Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2007 Issue

Unusual Manuscripts and Books from Thomas Cullen

Manuscripts and Books from Thomas Cullen.

Manuscripts and Books from Thomas Cullen.


By Michael Stillman

Thomas Cullen Rockland Bookman
has issued his Catalog #43 -- Manuscripts and Books. There are more manuscripts here, and while there are some very interesting books, we will focus on the manuscript items. After all, they are one of a kind. And, while there are a few exceptions, most fit in the category of Americana or American history. Cullen manages to find some of the more fascinating pieces of American antiquarian history, and this month is no exception. These are some of the items you will find in his latest catalogue.

Item 5 is a manuscript letter from George Washington, handwritten and signed "G. Washington" by his aide Tench Tilghman. The letter is dated March 13, 1778, and was written from Valley Forge, near the end of that terrible winter and the low point of the American Revolution. Washington wrote to the Commissioners of Indian Affairs stating that he had authorized Congress to raise no less than 700 Indian troops. Washington was desperate for more help, and believed the natives could provide some. He wrote, "Divesting them of the Savage customs exercised in their Wars against each other, I think they may be made of excellent use as scouts and light troops mixed in with our own parties." Washington notes, "The Oneidas have manifested the strongest attachment to us throughout this dispute." Priced at $4,500.

Who would have thought that President William Howard Taft, the stuffy, 300-pound President who incensed Theodore Roosevelt so much he ran against his own party, was a humorist? On December 31, 1924, Taft, now former President but Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, writes one Ben Peer Of Honeoye Falls, New York, a thank-you note for a pillow cover. Pens Taft, "You say you are a good old Democrat, but even the worst sinner can return, so we will cherish the hope that you may see the light..." Item 27. $500.

Here is a surprising broadside for 1865: Public Exercises of the Lesbian and Calliopean Societies in the Chapel of the Conn. Lit'y Institute... A public lesbian group in 1865, and carrying on in the chapel no less? Perhaps this is not quite so radical as it sounds. More likely, a "lesbian society" of 1865 was a group of women interested in literature, rather than in...whatever. Probably, it was similar to a "calliopean society," which was a group of people interested in literature, but probably comprised of all males. Indeed, a lesbian society in the "Gay '90s" would have been a literary organization during a happy time. Item 60. $120.

By the time of the Civil War, slavery was a North-South issue, but this was not always the case. Here is an example. Item 93 is a bill of sale for "a black wench named Susan," sold by John Voorhees of Flatlands, Kings County, Long Island, for 90 pounds. The date is November 1799. It was not until 1827 that all slavery was finally abolished in New York. $170.

Rare Book Monthly

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    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
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    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
  • Leland Little, Jan. 22: The First Issue of Robert Frost's A Boy's Will, In Extremely Scarce Binding.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Knight's An Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Locke's Important Treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: The Richly Illustrated First French Edition of Voyages de Corneille Le Brun par la Moscovie, en Perse, et aux Indes Orientales.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Scarce First Issue of An Account of the Province of Carolina in America, Finely Bound and With Celebrated John Speed Map.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Humphrey's An Historical Account, Complete with Scarce Folding Maps.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Chamberlain's Scarce Civil War Memoir The Passing of the Armies.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: A Rare Photograph of David Bruce Brown and #48 Fiat.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: George Cruikshank (England, 1792-1878), Archive of Sketches, Notes, and Letters.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Extremely Scarce Copy of Die Samländische Ode (The Samland Ode), Signed by Max Pechstein.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Andy Warhol's The Thirteen Most Wanted Men Exhibition Catalogue.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Edward Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Every Building on the Sunset Strip.
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