Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - February - 2005 Issue

Recent Acquisitions From the William Reese Co.

R254

Recent Acquisition from William Reese Co.


By Michael Stillman

The William Reese Company
has published its 236th catalogue, entitled either "Recent Acquisitions" or "New Acquisitions" (depending on whether you want to believe the cover or title page). We mention this inconsistency only because booksellers are the first to point out minor differences and errors in editions of the books they sell, and this is only fair play. I have just made friends of thousands of old writers and publishers, all of whom are dead. Once you get past the title page, you will find 214 items of Americana in this catalogue, recent to Reese's collection, but with centuries in the collections of others.

Item 17 is a scathing indictment of religious persecution in the early years of the colonies. George Bishop writes of this period in New-England Judged, By the Spirit of the Lord... The victims were Quakers, and their oppressors the community which had fled to America to escape religious persecution less than 40 years earlier. Beatings and mutilation were the Puritans' response to the group's beliefs. One punishment involved transporting the victims from town to town in a cart, to be publicly whipped for the enjoyment of each town's residents. Cutting off of ears and branding with an "H" for "heresy" were other favored punishments. However, what really set off Bishop was the execution of four Quakers. This would lead to temporary support for the Quakers' rights from King Charles in 1761, and while repressive measures would soon be restored, it did bring an end to the executions. This copy is a second edition from 1703, which included the two parts of Bishop's book (originally published in 1661 and 1667) along with a response to Cotton Mather's "abuses of the said people." Priced at $2,000.

Religious persecution in America wasn't limited to colonial days. The Mormons were forced further and further west from their New York state beginnings before finally being able to settle down in Utah. One stop along the way was Nauvoo, Illinois, settled in 1839. In 1841, founder Joseph Smith had a revelation instructing him to build a substantial hotel. The sale of $150,000 worth of stock to fund the construction was authorized, with sale of stock permitted to "all who believed in the Book of Mormon." Construction was begun that year, and continued even after Joseph Smith was murdered in jail in 1844. However, the project was abandoned when Brigham Young led most of the group to Utah a couple of years later. Possession fell to Smith's wife Emma, who, with her second husband, would build a much smaller structure on the original foundation. It would become their home and the 19th century equivalent of a bed and breakfast. Nauvoo House still stands today, and may be rented for meetings from its owners, the Community of Christ, formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (but never as "Mormons"). This church was formed in 1860 by followers of Smith who did not follow Brigham Young to Utah, and was originally headed by Smith's son, Joseph III. Item 145 is two stock certificates in the Nauvoo House Association printed in St. Louis for $50 and $100. Priced at $3,000. Item 146 is two certificates of $50 each printed in Nauvoo. $3,000.

Rare Book Monthly

  • <b>19th Century Shop:</b> Charles Darwin on sexuality and the transmission of hereditary characteristics: Autograph Letter Signed to Lawson Tait. Down, 17 January [1877].
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> MILTON, JOHN. <i>Paradise Lost. A Poem written in ten books.</i> London: 1667. A very rare example with the contemporary binding untouched and with a 1667 title page.
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> Hamilton secures the ratification of the Constitution: <i>The Debates and Proceedings of the Convention of the State of New-York, assembled at Poughkeespsie, on the 17th June, 1788.</i>
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> The social contract “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains”: ROUSSEAU, JEAN-JACQUES. <i>Principes du Droit Politique [Du Contract Social]</i>. Amsterdam: Michel Rey, 1762
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> “The first English textbook on geometrical land-measurement and surveying”: BENESE, RICHARD. <i>This Boke Sheweth the Maner of Measurynge All Maner of Lande…</i>
  • <b>Bonhams: Exploration and Travel, Featuring Americana, Part I. September 25, 2018</b>
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> Shackleton, Ernest. <i>Aurora Australis.</i> Printed at the sign of 'The Penguins'; East Antarctica, 1908. $70,000 to $100,000
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> Shackleton, Ernest. <i>South Polar Times.</i> 1st edition, limited issue. from the library of Michael Barne. $20,000 to $30,000
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> General Washington's <i>Proceedings of a General Court Martial... of Major General Lee.</i> Philiadelphia, 1778. 100 copies printed for Congress. BOUND WITH: ...Court Martial... of St Clair and ...Schuyler. $25,000 to $35,000
    <b>Bonhams: Exploration and Travel, Featuring Americana, Part I. September 25, 2018</b>
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> <i>The Voice of the People.</i> Boston, 1754. Rare pamphlet on the Excise Tax. Nathaniel Sparhawk's copy. $4,000 to $6,000
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> Autograph Letter Signed ("S.L. Clemens"), offering extensive hard-earned advice on writing, 5 pp, 1881. $30,000 to $50,000
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> After Fra Egnazio Danti. <i>L'Ultime Parti not:e nel Indie Occid:ntli" [The last known parts of the Western Indies].</i> Painted Map of California, Western Mexico, and Japan. $70,000 to $100,000
    <b>Bonhams: Exploration and Travel, Featuring Americana, Part I. September 25, 2018</b>
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> Ptolemaeus, Claudius. <i>Geographie opus nouissima...</i> 1513. The most important edition of Ptolemy, containing the Admiral's Map. $250,000 to $350,000
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> De Arellano, Don Alonso. Manuscript, his <i>"Relación mui singular y circunstanciada... Capitán del Patax San Lucas,"</i> manuscript copy from the Sir Thomas Phillips collection. $50,000 to $80,000
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> Purchas, Samuel. <i>Purchas his Pilgrimes.</i> First edition. With John Simth's engraved map of Virginia. $70,000 to $100,000
    <b>Bonhams: Exploration and Travel, Featuring Americana, Part I. September 25, 2018</b>
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> Lewis, Meriwether. Contemporary manuscript true copy of his final power of attorney, 1809. $8,000 to $12,000
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> <i>A New Method of Macarony Making, as Practiced at Boston in North America.</i> Mezzotint. London, 1774. $5,000 to $7,000
    <b>Bonhams, Sep. 25:</b> <i>Scientific Base Ball Pitching: A Treatise on the Pitcher, Pitching, Origin and Philosophy of the Curve.</i> Chicago, 1897. $2,000 to $3,000
  • <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b> Franklin H. Brown, <i>State Sovereignty, National Union,</i> Chicago, 1860. $6,000 to $9,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b> Thomas Paine, <i>The American Crisis,</i> Fishkill, NY, December 1776. $25,000 to $35,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b><br>The Aitken Bible, Philadelphia, 1781. $20,000 to $30,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b> Francisco Loubayssin de Lamarca, probable first edition of the first novel set in the Spanish New World, Paris, 1617. $15,000 to $25,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b> Juan de la Anunciación, <i>Sermonario en lengua mexicana,</i> first edition, first book of sermons in Nahuatl, Mexico, 1577. $30,000 to $40,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b> Maturino Gilberti, <i>Thesoro spiritual en lengua de Mechuacá,</i> first edition, Mexico, 1558. $15,000 to $25,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b> Commission of William O. Stoddard as secretary to the president, signed by Lincoln, Washington, 1861. $7,000 to $10,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b> <i>Clay and Frelinghuysen,</i> flag banner, circa 1844. $8,000 to $12,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b> Daguerreotype of a man believed to be Frederick Granger Williams Smith, son of Joseph Smith, circa late 1850s. $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b> John C. Wolfe, <i>Portrait of Abraham Lincoln,</i> oil on board in period wooden frame, circa 1860s. $12,000 to $18,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b> Francis W. Winton, manuscript on pow-wows with indigenous Canadians, 1881. $15,000 to $25,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 27:</b> Family letters from two young daguerreotype artists, 1826-79. $10,000 to $15,000.

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