Christie’s is offering Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana

Christie’s Books & Manuscripts Department is pleased to present two auctions for January 2024: Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana (live, 17 January 2024), and Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Americana (online, 17 January - 2 February 2024).

The 17 January sale is divided into two sessions. The first session (lots 1-90) is dedicated to the Library of Ernest E. Keet, focused on the colonial exploration and settlement of New France and New England from the early 17th to 18th centuries. Proceeds from this sale will benefit the Cloudsplitter Foundation, dedicated to improving the economy, community and environment of the Adirondack Region. This superb collection is led by a fine and incredibly rare copy of Samuel de Champlain’s Voyages from 1613. This work contains the first printed map to indicate the existence of the Great Lakes. There is also a nearly complete run of the Jesuit Relations on New France—the most important primary source for 17th-century Canadian history. Other highlights include works by Marc Lescarbot, Melchisédech Thévenot, and multiple contemporary accounts of La Salle’s last voyage. The French and Indian Wars are well-documented including by Samuel Penhallow, Charles Chauncy, and Thomas Mante, taking us into the 18th century.

The second session (lots 91-155) features lots by various owners and is led by the Stamp Act Defiance Placard—an important and powerful, handwritten protest against British authority and posted throughout the City of New York that played a critically important role in sparking The American Revolution in 1765. Extremely rare, it is one of only two known extant, and the only example privately held. Other important historical pieces include documents marking the beginning and the end of the Civil War. The "Secession Winter" of 1860-1861 is highlighted by several significant manuscripts from James Buchanan including draft portions of his final state of the Union Address imploring the nation to resist session: "What God has joined together, let not man put asunder."; his communications with South Carolina Secessionists refusing to surrender Fort Sumter; a signed edition of Louisiana's Ordinance of Secession; as well as Buchanan's message justifying the use of troops to protect the counting of electoral votes and for Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration. The end of the conflict is marked by a new discovery: the earliest-known record of Robert E. Lee’s acceptance of Grant’s surrender terms at Appomattox, as recorded by Grant's aide and Iroquois leader, Ely S. Parker. The sale additionally includes material being deaccessioned by The Gilder Lehrman Institute led by several important and early printings of the United States Constitution including the some of the earliest separate printings as well as a partisan printing from New York. Other significant highlights include a rare copy of Isaac De Costa's 1775 map of Lexington and Concord, considered the first map of the Revolutionary War as well as part one of De Bry's Voyages with fine, contemporary hand-coloring including the map of Virginia.

Session one of the sale begins at 11 (EST) on 17 January followed by the second session at 2pm (EST). The entire sale will be exhibited at Christie's Rockefeller Center Galleries from 12 to 16 January.

Here is a link to these sales.