Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - September - 2008 Issue

Navigation and Travel Manuscripts from the William Reese Co.

Navigation Manuscripts from the William Reese Company.

Navigation Manuscripts from the William Reese Company.


By Michael Stillman

The William Reese Company has presented a list of items that will appeal to those fascinated by the day-to-day life of those at sea in the 19th and earlier centuries. These are not the official accounts of the great voyages of discovery, but mostly the journals of ordinary seamen, lower ranking officers, and simple travelers. They give a look at life at sea as it actually was, for some, quite pleasant, for others barely tolerable. By today's standards, these journeys would have been at best difficult, but no one expected the comforts we do today. Then again, the airlines are doing their best to return travel to the comfort level travelers experienced in the 18th and 19th centuries. The title of Reese's list is Navigation Manuscripts: Logs, Ship's Papers, Journals, Watercolors, Letters, Recollections and Histories. Here are a few.

In the days before the transcontinental railroad, the only was of crossing the continent, other than by foot, was going all the way around the tip of South America. The unnamed traveler who kept the journal offered as item 6 did just that, leaving on October 24, 1860. Anyone who has ever experienced the misery of seasickness will sympathize with his plight. "I was visited by the horror of horrors to all landlubbers at sea this morning," he writes. "My feelings are indescribable; was advised to eat, but could not; to exercise, but was too weak; the cabin was too close, the deck too cool; was finally obliged to seek a sheltered nook on the quarter-deck." For 105 days they sailed, suffering stifling heat as they passed through the equator, snow and hail as they rounded Cape Horn. Life on board until they reached San Francisco in February is thoroughly described. Additionally, a second manuscript describes a weeklong journey in California, where he visited the state capital in Sacramento, Stockton, and some gold mines. He comments favorably on the streets of Sacramento, where, unlike San Francisco, planks allow you to walk over the puddles of mud in the middle of the streets. Priced at $2,750.

The preceding voyage was a pleasure compared to this 1705-06 French journey. Item 19 is a manuscript account in French, Memoire ou Journal... by Mr. Malescot de Coulomiers. He sailed on the ironically named Faucon Anglois (English Falcon) on a journey of unknown purpose, but likely privateering. Malescot did not wish to go on this trip, noting "everyone speaks so unfavorably" of it, but was ordered to participate by his superior. Undoubtedly this would have started him off on the wrong foot, so it is no wonder that his journal, evidently prepared as a report for his boss, is so negative. Malescot describes the incompetence of their captain, Mr. Petit, and the insubordination and rebelliousness of his crew. Petit is pictured as indecisive and afraid of the crew. He launches treacherous and unprovoked attacks on local tribes along the African coast, later seizing a Danish ship, although their nations were not at war, because he believed it held gold. Meanwhile, a member of his crew, hoping to find the gold, ignites the ship's magazine, blowing it up and killing many on board. As bad as this voyage was, Reese notes, "it is probably more representative of such 18th-century seafaring ventures than most polite narratives." $20,000.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: ALDROVANDI, Ulisse (1522-1605) - [Opera omnia]. Bologna: Bellagamba, Benacci, Bonomi, Tebaldini, Ferroni, 1599-1668. €22.000-€28.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: [CANALETTO] - VISENTINI, Antonio (1688-1782) da Giovanni Antonio CANAL (1697-1768, detto 'Il Canaletto') - Urbis Venetiarum prospectus celebriores. Venezia: Giovanni Battista Pasquale, 1742-51. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) - Fables Choisies. Parigi: Claude Barbin, 1668. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: MERCATOR, Rumold (1545-1599) - [I continenti] - Europa; Africa; America Sive India Nova; Asia. Amsterdam: S.d. [ca. 1633]. €2.000-€3.000
  • 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
  • Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: MUNSTER (Sebastian). Cosmographiae universalis lib. VI. Basilea
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Typus Orbis Terrarum. [Antwerp, 1587]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: BRION DE LA TOUR (Louis). Atlas Monde. Paris, Desnos ou Jaillot, [1783 - An XIII-1799].
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Anvers, Christophe Plantin, 1579.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: VISSCHER (Nicolas Joannes). Theatrum praecipuarum urbium [...]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: DE BRUYN (Cornelis). Voyage au Levant.
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: AZARA (Félix de). Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: JOUTEL (Henri). Journal historique du dernier voyage que feu M. de la Sale […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: LA SALLE (René Robert Cavelier de) ; TONTI (Henri de). Dernières découvertes dans l’Amérique Septentrionale
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: NOLIN (Jean-Baptiste) ; CORONELLI (Vincenzo). L'Amérique septentrionale, ou, la partie septentrionale des Indes Occidentales […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: [Caroline du Sud]. A large draft of South Carolina from Cape Roman to Port Royal.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: PÉRON (François) ; FREYCINET (Louis de). Voyage de découverte aux terres australes.
  • Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 746. Speed's Dual Atlas of Britain & the World with 96 Maps (1676). Est. $70,000 - $85,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 9. Visscher's Superb Double-Hemisphere World Map with Representations of the Elements (1658). Est. $4,750 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 58. One of the Most Important 16th Century Maps of the New World (1554). Est. $5,000 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 745. A Complete Example of Ortelius' Atlas of Ancient Geography (1624). Est. $12,000 - $15,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 73. First English Map to Show California as an Island (1625). Est. $16,000 - $19,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 156. Bachmann's Dramatic View of the Mid-Atlantic Region (1861). Est. $1,800 - $2,200
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 741. Early Announcement of Continental Congress' Declaration of Independence (1776). Est. $9,000 - $11,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 695. The First Printed Map Devoted to the Pacific (1589). Est. $8,000 - $9,500
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 733. Superb Image of the Presentation of Jesus in Hand Color (1502). Est. $700 - $850
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 52. Produced by the Psychological Warfare Branch to Encourage Surrender (1945). Est. $200 - $230

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