Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - December - 2015 Issue

Manuscripts from the William Reese Company

Manuscripts.

Manuscripts.

The William Reese Company has issued a new bulletin, Bulletin 39: Manuscripts. This is a collection of 47 mostly American manuscripts. They date primarily from the 18th or 19th century. There are many of significance here, and some of the writers are the most important figures of American history. There are a couple from George Washington, and American figures don't come any more important than that. Here are a few samples of the interesting material to be found in this collection.

 

This document has a harmless enough title and a couple of notable signatures. It also has a dark backdrop not obvious. Item 14 is An Act for Regulating the Officers and Soldiers in the Pay of this Province... dated May 30, 1764, from Philadelphia. It is signed by Benjamin Franklin as Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly and John Penn as Governor. It was also signed by Penn's Secretary, Joseph Shippen, uncle of Peggy Shippen, better known as Mrs. Benedict Arnold. This act was intended to end desertions from the Pennsylvania Militia and do a better job of defending settlers on the frontier. It arose after a march on Philadelphia by the Paxton Boys, demanding better protection from the Indians. It was actually the Indians who needed protection from the Paxton Boys. Organized in Paxtang, Pennsylvania, the "Boys" were a vigilante group who slaughtered 20 peaceful Conestoga Indians with longstanding good relations with their white neighbors. Their march on Philadelphia panicked the citizens, with Franklin calming the mob by agreeing to bring their grievances to the legislature. Priced at $35,000.

 

Item 3 is a manuscript retained copy of a letter sent to British officers at a critical moment near the start of the Revolution. After the Battle of Lexington and Concord in the spring of 1775, American forces surrounded Boston, controlled by the British. There began a year-long standoff. The British had a technical victory at the Battle of Bunker Hill, but their casualties were so great they never made another serious attempt to take the surrounding countryside again. The patriots looked down at Boston from Dorchester Heights and the two sides would occasionally fire at each other. By the following spring, George Washington, now in charge of the Continental Army, was able to bring in some heavy canons from Fort Ticonderoga. That enabled him to bombard British forces below or in the harbor, while they could not effectively respond as their canons could not reach points uphill. The British realized their situation was becoming untenable, but never felt confident they had the power to dislodged the patriots from the hills. The only other choice was to evacuate, and the citizens of Boston knew it. On March 8, 1776, they sent this letter to British Major General James Robertson, offering to allow the British to leave the city peaceably if they would just leave. They also asked Washington to allow for the same, and while he never formally agreed, the Americans let them go without disrupting their evacuation. $6,000.

 

America's co-most notable explorer's signature is one of the hardest to find. Meriwether Lewis, who along with Joseph Clark led the greatest internal exploration of America, suffered from a difficult life after he returned. When the expedition returned in 1806, President Jefferson appointed Lewis Governor of the Louisiana Territory. It was a mixed tenure, some claimed he had drinking problems, and accusations of fraud were made by the Secretary of the Louisiana Territory, a political rival. In 1809, Lewis headed to Washington to present his side of the case, but along the way, he was either murdered or committed suicide. Consequently, there aren't all that many documents bearing his signature. Item 24 is a pay receipt signed by Lewis. It is from 1807, and it covers part of his compensation for the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition. $55,000.

 

Here is a document from a man we know had a drinking problem, although it didn't seem to hurt his performance in the field. Item 16 is a commutation for a crime issued in 1875 by Ulysses S. Grant as President. Ironically, the crime being commuted was "illicitly distilling," for which John Murgen of Minnesota had been sentenced to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine. The document is also signed by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. $6,000.

 

Item 1 is a most significant letter pertaining to the early days of the serious attempts to abolish slavery. Practical concerns over sectional controversy made the topic hard for John Quincy Adams to discuss while he was President in the 1820's, and it may not have been an overriding concern to him at the time. By the 1830's, the abolition movement was rapidly gaining steam, and Adams, now serving in the House of Representatives as a Representative from Massachusetts, became a major voice for abolition in Congress. In this letter from 1837, Adams expresses his views about slavery. He also staunchly defends the right of the people to petition the government concerning their grievances. This is a right guaranteed by the Constitution, but in 1836, Congress adopted the "Gag Rule." This rule stated that Congress would no longer accept petitions pertaining to slavery and its abolition. Quincy Adams was the leader of the long fight to repeal the Gag Rule, finally succeeding in 1844. His defense of the right to petition was close to his heart, considering how its denial was favoring the slave interests. $125,000.

 

The William Reese Company may be reached at 203-789-8081 or amorder@reeseco.com. Their website is www.reeseco.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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.
  • 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
  • Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
  • Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 10: Nancy Cunard, Negro Anthology, with a tipped-in A.L.S. to Karl Marx's niece, 1934. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 14: Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845. First edition. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 17: Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, inscribed first edition, 1959. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 28: Margaret Hill Morris, Private Journal Kept during a Portion of the Revolutionary War, for the Amusement of a Sister, 1836. First edition. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 38: Anna Sewell, Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, 1877. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 43: Gertrude Stein, Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia, signed presentation copy with photograph of Stein, 1912. First edition. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 48: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, first edition in the scarce dust jacket, 1927. $6,000 to $8,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 54: Katherine Dunham, large archive of material from her attorney, 1951-53. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 55: Margaret Fuller Signed Autograph Letter, New York City, 1846. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 92: Sonia Delaunay, illus. & Tristan Tzara, Juste Present, deluxe edition with original gouache, 1961. $20,000 to $25,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 93: Flor Garduño, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, 2006. Limited edition. $6,000 to $8,000.
  • 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

Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions