Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - March - 2007 Issue
More Exceptional Works from Bauman Rare Books
The just completed Eiffel Tower in an 1889 photograph.
Item 80 is the large folio publication La Tour Eiffel, printed for the opening of the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889. It was for this 100th anniversary celebration of the French Revolution that the Eiffel Tower was constructed. Once considered an eyesore, it has since become the most notable landmark in Paris, or at least the most visible. This publication includes eight photographs taken during the construction of the Tower, and is signed by Gustave Eiffel himself, inscribed to M. Thiriot, a financial officer. $10,000.
Item 5 unexpectedly joins two American leaders, Confederate General G.T. Beauregard and President Grover Cleveland. Beauregard was present for the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter, and led successful attacks early in the war. However, he also clashed with Confederate President Jefferson Davis and others, diminishing his role. In the years after the ground war, he would engage in a war of words with his opponents, and this book, officially authored by Alfred Roman so as to be objective, was actually partly written by Beauregard. The title is The Military Operations of General Beauregard in the War Between the States, published in 1884. The old General would prove to be a moderate by post-war southern standards, supporting the vote for freed slaves. He would be an active member of the Democratic Party, which led him to support Cleveland's candidacy for the presidency. In 1884, Beauregard traveled from Louisiana to Albany, New York, to meet then Governor Cleveland. A contemporary newspaper clipping accompanying this book explains that he predicted to Cleveland he would carry the entire South, New York and Indiana, and probably Connecticut and New Jersey, and thereby capture the election of 1884. Beauregard had it right, and as a result, Cleveland just squeezed by Republican James G. Blaine. This copy of Beauregard's book includes an inscription to Governor Cleveland dated October 1884. $9,000.
Bauman Rare Books may be found online at www.baumanrarebooks.com, telephone 215-546-6466.
