Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2009 Issue

A Mix of the Unusual from Peter Masi Books

Number 200 from Peter L. Masi - Books.


By Michael Stillman

This month we review our first catalogue from Peter L. Masi - Books, though for Masi, this is Catalog 200. It is hard to describe this assembly of over 500 items from this rural, western Massachusetts (Montague) bookseller. Masi describes it as "a very mixed bag, some interesting and amusing selections." I'd be tempted to say you might find anything here, but you won't. There's no Shakespeare or Dickens, no Abraham Lincoln, really very little of the type of material you might expect from a typical rare or antiquarian bookseller. Nor, we are pleased to note, will you find high prices. What you will find is the unexpected, the obscure, the eclectic. For those who collect outside of the ordinary, this is the type of catalogue you will appreciate.

Masi has helped organize the collection by placing all items under a category. Among the categories are early and African Americana, medicine, explosives, linguistics, architecture, women, gambling, music, dictionaries, cooking, education, broadsides, paper and printing, manuscripts, onomastics (the study of names), bodybuilding, textiles, travel, engineering... the list goes on. Here is one more: dialect. Masi is something of a specialist in this material, and offers many related titles. If you want to know how Denver firefighters or eastern bituminous coal miners speak (presumably different from eastern anthracite coal miners), Masi has a book for you. Here are a few of them.

Item 10 is a reminder of one of the less pleasant aspects of an earlier time: A.B. Stewart's National Travelers Guide, a fifth edition published in 1940. This is not a regular travel guide, but one intended primarily for African-Americans. At the time, many hotels and restaurants, particularly in the South, would not accommodate black people, so a standard AAA guide wouldn't have been much help. This guide was designed to help black travelers find places where they could stay or visit and be welcome. Priced at $250.

What did children need to know in 1831? Here's the answer: The First Catechism for Children, containing Common Things, Necessary to Be Known at an Early Age. By the Rev. David Blair. Blair was actually a pseudonym for Sir Richard Phillips, and this was an updated, American version of an earlier British work. Some things are still important, such as 'what is America' and 'who is the president,' though perhaps knowing the date on which Adams and Jefferson died is no longer essential (it was July 4, 1826). Children needed to know what is bread, cheese and sugar (today's children know all too much about sugar), but did they really need to know about beer and wine? And then there is the all-important question: 'How far is it to Philadelphia?' That depends on where you are, though W.C. Fields undoubtedly would have said not far enough. Item 249. $35.

Item 399 is an unidentified (circa 1850?) broadside tale of murder most foul. Actually, this poem had been around since the previous century, the story evidently being appealing in its own perverse way. The title is Captain James, who was hung and gibbeted, in England, for starving to death his Cabin Boy. As the story goes, for some trifling offense, the Captain lashes his cabin boy to the mast, where he is left for many days until succumbing to starvation. Along the way, when the boy asks for water, the Captain gives him urine; when he begs for food, he is offered excrement. When the boy refuses, the Captain beats him. When others on board broach the subject, the Captain threatens them with death if they intervene. On returning home, James believes his money will save him, but the boy's mother refuses it, and pursues justice until the evil Captain meets his fate. This tale should not be taken as fact, but as light entertainment. $125.

Rare Book Monthly

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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Forum Auctions
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    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
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    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
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    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
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    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
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