Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2024 Issue

Amazing Americana from McBride Rare Books

Catalogue Four from McBride Rare Books.

Catalogue Four from McBride Rare Books.

McBride Rare Books recently published their Catalogue Four. It doesn't have a more descriptive name so I am going to take it on myself to give it one – Americana. This holds some very amazing items in Americana, so if that is your field, you must get a copy. If you can't read, no problem, as there are numerous collections of very old photographs from when photography was young. We'll give you a feel for what is offered with a few selections we found.

 

I know some people think these are hard times, but our parents and grandparents lived through what were seriously bad times (and didn't complain as much). This item comes from the heart of the Great Depression, when work was scarce, money scarcer. We all know the Grapes of Wrath and the great movement of people from the Dust Bowl to California in search of any work, no matter how bad. However, not even accepting pennies guaranteed a job, so the government stepped in to help those who were otherwise helpless. We begin with California Transient Service: Progress and Methods of Approach August 1933 – April 1935. It describes demographics, policy, and strategies for handling California's transient population, including those uprooted by environmental disasters. It is divided into four parts: emergency relief, individualized service, rehabilitation and work, and future prospects. It describes centers such as Camp California, which offered “an opportunity for rehabilitation to women without dependents, who are down and out financially and emotionally and who are in need of a rest, change of climate and encouragement.” Item 14. Priced at $750.

 

The Tulsa Race Riot is well-known, but two years earlier, there was the Red Summer of 1919 when there were numerous race riots across the land. One was in a place you might not expect, Omaha, Nebraska, and it was very ugly. Will Brown, a black man, was accused of rape by a white woman. Police arrested him and took him to jail, but they quickly concluded that the claim was false. By then it was too late. A huge crowd, estimated at 10,000, gathered at the court house, demanding Smith be turned over to them. The Mayor and police resisted. They holed up on the fourth floor, one below where the prisoners were held. The police tried to keep the crowd at bay but could not. They dragged out Mayor Edward Parsons Smith, tied a rope around his neck, and hung him from a lamp post. He barely survived when police were able to cut him down before he succumbed. They took him to a hospital. Brown had no chance. He was lynched, his body riddled with bullets, burned, and dragged through the streets. Two participants in the white lynch mob were killed and 120 indicted, but none were convicted or served any prison time. An unvarnished account was published that year by the Educational Publishing Company entitled Omaha's Riot in Story and Picture. Photos include the crowd gathered around Brown's burning body and buildings damaged during the riot. Item 55. $2,750.

 

This is an extraordinary collection of photographs from Mexico circa 1880s. The title is Vistas Mexicanas and it contains 52 albumin prints, approximately 5” x 8” each. The photographer was Abel Briquet, whose expertise is reflected in these sharp photographs. Briquet was a French photographer, but he closed his Paris studio in 1865. Sometime thereafter, he moved to Mexico and never returned. He was hired by the government to record the building of the Mexican National Railway. He was also hired to photograph other projects for the government, while publishing a few books of photographs such as this one which includes both government commissioned and other photographs. Each of the photographs come with specific information about the scene and were signed by Briquet on the negative. McBride only located three institutions holding copies of Briquet's work. Item 12. $19,500.

 

Here is another Mexican-related item though it pertains to San Francisco. It was the first attempt to get Spanish speakers to subscribe for telephone service. It was in 1883, which is only five years after the first telephone service was provided to a handful of subscribers in New Haven, Connecticut. The caption title is La Compania del Telefono Mexicano del Pacifico...Lista de Suscritores (list of subscribers to the Mexican Pacific Telephone Company). Presumably, the advantage of this company was Spanish-speaking operators. The list contains space to write in the names of 50 subscribers, but they are blank, which probably reflects the number of subscribers they signed up. There is no record of this company to be found on the internet and it can be assumed that they never became a functioning telephone company. They provided instructions on using this strange contraption. Translated to English they explain, “Directions to call. Turn the handle on the right side of the device three times, and without removing the Receiver Telephone that is not the hook, wait for a response... You must speak at a distance of six inches from the transmitter and with your natural voice, clearly articulating the words, and always having the receiving telephone in your ear during the conversation.” Hola? There are no instructions on accessing TikTok or messaging your friends. No wonder they failed. Item 15. $2,500.

 

This would have been a very valuable resource for those sailing down the lower Mississippi in 1857. McBride notes this was particularly useful to steamboat captains in the era of Mark Twain. Perhaps he had a copy. The title is The Louisiana Coast Directory of the Right and Left Banks of the Mississippi River from its Mouth to Baton Rouge... It lists all the businesses on both sides of the river from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. It also shows business types, owners names, distances, information for farmers and plantation owners, lists of post offices, sheriffs, clerks, with an alphabetical name index. There are also many advertisements, and here the ugly appears – two slave dealers. One ad reads, “Large Supplies of Maryland and Virginia Negroes; Consisting of Field Hands, House Servants, Cooks, Steamstresses, Washers, and Ironers, Mechanics, &c, All of which will be Sold Low for Cash.” Supplies of humans for sale? Go to the store and buy a Negro? There was something very wrong with these people, and not the ones being sold. Item 34. $6,500.

 

McBride Rare Books may be reached at 203-479-2507 or books@mcbriderarebooks.com. Their website is found at www.mcbriderarebooks.com.

 

Rare Book Monthly

  • RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    ABAA Dealer
  • Sotheby’s
    Bibliotheca Brookeriana:
    A Renaissance Library. The Aldine Collection D-M
    18 October 2024
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Herodianus Syrus, Herodiani Historiarum, Venice, Heirs of Aldo & Torresano, 1524, Parisian binding for Jean Grolier by Jean Picard, ca. 1540
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Musaeus, Opusculum de Herone et Leandro, Venice, Aldo, 1495 (Greek text), interleaved with 1497–1498 (Latin text), English olive morocco by Charles Lewis, the Botfield copy
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Horatius Flaccus, Horatius, Venice, Aldo, 1501, Bolognese brown goatskin (between 1501 and 1503), arms of Mino Rossi and illuminated initials throughout
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Lucretius, De rerum natura, Venice, Aldo, 1500, English early eighteenth-century red morocco, the Fletcher copy
    Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Dante, Le terze rime, Venice, Aldo, 1502, illuminated, contemporary Bolognese morocco binding
  • Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: CATESBY, MARK. 1683-1749. The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands. $100,000 - $150,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES. 1785-1851. The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and their Territories. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: ADAMS ON HIS PEAR TREES AND A LOST PORTRAIT BY SALEM ARTIST HANNAH CROWNINSHIELD. ADAMS, JOHN. 1735-1826. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: EARLIEST MAP DEVOTED TO NORTH AMERICA. FORLANI, PAULO. fl.1560-1571. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: HAMILTON DEFENDS THE CONSTITUTION. HAMILTON, ALEXANDER. 1757-1804. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 24: NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION BROADSIDE. Boston, September 14, 1768. $5,000 - $8,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: ONE OF THE EARLIEST ILLUSTRATIONS OF A SURGICAL PROCEDURE. BARTHOLOMAEUS ANGLICUS. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: RICHARD FEYNMAN'S ANNOTATED COPY, WITH TWO EARLY FEYNMAN AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS. $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN COMPUTING. TURING, ALAN MATHISON. 1912-1954. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: FINE OIL PORTRAIT OF ALBERT EINSTEIN BY EUGEN SPIRO. $40,000 - $60,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: PENICILLIN MOLD MEDALLION INSCRIBED BY ALEXANDER FLEMING. FLEMING, ALEXANDER. 1881-1955. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, now to Oct. 23: APPLE "TWIGGY" MACINTOSH PROTOTYPE USED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMONSTRATION SOFTWARE. $80,000 - $120,000
  • One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions
    Rare Autograph and Book Auction
    October 17th, 2024
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Abraham Lincoln Signed Letter on Executive Mansion Stationary To Secretary of The Navy re: Appointment for Naval Academy!
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Extremely Rare Ben Franklin Printed: Considerations on Keeping Negroes...Part Second. 1762.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: An impressively extra-illustrated copy; Including an Original leaf from Shakespeare’s 1623 First Folio!
    One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions
    Rare Autograph and Book Auction
    October 17th, 2024
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Rarest Naval Autograph James Lawrence “Don’t give up the ship On " U.S. Ship Hornet June 19th 1812.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Oversize Ernest Hemingway Signed Photo with long Inscription about Drinking Wine to his dear friend and Secretary Roberto Herrera.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: VOLTAIRE Signed Receipt about a partial payment of debt for the Duke of Wuerttemberg.
    One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions
    Rare Autograph and Book Auction
    October 17th, 2024
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: [Maps] Gio. Ant. Magnini, Italia, 1620.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: LAWMAN SALOON JUDGE ROY BEAN Signed Legal Document 1895-RARE!
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Autograph Album with James Garfield as President, Chester A. Aurthur as VP, William T. Sherman, Burnside, P.T. Barnum and many more!
    One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions
    Rare Autograph and Book Auction
    October 17th, 2024
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Thomas Jefferson and James Madison Signed Four Language Ship's Paper.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Hector Berlioz Autograph Musical Quotation Signed.
    One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Important Memorandum the Day after Gettysburg July 5th, 1863 where Lincoln asks all Department Heads of the cabinet to meet him at the Executive Mansion.

Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions