Album Pittoresque de la Frégate La Thétis et de la Corvette L'Espérance. Collection de Dessins relatifs à leur Voyage autour du Monde en 1824, 1825 et 1826, sous les ordres de M. le baron de Bougainville, Capitaine de Vaisseau ; recueillis et publiés par M. le vicomte de Touanne, Lieutenant de Vaisseau à bord de la Frégate La Thétis - Rare Book Insider
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Album Pittoresque de la Frégate La Thétis et de la Corvette L’Espérance. Collection de Dessins relatifs à leur Voyage autour du Monde en 1824, 1825 et 1826, sous les ordres de M. le baron de Bougainville, Capitaine de Vaisseau ; recueillis et publiés par M. le vicomte de Touanne, Lieutenant de Vaisseau à bord de la Frégate La Thétis

(20 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches). Half-title, title, 44 pages of text with seven vignettes in-text and 35 lithograph plates. A presentation binding of straight-grained red full morocco over paper boards, elaborately gilt-tooled and gilt-titled, with the spine in nine compartments, and the binder's ticket of Bechard in Paris. First edition of the Thétis voyage, in a stunning association copy, from Touanne to Eugene du Bouzet, his shipmate. With superb lithographs from a historic grand voyage. This fine series of views with accompanying text was the first published account of the important voyage of Hyacinthe de Bougainville in the Thétis (1824-26), separately issued some nine years before the official account of this voyage. Edmond de la Touanne, a friend and protégé of Bougainville (and referred to in Bougainville's journal as "faithful companion of my travels"), sailed on the expedition as lieutenant de vaisseau. Because of the haste with which the expedition was manned, no official artist was sent; as Bougainville remarks, no pictorial record of the expedition would have survived but for de la Touanne's sketches. This rare and beautiful voyage album has considerable Australian textual content, as well as the three famous views of the Nepean River that resulted from their inland travels: a view of the Nepean where it is joined by Glenbrook Creek, with kangaroos on the river bank and a group of First Nations people in the middle distance; a view of the Norton Waterhole on the Nepean River with members of the expedition being rowed across the river in two boats watched by a group of Aboriginal people; and a view of the Nepean Gorge below Macarthur's hous Camden Park, with a group of First Nations people around a fire on the shore. There is also a fine engraved vignette of the expeditions ships under sail south of Tasmania, in the heavy seas which forced them to abandon their visit to Hobart and continue directly to Port Jackson. Hyacinthe de Bougainville, son of the great eighteenth-century navigator, sailed as an eighteen-year-old ensign on the Baudin voyage. After distinguished service in the Napoleonic Wars, he was given command of the Thétis, only the second French frigate to be commissioned for a circumnavigation, the first having been his father's ship the Boudeuse. The expedition's most important visit was to Sydney where they stayed three months. Having been given secret orders to report on the defense capabilities of British settlements, the French officers traveled as widely as possible within the colony. Their investigations of Botany Bay, Camden, the Warragambe River, and the Blue Mountains are well recorded in Bougainville's diaries. Borba de Moraes I, 115. Brunet I, 1167. Dictionary of Australian Aritsts Online, Touanne. Ferguson 1204. Hill 161. Sabin 6874.
More from Donald A. Heald Rare Books
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Ohio

Color-lithographed map. A very detailed colour-coded map of Ohio showing towns, rivers, roads, railroads, among other landmarks. The General Land Office was founded in 1812 as an independent government agency responsible for the surveying and disposition of land in the public domain. Prior to the Civil War, much of the attention of the GLO was fixed on the settlement of such land east of the Mississippi which had resulted from military bounties and cessations by the original thirteen states. The end of the Civil War, the Homestead Act, the completion of the Trans-Continental Railroad and the military campaigns against Native Americans in the West (with resulting treaties that "transferred" land ownership to the United States), together engendered an incredible increase in westward settement and expansion. Newly-admitted states and newly-created territories west of the Mississippi were primed for settlement. Between 1866 and 1876, the GLO surveyed over 200,000,000 acres of land in the public domain for settlement in New Mexico, Idaho, Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and elsewhere. As the official surveyors of these remote areas, and with access to military information, the maps of the General Land Office were far and away the most accurate and detailed of the western states and territories published to that time. Indeed, these large-scale official maps became the basis for future maps of those regions by commercial cartographers. In 1876, the GLO, headed by S.S. Burdett, published an atlas containing 18 maps (on 19 sheets, California being on two sheets), showing the regions of the United States with newly surveyed and plotted public lands. Although the GLO had issued individual maps of the United States to accompany their annual report in 1866 and 1868, the 1876 Geographical and Political Atlas of the States and Territories (sometimes referred to as The Centennial Atlas) was the first atlas to be published by the department. The incredible growth of settlement in the west, coupled with new exploration and surveying in the short time following the 1876 atlas, engendered a second atlas to be published by the General Land Office between 1878 and 1879 [i.e. where the present example is from]. Like the Centennial Atlas, the maps were composed by the chief draughtsman in the GLO, Charles Roeser, Jr. The maps were done on a large scale and are consequently very detailed. Chromolithographed by Julius Bien, each map is colour coded to clearly depict land plotted for settlement, the locations of the general land offices, Indian territories, county divisions, towns, rivers, roads, railroads, etc. Furthermore, like The Centennial Atlas, the Atlas of the States and Territories over which Land Surveys have been Extended was produced for official purposes and distributed to members of Congress, government agencies, each land office, the post office, the railroads, and other large entities and was not available for public distribution. The limited distribution of this atlas, coupled with its large size, accounts for its great rarity today; very few copies are known to be in private hands and no copies were in the famed collections of Rumsey, Streeter or Graff. Phillips, Atlases 1405.
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Journal de la navigation autour du globe de la frégate La Thétis et de la corvette L’Espérance pendant les années 1824, 1825, et 1826, publié par ordre du Roi sous les auspices du département de la Marine. Volumes I-II plus Atlas

(20 1/2 x 13 1/2 inches). Volume I: [8] 1-742. 746 pp. Volume II: [I]-XVI 1-352 [1]-165 [3]. 536 pp. Both volumes with numerous in-text woodcut illustrations. Atlas: 4 pp. 56 engraved or lithograph plates and double-page maps, many handcolored. Half-Title, Title, Errata. Contemporary ink manuscript on first blank "Ex Dono auctoris D. Ducampier" Volumes I and II: Uniform contemporary full tree calf, spine in six elaborately gilt compartments with red morocco piece in fourth compartment and gilt title in second, gilt devices, tan endpapers with all edges sprinkled brown. Atlas: Dark red straight-grained quarter morocco over brown paper boards with a red morocco lettering-piece on front board ruled and lettered in gilt, spine ruled in gilt in six compartments, with tan marbled endpapers. An important French circumnavigation in fine condition. A remarkable copy of the official record of Bougainville's voyage around the world. Hyacinthe de Bougainville, son of Louis de Bougainville, sailed as an ensign at the age of eighteen on the Baudin voyage. His own expedition of 1826 has been overshadowed by such circumnavigators as Dumont d'Urville. After distinguished service in the Napoleonic Wars, Bougainville was promoted to post-captain and given command of the Thétis. She was only the second French frigate to be commissioned for a circumnavigation, the first having been his father's vessel, the Boudeuse. The voyage took twenty-eight months, visiting Pondicherry, Manila, Macao, Surabaya, Sydney, Valparaiso, and Rio, among other places. Bougainville returned to France with a fine collection of natural history specimens, and the official account of the voyage was handsomely published after a delay of some eleven years. The major purpose of the expedition was political and strategic, and Bougainville's first report of 1826 gave the French government a survey of colonial possessions in Asia and of the military strength of Manila, as well as accounts of Singapore, the Australian colonies, and Spanish America. He spent several months in and around Sydney, where he collected considerable ornithological material. This ultimately resulted in three drawings by Bessa of four species of birds, including superb illustrations of the male and female Gang-gang, or red-crested parrot From here both ships crossed to Valparaiso, where la Touanne commenced his overland journey to rejoin the expedition at Rio. The account of this journey takes up much of the second volume, together with René Primevère Lesson's (1794-1849) account of the natural history. Bougainville's advice was taken into account in the development of French strategy and diplomacy in the Pacific during the 19th century. The rare atlas volume includes thirty-four lithograph views and portraits after Adam, Sabatier, and others from sketches by de la Touanne, printed by Bernard and Frey; twelve handcolored engraved natural history plates after Bessa and Pretre by Countant, Legrand, Oudet, Dumenil, and Massard; an excellent double-page handcolored aquatint of various native vessels; a folding engraved world map; two double-page coastal profiles and six double-page engraved maps and charts by Tardieu after de la Touanne. Borba de Moraes, p.115. Ferguson 2236. Fine Bird Books, p.79. Hill 162. Howgego II B. Nissen ZBI 483. Sabin 6875. Whittell, p.68. Wood, p.251. Zimmer 83. Vols. I and II: 4to (11 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches). Atlas: Folio
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Chart of the Coast of America From St Hellen’s Sound St John’s River . from the Nd of St Augustin to Ayes Inlet .

Engraved map on two folding sheets joined, irregularly shaped as issued, sheet size approximately 48 3/4 x 23 3/4 inches. Expert restoration at the folds. Chart numbers 15 and 16. Printed cartographic Americana of the greatest rarity: a map of the Georgia and Florida coast from the first American-made atlas, "the first totally American production of its kind" (Garvan). Following the American Revolution, as the United States began to form a political identity within their newly-defined boundaries, American cartographers began to wrest control from their former colonial rulers on how those boundaries would be depicted. In 1784, Abel Buell, a Connecticut silversmith and engraver, produced the first map of the United States published in America; in 1789, Christopher Colles, a New York engineer, would begin publishing strip maps of American roads; and in 1790, Matthew Clark, a Boston merchant and auctioneer, published the country's very first atlas. Clark's business largely revolved around West Indian goods. "Constantly on the docks and involved in coastal shipping, he saw the need for and had access to local navigational information" (Garvan). Partnering with engraver and printseller John Norman, Clark announced his intention in the 22 February 1790 issue of the Boston Gazette: "When so many attempts are making toward the advancing of the interests of the arts and manufactures in this Country -- when the vast extent of sea coast on the American shores, and the numerous and dangerous rocks, shoals, &c. are considered, the utility of such a work will be readily admitted -- more especially when there are so few charts of this coast extant, and those drawn on an inconsiderable scale." The charts referred to were those by Holland and Des Barres in The Atlantic Neptune, Thornton & Fisher in the fourth book of the English Pilot and charts by Sayer & Bennett in the North American Pilot. The charts from those British works were largely unavailable to the New England ship captains who traded cargo up and down the east coast with the local price fluctuations for their goods. Clark, however, realized that the financial success of his atlas would depend largely on whether the Yankee captains felt they could trust his never-before-American-made charts. He therefore contracted with Osgood Carleton, a noted Boston mathematician, and the Boston Marine Society, to endorse their accuracy. Although the original prospectus suggested that the work, published by subscription, would contain 15 charts, the final atlas contained 18 charts, joined as pairs to create 9 irregularly-shaped mapsheets, depicting the coast from Cape Breton all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Advertised as "just published" in the 5 July 1790 issue of the Boston Gazette, the charts could be purchased as an atlas for 36 shillings, or individual charts at 2 shillings each. Cartographically, Clark's charts are based on Des Barres and others; however, they do contain significant additional data from local knowledge, leading Carleton to declare them as "more accurate than any before published." Furthermore, "as an adaptation for a specific purpose, these charts show a great deal of imagination and ability. Instead of simply compiling details or republishing old surveys, they increased the scale of the coastal areas . The water areas were restricted to a narrow coastal corridor with no references to distances to or from London or Europe" (Garvan). In short, they were distinctly American, and their success engendered the birth of American cartography. In Boston, Norman would go on to produce his own American Pilot the following year in competition to Clark; and in 1795, Matthew Carey in Philadelphia would publish America's first terrestrial atlas. Clark's Charts are extraordinarily rare. "These were working charts and their rarity today . must be attributed in part to their having been worn out from use at sea" (McCorkle). Only eight complete sets are known: Yale; John Carter Brown Library; Boston Atheneum; Boston Public Library; Library Company of Philadelphia; Clements Library; New York Public Library; and the Library of Congress. Upon their acquisition of a set in 1987, the Clements Library declared Clark's Charts to be "one of the most desirable rarities of American cartographic literature" (Bosse). Beatrice B. Garvan, "Matthew Clark's Charts One Significant Example of Yankee Enterprise" in Philadelphia Printmaking American prints before 1860. Edited by Robert F. Looney. (West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1976) pp.43-69; Guthorn pp. 7, 43 & 96; Phillips 3667 (quoting the Boston Gazette prospectus in full); Ristow p.224; McCorkle, American Emergent 51; David Bosse, "The World of Maps" in The American Magazine, Vol. 3., No. 1 (Clements Library, Spring-Summer 1987); Evans 21738; ESTC W18996; Wheat & Brun 609 and 625.
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The Country Seats of the United States of North America, with Some Scenes Connected with Them

(8 3/4 x 10 7/8 inches). 20 hand-colored engravings, including title and section title, and 18 views. The general title and Mendenhall plate are second issue, the title with a letterpress copyright note on verso and Mendenhall with its spelling corrected. Publisher's wrappers with letterpress paper title-label on the upper wrapper with plain rear wrapper. Housed within a cloth chemise and quarter morocco slipcase Provenance: Bookplate of Jay Snider. Martin P. Snyder, bibliographer. The Snyder-Snider copy in original wrappers of one of the earliest and rarest American color-plate books, and the first on American scenery. "Birch's skill as a miniaturist is demonstrated in his charming book." - Reese Country Seats, Birch's second book published in America, principally depicts views near Philadelphia (13), but also shows estates in Virginia, including Mount Vernon; New York; New Jersey; Maryland; and Louisiana. Birch and his sons, Thomas and George, collaborated on the work, combining line and stipple engraving with delicate coloring to rich effect. Country Seats was conceived to be primarily decorative, a handsome series of views aimed at an audience who might possess country estates themselves. This kind of luxury viewbook, a genre of immense popularity in England and Europe, never really took hold in the United States. Americans preferred to buy individual views and prints which were produced in huge numbers, but not expensive books. [Reese] Snyder similarly argues that while Birch's Philadelphia Views was inspired by a burst of civic pride and enthusiasm, Country Seats was much more a work born of Birch's individual background and ambitions. It was the product of a desire to raise the prevailing levels of taste in homes and to identify himself with the wealthy life externally portrayed in his pictures. [Snyder] First issued in four parts for a limited number of subscribers, the work met with little commercial success. Birch nonetheless proceeded to put his work into book form. After the issue to subscribers was complete, he reissued the plates as one volume in 1809 in a trade edition. Very few copies survive. List of Plates: 1. The Capital at Washington. 2. The View from Springland. 3. Devon, in Pennsylvania, the Seat of Mr. Dallas. 4. Mount Sidney, Seat of General Barker, Pennsylvania. 5. Seat of Mr. Duplantier, near New Orleans. 6. Montibello, the Seat of General S. Smith, Maryland. 7. Woodlands, the Seat of Mr. W. Hamilton, Pennsylvania. 8. Sedgley, the Seat of Mr. William Crammond, Pennsylvania. 9. Hoboken in New Jersey, the Seat of Mr. John Stevens. 10. Hampton, the Seat of General Ridgley, Maryland. 11. Lansdown, the Seat of the Late Wm. Bingham, Pennsylvania. 12. Echo, Pennsylvania, Belonging to Mr. Bavarage. 13. Mt. Vernon the Seat of General Washington. 14. Fountain Green, the Seat of Mr. S. Meeker, Pennsylvania. 15. Solitude, in Pennsylvania, Belonging to Mr. Penn. 16. Belmont, the Seat of Judge Peters, Pennsylvania. 17. York-Island, with a View of the Seats of Mr. A. Gracie, Mr. Church, etc. 18. Mendenhall Ferry, Schuylkill, Pennsylvania. 19. China Retreat, Pennsylvania, Seat of Mr. Manigault. 20. Elysian Bower, Springland, Pa. Howes B460c. Reese, Stamped with a National Character 2. Sabin 5531. Snyder, "William Birch: His Country Seats of the United States," in Pennsylvania Magazine, Vol.81, No.3.
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Chart of the Coast of America Thro the Gulph of Florida . Through the Gulph of Florida To the Entrance of the Gulph of Mexico

Engraved map on two folding sheets joined, irregularly shaped as issued, sheet size approximately 39 5/8 x 25 inches. Expert restoration at the folds. Chart numbers 17 and 18. Printed cartographic Americana of the greatest rarity: a map the Florida coast from the first American-made atlas, "the first totally American production of its kind" (Garvan). Following the American Revolution, as the United States began to form a political identity within their newly-defined boundaries, American cartographers began to wrest control from their former colonial rulers on how those boundaries would be depicted. In 1784, Abel Buell, a Connecticut silversmith and engraver, produced the first map of the United States published in America; in 1789, Christopher Colles, a New York engineer, would begin publishing strip maps of American roads; and in 1790, Matthew Clark, a Boston merchant and auctioneer, published the country's very first atlas. Clark's business largely revolved around West Indian goods. "Constantly on the docks and involved in coastal shipping, he saw the need for and had access to local navigational information" (Garvan). Partnering with engraver and printseller John Norman, Clark announced his intention in the 22 February 1790 issue of the Boston Gazette: "When so many attempts are making toward the advancing of the interests of the arts and manufactures in this Country -- when the vast extent of sea coast on the American shores, and the numerous and dangerous rocks, shoals, &c. are considered, the utility of such a work will be readily admitted -- more especially when there are so few charts of this coast extant, and those drawn on an inconsiderable scale." The charts referred to were those by Holland and Des Barres in The Atlantic Neptune, Thornton & Fisher in the fourth book of the English Pilot and charts by Sayer & Bennett in the North American Pilot. The charts from those British works were largely unavailable to the New England ship captains who traded cargo up and down the east coast with the local price fluctuations for their goods. Clark, however, realized that the financial success of his atlas would depend largely on whether the Yankee captains felt they could trust his never-before-American-made charts. He therefore contracted with Osgood Carleton, a noted Boston mathematician, and the Boston Marine Society, to endorse their accuracy. Although the original prospectus suggested that the work, published by subscription, would contain 15 charts, the final atlas contained 18 charts, joined as pairs to create 9 irregularly-shaped mapsheets, depicting the coast from Cape Breton all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Advertised as "just published" in the 5 July 1790 issue of the Boston Gazette, the charts could be purchased as an atlas for 36 shillings, or individual charts at 2 shillings each. Cartographically, Clark's charts are based on Des Barres and others; however, they do contain significant additional data from local knowledge, leading Carleton to declare them as "more accurate than any before published." Furthermore, "as an adaptation for a specific purpose, these charts show a great deal of imagination and ability. Instead of simply compiling details or republishing old surveys, they increased the scale of the coastal areas . The water areas were restricted to a narrow coastal corridor with no references to distances to or from London or Europe" (Garvan). In short, they were distinctly American, and their success engendered the birth of American cartography. In Boston, Norman would go on to produce his own American Pilot the following year in competition to Clark; and in 1795, Matthew Carey in Philadelphia would publish America's first terrestrial atlas. Clark's Charts are extraordinarily rare. "These were working charts and their rarity today . must be attributed in part to their having been worn out from use at sea" (McCorkle). Only eight complete sets are known: Yale; John Carter Brown Library; Boston Atheneum; Boston Public Library; Library Company of Philadelphia; Clements Library; New York Public Library; and the Library of Congress. Upon their acquisition of a set in 1987, the Clements Library declared Clark's Charts to be "one of the most desirable rarities of American cartographic literature" (Bosse). Beatrice B. Garvan, "Matthew Clark's Charts One Significant Example of Yankee Enterprise" in Philadelphia Printmaking American prints before 1860. Edited by Robert F. Looney. (West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1976) pp.43-69; Guthorn pp. 7, 43 & 96; Phillips 3667 (quoting the Boston Gazette prospectus in full); Ristow p.224; McCorkle, American Emergent 51; David Bosse, "The World of Maps" in The American Magazine, Vol. 3., No. 1 (Clements Library, Spring-Summer 1987); Evans 21738; ESTC W18996; Wheat & Brun 626 and 627.
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Chart of the Coast of America from C. Eliz to Mouse Harbour from the latest Surveys. Josh. H. Seymour Sc.’

Engraved map on two folding sheets joined, irregularly shaped as issued, sheet size approximately 23 3/4 x 33 1/2 inches. Expert restoration at the folds. Chart numbers 5 and 6. Printed cartographic Americana of the greatest rarity: a map of the Maine and Cape Cod coasts from the first American-made atlas, "the first totally American production of its kind" (Garvan). Following the American Revolution, as the United States began to form a political identity within their newly-defined boundaries, American cartographers began to wrest control from their former colonial rulers on how those boundaries would be depicted. In 1784, Abel Buell, a Connecticut silversmith and engraver, produced the first map of the United States published in America; in 1789, Christopher Colles, a New York engineer, would begin publishing strip maps of American roads; and in 1790, Matthew Clark, a Boston merchant and auctioneer, published the country's very first atlas. Clark's business largely revolved around West Indian goods. "Constantly on the docks and involved in coastal shipping, he saw the need for and had access to local navigational information" (Garvan). Partnering with engraver and printseller John Norman, Clark announced his intention in the 22 February 1790 issue of the Boston Gazette: "When so many attempts are making toward the advancing of the interests of the arts and manufactures in this Country -- when the vast extent of sea coast on the American shores, and the numerous and dangerous rocks, shoals, &c. are considered, the utility of such a work will be readily admitted -- more especially when there are so few charts of this coast extant, and those drawn on an inconsiderable scale." The charts referred to were those by Holland and Des Barres in The Atlantic Neptune, Thornton & Fisher in the fourth book of the English Pilot and charts by Sayer & Bennett in the North American Pilot. The charts from those British works were largely unavailable to the New England ship captains who traded cargo up and down the east coast with the local price fluctuations for their goods. Clark, however, realized that the financial success of his atlas would depend largely on whether the Yankee captains felt they could trust his never-before-American-made charts. He therefore contracted with Osgood Carleton, a noted Boston mathematician, and the Boston Marine Society, to endorse their accuracy. Although the original prospectus suggested that the work, published by subscription, would contain 15 charts, the final atlas contained 18 charts, joined as pairs to create 9 irregularly-shaped mapsheets, depicting the coast from Cape Breton all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Advertised as "just published" in the 5 July 1790 issue of the Boston Gazette, the charts could be purchased as an atlas for 36 shillings, or individual charts at 2 shillings each. Cartographically, Clark's charts are based on Des Barres and others; however, they do contain significant additional data from local knowledge, leading Carleton to declare them as "more accurate than any before published." Furthermore, "as an adaptation for a specific purpose, these charts show a great deal of imagination and ability. Instead of simply compiling details or republishing old surveys, they increased the scale of the coastal areas . The water areas were restricted to a narrow coastal corridor with no references to distances to or from London or Europe" (Garvan). In short, they were distinctly American, and their success engendered the birth of American cartography. In Boston, Norman would go on to produce his own American Pilot the following year in competition to Clark; and in 1795, Matthew Carey in Philadelphia would publish America's first terrestrial atlas. Clark's Charts are extraordinarily rare. "These were working charts and their rarity today . must be attributed in part to their having been worn out from use at sea" (McCorkle). Only eight complete sets are known: Yale; John Carter Brown Library; Boston Atheneum; Boston Public Library; Library Company of Philadelphia; Clements Library; New York Public Library; and the Library of Congress. Upon their acquisition of a set in 1987, the Clements Library declared Clark's Charts to be "one of the most desirable rarities of American cartographic literature" (Bosse). Beatrice B. Garvan, "Matthew Clark's Charts One Significant Example of Yankee Enterprise" in Philadelphia Printmaking American prints before 1860. Edited by Robert F. Looney. (West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1976) pp.43-69; Guthorn pp. 7, 43 & 96; Phillips 3667 (quoting the Boston Gazette prospectus in full); Ristow p.224; McCorkle, American Emergent 51; David Bosse, "The World of Maps" in The American Magazine, Vol. 3., No. 1 (Clements Library, Spring-Summer 1987); Evans 21738; ESTC W18996; Wheat & Brun 626 and 627.
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Chart of the Coast of America From [Ge]orge’s Bank to Rhode Island including Nantucket Shoals &c. From the latest Surveys J. Norman Sc

Engraved map on two folding sheets joined, irregularly shaped as issued, sheet size approximately 24 x 48 3/4 inches. Expert restoration at the folds. Chart numbers 7 and 8. Printed cartographic Americana of the greatest rarity: a map of the Long Island and Cape Cod coasts from the first American-made atlas, "the first totally American production of its kind" (Garvan). Following the American Revolution, as the United States began to form a political identity within their newly-defined boundaries, American cartographers began to wrest control from their former colonial rulers on how those boundaries would be depicted. In 1784, Abel Buell, a Connecticut silversmith and engraver, produced the first map of the United States published in America; in 1789, Christopher Colles, a New York engineer, would begin publishing strip maps of American roads; and in 1790, Matthew Clark, a Boston merchant and auctioneer, published the country's very first atlas. Clark's business largely revolved around West Indian goods. "Constantly on the docks and involved in coastal shipping, he saw the need for and had access to local navigational information" (Garvan). Partnering with engraver and printseller John Norman, Clark announced his intention in the 22 February 1790 issue of the Boston Gazette: "When so many attempts are making toward the advancing of the interests of the arts and manufactures in this Country -- when the vast extent of sea coast on the American shores, and the numerous and dangerous rocks, shoals, &c. are considered, the utility of such a work will be readily admitted -- more especially when there are so few charts of this coast extant, and those drawn on an inconsiderable scale." The charts referred to were those by Holland and Des Barres in The Atlantic Neptune, Thornton & Fisher in the fourth book of the English Pilot and charts by Sayer & Bennett in the North American Pilot. The charts from those British works were largely unavailable to the New England ship captains who traded cargo up and down the east coast with the local price fluctuations for their goods. Clark, however, realized that the financial success of his atlas would depend largely on whether the Yankee captains felt they could trust his never-before-American-made charts. He therefore contracted with Osgood Carleton, a noted Boston mathematician, and the Boston Marine Society, to endorse their accuracy. Although the original prospectus suggested that the work, published by subscription, would contain 15 charts, the final atlas contained 18 charts, joined as pairs to create 9 irregularly-shaped mapsheets, depicting the coast from Cape Breton all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Advertised as "just published" in the 5 July 1790 issue of the Boston Gazette, the charts could be purchased as an atlas for 36 shillings, or individual charts at 2 shillings each. Cartographically, Clark's charts are based on Des Barres and others; however, they do contain significant additional data from local knowledge, leading Carleton to declare them as "more accurate than any before published." Furthermore, "as an adaptation for a specific purpose, these charts show a great deal of imagination and ability. Instead of simply compiling details or republishing old surveys, they increased the scale of the coastal areas . The water areas were restricted to a narrow coastal corridor with no references to distances to or from London or Europe" (Garvan). In short, they were distinctly American, and their success engendered the birth of American cartography. In Boston, Norman would go on to produce his own American Pilot the following year in competition to Clark; and in 1795, Matthew Carey in Philadelphia would publish America's first terrestrial atlas. Clark's Charts are extraordinarily rare. "These were working charts and their rarity today . must be attributed in part to their having been worn out from use at sea" (McCorkle). Only eight complete sets are known: Yale; John Carter Brown Library; Boston Atheneum; Boston Public Library; Library Company of Philadelphia; Clements Library; New York Public Library; and the Library of Congress. Upon their acquisition of a set in 1987, the Clements Library declared Clark's Charts to be "one of the most desirable rarities of American cartographic literature" (Bosse). Beatrice B. Garvan, "Matthew Clark's Charts One Significant Example of Yankee Enterprise" in Philadelphia Printmaking American prints before 1860. Edited by Robert F. Looney. (West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1976) pp.43-69; Guthorn pp. 7, 43 & 96; Phillips 3667 (quoting the Boston Gazette prospectus in full); Ristow p.224; McCorkle, American Emergent 51; David Bosse, "The World of Maps" in The American Magazine, Vol. 3., No. 1 (Clements Library, Spring-Summer 1987); Evans 21738; ESTC W18996; Wheat & Brun 626 and 627.
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Chart of the Coast of America from Cape Fear to Cape Look Out From the latest Surveys . Chart of The Coast of America From Cape Fear [i.e. Cape Lookout] to Helens Sound

Engraved map on two folding sheets joined, irregularly shaped as issued, sheet size approximately 28 x 33 inches. Expert restoration at the folds. Printed cartographic Americana of the greatest rarity: a map the North and South Carolina coasts from the first American-made atlas, "the first totally American production of its kind" (Garvan). Following the American Revolution, as the United States began to form a political identity within their newly-defined boundaries, American cartographers began to wrest control from their former colonial rulers on how those boundaries would be depicted. In 1784, Abel Buell, a Connecticut silversmith and engraver, produced the first map of the United States published in America; in 1789, Christopher Colles, a New York engineer, would begin publishing strip maps of American roads; and in 1790, Matthew Clark, a Boston merchant and auctioneer, published the country's very first atlas. Clark's business largely revolved around West Indian goods. "Constantly on the docks and involved in coastal shipping, he saw the need for and had access to local navigational information" (Garvan). Partnering with engraver and printseller John Norman, Clark announced his intention in the 22 February 1790 issue of the Boston Gazette: "When so many attempts are making toward the advancing of the interests of the arts and manufactures in this Country -- when the vast extent of sea coast on the American shores, and the numerous and dangerous rocks, shoals, &c. are considered, the utility of such a work will be readily admitted -- more especially when there are so few charts of this coast extant, and those drawn on an inconsiderable scale." The charts referred to were those by Holland and Des Barres in The Atlantic Neptune, Thornton & Fisher in the fourth book of the English Pilot and charts by Sayer & Bennett in the North American Pilot. The charts from those British works were largely unavailable to the New England ship captains who traded cargo up and down the east coast with the local price fluctuations for their goods. Clark, however, realized that the financial success of his atlas would depend largely on whether the Yankee captains felt they could trust his never-before-American-made charts. He therefore contracted with Osgood Carleton, a noted Boston mathematician, and the Boston Marine Society, to endorse their accuracy. Although the original prospectus suggested that the work, published by subscription, would contain 15 charts, the final atlas contained 18 charts, joined as pairs to create 9 irregularly-shaped mapsheets, depicting the coast from Cape Breton all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Advertised as "just published" in the 5 July 1790 issue of the Boston Gazette, the charts could be purchased as an atlas for 36 shillings, or individual charts at 2 shillings each. Cartographically, Clark's charts are based on Des Barres and others; however, they do contain significant additional data from local knowledge, leading Carleton to declare them as "more accurate than any before published." Furthermore, "as an adaptation for a specific purpose, these charts show a great deal of imagination and ability. Instead of simply compiling details or republishing old surveys, they increased the scale of the coastal areas . The water areas were restricted to a narrow coastal corridor with no references to distances to or from London or Europe" (Garvan). In short, they were distinctly American, and their success engendered the birth of American cartography. In Boston, Norman would go on to produce his own American Pilot the following year in competition to Clark; and in 1795, Matthew Carey in Philadelphia would publish America's first terrestrial atlas. Clark's Charts are extraordinarily rare. "These were working charts and their rarity today . must be attributed in part to their having been worn out from use at sea" (McCorkle). Only eight complete sets are known: Yale; John Carter Brown Library; Boston Atheneum; Boston Public Library; Library Company of Philadelphia; Clements Library; New York Public Library; and the Library of Congress. Upon their acquisition of a set in 1987, the Clements Library declared Clark's Charts to be "one of the most desirable rarities of American cartographic literature" (Bosse). Beatrice B. Garvan, "Matthew Clark's Charts One Significant Example of Yankee Enterprise" in Philadelphia Printmaking American prints before 1860. Edited by Robert F. Looney. (West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1976) pp.43-69; Guthorn pp. 7, 43 & 96; Phillips 3667 (quoting the Boston Gazette prospectus in full); Ristow p.224; McCorkle, American Emergent 51; David Bosse, "The World of Maps" in The American Magazine, Vol. 3., No. 1 (Clements Library, Spring-Summer 1987); Evans 21738; ESTC W18996; Wheat & Brun 577 and 598.
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Nona Europe Tabula [The Balkans] [from:] Cosmographia

Double-page woodcut map with fine original hand-coloring and Latin place names in letterpress type. Carved gold leaf frame with Amiran anti-reflective archival glass with UV protection. Scale: c.1:4,000,000. Sheet: (15 1/2 x 22 1/4 inches). Frame: (25 1/2 x 32 1/4 inches). A beautiful incunable map of the Balkans, including Constantinople, from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's "Geographia." This map is from the first atlas to be printed north of the Alps and the first with woodcut maps. Here with fine period coloring, including lapis lazuli blue seas, not the ochre color of later editions. This rare incunable is one of the earliest obtainable maps to picture the Balkans. It is from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, printed by Lienhart Holle and titled Cosmographia, in which Donnus Nicolaus Germanus adapted Ptolemy's second century cartography and added five modern maps. Already political delineations are indicated by color: the Kingdom of Dardania, present-day Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Albania, is green, whereas Misia Inferior (eastern Serbia, northern Bulgaria, southern Ukraine, et al) and Iasyes Metanaste are washed in yellow. Ptolemy's map centers Datia, or Roman Dacia, a province of the Roman Empire from 106-275 AD that consisted of Romania and the Banat region. The Carpathian mountains are noted in the north and the Dardanelles are rendered in tan amorphous shapes in the south. In the lower right-hand corner of the map is the tip of Turkey (Asie Minoris Pars) and Constantinople (Istanbul). The Adriactic Sea (Adriatici Pars), Aegean Sea (Maris Egei Pars), and Black Sea (Ponti Evxini Pars) are all captured in luxurious lapis lazuli blue. The 1482 Ulm atlas was a revelation in its manifold innovations: it was the first printed north of the Alps; the first with woodcut maps; the first with maps "signed" by the artist responsible - its world map states "Engraved by Johann, woodcutter from Armszheim" - and his backward "N" was cut into each woodblock used to print the maps; it was the first Ptolemaic atlas with 32 maps; the first to come with publisher's coloring or directions for embellishment; and the first to print text on the verso discussing the map on each corresponding recto. [Shirley] The Cosmographia atlas was the first book printed by Lienhart Holle: a masterful debut. But with its 32 individual hand-colored woodcut maps, all printed with letterpress type, it was very expensive to produce and its publication bankrupted Holle. The remaining sheets, woodblocks, matrices, and type were taken up by another printer in Ulm, Johann Reger, who reissued the work in 1486. Those second edition Reger maps are seen with the less desirable ochre washes over the sea in place of lapis lazuli blue, as here. "Claudius Ptolemaeus is the Latinized name of the geographer and astronomer who is more generally known as Ptolemy and who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, from 90-168 AD. His principal geographic work, the Geographia was transmitted from classical times and was the first atlas to be printed. The text is based on the translation from the Greek by Jacobus Angelus." [Shirley] The five modern maps were based on manuscript projections by the editor of the work, Donnus Nicolaus Germanus, a Benedictine monk from the diocese of Breslau who lived and worked in Florence. Germanus likely invented the trapezoid projection, which became known as the Donis-projection; it allows one to represent a three dimensional, spherical section on a two dimensional page. Campbell concludes that the "major achievement of the Ptolemaic maps was to introduce a formalized grid of longitude and latitude, in conjunction with positions obtained through astronomical observations. By favoring the shortest of various Greek estimates as to the circumference of the earth and arriving at a much reduced value for a degree of longitude, Ptolemy seriously underestimated the distance between western Europe and the supposed position of China." Had Columbus realized the true distance, "it is conceivable that he would never have set out on his first, momentous voyage." [Earliest Printed Maps] Bagrow/Skelton, History of Cartography, Second Edition, p.91. Berggren and Jones, Ptolemy's Geography, passim. BMC, II, 538.IC.9305. Campbell, Earliest Printed Maps, pp.121-147, 179-210; Early Maps, pp.12-13. Copinger 4976. Dibdin, Bibliotheca Spenceriana, 392. Dilke, Greek and Roman Maps, pp.72-86, 154-166. Dufour/Lagumina 49. Hain-Copinger 13539. JCB, 1919, I, 11. Lynam, First Engraved Atlas of the World, passim. Nebenzahl, Atlas of Columbus and the Great Discoveries 1. Nordenskiöld 199. Panzer, III, 535, no.28. Phillips, Geographical Atlases, 353. Sabin 66472. Scammell, World Ecompassed 37. Schreiber 5032. Shirley, British Library, T.PTOL-4a-e; Mapping of the World 10. Skelton, "Introduction to the Facsimile to Ptolemy's Cosmographia," (Amsterdam: Israel/Meridian, 1963). Winsor, Bibliography of Ptolomy's Geography, p.5.
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Tertia Europae Tabula [France and Belgium] [from:] Cosmographia

Double-page woodcut map with fine original hand-coloring and Latin place names in letterpress. Carved gold leaf frame with Amiran anti-reflective archival glass with UV protection. Scale: c.1:4,000,000. Sheet: (15 1/2 x 22 1/4 inches). Frame: (25 1/2 x 32 1/4 inches). A beautiful incunable map of Western Europe from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's "Geographia." This map is from the first atlas to be printed north of the Alps and the first with woodcut maps. Here with fine period coloring, including lapis lazuli blue seas, not the ochre color of later editions. This rare incunable map is one of the earliest to picture modern France and Belgium. It is from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, printed by Lienhart Holle and titled Cosmographia, in which Donnus Nicolaus Germanus adapted Ptolemy's second century cartography and added five modern maps, including the present one. Seen here is the entirety of France (Frantia) and Belgium; parts of England (Anglie), Spain (Hispanie), Germany (Germanie), and Holland, as well as many of the French islands including Jersey. Indicated, too, is the Mediterraean Sea (Mare Mediterranevm) and Mare Gallicum (French Sea, today the Bay of Biscay), both captured in luxurious lapis lazuli blue. This map directly followed another map of France in the 1482 Ulm which focused on the political divisions and regions of the area, whereas this map includes more topographical features, with amorphous tan shapes indicating France's seven mountain ranges including the Alps and the Pyrenees. It is the more attractive of the two. The 1482 Ulm atlas was a revelation in its manifold innovations: it was the first printed north of the Alps; the first with woodcut maps; the first with maps "signed" by the artist responsible - its world map states "Engraved by Johann, woodcutter from Armszheim" - and his backward "N" was cut into each woodblock used to print the maps; it was the first Ptolemaic atlas with 32 maps; the first to come with publisher's coloring or directions for embellishment; and the first to print text on the verso discussing the map on each corresponding recto. [Shirley] The Cosmographia atlas was the first book printed by Lienhart Holle: a masterful debut. But with its 32 individual hand-colored woodcut maps, including a world map, all printed with letterpress type, it was disastrously expensive to produce and its publication bankrupted Holle. The remaining sheets, woodcuts, matrices, and type were taken up by another printer in Ulm, Johann Reger, who reissued the work in 1486. Those second edition Reger maps are seen with the less desirable ochre washes over the sea in place of lapis lazuli blue, as here. "Claudius Ptolemaeus is the Latinized name of the geographer and astronomer who is more generally known as Ptolemy and who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, from 90-168 AD. His principal geographic work, the Geographia was transmitted from classical times and was the first atlas to be printed. The text is based on the translation from the Greek by Jacobus Angelus." [Shirley] The five modern maps, including the present map of France, were based on manuscript projections by the editor, Donnus Nicolaus Germanus, a Benedictine monk from the diocese of Breslau who lived and worked in Florence. Garmanus likely invented the trapezoid projection, which became known as the Donis-projection, which allows one to represent a three dimensional, spherical section on a two dimensional page. Campbell concludes that the "major achievement of the Ptolemaic maps was to introduce a formalized grid of longitude and latitude, in conjunction with positions obtained through astronomical observations. By favoring the shortest of various Greek estimates as to the circumference of the earth and arriving at a much reduced value for a degree of longitude, Ptolemy seriously underestimated the distance between western Europe and the supposed position of China." Had Columbus realized the true distance, "it is conceivable that he would never have set out on his first, momentous voyage." [Earliest Printed Maps] Bagrow/Skelton, History of Cartography, Second Edition, p.91. Berggren and Jones, Ptolemy's Geography, passim. BMC, II, 538.IC.9305. Campbell, Earliest Printed Maps, pp.121-147, 179-210; Early Maps, pp.12-13. Copinger 4976. Dibdin, Bibliotheca Spenceriana, 392. Dilke, Greek and Roman Maps, pp.72-86, 154-166. Dufour/Lagumina 49. Hain-Copinger 13539. JCB, 1919, I, 11. Lynam, First Engraved Atlas of the World, passim. Nebenzahl, Atlas of Columbus and the Great Discoveries 1. Nordenskiöld 199. Panzer, III, 535, no.28. Phillips, Geographical Atlases, 353. Sabin 66472. Scammell, World Ecompassed 37. Schreiber 5032. Shirley, British Library, T.PTOL-4a-e; Mapping of the World 10. Skelton, "Introduction to the Facsimile to Ptolemy's Cosmographia," (Amsterdam: Israel/Meridian, 1963). Winsor, Bibliography of Ptolomy's Geography, p.5.
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Plan de Paris, Commencé l’Année 1734. Dessiné et Gravé, sous les ordres de Messire Michel Etienne Turgot . Achevé de Graver en 1739 .

(21 5/8 x 17 1/2 inches). Folding index map and very large perspective plan on 20 sheets by Claude Lucas after Louis Bretez, sheets 18 and 19 joined as issued, decorative engraved border with fleur-de-lys cornerpieces, title in elaborate figural cartouche. Contemporary calf, Boards with gilt, borders fleur-de-lys at corners, gilt Arms of Paris on front board, spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges, red morocco labels, marble endpapers. A First Copy of the First edition of the monumental Turgot plan of Paris: a cartographical tour-de-force. The best 18th-century plan of Paris, and among the most impressive of all city plans. The 20 sheets of this impressive atlas form a single enormous plan, which when joined would be approximately 8.25 x 10.5 feet. The map covers an area approximately corresponding to the first eleven of the modern-day arrondissements and is the best 18th century plan of Paris. In 1734, Michel-Étienne Turgot, chief of the municipality of Paris, in order to promote the reputation of Paris commissioned a new map of the city. He asked Louis Bretez, member of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and professor of perspective, to draw up the plan of Paris and its suburbs. As Turgot requested a very faithful map with great accuracy, for two years Bretez was allowed to enter into the mansions, houses and gardens of the city in order to take precise measurements. In the eighteenth century, the trend was to abandon the Renaissance-style portraits of cities for geometric plans, as technically and mathematically superior. The Turgot plan, however, on an isometric projection oriented toward the southeast, uses a system of perspective cavaliere: two buildings of the same size are represented by two drawings of the same size, whether the buildings are close or distant. The effect is a mesmerizing bird's eye view which shows the city in all its magnificence. Claude Lucas, engraver of the Royal Academy of Sciences, masterfully engraved the plan, which was published between 1739 and 1740. The map was bound in elegant volumes and offered to the King, the members of the Academy, the Municipality, and important visiting dignitaries. Brunet I:1224; Cohen de Ricci 803; Boutier, Les Plans de Paris des origines, BNF, 2002, 219; Millard, French 39; Berlin Katalog, 2506; Pinon 61.
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Nona Asiae Tabula [Afghanistan, India, Iran, and Pakistan] [from:] Cosmographia

Double-page woodcut map with fine original hand-coloring and Latin place-names in letterpress type. Carved gold leaf frame with Amiran anti-reflective archival glass with UV protection. Scale: c.1:4,000,000. Sheet: (15 1/2 x 22 3/8 inches). Frame: (25 1/2 x 32 1/4 inches). One of the earliest obtainable maps of the Middle East and the Kathiawar Peninsula of India, Mahatama Gandhi's birthplace. This hand-colored incunable map is from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's "Geographia," the first atlas to be printed north of the Alps and the first with woodcut maps. Here with fine period coloring, including a lapis lazuli blue sea, not the ochre color of late editions. This rare incunable is one of the earliest obtainable maps to picture the Middle East and Central Asia regions. It is from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, printed by Lienhart Holle and titled Cosmographia, in which Donnus Nicolaus Germanus adapted Ptolemy's second century cartography and added five modern maps. This map shows the eastern extent of the lands Alexander the Great conquered; the place-names are classical. Political delineations are already indicated by color: in tan is Arachosia, present-day southern Afghanistan centered on Kandahar; Paropanisus is in yellow, which is now parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan; in green is Drangiana, which encompassed what is now the border between Iran and Afghanistan; Aria, present-day western Afghanistan, is also seen with a yellow wash; Gedrosia is today Iran; and in the lower right-hand corner is Kathiawar, the Indian peninsula that is the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. The Arabian Sea is called the Indian Sea (Mare Indicum) and is captured in luxurious lapis lazuli blue. The Hindu Kush and other mountain ranges in the region are depicted with tan amorphous shapes. The 1482 Ulm atlas was a revelation in its manifold innovations: it was the first printed north of the Alps; the first with woodcut maps; the first with maps "signed" by the artist responsible - its world map states "Engraved by Johann, woodcutter from Armszheim" - and his backward "N" was cut into each woodblock used to print the maps; it was the first Ptolemaic atlas with 32 maps; the first to come with publisher's coloring or directions for embellishment; and the first to print text on the verso discussing the map on each corresponding recto. [Shirley] The Cosmographia atlas was the first book printed by Lienhart Holle: a masterful debut. But with its 32 individual hand-colored woodcut maps, all printed with letterpress type, it was very expensive to produce and its publication bankrupted Holle. The remaining sheets, woodblocks, matrices, and type were taken up by another printer in Ulm, Johann Reger, who reissued the work in 1486. Those second edition Reger maps are seen with the less desirable ochre washes over the sea in place of lapis lazuli blue, as here. "Claudius Ptolemaeus is the Latinized name of the geographer and astronomer who is more generally known as Ptolemy and who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, from 90-168 AD. His principal geographic work, the Geographia was transmitted from classical times and was the first atlas to be printed. The text is based on the translation from the Greek by Jacobus Angelus." [Shirley] The five modern maps were based on manuscript projections by the editor of the work, Donnus Nicolaus Germanus, a Benedictine monk from the diocese of Breslau who lived and worked in Florence. Germanus likely invented the trapezoid projection, which became known as the Donis-projection; it allows one to represent a three dimensional, spherical section on a two dimensional page. Campbell concludes that the "major achievement of the Ptolemaic maps was to introduce a formalized grid of longitude and latitude, in conjunction with positions obtained through astronomical observations. By favoring the shortest of various Greek estimates as to the circumference of the earth and arriving at a much reduced value for a degree of longitude, Ptolemy seriously underestimated the distance between western Europe and the supposed position of China." Had Columbus realized the true distance, "it is conceivable that he would never have set out on his first, momentous voyage." [Earliest Printed Maps] Bagrow/Skelton, History of Cartography, Second Edition, p.91. Berggren and Jones, Ptolemy's Geography, passim. BMC II, 538.IC.9305. Campbell, Earliest Printed Maps, p.136, 203; Early Maps, pp.12-13. Copinger 4976. Dibdin, Bibliotheca Spenceriana, 392. Dilke, Greek and Roman Maps, pp.72-86, 154-166. Dufour/Lagumina 49. Gole, India within the Ganges, pp.104-5. Hain-Copinger 13539. JCB, 1919, I, 11. Lynam, First Engraved Atlas of the World, passim. McCrindle, Ancient India as Described by Ptolemy, passim. Nebenzahl, Atlas of Columbus and the Great Discoveries 1. Nordenskiöld 199. Panzer, III, 535, no.28. Phillips, Geographical Atlases, 353. Sabin 66472. Scammell, World Ecompassed 37. Schreiber 5032. Shirley, British Library, T.PTOL-4a-e; Mapping of the World 10. Skelton, "Introduction to the Facsimile to Ptolemy's Cosmographia," (Amsterdam: Israel/Meridian, 1963). Winsor, Bibliography of Ptolomy's Geography, p.5.
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Tabula Moderna Hispanie [Iberian Peninsula] [from:] Cosmographia

Double-page woodcut map with fine original hand-coloring and Latin place names in letterpress type. Carved gold leaf frame with Amiran anti-reflective archival glass with UV protection. Scale: c.1:4,000,000. Sheet: (15 1/2 x 22 1/4 inches). Frame: (25 1/2 x 32 1/4 inches). A beautiful incunable map of Spain and Portugal from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's "Geographia." This map is from the first atlas to be printed north of the Alps and the first with woodcut maps. Here with fine period coloring, including lapis lazuli blue seas, not the ochre color of later editions. This rare incunable map is one of the earliest to picture modern Spain and Portugal. It is from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, printed by Lienhart Holle and titled Cosmographia, in which Donnus Nicolaus Germanus adapted Ptolemy's second century cartography and added five modern maps, including this one of the Iberian Peninsula. Already political delineations here are indicated by color: the Kingdom of Navarre, centered on Pamplona in the Pyrenees, is colored in green, and a soft yellow wash covers the Kingdom of Portugal. Spain (Hispania) itself is well-articulated, with towns and cities named, and the Pyrenees, Sierra Nevada, and other mountain ranges are represented by amorphous tan shapes. Pictured at the margins are the Le Midi region of France and the northern tip of Morocco, as well as what is now modern Andorra; Gibraltar; Majorca, Menorca, and Ibiza; and Alboran. The islands seen in the top left-hand corner seem to represent the Azores, which should be 700 miles to Portugal's southwest. The Mediterranean Sea (Mare Mediterraneum) and the Atlantic Ocean (Oceanus Occidetalis) are labeled, while the bodies of water we now call the Gulfs of Cadiz and Lion, the Balearic Sea, the Bay of Biscay, and the Strait of Gibraltar are captured in luxurious lapis lazuli blue, but unnamed. The 1482 Ulm atlas was a revelation in its manifold innovations: it was the first printed north of the Alps; the first with woodcut maps; the first with maps "signed" by the artist responsible - its world map states "Engraved by Johann, woodcutter from Armszheim" - and his backward "N" was cut into each woodblock used to print the maps; it was the first Ptolemaic atlas with 32 maps; the first to come with publisher's coloring or directions for embellishment; and the first to print text on the verso discussing the map on each corresponding recto. [Shirley] The Cosmographia atlas was the first book printed by Lienhart Holle: a masterful debut. With its 32 individual hand-colored woodcut maps, all printed with letterpress type, it was expensive to produce and its publication bankrupted Holle. The remaining sheets, woodblocks, matrices, and type were taken up by another printer in Ulm, Johann Reger, who reissued the work in 1486. Those second edition Reger maps are seen with the less desirable ochre washes over the sea in place of lapis lazuli, as here. "Claudius Ptolemaeus is the Latinized name of the geographer and astronomer who is more generally known as Ptolemy and who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, from 90-168 AD. His principal geographic work, the Geographia was transmitted from classical times and was the first atlas to be printed. The text is based on the translation from the Greek by Jacobus Angelus." [Shirley] The five modern maps, of which the present map of the Iberian Peninsula was one, were based on manuscript projections by the editor of the work, Donnus Nicolaus Germanus, a Benedictine monk from the diocese of Breslau who lived and worked in Florence. Germanus likely invented the trapezoid projection, which became known as the Donis-projection; it allows one to represent a three dimensional, spherical section on a two dimensional page. Campbell concludes that the "major achievement of the Ptolemaic maps was to introduce a formalized grid of longitude and latitude, in conjunction with positions obtained through astronomical observations. By favoring the shortest of various Greek estimates as to the circumference of the earth and arriving at a much reduced value for a degree of longitude, Ptolemy seriously underestimated the distance between western Europe and the supposed position of China." Had Columbus realized the true distance, "it is conceivable that he would never have set out on his first, momentous voyage." [Earliest Printed Maps] Bagrow/Skelton, History of Cartography, Second Edition, p.91. Berggren and Jones, Ptolemy's Geography, passim. BMC, II, 538.IC.9305. Campbell, Earliest Printed Maps, pp.121-147, 179-210; Early Maps, pp.12-13. Copinger 4976. Dibdin, Bibliotheca Spenceriana, 392. Dilke, Greek and Roman Maps, pp.72-86, 154-166. Dufour/Lagumina 49. Hain-Copinger 13539. JCB, 1919, I, 11. Lynam, First Engraved Atlas of the World, passim. Nebenzahl, Atlas of Columbus and the Great Discoveries 1. Nordenskiöld 199. Panzer, III, 535, no.28. Phillips, Geographical Atlases, 353. Sabin 66472. Scammell, World Ecompassed 37. Schreiber 5032. Shirley, British Library, T.PTOL-4a-e; Mapping of the World 10. Skelton, "Introduction to the Facsimile to Ptolemy's Cosmographia," (Amsterdam: Israel/Meridian, 1963). Winsor, Bibliography of Ptolomy's Geography, p.5.
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Decima Asie Tabula [India] [from:] Cosmographia

PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius (c.90-170 AD, Cartographer), ANGELUS, Jacobus (c.1360-1411, Translator), GERMANUS, Donnus Nicolaus (c.1420-1490, Cartographer, Editor), SCHNITZER, Johannes (fl.1475-1515, Woodcutter) Double-page woodcut map with fine original hand-coloring and Latin place names in letterpress type printed. Carved gold leaf frame with Amiran anti-reflective archival glass with UV protection. Scale: c.1:4,000,000. Sheet: 16 1/2 x 22 inches). Frame: (25 1/2 x 32 1/4 inches). This is the earliest obtainable map of India. A magnificent incunable of the subcontinent from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's "Geographia," published sixteen years prior to Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India. This map is from the first atlas to be printed north of the Alps and the first with woodcut maps. Here with fine period coloring, including lapis lazuli blue seas, not the ochre color of later editions. This rare incunable map is one of the earliest to picture India. It is from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, printed by Lienhart Holle and titled Cosmographia, in which Donnus Nicolaus Germanus adapted Ptolemy's second century cartography and added five modern maps. Published sixteen years prior to Da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India, this map reflects how Ptolemy and the Ancient Romans conceived of the subcontinent in the second century. While Ptolemy's India is correctly framed in the northwest by the Indus River (Indus Flu) and in the northeast by the Ganges River (Ganga Flu), the coastline is jagged and meandering, and does not form the familiar triangular peninsula of Southern India. If the Peninsula is ill-formed, the plains of Punjab and its rivers are remarkably recognizable and show the Ancients' familiarity with the area. The Arabian Sea is labeled Mare Indicum, or Indian Sea, while the Indian Ocean to the right of the northern tip of Sri Lanka is given the name Sinvs Gangfticus, or Ganges Bay; both are captured in luxurious lapis lazuli. Green and yellow washes mark out political delineations in the region, while blue lines indicate rivers and tan amorphous shapes mark out India's mountain ranges, including the Himalaya. The 1482 Ulm atlas was a revelation in its manifold innovations: it was the first printed north of the Alps; the first with woodcut maps; the first with maps "signed" by the artist responsible - its world map states "Engraved by Johann, woodcutter from Armszheim" - and his backward "N" was cut into each woodblock used to print the maps; it was the first Ptolemaic atlas with 32 maps; the first to come with publisher's coloring or directions for embellishment; and the first to print text on the verso discussing the map on each corresponding recto. [Shirley] The Cosmographia atlas was the first book printed by Lienhart Holle: a masterful debut. With its 32 individual hand-colored woodcut maps, all printed with letterpress type, it was very expensive to produce and its publication bankrupted Holle. The remaining sheets, woodblocks, matrices, and type were taken up by another printer in Ulm, Johann Reger, who reissued the work in 1486. Those second edition Reger maps are seen with the less desirable ochre washes over the sea in place of lapis lazuli blue, as here. "Claudius Ptolemaeus is the Latinized name of the geographer and astronomer who is more generally known as Ptolemy and who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, from 90-168 AD. His principal geographic work, the Geographia was transmitted from classical times and was the first atlas to be printed. The text is based on the translation from the Greek by Jacobus Angelus." [Shirley] The five modern maps that were added to the 27 Ptolemaic maps were based on manuscript projections by the editor of the work, Donnus Nicolaus Germanus, a Benedictine monk from the diocese of Breslau who lived and worked in Florence. Germanus likely invented the trapezoid projection, which became known as the Donis-projection; it allows one to represent a three dimensional, spherical section on a two dimensional page. Campbell concludes that the "major achievement of the Ptolemaic maps was to introduce a formalized grid of longitude and latitude, in conjunction with positions obtained through astronomical observations. By favoring the shortest of various Greek estimates as to the circumference of the earth and arriving at a much reduced value for a degree of longitude, Ptolemy seriously underestimated the distance between western Europe and the supposed position of China." Had Columbus realized the true distance, "it is conceivable that he would never have set out on his first, momentous voyage." [Earliest Printed Maps] Bagrow/Skelton, History of Cartography, Second Edition, p.91. Berggren and Jones, Ptolemy's Geography, passim. BMC, II, 538.IC.9305. Campbell, Earliest Printed Maps, p.136, 203; Early Maps, pp.12-13. Copinger 4976. Dibdin, Bibliotheca Spenceriana, 392. Dilke, Greek and Roman Maps, pp.72-86, 154-166. Dufour/Lagumina 49. Gole, India within the Ganges, pp.104-5. Hain-Copinger 13539. JCB, 1919, I, 11. Lynam, First Engraved Atlas of the World, passim. McCrindle, Ancient India as Described by Ptolemy, passim. Nebenzahl, Atlas of Columbus and the Great Discoveries 1. Nordenskiöld 199. Panzer, III, 535, no.28. Phillips, Geographical Atlases, 353. Sabin 66472. Scammell, World Ecompassed 37. Schreiber 5032. Shirley, British Library, T.PTOL-4a-e; Mapping of the World 10. Skelton, "Introduction to the Facsimile to Ptolemy's Cosmographia," (Amsterdam: Israel/Meridian, 1963). Winsor, Bibliography of Ptolomy's Geography, p.5.
  • $50,000
  • $50,000
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Prima Asie Tabula [Türkiye] [from:] Cosmographia

Double-page woodcut map with fine original hand-coloring and Latin place-names in letterpress type. Carved gold leaf frame with Amiran anti-reflective archival glass with UV protection. Scale: c.1:4,000,000. Sheet (15 1/2 x 22 1/4 inches). Frame: (25 1/2 x 32 1/4 inches). This is one of the earliest obtainable maps of Türkiye. A beautiful incunable from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's "Geographia," the first atlas to be printed north of the Alps and the first with woodcut maps. Here with fine period coloring, including lapis lazuli blue seas, not the ochre color of later editions. This rare hand-colored incunable is one of the earliest obtainable maps to picture Türkiye. It is from the 1482 Ulm edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, printed by Lienhart Holle and titled Cosmographia, in which Donnus Nicolaus Germanus adapted Ptolemy's second century cartography and added five modern maps. This Ptolemaic map of Asia Minor depicts an instantly recognizable region, with the Black Sea (Pontvs Evx Invs) to the north, and the Aegean Sea (Egevm Mare) to the west, each captured in luxurious lapis lazuli blue. Significant cities, such as Constantinople (Istanbul), are labeled, and some political boundaries are delineated by color, such as the yellow washes over the two Anatolian provinces of Galatia and Pafflagonia. The Taurus mountain ranges in the south are represented with tan amorphous shapes. The level of detail in this map as opposed to others in the 1482 Ulm conveys the importance of Türkiye to the Mediterranean world of Ptolemy. The 1482 Ulm atlas was a revelation in its manifold innovations: it was the first printed north of the Alps; the first with woodcut maps; the first with maps "signed" by the artist responsible - its world map states "Engraved by Johann, woodcutter from Armszheim" - and his backward "N" was cut into each woodblock used to print the maps; it was the first Ptolemaic atlas with 32 maps; the first to come with publisher's coloring or directions for embellishment; and the first to print text on the verso discussing the map on each corresponding recto. [Shirley] The Cosmographia atlas was the first book printed by Lienhart Holle: a masterful debut. But with its 32 individual hand-colored woodcut maps, all printed with letterpress type, it was very expensive to produce and its publication bankrupted Holle. The remaining sheets, woodblocks, matrices, and type were taken up by another printer in Ulm, Johann Reger, who reissued the work in 1486. Those second edition Reger maps are seen with the less desirable ochre washes over the sea in place of lapis lazuli blue, as here. "Claudius Ptolemaeus is the Latinized name of the geographer and astronomer who is more generally known as Ptolemy and who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, from 90-168 AD. His principal geographic work, the Geographia was transmitted from classical times and was the first atlas to be printed. The text is based on the translation from the Greek by Jacobus Angelus." [Shirley] The five modern maps were based on manuscript projections by the editor of the work, Donnus Nicolaus Germanus, a Benedictine monk from the diocese of Breslau who lived and worked in Florence. Germanus likely invented the trapezoid projection, which became known as the Donis-projection; it allows one to represent a three dimensional, spherical section on a two dimensional page. Campbell concludes that the "major achievement of the Ptolemaic maps was to introduce a formalized grid of longitude and latitude, in conjunction with positions obtained through astronomical observations. By favoring the shortest of various Greek estimates as to the circumference of the earth and arriving at a much reduced value for a degree of longitude, Ptolemy seriously underestimated the distance between western Europe and the supposed position of China." Had Columbus realized the true distance, "it is conceivable that he would never have set out on his first, momentous voyage." [Earliest Printed Maps] Bagrow/Skelton, History of Cartography, Second Edition, p.91. Berggren and Jones, Ptolemy's Geography, passim. BMC II, 538.IC.9305. Campbell, Earliest Printed Maps, pp.121-147, 179-210; Early Maps, pp.12-13. Copinger 4976. Dibdin, Bibliotheca Spenceriana, 392. Dilke, Greek and Roman Maps, pp.72-86, 154-166. Dufour/Lagumina 49. Hain-Copinger 13539. JCB, 1919, I, 11. Lynam, First Engraved Atlas of the World, passim. Nebenzahl, Atlas of Columbus and the Great Discoveries 1. Nordenskiöld 199. Panzer, III, 535, no.28. Phillips, Geographical Atlases, 353. Sabin 66472. Scammell, World Ecompassed 37. Schreiber 5032. Shirley, British Library, T.PTOL-4a-e; Mapping of the World 10. Skelton, "Introduction to the Facsimile to Ptolemy's Cosmographia," (Amsterdam: Israel/Meridian, 1963). Winsor, Bibliography of Ptolomy's Geography, p.5.
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The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America

AUDUBON, John James (1785-1851), AUDUBON, John Woodhouse (1812-1862, Artist), BACHMAN, Reverend John (1790-1874, Author, Naturalist) (27 1/4 x 21 1/4 inches). First edition. Three lithograph title-pages, three leaves of letterpress contents. 150 hand-colored lithograph plates by John T. Bown of Philadelphia after John James Audubon and John Woodhouse Audubon, the backgrounds after Victor Audubon. Expertly bound to style in purple half morocco over period purple cloth boards, spine with raised bands lettered in the second and third compartments, the others decorated in gilt, marbled edges and endpapers. Within grey cloth clamshell cases with red morocco lettering-pieces in gilt. [With:] The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. New York: John James Audubon, 1846-1851-1854. 3 volumes, small 4to (10 x 7 inches). Half-titles, list of subscribers. 6 hand-colored lithograph plates. Expertly bound to style uniform to the above in purple half morocco over period purple cloth boards, marbled endpapers. A beautiful set of the first elephant folio edition of Audubon's "Quadrupeds," complete with the rare text volumes with six additional hand-colored plates. This is Audubon's final great natural history work. Unlike the double-elephant folio edition of The Birds of America, which was printed in London, the Quadrupeds was produced in the United States. It was the largest and most significant color-plate book produced in America in the nineteenth-century, and a fitting monument to Audubon's continuing genius. The work was originally published in thirty parts, each containing five plates, and priced at ten dollars per number. The first proofs were ready in 1842, but Audubon was fully employing the services of the lithographer Bowen on the octavo edition of The Birds of America, which was the greatest moneymaker of any of the Audubon family ventures. Instead, Audubon and his sons busied themselves in gathering subscribers, signing up over two hundred by the summer of 1844 (eventually the subscription list reached three hundred). The last part of the octavo Birds appeared in May 1844; publication of the folio Quadrupeds commenced immediately after with the first number being issued in January 1845 and the first volume completed within the year. Audubon's health began to fail dramatically, and responsibility for new artwork fell mainly on his son John Woodhouse Audubon, with some help from his brother Victor. The second volume was completed in March 1847. But as John Woodhouse traveled first to Texas, then to London and Europe, the pace slowed further. The final number was issued early in 1849. By this time the elder Audubon had succumbed to senility ("His mind is all in ruins," Bachman wrote sadly in June 1848). Audubon died in early 1851. In the end, about half of the plates for Quadrupeds were based on the works of John James and half on John Woodhouse. Audubon's collaborator on the text of the Quadrupeds was the naturalist and Lutheran clergyman, Bachman, who was a recognized authority on the subject in the United States. The two began their association when Audubon stayed with Bachman and his family in Charleston for a month in 1831. This friendship was later cemented by the marriage of Audubon's sons, Victor and John, to Bachman's daughters, Maria and Eliza. Audubon knew Bachman's contribution to the Quadrupeds would be crucial, especially because of concerns over his own technical knowledge. By 1840, Bachman had become indispensable to the Quadrupeds project, and as Audubon showed increasing signs of illness, found himself writing most of the text, with some help from Victor who was the project's primary business manager. The text appeared between December 1846 and the spring of 1854. Two issues of the third volume of the text are known, the present being the preferred second issue, with the supplementary text and the six octavo-sized plates issued in 1854, those six images not found in the folio. The elephant folio edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds will always be compared to Audubon's incomparable Birds. It should be judged in its own right, as one of the grandest American works of natural history ever produced, and one of the greatest American illustrated works ever created. Bennett, p.5. Ford, Audubon's Animals, passim. Peck, "Audubon and Bachman, a Collaboration in Science," pp.71-115, in Boehme's John James Audubon in the West. Nissen 162. Reese, Stamped with a National Character 36. Sabin 2367. Tyler, "The Publication of the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America," pp.119-182 in Boehme. Wood, p.208.
  • $395,000
  • $395,000
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Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery, With a Description of the Geographical and Geological Features, and Some Account of the Resources of the Great West; Containing Thirty Photographic Views Along the Line of the Pacific Rail Road, from Omaha to Sacramento

HAYDEN, Ferdinand V. (1829-1887, Author), RUSSELL, Andrew Joseph (1830-1902, Photographer) (12 x 9 1/2 inches). Edition of 50. [i]-viii [1]-150. 158 pp. 30 numbered and card-mounted albumen silver photographic prints with printed titles. Half-title, Photo of Moore's Lake, Title printed red and black, List of Views, Table of Contents, Introductory, Chapters I-VII, Photographs II-XXX. Green half morocco over green cloth boards, five raised bands forming six gilt-ruled compartments with gilt lettering in second and fourth and gilt device in rest, all edges gilt, tan endpapers A key early photobook on the American West, with albumen photographs by Russell, whose work "stands alongside Eadweard Muybridge in its aesthetic power and technical virtuosity." - Oakland Museum of California Art This impressive, rare book, an important work of photographically illustrated Western Americana, was prepared by the famous geologist, Ferdinand V. Hayden. It is an amalgam of geographic and geologic data, complemented with striking, dramatic landscape photographs taken along the rail-line of the Transcontinental Railroad. The photographs, taken by Russell, appeared in a larger format the previous year in his unobtainable album, The Great West Illustrated. The views along the Union Pacific line are intended to illustrate the geology which can be observed from the train. Despite the title, all the photographs are of areas within the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada, with twelve in Wyoming, sixteen in Utah, and two in California. Hayden wrote: "The pictures have been arranged so as to commence with the first range of mountains west of Cheyenne, and to continue thence to the Salt Lake Valley with the view that the book may be used as a guide by those who will avail themselves of the grand opportunities for geological study." "In using Russell's photographs as illustrations in Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery, geologist Hayden took the long view of history, emphasizing the value of pictures as documents of geological change while professing indifference to the more recent past. For Hayden, the geologic features of the West were like an open book, affording the educated reader the opportunity to understand millions of years of geologic history." [Sandweiss] Russell ranks as one of the major landscape photographers who shaped our perception of the American West in the 19th Century. During the Civil War, Russell worked for Mathew Brady and served as a captain in the U.S. Military Railroad Construction Corps. In 1865, he became the official photographer for the Union Pacific Railroad, and documented the building of the Transcontinental Railroad during the years 1868-1869. At Promontory he photographed the meeting of the trains (U.P. No. 119 and Jupiter) on the tracks. After his work with the Union Pacific, Russell was a photographer for the Clarence King Survey and later worked for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly. This survey expedition includes many of Russell's iconic landscape views in which he often juxtaposed monumental geological elements to manmade structures and individual men and women. According to a note by James Stevenson in the copy reviewed in Margolis, only fifty copies of this book were issued. Stevenson may have had some inside knowledge, as he worked with Hayden, who was its director, on the U.S. Geological and Geographic Survey of the Territories. Such works illustrated with original photographs were rarely issued in great numbers due to the great expense in materials and labor to create such books. The photographs are as follows: I. Moore's Lake. II. Granite Rock. III. Skull Rock. IV. Malloy's Cut. V. Dial Rock. VI. Laramie Valley. VII. Snow and Timber Line. VIII. High Bluffs. IX. Bitter Creek Valley. X. Burning Rock Cut. XI. Citadel Rock. XII. Castle Rock. XIII. Church Buttes. XIV. Lake at the Head of Bear River. XV. Conglomerate Peaks of Echo. XVI. Sentinel Rock. XVII. Hanging Rock. XVIII. Coalville. XIX. Thousand Mile Tree. XX. Wilhemina's Pass. XXI. Serrated Rocks or Devil's Slide. XXII. Tunnel No. 3. XXIII. Devil's Gate. XXIV. City Creek Canyon. XXV. Wasatch Range of Rocky Mountains. XXVI. Salt Lake City. XXVII. Great Mormon Tabernacle. XXVIII. Trestle Work. XXIX. Summit of the Sierra Nevada. XXX. Hydraulic Gold Mining. Boni, Photographic Literature, p.143. Flake/Draper 3920. Foster, Life of Hayden, pp.195-198. Howes H337. Margolis, To Delight the Eye 7. Nickles 471. Oakland Museum of California. Reese, Best of the West 180. Sabin 31007. Sandweiss 177. Truthful Lens 81. VanHaaften 215.
  • $15,000
  • $15,000
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[A fine set of the Costumes of China, Austria, Great Britain, the Russian Empire and Turkey, including the Punishments of China and the Military Costume of Turkey, all being the very rare deluxe issue with the backgrounds of each plate fully coloured]

[COSTUMES] - Octavien DALVIMART (1770-1854); Thomas Charles WAGEMAN (1787-1863); Antoine Francois Bertrand DE MOLEVILLE (1746-1818); William Henry PYNE (1769-1843); William ALEXANDER (1767-1816); George Henry MASON (1770-1851) (14 1/4 x 10 inches). 358 hand-coloured etched, stipple engraved and aquatint plates (including three illustrated titles), with the backgrounds entirely in watercolour. Titles and text in English and French. Contemporary uniform navy blue straight-grain morocco, covers elaborately blocked and tooled in blind and gilt, spines with semi-raised wide bands in six compartments, lettered in gilt in the second and fourth, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt, edges gilt Very rare complete set of the deluxe issue, with the added watercolour backgrounds to each plate, in a beautiful contemporary binding. The set comprises the following volumes: 1) Octavien Dalvimart. The Costume of Turkey. London: Printed for William Miller. by William Bulmer and Co., 1804. Title and text in English and French. Illustrated title with hand-coloured vignette, 60 hand-coloured plates. 2) Thomas Charles Wageman. The Military Costume of Turkey. London: Thomas McLean, 1818. Illustrated title with hand-coloured vignette, hand-coloured frontispiece and 29 hand-coloured plates. 3) Antoine Francois Bertrand de Moleville. The Costume of the Hereditary States of the House of Austria. London: Printed for William Miller. by William Bulmer and Co., 1804. Title and text in English and French. 50 hand-coloured plates. 4) William Henry Pyne. The Costume of Great Britain. London: Printed for William Miller. by William Bulmer and Co., 1808. Illustrated title with hand-coloured vignette, 60 hand-coloured plates. 5) William Alexander. Costume of the Russian Empire. London: Printed for William Miller. by William Bulmer and Co., 1804. Title and text in English and French. 73 hand-coloured plates. 6) George Henry Mason. Costume of China. London: Printed for William Miller. by William Bulmer and Co., 1804. Title and text in English and French. 60 hand-coloured plates. 7) George Henry Mason. Punishments of China. London: Printed for William Miller. by William Bulmer and Co., 1804. Title and text in English and French. 22 hand-coloured plates. Although maintaining the William Miller imprints on the titles, this set was published by Thomas McLean, who had acquired William Miller's original plates in 1818 from publisher John Murray (who had taken over Miller's premises and stock in 1812). A printed note inserted into some extant examples of McLean's 1818 Military Costume of Turkey advertise remaining copies of Miller's original work. It is believed that McLean's successful sale of these remaining copies prompted him to re-issue the full set of seven volumes in 1819 or 1820, as here. See Abbey, Travel 373 and 533 for a lengthy discussion of the publication history of McLean's issue. However, the existence of this deluxe issue with fully coloured backgrounds is unknown to bibliographers, including Lowndes, Allibone, Abbey, Colas, Lipperheide, Tooley, etc. The present deluxe issue, on thick paper, include much more detailed and beautiful hand colouring than the regular issue, and with added contemporary watercolour backgrounds behind the hand-coloured stipple-engraved figures, and with ink rules around each plate. The landscapes and interiors, not found on the regular issue, are all carefully executed with evident care taken to ensure that colouring, architecture and general ambiance is appropriate for the subject of each plate. Such deluxe editions are believed to have been done by the publisher for presentation; that we have been unable to locate contemporary advertisements for this issue being offered for sale would seem to support that theory. This extraordinary set with provenance to John Allnutt, a wealthy Clapham wine merchant, whose noted art collection was sold by Christie Manson and Woods in 1863. The only comparable set we have found on the market, with fully coloured plates and in a contemporary binding, was the Atabey set, selling for £10,755 in 2002. Dalvimart: Abbey, Travel 370; Blackmer 444; Colas 782; Wageman: Abbey, Travel 373; Blackmer 1125; Colas 2059; Abbey, Travel 71; Colas 2112; Tooley 333; Pyne: Abbey, Life 430; Colas 2447; Tooley 388; Alexander: Abbey, Travel 245; Colas 702; Mason Costume: Abbey, Travel 533; Colas 2009; Tooley 320; Mason Punishments: Abbey, Travel 532; Colas 2010; Atabey 314;.
  • $29,500
  • $29,500
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A Map of the British Empire in America, with the French and Spanish Settlements Adjacent Thereto

POPPLE, Henry (1695-1743, Cartographer). TOMS, William Henry (c.1700-1765, Engraver), BARON, Bernard (c.1700-1766, Engraver), SEARLE, Richard William (1732-1785, Engraver) (21 x 15 inches). Engraved folding key map in Babinski State 4, showing the track line of Spanish Galleons. Large engraved wall map on 15 double-page and 5 full-page map sheets, numbered in plate and in contemporary ink manuscript, in Babinski State 7, with Harding and Toms's imprint on map sheet 17, on laid paper with Strasbourg Lily watermarks. Ink manuscript sheet key opposite key map, which also carries ink manuscript configuration guidance. Finely bound to style in period diced quarter calf with tips on marbled paper boards, six raised bands forming seven gilt-ruled compartments with gilt-titling in second. A bound example of the largest eighteenth-century wall map of the Thirteen Colonies, and the first to name all thirteen. Popple's was the first detailed map of British, French, and Spanish colonial possessions in North America. The most historically significant eighteenth-century cartographic work was the mapping of Colonial America. For the English, maps depicting territorial boundaries were vital due to claim conflicts with the French and Spanish. In this period, there was growing English concern over French explorations in the Mississippi Valley, which stimulated map production. Colonial officials needed accurate maps illustrating the land, waterways, forts, and settlements, but maps were also essential for domestic political reasons. They delineated and served to legitimize boundaries and helped define British economic interests in the New World. Popple's map of the British Empire in America, his only major cartographic work, was the largest printed map of the continent made during the colonial period. Popple produced this map under the auspices of Great Britain's Lord Commissioners of Trade and Plantations to help settle disputes arising from the rival expansion of English, Spanish, and French colonies. "France claimed not only Canada, but also territories drained by the Mississippi and its tributaries - in practical terms, an area of half a continent." [Goss] "Little is known of Henry Popple except that he came from a family whose members had served the Board of Trade and Plantations for three generations, a connection that must have been a factor in his undertaking the map." [McCorkle] Even with Popple's government connections, his map was not a commercial success until its publication was taken over by Toms and Harding in 1739. Regardless, it was of outsize historical importance. Popple's was the first map to name all the original Thirteen Colonies, and one of the first to show the new Colony of Georgia. The map was distributed by Great Britain's Board of Trade to the government of every colony in America. It was widely copied by other cartographers and remained the standard-bearer of North American maps for decades, in part because its issuance in both wall map and atlas forms allowed for a variety of usages. Benjamin Franklin, on May 22, 1746, ordered two copies of this map, "one bound the other in sheets," for the Pennsylvania Assembly. It was the only map of sufficient size and grandeur available. And the map is on a grand scale: if actually assembled it would result in a rectangle over eight feet square. Its coverage extends from the Grand Banks off Newfoundland to ten degrees west of Lake Superior, and from the Great Lakes to the north coast of South America. Several of the sections are illustrated with handsome pictorial insets, including views of New York City, Niagara Falls, Mexico City, and Quebec, and inset maps of Boston, Charles-Town, Providence, Bermuda, and a number of others. Babinski, Henry Popple's 1733 map, State 4, 7. Brown, Early Maps of the Ohio Valley 14. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation 1955-408. Cumming, The Southeast in Early Maps 216, 217. Degrees of Latitude 24. Goss, The Mapping Of North America, p.122. McCorkle, America Emergent 21. McSherry, Two Centuries of Prints in America: 1680-1880.
  • $165,000
  • $165,000
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Map of Clear Creek County, Colorado. Drawn and compiled by Theo. H. Lowe and F.F. Bruné, C.E., Idaho, Colorado, Ter

LOWE, Theodore H. and Francis F. BRUNÉ Lithographed map on six sheets unjoined, period hand-colouring in outline, three inset views (two attributed to be after Alfred E. Mathews), within an ornamental border (backed onto linen at an early date, inked library stamp on verso). An incredible, large-scale wall map of Clear Creek County, Colorado published less than a decade after the discovery of gold in the mining district and at the very outset of the area's settlement: a significant Colorado cartographic and mining rarity. Clear Creek County, located approximately 30 miles west of Denver, was one of the original 17 counties of Colorado Territory created in 1861. Settlement in the region, however, began in 1859 during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush, when prospectors settled along Clear Creek hoping to strike it rich. The large scale of this breathtaking map, projected at two thousand feet to the inch, allows for incredible detail of the county to be shown in the earliest years of its existence. The county is divided into 32 named districts, with a large unnamed area in the southeastern corner of the region. Mountains are named and beautifully shown via soft hachuring. Towns and creeks are identified, as are the wagon roads to Denver and Central City and numerous trails through the mountain passes. The proposed route of the Pacific railroad is clearly shown following the course of Clear Creek though Idaho to George Town, then back along Clear Creek and through Berthoud Pass to the northwest. Larger ranches are named (particularly in the more remote areas), and several businesses, including hotels, groceries and even a bathhouse, are located. The detail on the map, however, is most evident respecting the county's mining resources, with over 125 individual lodes located and named, plus over 25 quartz mills and several saw mills in addition. Most of the lodes are closely congregated along the Clear Creek west of the town of Idaho. At each of the lower corners of the map are inset views attributed to be after Alfred E. Mathews based on the style and the presence of similar images in his 1866 Pencil Sketches of Colorado. In the lower right corner is a view of Idaho Springs, titled "Idaho The County Seat of the Clear Creek County / Taken from the Illinois Bar" (the county seat moving to Georgetown the year following this map); plate 12 of Pencil Sketches includes a similar view of the town, though from a vantage point south of the town rather than east as in the present view. In the lower left corner is a view of the region north of the town of Empire, titled "Upper Empire and Silver Mountain"; while this view did not appear in Pencil Sketches, Matthews did depict the town of Empire nearby (Pencil Sketches, plate 13). The third inset is an untitled cross-section view of the interior of a working mine, showing a shaft with an adit. A key, located to the left of the mining view, identifies the symbols used on the map and below the key is a listing of the county's mountains with elevations above Denver, with their respective elevations given. Theodore H. Lowe and Francis F. Bruné came to Colorado during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush of 1859. It is assumed that both were trained surveyors, and Lowe seems to have been employed for a time by the U.S. Geological Survey. A printed note in the upper left corner of the decorative cartouche confirms that Lowe and Bruné compiled this impressive map from actual "instrumental surveys" in 1865. Lowe would be commissioned a deputy mineral surveyor in Colorado Springs in 1872, with Brune receiving the same commission in Leadville in 1878. The 1879 Leadville directory lists Bruné as the City Engineer. Lowe's contribution to the development of mining in the region is noted in Frank Hall's early history of the state. "The first discoverer of gold in this region [i.e. Cripple Creek in El Paso County], and also the first to develop the vein formation, was Theodore H. Lowe, a noted mining engineer and surveyor. In October, 1881, ten years prior to any settlement at Cripple Creek, while subdividing some pastoral lands for his uncle, William W. Womack, of Kentucky, in the western part of El Paso county, Mr. Lowe found a detached block of what appeared to be float quartz. Breaking off a fragment, he took it to Prof. E. E. Burlingame, the leading assayer of Denver, for analysis, and in due time received a certificate stating that it contained at the rate of $166.23 gold per ton. Encouraged by this result, he returned to the spot and began searching for the outcrop of the vein whence the 'blossom' had been eroded, and at length found it. Locating thereon a claim called the 'Grand View,' he sunk a shaft ten feet deep, as required by law, and recorded the location in the office of the county clerk at Colorado Springs" (Hall, History of the State of Colorado, [Chicago: 1895], vol.IV, p. 102). In 1881, Lowe would produce an additional map of the region (titled "Map of the Mining Districts surrounding the Townsite of Idaho-Springs"), this time depicting just a portion of the county but on a similar large scale and with a version of the view of Idaho from his 1866 map. (See Streeter sale 2202). We locate but two other known copies of this very rare 1866 Clear Creek County map (Denver Public Library and University of Colorado, Boulder [copies at Bancroft and Colorado Historical Society listed by OCLC are photocopies of original) and find no copies of the map ever appearing at auction. Not in Phillips, A List of Maps of America,
  • $29,500
  • $29,500
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Virginia

SMITH, Captain John (1580-1631) Engraved map. "One of the most important printed maps of America ever produced and certainly one of the greatest influence. It became the prototype for the area for half a century" (Burden.) John Smith's map of Virginia shows the present states of Virginia and Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay. It is one of the most important cartographical works related to North America in the 17th century. There are twelve known states of the map, and it is present here in the ninth state. "In June 1608, Smith and thirteen companions set out in an open barge for Cape Henry to discover -- that is, to explore -- the Chesapeake, starting with the Eastern Shore. This was the first of two voyages, and altogether he spent three months that summer going around the Bay. From observations on these trips, he created one of the great maps of the colonial era, so compellingly authoritative that derivatives of it stayed in print for a century, and nothing significantly better than it appeared for sixty years" - Woolridge. "Ninth state, with alteration to Boolers bush instead of Bollers bush, and three new place-names, (1) Blands C: and (2) Downes dale near Bolus river, and (3) Washeborne C: near Cape Charles, but with the [Purchas] page numbers still 1692 and 1693. This state is in the Church-Huntington copy of the 1625 issue of the book, in contemporary binding. It is also found in two of the New York Public Library copies of Purchas's PILGRIMES, and is inserted in one of its copies of the GENERALL HISTORIE of 1624 in modern binding" - Eames (in Sabin). Burden, The Mapping of North America, 164. Wilberforce Eames, A Dictionary OF Books Relating To America Vol. XX (New York, 1927), p.229. William Woolridge, Mapping Virginia (Charlottesville, 2012), p.33.
  • $70,000
  • $70,000
book (2)

Wah-ro-née-sah, the Surrounder, Chief of the Tribe. (Chief of the Ottoes, #117)

CATLIN, George (1796-1872) Watercolor over graphite, heightened with white gouache on cream wove paper, inscribed "Chief of the Ottoes" in the bottom right-hand corner, and numbered "117" in the top right-hand corner. Image: (9 5/8 x 6 3/8 inches). Framed: (18 x 14 1/2 inches). An early, previously unrecorded watercolor study of a Native American chief for a George Catlin oil painting now held in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. "[I] painted thus many of my pictures in water colors during my 8 years travels, and most, though not all of them, I enlarged onto canvas, wishing my collection to be all in oil painting." - George Catlin During the 1830s, Catlin, a self-taught artist from Philadelphia, traveled through the Great Plains of the American West, absorbing the ways of the Native American tribes he found flourishing there. Over the next decade, Catlin embarked on a journey to create a faithful visual study of the members, customs, and surroundings of the tribes who welcomed him, which culminated in his print publications of North American Indian life. Troccoli suggests that Catlin traveled with a sketchbook in which he made preliminary watercolor studies of his subjects, which he later mounted and finished. The finished paintings that Catlin produced following these trips were exhibited in his Indian Gallery, where he hoped to share the nobility of Native Americans and their cultures, as well as convey the devastating impact the Indian Removal Act of 1830 had on many of the tribes. Catlin described Wah-ro-née-sah as "quite an old man; his shirt made of the skin of a grizzly bear, with the claws on." The Surrounder was Chief of the Ottoe tribe, and lived in a spacious timber lodge perched on a ridge overlooking the Platte River. His bear claw necklace suggests he was a member of the Bear Clan, which shared leadership of the Ottoes with the Buffalo Clan. Another Catlin watercolor of Wah-ro-née-sah is held in the Gilcrease Museum's collection, but it dates from the early 1840s and is much smaller than the present "cabinet picture." The Gilcrease variant was likely painted after the present work, and intended to be used as a model for an illustration. Other examples of Catlin's watercolors held in the Gilcrease collection are more suitable comparisons, particularly the earlier portraits associated with Catlin's visit to the tribes living around Cantonment Leavenworth in 1830. These portraits all share the same careful modeling of the heads with wash laid over graphite underdrawing, alongside a much looser execution of the torsos. Catlin produced a fully realized oil painting after the present watercolor study of Wah-ro-née-sah, which is now held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The larger oil painting is a faithful translation of the watercolor, if lacking its immediacy. An aquatint engraving by J. Harris after the present Catlin study, held by the New York Public Library and Harvard among other institutions, was executed for James Cowles Prichard's Natural History of Man, (London and New York:1855) and is Plate LIII in that book. The provenance of this watercolor is of especial historical import. Captain William Henry Shippard, who Catlin describes in his Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe, as "my best of friends," acquired the present watercolor study, among others of Catlin's works, directly from the artist in the 1840s. Their relationship is well documented by written correspondence. Shippard, an English army officer and expert on Mexican antiquities, had a short-lived Museum of History in London, which Catlin praised in his book. Shippard worked on behalf of Catlin in attempts to sell his collection of Native American paintings and to exhibit his work in the UK. Shippard also assisted Catlin in his research at the British Museum. The present watercolor passed by descent through Shippard's family until it was auctioned in 2019 when it was sold for $145,214. Catlin, A Descriptive Catalogue of Catlin's Indian Gallery, no.117, p.16. Catlin, Catlin's Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe, p.63. Gurney and Heyman, George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, p.126. Prichard, Natural History of Man, Plate LIII, p.547. Troccoli, First Artist of the West: George Catlin Paintings and Watercolors from the Collection of the Gilcrease Museum, p.20. Truettner, The Natural Man Observed, p.131.
  • $120,000
  • $120,000
book (2)

Tuch-ee, a Celebrated War Chief of the Cherokees (Cherokee Chief, #284)

CATLIN, George (1796-1872) Watercolor over graphite, heightened with white gouache on cream wove paper, inscribed "Cherokee Chief" in bottom right-hand corner and numbered "284" in top right-hand corner. Image: (9 5/8 x 6 7/8 inches). Framed: (18 x 14 1/2 inches). An important and previously unrecorded watercolor portrait of a Cherokee chief painted by George Catlin. Subsequently published in Prichard's 1855 "Natural History of Man," the oil painting after this watercolor study is held at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "[I] painted thus many of my pictures in water colors during my eight years travels, and most, though not all of them, I enlarged onto canvas, wishing my collection to be all in oil painting." - George Catlin During the 1830s, Catlin, a self-taught artist from Philadelphia, traveled through the Great Plains of the American West, absorbing the ways of the Native American tribes he found flourishing there. Over the next decade, Catlin embarked on a journey to create a faithful visual study of the members, customs, and surroundings of the tribes who welcomed him, which culminated in his print publications of North American Indian life. Troccoli suggests that Catlin traveled with a sketchbook in which he made preliminary watercolor studies of his subjects, which he later mounted and finished. The finished paintings that Catlin produced following these trips were exhibited in his Indian Gallery, where he hoped to share the nobility of Native Americans and their cultures, as well as convey the devastating impact the Indian Removal Act of 1830 had on many of the tribes. The present work is an early and previously unrecorded study of the Cherokee Chief Tuch-ee. Catlin produced a fully realized oil painting of the sitter in 1834, which is now held in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. On the back of a variant watercolor study of the same subject held by the Gilcrease Museum, Catlin writes, "Tuch-ee, called Dutch, first War chief of the Cherokee. A fine looking fellow, with a turbaned head." Harvard holds a hand-colored engraving by J. Harris after Catlin's portrait executed for James Cowles Prichard's Natural History of Man (London and New York: 1855) in which it is Plate XLVIII. "I traveled and hunted with this man [Tuch-ee] some months, when he guided the Regiment of Dragoons to the Camanchee and Pwanee Villages; he is a great warrior and a remarkable hunter." - Catlin In 1834, Catlin arrived at Fort Gibson near present-day Tulsa. While there he painted members of the Cherokee, Creek, and Osage tribes; it would have been there that he first encountered Tuch-ee. Leaving Fort Gibson, Catlin accompanied the army dragoon mission to establish contact with the Comanche, Kioqa, and Wichita tribes. Catlin and most of the dragoon troops contracted fever. Luckily, Catlin recovered and he was able to ride 540 miles alone on horseback to St. Louis where he met with his wife Clara before traveling on to New Orleans and Pensacola. The provenance of this watercolor is of especial historical import. Captain William Henry Shippard, who Catlin describes in his Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe, as "my best of friends," acquired the watercolor study, among others of Catlin's works, directly from the artist in the 1840s. Their relationship is well documented by written correspondence. Shippard, an English army officer and expert on Mexican antiquities, had a short-lived Museum of History in London, which Catlin praised in his book. Shippard worked on behalf of Catlin in attempts to sell his collection of Native American paintings and exhibit his work in the UK. Shippard also assisted Catlin in his research at the British Museum. This present watercolor passed by descent through Shippard's family until it was auctioned in the UK in 2019 when it was sold for the equivalent of $62,000. Catlin, A Descriptive Catalogue of Catlin's Indian Gallery, no.284, p.29. Catlin, Catlin's Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe, p.63. Gurney and Heyman, George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, passim. Prichard, Natural History of Man, Plate XLVIII. Truettner, The Natural Man Observed, p.131.
  • $55,000
  • $55,000
The Will of General George Washington: to Which is Annexed

The Will of General George Washington: to Which is Annexed, a Schedule of His Property, Directed to be Sold

WASHINGTON, George (1732-1799) (6 3/4 x 3 3/5 inches). First edition. [A4] B-C4 [D4]. 16 ff. [1]-32. 32 pp. Title, Will, Schedule of Property. Contemporary ink manuscript date of "1800" added to title. Original plain blue paper wrappers folded and stab-stitched with later ink manuscript titling on front wrapper, within a black cloth chemise and black morocco clamshell box Exceedingly rare first edition of George Washington's will, published in his home state of Virginia, in its original wrappers. This is the document which emancipated Washington's slaves. "Upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire, that all the Slaves which I hold in my own right shall receive their freedom." - George Washington, p.4 This example of the first printing of the first edition of George Washington's will is exceedingly rare, especially so in its original publisher's wrappers, as here. "In the name of God, amen. I, George Washington, of Mount-Vernon, a Citizen of the United States, and lately President of the same, do make, ordain and declare this instrument." [p.3] Washington's will is said to have been prepared and written by Washington alone on July 9th, 1799, without the consultation of any "professional character." Washington would die only six months later, and his executors would present his will for probate at the County Court of Fairfax. The clerk of courts George Deneale recorded the will there on January 23rd, 1800. Shortly after, this pamphlet was published in Alexandria, detailing Washington's wishes. The most notable of its contents is certainly Washington's second codicil, which directs the people enslaved who were not part of his wife's dowry to be freed upon the death of his wife, Martha. It also provides for those "who from old age or bodily infirmities, and others who on account of their infancy, will be unable to support themselves." [p.4] Martha Washington did not wait for her own passing to free the people enslaved; she signed deeds of manumission for them in December of 1800. The people whom Washington enslaved officially became free on January 1st, 1801. It was not until 1810 that appraisers filed their report at the office of the clerk of the Fairfax County Court. The executors held public sales of the livestock at Mount Vernon before Martha Washington's death in 1802, and continued selling the remainder of the listed property for years afterward. Final settlement of the Washington estate was not achieved until June 21, 1847. As to the rest of Washington's will, it contains "detailed arrangements for the dispersal of Washington's property to his relatives and friends, including the Marquis de Lafayette (who received a pair of steel pistols taken from the British during the Revolution), and his nephew, Bushrod Washington, who took possession of Washington's personal papers and library. The schedule of property gives a detailed accounting of Washington's real holdings at the time of his death. The will reveals how wealthy Washington was, whose estate had a value of over a million dollars, making him one of the richest men in the country." The Alexandria pamphlet was followed in the same year by several other printings in various US cities, including a more common, and shorter, Boston edition, and Charleston, Philadelphia, New York, and Worcester. The Alexandria edition is the true first publication and has eight more pages than the Boston. ESTC W29703. Evans 39000. Howes W145. Reese, Celebration of My Country 145. Sabin 101752.
  • $20,000
  • $20,000