William Reese Company AMERICANA • RARE BOOKS • LITERATURE AMERICAN ART • PHOTOGRAPHY ______________________________ 409 TEMPLE STREET NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT 06511 (203) 789-8081 FAX (203) 865-7653 [email protected] New Acquisitions June 15, 2020 Silhouette Portraits of American Political Leaders 1. Brown, William H.: PORTRAIT GALLERY OF DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN CITIZENS, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES, AND FAC- SIMILES OF ORIGINAL LETTERS. Hartford: E.B. and E.C. Kellogg, 1845. 111pp., printed in double columns, plus twenty-seven plates and twenty-seven facsimiles, including frontis. Folio. Publishers’ half black morocco with brown cloth boards, gilt pictorial front board, blindstamped pictorial rear board, spine gilt, t.e.g., skillfully rebacked retaining original backstrip, corners renewed with black buckram. Boards shelfworn, occasional foxing throughout, a few tears to tissue guards. Very good overall. First edition of this dramatic work of visual biography. This impressively large scale work is notable for its lithographs of renowned Americans of the 1820s, ‘30s and ‘40s, showing the subjects standing in full-length silhouette profile, against a tinted background, resulting in effective and evocative portraits. All the portraits (save for the George Washington frontispiece) are based on sketches made from life by William Henry Brown (1808-1882), who was widely celebrated for his scissor portraits. Brown prepared the biographical text himself, and the silhouettes (with appropriate tinted backgrounds) were transferred to stone and printed by one of the best known lithographic firms of the period: the Kelloggs of Hartford, Connecticut. Included (after the necessary eulogistic frontispiece dedicated to Washington) are John Marshall, John Quincy Adams, Richard C. Moore, Andrew Jackson, John Forsyth, William Henry Harrison, John C. Calhoun, De Witt Clinton, Richard M. Johnson, Joel R. Poinsett, Alexander Macomb, Martin Van Buren, Samuel L. Southard, Henry Clay, Henry A. Wise, Thomas Hart Benton, John Tyler, Levi Woodbury, Thomas Cooper, Daniel Webster, William White, Silas Wright, Na- thaniel P. Tallmadge, Felix Grundy, Dixon H. Lewis, and John Randolph. Each portrait is accompanied by another plate displaying a facsimile of the subject’s handwriting, usually in a piece of correspondence. According to Alice Van Leer Carrick, “Henry Clay wrote to Brown concerning the profile of his old political enemy, John Randolph of Roanoke, ‘It is the very perfection of your art’,” and that “Daniel Webster said of his silhouette, ‘I cannot, however, see its resemblance to the original as I do in all the others...[although] My friends unite in saying that the one you took of myself is a striking likeness’” (quoted in Peters, p.116). HOWES B871, “b.” SABIN 8578. PETERS, AMERICA ON STONE, pp.116- 17. $6000. Francis Scott Key’s Copy of the Rarest Account of the Burr Treason Trial 2. [Burr, Aaron]: Wirt, William: TWO PRINCIPAL ARGUMENTS OF WIL- LIAM WIRT ON THE TRIAL OF AARON BURR, FOR HIGH TREASON, AND ON THE MOTION TO COMMIT AARON BURR AND OTHERS, FOR TRIAL IN KENTUCKY. Richmond: From the Press of Samuel Pleasants, 1808. [4],103,[1],104-221pp. Lacks the frontispiece portrait (see below). 16mo. Original calf, spine ruled in gilt, gilt leather label. Expertly rebacked, retaining the original backstrip. Bookplate on front pastedown (see below). Light toning and foxing, bottom edge of pp. 49/50, 55/56, and 59-62 untrimmed. Very good. From the library of Francis Scott Key with his bookplate on the front pastedown. Best known as author of the “Star Spangled Banner,” Key was also a prominent Washington-area lawyer. Published the same year that William Wirt, then future United States attorney general, was elected to the House of Delegates. His prestige was increased dramatically when he appeared for the prosecution of the case against Burr, prompting Jefferson to suggest Wirt seek a Congressional seat, which the latter declined. Burr was accused in 1807 with conspiracy to invade Mexico, seize New Orleans, and set up an independent government west of the Mississippi. Wirt’s two arguments were ultimately unsuccessful, and Burr and his co-conspirators were acquitted. A rare Burr item. Streeter’s copy contained a frontispiece portrait of Wirt by Saint-Mémin, which is not always present and is not present in this copy. HOWES W587. COHEN 14120. TOMPKINS 112. HARDISON 369. SABIN 104883. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 16753. STREETER SALE 1693. $4000. Letter Sheet of California Indians 3. [California Pictorial Letter Sheet]: [Hutchings, James M.]: HUTCHING’S [sic] CALIFORNIA SCENES. THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS [caption title]. [San Francisco]: Excelsior Print, [1854]. Quarto sheet of light blue paper, 11¼ x 9¼ inches, with the integral blank leaf (unused). With eight illustrations in the borders and text in double columns in center. Minor edge wear, chipped at lower left corner (not affecting text or images). Very good. An attractive California pictorial letter sheet, featuring eight scenes of California Indians around the border of the sheet, with explanatory text in the middle. Scenes depicted are “Gathering Acorns,” “Gathering Seeds,” “An Indian Fandango,” “Catching Grasshoppers,” “Grinding Acorns,” “Mode of Travelling,” “Burning their Dead,” and “Cooking Food.” Male and female Indians are shown, with most of the females topless and bosomy. The illustrations are by the great artist, Charles Nahl, the “Cruikshank of California.” The text describes the scenes and California Indian social customs. The publisher, James M. Hutchings, issued several pictorial letter sheets showing California scenes, and this was among his most popular. Baird notes two issues of this letter sheet, one with “Sun Print” listed as the printer, the other (as is ours) with “Excelsior Print.” The Excelsior Print is the scarcer of the two issues, and Kruska tells us that it was printed in an edition of 5000 copies. A handsome letter sheet, with dramatic scenes of California Indians. BAIRD, CALIFORNIA’S PICTORIAL LETTER SHEETS 105. CLIFFORD LETTER SHEET COLLECTION 102. KRUSKA, JAMES MASON HUTCH- INGS OF YOSEMITE 5b. $1250. An obscure work for an all but forgotten failed utopian experi- ment in Colorado in the late-19th century. The New Era Union utopia planned by Caryl was to be based on gold mining in the Centennial State. Caryl planned to incorporate the Gold Extraction, Mining and Supply Company at $10,000,000 of capital stock. As he writes, the “idea of the New Era Union is to provide employment for eight hours a day under the most favorable conditions, to all classes of honorable mental and physical labor.” Chapter six is titled, “Poverty and Misery to be Abolished; Women to be the Saviors of Mankind” and the last chapter promises “Universal Peace, Happiness and Prosperity for All Who Work for the New Era Union.” Gold Mining Utopia, with the Folding Plans Particularly notable in this copy are the two folding diagrams – almost always 4. [Caryl, Charles W.]: NEW ERA PRESENTING THE PLANS FOR THE lacking – illustrating the truly utopian ideal of the proposed “New Era Model NEW ERA UNION TO HELP DEVELOP AND UTILIZE THE BEST City.” The first is an artist’s rendering titled, “Sketch of Center of New Era RESOURCES OF THIS COUNTRY. ALSO TO EMPLOY THE BEST Model City.” The second plan, “Outline of Plan for New Era Model City” is an SKILL THERE IS AVAILABLE TO REALIZE THE HIGHEST DEGREE overhead schematic of the proposed city, with small vignettes of the city in each OF PROSPERITY THAT IS POSSIBLE FOR ALL WHO WILL HELP TO corner. Both plans highlight the main unique aspect of the proposed city, which ATTAIN IT BASED ON PRACTICAL AND SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS was to be laid out in radiating concentric circles METHODS. Denver. [1897]. 192pp. plus portrait frontispiece and two folding plans. Original blue cloth ruled in blind, title stamped in gilt on front board. “Plan to establish a new Utopia, which won the backing of Edward Bellamy and Minor edge wear, light soiling. One folding plan expertly repaired. Very good. others” – Wessen. WYNAR 1444. MIDLAND NOTES 89:128. $950. Presentation Set 5. Catlin, George: CATLIN’S NOTES OF EIGHT YEARS’ TRAVELS AND RESIDENCE IN EUROPE, WITH HIS NORTH AMERICAN IN- DIAN COLLECTION. WITH ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS OF THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF THREE DIFFERENT PARTIES OF AMERICAN INDIANS WHOM HE INTRODUCED TO THE COURTS OF ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND BELGIUM. London: Published by the author, 1848. Two volumes. xvi,296; xii,336pp., plus twenty-four plates. Printed slip bound in following p.302 in second volume. Original pictorial cloth stamped in gilt and blind, spines gilt. Expertly rebacked, retaining original backstrips. Endpapers renewed, save for the original front free endpaper in the first volume, bearing Catlin’s presentation inscription. Cloth lightly rubbed. Old ink stain on p.91 of first volume, else clean internally. Very good. A presentation set, inscribed on the front free endpaper of the first volume, “Mr. A.B. Wright, from his friend, the author, Geo. Catlin 1848.” This is the second edition, published the same year as the first. This work ap- peared just as Catlin’s Indian Gallery reopened in London, only to be bashed by British critics who complained of “a recklessness and a roughness in some of his anecdotes” and “indelicate innuendoes and double entendres” (Dippie). Later printed under the title, Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium.... “Anecdotal though it is, Notes is a readable and revealing book in the classic satirical vein of the visitor from a foreign culture commenting on the peculiarities of civilized society” – Dippie. SABIN 11533. FIELD 256. Dippie, Catlin and His Contemporaries, pp.126-27 and passim. REESE, BEST OF THE WEST 77 (note). $3750. Boston Printing of These First Documents of Revolution 6. [Continental Congress]: EXTRACTS FROM THE VOTES AND PRO- CEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENTAL CONGRESS, HELD AT PHILADELPHIA ON THE 5th OF SEPTEMBER 1774. CONTAIN- ING THE BILL OF RIGHTS, A LIST OF GRIEVANCES, OCCASIONAL RESOLVES, THE ASSOCIATION...PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE CONGRESS.