Rare Book Monthly

Articles - July - 2021 Issue

Donald Heald Announces his first Americana Sale: Buckle Up!

An invitation to you extended by Donald Heald -

Please join me for our first Americana sale on July 17th beginning at 1:00 pm EST.  Our upcoming event at Donald Heald Auctions offers a dive into many realms of Americana collecting, from 17th-century maps of the Americas to early 20th-century sporting prints.  For Donald Heald:  It’s morning in Americana.

            The collection of rare and interesting books on offer includes 3 compilations of colonial laws: a 1727 copy of the charter and laws of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a rare 1767 printing of the charter and laws of Rhode Island, including updated acts of the General Assembly, and a 1782 printing of the acts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s General Assembly, the first to be published after the start of the Revolution.

            Other important Revolution-era books include a 1774 edition of Benjamin Franklin’s groundbreaking Experiments and Observations on Electricity and a copy of Alexander Hamilton’s notorious “Reynolds Pamphlet.” Also on offer is a fine copy of the results of the 1800 census, the second ever performed in the United States.

            Accompanying the sale’s many prints featuring the American West are a number of rare books, including Major Stephen Long’s 1822 account of his expedition to the Rocky Mountains and an 1867 history and directory of California’s Nevada County by Edwin Bean.

            In honor of the Met’s large exhibition about Karl Bodmer’s life and expansive career, our sale includes a collection of 20 stunning Bodmer prints from his travels in the American West. These are presented alongside 5 attractive, large-format photogravures by Edward S. Curtis, from his famed ethnographic study The North American Indian.

            Also included are a group of 13 albumen photographs from George N. Barnard’s landmark work Photographic Views of Sherman's Campaign. Travelling with General William Tecumeh Sherman’s armies as an official Army photographer, Barnard captured the extent of the devastation caused by the Civil War more bluntly than any other contemporary photographer. Civil War themes are further represented in a fine copy of Louis Harlow’s Army Memories, which contains scenes of daily life in the Union Army as well as portraits of Generals Grant, Sherman, Logan, and McPherson.

            A set of 6 fine prints from Currier & Ives are also on offer; 4 of these feature sailing yachts, and are coupled with a pair of vibrant maritime prints by Frederick S. Cozzens. Two other sporting prints are included as well: a hand-coloured pochoir print by Gamy-Montaut, depicting the Vanderbilt Cup Race on Long Island, and a pony race heliotype by W.S. Allen from his great work, Sporting Incidents.

            The sale includes 41 maps from a range of mapmakers and eras of American history, spanning from 1640 to 1899. Some of the earliest feature detailed maps of the Caribbean and its various European colonies, produced by famed cartographers including Pieter Goos, Guillaume De L’Isle, and Jacques-Nicolas Bellin. Another trio of maps by Mathais Lotter, Rigobert Bonne, and William De Brahm depict in great detail the 13 Colonies at the outbreak and early stages of the Revolutionary War.

            The history of New York City from the mid-1700s to mid-1800s can be traced through three maps of the city, the first being a 1740 map of the northeastern United States by prominent German cartographer Matthäus Seutter. John Rapkin’s 1852 decorative map depicts the southern part of the city as it was a century later, and Matthew Dripps’ hand-colored, 1876 pocket map depicts the area in even greater detail.

 

Click here to view the sale on Invaluable and LiveAuctioneers:

 

Invaluable   https://www.invaluable.com/catalog/1xednrfg0b

 

LiveAuctioneers.  https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/208644_americana-rare-books-maps-prints-and-photos/

 

For further information call Donald Heald Auctions at 212.744.3505.  To reach us by email:  info@donaldheald.com.  We will respond quickly.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
    Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
    Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions