Born in San Mateo, California, in 1923, Sam Francis served in the US Air Force corps during World War II, later earning degrees in psychology and botany at UC Berkeley. Moving to Paris in the 1950s, he encountered Monet’s Waterlilies, which proved lastingly influential to his art’s scale and sensitivity to light, color, and abstract art. The artist also traveled extensively – to Tokyo, Mexico City, and New York to name a few – and became familiar with non-Western philosophy. His work evolved from monochromatic abstractions to rich chromatic murals to his iconic “open” paintings: in which vividly hued splashes and drips of color are punctuated by expanses of white. These abstract expressionist paintings became synonymous with Francis’s work, as the movement came to be defined alongside him. After his painting Big Red was included in the exhibition Twelve Artists at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1956, the artist enjoyed increasing critical success. Beginning in the 1960s Francis lived and worked in Los Angeles, and except for a stay in Japan in the mid-1970s, he returned to California and became a community leader in the art scene there. Francis would open the Litho Shop in Santa Monica, which became a printmaking studio for himself and local artists alike. Francis was also a founding trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and has his work in its permanent collection, as he does at the Kunstmuseum, Basel; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, among others. Regardless of his international scope, the West Coast would remain his home until his death in 1994. His large-scale abstract paintings, sculptures, and prints are valued for his singular aesthetic vision, a confluence of New York School, Color Field, Japanese Zen, and Chinese calligraphy painting. According to Sotheby’s Mei Moses Art Indices, the average compound annual return for a Sam Francis resold at auction between 2003 and 2017 was 6.1%, and an impressive 81.9% of 166 such works increased in value. The top three record prices for Sam Francis at auction are: $11.8 million for Summer #1, 1957, at Sotheby's New York, 11 May 2016 $6.4 million for Middle Blue, 1957, at Christie's New York, 11 May 2010 $5.2 million for Black, 1955, at Christie's New York. 13 May 2008

Sam Francis

Contemporary Day Auction

Sam Francis 1923 - 1994 Untitled signed and dated 1960 Berne (on the verso) gouache on paper 39.5 by 30.5 cm. 15½ by 12 in. framed: 54 by 45 cm. 21¼ by 17¾ in. Executed in 1960. This work is identified with the identification number SF60-1367 in the Sam Francis: Online Catalogue Raisonné Project.

untitled

Sam Francis 1923 - 1994 Red and Orange signed and dated 1957 (on the verso) watercolour on paper 75.7 by 56 cm. 29¾ by 22 in. framed: 97.5 by 76.5 cm. 39⅜ by 30⅛ in. Executed in 1957. This work is identified with the identification number SFF5.501 in the Sam Francis: Online Catalogue Raisonné Project.

red and orange

Lover Loved Loved Lover, by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=sam+francis&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sam Francis</a>, 1960.<ul><li>Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994).</li><li>Lithograph in colors on BFK Rives Wove paper.</li><li>Hand-signed and inscribed.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> This original lithograph in colors is hand signed by the artist in pencil "Sam Francis" at the lower right of center. It is also hand inscribed “pour M. Matthieu” [For Mister Matthieu], at the lower left of center. It is a printer’s proof dedicated to the printer Emil Matthieu aside from the standard edition of 18. It was printed by Emil Matthieu at Emil Matthieu Atelier, Zurich and published by Kornfeld and Klipstein, Bern in 1960. This subject is recorded in the Sam Francis Archive with the identification number SF-14. Please note: This item is excluded from complimentary shipping. Shipping quote will be calculated at time of purchase.

Lover Loved Loved Lover

Untitled (SF 353)&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Sam+Francis&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sam Francis</a>, 1992.<ul><li>Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994).</li><li>Lithograph on BFK Rives paper.</li><li>Signed and numbered in pencil.</li><li>From the Papierski Portfolio.</li><li>Artist Proof.</li><li>Published and printed by The Litho Shop, Inc., Santa Monica.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> Please note: This item is excluded from complimentary shipping. Shipping quote will be calculated at time of purchase.

Untitled (SF 353)

Untitled (SF 351)&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Sam+Francis&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sam Francis</a>, 1992.<ul><li>Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994).</li><li>Lithograph on BFK Rives paper.</li><li>Signed and numbered in pencil.</li><li>Part of an edition of 50, AP.</li><li>Published and printed by The Litho Shop, Inc., Santa Monica.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> Please note: This item is excluded from complimentary shipping. Shipping quote will be calculated at time of purchase.

Untitled (SF 351)

Dark Plated, by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Sam+Francis&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sam Francis</a>, 1973.<ul><li>Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994).</li><li>Lithograph on BFK Rives paper.</li><li>Signed, dated and numbered in pencil.</li><li>Part of an edition of 30, this being 15.</li><li>Published and printed by The Litho Shop, Santa Monica.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> A signed and numbered abstract print by Sam Francis. This bold composition is made up entirely of two tones, black and brown, on white and lithographed onto BFK Rives paper. Please note: This item is excluded from complimentary shipping. Shipping quote will be calculated at time of purchase.

Dark Plated

Untitled (SFS-89) by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Sam+Francis&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sam Francis</a>, 1989.<ul><li>Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994).</li><li>Monotype in colors on Arches Wove paper.</li><li>Stamped with the estate’s stamp, verso.</li><li>The paper bears the Arches watermark in the lower left corner.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> Please note: This item is excluded from complimentary shipping. Shipping quote will be calculated at time of purchase.

Untitled (SFS-89)

Untitled SFE-003 (Light Blue) by <a href="Sam Francis" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sam Francis</a>, 1982.<ul><li>Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994).</li><li>Etching and aquatint in colors on Somerset Wove paper.</li><li>Hand-signed and inscribed.</li><li>This impression is one of twelve color trial proofs in various tones aside from the standard edition of 20.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> This etching and aquatint in colors is hand signed by the artist in pencil "Sam Francis" at the lower right margin. It is also hand inscribed in pencil “CTP” [Color Trial Proof] at the lower left margin. The standard edition was published by The Litho Shop Inc., Santa Monica, California in 1982. This subject is recorded in the Sam Francis Archive with the identification number SFE-003. Please note: This item is excluded from complimentary shipping. Shipping quote will be calculated at time of purchase.

Untitled SFE-003 (Light Blue)

Untitled (SF221) by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Sam+Francis&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sam Francis</a>, 1977.<ul><li>Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994).</li><li>Lithograph on BFK Rives paper.</li><li>Signed and numbered in pencil.</li><li>Part of an edition of 20, this being number 9.</li><li>Published and printed by The Litho Shop, Santa Monica.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> A signed and numbered abstract print by Sam Francis. This bold composition is made up entirely of black on white and lithographed onto BFK Rives paper. Please note: This item is excluded from complimentary shipping. Shipping quote will be calculated at time of purchase.

Untitled (SF221)

Untitled (SFE 118)&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Sam+Francis&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sam Francis</a>, 1993-94.<ul><li>Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994).</li><li>Aquatint.</li><li>Numbered in pencil and signature embossed.</li><li>Edition 4/20.</li><li>Published and printed by The Litho Shop, Santa Monica.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> Please note: This item is excluded from complimentary shipping. Shipping quote will be calculated at time of purchase.

Untitled (SFE 118)

Sun Up, 1964 by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Sam+Francis&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sam Francis</a>.<ul><li>Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994).</li><li>Published by Kornfeld and Klipstein, Bern, 1964.</li><li>Lithograph in colors on BFK Rives Wove paper.</li><li>Hand signed and inscribed.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> This original lithograph in colors is hand signed by the artist in pencil "Sam Francis" at the lower right image. It is also hand inscribed “artist’s proof” in pencil next to the signature. This is an artist’s proof, aside from the standard edition of 75. This subject is recorded in the Sam Francis Archive with the identification number SF-63. Please note: This item is excluded from complimentary shipping. Shipping quote will be calculated at time of purchase.

Sun Up, 1964

Untitled (SF 355)&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Sam+Francis&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sam Francis</a>, 1992.<ul><li>Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994).</li><li>From the Papierski Portfolio.</li><li>Lithograph on BFK Rives paper.</li><li>Signed and numbered in pencil.</li><li>Part of an edition of 50, AP.</li><li>Published and printed by The Litho Shop, Inc., Santa Monica.</li><li>This work is presented framed.</li></ul> Please note: This item is excluded from complimentary shipping. Shipping quote will be calculated at time of purchase.

Untitled (SF 355)

The Jay T. Snider Collection of Benjamin Franklin

Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery

Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery An Address to the Public, from the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, unlawfully held in Bondage. … Signed by order of the Society, B. Franklin, President. Philadelphia, 9th of November, 1789. [printed with:] Philadelphia, 26 October, 1789. At a meeting of the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, &c. An essay of a Plan for improving the condition of Free Negroes, was presented by the committee appointed to prepare it, which after deliberate consideration was adopted as follows, A Plan for improving the condition of the Free Blacks. Philadelphia: Printed by Francis Bailey, (1789) 2 letterpress handbills (348 x 210 mm) printed on the first and third pages of a full-sheet bifolium of laid paper (unwatermarked; preserving deckle on all edges), docketed on verso of second leaf “Address for the Abolition of Slavery; Also a plan for improving free Negroes”; central vertical fold nearly fully separated, but still conjunct at top, a number of short marginal separations at horizontal folds. Two vital manifestos of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery issued under the presidency of Benjamin Franklin. While the two statements were issued together and were actually printed on the same sheet of paper, they are each individually very rare and almost never found together, let alone still conjunct, as is the Snider set. We find only two instances in Rare Book Hub of the two texts being sold together, and in both cases they were disjunct: in the Ira Lipman library sold by us in 2021 and as part of a group of abolition publications sold by our London colleagues in 2016. We find no other copies of A Plan for improving the condition of the Free Blacks in the auction records at all and only two others of An Address to the Public, in 1978 and 1962. The two works were seemingly produced to be distributed together, however, since the first text, An Address, refers to “the annexed plan, which we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote the public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto too much neglected fellow creatures.” The joint distribution of the two handbills is further demonstrated by the contemporary docket on the present copy, which references both texts. The Address to the Public provides an overview of the Society’s work and makes a solicitation for financial support: “It is with peculiar satisfaction we assure the friends of humanity, that in prosecuting the design of our association, our endeavours have proved successful, far beyond most sanguine expectations. … [W]e have ventured to make an important addition to our original plan, and do therefore, earnestly solicit the support and assistance, of all who can feel the tender emotions of sympathy and compassion, or relish the exalted pleasure of beneficence. “Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. … To instruct; to advise; to qualify those who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty. To promote in them habits of industry; to furnish them with employments suited to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances, and to procure their children an education calculated for their future situation in life. These are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote the public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto too much neglected fellow creatures. “A Plan so extensive cannot be carried into execution, without considerable pecuniary resources, beyond the present ordinary funds of the society. We hope much from the generosity of enlightened and benevolent freemen, and will gratefully receive any donations or Subscriptions for this purpose, which may be made to our treasurer, James Starr, or to James Pemberton, chairman, of our committee of correspondence.” The “annexed plan” describes the specific steps the Society will take to achieve its goals. “The business relative to Free Blacks, shall be transacted by a committee of twenty-four persons, annually elected by ballot, at the meeting of this society in the month called April, and in order to perform the different services, with expedition, regularity and energy; this committee shall resolve itself into the following sub-committees, viz.”: a committee of Inspection, a committee of Guardians, a committee of Education, and a committee of Employ. ESTC locates copies in six United States institutions, but it is unclear whether they are all actually complete with the second leaf of text; the Library of Congress copy, for example, appears to comprise An Address to the Public only. REFERENCES ESTC W4578; Bristol B7029; Lipman/Celebration 119; not in Evans ﻿

View 1 of Lot 140: Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery |The first United States abolition society, directed by Franklin

pennsylvania society for promoting the abolition of slavery |the first united states abolition society, directed by franklin

Gilbert Tennent Remarks upon a Protestation presented to the Synod of Philadelphia, June 1. 1741. [With:] The Apology of the Presbytery of New-Brunswick. Philadelphia: Printed and sold by Benj. Franklin, 1741 2 parts in 1 volume, as issued, 8vo (165 x 100 mm). Additional title-page for Apology, with continuous pagination, type ornaments in text, early ownership signatures; light toning, a few spots and stains, a soft vertical crease throughout the textblock, more pronounced in the first two gatherings. Contemporary paper wrappers; rubbed and stained, a small loss at the tail of the spine and a chip at the edge of the rear wrapper, the front pastedown cracking along the gutter. Half brown morocco folding-case. First edition of a rare volume by the Reverend Gilbert Tennent, comprising two tracts relating to the Old Side–New Side controversy, the first serious schism in the American Presbyterian Church. Along with George Whitefield and his father William, Gilbert Tennent was one of the major figures in the First Great Awakening. He denounced the conservatism and formalism of Old Side Presbyterians, and had a blatant disregard for church discipline. He would often criticize another minister's piety, or would travel to areas under other preachers' jurisdictions and deliver fiery sermons to their congregations. In 1738, a group of reformed New Side Presbyterians, led by Tennent, split from the Presbytery of Philadelphia and formed the Presbytery of New Brunswick. On 1 June 1741, the Synod of Philadelphia voted to expel the New Brunswick congregation. This short tract was written in response to that ejection. Tennent writes in his preface: "I can sincerely declare, that it was with a View to promote Peace and Union, that I went to the last Synod; and I know that others of my Brethren, who are now rejected, were of the same Disposition. "BUT Affairs being brought to a sudden Crisis, a melancholy Necessity urges our just Vindication. "ALL that I desire of the Reader, is an impartial Consideration of what is proposed in the following sheets. …" After becoming the founding pastor of Philadelphia's Second Presbyterian Church in 1743, Tennent rejoined the Synod of Philadelphia, adopted less controversial behavior, and worked towards a reconciliation between the Old and New factions in his church. Tennent accompanied Reverend Whitefield on his 1740 preaching tour of New England. Miller explains that "a goodly portion of this edition was sent to New England," likely because he had an established audience there. A second printing of the book is noted by Hildeburn, though not located by either him or Miller. In 1742, "some members of the Synod," probably John Thomson, Thomas Evans, and Francis Alison, printed a rebuttal to Tennent's tract titled An Examination and refutation of Mr. Gilbert Tennent's Remarks …, which was also printed and sold by Benjamin Franklin. Exceedingly rare—the last copy to appear at auction was in 1904 at Anderson Galleries according to Rare Book Hub, and ESTC locates copies in only ten institutions, all on the East Coast. For another work by Tennent, see lot 47. REFERENCES Miller 263; ESTC W21797; Sabin 94700; Linde Lunney, "Tennent, Gilbert," in Dictionary of Irish Biography (https://www.dib.ie/biography/tennent-gilbert-a8501) PROVENANCE Charles Pierce (signatures on both titles) — Sarah Pierce (four ownership signatures, two on front pastedown dated 1764 and 1772, and two on the rear pastedown dated 1774) — Benjamin Blood (signature on front pastedown, dated 1813)

View 1 of Lot 21: Gilbert Tennent | A rare Presbyterian tract relating to the Old Side–New Side controversy, printed by Franklin

gilbert tennent | a rare presbyterian tract relating to the old side–new side controversy, printed by franklin

James Macpherson MacPherson's Directory for the City and Suburbs of Philadelphia, extending to Prime-Street, southward; Maiden-Street, northward; and from the River Delaware to Tenth-Street, westward. Published October 1st, 1785, and to be corrected and republished annually. Containing, a Alphabetical List of the Names and Places of Abode of the Inhabitants. Philadelphia: Printed by Francis Bailey, at Yorick's-Head, no. 65, Market-Street, M,DCC,LXXXV (1785) Small 8vo (164 x 98). Eith the 3 pages of "numbers of houses that were empty and those inhabited by people who would not give their names," 2-page errata, and an 8-page manuscript on flyleaves at rear. Lightly toned, occasional spotting, a few very pale stains, a tiny chip at edge affecting about 7 leaves in the center of the text, old paper repair near the lower corner of leaf T1 affecting the catchword on p. 145, the final leaf with one page of errata supplied in facsimile. Early pink paper wrappers, with manuscript title on the front cover; rebacked, lightly soiled, some chips and small losses along the wrapper edges. Housed in a custom leather-backed clamshell case. First edition of Philadelphia's first directory, and the first separately published directory in the United States. "Franklin, Benjamin, his Excellency, 1, Franklin's Court" appears on page 48. Macpherson's Directory lists over 6,500 names and addresses throughout Philadelphia. Besides Franklin, some of the other notable names are Charles Wilson Peale, Francis Hopkinson, Robert Morris, and David Rittenhouse. The manuscript notes by Philadelphia antiquary John McAllister, bound in at the rear, list 62 directories published in Philadelphia between 1785 and 1856. This is apparently the earliest bibliography of Philadelphia directories. The list is accompanied by a short essay, also by McAllister, discussing both Macpherson's and Francis White's directories, both of which were issued in the same year. McAllister notes that Macpherson's Directory was advertised in June 1785, while White's was advertised in November of that year. Rare: only this copy and the Laird U. Park Jr. copy have appeared at auction in the last 85 years, and ESTC cites only four copies in institutional collections. REFERENCES ESTC W14248; Evans 19067; Spear, American Directories through 1860, p. 273 PROVENANCE Ramage? (illegible early ownership signature on title-page) — John McAllister (manuscript bibliography and essay)

View 1 of Lot 132: James Macpherson | The first directory of Philadelphia, and the first separately published directory in the United States, listing Franklin's address

james macpherson | the first directory of philadelphia, and the first separately published directory in the united states, listing franklin's address

Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone

Ludwig van Beethoven Autograph sketches for the overture Die Weihe des Hauses ("The Consecration of the House"), op.124 a multi-layered four-page composing manuscript, a sketch-draft for the first section [maestoso and sostenuto], bb.19–50, including the whole of the main theme from the forte restatement, and the following fourteen bars [un poco più vivo], notated in dark brown ink and pencil on two eight-stave systems per page, without instrumental designations, the upper half of the system containing music for violin I and bass, the lower half music for winds, the chief parts entered first in ink, with additional entries and corrections made later in pencil and also in ink with a thicker nib 4 pages, oblong 4to (c. 248 x 310 mm), a bifolium of 16-stave paper, bookplates of Yale University Music Library and Edward Francis Searles to lower pastedown, with a letter signed from Sir George Grove to Arthur Hill, advising that the manuscript be shown to the Beethoven scholar J.S. Shedlock, 4 pages, 8vo, London, 7 June 1893, and an autograph letter by the violinist Joseph Ludwig to Hill, identifying the work, 2 pages, 8vo, Maida Hill, 17 July 1893, mounted on the front pastedown, together with (all loose) autograph letters to Hill by Shedlock, discussing the sketch, 2 pages, 8vo, St John’s Wood, 2 August 1893, and Otto Goldschmidt, discussing the prices of the sketches and other manuscripts to be sold by Messrs. Puttick & Simpson, 4 pages, 8vo, South Kensington, 24 April 1894, an incomplete letter signed by Hill to Searles, congratulating him on his acquisition of the sketch, 2 pages, 4to, [1894], and the catalogue entry for the sketches in the Worshipful Company of Musicians’ Loan Exhibition, June–July 1904 (no.483a), laid down on headed paper of the exhibition committee, binder’s label to front pastedown (“Bound by G.A. Brown & Co. 1 Avery Row New Bond Street…”), mounted at spine to lower cover, late nineteenth-century/early twentieth-century yellow morocco, with black morocco title-piece gilt (“M.S. / Beethoven. Part of a Sketch Book.”) and black and gilt decorative border, [Baden, September 1822], some discolouration to outer pages, light scattered spotting, vertical creases, a few tiny marginal tears THIS IS A SPECTACULAR WORKING MANUSCRIPT FROM BEETHOVEN’S LATE PERIOD. ONCE OWNED BY THE LEGENDARY NINETEENTH-CENTURY SOPRANO JENNY LIND ("THE SWEDISH NIGHTINGALE"), IT HAS NOT BEEN AVAILABLE TO MODERN BEETHOVEN SCHOLARSHIP AND REMAINS UNPUBLISHED. The overture Die Weihe des Hauses is one of only three large-scale works involving orchestra that Beethoven wrote during his final decade, sharing that honour with two of the composer’s greatest masterpieces, the Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony. It was written at breakneck speed at the end of September 1822, while Beethoven was taking the cure at Baden, near Vienna. On 13 September, Beethoven wrote to the publisher C.F. Peters in Leipzig: “And hardly had I arrived here when I met a theatrical manager who is building a theatre in Vienna which he is opening with one of my compositions. So to please him I have had to compose a few new movements”. The theatrical manager was Karl Friedrich Hensler, who planned to celebrate the opening of the rebuilt Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna on 3 October 1822 (the name day of Emperor Franz I of Austria) with Carl Meisl’s play Die Weihe des Hauses ("The Consecration of the House"), to which were to be adapted the music of Beethoven’s 1811 musical entertainment Die Ruinen von Athen, op.113. In the end, only one new movement was composed, a chorus with solo soprano and violin (WoO 98), together with a new overture (op.124), delivered with only a day to spare before the opening. Beethoven himself conducted the first performance, despite his by then severe hearing loss, gallantly assisted at his right hand by the theatre Kapellmeister Franz Gläser, who also conducted subsequent performances. Beethoven’s self-appointed factotum Anton Schindler led the orchestra as violinist. A moving account of the premiere was left by Gläser in his fragmentarily surviving autobiography: On the day of the premiere of this work, which the celebrated Master [Beethoven] conducted himself, I was assigned at his request to assist him; as he was sadly robbed of his hearing, he could not well do without assistance...I was deeply touched when he suddenly asked me in a painfully agitated voice during the production of the opera to conduct a very difficult recitative in his place. At the next fixed tempo I let him continue, and as he called out, with tears in his eyes, "I cannot hear the words", I took this hint and guided the orchestra during difficult passages, in the ritardandos and accelerandos, and so forth. As was attested later, I had even at one point, unbeknown to myself, held the great Master's hand, until the ship was sailing smoothly on its course again. One might jokingly suppose that I had at this moment conducted the great Master himself. Following its initial performance, which marked Beethoven’s last appearance in public as a conductor, the overture was performed frequently to great acclaim—and most notably at Beethoven’s legendary concert in the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna, on 7 May 1824, which saw in addition the first performance of his Ninth Symphony. This was the famous occasion at which the deaf composer, his back to the audience and unaware of the tumultuous applause, had to be turned round by the contralto Caroline Unger so that he could acknowledge it. No less distinguished than the work’s performance history is the provenance of the manuscript, once belonging to the great nineteenth-century opera singer Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale”. One of Beethoven’s most exhilarating orchestral works, the overture is at the same time the composer’s thrilling homage to Handel, the musician he revered above all others and whose works he was then actively studying (a forty-volume set of Handel’s works was a treasured possession). Adopting the outline of the Baroque French overture, it consists of a slow introduction—a magnificent 88-bar affair, complete with signature dotted rhythms—followed by an irresistible fugal allegro whose theme, with its fifth-step outline, may have been influenced by a similar fugal theme in the overture to Handel’s Solomon (many years earlier Beethoven had made a string quartet transcription—Hess 36—of the fugue from that overture). The present manuscript documents Beethoven’s attempts at bb.19–50 of the slow introduction. It bears witness to a more advanced stage of Beethoven’s work on the overture than is the case with the other surviving—also unpublished—sketch material, contained in two sketchbooks in Berlin (see below). Here Beethoven sketches in short score on systems of eight staves, with violin I and bass (the latter often heavily corrected in pencil and ink with a thick nib) in the upper half of the system, with melody-carrying parts for winds sketched in the lower half; in the sketchbook Artaria 201, much of the sketching is on two-stave systems. And it is typical of the composer’s working practices that the main theme should achieve its characteristic falling contour and double-dotted rhythm at a later stage still, i.e. in the autograph full score. Especially striking features of the manuscript are the heavy deletions and corrections to the bass part in the first half (this clearly gave Beethoven particular trouble), and the contrasting notation of the wind parts on the final page (the trumpet fanfares in ink, the heroic semiquaver scales for the bassoons in pencil). All other known autograph sources for Die Weihe des Hauses are preserved today in European institutions: the autograph score (Stadtbibliothek, Musiksammlung, Vienna [MH 1896/c]); other sketches contained in the sketchbooks Artaria 201, pp.86-111, and 205/I, pp.5ff., 20-30 (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin); and a bassoon II part (Beethoven-Haus, Bonn [HCB Mh 29]). In addition to these sources there exist also five scribal scores reviewed by Beethoven (including those in the British Library, London [RPS MS 15], the Schott Verlagsarchiv, Mainz [8a: the first edition Stichvorlage], and the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn [BH 89: made in connection with the first performance]), as well as a set of incomplete scribal parts (Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna [XII 7905]), likewise reviewed by Beethoven. The overture was published by Schott in Mainz in 1825, with a dedication to Prince Nikolai Borisovich Galitzin. LITERATURE: Emily Anderson, trans., and ed., The letters of Beethoven, ii (1961), pp.970 and 973–974; F. Lorenz, 'Franz Gläser: Autobiographie—Erinnerungen an Beethoven', Die Musikforschung, xxxi (1978), pp.43–46; Douglas Johnson, Alan Tyson, Robert Winter, The Beethoven Sketchbooks (1985), pp.275, 394–396; Beethoven: Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke, ii/1 (1974), passim; Barry Cooper, ed., The Beethoven Companion (1991), pp.252–255; Ludwig van Beethoven. Thematisch-bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis, i (2014), pp.803ff., especially 808 (source I/1/3) PROVENANCE: In the possession of the singer Jenny Lind (1820–1887), "for more than thirty years" (see above letter of her widower, Otto Goldschmidt); Otto Goldschmidt (1829–1907), until 1894; Edward Francis Searles (1841–1920), Methuen, Massachusetts, from 1894; Yale University Music Library; Christie’s, London, 24 June 1992 (lot 3)

View 1 of Lot 16: Ludwig van Beethoven | Autograph sketches for the overture "Die Weihe des Hauses", op.124, [1822], UNPUBLISHED

ludwig van beethoven | autograph sketches for the overture "die weihe des hauses", op.124, [1822], unpublished

Benjamin Franklin Autograph letter signed (“BFranklin”) to his wife, Deborah Read Franklin (“My dear Child”), one page (216 x 204 mm) on a slip cut from a larger sheet of laid paper (watermarked JWhatman), London, 20 February 1774, assuring her of his good health and love. Half red morocco folding-case gilt, chemise. One of Franklin’s last letters to his wife of more than four decades, with little news but thoughtfully fulfilling her desire “to have a Letter by every Ship.” His letters home usually sailed with Isaac All, a sea captain based in Philadelphia and active in all manner of marine commerce (and husband of Franklin’s niece, Elizabeth Franklin), but this letter was carried by Captain Nathaniel Falconer, another Philadelphian seafarer who would shortly serve on the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety and supervise the construction of vessels for the Continental navy. “I have written fully to you & several Friends by Capt. All; but as I know you like to have a Letter by every Ship, I add this Line by Capt. Falconer, just to let you know, that I continue, Thanks to God, in good Health and Spirits, and purpose setting my Face homeward in May next, God willing. My love to our children. I am ever Your affectionate Husband.” Franklin courted Deborah Read beginning in 1723 when they were both teenagers, but when he set out the next year for his first stay in London, working in various printing shops, she assumed he was not going to plight his troth and she wed one John Rogers, who soon after abandoned her, never to be heard from again. Franklin renewed his attentions when he returned to Philadelphia, and, because the fate of Rogers could not be determined, he and Deborah established a common-law marriage in 1730. Although Franklin was absent in London as a colonial agent for long stretches (1757–1762 and 1764–1775), their marriage was seemingly loving and contented. The couple had two children: a daughter, Sarah (“Sally”) and a son, Francis Folger, who died of smallpox shortly after his fourth birthday. They also raised William, Franklin’s illegitimate son from a previous relationship, as their own child; William’s mother has never been identified. Franklin did, as predicted here, arrive home in Philadelphia in May 1775, having departed London on 20 March, but his hoped-for reunion with Deborah never took place, as she died 14 December 1774 after a series of strokes and a period of poor health. Her husband was aware of her condition; she had written previously of her ill health and, as early as a November 1769 letter, she complained of Franklin’s extended absence as “one dis satisfid distresed att your staying so much longer. …” But it might have been difficult for Franklin to leave London, even after his diplomatic work was largely accomplished, because during the period of his wife’s declining health he had gotten embroiled in one of the most controversial actions of his multifarious career: the transmission of the "Hutchinson Letters" to Boston. Principally the work of Thomas Hutchinson, royal Governor of Massachusetts (but including writings from other American Tories, including Hutchinson's brother-in-law, Andrew Oliver), these letters were circulated in London in support of a policy of weakening American liberties. "Hutchinson insisted that the only way to avert disaster was to remove government gradually from popular control, and to secure the dependence of the province at the cost, much as it pained him, of abridging 'what are called English liberties'; for no distant colony could be so governed as to give its inhabitants the same liberty as those of the mother country" (Willcox, ed., note in Papers 19:402). Through circumstances still not fully known, copies of some of these letters came to Franklin's hands beginning in 1770. On 2 December 1772, Franklin enclosed in a letter to Thomas Cushing copies of much of the Hutchinson correspondence, with the proviso that it "be seen by some Men of Worth in the Province for their Satisfaction only" and that it not be printed or otherwise reproduced (Papers 19:411). Inevitably, and perhaps as Franklin had intended, the letters were published almost immediately by Edes and Gill in Boston under the inflammatory title, Copy of Letters … by His Excellency Thomas Hutchinson … In which (notwithstanding His Excellency's Declaration to the House, that the Tendency and Design of them was not to subvert the Constitution, but rather to preserve it entire) the judicious Reader will discover the fatal Source of the Confusion and Bloodshed in which this Province especially has been involved, and which threatned total Destruction to the Liberties of all America (ESTC W8846; Evans 12818). Two months before writing the present letter to his wife, Franklin had publicly admitted his role in the publication of the Hutchinson letters, for which he was denounced before the Privy Council and stripped of his post as deputy postmaster-general of the colonies. This is one of the very few letters—if not the only one—from Franklin to his wife in private hands. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin record 132 letters from Benjamin to Deborah; the vast majority of these are at the American Philosophical Society, with a few others scattered across several other institutions. No extant letters known to the editors of the Papers are located in private collections. REFERENCES Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Willcox, 21:116 (not locating the original; corrupt and paraphrased text taken from Mme. Henri Saffroy catalogue no. 19, February 1959) PROVENANCE RR Auction, 10 July 2019, lot 179 (undesignated consignor)

View 1 of Lot 108: Benjamin Franklin | Perhaps the only letter to his wife in private hands

benjamin franklin | perhaps the only letter to his wife in private hands

Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana. Part 1

Musaeus Grammaticus Musaei Opusculum de Herone et Leandro, quod et in latinam linguam ad uerbum tralatum est. (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, [before November 1495 (Greek text); 1497–1498 (Latin text)]) Super-chancery 4to (183 x 129 mm). Greek and roman types, 20 lines plus headline. Collation: αb10.12: 22 leaves (the Greek text of ca. 1495 interleaved with the Latin text of ca. 1497–1498), watermarks in the Greek text (bulls head with surmount of snake and cross; a balance with “teardrop” pans and six-pointed star) and a watermark in the Latin text (balance with “teardrop” pans and four-pointed star). Two woodcut illustrations on b6v-7r, and woodcut interlace headpiece and initials opening text on b2v and α2r; leaves α4-6 and b4-7 misbound, the title page soiled and lightly toned, reinforced along the gutter, its upper corner creased with a short tear, transparent ink stains on the verso of the title bleeding through the leaf and offsetting to the opposite page but not effacing text, occasional pale spotting or staining mostly in the margins, but affecting the two woodcut illustrations, the final leaf reinforced with along the gutter, the stub just touching the first letter of 6 lines of text, manuscript corrections, underlines, and annotations, some contemporary, others later. Nineteenth-century English dark blue morocco, gilt decorated spine with five raised bands and red leather label, the boards with a broad ornately gilt border, board edges and turn-ins gilt, all edges gilt; wear to extremities, mostly along the joints and at the corners, the joints starting at head. The first Aldine imprint with illustrations and, in the instance of the Greek text, just the second book printed by Aldus Manutius, preceded only by Lascaris's Erotemata (and possibly by the Galeomyomachia of Prodromus). The first edition of the Latin text, and the second edition of the Greek text (ISTC dates the only possible earlier edition, printed in Florence by Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, to “about 1494-96”). “The Greek and Latin texts were printed on separate quires which were then folded so that the texts appear in parallel. The Greek portion is shown by Aldus' prefatory letter to have been printed before the first volume of Aristotle, dated 1 Nov. 1495. The Latin is printed in two post-1495 types, one of which has a paragraph mark not traced before 1497” (BMC, based on Proctor, Printing of Greek, pp. 95–96). The fact that there are several surviving copies containing the Greek text on its own indicates that it was available separately at an earlier date. "As promised in the title, this short Greek poem on the star-crossed lovers Hero and Leander includes a word-for-word Latin translation by Aldus in order to foster the study of the Greek language through a more familiar tongue" (Grolier/Aldus). The translation was formerly attributed to Marcus Musurus, two of whose epigrams are printed in the text. However, the printer's copy of Aldus's autograph manuscript, collected first by Johannes Cuno (1463–1513) and then by Beatus Rhenanus (1485–1547), survives in the Bibliothèque Humaniste, Sélestat, and shows that the text is his own translation. Renouard found that the order of the Latin leaves varies in different copies (cf. Renouard’s own copy, PML 264 in the Morgan Library and Museum, with the Latin quire misbound). The Askew-Woodhull-Butler copy, offered here, is also misbound, but not in the same way as the Morgan’s copy. Here, leaves are bound out of order in both the Greek and the Latin texts. The misbinding occurred when the book was rebound, as evidenced by the presence of early annotations in the gutter. The binder, not a proficient classicist, inverted the seven central leaves and bound them in the following order: α1-3, α5,4,6, α7-10; b1-3, b7,6,5,4, b8-12. The misplaced leaves have also been inverted, with their signatures on the left of, and adjacent to, the gutter. The Askew-Woodhull-Butler copy is a later issue of the text, with all the called-for stop-press type corrections: the signature “c” corrected to “biii”; the correction on line 9 of b3r adding the word “ille”; b7r with “hanc” corrected to “haec”. This copy also retains various manuscript corrections to both the Greek and Latin texts: b2r (marked “b”) with “inuidiam” corrected to “inuriam,” omitted lines of text added on b3v, α3r, b6r, and α5v; without the correction called for by Bühler on α1, or the one on α3v (though these corrections may originally have been present—the text may have been carefully washed at some point, and while certain corrections and marginalia are clearly readable, others are quite faded). According to Beuhler, “manuscript corrections appear in enough copies to warrant the assumption that these improvements were made at the printing house, either by Aldus himself or (more probably) by one of his resident assistants.” For further information about the stop-press and manuscript corrections in various copies of the Musaeus, see Curt Bühler, "Aldus Manutius and His First Edition of the Greek Musaeus," in La Bibliofilía 52 (1950), pp. 123-127, or Geri Della Rocca de Candal, “Manus Manutii,” in Printing and Misprinting (Oxford, 2023) pp. 121-164, who examined 26 of the 53 recorded copies of the book, 11 more copies than Bühler. The text is Musaeus Grammaticus’s poem telling the tragic love story of Hero and Leander. Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite, lived in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Hellespont, now called the Dardanelles Strait. Leander resided on the opposite side of the strait in Abydos. After seeing Hero from afar, he fell in love with her and swam across the waterway to visit her. He secretly returned every night throughout the summer, summoned and guided by a torch in Hero’s tower window. When winter arrived, the sea grew rough. They agreed to wait until spring to continue their love affair. One winter night, Leander saw Hero’s lit torch and attempted to swim across the strait to her but, after the wind blew out the light, he lost his way and drowned in the turbulent waters. The two facing woodcut illustrations depict Leander swimming across the Hellespont, and the climactic moment in the story when Hero, seeing her lover has drowned, leaps from her tower to join him in death. REFERENCES Antoine-Augustin Renouard, Annales de l’Imprimerie des Alde… Troisième Edition, pp. 257-258; Goff M-880; Ahmanson-Murphy, The Aldine Press, Catalogue of… no. 2 (Greek only); Craig Kallendorf and Maria X. Wells, Aldine Press Books in at the Harry Ransom Center, no. 6, p. 56 (Greek only); Barker Aldus Manutius and the Development of Greek Script & Type in the 15th century, pp.52, 119; Curt Bühler, "Aldus Manutius and His First Edition of the Greek Musaeus," in La Bibliofilía 52 (1950), pp. 123-127; reprinted in Early Books and Manuscripts (New York 1973), pp. 162-169; BMC, based on Proctor, Printing of Greek, pp. 95–96; Needham, Paul. “Aldus Manutius's Paper Stocks: The Evidence of Two Uncut Books,” in The Princeton University Library Chronicle, Vol. 55, No. 2 (WINTER 1994), pp. 287-307 PROVENANCE Anthony Askew (his sale, Baker & Leigh, Bibliotheca Askeviana; Sive, Catalogus librorum rarissimorum Antonii Askew, London, 1775, lot 2410, for £3/5; with manuscript annotations referencing the sale on front endpaper) — George Woodhull (his sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, Extensive & valuable library collected at the end of the last and beginning of the present century by Michael Wodhull, London, 1886, lot 1778, “with the omitted line on a ii and b iii supplied m MS. said to be in the autograph of Aldus, blue morocco, broad borders of gold, gilt edges”; manuscript annotation on front endpaper) — Charles Butler of Warren Wood, Hatfield (bookplate; his sale, Sotheby’s London, April 1911)

View 1 of Lot 210: Musaeus Grammaticus | The first Aldine with illustrations, and the second book printed by the press

musaeus grammaticus | the first aldine with illustrations, and the second book printed by the press

Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana. Part 2

Sherman, William Tecumseh A remarkable collection of unpublished correspondence from General Sherman to his aide-de-camp Colonel John Mosby Bacon, comprising 58 autograph letters signed (“W. T. Sherman”; “Sherman”) to Bacon (“Dear Bacon”), totalling approximately 209 pages (mostly ca. 204 x 125 mm, mostly on bifolia with Headquarters Army of the United States or other Army letterhead or personal letterhead of 912 Garrison Avenue, St. Louis, Mo.), various places (including Washington, D.C., Malta, St. Louis, Chicago, Green Bay, San Francisco, Fort Vancouver (Washington Territory), Portland (Oregon), San Antonio, Fort Coeur d’Alene, Lake Minnetonka, and New York, 17 August 1871–26 September 1890, the letters through 11 October 1883 written as Commanding General of the United States Army, letters after that date written as a retired, private citizen, eight letters written in pencil, the others in black or sepia (and one in violet) ink — accompanied by related materials including approximately 30 autograph envelopes in Sherman’s hand, a few with his franking signatures or signed in the third person (“Col John M. Bacon | ADC to General Sherman”); cabinet-card size albumen photograph portrait of Sherman on mount of Napoleon Sarony, signed and dated 1889 on the front and inscribed in pencil on the verso “To Col Jno. M. Bacon with best compliments of W. T. Sherman General, Fort Riley, KS, July 16, 1889”; few telegrams from Sherman to Bacon in clerical hands; three photographs of Bacon and his family; some other private correspondence to Bacon. Very occasional browning or soiling to letters; many envelopes torn with loss. Housed in mylar sleeves in a three-ring binder. After Civil War campaigns that made him the most ferocious and, arguably, most successful General of the Grand Army of the Republic, William Tecumseh Sherman took command of Division of the Mississippi, headquartered at St. Louis, in 1866. He was sent, somewhat against his will, on a diplomatic mission to Mexico that same year. When Ulysses S. Grant was elected president, Sherman succeeded him as Commanding General of the United States Army after Grant’s inauguration, March 1869, and it was during his tenure in that position that the majority of the letters in the present archive were written, to a newly appointed aide-de-camp, Colonel John Mosby Bacon. The extent and candor of the correspondence is evidence that Sherman respected and trusted Bacon, who joined his staff in 1870 and remained for his full appointment as Commanding General, which ended on 1 November 1883, when he retired from active service and was replaced by Philip Sheridan. The fact that their correspondence continued for another seven years, when Sherman was living in St. Louis and New York City—pursuing business opportunities and avoiding political ones—also demonstrates the compatibility of the two men and the significance of their relationship. Bacon was, in fact, retained by Sherman as an aide (together with John E. Tourtelotte) for some time after his official retirement, a courtesy he had requested of Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln. In his Memoirs, Sherman wrote that Bacon “who utterly ignored self in his personal attachment to me. He was then a captain of the Ninth Cavalry, but with almost a certainty of promotion to be major of the Seventh before the date of my official retirement, which actually resulted. [He] accompanied me to St. Louis, and remained with me to the end.” Yet the editors of “The Complete Annotated Edition” of The Memoirs of General William Tecumseh Sherman (Harvard, 2025) can muster little to say about Bacon in a single footnote: “John M. Bacon (1844-1913) was a U.S. volunteer solider from Kentucky during the Civil War. In 1866 he was commissioned as a captain of cavalry in the U.S. Army. He joined WTS's staff in 1870.” Perhaps because these letters have remained with Colonel Bacon’s descendants his role in Sherman’s later career remains unexplored by Sherman’s biographers. A wealth of new information can undoubtedly be mined from these letters. Bacon was, in fact, retained by Sherman as an aide (together with John E. Tourtelotte) for some time after his official retirement, a courtesy he had requested of Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln. In his Memoirs, Sherman wrote that Bacon “who utterly ignored self in his personal attachment to me. He was then a captain of the Ninth Cavalry, but with almost a certainty of promotion to be major of the Seventh before the date of my official retirement, which actually resulted. [He] accompanied me to St. Louis, and remained with me to the end.” The letters provide details, military and domestic, of Sherman’s dizzying schedule of travel to inspect various army installations (as witnessed by the many places of origin of the letters), but on 6 September 1871, he took time to congratulate Bacon on his marriage and urge him to to take his bride with him on his own travels: “Make your mind easy. Send for your wife, and enjoy the years of youth as you best can.” Some of Sherman’s time is taken up with entertaining dignitaries of all stripes, including other general officers. He notes on 5 August 1875, in a letter written on letterhead of Headquarters Military Division of he Missouri, that “Genl [Henry Warner] Slocum arrived at 8 pm … I find General Slocum most anxious to see the Country west of the Mississippi, and therefore we will probably cross over from Saint Paul to Omaha and reach Saint Louis from the direction of Leavenworth. As to mails, you may send to Green Bay Wisconsin this week—and to St. Paul next week—After that hold all mails for me till I come.” On 1 September 1876, writing from Washington, D.C., Sherman informs his aide, “I am going with the Sec of War [J. Donald Cameron] to California … and will be back in time for the Army meeting here. … Mr Cameron takes two of his daughters and a son. I take Mrs Sherman, Tom, Elly and Company.” In a letter of 12 August 1879, Sherman again expresses deep personal concern for Bacon, whose wife and new baby had been ill: “I am glad that you went back to Oakland [Maryland] for your presence was of infinite service to Mrs Bacon and the baby during their critical illness. I now hear that Mrs Bacon & the baby are much better and will soon leave Oakland. … If you come back to Washington I am a little afraid of the effort. … I know that August and September are unsafe months in Washington because of malaria. Still if you return Mrs Bacon can find better food here than at Oakland and probably better physicians.” A “week of gorgeous luxury,” reported Sherman from San Francisco, 20 September 1880, was spend partly in the company of President and Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes—the very first presidential visit to the Golden State. Another dispatch from the west coast, Portland, Oregon, 7 October 1880, reads a bit like a Chamber of Commerce endorsement: “We are just back from Walla Walla, the same dusty, dirty place you can easily recall to memory, but very populous and prosperous. The River is as beautiful as ever and the weather very fair, so that we have had occasional glimpses of the peaks—On Saturday we go to Olympia to spend Sunday there. On Monday we take a chartered boat and make pretty much the same tour of the Sound we did, only stopping a little longer at Seattle and Port Townsend to do more hand shaking & speaking.” Perhaps the most remarkable letter of the archive was written from Washington, D.C., 2 July 1881, at 10:20 a.m., and describes in great detail the shooting of President James Garfield by Charles Guiteau. (Oddly, once in custody, Guiteau wrote to Sherman urging him to seize control of the government. This letter is directed to Generals Philip Sheridan, O. O. Howard, and Irwin McDowall and was evidently intended for Bacon to duplicate and transmit to those three. The President, Sherman relays, was walking with his cabinet through the capital city’s train station, when Garfield “was shot from behind by a man almost in contact, one shot through the arm, a flesh wound the other in the back toward the right side. the ball ranging downward—this last round is serious—I have just come from the depot. The President was in a Room up stairs with several … competent surgeons. … The would be assassin is in Custody. He seems to have acted absolutely alone. No combination or conspiracy apparent. … I will keep you all advised.” In a postscript, Sherman adds, “The President has just been brought up to the White House and is now there.” Of equal significance is a very lengthy letter of 29 May 1884, in which Sherman makes clear his own disinclination to accept the Republican nomination for president (their national convention was to meet in Chicago the next week) and also regrets the effects on Ulysses S. Grant of his own successful foray into presidential politics. “I have had one or two [letters] from delegates to the Chicago convention to the effect that I would surely be nominated and must not decline—but my invariable answer has been that … if the convention should disregard my wishes—I will decline with an expression as damaging to them as unpleasant for myself. Henderson was here night before last and I think he can (being a delegate) satisfy the nominating committee that I am in Earnest I am sure Grant damaged his fame by his Presidential Career—still more by seeking a third term, and infinitely more by his recent experience as a Banker.” The letters continue, detailed and warm, although necessarily of a more personal nature after Sherman’s retirement, until the final letter is reached, 26 September 1890, less than five months before the general’s death. This letter expresses, as so many previous ones had done, the deep personal regard Sherman felt for Bacon and shows that his interest did not diminish after Bacon left his staff. It also contains advice foe advancing Bacon’s career and significant insight into the future of warfare: “I am much pleased to receive your letter of the 21st from Fort Riley and equally so that you had been chosen as the Acting Inspector General for the Dept of the Platte HdQrs. Omaha. You have a good reputation as Post Commander, as also as a Cavalry officer generally. Those are the two foundations for a lasting reputation in the Military Profession. Your new office will enlarge your sphere of Study and observation and will be to your young and beautiful wife much more agreeable than the compliment of garrison life. “I have seen Omaha from its beginning to the present condition. I am sure you will find there social advantages on a larger scale than at Riley and if you profit by the opportunity you will be better qualified for ultimate advancement. No military officer should cease his struggle for promotion till he is General, and then he must await opportunity. “War is becoming each year more and more an expensive luxury. And no nation can resort to war without a big purse, therefore in our country—especially wars will be rare but when they do come, that officer who can best organize and command troops will be the first to have a chance to gain Fame. The practical experience of Grant, Sheridan, and Sherman with troops in our late war was of more use to the Country than the Book Knowledge of Halleck McClellan and Meade. For this reason I have always contended that Staff officers should serve with troops before being appointed to Staff duty. “This you have done completely. … Give my best love to that sweet wife of yours and may happiness and contentment continue with you to the end— Affectionately yours. W. T. Sherman.”

View 1 of Lot 389: Sherman, William Tecumseh | A major unpublished correspondence by the Commanding General of the United States Army

sherman, william tecumseh | a major unpublished correspondence by the commanding general of the united states army

Benjamin Franklin INTRODUCTION TO LOTS 82–87 The Snider Collection is especially rich in materials illuminating the long friendship between Benjamin Franklin and Mary (Polly) Stevenson Hewson (1739–1795), daughter of his London landlady, Mrs. Margaret Stevenson, as the following six lots demonstrate. The editors of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin describe Stevenson (later Mrs. Hewson) as “one of the charming, intelligent girls to whom [Franklin] gave the long and affectionate friendship for which he had such a talent. … Polly’s almost filial devotion to him was a major influence in her life. She had acquired an unusually good education and by the time [Franklin] arrived at Craven Street in 1757, she was spending most of her time as companion to an elderly aunt, a Mrs. Tickell, in Wanstead, a village about ten miles from London, apparently with the understanding that the aunt would leave her a comfortable estate. Nothing came of [Franklin’s] hope of having her as a daughter-in-law; in 1770 she married William Hewson, a brilliant young physician and anatomist, who four years later died from an infection incurred while dissecting. Polly devoted the rest of her life to the care and education of her two sons and daughter” (Papers 8: 122–123). In 1784, Polly and her family visited Franklin in Passy, and in 1786, about a decade after Franklin had first suggested it, she and her children moved to Philadelphia; she was with Franklin at his death. Among their voluminous and eclectic correspondence, are eight letters by Franklin (including the present) that were published in later editions of his Experiments and Observations on Electricity. Franklin reflected on their friendship in a 27 January 1783 letter to Polly: “In looking forward,—Twenty-five Years seems a long Period; but in looking back, how short!— Could you imagine that ’tis now full a Quarter of a Century since we were first acquainted!— It was in 1757. During the greatest Part of the Time I lived in the same House with my dear deceased Friend your Mother; of course you and I saw and convers’d with each other much and often. It is to all our Honours, that in all that time we never had among us the smallest Misunderstanding. Our Friendship has been all clear Sunshine, without any the least Cloud in its Hemisphere. Let me conclude by saying to you what I have had too frequent Occasions to say to my other remaining old Friends, the fewer we become, the more let us love one another” (Papers 39:67–68). Autograph letter signed ("BFranklin") to Mary “Polly” Stevenson (“My Dear Friend”), 2 pages (318 x 201 mm) on a bifolium of laid paper (watermarked Pro Patria with Maid of Dort, countermarked crowned GR), London, 22 March 1762, regarding her study of electricity and other subjects, eight-line autograph postscript, integral leaf with autograph address panel (“To | Miss Stevenson | at Mrs. Tickell’s | Wanstead Essex”) on verso; some light staining at top of first page, long separations at head and foot of central vertical fold, a short marginal separation at horizontal fold, seal tear and repair, but red wax seal preserved largely intact. Half maroon morocco folding-case gilt, chemise. Franklin congratulates Stevenson on her reading his Experiments and Observations on Electricity in the French translation of Thomas-François Dalibard, and responds to a question she had posed in a letter to him, 10 March 1762, concerning Leyden jars: “I was about to ask a Question I find you cannot answer—How it happens that the Surface of the Bottle which contains less than it’s natural Quantity of Electric Fire does not immediately replenish itself from the Hand that holds it, unless the Fire which has a Communication with the other Surface is applied to something that will receive it’s superabundant Quantity” (Papers 10:65–66). He here replies, “I must retract the Charge of Idleness in your Studies, when I find you have gone thro’ the doubly difficult Task of reading so big a Book on an abstruse Subject and in a foreign Language. “The Question you were about to ask is a very sensible one.— The Hand that holds the Bottle receives & conducts away the electric Fluid that is driven out of the outside by the repulsive Power of that which is forc’d into the inside of the Bottle. As long as that Power remains in the same Situation, it must prevent the Return of what it had expell’d; tho’ the Hand would readily supply the Quantity if it could be receiv’d.—” These two opening paragraphs appear, virtually verbatim, as Letter LIII in the 1769 (pp. 460–61) and 1774 (pp. 470–71) editions of Experiments and Observations on Electricity, made at Philadelphia in America. The letter then turns to the topic of a new play that Stevenson was keen to see, a comedy in verse by William Whitehead that had premiered the previous month, and Franklin does not miss the opportunity to gently tease her about the title: “Your good Mama bids me tell you, that she has made Enquiry and finds that the School for Lovers will not be acted till the Benefits are over; but when she hears that it is to be acted she will send you timely Notice. I need not add, that your and your Friends Company at Dinner that Day will be a great Pleasure to us all. But methinks ’tis a Pity, that when you are so desirous of studying in that School, it should not be open, and must we be depriv’d of the Happiness of seeing you till it is? Rather than that should be, I would almost venture to undertake reading you a few Lectures on the Subject myself.” Franklin requests that she send Dalibard’s translation of his work (which he terms “the French Letters, on Electricity”) to him “as a Friend is desirous of perusing them.” He closes by sending his “sincere Respects to Mrs. Tickell, Mrs. Rooke, Miss Pitt, etc.,” but adds a postscript that has evidently not previously appeared in print: “P. S. We were greatly alarm’d in the Night between Friday & Saturday by a Fire at the Bottom of the Street that has almost destroy’d two Houses. Our House & Yard were cover’d with falling Coals of Fire but as it rain’d hard nothing catch’d. We mov’d a few of the most valuable Things; but suffer’d no Damage, tho’ we lost——some Rest.” This bit of news, since it concerned her mother’s house, might well have been quite distressing to Stevenson, which is undoubtedly why Franklin added a joke to the conclusion. REFERENCES Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Cohn, 37:144–145 (not locating the original, text [surprisingly accurate, but lacking the postscript entirely] taken from Stan V. Henkels, Catalogue No. 1262) PROVENANCE Stan V. Henkels, Catalogue No. 1262, The Great Autograph Sale, 1 July 1920, lot 31 (undesignated consignor) — Robert L. McNeil Jr., of Philadelphia (acquired by Snider from the McNeil estate through the offices of Joe Rubinfine American Historical Autographs)

View 1 of Lot 82: Benjamin Franklin | A lesson in electricity, later printed in Experiments and Observations

benjamin franklin | a lesson in electricity, later printed in experiments and observations

Edward Fisher — Mason Chamberlin, after

Edward Fisher — Mason Chamberlin, after B. Franklin of Philadelphia L.L.D. F.R.S. [London]: Sold by M. Chamberlin in Stewart Street, Old Artillery Ground, Spittalfields, [1762] Mezzotint engraving on paper (382 x 283 mm). Trimmed close to plate marks, especially at lower margin, two or three stains. Matted, glazed, and framed (675 x 570 mm). Franklin's portrait of choice, which he gifted to family and friends. Though published in competition with a similar mezzotint by James McArdell after a portrait by Benjamin Wilson, the Fisher-Chamberlin mezzotint was "preferred by Franklin," possibly as it fell "more in line with the feeling of men of Franklin's character" (Sellers). Chamberlin and Fisher here highlight Franklin's scientific prowess; he looks toward an arrangement of bells and wires while a lightning bolt strikes outside. The date is attributed to 1762, the same year as Chamberlin's original and the year in which William Franklin wrote that he would "take 100 of them." Indeed, Franklin himself gifted the mezzotint to many of his friends. As he wrote to Thomas François Dalibard in 1769, "As I cannot soon again enjoy the Happiness of being personally in your Company, permit my Shadow to pay my Respects to you. 'Tis from a Plate my Son caus'd to be engrav'd some years since." REFERENCES Carson 1269; Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, p. 58–59, 220–221; cf. Smithsonian NPG.70.66 PROVENANCE Bonhams, 12 March 2019, lot 2015 (undesignated consignor)

View 1 of Lot 90: Edward Fisher — Mason Chamberlin, after | Mezzotint of Franklin's favorite portrait

edward fisher — mason chamberlin, after | mezzotint of franklin's favorite portrait

PROVENANCE: 1. Apparently from a manuscript perhaps produced in north-western France in c.1420, enriched with large miniatures added by the Mazarine Master in Paris. 2. Perhaps owned by Vladimir Simkhovitch (1874–1959) of New York, who sold the four leaves with large miniatures (see below) to the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1953 and 1955. 3. Probably owned by Heinrich Eisemann c.1953, from whom bought by: 4. Eric Korner (1893–1980); his nos. 80–81; 5. sold by his heirs in our rooms, 19 June 1990, lot 26. Two attractive leaves from a Parisian Book of Hours with miniatures by the Mazarine Master COMMENTARY: Two very personal leaves with illuminations by the workshop of the Mazarine Master: the first showing St Christopher carrying the Christ Child and St Denis holding his mitred head; the second depicting St Martin dividing his cloak on the recto and St Mary Magdalene. The two leaves were excised from a Book of Hours and contain parts of the Suffrages to the Saints. Suffrages are often short, specialised prayers dedicated to an individual saint, intended to seek intercession, protection, and guidance on behalf of oneself or loved ones. These sections were highly personal and tailored to the specific patron, and to the diocese or city in which the owner lived. The four saints represented in these leaves were popular intercessors, beseeched in practical matters of salvation and protection. They are characteristic of late medieval lay devotion and are frequently found in Books of Hours for the Use of Paris, each being associated with everyday practical concerns of salvation and protection. As patron saint of Paris, St Denis was one of the most popular saintly figures in Books of Hours from the region. St Christopher offered protection against sudden death and was one of the preferred saints of travellers and pilgrims. St Denis was often invoked against headaches — despite carrying his head as a sign of his martyrdom — while St Martin is invoked against poverty, and St Mary Magdalene offers the forgiveness of sins. All saints are depicted with their traditional attributes against colourful geometrical backgrounds and set within thin golden frames. They are each charmingly rendered, with details that might strike the modern viewer as humorous — St Denis’s halo is placed on top of his body where his head once was, despite its clear absence, and the bright, crisp white braies of the beggar, together with the benevolent expression of St Martin, catch the eye of the beholder. Apparently from the same manuscript are a handful of leaves, including larger miniatures, four formerly in the Korner Collection, sold in our rooms on 19th June 1990, lots 21–24. Additional sister leaves from the Suffrages include small miniatures in a style characteristic of Brittany or perhaps Normandy, as well as two leaves from a New York collection, sold in our rooms on 21st June 1994, lot 26, bought by Maggs (their Catalogue 1222, 1996, nos. 2–3, with col. pls.), and one bought from Korner by Rosy Schilling and sold after her death in our rooms on 5th December 1994, lot 24. LITERATURE: Andrews, Christine Geisler. “The Boucicaut Masters.” The Art Bulletin 63, no. 1 (March 1981): 7–28. Avril, François, et Nicole Reynaud. Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440–1520. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1993. Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF). “Maître de la Mazarine.” Catalogue général. Accessed June 3, 2026. https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb154998730. Reinburg, Virginia. French Books of Hours: Making an Archive of Prayer, c. 1400–1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Wieck, Roger S. Painted Prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art. New York: George Braziller, 1997.

View 1 of Lot 77: Illuminated Manuscript—Four small miniatures on two leaves from a Book of Hours, in Latin with rubrics in French, (France, Brittany or Normandy(?), c.1420

illuminated manuscript—four small miniatures on two leaves from a book of hours, in latin with rubrics in french, (france, brittany or normandy(?), c.1420

Benjamin Franklin Autograph letter signed (“BFranklin”) to Giambatista Beccaria (“Dear Sir”), one page (225 x 188 mm) on a bifolium of laid paper (watermarked C & I Honig), “Passy, near Paris,” 19 February 1781, thanking him for copies of his works and regretting that diplomatic affairs prevent him from indulging his interest in science. Black morocco folding-case gilt, chemise. “Giambatista Beccaria (1716–1781), of the teaching order of Piarists, professor of experimental physics at Turin since 1748, learned about [Franklin’s] discoveries in June 1752, and by July 2 had drawn electricity from the atmosphere by means of a conductor on his house. His experimentation proceeded so rapidly and successfully that the next year he published Dell’elettricismo artificiale e naturale, which contained (pp. 144–8) a letter to Nollet rebutting his attack on [Franklin’s] work. Priestley (History of Electricity, London, 1767, p. 339) praised his work in the highest terms: ‘All that was done by the French and English electricians, with respect to lightning and electricity, fell far short of what was done by Signior Beccaria at Turin’" (Papers 5:394–396, note 9). The French physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet had developed a theory of simultaneous effluence and affluence of electrical particles that conflicted with the hypothesis Franklin published in Experiments and Observations. Nollet attacked Franklin’s theory in Lettres sur l’électricité (Paris, 1753). While Franklin was distressed, he declined to respond, and so was particularly gratified that Beccaria took up his banner. In this final epistolary entry of what Antonio Pace termed “a scientific friendship,” Franklin thanks the Italian physicist for the recent publications he had delivered through the offices of a former pupil, Count Ottone Ponte di Scarnafigi, ambassador of the Kingdom of Sardinia to France. Beccaria died in May 1781, just three months after he would have received this letter. “I received lately through the hands of your Ambassador, the several ingenious Pieces of your Writing, which you did me the honour to send me. At present I am so engag’d in publick Affairs, that I cannot give the Attention I wish to philosophical Subjects, which used to afford so much Pleasure. It grieves me to hear of the long Continuance of your Illness. Science suffers with you. I beg leave to recommend the Bearer, M. Steinsky, to your Civilities. He is Professor of Physics at Prague. With good & unalterable Esteem, I have the honour to be, Reverend & dear Sir, Your most obedient & most humble Servant.” Franklin’s response was carried by François Steinsky, who was then on a sabbatical sponsored by Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, travelling through Switzerland, Holland, England, France, and Italy. However, until recently the original recipient’s letter was thought not to have survived, and Franklin’s text was known only by the press copy in the Library of Congress. Implicit in Franklin’s letter is his gratitude for Beccaria’s long championing of his own work on electricity. The preface to Beccaria’s Dell'elettricismo artificiale e naturale (1753) “candidly admits … his profound debt to that ‘most celebrated writer on electricity, Benjamin Franklin.’ His treatise is, however, no servile imitation. Applying a rigorous experimental and inductive technique within a framework suggested by mathematical exposition, Beccaria was able to develop Franklin's brilliant but disorganized insights to a point which amazed his contemporaries and to lay the foundations for later quantitative studies. Priestley's appraisal of the significance of Beccaria's work has already been noted. [Franklin] was among the very first to acknowledge the Artificial and Natural Electricity as by all odds the most profound and organic study that had appeared on the subject of electricity, and who continued to follow the Turinese professor's work with keen interest until the latter's death in 1781” (Pace, pp. 51–52). Franklin himself noted to Peter Collinson in 1754, “I am much pleased with Mr. Beccarias Book on Electricity for his curious experiments, Clear Expression, and Excellent Methods. I beg the favour of you to present Him my sincere Thanks for the Countenance he has afforded my Opinions and the handsome defence he has made of some of them, against the Attacks of Mr. Nollet. Our Different experiments and Observations on Lightening have led us both to the same strange opinion vizt: that Thunder Strokes are frequently from the Earth to the Clouds —which Opinion I imagine will be found true by such as examine it with the requisite attention” (Papers 5:394–396). Franklin and Beccaria exchanged fourteen letters, according to The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, but this is one of only about four—and the only one by Franklin—to survive in its original holograph. REFERENCES Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Oberg, 34:380–381 (not locating the original; text taken from the press copy in the Library of Congress); Antonio Pace, “Chapter III. A Scientific Friendship: Giambatista Beccaria,” pp. 49–70, in Benjamin Franklin and Italy (American Philosophical Society, 1958) PROVENANCE A private collection in Milan

View 1 of Lot 123: Benjamin Franklin | "Science suffers with you"

benjamin franklin | "science suffers with you"

An elegant miniature by the workshop of one of Paris’ most prolific artists, the Master of the Chronique Scandaleuse

An elegant miniature by the workshop of one of Paris’ most prolific artists, the Master of the Chronique Scandaleuse PROVENANCE: 1. Made for a highly decorated Book of Hours, certainly a noble commission. 2. Pencil numbering 227707 on verso. 3. Another leaf apparently from the same manuscript, showing the Baptism of Christ, was sold in our rooms, 12 December 1967, lot 6, afterwards Maggs, Bulletin 6 (1969), no.8, with plate. 4. Sotheby’s, Western Manuscripts, 7th June 2006, lot 30. COMMENTARY: This sophisticated scene depicts the Annunciation to the Shepherds in a style that can be traced back to one of Tours’ leading artist, Jean Bourdichon, before proliferating more widely, until it reached the French capital. The miniature is most likely made by the workshop or under the direct influence of the Master of the Chronique Scandaleuse (previously known as the Master of Morgan 219). This artist was active in Paris c.1493-c.1510 and created beautiful high-profile commissions for patrons such as Philippa of Guelders, wife of Duke René of Lorraine often in collaboration with other leading artists, such as Jean Pichore and the Master of Jacques the Besançon. The work of this artist is closely connected to the fine printed editions of Antoine Vérard who were highly popular in the French capital and beyond. It is likely that the artist drew inspirations from these highly influential and impressive printed works. The artist is likely to have worked in this medium as well, probably designing woodcuts for printed books. The miniature is placed in a gently arched window opening a view onto a brightly illuminated night scene of the Annunciation to the Shepherds. Placed in a verdant and lush landscape two shepherds receive the news of the coming of the saviour. Above the two shepherds a golden and etherial angel appears, radiating light, that bathes the two figures in a golden hue by using fine gold hatchings. The leaf hints at the former glory of the complete manuscript with its dual-coloured border of liquid gold and exuberant decoration. The verso offers us more hints at the origin of the manuscript, using blue for rubrics which catch the eye is characteristic for Parisian Books of Hours. The Use, identifiable in the antiphon ‘Maria virgo’, is that of Rome. This precious leaf unveils the influential position of Parisian illuminators and the close connection between luxury manuscript copies and fine printed editions at the beginning of the 16th century. LITERATURE: Burin, Elizabeth. Manuscript Illumination in Lyons, 1473–1530. Turnhout: Brepols, 2001. Avril, François, et Nicole Reynaud. Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440–1520. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1993. Reinburg, Virginia. French Books of Hours: Making an Archive of Prayer, c. 1400–1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Wieck, Roger S. Painted Prayers: The Book of Hours in Medieval and Renaissance Art. New York: George Braziller, 1997. König, Eberhard. French Illuminated Manuscripts, 1200–1500. London: Harvey Miller, 2014.

View 1 of Lot 73: Illuminated Manuscript—The Annunciation to the Shepherds, miniature from a luxurious Book of Hours (Use of Rome) by the workshop of the Master of the Chronique Scandaleuse, [northern France (probably Paris), c.1500]

illuminated manuscript—the annunciation to the shepherds, miniature from a luxurious book of hours (use of rome) by the workshop of the master of the chronique scandaleuse, [northern france (probably paris), c.1500]

Captain James Cook Manuscript in French of Cook's third voyage to Hawaii, a fair copy. Ca. 1785 2 volumes, folio (320 x 204 mm). Manuscript in ink, titled "3e Voy. de Cook," unbound, the volumes each a single gathering of folded bifolia, with a laid in singleton, comprising 91 leaves written recto and verso, paginated from pp. 768–950, with 5 blanks at the rear of volume 2, the paper watermarked with a potted plant and countermarked E MARAY | G BALENCON | 1785; the sewing perished in first volume and largely holding in the second, with some light toning and wear along the deckled edges, very infrequent and minor staining, the second volume with the first bifolia split along the fold with losses touching the first few letters of about 10 lines of text. An unrelated contemporary manuscript slip, written in a different hand, found laid in. Housed in a cloth clamshell case. The earliest manuscript description of Hawaii, and the death of Captain Cook, that has ever surfaced. While various logbooks, letters, and charts relating to Cook survive, mostly in institutional collections, this is the only contemporary manuscript narrative of Cook's voyages that we can trace. As such, this is the earliest known manuscript of Cook’s third voyage in any language. It is a new discovery, unrecorded in all bibliographies, worthy of further study. Cook’s voyages made a strong impression in France. The French crown, inspired by his successes and driven by a longstanding rivalry with Great Britain, Enlightenment curiosity, and the pursuit of new trade routes, decided to launch their own expeditions to the Pacific. Throughout the 1770s, contemporary with Cook’s voyages, the French explorers de Bougainville, du Fresne, de Surville, and Kerguelen all visited the Pacific. The most significant post-Cook French voyage, however, was that of Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse (see lot 488). His expedition, ordered by King Louis XVI, was directly modeled after and designed to compete with Cook’s voyage. La Pérouse set sail in 1785, surveyed the coasts of Chile, Easter Island, Hawaii, Alaska, California, and Northeast Asia, before tragically disappearing in 1788 after leaving Botany Bay in Australia. His voyage was followed by that of Antoine Raymond Joseph de Bruni, chevalier d'Entrecasteaux, who in 1792 attempted to find La Perouse and explored the Australian coast. In this context, it is evident that the Frech public were intensely interested in Pacific voyages throughout the 1780s and 1790s. To meet this demand, three translations of Cook’s voyages were published in France in the 1780s. These include John Rickman's Troisiéme voyage de Cook, ou journal d'une expedition faite dans la Mer Pacifique... published in 1782, and Jean-François de La Harpe’s abridged version, Abrégé de l'histoire générale des voyages, published in 1786. However, the present text differs substantially from these two, so it is apparent that they were not used as the source material for this manuscript. Instead. the text closely follows Jean-Nicolas Démeunier's abridged French translation of Cook's Third Voyage, Troisiéme Voyage de Cook, ou Voyage à l'Ocean Pacifique, published in Paris in 1785. The compiler condensed and edited Démeunier's text, closely following it, while often paraphrasing from it. For example, just after the death of Cook, Démeunier writes: "Ainsi termina ses jours, le plus célebre & le plus grand des Navigateurs, après tant de glorieuses entreprises, couronnées des plus heureux succès!" That same moment in the manuscript has been tersely trimmed down to: "Ainsi pour le grand Cook." The text contains numerous corrections, strikethroughs, and single-word insertions, which oftentimes appear to be copying errors or the compiler having second thoughts about word choice. Some words or passages are underlined, and others are placed in parentheses. While transcribing James King's narrative about Canton, the scribe complains in the margins about misprints that are making it difficult to be sure of the narrative—this is a strong indication that he was working from a printed source. As it turns out, Démeunier's translation of that passage contains some obvious printing errors. There are no apparent gaps in the manuscript, though the compiler omits certain parts of the source text that he deemed nonessential. For example, he does not include any of the preliminary matter that appears in Démeunier's translation, and he skips the brief biography of Cook that appears immediately after his death. As such, this is the compete narrative of Cook's third voyage, beginning with The Discovery setting sail from Plymouth on 12 July 1776, and ending in the same place as the Admiralty account, per Démeunier's translation, with King’s statement: “La Découverte ne perdit pas un seul homme.” It is apparent that this manuscript is a fair copy intended for publication. Not only does the text show careful editing, including hundreds of corrections, cross-outs, and single word insertions, but the underlines and parenthesis were evidently done with a mind to future indexing. However, we have been unable to locate a printed version of this text. For whatever reason, it seems to have never made it to press. The next earliest manuscript narrative accounts of Hawaii, not ship’s logs or journals, that we can locate all date to the early 19th century once Christian missionaries arrived on the islands. As such, this manuscript predates any similar documents by at least two or three decades and is the earliest known account of the Hawaiian Islands in manuscript form. REFERENCES Jean-Nicolas Démeunier. Troisiéme Voyage de Cook, ou Voyage à l'Ocean Pacifique... Paris: Hotel de Thou, 1785 (https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k10733462/f1.item)

View 1 of Lot 472: [Cook, Captain James] | An 18th century French autograph manuscript of Cook's Third Voyage, the earliest known manuscript description of Hawaii and the death of Cook

[cook, captain james] | an 18th century french autograph manuscript of cook's third voyage, the earliest known manuscript description of hawaii and the death of cook

A dramatic scene from the romuléon, the only manuscript copy of the text of french origin, illuminated by the artist pierre gautier

A dramatic scene from the romuléon, the only manuscript copy of the text of french origin, illuminated by the artist pierre gautier PROVENANCE: 1. The Romuléon manuscript from which this and other dispersed miniatures originated was traced in Niort (now at the Médiathèque Pierre-Moinot, Cote RES G2F). The manuscript was given to the library in 1884 by Edmond-Emmanuel Arnauldet (1827–1899), , a local judge. 2. The present cutting was part of lot 9 from an album of 14 miniatures dispersed at Christie's, 21 June 1989, lots 6-11. 3. Christie's, New York, 12 December 2017, lot 31. 4. Purchased from Maggs Brothers, London, 2019/20; COMMENTARY: The dramatic scene depicted in the miniature shows the defeat of the Seleucid emperor Antiochus at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC by the forces of the Roman Republic and their allies, the Kingdom of Pergamon. His defeat resulted in a substantial loss of land of the Seleucid empire and Antiochus died only three years later on a subsequent expedition. The battle wages in front of a beautiful landscape of soft hills. Separated by a meandering river is an imposing Gothic castle with a prominent rectangular donjon reminiscent of the Château de Vincennes that was used by the French kings. Like a black tide, the knights are enmeshed in battle on horse back and the bodies of the fallen begin to pile up under their horses hoves. The miniature was part of the Romuléon, a monumental work that covered the history of Ancient Rome from the time of Romulus and Remus to Constantine the Great. Its original compiler, Benvenuto Rambaldi da Imola (1330 –1388), drew on a variety of classical and Christian sources to create his influential compilation. In the course of the 1460s histories as well as chronicles were in high demand among the noble and learned elite, which resulted in not only one, but two writers translating the work from Latin into French — independently of each other (cf. McKendrick, pp.149-69). This translation shows the immense increase in popularity of the work, making it more easily accessible to the wider audiences at court and beyond. Our miniature stems from a manuscript translated by Jean Miélot, who worked as a translator and scribe in the service of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, one of the time’s leading patrons of the arts who commissioned the work. Only six complete manuscript copies of Miélot’s translation are extant and all of them originate in the orbit of the Burgundian court and were sophisticated luxury editions. Thirteen other leaves, most likely from the same manuscript are known, and were sold together with the present miniature at Christie's, 21 June 1989, lots 6-11. The leaves were attributed to the artist Pierre Garnier, a court painter of Duke René of Anjou between 1476-1480 (Lauga, 2007) and active in Langres until 1493 (Reynaud p.376). This miniature stems from the only known copy of the Romuléon that can claim a French origin. The dramatic scene is an expression of the changing literary taste and thirst for histories by the Burgundian elite in the second half of the 15th century. LITERATURE: Avril, François, and Nicole Reynaud. Les manuscrits à peintures en France, 1440–1520. Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1993. Lauga, Jacques. “Les manuscrits liturgiques dans le diocèse de Langres à la fin du Moyen Âge: les commanditaires et leurs artistes.” PhD diss., Université Paris IV–Sorbonne, 2007. McKendrick, Scot. “The Romuléon and the Manuscripts of Edward IV.” In Proceedings of the 1992 Harlaxton Symposium, 149–169. Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1994. McKendrick, Scot. “Charles the Bold and the Romuléon: Reception, Loss and Influence.” In Kunst- und Kulturtransfer zur Zeit Karls des Kühnen, edited by Norberto Gramaccini and Markus C. Schurr, 59–84. Turnhout: Brepols, 2012.

View 1 of Lot 75: Illuminated Manuscript—The Defeat of Antiochus, King of Syria at the Battle of Magnesia, miniature from the Romuléon [Eastern France, c.1480]

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