Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana. Part 2

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

Master Sculpture from Four Millennia

Italian, Florence, second third of the 16th century

Italian, Florence, second third of the 16th century Seated Bearded Man bronze, on a later wood base bronze: 16cm., 6¼in. 18cm., 7⅛in. overall

seated bearded man

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

Christoph Willibald Gluck Autograph manuscript of part of the celebrated air “J’ai perdu mon Eurydice” from Orphée et Eurydice A WORKING DRAFT DIVERGING FROM THE FIRST EDITION, including changes to the music and text, beginning with the accompanied recitative for Eurydice and Orphée (“[Reçois] donc mes derniers adieux”), including Orphée’s fatal backward glance and Eurydice’s death, and concluding with the opening twenty-five bars of Orphée’s air (up to the Adagio “C’est ton amant”), in score, for voices and instruments, notated in dark brown ink on three five-stave systems per page, some annotations in pencil and red crayon, with deletions, smudging, and alterations, the manuscript extensively reworked by the composer, including a revision of the passage leading up to Eurydice’s death, notated on a single stave at the foot of the first page, with some earlier passages, diverging from the final published versions, still legible (including “objet de mes amours”) 4 pages, folio (c. 300 x 230 mm), 16-stave paper, [1774], a few minor tears, a little paper loss caused by oxidation of the ink, some spotting and staining, strengthened at spine THIS IS THE AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS ARIAS IN ALL OPERA; IT IS WITHOUT DOUBT THE MOST IMPORTANT MANUSCRIPT BY GLUCK TO HAVE BEEN OFFERED AT AUCTION. This is a working manuscript, containing Gluck’s draft of the crucial scene preceding Orphée’s famous air, where, having been forbidden to look back at Eurydice as he leads her out of the underworld, the hero finds he is unable to resist her plaintive cries, glances at her, and causes her death. Gluck has deleted early versions of several passages in Orphée’s part and extensively remodelled them, the earlier drafts still visible under his heavy deletions; some of these reveal different words as well as different music from the final versions known today. The moment of Eurydice’s death is underscored by the momentary singing together of the two voices (not found in the Italian version), and this too is subject to deletions and revisions. Gluck deletes the first version of the words and writes the revision at the foot of the page (“Eu Orfée o Ciel je Meurs”). Even the words of Orphée’s “J’ai perdu mon Eurydice” are different, the second line “…rien n’égale mon Malheur” here given as “j’ai perdu tout mon bonheur”; similarly the words “c’est ton Epoux” of the Adagio are given here as “c’est ton amant”. Gluck originally wrote Orfeo ed Euridice as an opera in Italian (Vienna, 1762), with the hero sung by a castrato. No autograph manuscript survives: the first edition is the primary source for the Vienna version. The composer greatly amplified the opera for Paris in 1774, rewriting the hero’s part for haut-contre (a high tenor). There is no complete autograph manuscript of the Paris version, though sections survive in Paris, Berlin and Stanford, amounting to roughly two-thirds of the score. In the present manuscript, Orphée’s part is notated in the alto clef, although the composer mistakenly began writing part of the opening of the air in the tenor clef. This air has been celebrated as a star vehicle for mezzo sopranos and contraltos from Pauline Viardot in the nineteenth century to the present. It was especially beloved in this country as “What is life to me without thee?”, as sung by the great contralto Kathleen Ferrier. PROVENANCE: Sale in these rooms, 3 December 2008, lot 35

View 1 of Lot 61: Christoph Willibald Gluck | Autograph manuscript of part of the celebrated air 'J’ai perdu mon Eurydice' from "Orphée et Eurydice", 1774 

christoph willibald gluck | autograph manuscript of part of the celebrated air 'j’ai perdu mon eurydice' from "orphée et eurydice", 1774

(Soares, Manoel de Moraes) Unpublished 18th century manuscript, titled “Epithome Historico-Medico-Politico.” Manuscript, 8vo (170 x 105 mm). Ink on paper, accomplished in multiple hands; some browning and offsetting. Crush crimson morocco, covers with richly gilt borders and floral motif at center, spin with raised bands in six compartments, each gilt tooled, gilt lettering piece, marbled endpapers with ink signature at corner; a few scuffs and light wear, small worming at the head and foot of spine. The first comprehensive modern history of medicine in Portuguese. A late eighteenth-century Portuguese manuscript on the history of medicine, apparently unpublished, beginning with the ancient Greeks and continuing until the author's own day, laying particular emphasis on the relationship between physicians and men of influence. Authorship has been attributed to Manoel de Moraes Soares, whose 1760 publication of Memorial critic-medico, historico-physico-mechanio bears similarity in title. The most recent date mentioned in the text is 1771 with several other events from the 1750s and 1760s are recorded, and the maps cited are mid-century ones that were standard in the third quarter of the eighteenth century. Epithome notes the contributions to healing of the monastic orders and credits the Moors with the benefits they brought to science during their Iberian hegemony, giving many particulars of the work of physicians of various faiths under the Caliphate. With mentions of individual cures, drugs and doctors, the words "historico-medico-politico" in the title reflects the author's concern for the standing of medical science in different communities. Epithome also features a “Lista Geographica” catalogue of the universities, hospitals, observatories, botanic gardens, laboratories and similar institutions in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Within this catalogue, Latin American institutions are featured, with the mention of The College of William and Mary incorrectly located at Jamestown, Virginia, alongside hospitals in New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Montreal. Manoel de Moraes Soares was born in Coimbra in 1727 and died Lisbon around 1800. Soares published only two works concerning: the translation of La Condamine's work on smallpox vaccination, Memoria sobre a inoculaçam das bexigas (1762) and Memorial critic-medico (1760). REFERENCES Innocêncio VI, 67 and XVI, 273; Silvestre Ribeiro, História dos estabelecimentos científicos volumes II & V PROVENANCE Duke of Lafões (library stamp to title-page) — sale in our London rooms, 27 November 1986, lot 410.

View 1 of Lot 335: (Soares, Manoel de Moraes) | An unpublished manuscript history of medicine

(soares, manoel de moraes) | an unpublished manuscript history of medicine

George Eliot 21 volumes, comprising: (i) Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe. Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1861 FIRST EDITION, 8vo (190 x 118 mm), presentation copy inscribed on half title (“with the Publisher’s Compliments”), modern half calf over marbled boards, spine gilt with raised bands in six compartments, red and green gilt-lettered morocco labels in the second and third, red speckled edges, lacking 4-page advertisement of Dr Alexander Carlyle's autobiography at front, and 16-page publisher's catalogue at end, endleaves renewed “Every man's work, pursued steadily, tends in this way to become an end in itself, and so to bridge over the loveless chasms of his life.” Subtly subversive, Eliot's third novel is a deceptively simple tale that addressed themes of Victorian morals and sexuality, time and temporality, Darwinian thinking, and the philosophy of William Wordsworth. (ii) The Works of George Eliot: Cabinet Edition. Edinburgh & London: William Blackwood and Sons, [1880] 20 volumes, 8vo (170 x 107 mm), contemporary half calf over marbled boards, spines gilt with raised bands in six compartments, red and green gilt-lettered morocco labels in the second and fourth, the rest gilt-tooled, marbled edges, extremities very lightly rubbed and bumbed A remarkably fine set, including the later addition of Impressions of Theophrastus Such in 1880. LITERATURE: (i) Baker & Ross A6; Carter, p.112; Parrish, p.15; Sadleir 819; (ii) Baker & Ross E11.1

View 1 of Lot 55: George Eliot | Silas Marner, 1861, first edition, [with:] The Works, [1880]

george eliot | silas marner, 1861, first edition, [with:] the works, [1880]

The Jay T. Snider Collection of Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Autograph document signed three times ("B. Franklin"), one page (158 x 198 mm) on a slip of laid paper, [Philadelphia, 1743], being a bill directed to "The Revd. Mr. Clapp … for Printing and Binding 500 of Dr. Mather's Soul-saving Gospel Truths"; cryptic contemporary note at lower margin, some minor fold separations. Matted. [Accompanied by:] Increase Mather. Soul-saving Gospel Truths; delivered in several Sermons, Wherein is shewed: I. The Unreasonableness of those Excuses which Men make for their Delaying to come to the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation. II. That for Men to despair of the Forgiveness of their Sins because they have been Great, is a great Evil. III. That every Man in the World is going into Eternity. Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin, 1743 (colophon, G12r: Boston, Printed 1701. Philadelphia, Reprinted, 1744). Pot 12mo (126 x 72 mm). Type-ornament head- and tailpieces; scattered staining, lower fore-edge corners worn. Contemporary calf; worn, rebacked with loss to head of spine, recornered. [And accompanied by:] Thomas Clap, compiler. [A Catalogue of the Library of Yale-College in New-Haven. New London: Timothy Green, 1743.] 8vo in half-sheets (145 x 92 mm). Type ornament headpieces; title-page in facsimile; lightly stained. Later marbled wrappers. Half red morocco slipcase gilt, chemise. An intriguing triumvirate of articles illuminating Franklin’s early career as a highly successful job printer, not only of government forms and records, but also tracts and pamphlets of a theological nature. All of Franklin’s later endeavors were made possible by his initial success as a printer. In the document offered here, written entirely in Franklin’s hand, the printer bills Thomas Clap, the sixth rector of Yale College—and the first to be called by the title, “president,” for bringing a new edition of Increase Mather’s sermons off the press: “The Revd. Mr. Clapp [sic] to B. Franklin For Printing and Binding 500 of Dr. Mather’s Soul-saving Gospel Truths (per Agreemt.) £100..0..0 Rh. Island Money———B. Franklin.” Franklin then instructs Clap, “Please to pay the above to my Brother Peter Franklin, and his Receipt shall discharge you from Your obliged humb. Servt. B. Franklin.” Mather’s sermons had previously appeared in two Boston editions: the first sold, and presumably printed, by Eleazer Phillips, 1703 (ESTC W22326; Evans 1134), and the second printed by T. Green, for B. Eliot, in King-Street, 1712 (ESTC W19809; Evans 1569). (Despite Franklin’s colophon there was no 1701 printing of Soul-saving Gospel Truths). Franklin’s edition is essentially a page-by-page resetting of the 1703 edition and is very rare. No copies are recorded in Rare Book Hub since the Pennypacker sale in 1905, and ESTC seemingly locates only three complete copies. Often embroiled in the religious controversies of his day, Clap had an ardent interest in books. He not only commissioned this edition of Increase Mather, but he served as Yale’s de facto librarian, compiling the first catalogue of Yale’s library in 1743. This work is almost as uncommon in the market as Franklin’s edition of Mather’s sermons, although a number of institutions have copies. In the Reese catalogue Christie’s stated that “The last copy of this book recorded at auction was in the Brinley sale,” but in fact a fine copy, signed by several Yale students, was sold at Scott & O’Shaughnessy, 18 February 1916, lot 26. In his preface, or “Advertisement To the Students of Yale College,” Clap writes “I have here with considerable Labours and Pains, prepared a Catalogue of the Books in the Library under proper Heads that so you may Readily know and find any Book, upon any particular Subject.” He then explains his system of pressmarks: “The First Number signifies the Teer, the Second the Box; and the Third the Number of the Book. …” Clap also advises that the students peruse the approximately 2,600 books listed, “in some Measure according to the Order of this Catalogue. And in the First Year to Study principally the Tongues, Arithmetic and Algebra; the Second, Logic, Rhetoric and Geometry; the Third, Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; and the Fourth, Ethics and Divinity. … Above all have an Eye to the great End of all your Studies, which is to obtain the Clearest Conceptions of Divine Things and to lead you to a Saving Knowledge of God in his son Jesus Christ.” Increase Mather’s sermons, which Clap clearly believed was an essential text, is listed on page 36 of the catalogue under the ninth section, Sermons, of the fourth heading, Ethics and Divinity. These three items trace Soul-saving Gospel Truths from commission through production and, finally, to its readers. REFERENCES Document: Miller 328 note; Mather: Miller 328; ESTC W19810; Evans 5249; Hildeburn 836; Campbell 279; Holmes 127c; Sabin 46748; Clap: ESTC W37694; Evans 5320; Trumbull 1715; Sabin 105894 PROVENANCE Document: Clap family archive — Christie’s New York, 9 December 1994, lot 35 (undesignated consignor). Clap: William S. Reese (booklabel on chemise; Christie’s New York, 2 June 2022, lot 386)

View 1 of Lot 28: Benjamin Franklin | God and Man and Franklin and Mather at Yale

benjamin franklin | god and man and franklin and mather at yale

(Lawyers — Broadside Ballads) The Lawyer’s Promotion. To an excellent new Tune [and] The Perjur’d Female Lover: or, The London Lawyer’s Son. Boston: Sold at the Bible and Heart, in Cornhill, [Thomas Fleet Jr. and John Fleet, between 1780 and 1797] Two broadside ballads (both 337 x 210 mm, to sight). Type printed in three columns, with woodcut illustration at upper left adjacent to the title, the “Lawyer’s Promotion” broadside with the columns divided by lines of type ornaments; both with old folds, light creasing, short tears and small chips at edges, the “Lawyer’s Promotion” with a small loss in the right column of text, and a few tiny holes at the intersections of the folds, and with one dot of ink in the margin, the “Perjur’d Female Lover” with pale spotting, split along the central vertical fold with small losses at the points where the folds intersect with losses to about a dozen letters, a few wormholes in the margins. Framed, not examined out of frames. A pair of late eighteenth century broadside ballads published by Thomas Jr. and John Fleet on Cornhill in Boston. They are both prime examples of early America popular printing—oftentimes cheaply printed sheets of street literature featuring amusing tawdry stories, slapdash printing, and woodcut illustrations drawn from the printer’s stock. Both ballads tell colorful stories about the joys and perils of love. In the Lawyer’s Promotion, a lawyer marries a woman who loves him without ever seeing her face, and is rewarded for his blind faith with her beauty and vast fortune, or, in other words, “Beauty, Honour, Joy and Treasure | a Rich Golden Stream of Pleasure.” In The Perjur’d Female Lover, a lawyer’s son is in love with a woman who breaks her promise to be his bride, jilting him for a richer man. He dies of a broken heart, and his ghost haunts her until, “she fell sick and soon she dy’d | and as she breath’d her last she cry’d…. farewell to all my weeping friends | I’m going to answer for my sins.” Neither broadside appears in the AAS catalog. The Lawyer’s Promotion is in two institutional collections (Brown and Harvard Law) per WorldCat. This Fleet edition of the Perjur’d Female Lover is apparently unrecorded, however AAS’s catalog lists three other versions of it, one printed in New-London, one printed by Leonard Deming in Boston, and one without an imprint. AAS’s Isiah Thomas Broadside Ballads Project lists a third ballad by the Fleets, also featuring a lawyer, titled A Lawyer Outwitted (Boston: Fleet, 1731).

View 1 of Lot 369: (Lawyers — Broadside Ballads) | Two rare eighteenth-century ballads featuring lawyers who experience the joys or perils of love, printed by John and Thomas Fleet

(lawyers — broadside ballads) | two rare eighteenth-century ballads featuring lawyers who experience the joys or perils of love, printed by john and thomas fleet

Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery

Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery The Constitution of the Pennsylvania Society, for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and the Relief of Free Negroes, Unlawfully Held in Bondage. Begun in the year 1774, and enlagred [sic] on the twenty-third of April, 1787. To which are added, the Acts of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, for the Gradual Abolition of slavery. Philadelphia: Printed by Joseph James, in Chesnut-Street, M.DCC.LXXXVII (1787) 8vo (198 x 128 mm). Half-title; lightly browned, some light dampstaining to upper margin of last few leaves. Stab-sewn in original blue wrappers; soiled, long, clean tear to front wrapper. First edition, first issue, with misspelling enlagred on title-page. In 1774 Anthony Benezet called the first meeting of the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully held in Bondage; most of its members were Quakers. The Society grew in numbers and reorganized several times; and it was joined by such prominent figures as Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush, who helped write the Society's new constitution—which was drafted and published in the same year and the same city—Philadelphia—as the Constitution of the United States, of which, of course, Franklin was also a significant framer. The preamble, or introduction, to the Society’s constitution states: “It having pleased the Creator of the world, to make of one flesh, all the children of men—it becomes them to consult and promote each other’s happiness, as members of the same family, however diversified they may be, by colour, situation, religion, or different states of society. It is more especially the duty of those persons, who profess to maintain for themselves the rights of human nature, and who acknowledge the obligations of Christianity, to use such means as are in their power, to extend the blessings of freedom to every part of the human race; and in a more particular manner, to such of their fellow-creatures, as are entitled to freedom by the laws and constitutions of any of the United States, and who, notwithstanding, are detained in bondage, by fraud or violence.— From a full conviction of the truth and obligation of these principles—from a desire to diffuse them, wherever the miseries and vices of slavery exist, and in humble confidence of the favour and support of the Father of Mankind, the subscribers have associated themselves under the title of the ‘Pennsylvania Society for promoting the abolition of slavery, and the relief of free Negroes unlawfully held in bondage.’” Inevitably, some modern historians have questioned the sincerity of Franklin’s commitment to abolition; for example, Emma J. Lapsansky-Werner writes, “But in the end, Franklin’s abolitionism remains something of an enigma, replete with questions, contradictions, inconsistencies. Some have argued that Franklin’s apparent antislavery energy was little more than the backwater of his wife’s commitment to the cause. … The fact that there is no evidence that Franklin ever made friends with a black person gives cause to raise such a question. Apparently new insights did not alter his behavior toward the black people surrounding him” (“At the End, an Abolitionist?,” in Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World, ed. Talbott, pp. 294–96). However, the letter that Franklin sent to Samuel Huntington, Governor of Connecticut, 12 January 1788, just three days after that state had ratified the proposed Constitution of the United States, leaves little doubt of the genuine abhorrence with which the elder statesman viewed slavery: “The Pennsylvania Society for promoting the abolition of Slavery, & the relief of free Negroes unlawfully held in bondage have taken the liberty to request your Excellencys acceptance of a few copies of their Constitution and the laws of Pennsa. which relate to one of the objects of their Institution. … The Society have heard with great distress that a considerable part of the Slaves, who have been sold in the Southern States since the establishment of the peace have been imported in vessels fitted out in the United States. From your Excellencys station they hope your influence will be exerted hereafter to prevent a practice which is so evidently repugnant to the political principles & forms of government lately adopted by the Citizens of the United States, & wch. cannot fail of delaying the enjoyment of the blessings of Peace & Liberty by drawing down the displeasure of the great and impartial ruler of the Universe upon our Country.” (Franklin’s letter to Huntington was sold by Sotheby’s New York, 7 December 1999, lot 34A, and, at $305,000, is the most expensive letter by Franklin ever sold at auction. The letter remains unpublished, but will be included in a forthcoming volume of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin; in the meantime, the text, without editorial apparatus, is available at franklinpapers.org.) REFERENCES ESTC W30521; Evans 20636; Federal Hundred 14; Sabin 60364

View 1 of Lot 139: Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery | “to extend the blessings of freedom to every part of the human race”

pennsylvania society for promoting the abolition of slavery | “to extend the blessings of freedom to every part of the human race”

Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard, 1740. An Almanack for the Year of Christ 1740 ... Fitted to the Latitude of forty degrees, and a Meridian of five hours west from London, but may without sensible error, serve all the adjacent places, even from Newfoundland to South-Carolina. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, at the New Printing-Office near the Market, [1739] Foolscap 8vo (162 x 92 mm, 11 of 12 leaves). Woodcut borders and anatomical man; final leaf in facsimile, some browning, staining, and foxing, long closed tear to second and third leaves, one or two instances of early marginalia. Half brown morocco and marbled paper-covered boards, spine gilt-lettered. Third edition—the Laird Park copy. This third edition was announced in the Gazette as "just published" on 10 January 1740 (Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Labaree, 2:244). REFERENCES Miller 163; ESTC W22776; Evans 4364; Hildeburn 606a–b; Drake 9616–9618 PROVENANCE Daniel Brown (ownership inscription dated 1739–40 to margin of second leaf) — John Brown (contemporary signature to fifth leaf) — Laird U. Park, Jr. (his sale, Sotheby's New York, 29 November 2000, lot 97)

View 1 of Lot 15: Benjamin Franklin | Poor Richard ... for the year 1740

benjamin franklin | poor richard ... for the year 1740

Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 The Constitution of the Common-Wealth of Pennsylvania, as established by the General Convention elected for that purpose, and held at Philadelphia, July 15th, 1776, and continued by Adjournments to September 28, 1776. Philadelphia: Printed by John Dunlap, in Market-Street, M,DCC,LXXVII (1777) 8vo (168 x 100 mm). Second printing, retaining the terminal blank leaf; Some staining, mostly to the first three leaves, with a pale circular stain on the title-page, and a dark (printer's ink?) stain on the following leaf, a few expert restorations, including a strip of Japanese tissue reattaching the title-page, a repaired corner, and closed edge tears. Bound in modern drab paper boards, printed spine label. The rare second printing of the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, published by John Dunlap. The Pennsylvania Convention was held between 15 July and 28 September 1776, with the proceedings beginning just eleven days after the Declaration of Independence was passed. It was drafted by a group of ninety-six delegates, with eight each from the eleven counties and eight from Philadelphia, and was led by Benjamin Franklin. After the constitution was ratified, Dunlap printed it first in 1776 and again in 1777, just weeks before British forces occupied the city. "The attempt to form a new constitution in Pennsylvania was apparently a part of the general movement to throw off the yoke of Great Britain. But in reality it was far more than that! It was the outgrowth of years of patient suffering and smouldering antagonism; the culmination of class rivalry and sectional strife; the development of the spirit of democracy. The struggle over the first constitution framed in 1776 was caused not merely by political questions—theories of sovereignty, checks and balances, the doctrine of the separation of powers—but also by the clash of economic, ethnic, religious, social, and sectional interests" (Selsam, p. 1). As a result of this revolutionary milieu, Pennsylvania drafted what is often deemed the most liberal of all early state constitutions. It consisted of three parts—a preamble, a declaration of rights, and a frame of government. The first two were directly influenced by the Declaration of Independence, setting forth the state's objections to the crown and the basic rights of its citizens. The third part was ultimately a rejection of most past forms of republican government—a radical experiment in democracy, but ultimately a failed attempt at state-building. First and foremost, it included broad suffrage for all taxpaying men over the age of twenty-one, unlike many other states that restricted voting to landowners. As such, it was "an exceedingly democratic constitution" that enfranchised common people all throughout the state (Selsam, p. 3). The government consisted of a unicameral legislature and a twelve-member Supreme Executive Council, who would together annually elect the President, a weak executive without veto power. Other notable features included a Council of Censors that met to review whether the legislature had acted in accordance with the constitution, an unprecedented level of government transparency with all legislative meetings held in public, a prohibition against debtors prisons, and a public school system. This constitution, which gave too much power to the legislature, proved unsuccessful and, in 1790, a new constitution was ratified. For the minutes of the Pennsylvania Convention of 1776, see preceding lot, and for a political cartoon satirizing the debate surrounding the constitution, see lot 139. Both Dunlap printings are rare: just three copies of the 1776 edition, and no copies of this 1777 edition, appear in Rare Book Hub for the past fifty years. REFERENCES ESTC W10041; Evans 15512; Sabin 60014; Hildeburn 3535; J. Paul Selsam, The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 (Philadelphia, 1936)

View 1 of Lot 115: Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 | The rare second printing of the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776

pennsylvania constitution of 1776 | the rare second printing of the pennsylvania constitution of 1776

[New Jersey — Proprietors of the Eastern-Division]

[New Jersey — Proprietors of the Eastern-Division] A Bill in the Chancery of New-Jersey at the Suit of John Earl of Stair, and others, Proprietors of the Eastern-Division of New-Jersey; against Benjamin Bond, and some other Persons of Elizabeth-Town, distinguished by name of the Clinker Lot Right Men. With Three large Maps, done from Copper-Plates. To which is added; the Publications of the Council of Proprietors of East New-Jersey, and Mr. Nevill's Speeches to the General Assembly, concerning the Riots committed in New-Jersey, and the Pretences of the Rioters, and their Seducers. These Papers will give a better Light into the History and Constitution of New-Jersey, than any thing hitherto published, the mMatters whereof have been chiefly Collected from Records. New York: Published by Subscription: Printed by James Parker, in New-York, 1747; and a few copies are to be sold by him, and Benjamin Franklin, in Philadelphia Folio (349 x 216 mm). Text in two columns, three folded engraved maps with contemporary outline color, engraved and printed by James Turner in Boston after Lewis Evans of Philadelphia, the third map on two sheets joined; Moderately spotted and toned throughout, a darker stain affecting leaves U2–3, a small area of offsetting in the lower margin of leaf 2C2, the maps with a few very short tears at edges and some inky marginal fingerprint marks (apparently originating in James Turner's printshop), Map No. II with a tiny paper repair at bottom edge, trimmed along the platemark at right edge without touching the printing, Map No. III with small chips, splits, and tears, but professionally restored and laid-down on Japanese tissue. Contemporary marbled boards backed with modern calf; boards quite worn, hinges reinforced. Half blue morocco folding-case. First edition. The Bill in the Chancery of New-Jersey, printed by James Parker and published in partnership with Benjamin Franklin, deals with a lengthy legal dispute between the colony's proprietors and the Elizabethtown Associates over land titles and taxation. The controversy eventually led to a major local uprising, now sometimes seen as a regional precursor to the American Revolution. The problems that this bill sought to resolve began in 1664, when Charles II granted his brother James, the Duke of York, New Jersey as a reward for having overthrown the Dutch in New York. Soon after, his colonial governor, Colonel Richard Nicholls, allowed a group of English settlers to buy a tract of land just to the West of Staten Island from the Lenni Lenape people. Their deed was confirmed by Nicholls in June of 1664. The tract was then surveyed, a town laid out, and Elizabethtown was established. Meanwhile, back in England, James gave his colony to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. When their governor arrived, he demanded that the Elizabethtown settlers pay quitrents on the lands they had settled. The Elizabethtown Associates, as they came to be known, citing the lack of a provision for quitrents on their deed, refused to pay. "Thus began one of the most famous controversies in the early history of New Jersey. Over the years the numbers of disputants increased dramatically as more individuals began to own shares and fractions of shares of the proprietorship of New Jersey" (Felcone). The Associates continued to survey and sell their lands, while the proprietors repeatedly tried legal and civil suits against them. Over time, the dispute stretched into the third and fourth generations of Elizabethtown residents. The newer Associates, known as the Clinker Lot Right Men, even established a legal fund to help defend their titles. James Alexander, a surveyor and prominent attorney in New York and New Jersey, stepped in on behalf of the Proprietors to try and settle the dispute. In 1741, he suggested that the suit be settled in Chancery by English Bill, where one decree could settle all the individual suits simultaneously. Alexander prepared his bill (pp. 3–81), a legal argument "of great subtlety and complexity," and submitted it in April 1745 (Streeter). He then shifted his focus to having it printed and distributed. Lewis Evans, an associate of Franklin agreed to draw the maps, while James Turner, a Boston silversmith, would engrave and print them. The text sheets would be printed by Parker in New York. However, securing the funding took time. By April 1746, with a war of words ongoing in the New York press and the Clinker Lot Right Men riots at their peak (appendix, pp. 1–11), a second and third Bill were drafted to calm the situation (appendix, pp. 13–24, and pp. 25–39). The dispute between the Elizabethtown Associates and the proprietors would never, in fact, be fully resolved—it was still ongoing when the Revolutionary War broke outm making the claims of the proprietors moot. The three engraved maps are among the earliest American maps of the region. Per the imprint, the price of a bound copy with colored maps was 3 Pounds. According to Felcone, "it would appear that about 60 sets of the maps were 'colored.'" As such, this is a rare survival in the deluxe format of an important colonial text. The maps are: "Map I" shows the middle British colonies along the coastline from Boston Harbor to Cape Hatteras, the cartouche provides a key to place-names in English and Dutch, and a coloring guide. "Map II" is of New Jersey, centered on Essex County and Elizabethtown, also showing all of New York City, with "Part of Pensylvania" and "Part of New York" at the corners. "Map III" shows the disputed area in great detail, with a grid and individual properties marked and titled. The area is bordered with the Raritan River on the south, Hackinsack Bay and the shores of Staten Island to the east, the Cushetunk Hills at the west, and the North Mountains to the north. REFERENCES Miller 426; ESTC W2730; Evans 6021–6024; Felcone 197; Streeter sale II:918 PROVENANCE Bennington Gill (signature on title, dated 1855) — Fred Gerken (purchased from Roger A. Lyon, twentieth-century pencil inscription on front pastedown)

View 1 of Lot 41: New Jersey | A Bill in the Chancery of New-Jersey, with three of the earliest American maps of the region

new jersey | a bill in the chancery of new-jersey, with three of the earliest american maps of the region

Pennsylvania. Indian Treaty (Lancaster) A Treaty held at the Town of Lancaster, in Pennsylvania, by the Honourable the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province, and the Honourable the Commissioners for the Provinces of Virginia and Maryland, with the Indians of the Six Nations, in June, 1744. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin, at the New-Printing-Office, near the Market, M,DCC,XLIV (1744) Pot folio (321 x 200 mm, uncut). Title printed within double rule; gathering E browned, a few leaves with marginal dampstaining, small hole or paper flaw in lower fore-edge corner of title-page, tiny rust hole to G1 not affecting text. Contemporary English calf-backed marbled boards, spine in five compartments with red morocco title label in second, plain pastedowns and edges, title-page endorsed with directions to the binder: "Marble paper uncut Letter'd"; boards a little abraded. Half blue morocco slipcase, chemise. The brilliant Siebert copy of the first edition of the third of thirteen Indian treaties issued from Franklin’s press, from the library of William Windham, the eminent British Whig statesman and close ally of the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Sir William Johnson. The Lancaster treaty is important not only for its insights into Indian diplomacy, but for illuminating Franklin’s practices as a businessman/printer/publisher. “The war with France made the Lancaster Indian treaty (22 June to 4 July) crucial. If the Six Nations sided with France, the Americans would have had a war on the frontier and could have lost the interior of the continent to the French. Fortunately, through the agency of the Indian expert Conrad Weiser and Governor Thomas, the treaty not only renewed Pennsylvania's alliance with the Six Nations but also extended the alliance to include Maryland and Virginia. … In the future the Six Nations would protect the frontiers of the English settlements from New England to Virginia. It was a great diplomatic defeat for the French. One could also view it as the beginning of cooperation among the colonial American colonies” (Lemay, Life 2:347). Interspersed throughout the treaty are rather mild complaints from the Indian representatives about mistreatment and mistrust, which were acknowledged, if never rectified; for example, “After we left Albany, we brought our Road a great deal more to the West, that we might comply with your Proposal; but, tho' it was of your own making, your People never observed it, but came and lived on our Side of the Hill … and we … altered the Road again, and brought it to the Foot of the Great Mountain, where it now is; and it is impossible for us to remove it any further to the West, those Parts of the Country being absolutely impassable by either Man or Beast.” Lemay further explains that although the Pennsylvania Assembly hired Franklin only to print about one hundred copies of A Treaty held at the Town of Lancaster, he “printed hundreds more. Though he did not have to pay for proprietors and their officers in England, and the British chain of command setting the type, he paid for the additional paper, ink, and labor. The large number of additional copies was a publishing gamble” (Lemay, Life 2:394). Franklin advertised the Treaty for sale in the Pennsylvania Gazette on 6 September 1744, and he sent one hundred and twenty-five copies (in three shipments) to printer Jonas Green in Annapolis, twenty-five copies to his New York partner James Parker, hundreds more to connections in Boston, Connecticut, and Rhode Island—even three hundred copies to William Strahan in London. In addition to the 464 copies itemized in Franklin’s extant accounts, Lemay believed that he issued at least 300 more to sell, altogether printing close to one thousand copies of this pivotal treaty. Despite this, A Treaty held at the Town of Lancaster is surprisingly scarce: Rare Book Hub records just eight copies sold in the past eighty years. REFERENCES Miller 364; ESTC W29577; Evans 5416; Hildeburn 907; Campbell 308; De Puy 22; Sabin 60736 PROVENANCE William Windham (armorial bookplate) — (Frank T. Siebert, acquired from Rosenbach, 1950; Sotheby’s New York, 21 May 1999, lot 520)

View 1 of Lot 30: Pennsylvania. Indian Treaty (Lancaster) | A brilliant copy of an Indian Treaty marking "a great diplomatic defeat for the French"

pennsylvania. indian treaty (lancaster) | a brilliant copy of an indian treaty marking "a great diplomatic defeat for the french"

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 Advertisement[.] Lancaster, April 26, 1755. Whereas 150 Waggons, with 4 Horses to each Waggon, and 1500 Saddle or Pack-Horses are wanted for the Service of his Majesty’s Forces now about to rendezvous at Wills’s Creek; and his Excellency General Braddock hath been pleased to impower me to contract for the Hire of the same; I hereby give Notice, that I shall attend for that Purpose at Lancaster from this Time till next Wednesday Evening; and at York from next Thursday Morning ’till Friday Evening; where I shall be ready to agree for Waggons and Teams, or single Horses, on the following Terms viz. … Note. My Son William Franklin, is impowered to enter into like Contracts with any Person in Cumberland County. B. Franklin. To the Inhabitants of the Counties of Lancaster, York, and Cumberland. Friends and Countrymen, Being occasionally at the Camp at Frederic a few Days since, I found the General and Officers of the Army extreamly exasperated, on Account of their not being supply’d with Horses and Carriages, which had been expected from this Province as most able to furnish them; but thro’ the Dissensions between our Governor and Assembly, Money had not been provided nor any Steps taken for that Purpose. … B. Franklin. [Lancaster: Printed by William Dunlap, 1755] Letterpress broadside (338 x 206 mm, preserving deckle at fore- and lower edges and otherwise irregular) on a half-sheet of laid paper; chipped at top right corner with loss of one letter and portion of another, wear and repair at folds touching several letters, moderate sized stain at middle right. Hinged to a mat and mounted in a brown morocco portfolio gilt facing a portrait of Franklin. “In January 1755 General Edward Braddock set sail for North America with two regiments of British infantry and a train of artillery. His objective: to capture Fort Duquesne, a French fortification in western Pennsylvania. The previous summer had been tumultuous. … General Braddock was sent to take military command of North America and reassert British authority over the frontier. … The governors of Virginia and Maryland had assured that sufficient wagons, pack horses, and forage would be available for the overland march. But these promises proved hollow: instead of two hundred fifty wagons, Braddock received twenty; instead of twenty-five hundred horses, he was furnished with two hundred. Braddock condemned the colonists as dishonest and dishonorable and threatened to seize what he had not been given. At this precarious juncture, Benjamin Franklin arrived at Braddock's headquarters, ostensibly on post office business. The Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly had, in fact, directed Franklin to allay the ‘violent Prejudices’ Braddock was said to harbor against the colony. On learning of Braddock's difficulties, Franklin opined that ‘it was a pity they had not been landed rather in Pennsylvania, as in that Country almost every Farmer had his Waggon’” (Houston, pp. 235–236). Such was the genesis of this very scarce and significant French and Indian War broadside. Braddock contracted with Franklin—who had been with Braddock arranging postal communications for his army—to provide sufficient wagons and pack horses, even providing £800 for advance payments. Franklin proved far more successful at fulfilling his commission than Braddock did at his. The broadside actually comprises two distinct communications from Franklin. The first is a straightforward explanation of the six terms under which wagons and horses will be hired for use on Braddock’s expedition. First, the daily fee paid “for each Waggon with 4 good Horses and a Driver … for each able Horse with a Pack-Saddle or other Saddle and … for each able Horse without a Saddle.” Second, the term of service. Third, all wagons and horses will be “valued by indifferent Persons, chosen between me [that is, Franklin] and the Owner, and in Case of the Loss of any … the Price according to such Valuation, is to be allowed and paid.” Fourth, the pay periods. Fifth, “No Drivers of Waggons, or Persons taking care of the hired Horses, are on any Account to be called upon to do the Duty of Soldiers, or be otherwise employ’d than in conducting or taking Care of their Carriages and Horses.” And sixth, “All Oats, Indian Corn or other Forage, that Waggons or Horses bring to the Camp more than is necessary for the Subsistence of the Horses, is to be taken for the Use of the Army, and a reasonable Price paid for it.” The second message immediately follows, and is of a completely different tenor, essentially warning the Pennsylvanians resident in Lancaster, York, and Cumberland counties that their failure to take advantage of the arrangement he has made with Braddock could lead to the Army commandeering wagons and horses and drafting teamsters and farriers to drive and take care of them. So disparate are the two announcements that Fred Anderson, who perhaps had never seen the actual broadside but only knew its text, writes in his excellent monograph of the French and Indian War that Franklin composed and distributed two distinct broadsides (Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766, p. 93). Franklin states in his second missive that until he made his contract with Braddock, “It was proposed to send an armed Force immediately into these Counties, to seize as many of the best Carriages and Horses as should be wanted, and compel as many Persons into the Service as would be necessary to drive and take care of them,” but he “apprehended that the Progress of a Body of Soldiers thro’ these Counties on such an Occasion, especially considering the Temper they are in, and their Resentment against us, would be attended with many and great Inconveniencies to the Inhabitants; and therefore more willingly undertook the Trouble of trying first what might be done by fair and equitable Means.” Franklin continues by minimizing the demands of the service and explaining how everyone can participate and profit (he claims that the people of the three counties will earn “upwards of Thirty thousand Pounds, which will be paid you in Silver and Gold of the King’s Money”): “The Service will be light and easy, for the Army will scarce march above 12 Miles per Day, and the Waggons and Baggage Horses, as they carry those Things that are absolutely necessary to the Welfare of the Army, must march with the Army and no faster, and are, for the Army’s sake, always plac’d where they can be most secure, whether on a March or in Camp. If you are really, as I believe you are, good and loyal Subjects to His Majesty, you may now do a most acceptable Service, and make it easy to yourselves; for three or four of such as cannot separately spare from the Business of their Plantations a Waggon and four Horses and a Driver, may do it together, one furnishing the Waggon, another one or two Horses, and another the Driver, and divide the Pay proportionably between you.” Those who do not participate, Franklin warns, will be suspected of disloyalty to the King, and, since “Waggons and Horses must be had; violent Measures will probably be used; and you will be to seek for a Recompence where you can find it, and your Case perhaps be little pitied or regarded.” In his closing paragraph, Franklin raises the specter of Sir John St. Clair (or Sinclair), deputy quartermaster general in North America, who was notorious for his violent temper and confrontations with settlers. “I have no particular Interest in this Affair; as (except the Satisfaction of endeavouring to do Good and prevent Mischief) I shall have only my Labour for my Pains. If this Method of obtaining the Waggons and Horses is not like to succeed, I am oblig’d to send Word to the General in fourteen Days; and I suppose Sir John St. Clair the Hussar, with a Body of Soldiers, will immediately enter the Province, for the Purpose aforesaid, of which I shall be sorry to hear, because I am, very sincerely and truly your Friend and Well-wisher.” Whether it was the enticement of the wages offered or the fear of confiscation and impressment, the colonists rallied to the cause and more than sufficiently supplied Braddock for his march west through the uncleared Alleghenies towards Fort Duquesne. Daniel Boone and Daniel Morgan were employed as waggoners. Despite the support provided by Pennsylvania farmers—and gifts of smoked hams, Jamaica rum, Madeira, sugar, butter, tea, coffee, and more lavished on junior officers by the Pennsylvania Assembly at Franklin’s behest—the British were routed as they approached Fort Duquesne. Braddock was mortally wounded and his forces suffered a casualty rate of more than sixty percent. Only one colonel survived, and under the shock of their introduction to frontier warfare—Braddock's men, under his orders, attempted to fight in European field formations—the British withdrew to Fort Cumberland, having destroyed most of their supplies and artillery. Very rare: the Snider copy is one of perhaps five that survive. Only one other copy is recorded at auction, part of the Forest G. Sweet collection, sold at Parke-Bernet, 7 May 1957, lot 127; and ESTC locates only three copies in institutions: at the American Antiquarian Society, the American Philosophical Society, and the Boston Public Library. "The wagon broadside would be a valuable addition to any library of American history. To a collection of Frankliniana its value is inestimable … moreover, [it] is the central piece of an episode which demonstrated Franklin's political mastery of the Pennsylvania back-country and which, second only to his published Experiments and Observations on Electricity, established his reputation among the English" (Bell & Labaree). REFERENCES Miller B65; ESTC W34633; Evans 7346 (ascribed to Franklin and Hall); Hildeburn 1394; Alan Houston, “Benjamin Franklin and the ‘Wagon Affair’ of 1755,” in The William and Mary Quarterly 66, no. 2 (2009):235–86; cf. Lemay, Life 3:425–430 PROVENANCE Christie’s New York, 19 December 2002, lot 172 (undesignated consignor)

View 1 of Lot 70: Benjamin Franklin | Wagons, horses, and teamsters for Braddock's Expedition

benjamin franklin | wagons, horses, and teamsters for braddock's expedition

Benjamin Franklin Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin: Consisting of His Life Written by Himself, Together With Essays, Humorous, Moral & Literary, Chiefly in the Manner of the Spectator. London: Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, [no date, ca. 1793] 2 volumes, 8vo (173 x 117 mm). Engraved title-pages with portrait vignettes of Franklin in a fur hat, errata at rear of volume 1, both volumes with Benjamin Franklin's "Mr. Franklin" bookplate stenciled on the front flyleaves by his descendant Franklin Bache in 1939; title-pages foxed, occasional light spotting and soiling in the text, a few dog-eared corners, volume 1 with a short tear in the margin of leaf M3, volume 2 with a short marginal tear in leaf B8. Later three-quarter green leather, gilt, green cloth boards, top edge gilt; a few small spots of wear at the joints, spines, and corners. The first edition of this much-improved translation of Franklin's autobiography, the third edition overall, the first issue with the errata leaf present in volume 1. Franklin's original bookplate stencils were acquired by the American Philosophical Society in 1947. REFERENCES ESTC N26015; Ford, Franklin Bibliography, 438 PROVENANCE Dan Stroud (1772–1846; a founder of Stroudsburg, Monroe County, Pennsylvania; ink signature dated 1794) — Simpson Stroud (ink gift annotation, dated 22 December 1814) — Franklin Bache (ink bookplate-stencil of his relative Benjamin Franklin) — S. L. Nicholson (a gift from Frankin Bache, with a tipped-in note in volume 1 and a laid-in note in volume 2 explaining the stencil and with some bibliographic details) — National Book Auctions, 8 October 2016, lot 8340 (undesignated consignor)

View 1 of Lot 148: Benjamin Franklin | The best early edition in English of Franklin's works, with intriguing provenance

benjamin franklin | the best early edition in english of franklin's works, with intriguing provenance

Benjamin Franklin Poor Richard...An Almanack For the Year of Christ 1747, It being the Third after Leap-Year... Philadelphia: B. Franklin, [1746] 12mo (175 x 100 mm). Uncut. Title and text within woodcut border; some browning and dampstaining, a few spots and stains. Stitched self-wrappers; spotted and stained, edges ragged with some loss. Housed in custom slipcase and folding chemise. First edition. This is the fifteenth number of Franklin's series. Scarce at auction—we locate only four other copies (three of which incomplete) offered in the last century. REFERENCES Miller 387; Evans 5771; Hildeburn 993; Drake 9682

View 1 of Lot 37: Benjamin Franklin | Poor Richard ... for the year of Christ 1747—an early and scarce issue

benjamin franklin | poor richard ... for the year of christ 1747—an early and scarce issue

Adams, John Autograph letter signed, as Vice President, responding to a summons One page, 4to (230 x 200 mm to sight). Autograph letter signed (“John Adams”), to the Secretary of State [Edmund Randolph], Quincy, 16 March 1795; minor browning at edges, old folds, one or two short closed tears. Neatly inlaid, matted and framed with a portrait of Adams. Not examined out of frame. Reading in full: Dear Sir, According to your desire, expressed in your Note of March the 7th, I do myself the Honour to acknowledge the Receipt of it, and will attend my Duty at the Senate Chamber in Philadelphia on the eighth of June next, according to the Summons from the President of the United States, to whom I pray you to present my most affectionate Respects. I am, Sir, with greet Esteem, your most obedient and humble Servant, John Adams. The Vice President is summoned to the Senate Chamber to debate the Jay Treaty. John Jay had signed the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation with Great Britain in London on 19 November 1794. The signed copy reached Philadelphia in early March 1795, days before Randolph's note of the 7th. President Washington summoned the Senate to convene on 8 June for a special session for the sole purpose of considering the Jay Treaty. That session opened the bitterest treaty fight of the early republic. Debate was conducted under an injunction of secrecy. The Senate ratified on 24 June by exactly the two-thirds required (20–10), with the article on West Indian trade struck. When the terms leaked the following month through Benjamin Franklin Bache's Aurora, public reaction was violent, and the Federalist-Republican rupture hardened. Effigies of Jay were burned in several cities, and Hamilton was stoned in New York while defending the treaty. Randolph had succeeded Jefferson as Secretary of State in January 1794 and was, in March 1795, five months from his own destruction. In late summer, the Royal Navy intercepted dispatches from the French minister Fauchet, which, presented to Washington by his Federalist cabinet on 19 August, appeared to show Randolph soliciting French money in connection with the Whiskey Rebellion. He resigned the same day. For Adams, the 8 June session marked the beginning of his own ascent. He had been calculatingly quiet through two terms as Washington's deputy. Federalist consolidation around the treaty (which Adams supported) was a principal current carrying him to the presidency twenty-one months later. PROVENANCE Rt Hon the Third Viscount Astor, the collection largely formed by William Waldorf Astor (1848-1919), First Lord Astor of Hever Castle (Sotheby’s London, 8 April 1968, lot 444)

View 1 of Lot 348: Adams, John | The Vice President is summoned to the Senate Chamber to debate the Jay Treaty

adams, john | the vice president is summoned to the senate chamber to debate the jay treaty

Arthur Chidley—Imperial Airways Original illustration of 3 historic aircraft c. 240 x 200 mm (frame 308 x 258 mm), pencil and watercolour, signed by the artist on lower left, captioned in pencil at upper margin "Vickers Vanguard Type. 20 Scale", framed and glazed, some spotting, frame worn The aircraft in Imperial Airways livery in the upper third of the composition appears to be a Vickers Type 170 Vanguard, described as the "world's largest passenger airplane" when it was handed over to the airline in 1925. The other aircraft in Imperial Airways livery, on the bottom right-hand side of the composition (with registration "G-EBMS") is a Handley Page W.10. The aircraft in question crashed into the English Channel on 21 October, 1926 during a scheduled flight from Croydon to Paris, owing to a starboard engine failure. Thankfully all 12 passengers survived, with the only casualty being a Pomeranian dog belonging to one of the female passengers. The aircraft in the middle of the composition appears to be a Farman F.60 Goliath, in Air Union livery.

View 1 of Lot 39: Arthur Chidley | Original illustration of a Vickers Type 170 Vanguard in Imperial Airways livery and two other historic aircraft, circa 1925, signed by the artist

arthur chidley | original illustration of a vickers type 170 vanguard in imperial airways livery and two other historic aircraft, circa 1925, signed by the artist

A Marvelous Journey: The Collection of Maurice Tempelsman

Francesco d’Antonio del Chierico Leaf from an Antiphonal illuminated by Francesco d’Antonio del Chierico, initial ‘A’ showing Judith brandishing a sword with the decapitated head of Holofernes, [Italy, Florence], second half of the 15th century Illuminated leaf on vellum (568 x 405 mm). Illuminated initial "A" depicting Judith with her sword raised and the decapitated head of Holofernes in her left hand, with a luxurious border of plant and abstract motifs hinting at Renaissance architecture, five lines of text written in Gothic liturgical bookhand in black ink, with rubrications indicating the different parts of the office as well as denoting the specific feast day, five lines of music in square notation on red lines, the verso also also with five lines of text and musical notation; minute cockling and soiling, the usual small losses in the gilding, a thin incision around the Judith figure and a tear in the right margin with restorations to verso, a pencil annotation ("17") in lower right-hand corner of the recto, otherwise in excellent condition. In an old-style, double-sided, painted frame. A finely painted Renaissance Italian illumination of Judith with the head of Holofernes, symbolic of virtue triumphing over tyranny, by Lorenzo de' Medici's favorite illuminator, Francesco di Antonio del Chierico. Brandishing a sword in her right hand, the pallid head of Holofernes in her left, Judith stands atop the body of her slain enemy. The beautiful and enticing color palette, consisting of pinks, reds, greens and blues, stand in stark contrast with the dramatic scene; Judith is dressed in a beautiful pink short-sleeved kirtle above a fiery red dress, and is depicted in front of an intricately decorated blue initial. The curve of her sword follows the arch of the letter "A" above her and creates an enticing composition. Judith’s face with her arched eyebrows while serene, reflects her triumph over the Assyrian general and by extension his armies who laid siege to the city of Bethulia. Her features are modelled softly and delicately but capture the spirit of resistance and strong conviction that fueled her actions. The left margin of the manuscript is luxuriously decorated with a wide and vibrant border featuring abstract floral and vegetal elements that are reminiscent of Renaissance architecture interspersed with glistening golden bezants. The modelling of the face as well as the border reaffirm the attribution to Chierico. Ms.74, a leaf held at the Getty Museum, which is securely attributed to Chierico, contains a very similar border of vegetal sprays and fan like floral arrangements. Similarly, leaf 9r of W.334 (Walters Museum Baltimore) which dates from the third quarter of the 15th century, bears a border similar to ours. Francesco di Antonio del Chierico (1433–1484) was a prolific goldsmith turned illuminator during the early Renaissance. He was a student of the influential Fra Angelico and active in Florence in the 15th century. Among others, he worked for Cosimo, Piero de Medici, and Federigo da Montefeltro—some of the most prestigious patrons of the Renaissance period. He is said to have been Lorenzo de’ Medici’s favorite illuminator. Working with the renowned bookseller Vespasiano da Bisticci, he gained the attention of high-ranking patrons beyond Italy, including Ferdinand I of Naples, Louis XI of France, and Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. The extant manuscripts convey his artistry, innovative style, and hint at the breadth of his œuvre; he illuminated a wide range of texts, encompassing literary, historical, and liturgical books from octavo-format to impressive choir books. The leaf showcases the ease with which the artist adapted to different formats and book types and is a beautiful example of his style, notably the soft color palette, elegant facial features, and exuberant floral border. The initial "A" introduces the text used for the first response of the first nocturn of Matins for the fourth Sunday in Autumn (see the rubrication: dominica quarta mensis septembris) starting with Adonay domine deu(s magne et mirabilis), transl. O Adonai, Lord, great and wonderful God. The prayers, hymns, psalms, and scripture readings of Matins were traditionally recited, respectively sang, between the hours of midnight and dawn. The Book of Judith is read throughout the fourth week of September. PROVENANCE Florence, second half of the 15th century — H.P. Kraus after 1939 until latest 1988 to current consignor

View 1 of Lot 29: Francesco di Antonio del Chierico | Judith and Holofernes, illuminated antiphonal leaf

francesco di antonio del chierico | judith and holofernes, illuminated antiphonal leaf

Alexander Arscot Some Considerations Relating to the Present State of the Christian Religion... [Vols I-II:] Philadelphia: B. Franklin, 1732, 1732; [Vol. III:] Philadelphia: Andrew Bradford, 1738 3 volumes, small 8vo (146 x 88 mm). Publisher's ad on final page of volume I; contents with very infrequent minor spots, text block trimmed close, barely touching the top of the first word on the title of volume I, a tiny chip and some paper repairs to the fore-edge of volume I, a short tear at top edge of leaf R2 in volume II, pale staining, a tiny chip, and a tear near the gutter in the title of volume III. Antique-style full brown morocco, gilt decorated boards and spines, gilt-titled spines, gilt ruled board edges and turn ins; spines slightly and uniformly toned, the joints lightly worn, a few minor spots of rubbing at corners, front hinge in vol. I starting. The first complete American edition of this pro-Quaker religious text by Alexander Arscot printed by Franklin, rarely found with the third volume printed by Andrew Bradford six years later. Arscot's work, originally published in London in 1730–31, was a response to certain anti-Quaker tracts. Franklin published a separate edition consisting only of the first part of the text in 1731. For Part I of this edition, he reset his 1731 edition text line-by-line. Part II is reset line-by-line after the 1731 London edition by Sowle. Both editions were printed on behalf of the Society of Friends. Andrew Bradford published the third part of the text in 1738, after it first appeared in London in 1734. Rare, especially when complete with all three volumes. The last time we can trace a three-volume set being offered for sale, possibly this copy, was in 1964 at Goodspeed, according to Rare Book Hub. REFERENCES Miller 47; ESTC W29447, W3486; Evans 3500, 3501

View 1 of Lot 8: Alexander Arscot | First American edition of this Quaker text, a Franklin imprint, rarely found complete in three volumes

alexander arscot | first american edition of this quaker text, a franklin imprint, rarely found complete in three volumes

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

Mucha, Alphonse Le Pater. Paris: F. Champenois and H. Piazza, 20th December 1899 Folio (397 x 306 mm). Printed rectos only, half title, dedication leaf, color lithographed title page, 8 plates, 7 leaves of text with ornamental borders, limitation leaf, colophon leaf, and with 7 black-and-white lithographed plates; intermittent pale spotting, with some expected light offsetting to the blank versos. Near contemporary three-quarters dark brown crushed morocco leather, gilt ruled, spine gilt lettered and decorated with a floral motif featuring red and green leather onlays, marbled paper boards, the binding signed by Paul Affolter (active 1880-1929), original printed wrapper bound in; Rubbing and a few small spots of wear to the extremities and rear board. Limited edition, copy 247 of 510, of Alphonse Mucha’s sumptuously color-printed art nouveau artist’s book, his symbolist masterpiece. According to the artist, this book the most important achievement of his career. He was not it’s only admirer—Charles Masson, the influential critic, reviewed Mucha’s book in Art et Decoration, as “an opus of remarkable unity of ideas and execution.” Dissatisfied with an unending stream of commercial projects, from theatre posters to door handles, Mucha wanted a change. In 1898, he began to work on a book of entirely his own conception, a vehicle for his visionary beliefs that would showcase both his writing and his artistry — this illustrated edition of The Lord’s Prayer. This was an artwork made to serve a higher purpose, replete with Christian allegory and masonic symbolism, conveying both a philosophical and a spiritual message. As Mucha recounted: “I became a victim of my own device. Besides—I had not found true satisfaction in [commercial] work of this kind. I saw my path as lying elsewhere, somewhat higher. I was looking round for a means to spread light that would reach into the remotest corners. I did not have to look long. The Lord’s prayer. Why not give its words pictorial expression?” He goes on to explain how he envisioned the book’s structure: “first the cover page with symbolic ornamentation, then the same ornaments, developed in a sort of variation around one line of the Prayer, the third page explaining in calligraphic writing the idea contained in that line, the fourth rendering this idea in a picture, and so on, line after line until the end” (Jiri Mucha, Alphone Maria Mucha… p. 138). REFERENCES Jiri Mucha, Alphonse Maria Mucha: His Life and Art. New York: Rizzoli, 1989). PROVENANCE Unidentified heraldic book label to the front pastedown

View 1 of Lot 451: Mucha, Alphonse | Le Pater, 1899

mucha, alphonse | le pater, 1899

Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass. Boston: Thayer and Eldridge: 1860-61. PRESENTATION COPY FROM WHITMAN'S FIRST ENGLISH PUBLISHER TO WILLIAM ROSETTI, 8vo (192 x 121 mm), third edition, two inscriptions on front free endpaper ("W.M. Rosetti from J.C. Hotton, 1867", and "was given to me when I was about to compile my selection from Whitman, published by Hotton. W.M.R. 1905."), engraved frontispiece portrait of the author by S.A. Schoff, the first lines of the introductory poem ('Proto-Leaf') corrected against a later edition (p. 1), publisher's dark brown cloth, spine gilt- and blindstamped, covers blindstamped, yellow endpapers, housed in a brown quarter-morocco slipcase, 3.5cm closed tear to frontispiece, not affecting portrait, loss to spine, upper cover detached, binding worn The Pre-Raphaelite and writer William Rosetti (1829–1915) had been given a copy of the first edition of Leaves of Grass soon after publication and became an early promoter of Whitman's work in the UK. The publisher John Camden Hotten gave him this copy of the third edition of Whitman's poems when he had agreed to edit a selection for the English market. Whitman made extensive changes to Leaves of Grass in successive editions following its first publication in 1855. The current edition included 122 new poems, most importantly the "Enfans d'Adam" and "Calamus" groups. However, a new edition in 1867 contained many further changes. Rosetti began recording the revisions to the first poem (here "Proto-Leaf", but later given the title "Starting from Paumanok") but seems to have quickly abandoned the project, probably when he realised the sheer quantity of Whitman's textual revisions. Rosetti ultimately made his selection from a copy of the latest (1867) edition of Leaves of Grass, rather than this edition. Rosetti's selection, entitled Poems, was published in 1868 and included about half of Leaves of Grass. PROVENANCE: Presented by J.C. Hotton to William Rosetti, inscriptions on front free endpaper; purchased from James Drake, New York, 20 March 1940; sale, Christie's, 3 March 2004, lot 201 LITERATURE: BAL 21397; Feinberg 274; Wells & Goldsmith pp. 7–9. [with:] Put's Golden Songster. San Francisco: D.E. Appleton & Co., [1858]. Small 8vo (145 x 99 mm), original printed yellow wrappers, housed in red quarter morocco cloth slipcase, wrappers very lightly soiled (as expected), morocco on slipcase worn PROVENANCE: Jean Hersholt, bookplate; Alistair Cooke (1908–2004), Anglo-American broadcaster and writer, bookplate

View 1 of Lot 151: Walt Whitman | Leaves of Grass, 1861, annotated by William Rosetti, [with:] Put's Golden Songster, San Francisco, [1858]

walt whitman | leaves of grass, 1861, annotated by william rosetti, [with:] put's golden songster, san francisco, [1858]

Seutter, Matthäus Recens Edita totius Novi Belgii, in America Septentrionali siti, delineatio cura et sumtibus Matthæi Seutteri, Sac. Caes. Maj. Geographi August. Vind. Cum Gratia et Privil. S.R.I. Vicariat in part, Rheni, Sveviae, et Juris Franconici. Augsburg: Matthäus Seutter, [1740 or later] Copper-engraved map (590 x 520 mm). Original hand color in pink, green, yellow, orange and green; some spots and stains to outer margins and verso, wear at vertical fold, upper left corner of margin chipped. Seutter's printing of one of Jansson-Visscher maps on New England—the first map within the series to show the boundaries of Massachusetts, New England, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The present map, within its third state, includes the mention of Seutter's newfound appointment of Geographer to the Imperial Court and granted privileges. In celebration of the reinstallation of Dutch rule of New Amsterdam in 1674, the "Restitutio" View of New York was added by Dutch cartographer Hugo Allard to the Jansson-Vissher series and is inset at the lower right corner of Seutter's map. Accentuated by original pink color, the panoramic view features early Manhattan such as the Dutch Wall (at far right) later to become Wall Street. REFERENCES Asher, A List of the Maps and Charts of New Netherland, 20, p. 16; Campbell, The Jansson-Visscher Maps of New England, 26; cf. McCorkle, New England in Early Maps, 730.5 (1st state, but briefly noting later states); cf. Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909, plate 16b and p.223 (1st state); Tooley, The Mapping of America, 26, p. 291

View 1 of Lot 388: Seutter, Matthäus | Recens Edita totius Novi Belgii

seutter, matthäus | recens edita totius novi belgii

George Whitefield Three Letters From the Reverend Mr. G. Whitefield: viz. … Letter III: To the Inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South-Carolina Concerning their Negroes. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin,at the New Printing-Office near the Market, M,DCC,XL (1740) 8vo (193 x 109 mm). Woodcut title-page ornament (Miller, Appendix B, no. 19), typographic ornaments in text; light soiling, mostly to title, some minor instances of pale spotting, a few short marginal tears, and an early paper repair at head of title next to the gutter. Twentieth-century dark green morocco, gilt title to upper board, gilt ruled boards and gilt decorated spine; spine lightly faded, a few very small spots of rubbing at spine ends and corners, two scuffs to upper board, front hinge starting. Half red morocco slipcase, chemise. Rare first edition, printed by Benjamin Franklin, of three letters by the Anglican reformist preacher Reverend George Whitefield. The first two letters are critiques of the writings of the seventeenth-century Archbishop of Canterbury John Tillotson, who Whitefield asserts "knew no more of true Christianity than Mahomet." The third letter, addressed to the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, and North and South Carolina, deals with slavery. "Commentators on Whitefield's life have long recognized the ambiguity in his attitude toward blacks. Some have tried to balance his desire to establish schools for the training of blacks with his campaign for the legalization of slavery in the colony of Georgia" (Stein, p. 243). In this letter, the clearest statement Whitefield ever made about his humanitarian feelings towards the enslaved, he criticizes slaveowners—"God has a quarrel with you for your abuse and cruelty to the poor negroes." He goes on to argue that, even worse than the physical abuse, slaveowners were neglecting slaves' religious needs. Nonetheless, Whitefield stops short of passing a moral judgement on the institution of slavery, and he does not advocate for its abolition. Rare, especially in trade, with only one incomplete copy offered at auction in the last century, per Rare Book Hub. REFERENCES Miller, 224; ESTC W29543; Sabin, 103599; Stephen J. Stein, "George Whitefield on Slavery: Some New Evidence" in Church History, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Jun., 1973), pp. 243–256 PROVENANCE Douglas Frost Jr. (Bbookplate)

View 1 of Lot 19: George Whitefield |  A rare Franklin imprint featuring Whitefield's critique of the treatment of slaves

george whitefield | a rare franklin imprint featuring whitefield's critique of the treatment of slaves

Carey, Matthew Carey's General Atlas. Philadelphia: Matthew Carey, 1796 Folio (358 x 235 mm). Front free endpaper with early ownership inscriptions, typographic title with table of contents, and 44 engraved maps, 17 of which are folding, 20 are double-page, and 3 are single page, the maps variously signed by Harding Harris, Samuel Lewis, General D. Smith, Elihu Barker, and engraved by W. Barker, J.T. Scott, Thakara & Vallance, Smither, A. Doolittle, Matthew Carey, B. Tanner, C. Tiebout, and S. Hill; loss of the lower two-thirds of the inscribed front free endpaper, small loss at fore-edge of the title, the contents with foxing, toning, offsetting, and occasional staining, some creasing at map edges and folds, splitting along a few of the map's folds, notably to the "Chart of the World" where the split extends into the map, the map of Switzerland trimmed inside the neatline, the large two-sheet folding map of the United States reinforced along folds, with creasing, a strip of toning, and a few stains, the map of Cook's discoveries in the Pacific is loose and supplied from another copy. Calf backed contemporary marbled paper boards; rebacked, boards worn, losses to marbled surface, a repaired crack in the rear board. The first stand-alone atlas of the world to be published in the United States, containing 19 maps of American interest, including Samuel Lewis's large-scale Map of the United States, which is often lacking. Matthew Carey emigrated from Dublin to America in 1784, setting up his print shop in Philadelphia. It would go on to become one of largest and most important publishing houses in nineteenth-century America. In the early days he was primarily a publisher of newspapers, journals, and serials, including the Pennsylvania Evening Herald. During the 1790s, however, he became one of the first American publishers to issue atlases. His first was A General Atlas for the Present War, dated 1794, using maps based on those in William Guthrie’s Atlas to Guthrie’s System of Geography, a popular text book that had first appeared in London in 1770. He followed this with his Atlas for the First Volume of Carey’s Edition of Guthrie's Geography Improved of 1794 (only one copy known, see lot 353) and his General Atlas for Carey’s Edition of Guthrie’s Geography Improved of 1795. The American maps that he had engraved for these atlases were, in 1795, compiled with five additional maps to create his American Atlas, the first atlas of America to be published in America. The following year, 1796, he issued this General Atlas, his most ambitious atlas to date. In it, he combined most of his maps of America with various maps of the rest of the world. Carey's General Atlas is sometimes designated as a second edition of The General Atlas for Carey’s Edition of Guthrie’s Geography Improved, seeing as they largely contain the same maps, but with a new title and the addition of Samuel Lewis's impressive "Map of the United States." However, the two works differ substantially because this 1796 atlas was issued as a stand-alone work, not as a supplement to another text. This would account for Carey's General Atlas's continuing success—it was repeatedly reissued up to 1818. Samuel Lewis's large scale "A Map of the United States, compiled chiefly from the State Maps and other authentic information," shows the settled parts of the United States of America in great detail. It shows the eastern seaboard from Florida to The Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and extends west to the Mississippi River. The entirety of the Florida peninsula is included in the inset at the lower right. Most of the map's detail is centered on the settled portion of the United States, and it includes place names, borders, and topographic features such as rivers and mountains. Canada and Florida include some geographic details, but no place names, and the still unexplored areas West of the Mississippi and North of the Great Lakes are left almost entirely blank. Rare—the last copy of this atlas with Lewis's map to sell at auction was at Freeman's in 2012 (with the map "torn and defective but largely present") and before that at Sotheby's in 1976 (Rare Book Hub). We also note a copy that was offered in the trade in 2015. REFERENCES ESTC W30216; Phillips Atlases 683; Sabin 10858 PROVENANCE Thomas Jenks (early ownership inscription dated 28 August 1804) — John L. Pauney (inscription stating that he purchased the book from Jenks on 21 March 1828)

View 1 of Lot 355: Carey, Matthew | Carey's General Atlas, with the rare Lewis "Map of the United States," 1796

carey, matthew | carey's general atlas, with the rare lewis "map of the united states," 1796

Benjamin Franklin Autograph letter signed (“B Franklin”) to John Ladd (“Sir”), half page (312 x 192 mm) on a leaf of laid paper (watermarked heraldic shield), [Philadelphia,] 12 June 1738, regarding Ladd’s purchase of books from Franklin’s shop, verso with autograph address panel and reception docket; browned, worn at folds with some neat repair. Half green morocco folding-case gilt, chemise. Benjamin Franklin as bookseller. In the 25 May 1738 issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette, and subsequently, Franklin advertised a list of books “Just Imported,” which included The Ladies’ Library, 3 volumes duodecimo, and Alexander Pope’s translation of Homer, 11 volumes duodecimo. He here writes to John Ladd, surveyor from Gloucester County, New Jersey, confirming his purchase of The Ladies' Library and the balance of a set of Cervantes, probably John Ozell’s revision of Peter Motteux’s English translation: “I send you the Ladies Library & the other two Vols. of Don Quixote. “The Homers I have are done by Pope. The Iliads are in 6 vols. 12mo price 45/. The Odysseys 5 vols. 12mo price 37/6. They are beautifully printed and neatly bound. I will not part with them until I hear from you. I am Sir Your most hum[bl]e Serv[an]t.” Ladd’s purchase of The Ladies’ Library and Don Quixote is recorded in Franklin’s Shop Book, June 9, 1738, wherein is also noted, July 19, his acquisition of the 11-volume set of Pope’s Homer for £4 2s. 6d. Sales of other books to Ladd are entered in Franklin’s Ledger D. John Ladd (d. 1770) went on to serve as a justice of the peace; he was elected to the New Jersey Assembly in 1754 and appointed to the Governor’s Council in 1763. This is one of the very earliest of Franklin’s letters to survive. The Papers of Benjamin Franklin records nine letters of earlier date, but of these, five are known only by earlier publications or transcriptions, the originals having been lost, and two others survive only as drafts (one incomplete). Therefore, this letter to Ladd is the third earliest complete letter by Franklin to survive and the earliest in private hands. REFERENCES The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Labaree, 2:206–207 (not locating the original, text taken from a transcript in the Historical Society of Haddonfield, New Jersey, with significant variation from the autograph letter) PROVENANCE “A Philadelphia Gentleman” (Christie’s New York, 20 May 1994, lot 31)

View 1 of Lot 12: Benjamin Franklin | One of Franklin's very earliest surviving letters

benjamin franklin | one of franklin's very earliest surviving letters

[Pennsylvania and Delaware] The Charter of Privileges Granted by William Penn, Esq; to the Inhabitants of Pensilvania and Territories. Philadelphia: B. Franklin, 1741 (bound with:) Laws of the Government of New-Castle, Kent and Sussex upon Delaware. Philadelphia, B. Franklin, 1741 Two works bound together, folio (293 x 175 mm). Woodcut armorial to the title-page of the Charter, ownership signatures to title of the Charter and leaf [a]2, leaf [a]2 also with a bookseller ink stamp in the margin, ownership signatures and a few manuscript annotations in the text, ownership inscription to final leaf of the Laws; old paper repairs to the upper and inner margins of Charter title-page, and to the top edge of the three subsequent leaves, not touching the printing, light toning and occasional pale spots or stains, the worst of it affecting gatherings 2Z to 3S and [4C] in the Laws, marginal tear to upper edge of leaf 3Z1, the final leaf in the Laws trimmed about a third of the way up the leaf, not affecting the text. In period-style full speckled calf, the spine gilt decorated with five raised bands and with a red morocco label lettered in gilt, the boards bordered with decorative blind-rolls, the board edges gilt; expert restorations to joints, a few white stains to boards, overall a very nice and finely bound copy. Black leather folding-case. Two rare documents relating to the founding of Pennsylvania and Delaware colonies, both printed by Franklin and bound together as intended. William Penn's Charter of Privileges of 1701 was Pennsylvania's foundational political document, and the colony's constitution until the Revolutionary War. It would later become the basis on which the Constitution and the Bill of Rights would be drafted in 1787. The Charter, signed during Penn's second visit to his colony, replaced the three earlier "Frames of Government." It institutionalized religious tolerance, due process, and legislative independence. It also allowed for the Three Lower Counties to form their own independent legislature. The Laws of the Government of New-Castle, Kent and Sussex contains the foundational legal statutes of Delaware, after it separated from Pennsylvania in 1704. Franklin's 1741 edition of the Laws, offered here, "is the first collected Laws of the Three Lower Counties, and is as well the first collection of laws of one of the original thirteen states" (Streeter). A revised and expanded edition would be published in 1752 by Franklin, after additional laws were enacted that year. This book belonged to James Gorrell, a British colonial officer during the French and Indian War. In the late 1750s he served in western Pennsylvania and along the New York frontier. In 1761 he was sent to the Great Lakes region, first to Detroit, and then to "La Baye," now Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he was put in charge of a dilapidated fort. "Besides protecting the British traders and maintaining a sense of law and order at this frail outpost of the empire, Gorrell's main function was to try to secure good relations with the Menominees, Foxes, Sauks, Winnebagos, and Sioux" (Dictionary of Canadian Biography). Later on, he served again in the Great Lakes region around Albany and Detroit, and was finally assigned to the West Indies, where he likely died of disease in 1769–70. Prior to his military career, however, Gorrell was officially empowered by the General Assembly of Delaware to sell property in the town of Dover, and he is explicitly mentioned in the Laws of the Government of … Delaware. In 1683, William Penn decided that a court town called Dover should be built in Kent County. That year, he signed an order to survey and lay out the town. With 200 acres around the courthouse surveyed and divided, it was long since time to sell the properties. On pages 130–132 of the Laws, Penn's plan for Dover is put into action with "An Act impowering John Holliday, James Gorrel, and Thomas Skidmore, jun. of Kent County, Gentlemen, to sell and dispose of all such of the Lots of Ground within the Town of Dover. …" REFERENCES Miller 252, 232; ESTC W7472, W26381; Streeter sale II:953; David A. Armour, "Gorrell, James," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. 3 (2003); Delaware Public Archives — https://archivesfiles.delaware.gov/markers/pdfs/KC_A6_3.pdf PROVENANCE James Gorrell (signature on title of the Charter) — George Cummons (early signature on leaf [a]2) — Issac Carty (early 19th century ownership inscription on final leaf) — Sarah Doughless (illegible nineteenth-century signature on title, and a legible one in the text) — E. Ellery Antiquarian Book-Store (twentieth-century ink stamp on leaf [a]2)

View 1 of Lot 20: Pennsylvania and Delaware | Two foundational documents for Penn's colonies, printed by Franklin

pennsylvania and delaware | two foundational documents for penn's colonies, printed by franklin

Jonathan Williams Thermometrical Navigation. Being a Series of Experiments and Observations Tending to Prove that by Ascertaining the Relative Heat of the Sea-Water from time to time, the Passage of a Ship through The Gulf Stream, and From Deep Water into Soundings, may be discovered in time to Avoid Danger... Philadelphia: R. Aitken, 1799 8vo (228 x 135 mm, uncut). Typographic tables in text, errata on p. 89, 4-page postscript, and untitled folded engraved map at rear; with light toning, intermittent spots, light dust-soiling at upper corner, the title with a small chip and a strip of toning along the tail edge, the folding map with chipping and dust-soiling along the outer edge and with a tiny hole along a fold neither affecting the printing. Modern quarter calf, gilt spine, marbled paper boards; edges lightly rubbed. A presentation copy of the first edition of this scientific treatise on thermometrical navigation, penned by Benjamin Franklin's grandnephew, Jonathan Williams and inscribed "from the author" on the title-page. Williams worked as Franklin's personal secretary in London and Paris from 1770 to 1783, before enjoying a long military career and a stint as a representative in Congress. In this work, he builds on his great-uncle's earlier research into the Gulf Stream, and establishes a practical usage for it. Williams had previously published parts of this treatise in The Proceedings of the Philosophical Society in 1786 and 1793, but this is the first complete publication. The goal of thermometrical navigation was to use the ocean's surface temperature to identify its currents. A navigator could then optimize his route, establishing certain facts about a ship's position without the aid of the stars, which are often hidden by clouds. Williams points out that water is colder nearer to the shore and warmer in the gulf stream. As such, keeping abreast of water temperature could help a mariner avoid running aground on a dangerous bank, even if he had been taken off his course by faulty reckoning or an unforeseen current. The folding map at the rear recalls Franklin's earlier map of the Atlantic currents (see lot 124). Williams's map, however, covers a larger geographic area, showing the entirety of the Atlantic. It also includes the tracks of five different ships and shows measurements of ocean temperatures at various locations along their routes. This is the third state of the map (though Wheat and Brun identify it as the second), with the shading for the Gulf Stream extended and additional directional arrows added. REFERENCES ESTC W7573; Evans 36722; Sabin 104300; Wheat and Brun 725 (for the map) PROVENANCE Presentation inscription "from the author" to an unnamed recipient, presumably to The Royal Institution, which was founded that year (ink stamp on the verso of the title-page)

View 1 of Lot 150: Jonathan Williams | Presentation copy of Franklin's grandnephew's work on thermometrical navigation

jonathan williams | presentation copy of franklin's grandnephew's work on thermometrical navigation

Thomas Short Medicina Britannica: or a Treatise on such Physical Plants, as are Generally Found in the Fields or Gardens in Great-Britain. … With a preface by Mr. John Bartram, Botanist of Pennsylvania, and his notes throughout the work. London Printed: Philadelphia Re-printed, and Sold by B. Franklin, and D. Hall, at the Post-Office, in Market-Street, MDCCLI (1751) 8vo (179 x 109 mm). Woodcut tailpiece ornament (Miller, appendix B, no. 33); light toning, pale spotting, occasional staining, leaf X5 with loss at lower corner restored and supplied in facsimile, a short tear at the top edge of leaves X5 and X6. Recent period-style blind-ruled calf. The first American edition, third edition overall, of Thomas Short's English herbal, with a preface and expanded text by John Bartram. The additions to the text include information on "where many of the described plants are to be found in these parts of America, their differences in name, appearance and virtue, from those of the same kind in Europe, and an appendix containing a description of a number of plants particular to America, their uses, Virtues &c." Only two copies of this work have appeared at auction in the last 100 years, per Rare Book Hub. REFERENCES Miller 546; ESTC W3995; Evans 6783; Hildeburn 1240; Sabin 80573

View 1 of Lot 58: Thomas Short | The first American edition of this herbal, printed by Franklin

thomas short | the first american edition of this herbal, printed by franklin

Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana. Part 1

Confederation Congress The United States In Congress Assembled, Friday, September 28, 1787. Present—New-Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, and Georgia, and from Maryland Mr. Ross. Congress having received the Report of the Convention lately assembled in Philadelphia, Resolved Unanimously, That the said Report, with the Resolutions and Letter accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several Legislatures, in order to be submitted to a Convention of Delegates, chosen in each State by the People thereof, in Conformity to the Resolves of the Convention, made and provided in that Case. Charles Thomson, Secretary. Philadelphia: Printed by Dunlap & Claypoole, (1787) Letterpress handbill (296 x 206 mm) on a half-sheet of laid paper (unwatermarked); lightly browned, very small hole in upper margin, tipped at head to a mat board. The document that took the United States Constitution from proposal to governing charter: the resolution of Congress, upon receipt of the Official Edition of the Constitution to submit the same to the state legislatures for ratification. When the Constitutional Convention adopted its final text on 17 September 1787 and ordered 500 copies to be printed by John Dunlap and David Claypoole (the printers of the present handbill), the delegates had appended to the Constitution the two resolutions of the Convention adopted on 17 September recommending the procedures for ratification and for the establishment of government under the Constitution by the Confederation Congress, as well as presiding officer George Washington’s influential cover letter of the same date to Arthur St. Clair, president of Congress, describing the document as “that Constitution which has appeared to us the most advisable.” The first of the resolutions declared “That the preceding Constitution be laid before the United States in Congress assembled, and that it is the opinion of this Convention, that it should afterwards be submitted to a Convention of Delegates, chosen in each State by the People thereof, under the recommendations of its Legislature, for their assent and ratification; and that each Convention assenting to, and ratifying the same, should give Notice thereof to the United States in Congress assembled.” Additionally, Article VII of the Constitution itself outlined a four-step process for ratifying the proposed charter: transmittal of the text to Congress; transmittal of the Constitution by Congress to the state legislatures; election of delegates to a special ratification convention in each state; and, finally, ratification of the proposed Constitution by three-quarters (or nine) of the state conventions. But as Richard B. Bernstein writes, “The ratification process was studded with potential stumbling blocks, however. First, the Confederation Congress might refuse to send the Constitution to the states, on the ground that the Convention had violated its limited mandate to propose amendments to the Articles. Second, Congress might try to rewrite the Constitution or to submit it to a second general convention. Third, the states might accept the argument that the Convention had violated its mandate and refuse to hold elections for the ratifying conventions. Fourth, enough state conventions might reject the Constitution to prevent it from going into effect. Fifth, a negative vote by the legislatures or ratifying conventions of any or all of four key states—Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia—might cripple efforts to put the Constitution into effect even if the required nine states did ratify it. These possibilities shaped the struggle for ratification that dominated American politics in late 1787 and 1788” (p. 201). The first step in the ratification process was fulfilled when copies of the Official Edition of the Constitution were dispatched by the Convention to Congress and the Constitution was read to Congress on 20 September 1787 and assigned for consideration on 26 September. (Ten members of Congress attending during this period had also been delegates to the Constitutional Convention.) The second step was accomplished on 28 September when Congress adopted the resolution of the Convention for submitting the Constitution to the states in virtually the same language, as memorialized in the present handbill. To accompany the present resolution, Congress also had printed a further one hundred copies of Constitution by John McLean of New York, although at least some state delegations to the Constitutional Convention—notably New Jersey’s—had proactively submitted copies of the Convention’s Official Edition to their legislators; moreover, the Constitution, with the Convention's two resolutions and Washington’s cover letter, had been widely reprinted in newspapers, beginning with Dunlap and Claypoole’s own Pennsylvania Packet on 19 September. The struggle for ratification, to use Bernstein’s words, culminated on 21 June 1788, with New Hampshire provided the necessary ninth assent, with Virginia and New York rapidly following. The Constitution drafted in secrecy during the “Miracle in Philadelphia” was a reality. Vital as the writing of the Constitution was, had Congress not acted on the Convention’s recommendation that the text be sent to the states for approval, it would have remained as an academic exercise in modeling a democratic government on paper. This resolve is the direct link between the Constitution as a proposed document and the Constitution as a daily presence in our lives as Americans. Rare: we find only three copies in the auction records, none for more than two decades: Sotheby’s New York, 18 April 1988, lot 42 (bound with a year’s run of Dunlap and Claypoole’s Pennsylvania Packet, and Daily Advertiser, including the Constitution issue of 19 September 1787); Sotheby’s New York, 5 June 2001, lot 295; Christie’s New York, 9 June 2004, lot 368. ESTC cites copies in just four institutions: Oxford University All Souls College Library, the American Antiquarian Society, the Connecticut State Library, and the Library of Congress. REFERENCES ESTC W36310; Evans 20790; cf. Richard B. Bernstein, Are We to Be a Nation?: The Making of the Constitution (Cambridge, 1987); The Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution. Volume I: Constitutional Documents and Records, 1776–1787, ed. Merril Jensen (Madison, 1976)

View 1 of Lot 202: Confederation Congress | A vital step towards ratifying the Constitution 

confederation congress | a vital step towards ratifying the constitution

Highlights from Books, Manuscripts & Music, from Medieval to Modern

Richard Wagner Autograph manuscript of a vocal part for Patroklos relating to Wagner's arrangement of Gluck's opera Iphigénie en Aulide a fair-copy manuscript, notated in dark brown ink on two-stave systems, the voice part and preceding cues contained on the upper stave, the instrumental bass part on the lower stave, with autograph headings and designations ("Act II. No:18. Quartett:...Recitativ...Arie...Terzett:...Recitativ...."), with autograph title-page, INSCRIBED AND INITIALLED BY WAGNER ("Iphigenia in Aulis / Patroklos / Hr. Mende. / RW") 2 pages, plus autograph title, 27.7 x 27.7cm, cut down from a larger folio bifolium, twelve staves visible on the inner pages (and part of a thirteenth on the outer ones), no place or date [Dresden, 1847], splitting slightly at head and foot of hinge, scratch mark and tiny hole to lower inner corner of first leaf, leading edges slightly trimmed, central vertical crease, browning A REMARKABLE MANUSCRIPT UNITING THE GREAT EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY REFORMER OF OPERA AND THE CREATOR OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY OPERA DRAMA. Wagner interrupted his work on Lohengrin in the winter of 1846/1847 to produce his celebrated German arrangement of Gluck's great 1774 French 'reformist' opera Iphigénie en Aulide. In making his revision, which received its premiere at the Dresden Hoftheater on 24 February 1847, Wagner reduced the fifty numbers in Gluck's original score (41 separate numbers in the Brissler vocal score) to thirty, mainly by excising the dance interludes not directly related to the action of the opera. Some minor roles were cut, but additions too were made, notably some 'dramatically enlivened ritornellos' between closed numbers (thereby creating extended tableaux) and the new ending to the opera which entailed the appearance of the goddess Artemis. Changes were also made to the orchestration (entered into Wagner's personal copy of the first (1774) edition of Gluck's score), principally involving the consistent use of clarinets (employed only sporadically by Gluck) and the addition of a third bassoon, a second pair of horns, a trumpet and a tam tam to the score. The present score shows that Wagner envisaged changing the part of Patroklos from a bass role to a tenor one. In the event, however, Wagner decided to dispense with the part altogether, reassigning the music for Patroklos to other characters, namely Arkas and the Leader of the Thessalians (this tiny part probably alloted to a member of the chorus). One can only speculate as to the grounds for Wagner's change of mind here: perhaps he wished to economise by having one less person in the cast, or because the tenor chosen for the role, Louis Mende (active as a lyric baritone in Riga between 1837 and 1843 and as a singer and an actor at the Königlich Sächsisches Hoftheater in Dresden from 1846 to 1848) could not or did not want to sing it. But the significance of Wagner's Gluck arrangement goes beyond the insights it provides into Wagner's musical stagecraft. There are, to be sure, important points of connection between Iphigenia in Aulis, to give the work its German title, and the RIng cycle - the figure of Agamemnon (given a powerful monologue by Gluck at the end of the second act), for example, providing something of a model for Wotan, father of the gods in the Ring (the latter part being written to suit the bass Anton Mitterwurzer, who had sung the part of Agamemnon in Dresden). A vocal score of Wagner's arrangement, prepared by Hans von Bülow and overseen by Wagner, was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1858. Although Breitkopf never published the complete score of Wagner's arrangement, the publisher did prepare a copy of the (lost) Dresden conducting score from which copies could be made for the use of other opera houses. A complete score was not published until 2010, in the modern collected edition. Wagner's annotated full score of Gluck's opera (Paris: Marchand, 1774) and his annotated vocal score of the opera (Berlin: Brissler, 1839) are preserved today in the Nationalarchiv der Richard-Wagner-Stiftung, Bayreuth (a leaf containing Wagner's new conclusion to the opera, tipped in to the Brissler score, is on paper possibly similar to that of the present manuscript). We are pleased to acknowledge the kind assistance of Professor John Deathridge in our cataloguing of this lot. LITERATURE: WWV 77 Musik III (pp.330ff.); Richard Wagner. Sämtliche Werke, 20/iv (2010), p.424

View 1 of Lot 105: Richard Wagner | Autograph vocal part relating to Wagner's arrangement of Gluck's "Iphigénie en Aulide", 1847

Results for "The Third Man"