Rare Book Monthly

Articles - November - 2007 Issue

The Black Orchid of Ohio

An exceptional copy of an important book.

An exceptional copy of an important book.


By Bruce McKinney

On December 6th, at Cowan's in Cincinnati, a remarkable book will be offered as part of a sale that is deep with interesting material. This story is about that book, a first printing of the first book printed in Ohio: The Laws of the Territory of the United States North-West of the Ohio, the Aitchison-Wessen-Dush-Emerson copy. To the cognoscenti this is simply "The Maxwell Code," named for its printer and the short term for laws. It was purchased by Bob and Dorothy Emerson, then of Connecticut, on December 15th, 1997 at the sale of "The Americana Library of Joseph F. Dush, of Willard, Ohio," a sale conducted by the Baltimore Book Company in Timonium, Maryland. No copy in private hands is considered perfect but this copy comes close. It was not described that way but was known to several bidders to be exceptional. It was described as lacking the leaf A2, but a recent examination of other copies confirms the A2 was a "cancelled" leaf and never present. The title page of this copy has a chip missing from the right lower corner and another chip affecting a few letters on one inside page. It's in "contemporary pasteboard wraps," and the only copy in private hands in original condition. Other copies that have passed through dealer hands and the auction rooms over the past fifty years have had more significant problems and have been disbound, rebacked or rebound. It's an extraordinary survival, the best known copy in private hands of a book that is coveted.

Every book and every copy has a story. This story is particularly interesting.

Ernest Wessen [1887-1974], the great bookseller of Mansfield, Ohio issued 104 well researched catalogues under the title "Midland Notes" during his career. In catalogue 25, dated December 1st, 1945, he includes both illustration and description of the only one of four copies he handled that he ever included in a catalogue. He described it as:

"Undoubtedly the most noteworthy copy extant of the first book printed west of the Ohio River. Imprint Inventory No. 1. It being wholly uncut and unopened; it becomes the standard by which all other copies must be measured, and is substantially larger than the dimensions of the largest provided. The missing lower half [of the title page] is more than offset by the unique characteristics of this copy. At the top of page iii appears the signature of one EZRA FREEMAN; perhaps a member of the family which printed the next edition of the Laws of the N. W. Territory..."

Eighteen years later, in 1963, begins the saga of a better copy, the best he ever handled, the volume that now heads into the auction rooms on December 6th. That spring, one of Wessen's book scouts turned up a copy in Kansas that he would later describe as "the greatest item to have passed through my hands." He was speaking of this copy.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: ALDROVANDI, Ulisse (1522-1605) - [Opera omnia]. Bologna: Bellagamba, Benacci, Bonomi, Tebaldini, Ferroni, 1599-1668. €22.000-€28.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: [CANALETTO] - VISENTINI, Antonio (1688-1782) da Giovanni Antonio CANAL (1697-1768, detto 'Il Canaletto') - Urbis Venetiarum prospectus celebriores. Venezia: Giovanni Battista Pasquale, 1742-51. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) - Fables Choisies. Parigi: Claude Barbin, 1668. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: MERCATOR, Rumold (1545-1599) - [I continenti] - Europa; Africa; America Sive India Nova; Asia. Amsterdam: S.d. [ca. 1633]. €2.000-€3.000

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions