Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - April - 2011 Issue

Rare Americana from the George S. MacManus Co.

- by Michael Stillman

Catlin's repressed account of Mandan ceremony.

There was one thing that did bring the British and their colonists closer together during the colonial period - the French. The two sides were closely aligned during the French and Indian War. Item 186 is a virulent sermon on the topic preached by Presbyterian minister and New Jersey College (later Princeton) President Samuel Davies on May 8, 1758, during the height of that war:  The Curse of Cowardice:  A Sermon Preached to the Militia of Hanover County, in Virginia… Rev. Davies minces no words in haranguing for more recruits. "Need I inform you what barbarities and depredations a mongrel race of Indian savages and French Papists have perpetrated on our frontiers?" Davies goes on to ask, "Can Indian revenge and thirst for blood be gutted? Or can French ambition and avarice be satisfied? No, we have no method left but to repel force with force, and to give them blood to drink in their turn who have drunk ours." Strong words for a man of peace. $3,500.

 

Item 24 is George Catlin's very rare pamphlet, An Account of An Annual Religious Ceremony Practised by the Mandan Tribe of North American Indians. Catlin was reluctant to discuss this violent religious ceremony, but agreed to submit an account in writing to London's Philobiblion Society in 1865. The Society promptly published this account in 50 copies. Catlin was upset. He disavowed authorship and demanded all copies be surrendered. Quite obviously, his demand was not met. Still, this item is extremely rare, this being the Siebert copy and apparently the only one on the market in the past 25 years. $17,500.

 

The George S. MacManus Co. may be reached at 610-520-7273 or books@macmanus-rarebooks.com. Their website is www.macmanus-rarebooks.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Doyle, May 1: Thomas Jefferson expresses fears of "a war of extermination" in Saint-Dominigue. $40,000 to $60,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An exceptional presentation copy of Fitzgerald's last book, in the first issue dust jacket. $25,000 to $35,000.
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    Doyle, May 1: Van Dyck's Icones Principum Virorum Doctorum. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Doyle, May 1: The magnificent Cranach Hamlet in the deluxe binding by Dõrfner. $7,000 to $10,000.
    Doyle, May 1: A remarkable unpublished manuscript of a voyage to South America in 1759-1764. $3,000 to $5,000.
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    Doyle, May 1: An rare original 1837 abolitionist woodblock. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An important manuscript breviary in Middle Dutch. $15,000 to $25,000.
    Doyle, May 1: An extraordinary Old Testament manuscript, circa 1250. $20,000 to $30,000.
  • Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Piccolomini's De La Sfera del Mondo (The Sphere of the World), 1540.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Vellutello's Commentary on Petrarch, With Map, 1525.
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    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Aldine Edition of Volume One of Cicero's Orationes, 1540.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: First Edition of Bonanni's Illustrated Costume Catalogue, with Complete Plates, 1711.
    Leland Little, Apr. 26: An Important Incunable, the First Italian Edition of Josephus's De Bello Judaico, 1480.
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    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 546. Christoph Jacob Trew. Plantae selectae, 1750-1773.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 70. Thomas Murner. Die Narren beschwerung. 1558.
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    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
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    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 545. Sander Reichenbachia. Orchids illustrated and described, 1888-1894.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1018. Marinetti, Boccioni, Pratella Futurism - Comprehensive collection of 35 Futurist manifestos, some of them exceptionally rare. 1909-1933.
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 634. August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof. 3 Original Drawings, around 1740.
    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
    Saturday, April 27, 2024
    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 671. Jacob / Picasso. Chronique des Temps, 1956.
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    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 508. Felix Bonfils. 108 large-format photographs of Syria and Palestine.
    Jeschke Jadi
    Auction 151
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    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 967. Dante Aligheri and Salvador Dali. Divina Commedia, 1963.
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    Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 27: Lot 1303. Regards sur Paris. Braque, Picasso, Masson, 1962.
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