Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - May - 2012 Issue

The United States Navy from the William Reese Company

The United States Navy.

The United States Navy.

The William Reese Company has now issued their 291st catalogue, this one entitled The United States Navy. Most items do pertain to the nation's seagoing military forces, though a few items stray to related areas such as the merchant marine. The chronologically placed items begin in the days leading up to the American revolution, and conclude with a letter from Admiral Hyman Rickover, concerning the courageous and inventive black scientist George Washington Carver, namesake of a nuclear submarine just launched in 1966. Naturally, there are a lot of adventures and skirmishes along the way. Let's take a look inside.

We will start with one of the earliest pre-revolutionary incidents, before Lexington and Concord, before the Boston Tea Party. It occurred in the small colony of Rhode Island. Item 1 is a proclamation from King George III For the Discovering and Apprehending the Persons who Plundered and Burnt the Gaspee Schooner; and Barbarously Wounded and Ill-Treated Lieutenant William Dudingston, Commander of Said Schooner (1772). The British had placed heavy customs duties on the colonies, and Rhode Islanders were known on occasion to evade these duties. On June 9 of 1772, the Gaspee chased the sloop Hannah, though it had already reported its cargo at the customs house. The aforesaid Lt. Dudingston, a hated figure in colonial Rhode Island for his abusive attitude toward local merchants, had a steering malfunction and ran aground on a sandbar. They decided to await high tide to lift the boat back into the water. The locals had a different idea. Word quickly spread across the colony, and a nighttime raid was launched. Meeting little resistance, they captured the crew and set the ship afire. Dudingston took a bullet, hence the claim of “barbarously wounded.” This broadside offered some heavy rewards for the capture of the persons involved (£500), and another £500 for capturing their leader. That was a ton of money in 1772. Priced at $42,500.

Item 9 is a biting British satire aimed at America's first great naval hero, Captain John Paul Jones. Jones had engaged in a fierce battle with the H.M.S. Serapis, and at a point when it looked like Jones' ship was doomed to defeat, the British called for his surrender. It was then that Jones supposedly uttered the immortal words, “I have not yet begun to fight.” While it is unlikely that is exactly what he said, they were undoubtedly words to a similar effect. Item 9 is an image with the caption, Paul Jones shooting a Sailor who had attempted to strike his Colours in an Engagement. It shows Jones trampling over the bodies of the dead and wounded on his ship to shoot the poor sailor who attempted to raise the colors (surrender) in the face. The real story is that when a gunner appeared to offer a surrender, Jones knocked him down with the butt of his pistol. The other fact ignored by this satire is that eventually it was the British captain who was forced to surrender. $17,500.

The British seemed to have a habit of reveling in their losses at this time. Item 19 is A Short Account of the Naval Actions of the Last War; in order to Prove that the French Nation Never Gave Such Slender Proofs of Maritime Greatness as During that Period... This piece of revisionist history was published by an anonymous British seaman in 1788. The author seems to focus more on the Battle of Saintes in 1782, where the British defeated the French in the Caribbean islands, rather than the more notable losses they sustained at the hands of the American revolutionaries with the assistance of the French Navy. The author also ridicules John Paul Jones “victory,” “Sneers for the enemy, praise for British valor.” No wonder the colonists found the British insufferable. $2,250.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
    Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
    Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.
  • Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Peter Max, Portrait of Mary Tyler Moore (Versions 1,2, 5, 6), 2001. Estimate $10,000-15,000
    DOYLE: The iconic screen-used wall-mounted "M" from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Estimate $5,000-8,000
    DOYLE: The Mary Tyler Moore Show by Al Hirschfeld. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Annie Leibovitz presents Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke for Vanity Fair. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    DOYLE: Al Hirschfeld presents Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke in the CBS Wednesday Night Lineup. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    DOYLE: Richard McKenzie, Portrait of Mary Tyler Moore. Estimate $1,000-2,000
    Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Three Original Bill Hargate Costume Designs for The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. Estimate $600-800
    DOYLE: The famous Bonnie and Clyde "Wanted" broadside. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE: Ticket to the Final Episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show Estimate $400-600
  • 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

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