• Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2021 Issue

Rare American from David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books

Rare Americana.

David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books has published their Catalogue 184 of Rare Americana. Their catalogues feature Americana, usually less than full book length, from the 18th and 19th centuries. Naturally, material relating to the Civil War and abolition are often found, though there appears to be more political matter this time. The divisions and insults that appear in today's American political discourse, which so many of us find new and disturbing, are not so new (though still disturbing). In the 19th century, American politicians were not particularly reluctant to get down in the gutter. The high principles of George Washington were quickly forgotten after he left the scene, to some extent even before. These are a few selections from this latest Lesser catalogue.

 

Politics isn't the only ugly thing that isn't new. This is a case of child abuse so awful it is hard to imagine. The pamphlet is The Trial of Stephen Arnold, for the Murder of Betsey Van Amburgh, a Child of Six Years of Age, from 1805. Arnold was a schoolmaster in Cooperstown, New York. Betsey was not only his pupil but may have been his niece. The Judge tried to stay neutral, but that wasn't easy before this defendant. As he told the jury, “she died because she did not pronounce the word gig or jig, as he thought proper [apparently she pronounced “gig” as “jig”] – he had whipped her seven times, and was an hour and a half employed in the horrid transaction...” Arnold fled to Pittsburgh but was captured and returned. He was convicted. Item 5. Priced at $850.

 

Here is another form of child abuse, but was done in the open. Half a nation went to war to preserve the privilege of abusing children this way. Item 1 is a manuscript document recording a sale “to the highest bidder” of Amos, “a Negro boy slave...of dark complexion.” He was sold to one Thomas N. Gardner, agent of Emily Hantz, for $700. Amos was “about nine years of age.” A nine-year-old, separated from his mother and entire family, to become someone's slave? For this right the South went off to war where hundreds of thousands of people died to stop or to preserve this practice? Amos is worth remembering when you read apologists claiming slavery was humane and beneficial to the slaves. This sale took place in 1859, so hopefully Amos received his freedom five years later a result of Lincoln's Emancipation, and found his family again. $1,250.

 

Lucy did a little better. She had already reached the milestone age of ten when this bill of sale was recorded, intra-family from Moses Leslie to Alexander Leslie. Moses was Alexander's father. Alexander paid $500 to buy this “slave for life,” but he did not get the lifetime use he expected. It was already late 1861. Only a little over two years later, Lucy was freed. Item 2. $1,000.

 

Here is an example of twenty-first century politics in 1808. Item 65 is “The Republican Crisis: Or, the Exposition of the Political Jesuitism of James Madison, President of the United States of America. I'm not sure what “political Jesuitism” is, but surely it can't be good. The brave author, who hides behind the name “Observant Citizen of the District of Columbia,” attacks the “crooked and weak policy of Mr. Madison's administration,” his “weak and jealous disposition,” his “political turpitude and depravity,” “that he was never a sincere friend of the republican cause” (which he promoted from the nation's earliest days), “a bosom friend of Alexander Hamilton” (which would have surprised Hamilton), and that as Jefferson's Secretary of State, he retained key Federalists who “betrayed...the wise policy and plans of Mr. Jefferson” (with whom Madison was long a close friend and ally). “Observant Citizen” endorsed Madison's opponent for the presidency in 1812, of all things, the candidate of the Federalists. He even attacks Dolley Madison, saying “Mrs. Pain (actually Miss Payne was her birth name), a lady of tory principles,” has influenced Madison to no good, “such is the effect of female influence on men of weak minds!” Finally, Mr. Citizen informs us that Madison's “frensied ambitions” has caused him to resort to “pusillanimous subterfuges” such as “sickens the mind.” It was all to no avail. Madison defeated De Witt Clinton anyway. Item 65. $750.

 

This is another political attack, this time on Eben F. Pillsbury. Who? Pillsbury was the Democratic candidate for Governor of Maine shortly after the Civil War, and the New England states were not very hospitable to Democrats at the time. Pillsbury was no “doughboy” during the war, being a newspaper editor while his Republican opponent, Joshua Chamberlain, was a war hero, highly honored for his bravery and performance at Gettysburg. This four-page brochure is headed Eben F. Pillsbury's Record! As Written with His Own Pen. This piece claims Pillsbury's editorials expressed “disloyal sentiments during the very crisis of his country's fate.” It claims Pillsbury charged Lincoln with “deception and falsehood” and “encouraged the hosts of rebellion.” In contrast, the writer states that Chamberlain's words were “written with his own sword.” Chamberlain handily defeated Pillsbury this time and in two repeat match-ups. Item 67. $275.

 

If you have heard anything about New York Democratic politics in the two decades before the Civil War, you have undoubtedly heard the strange names of the “Hunkers” and “Barnburners,” not to mention the “softs” and “hards.” Here is a book that will tell you more about them, though from the point of view of a soft Hunker. The Hunkers were more for big government, public works and such. They were called “Hunkers” as their opponents thought they were hankering for government jobs. The Barnburners were opposed to public debt and state banks. However, as the years went forward, the two became even more divided on a different issue - slavery. The Barnburners were against it, the Hunkers could live with it. The Barnburners got their name over their perceived willingness to burn down the barn, that is destroy their own property for the sake of extreme positions. Among the Barnburners was former President Martin Van Buren, who became the 1848 presidential nominee of the anti-slavery Free Soil Party. While Van Buren later returned to the Democratic fold, some Barnburners went on to be founders of the Republican Party. The Hunkers included Horatio Seymour, later New York Governor, someone Republicans saw as too soft on the South, and the Democratic presidential nominee in 1868, given the honor of being walloped by U. S. Grant. He too was a “soft” Hunker. These were Hunkers who wanted to reach an agreement with the Barnburners, while the “hard” Hunkers wanted nothing to do with the other faction. Item 81. $500.

 

David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books may be reached at 203-389-8111 or dmlesser@lesserbooks.com. Their website is www.lesserbooks.com

Rare Book Monthly

  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000

Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions