Recent Acquisitions in Americana
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CATALOGUE THREE HUNDRED THIRTY-FOUR Recent Acquisitions in Americana WILLIAM REESE COMPANY 409 Temple Street New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 789-8081 A Note This catalogue is a general assortment of new acquisitions in Americana, mostly catalogued by us in the last few months. Included is a substantial section of colonial Americana, including some interesting and important material from the Revolu- tionary era; some significant American color plate books with works by Audubon, Wilson, Birch, and McKenney and Hall; and major publications of early American law. There are great rarities by Benjamin Rush and Thomas Paine, a presentation copy of Kent’s Commentaries, a royal binding for George III, a nice selection of early American imprints, and a series of the works of the gambler, Jonathan Green. Besides these there is a broad range of unusual and interesting material relating to the early history of the United States. Available on request or via our website are our recent catalogues: 327 World Travel & Voyages, 328 Arctic Exploration & the Search for Franklin, 330 Western Americana, 331 Ar- chives & Manuscripts, 332 French Americana, and 333 Americana–Beginnings; Bulletins 40 From Secession to Reconstruction, 41 Original Works of American Art, 42 Native Americans, and 42 Cartography; e-lists (only available on our website) and many more topical lists. q A portion of our stock may be viewed at www.williamreesecompany.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. 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 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: 165. Wilson, Alexander: American Ornithology.... Phila. 1808-14. Striking Abolitionist Broadside 1. [Abolitionist Broadside]: [Western Anti-Slavery Society]: UNION WITH FREEMEN – NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS. AN- TI-SLAVERY MEETINGS! [caption title]. Salem, Oh.: Homestead Print, [ca. 1850]. Broadside, 16 x 10¾ inches. A few short closed edge tears, light toning and foxing. Very good plus. A rare and striking abolitionist broadside from Salem, Ohio, the seat of the Western Anti-Slavery Society, and a small but important center of progressive movements through much of the 19th century. As suggested by their advertisement’s headline, “Union with Freemen – No Union with Slaveholders,” the members of the Western Anti-Slavery Society were radical Garrisonian abolitionists who believed the U.S. Constitution was fundamentally a pro-slavery document and therefore unfit to bind together a morally just nation. Formed in the mold of Garrison’s New England Anti-Slavery Society (founded 1832) and American Anti-Slavery Society (1833), the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society first assembled in 1833 in Putnam, Ohio, and in 1839 moved its headquarters to Salem and became known as the Western Anti- Slavery Society. From 1845 to 1861 the Society published a weekly newspaper, The Anti-Slavery Bugle, printed for the first five weeks in New Lisbon, Ohio, and for all subsequent issues in Salem. The text of the broadside, a printed blank form for advertising abolitionist meetings, reads in full as follows: Union with Freemen – No Union with Slaveholders. ANTI-SLAVERY MEETINGS! Anti-Slavery Meetings will be held in this place, to commence on [blank] in the [blank] at [blank] To be Addressed by [blank] Agents of the Western ANTI- SLAVERY SOCIETY. Three millions of your fellow beings are in chains – the Church and Government sustains the horrible system of oppression. Turn Out! AND LEARN YOUR DUTY TO YOURSELVES, THE SLAVE AND GOD. EmaNCIPATION or DIssoLUTION, and a FREE NORTHERN REPUBLIC! OCLC lists only two copies, at Yale and Williams College; the Library of Congress holds an additional copy, which may be viewed online at the American Memory web site (see below). OCLC 59557224. “An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera.” Library of Congress, American Memory website, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc. rbc/rbpe.13700400. $4750. The Fruits of John Adams’ Diplomacy 2. [Adams, John]: A COLLECTION OF STATE-PAPERS, RELA- TIVE TO THE FIRST ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF THE SOV- EREIGNTY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.... London. 1782. [2],100pp. Antique-style three-quarter calf and marbled boards, leather label. Very good. An important collection of official papers relating to the official recognition by the Dutch of American Independence. The different states of Holland were all called upon to individually affirm their support for a Dutch treaty with the United States, and almost all of the papers express a desire on behalf of the provinces to ratify a treaty. The Dutch had by this time joined in the general war against the British on the French, Spanish, and American side. Published while Adams was still in Amsterdam as the American representative, its appearance speaks to Adams’ constant effort to speed foreign recognition of the United States in light of British attempts to broker a peace agreement without recognizing outright independence. “This edition also contains the division in Parliament on peace with America, Feb. 27, 1782” – Sabin. Scarce. HOWES C581. SABIN 229. BRINLEY SALE 3931. OCLC 5357219. $4500. Adams Defends the Constitution 3. Adams, John: A DEFENCE OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF GOV- ERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AGAINST THE ATTACK OF M. TURGOT IN HIS LETTER TO DR. PRICE, DATED THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY OF MARCH, 1778. Phila- delphia. 1797. Three volumes. 6,xxxiii,[3]-392; [4],451; [2],528,[44]pp. With a leaf of manuscript bound in as frontispiece in first volume (see below). Antique-style half calf and marbled boards, spines gilt, leather labels. Light foxing. Very good, with contemporary ownership signature of John Lorimer Graham on titlepages. Styled the “third edition.” The first volume was origi- nally published in London in 1787. The second and third volumes, issued later than the first, contain de- scriptions of the Italian republics of the Middle Ages as well as a lengthy analysis of “the Right Constitution of a Commonwealth.” This work is one of the most important and widely read of the many writings of the important Revolutionary figure and second president of the United States. At the time Adams wrote this work he was serving as the first United States ambassador in England, an uncomfortable position for a recent rebel, but he was ever ready to argue the American point of view. Herein he forcibly states the principles on which he perceived the United States to be founded. The book was popular and went through numerous editions. Its issuance as the Federal Constitutional Convention was assembling added to its popularity and resulted in several American reprintings, and according to the DAB, “its timeliness gave it vogue.” Adams’ detractors later sought to find in it a hidden desire for a monarchy. This copy belonged to John Lorimer Graham, a distinguished New York City attorney and at times Postmaster of the city, who has signed and dated the titlepage of each volume. Graham acquired the volumes in 1817, when he was a law student. He also wrote out at some later point an appreciative appraisal of the work, bound in the front of the first volume. HOWES A60, “aa.” EVANS 31689-31691. SABIN 235. GEPHART 8687. $4500. Letters Between the Adams Family 4. [Adams, John]: [Adams, Samuel]: FOUR LETTERS: BEING AN INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THOSE EM- INENTLY DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS, JOHN ADAMS, LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; AND SAMUEL ADAMS, LATE GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS, ON THE IMPORTANT SUBJECT OF GOVERNMENT. Boston: Printed for Adams & Rhoades, 1802. 32pp. Dbd. Minor wear and soiling. Very good. In a cloth slipcase. The first appearance in print of four quite interesting letters written in 1790 between John and Samuel Adams. They focus on the political structure of early national America and Massachusetts in particular, and are fine examples of the philosophi- cal, classically inspired political discourse characteristic of the Founders. Scarce. HOWES A61. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 1713. SABIN 242. $1250. Settling Currency Exchange Rates in Colonial America 5. [American Currency]: [Anne, Queen of Great Britain]: BY THE QUEEN, A PROCLAMATION, FOR SETTLING AND ASCER- TAINING THE CURRENT RATES OF FOREIGN COINS IN HER MAJESTIES COLONIES AND PLANTATIONS IN AMER- ICA. London: Printed by Charles Bill, and the Executrix of Thomas New- comb, 1704. Broadside, 16¾ x 13 inches. Some soiling, creasing, and chipping; a few expert repairs to the margins, one just touching the historiated initial. Good. Matted and framed. A printed proclamation by Queen Anne establishing uniform currency rates for coins circulating in the American colonies, with mentions of exchange rates in Peru and Mexico. One of the printers was Ruth Raworth, the widow of Thomas Newcomb (“Executrix of Thomas Newcomb, deceas’d”), constituting a very early imprint relating to America printed by a woman. Also of interest for its obvious numismatic content. Rare. ESTC records just seven copies. SABIN 9698. STEELE 4373. HANSON 412. ESTC T19764. $4000.