Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2012 Issue

American Views from the William Reese Company

American Views.

American Views.

The William Reese Company recently issued their Bulletin 26: American Views. These are printed, or occasionally original artworks of various scenic views in the Americas (North, South, and Central). Most are colored, often by hand. Many are individual images, others are books filled with color plates. All are artistic and interesting, with the individual images being appropriate for framing. Here are a few of these scenic views.

We start with Arnoldus Montanus' De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weerld. This is a book filled with information and illustrations of America, or the “New World.” It contains 32 double-page plates, seven portraits, 15 double-page maps and a large folding map. It covers both North and South America, as well as the Caribbean. Perhaps most notable is the very early view of New York, or “Novum Amsterodamum” as the Dutch preferred to call it. The “city” appears as no more than a country town at this date, 1671. Ironically enough, New Amsterdam would soon be turned over to the British, never to carry that name again. Item 2. Priced at $28,500.

In the 18th century, the most popular American waterfalls for visitors was not Niagara, but Cohoes Falls near Albany, New York. Niagara Falls was too far away for most to reach, but Cohoes Falls was possible to obtain. Though hardly a Niagara, it was still a spectacular sight, the second greatest falls east of the Rockies. Item 3 is A View of the Great Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk River, published in London in 1768. It was originally included with Scenographia Americana, 28 plates issued in parts during the 1760s (complete sets are extremely rare today). The artist was Thomas Pownall, better known as a colonial governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony in the late 1750s, when Americans and the British were still on the same page. $8,500.

Item 7 is a view of those even more impressive falls, A View of the Western Branch of the Falls of Niagara, Taken from the Table Rock... This is a striking image produced by the American artist John Vander Lyn. He had spent five years studying art in France, and had recently returned to America when he began painting pictures of the falls. This hand-colored print, issued in 1804, is of one of them. Vander Lyn believed that by creating views of American sights, he could attract American clients. $12,500.

Item 15 is Die Weissen Schlosser... The White Castels [sic] on the upper Missouri. The artist is Karl Bodmer. Bodmer was a German artist who accompanied Prince Maxmilian on his great tour to see the Plains Indians of America in the 1830s. The Prince wrote a book about these still mostly unknown to the western world Indians, an account highlighted by Bodmer's illustrations. This image, however, displays a scenic view with wildlife, rather than Indians. Reese notes that this particular copy is a “remarkable survival.” It is the press proof Bodmer signed to acknowledge his approval of the printing. In French, Bodmer has written that he is certifying that all impressions of the image should conform with this proof. He has then signed his marginal notation “C. Bodmer.” $15,000.

Item 17 is Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan, published in 1844. It consists of 25 tinted plates by British artist and architect Frederick Catherwood of ancient Mayan ruins. Catherwood accompanied American explorer and writer John Lloyd Stephens on two trips to Central America in the late 1830s and early 1840s. They stumbled across the long forgotten Mayan ruins, bringing this ancient civilization back to the attention of the West. Catherwood had earlier visited ancient Egyptian and similar sites around the Mediterranean, concluding that these structures were so different that they must have been built by American natives, not earlier visitors from the Old World. Stephens earlier wrote two books about their discoveries, illustrated by Catherwood. However, this book just focuses on Catherwood's exceptional illustrations of what he saw. $75,000.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 10: Nancy Cunard, Negro Anthology, with a tipped-in A.L.S. to Karl Marx's niece, 1934. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 14: Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845. First edition. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 17: Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, inscribed first edition, 1959. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 28: Margaret Hill Morris, Private Journal Kept during a Portion of the Revolutionary War, for the Amusement of a Sister, 1836. First edition. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 38: Anna Sewell, Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, 1877. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 43: Gertrude Stein, Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia, signed presentation copy with photograph of Stein, 1912. First edition. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 48: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, first edition in the scarce dust jacket, 1927. $6,000 to $8,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 54: Katherine Dunham, large archive of material from her attorney, 1951-53. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 55: Margaret Fuller Signed Autograph Letter, New York City, 1846. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 92: Sonia Delaunay, illus. & Tristan Tzara, Juste Present, deluxe edition with original gouache, 1961. $20,000 to $25,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 93: Flor Garduño, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, 2006. Limited edition. $6,000 to $8,000.
  • 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€
  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: (Choiseul-Gouffier, Marie). Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece, 2 vols, 1st edition, 1782-1822. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Gentlemen's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, by Sylvanus Urban, 11 volumes. £700-1,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Shackleton (Ernest). The Heart of the Antarctic, 2 vols, 1st ed, presentation copy, 1909. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Drayton (Michael). Poly Olbion..., London: 1622. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Scheuchzer (Johann Jacob). Ouresiphoites Helveticus, 4 parts in 1, 2nd ed, 1723. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Roberts (Henry, after). Chart of the NW Coast of America and NE Coast of Asia ..., [1784]. £500-800
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Maffei (Giovanni), Indiarum orientalium Occidentaliumque Descriptio..., 1589. £1,200-1,500
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Ortelius (Abraham), Typus Orbis Terrarum, [1598]. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Bible [English]. [The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New..., 1613]. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Taylor (John). All the Workes of John Taylor the Water-Poet..., 1630. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Pierpont Morgan Collection. Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains, 1904 & 1906. £2,000-3,000

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