69 résultats
1859403850Ypsilanti MI: C. Woodruff 1859. Newspaper 22 x 16 inches. 4 pp. In fine folded condition. A fine and lengthy report from the west providing details on the gold resources of the country descriptions of the various diggings the amounts of gold taken by various companies and individuals the Gregory Diggings the abandonment of the Platte River washings the constitution convention etc. <br/><br/> C. Woodruff unknown books
1855007164Sacramento California 1855. Two manuscript letters in ink both on ruled paper with folding creases the 1855 letter 8" x 12 1/2" with single spaced writing both sides approx. 500 words. The 1856 letter 15" x 10" folded in half to make 4 pp. approx. 300 words with small blindstamp top left corner depicting an eagle. The earlier letter is headed "September 18th 1855 Naperville Dupage County Illinois" and ends "Michael direct your letters Nevada County Nevada post office California". George writes to his brother Michael in Naperville that he has "seen a good dele sins i rote you they last letter" including a hundred "inshins" and some "Buffellow". He adds that "we had good luck all they way of may we left Council Bluff" and that he is not home sick yet. He then talks of the gold mines river mining what they are paying and the cost of things such as board "from five to ten dollars a week" "Beaf" "wors 15 to 20 cents" and "potato" "4 cent per pound". He adds that he intends to have some gold before he comes home and that "girls are not so plenty here as they are in state". He closes by asking his brother to write him and to remain at home in Illinois to care for their parents. The 1856 letter headed Sacramento august 3th 1856 informs his brother that he is well and "down to Sacramento now" working on a farm feeding a "schrasing" thrashing machine and that "they times is verry hard in California now". He adds that he had some money "stole" while he was in the mountains but since coming down into the valley he was making money and will send some home soon. The letter ends with George wishing to see them all soon and that he is not home sick. The third page of the letter bears a drawing of a wing or leaf eleven smaller versions of the same image interspersed on page 2. A fascinating testimonial on California during the gold rush written in a strong hand and in a wonderful vernacular style by a good observer. . HOLOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED. Manuscript. Very Good. books
1866286043New York 1866. unbound. very good. located in the Nevada District of the Colorado Territory with beautifully engraved vignettes of a miner working by torchlight and a group of miners sending ore from the mine shaft to the surface by way of an bucket-brigade. Signed by the Secretary and President of the Corporation whose main office was located in New York City. This certificate bears two uncancelled 25 cent Internal Revenue Certificate stamps applied to the certificate in their designated spaces. The stock certificate appears not to have been redeemed. Scarce. Very good<br/><br/> Folds are very light and the steel engravings are clearly printed. There is a small chip to the top margin above the printed border.<br/><br/> unknown books
180229918Canterbury: Printed by W. Bristow for J. Badcock 1802. 1st edition Canterbury issue. Period brown half-sheep binding with marbled paper boards. Some rubs & general wear to binding. Period pos to ffep. A VG copy. vi 7 - 20 232 pp. Illustrated with 15 copperplate engravings 4 color and the 6th Fig 1 serving as frontis. 12mo signed in 6s. 6-3/4' x 3-7/8" <br/><br/> Printed by W. Bristow, for J. Badcock hardcover books
1857WRCLIT18302New York & London: Samuel French & Son 1857. 36pp. Printed orange wrappers. Near fine. First edition of this playlet based on Delano's own experiences in the diggings in 1850. Ascribing priority of printings to French plays is usually tentative at best; however this copy bears an advertisement for the play version of TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR ROOM as a new publication so it seems certain that this is at least a very early printing if not the first. EBERSTADT 134:123. Samuel French & Son unknown books
1832010488Boston: Published by Crocker & Brewster 1832. Hardcover. VG. 12mo publisher's brown textureed cloth engraved frontispiece of family scene vii 192p. Some loss to cloth at spine ends. Solid unophisticated copy in original binding typical of New England-printed Christian tracts of the period. Published by Crocker & Brewster hardcover books
185148953Logtown Eldorado County California 1851. SIGNED by McKemson at conclusion. Now housed in an archival mylar sleeve. Bit of age toning. Fold-lines. Later pencil annotation at top noting location of Logtown. Very Good. Single sheet 25 lines of mss ~ 7 words per line ~ 175 words. 2 sums penned to right of sheet. Docket summary to verso. All writing clear & sharp entirely legible. 9-5/8" x 7-1/2" <br/><br/>An interesting & information-laden letter detailing the contractual & financial agreements between two individuals engaged in mining along with sums paid for divers aspects of same to wit: "to John and Peter for pork" .75 "balance on beef to the butcher down Town" 4.15 and "balance on account with King" 9.86. We note athat the value of labor is recognized e.g. "it was agreed by J. S. Bigalow and I that as George was sick most of the time that the cooking that he did should pay his part of the living for which our bebts were principally contracted." <br /> <br />A nice primary source ADs documenting divers aspects of mine life amongs those so practiciing. unknown books
189673529Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution 1896. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. The first American edition of this important scientific memoir describing the manner in which the authors succeeded in extracting the previously unknown element argon in pure form and in analyzing its properties. For this discovery Lord Rayleigh 1842-1919 was awarded the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physics. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge Volume XXIX Number 1033. Quarto: 2ff 43 1 p. Original green cloth binding with gilt titles. Near fine. Smithsonian Institution hardcover books
1851476391851. Now housed in an archival mylar sleeve. Age-toning especially along fold-line. Penmanship clear & easily read. Bifolium i.e. 4 pages of lined paper 23 lines per page ~ 10 words per line ~ 900 words. 9-3/4" x 7-5/8" <br/><br/>While no year is written on the ALs itself we posit 1851 as the Maritime Heritage website shows the only visit to San Francisco by the Washington was July 21 1851 arriving from Baltimore per a newspaper entry in the Daily Alta. That said per a online perpetual calender March 14th came on a Tuesday in 1852 not 1851. We lean towards 1851 as the actual year this letter was written. And this historic letter is replete with interesting content written by a man bound for the promised land of California. Chamberlin is from Boston writing a newsy letter his sister posted from the Harbor of Pernambuco Brazil March 14 where the ship in taking on supplies including coal. He describes the voyage thus far the expense of the company that sent him and the trip ahead around the Horn expecting to arrive in California in about 30 days. He describes conditions aboard the ship the places he has visited the people he has met in Brazil his own experiences with the heat and fever and more. Letters from this era are apprearing ever more infrequently on the market. unknown books
185246494Vassalboro Maine 1852. Now housed in an archival mylar sleeve. Fold lines. Age-toning along some exterior folds. Red sealing wax remnants. Penciled "Grandma Keith" above address. Very Good. Biofolium of blue paper with 2-1/3 pages of manuscript writing containing 2 letters 53 8 lines ~660 100 words respectively. One panel hand addressed to South Braintree Mass with stamped No. Vassalboro ME postmark Mar 15 & "Paid 3" circular stamp. Unfolded: 9-3/4" x 7-5/8". Folded: 3" x 4-3/8" <br/><br/>Ms Keith begins as most mothers do. relating her regrets for not writing sooner followed by health news of divers relations. Page 2 starts with the news that "There is a great many men in this region gone to California it is thought Maine must suffer a good deal in consequence of so many of her Citizens going to that Country the loss of the men is not all the State is injured by having so much money carried out of it. Since the sufferings of those gone there have been made known & likewise how small the chance of making money enough to fetch them back even many who were calculating to go have given it up at least for the present." The second letter by Keith to affirm to Miss Marcy that she wishes good relations between the two of them expressing appreciation of the "complimentary manner in which you mentioned my son." An intimate look at the allure of California's the 1850s myth tempered with the reality relayed back by some of those who succumbed. unknown books
1849WRCAM49949New York 1849. 1p. of a bifolium docketed on verso of second bifolium leaf. Mailing folds slight edge discoloration else fine. An intriguing note regarding life insurance for a forty-niner traveling to California in 1849 with Henry Webb and John Woodhouse Audubon. The note reads: "Langdon H. Havens wants a life insurance permit for California to go over the Overland Route in company with persons bearing dispatches from our Government in a Company of 100 or more. He wants to leave for Washington immediately." Perhaps the twenty-six-year- old Haven sometimes spelled Havens originally intended to join a safe government- sponsored expedition from Washington but he was in fact among the 100 Forty-Niners who embarked on a famously ill-fated overland expedition led by Army Colonel Henry Webb with John Woodhouse Audubon son of the famous ornithologist as his second in command which left New York on February 8. <br> <br> The company proceeded by ship train stagecoach and riverboat to New Orleans and from there by steamer across the Gulf of Mexico to the mouth of the Rio Grande where they arrived on March 13 - an odd overland route dictated by Webb a veteran of the Mexican-American War. There disaster struck. A dozen men died of cholera the company's money was stolen and leadership conflict led Webb to leave the company with a dozen followers. Some of the remaining stalwarts including Haven followed Audubon onward trekking for seven months through Mexico and Arizona the survivors finally reaching San Diego in November. Some then took a boat to San Francisco; others continued overland to the gold fields. As meticulously recorded by Audubon a naturalist and painter in his own right the entire venture has gone down in history as "one of the most poorly-planned" Forty-Niner expeditions "on record." Haven though nearly dying en route was one of the fortunate few who "made it to California." An appealing note dated in the famous year of the California Gold Rush that eerily anticipates the dangers inherent in overland travel in America in the 19th century. unknown books
18756056031875. "Faithfully yr friend Joaquin Miller Nov. 2 1875" in black ink on small leaf 4 7/8" x 2 1/2". Very good old tape in top margin from previous mounting. Together with a vintage sepia photograph. 3 3/4" x 5 1/4". Signed by Authors. No Binding. Very Good. unknown books
186034567New York: H. De Marsan Publisher. 38 & 60 Chatam Street 1860. Ca 1860. Not in Wolf nor recorded on OCLC. VG light wear & age toning. Single sheet printed recto only. 3 verses each of 8 lines. No music. Hand-colored wood-engraved "The Fountain" decorative border. Just inside lower right border signed "Sparks". 10" x 6-1/8" <br/><br/> H. De Marsan, Publisher. 38 & 60 Chatam Street unknown books
1849WRCAM52151Kreuznach: R. Voigtlander 1849. 32pp. Printed blue wrappers rear wrapper original front wrapper in facsimile. Small corner repairs to rear wrapper. Some foxing two ink stamps on titlepage. Else very good. In a half morocco slipcase and cloth chemise. The first edition of an exceedingly rare Gold Rush pamphlet printed in the hallowed year of that epochal event. "Like many guidebooks for Europeans this pamphlet gives general information on California's physical features history and 'Notes for Emigrants' on the gold discovery. The portion on California's gold riches consists primarily of an article reprinted from the KOELNER ZEITUNG of January 14 1849 which in turn summarizes R.B. Mason and others. The guide mentions the many German settlers in the Sacramento Valley and speaks proudly of Captain Sutter" - Kurutz. <br> <br> Only four institutions worldwide report a copy of this book: the California State Library the University of California at Berkeley Yale and the State Library in Berlin. It is even more difficult to encounter at auction this copy being the only one on record to pass through the rooms. COWAN II p.102. HOWES C43 "aa." KURUTZ 112. SABIN 9984. R. Voigtlander hardcover books
183747870London: J. Templeman 248 Regent Street . J. Miller 404 Oxford Street 1837. Second Edition a reissue of the 1st edition sheets with Horne's new introduction. Cf. NCBEL III 1232. Original publisher's green cloth binding with printed paper title label to spine professionally rebacked. General wear & soiling. Period prior owner signatures to front eps. A solid VG copy. 152 pp. 12mo. 6-7/8" x 4-1/4" <br/><br/> J. Templeman, 248 Regent Street ... J. Miller, 404 Oxford Street hardcover books
185772639New York: D. & J. Sadlier & Co 1857. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. Traces the history of Christianity in China from its earliest documented appearance with St. Thomas and the missionary rush sparked by the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 to the Manchu-Tartar Dynasty in the sixteenth century. Abbe Huc a French Catholic priest Lazarite missionary and traveler became famous for his accounts of Qing-era China Mongolia and Tibet which was largely unknown at the time. He and his companion Joseph Gabet were the first Europeans to reach Lhasa since Thomas Manning in 1812. 358 p. and 348 p. with publisher's ads. Octavo two volumes. Ex-19th century library Nevada City Free Public Library with a bookplate to each rear pastedown two small ink date stamps and a small label to each front endpaper and a gilt-stamped accession number and label shadow to each spine. It appears a pocket was neatly removed from each pastedown. Both bindings are quite sound. The spines are sun faded with some minor bumping to the corners and tips. Scarce. D. & J. Sadlier & Co hardcover books
181210794Vienna: Maria Geisler 1812. Contemporary light green glazed paper boards with a ropework roll for an outer frame ochre endleaves gilt-ruled flat spine hinges rubbed gilt-lettered red paper label all edges gilt. The Austro-Hungarian capital in your pocket - her only view book. The prints include theaters opera houses the Imperial Riding School gardens parade grounds a swim club an obelisk coffee houses porcelain and weapons factories hospitals painting galleries the bustling Danube christoph de bac's famous hexadecagon circus building etc. The publisher's address 1200 Graben dates the suite. I have not located a set outside Austria. Individual prints were and are offered for sale. In good condition; two double-page views were likely issued later and are not present here. Two plates have been neatly mounted at the time of issue on the paper stock of the edition nos. 89 and 99. All but two views are in their first or only state.¶Nebehay & Wagner Bibliographie altösterreichischer Ansichtenwerke 193. Maria Geisler unknown books
1853WRCAM46036Columbia Ca.: Gazette Print 1853. Broadside 10 3/4 x 8 inches. Printed in three columns. A bit of light foxing mostly in margins. Near fine. In a folding cloth clamshell case spine gilt. A rare broadside printing of the laws of the Columbia Mining District in California in 1853 created and enforced by the miners for their own self-government. The seventeen articles all deal with regulations for mining and claims. The first nine set out rules for making and operating claims. The next three address foreign ownership of claims. Article 10: "None but Americans and Europeans who have or shall declare their intentions of becoming citizens shall hold claims in this district." Article 11: "Neither Asiatics nor South Sea Islanders shall be allowed to mine in this district either for themselves or for others." Article 12 sets out a punishment for any miner who sells a claim to an Asian or a Polynesian. The final five articles set out rules for enforcing the laws including the creation of a Miners Committee and a system of binding arbitration. According to the text the laws were adopted "at a meeting of the Miners of the Columbia Mining District held Oct. 1st 1853." and the laws are signed in print by "C.H. Chamberlain Pres." and "R.A. Robinson Sec'y." <br> <br> "The item is of basic importance.as an example of how the California miners - or men beyond the reach of government anywhere else in our States and Territories for that matter - banded together and enacted and enforced codes of law for their own protection" - Eberstadt. The COLUMBIA GAZETTE which printed this broadside was according to Kemble the second newspaper to operate in Columbia starting operations in the fall of 1852. The first newspaper in the area the COLUMBIA STAR apparently printed only two or three issues in October-November of 1851 before the printing press was destroyed by vandals. <br> <br> Greenwood locates only three copies at the California Historical Society and the Bancroft Library and the Streeter copy which was sold at the Clifford sale in 1994. Rocq lists a copy at the Huntington Library. OCLC adds copies at Yale Library of Congress University of California at San Diego Stanford and DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University. A rare and interesting example of the search for order in the tumult of the gold rush. <br> <br> The Streeter copy sold to Howell for $550 in 1968. It later reappeared in the sale of California collector Henry Clifford in 1994. GREENWOOD 381. ROCQ 15427. EBERSTADT 131:105. STREETER SALE 2735. CLIFFORD SALE 26. OCLC 29876358. Gazette Print hardcover books
1863List1004New Hampshire: Printer Unknown 1863. First Edition. Printed broadside 16 ½ x 11 ½ inches archivally mounted and matted. A very good copy with some light toning small closed tear at upper margin light foxing at upper margin very tiny spot of loss to illustration at fold. Franklin Pierce remained politically active upon his return to New Hampshire following his presidency advocating for the Democratic cause and generally opposing the Civil War and Lincoln's policies. This scarce pro-Union anti-slavery broadside printed for the 1863 New Hampshire elections which happened March 12 takes aim at Pierce and his fellow Democrats repeating the unfounded claim first made in 1862 by William Seward that Pierce belonged to the secret Knights of the Golden Circle the secret society formed with the goal of forming a new territory out of the CSA Mexico Central America and the Caribbean. There was never evidence that Pierce had any involvement in the KGC though the society had members in southern parts of some Union states such as Indiana Ohio Illinois and Missouri.<br /> <br /> The broadside printed for the March 12 elections quotes heavily from Pierce as well as the other Democrat candidates and party officials who were either running for office in New Hampshire or involved in politics a group which included Ira Eastman John Goerge Josiah Minot Thomas Treadwell Daniel Marcy William Burns and George Stevens. The broadside includes an engraving of coiled snakes each with these politicians named and the caption "et id omne genus." Eastman the Democratic candidate for governor won the popular vote but lacked the constitutional majority necessary for election. Marcy was successful in his bid for the First District. "Men of New Hampshire!" the broadside asks: "Will you Vote the Ticket Made up by Such Men" with the final line imploring to "Please paste up in a Conspicuous Place." <br /> <br /> Overall an uncommon survival from the 1863 elections. A very good copy with some light toning small closed tear at upper magin light foxing at upper margin very tiny spot of loss to illustration at fold. Quite scarce with OCLC locating two copies only at the Huntington Library and the New York Historical Society. Printer Unknown unknown books
1828321057London: J. Taylor 1828. Engraved title and 55 plates on thick wove paper. Uncut. 8vo. Early calf rebacked. Minor dampstaining. Engraved title and 55 plates on thick wove paper. Uncut. 8vo. Includes designs for gates garden seats alcoves temples baths entrance gates lodges facades prospect towers cattle sheds ruins bridges greenhouses a hot house & hot wall with plans and scales. First issued circa 1800 this later issue from the same plates. Variously ascribed to Elison or Middleton. A charming pattern book. Berlin Kat. 3433; Archer 68.1; ESTC N71679 J. Taylor unknown books
1872303445London 1872. Albumen print measuring 11-5/8 x 16-1/4 in 295 x 412 mm. Laid down on thick cream card with manuscript caption measuring 17 x 21 in. Image slightly faded card chipped with some minor soiling one tear not affecting image. Albumen print measuring 11-5/8 x 16-1/4 in 295 x 412 mm. A rare survival. This image appears in William Bradford's fabled book of photographs Arctic Regions. It was taken by either Dunmore or Critcherson the two professional photographers from Boston who accompanied Bradford on his 1869 expedition to the Arctic on the steamship Panther. It was probably taken at Upernavik a settlement on an island off Greenland's west coast or Godhavn.<br/><br/>Arctic Regions included 141 albumen prints in addition to Bradford's account of the voyage. The title of the photograph here varies from the printed caption in the book where it reads: "Plate Number: 116 Esquimaux igloe or winter hut made of turf and stones. The entrance is to the left through a door which is about three and a half feet high. The length of the passage is about twelve or fifteen feet and at the farther end is another door through which one almost has to crawl on his hands and knees. After passing through there is then room to stand erect but one is forced to leave very soon owing to the bad air." <br/><br/>This photograph is slightly larger than the one in the book which is 277 x 365mm. Furthermore the image in the book is cropped closer on the right and left margins. <br/><br/>The New York Public Library has a folio of 26 images of near identicle size mounted on card. The portfolio was donated to the library in 1892 as part of the Robert Stuart Collection. According to Horch originally all of these images were captioned in manuscript though were later remounted with typed captions as "the original ink-written captions for the photographs had badly faded by 1940." It's interesting that the caption on their duplicate of this image is the same as ours and the image itself has not been cropped. Horch writes that Bradford probably not only selected these images himself but "closely directed the actual taking of the photographs." <br/><br/>It's entirely likely that Bradford would have had extra prints made to distribute to friends repay favors and most of all to solicit subscribers to what was a very expensive book to publish. Given how it conforms to the examples in the Robert Stuart portfolio this particular image is probably one of them. Horch Frank. "Photographs and Paintings by William Bradford". American Art Journal 5.2 1973: pp 61-70; cf Parr and Badger I p31Prm/photo unknown books
188145183Flumine Januario / Rio de Janeiro: Typ. Economica 1881. First complete edition. Half black morocco over marbled boards gilt spine title. A very good copy boards rubbed repaired tear and closed tear on Volume V half title and title page. xii vii 467 1 pp. 4to. Published in and taking up the entire volume of Archivos do Museu Nacional do Rio De Janeiro. Volume V. 1880 1881. Added title page: Petro nomine ac imperio primo Brasiliensis imperii perpetuo defensore . jubente Flora fluminensis a' fr. Josepho Mariano a Conceptione Vellozo Ordinis monorum collecta descripta et elaborata anno M.D. CC. XC. Ex M.S. cod. Imperialis bibliothecæ eruta nunc primo etitur. Flumine Januario A.D.M. DCCC. XXV imperii IV. José Xavier Veloso 1742-1811 born in what is now Minas Gerais Brazil was ordained in 1766 in the convent of St. Anthony in Rio de Janeiro where he studied philosophy and theology later geometry in San Paulo and finally natural history. He collected plants animals and minerals in the Rio de Janeiro area from 1783 to 1790 at which time he moved to Lisbon where he worked at the Royal Academy of Sciences while preparing Florae Fluminensis his greatest work for publication. Using the Linnaeus' system of sexual classification of plants he prepared very highly detailed texts and 1700 prints many of them of new species. But the publication of the work was beset by problems. First sent to Venice the plates were never completed. Later the French invasion of the Iberian peninsular sent the Portuguese government then Veloso and his manuscripts into exile in Brazil where he died in 1811. In 1825 an abbreviated version of the text was published followed by the eleven volumes of the Icones in 1827 of which few copies survive. The complete text was not published until this edition in 1881. Bound with and proceeded by Archivos do Museu Nacional do Rio De Janeiro. Volume IV. 1879. Rio 1881. viii 151 1 pp vii plates. Folded color plate split at fold. Volume subtitle: Insectologia. Includes Müller Fritz: A metamorphose de um insecto diptero among other works. Rodrigues 2473. Sabin 98833n. For the shorter version of 1825 see: Barba de Moraes II p. 343. Pritzel 468. Jackson 377. Innocencio V.5 4258; V.13 p.122. Also see Nissen BBI 2046. Typ. Economica hardcover books
18800064001880-1917. Full Morocco. Very Good. Oblong 21 by 30 cm. 92 numbered leaves with content with log entries more or less statistical on all the versos and pictures and/or original drawings mostly mounted on 58 rectos with some additional loose material. 129 numbered leaves in all. Several of the log pages have mounted photos obscuring the log as it is clear that this game book was at some point re-purposed to be a more general album with some emphasis on sports including also fishing foxhunting and sailing but also there are two pages of photos from South Africa with photos of native tribesmen ostriches a hut Cecil Rhodes house etc. 13 original works of art -- watercolored pencil pen and ink -- in addition to numerous painted fish hook and fly vignettes these sometimes done directly onto the page. Most charming are the comical illustrations of anthropomorphic foxes. Sepia photos are of the country estates their stately homes and rural settings of the hunts as well as the people involved -- the hosts and guests during these country weekends. Many but by no means all of the photos have captions helpfully identifying the participants or the locations. And the log proper provides the names of those participating in the shooting and often what would now be regarded as obscenely large kills. Among the many aristocrats and wealthy in the photographs and/or logs are Lady Randolph Churchill Jennie Churchill Arthur Balfour Lady Minto Mary the famous 4th Countess Henry Lascelles the 5th Earl of Harewood the 5th Earl of Carnavon of King Tut fame as well as the owner of the castle used in Downton Abbey Baron Rothschild Lord de Grey Lord Ashburton Prince Murat the Duke of Buccleuch Prince Duleep de Singh Lord Rosebery and on and on. Country homes include Longleat Greystoke Castle the Hirsel Highcliffe Castle etc. Alexander McDonnell was a son of the 5th Earl of Antrim and a clerk in the House of Lords. Obviously he was very well connected and surely very popular among the upper echelons of English society back then. And we would note that many of the most illustriously titled have frequent entries here; what we have here is a window into a cohesive social network it is our sense. Condition: morocco binding has moderate to heavy wear along edges some scuffs on the boards and spine. The leaves can have a waviness the result of the interaction of the mounted material upon the leaves. A few photos are loose. There is a little bit of a scrappy quality to the book as befitting a log book that was partially turned into something much more and this quality is part of its charm as well. <br /><br /> books
184071584London: Sumptibus Societatis 1840. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. William of Malmesbury's Deeds of the English Kings is one of the great histories of England and one of the most important historical works of the European Middle Ages. Although its focus is national its scope encompasses most of Western Europe and beyond providing a full-scale account of the First Crusade. Apart from its formidable learning it is characterized by narrative skill and entertainment value with topics including unpowered flight and Henry I's zoo. This edition is edited by English archivist and antiquary Thomas Duffus Hardy 1804-78 from the early 12th century manuscript. The text is in Latin with Hardy's preface footnates shoulder notes and an index in English. From the library of John Patrick Crichton-Stuart 3rd Marquess of Bute 1847-1900 the industrial magnate antiquarian and philanthropist whose vast inheritance reportedly made him the richest man in the world with his armorial bookplate to each front pastedown. Tall octavo two volumes. Sumptuously bound in full red morocco with decorative gilt stamping five raised bands black leather onlays ornamental dentelles and marbled endpapers. The spines are darkened just a touch with some light rubbing to the corners and tips. A striking set. Sumptibus Societatis hardcover books
186538207Washington D.C. 1865. Letterpress broadside. 24 x 8 1/2 inches. Expert restoration on verso. An unusual broadside Civil War peace proposal.<br/> <br/>A little-known but highly eccentric character Evans first made a name for himself in 1818 when he walked from New Hampshire to Detroit in the middle of winter no less backtracked to Pittsburgh and continued his walk all the way to New Orleans publishing a narrative of his pedestrian journey the following year. After a failed Congressional run in New Hampshire and a failed attempt to become secretary of the Senate he ended up practicing law in Washington. In the midst of the Civil War Evans published a series of broadside letters all known in but few examples and likely printed in small quantities. In one in which excoriated the south for their role in the war he explained that he issued his missives as broadsides since his letters had no chance of publication in the already crowded pages of the newspaper press. The present broadside by Evans suggests a 20-point proposal for peace between the North and South including the abolition of slavery the federal assumption of Confederate debt universal amnesty restoration of all confiscated property the annexation of Mexico the expulsion of the Russians from the Pacific Northwest the seizing of the Hudson's Bay and Arctic fur trade from the British inviting Canada to become part of the United States the unification of Central America and the building of a trans-Darien canal the nationalization of the mining industry universal temperance fair pay charity from the rich and more. The broadside letter concludes: "Unhappy -- deeply unhappy am I in what I am now going to say -- tears of pity grief and shame for the whole country coursing down my cheeks: -- I solemnly declare that I have no doubt and never had that the longer the South holds out the nearer she will be so absolute annihilation ." We locate only four examples extant Boston Aethenaeum American Antiquarian Society Harvard and Minnesota Historical Society. unknown books
