The Collaborative Project:Who Says You Can't Go Home Again
- by Bruce E. McKinney
New York Journal published at Esopus.
One is a piece he wrote to present to the Ulster County Historical Society in 1861 and the other is a Pestalozzian School Song Book dated 1855. In our upcoming auctions section last fall I found the September 22, 1777 edition of the New York Journal that had relocated to Kingston after the British occupied New York City. I recently found a nice copy of a Report on the Ulster Mine at Ellenville, dated 1852 with a chart tracing their efforts to mine lead and copper. I found this first in the AED and then looked on line and found a very nice copy for sale. Several years ago I found a copy of Washington’s Farewell Address to the People of the United States that was printed in Hudson, New York in 1812 and presented to a John Adams. The American Antiquarian Society of Worcester helped me try to figure out if this could be the John Adams (probably not!). I found online the publisher’s dummy of a book titled Enoch Crosby or The Spy Unmasked that was printed in Fishkill at the Fishkill Weekly Times in 1886. It is a reprint of a very rare first edition but probably is very rare (but not necessarily valuable) in its own right. I found online a lovely copy of The Geology of the Hudson River and the Adjacent Regions printed in New York in 1820 with a wonderful hand colored chart of the Hudson River running as far north as Marlborough. This was listed on ABE by a New York dealer and I found it doing place-name searches. I have two copies of the first edition of Tom Quick, the Indian Slayer published in Monticello in 1852 and a single tender copy of a reprint of it made on newsprint at Deposit, New York in 1894, all found and purchased on the net. I found on ABE a book printed in Marlborough for Eldorous Dayton titled Legal Advice, A Compendium of Law of the State of New York. I also have acquired online a variety of local imprints of no particular distinction except they are old, clearly rare, and very inexpensive to accumulate. For these kinds of things I try to draw the line at $35 but occasionally spend more. For books with interesting content I’ve spent as much as $1,200 online as I did for Barnabas Bidwell’s The Susquehannah Title printed at Catskill in 1796, $300 for The Constitutions of the Sixteen States which compose the Confederated Republic of America, published at Newburgh in 1800, and $100 for The History of Little Henry and His Bearer, published at Catskill in 1818. Recently I bought at New England Book Auctions, for about $8,000, three broadsides printed at Fishkill for General Washington who was commanding his army at their wintering location at Newburgh. NEBA doesn’t have a website yet so this material is more difficult to follow.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.