Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2022 Issue

Rare Americana from David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books

Rare Americana.

Rare Americana.

David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books has issued a new catalogue, no. 186, of Rare Americana. As always, these are filled with fascinating material relating to America (with an occasional exception) with many pamphlets, broadsides, and manuscripts in the collection. Here are a few of these items.

 

We begin with a report compiled in Britain for the year 1841 but it had too much relevance to America. Its title is Correspondence with Foreign Powers Relative to the Slave Trade. By 1841, England had not only abolished slavery in all its territories, it also used its navy to prevent others from sending new slaves captured in Africa to lands where it was still permitted. America also outlawed the slave trade, but slavery was still permitted in the country which might encourage their illegal importation. This report provides details on vessels used in the slave trade, their captains, flags, and number of slaves transported. It is filled with diplomatic exchanges concerning the trade with the West Indies, Brazil, Cuba, and Central America. It also has material on Britain's treaty with Texas, then in its independent republic days, and slavers trading under the American flag. Item 1. Priced at $650.

 

Most people have supported usury laws to prevent the charging of exorbitant interest on loans. Even Adam Smith, capitalist par excellence, favored this restriction on the free market. Not Jeremy Bentham. Bentham wasn't a heartless capitalist. He was a philosopher, the primary supporter of utilitarianism. This philosophy determines right and wrong actions based on which bring about the most good for the most people. Evidently, he felt making more loans available was better for mankind than restricting the amount of interest charged. His views are supported by the credit card companies, payday lenders, and the Mafia. He explains his position in A Defence of Usury; Shewing the Impolicy of Present Legal Restraints on the Terms of Pecuniary Bargains. To Which is Added, a Letter to Adam Smith, Esq. LL. D. on the Discouragement of Inventive Industry. This is the first American edition, published in 1796. $1,750.

 

Here is a military you probably have not heard about. It wasn't really an army, despite its name – the Cold Water Army. It was a temperance group aimed at children. It was based on the belief that if you get to children soon enough, you can convince them never to touch the stuff. Item 78 is a pledge certificate children could sign pledging themselves to a life of temperance (we have no statistics as to how many lived up to that pledge as adults). It reads National Cold Water Army. Health – Peace – Competence. Pledge. This certifies that …..... has subscribed to the above pledge. The pledge begins, “Here Lord! I pledge to hate / To all that can intoxicate / I'll never use the filthy weed / Then from its evils I'll be freed.” The pledge is from 1842. The “Cold Water” comes from the group's preferred drink - cold water. Item 78. $450.

 

This was a novel court case and transportation in America would be very different today had the verdict gone the other way. From 1858, this is what is known as the Albany Bridge Case. A New York State statute authorized the building of a bridge across the Hudson River at Albany. The law was challenged by some boat owners who feared the bridge would interfere with their ability to navigate the river. The question was whether the state could authorize bridges over a waterway since this might affect interstate commerce, which was the federal government's sole prerogative under the Constitution. Item 2 is The Power of the States to Bridge Their Navigable Waters. Argument of Nicholas Hill, in the Albany Bridge Case, Before the United States Circuit Court. He argued that the state did have the power to build bridges over navigable waters. The Circuit Court agreed that unless the federal government enacted legislation prohibiting it, a state could erect bridges. The plaintiff appealed the ruling but the judges on the Supreme Court split 3-3. On a tie vote, the ruling of the lower court is upheld so Albany was free to build a bridge. Item 2. $275.

 

This is an 1861 cartoon print of The Hercules of the Union. Hercules has a club labeled “Liberty and Union” as he strikes the seven-headed dragon. The heads are those of Confederate leaders. The club-wielding Hercules is Gen. Winfield Scott, the Commanding General of the U.S. Army. Depicting Scott as Hercules was a bit ironic. By this time, he was 75-years-old, grossly obese, probably over 300 lbs., and could no longer mount a horse, barely walk. Scott resigned later that year as Lincoln had turned to others for advice on handling the war. Not that Lincoln always made the best decisions either. He selected George McClellan as Winfield's successor, who was a mediocre general and became Lincoln's opponent in the 1864 presidential election after Lincoln fired him. Item 18. $1,500.

 

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

  • 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

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