Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2005 Issue

Rare Books and Manuscripts From The 19th Century Shop

The latest catalogue from the 19th Century Shop.

The latest catalogue from the 19th Century Shop.


By Michael Stillman

A typical 19th Century Shop catalogue is not long on volume. Rather, it features a selection of very desirable books and manuscripts, fitting for the best of collections. Quality over quantity. The latest offering from them is a typical 19th Century Shop catalogue. This is catalogue number 103, and here are a few of the items you will find within its covers.

One of the truly great books of Americana is the History of the Indian Tribes of North America, by Thomas McKenney and James Hall. McKenney was appointed Superintendent of Indian Trade in 1816 by President James Madison, and would become the first Director of the Office of Indian Affairs in 1824. In his first post, he urged that, "Indians be looked upon as human beings, having bodies and souls like ours, possessed of sensibilities and capacities as keen and large as ours." It was a point of view he would maintain until his death in 1859, even as the expanding nation treated its native people abhorrently in its desire for more land. In his official capacities, McKenney would be involved in invitations of Indian leaders to Washington as well as trips to the frontier. He made a point of gathering information about these peoples, and commissioned drawings of their leaders. McKenney was convinced that much about their culture would soon disappear, and he desperately wanted to preserve it. McKenney would be dismissed from his office by Andrew Jackson, no great respecter of Indian rights, but that would afford him the time necessary to put this massive history together. Together with James Hall he created this three-volume set, which includes 120 hand-colored lithographs, primarily portraits of Indians. These portraits were turned over to the Smithsonian, where most were destroyed in a fire, leaving this book the sole means by which images of these great leaders were able to survive. The copy offered by the 19th Century Shop is the folio (large) edition from 1842-1844, and while it may be beyond the means of most collectors, it will be a wonderful addition for those with sufficient funds. Priced at $135,000.

It is not uncommon to find pro-revolutionary tracts from the 1770s in America. Here is an unusual such series of newspapers that were printed in England. What is surprising is not just their pro-independence stand, but the vehemence with which the writer, T.W. Shaw, attacked the British authorities. The publication was The Crisis, and the 19th Century Shop offers 86 of the 91 editions issued, the third longest run in existence of which they are aware. The depth of the writer's sentiments can be seen in the August 24, 1776, edition. It includes one of the earliest English printings of the Declaration of Independence. Says the writer, "The following is the Declaration of INDEPENDENCE of the BRAVE, FREE, and VIRTUOUS Americans, against the most dastardly, slavish, and vicious TYRANT, that ever disgraced a Nation, whose savage cruelties are covered under a mask of Religion. Horrid Impiety! Execrable Hypocrisy!" I'm not sure whether many Americans ever spoke quite so harshly toward the crown, and one wonders how Shaw was able to get away with publishing his paper. Bound together with the periodical are five issues of The American Gazette, another pro-American British newspaper published early in 1776. The five issues are two more than any other run the 19th Century Shop was able to locate. $45,000.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Buzz Aldrin's FLOWN Apollo 11 Crew-Signed NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Cover. $15,000 to $20,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Lunar Surface Flown Mission Emblem Presented to Tom Stafford by John Young. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Extensive Chronology of Spacecraft From Apollo to Skylab, Signed by a Member of Every Crewed Apollo Flight and the Commanders of Each Skylab Mission. $5,000 to $8,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800

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