Salem Witch Trials + very early New England

 

·       Auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at 10am

·       Including the Esmond Bradley Martin Collection of Africana and Travel

·       100 years before the Revolution: from Plymouth Colony to the Salem Witch Trials – The Victor Gulotta Collection

NEW YORK, NY -- Doyle's auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at 10am presents material ranging from early illuminated manuscripts to modern literary first editions.

Lots 1 to 48 comprise 100 years before the Revolution: from Plymouth Colony to the Salem Witch Trials - The Victor Gulotta Collection, a curated collection of 17th and 18th century manuscripts documenting life in colonial New England. Handwritten material originating from first- and second-generation settlers at Plymouth and the nearby Massachusetts Bay Colonies is naturally scarce; now, 400 years after the 1620 landing at Plymouth, fire, water, and other ravages of time have destroyed many a paper record. The documents within the Collection offer interesting, inspiring, and unusual episodes of 17th-century New England using the 1692 Salem Witch Trials as its lens (view lots). Read a fascinating essay by Specialist Peter Costanzo profiling this Collection. Click here.

Lots 50 -67 are general Americana, including a copy of the Alecto edition of Bodmer's plates (lot 50). The following sequence, 68-109 consists of maps. The first group of these are maps of American interest, including several of the Revolutionary war era. Of New York appeal, there are a group of survey maps, 18th and 19th century, showing the growth and development of the city. The section of maps concludes with a number of maps of general interest, and a few interesting atlases. The theme of Americana concludes with a small group of American autographs, including a George Washington letter (lot 120). General autographs end with lots 121-128.

Lots 129-219 are all from The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection of Africana and Travel. This includes an extraordinary trove of letters by David Livingstone, General Gordon, and other major figures from the era of British exploration and conquest in Africa. These include one of Livingstone's final letters, addressed to Sir Henry Rawlinson (lot 180), a presentation map prepared in Cape Town for Livingstone in 1852, showing the areas that he had preliminarily explored (lot 178), and a charming letter from Charles George Gordon claiming his discovery of the site of the Garden of Eden (lot 157). The Bradley Martin collection also includes a copy of the first Latin edition of the earliest published collection of voyages, including those of Columbus and Vespucci: the 1508 Milan Fracanzo da Montalboddo (lot 188). This is an exceptional collection, fresh to market and in its category containing some truly noteworthy material (view lots). Lots 217-221 are travel books from other consignors.

Literature starts off with a Pickwick in parts (lot 222) and concludes with a presentation Whitman Leaves of Grass (lot 232). A small general antiquarian collection begins with a Darwin Origin of Species in first edition (lot 233), and includes a fascinating manuscript from the Dering and Phillipps collection (lot 238). Lots 240-250 are fine bindings, highlighted by a splendid Legrain binding on the Schmied Daphne (lot 241). A small group of private press and illustration takes up lots 251-263, and then a substantial collection of artist books and documentary material occupies lots 264-325, much of it Property from the Collection of Rosa and Aaron Esman, of which the extraordinary Surrealist masterpiece, the Magritte and Jouffroy Aube à l'antipode, with its seven signed and lettered etchings, is the undisputed highlight. The sale concludes with a small group of illustration art, lots 326-332, with a charming Rackham drawing for The Compleat Angler (lot 330).

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