C ATA L O G U E THREE HUNDRED SIXTY-ONE WESTERN AMERICANA WILLIAM REESE COMPANY 409 Temple Street New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 789-8081 A Note This catalogue demonstrates the wide range of our interests in the exploration, settlement, and development of the American West in the 19th century and beyond. Included herein is important visual material, from striking prints by Karl Bodmer to co Henry Warre’s iconic views of the Pacific Northwest and Kendall & Nebel’s images of the Mexican-American War. The catalogue also features works by George Catlin, including a copy of the very rare New York edition of his North American Indian Portfolio and his striking image of St. Louis in 1832. There are original works by the artists George Gibbs and Robert Riggs, as well as a watercolor of a buffalo hunt by Lord Alfred Dunmore. Several books document hunting trips in the American West, including accounts by William Tucker, Gen. William Strong, James Tuttle, C.S. Boutcher, and Albert Cordier. The explorations of Alexander Mackenzie, Zebulon Pike, and Lewis & Clark are featured along with a complete set of the Harriman Expedition to Alaska and panoramic photographs of the Southwest, demonstrating the wide range of activities throughout the West in the long 19th century. Available on request or via our website are our bulletins as well as recent catalogues 357 The Struggle for North America; 358 The Civil War; 359 The 17th Century. Recent e-lists, only available on our website, include New York Views; Pirates & Privateers; William Reese’s SIX SCORE: THE 120 BEST BOOKS ON THE CATTLE RANGE INDUSTRY; Freedom’s Symphony: The Music of America; The Hub of the Universe: Boston in the 19th Century; Boston Book Fair 2018; The War to End All Wars: The History, Literature & Images of World War One; and The Second World War. A portion of our stock may be viewed on our website as well. If you would like to receive e-mail notification when catalogues and lists are uploaded, please e-mail us at [email protected] specifying whether you would like to receive the notifications in lieu of or in addition to paper catalogues. If you would prefer not to receive future catalogues and/or notifications, please let us know. Terms Material herein is offered subject to prior sale. All items are as described and are considered to be on approval. Notice of return must be given within ten days unless specific arrange- ments are made. Connecticut residents must be billed state sales tax. Postage and insurance charges are billed to all nonprepaid domestic orders. Overseas orders are sent by air unless otherwise requested, with full postage charges billed at our discretion. Payment by check, wire transfer, or bank draft is preferred, but may also be made by MasterCard or Visa. William Reese Company Phone: (203) 789-8081 409 Temple Street Fax: (203) 865-7653 New Haven, CT 06511 E-mail: [email protected] www.williamreesecompany.com COVER: 11. Bodmer, Karl: The Interior of the Hut of a Mandan Chief. Paris. [1839-1842]. [detail] A Period Oil Painting of an Act in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show: A Great Show Business Painting 1. Agoust, Alfred: [BUFFALO BILL AND THE “FRENCHMAN’S BOTTLE GAG,” A COMIC TABLEAU FROM THE WILD WEST SHOW]. 1893. Oil on canvas, laid down on wood, 22 x 30 inches. Signed and dated lower left: “Alfred Agoust / 1893.” Titled: “Buffalo Bill” on Ken- nedy Gallery labels. Provenance: Kennedy Galleries; Collection of Edward Eberstadt & Sons. Superb displayable condition. Handsomely presented in a period-style gilt American exhibition frame. This entertaining painting depicts a version of the comedy pantomime routine called “The Frenchman’s Bottle Gag,” performed in England by Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. The painting shows a bewildered Buffalo Bill ready to come to blows with two Cockney characters stealing drinks from his flask. A prominent historian of performance tells us: The gag, made famous in Paris by the Scanlon Brothers and their collaborator, the Agoust Family Jugglers, in the long playing three-stage acrobatics, magic, and pantomime spectacular, “Le Voyage en Suisse,” usually involves two clowns, a ridiculously dressed Frenchman, and his bottle. The clowns steal his bottle and surreptitiously sneak sips back-and-forth, as the bewildered Frenchman desperately attempts to figure out who’s got his bottle. This image is of costers or pearlies, East End London cockneys, victimizing the Buffalo Bill character – the old Hanlon & Agoust drinking routine re-costumed for the Wild West show’s British audience. Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show made two extensive tours of England and Europe prior to the date of this painting: 1887-88, arriving for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee; and 1889-93, playing the great theaters and fairgrounds. The 1893 tour was at the height of the show’s fame. The 1893 show program states: “Since the visit of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West to England and its remarkable engagement in London, at West Brompton, in 1887, a history and tour have been made, such as no organization of its magnitude and requirements ever accomplished.” Henri Agoust, the Hanlons’ long-time collaborator (the parties later fell out and sued each other in a bitter legal dispute), had a son named Alfred, a member of the Agoust Family Jugglers. According to a census of traveling show people, he would have been in his early twenties in 1893. His biography is otherwise unknown. It seems likely that the juggling Alfred Agoust was also the well-trained, talented artist responsible for this magnificent show business painting, its attention to costume, props, and comic gesture demonstrating the specialized knowledge of the insider. Almost all images of the Wild West Show are found in the great lithographic posters and photographs produced by the William F. Cody publicity machine. Period oil paintings of the Buffalo Bill act are very rare indeed. This wonderful image, showing a comic routine Buffalo Bill evidently adopted from European circus acts, is a unique contribution to the iconography of the Wild West Show. John A. McKinven, The Hanlon Brothers. Their Amazing Acrobatics, Pantomimes and Stage Spectacles (Glenwood, Il.: David Meyer Magic Books, 1998), passim. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World (Chicago: Blakely Printing Company, [1893]), passim. British Fairground Ancestors, Showmen, Circus and Fairground Travellers Index, website: http://users.nwon.com/pauline/Travellers.html. $47,500. 2. [Alaska]: Goetze, O.D.: SOUVENIR OF NORTH WESTERN ALASKA [cover title]. [Nome, Ak. 1904]. [96]pp. of photographic illus- trations. Oblong quarto. Original cloth-backed pictorial wrappers. Light shelf wear; short, straight tear to fore-edge of wrapper; some stray coloring marks on blank rear wrapper. A few marginal small closed tears, light soiling from handling. Still very good. A wonderful photographic account of Gold Rush life in Nome, Alaska at the turn of the 20th century. The photographer, O.D. Goetze, moved to Nome at the beginning of the rush in 1898 and operated a photography studio there for approximately a decade, although none of the images collected here are dated beyond 1904. They include a wide variety of photographic reproductions of street scenes, Eskimo por- traits, hunting and fishing work, mining activity, landscapes, winter scenes, wildlife, and transportation. An attractive record of Nome in the Gold Rush. $750. Route Guides in Mexico and the Southwest 3. Alvarez, José J., and Rafael Duran: ITINERARIOS Y DERROTE- ROS DE LA REPUBLICA MEXICANA. Mexico City. 1856. 480,[4]pp. Several errors in pagination. Small quarto. Contemporary red half sheep and boards, spine gilt. Boards and extremities rubbed. Contemporary bookplate on front pastedown. Light toning and minor foxing. Very good. An extremely valuable compilation which gives detailed data, including route, scenery, and other key infor- mation, about many various parts of Mexico. By piecing together the differ- ent itineraries it offers, a traveler could basically go anywhere in Mexico and into the U.S., already provided with extremely detailed instructions about the best route and what facilities – such as water, grass, and shelter – were available every step of the way. A detailed name index listing routes and where they are to be found in the book further enhanc- es the volume’s usefulness for travelers, be they headed to destinations great or small. Many of the routes described begin in Mexico City; some routes extend into Texas and New Mexico. Among the most interesting are two itineraries concerning California. One describes a journey from La Paz, at the far southern end of Baja California, to the U.S. border. This is one of the most detailed and expansively described routes in the entire book, preserving a wealth of geographic and natural details. Many of the places detailed in this section have either disappeared or been extensively altered. The other journey is along the Sonora Route, from Ures to Sonora, to the California gold fields. This trip passes through Los Angeles and includes some commentary on the missions in the area. “An important guide book, giving the routes and mileage, with sketches of the country throughout Mexico” – Eberstadt. PALAU 9290. SABIN 976. EBERSTADT 138:033. BARRETT 34. $2000. With Numerous Lithographs of Nevada Scenes 4. [Angel, Myron, editor]: HISTORY OF NEVADA. WITH ILLUS- TRATIONS AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ITS PROMI- NENT MEN AND PIONEERS. Oakland: Thompson & West, 1881. 680pp. plus 116 lithographic plates. Small, thick folio. Modern buckram, spine gilt, leather label. Near fine. “This classic work is the most used and quoted history of any ever issued of the state. It is likely to remain forever the all time Nevada book, for nothing issued since compares to its exhaustive coverage...