CATALOGUE THREE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN The Caribbean WILLIAM REESE COMPANY 409 Temple Street New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 789-8081 A Note This catalogue is devoted to the history of the Caribbean, from the earliest period of European contact up to the 19th century. Most of the items included relate to the region in the age of sugar and slaves, from the mid-17th to early 19th centuries, with an interesting group of material relating to Cuba in the latter part of the 19th century. Notable items include Oviedo’s Historia General... of 1535, the first detailed description of the region; Alcedo’s magnificent atlas of the West Indies, published in 1816; one of the earliest obtainable Jamaican imprints, published there in 1757; a remarkable panoramic drawing of a plantation in Haiti, also done in 1757; and significant histories, color-plate books, personal narratives, cartography, watercolors, and manuscripts. Available on request or via our website are our recent catalogues 313 World Travel & Voyages, 314 Recent Acquisitions in Americana, 315 The Only Copy For Sale, and 317 The Crucible of War: Conflict in North America 1757-1792, as well as Bulletins 34 Adams & Jefferson, 35 American Travel, 36 American Views & Cartography, 37 Flat: Single Significant Sheets, and many more topical lists. Some of our catalogues, as well as some recent topical lists, are now posted on the internet at www.reeseco.com. A portion of our stock may be viewed via links at www. reeseco.com. If you would like to receive e-mail notification when catalogues and lists are uploaded, please e-mail us at [email protected] or send us a fax, specifying whether you would like to receive the notifications in lieu of or in addition to paper catalogues. Terms Material herein is offered subject to prior sale. All items are as described and are con- sidered to be on approval. Notice of return must be given within ten days unless specific arrangements 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 ON THE COVER: 1. Alcedo, Antonio de & G.A. Thompson: [Atlas to Thompson’s Alcedo...]. London. 1816. 1. Alcedo, Antonio de, and G.A. Thompson: [ATLAS TO THOMPSON’S ALCEDO; OR DICTIONARY OF AMERICA & WEST INDIES; COLLATED WITH ALL THE MOST RECENT AUTHORITIES, AND COMPOSED CHIEFLY FROM SCARCE AND ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS, FOR THAT WORK, BY A. ARROWSMITH, HY- DROGRAPHER TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE RE- GENT]. [London: George Smeeton, 1816]. Small format index leaf mounted on front pastedown (otherwise mounted on guards throughout). Five wall maps, handcolored in outline, by Aaron Arrowsmith, on nineteen double-page or folding engraved sheets, each numbered on a small early paper label pasted to the verso of each sheet (“North America” on three sheets [numbered “I”- ”III”]; “United States” on four sheets [“IV”-”VII”]; “Mexico” on four sheets [“VIII”-”XI”]; “West Indies” on two sheets [“XII”-”XIII”]; “South America” on six sheets [“XIV”-”XIX”]). Extra-illustrated with a contemporary pen, ink, and watercolor key map (sheet size: 17 x 16¼ inches) laid down on a larger sheet of blank wove paper, the larger sheet mounted on the front free end- paper. Large folio. Contemporary half diced russia and marbled boards, gilt, with the paper armorial bookplate of the Earl of Dalhousie pasted onto the center of the upper cover, spine gilt. Without letterpress title. Various small tears in folds. Very good. Provenance: George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie (1770-1838, lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia 1816-20, governor-in-chief of British North America 1820-28). [with:] Alcedo, Antonio de: THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTOR- ICAL DICTIONARY OF AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES, CONTAINING AN ENTIRE TRANSLATION OF THE SPANISH WORK OF COLONEL DON ANTONIO DE ALCEDO...WITH LARGE ADDITIONS AND COMPILATIONS.... London: for James Carpenter [and others], 1812-1815. Five volumes. 3pp. preliminary list of subscribers in first volume. Quarto. Contemporary russia, gilt, spine gilt, gilt turn-ins, marbled edges. Very good. Lacks the half titles. See cover of this catalogue for map detail. The Dalhousie copy of the most important printed atlas of the Americas of its time, containing foundation wall maps of the region by the greatest British cartographer of his generation. This important copy includes contemporary manuscript additions charting Sir John Franklin’s second Arctic expedition, possibly by Franklin himself. The atlas is accompanied by a lovely first edition set of the text of Thompson’s translation and expansion of Alcedo’s classic work on the Americas. “Aaron Arrowsmith, Hydrographer to the King of England and Geographer to the Prince of Wales, was the most influential and respected map publisher of the first quarter of the nineteenth century....His role in cartographic production was to gather the best information available from a wide variety of sources, weigh the relative merits of conflicting data, and compile from this the most accurate depiction possible of an area. Arrowsmith accomplished this synthesis better than any other commercial map maker of his day and, as a result, his maps were the most sought after and highly prized on three continents” – Martin & Martin. Arrowsmith specialized in large multi-sheet maps. These were generally sepa- rately issued and are now very scarce. His five great wall maps of the Americas were particularly well received and became “foundation or prototype maps of the area and were extensively copied by other publishers” (Tooley). These five wall maps were of North America (first published in 1795), the United States (1796), the West Indies (1803), Mexico (1810), and South America (1810). They were generally republished many times, as new information became available. Thomas Jefferson considered the 1803 edition the best map of the continent in print at the time, and it was used extensively in planning Lewis and Clark’s expedition (1805- 06). Likewise, the 1814 edition of North America (offered here) was the first map to make use of Lewis and Clark’s map of the same year, and the first to combine Lewis and Clark and Zebulon Pike’s data onto one map. The Atlas to Thompson’s Alcedo is quite remarkable in that it contains all five of Arrowsmith’s foundation maps for the Americas gathered together and bound into one volume. The Atlas was intended to accompany Antonio de Alcedo’s The Geo- graphical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies...with Large Additions and Compilations (London, 1812-15, five quarto volumes), i.e. G.A. Thompson’s English translation of Alcedo’s Diccionario Geográfico-Histórico de las Indias Occi- dentales Ó América: Es Á Saber: De los Reynos del Perú, Nueva España, Tierra Firme, Chile, y Nuevo Reyno de Granada (Madrid, 1786-89). The present atlas is an early version, with the following maps: 1) “A Map Exhibiting all the New Discoveries in the Interior Parts of North America...A. Arrowsmith...January 1st 1795 Additions to 1811 Additions to June 1814.” On three folding sheets, overall image area: 48 1/4 x 57 1/8 inches. Browned. This copy bears manuscript additions on the first sheet, in pencil, drawing on the discoveries made by Sir John Franklin in 1826 on the north coast between the mouths of the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers, and mark- ing the course of the Coppermine southwest towards Great Bear Lake (see below). According to Stevens & Tree, “This map was repeatedly re-issued as new discoveries came to light.” The present sixth issue is the first to include the important discoveries made by Lewis and Clark during their trans-American expedition. “This issue...remaps the entire continent west of the Mississippi. The changes between this and the last edition are monumental” – Rumsey, p.12. HECKROTTE TMC 6/87. RUMSEY 32. STEVENS & TREE 48 (f ). TOOLEY MCC 68. WHEAT TRANSMISSISSIPPI 313. 2) “A Map of the United States of America Drawn from a number of Critical Re- searches By A. Arrowsmith...Jan 1st 1796. Additions to 1802” [but watermarked 1811]. On four folding sheets, overall image area: 46 1/4 x 55 1/2 inches. Stevens & Tree’s fifth issue: “Many new place-names and rivers added. A copy of third issue had been observed with paper watermarked 1811 [as here].” RUMSEY 3445, 4309 (both later issues). STEVENS & TREE 79(e). 3) “A New Map of Mexico and adjacent provinces compiled from original documents by A. Arrowsmith...5th October 1810” [but watermarked 1811]. On four folding sheets, overall image area: 50 1/8 x 62 inches. First issue. PHILLIPS, p.408. RUMSEY 2032 (last issue, of ca. 1825). STREETER TEXAS 1046. (all refs) 4) “Chart of the West Indies and Spanish Dominions in North America by A. Ar- rowsmith...1803...Additions to 1810.” On two folding sheets, overall image area: 47 5/8 x 55 1/2 inches. Small tears at folds of first sheet. 5) “Outlines of the Physical and Political Divisions of South America: Delineated by A. Arrowsmith partly from scarce and original documents published before the year 1806 but principally from manuscript maps & surveys made between the years 1771 and 1806. Corrected from accurate astronomical observations to 1810...Published 4th January 1811...Additions to 1814.” On six folding sheets, overall image area: 94 x 78 inches. Offsetting, small tears to folds, the fifth sheet creased.