Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera

Patti Boyd

A 6-page letter written by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Pattie+Boyd&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Pattie Boyd</a> to her mother on the 7th of November, 1970, while she was staying with George Harrison at Frenchman’s Cove, Jamacia, West Indies.<ul><li>Patti Boyd (English).</li><li>Written on embossed Frenchman’s cove letterhead.</li><li>The contents illustrate the fractious relationship between Paul and George during this period, the former Beatles ongoing solo work, George’s friendship with Bob Dylan, the Charles Manson murder case and more.</li><li>Accompanied by the original mailing envelope which is postmarked Jamacia November 11 1970.</li></ul> The Letter Reads:&nbsp; ‘Dearest Mums,&nbsp;&nbsp;Hope you are well and not too cold on your bike! We were in New York for just over a week while George made sure his record was cut properly for America before its put into production. After a bit of trouble its perfect now. Paul McCartney and Linda are in N.Y. while he is making a record so we went to see them because Paul wanted to see George about leaving the Beatles completely. It was strange to see them there as we haven’t seen them for so long. We also saw Bob Dylan and his 5 children – we went to their country house and stayed the night. It was lovely, the countryside was so beautiful – full of trees mostly silver beech and the colours were indiscribly beautiful so many reds, golds oranges and yellows. That’s not spelt right sorry!&nbsp;&nbsp;We went to a couple of big dinner parties much to Georges horror and my delight! Anyway after 5 hours flight and 2 hours drive we are staying at a beautiful place. There is a main hotel and about 12 bungalows of which we have one, this includes a butler and maid – very nice. We arrived yesterday, the place stopped in Montego Bay where the customs check woman was horrified to see that my smallpox vaccination ran out about 3 months ago. She immediately gave me one, but couldn’t understand how I got into America without it. I managed it because Allen Kleins heavy man met us at New York airport and rushed us through immigration and customs without them checking anything – he must be very influencial! (sic)&nbsp;&nbsp;It rained heavily last night and was very grey today but smells very sweet and fresh although its very horrid. When we arrived the customs asked George how much money he had then said we would have to drive back 70 miles two days later to see someone from their tourist board. The reason is either that George has long hair too much money or too little or that we are English – he wouldn’t say – all he said was “that’s what I say”. I understand their feeling towards the English people is not good.&nbsp;&nbsp;Everyone has a little battery powered golf cart to drive around the estate in – there is about 40 acres of pools, rocks, gold course and tennis court. We went to the beach which is in a cove like this:-&nbsp;&nbsp;Please give my love to David + Boo when you write or see them. Oh yes we didn’t go to Australia because we decided it was too far. We were going to go to Los Angeles for a few days to break up the long journey to Australia but when we arrived in N.Y. the press that met us said if we go to L.A. George could be called up by the lawyers in the Charles Manson case to answer questions about Beatle songs influencing Charles Manson. It’s so absurd but we didn’t want to take the risk – so we’re here instead. I’ll send a pretty postcard when I find them. Take care – love to Jenny when you talk to her.&nbsp;&nbsp;Lots of love from George + Pattie’.&nbsp;&nbsp;Pattie opens the letter stating that they were in New York while George was putting the finishing touches to his album, All Things Must Pass, which would be released on the 30th November 1970. She also mentions that Paul and Linda were there as well recording an album, RAM, released on the 21st of May, 1971.&nbsp;&nbsp;Pattie also mentions a meeting that Paul and George had to split up The Beatles for good. On page 570 of Barry Miles’ book Many Years From Now Paul is quoted as saying ‘I remember having one classic conversation with George Harrison. I said, ‘Look, George, I want to get off the label,’ and as I say it now I almost feel like I’m lying with the devil’s tongue, but I swear George said to me, ‘You’ll stay on the fucking label. Hare Krishna.’ That’s how it was, that’s how the times were.’.&nbsp;&nbsp;She goes on to tell her mother about visiting Bob Dylan’s home in Woodstock and how beautiful it was.&nbsp;&nbsp;Pattie opens the second paragraph saying that they had been to a couple of dinner parties, in her book Wonderful Tonight she references the dinner parties stating:&nbsp;&nbsp;‘While we were in New York we went to a couple of big dinner parties, to George’s horror and my delight. One was given by Ahmet Ertegun, the cofounder of Atlantic Records, the other was given by Robert Stigwood. George hated parties unless they were exclusively for his friends. Put me into a room full of people and I come to life. Sometimes George and I, both Pisceans, were like the symbolic fish swimming in opposite directions. George seemed torn between the deep beneath us and the glitter on the surface, and I was so dazzled by what sparkled above that I couldn’t look down for fear of what might be lurking there.’.&nbsp;&nbsp;She then goes on to describe the couple’s trip to Jamaica, which she again covered in her book Wonderful Tonight:&nbsp;&nbsp;‘We went to Jamaica and it was a disaster from the start, beginning with the smallpox problem. Immigration then said, probably because we were white, British, long haired, and had money, that we had to report back to Montego Bay two days later, a journey of seventy miles, to see someone from the Tourist Board. There was no explanation. The man just said, “That’s what I say.” As I told my diary, There were such bad vibes everywhere. We stayed in a hugely expensive hotel at Frenchman’s Cove. It rained every day except one. Our room, which came with a butler and a maid, was in one of about a dozen bungalows in the grounds and we were given a little golf cart to get to and from the main building. After dinner we would go back to our bungalow and George would play his guitar. One night when it was raining I walked outside and recorded it all - the sound of him playing, and the sound of the rain and the jungle and the noises of the night. It was an amazing combination.’.&nbsp;&nbsp;On page five of the letter, Pattie draws a map of the area that they are staying in.&nbsp;&nbsp;Interestingly, towards the end of the letter Pattie states that they could not travel to Los Angeles as they did not want to be drawn in to the then on going court case of Charles Manson who claimed that various lyrics from the Beatles White album had caused him to commit murder.&nbsp;

Handwritten Letter by Patti Boyd To Her Mother

Album of signatures of nearly every <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=U.S.+President&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">U.S. President</a> from <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=George+Washington&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">George Washington</a> to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, mostly clipped or franking <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signatures</a>.<ul><li>[assembled circa 1950].</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>Each autograph mounted or tipped onto White Ace Presidential Series printed pages, with engraved portraits of each president mounted on facing leaves. </li><li>Not including James K. Polk (present as a printed signature only).</li><li>Twentieth century full navy blue morocco, seal of the U.S. in gilt on the upper cover, in a later blue slipcase.</li></ul> Signature Details:1) George Washington. Franking signature, on an address leaf addressed in his hand to Mrs. A. Stockton.2) John Adams. Franking signature, in an old and very shaky hand, on a clipped address panel addressed to General Dearborn, dated November 28, 1822, with the word "Roxbury" added in Adams's hand. 3) Thomas Jefferson. Franking signature, on a clipped address panel addressed to Mr. Isaac Briggs. Approx. Irregularly trimmed.4) James Madison. Franking signature, on a clipped address panel addressed in his hand to "Cutts, Esq. Washington"5) James Monroe. Clipped signature.6) John Quincy Adams. Franking signature, on a clipped address panel addressed in his hand to M. M. Jones in Utica, NY. 7) Andrew Jackson. Franking signature, clipped from an address panel. 8) Martin Van Buren. Clipped signature.9) William Henry Harrison. Clipped signature and valediction.10) John Tyler. Franking signature, clipped from an address panel addressed to Mrs. Elizabeth Watter. 11) James K. Polk. Printed signature, on small clipped sheet. 12) Zachary Taylor. Clipped signature and rank. 13) Millard Fillmore. Franking signature, on a clipped address panel addressed to Thurlow Weed. 14) Franklin Pierce. Franking signature, on a clipped front of a mourning stationery envelope.15) James Buchanan. Clipped signature and valediction.16) Abraham Lincoln. Clipped signature and valediction, "Yours truly."17) Andrew Johnson. Clipped signature and date, in pencil, on ruled paper. 18) Ulysses S. Grant. Signature, on card.19) Rutherford B. Hayes. Signature, on card with bevelled edges. 20) James A. Garfield. Clipped signature, on yellow paper. 21) Chester A. Arthur. Signature, on Executive Mansion card.22) Grover Cleveland. Signature, on Executive Mansion card. 23) Benjamin Harrison. Signature, on card with bevelled edges.24) William McKinley. Signature, on card. 25) Theodore Roosevelt. Signature, on White House card.26) William Taft. Signature, on card. 27) Woodrow Wilson. Clipped signature, from the bottom of a typed letter to George W. Whyte.28) Warren G. Harding. Clipped signature, from a partly-printed document. 29) Calvin Coolidge. Signature, on White House card. 30) Herbert Hoover. Signature, on small card. 31) Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Clipped signature, on blue ruled paper.

Album of Signatures of Nearly Every U.S. President from George Washington to Franklin Delano Roosevelt

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/maps-&amp;-botanicals" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">botanical</a> rendering of The Narrow Leaved Kalmia, from Robert John Thornton's <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=The+Temple+of+Flora&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Temple of Flora</a>.<ul><li>Single leaf.</li><li>London: Robert John Thornton, January the 1st 1799-[1807].</li><li>Aquatint and mezzotint, printed in color and finished by hand, from The Temple of Flora.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> Robert John Thornton was a prolific medical author and became a Doctor of Medicine at St Andrews University and licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. However, he is best remembered for this great botanical publication The Temple of Flora, which formed a part of the larger work - New Illustration of the sexual system of...Linnaeus. In 1797, he also began advertising for subscribers to his planned natural history publishing venture, which eventually comprised of 30 folio botanical plates. For these remarkable illustrations, he engaged the services of the leading artists and engravers of his day: Sir William Beechey, James Opie, Henry Raeburn, John Russell, Philip Reinagle and others as painters; Francesco Bartolozzi, Richard Earlom and John Landseer. Most of the images were painted by Peter Charles Henderson and Philip Reinagle. These botanical illustrations are unique as they were the first flower prints with landscape backgrounds, depicting the natural habitat of the plant. The life-size flowers stand out dramatically and the whole effect is startlingly modern. Thornton's announced intention was to make this work the most magnificent tribute ever paid to the famous Swedish botanist Linnaeus by illustrating his Sexual System with the finest possible prints. All these were engraved on a larger scale than anything which had hitherto appeared and then were printed in color, an expensive and uncommon method in England at this time.

The Narrow-Leaved Kalmia

Aaron Burr | Samuel Otis

Original subpoena issued in the name of President of the U.S. Senate, <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Aaron+Burr&amp;pfilters.dateRange=past" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Aaron Burr</a>, requesting that the individuals named appear for testimony in the impeachment of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=US+Supreme+Court&amp;pfilters.dateRange=past" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">US Supreme Court</a> Justice Samuel Chase.<ul><li>For Aaron Burr (American).</li><li>Named Individuals: Samuel Otis, William Rawle, Jared Ingersoll, Samuel Wheeler, and Thomas Carpenter.</li><li>Washington D.C.: 1804.&nbsp;</li><li>Signed twice (front and back) by Secretary of the U.S. Senate, Samuel Otis.</li></ul>

Samuel Chase | Subpoena For Impeachment | Twice Signed by Samuel Otis

Albert Einstein

Two letters by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Albert+Einstein&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Albert Einstein</a>, one <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hand-signed</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3: 2 letters, 1 envelope.</li><li>Albert Einstein (German).</li><li>Potsdam, Germany: 1931.</li><li>One of the letters is hand-signed by Einstein.</li></ul> The first letter is a single-paged autograph letter signed by Albert Einstein with one horizontal fold and one vertical fold. Letter accompanied by mailing envelope, both with matching paper-clip rust stain. Letter with some light wear along edges, small staining to lower corner. Addressed to G. W. Meyer and dated 8 Oktober 31 in Potsdam, the Letter reads in full: "Sehr geehrter Herr! Indem ich Ihnen für die Uebersendung des Buches von Henry George bestens danke, sende ich Ihnen anliegend die gewünschte Meinungsäusserung mit der Bitte um Weiterleitung an Mrs. Evans. Mit ausgezeichneter Hochachtung" and signed in ink "A. Einstein". He thanks Meyer for serving as an intermediary in getting a book to him and for forwarding the enclosed letter. The second letter is a typed copy of Einstein's previously enclosed letter, presumably made by Meyer before he passed the original on to Evans. Addressed to R. W. Evans and dated 8.10.1931 in Potsdam, the letter discusses Henry George's economic theory of poverty and land nationalization, compares it to Franz Oppenheimer's work, and proposes questions to be asked. Presumably he was sent a copy of Henry George's Progress and Poverty. First published in 1879, it sparked the Progressive Era, discussing the paradox of increasing inequality and poverty amid economic and technological progress as well as the economic value of land.

Albert Einstein Signed Letter, with Letter On Economics

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">finely bound</a> illuminated and leather-bound testimonial for Sir Charles Herries K.C.B., retiring Chairman of the Board of the Inland Revenue.<ul><li>November 1881.</li><li>Folio.</li><li>7 illuminated leaves with floral borders in blue, pink, green, white and gold, and window mounted at the beginning of the volume.</li><li>114 vellum leaves comprising several thousand signatures of tax officers and related civil servants in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, all in double columns with red rules and titled office headings, versos blank throughout.</li><li>All edges gilt, moire silk endpapers, original gilt relief-paneled executed by De La Rue &amp; Co. in red full morocco with gilt monogram and family crest centrepiece laid over green calf.</li></ul> Sir John Charles Herries (1815-1883), a famous financier, was the eldest son of the politician John Charles Herries (1778-1855). He is also possibly related to banker and politician Robert Herries (18th century), the inventor of the circular note (the forerunner of the traveler’s check), whose bank was acquired by Lloyds Bank in 1893. In 1842 Sir Robert Peel made him a commissioner of excise. In 1856 he was chosen by Sir George Cornewall Lewis to occupy the deputy chair of the board of inland revenue, and in 1877 Lord Beaconsfield raised him to the chairmanship. In 1871 he was made C.B., and in 1880 K.C.B. He left the public service in November 1881, ‘and his eminent financial and administrative abilities were acknowledged in a treasury minute, 2 Dec. 1881, and subsequently presented to parliament.’ He died in March 1883.

Illuminated Testimonial for Sir Charles Herries K.C.B.

Robert John Thornton

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/maps-&amp;-botanicals?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">botanical print</a> from <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Robert+John+Thornton&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Robert John Thornton</a>'s The Temple of Flora.<ul><li>Single sheet.</li><li>London: For Robert John Thornton, January the 1st 1799-[1807].</li><li>Aquatint and mezzotint, printed in color and finished by hand, from The Temple of Flora.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> Robert John Thornton was a prolific medical author and became a Doctor of Medicine at St Andrews University and licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. However, he is best remembered for this great botanical publication The Temple of Flora, which formed a part of the larger work - New Illustration of the sexual system of...Linnaeus. In 1797, he also began advertising for subscribers to his planned natural history publishing venture, which eventually comprised of 30 folio botanical plates. For these remarkable illustrations, he engaged the services of the leading artists and engravers of his day: Sir William Beechey, James Opie, Henry Raeburn, John Russell, Philip Reinagle and others as painters; Francesco Bartolozzi, Richard Earlom and John Landseer. Most of the images were painted by Peter Charles Henderson and Philip Reinagle. These botanical illustrations are unique as they were the first flower prints with landscape backgrounds, depicting the natural habitat of the plant. The life-size flowers stand out dramatically and the whole effect is startlingly modern. Thornton's announced intention was to make this work the most magnificent tribute ever paid to the famous Swedish botanist Linnaeus by illustrating his Sexual System with the finest possible prints. All these were engraved on a larger scale than anything which had hitherto appeared and then were printed in color, an expensive and uncommon method in England at this time.

A Group of Auriculas

Lorenzo Lippi |  Antonio Malatesti

An early handwritten manuscript of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Lorenzo%20Lippi&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lippi</a>'s Il Malmantile Racquistato.<ul><li>Perlone Zipoli [Lorenzo Lippi] (Italian).</li><li>Antonio Malatesti (Italian).</li><li>[n.p.]:&nbsp;[n.p],&nbsp;[c. 1675].&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>[324 pages].</li><li>Undated ink manuscript in an unidentified 17th-century Italian hand.&nbsp;</li><li>Bound in full contemporary vellum ("boards" composed of multiple sheets of 17th-century sheets).</li></ul> The present manuscript differs from one or both of the 17th-century editions in multiple points. Title page includes a dedication to Cardinal Leopoldo de Medici (lacking in the first printed edition), and attributes the work to Lippi's pseudonym Perlone Zipoli - unlike both 17th-century editions. The title page is followed by the prefatory&nbsp;Disfatto, here attributed to the anagrammatic pseudonym Amostante Latoni (Antonio Malatesti). The work is then prefaced by an index revealing the "true identities" of all the figures appearing pseudonymously in the work. Contrary to both printed editions, each book is here referred to as&nbsp;canto&nbsp;rather than&nbsp;cantare, and each stanza is numbered (similarly to the 1688 edition, and unlike the 1676 edition).

Malmantile Racquistato Poema di Perlone Zipoli Fiorentino Early Manuscript

Group of binders containing primarily inter-office memos from <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Lyndon%20B.%20Johnson&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lyndon B. Johnson</a> pollster Fred Panzer, dating from January 1966 to January 1969.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 10 binders.</li><li>(Washington, D.C.):&nbsp;n.p,&nbsp;(1965-1969).</li><li>Primarily carbon, some typed and some photocopy on a variety of paper stocks.</li><li>Various other documents: photocopied reports, newspaper and magazine articles, et cetera.</li><li>Also includes: two 3" binders dating from July 1966-Feb 1967 containing memos by or to Tad Cantril; two 3" binders containing research for a position paper addressing the "credibility gap"; two 1.5" binders containing information on administration accomplishments from 1965; two folders containing transcripts of the LBJ Library Oral History Project interview with Panzer; and relating ephemera.</li><li>Approximately four linear feet in all.</li><li>Original binders unsalvageable and now perished; rehoused in new three-ring binders, maintaining original divisions and order.</li></ul> An exhaustive archive of polling, public opinion, and related papers (including memos and other internal communications, research materials, and like) belonging to Fred Panzer, President Lyndon B. Johnson's chief pollster. More than any other president preceding him, Johnson relied on polling. Similar statements could also have been made of JFK (and arguably Truman…and even FDR), but Johnson commissioned more than four times the number of polls as Kennedy. And while Kennedy utilized polling primarily in crafting his message, LBJ was the first president to extensively use polls in his decision- and policy-making. Therefore polling — and by extension Fred Panzer — helped shape the presidency in a way that hadn't been seen before. Ten binders from the desk of Fred Panzer make up the bulk of the archive, creating an exhaustive survey of his work at the White House. Several additional binders of related materials (research, file copies, etc.) round out the archive. Together, a comprehensive look at executive branch polling, both its directions and effects, during a particularly turbulent time in American history, all from the point of view of a man at the center of modern political public opinion.

Archive of White House Memoranda and Other Documents from Lyndon B. Johnson Pollster Fred Panzer

Martin Luther King, Jr.

An undocumented <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first printing</a> of The Riverside Church Speech by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Martin%20Luther%20King%20Jr&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Martin Luther King Jr</a>.<ul><li>Martin Luther King Jr. (American).</li><li>Later titled Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence.</li><li>n.p.:&nbsp;n.p,&nbsp;[1967].</li><li>8 pages.</li><li>Printed rectos only.</li><li>Top stapled self-wrappers.</li></ul> Previously unrecorded first printing of one of King's most important speeches: his anti-war address at The Riverside Church, delivered exactly one year to the day before his assassination. "If we will make the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood." King's Riverside Church Speech (later titled "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence," but here untitled) was the civil rights leader's first sustained and major public statement regarding the Vietnam War. Before a crowd of more than 3000, King called for not only an end to the war, but explicitly linked the anti-war movement to the larger movements for civil rights and economic justice: "Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem." This edition is unknown and unrecorded. It is not mentioned in the major King bibliographies. The introductory paragraph ("The following is the exclusive and authorized publication of the address [...] sponsored by Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam") suggests it was likely printed either by that group or King's camp. Such a printing could have been issued for members not in attendance, for press distribution at or immediately following the event, or simply to secure copyright. (The text also ends with a copyright notice by King, dated 1967.) This version differs in a number of significant ways from final published versions that appeared later. Some of these differences are accounted for by this printing's "slightly condensed" version. Others, however, clearly predate King's later revisions and finalizations which, along with the lack of title on this edition, all clearly mark the text as an early version, contemporaneous or nearly so with the event itself — and almost certainly preceding the earliest (also very rare) reprints undertaken by a number of California groups (where Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam were based, and all under the title "Beyond Vietnam") in the subsequent months. Indeed, the ditto'd presentation strongly suggests a smaller, more immediate circulation. The speech was widely criticized at the time. In the following days, more than 150 newspapers around the country condemned King, and in the aftermath of the address President Johnson dis-invited King from the White House, a rift in their relationship from which they never recovered. Among Black leaders the reception was also decidedly mixed, with many believing King's focus on the war distracted from more pressing concerns. As journalist Tavis Smiley, who produced a documentary on the speech, explained: "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. It was the speech he labored over the most [and] got Martin King in more trouble than anything he had ever seen or done." Nevertheless, its reputation has only grown in the ensuing years. James Bevel considered it King's greatest speech, and King's intersectional understanding has been increasingly recognized as prescient. A rare and revealing document from one of King's most enduring public addresses.

The Riverside Church Speech: "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence"

Mexican Broadside Enlisting Privateers To Fight Texans, issued by the Secretary of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Military%2520and%2520Naval" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">War</a>, José María de Tornel.<ul><li>Mexico City:&nbsp;Palacio del Gobierno Nacional, May 2nd, 1836.</li><li>Caption title: Secretaria de Guerra y Marina. Seccion 3.a — Mesa. El Exmo. Sr. Presidente Interino de la República Mexicana Se Ha Servido Dirigirme el Decreto que Sigue.</li><li>Single letterpress broadside printed recto only.</li><li>Text in Spanish.</li></ul> Official printed government notice of Mexico's continuing efforts to maintain control over Texas immediately after the loss at San Jacinto. When Mexico finally won its independence from Spain in 1821 its territory included modern-day Texas, settled by a mix of Tejano (Mexican) and Texian (Anglo-American) populations, in addition to indigenous tribes and enslaved African Americans. Tensions between the Tejano and Texian factions increased and finally erupted into full-scale violence in 1835, beginning what is now called the Texas Revolution. Its most famous battle, at the Alamo, occurred a few months before this broadside was issued. The decisive battle of the war, San Jacinto, occurred on 21 April, a Mexican defeat that led to the formation of the Republic of Texas. While the Mexican general Santa Anna negotiated a surrender, the Mexican government deposed him for it and refused to recognize an independent Texas. After San Jacinto, Mexico avoided pitched battles, but continued to take action to undermine and antagonize the new Texas nation. This broadside was one such effort, issued just over a week after the defeat at San Jacinto. It announces the formal employment in the navy of private ships to aid in attacking Texans at sea and forming a blockade ("para terminar la guerra con los colonos de Tejas, é impedir el contrabando en los puertos y costas de la República"). Privateers were necessary because the Mexican government did not yet have a robust navy, a weakness that the United States would later exploit in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848. Ephemeral broadsides like this survive in few numbers.

Mexican Broadside Enlisting Privateers To Fight Texans

Peter R. Betz

An archive of more than 1100 photos from the service of a single soldier before, during, and immediately after World War II.<ul><li>Sold as a set of over 1100 photos, contained in 5 albums.</li><li>Peter R. Betz (American).</li><li>Various places, (1927-1946). </li></ul> Contents and Condition Notes: Oblong string-tied commercial album, imitation leather titled "Photographs" with small portrait photo, cut to the shape of a key-hole, fixed to front cover.<ul><li>163 photographs of various snapshot sizes, corner-mounted to leaves recto and verso, most with holograph captions and several small doodles. </li><li>Approximately half are colorized. </li><li>Photographs depict family vacations, bicycle racing, aviation, scouting, and other subjects, dated from 1927 to 1935. </li><li>Five photographs and a bicycle race program laid-in. </li><li>Four hand-made title pages dividing album into sections. </li><li>Album is generally in good condition, with some rubbing and wear and a tear at the front cover to which tape has been applied. </li><li>"Aviation Section" of nine leaves is lacking most photographs. </li><li>First painted title page adhered to the cover opposing it. </li><li>Most photos about fine.</li></ul> Oblong commercial photo album, lacquer cover with surfing scene and "Aloha Hawaii" at rear; lacking front cover. <ul><li>226 black and white photographs, most with captions, corner mounted to 25 leaves recto and verso. </li><li>Photos primarily military scenes in Hawaii and Panama from 1937-1938 with several family photographs.</li><li>Album in poor condition: lacking the front cover, rear cover and leaves edge-worn and many photographs loose from their mounts. </li><li>Still most photographs about fine. </li></ul> Oblong string-tied commercial album titled "Photographs," hand-lettered title page "G.I./ Memories/Feb. 6 1942-Nov. 17 1945" (above right) with domestic and Pacific theatre place names listed. <ul><li>202 photographs, various sizes.</li><li>Photos primarily from Hawaii and New Guinea. </li><li>Laid in at rear is a promotional calendar for 1944, upon which a rendering of a B-2 has been drawn. </li><li>Album generally good. </li><li>Front cover detached but present. </li><li>Covers edge-worn.</li><li>Leaves suffer some chipping to edges. </li><li>Some photographs have come loose from their mounts, but most in fine condition. </li></ul> Oblong string-tied album, brown imitation leather with "Photographs" printed at front cover. <ul><li>252 photographs of various snapshot sizes, a handful larger, mounted recto and verso to 36 leaves plus leaf of photo-strips with a total of 50 images. </li><li>Most photos with holograph captions from Oahu, New Guinea, and various locations throughout the Philippines. </li><li>Dated 1945. </li><li>Album suffers some edge-wear, front joint starting. </li><li>Several pages disbound. </li><li>Some photographs dismounted, most generally fine. </li></ul> Oblong string-tied commercial album, imitation leather embossed with a horse bust design and "Photographs" at front cover. <ul><li>Hand-lettered title page "Nanking China/Nov. 9th 1945/ to/ Feb. 12th 1946". </li><li>Approximately 290 black and white photos, corner-mounted to 14 leaves recto and verso, most with hand-written captions. </li><li>Photographs depict scenes from an airfield, the city of Nanking (Nanjing,) Shanghai, aboard the transport ship USS General Scott, arrival in Seattle, train journey, domestic family scenes and a welcoming parade in Buffalo, NY. </li><li>Laid in are four photographs of various sizes. </li><li>Album lightly edge-worn. </li><li>Some pages disbound but present.</li></ul> Collection by Peter R. Betz with detailed and captioned photographs of the Philippines Campaign, as well as many other experiences of a soldier's life during the WWII. Peter R. Betz (identified by his name and postwar address in the rear of two of the albums) served with the U.S. Army in the Pacific, and his photographs document that theater and the Philippines Campaign in detail. Nearly every photograph features Betz's neat, holograph captions, and the albums in general are highly organized, making for an incredibly thorough photographic biography of a soldier. The earliest photographs are dated 1927 and feature images of a Boy Scout troop and camping trip. Two of the albums also contain several images of the Betz's family, including parents, siblings, and cousins. Many of these family portraits are hand tinted. Betz's documentation of his Army career begins in 1937 and '38, with his service in Hawaii and Panama. The photographs regarding this time are casual and candid: soldiers relaxing in barracks and off-base in Honolulu and Waikiki beach, hiking trips in the mountains of Hawaii, native Hawaiians in traditional dress, a visit from President Roosevelt, as well as (separately) from Gracie Allen and George Burns. And photographs of the Panama Canal lock system in action reveal a keen interest in mechanics and engineering. Wartime photographs are contained primarily in two albums. The first, titled "G.I. Memories, Feb. 6, 1942 - Nov. 17, 1945" (above) features over 200 images. These include stateside images of Camp Croft and Sand Hill, SC. A second deployment to Hawaii also features heavily, including many of the same kinds of images as appeared earlier. The album contains a notable series of 28 photographs taken in New Guinea, identified by Betz as "Native dance...started Friday thru Sunday night." 47 photos from December 1944 to January 1945 in Leyte, Philippines show US Army barracks and soldiers, native Filipinos (mostly children), countryside, numerous aircraft and ships, and the aftermath of one or more unidentified battles (as left). The second album focuses almost entirely on operations in the Philippines. These include eighteen photographs, with aerial shots, labeled "Air Drop," eleven photographs "taken from" and of Japanese soldiers, and six showing a Japanese surrender on an unidentified airfield. Most importantly, however, over 60 photos that trace the U.S. effort to retake islands from the Japanese, including the January 29, 1945 beach landing at San Narciso, which marked the beginning of the Battle of Bataan. Also noteworthy: Mariveles and the aftermath of fighting in Zig Zag Pass, preparing for the detonation of Fort Drum in Manila Bay on April 12, 1945, followed by images of a beach landing on and aerial shots of Carabao Island on April 16. Additionally: 100 photos, dated January-October 1946, of Luzon after the liberation of the island. The photographs show soldiers and native Filipinos, including Negrito resistance fighters armed with bow and arrow, as well as villages and buildings, many showing the effects of the war. A final album documents, in over 200 images, Betz's experience immediately after the end of hostilities, where he served out his enlistment in Nanking and Shanghai, China. Dated Now. 9, 1945 - Feb. 12, 1946, these photographs show various aspects of the city, soldiers, and people, as well as US and Japanese planes, ships, and like. The album concludes with photographs taken from the deck of the USS General Scott during Betz's return voyage to the United States. Betz was a serious student of photography, and his images demonstrate a keen eye for framing and documentary. As comprehensive an archive of a soldier's WWII service as we've encountered. While vernacular albums from this era do turn up, we aren't aware of any as large, or as comprehensively-captioned, that focuses on a single person as this one. Indeed, both circumstances of life in the Pacific theater, as well as formal censorship policies and security restrictions made assembling such a large collection extraordinarily difficult. A rare, compelling, and significant collection.

Photograph Archive of a WWII Soldier's Life In The Pacific Theater

John Cage

Typescript sent to Dick Higgins of Something Else Press of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=John%20Cage&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Cage</a>'s brief essay on the composer <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Henry%20Cowell&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Henry Cowell</a>.<ul><li>John Cage (American).</li><li>np: 1964.</li><li>Wraps.</li><li>Typescript.</li><li>Single page, recto only.</li><li>Signed by Cage.&nbsp;</li></ul> This piece was reproduced in holograph as the introduction to the Edition Peters score of Cowell's "Quartet Romatic" and "Quartet Euphoric" (No. 66518, 1964, here provided with the typescript). The typescript differs in a couple of small ways (1974 for 1964, "sixty" for "fifty" years).

Typescript of Essay on Henry Cowell Signed by John Cage

Winston Churchill

A hand-written <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents%252C%2520Ephemera&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">letter</a> from <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents%252C%2520Ephemera&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents&amp;query=Winston%20Churchill&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Winston Churchill</a> to Sir Algernon West.<ul><li>Sir Winston Churchill (English).</li><li>London: 1902.</li><li>Letter signed in ink from Sir Winston Churchill to Sir Algernon West thanking him for the three parcels of papers he needs, for researching the biography of his father, Lord Randolph Churchill.</li><li>On headed paper.</li></ul> The letter reads: "5. Oct. 1902 My dear Sir Algernon, Many thanks for 3 packets of papers of which I will take the greatest care &amp; will diligently study. But when I come to the subject of The Abandoned Budget I must have a long morning with you. Do you know Knowles of the 19th Century: because he has hurt the feelings of a friend of mine - Ivor Guest; who took the greatest trouble to write an article on Registration reform - UK, as I know, was quite as good as usual that is printed - who has only received the curtest &amp; most formal acknowledgement; &amp; not article appears. He is much discouraged and my labours in interesting him in politics as a democratic Tory, proportionately increased. Can you assist matters? Yours sincerely, Winston S. Churchill" The ‘Abandoned Budget’ referred to is that of his father’s, Lord Randolph Churchill (1849 -1895), who was a precociously influential figure in the Conservative Party and chancellor of the Exchequer in 1886, at the age of 37, and seemed certain to be prime minister in due course. However, his own miscalculation in his first budget ended his political career before the year was over. In the budget he reduced the Military Services estimates, which was unacceptable to W.H. Smith, the secretary of state for war. On December 20, 1886, Churchill sent Salisbury his resignation contingent on the prime minister’s choice between the policies of the Exchequer and the War Office. Ivor Churchill Guest, 1st Viscount Wimborne, KP, PC (1873 – 1939), known as Lord Ashby St Ledgers from 1910 to 1914 and as Lord Wimborne from 1914 to 1918, was a British politician and one of the last Lords Lieutenant of Ireland, serving in that position at the time of the Easter Rising. He was elected to Parliament for Plymouth in a by-election in February 1900 (a seat he had unsuccessfully contested in 1898) as a Conservative, and retained his seat in the general election of 1900. In 1904, during the controversy within the Conservative Party over adopting protectionism, he and other members of his family followed Churchill into the Liberal Party in support of free trade. Provenance: Sir Algernon Edward West GCB PC; 1832 – 1921, recipient (English civil servant, acted as Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister William Gladstone).

Hand-written Letter from Winston Churchill to Sir Algernon West

A pair of muster rolls from the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Civil%20War&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Civil War</a>, 1863, documenting the pay of the Union company just before their fateful role in turning back Pickett's Charge, "the high-water mark of the Confederacy." <ul><li>With incomplete payments offering poignant evidence of their losses during the battle.</li><li>Handwritten ledger.</li></ul>

Civil War Muster Rolls for Alonzo Cushing's Battery, Company A of the 4th US Artillery

Paul McCartney | Apple Records

A typed <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Letters&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents%252C%2520Ephemera" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">letter</a> on Apple letterhead paper hand signed by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Letters&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents%252C%2520Ephemera&amp;query=Paul%20McCartney&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Paul McCartney</a>. <ul><li>Paul McCartney (English).</li><li>Paul has signed his first name only in blue pen and has added a drawing of an apple. </li><li>These typed letters were signed by Paul and then sent to each member of Apple staff during a period in 1968 when he was at his most enthusiastic for the company’s future. </li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> The letter reads as follows:&nbsp;‘In case you are ever worried about anything at Apple – something which you don’t feel able to sort out yourself, or maybe something you can’t get answered – please feel free to write me a letter at 7 Cavendish Avenue telling me about the problem. There is no need to be formal about it – just say it. The main thing is to keep the lines of communication open. Incidentally, things are going well; so thanks. Yours Sincerely, Love,Paul’

Signed Letter On Apple Notepaper With Apple Drawing

Jacqueline Kennedy

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;query=photograph&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en&amp;filters.type=Buy%20Now" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">photograph</a> of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;query=kennedy&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">JFK</a> and Jackie, signed by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;query=Jackie%20Kennedy&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en&amp;filters.type=Buy%20Now" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Jackie Kennedy</a>.<ul><li>Printed February, 1964.</li><li>Inscribed on the photo "For Dr. Tavell-with deepest appreciation for everything/ With affection/ Jacqueline Kennedy."</li><li>Mounted.</li><li>Laid into green morocco spine and cloth drop box.</li></ul> Dr. Janet G. Travell (1901-1997) was a New York physician was and medical researcher. She was appointed the personal physician to President John F. Kennedy in 1961. She graduated from Wellesley College and Cornell University Medical College. She was the first female doctor to be the personal physician to a sitting United States president and retained that post until March,1965. Her specialty was treating muscular pain. Kennedy's injuries from WW II were the beginnings of his back pain problems. She helped him in the late 1950s so much that he chose her as his personal physician while he was in the White House. The photo is accompanied by a small typed note on White House stationery signed by Tavell which explains that this photo was taken when the Kennedys were in Mexico at the end of June, 1962.

Photograph of President John F. Kennedy and Jackie | Inscribed by Jackie Kennedy

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Photographs&amp;Book%20Subject=Photography" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Photographs</a> of the Indian Tour of Archduke <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Photographs&amp;Book%20Subject=Photography&amp;query=Franz%20Ferdinand&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Franz Ferdinand</a> of Austria, January to March 1893.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>Photographers:&nbsp;Eduard Hodek, Lala Deen Dayal.</li><li>193 original albumen prints, ranging in size, mounted on card, most captioned in ink in English in a fin-de-siècle Vienna hand.</li><li>Approximately 60 with small printed captions mounted to boards.</li><li>8 photographs untitled.</li><li>Oblong quarto.</li><li>Housed in two contemporary morocco backed cases stamped in gilt “Indien” on spine and upper covers, with third box to match.</li></ul> Group of 193 original albumen print photographs documenting the Indian portion of the world tour of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand of Austria (1863-1914). This official voyage of the Archduke, lasting from December 1892 to October 1893, had explicit diplomatic, ethnographic, and scientific aims, as well as an unspoken goal of permitting the Archduke to recover his health after a diagnosis of tuberculosis. The royal party traveled aboard the imperial cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth, the most modern vessel of the Austrian fleet. They spent two weeks in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) before arriving in India in mid-January 1893. The party spent two-and-a-half months in India before touring Nepal, returning briefly to Calcutta to embark for Singapore at the end of March. The world tour continued with visits in Australia, the Pacific Islands, Japan, Canada, and the American West, before the Archduke sailed from New York to Le Havre. The Archduke’s stay in India included diplomatic engagements, military reviews, and a formal visit to the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad, who was in late Victorian times the richest man in the world. The Archduke was put up in the Nizam’s Bashir Bagh palace. The Archduke also spent considerable time hunting, hawking, pigsticking, bagging some 20 tigers, and leopard, antelope, sambhur, black buck, and just about every other beast of the chase (in Ceylon he had hunted elephant). Franz-Ferdinand was a devoted hunter, whose lifetime game bag exceeded 200,000 animals; on the world tour, his entourage included a huntsman and his taxidemist, Eduard Hodek (1858–1929), who was also the Archduke’s photographer and boon companion. The itinerary of the Archduke’s travels permits the close dating of many of the photographs and events of the trip. (A detailed list of the photographs is available.) An exhibition in Vienna in 1894 publicized the collections made by the Archduke during his world travels, and his diary was published as Tagebuch meiner Reise um die Erde, in two volumes, 1895-6. Upon the death of his father in 1896, Franz-Ferdinand became the heir to the Austrian throne. His assassination at Sarajevo in 1914 proved the spark that sent Europe and the world into war. The photographs document a wide range of subjects, both formal and informal, including views of the Archduke's activities, grand receptions by the Nizam of Hyderabad, military reviews, sporting and equestrian events, topographical vistas, palace scenes, as well as ethnographic and hunting images, including substantial game bags. Many of the formal photographs of events in Hyderabad were taken by Lala Deen Dayal (1844-1905), noted court photographer to the Nizam, and the first Indian photographer to gain international recognition for his work as a pioneer of photography in India (only a few bear his studio stamp; but the images are identified in Höfer). Some of the views of and around Calcutta are from Samuel Bourne or Bourne and Shepherd. A spectacular visual record of 1890s India, the opulence of the court of Hyderabad, and sporting episodes in the life of Franz-Ferdinand.

Photographs of the Indian Tour of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

Stephen Hawking

An original transcript from <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Stephen%20Hawking&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Stephen Hawking</a>'s Harvard University lecture series A Short History of the Universe, and a <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> of A Brief History of Time.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3: 1 transcript, 1 letter, and one book.</li><li>Stephen W. Hawking (English).</li><li>A Brief History of Time: United Kingdom: Bantam, 1988.</li><li>Transcript is bound in cardboard wrappers with three ties, and printed on 1980s ream printer paper. </li></ul> The transcript is unrecorded and only Cambridge University have a similar copy according to their records. The transcript was sent to Russia (potentially to a fellow research fellow), but was stopped at customs. This is explained to a colleague in the included letter from Francis J M Turner of Hawking’s Cambridge College, Magdalene. The letter is dated 23rd April 1988. The transcript opens with the paragraph from Hawking, ‘I’m going to give this course of lectures with the help of a computer, and a speech synthesizer. You must forgive it the american accent: I have not been able to teach it proper English’. The layout of the transcript differs from the chapters within the published first edition of A Brief History of Time which accompanies the transcript. The lectures cover similar topics as the first edition, specifically ‘Black Holes Ain’t So Black’, ‘The Expanding Universe’ and ‘The Origin and Fate of the Universe’. Interestingly, Chapter 10 and 11 of A Brief History of Time are covered in the lectures under the heading of ‘The Theory of Everything’. The latter title being what many considered as Hawking’s ‘watered-down’ version of A Brief History of Time. What is evident from the transcript is the range of ideas found in A Brief History of Time, as well as The Theory of Everything and The Universe in a Nutshell. Coupled with this, the transcript certainly is the first time these ideas appeared in print and its academic importance in the generation of Hawking’s ideas about black holes, matter and the expansion of the Universe. A truly unique item and something rarely available outside an academic collection, aside a true first edition, first printing of Hawking’s masterpiece.

A Short History of the Universe Transcript and A Brief History of Time First Edition

Albert Speer

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a>, first printing of The Slave State, written by Nazi and war criminal Albert Speer, accompanied by a typed and <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signed</a> letter.<ul><li>Albert Speer (German).</li><li>Translated by Joachim Neugroschel.&nbsp;</li><li>London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981.</li><li>Bound in publisher’s original green cloth with gilt titling to the spine, jacket design by Sara Komar.</li><li>Includes a 29-line typed letter from Albert Speer, dated 3 March 1969. </li></ul> The Slave State by Albert Speer (born Mannheim, Germany 19 March 1905 - died London 1 September 1981) published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson in 1981, reflects on his role as Hitler’s chief architect and Minister of Armaments during the period of Nazi Germany. Speer examines how he helped build a regime reliant on forced labor, massive exploitation and brutality. He offers a unique insider’s view of the Third Reich’s bureaucratic machine, exposing the moral blindness and self-deception that allowed such horrors. Though often seen as self-serving, his account provides chilling insights into the structure and mentality of a totalitarian system. Speer, the ‘Nazi Architect’, was sentenced to twenty years in prison for his close involvement with Hitler and the Nazi’s inner command. He was released in 1966 and his books remain a fascinating witness account, whilst being an attempt to portray himself as unaware of the ‘Final Solution’. However, this has been steadily undermined by research showing that Speer not only knew the fate of the Jews but actively participated in their persecution. Speer made himself widely available to historians and other enquirers. In October 1973, he made his first trip to Britain, flying to London to be interviewed on the BBC Midweek program. In the same year, he appeared on the television program The World at War. Speer returned to London in 1981 to participate in the BBC Newsnight program; he suffered a stroke and died in London on 1 September. The included letter, in German and on Speer’s headed paper, reads: ‘Dear Mr Collins, By an unfortunate coincidence, your letter ended up among a whole stack of magazines that I have only recently worked through. Therefore, I neglected to thank you for the warm lines you wrote to me and to reply to them. We would be very happy if you were able to come to Heidelberg again. We were just recently in the same restaurant again, in Rainbach, and we talked to the innkeeper and his daughter about them. She actually intends to come to you one day. Whether my wife and I are going to England soon. My "Memoirs" will be published in England in May 1970; As well as the publisher (it will certainly be a good one) is known, I will try to find out through this publisher's connections whether I am viewed as an "unwelcome person" in your home country. Of course, my wife and I would be very happy to come there one day. But we are already fully booked with our trips for 1969! [hand-corrected] So the only possibility left for 1969 is that the route takes you to Heidelberg again on your annual tour. With kind regards, also to Mrs Collins and from my wife, yours, Albert Speer [hand-signed]'. The letter resides in the original envelope with Speer having added the word ‘England’ and with his personal address to the rear.

The Slave State with Signed Letter from Albert Speer

The Executive Reports from the Congress of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=james%20monroe&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Monroe</a>'s presidency.<ul><li>House of Representatives, United States.</li><li>Volume I, Complete.</li><li>Washington D.C:&nbsp;Gales &amp; Seaton,&nbsp;1823.&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>First edition thus.&nbsp;</li><li>11, 16, 15, 206, 4, 5, 3, [3], 8, 4, 4, 4, 3, 4, 25, 5, 24 pages.</li><li>Full brown calf, with chipped gilt-lettered spine label.</li></ul> Contains all 16 numbers appearing in Volume I of the U.S. House-ordered printing. Appears to contain all folding tables (41 in total).

Executive Reports, At The First Session Of The Eighteenth Congress Of The United States

Norman Mailer | Various Authors | Gerald Ford

A collection of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">first edition</a> books relating to the assassination of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=John%20F.%20Kennedy&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">John F. Kennedy</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 14 volumes.</li></ul> A superb collection of first edition, first printing books relating to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Includes the following:<ul><li>Gerald R. Ford Portrait of the Assassin – Inscribed by Ford to the half-title ’To Paul Hartunian/As sole surviving member of Warren/ Commission I fully endorse two basic/ conclusions of Commission/ Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin./ The Commission found no/ evidence of a conspiracy/ foreign or domestic/ Gerald R. Ford/11/8/1994’). </li><li>Report of the Warren Commission – Signed without dedication to the front endpaper by Gerald Ford (Gerald R. Ford).</li><li>JFK – Signed by Oliver Stone to the title page.</li><li>‘Untitled JFK Project’ – Typescript, signed to the first page by Stone.</li><li>Charles McCarry The Tears of Autumn – signed to bookplate on the front endpaper.</li><li>Sloan/Hill JFK – The Last Dissenting Witness – Inscribed by both authors to the title page.</li><li>Norman Mailer Oswald’s Tale – Signed without dedication to the front endpaper.</li><li>Corsi Who Really Killed Kennedy? – Signed to bookplate on the front endpaper; </li><li>Gerald Posner Case Closed– Signed to the half-title page; </li><li>Menninger Mortal Error.</li><li>Jim Marrs Crossfire.</li><li>Len Deighton The Assassination of President Kennedy.</li><li>Don Delillo LIBRA – Uncorrected Proof signed by DeLillo.</li><li>James Ellroy American Tabloid – signed to the title page and L. Fletcher Prouty ‘JFK.’</li></ul> A superb set of some of the best theories concerning one of the biggest moments of the Twentieth Century. Lyndon B. Johnson appointed House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford to a seven-member “President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy.” The commission was chaired by Chief Justice Earl Warren and included two Senators, two Congressmen, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and the former director of the World Bank. Ford was assigned responsibility for preparing a biography of Lee Harvey Oswald (1939-1963), whose murder at the hands of Jack Ruby two days after he killed Kennedy left many unanswered questions. The Warren Commission interviewed more than five hundred witnesses and submitted its report to President Johnson on September 24, 1964. It concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated President Kennedy. The Commission published its 889-page report in November 1964 (the second book in this collection being this), along with twenty-six volumes of supporting documents. The evidence and conclusions of the Warren Commission have been the subject of intensive review and examination, both fact-based and otherwise. Conspiracy theories abound, including accusations that Ford intentionally altered a part of the final report to support the “Single Bullet Theory,” the Commission’s conclusion that a single bullet fired by Oswald penetrated both President John F. Kennedy’s neck and Texas Governor John Connally’s torso and wrist before lodging in Connally’s thigh. The conspiracy community seized upon this change as evidence that the Commission covered up the evidence of two bullets and two assassins. Three subsequent U.S. government investigations in the 1960s and 1970s agreed with the Warren Commission’s conclusion that two shots fired by Oswald struck President Kennedy from the rear, and one of those shots also struck Connally. A subsequent investigation suggested that another unknown assassin fired at the President but missed; this conclusion is disputed. The 1991 Motion picture ‘JFK’, directed by Oliver Stone explored the last theory. Ford later remarked, “No. 1, Lee Harvey Oswald was the assassin. And two, the commission found no evidence of a conspiracy, foreign or domestic. And in my judgment, there has been no new evidence that would undercut those two conclusions, Oliver Stone notwithstanding.”

JFK Assassination Collection

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">finely bound</a> edition of the House Of Lords, with the gilt arms of Queen Anne.<ul><li>Remembrances for Order and decency to be kept in the Upper house of Parliament by the Lords, when His Majesty is not there.</li><li>London: May 7th, 1712.</li><li>73 pages.</li><li>Manuscript in an attractive Italic hand, ruled in red throughout, original red gilt paneled morocco over cords, covers ruled and paneled in gilt, with the coat of arms of Queen Anne on both covers, all edges gilt.</li></ul>

House Of Lords

William Jennings Bryan

A collection of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Letters&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents%252C%2520Ephemera" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">correspondence</a> from <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Letters&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents&amp;Book%20Subject=Manuscripts%252C%2520Letters%252C%2520Documents%252C%2520Ephemera&amp;query=William%20Jennings%20Bryan&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">William Jennings Bryan</a> during his time as Secretary of State, 1913-1927.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 25.</li><li>William Jennings Bryan (American). </li><li>Includes&nbsp;25 autograph letters in Bryan’s hand, 23 of which bear his signature.</li><li>The most significant component is a set of 16 Bryan ALS and 9 telegrams sent and/or received during concerning Bryan’s attempts to negotiate a peace in Mexico following Huerta’s coup d’état in 1913.</li><li>There is also a sub-collection of material related to Ben Davis’ managing of Bryan’s funeral and memorial in 1925, which includes architectural sketches of the stone memorial erected for Bryan as well as four letters from Bryan's widow, Mary, and four from two of Bryan's daughters.</li><li>Other contents of note include a TLS from Woodrow Wilson, three ALS from Henry Cabot Lodge, two photos of peace treaty signings (one signed by Bryan), and miscellaneous ALS including letters received from ambassadors (notably, Cecil Rice), cabinet secretaries, and Wilson’s Vice-President.</li><li>For a complete inventory of the collection, please enquire.</li></ul>

Secretary Of State: Letters And Ephemera

A Provincial Council of the National Union of Public Administration Workers of Havana certificate awarded to Aurora Cuadrado Martin on the 1st of May 1978 for their participation in the May Day activities. <ul><li>Sold as a set of 2: certificate and photograph.</li><li>The certificate is in Spanish and has been signed at the bottom in ink by Fidel Castro and two other signatories.</li><li>Accompanying the certificate is a small black and white photograph of Fidel Castro.</li></ul>

11th World Festival Of Youth And Students May Day Certificate Signed by Fidel Castro

An extensive photo album compiled by and documenting the career of aviation pioneer Wilhelm Heinrich Evers.<ul><li>Wilhelm Heinrich Evers (German).</li><li>80 black paper leaves with approximately 367 black and white photographs (all but a few gelatin silver prints) mounted to rectos and versos in dry corner mounts, 3 additional prints laid-in.&nbsp;</li><li>Prints frequently annotated in white album pen in both English and German.</li><li>Commercial album, black textured strong-tied leather over flexible stiff card wrappers.&nbsp;</li></ul> Evers was among the first wave of intrepid pilots to take to the skies following the Wright Brothers' 1903 flight. Active in both Germany and the United States, Evers's Fédération Aéronautique Internationale license number was 190, and he was a member of the Early Birds of Aviation (founded in 1928, limited only to the first 600 or so pilots who flew prior to December 16, 1916). Within the first decade of flight, Evers not only designed, built and flew his own planes in Germany, but was a pilot for the first commercial airline in the United States (The St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line, 1913). Later, he would help develop some of the first high altitude aircraft (for Fokker Aircraft and others), held a number of aviation patents, and was among the main designers of the Junkers Ju 88—one of the most important German fighters of the Second World War. Most of these portions of his career are documented in this album with more than 350 original photographs. The album spans about 1910 through 1929 and covers his earliest flights in Germany (1910-1911); his foundational work with Thomas W. Benoist on the world's first passenger airline in Tampa, Florida (1913-1914); his work with Fokker in the 1920s and more. The first approximately 85 photographs document different iterations of Evers's early German flyers of his own design, designated E-I through E-VI and dated 1910-1913. The album then moves to Evers's close work with early aviators Tony Janus and Thomas W. Benoist in St. Louis, Missouri, including another about 85 photographs focusing on Benoist's St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line, for which Evers was one of three original pilots. Roughly the final half of the album provides a highly technical glimpse into his work, largely in New Jersey with the Fokker Aircraft Corporation on various projects—including its failed F-32.

Photo Album of Aviator Wilhelm Heinrich Evers

Lyndon B. Johnson

A signed and inscribed presentation photograph of the 36th President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson.<ul><li>Inscribed and signed by President Johnson, "To The Right Honorable Harold Wilson, O.B.E., M.P. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, with warmest personal regards and best wishes, Lyndon B. Johnson [signed]."</li><li>Presented in silver frame bearing the Seal of the President of the United States, marked "Sterling Hand Made."</li></ul> An excellent portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson, hands clasped. A unique inscribed photograph thus, affectionately presented to then Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Harold Wilson and Lyndon B. Johnson had initially enjoyed a positive relationship during Wilson's first tenure as Prime Minister, but the Anglo-American "special relationship" had been strained to quite some degree by Wilson's refusal to assist America in the Vietnam War. This was largely due to a political lack of will among the Labour Party and the British people, but was also borne from the economic difficulties Britain was facing for having maintained a military presence East of Suez.

Signed Photograph Portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson

Mrs. John N. Pearce

Second-edition copy of The White House: A Historic Guide inscribed by JFK and Jackie Kennedy.<ul><li>Mrs. John N. Pearce (American).</li><li>Washington, D.C.: White House Historical Association, 1962.</li><li>Limited numbered edition of 75, this being number 62.</li><li>Inscribed by John and Jackie Kennedy on the limitation page, "For Chris with the affectionate regards of his friends John Kennedy and love from Jackie. Christmas 1962."</li><li>Bound in the original full red morocco, title gilt to spine, covers double ruled in gilt, with marbled pastedowns and endpapers.</li></ul> The publication of this book was overseen by Jackie Kennedy as part of her restoration and preservation of the White House.&nbsp;These were earmarked by the Kennedys to be given away as Christmas gifts to each member of the Kennedy administration and very close friends.&nbsp;This edition was from their last Christmas together.

The White House: A Historic Guide

Charles Darwin

An apparently unpublished letter by Darwin regarding a new second American edition of Origin of Species; autographed and signed ("Ch. Darwin") to Charles Layton, Appleton's London agent.<ul><li>Charles Darwin (English).</li><li>Down, Beckenham, Kent: November 26, [1869].</li><li>3 pages.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Bifolium of Down, Bromley, Kent, stationery, with "Bromley" crossed out and corrected to Beckenham.</li></ul> Charles Darwin (1809-1882) writes to Charles Layton, London agent for Appleton, about bringing out a revised and expanded second American edition of On the Origin of Species. The letter is a reply to Layton's of the day before, in which he'd inquired after stereotyped plates of the English edition. In part: "The last or 5th Edit. of the Origin was printed off some months ago &amp; it is impossible to supply stereotypes. I hope that you will inform Mr. Appleton of what I have said of the increased size of this last &amp; 5th Edit. As 2000 copies of this Edit were printed, there will not be a new Edit. for a considerable time ... If Mr. Appleton will reprint this 5th Edition ... I will pledge myself to endevour to persuade Mr. Murray to supply stereotype plates of my new book on the Descent of Man; but as I never before heard of such such a scheme, I have no idea whether he will comply. At any rate I will please myself, on the above conditions &amp; on the terms suggested in your letter, to send over the sheets as printed &amp; stereotype casts of the woodcuts. But please remember my new book will not got to press for many months." Appleton had published the first American edition of Origin in 1860, from Murray's second English edition. In keeping with the terms of the present letter, Appleton published the second American edition, based on the 5th English edition, in 1870, followed by the first American edition of The Descent of Man in 1871.

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