The Dutch East and West India Companies from Gert Jan Bestebreurtje

Item 844 is a much later work than most in this catalogue. Published in 1937, it is Pre-revolutionary Dutch houses and families in Northern New Jersey and Southern New York, by Rosalie Fellows Bailey. It describes early settlers and their homes around New Amsterdam, the place some people now call New York. It includes an introduction by a very famous Dutch descendant, Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. President at the time of publication. It was published by the Holland Society, and perhaps this time the Devil was involved, for it was printed in a limited edition of 666 copies. €885 (US $1,180).

What is Souvenir History of Pella, Iowa, doing in this catalogue? The explanation for the inclusion of a history of a central Iowa town of 10,000 is that it was founded by Dutch immigrants in 1847. Today, it still has many signs of Dutch culture, from its windmills to a tulip festival. However, its most famous natives were not Dutch immigrants - Wyatt Earp and his brothers. This history was published in 1922, three years before the founding of the company that is today Pella Windows. Item 746. €135 (US $180).

Item 520 recalls a most unhappy incident in British-Dutch relations. It is Amboyna: a tragedy. As it is acted at the Theatre-Royal, by John Dryden, and published in 1673. Amboyna, or Ambon Island in current Indonesia, was a site of rivalry between the British and Dutch. The Dutch controlled the island, but the British had certain trading rights. In 1623, the Dutch heard rumors that British settlers, along with Japanese mercenaries working for the Dutch East India Company, were about to overrun them. The Dutch preempted the supposed threat by taking the British and Japanese and torturing them until they confessed. Once they confessed, they were beheaded. The incident became a long-running sore for the British, and one of the causes of open warfare between the two nations three decades later. Reparations for families of the British victims were compelled from the Dutch by the Treaty of Westminster in 1654. As this book attests, even two decades after this the British still had not forgotten. €885 (US $1,180.)

Gert Jan Bestebreurtje Rare Books can be reached online at www.gertjanbestebreurtje.com or by phone at +31-(0)347-322548.

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The Dutch East and West India Companies from Gert Jan Bestebreurtje

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