Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2008 Issue
Early Voyages from the William Reese Co.
A spectacular Blaeu atlas.
Philip Nichols evidently harbored no mixed feelings about Drake when he published Drake's manuscript presentation of 1593 to Queen Elizabeth in 1628 (this is a second edition): Sir Francis Drake Revived: Calling Upon this Dull or Effeminate Age, to Follow His Noble Steps for Gold and Silver. Drake made his presentation to the Queen after a very successful raid on Panama many years earlier. She was pleased with Drake's success, since she got to share in the loot, but sent him off to Ireland for a few years for diplomatic reasons. The nations were at peace. In this presentation, Drake tells the Queen he would like to work again, and she obliged. Unfortunately for Drake, he was killed during another raid on Spanish shipping three years later. This manuscript was suppressed during the reign of King James I as he wished to maintain peace with the Spanish, explaining why it took so long to be published. Item 67. $18,500.
The atlases of Willem and Johannes Blaeu have often been described as the finest ever published. We offer no quarrel. Item 9 is one of the later editions of the Blaeu atlas Threatrum Orbis Terrarum. It was published in six volumes in Amsterdam. It contains 405 engraved maps, colored by a contemporary hand. $495,000.
If you're looking for a slice of heaven, how about Madagascar? At least that is what Walter Hamond believed in 1640 when he published A Paradox. Proving, that the Inhabitants of the Isle Called Madagascar...are the Happiest People in the World. Hamond describes the natives as "a sluggish and slothful people," but he sees that as more of a positive. They were free of the ambitions and desires for wealth that is the "Root of all mischiefe, a Raging famisht Beast, that will not bee satisfied..." His natives were the precursors of Europe's "noble savage." Item 44. $12,500.
The William Reese Company may be contacted at 203-789-8081 or amorder@reeseco.com. Their website is found at www.reeseco.com.
