STATES

Manuscript Letter, in a secretarial hand, signed by Evarts ('Wm M. Evarts'), to E. R. Robinson of the Union Club, New York City.

Author: 
William M. Evarts [William Maxwell Evarts] (1818-1901), US Secretary of State, Attorney General and Senator from New York [Henry Arthur Bright (1830-1884) of Liverpool, English traveller in America]
William M. Evarts, US Secretary of State
Publication details: 
12 November 1879; on letterhead of the Department of State, Washington.
£45.00
William M. Evarts, US Secretary of State

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. He is sending 'some autograph letters, which I hope may not be without interest to your friend Mr. Henry Bright'. Bright, Hawthorne's closest English friend, toured America in 1852.

Viking with a Loose Shelailleigh. Tales from Irish America. [playscript]

Author: 
Peter Dee [Peter Rogers Dee] (1939-1999), New York playwright and poet
Publication details: 
[Unpublished typescript.] [Circa 1992.]
£100.00

Photocopy of word processor typed print-out. 8vo, [ii] + 53 pp. Good. In plastic binder. Title carries Dee's address. Second page lists the twelve sections of the play. Loosely inserted is a photocopy of a long review, with photograph, from the East Hampton Star, 26 March 1992, of 'a dramatic reading' of the play at Canio's Books, Sag Harbor. The play was not published, and there are no copies of this item on WorldCat or COPAC.

Autograph Signature ('P. B. Du Chaillu').

Author: 
Paul Du Chaillu [Paul Belloni Du Chaillu] (1835-1903), French-American traveller and anthropologist
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£28.00

In pencil, on strip of paper roughly 2.5 x 13 cm. Laid down on piece of card. On lightly-aged and creased paper, with small tear close to the right of the signature.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J. T. Headley') to George R. Graham, editor of Graham's Magazine.

Author: 
Joel Tyler Headley (1813-1897), American clergyman and author, Secretary of State of New York [George R. Graham (1813-1894), Philadelphia publisher]
Publication details: 
New York April' [no date].
£125.00

4to, 1 p. Bifolium. Addressed, with postmark, on reverse of second leaf. Good, on aged paper. In a hurried hand, with numerous corrections. Relating to the publication of 'articles of poetry from a lady'.

Autograph Note Signed ('Geo W McCrary') to Evarts.

Author: 
George Washington McCrary (1835-1890), United States Secretary of War, Iowa Republican Congressman and judge [William Maxwell Evarts (1818-1901), US Secretary of State]
Publication details: 
16 December 1878. On letterhead of the War Department, Washington.
£48.00

12mo, 1 p. Good, on ruled paper. A note of introduction for the bearer, Miss Ward [Genevieve Ward, actress]..

Autograph Letter Signed ('J A Lowell') to Rainford, concerning a consignment of botanical books from England.

Author: 
John Amory Lowell (1798-1881), American businessman and philanthropist [Edward Rainford, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
19 June 1843; Boston.
£195.00

4to, 1 p. Twenty-one lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged, stained and worn paper, with a couple of small spike holes. Revealing, in the attention to detail which it exhibits. He begins by reporting that 'the Rosabella arrived safe & the books appear to be correct with the following exceptions'. Two paragraphs follow, carefully describing duplicate plates and other faults in the books received (including "Genus Plantarum"). The replacements may be sent 'through Wilmer & Smith, booksellers, Liverpool - or by Harden's express - or through Messrs. John D.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to Mrs Wallack, on the occasion of the Wallacks' Paris performances.

Author: 
John Y. Mason [John Young Mason] (1799-1859), U.S. Minister Plenipotentiary to France, 1853-1859 [James William Wallack (1764-1864), Anglo-American actor]
Publication details: 
15 June 1855; 13 Rye Beaujon (on letterhead of the Paris Legation of the United States).
£85.00

4to, 1 p. Twenty lines. Text clear and complete. On aged and lightly-creased paper. Responding to 'the kind note of his esteemed Country woman Mrs. Wallack'. He is 'gratified to learn, that Mr. Wallack will present to the Parisian public representations in the English language, of the best of our Tragedies & Comedies'. He wishes the Wallacks 'the most complete success, and will with pleasure attend the performances, when his health will permit him & his family to do so'. Two of Mason's family will take up Wallack's offer of tickets for the opening.

Autograph Letter Signed ('T. F. Bayard') to the Hon. Francis Lanley.

Author: 
Thomas Francis Bayard (1828-1898), Secretary to President Grover Cleveland [Francis Lanley; Timothy Bigelow Laurence]
Publication details: 
3 April 1881; on letterhead of 1413 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington D.C.
£75.00

12mo, 3 pp. In bifolium. 28 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He is going to do Lanley 'a great favor' by assisting him 'to become acquainted with my friend Mrs. Bigelow Laurence [widow of Timothy Bigelow Laurence (1826-1869)] - who will be in England during the summer or autumn'. Reminisces about 'a book you and Casserly and I once planned at a breakfast table here', which was 'to consist of the best specimens of the skill and power of the Poets giving one chance to each'. To assist Lanley he is letting him know 'a woman who is a judge of poetry in its best sense.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to Captain Mason.

Author: 
Thomas Francis Bayard (1828-1898), Secretary to President Grover Cleveland [Lord George Hamilton]
Publication details: 
24 May 1894; on letterhead of the Embassy of the United States, London.
£56.00

12mo, 1 p. Thirteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and foxed paper. Acknowledging 'Captain Mason's note of yesterday', and in response to the request of 'Lord George Hamilton and the Committee', 'Mr Bayard' states that he will 'respond with much pleasure to the toast of "the United States" tonight at the banquet to the Admiral and officers of N.SS Chicago'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Julian B. Arnold') to Raffin, commenting on the state of the American book trade.

Author: 
Julian Biddulph Arnold, author, and son and biographer of Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904) [Alain Raffin]
Publication details: 
20 September 1921; 5132 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago, Illinois [on cancelled letterhead].
£85.00

4to, 2 pp. Twenty-seven lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged and slightly creased paper. He cannot help Raffin find an American publisher for his book 'Mystery, Mirage and Miracle' (privately printed for the author in London in 1921), although he finds its style 'delightful', and its subject matter 'one which deeply interests me'. 'The book-market is in a very strained condition - a sort of transition period with all the publishers "sitting on the fence", and the public refusing to by any books except a few which have the luck to become fashionable'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'B. H. Bristow') to E. R. Robinson.

Author: 
Benjamin Helm Bristow (1832-1896), first Solicitor General of the United States
Publication details: 
Saturday May 22' [no year] and 25 June 1880; second letter on letterhead of the 'Office of Bristow, Peet, Burnett & Opdyke, 20 Nassau St., New York.
£150.00

Letter One: 12mo, 12 p. Fourteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. Asks to 'rescind' his promise to go with Robinson to the races, as 'One of those troublesome fellows whom we call clients, but who are sometimes called victims by the ignorant & vicious, has made an appointment for me this afternoon'. Letter Two: 12mo, 1 p. Asking Robinson to join him and two others at a dinner with General Burnett at the Union Club.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Julian Pauncefote') to his subordinate at the Washington Legation, 'Barry'.

Author: 
Julian Pauncefote (1828-1902), 1st Baron Pauncefote, British diplomat
Publication details: 
19 September 1891; on letterhead of the British Legation, Washington (with that city replaced in manuscript by 'Newport R.S.')
£56.00

12mo, 4 pp. In bifolium. 42 lines. Clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He thanks him for the news of the 'progress of repairs &c at the Legation', and approves 'of your having ordered extra help to scrub the floors after all the mess which no doubt the workmen left behind them "more americano".' The former state of the 'kitchen flue [...] may account for the apparent inefficiency of the old Range'. He will return on the 'arrival of the next F.O. Bag on Monday'. Gives his travel plans.

Fascists and Nazis. By Perry Belmont, Commander of the Narragansett Bay Chapter of the Military Order of the World War.

Author: 
Perry Belmont [Eric Underwood; German Nazism; fascism; the Teutonic Order; Freemasonry]
Publication details: 
[Privately printed.] Newport, Rhode Island: December, 1940.
£150.00

Stapled pamphlet. 8vo, 27 pp, including full-page photograph of Mussolini embracing a man in Nazi uniform (Himmler?). Fair: internally clean and tight; some marking and wear to covers. Inscribed on title-page to 'Eric Underwood Esq with the sincere regards of Perry Belmont'. (Underwood is perhaps the English-born Australian nutritionist, 1905-1980.) Curious, digressive, energetic attack on fascism, with sections on the Teutonic Order, 'Oath-bound organisations' (Freemasonry) and 'Gangsters'.

Manuscript Memorandum, in English, docketed 'General Bernard's information respecting ettiquette [sic] of the french Court'.

Author: 
Baron Simon Bernard (1779-1839), French general of engineers, who did much military work for the United States government
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£56.00

Written in a neat, close hand (not Bernard's) on one page (the recto of the first leaf of a 12mo bifolium). Twenty-one lines. Text clear and complete. On aged, grubby and lightly-creased paper.

Olive, Cypress and Palm. An Anthology of Love and Death. Compiled by Mina Curtiss.

Author: 
Mina Curtiss, ed. [Ellery Sedgwick, editor of the Atlantic Monthly]
Publication details: 
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. 1930.
£56.00

8vo: xvii + 296 pp. In original black cloth, with design in silver stamped on front board. No dustwrapper. Faded spine and lightly-marked cloth. Inscribed by Curtiss on front free endpaper: 'To Ellery Sedgwick - | Most gratefully - | Mina Curtiss | Christmas, 1932.'

The Plight of the Creative Artist in the United States of America.

Author: 
Henry Miller [Bern Porter]
Publication details: 
[Houlton, Maine: Bern Porter, 1944.]
£75.00

8vo: paginated 3-38. Four full-page reproductions of Miller's paintings. In original yellow printed wraps. On brittle, aged paper, with the body of the book detached from the wraps, which are worn and with one corner at front creased. Title taken from front wrap. One of 950 numbered copies, signed by the publisher on the final page (beneath 'Publisher's Addendum') 'Bern Porter | 25 South St | Houlton Maine | Copy # 296'. Shifreen &Jackson A37a. Uncommon. Apart from the British Library, COPAC only lists copies at Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford and Bristol.

Two Letters in a Secretarial Hand, one of them signed by Amherst ('Amherst'), both to the Rev. Charles William Tonyn (d.1805) of Radnage, Bucks.

Author: 
Jeffrey Amherst, first Baron Amherst (1717-1797), field-marshall, conqueror of Canada
Publication details: 
The signed letter: 18 June 1781, Whitehall. The unsigned letter: 9 March 1782, Whitehall.
£220.00

The signed letter: 4to, 1 p. 11 lines of text. With the address on a separate and similarly-sized leaf. Franked 'War Office | ', and bearing two circular postmarks, one of them in red with the word 'FREE'. Good, on aged and creased paper. Assuring Tonyn that it will give him 'much pleasure' to recommend Tonyn's nephew George Augustus Tonyn for an army commission, 'as soon as I may be able to do it consistently with the very great number of Applications which I have already on my hands'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'H W Kennard') to Beresford Hope, the first providing information useful to an Edwardian British attaché in Washington.

Author: 
H. W. Kennard [Sir Howard William Kennard] (1878-1955), British diplomat [Beresford Hope; James Bryce (1838-1922), 1st Viscount Bryce, British Ambassador to the United States, 1907-1913]
Publication details: 
2 December 1907 and 16 August 1909; both on letterhead of the British Embassy, Washington [second letterhead amended to 'N. E. Harbor'].
£56.00

Hope had returned to the Foreign Office from Tehran in May 1907, but had moved to the Washington Embassy, as second secretary, that October. The recipient is presumably one of the ten children of the Tory politician A. J. B. Beresford Hope (1820-1887). Letter One: 12mo, 8 pp. Very good on lightly-aged paper. Addressed to 'My dear Beresford Hope'. A teasing, friendly letter, intresting for the information it provides on the situation of a minor attaché in Edwardian Washington.

Seven titles including 'Third Annual Report of the Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanizing and Zoning Board' (in Spanish); Ludlow's 'La Zonificacion en Puerto Rico'; and 'memorias suplementarias' for the municipalities of Cataño, Vieques and San Juan.

Author: 
William H. Ludlow; Junta de Planificación, Urbanización y Zonificación de Puerto Rico; Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanizing and Zoning Board [regional planning; Latin America]
Publication details: 
Titles published in 1945, 1946, 1947 and 1948 by the 'Junta de Planificación, Urbanización y Zonificación de Puerto Rico' (Government of Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanizing and Zoning Board).
£250.00

The seven items are all 8vo, and bound together in a contemporary dark green calf half-binding with 'JUNTA DE PLANIFICACION DE PUERTO RICO' in gilt on spine. Very good and tight, on aged paper with a little light foxing. Binding with wear to hinges and outer edges. Containing four fold-out maps and one fold-out table. ONE: Titled in English 'Government of Puerto Rico. Third Annual Report of the Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanizing and Zoning Board Submitted to the Governor of Puerto Rico. Fiscal Year 1944-45'. Pp: vi + 58 + 3 fold-out 'appendixes' (two maps and a table). Text in Spanish.

Two printed texts, each illuminated by hand in colours.

Author: 
Elbert Hubbard [Elbert Green Hubbard] (1856-1915), American writer, publisher, artist, associated with the Arts and Crafts movement [Roycroft Press]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated. Each carrying the Roycroft Press device.
£450.00

Each item is on a sheet of laid paper, 39 x 29 cm, and each with the Roycroft watermark. Both items are grubby, with wear and creasing to extremities, but with the design and much of the margin entirely undamaged. Both have an identical block of printed text (roughly 13.5 x 9 cm) at the centre: 'THE truth is that in human service there is no low or high degree: the woman who scrubs is as WORTHY of RESPECT as the man who Preaches | ELBERT HUBBARD'.

One Autograph Letter Signed ('E. H.' twice) with the first four pages of another (lacking signature), both to 'My dear Gop'.

Author: 
Esme William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith (1863-1939), British diplomat [Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon; Pixton Park, Dulverton]
Publication details: 
Complete Letter: 12 September 1908; on letterhead of The Tides, Bar Harbor, Maine. Incomplete Letter: 4 November 1908; on letterhead of Pixton Park, Dulverton.
£56.00

Both items in good condition, on aged paper. Complete Letter (12 September 1908): 12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. He thanks Gop [Goss?] for the 'letter of great length extended exclamation marks but otherwise agreeable & genial'. Howard 'can understand that vowing to keep silence the next best thing is to write to someone'. Gop's 'instinct is sound': Howard has 'abandoned Presque Isle which is a 12 hrs journey from here'. Gives a date for his return to Manchester.

[Chinese Miners] Testimonial, in English, in the form of a printed poster, presented to Robinson on the occasion of his retirement as Senior Inspector of Mines, F.M.S., with list of names.

Author: 
The Chinese Miners of the F.M.S. [Federated Malay States]' [Charles Ingle Robinson, Senior Inspector of Mines, F.M.S.; Malaysia; Malaya]
Publication details: 
IPOH 11th MAY, 1933.' ['Printed at the Kuang Ming Press, Ipoh. [Malaya]']
£85.00

Printed in blue on one side of a piece of white paper roughly 60 x 40 cm. Good: lightly-aged and creased. The text is enclosed within an ornate decorative border, and is headed 'Charles Ingle Robinson Esqr., | B. Sc. (Lond.), Associate R. S. M., | M. I. C. E., M. I. M. M., | Senior Inspector of Mines, F. M. S.' This is followed by nineteen lines, expressing 'deep regret and genuine sorrow' at his 'departure for Europe on retirement'.

Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: To the End of the Year M,DCC,LXXXIII [1783]. Volume I.

Author: 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences [James Bowdoin, Edward Augustus Holyoke, Benjamin Lincoln, Joseph Willard, Mannaseh Cutler, Caleb Gannett, Eli Forbes, Edward Wigglesworth, Jeremy Belknap et al.]
Publication details: 
Boston: Printed by Adams and Nourse, in Court-Street. 1785.
£120.00

4to: xxxii + 568 pp. Very good, on lightly spotted and discoloured paper. In heavily-worn original boards, consisting of quarter-binding with grey boards and cream spine, with slight staining at head of spine. Foxed endpapers. Lacking plates. Fifty-four papers, by James Bowdoin, Edward Augustus Holyoke, Benjamin Lincoln, Joseph Willard, Mannaseh Cutler, Caleb Gannett, Eli Forbes, Edward Wigglesworth, Jeremy Belknap and others.

Illustrated Catalogue of Acts and Laws of the Colony and State of New York [...] constituting the collection made by Hon. Russell Benedict, Justice of the Supreme Court of New York.

Author: 
Hon. Russell Benedict, Justice of the Supreme Court of New York [The American Art Association]
Publication details: 
To be sold [...] on Monday, February 27th, 1922 [...] The sale to be conducted by Mr. Thomas E. Kirby and his assistants, of The American Art Association, Managers, New York City.
£60.00

Octavo: 261 unpaginated pages. In original printed wraps. Internally sound and clean, in stained and creased wraps. Unobtrusive ownership mark of Myers & Co. of London on front wrap. Fifty full-page facsimiles of title-pages, etc. Foreword by Benedict, followed by Resume, beginning, 'The Collection of Laws belonging to Judge Russell Benedict, [...] is the Most Important Collection of its kind that has ever been brought together by a private party.

Original coloured Kronheim 'Baxter' engraving, captioned 'New York Bay from Staten Island'.

Author: 
Joseph Martin Kronheim (1810-1896) [George Baxter; New York; Staten Island; engraving; prints; maps; topography]
Publication details: 
[1850s?] 'J. M. Kronheim & Co. London'.
£56.00

Dimensions of print 6.5 x 11 cm. On a piece of paper 7.5 x 12 cm. Neatly laid down on a piece of cream paper 20 x 27.5 cm. Good clear impression on paper with foxing to margins at extremities. A series of three concentric red borders on the mount surround the print. Charming image, with a couple of fashionable couples looking out over a bay with a steamship and sail boats.

Original coloured Kronheim 'Baxter' engraving, captioned 'New York Bay from Staten Island'.

Author: 
Joseph Martin Kronheim (1810-1896) [George Baxter; New York; Staten Island; engraving; prints; maps; topography]
Publication details: 
[1850s?] 'J. M. Kronheim & Co. London'.
£56.00

Dimensions of print 6.5 x 11 cm. On a piece of paper 9.5 x 16 cm. Neatly laid down on a piece of cream card 15.5 x 21.5 cm. Good clear impression on lightly-aged paper. Charming image, with a couple of fashionable couples looking out over a bay with a steamship and sail boats.

Original steel engraving, drawn by G. F. Sargent and engraved by G. Greatbach, captioned 'City of New York'.

Author: 
William Rae McPhun, Glasgow printseller and bookseller; G. F. Sargent; George Greatbach, London engraver [New York; prints; engravings; maps]
Publication details: 
[1850s?] 'W. R. McPhun & Son. Publishers, Glasgow.'
£56.00

Dimensions of print 12.5 x 19.5 cm. On paper 16 x 24.5 cm. Good clean impression, with six or seven spots of foxing in the margin and a little wear in the bottom left-hand copy. Striking detailed view of the city with sailboats and steamships in the harbour, and the major buildings and layout of the streets clearly portrayed, with the environs in the distance. Scarce: there is little information to be gleaned concerning this print.

Steel engraving captioned 'Birds Eye View of the City and County of New-York with Environs.'

Author: 
Charles Magnus (1826-1900), German-born American engraver and printseller [New York; steel engraving; maps; travel; topography]
Publication details: 
[circa 1855] 'Sold by Charles Magnus, 12 Frankfort Street, New York.'
£80.00

Dimensions of print 11.5 x 19.5 cm. At the head of the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium (leaf dimensions 28 x 22.5 cm). The print itself is clear and undamaged, on aged paper. With traces of cuttings mounted onto the internal pages, and closed tear to the blank second leaf. An impressively detailed engraving, showing the bustling port and layout of the city, with church spires and prominent buildings. A copy of the item survives used as a letter home from a German girl in 1855. The copy in the New York Public Library is ascribed to 'C. Magnus, Lith. 22 N. William St.'

Original steel engraving, drawn by G. F. Sargent and engraved by G. Greatbach, captioned 'City of New York'.

Author: 
William Rae McPhun, Glasgow printseller and bookseller; G. F. Sargent; George Greatbach, London engraver [New York; prints; engravings; maps]
Publication details: 
[1850s] 'W. R. McPhun & Son. Publishers, Glasgow.'
£56.00

Dimensions of print 12.5 x 19.5 cm. On paper 16 x 24.5 cm. Good clean impression, with six or seven spots of foxing in the margin and a little wear in the bottom left-hand copy. Striking detailed view of the city with sailboats and steamships in the harbour, and the major buildings and layout of the streets clearly portrayed, with the environs in the distance. Scarce: there is little information to be gleaned concerning this print.

I Want! I Want! Printed, not Published, for the Friends of A. Edward Newton.

Author: 
A. Edward Newton, American book collector of 'Oak Knoll', Daylesford, Pennsylvania
Publication details: 
Christmas, 1932.
£45.00

12mo: [ii] + 14 pp. Unpaginated. Frontispiece of Blake's celebrated print. Internally tight on lightly-aged and grubby paper, and with the reverse of the frontispiece slightly discoloured. Staples a little rusty. In grubby white wraps. A signed presentation copy. Boldly written on the front wrap: 'Lawrence Binyon C.H. with the compliments of [signed] H. Edward Newton'. A characteristic production by the boisterous author of 'The Amenities of Book-Collecting'. At end: 'A. EDWARD NEWTON | "Oak Knoll" | Daylesford, Berwyn P.O., | Pennsylvania'.

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