It didn't take quite as much to impress people back in 1861. Item 12 is a poster from the Barnum Museum, Second Week of the Wonderful Living Hippopotamus from the River Nile in Egypt. Today you will find hippos in just about every zoo, but as P.T. Barnum claimed in August of 1861, this was "…the only animal of the kind ever brought to America…" And, you got double the entertainment since the hippo "…is accompanied by his Arab Keeper Salaama himself a curiosity as an interesting specimen of that historic tribe of the human family…" New Yorkers undoubtedly needed the entertainment as the Civil War had just broken out a few months earlier and life for Americans was about to become filled with tragedy. $3,200.
Item 132 is the rarer second edition of one of America's most collectible books, The Book of Mormon. The first edition, published in 1830, has long been highly desirable among collectors, though hardly a rarity, or even scarce for that matter. The second edition, though "authorized" to be printed in 5,000 copies like the original, evidently was printed in far fewer, as unlike the first, it is rarely seen at auction. This edition was published in 1837 in Kirtland, Ohio, where the Church had moved its headquarters from Palmyra, New York. This edition contains over 2,000 changes, though most are of a typographical nature. However, this is the first edition to describe Smith as having "translated" the book. $75,000.
The William Reese Company may be reached at 203-789-8081 or amorder@reeseco.com. Their website is www.reeseco.com.
