceremonies linked to the Saints and various Catholic beliefs, he’s making some points—but grows boring. The last part of the book is a little bit tedious, and it ends up with a seven-page long poem dealing with farts. The point of this last verbal assault might not be as irrelevant as it may appear—but it is one too much.

 

This book that could have been shorter gives unusual information on the slave trade, and what isn’t said is also important—Mr. N*** talks about what seems relevant to him. And although the slaves amuse him, they don’t really interest him—he sees them as goods, nothing more. This is an early relation. 1702 is only a few decades away from the “true” beginning of the trade by the French, but while constantly castigating the “monks” for their lack of morality, Mr. N*** never questions his own activity. How does the old Biblical tale go? Oh yeah: you see the straw in the eye of the monks, but fail to see the beam in your own eye.

 

 

Voyages aux côtes de Guinée et en Amérique, par Mr. N***

Avec Figues. Amsterdam, chez Etienne Roger, 1719

 

Collation: frontispiece, title page, 416 pages, 38 engravings. Sold for 800 euros (before fees) in Brest, France, in November 2003, and for 1.500 euros by Bergé in Paris, France, in 2013.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
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    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
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    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
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    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
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    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
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