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Catalogue No. 63
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1. “For the defence of American liberty”

1-1. Organization of the Army of the Twelve Confederated Colonies. view image Newspaper, Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet or, the Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, Dec. 11, 1775, 4 pp. With rich and important Revolutionary War content, including Washington, Benedict Arnold, John Hancock, and much more. Printed by John Dunlap, from whose press would come the Declaration of Independence about seven months later. Beginning at top of page 2, and filling 1-1/2 columns, “Extracts from the Journal of Congress...June 15-22, Resolved, That a General be appointed to command all the Continental Forces, raised or to be raised for the defence of American liberty. That $500 per month be allowed for the pay and expences of the General. The Congress then proceeded to the choice of a General by ballot, and George Washington, Esq. was unanimously elected.” With Washington’s humble reply: “...I feel great distress...that my abilities and military experience may not be equal to the extensive and important trust...I do not think myself equal to th e command I am honoured with.” Also establishing posts of - and naming - the first two Major Generals, first eight Brigadier Generals, and one each Adjutant, Commissary, Quarter-Master, and Pay Master General, and lesser posts, each with salary stated. Lengthy commission to Washington by Congress, “reposing especial trust and confidence in your patriotism....” Further resolution of “the Delegates of all the Colonies from Nova Scotia to Georgia, in Congress assembled...That they will...adhere to him the said George Washington with their lives and fortunes....” “Two millions of Spanish milled dollars be emitted by the Congress in bills of credit, for the defence of America.”

Unusual usage, datelined Watertown (Mass.): “About 1,000 troops of the United Colonies of North-America broke ground on what is called Cobble (or Miller’s) Hill, about one-half mile in a direct line from the enemy’s encampment on Bunker’s Hill...which a cannon has not yet been fired at us. Our troops are now well entrenched....” ’ Letter from Ticonderoga: “...Gen. Montgomery possessed himself of Montreal on the 15th [of Nov.]. Col. Arnold is arrived at Quebec, so that in all probability the entire province of Canada...will be in our possession soon....” “His Majesty has ordered one quart of porter, and 1/4 pound of cheese per man, for the Ministerial troops at Boston...There is not the least prospect of a reconciliation for some time to come.” ’ Three letters from Benedict Arnold, one to John Hancock, describing his difficulties in Quebec, eased by “forty savages who have joined us” with canoes. Separately, Philip Schuyler writes, “Col. Arnold’s march does him great honor. Some future historian will make it the subject of admiration....” ’ Exchange of letters with William Franklin, Gov. of N.J., and the Loyalist son of Ben Franklin, occupying nearly four columns in all, assuring him that “we have the utmost abhorrence of any design whatever to subvert that happy constitution of government....” Franklin replies, “...From what has already happened, the officers of the crown will be naturally led to form a judgment of what may happen...I sincerely wish that both you and I may ere long have the happiness to see those, who either openly or privately avow sentiments of independency, men of no consequence.” Franklin later fled to England. ’ Scathing, front-page anti-war letter from British cautionary Cassandra: “The acts of our national tragedy is begun: A horrid scene is opened: How it will be closed Heaven only knows!...All our honour, all our firmness, all our strength and wealth is to be...concentered to this one point. More generous blood has already been spilt than would have been expended in the conquest of Mexico...Instead of softening towards each other by degrees, we rush headlong to war; a war of the most bloody kind. A civil war must now determine whether the authority of this country over North- America must be maintained or subverted. We have committed the first and dearest interests of this country to the decision of the sword...A system of lies dressed up to deceive the nation, and impose on Parliament, has been invented. But where are now those wretched flatterers, those false prophets, who told us the Americans could not fight?...One man was made a General for his ill-told, stupid story...When we found that the Americans were preparing and arming, we gave them a twelvemonth to discipline their troops...Why then was (Gen. Gage) sent single and unarmed into that nest of hornets?...From his want of this force, the Provincials armed and exercised under the very nose of our General, who brought neither terror to afright, or strength to disarm and disperse them...Instead of arming properly before we declared our intentions, we showed our intentions before we armed; were ready with nothing but our pens and tongues, and newspaper valour...It is our misfortune to have totally mistaken the nature of the war...A naval blockade was the true and effectual plan...Now...finding our own land-forces insufficient, we...cloath and arm the Canadians and Savages, make them the arbiters of North-America....”

Advertisements include “Muskets stocked in the best and neatest manner...near the Courthouse, Philadelphia,” rewards for runaway “Dutch servant man,” Irishman, and Negro Will, whose masters are “desired to pay their fees and take them away,” “a handsome pair of horse pistols,” and “a healthy Negro girl, aged 13 years...remarkably strong and lusty for her age....” Contemporary manuscript notation in margin of p. 3, “Baltimore, Maryland,” listing a sum of money. Considerable but characteristic foxing; edge browning and some chipping, with no loss of text, separated at spine, else good plus. Highly important, and a core item for a mature collection of America’s foundation. Now rare on the market. $3500-4500

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1-2. The End of the Beginning. view image Rare, finely executed copperplate map, attributed to the important early engraver of Charleston, South Carolina, Thomas Abernethie. “Plan of the Investment of York & Gloucester [Virginia], by the Allied Armies: in Septr. & Octr. 1781.” 9 x 9. Prepared for History of the Revolution of South-Carolina, by David Ramsay, 1785. Depicting the attack by Washington and Rochambeau, culminating in the surrender of Cornwallis – and the near-assurance of American victory in the Revolution. Scroll cartouche. Extensive text key in tiny type, “Reference to the British Lines...(and) Gloucester side,” listing 22 batteries, ships, and other details, including “British ship sunk” and “The Charon, a 44 & 2 Transp(or)ts, set on fire, by hot shot.” Numerous delightfully detailed warships in the York River of various sizes, some sunk, and some listing. Map includes “Road from Williamsburg,” “The Field where the British laid down their Arms,” “Genl. Washington’s Qts.” (with large camp tent drawn), “Count Rochambeau’s Qts.,” “American Park of Artilly.,” “N. York Line,” “Sappers & Miners,” “Genl. Clinton’s Qrs.” (a one- or two-man tent), “Marq(ui)s La Fayette’s Qrs.,” “Americ(a)n Hosp(ita)l,” and more.

With one exception, “Abernethie’s maps are apparently the earliest maps published south of the Mason-Dixon Line...Very little is known about his life and work, which includes the maps for Ramsay’s book (and) some treasury notes for the City of Charleston...The source material for Abernethie’s maps is also interesting. Abernethie’s map of Yorktown is quite possibly derived from American sources. Nebenzahl notes that Abernethie’s map was subsequently copied by Thomas Conder for William Gordon’s History of the United States (London, 1787), but does not note the source as a printed battle plan, leading to the conclusion that the source might well be American.”--awesomologist.com/yorktown/maps. Two original folds, matching blank strip expertly inlaid along bottom to add margin, eccentric fragment at wide blank left margin lacking where removed from book, else fresh, clean, and very fine. No examples on abebooks. WorldCat locates examples only in the British Library, College of Charleston, and National Library of Scotland. A fourth, hand-colored example resides in The Society of the Cincinnati, and was featured on the lovely cover of their 2009-2010 exhibition catalogue, “Virginia in the American Revolution.” A very rare and important item. $2900-3900

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1-3. Early Federal Coinage – 1796 Cent. view front | view back Liberty Cap, reverse of 1796. S-91. 2013 ANACS VF 20 details, hair re-engraved. Handsome, uniform deep mahogany tone both sides, with suggestion of warm burgundy undertone. Exhibiting ubiquitous die characteristics on obverse, with debossed butterfly impression on neck, and single impressions each on hair and beneath cap; single depression on reverse beneath “Cent.” Common weakness at “Sta” of “States,” else “Liberty” and date strong. Of the eight examples of this variety in Stack’s Bowers’ database (excepting an extraordinary MS-66 at $218,500), five were heavily worn or environmentally compromised, two double-struck, leaving just one VF-35 ($3680.00 in 2008). A desirable and historically interesting item, listed by Sheldon as the final Liberty Cap variety, but believed by Breen to be the first 1796 variety. Acquired c. 1960s. Closeup color photographs of obverse and reverse of all coins on website and furnished by e-mail. $2200-2800

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1-4. Gold Coins – of George Washington’s Sister. view image Manuscript “Inventory of Money & bonds found in the trunk of Mrs. Betty Lewis deceased Mar. 31, 1797,” probably Fredericksburg, Va., 4 x 6-1/2, 1-1/4 pp., signed twice each by Lawrence Lewis and Robert Lewis – the sister and nephews, respectively, of George Washington. Listing “17 half joes, 1 Guinea, 1 Eagle & 10 half eagles, 10 Dollars & 3/4-1/2. Geo. Weedon’s bond £216:0:0, Lovell & Urquhart d(itt)o £240:0:0, Jno. Lewis £311:5:6, David Henderson... Joseph Norwood...Hackley & Patton...Robt. Brooks...Jno. & James Smith...Charles McGill.....” Reflecting the coins and currencies in circulation in eighteenth-century America. The half joes were Portuguese; the eagles and half eagles almost certainly refer to the early U.S. gold coins, first minted in 1795. They are highly prized today.

Encompassing a rich who’s who of Washington association: Betty Washington Lewis was George Washington’s younger sister, Robert and Lawrence her sons. Lawrence married the woman raised by George and Martha, Eleanor Parke Custis; Washington’s will (modern copy accompanies) bequeathed them “the residue of my Mount Vernon estate.” “Upon Washington’s return to Mount Vernon when retiring from public service, Lawrence Lewis assisted his uncle with correspondence, entertaining [and managing Mount Vernon]. Lawrence was also one of five identified executors of George Washington’s estate. He was the last surviving executor.”-- http://bettywashingtonlewis.blogspot.com. After his uncle’s passing, Lawrence continued to help his aunt - and mother-in-law - Martha Washington at Mount Vernon. • Robert Lewis, private secretary to Washington during the early period of his Presidency, then served as his uncle’s land agent, later as Mayor of Fredericksburg. The Lewis family struggled with debt after Betty’s passing, and the family tobacco plantation, which had been personally surveyed by George Washington, was sold. • George Weedon, payee of one of the bonds named, was proprietor of the colonial inn The Rising Sun, in Virginia; distinguished Revolutionary War officer who held Cornwallis in check at Yorktown, postwar Mayor of Fredericksburg, and owner of the Sentry Box, his elegant Georgian home, preserved today. • (James and William) Lovell and (Charles) Urquhart appear in The Papers of George Washington. • John Lewis was George Washington’s oldest nephew, and was a gunpowder manufacturer during the Revolution. • David Henderson was a leading Fredericksburg merchant; the location of his shop was known as “Henderson’s Corner.” “The ‘melancholy occasion’ of Betty’s death [the basis of this document]...gave [Washington] pause, for the passing of ‘my only sister’ left only him and his alcoholic brother Charles...”--George Washington: A Biographical Companion, Grizzard (copy accompanies). Few small stains, tip wear, else very good. Autograph material of nearly any of the Lewises is rare on the market. Splendid for a Washington or numismatic display. $750-950

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1-5. The Spiritual Grounding of Revolutionary War Patriots. The Pennsylvania Gazette, and Weekly Advertiser, Apr. 7, 1779, 9-1/2 x 16-1/2, 2 pp. broadsheet printed by Hall & Sellers, who also produced currency. Lengthy front-page letter from “A true Patriot,” on “the causes of our national evils, and the remedies for their cure...It appears to me highly probable that the ungrateful conduct of this nation towards God...is to be ranked among the chief causes of our present distresses...The leader of Israel had prophetically denounced a mixture of national calamities on that people...The leading principle of vice is libertinism...Add to this their frequent balls, at a time when so many of our fellowcitizens groan under the frowns of heaven: Their drinking to excess...Chaplain(s) in our army, who eat their country’s bread and draw their pay for doing no other duty than reading service to their brigades...are probably actuated by no better principle...The foregoing hints exhibit to us...an awful but a true portrait of the moral character of this distressed country...Were we once a reformed people, I am confident we would soon be a happy people, enjoying peace, liberty and plenty....” Lengthy “Act for the Regulation of the Markets in the City of Philadelphia....” Letter from a reader, “We are again called, by a very serious and solemn proclamation of...the Continental Congress, to the duty of Fasting and Prayer...that with one voice and one heart we cry to God, through Jesus Christ, that the evils we so justly deserve at his hand...God knows that the blood shed in this unnatural war lies not at the door of these United States – we did everything we could do, consistent with our duty to God, ourselves and posterity, to prevent shedding blood. But still it must be remembered, that the bare righteousness and goodness of a cause will not vindicate impious, unjust, wicked subsequent actions...O ye heroes of America, was it to obtain an unlimited restraint to such licentiousness that ye drew your swords, and rushed to victory with such military prowess!...As we are united in politics, so we might in religious sentiments....” Ad for runaway German “indented servant lad,” with “two pair of shoes, one with nails in them, no buckles...a sermon book, (and) a blue and white pillow-case to carry his clothes in....” Left and bottom edges creased and somewhat tattered, but margins good and text unaffected, tortoise-shell foxing, tear at left, else good. One of the better exemplars of the role of spirituality in the crucible of America’s freedom. $225-275

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Receiving a Gun & a Bayonet on July 4, 1776

1-6. A superlatively poignant item. view image Manuscript document for “a Gun and Bayonet...” received on July 4, 1776 - the day symbolically representing the zenith of American expression of liberty - signed by Joseph Andrus, prominent patriot in the oldest town in Connecticut.

“Recd. of the Selectmen of Wethersfield a Gun & Bayonet
[ap]prized at £3.5 to be used in ye Colony[’s] Service [in] the ensuing
Campaign & returnd to s[ai]d Selectmen.
Joseph Andrus / Wethersfield July 4th, 1776.”

Manuscript endorsement on verso, “Capt. Chester Wells / Paid 1 Gun.” 2-1/4 x 7-1/4 in., oblong.

The oldest town in the state, Wethersfield already had a tradition of liberty. In 1634, the town joined with two other neighbors to draw up the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, “another governing document that would later contribute to the new nation’s Constitution - hence the nickname, ‘the Constitution State’”--citation accompanies. By 1776 a hotbed of revolutionary activity, Wethersfield’s visitors included John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Knox, Tom Paine, Rochambeau, and George Washington, the latter a number of times; Silas Deane lived there. John Adams recorded in his Diary in 1774, “We went up the steeple of Wethersfield meeting-house, from whence is the most grand and beautiful prospect in the world, at least that I ever saw.” In response to the Lexington Alarm, prompted by Paul Revere’s famous ride, Wethersfield provided probably the largest company of troops of the entire Colony. Wethersfield soldiers would serve in almost all of the important battles of the War, from Concord to Yorktown.

Near the meeting-house, at the center of town, was the Andrus home. Fortified against attacks, local townspeople sought protection at night there.

On July 4th, 1776, Joseph Andrus received this gun and bayonet. As a leading patriot, conversant with our Founding Fathers, it was not entirely a surprise to Andrus that a Declaration of Independence could be forthcoming: two days earlier, its precursor, Richard Henry Lee’s resolution declaring independence, had been adopted by Congress. Andrus was cognizant of the fast-moving events, and may have anticipated a British reaction to a formal declaration.

Wethersfield would continue to play a pivotal role in American history. Some five years on, in May 1781, Washington would again visit the town, where he would be joined by Count de Rochambeau, his French counterpart. Known thence as the “Wethersfield Conference,” that historic meeting would plot the strategy ultimately winning the war, and validating the Declaration of Independence ... adopted on the very day of this document: July 4, 1776. Trivial wear, appealing rich orange-cream toning, else in fine condition. Highly important Americana, providing context for the original intent of the Second Amendment in the years of America’s conception. For those seeking to cast a light on news of yesteryear and today, few items seem as direct as this. $9000-14,000

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1-7. The Cradle of American Democracy – the Town Meeting. Manuscript notice of a town meeting, Reading, Middlesex County, (Massachusetts Bay Colony), May 4, 1772, 1 p., 7-1/2 x 12-1/4. Signed by John Temple, Town Clerk, to Constable Ephraim Pratt. “You are hereby Required, In his Majestie’s name...to Warn the freeholders and other Inhabitants Within your District, that have an Estate of Freehold in Lands...of Forty Shillings per annum at Least...to meet at the meetinghouse...on Mon., the 18th Day of May...at one of the Clock in the afternoon....” Enumerating three items on the agenda: “To Depute one or more Persons...to Serve...in a great and general Court or assembly...kept for his Majestie’s Service at Harvard College in Cambridge...To see whether the Town will make Recompense to Capt. Hezekiah Upton for a Road being Laid over his Land...and also the Land of the widow Abigail Flint...To see if the Town will...Impower a Committee to Sell and Convey...the Herbrige in Lynn to Saml. Stocker...Hereof fail not....” Docketed and signed on verso by Constable Pratt, who was a Minute Man at Lexington, and Lt. in County Militia; he died in 1776. Interesting crown watermark, squarely in center. A quintessentially American political institution, the New England town meeting played a crucial role in the road to Revolution. Some toning, lending patina, red wax seal remnant at top, else very good. Splendid for display. $140-180

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1-8. A Town Meeting Decries “The many and great Taxes laid upon us by the Stamp Act.” Highly significant newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, Nov. 28, 1765, with extensive coverage and commentary on the Stamp Act and its ramifications in multiple colonies. Established 1730 by Ben Franklin, this newspaper suspended publication on Nov. 1, 1765, the day the Stamp Act took effect, through Nov. 15, almost certainly as a protest against the new tax. 10 x 15-1/2, 4 pp. Elaborate masthead vignette with stylized rampant lion of Britain. With stirring writing conveying the very rationale of America, the subtext not distant from today’s discourse. Notwithstanding the decade remaining til Paul Revere’s ride, the mood in America was already dark. The long countdown from enactment to enforcement of the Stamp Act had elapsed, the Quartering Act had been imposed, and the timbers of rebellion were aglow.

Lengthy page-one message from a town meeting in Plymouth, moderated by James Warren, probably the future Paymaster General of the Continental Army: “...We reflect on our Happiness in having a natural and constitutional Right to all the Privileges of our Fellow Subjects in Great Britain, we behold with Pain and Horror, any Attempts to deprive us of them, and cannot but look on such Attempts as Instances of the greatest Unkindness and Injustice. This is the subject of our present Complaint, which not without Reason echo from every Mouth in every Corner of this distressed and injured Country. Our Youth, the Flower of this Country, are many of them slain, our Treasure exhausted in the Service of our Mother Country, our Trade...almost ruined, by severe Acts of Parliament, and now we are threatened by a late Act of Parliament with being loaded with internal Taxes, without our own Consent, or the Voice of a single Representative in Parliament, and with being deprived of that darling Privilege of an Englishman, Trial by his Peers...We shall say nothing on this Occasion of our Inability to pay the many and great Taxes laid upon us by the Stamp Act; of the many new crimes opened by it...of the prodigious Penalties annexed to them...Here was first laid the Foundation of the British Empire in this Part of America, which, from a very small Beginning, has increased...in a Manner...almost incredible...all this without the Approbation of any Tax by Stamps, or Stamp Acts laid upon our Fellow Subjects...This Place, Sir, was at first the Asylum of Liberty...though it was no more than a forlorn Wilderness, inhabited only by Savage Men and Beasts. To this Place our Fathers...possessed of the Principles of Liberty in their Purity, disdaining Slavery, fled to enjoy those Privileges...This Town...retaining the same Ardour for Liberty, think it our indispensible Duty...to express to you these sentiments of the Stamp Act, and its fatal Consequences to this Country...We have not only a Sense of our Rights and Liberties, but that we never (with Submission to divine Providence) will be Slaves to any Power on Earth....”

Speech of Fra(ncis) Bernard to Massachusetts Bay Assembly: “...What have I done to deserve this? I have happened to be the Gov. of this Province at a Time when the Parliament has thought proper to enact a Taxation of the Colonies...I have thought it your Duty to submit to this Act, until you could get it repealed...I have delivered my own Soul; and you will remember that, if any Consequences disagreeable to you shall happen, I have not been wanting in guarding you against them...Nor do I believe any Governor in America has presumed to express his Sentiments against the Act in Question....” Inside, from London: “As an instance of how much the American colonies are in earnest to oppose the new stamp and other duties, we are informed several eminent Council are begun already to be retained, in behalf of the provinces of New-England, Virginia, and the Massachusetts Bay. They write from Philadelphia, that several families are going to embark for the Dutch settlements, on account of the late stamp duty....” From Boston, “Twas said in England, the Stamp Act would certainly be repealed, as the Trade to America was greatly diminished, and many of their Manufacturers out of employ.” “The great Disturbances and Uneasiness in America, on Account of the Stamp Act, had not reached England when Capt. Davis sailed.” An Englishman writes, “We greatly feel the Effects of American Troubles, and I assure you I never knew the Loss of Trade, and Want of Money, so much in all my Life.” The American editor adds, “We may expect a double Groce of such Letters as these, if the Stamp Act is not repealed....” Account of the Sons of Liberty in New York City, “alarmed at a second Importation of Stamps in the Minerva....” Dramatic account of Philadelphia patriots demanding tax stamps kept in a chest in the distributor’s home, burning them in a bonfire, then seizing more at other buildings. Full column letter on the Stamp Act’s effect “on the poor Virginians...men liable to be incensed by oppression, and, when incensed, apt to go beyond those bounds which are prescribed by a cool and dispassionate temper... An American has an equal right...not to be burdened beyond his abilities to bear....” Much more on the Stamp Act; it would be repealed the following year. Brief advertisement, “All persons having any Demands against Moses Hyman, deceased...,” likely Jewish. Ad for “the following assortment of Pickles...English Ketchup...Sugar Candy...Chocolate....” Notice of “the Mustard and Chocolate Mills... a little Way from Town, on the Germantown Road....” Pleasing uniform toning to pale mocha, some edge toning, minor stains, few dark spots, else very good. Library of Congress locates only two copies, at American Antiquarian Society and Yale. Excessively rare, and an exceptional item. $950-1250

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2. Valley Forge

2-1. Twelve Men of Valley Forge. Collection of eleven documents, issuing pay to ten different Continental soldiers who survived the trial of American independence – the long, brutal winter at Valley Forge. Also serving with them at Valley Forge were two of those signing here to authorize their pay. In some instances, soldiers were not paid for several years, until the end of the war – or beyond! Capturing an interesting range of titles and personalities, all in Washington’s favorite unit, the Connecticut Line. All partly printed unless otherwise indicated. Each accompanied by research notes. Comprising:

– Pay order for Capt. Silvanus Brown. In First Call in 1775, and at Brooklyn and Harlem. Office of Connecticut Treasurer, June 28, 1779. Manuscript. Signed by Fenn Wadsworth, Brigade Maj. to Gen. James Wadsworth, by John Chenevard, sea captain and colonial merchant, who transported gunpowder by water to privateer sloops, and (Gen.) J(edidiah) Huntington, a Son of Liberty, who also wintered at Valley Forge.

– Joseph Cobin. At King’s Bridge (The Bronx), Peekskill, and to West Point upon discovery of Benedict Arnold’s treason. Pay-Table Office, Nov. 21, 1782. Signed by Eleazer Wales, a Minute Man, physician, and minister, who fought at Bunker Hill and served at Valley Forge.

– Capt. Henry Daggett. Friend of Roger Sherman, member Society of the Cincinnati; his grandfather Pres. of Yale. Oct. 19, 1781. Manuscript. Signed by William Moseley and Fenn Wadsworth; vertical auditing signature of Hez(ekiah) Rogers, aide-de-camp to Jedidiah Huntington.

– John Marsh. A pair of partly printed documents. Also fought at Monmouth, Morristown, West Point, and White Plains. Jan. 25, 1783. Signed by Wales.

– Heman Munson. Jan. 22, 1783. Signed by Wales.

– Dr. John Scott. Served from 1777-83, including Valley Forge; in Capt. Bradley’s Co. of Matrosses (Artillery). Feb. 6, 1783. Signed by Oliv(er) Wolcott, Jr., Fenn Wadsworth, and Sam Wyllys. Wolcott succeeded Alexander Hamilton as Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury. Wyllys, whose family home was adorned by the Charter Oak, commanded a regiment at Bunker Hill, becoming Maj.-Gen. of Militia. He later succeeded his father, who had been Secretary (Gov.) of Connecticut for 66 years! Wyllys’ brother was a Yale classmate of Nathan Hale. This pay document was treated as a negotiable instrument, bought and sold by five additional men.

– Lt. Benjamin Seely. An armorer in Waterbury’s Regt.; in the 7th Conn. Regt., with George Washington on at least three occasions. Aug. 14, 1783. Signed by Wales, Wolcott, and Huntington; on verso by Timo(thy) St. John, served in Summer of 1776.

– Peter Smith. In First Call in 1775; also at Albany, White Plains, and West Point. Jan. 14, 1783. Signed by Wales; on verso by (Judge) Abraham Davenport, who helped organize Connecticut Line. “He was to Trumbull what Trumbull was to Washington – a trusted advisor. When the dark day in May [19], 1780, caused panic in the Senate chamber, Abraham Davenport arose and said, ‘If it is not the Day of Judgment there is no reason to adjourn...’ From the piazza of the Davenport House, Lafayette...received the people who came to greet the friend of Washington...”--Chapter Sketches, Connecticut D.A.R., pp. 443-444.

John Greenleaf Whittier describes that fateful 1780 day in a poem entitled, “Abraham Davenport”:

“...A witness to the ages as they pass,
That simple duty has no place for fear.”

– Lt. Seth Weed. In Regt. of Militia Light Horse, 1776, at N.Y. June 5, 1783. Signed by Moseley, Wolcott, and Hez(ekiah) Rogers; on verso by (Col.) Caleb Booth, served in Lexington Alarm, and seventeen terms in Conn. Legislature.

– Capt. Solomon Williams. In First Call in 1775. July 29, 1783. Signed by Rogers and Wales; on verso by Booth.

Latter item much worn, probably carried for years in his pocket; others with occasional handling or fold wear, but generally very good to very fine, with much patina for a display.

Volumes have been written about Valley Forge, but it is worth recalling that its iconic place in the American conscience was well earned. From the beginning, as Washington’s exhausted men approached their new winter camp, trouble awaited them. A historian later wrote that its location “must have been selected on the advice of a speculator, a traitor, or a council of ignoramuses...” (Kalb in Boatner). Notwithstanding the 10,000 soldiers estimated to have been at Valley Forge that ignominious winter, documents relating to them are not common. Some 5,000 were hospitalized, about 2,500 died there, nearly 4,000 were so threadbare that they could not leave their huts, and with the exception of Connecticut’s, few pay documents from the states represented at Valley Forge have ever reached the market. And of the Connecticut pay documents painstakingly researched, disappointingly few indeed have been for soldiers who served at Valley Forge.

The story underlying such pay documents was one of equal hardship: “In June (1783), Washington furloughed most of the men, sending them home with the three months pay that Congress had allocated...The notes constituted partial back pay for years’ worth of wages that the men had never received. It was the last dime that Congress...intended to pay...a despicable end to what for many had been a hard and austere life of soldiering. The tawdriness of Congress’ action was compounded by the fact that the certificates, as the soldiers discovered...were next to worthless...”--Almost a Miracle, Ferling, p. 556. Some sold their certificates to speculators; the multiple signatures on the versos of some of these pay orders indicate such transfer.

“Yet Washington’s army left Valley Forge stronger than it entered...One reason for this is spelled Steuben....” Using the methods memorialized in his watershed book (see following lot), at Valley Forge Steuben usurped Washington’s historical pedestal, at least as the nominal father of the modern American Army. By late Spring of 1778, the newly trained and fortified Continentals were putting Steuben’s training to good use. From the depths of the netherworld of Valley Forge emerged the road to victory. Valley Forge is today a national shrine. $1150-1450 (11 pcs.)

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2-2. Cornerstone of Independence, laid at Valley Forge. One of the most important books of the Revolutionary War era, without which American victory would have been unlikely. Jeffersonian edition, with New Hampshire association, of the first military manual for the armed forces of the new United States, Baron von Steuben’s Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States. “Printed for William Norman, Book and Chart Seller,” Boston, 1802. 4-1/2 x 7, full original burled calf, gilt on green-black leather spine label, 73 pp. Considered the father of the American Army, von Steuben was recommended by Ben Franklin. Reporting to George Washington at Valley Forge, he was given the unenviable job of training the American soldiers - though he spoke almost no English. Quickly teaching them to use their bayonets for charging, instead of roasting meat over a fire, von Steuben reorganized, drilled, and polished the troops, contributing markedly to independence. Written specifically for the use of Continental troops by order of Congress, this magnum opus was the standard work for Washington’s men, continuing in use well into the nineteenth century. “(von Steuben) was unrivaled among the citizens of the new nation as an expert on military affairs. His introduction of European military concepts to the Continental army marks the beginning of a truly professional military tradition in the United States”--A.N.B. Two flamboyantly oversize ownership inscriptions on front flyleaves of “Nathan K. Holt / His Book / Boscawen [N.H.] / June 1807.” It is likely that Holt crossed paths with the then-youthful John Dix, a native of Boscawen, and with Daniel Webster, who opened his law office in town the previous year, before moving to Portsmouth. Interestingly, von Steuben first set foot in America in Portsmouth. Title page states “Embellished with nine copperplates,” however final text leaf, containing detailed “Explanation of the Plates,” lists only eight, all of which are present. A mid-twentieth-century pencil note states “lacks 1 plate (frontis.),” however the first plate present, between end of table of contents and page “A,” is prominently headed “Fig. 1.” The unnumbered, missing plate presumably does not have the same type of military content as the eight plates carried forward from earlier editions. Leather understandably scuffed, worn at corners, lacking at about 2” of spine; blank lower left section of plate V lacking, affecting no text; plate VI folded off-center by binder, with some tattering at blank lower edge; scattered light foxing, handling wear, but otherwise about very good. The few copies that do appear on the market sometimes show such field usage. No collection of military history, indeed of early Americana, is complete without an example of this book. Early American Imprints, 2nd series, 3114, and many other citations. An excessively rare edition, with only one other example located, at the Library of Congress. WorldCat locates only microform copies. $850-1150

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2-3. “Welcome to Valley Forge....” Federal period document with trio of signatures of radically patriotic Revolutionary War personalities, Sam Ward (Jr.), Chas. Tillinghast, and Ben Walker, key figures in the ideological origins of the American Revolution. A.D.S. (twice by Ward), Port of N(ew) York, Oct. 30, 1793, 6-1/2 x 8-1/4, concerning his import of a box of “two Hatts [sic]...My baggage was all embarked in the (ship) Ellin and released except this box...The Hats...was sent by mistake...and is intended for my sole use. So help me God....” From one of Rhode Island’s foremost families steeped in the spirit of revolution, Ward was at the Siege of Boston, joined Benedict Arnold’s expedition, captured at the Battle of Quebec and imprisoned for two years. At Valley Forge, Morristown, and Newport, Ward is quoted as greeting his visiting cousin, the wife of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, as she drew up in her carriage, “Welcome to Valley Forge, Caty!” (citation accompanies). One of the first American merchants to visit theFar East (1788), he was in Paris when Louis XVI was sentenced to death. Ward’s father, colonial Chief Justice and Gov. of R.I., was the only governor to refuse to take the required oath to enforce the Stamp Act. A member of the Continental Congress, his father was “chairman of the committee that reported in favor of a general for the American army, when Col. George Washington was unanimously chosen”--Appleton’s Cyclopædia. • Chas. Tillinghast was son-in-law of John Lamb, a Son of Liberty, Deputy Q.M. of Continental Army, and the anti-Federalist “secretary of the Albany meeting that plotted against the Constitution.” Becoming Collector of N.Y. Customs House, he perished in the Yellow Fever epidemic in 1795. • Ben Walker was aide-de-camp to Baron von Steuben, the “Drillmaster of Valley Forge” (crediting the title of a current book by Paul Lockhart). “While at Valley Forge, Gen. Steuben formed a life-long friendship with Capt. Benjamin Walker. Born in England, Walker had been trained as an accountant. While a Captain in the 2nd New York Regt., he stepped forward on the drill-ground and rescued the Baron in a moment of supreme frustration by offering his services as interpreter, being fluent in French and English. He thus became Steuben’s trusted aide-de-camp...Walker conversed easily with his Prussian superior and managed his correspondence. He served for a time on Washington’s staff. After the war, he settled as a broker in New York City and regularly attended to the Baron’s affairs...”--bergencountyhistory.org. von Steuben even resided with Walker, and when he passed away, it was Walker who not only conducted the modest service for the then-impoverished Father of the American Army, but had his remains later moved when a road was being built. Uniform toning, old chipping at right margin affecting no text, else fine. Very scarce thus. $275-375

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2-4. Washington at Valley Forge. Newspaper, The London Chronicle, May 16-19, 1778, 8-1/4 x 11, 8 pp. On page 3, “Extract of a Letter from Philadelphia,” dated Apr. 1, with a surprisingly uncommon reference to George Washington at Valley Forge. “Gen. Washington is still at Valley Forge very strong, and his army daily reinforcing. No messages have passed between him and Gen. Howe, neither has there been any talk of a reconciliation. Besides Lee, who has been exchanged for Prescott, a general exchange of officers has taken place, particularly of the French, but not of privates. Gen. Howe’s army has orders to be ready at a minute’s warning for some enterprise on the 5th instant....” Lengthy letter of “An Englishman” on crime and punishment in London: “Nothing is more usual than for foreigners to accuse the common people of England of being more corrupt and depraved than those...in any other part of the world...Thither flock [to London] from all parts of the world, the bold, the daring and adventurous, who are eager to make a fortune; and if they cannot make it by honest means...The frequency of our executions may be owing to the greater severity of our criminal law...Many crimes are now punished with death...Every person, even the king himself, had a certain price affixed to his head, which, whoever was able and willing to pay, might gratify his revenge by killing his enemy...The people lived in a state of absolute anarchy....” “The Lady of Gen. Count Finkenstein, Commander of the regiment of dragoons, having requested permission of the King to accompany her husband in the campaign, his Majesty granted her request....” Old soft folds, else clean, fresh, and very fine. $140-180

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3. Aviation

3-1. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo. view image Dramatic printed typescript of Medal of Honor awardee Gen. James H. Doolittle’s “Personal Report, Chungking, China, May 4, 1942,” signed at conclusion on page 2. 8-1/2 x 11, prepared and signed c. 1984. His fast-moving narrative of the first American air raid on Japan, from takeoff from the Hornet, the earthshattering Raid on Apr. 18, through the Raiders’ landing in China. Doolittle’s raiders, hitting Tokyo, Kobe, Nagoya, and Yokohama, shocked the Japanese and were a tremendous morale boost on the home front. “...The air full of planes north of Tokyo...Flying as low as the terrain would permit...Pulled up to 1,200 ft., changed course...and incendiary-bombed highly inflammable section. Dropped first bomb at 1:30...Lowered away to housetops and slid over western outskirts into low haze and smoke...No bombs left. Decided not to machine gun for reasons of personal security...Made land fall somewhat north of course on China coast...Pulled up to 6,000 and then 8,000 ft...Decided to abandon ship...Left ship on A.F.C.E., shut off both gas cocks and I left. Should have put flaps down...Requested Gen. Ho Yang Ling, Dir. of Branch Govt...to have all sampans and junks along the coast keep a lookout for planes that went down at sea...Early morning of 20th four planes and crews, in addition to ours, had been located...Discussed possibility of purchasing three prisoners...from Puppet Govt. and endeavoring to take out the three in the lake area by force....” It is estimated that the Japanese killed 250,000 Chinese while searching for Doolittle’s crew. On the date Doolittle’s report was compiled, the Battle of Coral Sea began; with Midway’s victory four weeks later, the Japanese advancement in the Pacific was halted. One of the most exciting missions of the war - planned and led by Doolittle; these events were the subject of a book and movie. Excellent. $175-250

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3-2. The Men who Ended World War II. Later photograph of three Enola Gay crew members, signed by each in rich blue: “Thomas W. Ferebee, Bombardier, 11/5/90,” “Paul W. Tibbets, Pilot,” and “Theodore J. ‘Dutch’ Van Kirk, Navigator.” 8 x 10, modern enlargement of flatteringly casual War-era newspaper photo, printed on heavy Kromekote enamel. The B-29 Superfortress was the first aircraft in history to drop an atomic bomb, on Hiroshima, and participated in the second run, on Nagasaki. Trivial tip wear, else excellent. $225-300

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3-3. Alcock and Brown – The First Successful Non-Stop Transatlantic Flight. view front | view back A landmark cover in aviation history. Variant of AAMC #3. Envelope from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Surrey, England, franked with Newfoundland 1919 Trans-Atlantic $1 overprinted on 15¢ in honor of this flight, bright scarlet, Scott #C2, S.G. 143. Tied by St. John’s machine cancellation of June 13, 1919; as with most provincial mail, there is no arrival mark. Lengthy endorsement on verso in hand of navigator Brown: “To the best of my knowledge and belief, this envelope was contained in the mail-bag carried by the Vickers-Vimy, June 13/14, 1919. A. Whitten Brown.” Return address on verso in sender’s hand, “From Montgomery, P.O., St. John’s, Newfoundland”; on front, he has penned vertically, “Please forward in another envelope.” Opened along top edge, some tears, one on front not touching postmark or stamp; several pale stains at lower portion, two hinge remnants on verso away from Brown’s inscription, considerable wrinkling and two vertical folds, but satisfactory, its patina telling the story of its historic journey. (The plane landed nose-down in a bog in Ireland.) Alcock and Brown carried this cover - one of only 197 - on the very first non-stop across the Atlantic, winning the Daily Mail’s £10,000 prize, presented by a young Winston Churchill. It was thus also part of the first Transatlantic airmail to the United Kingdom. The 1,960 mile distance was flown in about 16 hours. “Much of the overseas flying was done in heavy fog, flying blind under great difficulties. Both aviators were knighted a few days after their transatlantic flight, and they received world-wide recognition for the skillful air navigation...”--citation accompanies. Just eight years later, upon landing in Paris following his own history-making flight, Lindbergh exclaimed to the crowd, “Alcock and Brown showed me the way.” With clipping of this lot’s last appearance on market, in Sotheby’s catalogue, June 14, 1993, selling for 1800.00. Old AAMC value 2500.00. An important artifact. $1950-2750

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3-4. Doolittle Experimental Flights. Scarce set of five different airmail covers flown by Jimmy Doolittle as a young pilot in South America, all 1928, each cacheted “First Experimental Flight....” Each addressed to Curtiss Airplane Export Co., with respective origin and arrival postmarks: Green cachet Lima-La Paz, blue “Correo Aereo” handstamp. Peruvian postage stamp, postmarked Lima, backstamped on arrival in Bolivia. “Reportedly 800 covers carried but only two dozen distributed by Bolivia P.O.”-- Aerophilatelic expert Michael Rogers. Muller #8. • Purple cachet La Paz-Santiago (Chile). • Black cachet Santiago-Buenos Aires (Argentina). • Purple cachet Buenos Aires-Montevideo (Uruguay). Asunción, Paraguay received postmark. • Blue cachet Montevideo-Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Via Asunción. Seam glue stains, toning, else fine. $250-375 (5 pcs.)

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3-5. America’s First Dirigible. Postcard showing the 1904 California Arrow, the first American-built dirigible balloon, aloft over Norwich, Conn.’s 250th anniversary celebration in 1909. Postmarked Norwich. Enormous cigar-shaped airship, with its builder, Capt. Thomas Scott Baldwin, navigating from a standing position on its delicate latticework bridge. (None other than Glenn Curtiss was Baldwin’s original engineer.) “In 1908 a Baldwin dirigible was accepted by the...Army and was the start of an Army aerial squadron. As far back as 1876, Baldwin made balloon ascensions all over the world. He was also a parachute jumper and tight-rope artist. It was not until he was 60 years of age that he learned to pilot a plane. This was in 1910, and he always flew a Curtiss plane painted crimson and dubbed ‘The Red Devil’”--citation accompanies. Message and address excessively lightened by tea(?), though picture side remarkably unaffected; one blind debossed bump, else very good. Rare. $55-75

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3-6. Milestones of Flight. Group of seven different National Air and Space Museum historical covers, “Milestones of Flight Commemorative Series,” 1976-81. Cachets. Each with illustrated descriptive enclosure and related postmark. Including: 50th Anniversary, First Flight of Wasp Engine. • 10th Anniversary, First Surveyor Landing on Moon. • 25th Anniversary, First Jet Passenger Service. British postage stamp. • 20th Anniversary, First U.S. Satellite, Explorer I. • 1st Anniversary, First Transatlantic Balloon Crossing. • 45th Anniversary, Refueling Endurance Record, “Ole Miss.” • 75th Anniversary, First Officially Recorded Airplane Flight in Europe, 1906, Paris. French postage stamp. All excellent. $50-75 (7 covers with enclosures)

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3-7. Pioneer Aviation in Ohio. Two different Aeronautical Bulletins, for guidance of early aviators. Issued by Chief of Air Service, Washington, 1924-25. 4-1/4 x 7. “Landing Facilities in Ohio,” 16 pp. Ada through Zanesville. Exhaustive detail, much of it quaint: “‘Akron’ on roof of barn...Telephone at field...Caution, as field is rolling and slopes down...(Cincinnati) runways liable to be soft after heavy rains...(Toledo) high-tension wires on steel towers, 40’ high, not recommended. Reported by Maj. Carl Spa(a)tz....” • Cleveland to Erie, 2 pp. Contemporary Stanford University handstamps, light edge toning, else very fine. $45-65 (2 pcs.)

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3-8. Zeppelin Engine in a Car. Pair of prewar sales items for Maybach automobile, powered by Zeppelin motor: Sheet, 1931(?), printed in Germany, in English, 6-3/4 x 10, 2 pp. “12 Cylinder Type Zeppelin - 8 Litre Special Chassis, 200 H.P. Motor,” 485 cubic in., “speed of engine at 37 m.p.h., only 1300 r.p.m.” Extensive specifications. Crisp side view of rolling chassis, available in 144” and 150” wheelbases. Weight with coachwork up to 7,900 lbs. Production 25 cars annually. Handling wrinkles, some edge tears, soiled, but complete and very satisfactory. • Folder, c. 1938, 8-1/4 x 11-1/2 oblong, 4 pp., black on heavy enamel, very high quality offset presswork. Three large photos of complete 6-cylinder cars, plus chassis. Type SW 38 open car, Sport-Cabriolet, and Pullman-Limousine. Light edge toning, minor tip wear, else very fine. $70-90 (2 pcs.)

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3-9. First American in Space. Partly printed “Aircraft Flight Record and Maintenance Record,” signed four times in pencil by A(lan) B. Shepard, once before each of two flights, and once after each flight. 48th F(ighter) I(nterceptor) S(quadron), Langley A.F.B., Va., Dec. 21, (196)1 – the year he became the first American in space, and the first human to control a spacecraft in flight. 5-1/4 x 7-3/4. Purple handstamps, and red markings, two of these possibly in Shepard’s hand. On verso, pencilled entries, probably in another hand, of fuel and oil types, quantity serviced, total in tanks (9,750 gallons!), oxygen pressure, and other details. Each flight consumed over 1,000 gallons. Three other airmen sign “servicing certification” on verso; one notes “259 USAFB Mich.” The planes were likely F-106 Delta Darts; a superlative craft, setting the world speed record of 1,525 m.p.h. – at 40,500 feet – early examples were also deadly, its ejection seat killing the first twelve pilots using it. Very minor edge toning, else fine and splendid for display. The first American in space, Shepard was one of the seven original Project Mercury astronauts, and the only one to walk on the Moon. At this time, Shepard was already a member of Astronaut Group 1, better known as the Mercury Seven. He and his fellow spacemen “became national heroes and were compared to ‘Columbus, Magellan, Daniel Boone, and the Wright brothers’”--Time magazine, on wikipedia. Early Shepard material is now scarce. Ex-Conway Barker, c. 1970. $350-550

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3-10. World War II Aircraft Cards. Nearly complete set of 63 (of 64) “Aircraft Recognition Cards,” picturing a wide range of American, British, and German military planes. 3-1/2 x 5-1/2, black and white, press varnish. “Third-Class Proficiency Test Series,” printed by Valentine & Sons, England. Detailed photograph on front; three line drawings, mechanical specifications, and recognition points on verso. Lacking card no. 58 (singles can occasionally be found reasonably), some fine crazing of varnish, else little-handled, and excellent. With original wrapper (torn). $60-80 (63 cards)

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4. World Wars I & II

4-1. “Nothing like the good old ships....” Group of eight World War I soldiers’ letters: five from Pvt. James Osborne, Co. B, 103rd U.S. Engineers, 28th Div., A.E.F., one to him on Red Cross letterhead inquiring about his condition, as family has not heard from him in months, and two from sailor Spencer Smith to his sister. Six with envelopes (one cancelled aboard ship). Apr. 28, 1917-Jan. 21, 1919. In all, about 16 pp., 5 x 6-1/2 to 6 x 9. Pen and pencil, variously. Interesting variety of stationery. From Hancock, Ga., “Somewhere in France,” and other locales:

“I thought I was dreaming when I saw five letters addressed to me. I sent my civilian overcoat in a separate package the same time that I sent the suitcase...I want you to press that suit because when I come home on a pass I want something nifty to wear. The clothes that the government issue are punk...The mail is rather congested for the present, so can only send one letter a week...Candy is very scarce over here and you are obliged to pay 30¢ for a Hershey bar. Oranges seem plentiful but expensive, 2 for 20 in French money...or a quarter as that looks the same as a Franc...It don’t get dark over here til about 10:30 and then it is daylight again at 3 A.M...There is a Catholic Church over here. They say that some parts of it is a thousand years old and believe me, it is some swell church. The people over here use small chairs in the place of benches. They kneel on the seats and when it is time to sit down they turn them around and sit down...This new draft from 18-30 will take in all of the fellows around, but they can be almost positive that they will never see service in France, because the Huns are getting more than their share, believe me...Whittler’s candy sure is the best...Geo. Weis... got wounded up in the Argonne on the 6th of Oct. He sure was lucky, because five were killed within 10 yards of him about the same time. I had the job of stretcher bearer...Frank K. is over here driving a truck...I am obliged to laugh because you all know that I...did not know enough about motors to get one of those jobs. You also know that I taught him everything he knows about motors, but that is the way life goes in the Army...It never snows over here, but believe I would much rather hike in snow than mud up to your neck....” The sailor writes, in two letters precisely one year apart: “...67 of our men drafted day before yesterday and they left with a bunch of 700 for Portsmouth. This necessitated bunking together...We expect to be drafted Monday. Our company will be the first to go now. It is a rule of splitting up each company...I am still in the Seamans’ Dept...I haven’t had anything to do today so expect I can enjoy myself writing letters and listening to the music...One soldier...said the trenches are bad enough, but he’d be damned if he’d want to be a sailor. The majority feel the same way, which only makes us ‘Gobs’ laugh...I received four letters from Cynthia full of news...weddings...engagements, and beautiful diamond rings and all about how much she missed me. Ha! Ha! Imagine a Gob buying diamond rings. Ha! Ha! Say I raised my hand and made one pledge a year ago. I don’t think I’ll make another in the next three years at least...Pretty near chow time, with good raisin pie and pork chops for supper...If the soldiers of the Allies can’t lick the Germans, they’re going to send our Navies combined...Nothing like the good old ships...with their huge guns and big boilers...A fellow on the other side of the ship singing, ‘You have but one Mother, and you can’t buy another, if you had all the world and its gold’...I’m not going to write to Cynthia any more. She’s pretty bossy, ain’t she....”

Mentioning minstrel show aboard ship. Writer’s address laboriously crossed out by censor on one letter; other interesting censor’s markings and stampings. One letter lacking concluding page; varied soiling, handling, and toning of groundwood, else satisfactory to very good. $190-240 (8 letters + 6 envelopes)

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4-2. Patriotic Postcard Collection. view image Surprisingly uncommon and delightful collection of 100 World War I-era patriotic postcards. Most in remarkably fresh and vibrant color, balance in partial color, and few sepia. About 65 postally used. Including romantic, cartoon, Uncle Sam, Christmas, camp scenes, anti- German, flags, nurses, sentimental, and more. Many by Illustrated Postal Card & Novelty Co., and Bamforth & Co., both N.Y.; few French. Numerous examples by illustrator Archie Gunn, whose cards are seen on market at $5-20 each. Variety of postal markings; most postage stamps intact. Including a July 4, 1918 message home: “...We have an order to Berlin at 7 A.M. tomorrow. Good Bye, Jack.” Very slight occasional duplication. Some minor wear, handling, or creases, but generally good to about very good. An engaging archive of American patriotism and society from the War to End all Wars. Although all but the youngest readers knew World War I veterans growing up, the America depicted in this collection seems so very long ago. $90-130 (100 pcs.)

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4-3. “The middle classes.” Printed pamphlet, “German Workers! To Work! Speech of Chancellor Adolf Hitler at the opening of the work offensive, Mar. 21, 1934,” 5-3/4 x 8-1/4, 11 pp., black on pulp. Printed by Liebheit & Thiesen, Berlin, in English, as propaganda. “...The fight to save the middle classes is, above all, a fight against unemployment. This is the most gigantic problem that we have to solve and which takes precedence of all others...Over 2,700,000 unemployed have been put back to work...in the first working year of the National-Socialist Administration...Only a madman therefore can shamefully...offend against the common need...We have an example in the Reich motor roads...May the other peoples and their statesmen realize that the desire and will of the German people is none other than in freedom and peace to help in creating a better world....” Minor edge chipping, else excellent. $125-175

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4-4. “The atom bomb caused the winning of the war.” T.L.S. of Nazi Dr. Stefan Dittrich, Kötzting (West Germany), recipient of Knight’s Cross. July 17, 1980, 8 x 11-1/2, 1 p. In German, to an American collector, describing his World War II years. “...I was in the World War from 1939 to 1945 in Führer’s Artillery... kommandos...I met neither Hitler, Himmler, Rommel...About the holding of the Jews, I can offer no information, as I had nothing to do with that. I am of the opinion that the happening of the atom bomb caused the winning of the war. For the picture [not present] and postage I require 5 German Marks....” In some units, kommandos were special sections doing the “dirty” work. Pale band of toning at blank bottom edge, else very fine. $75-100

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4-5. “I did not know Hitler....” T.L.S. of Nazi (Maj.) Heinz Sundmacher, Commander of Grenadier-Regiment, recipient of Knight’s Cross. Hannover (West Germany), Feb. 4, 1980, 5-3/4 x 8-1/4, 1 full p. In German, to an American collector, describing his war years. “...I did not know Hitler, Rommel, nor Göring, nor Himmler personally...My war experience: Holland, Belgium, Frankreich 1940 [France], then Russia, 131st Infantry, East Prussia in Mar. 1945....” Listing decorations. Very light handling evidence, else fine. $55-75

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4-6. Hitler’s Retribution for ... Iran. view image Excessively rare and unusual original pencil rendering of “Barracks 13/14 and Clock Tower, Biberach Camp, 1943,” with ink caption and signature of artist-internee W. Oliver, deported from Guernsey following German occupation of Channel Islands. 6 x 8-1/2, on rigid art board. Uniform dark cream panel-toning from old frame, else very fine. The oldest possession of the Crown, the Channel Islands were surrendered to the Nazis without a shot. Hitler directed that the Channel Islands be turned into an “impregnable fortress...The sight of brutality against slave workers brought home to many Islanders the reality of Nazi ideology behind the punctilious façade of the Occupation. Forced marches between camps and worksites by wretched workers and open public beatings rendered visible the reality of the régime...The Germans showed in the Channel Islands what they would have done to British Jews had they occupied Britain... In 1942, the German authorities announced that all residents...who were not born in the islands, as well as those men who had served as officers in World War I, were to be deported, the majority...to the southwest of Germany, notably to Ilag V-B at Biberach an der Riss and Ilag VII at Laufen, and Wurzach. This deportation decision came directly from Adolf Hitler, as a reprisal for German civilians in Iran being deported and interned. The ratio was 20 Channel Islanders to be interned for every one German interned...”--wikipedia. Notwithstanding Biberach’s “festive” “Carnival in August” and food supplied by outside relief organizations, during the last months of war, it was used as “a Transit Camp for Jewish detainees from Bergen-Belsen...”--Reinhold Adler, author of Das war nicht nur ‘Karneval im August, dpcamps.org. A significant sidebar to the bloodiest war in human history. $225-350

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4-7. Channel Islands Newspapers. Collection of ten newspapers, The Star and Evening Press, printed during World War II by the Nazis occupying the Channel Islands. Five different issues of each title, 4 pp. ea. With news of Russia, Churchill, bombings, naval warfare, U-boats, German military, the Jews, war in England, and much more. The “low key” tidbits of news scattered throughout were deceptive elements to obscure the hardships and sufferings of the English people on the Islands. Some edge toning, else very good. $180-220 (10 pcs.)

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4-8. The Lost World. Group of Judaica and Nazi-related: Pink partly printed Nazi receipt for 20 Reichsmarks sent to named prisoner at Hamburg Neuengamme concentration camp, Block 16. Mounted for exhibition, with translation. • Receipt for 20 RM sent to named prisoner at Dauchau, Block 12/2, from Litzmannstadt Ghetto, Poland, July 1941. Mounted. • Receipt for 5 RM to named prisoner at Dachau, from Poland, Aug. 1941. Some soiling, good. Not mounted. • Prison camp mail, oversize postcard, Oflag IV C, Deutschland, Dec. 13, 1939, to Warsaw. Partly printed. Message in Polish, in pencil. Purple postal markings. • Realphoto postcard portrait of Nazi Reichsjugenführer Arthur Axmann, sepia, commemorative postmark, Vienna, 1942, with swastika postage stamp. The final head of Hitler Youth, it was Axmann who, in the waning days of the war, delivered “a fiery speech” to a group of Nazi teens which included the future Chancellor of Germany, Helmutt Kohl--Hitler’s Mountain..., Arthur Mitchell, p.147. Axmann’s Hitler Youth were among the last to surrender, following orders to the very end, over 90% of their numbers dead, wounded, or out of action--Witnesses of War: Children’s Lives Under the Nazis, Nicholas Stargardt. Seeking to build a Fourth Reich, Axmann surfaced in China after the war, as a “businessman.” • Realphoto studio postcard of newlyweds, Nazi soldier and bride. Deckled edges. “Photographenmeister C. Bauer, Apolda [East Germany], Adolf Hitlerstr. 19.” • Memorial pocket leaflet for Nazi infantryman killed in Russia 1942, photo on front, black mourning borders. Latter with some wear, else balance mostly fine to excellent. Suitable group for teaching or display. $90-120 (7 pcs.)

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4-9. “Escaped through the flames of burning London.” Exceptional, lengthy A.L.S. - in English - of top Nazi aviator (Maj.) R(upert) Frost, (West Germany), Commander of the Night Fighter bombers, recipient of German Cross in Gold. On his 1,000 missions, visiting Hitler, the Jews, the atom bomb, and more. May 12, (19)80, 8 x 10, 5 full pp., neatly lettered in red. To an American collector, recounting his World War II days in surprising detail. “My military commands were: At the begin(ning) of the war, instructor on an officer school. 1940, squadron leader of a transport squadron occupying Norway, landing mountain troops on ice fields...Probably the only pilot flying big planes without ever a pilot training. A few night missions against England. Over London almost shot down by 2 night fighters. With more than 300 hits and a wounded crew, escaped through the flames of burning London. From Rumania with K.G. 27 (Boelke, bomber) many missions, mostly low level against troops, railways & airports, ships at the south front of Russia. 3 times shot down...In 1941...Group Commander...until the Battle of Stalingrad. After not obeying orders, got punished with 9 month(s) jail and got the order to establish a night flying battle squadron with old training planes, which was very successful. In 1943 I went to Italy as commander of a group, flying against the Allied landing spots there...with the dive bombers at night. At the end of the war this was the only German unit still flying missions. The overwhelming Allied air forces could not get my planes because we flew from pastures at night at low level, and had been hiding in day time. I flew almost 1,000 missions...I never met the mentioned leaders in person, but I saw Hitler and Göring at Party rallies, driving through Berlin, in the Olympic Games 1936, and visited Hitler at his haus in the Alps where he was standing alone by himself on his lawn without a guard. As leader of an Honour Guard I passed Hitler goose-stepping together with about 100,000 other men. Rommel was a Major and instructor at the officer school I attended as a Cadet...I have no idea where most Jews were kept...Though British commandos destroyed a plant for heavy water at Norway early in the war, I never heard anything about a German atom bomb. Reason: Because of luck...Hitler gave the order to stop all developments that took longer than 1 year. The means to deliver atom bombs to U.S.A. or Siberia didn’t exist at that time. The development of new weapons which were unknown to the rest of the world, to name a few, like the jet fighter, rocket planes, rockets that could fly to England, U-boats that couldn’t get detected was amazing, but because of luck of all those amazing weapons did not get ready...I hope you are enjoying your collection of famous military men....” Frost appears in Luftwaffe Aces: German Combat Pilots of World War II, by Franz Kurowski. In his May 1945 interrogation by the Americans, Frost stated, “You know, I consider myself unfortunate to have been born a German. I am an incurable flying enthusiast. I don’t know how I shall be able to stand not to be permitted to fly any longer. I should give anything to be permitted to fly with you Americans against the Japanese, although I know that it is impossible.” Remnant of padding rubber binding last four sheets, one corner fold, perhaps by writer, else fine. When encountered, such letters are seldom so long, uncommonly so detailed, and rarely in English. $275-325

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4-10. “The Nazis killed before my eyes....” Partly printed letter from Holocaust survivor Miller Bela, signed twice, in Displaced Persons UNRRA Camp 1044, Marktredwitz, “U.S.A. Occupation Zone in Germany,” Apr. 25, 1947, 8-1/4 x 12. To Trygve Lie, Secretary General of U.N., requesting transmission of “my following request to the meeting of the U.N. which will consider the problem of Palestine. During the World War II I had suffered in the German Nazi camps. There the Nazis killed before my eyes all of my dearest and nearest. The victory over Nazi Germany brought the liberation of all oppressed nations but for the Jewish people. 21 months after the victory I still am in a camp in Germany, among the murderers of my family. The only refuge where I will be able to carry a normal and free life - is my old native country - Palestine. From the deepness of my grievous and tortured soul...give me the possibility to begin a peaceable and normal life in my own country.” Uniform browning, else very fine. The modern nation of Israel was born the following May. • With envelope, addressed to the U.N., then in Lake Success. Blue German postage stamp, double red “U.S. Civil Censorship...” ribbon postmark, black town cancel. Soft clip impression, toned, else very fine. In a shocking sidebar, former New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia - as Director of this U.N. Relief and Rehabilitation Administration - learned that his sister and other relatives had been held in Nazi concentration camps. She is believed the only Americanborn woman interned by the Nazis. She ended up in a housing project in Queens; the fate of the sender of this letter remains to be researched. $150-200 (2 pcs.)

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4-11. Dönitz Signs Surrender – in 1977. Highly unusual postwar typescript of the “Act of Military Surrender” of German High Command, Rheims, France, May 7, 1945 (V-E Day), 8-1/2 x 11, boldly signed in blue by (Grand Adm. Karl) Dönitz, dated in his hand “5.9.77” (Sept. 5, 1977). Planner and head of the dreaded U-boat fleet, he was the last Nazi Supreme Commander following Hitler’s suicide. Ironically, Dönitz did not sign the surrender: At the Little Red School House, he delegated the duty to Jodl. Trivial edge toning, else excellent. Dramatic and an unlikely form; it was signed for a trusted correspondent – three decades later. $375-475

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5. Judgment at Nuremberg
The Missing Pieces of the Puzzle

5-1. War Crimes Tribunal Archive. Astonishing, substantial cache of 22 original working files from last-minute appeals of many Nazi war criminals at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, the first trial of its kind in history. Late Summer 1946, mimeographed by the Tribunal, in a variety of styles and formats, each in original kraft folder bearing manuscript or typewritten title. In all, about 2,422 pages, and over half a million words. Mostly legal size, about 95% in German, the balance in English or French, and occasional text in Russian. Comprising the Plaedoyers, or “pleas of mercy,” of fifteen defendants: Field Marshal Hermann Goering; Gen. Alfred Jodl, Chief of Operations Staff of German High Command; Grand Adm. Erich Raeder; Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop; Hjalmar H(orace) G(reeley) Schacht, Pres. of German Reichsbank (his father was an admirer of Horace Greeley); Wilhelm Frick; Baldur von Schirach, head of Hitler Youth; Constantin von Neurath, Reich Minister; Hans Fritzsche, Reich Ministry for People’s Enlightenment and Propaganda, renamed the Propaganda Ministry; and Martin Bormann, the latter prepared in absentia; together with trial files for the following organizations: S.S. (Black Shirts), Reichsregierung (government), S.A. (Brown Shirts also known as Storm Troopers), Generalstab-OKW (High Command and Planning), and Political Leaders. This latter group included S.D. or Security, Gestapo, Nazi leadership, Party members, Cabinet Ministers, and Civil Service. Each defendant selected his own attorney, who was paid by the Court. Dr. Robert Servatius, later known for defending Eichmann on trial in Israel, was the attorney here for the Political Leaders group.

Together with eight additional folders of evidence (one contained in a modern folder), including Dönitz’ and Schacht’s “questions and answers,” in German and English respectively; detailed report of the dismantling of Smolensk, Russia; procedure for removing the Jewish population from Czech society; unnamed eyewitness account of the reprisal in Lidice, a bird’s-eye view in heartbreaking prose; listings from the Gestapo; an almost endless succession of mimeographed pages listing artikels and edicts of what was legal and what became illegal in Nazi-dom, these leaves signed-in-type by Hitler, Ribbentrop, their legal expert Hans Frank, Heydrich (a Hitler favorite who was part-Jewish), Frick, Lammers, Hess, and Goering.

The end of World War II brought with it a search for responses to the maelstrom of horror of the war’s events. These coalesced into a trial of twenty-two Nazis who remained alive, and five Nazi organizations. Selection of American, English, French, and Russian legal experts resulted in a judiciary of eight - two from each country, plus other legal specialists. Guilt was determined by analysis of four areas for each of the Nazis brought to trial – from Goering, “his guilt unique in its enormity” – to Fritzsche, labeled by Goering as, “You really did not belong in our crowd” (Gesellschaft).

This study of the guilt of these defendants in their performance of “terror, murders, assassinations, executions, tortures...against civilian populations,” was the first time that society leveled such responsibility.

The core of the “guilt” or “innocence” of the defendants is in their respective Plaedoyer. Such a “plea of mercy,” ranging in length from 46 to 291 pages each, was prepared and filed by the defendant’s attorney, usually with the participation of his client. On Oct. 13, 1946, all appeals - including the pleas of mercy represented by this collection - were rejected. Verdicts were mixed: life imprisonments, terms from ten to twenty years, three acquittals, and numerous hangings. Two days later, Goering committed suicide before he could be hung, and Bormann was sentenced to death in absentia.

Extensive research locates no other examples of these Plaedoyers, or records of their contents - either original or microfilm - anywhere.

The Plaedoyers comprising this archive were not included in printed volumes of Trial documents. They are not found in the massive 42-volume Proceedings... published by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, nor identified in the Harvard Law School’s Nuremberg Trials Project. No Plaedoyers are present in the indices, inventories, or other finding aids of the Donovan Nuremberg Trials Collection at Cornell Law Library, comprising the leviathan personal archives of Gen. William Donovan, the special assistant to Nuremberg Justice Robert Jackson, and founding Director of the O.S.S., antecedent of the C.I.A. A systematic search of the major institutions and Union catalogues of Austrian, German, Swiss, and Israeli libraries finds only one isolated holding of one single Plaedoyer (a 39-pp. plea by attorney Hans Laternser, in Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin). In all, twelve additional Nazis were tried beyond those represented in this archive, however it is not known whether any filed Plaedoyers. (One, Hess, refused to have an attorney at all.) In all events, none are identified or located elsewhere. End-of-trial and post-trial material is sparse in the major collections surveyed.

Understandably with some file and handling wear, most folders creased with some tears, but their contents with uniform toning of groundwood paper, some edge tears or chipping, else surprisingly clean, and generally very good to fine.

Together with:

A War Criminal’s Questionnaire. The original Nuremberg Trial “Personnel Questionnaire” filled out by one of the most powerful men in Hitler’s Germany, defendant Erich Dethleffsen, Maj. Gen. of High Command. Partly printed, in German and English, “Military Government of Germany,” 8 x 13, 4 pp. entirely accomplished in his hand, in dark pencil, signed at conclusion. With Hitler since the Beer Hall Putsch, Dethleffsen was “admirable in his efficiency, terrifying in his inhumanity.” He sought to geographically reorganize the Federal states of Germany, to dispose of the Reichstag, and advocated Senate control of all elements of life. • With overflow sheet on which he has meticulously reconstructed his military service record from 1923-45, 8 x 10-1/2, 2 pp., also in dark pencil. In reply to the question, “Have you ever been a member of any anti-Nazi underground party...?,” Dethleffsen replied “Ja.” He denied membership in all but one of the 33 listed Nazi organizations. Dethleffsen was initially jailed with Goering et al. Uniform browning, some chipping along left edge, affecting no text; questionnaire with some handling wear, very minor edge defects, else very good and clean, his pencil entries on all 6 pp. dark. With modern research.

And:

The Nazi who Almost Changed the Course of History. Unusual Allied military operational map, “The War in Eastern Europe - Terrain and Communications - Opposing Forces and German Plans, 22 June 1941,” boldly signed postwar by Gen. Franz Halder, Chief of Nazi Supreme High Command’s General Staff, until his departure in 1942 following frequent disputes with Hitler. 9-1/2 x 12-1/4.

Showing order of battle, with Russian forces in blue and Nazi and Rumanian in red, surprinted on green-grey. Map from a postwar set, with tactical and historical information (for this and a different map) printed on verso: “Another peculiar feature of this campaign was that Russia - despite its multiple spy systems, and though warned by England - was completely surprised by the onslaught Hitler loosed at 0300, 22 June...The Russian Fifth Army’s counterattacks southward from the Pripet Marshes were especially effective....” (The Pripet Marshes are in the center of this map.) Showing Gulf of Finland to Black Sea, and Berlin to Moscow. “In the run up to the war, Halder, in an attempt to avoid what they were certain would be a catastrophic war for Germany, was the main actor in a plot...to remove Hitler from power. A plot was put in place, ready to go at Halder’s command, which would be given if Hitler gave the order to proceed with the planned invasion [of Czechoslovakia]. The plot included a plan to kill Hitler and say ‘he died trying to escape’ (they all agreed he would be too dangerous to keep alive). However...Chamberlain capitulated to Hitler’s demands...with Hitler promising to stop there. (Which promise Hitler broke the following spring.) Halder put an immediate stop to the coup attempt, only hours away from reality...Chamberlain’s appeasement at Munich meant the end of the plot, which shook Halder to the core and left him weeping...”--wikipedia. Halder was imprisoned for two years in Dachau. His diary is cited hundreds of times in William Shirer’s epic book. Neatly trimmed, affecting few lengths of plain ruled border only, light handling evidence, else about fine. Provenance: Charles Hamilton’s Waldorf-Astoria Sale 19.

World War II nearly saw the end of the world as we knew it. For many of those impacted by the Nazis in these files, they and their worlds perished. Over half a century later, some of the war’s enigmas and mysteries persist. These files offer not just a cache of rare source material, but a view into the abyss of evil that nearly prevailed. Request detailed prospectus, $10 by postal mail. $29,000-35,000 (archive of 22 folders, plus trial questionnaire and signed map)

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6. Famous Persons

6-1. Superman. view image Authentic, rare signature “Sincerely, George Reeves,” the original television “Superman,” who made his screen debut in Gone With the Wind. In thick Waterman-blue ink. Mounted on chipboard. Soft vertical crease just touching “S” of “Sincerely” and “G” of “George”; grey ply showing at blank corner, easily matted, else very dark, bold and fine. With old magazine photo showing him as “Superman,” twisting a dumbbell into a pretzel. Provenance: our Auction, 1983. $1100-1400 (2 pcs.)

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6-2. Einstein Anticipates the Holocaust. view image T.L.S. of A(lbert) Einstein, with eloquent Judaica content, evidently forseeing the perilous future. On his blind-embossed Princeton letterhead, June 14, 1939. 1 p., 8-1/4 x 11. To Berthold Ehrenberg, 150 William St., N.Y. In full: “May I offer my sincere congratulations to you on the splendid work you have undertaken on behalf of the refugees during Dedication Week. The power of resistance which has enabled the Jewish people to survive for thousands of years has been based to a large extent on traditions of mutual helpfulness. In these years of affliction our readiness to help one another is being put to an especially severe test. May we stand this test as well as did our fathers before us. We have no other means of self-defense than our solidarity and our knowledge that the cause for which we are suffering is a momentous and sacred cause. It must be a source of deep gratification to you to be making so important a contribution toward rescuing our persecuted fellow-Jews from their calamitous peril and leading them toward a better future.” “Dedication Week” was an effort to raise awareness of the need for rescuing Jews. A cosmetically imperfect example, with waterstains, especially in largely blank margins, quarter-size smudge of soot at top blank (rescued from a house fire!), four old glassine hinges and magazine clipping of Einstein photo superimposed on his famous Aug. 1939 letter to F.D.R. mounted on verso, creases at blank upper left corner, less so at two others, but in all, still displayable and satisfactory. • With original envelope, torn where opened, touching “A. Einstein” at top of blindembossed cornercard, black singe on verso at edge, wrinkles, but satisfactory. One of (at least) four surviving such letters, each to a different addressee, and sent at different times in 1939, with the same or closely similar text. Another, sans envelope, sold at Christie’s Sale 2488, Nov. 2011, for $7500.00. Request color copy. $2950-3750 (2 pcs.)

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6-3. The Edison Empire Continues. Attractive check signed by Charles Edison, son of Thomas, Gov. of N.J., Sec. of Navy, and Pres. of Edison Records. Signed as Pres.-V.P. of Edison Botanic Research Corp., W. Orange, N.J., 1929. Payable to fire engine manufacturer American-LaFrance & Foamite Corp., Elmira. Pale apple green security design. Edison’s bookkeeper has taken a 2% discount, or 48¢. An interesting variety of rubber stamps, punch cancels (none touching signature), and machine stamps: the check was deposited at Elmira, but re-endorsed by American-LaFrance’s bank to Philadelphia National Bank. Additionally, the amount has been crossed out, and rewritten in pencil. The sum suggests that Edison purchased fire extinguishers for the office or laboratory. Fine, and doubly suited as a conversation piece for its forest of markings. $90-120

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6-4. The Last of the Romanovs. Original albumen photograph of Czar Nicholas II in a field ceremony with about a dozen Russian officers, in dress uniforms with sashes, regalia, and swords. Small wooden table on the grass, adorned with flowers, as one soldier salutes. 5-1/4 x 7-1/4, olive-sepia, judged c. 1895-1900. On original rigid strawboard mount, no imprint or identification. Immensely influential, in a span of nineteen years Nicholas’ fortunes fell from the greatest of heights. His peace proposals led to founding of the Hague Tribunal; he presided over the Trans-Siberian Railroad and Sino-Japanese War. His policies met with discontent, triggering the Russian Revolution. His entire family was executed, ending the Romanov line. Mount trimmed, possibly reducing right and left fractionally; superficial scratches, one short tear at top, else very satisfactory. Intriguing and suitable for display. $50-75

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6-5. King of Billiards. Superb color photo inscribed by billiards champion, “...Very best wishes, From Willie Mosconi.” 8 x 10. In black marker. Additional photographic signature below. Dynamic pose, showing Mosconi in brilliant blue jacket, aiming at white ball looming in foreground. Trivial postal wear at lower edge, else excellent. $45-65

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6-6. First Republican Candidate for President. A.L.S. of explorer, Presidential candidate, and Union General John C. Frémont, “The Marlborough,” Apr. 15 (1888), 5 x 8. To Miss Connor. “I am glad to know that we can contribute to your pleasure by so small a thing as an autograph and enclose you Mrs. Frémont’s [not present] and mine.” Mapping the Oregon Trail and leading expeditions into the Old West, Frémont was key in conquering California during the Mexican War. Appointed Civil Gov. of the Golden Gate state, he refused to obey orders, was arrested for mutiny, and court martialed. One of the first two Senators from Calif. at the inception of the Gold Rush, Frémont became the first Presidential candidate of the new Republican Party, in 1856. His harshness in commanding the Depts. of the West and Mountain Dept. in Virginia led to his resignation. Losing a fortune in railroads, he was “saved from dire poverty by wife’s writings, by appointment as Gov. of Territory of Arizona, and by restoration of rank as Maj. Gen...”-- Webster’s. Seven old short tape remnants on verso, discoloration on front but not affecting text or signature, original mailing folds, else about very good, and a charming example of the controversial, fascinating – and tragic figure. $425-625

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6-7. Son of Lincoln. Large ivory card with boldly penned note, “Madam - I regret that is impossible to comply with your request. Very truly yours, Robert T. Lincoln.” Believed to autograph collector Miss Connor. 3-1/2 x 4-1/2. Lincoln served as a young Capt. on Grant’s staff in last months of Civil War, later Secretary of War, and Pres. of Pullman Co. An autographically interesting example, with nearly inkless first stroke of initial “M,” some offset from his blotter, and fine spatter from his pen at blank lower portion. Six old hinges on verso, very light toning, else about fine. $90-120

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6-8. Son of Grant. view image Two examples, both believed to Miss Connor: Message on mourning card with wide black border, “Miss Connor: I regret that I am unable to send you the autograph of my father as requested in your letter of the 1st inst. Resp(ectful)ly, F.D. Grant.” 3-1/2 x 4-1/4. Likely penned c. 1886- 90. Two hinge stains on verso, trivial taps at two tips, else very fine. • Signature on oversize ivory card. Toning and staining at four corners from tape on verso, else very good. $75-100 (2 pcs.)

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6-9. Merry Christmas from Medal of Honor Recipient O.O. Howard. O.O. H(oward) greeting in his hand, “Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! O.O.H. / Governor’s Island &c., Dec. 28, 1892.” 5 x 6-3/4. Penned as Commander of Dept. of the East, in New York Harbor. From Miss Connor’s collection. Mousechew at one margin and corner not affecting text, browned but pleasing and very satisfactory. $110-140

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6-10. Lincoln’s Vice President on Christmas Day 1890. Signature of Hannibal Hamlin, “Bangor, Me., Dec. 25, 1890,” on ivory card. From Miss Connor’s collection. Few fingerprints, toning, and dust soiling, but very satisfactory, and a nice date. Hamlin must have been one of Miss Connor’s favorites. $60-80

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6-11. Old Autograph Collection. Collection of autographs formed by Miss Connor, 1886-92, most on ivory cards. Most with intertwined stories, forming a fascinating tapestry of the second half of the nineteenth century. Including: T(homas) F. Bayard, anti-Lincoln Peace Democrat, officer in a pro-Southern Delaware military unit, Sen., Secretary of State, 1876 Presidential candidate, member of commission deciding 1876 election, first U.S. Ambassador to Britain. • “James G. Blaine, 21 Nov./(18)88,” on charming card imprinted “Thursday” with gold-engraved simulated pin. One of the nineteenth century’s most important politicians, variously dubbed the “Magnetic Man” and “Plumed Knight” for his oratorical skills, Blaine nearly bested Cleveland in the 1884 Presidential election. • Benj. F. Butler, “Mass., Jan. 31, 1891,” in a shaky but bold hand. 3-1/2 x 4-1/2. Fingerprint at blank top edge, light handling evidence, else fine. A complex figure, both Southern-sympathizing and controversial, as a Union General Butler sheltered fugitive slaves within his lines; co-authored the 1875 Civil Rights Act, giving blacks the right to public accommodations. • J(ohn) G. Carlisle, Speaker of House, Treasury Sec. during Panic of 1893. Terminating coinage of silver, “the once remarkably popular Carlisle was so disliked due to his stewardship of the currency that he was forced to leave the stage in the middle of a speech in his home town of Covington due to a barrage of rotten eggs.”--wikipedia. • Roscoe Conkling. The last person in American history to decline a Supreme Court appointment - after being confirmed by the Senate. Advocate of third term for Pres. Grant. Conkling’s popularity was such that a rash of baby boys were named for him - including Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. • Wm. Endicott, “Secy. of War,” 1886, on card with large “War Office” seal printed in blue-grey. • Cabinet photo of Endicott (unsigned). Somewhat light, one eye retouched, but charming patina complementing pale yellow mount imprinted in dark pink, “Falk, 949 Broadway, N.Y.” • W(illiam) B. Hazen, Maj. Gen. On lined slip. Noted for his defense of Hell’s Half Acre, at the 1862 Battle of Stones River; a period monument at the site is believed the oldest monument on a Civil War battlefield. A childhood friend of Garfield, Hazen was postwar commander of a Buffalo Soldier regiment. Feuded with Custer, critic of Sec. of War Robert Lincoln. Scarce. • Daniel S. Lamont, Washington, 1886, on card “Wednesday” with gold-engraved pin. Sec. of War, advocating central Army archives and marking of Civil War battlefields. • F.H. Luce, close of letter. Washington State politician. Creased at sides, signature very good. • J(eremiah) M. Rusk, Wis. Commanded during Battle of Atlanta, wounded at Salkehatchie River; postwar Gov. of Wis., his orders to shoot to kill during May Day labor strike misinterpreted, leading to tragedy; Sec. of Agriculture. • R.S. Seger, Detroit. Oversize signature. • Wm. Vilas. Smudged by his hand. Civil War officer, 23rd Wis.; postwar Postmaster Gen., Sec. of Interior; led German-American protests against law requiring schools to use only English language. • Geo. L. Yaple, Mendon (Mich.). Over the years, a candidate of Greenback, Fusion, Democratic, and Republican Parties, mostly for Congress. • Ladies envelope, unused, to “Mr. Thomas Russell”; some spilled ink. Most with old mounting hinge remnants on verso, light handling by this nineteenth-century collector, else good plus to fine. $250-325 (15 pcs.)

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7. Civil War

Seventeen years later,
Joshua Chamberlain writes the dishonored Fitz-John Porter,
“I believe you will have your full vindication yet”

7-1. Splendid A.L.S. of celebrated Union Brig. view image Gen. Joshua Chamberlain. Medal of Honor recipient for Little Round Top at Gettysburg. Wounded so grievously before Petersburg that his death was actually reported in some newspapers, Chamberlain not only recovered, but continued to defy danger. While commanding Union troops at the procession of Lee’s infantry surrendering at Appomattox, Chamberlain initiated one of the most dramatic scenes of the Civil War, by ordering his men to come to attention, out of respect for the capitulating Confederacy.

As Pres. of Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, June 5, 1880, 5-1/4 x 8-1/4, 1-1/2 pp. With full signature, plus postscript signed with initials. An important letter, attempting to help reverse a miscarriage of justice. To his controversial colleague Gen. F.J. Porter, subject of the Porter Case, cashiered from service in 1863 “for disobedience, disloyalty, and misconduct in the face of the enemy” at 2nd Bull Run. It took fifteen years for a board to reexamine the evidence; in 1882, the original sentence was reversed by Pres. Arthur. Finally, in 1886, Porter was reappointed, but without back pay; he resigned two days later – the “battle over the battle” having gone on for some 23 years.

Chamberlain writes: “My dear General, I sign & send to Genl. Gilman Marston of Exeter, N.H. the petition already signed by Genls. Slocum & Smith. There is no one immediately within my reach whom I can ask to sign, & have it done in season for the meeting of the A. of P. I will however try to get Genl. Francis Fessenden of Portland to sign a paper like it, though he was not in our army. I heard only one expression, & that highly favorable & sympathetic towards you, at my recent meeting with many officers of the Old Army at Philadelphia. [P.S.:] I thank you for various papers, Reports & Speeches, &c. I believe you will have your full vindication yet. J.L.C.”

Chamberlain never wilted from difficult situations: Five months earlier, in Jan. 1880, he physically wrested control of the Maine State House, occupied by armed citizens protesting the gubernatorial election. Braving threats against his life, Chamberlain’s conduct so impressed both sides that he was offered appointment as U.S. Senator. Penned in mid-brown on blue-lined pale ivory lettersheet. Blind-embossed stationer’s wreath crest. Tiny rectangular fragment of old tan paper mounting hinge at blank upper left top, original quarter folds, minor smudge at lower right, else fine. The Civil War Dictionary notes, “...The Schofield Board (1887) concluded after a year’s investigation that Porter was relieved, tried, and professionally ruined for failure to obey an impossible order. The board stated that Porter’s attack order...‘was based...upon expectations which could not possibly be realized’...The board...commended him for not needlessly sacrificing his own troops (in order to protect his own reputation). As for Steele’s accusation that Porter ‘...ought not to have stood idle with 10,000 men during the whole afternoon, while a battle was raging close at his right hand,’ the board reported: ‘The display of troops made by Porter earlier in the afternoon had...all possible beneficial effect....’” Provenance: Charles Hamilton’s Waldorf-Astoria sales, 1970s. $3000-5000

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7-2. The Famous Porter Case. Significant printed Union General Orders, War Dept., Washington, Jan. 22, 1863, 4-1/2 x 7, 8 pp., signed in ink by A.A.G. E.D. Townsend. Chronicling the court martial of Maj. Gen. Fitz- John Porter, detailing multiple charges of disobeying orders at Manassas, Va., allowing one of his brigades to march out of the field of battle. “...Porter did then and there shamelessly disobey, and did retreat from advancing forces of the enemy without any attempt to engage them...Within sound of the guns and in the presence of the enemy, and knowing that a severe action of great consequence was being fought...did fail all day to bring it on to the field...and leave to the disasters of a presumed defeat the said army....” Porter was cashiered and “forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit under the Government of the U.S.” At conclusion is Abraham Lincoln’s signature in type, approving Porter’s dismissal. Irregular margin where disbound with some characteristic chipping around sewing, affecting no text, old historical pencil notation at top, uniform edge toning, else about fine. Fighting a battle longer than all of America’s wars combined up to that time, Porter was finally restored to his rank in -- 1886. $175-225

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7-3. Farewell to the Army of Georgia: Words to Carry through the Years. Emotional, timeless, and important Union General Orders, in unusual manuscript form, boldly signed by Bvt. Brig. Gen. Commanding Wm. Cogswell, whose role in the Civil War was uniquely historic: “On Apr. 19, 1861, word reached Salem (Mass.) that the 6th Mass. had been attacked in Baltimore while on its way to defend Washington. Cogswell turned his (law) office into a recruiting station and in twenty-fours hours raised a full company, the first company in the country recruited for the war. This became Co. C of the 2nd Mass. Volunteers, with Cogswell as Captain in command”--wikipedia. In a historical long shot of the most remote order of probability, Cogswell also fought in the last battle of the Civil War, to which he refers in this document: “Head Quarters, 3rd Brigade, 3d Div., 20(th) A(rmy) C(orps), Near Washington, D.C.,” June 9, 1865, 7-3/4 x 12, 11/3 pp. A dramatic farewell message to his men in the Army of Georgia, in the aftermath of their March to the Sea with Sherman: “In a few days your organization will be broken up. Some of you will go to your home, and the civil pursuit of life, while others remain for still further duty in the West. Your noble record, the history of the deeds of valor you have performed, and of the part you have taken in this ‘War of the great Rebellion’ now so gloriously ended, have preceded you to your homes, while the West knows them already by heart. Although I have been with you but six short months, yet, by your valor, by your patience, by your fortitude, and by your courtesies I have learned to love and respect you, and I shall part with you with sorrow and regret. No part of my military life has been so pleasant as that which links its history with yours. From the earliest of battle fields to the last grand blow at Bentonville [N.C.], your blood has stained, Alas! too many a sod. Quick, soldierly in camp, patient, willing and obedient on the march, brave in battle, with never an inch of ground lost, participating to an unusual extent and with unsurpassed valor in the last battle of the War – March 19, 1865 – your record will be remembered wherever the ‘battles of the Potomac’ are known or the ‘Campaign of Sherman’ read. That the pleasures and comforts of home may attend you, that additional honor and laurels may await you...that an Almighty and good God may forever lead you in ways of pleasantries and paths of peace, that industry and virtue may crown you with their rewards, that all that good brave men deserve may be yours, that those who remain may shortly be sent to home and friends, and that the blessings of a kind heaven may always be with you wherever you go, is the last best wish of your Brigade Commander.” Though several battles are anointed the “last” of the Civil War, it may be said that Bentonville was the last “major” battle, as opposed to a skirmish, in which the Confederates were able to mount a tactical offensive. Harper’s Weekly published a view of the Union artillery at Bentonville on Mar. 19 (modern copy accompanies). Lower half of left margin somewhat tattered, affecting only one word, edge wear at upper right half, some toning, but very good, and superb for display. Cogswell’s eloquence, notwithstanding his relative obscurity, rivals the farewell words of the great messages of military history. $950-1350

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7-4. In Magnificent Original Colors – with Ellsworth Association. Oversize sheet music with original hand-watercoloring in (at least) nine colors, presciently depicting “United States Zouave Cadets.” With riveting mezzotint scene of four soldiers in teal-blue and Bordeaux-red trousers, as additional Zouaves drill in background. Accents in rose, golden yellow, blue-black, green, grey, brown, and tan. Ornamental initial caps, with floral sprays. 1860, published by Root & Cady, lithographed by Edw. Mendel, both Chicago. 10-1/4 x 13-1/2, 7 pp. Elmer Ellsworth “was famous before the war for organizing the Chicago Zouaves and staging spectacular drill exhibitions throughout the country. In Aug. 1860 he had performed on the White House lawn. He accompanied Lincoln to Washington for the inauguration...Largely responsible for the wide spread of the Zouave motif among American militia units was Elmer Ellsworth”--Boatner. Subtitled inside, “Seventh Edition, Zouave Cadets Quickstep - Dedicated to the U.S. Zouave Cadets, Governors Guard of Illinois, by A.J. Vaas, Conductor of the Light Guard Band” (the same band which performed the “Col. Ellsworth Requiem March” listed next). Light handling evidence at lower portion of cover, else colors elegantly muted with a velvety texture, internally clean, and generally very fine. A superb item. Very rare. No listings on abebook. None located on WorldCat. 300-400

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7-5. “Col. Ellsworth Requiem March.” Strikingly dramatic oversize sheet music, with mezzotint cover graphics in black and sand. “Col. Ellsworth Requiem March,” by A.J. Vaas, published by Root & Cady, Chicago. “To the Memory of Col. E.E. Ellsworth, who fell at Alexandria, Va., May 24, 1861 / As performed by the Light Guard Band at the Ellsworth Obsequies, Bryan Hall, Chicago, June 2, 1861.” 10 x 13-3/4, 7 pp. Portrait of the Union martyr in oval bedecked in flowers, flanked by flags, eagle above, with scene of his death and funeral below. Almost certainly issued immediately following the June 2 service, to capture public attention at its zenith. Next to Fort Sumter, Ellsworth’s fall did more to inflame Union sentiment than perhaps any other event of those early weeks. Cover detached, with edge toning, unobjectionable foxing, minor edge tear; balance very fine. Suitable for display. Very rare. No listings on abebook. None located on WorldCat. $325-425

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7-6. With Superb Black Graphics. view image Exceptional, iconic Civil War sheet music satirizing blacks, with detailed scene of five hapless freedmen in Union uniforms. The long bayonet of one nearly severs the feather on another’s cap, while one obliviously plays a drum. “Raw Recruits, or Abraham’s Daughter, As sung with great applause by Bryant’s Minstrels of New York.” Published by Firth, Pond & Co., N.Y., 1862. Mezzotint cover, 10 x 13-1/2, 5 pp. Attributed to Septimus Winner--Biographical Dictionary of American Music, Charles Eugene Claghorn, p. 480. “...I belong to the Fire Zou Zous, and don’t you think I oughter, We’re goin’ down to Washington, To fight for Abraham’s daughter...But let us lay all jokes aside, It is a sorry question, The man who would these States divide, Should hang for his suggestion....” Irregular left margin, apparently mousechewn, not affecting text, and mattable, light ivory patina, one short edge tear at bottom, else about fine. No listings on abebook. Six located on WorldCat. An example in Swann’s African-American Sale 2271 realized 900.00. $450-650

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7-7. Breveted for the Surrender of Robert E. Lee. T.L.S. of Union Gen. Ellis Spear, Chamberlain’s right-hand man at Gettysburg’s Little Round Top. Spear’s signature with holograph endorsement, “formerly Col. 20th Maine Inf. Vols., Brvt. Brig. Gen. U.S. Vols.,” the latter promotion on Apr. 9, 1865, upon the surrender of R.E. Lee: Spear witnessed the meeting of Grant and Lee at Appomattox. From Washington, Apr. 21, 1913, 5 x 8. To a Troy, N.Y. autograph seeker. “...I take pleasure in complying with your request. I have no letters of Genl. Saml. P. Spear and know of no one who has.” Paper clip marks at blank top, fingerprint toning at bottom, else about fine. Nice inscription. Ex-Charles Hamilton. $90-120

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7-8. Technology in the Civil War. Civil War-date A.L.S. of prominent New Jersey engineer Ashbel Welch, associate of steamship designer John Ericsson, Washington, June 27, 1862, 5 x 7-1/2. To A.L. Holley, “the undisputed technical leader of the (American) steel industry--Regulating Railroad Innovation..., Usselman, p. 218. “Mr. Stevens has recd. your favor of the 25th. He requests me to write, and asks you to get the models and papers ready, submit the papers to Mr. Gifford, and then come on here with them as soon as you can.” Holley had gone to Europe to get ordnance information for Edwin A. Stevens, working on a floating gun battery. Writer Welch was Chief Engineer of the Delaware & Raritan Canal; threading its way through New Jersey, the canal, which he constructed over a quarter century, became “the essential link” (--nynjctbotany.org) between the densely populated Northeast and the battlefields of Virginia. By the end of the war, Welch’s canal carried more freight than the Erie Canal. His 1865 rail design was adopted by nearly all railroads on the East coast. Welch assisted Ericsson - builder of the Union ironclad Monitor - with design of the steamship Princeton. Cockling from old mount, eight bits of album paper on verso, else darkly penned and about fine. Very scarce. Significant coalescence of these foremost engineers; the role of technological innovation during the Civil War has been overshadowed by the lore of the battlefield. With modern research. $150-200

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7-9. “Charles R. Lowell Shot a Man yesterday, Oh dear.” Civil War homefront manuscript journal of a woman living with “Lucy” and “Anna,” vicinity of Lynn, Mass., Jan.-Sept. 1863. With slip pinned to front cover, “Wm. R. Swift, Co. F, 23rd (Mass.) Regt...,” a sailor turned soldier, wounded at Whitehall, N.C. just before Christmas 1862, his right arm amputated. He was discharged at Boston, Aug. 1863. 6-3/4 x 8-1/4, (32) pp., pale green paper wrappers, unusual wavy blind-embossed Boston stationer’s marque. In a backdrop of the bloodshed and the Draft Riots, her calm, near-daily entries consistently include “Read in the bible,” together with “Visits received & made Visits” (“to tea” and “to dine,” pears a recurring popular gift), weather, and activities. (Jan.:) “A Note & Pears to Mr. Frothingham & Mr. E. Everett. Receiv’d a Note from Ed Everett...Some Man came to Mr. Marquand’s at 6 o’clock in the morning knocking & whistling...Letter from Mrs. Perkins - Trouble...(Feb.:) Great Snow...Went to Anna Nichols’ wedding - Splendid...Ed. H. Adams return’d yesterday...Marianna gone to Lynn, Sewing Machine Present...Ellen Gahlahan brought some Eggs...Chimney burnt. Lucy went to an Opera...Birth Day - A dismal day this, Oh dear!...(Mar.:) First Oranges...A beautiful flock of Birds came on one of Mr. Nichol’s trees yesterday... Had a pane of glass set in the Kitchen...(Apr.:) All 3 of us went to Meeting...Small cat... Charles R. Lowell shot a Man yesterday, Oh Dear...Oleander fell down, broke the Pot...Mr. Dall has left his family for good...(May:) “David to dine, A Soldgier to bring something...A young Gentleman moved into Abba Brown’s house, Louiza Stanwood going home...A strange bird on the shed...Dr. Oliver, Abba Brown’s Gent...Mrs. Marquand brought us some Ice Cream...I have been thinking of Rebecca all day...David gone to the War’s [sic]...(June:) 44th Regiment came home...First strawberries, very nice...(July 4th:) Went to hear the Musick. Anna & I to hear the Oration...Anna & Mrs. Harris to see the Fire Works... Daizy laid an Egg...(July 13:) Riot in New York...Riot in Boston...Lucy found a little Bird...Caught a mouse down Cellar...Anna dream’d last night that David with a Company of Soldgiers was in our yard...Daizy laid her 4th Egg...Put Dicky & Daizy together...(Sept.:) Anna & I went to the Anniversary of the Asylum... Walked in the Publick Garden....” Faithful recording of first fruits and vegetables of the season, including gooseberries, whortleberries, “bleuberries,” and more. The Charles R. Lowell (Jr.) may be the “agent of Massachusetts in Washington,” the man with the singular job of coordinating supplies for the Bay State. Appointed Capt., Lowell returned to combat in the month of this diary entry. His cavalry included the only organized group of Californians fighting for the North – in the East. On the very day in Oct. 1864 on which he was appointed Brig. Gen. by Lincoln, he was mortally wounded at Cedar Creek. The news was told to the Gov. of Mass. by ... Gen. George Custer. “...It was pleasant to listen to the words of praise which Gen. Custer bestowed upon his fallen comrade” (modern copies accompany). Lowell is extensively chronicled in The Guns of Cedar Creek (Lewis, 1988) and other works. Some cover wear and soiling, internally fine and clean, penned in a clear hand. A depiction of the pace of life in New England, notwithstanding the ironies of the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil raging beyond. $175-250

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7-10. “Another Glorious Victory.” Union homefront note, from J. Fitzjohn(?), n.p., Nov. 20, 1861, 7-3/4 x 9-3/4, 1 p. To “Dr. Morris, A.C. Home.” In full: “Carrie is better this morning. Free from headache. Another glorious victory reported in Kentucky. Slidell & Mason taken from on board a British vessel and now in Fortress Monroe.” Half-moon fragment lacking at blank upper left where opened at red wax seal, else about fine. A contemporary reference to the Trent Affair, in which a Union warship stopped the British mail steamer, capturing Confederate diplomats James Mason, who in 1850 had drafted the Fugitive Slave Act, and John Slidell. The episode nearly started another war between the U.S. and Great Britain, and elicited English sympathy for the South, enduring til 1865 (and beyond). $120-160

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7-11. Dated before and during Battle of Gettysburg. Two printed Union General Orders: War Dept., Washington, June 29, 1863, 4-1/2 x 7, 1 p. Concerning the shortage of Brigadier Generals, as the coming storm center intensified: “The number of Brigadier Generals being limited by law, the urgent necessity for officers of that grade in the field requires that all, except those wounded in battle, whose health is so infirm as to have kept them from active duty more than thirty days, should be mustered out, and their places filled by others physically capable of service....” Minor edge tears and chips, light edge toning, else very good. • War Dept., Washington, July 3, 1863, 4-1/4 x 7, 1-1/4 pp. With detailed procedures for exchange, release, and parole of Confederate prisoners of war, the urgency certainly exacerbated by the epic battle still raging while this ink was still wet. “...It is understood that captured officers and men have been paroled and released in the field by others than commanders of opposing armies, and that the sick and wounded in hospitals have been so paroled and released, in order to avoid guarding and removing them, which in many cases would have been impossible. Such paroles are in violation of General Orders...They are not regarded by the enemy, and will not be respected in the armies of the U.S...It is the duty of the captor to guard his prisoners...A prisoner of war actually held by the enemy may, in order to obtain exemption from a close guard or confinement, pledge his parole of honor that he will make no attempt to escape. Such pledges are binding upon the individuals giving them; but they should seldom be given or received, for it is the duty of a prisoner to escape if able to do so....” Both signed in type by A.A.G. E.D. Townsend. One-inch tear at right margin into one word but no loss of text, edge toning, else fine. In all, over 5,000 Confederate prisoners were taken at Gettysburg. Some historians came to view it as the turning point of the war. $120-160 (2 pcs.)

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7-12. “The expected movements” presaging the March to the Sea. Manuscript Union Special Orders with significant content, setting the stage for Sherman’s March to the Sea. “Hd. Qrs. 17th A.C., near Atlanta, Ga.,” Oct. 3, 1864, 1 p. of blue-lined lettersheet, 7-3/4 x 9-3/4. In hand of A.A. Gen. Rowland Cox (originally of the 15th Penna. Cavalry), by command of Brig. Gen. T.E.G. Ransom. Also signed by A.A.A. Gen. A.J. Kinsloe. “...Division Commanders will direct that all wedge tents and other surplus baggage be at once sent to Atlanta to be stored in a building to be designated by Lt. Col. E.M. Joel, Chief Q.M., 17th A.C. A competent Officer with a suitable Guard will be furnished by Division Commanders to take charge of the baggage...Attention...is called to the necessity in using the greatest activity in preparing their commands for the expected movements.” Boatner writes, “It is still difficult to discuss unemotionally the morality of Sherman’s devastation...By Nov. 1, Sherman...had assembled supplies in Atlant a.” Thus began one of the most sobering chapters in American history, the March to the Sea. Light chipping at folds, toning at two folds and edges, else very good. With brief modern copy of scribe Cox’s and Joel’s service records, the latter from Missouri via Scotland. $140-180

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7-13. An Abolitionist Prepares for War. Oversize antebellum Pennsylvania commission of noted officer – and future organizer of black troops – James S. Brisbin of Centre County, here appointed Div. Q.M. and Major in 14th Div., “composed of the Uniformed Militia, of the Counties of Juniata, Mifflin, Centre, Huntingdon and Clearfield.” Harrisburg, Aug. 17, 1859. 14-3/4 x 18-3/4, elaborate letterpress masthead, “In the Name of the Authority of the Commonwealth of Penna., William F. Packer, Gov...,” with woodcut. Signed by Sec. of Commonwealth. Brilliant yellow wafer seal. Original folds, four old corner pinholes, trivial edge toning, else very good and suitable for display. Joining his unit already at Manassas, Brisbin was wounded in his first battle, then a second time in the retreat - by one of his own men. “An earnest and early advocate of the employment of colored troops...,” he commanded black cavalry, ultimately reaching the rank of Brig. Gen, “a brave and efficient officer...”--Contemporary Biography of Pennsylvania, 1898, p. 126. Recruiting over 9,600 black troops in Kentucky, “in Jan. 1865, Brisbin began a stepped-up recruiting program of sending his soldiers into slave houses, dragging them out of bed, and forcing them to enlist. ‘If left alone (I) will kill slavery in Kentucky,’ he declared.” --Kentucky Rising: Democracy, Slavery, and Culture..., Ramage and Watkins. Modern research accompanies. $90-130

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7-14. “Massa was de Kernel in de rebel army....” Eight-page compilation of “The Grand Army Camp-Fire Extra, consisting of old Familiar War Songs,” n.d. but probably c. 1880’s, 6 x 9, unopened at top. Apparently printed by Root & Sons Music Co., Chicago. With words to “Marching through Georgia,” “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,” “When Johnny Comes Marching Home (Again),” “Kingdom Coming,” “Babylon is Fallen,” etc., the latter two with lyrics in black dialect: “Say, darkies, hab you seen old massa, Wid de muffstash on his face...I s’pose dey’ll all be confiscated When de Linkum soldiers come...Nebber you be frightened, Dem is only darkies, Come to jine and fight for Uncle Sam...Massa was de Kernel in de rebel army....” Crease at upper right corner, some dust toning, else obviously a copy unsold at the time. Very good. $65-85

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7-15. Captured on Black Thursday. Carte photograph of Lt. Edwin J. McWain, 1st Vermont Heavy Artillery, who quite against his will was witness to a dark day in Civil War history. Identified in ink on verso in contemporary hand (perhaps his). Brattleboro imprint, likely taken when a recruiter in Vermont before being sent south. In an old three-ring binder, with photocopies of his records from archives, comprising 19 sheets in all. Recounting the service of this young farmer from Ripton, Vt., captured at Petersburg on Black Thursday, June 23, 1864, confined at Richmond, sent to Macon, then furloughed for impairment of health suffered as prisoner-of-war. Pleasing uniform caramel toning, gold double border, and very fine. “The worst moment and greatest sacrifice for Vermont was the disaster that befell the proud Vermont Brigade of the Army of the Potomac on June 23, 1864 - forever ‘Black Thursday’ in the Green Mountain State. Cowardliness, negligence and inept behavior by multiple officers resulted in the needles s capture of more than 400 Vermonters by the Confederates at the Petersburg & Weldon Railroad...Virginia. The enlisted men were sent to Andersonville and later to other Confederate prisons where 60 percent of them perished. Many of the survivors came home mere wrecks of men...”--A Melancholy Affair..., David Faris Cross, 2003. $110-140

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7-16. “I often think of those old days....” Moving postwar A.L.S. of an aide to Union Gen. Horatio Wright, J.W. Dixon, with his recollections. From Flushing, N.Y., Apr. 6, 1894, 4 full pp., 4-3/4 x 8. To Wright’s daughter, “Mrs. Smith.” “I received this morning the copy of the Washington Post, containing... presentation of the Resolutions by the Associated Survivors of the Sixth Corps, to Gen. Wright...I like to keep everything published about your honored Father. I am glad to see that you are ‘The Daughter of the Corps.’ I am sure no more patriotic lady could grace the position. I received a kind letter from the General last month in reply to one I wrote him on his birthday. When I last saw him, in 1892, he had changed but little in all those years, and I was amazed last Summer to see how little your dear Mother was changed. I, myself, have grown old and am as bald as the proverbial egg. Today is the anniversary of the battle of Sailor’s Creek, fought and won by two divisions of the Sixth Corps. Little is ever heard of that battle because it came so near the Surrender, but it was hotly contested. I remember that a big, tall Reb, dazed by a wound in the head, came staggering up against the General’s horse which goes to show how the troops there were intermingled and how desperate the enemy was, although surrounded. I often think of those old days and although I only saw the last campaign of the war, I am very proud of my Sixth Corps Headquarters badge. In other words, I am proud of having been Gen. Wright’s Aide. I hope, sometime, we may meet again. Kindly give my compliments and respects to the General...Frankie and the family of nine join me in this. Your old friend....” Minor fold wear, pleasing uniform warm cream toning, else fine. From the Papers of Horatio Wright. $150-200

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7-17. History Repeated.... Printed Union General Order, Navy Dept., Nov. 21, 1863, 5-1/2 x 8-1/2, 2 pp., signed in type by Gideon Welles. Describing the capture of two steamers in the Potomac Flotilla by “parties of armed rebels in boats, the vessels taken possession of with little or no resistance, and the officers and crews carried as prisoners to Richmond...This occurrence is made the more discreditable and remarkable by the fact that the Commander and other officers...received repeated warnings, for a month previously, that the rebels were preparing to attack gunboats in the Rappahannock River....” Dismissing two officers for gross dereliction. “Constituted as the Navy now is - with numerous officers possessing energy, patriotism, and intelligence, but deficient in naval experience - the Dept. regards it as a duty imperatively incumbent on the Commanders of Squadrons to make themselves acquainted with the capability of all officers....” Ivory toning, moderate handling soiling, else about very good. $45-65

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7-18. Pennsylvania Military Documents. Attractive group of partly printed documents of Pennsylvania soldiers, all with vignettes and ornamental type: Discharge of Pvt. Thomas P. Montgomery of Harrisburg, Capt. Jno. Bell’s Co., 77th Penna. Infantry, “Dark complexion...Dark hair, and by occupation... a Clerk.” Issued at Nashville, July 14, 1865. Signed by Surgeon in Charge B. Chase, Cumberland Hospital. Curious and not unattractive uniform speckling of somewhat unusual thick, calendared paper, certainly appropriated from Confederate inventory. • Appointment of John H. Young as 2nd Sgt., 130th Penna. Vols., Harrisburg, May 20, 1863. Engraved on parchment, 93/4 x 15. Signed by Col. Levi Marsh. Toned, many small insect spots, wear but satisfactory. • Pension certification to Young, 1912. 8 x 11. “1920” in pencil. Finely steel-engraved. Brown staining, probably mucilage from album mount, else about fine. • Trio of ornately steel-engraved certificates issued by Adjutant General’s Office, Harrisburg, 1912, attesting to service of Cpl. Hiram McGowan of Christiana, Lancaster County, in 2nd and 50th “Penna. Vol. Emergency Militia,” for 13 and 90 days in 1862 and 1863, and as Capt. in Capt. Bruce Lambert’s Independent Co., 1864. Large copper wafer seals. Some wrinkles, else very good. $55-75 (6 pcs.)

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7-19. President of Anti-Slavery Society. Hitchcockian carte photograph of abolitionist Wendell Phillips, showing the renowned reformer in cameo-like profile, his left shoulder to camera. In stylish jacket, the dark collar probably velvet. Oval background. No imprint. Mid-brown vertical abrasion, about 3/4”, touching head, perhaps from a clip on a document, tiny nick at blank top and right edges, very light uniform toning, else very satisfactory. $40-60

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8. Confederate

J.E.B. Stuart Promotes Himself
as “a gentleman of the finest moral deportment...”

8-1. From Stuart’s personal papers. view image Consecutively-dated pair of antebellum Autograph Letters Signed of J.E.B. Stuart, in third person, as a Union officer ambitiously seeking advancement to the Subsistence Department. Containing total of five signatures within text, in various usages, as transcribed below. • Together with a matching letter in hand of his recommending officer. Around this time, Stuart was regularly skirmishing with Indians, and riding the delicate line between anti- and pro-slavery guerrillas in Bleeding Kansas. These letters trace the meteoric rise of one of the stars of the South, whose life would be cut short at the age of 31.

Comprising:

– Stuart A.L.S. in third person, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Mar. 18, 1857, 7-3/4 x 9-3/4, 1 full p. A retained true copy penned entirely in Stuart’s hand, of the letter likely also composed by him, possibly intended for multiple recipients, here sent on his behalf by Geo. Deas, Maj. and Asst. Adjt. Gen. (later a Confederate Lt. Col.). “Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart of the 1st Regt. of Cavalry has informed me that he is to be an applicant for appointment in the Subsistence Department. Lieut. Stuart has been the Regimental Quartermaster since July 1855 and has by virtue of that office also done the duties of the Commissariat at Fort Leavenworth, I believe to the Satisfaction of every one. So far as my own observation extends since the Head Quarters of this Dept. have been at Fort Leavenworth, that is, since Aug. last, it gives me much pleasure to say that Lieut. Stuart has been in every respect a most attentive and industrious officer, and I have never heard any one say a word to the contrary. From the size of the garrison he must necessarily have had much to demand his attention, besides which he has been charged with the duties of Supply to the force in the interior, in the field, and at fixed Stations, which responsibilities have been fully met to the satisfaction of the General in command of the Department.” Attested at lower left as a true copy by Ch(a)s. Brewer, Asst. Surg(eon). Contemporary docketing in red, “3 / 226. S. (also) April 11, 1857.” The 1855 reference is to the creation of the 1st Cavalry at Fort Leavenworth. Gold-dollar-size ink drip, from Stuart’s pen, else very fine.

– Stuart A.L.S. in third person, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Mar. 19, 1857, 7-1/2 x 9-3/4, 1 full p. A retained true copy penned entirely in Stuart’s hand, of the letter evidently composed by him, and sent by T.P. Andrews, “Dept. Paym(aster) Genl., U.S. Army,” to Maj. Gen. Geo. Gibson, Commissary Gen. of Subsistence. “1st Lt. J.E.B. Stuart, Qr. Mr. 1st Cav. and Asst. Comdg. of this post informs me that he intends to apply for an appointment in your Dept., and asks me to state my knowledge of him, and my opinion of his fitness for such appointment which I take pleasure in doing. I have known Mr. Stuart, off and on, since his joining the Service in 1854, and have been with him at this post for some time, and at other locations in Service. He is well known to be a gentleman of the finest moral deportment, of fixed habits, zealous and energetic in the discharge of all duties, of fine business capacity and in short would be an accession in any Dept. of the Service, and do his full share to reflect credit on any branch of the Service in which he may be engaged.” Attested at lower left as a true copy by Ch(a)s. Brewer. Contemporary docketing in red, “2 / 226. S. (also) April 11, 1857.” Very fine.

– The same letter transcribed in the hand of T.P. Andrews. 7-3/4 x 9-3/4. On pastel blue lettersheet. Docketed “B,” possibly in Stuart’s hand, suggesting that Andrews supplied this letter to Stuart, to be presented personally. Excellent.

A tiny cache of Stuart letters from this era passed through our office in the 1970s. Other than those listed above, we have seen no others on the market since. $38,000-48,000 (3 pcs.)

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8-2. Unique Survivor. view image Poem, in pencil, on stationery deeply steel-engraved in red and midnight blue with 9 (or 10) star flag, encircled by “Confederate States of America / Aide toi Dieu T’aidera” - one of Joan of Arc’s famous quotations engraved on Robert E. Lee’s sword, “Aid yourself (and) God will aid you.” No date, but large “(18)63” watermark. Lined in blue. 5 x 8, 2 pp. Dietz J-A-2. The only reported example of this patriotic design on letterhead. Entitled, “Friend Shipp” (sic). “I know that you are a jealous maiden, Doubting love’s first golden dream, Fearing that within his golden Eden(?), Hearts are not just what they seem...Love is born in summer bowers, And too often favors a cheat, Nestles he among the flowers, Kissing those most fair and sweet...Little do you know how dearly, I now prize your sunny smile, And how trusting you sincerely, I believe you free from guile...May the stars shine bright above you, While you dream the night away....” Unsigned. Irregular thinning on verso of imprint area from insect, from about 3:30 to 6 o’clock, visible only when held to light; light wear at vertical fold, handling wrinkles and toning, three old hinge remnants at blank edges of p. 1 where mounted in an album, else good. Perhaps the only steel-engraved Confederate patriotic stationery we have seen; a mirror impression of the printing appears to its right, where sheet folded by the poet, indicating ink was not fully dry when sent. A lettersheet of formidable rarity; cited in The American Philatelist, Vol. 56, p. 28, 1942. $600-800

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8-3. Oversize Photograph of Stonewall Jackson’s Statue. Evidently excessively rare, unusualformat albumen photograph of Stonewall Jackson’s cemetery monument. 7-1/2 x 13, on original deepest purple-brown doublethick mount, beveled in gold, with printed descriptive label on verso: “...Statue erected by the Jackson Memorial Association of Lexington, Va. Funds...largely obtained by the ladies of Lexington and other admirers of Jackson. Designed by E.V. Valentine of Richmond (the redesigner of the recumbent figure of R.E. Lee)...Over a vault containing the bodies of Jackson, an infant daughter and his daughter Mrs. Christian (Julia Jackson). Height of statue 8 ft..., of pedestal 10 ft. 6 in. Unveiled 21st July 1891, the thirtieth anniversary of the first battle of Manassas, at which place and time Jackson received the soubriquet of ‘Stonewall.’” Quite lovely coffee-and-cream toning, a trifle lighter at lower portion of pedestal, some unobjectionable light sepia marbling at right base, both perhaps from photographer’s developing, some very minor wear along top ridges of bevel, not touching image, else about very good. No examples found on archivegrid.org or WorldCat. No specific citations on google. No appearances found at auction or on the market. $375-475

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8-4. Gold Coins in the Confederacy. Unusual form of Confederate document: two-sheet, partlyprinted “Tax on Naval Stores, Wines, &c., and Agricultural Products,” Richmond, Aug. 31, 1863, each sheet 9-3/4 x 12-1/2. Signed twice by Confederate Assessor W. Johnson, and twice by B.W. Richardson “for Richardson & Co.,” a charismatic Confederate (see research following), declaring “Gold coin on hand or on deposit, Amount 20, Value $160; Silver coin...Value $1670; Bank notes...$3747; Credits within Confederate States, $6000....” Taxed 1%, in this effort to raise funds “for the common defence and carry on the government of the Confederate States....” Also answers whether subject to taxation as “pawnbrokers...keepers of hotels, inns, taverns and eating houses...circuses, jugglers, bowling alleys, billiard tables...apothecaries, photographers, lawyers, physicians, surgeons and dentists... and confectioners.” Attesting that he has listed all “naval stores, salt, wine, spiritous liquors, manufactured and unmanufactured tobacco, cotton, wool, flour, sugar, molasses, syrup, rice....” Business letters from B.W. Richardson of Richmond appear in Records of Ante-Bellum Southern Plantations from the Revolution Through the Civil War: Virginia, compiled by University of North Carolina. A Maj. B.W. Richardson was among the Richmond V.I.P.s who marched with its Mayor, upon the postwar unveiling of the statue of Robert E. Lee and Traveller--Richmond: Her Past and Present, William Asbury Christian, 1912, p. 418. Another source records: “One of the most striking figures in the entire procession was Maj. B.W. Richardson, the venerable president of the Blues’ Association, who, though about four-score years, marches in every Confederate parade...A gallant member of the old Blues, he takes a deep interest in the affairs of the Richmond Light Infantry Blues...”--Southern Historical Society Papers, Vol. XVI, Richmond, 1888, “The Monument to Gen. Robert E. Lee,” p. 253. Modern copies of research accompany. Pleasant light patina due to high groundwood content of adversity paper, minor edge wear and toning, nibble at one blank edge, else about fine. Very scarce sub-type: Virginians declaring their assets at this point in the war seldom had gold. Suitable for display. $250-300 (2 sheets)

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8-5. The Case of the Confederate Prize Ship. Intriguing manuscript entitled, “Capture of Ship Marathon, May 1861,” apparently a draft legal statement of this noted episode - likely prepared during and for the Alabama Claims, c. 1885. In contemporary hand of ship’s trustee, the brother of the late Henry S. Tyler, one of the vessel’s owners, referring to having read testimony of ship’s captain. On lined pale blue lettersheet, 8 x 10-1/2, 3-1/2 pp. Some pen and pencil underlining; curious replacement of words “Confederate States” with “captors.” It took over twenty years, but in 1885 the Marathon’s original owners sued, in the Court known as Alabama Claims, for losses when their ship was captured on the high seas by the Confederate cruiser Music, and towed to New Orleans. “On arrival at New Orleans, Capt. Chauncey Tyler (one of the owners) made a simulate(d) sale or transfer to Anna Heaton, a British subject, for the purpose if possible of releasing his Ship from the Confederate States [crossed out and replaced with ‘Captors’]. The sale was not a bona fide transaction...done merely to prevent the condemnation as a prize of War, and for the purpose of misleading the Confederate Authorities, and obtain the escape of the vessel, and was not intended to divest the title of the real owners...and as the Ship’s Trustee(?) I continued to pay her bills & expenses, the same as before the pretended transfer...After the arrival of the Vessel at Liverpool in Aug. 1861 until she was sold in New York in Mar. 1862, she was a loss to the owners...and the complicated condition of the title was very embarrassing....” Listing owners of the ship, in sixteenth interests, including Chauncey, Horace, Christopher, and Selden Tyler, Richard Pratt, Wm. Palmer, Gideon Parker, Hezekiah Scovil, et al. In describing the members of his Tyler family, the writer continues, “There is no real difference...so any money received from Ship Marathon would go to the same parties...” In medium grey-blue ink, a somewhat difficult hand, but legible; moderate foxing, handling, and edge wear, but good plus, and fascinating artifact of this saga, just weeks after Fort Sumter. The legal aspects of the case were unique and fascinating. From the beginning, the story became inordinately complicated. The litigants not only were exhaustive in their pursuit, but must have been exhausted themselves; in the end, the Court awarded no damages. Ironically, the success of the Alabama Claims Commission was due in large part to another Tyler - the former Confederate Treasury Secretary - whose postwar assistance was rewarded with a judgeship. Alabama Claims manuscript material has largely vanished from the market. With modern research. $300-425

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8-6. Illegal Aliens in the Civil War: Confederate Agents from Canada! Related pair of General Orders issued by War Dept., in aftermath of the attack by Confederates from Canada. In the northernmost engagement of the Civil War, 22 agents entered St. Albans, Vt., terrorizing the town, and spreading fear of more widespread invasions. Dec. 29, 1864, 4 x 7. “The President directs that, except immigrant passengers directly entering an American port by sea, no traveler shall be allowed to enter the U.S. from a foreign country without a passport...If an alien, from the competent authority of his own country...This regulation is intended to apply especially to persons proposing to come to the U.S. from the neighboring British provinces. Its observance will be strictly enforced....” Signed in type by Sec. of State William H. Seward and A.A.G. E.D. Townsend. Dampstain cockling, toning at blank margins, else good plus. • Mar. 15, 1865, 5 x 7-1/4. Modifying the previous order, in view of the expectation “that her Britannic Majesty’s government...of Canada have taken, and will continue to take, such steps as may be looked for from a friendly neighbor, and will be effectual towards preventing hostile incursions from Canadian territory into the U.S....” Old vertical fold, else fine. $90-130 (2 pcs.)

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8-7. Tobacco in the Confederacy. Unusual form of Confederate document: two-sheet, partly-printed “Tax on Naval Stores, Wines, &c., and Agricultural Products,” Richmond, Oct. 30, 1863, each sheet 93/4 x 12-1/2. Signed twice by Confederate Assessor Jas. Hersey, and twice by Wm. R. Robinson, declaring “Manufactured Tobacco, Value $900....” Taxed 8%, in this effort to raise funds “for the common defence and carry on the government of the Confederate States....” Also answers whether subject to taxation as “pawnbrokers...keepers of hotels, inns, taverns and eating houses...circuses, jugglers, bowling alleys, billiard tables...apothecaries, photographers, lawyers, physicians, surgeons and dentists...and confectioners.” With spaces to declare amounts of “Gold coin on hand or on deposit, Silver coin, Bank notes, Credits within Confederate States, Credits beyond limits of Confederate States, Money deposited beyond limits...,” and attesting that he has listed all “naval stores, salt, wine, spiritous liquors, manufactured and unmanufactured tobacco, cotton, wool, flour, sugar, molasses, syrup, rice....” Pleasant light patina due to high groundwood content of adversity paper, trivial edge wear, else fine. Very scarce type, suitable for display. $135-175 (2 sheets)

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8-8. A Plantation with a Hideous Secret. Unusual form of Confederate document: one-sheet, partlyprinted “Tax on Naval Stores, Wines, &c., and Agricultural Products,” Richmond, Aug. 24/Oct. 17, 1863, 93/4 x 12-1/4. Signed by Confederate Assessor W. Johnson, property owner Jno. J. Woodroof, and N(apoleon) B. Kean, “Assessor for Goochland (County),” declaring “24 H(ogs)h(ea)ds in Goochland... Allens Farm, Value $1,769.60....” An incident in which three slaves on the Allen farm were tied to a tree and “lashed...with a big bull whip ‘til they could hardly stand up...” is recounted in Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves, 1976. The Allen farm, in the then-outskirts of Richmond, is briefly mentioned in Lewises, Meriwethers and Their Kin, Richmond: 1938, p. 377 (copies of research accompany). Taxed 8%, in this effort to raise funds “for the common defence and carry on the government of the Confederate States....” (At a declared value of roughly 18¢ per quart, the contents of the casks was more like ly molasses than liquor.) Also answers whether subject to taxation as “pawnbrokers...keepers of hotels, inns, taverns and eating houses...circuses, jugglers, bowling alleys, billiard tables...apothecaries, photographers, lawyers, physicians, surgeons and dentists... and confectioners.” With spaces to declare amounts of “Gold coin on hand or on deposit, Silver coin, Bank notes, Credits within Confederate States, Credits beyond limits of Confederate States, Money deposited beyond limits...,” and attesting that he has listed all “naval stores, salt, wine, spiritous liquors, manufactured and unmanufactured tobacco, cotton, wool, flour, sugar, molasses, syrup, rice....” The following year, co-signer Kean enlisted as a Pvt. in the 15th Virginia Infantry, suitably assigned soon thereafter as a tax assessor for the Confederacy. Pleasant light patina due to high groundwood content of adversity paper, triangular wear at one fold at edge, dust tone at other end of fold, else very good. Very scarce type, suitable for display. $160-200 (1 sheet)

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8-9. Confederates Confiscating Slaves and Civilian Property. Printed Confederate General Orders, Richmond, Apr. 6, 1863, 5-1/4 x 8, 6 pp. Detailing rules of impressment of “forage, articles of subsistence or other property absolutely necessary,” by Act of Confederate Congress. “In cases where the owner of such property and the impressing officer cannot agree upon the value thereof... the same to be...determined by the judgment of two loyal and disinterested citizens...one to be selected by the owner, one by the impressing officer...(who) shall also give to the owner... a certificate, over his official signature, specifying the battalion, regiment, brigade, division or corps to which he belongs, that said property is essential for the army, could not be otherwise procured, and was taken though absolute necessity...Where slaves are impressed by the confederate government [note lower case usage] to labor on fortifications...according to...the laws of the state wherein they are impressed...No slave laboring on a farm or plantation exclusively devoted to the production of grain and provisions, shall be taken for the public use, without the consent of the owner, except in case of urgent necessity....” The word “slave” underlined in old pencil. Much handling evidence, toned at blank right edge, light foxing, else good. Large purple handstamp, “Record Division / Rebel Archives / War Dept.” $90-120

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8-10. A Child’s Biography of Robert E. Lee. Booklet for children, “The Story of Robert E. Lee,” Elizabeth McKane, “Instructor Literature Series,” F.A. Owen Pub. Co., Dansville, N.Y., 1905. 5 x 7-1/4, 32 pp. Small photo on cover; 7 illustrations and 1 map inside. Extensive listings of other booklets for teachers, 1st-8th grades. Waterstain affecting about half of pp., covers nearly separated at spine, else good. A surprisingly affectionate and endearing treatment. Very scarce. $55-75

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8-11. A Celebrated Confederate “without one dollar on Earth.” Highly unusual A.L.S. of J. Ogden Murray, on his letterhead “Secretary Immortal 600 / Inspector Genl. C(onfederate) V(eterans), 7th Cong. Dist. Va.,” Charles Town, W.V., Mar.17, 1918, 8-1/2 x 11, 1 full p. “Today 51 years ago, I was down on the valley pike, a dead horse on me, a hole in my right side, my right arm dislocated at the elbow, and the hundred Yankees shooting at me, and it strikes me have been in tight place ever since. On the 23rd I fixed as the day I would pay every dollar I owed in the world on Tues. last week. Butler & Butler assigned leaving debts of $4500 with assets of $1100 to pay with. They have skipped out, and left me without one dollar on earth, and just what I am to do, don’t know, am blue as indigo, and feel like ending the whole matter. Wish to God could talk to you for just about one hour. For this is sure Hell on Earth, but I suppose, must stand it. Comrade Ben D. Merchant died on Fri., buried yesterday Sunday at Manassas. I tell you they are dropping out fast. Say my love to all, am too full of woe to write much today....” Murray’s postwar chronicle of the Immortal 600 - Confederate prisoners held as human shields in Charleston Harbor, then starved in Savannah - became a classic. The sacrifices of his men are still remembered today. Three small, inconspicuous nibbles at one fold, affecting part of “friend” in salutation, else fine. $150-200

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8-12. Bread for the Confederate Prisoners. Partly printed Union document, reimbursing Post Bakery for “252 Barrels Flour...” “received at Depot Prison(er)s of War,” evidently Johnson’s Island, Sandusky, Ohio, July 13, 1864. Signed twice by Capt. Henry C. Benson, 128th Regt., O(hio) V(ol.) I(nfantry), and once by Capt. Nath(aniel) Ellmaker. 8-1/2 x 14-1/2. Break but no separation at two folds, else very good. Johnson’s Island material is desirable. $140-180

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8-13. The Confederate I.R.S. Interesting group of six partly printed Confederate tax receipts, including Texas: Auditor’s Office, Richmond, Mar. 1863, 2-1/2 x 7-1/2. “Received...the Chamberlain’s receipt for $2.66, on account of Gas.” Twentieth-century rubber stamp, “Wm. P. Palmer Collection.” Soiling but very good. • N.p., Apr. 11, 1864, 3-1/4 x 4-1/4, black on slate blue. For $17 “in Confederate Treasury Notes, being the full amount of Confederate Tax due for the year 1863 on live stock....” Old pocket folds. • Alabama, Dec. 31, 1864, 4-1/4 x 4-3/4. For $558, “the amount of the Confederate General tax...,” paid by Wm. S. Mercer, receiver of estate of A. Fuller. • Two “War Tax” receipts, both evidently Texas, to J.C. Maples & Co., paid in “Confederate Treasury Notes.” dated May 24, 1862, 2-3/4 x 6, on pale blue. • “War Tax Receipt,” to Maples & McKin(n)ey, evidently Texas, May 24, 1862, on ivory. Scorched at right, presumed rescued from a fire. J.C. Maples served in the 9th and 18th Texas Infantries: “One captain blamed his resignation on an act of God rather than on his own weakness of the flesh: J.C. Maples... resigned due to ‘an almost entire physical prostration, from the effects of a shock of lightning.’”-- Walker’s Texas Division, C.S.A.: Greyhounds of the Trans-Mississippi, Richard Lowe, p. 27. Both J.C. Maples and Maples & McKinney are also found in a Cherokee County (Texas) Genealogical Society index. Varied light wear, but generally very good to fine. $75-100 (6 pcs.)

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8-14. “Where is Beauregard?” Two items: Choice signature “G.T. Beauregard, 1891” on ivory card. 2-1/4 x 3-3/4. From Miss Connor’s collection. A handsome example, with flamboyant flourish beneath his name. Clean and excellent. • Civil War newspaper with prime Beauregard content: Brooklyn (N.Y.) City News, Feb. 12, 1862, 15-3/4 x 22-1/4, 4 pp. Lead story on page 1: “Where is he? Where is Beauregard? This mysterious commander is exciting as much curiosity as to his whereabouts as he did eight months ago, when the country was debating the question of his existence. He was killed at Fort Sumter - he died at Savannah - he was shot at Manassas - he was the victim of a conspiracy, or a tertian fever - he had been spirited away or assassinated...Imaginative people went so far as to deny his existence...The only manifest evidence of his existence is in the shape of an immense report about Bull Run...He left on a special train, and at midnight. He went -- somewhere...He may have run away with the four thousand escaping infantry...We feel like going back to the original idea, that Beauregard is altogether a myth...that his movements and reports and proclamations are the work of some ingenious secessionist like Henry A. Wise or Extra Billy Smith. This theory is very comfortable...So we fold it away among the articles of our faith.” Extensive war news inside, with unusual format, columns progressively headed, First, Second, Third, and Five O’Clock Editions: “Glorious News,” the taking of Roanoke Island - “the entire rebel fleet was captured or sunk.” “The Union Feeling in Tennessee - Our Troops Received with Cordial Welcome....” Account from Cairo, Ill. of capture of Fort Henry. A wealth of Brooklyn content, including ads and notices of every description. (It was once opined that ten percent of American family trees could trace roots to Brooklyn.) About half of inside text with light impression but legible, two tears at edge, one internal tear, handling evidence and much fine wrinkling of the thin paper, original quarter folds, some soiling, but still satisfactory, no loss of text, and actually a very rare title. WorldCat locates only a single 1861 issue at New York State Library, and unspecified 1859 issue(s) at New-York Historical Society. $400-500 (2 pcs.)

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9. Civil War Cartes

9-1. Service from Antebellum to Appomattox. Seldom-seen carte photo of Hon. J(acob) Collamer, Postmaster General under Zachary Taylor, and Vermont Sen. 1855-65. Standing pose, from knees up, his interesting watch fob hanging from belt. Anthony-Brady imprint. Double gilt rule border. Light coffeeand- cream mottled patina, very minor wear at upper tips, else about fine. Rare. Collamer’s “Wools and Woolens” speech became part of the literature of American political oratory. Serving for some ten years spanning the brewing storm, though Civil War, to its conclusion, Collamer became one of a somewhat limited club: many of his Senate colleagues left, aligning with the Confederacy. Known for his outspoken views, he opposed slavery - and Reconstruction. $80-110

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9-2. First on the Scene. Expansive carte photo of “Ex Gov. John A. Andrew” (of Mass.). Standing pose, with nearly full-width image of the amply proportioned leader and ally of Lincoln, serving 1860-66. In long coat, resting book on table. No imprint. An organizer of the Free Soil Party, Andrew helped organize legal aid for John Brown following Harper’s Ferry. As Gov., a Massachusetts regiment - the 6th - “was the first body of troops to reach Washington after Lincoln called for volunteers. This same spirit characterized all his actions throughout the war”--Boatner. Andrew was key in creating some of the first black units, including the celebrated 54th Massachusetts. A distant cousin of Lincoln, it was Andrew who asked him to write the famous letter to Mrs. Bixby. Creases at lower left, tip bump at upper left, else fine, with uncommon scale. Dark mahogany-brown-black toning. $70-90

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9-3. Lincoln’s Cabinet. Group of three portraits: Carte-style portrait of S(almon) P. Chase, in deep sepia tones on cream, suggesting gravure combined with the lost art of collotype. No imprint. Crease across lower portion, but inconspicuous. • From same issuer, carte-style portrait of E(dwin) M. Stanton. Crease at right, some stains, but very good. • Small copperplate engraving of Stanton, by O. Pelton. Trimmed to 3-1/4 x 5-1/4. Blind handling creases, but fine. $80-110 (3 pcs.)

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9-4. 76 in ‘65. view image Carte of Union Gen. John Wool, one of the oldest officers on either side, born 1789, and a veteran of the War of 1812 and Mexican War. When the Civil War broke out, Wool had already been a Brig. Gen. for twenty years. By Appleton. Looking considerably younger than his years. Wide gold border. Pleasing rich milk chocolate tone. Minor tip wear and soiling blank lower mount, else very good. $80-110

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9-5. A Two-Sided Carte. view side A | view side B A Confederate curiosity: on one side of gold-bordered card, carte of Gen. George Crittenden, bust pose; on other side, Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, standing. Each identified in a different contemporary hand. The ink and hands indicate that this duplex construction is of the period, perhaps by a Kentucky studio. Captured in the Mexican War, Crittenden had drawn the white bean - and was imprisoned; those who drew the black bean were shot. Defeated at Logan Cross Roads, Ky., in 1862, Crittenden was arrested, resigning later that year. His father was Sen. and Gov. of Kentucky, opposed secession, and a Lincoln supporter; a brother was a Union Gen. • Buckner was offered commissions by the Union and Confederate, declining both - until Kentucky was invaded by both sides. Choosing the South, he was soon in the awkward predicament of surrendering Fort Donelson to Grant - his lifelong friend from West Point, their close kinship extending til Grant’s death. 1896 Democratic candidate for Vice Pres. Very light uniform cream patina, rich mahogany tones, and fine. A rare novelty. $225-275

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9-6. With Original Hand “Gilding.” view image Very scarce carte of Confederate Gen. Franklin Gardner. By Anthony. With contemporary hand-painted coat buttons and cap trim in golden yellow. Despite a long antebellum record of distinguished service, Gardner abandoned his command on the Utah Expedition in May 1861, and was dismissed from the Union Army. In the Confederacy, he commanded cavalry at Shiloh; promoted to Maj. Gen., Gardner took command of Port Hudson, only to be captured himself. Old collector’s number stamp and tiny red marking on verso, neatly pencilled biographical notes, low bubbling at right vertical edge from original mounting, two brown spots and fine speckling in emulsion, else fine and highly attractive. Seldom seen. $160-200

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9-7. Texas Ranger. view image Carte of Confederate Gen. Henry McCulloch, in civilian clothes. An antebellum Texas sheriff, legislator, Ranger, and U.S. Marshal, McCulloch commanded the Dept. of Texas early in the war, later fighting at Vicksburg, and commanding in Trans-Mississippi Dept. A splendid pose, his countenance and penetrating gaze befitting his background. Old collector’s number stamp on verso, medium brown staining along right portion, probably from original mounting glue, three dimples in lower mount, one of which held a pin for display by a period admirer, else very good. $100-140

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9-8. A Photographic Curiosity. view image Carte of Union Gen. Jno. H. Martindale, dated 1862 in printed caption. Imprint of obscure “J.E. McClees, Artist, 910 Chestnut St., Philadelphia.” Resigned the Army one year after West Point to work as a railroad engineer, upon his disappointment in being unable to join the Corps of Engineers. During Civil War, investigated by Fitz-John Porter - who would have his own problems - charging that Martindale influenced his men to surrender at Malvern Hill. Highly unusual swirl pattern surrounding his portrait, from photographic development, visually flattering, whether intentional or not. Bend at blank upper left tip, else very fine. Very scarce. $120-150

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9-9. Behind the Scenes at Gettysburg. view image Rare carte of Union Gen. Darius Couch, on upside-down mount of Anthony-Brady. A prewar naturalist exploring Mexico, Couch was promoted to Maj. Gen. on July 4, 1862. “Disgusted with Hooker’s blundering (at Chancellorsville), Couch asked to be relieved and was given command of Dept. of the Susquehanna. During the Gettysburg campaign he was engaged in organizing Pa. home-guard...”--Boatner. Biographical details neatly penned on verso in a miniature hand by noted 1970s collector, two rubber-stamped numbers, else image fresh, with luxuriously rich browns, and fine. Though highly accomplished, Couch material of any kind is seldom encountered. $140-180

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9-10. Died in 1862. view image Carte of Union Gen. Charles Davis Jameson of 2nd Maine. “Ill with ‘camp fever’ after Fair Oaks, he returned to Maine, where he died Nov. 6, 1862”--Boatner. Anthony-Brady. Three lines biographical details neatly penned on verso in a miniature hand by noted 1970s collector, two rubberstamped numbers, else one of the finest carte images we have handled in several years, in both condition and photographic skill. Surface virtually unmarked, with superlative exposure and depth, his face and coat, with its buttons, masterfully dominating the portrait. Very rare. $175-225

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9-11. Full Standing Pose. view image Carte of Union Gen. Joseph King Fenno Mansfield, by Anthony-Brady. Serving under Zachary Taylor and then-U.S. Sec. of War Jefferson Davis, Mansfield was mortally wounded leading his men in a charge at Antietam in 1862. Uncommon full-standing studio pose, leaning on sword, his white beard lending enormous character. Name in twentieth-century ink on verso, trivial tip wear at upper left, evocative uniform coffee-and-cream toning, and very good. $200-250

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9-12. Before War took its Toll. view image Crisp, flattering carte of U.S. Grant, early in the war, appearing youthful and handsome. Bust pose, in bowtie. Printed caption on verso, “Lieutenant-General....” Charcoal-grey stain at upper right corner, apparently transfer from an ancient black mounting corner, some random superficial scuffs, only seen at certain angles, two tiny spots at lower blank portion, possibly since new; pleasing uniform dark cream toning, else V.F., the image itself superior. $80-110

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9-13. Originator of Memorial Day. view image Dramatic carte of Union Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, with shock of hair and flamboyant moustache. Thought by many to be a Southern sympathizer, he marched to 1st Bull Run, though not in the Army at the time. Wounded at Fort Donelson, Logan was later relieved by Lincoln of his command of Army of the Tennessee, but reinstated. Grover Cleveland’s 1884 running mate; one of founders and three-time Pres. of G.A.R., and began observance of Memorial Day. Some handling soiling and surface marks, but about very good, and suitable for display with an autograph. $65-85

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9-14. An Uncommon Imprint. view image Attractive carte of Union Gen. Phil. Sheridan, with imprint of “Philada. Photographic Co., 730 Chestnut St....” His military career off to an unpromising start, Sheridan threatened a fellow West Point cadet with a bayonet, then attacked him upon being reported. Early in the war, he narrowly escaped court martial. Under fire, however, Sheridan was conspicuous; his Richmond Raid led to the defeat and death of J.E.B. Stuart. It was Sheridan whose “vigorous pursuit and blocking of Lee’s withdrawal beyond Appomattox, Apr. 8-9, concluded his Civil War record on a high note...”--Boatner. Tan wisp above right forehead, apparently in emulsion; minor superficial handling, else very fine and clean. $80-110

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9-15. Freeing the Slaves before Lincoln. view image Carte of Union Gen. David Hunter, by Anthony-Brady. Expressive pose, waist-up. Corresponding with Pres.-elect Lincoln on rumors of secession, Hunter was invited to travel with him to the first inauguration. Wounded at 1st Bull Run, commanded Dept. of the South. One day after fall of Ft. Pulaski, Ga., Hunter liberated all slaves in Union hands, and soon thereafter, all slaves in his Department. These decrees of emancipation were annulled by Lincoln, but Hunter pressed on, sanctioning the first black regiment - the 1st S.C. - leading the Confederacy to mark him a “felon to be executed if captured.” Hunter accompanied Lincoln’s body to Springfield, and presided over the commission trying the conspirators. Pale mocha toning of periphery of image, caramel toning at right vertical edge, two white marks at 12 o’clock from old clip, else about very good. $100-130

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9-16. An Upside-Down Carte. view image Stately carte of Union Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock, upside-down on Anthony-Brady mount. Double gilt rule. Serving in Calif. before the war, Hancock was one of just 15 Army officers later given the Thanks of Congress, for his service and severe wound at Gettysburg. At Cold Harbor, after 7,000 Union soldiers killed in eight minutes, Hancock refused to obey orders to open another attack. Had he been the victor in the 1880 Presidential election, one wonders if his survival of the war would have been for naught: the winner was James Garfield. Old collector’s number stamp on verso, light toning, else fine. Interesting error by a major photographer. $110-140

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9-17. “A Favored Yankee” in Postwar Alabama. view image Carte-style lithographic portrait of Union Genl. (William T.H.) Brooks, by L. Prang, Boston, originator of the first Christmas card in America. Bright green double rule border. Served under Robert E. Lee in Mexican War; wounded in Civil War at Savage’s Station, and again at Antietam. Leading at brutal Cold Harbor, Brooks was obliged to resign for health reasons at Petersburg. “He farmed in Huntsville (Ala.) until his death, a favored Yankee in that Southern community for his ‘amiable disposition, simplicity of character, and sound common sense’”-- D.A.B. in Boatner. Some foxing, else fine and insightfully expressive. Very scarce. $45-65

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9-18. An Iowa Physician in New Orleans. view image Carte identified on verso in period hand, “J(ohn) W.H. Vest, Surg(eon), 28th Iowa Vol. Infantry, New Orleans, La., Jan. 22, 1864.” With imprint above, “J.A. Sheldon, No. 101 Canal St., New Orleans.” The Virginia-born Dr. Vest was busy: his 28th Iowa suffered 189 losses due to disease and accidents. He resigned in Dec. 1864, recalled later as “a very popular physician”-- History of Poweshiek County, Iowa, Parker, Vol. 1, p. 192. His obituary states he was “later medical director of an Army corps in the Civil War.” (Modern copies accompany.) Mottled toning and foxing but imparting patina of mellow ivory, rounded tips as made, and good plus. A scarce rank and state in occupied New Orleans. Rare thus. $130-180

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10. Black History

10-1. The Flashpoint of Slavery. Dramatic collection of pamphlets, beginning with the tide-changing 1856 anti-slavery speech of abolitionist Charles Sumner, nine printed speeches of Senators and Congressmen responding to his vicious assault while sitting at his desk in the Senate, the response by A.P. Butler - the target of Sumner’s address, and the speech in which his attacker, Preston Brooks of S.C. resigned. Days after his “invective-laden speech, called ‘The Crime Against Kansas,’ in which he insulted a (pro-slavery) S.C. Senator..., Rep. Brooks, a relative of the reviled man (Butler), attacked Sumner viciously with a cane. Sumner did not recover for three years. After secession he refused to let the Senate consider a compromise...and urged emancipation...”--Boatner.

Comprising: “The Crime Against Kansas - Speech of Hon. Charles Sumner, of Mass...May 19, 1856,” “for sale at Office of the New York Tribune,” Greeley & McElrath, 5-1/2 x 8-1/2, 32 pp. Sumner’s slight was not confined to an errant statement; the pamphlet reveals a relentless barrage on the South Carolinian, that went on for hours when spoken on the Senate floor.”...The Senator dreams that he can subdue the North...How little that Senator knows himself...Against him is nature in all her subtle forces; against him is God. Let him try to subdue these....” • Issued just days after Sumner’s attack: “Slavery and its Tendencies - A Letter from Gen. J. Watson Webb, to the New York Courier and Enquirer,” May 24, 1856, 5-1/2 x 8-3/4, 8 pp. “...whether Liberty or Slavery is to be the pole-star of our National course - whether the vast unpeopled regions...shall be subdued and cultivated by intelligent, happy freemen, or by lashed and blinded slaves....” • “The Assault upon Sen. Sumner, A Crime Against the People - Speech of Hon. John A. Bingham, of Ohio...July 9, 1856,” 5-1/2 x 8-3/4, 8 pp. • “Speech of Hon. A.C.M. Pennington, of N.J., on the Assault by Mr. Brooks on Mr. Sumner,” July 10, 1856, 5-3/4 x 9, 23 pp. • “Speech of Mr. Giddings, of Ohio, On the Trial of Preston S. Brooks, for an Assault on Sen. Sumner,” July 11, 1856, 5-1/2 x 8-3/4, 8 pp. • “Assault on Mr. Sumner - Speech of Hon. G.A. Simmons, of N.Y...July 11, 1856,” 5-1/2 x 9, 7 pp. • “The Assault by Mr. Brooks on Mr. Sumner - Speech of Hon. E. Etheridge, of Tenn...July 12, 1856,” 5-3/4 x 9, 7 pp. • “Assault on Sen. Sumner - Speech of Hon. Chauncey L. Knapp, of Mass...July 12, 1856,” 5-3/4 x 9, 8 pp. “...What will remain of civil liberty but the shadow of its departing glory?” • “The Sumner Assault - Speech of Mr. H.H. Nichols, of Ohio...July 12, 1856,” 5-3/4 x 9, 8 pp. • “Personalities and Aggressions of Mr. Butler - Speech of Hon. Henry Wilson, of Mass...June 13, 1856,” 5-1/2 x 9, 8 pp.

Together with: “Speech of Hon. A.P. Butler, of S.C., on the Difficulty of Messrs. Brooks and Sumner, and the Causes Thereof,” June 12-13, 1856, 5-1/2 x 8-3/4, 31 pp. A lengthy response by the target savaged by Sumner’s speech, which must have taken hours to read into the record. Butler asserts that Sumner “should be held exclusively responsible to his country and his God...I wish I had been here...If the consequences which are likely to flow from that speech hereafter shall end in blood and violence, that Senator should be prepared to repent in sackcloth and ashes....” Indeed, few events in antebellum America hardened the positions of pro- and anti-slavery proponents as did Sumner’s speech, the attack upon him, and the aftermath. Butler’s words proved prophetic. Though it took nearly five years, war did inexorably come, the first shots fired in his state. • “Speech of Hon. P.S. Brooks, of S.C., on Resigning his Seat in Congress,” July 14, 1856, 5-3/4 x 9, 4 pp. “...(Sumner) published to the world...this uncalled-for libel on my State and my blood. Whatever insults my State insults me...I was aware of the personal responsibilities I incurred, and was willing to meet them...No man has the right to wear arms who dares not intend to use them. In my country the cock that crows and won’t fight is despised by the hens...I must tell them that for all future time my self-respect requires that I shall pass them as strangers. And now, Mr. Speaker, I announce to you and to this House, that I am no longer a member of the Thirty-fourth Congress.” • Freefranked envelope front, “C. Sumner / [To] J.S. Lyon, Esq., Boonton, N.J.” Dated 1861 in nineteenth-century hand on verso. 3-1/2 x 6. Rich brown on dark cream. Uniform toning, pale smudges, probably by Sumner’s hand, else fine.

In all, an archive bringing to a boil the passion surrounding slavery, one of the most intractable issues in American history. While most legislators, and indeed many Americans, of the Civil War era were eloquent, the attack on Charles Sumner brought the full bore of their oratorical abilities to the precipice. Ex-lib., some neatly trimmed when originally bound, irregular spines upon removal, 1945 filing slips nested in most, varying toning, wear, and modest defects, but generally good plus to about fine. Each pamphlet is scarce to rare; a collection of these pamphlets is most unusual. $1300-1700 (13 pcs.)

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10-2. The Highest-Ranking Black Officer in the Civil War. view image L.S. of (Lt. Col.) A(lexander) T. Augusta, “Surgeon 7th U.S.C(olored) T(roops), In Charge” – the highest-ranking black officer in the Civil War, and the first black physician in the U.S. Army. From “Lincoln H(eadquarte)rs R and T,” Savannah, Apr. 16, (18)66, 7-3/4 x 9-3/4. To Capt. C.H. Remick, 103rd U.S.C(olored) I(nfantry), Comdg. Fort Pulaski (Savannah). “I have the honor to forward to the descriptive list of men, belonging to the 103rd U.S.C.I. on duty at the Pest House of the Hospital.” (The 103rd was in the process of mustering out at this time. At the end of the war, an impressive roster of Confederate statesmen were held at Fort Pulaski, including two Cabinet members, two governors, and a Senator.) In a florid clerical hand, signed by Augusta. Blindembossed “Congress” stationer’s mark, showing U.S. Capitol. Two wide bands of evenly honey-colored waterstaining, with only slight lightening of salutation and first two lines, else signature and balance dark, and fine plus. Addressee Remick achieved considerable prominence commanding colored troops for nearly three years. Duke University’s Special Collections Library includes two documents from their Remick Papers in The Digital Scriptorium, entitled “Slave Voices...The Problem of Freedom - The Destruction of American Slavery, Freedom’s Strange Fruit.” Dr. Augusta was also the first black hospital administrator in American history, at Freedmen’s Hospital, the first black professor of medicine, and the first black officer buried at Arlington. His material is very rare. $850-1150

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10-3. First Black Troops in the Civil War. Very rare printed handbill with deeply stirring battle poem praising “The Second Louisiana, May 27, 1863,” by George H. Boker, (published by Union League of Philadelphia). 5-1/4 x 8-1/2. First employed by the Confederacy prior to Union capture of New Orleans, the Louisiana Native Guards were the first black troops of the Civil War. The first to attack the heavilydefended fortress in the assault on Port Hudson, it was the black soldiers’ first actual trial in battle. Several courageous charges resulted in very heavy casualties; their heroic performance insured the position of black troops in the Union Army. This contemporary handbill memorializes this crucial event: “...Waiting the great event, Stands the black regiment. Down the long dusky line, Teeth gleam and eyeballs shine...Of the fierce rolling drum, Told them their time had come, Told them what work was sent, For the black regiment. ‘Now,’ the flag-sergeant cried, ‘Through death and hell betide, Let the whole nation see, If we are fit to be, Free in this land; or bound...with red stripes of pain, In our old chains again!’...Never, in field or tent, Scorn the black regiment!” One old vertical fold, lacking blank lower left tip, blind wrinkles, else very good and clean. WorldCat locates only three examples of this format (it was also published within a 8-pp. booklet, and in German!). $425-575

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10-4. Chaplain of Colored Troops: “Emancipation...is the idea of the war to me.” Dazzlingly eloquent, learned 8-page letter of (Samuel) Storrow Higginson, teacher of freedmen and (Chaplain) of “9th U.S. C(olored) T(roops), 25th Corps, 1st Div., Army of the James, Washington, D.C.,” no date but evidently early Jan. 1865. Penned in a fine hand on U.S. Christian Commission lettersheets, 8 pp., 4-3/4 x 8. Beneath a Biblical verse printed under masthead, Higginson begins, “Hopeful isn’t it? The way they cram ‘religion’ down your throat in the Army makes one long...as Shelley put it at Oxford: ‘Atheism a necessity’ simply for self preservation...I am truly happy to believe that you are arriving at what I have always thought the highest human philosophy: the subjection of self in the service of humanity. And yet sad enough when I hear you long for the work in lines like these. To me the harvest is broad and the reapers few enough -- take thy sickle and do not wait for a prescience and wisdom no earthly mind can hope to entertain, but fearlessly commit thyself, for the ears are golden...To Hawthorne as to yourself, every subject presented itself with a twofold condition -- of course, nature is controlled by a law of duality, and because he could not with finite powers solve the riddle of the infinite, he... lived most miserably. But I hope this state of mind is but temporary with you...I speak from profound experience...which has cost me bitter sorrow. You are right when you speak of the consciousness of intellectual superiority...Your photograph of the ‘Fates’ reached me safely and served me continual pleasure, though it is a daily enigma to visitors. My boy takes it for a family group!...Hope you will... remain within reach of Art Recreation which will give your mind the repose it needs...How beautiful... become our Earthly relations when friendship is dependent not upon regular correspondence...but when a lovely trust fills all spaces and bridges all silence...In these days of Constitutional servitude it takes courage to be true...And to live year after year misunderstood by those whom you would have nearest and dearest...to know that in all your family Circle there beats no heart responsive to your own -- this is desolation, this is to be alone...To me it is no sacrifice for I never knew yet what home is...This life is killing me slowly but...when I think how sublime is the opportunity that has fallen to our generation, and others so cheerfully give the dearest gifts of Earth in defense of an idea they neither understand nor dare to confess! I can gladly offer health and self for a definite object, Emancipation (for this is the idea of the war to me) [emphasis his]. But this brings me to a point in the road when you lay aside your staff and say, ‘I go no further. It is dark. I cannot see the way.’ I believe and have kept on in solitude and already I see the dawn breaking over the Eastern rim and look tearfully back to where you still sit undecided...Why don’t you meet Miss --? I know you would like her truthfulness and simplicity. Every blessing for the New Year.” Some blind handling wrinkles, minor fold wear, tape repair of one fold tear, else very good. Graduating from Harvard in 1863, Higginson served in the office of the Supervisory Committee for Recruiting Colored Regiments, in Philadelphia. Before his election as Chaplain of the 9th Colored Troops, Higginson is identified as an Army instructor of blacks--Generals and Negroes: Education of Negroes by the Union Army, 1861-65, Robert Stanley Bahney, University of Michigan Press, 1966, p. 140. By Apr. 3, 1865, his unit was occupying Richmond, then traveling through Texas until Oct. 1866. Significant letters of Civil War chaplains are very scarce; such a lengthy missive from the noted Chaplain of a distinguished black unit is rare. With transcript and modern copies of research. $550-750

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10-5. “Here in the black belt of the South.” L.S. of W.H. Holtzclaw, Principal, Utica Normal & Industrial Institute, Utica, Miss., “For the Training of Young Colored Men and Women,” Apr. 17, 1906, 8 x 11. To Miss Mary Beetle, Philadelphia. “Feeling that you will be interested in my efforts to uplift my people here in the black belt of the South, I venture to ask you to read, on third page of enclosed circular [present], the statements of well known Boston men....” Tea(?) stains across blank top, else very fine. • Enclosed printed folder, 4-3/4 x 5-1/2, 4 pp. “Location: ...where the Negroes outnumber the whites seven to one...The institution was begun...in 1902, with one teacher and a few pupils, taught at first in the open air...Friends, wherever we have been able to approach them, readily realize that this is a section of our country where the battle against ignorance, superstition, immorality and vice must be fought in earnest. In this state we have nearly a million Negroes....” With testimonial of B(ooker) T. Washington, commending Holtzclaw, Tuskegee class of 1898: “...His work shows good executive ability, and rare tact in winning the cooperation of all parties. In three years it has grown from nothing to $30,000 worth of property, including 14 buildings, ...20 teachers and over 400 pupils....” One mailing fold, else very fine. By 1954, this remarkable enterprise came to include a junior college. $110-140

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10-6. Black Schools - and a White Teacher. Rare group of four covers, each from a different black school, all addressed to noted Quaker abolitionist, teacher of freed slaves, and suffragette Emily Howland, Sherwood, N.Y. Active in Underground Railroad, collaborator of Susan B. Anthony, William Lloyd Garrison, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington et al. Shortly after Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Howland traveled to Contraband Camp, active in food and clothing distribution, nursing, and teaching, relocating to Camp Todd – Robert E. Lee’s estate in Arlington. Comprising: Cornercard of Industrial Union Institute, Southern Pines, N.C., 1916. A school and orphanage run by Rev. James Monroe Henderson, a self-made black who had worked as a salesman, builder, Justice of the Peace, editor of Boston Advocate, and even deputy sheriff in Lookout Mountain. • Manassas Industrial School, Manassas, Va., 1902. • Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, “Mary McLeod Bethune, Princ(ipal),” Daytona, Fla., 1913. Starting with only $1.50 and six students, with funding from James Gamble, of Proctor & Gamble, and Thomas White, of White Sewing Machine, the school grew to become Bethune-Cookman University. • Hampton Institute, undated fancy cancel. Howland supported and taught in some fifty schools for free blacks. With modern research. $180-240 (4 pcs.)

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10-7. Slaves and Santa Ana in Texas. Splendid letter of noted abolitionist D.L. Child, compiler of American Anti-Slavery Society almanacs, called by William Lloyd Garrison “our esteemed friend” and “able and vigorous anti-slavery coadjutor,” and found in a rich literature of the genre. N.Y., Sept. 29, 1835, 7-3/4 x 10, 1-1/2 pp., in a florid hand on mint green paper. To fellow prominent abolitionist George Kimball. “Presuming that you have rejoined your family direct to Canaan, but I never write or speak the word now without thinking of the Scriptural adjunct ‘cursed by Canaan,’ the meanest mob (in) town, mentioned in the Chronicles of the sons of Belial. My wife, as well as myself was pleased with your ideas about Tamanlipas [a Mexican State] & Texas. You captured exactly her ideas of the population of the latter. But you may rely upon one thing, the slaveholders there will have to abandon slaveholding and be driven out. The colonists have made all possible submission in view of Santa Ana’s preparations, but that will not prevent the troops from going and remaining there. I have this from the best authority....” Slavery continued in Tamanlipas beyond the Civil War. Child’s reference to Canaan is to the town in New Hampshire. Twenty years earlier, recipient George Kimball had helped found a Canaan academy seeking to enroll blacks - in the very month when anti-slavery riots were rocking New York City. “The plan to introduce Negroes into this white community was revolting to the white sense of propriety. Negroes were not recognized as a part of the social system...”--The History of Canaan, N.H., Wallace, pp. 256-7. A contributor to the Liberator, Kimball is mentioned in John Brown: The Man Who Killed Slavery, by Reynolds. In the following decade, Child would attempt a novel plan to reduce the demand for slave labor, by establishing his own sugar-beet farm, to supplant cotton and other plantation crops. In the year of this letter, his wife, fellow abolitionist Lydia Maria Child, wrote her two-volume History of the Condition of Women, in Various Ages and Nations. Short break at one fold, else fine. A superb coalescence of correspondents. Very scarce. $250-300

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10-8. Envelope Delivered by Slave Lewis. Mocha cover hand-carried “Per Lewis” to noted Supreme Court of North Carolina Justice Thomas I. Ruffin, Alamance, N.C. Probably c. 1852-58, upon his retirement to his plantation. Bearing a plausible resemblance to the young Abe Lincoln, “Ranked by Harvard Law School Dean Roscoe Pound as one of the ten greatest jurists in American history, Ruffin singlehandedly transformed the common law of North Carolina into an instrument of economic change”-- wikipedia. His decision in a landmark 1829 case formalized the “absolute” power of a master over slave. Frayed at corners, tear on back flap where opened at wax seal, light soiling, ink light but legible, else good plus, and displayable. Fascinating black Americana. Ex-Robert A. Siegel. $175-250

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10-9. Freed Blacks on President Island. Manuscript Union Army manuscript document from the final month of the war, signed twice by (Capt.) J.C. Walker (Supt. of Freedmen), listing names and days worked by black “Freed Laborers.” One of the tasks of the Freedmen’s Bureau was finding employment for the freed slaves; the “contraband camp” on this, the largest island in the Mississippi River, offered greater safety than the streets of nearby Memphis. “Pay Roll of Laborers employed on President Island for the Month ending 30th Apr. 1865,” 7-3/4 x 10, 2 pp., ruled by hand in red, on cream lettersheet. Listing 36 blacks, almost half women, earning from $2 to $14 for a month’s work. Including Dick Beard, Orange Rogers, Violet Hicks, Jennie Jones, Ike Blackman, et al. Unusual blind-embossed logo of a sidewheel steamboat. Originally owned by Andrew Jackson, a major flood of the island in the Spring of 1865 made conditions very difficult, but wages were paid to all freedmen “who were able to work at wood cutting, coal burning, and in sawmills. The more feeble raised vegetables, cotton, and corn...A tent was raised for orphan children...Sick and destitute orphans were rounded up, bathed, and clothed...”-- Tennessee - A Guide to the State, W.P.A., 1939. The few hours worked by some of those listed suggests they may have been among the feeble referred to. Very fine, and splendid for display. $140-180

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10-10. “When the tears ran down the faces of lords and ladies....” Booklet, “The Story of Africaner,” Protestant Episcopal Society for the Promotion of Evangelical Knowledge, N.Y., 1856. 4-1/4 x 6-1/2, 28 pp., gold title on flexible brown embossed cover. Frontispiece woodcut, “Women Building a House,” showing a black South African woman directing others, as they build a hut of branches and leaves. Bearing the interesting imprint of a printer on an obscure lower Manhattan street - Jacob St. - which has not existed for many decades. Dramatically - almost cinematically - written, first describing an after-dinner address by a missionary, “when the tears ran down the faces of lords and ladies at the story of conversion of many of the poor Africans, and especially of this Africaner, who had been a most remorseless and bloody savage. He would not have hesitated...to plunge his spear into the heart of his own mother if she had offended him. He was the terror of all the tribes in his neighborhood, before his conversion....” Front cover nearly separated, foxing, somewhat shaken, else good. Excessively rare. No copies on AbeBooks. Two copies on WorldCat, curiously described as a juvenile. $225-300

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10-11. A Black Student returns to Tuskegee in the Depression. Unusual group relating to Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, “For the Training of Colored Young Men and Women,” Ala.: T.L.S. of Principal R(obert) R. Moton, successor to founder Booker T. Washington, July 24, 1933, 8-1/4 x 11. An appeal to former student Herbert F. Smith, Roanoke, Ala., who evidently had not completed his studies: “As a member of the Tuskegee family we are still interested in your welfare and progress...You have doubtless been affected by the general economic depression, but it is well to keep in mind that the work of producing food and clothing, shelter and the ordinary comforts of life must always go on. Tuskegee was established to train young people for this kind of service...Among 40,000 names of Negroes on the list for relief in Chicago, not one was a graduate or former student of Tuskegee. That speaks volumes. We are hoping that you will find it possible to return to school...For high school students the total entrance fee for the year is $39.00...for college students...$59.00 ....” Moton was one of the speakers at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922. Light handling evidence, else fine and very scarce. • With enclosed flyer announcing reduced fees, and description of uniforms for boys and girls. Novelty angle trim, as printed. Edge toning, characteristic of coated paper. • Original envelope, printed cornercard of “Principal...,” fine postmark “Tuskegee Institute, Ala.” and purple 3¢ stamp. Torn neatly at blank right to open, toned, else good plus. • T.L.S. of Tuskegee Treasurer William H. Carter, to above Herbert Smith, Sept. 18, 1934. Evidently, he re-enrolled as a result of Moton’s letter, and resumed his studies. “...You owe the school $177.43. You understand that this amount will have to be paid before a transcript can be issued....” Light toning and wear at center fold, else fine. • Envelope with pencil address change: Smith transferred to A&M Institute, Normal, Ala. Dual Tuskegee and Roanoke postmarks. Lower right corner lacking, toned, but satisfactory. • Envelope (only), 1913, boldly addressed to “Emmett J. Scott, Chairman, Tuskegee Institute, Ala., U.S.A.,” unusual postmark “U.S. German Sea P.O.” Light cream toning, else very good and attractive. Around the turn of the century, Scott became Booker T. Washington’s personal secretary. “He became widely recognized as the leader of what was to later be known as the ‘Tuskegee Machine,’ the group of people close to Booker T. Washington who wielded influence over the Black press, churches, and schools in order to promote Washington’s views...”--The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage, Susan Altman. $150-200 (6 pcs.)

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10-12. “To carry off men is devitalizing Africa.” Group of three anti-slavery magazines, “The African Repository,” the first colonization journal. Published by American Colonization Society. June, Aug., and Nov. 1857, Washington, D.C., 5-3/4 x 8-3/4, (32) pp. ea., robin’s-egg-blue wrappers, sewn. Articles include, “An Evil Report,” “Letters from Liberia,” “Central Africa - Social Life in Yoruba,” “The Gospel in Africa,” “Schemes of African emigration to European Colonies,” “Liberality of England and France towards Liberia,” and others. “The real or fancied demands of commerce and civilization are leading to a crisis in respect to the people of Africa...African people are in demand...as instrumental means of productive labor in European colonies...Two, at least, of the European powers are virtually carrying on...schemes for procuring a supply from the regions possessed by the African races. Spain clings to the old trade pertinaciously...to extend...the slave system of Cuba. France desires...to hold that modified condition of slavery incident to a race forced to labor under the superintendence of a white community, who are not themselves free...Africa has no men to spare...To carry off men is devitalizing Africa and injuring the world...Our colonies along the shore...form a line of defence to a great interior beyond them. No strings of ‘emigrants,’ with their necks and elbows tied to long poles, can cross their territory to the French or Spanish ship....” Two issues bearing “Rev. J.C. Nichols” penned at top of front covers, probably in hand of a subscription clerk; Nichols was a Society life member, and prominent Lebanon, Conn. abolitionist. Some corner dogears, one back cover wrinkled, two issues with soft creases at lower right, else very good and clean. American Periodicals 198. Blockson 9116. $130-170 (3 pcs.)

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10-13. “I’se Gwine Back to Dixie.” Printed songsheet, “I’se Gwine Back to Dixie,” no imprint, judged c. 1875, 5-3/4 x 9-1/2. “...My heart’s turned back to Dixie, I can’t stay here no longer, I miss de old plantation, My home and my relation...I’ve hoed in fields of cotton, I’ve worked upon the river...But time has changed the old man, His head is bending low, His heart’s turned back to Dixie, And he must go....” On olive-tan pulp, the title slightly off-center, right margin feathered as if gently cut with dull scissors to separate from a larger press-sheet. Uniform marginal toning, light blind handling evidence, else about fine. Perhaps a proof or sample of an obscure printer. This ephemeral presentation, on pulp with lyrics only is rare; no examples located on WorldCat. $110-150

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10-14. Judaism and Sousa at a Black University. Interesting group of six items relating to Howard University, Washington, D.C.: Printed letter from Pres. Rev. Wm. W. Patton, soliciting donations. 5 x 8, 1 p., n.d. but c. 1880. “This institution...is a child of that Providence which emancipated, by the late war, four millions of minds...and it aims to solve the great national problem which stands connected with the relations of the white and colored races in the U.S...Being at the Capital...it enjoys a grand opportunity to illustrate to influential men...the possibility of...elevating the colored race to an equality with others, intellectually and morally....” • Commencement program, Theological Dept., 1880, 4 pp. Addresses include “Development of Judaism” by George T. Dillard of S.C. • Ornate ticket, 3-1/2 x 4-1/4, to Junior Exhibition, Class of ‘81, College Dept. • Invitation to commencement, Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Classes of ‘88 and ‘89. With stunning lettering simulating smoke from a gas light, breathed upon by a dragon. Printed by noted engraver E.A. Wright, Philadelphia. • Commencement program, Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Class of ‘89, 4 pp. With “Music by the Marine Band, Mr. John Philip Sousa, Conductor.” Faculty include five physicians of Freedman’s Hospital. • “Bulletin No. 2,” Theological Dept., Dec. 1892, unfolding to 5-3/4 x 10-1/2. Latter choice, other items with varying dust toning, minor wear, but generally good and better. $110-160 (6 pcs.)

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10-15. The Black Version of a Children’s Song. Oversize woodcut of a nattily dressed black alarmed at a “shoo fly” which has emerged from his loafer. Entitled, “Shew Fly! [Don’t Bother Me] / Comic song and dance...,” arranged by Rollin Howard, “Song 35, Gal(l)op 30, Quadrille 40. Published by White, Smith & Perry, Boston, 1869. 10 x 13-3/4, 6 pp. Unusually large illustration and display type for the era. “If I sleep in the sun this n----r knows...A fly comes sting him on the nose...That’s what my mother said, Whenever this n----r goes to sleep, He must cover up his head....” Extensive listing on back cover, “Catalogue No. One - Choice Catalogue of Very Popular Music.” Single blue crayon mark on cover underscoring “Song 35,” old diagonal crease, irregular 1/2 x 1-1/2 fragment lacking at blank lower right tip, postage-stamp-size fragment lacking at blank inside corner, three edge tears repaired with paper tape, some smudges, one on title, handling wear, but good plus, and splendid for display, showing the tainted version of this song sung by children well into the twentieth century (still using melodies from Verdi’s “Rigoletto” but with quite different lyrics). WorldCat locates only a modern sound recording based on an unlocated New York printing. $90-130

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10-16. “African Cut-outs.” Unusual amusement for children: paper-doll-style “African Cut-outs,” by Leo D. Sauer, Paine Publishing Co., Dayton, Ohio, 1939. Comprising ensemble of 8 sheets, evidently complete, 11-1/2 x 14-1/4, printed card stock, with African figures and a hut to be cut out and displayed. In original pictorial envelope. Instruction sheet advises: “...Color all skin brown.” Including African woman, child on her back, with large mortar and pestle; another with nose ring, carrying basket on head; man in grass loincloth building a fire; warrior with spear and shield; chieftain with feather headdress; man with elephant’s tusk taller than he; monkey drinking from a coconut shell; leopard, lion, hippo, ostrich, and elephant. Only the latter two animals, and part of envelope colored with crayon. Envelope front separated, edge wear, but complete and suitable for display; contents with some corner creases, else uncut, fine and clean. $45-65

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10-17. “Dandy Jim,” the Consummate Comedian. Large-format pulp book, “Roaring Jokes for Funny Folks,” with large cover woodcut of “Dandy Jim,” a laughing black performer in elegant cravat. 8 x 11, (64) pp. in all. Pub. by M.J. Ivers & Co., N.Y., n.d. but c. 1900. A compilation of “fun for the million - laugh and be happy,” with cartoons, jokes, and brief stories, tapping a broad vein of turn-of-century American humor. Including, “A Darkey’s Opinion of Monkeys,” “A Colored Preacherman on Hard Times,” “A Colored Scrimmage,” “Woman’s Rights,” verses lampooning German accents, page of six cartoons on “The Chinese Question - what it is coming to,” credit to Josh Billings and Mark Twain, and much more. With a wry, dry flavor, touching on temperance, tensions between men and women, and social morés. Cover and title leaf torn at lower left and chipped at lower right corner, just affecting border (only), elsewhere with uniform toning, slightly brittle, but internally about very good. Closely set type, affording hours of reading. Very rare. No examples on AbeBooks or WorldCat. $80-110

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10-18. Black History. Antebellum sheet music of a black love song - with the only romantic lyrics we have ever encountered mentioning “a pig and a cow.” Entitled, “Wait for the Wagon - Ethiopian Song for the Piano Forte,” by Geo. P. Knauff, published by Miller & Beacham, Baltimore, 1851. 10-1/4 x13, 5 pp. Copper-engraved. “...Do you believe my Phillis, dear, old Mike with all his wealth, Can make you half so happy, as I with youth and health? We’ll have a little farm, a horse, a pig and cow; And you will mind the dairy, while I do guide the plough...Together on life’s journey, we’ll travel till we stop, And if we have no trouble, we’ll reach the happy top....” Some dust toning on cover, characteristic foxing, but lending a creamy patina, and about very good. This song has become part of America’s folk song culture; it persisted in important folk song collections of the last hundred years. $50-70

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10-19. “A negro gathering herbs.” Advertising booklet of proprietary medicine manufacturer H.H. Warner & Co., Rochester, 1882, makers of the “Safe Kidney & Liver Cure.” 6-1/2 x 8-3/4, 32 pp., pink wrappers, pulp text. Full-size front-cover woodcut scene of “a South American chieftain and his tribe bringing in their day’s gathering of the rare herbs which are the bases of all the Safe Remedies.” On back cover, “a South American wharf where the herbs are shipped to this country,” two blacks wearing only loincloths handling the cargo, as a woman and four children lean against a bale nearby. Front flyleaf with facsimile signatures of notables represented as satisfied customers, including Presidents Arthur, Garfield, Grant, and Hayes, three of Garfield’s physicians, Gens. Sheridan and Sherman, Longfellow, W.C. Bryant, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Robert Lincoln, Wade Hampton, Cyrus W. Fields, et al. Additional views of the firm’s Warner Astronomical Observatory, directed by “the famous comet finder, Dr. Lewis Swift. The telescope has no superior in the U.S....” Detailed testimonials from dozens of customers, claiming quick relief from liver and kidney ailments pronounced untreatable by doctors, including Bright’s Disease, diabetes, and “gravel” (kidney stones). “Our...Cure is the only agent that can possibly restore a diseased kidney or bladder...On the revenue stamp is...a negro gathering herbs....” Some dust-toning and lightening of right half of pink front cover; edge chips but not affecting artwork, flyleaf loosened from staples, text browning, but very satisfactory. $55-75

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10-20. Black-Themed Advertising. “Old Favorite Songs - Words and Music, issued by Lawrenceburg Roller Mills Co., Lawrenceburg, Ind.,” makers of Town Talk baking flour. 5-3/4 x 8-3/4, 32 pp., colorful letterpress cover, with scene of blacks picking cotton in rolling hills, a horse-drawn wagon in the distance. N.d. but c. 1910. Beginning with “Dixie Land,” and including “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “Hail, Columbia,” “Just Before the Battle, Mother,” “Old Black Joe,” “The Star Spangled Banner,” “Three Blind Mice,” and others. Waterstain across bottom, lighter on other margins, 1/2 x 3 wedge trimmed from blank edge of black cover, else good, and suitable for display. $35-55

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10-21. “Zaza - The Female Slave.” Anti-slavery songbook, The Liberty Minstrel, by Geo. W. Clark, New- York, 1844. 4-1/2 x 7, 184 pp. + index. Brown grosgrain cloth. Extensive compilation of words and music, all with abolitionist content, many of the lyrics heartrending, stark, and dramatic. “An ardent love of humanity - a deep consciousness of the injustice of slavery - a heart full of sympathy for the oppressed, and a due appreciation of the blessings of freedom, has given birth to the poetry comprising this volume...so that all the people...may sing of the wrongs of slavery...Most of the singing of the present day, is entirely too artificial, stiff and mechanical. It should be easy and natural, flowing directly from the soul of the performer, without affectation or display....” Including “Gone, Sold and Gone”: “...To the rice-swamp dank and lone, Where the slave-whip ceaseless swings, Where the noisome insect stings, Where the fever demon strews Poison with the falling dews...From Virginia’s hills and waters, Woe is me my stolen daughters!” Also, “The Slave Boy’s Wish,” “Slave Girl Mourning her Father,” “The Negro’s Appeal,” “Negro Boy Sold for a Watch,” “Brothers Be Brave for the Pining Slave,” “The Quadroon Maiden,” “O Pity the Slave Mother,” “The Blind Slave Boy,” “My Child is Gone,” “Prayer for the Slave,” “The Fugitive,” “Emancipation Song,” and many, many more, the biting words intended to rouse abolitionist fervor. Including reference to the Underground Railroad: “The slave has seen the Northern star, He’ll soon be free, hurrah, hurrah!” (p. 146). Lacking top portion of rear flyleaf with 1846 gift inscription to (Mr.) Putnam from Milton Clark. Lacking top half of pp. 79-80, foxing, handling wear and toning, shaken, cloth stained and worn, some signatures bumped at bottom gutter, but still quite satisfactory, the use - certainly by a fervent anti-slavery campaigner - imparting its own patina and historicity. $65-90

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10-22. Black and Confederate Satire. view image Unusual carte “Native Americans,” artwork showing black and a Confederate in ragged clothing, in the woods in winter. The latter shaking his fist at the cigar-smoking freed slave, evidently blaming him for their harsh predicament. No imprint. Crease across lower left corner but not readily visible on front, stain at lower mount, wear across blank top edge, else good plus, with warm sepia tones. Very scarce. $70-100

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11. Transportation

11-1. Possibly the First Color Piece of Porsche Literature. Color folder for 1950 or early 1951 Porsche 356, 8-1/4 x 11-3/4, 4 pp. Watercolor rendering of dark blue coupé on cover, with smaller sepia drawings of Porsche-designed cars from 1900 to the “1945” Volkswagen Bug. On back cover, grey Porsche at speed, and large artwork of cinnamon-colored car stopped at an alpine inn. Four line drawings in centerfold on yellow background. Text in German suggests this is a new model. “4-Zylinder- Boxer-Heckmotor....” Some handling wrinkles, two edge tears, else very good and clean. Porsche’s first real production year was 1950. One of the first pieces of Porsche literature: neither their 1951 Le Mans entry nor any other “pre-A”-style cars are seen in the folder. Significant. $275-350

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11-2. Streamlined Mascot. view image Hood mascot from 1935 Morris 18, a highly stylized Deco winged-ball motif. With red “18” cloisonné emblem on each side, 1-1/8” round. Nicely mounted on attractive hardwood block, apparently using original threaded shaft and nut. Moderate pitting on top, fine and not wholly unattractive speckling of plating on flanks, 11/4” length at left flank lacking chrome, trivial superficial flake in one medallion, else both fine, and overall very satisfactory. An inexpensive prewar ornament of this cherished British marque, ready for shelf display. $65-90

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11-3. Early Chrysler Radiator Cap. view image 1924-27-style Chrysler winged radiator cap. Nickel over brass. Small hole drilled at top of dome, as designed, for Moto-Meter (outline visible), with secondary plate threaded inside to adjust sealing surface to face forward on car. Old light filing at bottom edges to fit contour of radiator shell, clearing “Design Pat. / Chrysler” marking at rear bottom edge, affecting only bottom of its diamond border. In all, about 25% plating, but imparting a natural overlay of soft silver on warm brown; some verdi gris on dome, else an original, uncleaned survivor. $130-170

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11-4. Deco Hudson. view image 1935 Hudson mascot, large aerodynamic eagle, two long wings. 61/2” long, 53/4” high. Jarvis maker’s mark on underside. Uniform pitting, some points of bare metal at top of right wing (only), else chrome varies from cloudy to brilliant, and doubtless improveable with careful polishing using a premium product, if desired. An uncommon and strikingly attractive display piece. $120-160

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11-5. Dodge Brothers Truck Ornament. view image Large, handsome 1932-35 Dodge Brothers Commercial radiator cap. Elongated butter-dish style, 3-1/2 x 6. “DB” on pedestal. Stant Mfg. mark on underside. Full original screw-clamp attachment hardware, including spring and cotter pin. Fine, all-over pitting imparting frosted appearance, several plating rubs at top edge of pedestal, else surprisingly unabused and complete for a commercial ornament, very good, and unusual styling. $100-140

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11-6. Billy Durant’s Second Auto Empire. Folder for 1927 Flint Six, pine green and black, with orange, opening to 10-1/2 x 14. Two large and ten smaller crisp halftones of different models, including Sport Roadster and 7-Passenger Sedan. Showing Elizabeth, N.J. address, but all cars shipped from Lansing. Some handling evidence. In old manual typewriter at top, “Flint joined with Durant in 1927....” Within several years, twice-millionaire William Durant would be working in a luncheonette, not far from his factory. $55-75

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11-7. Indianapolis of the West – 1912. Oversize ticket with stub, “Tacoma (Wash.) Automobile Road Races,” July 6, 1912 – the second day of racing at the brand new “Indianapolis of the West,” sanctioned by A.A.A. 2-1/2 x 5-1/2, red and black on loden green. Hole at top to “wear on a button.” A choice reserved seat, “Stand No. 1, at start and finish line.” Attracting top drivers, including Earl Cooper, Ralph Mulford, and Erwin Bergdoll, the 250-mile race was won by “Terrible” Teddy Tetzlaff, who was kidnapped days before the race, and held for ransom in a Tacoma brothel. With modern copy of lively, lengthy account of this ticket’s race in The New York Times, reporting a crowd of 50,000. Very fine. Superb automobiliana. Rare. $120-160

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11-8. Batman! Splendid color sales folder for the uniquely rakish 1974-75 Bricklin, flamboyantly signed across front by Herb Grasse, who “while an associate designer for George Barris, helped transform the Ford Futura concept car into TV’s Batmobile, and while working with Malcolm Bricklin, single-handedly designed the Bricklin SV1, an effort that resulted in multiple awards.”-- blog.hemmings.com/index.php/tag/herb-grasse/. 83/4 x 11, opening to 17-1/2 x 22 poster-style view in the desert. Both a low-production muscle car and safety vehicle, the Canadian-built Bricklin enjoyed modest sales. Grasse’s design captured Industrial Design magazine’s 1975 Industrial Designer of the Year award for product design. His many other production and show car credits include the 1970 Dodge Challenger Yellow Jacket Show Car, 1970 Ford Advance Design Pantera, 1971 Mission Impossible Show Car, and 1967 Lily Munster Show Car as associate designer for George Barris Customs. Excellent. With color photo prints (unsigned) of Batmobile outside Tick Tock Industries, and Batmobile in Batcave. Grasse helped create some of the most iconic and ubiquitous cars of the Sixties and Seventies, driving the quartet of design and culture: cars, fashion, music – and hair. $90-120 (3 pcs.)

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11-9. Studebaker. Turn-of-century sheet music, “The Studebaker Grand March,” by L. Marda. Published by John Church Co., “exclusively for the Studebaker Bros. Mfg. Co., South Bend, Indiana.” 10-1/2 x 13-1/2, 6 pp. in all, highly ornate Christmas-red and -green covers, with finely detailed vignette of “The First Studebaker Shop, 1850” and oval inset of “The Original Studebaker Home near Gettysburg, Pa.” Entire outside back cover with striking poster-style treatment, “Studebaker Vehicle Works - Largest in the World - Vehicles of Every Description,” with aerial view of their 98-acre facilities, ornate banners, 20 postage-stamp-size vignettes of different horse-drawn vehicles, and exhaustive alphabetical list of their products, including “automobiles, bob sleds, doctors’ buggies, drummers’ wagons, horseless carriages, mail carts, motor carriages, U.S. Army wagons” and much more. Copyright of music 1894; Studebaker’s first (electric) autos appeared in 1902. Much tattering of edges, but artwork complete, and both color and graphics vivid for display. Scarce in any state. $75-90

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11-10. Made in Georgia. Very rare deluxe catalogue of c. Jan. 1921 Hanson Six, “The All-Aluminum Car,” made in Atlanta. 7-1/2 x 9-1/4 oblong, (16) pp., blue, black, orange, and grey on cream vellum cover, with their cotton boll logo. Black on white enamel text, with butter-cream panels. Textured glassine endleaves. Six full-page photographs of the car in local settings, its radiator with placard “Made in Dixie,” plus chassis. Including “The Roadster - A veritable royal fellow of the highway. To drive a Hanson Six Roadster once is to know the pulse of power....” Humble text, belying the solid salesmanship resume of its namesake George Washington Hanson: “Nothing conceived by human mind and made by human hands can be absolutely perfect...We neither seek unearned plaudits nor offer anything savoring of apology. The Hanson Six is neither a sensation nor ‘too beautiful for words’ nor the only good automobile being built....” Hanson ceased production in 1925, a victim of the boll weevil and postwar recession. He moved to Pennsylvania, making baby bottles. Some handling evidence, minor wear at tips of overhung cover, but solid coverage on covers essentially unmarked, and overall about fine. Literature of Georgia-built cars is seldom seen. $350-450

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11-11. 62-inch Tires. Charming catalogue of c. 1908 Holsman, “the oldest and largest makers of highwheeled automobiles in the world.” 5-1/4 x 7-3/4, 28 pp., gold and black on pale olive covers, black on white enamel text. Factory view with four interior photos. Large photos of six models, plus motor and mechanical components; montages of “Holsmans in Native and Foreign Lands” and hill climb. Utterly charming runabouts, and a delivery wagon. “Have you ever wished for an automobile that...Raises less dust than a horse and carriage? Has solid rubber tires...and also do away with punctures?...” Exhaustive specifications, including “124/5 H.P. motor...door glass stowed away in suitable pockets...dragon style horn.” Tires up to 62” available. The Holsman was highly successful, and credited with igniting the highwheeler market, but their reluctance in offering pneumatic tires contributed to their downfall. Three handstamps of old time collector C. Ashton Cox, very light handling evidence, else fine. $120-150

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11-12. When Michigan Ruled Motordom. Two items: (1923) “Semi-Custom-Built Automobiles by Handley,” Kalamazoo. Model Six-Forty. 8-1/2 x 11, (8) pp., robin’s-egg blue, putty tan, apple green, yellow, and black, variously. Stylish artwork throughout, with centerfold view of a couple on a picnic, golf bag beside blanket, their husky lounging in back seat. One of a few American marques with a V-radiator, emulating Benz and other high-dollar Continental cars. “Out From the Crowd - There is a tang in its appearance that only a few of the costly foreign cars have achieved...A glance, and you need not be told its difference....” Their green turtleback roadster offers “dashing brilliance in this new creation.” Break at top of spine, one edge tear, some handling evidence, else very good and clean. Very scarce. • (1915) sales booklet, “The Open Road and the Hollier Eight - For Solid Comfort in any Weather.” Jackson, Mich. 4-3/4 x 6-1/2, (4) pp. Silver and black on cream cover with red and blue marbling, black on white text. Two line drawings, the roadster recommended for the “Banker or Professional Man.” Spine repaired with old tape, some cover soiling, nail(?) puncture, but still collectible. $140-170 (2 pcs.)

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11-13. “Last Short Line R.P.O. Car in the U.S.A.” Bittersweet cover with railroad postmark “Belfast & Burnham R.P.O. / Feb. 5, 1960,” cigar stamp “R.M.S.” Plain cachet, “Last Day Cover - Last Day of Operation of the Railway Post Office Car...Belfast & Moosehead Lake R.R...Maine - Last Short Line R.P.O. Car in the U.S.A.” Signed by Railroad Pres., Gen. Manager, and Gen. Auditor. Minor corner wear, else about fine. The Railway Mail Service had operated from 1864. Once the primary method for transporting intercity mail, such rail cars - often set up as rolling post offices - were used on 9,000 mail routes throughout America. The end of railway post office cars financially devastated railroads, the ripple effect leading to closure of many passenger lines. In Belfast’s instance, with loss of their postal income, passenger service ended a month later, though their freight operation continued. “...Through political scandals, financial panics, blizzards, fires, bridge washouts, wars, the Great Depression, lost leases, and closing industries, the plucky B & ML managed to hold on to its hard won 33 miles of track for 125 years...”--cprr.org/Museum/BMLRR/. Rare. $90-120

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11-14. The Union Returns to New Orleans – 1881. view image Delightful, whimsically illustrated railroad timetable printed by American Bank Note Co., “Schedule of Special Train - New York to New Orleans and Return, Via B&O, O&M and Jackson Route, Carrying the Members and Guests of the 71st [N.Y.] Regt./ New Orleans Mardi Gras.” Feb. 1881. 3 x 5-3/4, 4 panel folder, mint and olive greens with Federal blue outlines on white card. Utterly charming silhouette artwork of line of toy-like soldiers, soldiers in full dress uniforms with a “King,” the Devil, a carrot(!), and young woman at the carnival, Army camp scene, revelers sitting atop the locomotive and coal car as the train makes its way, dancers, and more. Utterly engaging, and probably the most unusual A.B.N.- produced item we have handled. Very minor wear, else V.G. $90-120

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11-15. Packard. Group of five different one-time proofs of Packard advertising, prepared by famed ad agency Young & Rubicam, showing advance previews of upcoming magazine and newspaper ads for postwar models to Packard dealers. About 9-1/4 x 14 to 11-1/2 x 14-3/4, black on sulphite proofing stock, to simulate final appearance. Each with photo or drawing of a Packard, with compelling copy. Addresses of Packard and Young & Rubicam; instructions to dealer in red. Because of their ephemeral nature and short-lived distribution, most proofs were probably discarded by the dealers after the ad ran, or when the model-year ended. Once one of America’s flagship marques, a series of management blunders led to Packard’s demise in 1958. Usual age toning, circular white file label on blank verso, varied file edge wear, else fine. Splendid for display. Now rare. From master files of American Automobile Manufacturers Association, Detroit, now defunct. With letter of provenance. $100-125 (5 pcs.)

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12. Civil War Telegrams

12-1. The Retreat of a Warrior. view image Historic Confederate telegram from Gen. J.B. Hood, sent on the very day of his arrival in Tupelo (Miss.), following retreat from Tennessee, his arm crippled from Gettysburg, a leg lost at Chickamauga. Received Jan. 13, 1865; telegrapher’s marking and docketing on verso indicate message was sent on Jan.10, taking three days to arrive, reflecting chaotic conditions in the South. 4 x 8. Received copy, to Col. Geo(rge) Brent, A.A.G., and variously Chief of Staff to Beauregard and Braxton Bragg. On partly printed Southern Telegraph Companies form, on adversity paper. “Your order in reference to the torpedoes, pontoon bridges & powder will be carried out at once.” Commanding the Army of Tennessee in a rapidly deteriorating campaign, Hood had begun his retreat to the Duck River some ten days before Christmas. As he marched, his “destruction of bridges, and rivers swollen by rains...made it impossible for Federal infantry to catch up with (him). The shattered Army of Tennessee reached Tupelo on Jan. 10. Here Hood was relieved of command at his own request.”--Boatner. Known as “the Gallant Hood,” his grievous war wounds and tactical setbacks did not dull his fighting spirit. Hood remained in Mississippi for the balance of the war, not surrendering until May 31. Edge tear and chip at right, lacking blank lower right corner, else about very good. Dramatic for display. $425-550

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12-2. The First Day of Fighting at Cold Harbor. Dramatic field telegram, in pencil, in clerical hand, from Union Maj. Gen. W.S. Hancock, to Maj. Gen. Horatio Wright. 5-1/4 x 8-1/2. On partly printed United States Military Telegraph form, datelined “Hd. Qrs., 2nd A.C.,” May 31, 1864, a contemporary marking “12:15,” evidently the time of day. “Gen. Ricketts has passed the swamp in his front & is now forming on the right of Gen. Birney.” The Battle of Cold Harbor began with an attack by Robert E. Lee in the early morning of May 31. Sheridan’s cavalry, deploying its new Spencer carbines, “held until Wright’s corps came up at 9 A.M. [the next morning] to relieve them...[Around 6 P.M.] the Confederate brigades of Clingman and Woffert were driven back by Rickett’s Division...”--Boatner. Commanding at 1st Bull Run, Antietam, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, and other battles, Gen. James B. Ricketts was captured once, wounded six times, and breveted for his gallantry at Cold Harbor. By June 3, Cold Harbor had entered the darkest annals of history, with over 7,000 men killed in about eight minutes. “In that little period more men fell bleeding as they advanced than in any other like period of time throughout the war...”--Battles and Leaders, Martin T. McMahon. In all, Cold Harbor would be Robert E. Lee’s last victory in a general engagement in the Civil War. Old folds into sixteenths, with perspiration toning on portion of verso, possibly from Wright’s own pocket; blank upper left tip torn but present, else good plus. Evidently unpublished. $300-400

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12-3. Sent Two Days after Taking Command. Significant Confederate telegram from Brig. Gen. W.N.R. Beall, Port Hudson, Sept. 27, 1862, 5-1/4 x 8-1/2. In field hand. To Gen. D(aniel) Ruggles, then commander of Louisiana east of the Mississippi. On partly printed South-Western Telegraph Co. form. “What portion of the forces do you wish me to take from this place. The force here is not in my opinion sufficient to hold the place against a land attack of a force of any size. My rank entitles me to at least a Brigade. Col. Miles will have a Command twice as large as mine at Ponchatoula.” Beall had just assumed charge of Port Hudson two days earlier. A crucial Confederate checkpoint guarding the Mississippi, Beall’s assessment was prophetic: in all, he would lose over 7,200 men, in furious fighting. “The deprivation seems to have been even greater at Port Hudson than at Vicksburg. ‘One of the besieged stated in his diary that he and his comrades ate ‘all the beef - all the mules - all the dogs - and all the rats’ that could be obtained prior to the capitulation’...”--Wiley in Boatner. Taken prisoner upon Port Hudson’s fall in 1863, Beall became one of a rarified group of Confederates - with an office in Manhattan, as a prisoner exchange agent. Old narrow paper mounting strips on verso, very minor edge tear, else fine and suitable for display. $375-475

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12-4. Stonewall Jackson Panics the Union. Dramatic Union telegram from E.M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington, June 13, 1862, 5-1/4 x 7-3/4. To Gen. Banks. Received copy, on partly printed United States Military Telegraph form. “I think if the State of your command will admit that it would be well for you to come to Washington immediately so we can have a consultation.” Stanton was preparing to fire Banks: In the wake of Stonewall Jackson’s brilliant Shenandoah campaign, Banks was recalled by Stanton, following his May 23-25 defeats in the Battles of Front Royal and Winchester. In fact, “subsequent reorganization put him at the head of II Corps...(but) at Cedar Mountain he was outgeneraled and defeated again by Jackson...”--Boatner. Old framing evidence, with band of toning along right vertical, from old mocha strip glued to verso; amber tape stains at blank top and bottom, nearly uniform suntoning of all except blank lower portion, collector’s neat four-line pencilled description at blank bottom, but about very good. Stonewall Jackson’s prowess caused consternation at the highest levels of Washington. It is certain that Lincoln concurred with Stanton in this telegram’s intent. While June 13th telegrams from Stanton to McDowell, and McDowell to Banks, are each published in The War of the Rebellion, the item offered is apparently not, nor is its text found in any other published source. $550-650

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12-5. In the Wake of Gettysburg. Confederate telegram from Col. S.W. Ferguson, Comdg. Cavalry, Okolona (Miss.), July 6, 1863, 5-1/2 x 8. In field hand. To Gen. Ruggles. On partly printed South-Western Telegraph Co. form. Docketed “R(eceived)...at Head Quarters, 1st Dist., Dept. Miss. & E. La., Columbus, Miss.” In full: “Communication from Col. Roddy proposing to attack Glendale with five pieces of Artillery and two thousand men on given day while your troops attack some point & destroy Railroad on the west. I request permission to accept offer to make necessary arrangements. His adjutant anxious to return. Please answer immediately. He reports not more than twenty-four hundred men in Corinth.” Not long before, Ferguson had hung a slave, who mistook his troops for abolitionists, offering to direct them to their own camp to surprise it, and threatened to “knock down and rape any white woman”--African American Southerners in Slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction, Nolen, p. 114. Ferguson was promoted to General la ter that month. Vastly overlooked today, the Battle of Glendale, Virginia, fought in June 1862, was described in Confederate Gen. Edward Porter Alexander’s memoirs thusly: “Never, before or after, did the fates put such a prize within our reach. It is my individual belief that on two occasions in the four years, we were within reach of military successes so great that we might have hoped to end the war with our independence. The first was at Bull Run [in] July 1861...This [second] chance of June 30, 1862 impresses me as the best of all.” Three-spoke internal star tear, possibly where spiked after replying, but with no loss of text, old narrow paper mounting strips on verso, two edge tears, just touching “a” in “Cavalry,” else very good. $325-425

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12-6. A Five-Way Order, in the Twilight of the Confederacy. Confederate telegram from Gen. G.T. Beauregard, Macon, Ga., Nov. 26, 1864, 4 x 8-1/4 oblong. In field hand. To Col. G(eorge) W. Brent. “Order Genl. Lyon to obey order of Genl. Hood unless executing important order from Genl. Gardiner [sic].” On partly printed Southern Telegraph Companies form, on adversity paper. Days after the fizzled uprising of the Northern Confederacy in New York City, the South was under considerable strain. Recipient Col. Brent was a delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention, and Chief of Staff to both Beauregard and Braxton Bragg, but “he lacked formal military training. His orders did nothing to clarify Bragg’s instructions...”--Themes of the American Civil War, Grant and Holden-Reid, p. 117. Gen. Hylan Lyon, a Confederate General for whom few items come to market, was serving under Gen. Hood. Gen. John Bell Hood had lost the use of an arm at Gettysburg, then a leg at Chickamauga; his troops were “man for man, perhaps, the best combat troops in the Army [of Northern Virginia]”--Lee’s Lieutenants. Gen. Franklin Gardner was captured at Port Hudson, but exchanged in time to fight on in Mississippi. A telling item, dramatic for display. Bold pencil docketing, “File.” Small semicircular edge fragment lacking, else about fine, with pleasing dark cream toning. $350-450

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12-7. Beauregard on Board. Confederate telegram from Gen. G.T. Beauregard, Kinston (N.C.), May 3, 1864, 4-1/4 x 7-3/4. Received copy at Weldon (Va.). To Capt. Jno. M. Otey, who joined the Confederacy with his seven sons, and served on the staffs of Beauregard, Bragg, and Johnston. His namesake, Pvt. John M. Otey, died at Gettysburg, on July 4. On partly printed Southern Telegraph Companies form, on adversity paper. “We leave today by regular train. Send ambulance to depot. Order Gen. Martin to save armament supplies & fund[?] on board of Schofield.” Beauregard was preparing for Petersburg, where he prevailed against the Assaults in June – “a stupendous failure” for the Union, in Grant’s own words. The Weldon Railroad, part of the Petersburg Campaign, was repeatedly contested in the second half of 1864, the Union incrementally tearing up track, before being stopped each time. Original folds, waterstains, some edge wear, else very good. $325-425

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13. Numismatics

13-1. Numismatics of the Holy Roman Empire. view image Illustrated broadsheet from twilight of Holy Roman Empire, Vienna, Jan. 31, 1800, announcing a change in usage of small copper coins, the 3 and 6 Kreuzerstucke. 8-1/4 x 13-1/2. At bottom, finely copper-engraved obverse and reverse of coin. Issued by Ferdinand Graf von Kuffstein. In Blackletter type, on interesting oatmeal laid paper with a profusion of fiber inclusions. Lacking blank upper left corner, light edge dust toning, else fine and suitable for display. $80-110

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13-2. A Massive Medal. view image A magnificent feat of medallic art – 1815 British tribute medal commemorating the just-ended Napoleonic Wars, pewter, 74 mm (about 2-7/8”), by Thomas Halliday. Obverse portraying Duke of Wellington, with sunrays behind crown and winged Victory above. Reverse showing hero Gen. Blücher on war horse, trampling French Marshal Davoust in uniform and spectacles, “The Fall of Hamburgh’s Tyrant / Elba’s Emperor....” Subtly satirical anti-Napoleonic medal, with rich relief, and remarkable rendition of the engraver’s art form, requiring magnification for full appreciation. Originally an engraver in Boulton’s famed Soho Mint, Halliday went on to become an influential and important medallist, and manufacturer of tokens, buttons and medals of his own design. His medal depicting George Washington was considered “the most artistically significant military/civil career medal of the Washington series”--William S. Baker. The medal offered here approaches the outer size limits of medallic art - in any genre. Modest cameo-like effect on obverse, the images toned to warm medium grey, smooth fields a fog grey, with both muted and bright flashes of lustre remaining. Numerous microfine superficial cosmetic marks in background, characteristic of this metal. In all, judged at least MS-60, its artistry, sheer size, and historical context comprising a superior piece. • In original hard, round presentation and storage case, cushioned ivory silk lining, and brass hinge. Some minor chipping of embossed black paper covering around circumference, tiny swivel clasp with free play but functional, else good. BHM 902. Bramsen 1736. Despite his celebrity, Halliday’s medals - irrespective of presence of their original cases - appear on the market only infrequently. $375-550

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13-3. 1794 Talbot Allum & Lee Cent. view side A | view side B With “New York.” W-8590, Breen-1032. 2013 ANACS EF 40. Solid milk chocolate, with deep red undertone, rich emerald flash in one sail, and gold outlining of some relief on obverse. A rewarding example of this merchant in the India trade. Closeup color photographs of obverse and reverse of all coins on website and furnished by e-mail. $375-475

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13-4. 1804 Half Cent. view side A | view side B Crosslet 4, stems to wreath. 2013 ANACS EF 45 details. “Scratched,” mainly a single straight diagonal in obverse blank left field from 9 to 10 o’clock. Else with luxurious darkchocolate toning, light refracted by the highlights, giving gloss over matte contrast. An enjoyable example, striking that difficult balance between honest use and numismatic appeal. $350-425

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13-5. 1827/6 Half Dollar. view side A | view side B 2013 ANACS AU 55 details. Curious microfine single “F” graffiti in obverse left field. Old cleaning, sufficiently long ago to have already acquired modest palest pink retoning prior to consignor’s acquisition in 1960s. Darker multicolor arc around 11 to 1 o’clock of obverse, else pleasing blend of crisp detail and refraction of bust. $275-375

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13-6. 1829/7 Half Dollar. view side A | view side B O-101. 2013 ANACS EF 40 details. Old cleaning, prior to acquisition in 1960s, with pleasing semi-matte patina of old silver, and most subtle flashes of pink and yellowish tones. Curiously light impression of “(5)0 C,” else fine, sharp detail, the grade judged a conservative one. $90-130

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13-7. 1829 Half Cent. view side A | view side B C-1. 2013 ANACS EF 40 details. Whizzed, noted principally on obverse on leading edges of bust profile, and on reverse border between 5 and 7. Morocco and mahogany brown tones, lending depth and interest. $65-90

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13-8. 1833 Half Cent. view side A | view side B 2013 ANACS AU 55 details. Corrosion, though judged superficial and almost entirely limited to reverse, imparting a tortoise shell coloration. Obverse with earth-brown tone of considerable depth, with hard gloss and visual interest, and three-dimensional brown-black highlights on curls. In all, a pleasing, rather sophisticated coin. $150-175

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13-9. 1835 Half Cent. view side A | view side B 2013 ANACS AU 50. Interesting microfine die break(?) on reverse, arcing from about 10 to 2 o’clock. Statuary-bronze-like tone with hint of olive, and hard gloss. A lovely example. $125-150

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13-10. 1837 Hard Times Token. view side A | view side B HT-73. 2013 ANACS EF 45 details. Old cleaning, prior to acquisition in 1960s. Privately issued, in absence of Federal mintage in 1837. “Standard Weight & Value / Half Cent Worth of Pure Copper.” Warm sepia toning, with some orange highlights on wreath. $120-145

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13-11. 1844 Cent. view side A | view side B 2013 ANACS VF 30 details. Corrosion. Deepest mahogany brown with hint of olive, pale mocha undertone of portions of rim and lettering. An example with much historical patina and displayability. $40-50

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13-12. 1857 Cent. Large date, N-1. 2013 ANACS EF 40 details. Corrosion noted, but well integrated surface, with velvety coffee-brown patina, and finely calibrated drop-shadow effect behind stars and some devices. Tiny carbon spot on obverse collar, short arc on reverse at 11-11:30 o’clock; greater wear at parts of “United States of,” else highly satisfactory. $80-110

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13-13. 1868 Three Cent. Nickel. view side A | view side B 2013 ANACS AU 50. Darkening of three serrations of rim just beneath date, natural airbrush-like smoothing of forward wave of hair, else pleasing uniform silvery winter-grey toning. $45-60

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13-14. 1875-S 20¢. view side A | view side B 2013 ANACS AU 53. Curious, almost precisely centered 5% grey angle-sensitive periscope shadow on obverse, perhaps a mint blemish, else with subtle, uniform, old-silver tone. $180-240

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13-15. 1908-O Half Dollar. view side A | view side B 2013 ANACS MS 60 details. Old cleaning, prior to acquisition in 1960s, now with faintest hint of desert sunset pink, with a bit more glow on reverse. A stately example, with a mature silver tone. $325-425

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13-16. 1917 Quarter. view side A | view side B Variety 1. 2013 ANACS AU 50 details. Old cleaning, prior to acquisition in 1960s. Somewhat unusual bronze highlights around periphery both sides, including shoulders and shield, giving rather striking theatrical stagelit effect. Under direct natural light, bold silver imparting a lenticular effect to the wings on reverse. $85-125

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13-17. 1923-S Commemorative Half. view side A | view side B Monroe and J.Q. Adams. 2013 ANACS AU 58. On reverse, “Monroe Doctrine Centennial - Los Angeles,” with map of Western Hemisphere. Two brown spots and a beam on reverse, else a pleasing example of this lovely coin. $50-65

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13-18. 1926 Commemorative Half. view side A | view side B “Sesquicentennial of American Independence - 1776-1926.” 2013 ANACS AU 58 details. Old cleaning, prior to acquisition in 1960s. Subtle and uniform daybreak-yellow undertone. Washington and Coolidge on obverse, Liberty Bell on reverse. A lovely example, suitable for the Revolutionary War collector as well. $70-90

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13-19. 1931-S Cent. view side A | view side B 2013 ANACS MS 64 RB. A mouth-watering example, with mesmerizing iridescent plays of light on the coppery surface. Hints of purplish undertone, especially on obverse. A most satisfying coin. $200-275

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13-20. 1936 Commemorative Half. view side A | view side B “York County / First County in Maine.” 2013 ANACS MS 65. Noted only upon second glance, trivial golden toning at obverse rim from 10 to 1, and reverse from 4 to 7, their symmetry suggesting a Mint imperfection. Else, the combination of heraldic crest on obverse, and sunrays on reverse, enhance the cartwheel effect on this superior example. $275-325

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13-21. Pioneer Philatelic and Numismatic Magazine. Three consecutive issues of “The St. Louis Philatelist,” with modest but mouth-watering numismatic content as well. May 1878, and Jan. and Nov. 1879. 5-1/2 x 81/2; 8, 8, and 16 pp., respectively. On yellow. A combination magazine-sales catalogue of stamps and coins, of E.F. Gambs, with illustrations. Including some coin and other collecting tidbits. Descriptions of newly-issued stamps from around the world. Announcing opening of his “handsomely furnished” office; “we now stand without a rival in the West.” Decries dishonest stamp dealers “palming off the vilest counterfeits.” Account of Gambs’ philatelic display at St. Louis Fair, including the triangular Cape of Good Hope and other valuable stamps. Article, “Stamp Collecting not Such a Foolish Pursuit After All.” Obituary of Sir Rowland Hill. “Valuable Coin Collection for Sale,” including unique Mormon gold, 1794 dollar, 1795 half-eagle, 1804 quarter. Separate 2-pp. pricelist of coins, including 1794 dollar for $50, 1793 copper 50¢, complete 1879 proof set $5, and many other bargains! First two issues uncut; minor edge wrinkle one issue, second dust-toned with some handling, else about fine. A short-lived effort. Evidently from old time library of philatelist F.E. Mills. WorldCat locates assorted issues at only four institutions. $100-140 (3 pcs.)

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13-22. “Numismatic Directory, for 1884.” Fascinating pamphlet, “Containing the names and addresses of collectors of American and foreign coins, medals, tokens, cards, paper money, bonds, etc., including collectors of Masonic medals, war decorations, and autographs. Also a List of Numismatic Societies.” Edited by Robert W. Mercer, Cincinnati, 1884. 5-1/2 x 8-1/4, 65 pp., blue wrappers. Likely over 1,000 names and addresses in all, divided into sections, including Bangs & Co., Benjamin Betts (with lengthy description of interests), Garrett, Maris, Randall, et al; separate list of Canadian collectors. Special interests shown for many listees: “Cents of 1794,” “U.S. Mint Proof Sets,” Roman coins. Purple errata slip bound in: “Letter E’s on p. 33 was left out on account of the confusion of the great flood, which reached 71 ft., 3/4 in., on Feb. 14, at 1 P.M. 1884, at Cincinnati. Also, the cause of delay in publication...to this day, Mar. 4.” Price list of Tilton’s rubber, postage stamp mica, shell, and looking glass cards. Full page “Wanted” ad of publisher Mercer’s Curiosity Store, seeking 1804 dollars, “all dates in U.S. coins if in brilliant proof condition...Autographs...of all great men, if in fine condition....” A working copy, with neatly entered address changes; period straightpin through preliminary leaves, dust toning and light foxing of covers, rear cover nearly separated at hinge, modest handling wear, else about very good. A wealth of information. Rare. WorldCat assigns a number to this title, but locates no copies. $150-200

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13-23. Facsimile Confederate “Half Dollar.” view side A | view side B Old cast copy of the Scott restrike of Confederate “half dollar.” Green-blue shading around parts of lettered rim, much as it appeared at time of consignor’s acquisition not later than mid-1960s, else bright and appearing “uncirculated.” A space holder for the underlying coin (itself a facsimile), valued at several thousand dollars. $35-50

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14. Philatelic & Postal History

14-1. Trial Proof Impression of Confederate Stamps. Steel-engraved proof by pioneer Confederate philatelist August Dietz, taken from the only surviving trial plate of Archer & Daly, Richmond printers of Confederate postage stamps and Southern currency. Repaired and returned to service once again to strike the centerpiece in his epic 1929 reference work’s deluxe edition. Rich charcoal-like intaglio die impression, right-reading image 2-3/4 x 6, centered on cream sheet 6-1/4 x 9-3/8. Fascinating item, depicting about seven 20¢ postage stamps, a partial Planters Insurance 25¢ note – and the crack in the ancient original plate, suggestively intimated by Dietz to have been the result of vandalism by Union invaders of their shop, though this will never be known. In his book, Dietz describes his find: “...Whatever untold story this mute relic holds - there is the ‘crack,’ and - no second relief was ever made of this type. This piece of soft steel appears to have served as a matrix for trial impressions of the 20¢ transfer-roll as well as parts of a 25¢ note of the Planters Insurance Trust and Loan Co...” With modern photocopy from Dietz’ book, and old auction catalogue cutting of another example, stating “only few exist,” with an estimate of $1,000! One vertical fold in blank margin, some edge wrinkles and 1/2” tear, subtle butter-cream graduated toning, the impression area fresh and extremely fine. CSA Catalog #U-T-1. $150-225

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14-2. U.S. Postal Use in China: “The country is upon the edge of a precipice....” Pleasing ivory cover, Scott #179, 5¢ Zachary Taylor, judged bright blue, socked-on-nose circle-of-Vs fancy cancel, black “U.S. Postal Agcy. / Shanghai / Sept 14 (1876)” c.d.s. Second “San Francisco, Cal. / Oct. 19” c.d.s. Jumbo margin at bottom, perfs into design at top, hairline margin at right, wide at left. To “Mr. D(olphin) A. Davis, Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina, U.S.A.,” a prominent antebellum and postwar North Carolinian, banker, railroad director, head of Salisbury Cotton Factory which became a Confederate prison, Mayor, and temperance advocate. Very light stains at blank bottom edge, some soft postal creases, else fine to very fine. Unpriced in Scott Specialized. • Enclosing extraordinary letter from his son John N. Davis, a business-minded, Chinese-speaking Presbyterian missionary in Soochow, China, Aug. 23, 1876, 5-1/4 x 8-1/2, 8 full pp., neatly penned on elegant sheer laid paper, almost certainly Chinesemade. “...the following funds at my disposal. Appropriated by mission $400, $250 in Greenbacks, and the $120 Mother gave me, and a little money of my own - in all $800...But tho’ I have found a lot I cannot buy it. The man who sold us land some months ago is in prison still and in such a state of affairs I cannot induce even the Christians to engage in an enterprise which will result in somebody going to prison. I was very active and employed the best business man among the Christians in Soochow. I told him that I would give him $30 if he would carry the business through. If I do not make the purchase before Oct. 1st, the beginning of our financial year, the $400 app(ropria)ted by the mission goes back into the treasury...

“But there is more to tell: if I know anything about Chinese affairs, the country is upon the edge of a precipice. England, on account of the murder of an Englishman traveling under protection of a Chinese passport, is about to declare war with China, and if this is done the country will go to pieces. This present dynasty of Tartans who came from Manchooria [sic] 200 years ago and conquered China is bankrupt and matters seem to grow worse day by day. Every one predicts the speedy downfall of this dynasty. As the reins of government are slack, disorder is prevalent; in the last month there have been anti-Catholic riots in various places. Well, all this put together has cowed the spirit of the Christians in Soochow and I cannot get them to move. If I could, I would push this land business thro’ and send the title to the land to a fireproof safe in Shanghai, placed in some house in the foreign city, under the protection of the almighty gunboat, and let the country takes its course...If these war-clouds blow over, I can buy the land in a few months...I am very anxious to have a chapel but I believe firmly that I have done my very best to get one and God has stopped up the way...I have up to the present time translated 95 Psalms [into Chinese?!]...95 in the shade is the highest that has been reached in this city. I am very thin but perfectly well...I have a nice bathing kong: it is simply a big earthen vessel like this [two simple ink drawings] ...I save my man the trouble of carrying the water down stairs. He gets up before I do and has hot water ready...These kongs are made for foreigners to bath in...Getting it up stairs was a job. A Chinaman and I slung it on a pole and brought it up...250 or 300 lbs. Not long ago a young Englishman came to Soochow and I had the pleasure of entertaining him. He belongs to a medical firm in Shanghai. When he went back he sent me 7 doz. bottles of aerated water...from Japan... Lemonade, Ginger-ale, Jargonelle Perry, Champagne Cider, Tonic Water...Sarsaparilla Water. I have some of each and these warm days it is delicious.”

Excellent. Highly desirable postal history, with a fascinating account of China. The addressee’s Papers reside in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina Library. $700-1000 (2 pcs.)

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14-3. On Beardless Lincoln Lettersheet. view image Antebellum letter penned on handsome stationery bearing flattering woodcut of the beardless Lincoln, printed for his 1860 campaign. Imprint of “Baker, Chicago.” Rail-split fence border, also enclosing flatboat river scene. N.p., n.d., but dateable based upon content. From “I. Jones,” 5 x 7-3/4, variously filling 4 pp. First penned in very light coffee-and-cream ink, then retraced in darker almond-brown, possibly by another person (perhaps the recipient), but in an old hand somewhere between about 1860 and 1920, and judged toward the second half of that date range. Splendid content: “Hurrah for Honest Abe of the West, Flat Boat, Rail Fence, and all. Now Frank don’t you think this paper is ‘sum.’ There is everything being done that will tend to create excitement in this part of the country. We have had a terrible storm here of wind, fire balls, hail, rain, thunder, lightning...It commenced in Iowa and extended into this state, devastating the whole country over which it passed. Some 200 or 300 have been killed...Horses and cattle were taken up and carried to a great distance, then thrown upon the ground...Logs and whole trees were carried to a distance of four miles. One mowing machine was taken up and carried off so that it has not been found although it has been a week since the storm. Parts of houses have been found 20 miles from where the last house was injured. The tornado was accompanied with balls of fire which were plainly seen from here...I attended a Mormon meeting the other day and heard some things not often heard in enlightened communities. Some of the comparisons made by the Rev. Prophet were so chaste and beautiful in style that I guess I will relate one of them...Such vast penetration of judgement that I saw plainly that he would soon be beyond my comprehension so I ‘slid’...” With cutting from a Matthew Bennett catalogue of a companion campaign envelope using this same Lincoln woodcut. No examples from the press of Baker of Chicago in the Harvard University collection of 5,000 Union patriotics; the matching lettersheet, as offered here, is even more elusive. Short breaks at two horizontal folds, three sets of pin holes along blank top margin, light old hinge trace on p. 4, else very good. $250-325

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14-4. Contraband Camp – at Robert E. Lee’s Estate. Group of four covers addressed to noted Quaker abolitionist and teacher of freed slaves Emily Howland. Active in Underground Railroad, supporter and teacher in some fifty schools for free blacks, collaborator of Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, et al. Shortly after Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Howland traveled to Contraband Camp, active in food and clothing distribution, nursing, and teaching. The center relocated to Camp Todd – Robert E. Lee’s estate in Arlington – to which the following item is addressed: Cream cover to “Miss Emily Howland, Camp Todd, Va., Near Washington, D.C.,” postmarked Washington, June 24, no year but probably 1863. Upside-down postscript by her correspondent, at left of stamp: “Emily, Do write to us at Camp Todd...Nim.” Camp Todd served as Freedmen’s Village. Smudge of black postmark ink on blank verso, light handling evidence, else very good. • Pumpkin-orange cover to “Miss Emily Howland, Camp Casey, Va. / Near Washington,” postmarked from her hometown of Sherwood, N.Y., date smudged but possibly Dec. (n.y.). Four-slice pie cancel. Insect spots at left, lacking 1/4 x 1 edge fragment where torn open at left, stain at blank top center, else good. • Porcelain-white cover to her at “Sherwoods, Cayuga Co., N.Y.,” Washington, Sept. 24, 4-ring concentric on pinkish 3¢, affixed at upper left. Minor edge toning, short edge tear at bottom front edge where opened, flap torn but mostly present, else fine. • Tiny ladies envelope, to “Emily Howland, Heath(s)ville P.O., Northumberland Co., Va., On the Potomac.” 2 x 5. Washington, May 15, probably 1866, the year Howland purchased the Arcadia plantation in Heathsville, resettling three black families from Freedmen’s Village, and building a temporary log school. Irregular blank left edge where opened, light foxing, else very good. $225-275 (4 pcs.)

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14-5. The Architects of the Sixties. view image Splendid collection of 27 First Day Covers signed by political notables, many for postage stamps with related themes, 1960s; eighteen with blocks of four, plus several with larger multiples. Many handsomely steel-engraved by Art Craft. A strong cross-section of the policy-makers overseeing the Great Society of the 1960s (for better or worse). Including: Supreme Court Justice Byron White, on 25¢ Paul Revere F.D.C., 1965. • Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, on 750th Anniversary Magna Carta, block of 4, 1965. • John McCormack, Speaker of the House, 3¢ Francis Parkman, block of 6, 1967. • Barry Goldwater, Christmas 1965, block of 4, postmarked Silver Bell, Ariz. • Sen. Cliff Hanson, Wyo., showing Old Faithful. • Nelson A. Rockefeller, Dedication of Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. • Sen. Everett Dirksen, Ill., 5¢ Herbert Hoover. • Sen. Harold E. Hughes, 5¢ Servicemen. • U.S. Grant 3rd, in turquoise, on 5¢ Appomattox, block of 4, postmarked Appomattox. • Sen. Hiram L. Fong, Hawaii. • Sen. Spessart L. Holland, Fla., two blocks of 4 bird-related stamps, plus 30¢ Special Delivery. Unusual. • Sen. George Murphy, Calif. • Rep. Harold Collier, Ill., 4¢ Lincoln coil, strip of 6, postmarked Springfield. • Collier, 5¢ Adlai Stevenson. • Richard J. Hughes, N.J. Tercentenary, amusing backstamp error, “Received / State of N.J. / Office of Chief Executive / May 32 ‘65.” • Sen. John Tower, Texas, Davy Crockett, block of 4, postmarked San Antonio. • Sen. Edmund Muskie, Maine, 5¢ Adlai Stevenson. • Sen. B.B. Hickenlooper, Iowa, on oddball 11/4¢ Non-Profit postal stationery plus 4¢ Lincoln. • Sen. Stew(art) Udall, on same. • Rep. Samuel L. Dening, Ohio, on same. • Robert F. Kennedy, on plain 5¢ J.F.K., postmarked Notre Dame, 1964. Unresearched; possible secretarial. Request copy. • And others. • Plus 2 identical First Day of Issue postcards signed by Sen. Len B. Jordan, Idaho, 1967 World Jamboree in Idaho. Occasional trivial tip wear or light seam toning, else generally fresh, and very fine to excellent. Delightful for display, the labor of love of a Mishawaka, Ind. philatelist, from a period of consistently attractive postage stamps. $225-325 (29 pcs.)

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14-6. Albert Gallatin Free Frank. view image Highly attractive free franked folded lettersheet, with balance in another Washingtonian hand, “Treasury Dept. / [To] Capt. Jared Mansfield, West Point, State of New York / New York Mail.” Brown-red straight-line “Free,” with matching “Washn. City / July 27” c.d.s., “1803” in another hand. Sec. of Treasury under Jefferson and Madison, “having genius for finance” (--Webster’s), Gallatin negotiated the War of 1812 peace treaty. He was elected Senator in Washington’s first term, but removed from office because he had not been a citizen for the required nine years: he was born in Switzerland. Torn fragment at blank flap expertly inlaid decades ago, light mirroring of lower portion and at blank upper right corner from blotter, very minor toning and edge wear, else fine. Suitable for display. $225-300

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14-7. Complete Set of Prexies. Set of 1938 Presidentials, Scott #803-834, mint, never hinged, original gum. 1¢ through $5. Centering varying from fine to near gem, and generally superior. Fresh, clean colors. Some, including Coolidge, with one or two soft creases visible (only) from reverse, possibly machine phenomena. Coolidge centering 75:25, and red touching uppermost tips of top perfs, apparently wet ink from printing, also seen on back. The first U.S. set including values that were not in use at time of issue; many of this series have become favorites. A quality association opportunity for the collector of Presidential autographs and political Americana. Old Scott catalogue value 142.35. Request complete condition survey. $100-175 (complete mint set of 32) (Also see collection of Prexie F.D.C.s, Lot 22-8)

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14-8. Excessively Rare Nineteenth Century Bisect. view image Scott #269, 4¢ dark brown, bisected diagonally, with complete #267a, 2¢ bright pink. Both tied by elongated patriotic flag cancel and “New York, N.Y., Jan. 21, 1898 / H” on petit cream vellum cover. To a correspondent under the old Third Avenue El. Trivial toning, else about very fine and pleasing. Robert A. Siegel Galleries’ database, 1930-2013, reports only two bisected examples of #269 known; each sold for 2300.00 (albeit with provisional notations), Whitpain Collection, in 2009. $300-500

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14-9. Half a Stamp on a Recycled Envelope. An unusual item: Scott #482, 2¢ red Washington diagonally bisected, on 2¢ carmine Washington entire, similar to #U413, Die 3, buff. On repurposed bank reply envelope, with black “Officially Sealed” label (trimmed at right before application, affecting last letter “d”), tied with black double oval. Postmarked Nebraska(?) to Easton, Pa., 1918, per colorful 2” diameter advertising label wrapping onto back, “Sold by W.O. Semple, Acme Quality Paints, Enamels, Stains, Varnishes...Easton, Pa.,” in red, yellow and black; 1/2” fragment lacking. Semple was a physician, druggist – and paint dealer! Some dust soiling, but good, and a conversation piece, showing the sender’s utmost in economy! $75-100

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14-10. Graf Zeppelin. Flown postcard, New York City to Berlin, with official purple pictorial cachet “First Flight Air Mail / Via Graf Zeppelin / United States-Germany / Oct. 28, 1928.” Cancelled N.Y.C., 2¢ and 50¢ postage stamps. Backstamped “Friedrichshafen No. 1 / 1 Nov. 28....” Boldly endorsed by sender, “Via Graf Zeppelin.” Upper half of cachet applied atop stamps, some postal wear, else very good. An historic event at the time. $60-80

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14-11. The Downfall of Hitler. Russian aerial propaganda sheet dropped on Nazi soldiers. Large drawing of Hitler being thrown down stairs by Mother Deutschland, surrounded by statues of Bismarck, Goethe, Kant, et al. In Russian and German, on peach, 5-3/4 x 8-1/2. On verso, “Ballade von dem heilsamen Schnitt,” ridiculing Hitler, together with text of surrender pass, offering safe conduct and good treatment. Very fine. Scarce. $70-90

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14-12. Black Jack on Cover. view image 2¢ “Black Jack” Jackson stamp tied to partly printed warm cream cover by highly unusual, oversize pineapple grid fancy cancel. To “J.W. Crary, Esq., Acting School Visitor, Norwich, Conn.” The envelope evidently a printer’s error, the bold word “To” appearing on verso, having miscalculated when the paper was printed, prior to being diecut and folded into a cover. Few pulled perfs, ample margins three sides, and a delicately applied cancel, preserving its many diamond facets. Very minor toning, hinge traces on verso, else very fine. An 1886 report aptly quotes Crary, in his Norwich school supervisory position: “...A large majority of failures in our schools can be attributed to the effects of indiscreet remarks made, perhaps innocently, by the parents in the presence of the children concerning the teacher and school”--Annual Report..., Conn. State Board of Education, p. 214. $90-120

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14-13. Mail by Rail. Partly printed letter, 2nd Asst. Postmaster General, P.O. Dept., Contract Office, Washington, June 8, 1857, 7-1/2 x 9-3/4, on blue. Printed “Post Office Dept. / Official Business” franking on integral address-leaf. To W.A. Crocker, Pres., Taunton (Mass.) Branch Rail Road Co. “The Postmaster General has accepted your proposal...for conveying the United States Mail, from July 1, 1857, to June 30, 1861, on Route No. 677, between Taunton and Mansfield Junction at $1200 a year, with one Sunday trip....” Washington “Free” c.d.s. Post Office’s spilled ink at upper right, original mailing folds, else very good. Nice for display. $45-65

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14-14. Letters by Schooner Betsey. Delightful partly printed document, Marblehead (Mass.), Jan. 2, 1807, 3-1/2 x 8. “...Capt. Jonathan Roundey in the Sch(oone)r Betsey from Mart(inic)o has this day delivered at the Post-Office in Marblehead, his Letters. Woodward Abraham, P.M.” Three-line endorsement by Roundey on verso, swearing that he has declared the number of letters from Martinico (Martinique) “for Citizens of the United States.” Some edge wrinkles, light toning, else very good. The Betsey was captured twice during the War of 1812. $45-55

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14-15. The New York Counterfeit. An interesting philatelic curiosity: a full sheet of 100 stamps of the notorious New York Counterfeit of Confederate #6, based on De La Rue 5¢, light greenish-blue, wide margins, ungummed. “Apparently, a print was made from a flawless unit of one of the existing sections of the 5¢ to 10¢ altered plate and, by redrawing the value panel, the design was brought back to its original form...”--citation accompanies. Expertly produced by letterpress on thin manifold paper, these were arguably the best of the C.S.A. #6 counterfeits, notwithstanding Jefferson Davis’ sleepy countenance on some. Uniform marginal pale honey toning, some inconspicuous fine light wrinkles, else about very fine. A conversation piece, and now rather scarce. $90-140

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14-16. Post Office Cannot Supply Stamps! Charming letter of A.D. Hazen, 3rd Assistant Postmaster General, Post Office Dept., Washington, Feb. 20, 1886, 8 x 10. Message in purple, in Maxfield Parrishesque hand: “Your request for certain postage stamps having been referred to this Office I have to inform you...this Dept. is not provided with any means wherewith it can supply the stamps named.” Typographically attractive, and flamboyantly penned title. Some dust toning, edge tear, handling, upper right tip chipped, but very good. A remarkably conspicuous individual considering his arcane position, mentions of Hazen include Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West, by DeArment, in connection with outlaw Lame Johnny (citation accompanies). $45-65

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14-17. Post Office Income: $5. Partly printed letter from Asst. Post-Master Gen., General Post- Office, Washington, Nov. 23, 1810, to Postmaster of Ark Port, N.Y., 7-3/4 x 9-3/4. Receiving last quarter’s Post Office business – $5. Signed by D. Shoemaker, Clerk. Brown “Washn. City” c.d.s. and straight-line “Free” on integral address-leaf. File toning, minor fold junction wear, else good plus. $30-40

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14-18. Columbian Fancy Cancel Collection. Delightful group of fourteen 2¢ Columbians, Scott #231, Landing of Columbus, each with different fancy cancel - also serving as a color study, varying from grayish to deep brown violet. Including chrysanthemum, four-wedge, crossroads, negative “W,” snowflake, positive and negative stars, single bold circle (on “broken hat” variety), mosaic, purple oval grid, violet and unusual slate blue negative three-rings, positive three-ring, and oval enclosing treads. One with perfs in design at top, else ample to very satisfactory margins, variously. An entertaining specialized assemblage. $70-90 (14 pcs.)

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14-19. A Chaplain’s Cover gone Astray. Honey-orange envelope, with interesting missent and forwarded usage, New Orleans to Andover to unknown. Franked vertically by “C(harles) Babbidge, Chaplain 26 Mass. / Soldier’s Letter.” To “Mrs. Sophia Dane, Ballad Vale, Andover, Mass.” Bold black handstamp “Missent.” Black “3.” Fine New Orleans c.d.s., Dec. 18, (18)63, and Andover “Dec. 22.” “Andover” then crossed out, and the envelope sent to parts unknown. Contemporary pencil “No. 1” on flap, indicating it was the first letter from him. Some minor postal creases, else fine, and a conversation piece suitable for display. Babbidge, a Unitarian, was also Chaplain of the 6th Mass. $75-100

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A Selection of U.S. Stamps
From a Collection formed 1940-1980
– Lots 14-20 through 14-32 are listed without estimates,
and offered without reserve –
(Extensions and customary philatelic terms apply;
details gladly furnished)

14-20. Proof of the First Postmaster’s Provisional, 9X1P. view image A core item in the history of philately: Plate proof of the 1845 New York Postmaster’s Provisional, on bluish bond paper. Position 5 from preliminary sheet of nine. The plate of nine, which produced no stamps but only proofs, was made before the plate of forty, which produced the issued stamps. Rich matte black impression. Good margins three sides, wide at right. Extremely fine. Provenance: Robert A. Siegel, 1980. With current letter of identification from Siegel Auction Galleries. Unconditionally guaranteed authentic and as described. (Catalogue value 125.00, 2012 Scott.) Offered without reserve. Some photographs on near pages; all stamps enlarged in color on website.

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14-21. Scott 1a. view image 5¢ Franklin. Dark brown. Three pen cancels. All margins very satisfactory. Sound and extremely fine, with lovely milky chocolate color. (Catalogue value 250.00+; balance of values 2011 Scott.) With 2011 Photo Certificate of noted expertizer William R. Weiss, Jr., graded 85

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14-22. Scott 2. view image 10¢ Washington. Black. On piece, tied by double pen cancel. Apricot-orange (from red) “Cincinnati O. / Mar. 3” c.d.s. Hairline margin at top, ample at left and bottom, good at right. Sound and fine to very fine. Pleasing to the eye. (Catalogue value 650.00.) With 2011 Photo Certificate of noted expertizer William R. Weiss, Jr

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14-23. Scott 7. view image 1¢ Franklin. Blue. Complementary blue grid cancel. Two hairline margins top and bottom, just in at sides. Sound and very fine. (Catalogue value 157.50.)

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14-24. Scott 9. 1¢ Franklin. Blue. Bit of next stamp at top. Three ample margins, in at bottom. Old cleaned pen cancel, else very fine. (Catalogue value 65.00.)

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14-25. Scott 17. 12¢ Washington. Black. One hairline, two ample, and one good margin. Expertly rebacked, cleaned, and looks nice. (Catalogue value 280.00.)

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14-26. Scott 24. 1¢ Franklin. Blue. Group of three: Horizontal pair. Neat pale grey grid cancel on each. Some pulled perfs along bottom, tiny dent in left copy, light corner crease in right copy. • Single. Good margins at sides, kiss at top, in at bottom. Cleaned pen cancel. • Single. Black “Mobile [Ala.] / Aug. 7 [1863?].” Reperfed, faults, and light soiling. (C.V. 145.50.) (Group)

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14-27. Scott 33. view image 10¢ Washington. Green. Light crease at bottom. Ample margin left and top, good at right, wider at bottom. Few imperf spots, as made. Black cancel, “(New) Yo(rk) / Dec...1866(?).” (C.V. 225.00.)

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14-28. Scott 35. 10¢ Washington. Darker green. Blue cancel at lower right. Tiny faults, very wide margins at sides, wide at top, in at bottom. Pleasing. (C.V. 67.50.)

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14-29. Scott 70. 24¢ Washington. Red lilac. Nice 8-spoke kaleidoscope star fancy cancel, nearly socked-on-nose. Reperfed at left. Wide margins at side, very wide at bottom, in at top. (C.V. 300.00.)

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14-30. Scott 71. 30¢ Franklin. Orange. Four-blade pinwheel fancy cancel. Tiny tear, else average to fine. Jumbo margin at top, wide at left, in at right and bottom. (C.V. 200.00.)

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14-31. Scott 71. view image Dark blue “(Re)gistere(d)” stamped top to bottom. Short lower right corner, else very fine, and a better item. (C.V. 215.00+.)

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14-32. Scott 116. 10¢ shield and eagle. Yellowish orange. Sound, on piece, tied by grey-black sliced pie. Average to fine. Very wide margins top and right, good at left, in at bottom. (C.V. 140.00.)

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15. The South

15-1. On Very Rare Patriotic Lettersheet – with Mint Postage Stamp for Reply. view page 1 | view page 2 Unusual letter of a Southern belle to Gen. (John Henry) Winder, future commander of dreaded Andersonville Prison. From Helen A. Thurber, Albemarle Springs (probably Va.), Oct. 24, 1863, 5 x 8-1/4, 1-1/2 pp. On lined lettersheet with large blue 10-star Confederate flag, Dietz F10-10, verse 14: “...Better to die as a freeman, Than live as a Northerner’s slave.” “Respected Sir, You would greatly oblige me if you would let me know if I could go home by Flag of Truce. I am very anxious to go home, as I received a letter from mother saying her health is quite delicate...and as it has been nearly five years since I have seen her. I think it is my duty if possible to go... I can assure you that your kindness will never be forgotten. If I can go will it be necessary for me to have a pass from you...I shall start immediately and will not want to be delayed in Richmond...P.S. I enclose a stamp.” Tipped beneath her postscript is a mint Confederate postage stamp! - a very fine example of Scott 12, greenish blue 10¢, three good margins and wide at bottom. Docketed on verso, “Oct 28 / Answered.” Trivial fine edge overfold at blank bottom, else excellent and clean. A very scarce flag design in any form, and a dramatic missive of war. Nine years hence, the writer married a Philadelphian; her Southern passion exemplified by the printed verse on this lettersheet was evidently tempered. $700-900

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15-2. A Thousand Dollars a Hand in the Old South. Superb, extensive letter from T. Bigelow Lawrence in antebellum New Orleans, Mar. 6, 1847, 4 overflowing pp., Mobile circular date stamp. An almost incredulous description of the life of luxury in the Crescent City, penned by this member of the namesake family of Lawrence, Mass.; his father, in the 1848 Presidential election, came within eight votes at the Whig convention of being named Zachary Taylor’s running mate. The writer here had recently embarked with a Harvard classmate “on a tour through the Southern States...The Mexican War was then in progress, and on reaching New Orleans the travellers found the city bustling with preparations for the invasion of Mexico...”--The Class of 1844, Harvard College, published 1896, p. 175. Lawrence’s fellow classmate, Perry, felt a patriotic urge, abandoning their grand tour, and enlisting, “armed only with a pistol, which he had made with his own hands...”--same. To Col. B(enj.) S(mith) Rotch, scion of Rotch whaling empire, Boston cordage magnate, and Overseer of Harvard, who had just married into the Lawrence family. Lawrence writes, “Col. Winchester gave a magnificent dinner here...at Hewlitt’s Exchange, a famous dining hotel in this city. He ‘did the thing brown’ as they say: 45 gentlemen sat down to table, among whom were Perry [his classmate] and myself...I have never seen anything to equal the luxury of the dinner. The cooking, or rather the ‘cuisine’ of the French restaurants here is equal to anything in Paris...Mr. Clay, Gov. Johnson of this state, Judge Eustis...and several prominent merchants & professional men...All the gentlemen whose names I have mentioned spoke. The great statesman as usual, was extremely happy in his remarks, which alluded chiefly to Boston and the Bostonians...The Bills of Fare were printed on Rose-colored Satin.” After dinner, Clay joined the others “with the intellectual game of poker. Whether Mr. Clay was playing (as the stump speech says he did among the potentates of Europe) at $1,000 an ante, or not, I did not observe, though I have seen gentlemen play... for $100 each...This is the fashion in the Southern country....” Additional 1-1/2 pp. cross-written at an angle, to save paper. A fascinating individual wearing many hats, letter-writer Lawrence owned the only four-in-hand horse-drawn vehicle in the United States, later used by coachmaker Brewster in their advertisements; became Consul-General at Florence, Italy; posthumous donation of his major collection of mediæval armaments is credited with starting Boston’s museum movement. During the Civil War, his wife is recorded as Lincoln’s dance partner at an official reception!--Lincoln Herald, Lincoln Memorial University Press, 1961, p. 176. Red wax seal mostly intact. Fine, rare, and rich in history, showing the social, political, and economic fabric interwoven between antebellum North and South. $250-325

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15-3. Letter to Gen. Sherman. A.L.S. in pencil of prominent Southern newspaperman Geo. D. Prentice, on pictorial letterhead “Journal Office,” Louisville, Ky., Dec. 15, 1862, 5 x 8. To Gen. Wm. T. Sherman. “The bearer of this, Mr. Aaron Hobart, is one of the most respectable citizens and best patriots of Boston. He may be relied on as the soul of honor and integrity. I warmly bespeak for him the kind favor of all my friends.” Pleasing cream toning. Fine. When the anti-foreign, anti-Catholic Know Nothings took control of Louisville in 1855, Prentice, “seeing the Know-Nothing movement as a way to evade the complex agonies of the slavery issue, wrote fiery editorials against the newcomers. They were fanned into actual flame on Election Day...when rioters attacked Germans and Irish...There were literally pools of blood in the streets”--The Insiders’ Guide to Louisville..., Nold, p. 21. At the time this letter was written, Sherman had succeeded local native Gen. Robert Anderson - of Fort Sumter fame - at Louisville headquarters. Hobart was employed by a Mass. manufacturer of cotton guns; an eponymous family member had been the “Democratic-Republican” Congressman from Mass. $90-120

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15-4. Robert E. Lee’s Classmate. Autograph Endorsement Signed of Col. James M(onroe) Taliaferro, a descendant of one of America’s first important Italian-American families, which settled in Virginia in 1637; godson of Pres. Monroe, classmate of Robert E. Lee, and Sen. from antebellum Virginia. Sept. 19, 1883, 4 x 7-1/2. On verso of manuscript bond signed by W(illiam) Sandidge of Amherst County, Va., merchant and Amherst Postmaster - under both the U.S. and Confederate Governments. Some stains, fold wear, else good plus. Crisp subminiature blind-embossed stationer’s mark showing U.S. Capitol. $90-120

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15-5. Old New Orleans. Highly attractive D.S. of “Aug. Macarty maire” (Mayor) of “Nouvelle-Orleans,” 1816 – the year following Andrew Jackson’s victory over the British. 7-3/4 x 9-1/2 oblong, partly printed. “Mandat de Payement” in which City Treasurer pays Augustin Gouvan “dix piastres.” Signed by Gouvan with crude “X.” Toned, break but no separation at fold in blank lower right corner, else V.G. Macarty’s autograph is evidently very rare. ArchiveGrid, Google, and WorldCat offer no results. $200-275

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15-6. Lofty Advice from “Amicus” of Charlottesville. Letter signed “Amicus,” from Charlottesville, (Va.) – possibly the correspondent of that nom de plum who promoted his ideals of scholarship in the Old South. Sept. (18)40, 7-1/4 x 9-1/2, 1 full p. Manuscript postal marking, but addressed simply, “Mr. S. Bacon.” “...There is no truth more certain than that the soul is immortal, and we are informed by the word of God that it must be forever happy or miserable...In the same ‘blessed book’ we are shown the way of eternal life - and directed how we shall ‘escape from hell and fly to Heaven’ - and shall we not listen to its message of mercy...And will you not now attend to this matter?...” The mysterious “Amicus Curiae” appears in The Bishop of the Old South: The Ministry and Civil War Legacy of Leonidas Polk, by Glenn Robins: “...At least one interested party...hoped that a strong classics tradition would serve as a ‘prophylactic against the narrowing and sharpening influence of professional studies.’ According to ‘Amicus,’ a number of [antebellum Southern] colleges and universities had fallen victim to this trend by making classical studies optional. He lambasted the implementation of this policy at the University of Virginia and charged the Charlottesville institution with providing a ‘mere professional’ rather than a liberal arts education...” (modern copies accompany). It is possible that our letter writer is the same Amicus. Brown on mint green. Handling wrinkles, minor toning, else very good. $80-110

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15-7. Reconstruction Alabama - with New Mexico Mention. Letter of Geo. V. Everson, on staff of Alabama Sen. and former Union Brig. Gen. Willard Warner, Washington, Apr. 15, 1869, 1 full p., 7-1/2 x 12-1/2. To W.T. Rossiter, 121 Pearl St., N.Y. “I am expecting daily to get an Indian Superintendency and think I will get it if Cox does not go back on Gen. Warner as he promised him his portion of those places. I cannot imagine why things work so slow. Warner says it seems almost impossible to get the head of the Dept. to do anything. You can see by the papers that Ala. has as yet not had anything outside of her state. Only yesterday Gen. Crow’s name went back to the Senate for Gov. of N.M...So I am here like many others on suspence and expence, awaiting from day to day. Joe Demmick has taken possession of his Post Office... It is worth about $5,000 a year...Gen. W.B. Woods was here the other day...I think he will be one of the new U.S. Circuit Judges....” 1/4” hole at one fold junction affecting one letter, very light toning, else V.G. • With left portion of Warner’s free-franked envelope, partial franking sig., “arner” trimmed by file clerk. Warner was delegate to the 1860 Republican Convention that nominated Lincoln, served Ohio with distinction, moving to Ala. to become a cotton planter - and Sen. - upon its readmission to the Union. Like Gen. Crow mentioned in this letter, Warner was also offered the governorship of N.M. $60-80 (2 pcs.)

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15-8. Tax on Slaves and ... Clocks. Partly printed receipt for tax on “Land, Money, Watches, Slaves, Jail, Town Lots, Bank Stock, Clocks, Poll, Poor, Merchandize, Carriages, Cattle, Bridges.” 3 x 6-1/4. Natchez, Adams County, Miss., 1844. Natchez boasted more millionaires than Manhattan. Signed by Sheriff and Tax Collector S.B. Newman(?). Fine old folds, uniform toning, else fine. $50-70

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15-9. Excavated from Tara. Group of seven brass buttons dug from sites of old Georgia plantations. Plain. Four different sizes: one each, about gold dollar size (7/16”), dime, and nickel; plus four, half dollar size. Minute variations in size suggest these were handmade. Five with eyelets remaining for attachment to clothing. At least some appear to have been used. One with much verdi gris, three with pitting, but all evidently as found, uncleaned, and interesting for display. Acquired from a collector in Dallas, Ga., home of cotton mills and scene of Battle of New Hope Church, near Atlanta. $55-75 (7 pcs.)

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15-10. Corn for the Confederacy. Three documents relating to Southern civilians G.W. Moore and O. Whitaker: Army voucher, headed “The Confederate States,” adversity-printed on grey ruled ledger paper, n.p., Dec. 31, 1864, 6 x 7-1/4. Seizing 524 bushels of corn. Signed by Capt. & Q.M. Jno. W. Froust(?). Whitaker’s sworn statement on verso, asserting that corn belongs to an estate, and impressment made in error. • Manuscript document, same date, 5-3/4 x 7-3/4. Impressing 1,083 lbs. fodder for “(b)enefit of the public service...,” signed by Lt. J.M. Forshey, Squires’ Battery. Countersigned by Capt. (Wm. C.?) Gibson, Commander. Worn at left, affecting first letters on four lines. Squires’ Battery, part of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans, fought at Gettysburg. • A.D.S. of Impressment Agent H. Taylor, Nov. 4, 1864, 4-1/2 x 7-1/4. Purchasing “under impressment orders from Dist. H.Q...all the surplus corn & fodder belong(ing) to the said Estate...2,300 bushels corn...9,000 lbs. fodder.” Penned on sheet cut from an accounting book, ruled in pink and blue. Last with considerable wear from old folds; evidently carried in a pocket for a long time, hoping for payment by the waning Confederacy. $140-180 (3 pcs.)

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16. Confederate Covers

16-1. The Other President of the Confederacy. view image Confederate soldiers stampless cover, to “Maj. Gen. Howell Cobb, Macon, Ga.,” defending that beleaguered city. On tan adversity paper. “Milledgeville Ga. / Nov. 10” (1864) black c.d.s., italic black “Paid 10.” Franked “Ch(ar)g(e) Benj.(?) Taylor Cdg.” Old hinge on back flap, some postal wear, else about very good. Though a five-term Congressman, Buchanan’s Treasury Secretary, and antebellum Gov. of Ga., Cobb is “probably best known as one of the founders of the C.S.A., having served as Pres. of the Provisional Confederate Congress...Cobb served for two weeks, between the foundation of the Confederacy and election of Jefferson Davis, as first President...”--wikipedia. The irony does not end there: when Pres. Zachary Taylor died in 1850, as Speaker of the House, Cobb was in line to become U.S. President for two days - but did not meet the minimum age requirement of 35. Cobb held Macon until Apr. 20, 1865. $150-190

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16-2. First Flag of the Confederacy. view image Confederate patriotic envelope, postally unused, with first 1861 flag of the Confederacy, 7 star. Variant type, punctuation, and artwork. Unlisted slogan,”Our Flag / Death before Dishonor.” In dark blue on cream. Possibly produced in the North by a Southern sympathizer. Two hinge traces on verso, light toning, else fine. None in Robert Siegel auction archives 1930-present. $70-90

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16-3. A True Adversity Cover. view image Confederate soldiers envelope, handmade from piece of pulp, from “Private G.W. Sikes, Comp. B, 45th Regt., Geo(rgia) Vol(unteers),” black Richmond c.d.s., 1862, straightline “Due 10.” To his wife in Barnesville, Ga., “in haste.” Originally a shoemaker, Sikes fought in A.P. Hill’s Div. from May 1862 to May 1863. Cancellation smudged and incomplete, ink light but legible, foxed and much worn at its imperfect folds, but satisfactory and instructive, its appearance conveying more of the tumult and hardships of the Civil War than many costly covers in superior condition. With his brief service history. $45-65

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16-4. To University of Virginia. view image Tan homemade Confederate stampless cover, black “Petersburgh Va. / Dec. 27” c.d.s., encircled “10.” To “Miss Mary L. Minor, University [of] Virginia / Care Prof. Jno. B. Minor.” Mary Minor is mentioned in several works, including The Impending Crisis: America Before the Civil War, 1848-61 by Potter. Her distinguished father was Prof. of Common and Statute Law. He is reverentially referred to as “that outstanding public servant and citizen of Richmond...”--Ratification of the Twenty- First Amendment to the Constitution of the U.S..., p. 449. (Modern copies accompany.) Dust toning on back flap, less so on front, else fine and pleasing. $80-100

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16-5. From Occupied New Orleans. view image Apricot-yellow cover, “New Orleans La. / Feb. 20 1863” c.d.s. with uncommonly good impression of the tiny year in postmark; four-ring concentric fancy tying 3¢. To “Rev. P. McMenamy, St. Mary’s Seminary, Perryville, Perry County, Missouri.” “Joseph Fessier” at side, presumed the sender. Old hinges to vellum piece of exhibition sheet, minor handling toning, else about fine, and attractive. $50-70

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16-6. Green Petersburg Cancellations. view image Confederate stampless cover with green “Petersburg / Aug 30” c.d.s. and green encircled “10.” Manuscript cornercard, “Soldiers letter, 18th SCV.” To “M.V. Bartley, Esq., Williamson, Anderson Dist., S.C.” At least nine Bartleys served as privates in South Carolina units. Torn open at left, then trimmed, else fine and interesting, with broad smudges of the same characteristically greasy pea-green ink on verso, presumably from stacking of envelopes by postmaster when freshly cancelled. $90-130

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16-7. Blue Petersburg Cancellation - from a future Confederate Congressman. view image Homemade Confederate stampless cover with bright indigo blue “Petersburg / July 19” (1862 or 1863) c.d.s. and “10.” From “Clifford Anderson, 2nd Lieut., Co. C, 2nd Ga. Battalion.” To his wife, “Care of Mr. C.B. Stone, Macon, Ga.” Stone’s store sold military caps and hats. Anderson was a remarkable personality: orphaned at 12, he “obtained a broad classical education without the benefit of a teacher....” By 19, he was a practicing attorney. Opposing secession until late 1860, Anderson advanced to Lt. of the Floyd Rifles. “As a result of his conduct in the Gettysburg campaign he was considered for promotion, but before any action was taken he resigned to seek a place in the Confederate Congress...In the last stages of the Confederacy he opposed peace negotiations and voted to arm the slaves...”--Biographical Register of the Confederate Congress, Warner and Yearns, pp. 4-5. Pleasing sandstone shade, two (ink?) spots on postmark, uniform dust toning, else about fine. Very scarce Georgia autograph. $130-170

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16-8. A Young Miss Boosts Southern Morale. view image Sour-lemon-colored cover with an unusual story to tell. Confederate #11, 10¢ blue, four large margins, the top especially generous. “(Ri)chmo(nd), Va. / Feb 2” c.d.s., partially off cover. Addressed in a florid hand to “Miss Anna L. Drake, Care (of) Rev. A. Rice, Anderson C.H., S. Carolina,” with notation “12th” at upper left. Uniform dust-toning, edges lightly tattered, minor stain at blank right edge, else very satisfactory and attractive. Born 1842, one of nine siblings, Anna “did her part to keep the morale of the troops high by writing to them”; a portfolio of letters to her, one such almost certainly carried in this envelope, resides in the University of Georgia Libraries (copy of citation accompanies). Though she passed away in 1890, her siblings lived to as late as 1955. Her custodian is probably Rev. Amaziah Rice, “a noted Baptist preacher of early times...Col. of the 4th S.C. Regt...For six years he served the state in the legislature, from 1826 to 1832...shar(ing) in the honor of granting a charter to the first railroad in America built for steam cars alone, the old South Carolina road...”--Tradition and History of Anderson County, Vandiver, 1928, pp. 47-38. Also with lengthy biographical sketch of Rice, and photograph of gravesite of Anna. $110-140

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16-9. Supporting the Troops. view image Envelope to the same addressee as above: Confederate #12, 10¢ blue, very fine with four nice margins, affixed at upper left corner. Tied to ivory cover with black “Savannah, Ga.” c.d.s. To “Miss Annie L. Drake, Anderson Court House, So. Ca. / Care of Rev. A. Rice.” Opened roughly at left and partially at top, short tear at blank right edge, soiling, else satisfactory. See preceding lot for interesting details. Miss Drake was evidently in a hurry to open her letter! $100-130

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16-10. “Company Shops” and Buried Confederate Gold. view image Two Confederate #6, 5¢ light blue, one 75% removed, possibly snagged en route, on mocha homemade cover. Right stamp very good with faults. Blue-green double-circle cancel “Hillsboro N.C. / Nov 10, 1863.” To “Mr. Thomas H. Fruitt(?), Company Shops, N.C. / In hast(e).” Forerunner of the city of Burlington, Company Shops served as a maintenance facility for the North Carolina Railroad. “...Company Shops became the center of furor over buried Confederate treasure, estimated to include over $500,000 in gold. During the last chaotic days of war in North Carolina, gold coins, bullion, treasury funds, and other valuables were shipped through the town. Much of the treasure disappeared...and some was reportedly buried along the tracks near Company Shops...”--Historic Alamance County..., Vincent, 2009, p. 13. Much toning of flaps - probably glued with molasses, fine wrinkles, else satisfactory, with an interesting address. $60-90

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16-11. To a Confederate Confectioner. view image Exceptionally clean and attractive brown kraft adversity cover, with horizontal pair #7, 5¢ light blue, extremely fine. Black “Atlanta Ga. / Mar 7” c.d.s. To “Mr. M. Strenna & Co., Montgomery, Ala.” Characteristic light cockling, right stamp lifting, else V.F. overall. Likely to Matthew Strenna, the antebellum confectioner and fruit merchant-turned-Corporal in Alabama Local Defense, assigned to special service to guard U.S. prisoners-of-war at Montgomery County Jail. Strenna issued their own scrip in a single denomination, 10¢, which is excessively rare. $100-140

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16-12. An Unusual Stamp Variety. view image Horizontal pair #7 var., 5¢ blue, extremely fine. Left stamp with left frameline merged into stamp (filled in border), probably the result of a worn printing plate. On cover homemade of ledger paper, with buff ruled lines at left. Black double-circle cancel “Camden S.C. / Aug 4.” To “Miss Floride Bee, Care of Jas. M. Bee, Esq., State Bank, Charleston, S.C.” Contemporary irregular full-height tear at left where mended by sender on verso before paper made into an envelope, waterstains, else very satisfactory, with a good address and stamp variety. James M. Bee served as the Bank’s “Outdoor Clerk and Porter”--The History of the Banking Institutions Organized in S.C. Prior to 1860, Clark, p. 190. A young family member, James L., possibly a brother, served in the Charleston Dragoon Cavalry; wounded and captured at Cold Harbor, he died in 1864. $90-130

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16-13. With an Octagonal Stamp. view image Interestingly trimmed #11, 10¢ blue, each corner angled by sender (else postmaster) for artistic octagonal effect. On sulfur-yellow cover, black Penfield, Va. c.d.s., 1864, off cover from about 11 to 1 o’clock. To “Mrs. Louisa Y. Jones, Care Gen. T.F. Jones, Laurens C.H., So. Carolina.” Lacking part of blank back flap, crinkle at left vertical edge, dust toning, else good. At the time this was sent, the addressee’s husband, Thomas F. Jones of the 16th Battalion Georgia Cavalry, a partisan ranger unit, was a P.O.W. Captured at Blountsville, Tenn. in 1863, he was imprisoned at Johnson’s Island til Mar. 1865. The letter may have been from Dr. R.M. Young in Penfield, Ga., in whose care Mrs. Jones also received mail. $80-110

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16-14. With Two Raleigh Cancellations. view image Confederate #12, 10¢ blue, very fine with one adequate and three ample margins. Tied to dusk-blue cover with twin “Raleigh, N.C. / May 3” c.d.s. To “Miss Margaret Gill, Mebanesville, Alamance Co., N.C.” Creases at two tips, light wear at a third, toning around periphery, else very good. $60-80

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16-15. Milky Blue on Amber. view image Confederate #12a, 10¢ milky blue, very good with lower right corner pulled, presumed as sold by postmaster. Manuscript cancel “Flint Hill / June 15” (Rappahannock else Pittsylvania County, Va.; the former Flint Hill lies on what was once the main road from the mountains to Richmond). To “Miss Mollie E. Brady, Scottsville, Albemarle Co., Va.” Opened roughly at top, cleverly and expertly repaired using part of back flap, some dust toning and fingerprints, else about very good and suitable for display, the warm brown ink on amber cover pleasing. $70-100

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16-16. Confederate Military Cancel. view image Confederate #12c, 10¢ greenish blue, fine to very fine, pulled upper right corner just touching design. Tied to lovely orange-brown cover with Army of Northern Virginia target cancel, Dietz ANV1T. To “Miss M.L. Ketner, Coleman’s P.O., Rowan County, N.C.” Coleman’s was a station on the N.C. Railroad. About a dozen members of the Ketner family served in the Confederate Army; the only one from Rowan County was evidently 43-year-old farmer G.M. Ketner, who enlisted in Oct. 1864. Interesting blind-embossed crest on flap. Minor wear at three tips, fine creases, else about fine and pleasing to the eye. $125-175

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16-17. A North Carolina Dynasty on a Cover. view image Confederate #12e, 10¢ green, extremely fine with four large margins. Manuscript cancel on cover to “Mr. D.A. Scott, Wilson, N.C. / In haste.” With extensive notations cross-written in contemporary pencil, concluding on stamp, “A letter authorizing B. Scott to Recd. money for Z.M. Scott. Aby Z. Scott was born Dec. 22, 1840 and Recd. part of her Mother’s Estate Jan. 26, 1864.” This estate sale, handled by addressee D.A. Scott, included “garden vegetables, a spinning wheel, 1 bugle, a brandy still...(and) 788 lbs. of bacon...”--accompanying 6-pp. biographical sketch of D.A. Scott, linking all of the four Scotts mentioned on this cover. As of 1860, Scott had a 7-year-old male slave, and a 10-year-old female. Some handling toning, few small stains, else V.G. Unusual. $150-190

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16-18. Fought at Fort Sumter. view image Confederate stampless, to “Mr. John F. McElmurr(a)y, Alexander, Burke Co., Georgia.” Black c.d.s. “Richmond Va. / Aug. 30, 1861,” with small circular “Paid 10,” both handstamps about one-third off cover. McElmurray was Capt. in the 32nd Georgia, having fought at Fort Sumter, John’s Island, River’s Bridge, Ocean Pond, Fla., and other battles, serving through Appomattox. Elected to the Georgia State Legislature in 1894, he owned “a nice farm of 2,000 acres near Alexander, and is a citizen highly esteemed not only for his public usefulness, but for his character”-- Memoirs of Georgia. Some uniform dust-toning, else good plus. $70-90

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16-19. To a Confederate Paper Mill. view image Confederate #11, 10¢ rich blue, tied to light mocha cover with “Wilmington, N.C. / July 7” c.d.s. To “Mr. M.M. Kendrick, Buffalo Papermill, Cleaveland Co., N.C.” One of just six paper mills in North Carolina in 1860 - of 555 nationwide - the Shelby enterprise boasted twelve employees, producing $18,000 worth of paper for the year, a miniscule sum. “As both a specialized and necessary type of manufacturing facility, the paper mills of the Confederate States have received little attention from paper historians and virtually none from historical and industrial archaeologists...”--Paper Mills in the Confederate South: Industrial Archæology of a Forgotten Industry, by Donald B. Ball, Ohio Valley Historical Archæology, 2002 (selected pages accompany). Cover reduced at left, curiously oily fingerprints, else satisfactory. Information on this small and obscure paper mill is scant and conflicting. $120-150

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16-20. The Hammonds of Redcliffe. view image Confederate #11, 10¢ greenish blue, tied to unusually thin and translucent homemade toast-brown cover. With complete “Wilmington, N.C. / Jan. 29 / 5 Paid” c.d.s., Dietz Type IV. To “Miss Kate S. Hammond, Care Gen. M.C.M. Hammond, Hamburg, South Carolina.” Stamp cut close all around, with edge faults; cover lacking upper left tip and back flap, stain at blank upper center, not unattractive mottled toning, fine creases, else about very good. Kate Hammond is intriguingly mentioned in Women in the Civil War, Massey, p. 296, in a passage about the overseas colony of South Carolinians in Paris. Gen. Marcus Claudius Marcellus Hammond appears in a plethora of books about South Carolina and Southern history, most auspiciously in The Hammonds of Redcliffe, ed. by Carol Bleser, University of S.C. Press. A West Point graduate, he fought in the Indian and Mexican Wars, becoming a cotton planter, serving in the S.C. legislature in the fateful term leading to secession. Moving to Georgia, he raised thirty companies for the Confederacy. Hammond is also mentioned in South Carolina Goes to War by Cauthen, Planting a Capitalist South: Masters, Merchants, and Manufacturers by Downey, and many others. Selected research accompanies. $120-150

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16-21. 10¢ Green on Homemade Cover. view image Confederate #11d, 10¢ green, fine to very fine, with small edge faults at bottom. Tied to thin and translucent homemade toast-brown cover, from same sender as preceding lot. With complete “Wilmington, N.C. / Jan. 26” c.d.s. To “Miss Kate S. Hammond, Care Gen. M.C.M. Hammond, Hamburg, South Carolina.” Halo of molasses(?) toning around stamp, light tattering at upper right corner, not affecting stamp, else fine and clean. See preceding lot for biographical details of this interesting family. Selected research accompanies. $130-170

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17. Union Covers

17-1. Excessively Rare Pictorial Abolition Cover. view image Extraordinary antebellum anti-slavery envelope with all-over montage of cruel scenes of slavery. Printed on flap side, in England, c. 1850s. Addressed to “Robert E. Beecher, Care of W.H. Beecher, Reading, Mass.,” nephew of abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, Williams College Class of 1860, serving in Civil War, and a prominent local attorney. “Designed & Engraved by J. Valentine, Dundee [Scotland] / Ackermann & Co., London, Oliphant & White, Glasgow, Johnstone & Hunter, Edin(bo)r(o), & R. Theobald, London.” Black on palest blue-grey. Six detailed scenes, including vivid view of a slave auction, a family being broken up, as men trudge toward a ship, others in neck chains before the whip of an overseer on horseback; a slave being whipped at a post; another being caned in the field; a black, seated on cotton bales, quoting from the Bible on his lap; a woman and baby fleeing in the night; and slave being kicked, as his wife is held back. In ribbons, “The eye of the Lord Lod is upon you / All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do you so unto them / Ye who take freedom from (Men) how will you answer it to God....” One of two designs attributed to Society for Abolition of Slavery--The Philatelic Record, 1883, Vol. V, p. 205. Illustrations are suggestive of the scenes described in Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and perhaps inspired by her work. Such depictions became an important factor in making the issue of slavery a moral one, adding tinder to the impending crisis. Scott #11, dull red, red grid cancel. Dark pink wax stain and 1” tear on flap, some handling wrinkles and soiling of mailing side, but design side about fine, and overall about very good. With old auction pochette of Aubrey Bartlett, and 1988 Philatelic Foundation certificate, to noted philatelic dealer Robert G. Kaufmann, declining opinion on whether stamp originated on this cover (though it is tied by cancel). Even if it were postally unused, it is a dramatic and valuable item. No covers of any design of this issuer in any Robert A. Siegel sales, 1930 to date. None located in other philatelic sales. Only one located in institutional collection (Hull Museums, U.K.). $650-850

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17-2. The Man Who Hung Guiteau. view image Interesting cover entirely in hand of accomplished Union officer, later Gen., John S. Crocker, with unusual form of franking at upper right: “I certify that the within is a Soldier’s letter, John S. Crocker, Col. 93d N.Y.V.” To “Mrs. Harriette S. Crocker, Cambridge, Wash(ington) Co(unty), N.Y.” Postmark light but legible; contemporary pencil notations confirm “Nov. 13- 15, 1862 / Camp at Warrenton, Va., McClelland [sic] out - Burnside in / R. Liston Gray.” (Gray, of the 91st N.Y., was killed at The Wilderness, in 1864; Crocker was wounded three times in the same battle.) “Due 3” in black. On verso, possibly in Crocker’s postwar hand, in pencil, “To be saved for the boys, 1885.” Crocker organized the 93rd N.Y., naming it the Morgan Rifles in tribute to his friend, the Governor; the unit served as the guard for Army of the Potomac’s headquarters, including at Gettysburg. Captured at Yorktown in 1862, Crocker was held in Libby, Salisbury, and Belle Isle Prisons, until exchanged through special effort by Stanton. Among Crocker’s letters in the University of Virginia Library, he stated, upon his exchange in Aug. 1862, that he would call on Stanton and Lincoln “tomorrow.” As postwar Warden of the Washington, D.C. Jail, Crocker “had charge of all the arrangements for the confinement and hanging” of Pres. Garfield’s assassin--obituary; modern copy accompanies. 75% of red wax seal remaining. Two edges tattered but not affecting text, wrinkles, some soiling, but satisfactory, with pale toast color and its war travels exuding much character. $140-180

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17-3. “I will accept no terms but unconditional surrender.” view image Uncommon design, “Maj. Gen. Grant, The Hero of Fort Donelson,” with somewhat primitive woodcut of a rather tired Grant, in field cap. Smaller printed caption, “Gen. Grant’s reply to Buckner on the terms of surrender: ‘I will accept no terms but unconditional surrender....’” Manuscript postal marking, “...Feby. 28.” To “John W. Wertenberger, Helena, Arkansas, 76 [Ohio] Regt., Co. K, in Care of Capt. J.M. Jay, to follow the Regt.” Bold black backstamp, “Received Cairo Ill. / Mar. 6, 1863....” Cairo was a key Union base under Grant’s command. Strategically located at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, it was vital to controlling river traffic. From Cairo, Grant launched his campaigns to gain control of the entire Mississippi, from Fort Donelson to Vicksburg. The envelope was probably carried from Cairo to Helena, Ark. on an Army riverboat. Old pencil notations on verso, “Scott $25.00” and “1928,” the former probably the old New York dealer whose name still graces the standard philatelic catalogues today. Two hinge traces, generally uniform toning, few stains, else very good. $275-375

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17-4. Uncommonly Early Vicksburg Occupation. view image Pink 3¢ entire on buff, Scott #U35, black “St. Louis Mo. / Sep. 16” c.d.s. and 5-ring fancy. “...1861” in pencil. (If correct, this predates the Vicksburg bombardment by some eight months.) Boldly addressed to “K.J. Cole, Esq., Sutler, 23rd Ind. Vols., Vicksburg, Miss.” Some creases, dust soiling, left margin irregular where opened, but still good, and suitable for display. Curiously, Cole is not shown in standard military references; he may have been a civilian, traveling with the troops. A interesting item. $55-75

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17-5. Vicksburg Army Field Post. view image Ivory cover with franking imprint “Head-Quarters, 17th Army Corps” - the corps “best known for its performance under McPherson in the Vicksburg campaign”--Boatner. 3¢, light dull red not shown in Scott Specialized Color Guide, very wide margin at bottom, tied with small 7-bar grid. Light c.d.s. “Vicksburg Miss. /Jan. 28, 1863.” To “Miss Sallie J. Moore, Macon Co., Decatur, Ill.” Edge toning, some postal wear, else good plus. $50-70

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17-6. With Dix’s American Flag Dispatch. view image Large red, white and blue flag, with caption, “If Any one attempts to haul down the American Flag, Shoot Him on the Spot. - John A. Dix.” Large black c.d.s. Bath, N.Y., May 20, 1861. To noted silversmiths “George O. Smith & Co., Between Maiden Lane & Liberty St., New York City.” Scott #26, Type II, judged lean orange red, tied with 7-bar cancel. Short clean tear on flap, not visible from front, few stains, postal handling, else very good. $80-110

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17-7. The 34 States. view image Strikingly attractive Union patriotic, 34 red stars around periphery, each with tiny name of a state - including the Confederates - and red, white and blue eagle over shield, clutching ribbon “God Speed the Right.” 3¢, judged rose pink, with blue “Cumberland (Md.) / Feb. 14” c.d.s. To “Mrs. J.S. Casement, Painesville, Ohio.” Three old hinges on verso, and placement of hinge fragment inside envelope, to reinforce damp-weakened paper behind stamp; stamp fractionally lighter at top, uniform cream toning of cover, and otherwise about very good. $70-110

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17-8. To a Union Grape Grower. view image Antebellum cover with vertical strip of three #24 blue, applied horizontally at left, two “Richmond Va. / Jan. 23(?), 1860” c.d.s. To “Franklin Davis, Esq., Staunton, Va.,” the soon-to-be-Confederate grape grower (see following lot). Creasing at left, affecting one stamp, tiny edge tears and wear, lacking blank lower left tip, some soiling, else satisfactory. Attractive U.S. usage to this interesting Southerner. Confederate usage follows. $90-120

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17-9. To a Confederate Grape Grower. view image Addressed in a bold hand to “Mr. Franklin Davis, Staunton, Virginia.” Black c.d.s. “Richmond Va. / Oct. 12, 1861,” with black “Paid 5 Cts.” handstamp (Dietz Type V). “S.C. Kent” in pencil on front, probably the sender, in hand of recipient. (Davis married into the Quaker Kent family of Pennsylvania in 1857.) On verso, another name in pencil, “John McCutch....” Flap torn cleanly, just touching ornate blind-embossed rosette stationer’s design, considerable fine handling wrinkles, some toning, but good plus, and satisfactory for display. Davis was proprietor of Staunton Nurseries, his antebellum catalogue (not present!) offering “fruit and ornamental trees, evergreens, flowering shrubs, vines,” and 43 varieties of grapes--A Bibliography on Grapes, Wines, Other Alcoholic Beverages, and Temperance, Amerine, p. 87. In business from 1850 to at least 1893, his large 1859 ad in American Farmer (modern copy accompanies) offered “500,000 Fruit Trees for sale,” including 300 varieties of apples, 75,000 peach trees, and a mouthwatering assortment of others. Unusual association. $80-120

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17-10. Manuscript Date in Stamped Postmark. view image Yellow-orange cover with “Old Point Comfort, Va.” c.d.s., the date in “Nov. 5” overwritten in pencil by postal clerk. Four-slice fancy on very pale brown red 3¢. To “Mrs. Alfred Case, In care of E.E. Hale, Esq., Madison, Wis.” Postal soiling along lower horizontal, else very good, the stamp undamaged. $40-60

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17-11. Jade Norfolk Cancels. view image Citrine yellow cover, very good large Norfolk, Va. c.d.s. in rich jade green-blue, July 31, (18)63, with matching shade four-ring concentric. Fragment of next stamp present above perf. To “Mrs. Alfred Case, Care of E.E. Hale, Esq., Madison, Wis.” Mousechew at blank lower right portion, dampstain on verso, else good plus, the postal markings and stamp attractive and pleasing. $50-70

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17-12. Sanitary Commission in Memphis. view image Daffodil yellow cover with printed cornercard “U.S. Sanitary Commission,” bold “Memphis Tenn. / Dec. 10” c.d.s., with four-ring concentric on 3¢ stamp. To “Mrs. Sue E. Grant, Canton, Lewis County, Missouri.” Dated “1864” in later pencil on verso. Memphis became a hot spot for Freedmen’s Bureau activities. Upper right of stamp lacking where torn upon opening, else fine. Hinged to beveled exhibition mount. $40-60

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17-13. Variant Memphis Postmark. view image Yellow-orange cover with variant Memphis postmark, notably less bold than preceding lot, Oct. 26, and four-ring concentric. To “Mrs. Nancy Bird, Lewistown, Fulton Co., Ill.” Right perfs trimmed where opened, light soiling, else very good. Hinged to beveled exhibition mount. Of numerous Birds in the Union Army, only one, Henry, of the 103rd Ill. Infantry, was from Lewistown. Modern copy of service record accompanies. $45-65

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17-14. Medal of Honor. view image Yellow-orange cover, black “3” over free-frank “Geo. M. Love, Major 116th Reg. N. York.” Addressed in soldier’s hand to C.F. Button, Holland, Erie Co(unty), N.Y. Black “New Orleans La / Apr. 29” c.d.s. Love was awarded the Medal of Honor for capturing the battle flag of the 2nd S.C. at Cedar Creek, and breveted Brig. Gen. Trimmed at left, light handling evidence, else fine. From an old collection, hinged to beveled exhibition mount. Modern copy of Love’s carte and service record accompanies; he rests only feet away from Pres. Fillmore in Buffalo. $80-110

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17-15. Plumsteadville P.O. Pair of yellow covers with Old Point Comfort postmarks: Coarse crosshatched cork fancy on 3¢. To “Joseph G. Overholt, Plumsteadville P.O., Bucks Co., Pa.” In contemporary pencil below, “Louis Shadinger.” Both Jacob Shadinger and Charles Overholt mustered in - and out - of Co. E, 174th Penna. Infantry - on the same days. Some edge creases, else good +. • Black “Due 3,” nearly socked-on-nose c.d.s. To “I.W. Dunton, Dorset, Bennington Co., (Vt.).” Two Duntons of Dorset served; one, wounded at Fredericksburg, remained in the Army til 1878 (research accompanies). Reduced along bottom horizontal to open, average soiling, edge wear, tear on verso, else good. $50-70 (2 pcs.)

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18. Revolutionary War

18-1. The Family that Caused George Washington’s Only Injury of the Revolution. New Year’s A.L.S. of Abr(aham) Ogden, Newark (N.J.), Jan. 2, 1785, 6-1/2 x 8-1/2, 1 full p. To merchant Nicholas Low, N.Y. A prominent Revolutionary War attorney, “said to have had no equal before a jury,” Signer Richard Stockton studied in Ogden’s law office. Personal friend of Washington, who while quartered around Morristown “passed much of his time at the house of his friend ‘Squire Ogden’...The General took a particular interest in his host’s son Thomas Ludlow, and would often make his rounds among the army with the boy mounted before him on his saddle...”--The Ogden Family in America..., p. 103. During a playful fencing bout with Washington, the foil of Ogden’s young son’s blade flew off, slightly wounding Washington’s hand – believed the only blood shed by Washington during the entire Revolution! Appointed first U.S. Attorney for N.J., namesake of Ogdensburg, N.Y. With fine legal content: “The Bond from T. Armstrong...& John Beach to Richd. Graves...for 410 Pounds 10 Shillings...This day I issued a Writ ...& shall prosecute the Action with as much Expedition as possible. By a late Law of this State, the Ptff. is liable to pay Cost to his Atty. It is usual to receive with a bond to prosecute, a Fee of £3...Bard did not attend at Morris last week, as I expected. But I shall see him at Sussex next Month. With many & sincere good Wishes for your Happiness instead of mere Compliments, too common at this Season....” On integral address-leaf, “Hand by Mr. M(artin?) Hoffman,” the prominent N.Y. auctioneer and merchant. (The Hoffmans married into the Ogden family; Washington Irving studied law in a later Hoffman’s office.) Browned band at lower edge, else in rich brown on wheat paper, original deckles three sides, and about fine. Unusual Washington association. Interesting modern research accompanies. $175-250

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18-2. Map of America, Printed in 1776. view image Beautiful hand-colored map, “An Accurate Map of the present Seat of War, between Great-Britain and her Colonies in North America, Engraved for the Univers(a)l Mag(azin)e [of Knowledge and Pleasure], 1776.” 12-3/4 x 16. Utterly charming cartouche, with ships at mouth of a scenic bay, a cerise Baroque ornament rising out of a hooped barrel. Printing attributed to John Hinton, London, appearing in the issue of Oct. 1776; cartography probably by Thomas Kitchin. Showing unlikely place names for the future United States: “Louisiana” beginning just south of Lake Superior, bordering “Virginia” which encompasses Ohio and Illinois, “Pensilvania,” New York, New Jersey, “New England” (combining Conn., Mass., R.I., Vermont, and N.H.). South to Philadelphia, north to “New South Wales,” James’ Bay, and “New Britain,” west to “Bear Nation” and “Flat Lake” in region of Mississippi River, and eastward to the border of New Brunswick. Identifying numerous Indian tribes, including “Outagamis - a Subtile Nation,” “Mascoutens - a Fiery People,” “Confederate Indians,” “Nipi Sirinis or Sorcerers,” “Outawais Ancient Country,” and more. Four fictitious islands in Lake Superior, described by their originator as rich in minerals, leading numerous explorers on wild goose chases. In a fascinating sidebar, one of these islands also appeared on the map consulted in the 1783 Treaty of Paris negotiation; it was named as a marker for the new American-British border, setting the stage for even more confusion. 3-1/2” diagonal tear, two long seams and several short tears with old glassine tape repairs on verso, including one postage stamp-size rectangle at blank left margin once split and probably detached; old folds, including one diagonal at lower right, light marginal stains, uniform toning, but still very good. A fascinating example of the state of affairs in that fateful year. Very scarce in any condition. WorldCat locates not more than eight examples. Phillips 586. $550-700

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18-3. A Georgia Patriot – and the 57th Signer? view image Partly printed D.S. of J(ohn) Houstoun, one of the four original members of the Liberty Boys, member of Continental Congress, the first Georgia-born Governor of the peachtree state, serving both during the Revolution and for the single-year term in which this document was signed. Colleague of Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams – and fellow Georgian radical patriot Button Gwinnett. (Indeed, their years as Governor were consecutive.) Savannah, Apr. 21, 1784, 4-1/2 x 6-3/4. Certifying “That Simon Fraser as a Refugee is entitled to 250 Acres of Land, as a Bounty, agreeable to an Act and Resolve of the General Assembly, passed at Augusta the 19th Augt. 1781 as p(er) Certificate Col. Baker....” Docketed “...267-1/2...Camden...1785,” possibly intending Campton, Ga. Simon Fraser served in the Georgia Line, part of the Continental Army. Rich brown on pale green. Mousechew of a triangular 13/4” wedge at left, affecting no text on front, but most of a name penned on verso; modern ivory strip on verso unnecessarily reinforcing thin spots where once tipped in book, else very good, with much patina and character for display.

“It was only by the merest caprice of fortune that (Houstoun’s) name was not affixed to the great charter of freedom...Houstoun represented the town of Savannah in the Provincial Congress... on July 4, 1775, to sever the tie of allegiance to England. He was also the first delegate chosen at this time to the Continental Congress...(In 1776) Houstoun left for Philadelphia, but he was called back to Georgia to neutralize the influence of his former associate, Dr. Zubly, who had withdrawn from the patriotic ranks...It was while he was thus occupied in checkmating the designs of Dr. Zubly that the Declaration of Independence was signed and though he was not enrolled among those who signed this sacred instrument, he nevertheless belongs to the band of Liberty’s immortals...”--Georgia’s Landmarks, Memorials, and Legends, Lucian Lamar Knight, Vol. 1, Part 1, pp. 682-3. Were it not for this wrinkle in history, Houstoun’s signature would have been on the Declaration of Independence with fellow Georgian Gwinnett’s. Their stars became crossed, however: the victor’s brother in Gwinnett’s ill-fated duel was married to Houstoun’s sister. Modern research accompanies. $400-500

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18-4. An Ammunition Maker intercedes in a Case of Stolen Currency. Revolutionary War-date A.L.S. of the “other” Geo. Ross, the pioneer industrialist, and partner in the furnace at Hibernia, producing iron for the Continental Army’s shot and ordnance, under contract to Congress. Hibernia (N.J.), May 7, 1782, 6-1/2 x 8-1/4, 1 full p. With integral address-leaf, to Robert Morris, Morris Town, recent Chief Justice, N.J. Supreme Court, and grandson of colonial Gov. Lewis Morris. “The bearer William Short on his way to me some time ago was taken by the Sheriff for Trading Connecticut state notes to one Vincourt of your town, which said notes has since proved to be stolen whereby Vincourt has become a sufferer. Consequently, Mr. Short must stand his tryal [sic] and I have entered security for his appearance the next Court. Please to take this matter under your Care, for which I will be accountable. Mr. Short can give you a true state of this matter.” An example of Ross’ iron work, also dated 1782, is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art! His furnace’s cast iron fronts were used in Franklin stoves contemporary with Ben himself. The Signer George Ross also presided over a furnace and forge, in York County, Pa. It is reasonably possible that the two were related. Fragment lacking at blank portion address-leaf where opened, uniform toning to pleasing wheat color, else about fine. $225-275

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18-5. From Custom House to the Poor House. Autograph Document Signed of John Lamb, Revolutionary War General, ruined by a customs caper. June 17, 1785, 3 x 7-1/4, receipt as New York Collector of Customs for £213.10.10 from noted merchant Nicholas Low. A New York wine merchant, Lamb became a leader of the Sons of Liberty after passage of the hated Stamp Act. After Lexington and Concord in 1775, Lamb and Isaac Sears seized the military storehouse at Turtle Bay, today site of the United Nations. Serving under Benedict Arnold, Lamb was wounded at the Battle of Quebec, later commanding the artillery at West Point for two years. He was Officer of the Day when Washington fired the first cannon launching the siege of Yorktown. Praised by Washington, Lamb and his artillerymen fought with distinction through the war. A leading Anti-Federalist, Lamb collaborated with Patrick Henry and others opposing the Constitution. During his tenure as postwar Collector of Customs of N.Y., a large shortage occurred, when his deputy embezzled tax revenue. Lamb was held responsible, resigned, sold his lands to cover the lost funds, and in 1800 died a poor man. Nicholas Low was present at New York’s Constitutional Convention, his Loyalist brother having left with the British. His extensive upstate property ventures included development of Watertown and Lowville, named for him. Edge toning, else about fine. Signed with paraph, and suitable for display. Scarce. $175-225

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18-6. Wounded Thirteen Times in the Revolution. Unusual manuscript resolution relating to criticism by the celebrated Ephraim Kirby of Litchfield, Conn., of Rev. Joseph Lyman, Hatfield, Mass. Today recognized as “America’s first court reporter,” Kirby was wounded thirteen times - in nineteen Revolutionary War battles, in fact left on the Elk River battlefield for dead. At the time of this dispute, he was a member of the Connecticut legislature. Hatfield, Mass., Feb. 2, 1802, 2 pp., 7-1/4 x 10-1/2, “a true copy” in hand of Isaac Maltby, “Clerk of the Meeting.” “Whereas a certain letter has lately been written by Ephraim Kirby...to several gentlemen in this Town...it was thought advisable that a paper shou(l)d be presented to the inhabitants...against any act which was obviously designed to interrupt the harmony between Minister & people...Resolv(e)d that the communication made by...Kirby is considered by this meeting as an insult to the people & an indignity offered their Minister, that they hold in Contempt, the case artifice by which he contrived to destroy the confidence of the people in their Revd. Pastor...(and) that the gentlemen who recd. the...correspondence, be advised to seal up & return the same to Mr. Kirby without delay....” Some mocha mottling of sand-colored leaf, tape repair at two lower corners, else good. A key figure in legal history, Kirby’s Reports comprised “the first published volume documenting decisions rendered on American rather than English soil”--The American Journal of Legal History, by Alan V. Briceland, Oct. 1972. Today fêted by both Connecticut and Alabama, Kirby served as the first Superior Court Judge of what became Alabama; he was subsequently appointed Gov. of the Miss. Territory by Jefferson, but died before receiving the news. • Originally sold with above by old-time dealer: A.L.S. of Henry Russell Drowne, on ornate letterhead of Sons of the Revolution of N.Y., Fraunces Tavern, 1916, to Rev. Frank Humphreys. Enclosing 1 col. x 71/2” clipping from newspaper judged c. 1810. “The enclosed notice of the olden time mentions Brother Hosea Humphrey of Newport. Should this be any of your people you are heartily welcome to it. The scrap was evidently saved for the poetry on the other side.” Letter very fine, clipping about good. $150-200 (3 pcs.)

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18-7. Colonial Rum Bottle. Genuine colonial rum and wine bottle, olive/mintleaf green color, believed used during the Revolution. Scarce “bell” shape, thick handblown glass, about 8” tall. Important elements in colonial America, rum and wine were traded for black slaves, bartered for fur, and often used as a cash substitute. Such bottles were also used for brandy and vinegar. Minor aging, else very good. Provenance: Ex-Frank J. Kravic, co-author of the standard reference work Collector’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Museum quality Americana. $275-350

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18-8. 1776 Deed between Connecticut Yankees. Manuscript deed, “ye Town & County of Fairfield, Colony of Connecticut,” Feb. 8, 1776, “in the 16th year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the third of Great Britain king,” 1 p., 7-1/2 x 12-1/4. For land in North Fairfield, sold by Nathan Thorp, to Nathan Murwin [sic: Merwin]. “...On a highway southerly on Hezekiah Fanton’s land....” Signed by Thorp, Albert Sherwood, and Jon(a)th(an) Sturges (twice). Red wax seal. Separated and broken at two of the three horizontal folds, top panel torn in half but complete, one old tape stain at top and bottom margins, but in all, loss of only one word. Darkly penned, very satisfactory, and easily repaired or displayed. From as early as 1775, Fanton, Sherwood, and Thorp each served in the Connecticut militia. In the year of this document, Sherwood was named “Lt. of the 7th company of the alarm list....” An important patriot, Sturges was a member of the Connecticut General Assembly between 1773-84, and of the Convention which ratified the Constitution in 1788, then serving the following year in the first U.S. Congress. He appears in numerous works, including Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the U.S. (Marcus, p. 480) and From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776 (Maier, p. 109), the latter citing Sturges as an early correspondence contact for the Sons of Liberty. With modern research. $175-225

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18-9. First Coin Issued by Authority of United States. view side A | view side B 1787 Fugio cent, its text credited to Ben Franklin. On obverse, sundial, “Fugio [‘Time Flies’] / Mind Your Business.” On reverse, thirteen circles linked together, “United States / We Are One.” Said to have been made from “the copper bands that held together the powder kegs sent to America by the French”--Official Red Book.... 2013 ANACS AG 3 details. “Corroded,” principally in form of a uniform velvety texture under magnification, the date just readable; deepest colonial brown, some golden tan toning at 12 o’clock of reverse. For those appreciating originality, an undisturbed example conveying some two centuries of patina, suitable for display with documents of the period. Closeup color photographs of obverse and reverse of all coins on website and furnished by e-mail. $80-120

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18-10. Dutchess County Militia in the Revolution. Letter of Samuel L. Edward, Manlius (N.Y.), Feb. 16, 1850, 1 full p., 7-3/4 x 10. To Philip Phelps, Deputy Comptroller, Albany. “Lawrence Heltz served as a private in the Revolutionary War in Capt. M. Kean’s company in Col. Henry Van Rensselaer’s Regt...I believe Col. Van Rensselaer commanded a Regt. in 1779...The Roll of the privates...is in the Comptroller’s office. Please to examine the pay roll...and see how long Lawrence Heltz served...Have the goodness to ascertain what you can....” Very light Manlius c.d.s. in oxblood red on integral address-leaf. Original folds, else fine. Heltz served in the Dutchess County Militia, 6th Regt. (modern copy of muster roll accompanies.) Items relating to Dutchess County in the Revolution are uncommon, especially from the following century! • Letter of S. Conklin, Onandaga Hollow (N.Y.), Jan. 5, 1845. To Phelps. “Above is a copy of a cert. procured from your office...There was no other person of the name of Jonathan Conklin who served in the New York lines or militia. Will you have the goodness to look over the records in your office...stating...that no other person of that name, served in New York....” Lengthy transcription on top half of sheet, listing meager pay – in pounds, shillings, and pence – of Conklin from 1777-81, and his units, including the Dragoons. Minor break at one fold, pale orange-red “Paid” with Onandaga Hollow c.d.s., else fine. With modern copy of Conklin’s listing in 1840 Census of Pensioners, by then age 80. $90-120 (2 pcs.)

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19. Soldier’s Letters
1861 - 63

19-1. On Unique Confederate Lettersheet. view image Strikingly attractive and early Confederate officer’s letter penned on the very day his unit of Choctaw Guards was organized, and of his promotion as its Lt. Col. From J(ames) W. Hemphill, “Camp Clarke, Near Corinth, Miss.,” June 3, 1861, 5 x 8, 3-1/2 pp. On patriotic lettersheet unlisted in Dietz, bearing red and blue Confederate flag, its eleven stars curiously spaced, plausibly the result of a local Mississippi printer hurriedly modifying his eightstar woodcut, as the rebellion spread: In May, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina adopted ordinances of succession, bringing the total number of states from 8 to 11 – and rendering his artwork obsolete. Variant of Dietz F11-19, two tassels, printed verse 6: “To arms! To arms! ye Southern braves! The avenging sword unsheath....” Hemphill writes his wife from his tent, “...We have plenty to eat but the water rather bad & most always muddy being so many together. There is about 950 mess at this Camp constituting our regiment, which is the 15th [Mississippi, Army of Tenn.]. It was organized today & had an election of Field Officers. On the first Ballot W.S. Statham of Grenada was elected Col. & J.W. Hemphill of ‘Choctaw Guards’ elected Lt. Colonel...I got the highest vote of any...Considerable confusion in my Company as to who will succeed me as Captain. That election will come off also tomorrow...There is about 8,000 troops around about Corinth now. Troops however leaving every day for Va. and Western Tenn. where we will go I expect...Tell Andy I will need Money to fit me out. Get me a horse & fine uniform, etc., all of which I will get here...How often will I get 250 dollars a month & maybe I can save some. Such noise & confusion you can hardly imagine that we have here. I reckon I will get used to it...Don’t be uneasy about me...I would like to hear from you but I don’t know where I will be or how long I will be at a place. Good by(e) and tell Bet to be a good little girl....” Dampstains at two horizontal folds, else pleasing cream toning, and very good. Lettersheet excessively rare, and a showpiece for the advanced collector. Significantly, Hemphill’s Choctaw Guards, also known as Hemphill’s Infantry, is included in “Formal Reports, both Union and Confederate, of the first seizures of United States property in the Southern States,” within The War of the Rebellion, Chap. LXIV, p. 105. A modern history, A Hard Trip: A History of the 15th Mississippi Infantry, by Ben Wynne, states, “The tenuous nature of command within a Confederate regiment was reflected in the fact that after a single year of service most of the original company captains of the 15th Mississippi Infantry were gone....” Indeed, Hemphill resigned by 1862. $725-925

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19-2. “If I don’t get home....” view image Letter of Confederate soldier Ambrose Lee Stearns, Co. C, 37th N.C. Infantry. No place, but on rare patriotic letterhead bearing Goldsboro, N.C. imprint, Feb. 22, 1862, 4 full pp., 5-1/2 x 7-1/4, penned in bright blue on deep mocha adversity paper. Dietz CN-3, verse 1, imprint 10, slogan 2: “Bright Banner of Freedom with pride I unfurl thee...For the Flag of my country in triumph shall wave, O’er the Southerner’s Home and the Southerner’s Grace”; “Confederate States of America” above dateline. The semi-literate soldier-farmer writes his wife, “I have the mumps but I don’t think they will hurt me bad...I drawed my money yesterday...I will send you thirty dollars...If you want any things yourself you can get it but I don’t want you to let anybody else have it. If I don’t get home you can come to see me...Omar Ridge went to volunteer for the war. They offer us $100 of bounty and 60 days furlough. I don’t know whether to go in them or not...Was fourteen joined the regulars yesterday...If I see that I can’t chance I will be drafted, I will volunteer...I will volunteer before I will be drafted... I remain your aff(ectionate) husband until death....” The writer died less than six months later, on Aug. 2. Uniform dust-toning most of p. 1, light mousechew at blank 2” margin, affecting no text, old paper hinge remnants at blank edge of last p., some handling evidence and toning, else good plus; the letter must have been read and reread hundreds of times by his widow. A dramatic North Carolina item. $500-700

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19-3. Confederate Letter on a Captured Union Lettersheet. view image Fascinating Confederate soldier’s letter, featuring large composite woodcut in blue, “The Soldier’s Dream of Home,” depicting a Union soldier sleeping outdoors in camp, dreaming of embracing his wife and child as the sun rises: “At the dead of the night a sweet vision I saw...But sorrow return’d with the dawning of morn, And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.” From Confederate soldier “G(?).A. G(roves),” “Tupelo, Miss., M & O R.R., 3rd Brig., 1st Div. A.W., 3d Bat. Cav., Co. D,” June 23, 1862. 5 x 7-3/4, 4 full pp. To his wife, Mrs. E. “Bettie” Groves, Raymond, Miss. “...You need not expect me home soon for I can’t get a leave of absence...It does indeed look hard that one is so new and have not been home in so long a time that they will not let him go even for a short time, but I suppose that I must quietly await the chances and hope soon some good fortune may turn up...I do really wish that I was at home so that I could get some vegetables. I greatly need them. We hardly ever see anything of the kind here but I will desist from thinking of such things. It only sharpens my appetite. Billy Kethly is quite sick with Typhoid Fever...He is far from being out of danger...We are in camp doing nothing much but drilling and standing picket...We know but little of the Federals. They are at Corinth...Gen. Price has not got back yet. When he does I suppose we will soon know where we are going...Tell the children...Sallie & Mollie that they must be smart and learn to read well by the time I get back. Tell little Florra that Fa(ther)’s lady must be a good girl. Little Dan, kiss him for me....I will soon I hope be in good health and then I do not mind hardships.” Tea(?) stains on p. 1, old hinge evidence corner of p. 4 affecting several words of close, some fold and handling wear, else satisfactory. Unusual conversation piece. On rare occasion, envelopes are encountered found in the pocket of a casualty on the battlefield and reused by a soldier of the other side. However use of a Union lettersheet by a Confederate soldier is exceptional. $600-800

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19-4. Palmetto Flag. Early Confederate homefront letter, from Jo Berry Sloan, Anderson, (S.C.), May 27, (18)61, 5 x 8, 1-1/2 pp. On patriotic lettersheet with slate-blue flag, palmetto tree and crescent moon, F-SC 3-B. A legal missive: “I herewith send you a fi(eri) fa(cis) & Ca(puis ad) Sa(tisfaciem). Mark the fi. fa. Returned & hand the Ca. Sa. to the sheriff with orders to execute it. Mr. Earle is displeased with Hunnicutt for confessing judgment & just as he was recovering judgment...Mr. Earle will want five years. If he will do so the cases can be marked satisfied whenever he will give the note with what you would regard as good security....” “Fi fa” legally denotes levying a judgment on the debtor; “Ca Sa” is a writ of execution to have the person arrested and held in jail until the debt is paid; this is no longer legal. By Jan. 1861, Sloan was an Orderly Sgt. in the Seneca Rangers, “...no laggards in maintaining the honor and glory of the State...a corps of mounted men, armed and equipped at their own expense, whose services have been tendered to the Governor, and who are eager to have a hand in the picture in sustaining the rights of South Carolina against the sectional bandit war waged against her”--Charleston Mercury, Jan. 12, 1861. Joining the Confederate Army as a private, he served in Orr’s Rifles of the 1st S.C., rising to Lt. by October. Considerable dampstaining and discoloration, modern tape reinforcement of fragment at upper right and internal tear at postscript, corner lacking and some edge chipping, affecting only one word, else satisfactory and a desirable design. $275-375

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19-5. From a Former Pacifist. Intriguing, lengthy letter of Union soldier W.B. Stevens, referring to the “Society to which I formerly belonged” - likely the Quakers. On printed lettersheet “Assistant Quarter Master’s Office, Head Quarters 2d Div., 6th Corps,” from “where, I do not know,” but Washington stationer’s crest, Oct. 4, 1863, 7 full pp., 5 x 7-3/4. To his girlfriend “Nancie A.H.” “It is such a peaceful, quiet day...I try to make every reasonable allowance for your long silence...You have said you love me and one, like you who loves, will not forget...No month but those which help to decorate our Indian Summer can produce such contrasts...clear, warm, fragrant and delightful. The many hues of Autumn are being perfected in the forest and the sober want of color, in the fields, so lately clothed in green, reminds that the wintry season is at hand...My brother-in-law...is in charge of a Gang of 24 Contrabands and though, in some respects, such as being a free man himself, which I am not, I prefer my peace to his... Three members of the Society to which I formerly belonged, are drafted into the 4th Regt. where they steadily adhere to their now-resistant principles and refuse to do duty of any kind. They are sincere, I believe, and will suffer any punishment rather than swerve from what they think is right. Perhaps they are right, and if they are, then I am not, and am lost...There was a rumor that Gen. Sedgwick was to relieve Gen. Meade of the command of the Army...The theory of ‘the greatest good, to the greatest number’ would console them [the troops]...Our Chaplain, who lately came from Vermont, where he saw Mc(Allister) several times, says he is to have an appointment, and commission as either Commissary or Quartermaster in the Invalid Corps...Our Division got orders to move to some place on the Railroad on Thurs. evening, but just as we were all ready to go, the order was countermanded and the Third Div. of this Corps went. I have lately read Miss Mulock’s A Life for a Life. It is like Wilkie Collins’ Woman in White in some respects....” Very fine and clean, penned in a bold, clear hand. Accounts of pacifism and Quakers in the Union Army are seldom encountered. $170-220

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19-6. “I hope the war is about over” -- 1861. Homefront letter of Rufus Haymond, Brookville, Ind., Nov. 3, 1861, 2 pp., 7-1/2 x 9-3/4. In rich brown ink, to his brother. “What has become of you? Are you dead or turned Secesh, that we never hear of you any more...I hope the war is about over, in your section at least, if nowhere else. Was Uncle Daniel elected to Congress? I recd. one of his circulars yesterday. It was sent by Will. Lynn, a musician in the 5th Ohio Regt...We never as yet have felt in the least the evils of this war except in the slightly diminished prices of produce. We however expect to when tax paying time comes. We have sent from this county about 1,000 men to the army and will send several hundred more if it continues...Your merchants buy their goods at Cincinnati now...Bob Goodwin is in the army as a first Lieut., and Dr. Goodwin as an Asst. Surgeon. They are in the Ind. 37th, and now stationed at the mouth of Salt River, Ky...Give my best to...Tommy Hickman, if he is not a secesher....” Triial corner tear at lower left, else fine. $60-80

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19-7. “I think that this Rebellion is about to end” -- 1863. Union soldier’s letter, A(delbert) B. Kipp, Co. D, 65th Regt. Ill. Vols., Lexington (Ky.), May 10, (18)63, 4 pp., 4-3/4 x 7-1/4. His first letter to his uncle in Westkill, Greene County, N.Y. since enlistment. “...the Army...is a very poor place to write as there is so much confusion & noise that it is difficult to get a person’s mind in shape for writing...I think this as nice a town as I ever saw. It contains about 12,000 inhabitants besides N----rs in abundance. Most of the People are for the Union, some rapid Secessionist, but they keep purty still...I think soldiering begins to agree with me...I intend to stay in until I get an Honorable discharge...I am called the best drilled man in the company by our Officers. But I think that this Rebellion is about to end if reports are true concerning our armies of the Potomac. We have gained some brilliant victories. A Telegraphic dispatch came in today stating that our army was again across the Rappahannock and that our flag was waving over Richmond & hope it is so for if we get the Shenandoah valley and then cut of(f) their resources from that quarter and can hold it we will soon bring them to terms. The Rebels are getting sick of fighting. We have got about 1500 who deserted from the Rebel Army in this town who say that they are willing to fight for us if we will give them enough to eat. They are a hard looking lot. They look as though they had not eat(en) anything for weeks...The Small Pox in our Regt. There are a number of the men sick with it....” Few ink smudges by his hand, else fine and clean. • With attractive dark cream envelope, 3¢ rose, green-blue Lexington c.d.s. Some postal wrinkling at edges, small piece of old tape at torn flap, else very good. $90-120 (2 pcs.)

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19-8. The 14-Year-Old who Shot a Confederate Captain. Letter from Union soldier F(rancis?) Patton, Oakland, Spencer County (Ind.), Jan. 5, 1862, 4 pp., 4-1/2 x 7-3/4. To his son. “...I have been out in Warnie and Dubois...and at Camp Shanklin...Calhoon on Green River...45 (miles) from Bo(w)lingreen. There are about 7,000 men in camp here, 1,100 of them cavalry & fine horses they have to...Jackson’s Cavalry...They had a skirmish...It is reported Jackson killed 60 of the secesh and he lost 8 killed & 25 missing supposed to be taken prisoners. It is said they burnt the Town. Also that a boy 14 years old was ordered to surrender himself prisoner by a Secesh Captain. Boy shot him with his revolver and mounted the Captain’s horse & rode him safe into Camp. I had determined to stay here and see the Bolingreen Battle go off but Maj. Shanklin told me he had reported his Regt. not fit for duty for 2 months...If you was called to do your duty as a soldier, stand to your Post at all hazards, obey your superior officers with alacrity and show mercy to them that mercy is due...That single instance of the deserter that Ben... saw shot is enough to warn every man of his fate and duty...You should be careful about the small pox...You had better get vaccinated at once....” Names soldiers who have died. With typewritten transcript. Minor tears at folds and bottom of pp. 3-4, moderate uniform toning, else about very good. $150-200

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19-9. Reported Killed Even Before he had been Issued his Uniform. A deeply touching letter of Union soldier Henry Cross, Co. D, 9th Iowa Vols., to his wife and children. From Camp Benton, St. Louis, Sept. 30, 1861, 4 pp., 3-3/4 x 6. On very scarce patriotic lettersheet bearing dark pink circle of stars, enclosing flag and soldier brandishing sword; with 12 lines of printed verse, “Freedom’s soil has only place, For a free and fearless race; None for Traitors false and base....” “We arrived here about noon, fetched our tents...Very comfortable. Just about noon the word came that we must take down our tents. They wanted them for the Iowa 10th Regt. who were about to leave for the seat of war, and we move into its barracks...We had it in the Sun. morning Republican paper that the 9(th) Iowa were fired upon coming down the river and were every man killed but I am happy to inform you that it is a base falsehood...We arrived here safe...We came here without any uniform or arms but our uniform is here now...Enclosed [not present] I send George F. a set of studs...I want him to keep them and be a good boy and live for God and the same advise I would give to all my children. My prayer is that we all may meet in heaven...If I should be called to die while absent or fall in the field of battle I expect to fall at my post. John, tend to my business in the best manner that you can. Try and live economical so as you can get along without running in debt....” Having just enlisted on Sept. 9 - at the age of 47 - Cross was slightly wounded at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Ark. the following year, but survived the war. Moderate waterstains, mostly along fold lines, else good plus. $125-150

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19-10. Longing for Home in Port Tobacco. Letter of J.C. Wells, Port Tobacco (Md.), Mar. 5, 1865, 2-1/2 pp., 7-3/4 x 10. To his wife in Girard, Pa. “...I have just come off of inspection. Lt. Laverty requires us to have our Arms & Quarters very nice & clean. He is very strict. He says we are in the Regular service now & will be until we are discharged. Oh! I am so glad that I have only got a short time to stay, a little over 5 months & then I will be a free man. I almost wish I could go to sleep & sleep my time out...I do not like it so well here as I did at Piscataway [N.J.]...I was very glad to hear that your health has improved & that you intend to try to be a better woman...When I come home, you can set an example for me as I am very wild and reckless...I have not drank a drink of liquor in quite a number of days. I am agoing to sober off...I should hate to come home with a peach blossom on my nose, for fear I will get into trouble...I have made you think that I am very near a drunkard, but...I am a very nice sober young man...I think I will not go for a soldier any more. But if you think I had better I will - ‘in a pig’s eye’....” Very fine. • With envelope, incomplete concentric on 3¢ rose, “Port Tobacco...” black c.d.s. Some soiling, tear at lower right corner, else good. It would soon become known to the writer - and to the nation - that one of Port Tobacco’s residents was George Atzerodt, a co-conspirator with John Wilkes Booth. $75-100 (2 pcs.)

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19-11. Plundering the Abandoned Home of a Confederate Commodore. Letter of Union Lt. H.D. McL(ellan), “Camp Howard 6 miles from Alexandria on a farm called Burgunder[?],” (Jan. 10, 1862), 4 pp., 5 x 8. To Binna D. McLellan, Gorham, Maine. “...The river was so frozen that the Boat did not go so the Dr. took a carriage and we came by land over the long Bridge...Today the Dr. paid off the regt...the men all anxious for their pay. We came from Alexandria in a Sutler’s wagon. Col. Stapers’[?] regt. is in Gen. Sedgwick’s Brigade, Heintzelman’s Division. Last evening Joseph Smith called at our tent. He is Brigade Commissary and ranks as Capt...He had some jokes about Kate Sykes...Today I called on Col. Berry of the 4th...It commenced to rain...but the evil of old Virginia is mighty nasty and sticky today...It does not look much as if Gen. Sedgwick’s Brigade thought of moving soon, for they are building a Theatre about 50 foot square of logs with an addition for the stage. They intend to light with gas made on the spot. The troops have contributed $1500 for the building...I think it is a poor investment and foolish undertaking, for if the troops are ordered to move tomorrow, it is all lost. Some of the officers in Camp have built themselves comfortable board houses in which to live. There are several ladies in Camp, Miss Staples, Lt. Col. Sampson’s Lady, with one or two Captains’ wives, which is not exactly military, but makes it pleasant. We are situated near to Clairmont, the former residence of Commodore De Forest...in our Navy, and when Virginia seceded he left and joined the South and is now in the Southern Navy. His family left the house in a hurry, not even moving their wardrobe, silver, furniture, library or any other thing. The house (is) one of the best in these parts...in splendid order, outbuildings complete, and the furnishing of the inside of the house exceeded anything in these parts. A large amount of Plate, the furniture of the best kind, a large library, ladies dresses of rich materials, the Commodore’s uniforms, and finally the house was full, and these things were all stolen...all were carried off and destroyed by the Soldiers. Not a thing was saved. The piano was taken possession of by a Mrs. Scott, one of neighbors. It was too large for the soldiers to carry off. And now even the outbuildings have disappeared, and if you hunt for them, you will find them made into shanties for soldiers, and made into floors for the tents, and if the war lasts much longer the house will follow the outbuildings....” Trivial dust-toning of pp. 1 and 4, else very fine. • With envelope, partial black Washington c.d.s. on 3¢ rose, neatly affixed upside-down. Some postal wear, else very good. The writer is almost certainly a descendant of the early Gorham settler of the same name. $175-225 (2 pcs.)

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19-12. “The rebels were extremely impudent yesterday.” Letter of Union (2nd Lt.) Edward E(verett) Coxe, 119th Penna. (Infantry), who would be killed in action later that year. “Camp near White Oak Church,” (Va.), May 12, 1863, 3 pp., 6 x 7-1/2 oblong. To brother Bob. “...The collars & knife came...and were all right. I wrote yesterday for a pair of light carpet slippers & a woolen night cap to lie under the chin & without the long appendages...The photograph was received. I am anxious to have mother’s & your opinion upon the correctness of the picture...I want one sent to Harry K. at Port Royal, S.C...& don’t forget to substitute a good impression for the miserable one in D Co.’s Armory...Capt. Mors & Lt. Brown & Sergt. Richardson & Geo. Ash are all safe...but worn out with the last week’s work. Reports are very current of another early move against the rebels...The old Camp looks as natural as ever & as beautiful...P.S. The rebels were extremely impudent yesterday, attacking our pickets at intervals all day. They seem to be in large force on the other side.” Interesting reference to photography. The 119th Pennsylvania would go on to serve at Gettysburg. In November, at Rappahannock Station, Coxe and his men advanced through a brutal barrage of artillery and infantry. In the battle capturing the entire Confederate opposition, including their guns and battle flags, Coxe was wounded, dying several weeks later in Washington. Some light foxing at left margin, original folds, else fine. $175-250

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19-13. Writing of the “Rabals” – in German. Unusual, lengthy homefront letter, in German, patriotic red and blue border, from Frederick Isely, Weinsberg [Winesburgh], Ohio, Nov. 2, 1863, 5-1/4 x 7-3/4, 4 full pp. To brother Henry in Union Army, “Co. C, 69 Regt. O(hio) V(ols.), Morris Island, S.C.” (Curiously, no soldier of this name is found in the roster of the 69th Ohio.) Penned in a clear hand in deepest midnight blue. Mentioning “Rabals” and abolitionists (twice each), “Süd Carolina,” “greenbaks,” postage stamps, volunteers, and John Brough, evidently an acquaintance who has enlisted. In brown, he has added vertically, in centerfold, the sole English sentence, “There will be no Draft in this State til Jan....” Minor brown spots, apparently blotted ink, else fine and clean. • With orange-yellow cover, light “Winesburgh” c.d.s., black straight-line “Paid” on 3¢ stamp, top perfs just beyond cover and defective, else about fine. In contemporary hand on verso, “Folly Isl(and), S.C.” A fascinating item. $90-120 ( pcs.)

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19-14. The Army’s Revolving Door. Letter of Union soldier I.S. Chapman, evidently written just three days after mustering into the 18th Maine Infantry, thanking the recipients for visiting him. To Parker V. Brown (who would be discharged for disability from the 13th Maine two days later) and Shirley Albion. N.p., Aug. 24, 1862, 2 pp., 5 x 8. On patriotic lettersheet with firing cannon and large flag in red and blue. “You will recollect your departure from Ft. Jackson was rather hurried and also that I expected to see you at S.C. I did not bid you goodbye...I wish you God speed home...If you consider me a man of honest upright I should be happy to have you say so, otherwise say no such thing of me. Now any of you that will take pains to go & call on my wife I will assure you a cordial welcome...Uncle Gilman is dead. Was buried this morning...Poor old man, he is done for this world....” The writer is apparently Ira Chapman of Orono, Maine, who died in 1864 of wounds suffered at Petersburg. Few small stains on verso, very light wear, else fine and attractive. $130-160

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19-15. Reference to “the German Company.” Letter of Union soldier N.L.(?) Broaddus, “Camp near Boonville” (Miss., else Ark. or Ky.), June 8, 1862, 3-1/2 pp., 4-3/4 x 7-3/4. In pencil, on scarce design patriotic lettersheet with 3”-high maroon woodcut of George Washington standing beside “The Constitution and laws” on lectern draped with flag. “...Our baggage is all behind and we are sleeping out of doors, but we have a very nice grove to camp in...When we leave here we will go to Memphis...I do not think we will have any fight up here...Pinkley had resigned. The Boys of Co. A have got up a petition for White to be Lieut...Capt. Taylor, Capt. Petrie of the German Co., and Lieut. Wilson of Co. E have all handed in their resignations, and Capt. McAllister says he is going to do so too. They do not want to go down South. Col. Smith is getting well. Maj. Hays is no better...We have not got our pay yet and I hardly know what to do about drawing it. I do not want to keep it with me...You speak of coming down here...The Hospital is back some 30 miles and it would be just as impossible to get to see me as it is at home. I was very much surprised to hear that Mr. Thomas was waiting on Mary. I think him a low fellow. He ran off from Macomb in debt when he left, and went in the night, at that....” Somewhat light in spots, but entirely legible; some soiling, else good and attractive. A Pvt. Thomas H. Broaddus of Macomb County, Ill. is found, however he did not enlist until five days after the date of this letter; old records are occasionally misread in transcription, however. $90-120

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19-16. “Sell that white face cow if you can.” Letter of Union soldier Virtulon Baker, Camp Morgan, (Buffalo, N.Y.), Feb. 22, 1862, 4-3/4 x 8, 2-1/2 pp., signed twice. On blue-lined patriotic lettersheet, with large eagle in flight, clutching flag, in red and blue. Based on research, Baker was a Private in 78th N.Y. Infantry, here writing home to Pike, N.Y.; he served only six months. “...You (w)rite that Mr. Wilcox wanted to b(u)y my horses and pay $160. I don’t think that is quite enough. I ask $175. If he won’t give that he can have them for $170...If you think that is all they are worth take it. Do as yu are amineto [of a mind to]...I think that we shall not go any further south than we are now unless we come home. The 2 Regt. has not gone away from here yet...I suppose Jane and the boys will ask what Pa wrote or what the reason he don’t come home. I will tell you I have got the mumps like the Devil. Jane write as soon as you get this...Write whether the threshing is done...I can sell that white face cow if you can....” Cream to ivory toning, glue stain on p. 3 and hinge remnants from old scrapbook mount, else very good. $80-110

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19-17. In the Midst of Civil War, “the weather is delightful.” Union soldiers letter of Maine Pvt. J.P. Bolt, who would be killed in action the following year at Chancellorsville, when his unit was foolishly ordered to move into an open field, in view of Confederate artillery. From “Leppiens Bat(t)ery, Maine Vols.,” Camp Washburn, Washington, Apr. 20, (18)62, 5 x 8, 3 pp. To his sister. “...I am well and fat as a pig. It is a very pretty place here. The weather is delightful now. Most of the time is stormy...The mud has been (k)nee deep here all winter...It is as warm here as it is in Maine in June, except the nights are cold and frosty. We have not got our arms yet. We drill four hours a day. It will be some time before we shall be drilt [sic] sufficient to go into battle...The snow [in Maine] is very deep. They have not done much shugaring yet...I have no nuse [news] to write. I suppose you hear the war nuse there about as soon as we do here....” Blind-embossed “Bath” (Maine) stationer’s crest. Soft evidence of old clip, else very fine, on mellow ivory. With modern research. $90-120

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19-18. Homesick in Kansas. Letter of Union soldier “Irwin,” Fort Scott, Sept. 16, (18)62, 4 pp., 4-3/4 x 7-3/4. On patriotic lettersheet with full-width design in red and blue, “Restore the Union - Hang the Leaders and - Pardon the People” in oval, flanked by flags, bold “Union” above. “...I have had the Direary (Diarrhea) (and) the Piles...I feel in hopes I won’t git any worse. I am taken some medson & I think it will help me. I wish I was at home & have the chance of eating of your cooking. I then would sure git well...The pay master & the inspecting sergeant when they both come there will be some discharges... I wish it was so you could have a chance to come in a wagon...The wards here are all full of sick & disable(d) men that are left here expecting Discharges. There is 3 companies of the 3 West Consant [Wisconsin?] has just come in town from Leavenworth. I can’t say anything about our boys that went down to Cart(h)age...We hear they have been fiten a little...Get a barrel made to put the molasses in...Let me know how the turnips look & potatoe & how the corn come out...The male [sic] comes in the morning. It only leaves other day for the Mound City...There is preachin here every Sabbath. We have some tracks distribute once or twice a week, so we have something to read. Fort Scott is improving. There is several buildings going up here...You must be good children to mind your Ma....” The writer has penned ornamental letter “D”s across the top of p. 4. Some foxing, minor wear, else very good. $70-90

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19-19. Touring the Big Apple - during the Civil War. Letter of Union Lt. Thomas A. Porter, 1st Delaware Battery, Camp Barry, Washington, D.C., Sept. 22, 1863, 3-1/2 pp., 5 x 8. To Capt. Patterson. “...Since I left Point Lookout...I found, on arriving at Washington, that my Battery was at N.Y. and not at Charleston as I had hoped. So I was ordered to rejoin it there and on my way having to pass through my native place, Wilmington, Del., I stopped for a few hours to visit my friends. On arriving at N.Y. I found the city in possession of the troops, there being over 40 Regiments and Batteries quartered there. Our camp was in the Battery Park right on the harbor, and as we could not drill for want of room we had plenty of time to see the city. But after I had been there about a week I became unwell and was threatened with another attack of Camp fever, having had one in July near Portsmouth, Va. About two weeks ago we...came back to Washington...about two miles from the city with ten other Batteries and under very rigid orders. We are required to drill twice a day and our men are worked pretty hard besides by guard and fatigue duty. Officers are kept rather busy and we can only get passes to town about once a week. For the last week I have been a member of a Court Martial and that has occupied a good portion of my time...Please remember me to the General and Capt. Lawrence....” Fine. $100-130

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19-20. “7 Miles from Yorktown.” Letter of Union soldier “Ben,” “7 miles from Yorktown, Va.,” Apr. 7-14, 1862, in pencil, 2 full pp., 4-1/2 x 7-3/4. Interesting missive to his mother, updated during the week preceding mailing. “...Went...to Big Bethel, 10 miles from Hampton. The rebels had quite a breastworks there. Saturday we passed a large fort that the rebels had evacuated. They might hold us at bay there a long time...The 2nd R.I. Regt. and 4th and 6th battery is on ahead of us together with about 80,000 men. All our Sibl(e)y tents have been given up to the Government and each man has a rubber blanket and two of us puts them together and sleeps quite comfortable...They keep the dew and rain off of us. Gen. Noble[?] went past here today and all his staff....” The previous June, Big Bethel had been the scene of the first land battle of the Civil War. Minor foxing, some handling wear, else good plus. $75-100

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19-21. Hair from “a nice little black three year old boy” for Christmas. Letter of Union soldier Brayton A. Penny, 108th Ill. Vol. Infantry, Memphis, Dec. 17, 1862, 4-3/4 x 7-3/4, 3-1/4 pp. Signed with highly unusual field rubber stamp, with bold ornamental characters. To mother in Mt. Hawley, Peoria County, Ill. “...We leave here for Vicksburg in the morning...About 100,000 troops here agoing tomorrow. I expect that there is agoing to be a battle fought there. We may not go. There is a good deal of fuss among men and officers. The officers haven’t got their commissions yet. Old Raney has left the regiment and gone home...We are agoing out on review and I think that the general will leave us here for we can’t get out, only about 300 on dress parade...We go in our shirt sleeves through the day...Cotton is worth 50 to 60¢ a pound by the bale. We had some fried mush for brakefast [sic]...A funeral yesterday. We berried our Orderly Sgt. George Morris and another young man. There is a great many sick in this regt... Would like to be home Crismas and New Years but as I can’t you can eat a chicken for me...Here I put in some n----r wool & sent it to Aunt Lib. Tell her I sent it for a Cristmas gift & got it off from a nice little black three year old boy....” Ink a trifle light but as written, modest fold and handling wear, else V.G. The Union’s first move against Vicksburg was foiled on Dec. 20-25, just days after this writer’s news, both Grant and Sherman meeting failure. The tide turned, however, and “coming the day after the Federal victory at Gettysburg, the fall of Vicksburg sounded the death knell of the Confederate cause...the South cut in half...Ulysses Grant had achieved one of the most brilliant military successes in history”--Boatner. Writer Penny would not witness its complete unfolding; he was discharged in Apr. 1863 for disability. • With yellow envelope, Memphis c.d.s., intact 3¢ at upper left. Fragment lacking at lower right. • Older exhibition page on which both items were hinged, with calligraphic captions, identifying cover as example of the first Memphis occupation townmark. Interesting. $160-200 (3 pcs.)

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19-22. The Boy in the Band. Letter of Union soldier M.A. Aldrich, a painter turned musician, here in the Mass. 1st Cavalry Band, Readville (near Charlestown, Mass.), Jan. 3, 1862, 5-1/4 x 8, 3 pp. To his father in “Winchendon, Mass. / Waterville.” Written three days before military records show his muster into the band; at this time, the 1st Mass. was part of the South Carolina Expeditionary Corps, spending much of the war around Charleston. “I suppose you are waiting to hear about the 1st Cavalry Band. We are still on the old ground...The Col. has gone to Washington to see if he can have a band...The Lieut...don’t think we will go but we will have our Pay in full...We have pretty good times here now. We can do as we please, go to bed when we please, and get up about 9 o’clock in the morning...There is going to be an Auction tomorrow to sell all of the property on the ground, such as camp stoves and houses. We live in the stoves here. A large boiler that will hold about 30 or 40 gals. They would be good to boil oil in. I wish you could be here to buy one. They will go cheap. They cost $40 and they will fetch about $15... If there is anything you want write and I will get it, for I am going to have lots of money...If Nancie wants a pair of Rubber Boots I can get them...Say nothing - I have stolen a d-m good Blanket from the Government so I can keep warm...What made the Lt. Col. so cross when the Regt. left. We went round and looking in the holes under their tents and we found more than 50 under each tent. Well I did not say What, but there was 50 or more of Rum bottles under each one...and if I can find anything to fill it I will bring it home to you to see if it won’t make Military men of you....” Interesting partial watermarks of stars surrounding patriotic shield, “Lee Ma(ss.).” Breaks but no separations at folds, one 1” internal tear, penned with a delicate quill in medium brown but entirely legible, and generally good plus. With cover, postage stamp removed, edge torn where opened. Letters of Civil War musicians are very scarce. $175-225 (2 pcs.)

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20. Soldier’s Letters
1863 - 65

20-1. “We are fighting for freedom....” view image Lengthy, doubly-tragic Confederate soldiers letter, on patriotic lettersheet, to his mother in Alabama, grieving the loss of his brother, and regretting he is unable to procure black mourning cloth for her. He too would soon fall in battle. From (Corp.) Fred A. Merrill, (Co. B, 11th Ala. Infantry, Wilcox’s Brigade), Fredericksburg, Va., Jan. 10, 1863, 7-1/4 x 9-1/2, 4 pp. Stationery with bold black 11-star flag, Dietz F11-16, verse 9, slogan 2: “Gather around your country’s flag, Men of the South, the hour has come – None may falter, none may lag – March to the sound of the fife and drum.” Medium grey mirror-image impression from wet printer’s ink on last page. “...You asked me to come home, dear mother. Don’t you know it is not in my power to do those things as a free man. I am under the strong hand in this world, ‘a Military Power.’ That is just what we are fighting for - ‘freedom’...You speak of Stevie’s death troubling your mind so much...You should try to avoid the study of his death so much, as it will do you no good, though I will agree with you that it is hard to have to give him up...That is a debt that we all have to fill...I don’t know that the Lord has taxed our family more than a great many others...Just think of the innumerable families who have lost more than one heir who was as near as a brother or Son. Dear Steve filled an honorable grave more than (a) thousand others could say. He always done his duty when called on and never shirked a battle and had well won the esteem and confidence & cherished the love of both officers & the privates of his company and those of the Regiment who knew him. It is my intention if I should survive this war to remove his body home as soon as it closes. About getting you black goods it is impossible for there is little here as any other state. I think more probably that Pa could get you a dress in Mobile...Did Uncle James and you all have a falling out before you quit? I see that you were giving yourself some...trouble about his marriage. Let him marry or do as he pleased...There will be a good life for you yet after this unholy war winds up...Lt. Higginbotham has not arrived...They stopped us from talking to the enemy. Well, one of my Mess Mates got an accidental chance a few days ago and traded tobacco for 3 or 4 lbs. of coffee...Tell cousin Puss to write...Don’t grieve yourself more trouble than you can help.” An S.R. Merrill served in the 20th and 36th Alabama. Tiny rubber stamp at bottom of last page, probably of celebrated collector, scholar, and author “J.W.M(ilgram).” Penned in watery olive brown ink, light but entirely legible, perhaps diluted by soldier to stretch his supply, dust toning at two vertical folds, else about very good, and dramatic for display. The recipient of this letter would soon suffer a second shock: the writer, her son Frederick Merrill, after surviving Gettysburg, would die while on duty at Petersburg. A “remarkable unit,” Merrill’s 11th Alabama is the subject of a modern history, by Ronald G. Griffin. An elusive lettersheet. $1400-1900

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20-2. Southern Lady’s Letter. Lovely, lengthy war-date letter of an Augusta, Ga. woman, unsigned, Dec. 27, (18)64, 4 x 6-1/4, 4 pp., delicately penned on ivory lettersheet, blind-embossed floral borders framing all pages. To the young “Miss Annie Richards, Care of J.J. Richards, Sparta, Ga.,” who has evidently received a wonderful Christmas present: her father has evidently just remarried. “The birthday present you sent me never reached me...I intend to write to the P.M. at Belair and request him to forward my letters...Your papa says you are coming to see me after the new year...Mother says she will be very glad to have you come. She and I are sort of house keeping, you know, and will make you very welcome, and as comfortable and happy as circumstances will admit...Pet kept planning how she and you would play dolls if you came...Pet is a great niece but she is a smart girl. She is not yet twelve and the way she can sew! Last Summer before she was sick she made a pair of soldier pants herself - commenced them early in the morning and finished them before dinner. So you think you could do that?... I am glad to hear that you had such a pleasant time at the wedding, and that you think you have a ‘very good mother, indeed’...I think you will be happier with a kind mother to care for you and little Ethel, and a settled home, which I hope papa will soon be able to find for you - That is if the Yankees leave any of us houses!...” Her father was evidently a Deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church, ordained in 1840. Minor ivory mottling, else about very good. • With envelope, desirable violet postmark, 10¢ blue Confederate postage stamp, with ample margin at top, just touching bottom scroll at left, but ample to very wide margin at bottom; likely cut with a dull knife, else torn, from bottom row of a sheet, and affixed with molasses. A pleasing pair for display. $225-300 (2 pcs.)

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20-3. On Hand-Tinted Floral Letterhead. view image Confederate soldiers letter, from “Robt.,” Head Quarters, 20th Regt., S.C.V., Jan. 12, 1863, 4-1/4 x 7, 2 pp. On exquisitely copper-engraved sheet, with holly and poinsetta flowers tinted in vivid Christmas cerise and green, within late mediæval vines reaching nearly the full width and depth of paper. To his mother: “...I think I will be able to get off. You said something about having some cloth for me. I wish you would not cut it until I come home. If you have any rye, do save me a little for coffee. Tell Edwin to see if he can get me some grey woolen cloth, double very heavy. And at what price. I have underclothes a plenty...Keep me some potatoes until I come home. Tell him to kill a turkey for next Sunday dinner and if I am not there to help eat it you all can enjoy it....” Pleasing toning to ivory, two darker bands of toning where letter partially extended beyond other papers over long period of time, else very good, the red almost fluorescent. $225-300

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20-4. “Did you shoot or only look on?” Lengthy, poignant letter from a well-connected Southern mother - the remarkable Maria Louisa Wacker Fleet - to her oldest son Fred in Confederate Army, mentioning the recent Battle of Gettysburg. N.p. but from the famed Green Mount Plantation, King and Queen County, Virginia, the subject of one book (in which a portion of this letter appears), and mentioned in dozens of other scholarly and popular works on the Confederacy and the South. Aug. 9, (18)63, 2 very full pp., 7-3/4 x 12-1/4, finely penned in brown on ivory. “...More cattle have crossed during July and last week than can cross the balance of this year...I hope J.W. will not be gulled by such cowardice. I always thought it very strange a man could live to be 39 without finding out he was 40...Fri. evening, Capt. Wilson came and told us he saw Col. Page’s account in the Sentinel of the fight with the gunboats by your Regt. and then next morning here came your letter telling us all about it. How thankful I felt that you all were so mercifully preserved and aren’t you glad you were not on furlough...William Jackson Watkins brings word that so wearied were the men after the long march that Ned ‘cocked the gun but had not strength left to pull the trigger.’ What did you do, my son, did you shoot or only look on?...What do you think of the situation? Don’t you think our prospects are very dark now? I don’t think it will be long before the Yankees will be all around Richmond and we can’t even hear from each other. I believe Mr. Boulware thinks so too, he came by today and offered to take anything over to you. I told him I hadn’t any clothes to send, he said you might send him something good to eat and I will take it with pleasure, so I am sending this great basket by him. The bottles of wine (of my own make), one for Mr. Wyatt to administer the sacrament with and one for the old general [Henry Wise]. I feel great admiration and sympathy for him because he is placed in a situation where he not only cannot distinguish himself, but where he cannot avenge the death of that dear eldest son...Any time you can get a furlough, brother will bring a horse for you to ride and night or day you will find the warmest welcome loving hearts - white and black, can give you...Was my old friend’s son killed or wounded at the battle of Gettysburg? I hope he was one of the few spared. I wish if you see Col. Bagby you would give him something from me with my love...Dear child, may you always keep in the path of duty, and may the good Lord preserve you in it.” The writer is referring to O. Jennings Wise, son of Gen. Wise, who championed his father’s policies as Gov. of Virginia, while antebellum editor of the Richmond Enquirer. He became captain in the Richmond Light Infantry Blues and was killed in 1862 at Roanoke Island.

A portion of this letter is published in Green Mount: A Virginia Plantation Family during the Civil War, ed. by Benjamin Robert Fleet, Betsy Fleet, and John Douglas Pitts Fuller, University Press of Virginia, 1977. From the book’s synopsis: “The Fleets of Tidewater Virginia, living near Richmond in their plantation home Green Mount, were close to many of the great events of the Civil War. Their story... occupies a unique place among the numerous war memoirs of the South. Combining soldier and civilian life with age and youth, Green Mount gives an unusually complete account of the effects of war upon the central southern plantocracy and of the general morale of the South from Lincoln’s election to the end of the Confederacy. In the humane and articulate Fleet papers, one may find the best of the southern tradition.” A captain on Wise’s staff, addressee Fred Fleet returned from Appomattox to find the house looted - Gen. Sherman having been serenaded on her veranda by his band, their Confederate money worthless, and their fifty slaves gone. The Fleets barely survived that winter. The extensive literature mentioning Green Mount Plantation includes Mastered by the Clock: Time, Slavery and Freedom in the American South (Smith), Southern Invincibility: A History of the Confederate Heart (Sword), Last Generation: Young Virginians in Peace, War, and Reunion (Carmichael), The Big House after Slavery: Virginia Plantation Families... (Morsman), and many others. Old stain in center of page 1, else fine. A splendid item. $600-800

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20-5. From Dreaded Elmira. Letter of Confederate prisoner Chas. J. Morton, “Barracks 3, Ward 35, Prison Camp, Elmira, N.Y.,” Jan. 28, 1865, 5 x 8, 1 p. “Barracks 3” was another designation for the Elmira P.O.W. camp. To E.G. Booth, Philadelphia, likely the Southern sympathizer, and postwar author of In War Time: Two Years in the Confederacy and Two Years North. Originally from Virginia, Booth personally paid for construction of a building at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition to house relics of Virginia history. ”I regret to call on you so soon, but I have been using Tobacco for ten years, and am suffering for the Want of it very much, and desire that you will send me a little money, so as to enable me to procure it. With that exception I am doing as well as can be expected....” Blind impression of clip, else fine. • With portion of envelope, insect holes, and the stamp, postmark, and most of address trimmed and lacking. The writer is unrecorded in ChemungHistory.com’s roster of Confederate dead at Elmira, therefore he apparently lived through the war. “The Civil War prison camp at Elmira, N.Y., had the highest death rate of any prison camp in the North: almost 25 percent. Comparatively, the overall death rate of all Northern prison camps was just over 11 percent; in the South, the death rate was just over 15 percent. Clearly, something went wrong in Elmira...”--Review of Elmira: Death Camp of the North, by Michael Horigan. $125-175 (2 pcs.)

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20-6. Wounded and Captured at Gettysburg. Letter from Confederate prisoner-of-war C(icero) A. Verser, Co. B, 7th Div., “Care Capt. Patterson,” Point Lookout, Md., Dec. 3, 1863, 5 x 8-1/4, 1 full p. A Sergeant in the 18th Virginia Infantry, Verser was wounded and captured at Gettysburg on July 3. He died here at Point Lookout, the largest Union prison-of-war camp, in May 1864. To Mrs. A.W. Emley, 608 Spruce St., Philadelphia. “I received the articles sent me a few days since...I never received any letter. I suppose I was directed wrong as the Package was directed to the 4th Div. instead of the 7th. I recd. the following articles: one Hat, one pr. pants, one shirt, one pr. shoes, also four Blankets for the following named persons: S.G. Williams, S.H. Morton, E.V. Adams, & A. Roberts, on which I delivered. Please accept my sincere thanks for the articles sent...Don’t write but one page as anything more won’t be received by us.” S(amuel) H. Morton and E(zekiel) V. Adams, both also of the 18th Virginia, were taken prisoner at Gettysburg as well. Morton survived Camp Lookout, and was exchanged in 1865; Adams was exchanged at Fort Delaware, and was back in Confederate service in 1864. Verser is presumed to rest in a mass grave, in the Confederate cemetery today within Point Lookout State Park. Few small insect holes affecting no text, soft clip impression, light handling, else fine and clean. • Amber envelope with good “Point Look Out” (note usage) c.d.s., four-ring concentric cancel, two edge fragments nibbled from 3¢ stamp, some dust toning, tear where opened, but still about very good. Prisoner Verser’s correspondent evidently worked with the Christian Association; her kindnesses are recorded in several sources, including The Union Prison at Fort Delaware: A Perfect Hell on Earth” by Temple: the following year she sent a box of 102 hymn books and 60 Bibles to Confederate prisoners. A tragic item. $200-300 (2 pcs.)

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20-7. The Case of the Missing Musket. Letter of Col. E(ugene) A. Hamilton, renowned Civil War captain of 5th Vermont Infantry, here with 3rd Regt., Vermont Militia, Salisbury, Aug. 27, 1866. 7-3/4 x 10, 1-1/4 pp. To “Gen(l).” “...You will get a report from Capt. Gayer now, but if you do not immediately please to let me know and I will take some more severe measures. He is rather inclined to be fractious about the matter, for the reason that he has wanted to resign and could not make it work. As it regards that musket referred to in Capt. Mason’s Co., I have been trying to find out when it was since your first communication, and have been unable...Last fall I made a color sergeant of one of his men, and I took his Musket and let a member of another company have it to use (who was then without one)...I lost the memorandrum I made at the time, and I cannot tell which Co. it went into...You will there have to make such disposition of it as you think best under the circumstances.” Breaks but no separations at two folds, some wrinkles, dust toning at right margin, else good plus. A Merino sheep breeder turned soldier, Hamilton was ironically mustered in at St. Albans, later scene of the northernmost engagement of the war, when Confederate agents crossed the border from Canada. Rising to Capt., Hamilton’s 5th Vermont Infantry “is said to have suffered the heaviest loss in killed and wounded of any one regiment in a single action (at the Battle of Savage Station, Va.)...The 5th had its important share in both Fredericksburg Campaigns (and) Gettysburg...In the final assault on Petersburg, Apr. 2, 1865, the Vermont Brigade was in the front of the line, the 5th being the first regiment to reach the enemy’s works and there plant its colors...”--The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal States..., 1908, Vol. 1, pp. 110-111. With modern photograph. $110-140

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20-8. “One of the hardest fought battles of this rebellion.” Letter of Union soldier (believed to be John Buyers of 58th Penna. Infantry, notwithstanding cryptic signature “Hunter,” possibly a nickname), “3d Div. 3d Army Cor(ps) Hospital,” (Washington), May 2, (18)63, 2 pp., 4-3/4 x 7-3/4. To sister Mary Buyers, Sunbury, Northumberland County, Pa. “It has now been two weeks since I left the regt. and came to the Hospital, being unwell and not fit for marching. The(re) were some 13 or 14 of us sent to the division Hospital...The doctor said that he intended sending us to Alexandria or Washington soon. The army movements here at present it would not be prudent for me to mention...Chas. Forrester is here at the Hospital, having had the fever...We have to be very cautious what we write but...you may expect to hear of one of the hardest fought battles of this rebellion. The situation here for a Hospital is a most desirable one, with a large spring of excellent water and Potomack Creek but a few hundred yards from here. I took a walk down the Creek...and was astonished to see boats unloading army stores, the creek at one place being 3/4 of a mile wide. They are plenty of shad & fresh herring to be bought... 27-1/2 cts. doz...Today it is very warm, the men reposing under shade trees...The doctor told me that he would make out my discharge....” Toning, penned on half a lettersheet, short tear at one fold, else good plus. • With very scarce patriotic envelope, red, white and blue naval motif, Walcott #1590, flag atop ornate postage-stamp-size square frame, ship in blue. “Thou too sail on, O Ship of State, Sail on, O Union, Strong and great.” Washington c.d.s. Franking signature “Soldiers Letter / Milton Opp / Maj. 84th Reg. Pa.” Black stamped “Due 3.” Uniform toning, tiny chips at left and right edges, else about very good. Interesting wet press offset on verso of red imprint. A dramatic dichotomy: writer Buyers resigned the Army a few weeks after this letter was penned, living well into the twentieth century; Opp was mortally wounded at The Wilderness in 1864. With modern copies of service records of both, and mention of Opp’s gallantry at Gettysburg: “(Opp’s) body of Pennsylvanians was not surpassed in intelligence, skill, and unflinching courage by any regiment in the Army of the Potomac”--The Battle of Gettysburg: A Comprehensive Narrative, Young, 1913. $175-225 (2 pcs.)

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20-9. “Expected to be blown up....” Dramatic, lengthy homefront letter of Carrie Porter, on the exploits of Lee, a Union sailor she visited, now in Boston. From Highfield (Maine), May 24 (1863), 4 very full pp., 5 x 8-1/2. “...Smooth passage from Eastport...I had the satisfaction of seeing Lee & hearing a little of his Southern experience. He did have a hard time – I wonder that his life was spared. Once in a narrow river where it was impossible for either vessel to move, a vessel caught fire just across the bow of his steamer. They supposed the burning vessel was loaded with ammunition & expected to be blown up every moment. He went with two or three others in a boat to the vessel carrying hoses etc. & then went back & waited their fate. Fortunately only the aft part of the vessel burned before they extinguished the fire. Lee says it was a very anxious time...Then when he came up north in a steamer the Capt. did not know what his duty was. Not putting up his signals, Fort Macon fired to bring them to, he paid no attention to it & the Fort fired again - a ball whizzing by very near where Lee stood. The Capt. was frightened & wanted to know ‘what he should do.’ Lee told him to run up his signal or they would all be lost & he did so just in time to prevent a whole broadside from the fort which would have sunk the boat at once. A very narrow escape...Lee goes farther than any of us in condemnation of McClellan now. He says he is convinced he was a traitor - that his intention was to keep the war along without doing anything through the administration & then patch up a peace. The fact which he knows to be true that after McClellan’s visit to Boston at Springfield they sat in the car, allowed the crowd to pass through & gave their photographs to them. Puts Lee in the greatest disgust with him...One more Sunday with Lee before going down east...Highfield views are very fine now in their spring green. Pears & cherries...Peach trees in bloom, horse chestnut in Mrs. Pierce’s yard...I left in that wagon til quite near Lubec...Riding backwards did not prove much better for me than the hot sun in the open buggy....” Describing a sudden squall, the Maine temperature dropping from 89 to 54 in half an hour! Light dusttoning at vertical fold, two nicks at lower right margin, else very good. $100-130

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20-10. The Day Lincoln was Shot. Exceptional Union soldier’s letter, “Ward 11, McClellan U.S.A. Hospital, Philadelphia,” Apr. 14, 1865, 4 pp., 5 x 8. In generally dark pencil, in a neat hand. Signed with first name only, to his sister in Hunter, evidently N.Y. “...Feel in pretty good spirits...I am so full of the great & glorious news that comes in from all parts of our country, that I must let it out of me...or I shall burst my boiler. I must yell, scream, get drunk, or write a letter, so among evils, I will choose the least...I want you to take hold of my hand & kneel before God...He has brought our beloved land & government safely through the cruel fiery ordeal of the last four years...Our lives have been spared to see the Paunch kicked out of the damnable pro-slavery rebellion & conspiracy, thank Him that our Govt. has triumphed over foul treason, and at the same time, strangled the monster Slavery...Our glorious flag shall float only over freemen. Then Sister we will rise from our knees, hold each others hands, give one mighty shout of Victory, & ask the sneaking Copperheads if they think still that we never can conquer the Rebels, whether they think still we never can take Charleston, never take Richmond, never take Petersburgh, never whip them. I suppose there may be some d-m fools enough to think so...It is a free country, neither Rebbles (sic) nor Copperheads run the Govt. now. If I live to come home again this fall I will bring you a man that will work off some of the fat. There is a widower in our Regt. from Lexington [N.Y., close to Hunter], a first rate fellow and a saving chap. Will make you a first rate husband...He worked for Beri Johnson...I will introduce him & if you like him he shall marry you or I’ll shoot him...Virginia is the place to live. There wasn’t one inch of snow all winter...Peach trees were all in blossom...When the country is restored to peace again I shall endeavor to have a farm somewhere in Va. on the James River...a perfect paradise...What miserable fools the people were that they could not be contented and not kick up a muss with Uncle Sam...He is an ugly chap when he gets his dander up....” Possibly a member of the 80th N.Y., and researchable thusly. Minor handling, else about fine. By the stroke of midnight that day, the writer - along with much of the country - would be plunged into an abyss of sadness, by one of the most shocking events in American history. $140-180

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20-11. Black Troops in the Swamps. Partly printed D.S. of Union Lt. Col. James Lewis, 144th N.Y. Volunteers, Hilton Head, S.C., June 30, 1864, 8-1/2 x 10-1/2. For ordnance turned over to Capt. M.W. Marvin of his unit: “1500 R(oun)ds Elon(gated) Ball Cartridges Cal. .58, 2 Packing Boxes.” Minor edge tear, else fine. Lewis participated in the Siege of Suffolk, Va., Forts Wagner and Gregg, bombardment of Fort Sumter, and commanded at the obscure Battle of Honey Hill, assessed by one modern observer as “the most lopsided battle of the Civil War.” A misnomer, Honey Hill, a disastrous episode in Sherman’s March to the Sea, was in fact an area of deadly swamps. Setting off from Hilton Head, Lewis’ colored troops combined with the famed 54th Massachusetts and other forces. By the end of that day, the Union suffered over 700 killed, lost, and wounded, the Confederates 47. Suitable for display. $90-130

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20-12. Washington Territory in the Civil War. Postwar A.N.S. of Mark C. White, as “Comrad(e) Gettysburg Post 191 [G.A.R.],” on stationery of Boston Police Dept., Dec. 31, 1888, 8 x 11. To his Commander, requesting “a transfer card from Gettysburg Post.” White served in the 1st Washington Territorial Infantry Regt. - almost certainly the most distant American participants in the Civil War. In Jan. 1862, the Washington Territory Adjutant General’s Office warned residents in a newspaper notice (modern copy accompanies): “To Arms - While our arms are being crowned with great success in the rebellious States, the late dispatches portend a War with England and France. The Storm is gathering: Let us then look well to it that it does not burst upon our heads while we are unprepared!! Let us not remain quietly at our firesides and permit the ruthless savage to be turned upon us...”--The Official History of the Washington National Guard..., Vol. 3, p. 20. Initial efforts at recruitment in the Territory were poor, due to “the peculiar severity” of that winter, with snow as high as twelve feet. Even band of toning at left margin along old album mount on verso, old folds, else very good. Items relating to Washington Territory in the Civil War are very scarce. $75-100

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20-13. Colored Infantry in the Last Infantry Battle of the Civil War. Partly printed D.S., the text also apparently entirely in the hand of Capt. Arthur T. King, namesake of King’s Company, 50th Regt. U.S. Col(ore)d Inf(an)t(ry) Vols., V(icks)burg, Miss., Nov. 3, 1864, 8 x 10-1/4. Granting technical discharge to David C. Caward, a “sandy”-complected Sgt. in King’s Co., who had enlisted at Vicksburg just months before, now receiving promotion within the 50th. (Caward is listed in the National Park Service’s African American Civil War Memorial, plaque no. C-62.) Originally organized as the 12th Louisiana Vols. (African Descent), the 50th Colored Infantry - including both King and Caward - fought in the last infantry battle of the Civil War, at Fort Blakely, Ala., Apr. 1-9, 1865. In a lopsided battle with the waning Confederate forces - including its brigade of “boy reserves” - their target of Blakely ultimately fell in twenty minutes. Very scarce. With modern copy of composite photograph of “Officers of the 50th U.S. Col(ored) Inf’ty.” at Vicksburg, including King. $130-170

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20-14. “The Government has put up new Bakeries at Fredericksburg.” Letter of Union soldier Wm. D(unlap) Dixon, evidently Capt. in 35th Penna. Infantry, who advanced to Bvt. Brig. Gen. in 1865 (service record accompanies). Camp near Falmouth, Va., May 18, (18)62, 5 x 8, 3-1/4 pp. To wife Martha. “...We are still encamped on the Rappahannock River...Hope you and the little pets are as well as usual. Although we are separated by quite (a) number of miles and cannot be traversed in one day...We have all the facilities of water & steam, both on land and water...The Rail Road Bridge across the Rappahannock is nearly finished and has to be in regular running order by next Wed. The rebels are burning all the Bridges as they retreat and when we want to follow them we have to build them w(h)ich leaves them get a great start of us, but sometimes we travel too fast for them...The health of the men is quite good. I think they will stand the campaign this Season first rate. They are now enured to the Service and to Camp life. We have not got any fresh Bread since we left Alexandria. The men are getting somewhat tired of the Pilot Bread. We have some prospect of getting some fresh Bread tomorrow. The Government has put up new Bakeries at Fredericksburg. I got a few loaves from them yesterday. It is very fine Bread and quite cheap. We get it for 5¢ per loaf...By the time that there are some enterprising Yankees gets here to start business, that Goods will be sold at a pretty fair price, and I suppose there will be some money made here but it will not be made by the Virginians, as they are not the style of men...You had better to keep Davy from School. You will find it will be a great deal better for him if he does run about...It will make him more robust and hearty....” Coffee-and-cream ink, some fingerprints, else about fine. Dixon would go on to fight at Gettysburg. His material is scarce. $175-250

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20-15. Brothers at War. Unusual combination letter of two Union brothers, Pvts. Henry H. and Jacob W. Otto, both of Altoona. From Camp Curtin (Harrisburg, Pa.), Co. C, 205th Penna. Vols., Sept. 4, 1864, 4-1/2 x 7-3/4, 4 full pp. They had mustered in together just a week earlier. With fine spiritual content. “I take up my pen in hand this Sabbath morning to inform you that we are not very well...We have got a bad Cold but we musn’t complain...We were going to Washington City...We like it better than when we came down but we may get used to it. There is Company C coming every day. They pay $550 to 600...I am eating this morning. Some is praying and some is swearing, but I think they will all get tamed before their year is up...If God spares my life and has mercy on my sole (sic) once more I will live a better life than I ever did before...for we can’t tell when any of us will die...We got a present of a Testament...and I intend to make good use of it and I hope the whole Co. will do the same....” The highly creative spelling, mostly corrected here, suggested that one of the brothers was illiterate. Both brothers were wounded in the waning weeks of the war, Henry was wounded at Fort Steadman, Va., on Mar. 25, 1865, and Jacob at Fort Segdwick, Va. on Apr. 2. Toning at folds and one panel, suggestive of perspiration, minor fold and junction wear, else good plus, darkly penned in brown on cream. $80-110

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20-16. “If one young lady is jealous over another....” Lengthy letter of Union soldier Frank J. Philp, “Camp of 161st N.Y. Vols., White River Landing, Arkansas, Sabbath Morn, July 31, 1864,” 5 x 7-3/4, 4 full pp. To parents in Altay, Schuyler County, N.Y. “...In these hard times...enjoying myself as well as can be expected in this hot climate. It is pretty warm but not as much so as it was in the Dept. of Gulf. D.C. has not got here yet. I am looking for him on every boat coming from New Orleans...I was sorry to hear of his feeling so bad when leaving home. I will do all in my power to make him happy...The boys are all well as usual and in good spirits, but they complain some of staying here, for it is about the same as being in a wilderness. We can get nothing in the way of vegetables...The other Regt. (6 Mich.) that belongs to this Brig. has gone up White River. The Gen. Hdq. are here as yet. Perhaps we will remain here & build a small fort...Is it possible that Phrone Knapp is of that disposition?...I will stop writing entirely if one young lady is jealous over another...Well, well, what is the world coming to?...” Extra fold at top by sender, else fine. • With yellow envelope, bold Memphis “Aug. 3” c.d.s. and four-ring concentric. Contemporary notation “...Received Aug. 11, Answered Aug. 14.” Some soiling, but good plus. At this time, the 161st N.Y. was attached to Bailey’s Engineers. A modern source shows only “Joseph F. Philip” of the 116th N.Y., however this is presumed a transcription error. $100-130 (2 pcs.)

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20-17. Draft Dodging in Maine. Letter from “Farther” in Madison (Maine), to his son Marcel in Milwaukee, Wis. Apr. 30-May 1, 18(64), 4 pp., 5 x 8. Blind-embossed “Victory” stationer’s crest at upper left of lettersheet. Describing life on the farm Down East, and avoiding the draft. “...I have got lots of work to do and no one to help me...Potatoes has been $1.25 per bushel, corn 1.50, oats 80 cts., butter 50 cts., molasses $1, tea 1.25...pork 18¢ per pound, codfish 8¢ per pound...Cows from $30 to 75, oxen from $175 to 260...I should be glad if you was at home...I am afraid if you stay in Wisconsin you will be drafted. I think they can hold you in Wisconsin...If you can you had better come home. We hear nothing said about a draft in this place...It has been very sickly in Skowhegen with the small pox....” Listing victims of local diptheria epidemic. Light wear, else about fine. $80-100

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20-18. In Pursuit of the Assassin. Letter of Allie F. Hartshein, Manchester (N.H.?), Apr. 25, (18)65, 3-1/2 pp., 4-3/4 x 8. To her Uncle Calvin in the Army. “Your dearest Lucy has been to our house and she has been urging me quite hard to write to her soldier boy...I trust you will get (the newspapers), for they contain lots of good reading about our departed President &c. Oh Uncle, wasn’t it dreadful. Do you suppose they will ever find Booth? I pray they will and give him the punishment he deserves...You don’t know, Uncle, how much she [your wife] thinks of you. There aren’t many men that do know how to appreciate a woman. But I know you can appreciate her because you can’t help it - she is so good. When we were at the levee the other night, every other word would be, ‘How I wish Calvin was here.’ Well if kind providence permits...you will be marching home a free man. Then the long anticipated happy days will come...I will bid you good night and pleasant dreams all about Lucy Dear....” Very fine, penned in a charming hand. $60-80

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20-19. Missing at Deep Bottom. Letter of Union Capt. Joseph Delehunt, Co. A, 84th Penna. Vols., Camp Taylor, Va., Sept. 12, 1864, 1 p., 7-3/4 x 9-3/4. To David Spealman (a recently enlisted Private in Co. E, 4th Penna. Cavalry). “...I have not been with my company since the 17th of June when I was wounded and sent to hospital. In reference to your friend Solomon D. Maugheimer, all that I know I learned from Lieut. Dougherty. He says that he was missing in the action at Deep Bottom since which time he has not heard from him. Supposed to be taken prisoner....” The Petersburg Campaign’s Deep Bottom Run, also known as Strawberry Plains, was a significant series of battles, extending over the Summer of 1864. Pitting Grant against Lee, Union losses totaled just over 3,000. No record of Maugheimer is readily found, either in Spealman’s unit or elsewhere. His fate remains unknown. Some toning at folds, few light spots, else very good. $65-85

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21. First Ladies

21-1. “A little journey ... when and where I know not.” Lengthy A.L.S. of Jane Pierce, Concord (N.H.), May 13, 1852, 4 pp., 4 x 6-1/4. A relatively lively letter, to her brother, about close family and friends, but tinged with tragedy, lamenting those no longer with them. Penned in the year which saw Franklin’s election to the Presidency, she likely did not anticipate that the “little journey” she awaits would involve the White House. “Among the multitude of my thoughts this Winter and Spring, you have not been absent. I have heard of you and yours from time to time, and so, I suppose have you of me. A long and tedious winter, we have had indeed, and a late Spring - but the grass and the foliage are now in their first freshness, and do all they can to make amends for their delayed appearance. I suppose you may be among your friends in Boston and Topham[?] soon. I may...see you there. I do not know where George is now. I thought of him often when I supposed him following a sea life, but know not whether it is the case that he is now...returned from the South - and Charles...likes the physician’s life. I hope he will...be useful and eminent in it. Lany is back again in the house she loves so much. I should have liked to see her here, but a visit to me did not seem exactly practicable. My love to her to all the dear ones around you, dear Chas. the last not least. Sister Mary enclosed to me your letter my dear brother...It is a source of satisfaction to me that the remains of that precious and lamented he that we were with them and his family, and that the new deposit was made under your kind and affectionate supervision...The entire expense I share with Sister Mary. Alas! That we two should now be the only survivors of these beloved ones! And one Robert, our cherished brother! He too - gone from earth! I hope you are better than you were when you wrote things did not seem going quite smoothly. However there are always such periods with every one, I believe - and I dare say it was but a temporary thing with you. Sister Mary has had the measles in her family...I shall not go to Andover until I know they are all...rested from her fatigue...My husband has been most laboriously occupied for the last three months. Court at Amherst ran last week, and he went this morning to try a case at Plymouth, but has had no quiet time at home for a great while...He is promising himself and me a little journey by and by - when and where I know not. I am a poor (affair?) most of the time, but better some days than others. Benjamin has been pretty well...but has suffered from a cold within a few days. He is asleep or could send love. I should be asleep for it is late my dear brother...With much affection your sister Jane.” Very light toning at vertical fold and portions of edges, few handling creases, light wear, else fine and darkly penned in brown on ivory. A superior-content letter of the First Lady. Many of her letters reside in the Library of Congress; those in private hands are diminishing in number. $1500-2200

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21-2. Mary Lincoln. view image Particularly engaging carte photograph of Mary Lincoln, her eyes and resolute expression more communicative than in some other poses. At first seeming a serious pose, there is a hint of a Mona Lisa smile which draws the viewer back. Subtle palest rose-brown oval field behind her. Corners diced, possibly by photographer to mask unequal margins around double blue ruled border. Minor crease at lower left, else fine plus, and a superior Mary Lincoln example. $80-120

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21-3. Mr. Pierce’s Troubles. view image Lengthy A.L.S. of Jane Pierce, Pigeon Cove, (Mass.), “Tuesday P.M.,” n.d. but possibly Civil War date. 4 full pp., 4-3/4 x 8. Delicately penned in brown on bluelined cream lettersheet. To her sister, though signed in full “Jane M. Pierce.” “...I am glad too that you have got through with the furnace successfully...The weather this week so far seems uncertain, and for three days has been more or less foggy. Mr. Pierce has had still a good deal of the difficulty which has been troubling him...I cannot say that I am better excepting a little varying from one day to next...I want to be thinking about going away from these parts...I want to be with you, my beloved sister, and shall be able to go up I hope by making Salem a stopping place of the night...The young woman in the next house (Madam [unclear]) died last night. She was from Nova Scotia it seems, and has been a very efficient and excellent person. Ada, the head girl here is obliging and willing to do all I ask of her...They are good, easy kind of people here too and if they are not very particular about sweeping & dusting, you have any number of sofas, easy chairs, for the house is very completely furnished... I thought we might go around by Boston....” Tiny blind-embossed stationer’s portrait of Washington at upper left. Very fine. The Library of Congress Calendar of Papers of Franklin Pierce includes (only) one letter of Jane Pierce from Pigeon Cove, dated Sept. 30, 1863, therefore the offered item may be of proximate date. In all, Mrs. Pierce’s letters from this coastal spot are extremely scarce. Pencilled (19)80 price and file notation of noted autograph dealer Paul C. Richards. $1400-1900

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21-4. Eleanor Roosevelt’s Florida Foray. view image Attractive T.L.S. of Eleanor Roosevelt, on her uniquely styled “202 Fifty-Sixth Street West” N.Y. stationery, Oct. 31, 1958. 6 x7. To Franklyn A. Johnson, Jacksonville University, Fla. “...I will be in Miami for the American Association for the UN in January but only for two nights with Mr. Gray and then quickly home. I fear I will not be back in Florida after that....” Light handling traces, else fine and clean, signed in opal-blue. • With envelope bearing her rubberstamped free-frank, “Anna Eleanor Roosevelt,” ironically with postal cancellation slogan “Theodore Roosevelt Centennial 1858-1958....” $325-400 (2 pcs.)

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21-5. The Roosevelt’s Christmas Party. A.L.S. of Eleanor Roosevelt, on White House lettersheet, with eagle, finely engraved in rich gold. “Dec. 31st.” 4-1/4 x 7, 1-1/2 pp. To Mrs. (Harry) Woodring, wife of F.D.R.’s Assistant Secretary, then Secretary of War, 1933-40 respectively. “The lovely pencil will be a joy in my bag & I am so grateful for your thought of me. Many thanks & I shall think of you often when I use it. Your children were so sweet at the party! I wish I could keep children here all the time!” Original horizontal fold, else excellent. Her autograph letters as First Lady are superior. $675-875

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21-6. “Virginia Victory” Cookies for Truman. A.L.S. of Bess Truman, on variant White House lettersheet, engraved in gold, the eagle encircled with 48 miniature stars. No date, but probably not later than Christmas season 1949. 4-1/2 x 7, 1-1/2 pp. To Mr. and Mrs. William Simmons. “Your cookies were simply delicious and we enjoyed them tremendously. It was so nice of you to go to all that trouble to make them for us - and they really tasted like ‘Virginia Victory’ sure enough. Thank you, loads.” Excellent. Simmons was Truman’s White House aide and appointments secretary, who famously allowed a peach queen visiting Washington to sit in the President’s chair. • With White House envelope in Bess Truman’s hand, “...By hand.” Light fingerprint in blank area, minor handling toning, else fine. A delightful pair. $200-250 (2 pcs.)

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21-7. “I cannot wish her back....” Dramatic A.L.S. of Mary Lord Harrison, on her pastel lettersheet with apple green fibers, 29 E. 64 St., N.Y., June 19, 1940. 4-3/4 x 6-1/2, 3 pp. To Miss Fraser. “Saturday afternoon June 13th my dear sister passed away, Elizabeth - and I was by her side and we laid her body in the Cemetery at Rock Creek Monday aft. - by the side of her husband, my mother and brother. I miss her sadly, but she hears not...and I cannot wish her back...She went quickly - and did not suffer. Thank God. Will you send word to the Sliters. I know you all had affection for her....” Old very soft impressions of clip at top, else very fine. $200-250

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21-8. Dinner at Eight. Third-person A.L.S., “Mrs. Woodrow Wilson accepts with pleasure the gracious invitation from the Secretary of War and Mrs. Woodring to dinner on Mon., Nov. the 28th [1938] at Eight o’clock.” On her lettersheet steel-engraved in black. 5 x 8. Two sepia fingerprints near “Eight,” perhaps food from the fingers of her hostess as she opened the letter in the kitchen, else fine. With old photostat of a Harris & Ewing portrait of Mrs. Wilson. At one time, she had arguably been, with the Queen of England, the most powerful woman in the world: it was not well known at the time, but because of her husband’s infirmities, she was essentially running the country for him. $250-300 (2 pcs.)

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21-9. “Your two young Englishmen.” A.L.S. of Frances F. Cleveland, on her blind-embossed Princeton, N.J. notepaper, Jan. 18, (19)03. 4-1/4 x 6-3/4, 2-1/2 pp. To Miss Fairchild. “I fear you must think me very rude. I have not meant to be. Your note has just this moment come to light, and I hope it is not too late for your two young Englishmen. Of course we shall be glad to see them. I hope they won’t care to come Tuesday as that day is very full for both Mr. Cleveland & me...I can’t really ask you to pardon me, because I feel so very much to blame, but I truly am awfully sorry.” Uniform eggshell-white toning, else very good. $150-200

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21-10. Flowers from Democratic Headquarters. Charming A.L.S. of Edith Bolling Wilson, on grey lettersheet steel-engraved with red and blue flag logo of United States Line, July 1, 1929, with accompanying envelope postmarked “U.S.-Ger(many) Sea Post / Leviathan.” 5-1/2 x 6-3/4, 2-1/2 pp. To Jonett Shouse, National Democratic Headquarters, Press Building, Washington, D.C. “These very lovely flowers, which assure me of your thought, are giving me real pleasure. It was very gracious of you to give me this assurance of your friendship - and I will carry it with me across the long journey ahead. I hope that you can get a real vacation, and that the summer will be a happy one for you all....” In her bold, charter-hand-like style. Very fine and clean. Shouse had served as Wilson’s Assistant Sec. of the Treasury. • With envelope, cream linen, addressed in her hand, bearing infrequently seen holograph franking signature, in rich brown ink. Minor tear where neatly opened at side, affecting one letter of address, else very good. $325-425 (2 pcs.)

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21-11. First Lady for a Day. view image Rare and intriguing A.L.S. of Lucy H. Cook, aunt of First Lady Lucy Hayes, who ran the White House when Mrs. Hayes was ill. “Executive Mansion” engraved in blue on cream, Jan. 30 (n.y. but 1878-1880), 4-1/4 x 7-3/4, 1 full p. To Mr. Welch. “Mrs. Hayes would like very much to have you and your daughter dine with us informally this evening at six o’clock, if convenient and you have no other engagement.” Most unusually, ten large check marks, one between each line and two preceding closing of letter, believed in same ink as body of letter, suggesting that this may have been written as a practice exercise, to perfect her spacing and alignment for real correspondence to follow. The lacking blank half of lettersheet, representing pp. 3-4, further supports this notion, allowing her to conserve costly stationery. Older 3-1/2” strip of brown mounting tape on verso, delicate warm marginal toning, else fine. Cook references are sparse; a reference to her 1888 wedding, attended by former Pres. and Mrs. Hayes, appears in Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes..., Vol. 4 – her sole entry found in the extensive archives of the Hayes Presidential Center and Library. No letters of Lucy Cook are readily found in any repository. A White House curiosity - in several respects. $350-450

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21-12. “He’s really a great man.” Splendid T.Q.S., comprising passage from the 1964 book First Ladies, Stories of the President’s Wives, signed by Mamie Doud Eisenhower in charcoal-black marker. 5 x 8. “All through our married life, things like this have happened to test our strength...I’ve seen our life together shaped by unexpected turns, utterly beyond human conception, and I began to think there is a divine plan back of it all and that Ike is part of it. He’s really a great man. I’m thankful for the privilege of being by his side.” Prepared on manual typewriter, on white. Fine and suitable for display. $80-120

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21-13. Mrs. Eisenhower’s Shopping List. Fascinating, lengthy A.L.S. of Mamie Eisenhower, n.p. but likely in Europe, Nov. 29, 1951, 3 full pp., 5-3/4 x 7-3/4. In Waterman blue on unusual fancy crêpe writing paper with all-over watermark design. To Mrs. (C.C.) Lent, (460 Morningside Ave., New York). “Here I am asking for help again. Inclosed are three items I hope you can get for me. The robe from Russeks to be sent to Mrs. John Eisenhower, Fort Knox, Ky., c/o Maj. J.S.E. The thermal jugs sent to me here, c/o Col. Davidson, Rm. 2E-661, Pentagon...Also 8 of the Anniversary candles...to be sent out for Xmas, air mail if necessary...I got terribly mad at Goldsmith but maybe you can still use the charge. The red dress from Russeks arrived - not same style, not cute. Had note from Jo Ann saying she had heard we were going to be down here this week end - sorry this is not true. Said a friend was picking up her coat for her. Mother arrived...safely...Just returned from trip to Rome. Life as hectic as always with us. I do hope it will not be too late for candles if this place out of biz. It is so hard over here to do Xmas shopping. The James Blacks and the Charles McAdams have been here two weeks. Lots of goings on...Guess we will stay right here for Xmas...Enclosed are cards [not present] for each one to be mailed from U.S...How wonderful you are willing to help me....” Trivial wear, else very fine. • With envelope from a different letter (not present) from Mrs. Eisenhower to same address, “Eisenhower” lettered in her hand above printed cornercard “Trianon Palace, Versailles.” Postmarked U.S. Army Postal Service, A.P.O. 58, Feb. 1951. Scuff across few letters of address and other postal handling, else V.G. $220-270 (2 pcs.)

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21-14. On California Calling Card. Signature of Lou Henry Hoover on slender card engraved “Stanford University, California.” 2 x 3-1/2. “1941” in pencil on verso, in another hand. Blue ink on eggshell-white. Excellent. $45-65

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21-15. “A great deal for me to accomplish.” A.L.S. of Frances F. Cleveland, “2315 Massachusetts Ave.,” (Washington, D.C.), Jan. 11, 1913. 5-1/4 x 6-3/4, 1-1/2 pp. To Dr. Childs. “...I wish we might ‘drop out’ to see you, but I fear the time is too full. ‘They’ have laid out a great deal for me to accomplish...If it should be at all possible we will make a little informal call.” Trivial handling evidence, rectangular toning on blank last page, else very fine. $125-175

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21-16. “In these days of political enmity....” Prescient, lengthy A.L.S. of Edith K(ermit) Roosevelt, on desirable, uncommon stationery, imprinted “Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt, Senior, Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, N.Y.,” May 24, 1938. 6 x 7, 3-1/2 pp. To Mrs. Nicholson, acknowledging her “distressing letter.” “The schools are such an austere question, to women especially, but should be approached by Pro- America not as an organization but as individuals, in these days of political enmity. In this State we work thro(ugh) the P.T.A...As to the Boy Scouts their scope would necessarily be limited, on account of their youth almost negligible. And of course their value in any direction depends upon the Scout Master of each individual troop. My son is not home so I cannot send his advice. Glad for news of success of your son. I shall be glad to send a letter of introduction to Mr. Hoover...but really think you could do more through Mrs. Hoover. That may be because I find women more understanding in all that concerns children. In any case it seems to me that schools need more specialized help....” Ink progressing from mid-brown to green-grey, light blind impression of V-clip, else very fine. A superb exemplar. $325-425

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21-17. Dinner for ... 1,800. Splendid, lengthy White House A.L.S. of Grace Coolidge, on 4 leaves, the first with gold Presidential Seal, “Friday” (Feb. 2, 1928 in old pencil), 5 x 8, to Mrs. (Harry) New. “We missed the Postmaster General and you, last evening, very much. It was a satisfaction to have Dr. Boone’s report and be assured that ‘the party’ had not given him a set-back. And I am glad he could come in to the Cabinet meeting this morning, for I think it would do him good - even though it may tire him. When we well folks have been shut in for just about so long we have to prove to ourselves that there is still some ‘go’ remaining. You were much too generous with your delectable looking confection. I haven’t been allowed to taste it yet but I have put some away to make sure of satisfying myself as to what it is like. I had such a good time at your dinner! The President said, ‘Did I stay too long?’ It was an interesting group of men and I didn’t realize the time was passing so rapidly. Last night’s reception was one of the large ones - between 1,800 and 1,900 - not, as the Herald stated, 3,000....” Very fine. • With curious Typewritten Statement on Harry S. New’s letterhead, Bethesda, Md., Feb. 14, 1930, signed by him, discussing the preceding letter: “A personal note from Mrs. Calvin Coolidge to Mrs. Harry S. New, delivered by hand...Mr. New had been suffering an attack of ‘shingles,’ sufficiently severe to have created some doubt as to whether or not he could attend his own annual dinner to the President which was given on Jan. 31st. He went through it all right...But Mr. New did miss one of The White House functions an evening or two later and this was what called for the letter attached.” One fold at bottom, lower right tip lacking, else good. An unusual pair. $325-425 (2 pcs.)

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22. Presidents

22-1. Reagan Runs for the First Time. view image Cover of Time, Oct. 7, 1966, with flattering portrait in muted crayon of Ronald Reagan, with teaser ribbon “California’s Governorship Race.” Signed in black at lower left, “Ronald Reagan,” believed contemporary. 8-1/4 x 11. (Stunning white Buick Riviera ad on inside front.) Hitting a home run with his 1964 speech supporting Barry Goldwater, Reagan was persuaded to run for political office. Seeking the California governorship in 1966, as depicted on this item, he emerged ictorious, winning again four years later. His words remain true today: “...The Founding Fathers knew a government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing....” Ascender of first “R” rubbed and light, probably from crawl of his fountain-pen ink on the coated paper; some light wear and fraying along three edges of cover, likely from original postal handling, easily matted, else about fine and bright. From Dirck Barhydt Collection. $325-425

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22-2. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Very fine full signature, in rich mahogany brown, on ivory. Likely cut from a document. 1 x 4. Ample margins for matting. Trivial smudge on “k,” presumed by his own hand, else a superior example. From personal collection of a past Pres. of Manuscript Society. $175-225

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22-3. A Truman Christmas. view image T.N.S. with expansive signature of Harry S Truman, on pale green White House notepaper, Washington, Jan. 5, 1949. 6-3/4 x 9. To Mr. and Mrs. Merl Young, Chevy Chase, Md. “Thanks a lot for your thoughtfulness at Christmas. I can’t tell you how very much I appreciate it.” Young appears in Senate testimony the following year concerning the Reconstruction Finance Corp.; perhaps he was nominated by Truman for a job. Rub across blue-engraved “White House,” possibly from typewriter carriage, stain on name of addressee, light mat toning, but still highly satisfactory. Ex-Manuscript Society auction, 1987. $650-850

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22-4. Taft’s Victory – 1908. view image T.L.S. of Wm. H. Taft, on his Cincinnati lettersheet but datelined Washington, Dec. 11, 1908. 5-1/4 x 8-1/2. To Miss Carrie E. Farrar, N.Y.C. “I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of congratulations, received at the time of the election, and to thank you for sending it and for your kind words of greeting and good wishes.” In red pencil at bottom, in another hand, “Ret’d Undeli’d by P.O.,” with filing notation at top. Rather becoming cobalt-blue halo spread around reflex blue letters, characteristic of much of Taft’s typewritten correspondence; watery ink droplet on “ft” of signature from Taft’s pen, original off-center folds, else about fine, and a colorful example, with considerable eye appeal and splendid political timing. Taft would assume office the following month. $550-750

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22-5. Attacking Democratic Spending. T.L.S. of Herbert Hoover, no place, Dec. 5, 1935. 8-1/4 x 9 (trimmed neatly at bottom). To Frank C. Allen, Hingham Centre, Mass. “Thank you for your note and the clipping...I deeply appreciate your most kind expressions and the friendship of which they are such evidence. I am glad to know that you were pleased with the address before the Ohio Society.” Several weeks earlier, Hoover had addressed the Society, ironically in New York City, attacking Roosevelt’s spending and economic planning. A significant speech in the annals of prewar political history, Hoover decried “turning the treasury into a national grab bag,” and the “deliberate plan for centralizing authority...where we the people can be made to do what starry-eyed young men in Washington think is good for us....” (With modern copy of citation.) Soft cockling at blank left portion, bend at upper left tip, light cream toning and handling evidence, else fine plus. Hoover was still very much in the mainstream; he was considered for the 1936 Republican ticket. Timely context. $175-225

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22-6. Discovery of the Northwest Territory by – Garfield. Intriguing pamphlet, “Discovery and Ownership of the Northwest Territory and Settlement of the Western Reserve - An Address Delivered Sept. 16, 1873, by Gen. James A. Garfield...Reprinted by a Gentleman of Cleveland, Sept. 1881.” 6-1/2 x 9-3/4, 32 pp., cord tied, open but untrimmed, as bound. Garfield breathlessly, and with surprising elan and drama, describes the $10,000 purchase of manuscript reports of early French explorers venturing forth into America’s unknown, from the French government. “...There can scarcely be found in the realms of romance, anything more fascinating than the records of discovery and adventure, during the two centuries that followed the landing of Columbus on the soil of the New World....” Garfield describes the travels of Champlain, Joliet, Marquette, La Salle, Frontenac, et al. “As Irving has well said of their work, ‘It was poetry put into action; it was the knight-errantry of the Old World carried into the depths of the American wilderness. The personal adventures; the feats of individual prowess; the picturesque descriptions of steel clad cavaliers, with lance, and helm, and prancing steed, glittering through the wilderness of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and the prairies of the Far West....’” Garfield traces the history of the Western Reserve into his own century. Gift inscription on cover to Congregational House, Boston, from Mrs. Lucia True Ames-Mead, 1900. Three different old handstamps, including Western Reserve Historical Society, dust soiling of cover, some edge chipping of untrimmed overhanging leaves, else good plus. Splendid association piece. The manuscripts described by Garfield are today priceless. No copies on abebooks. $100-130

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22-7. “Slavery’s Last Word.” Lincoln memorial sermon, “Slavery’s Last Word - Discourse Preached in the South Congregational Church, Middletown, Ct., on the Sabbath morning after the Assassination of Pres. Lincoln,” by Pastor John L. Dudley, (Apr.) 1865, 5-3/4 x 9, 28 pp. “...An awful darkness...Our venerated President is no more! Abraham Lincoln, the wise, the pure, the noble, the true, is dead! Still in his shroud this morning, lies the Chief Magistrate at Washington...Here comes the skulking assassin... the putrid hell of Slavery!...That dark, damning night, closed the testimony. The foul lie of the nineteenth century which puts treason for loyalty, slavery for liberty...has...recorded its defeat... this dying confession of the monster Slavery....” There was no shortage of eloquence in those momentous days, but this sermon has a distinctive quality, his prose not overdrawn but unrelenting, and ultimately overpowering and memorable. Interestingly, the Pastor noted that this address “was purely extemporaneous, spoken at the solemn call of the hour.” He reconstructed it from memory a week later, after being asked to capture his words for the ages. Bound in “patent 1908” brown over grey duplex boards; turn-of-century shelf labels and markings on inside cover; dust soiling of original wrappers, one old soft vertical fold, else internally fine and clean. Very rare. Monaghan I, 489. WorldCat locates only one copy, at Lincoln Memorial University Library. $130-160

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22-8. Prexie First Day Cover Collection. view image Pleasing assemblage of 29 alldifferent First Day Covers for the Presidential Issues, each boldly cacheted in ink color matching stamp, “First Day of Issue...Electric Eye Experimental Stamp...,” or with a highly detailed eagle embellished with text and P.O. logo. Scott #803-831, 1/2¢ through 50¢, inclusive, Ben Franklin through Taft. Apr. 5, 1939-Jan. 28, 1942, variously. Four low denominations in multiples; all singles with margin or corner selvedge; five highest denominations, 22¢ through 50¢, sent Registered. A fascinating color study, the printer having closely matched their letterpress ink to the stamp’s rotary press ink. Lovely group of this popular series, all sent to a student-philatelist, following him from Harvard to Princeton. Trivial occasional tip wear, light postal handling evidence, else V.F. to Exc. Suitable for display with Presidential autographs or memorabilia. Some denominations elusive on F.D.C.; the color-matched cachet evidently very scarce. Brookman Price Guide 550.00. $225-375 (29 pcs.) (Also see complete mint set of Prexie stamps, Lot 14-7)

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22-9. Lincoln’s Money Man. A.L.S. of recent Maine Gov. Frederick Robie, Gorham, Me., May 6, 1889, 4-1/2 x 7, 1-1/2 pp. “I have been absent from home most of the time for several weeks, and have just returned from N.Y...I regret to say I have already given a gentleman belonging to our own State a letter, which precludes my giving another. It would have afforded me great pleasure to have recommended you if you had applied in season, and I certainly shall congratulate you and be glad if you are successful... The Grange is doing good work in the State of Maine. I find many duties to occupy my time.” Original mailing folds, light dust toning, else fine. A schoolteacher in the antebellum South, Robie became a physician, appointed by Lincoln as Paymaster of the U.S. Volunteers, serving in the Army of the Potomac. $50-70

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22-10. Passport to Hell - and Back. view image Handsome D.S. of Pres. Calvin Coolidge and Sec. of State Charles E. Hughes, Washington, July 1, 1924, 14 x 19, on heavy cream bristol. Appointing William L. Peck of Conn. “a Foreign Service Officer, unclassified....” With 3-1/2” scalloped ivory paper seal. Old quarter folds, handling wrinkles at blank right, light toning at left quarter, else very good. Peck had a lengthy career, serving in the Marines in World War I, awarded the Legion of Honor, Croix de Guerre, and Distinguished Service Cross. Entering the Foreign Service, he served as U.S. Consul to Sweden, France, Italy, Australia, and the Gold Coast, among others. During World War II he was stationed in Marseilles, and with his wife was interned in Baden-Baden for a year and a half. It is possible that he was exchanged for Germans who had been transported there for that purpose - from America. $325-425

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22-11. Jimmy Carter with a Southern Theme. Cover of Time, May 31, 1971, bearing stylized portrait of the youthful Carter against a red, white and blue flag, “Dixie Whistles A Different Tune - Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter.” Signed in white portion beneath his name, “Best Wishes, Jimmy Carter,” believed contemporary. 8-1/4 x 11. Very light soft blind creases, likely from original postal handling, trivial wear at top edge, else fine and brightly colorful. From Dirck Barhydt Collection. Request copy. $175-250

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22-12. A Sketch of Aaron Burr. Fascinating A.L.S. of William Dorsheimer, the prominent N.Y. lawyer, journalist, and politician who crossed paths with numerous notables, including Presidents Johnson, Grant, and Cleveland, and near-Pres. Tilden. Buffalo (N.Y.), Dec. 25, 1857, 6-1/2 x8, 4 pp. To F. Underwood. “...My paper upon ‘Burr’ shall be in your hands at the date mentioned...Two years ago I undertook to write a biographical sketch of Aaron Burr, and in the odd moments of leisure from my profession I have devoted a great deal of time to it. My design was to furnish a complete representation of the man, taking for my model the biographies which one occasionally finds in the English Quarterlies. I proposed, however, to sink all minor matters and concentrate the light upon three periods of Burr’s life, his contest with Jefferson, his duel with Hamilton, and his southwestern expedition...I proposed to give some account of his amour, and to close with a general summary of his character. I thought this might make two articles, the first to close with the duel. My design was, if possible, to make it dramatic and lively, and to have it attract attention independent of any public curiosity...This paper is essentially finished, and can be altered and prepared for publication in a short time...I should like you to tell me which of these two projects seems the most suitable for your purpose....” Indeed, his essay on Burr appeared in Atlantic Monthly the next year. Dorsheimer served on Frémont’s staff in the Summer of 1861, soon returning to Buffalo. Vacillating for decades between Democrats and Republicans, he was appointed D.A. by Pres. Johnson, resigning to campaign for Republican Horace Greeley, then for Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. As Congressman, Dorsheimer chaired the House committee to celebrate the Washington Monument’s completion. His fellow colleague from Buffalo, Grover Cleveland, wished Dorsheimer to nominate him at the 1884 Convention; he wrote Cleveland’s campaign bio. Original folds, glue stain at spine of lettersheet where tipped to old album leaf, else V.G. $100-130

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22-13. Lincoln Mourning Lettersheet. “The Nation Mourns,” by noted lithographer Charles Magnus, N.Y. 5 x 8, three blue-lined pages inside for message. Large obsequious montage in charcoal black showing Lincoln, a Union soldier, cradling his rifle, holding a black mourning sash in sorrow, as two allegorical females admire the fallen Emancipator. Tragic verse: “From all churches, Sad and slow, Toll the bell, The knell of woe. Hark! their sad and solemn notes attend, Abraham Lincoln to his last way’s end....” Short edge tear at blank lower right, two small pieces masking tape on verso and one glassine, possibly from an oldtime philatelic exhibition mount, light edge toning, else about fine. Dramatic for display, and a scarce design. $90-120

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22-14. Lincoln by Prang. Carte portrait of Lincoln, by L(ouis) Prang & Co., Boston. Black and white, with pleasing lithographic evocation of steel engraving. Crease and tip bends at lower right corner, lighter wear at other tips, small spot in blank field at left, trivial edge toning, else about very good. An uncommon view by the future printer of America’s first Christmas card. $60-90

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23. Sports

23-1. Roger Maris. view image Choice signature on white 3 x 5 card, wide margins, on unruled side. In blue ballpoint. A member of the fearsome Yankees lineup in its glory, Maris’ 61-home run season - topping Babe Ruth - electrified America. Tiny spot at top blank area, apparently an inclusion from paper manufacture, else clean and excellent. “One of the most desired modern era [baseball] autographs, Maris’ signature is in a class by itself, outdistancing even that of his former teammate Mickey Mantle”--psaautographfacts.com. Guaranteed authentic. $400-550

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23-2. History Beckons Roger Maris. Ticket stub from the next-to-last game of the epic 1961 Yankees season, Game 80, Sept. 30, lower stand. Before a small crowd of 19,000, the Yankees bested Boston 3-1. Already tied with Babe Ruth, Roger Maris would hit his 61st homer the next day. Interestingly, after walking, striking out, and a single, Maris was replaced by Jack Reed - who had eked out just 2 hits all season - in the 9th inning. The pressure was evidently building; the suspense in the stadium must have been palpable. Black and red on yellow. Light wear, else very good, clean, and scarce, especially in view of the unremarkable attendance that day. With copy of box score and letter of provenance. “The 1961 Yankees are often mentioned as a candidate for the unofficial title of greatest baseball team in history”--wikipedia. $45-70

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23-3. Babe Ruth on Margarine Card. view image Scarce complete set of 112 different Sanella Margarine sports cards, 1932, in full color, thin stock, each 2-3/4 x 4-1/8. “Handbuch des Sports” series. Most, including Babe Ruth, believed Type 2; small balance Type 1. Lengthy text on versos, in German. Including superb photo-based artwork of Ruth, on one of his more offbeat and sought-after specialty cards. Others depicting skater Sonja Henie, Blue Bird and streamlined Mercedes racing cars, track, boxing, tennis, archery, motorcycle racing, shotput, aviation, skiing, soccer, gymnastics, golf, weightlifting, wrestling, boating, broadjumping, horse racing, fencing, swimming, bicycling, and other sports and athletes. Ruth in mint condition, never mounted, with very satisfactory registration, trifle rotated when cut by printer from full sheet, margins 60:40 at midpoints, with evocative full color; trivially softened right-angle at lower left, and microscopic flick at extreme tip at lower right, else a high grade example. Neat, light mounting traces noted on about 20 others, none affecting text. Centering and color registration generally superior; few occasional corner creases, but mostly excellent to near mint, some higher. An alternative to the prohibitively-priced American Babe Ruth cards of the 1930s. $450-750
(complete set of 112 cards)

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23-4. “Here Sunday – December 7th.” Fateful football program, Polo Grounds, New York Giants vs. Washington Redskins, Nov. 23, 1941. With bold teaser on front cover: “Here Sunday – December 7th – New York Giants vs. Brooklyn Dodgers, 2:00 P.M.” 6-3/4 x 9-3/4, (16) pp., navy blue on stiff white coated stock. Complete final page offers preview of the “battle” upcoming on December 7: “The grand climax of the Giants’ home season comes on Sun., Dec. 7, right here at the Polo Grounds...Giant-Dodger battles need no element of revenge...But this one is going to be HOT....” On another full page treatment: “Dec. 7 Will Be (Tuffy) Leemans Day...That afternoon they will present a gift...which should pack the Polo Grounds to overflowing on Dec. 7.” Ironically, some twenty years after the war which exploded on Dec. 7, Slingin’ Sam Baugh, listed in this game’s centerfold roster of Washington Redskins, his photo on following page, would return to the Polo Grounds – as coach of the new Jets. Some handling wrinkles and cover soiling, else good. Historically significant. $140-180

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23-5. Meet the Mets. Trio of items, all from the now-demolished Shea Stadium: 1967 program, believed July 1, capping Cardinals 6-4. 30 pp. Announcement of Oldtimers Night the following Saturday, with named players of 1960 Yankees, 1962 Mets, plus Hall of Famers Lloyd Waner, Joe Di Maggio, and others. Some handling evidence, else V.G. • 1970 Official Year Book, 8-1/4 x 11, 64 pp., the first yearbook to have news of their momentous 1969 World Series win, here in full color. Casey Stengel, Gil Hodges, Yogi Berra, et al. Trivial wear, else excellent. • 1971 program, probably July 30, vs. Cubs. 34 pp. Photos of staffers Casey Stengel, Johnny Mize, and Cookie Lavagetto. Leadoff editorial on Manager Gil Hodges, with color photo. Some handling evidence, else very good. High-octane nostalgia! $110-140 (3 pcs.)

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23-6. 1961 Football Giants. Run of ticket stubs, Yankee Stadium, Games 1 through 6 (of 7), Sept. 17- Nov. 19, 1961. A superb team, including Rosey Brown, Charley Conerly, Rosey Grier, Sam Huff, Kyle Rote, Y.A. Tittle, et al. Including the Giants’ nail-biting 16-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, and their 53-0 rout of the Redskins the following Sunday. Game 2 a purple bleacher stub. Game 4 scuffed; varied normal handling, else good and better. Unusual letter of provenance. Time-consuming to assemble from scratch. $140-180 (6 pcs.)

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23-7. 1963 Football Giants. Two ticket stubs, Yankee Stadium: Game 2, Oct. 20, 1963. Defeated Cowboys 37-21. Mezzanine. Green and brown on white. • Game 3, Nov. 10, 1963. Beat Eagles, 42-14. Open Stand, Row Z. Green and brown on pumpkin. Pocket creases, else good +. Letter of provenance. $45-65 (2 pcs.)

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23-8. Consecutive Yankee Tickets. Two ticket stubs, Yankee Stadium, June 19, 1959, for adjoining upper stand seats. Yankees 3, Indians 2. Black on blue. • Plus stub, Apr. 25, lower box (the most expensive seat in those days). Orioles 2, Yankees 1, in 11 innings, home run by Skowron. Black on tan. Each with Yankee hat-in-ring logo in red. Letter of provenance. $50-70 (3 pcs.)

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23-9. A Day at the Polo Grounds. Baseball program, Giants vs. Cincinnati Reds, 1952, apparently May 14. 6-1/2 x 10, (24) pp., red and blue throughout. Pencil scoring shows home run by Monte Irvin in third inning. Evocative aerial photo on cover, with banner “National League Champions.” Full page photo of Manager Leo Durocher. Baseball fillers, including “When Willie Mays cracked a home run on his first time at bat at the Polo Grounds he was only following a Giant custom....” Ads for Mrs. Wagner’s Pies, Drake’s Cake, Schrafft’s Candy, Gulden’s Mustard, “100% Havana Tobacco” cigars, and more. Light uniform toning, else fine. $45-65

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23-10. “The Sacred Soil” of Ebbets Field. Splendid nostalgic T.L.S. of Brooklyn Dodger Rod Dedeaux, as Director of Baseball Emeritus, University of Southern Calif., 2003, 8-1/2 x 11. “What made Ebbets Field so special? There was such a mystique that covered that site, but probably best of all, is what the very special fans of Brooklyn conducted themselves in wanting heroes and being long suffering with those who could not quite deliver. What was your favorite memory of Ebbets Field? That one is easy to answer; it was the first time I put on a Brooklyn Dodger uniform and set my foot on the sacred soil...I was only with the Dodgers long enough to get a ‘cup of coffee,’ and there was not enough time to even put sugar or cream in it....” Dedeaux had one of the most fleeting tenures in Dodgerdom, playing shortstop in two games in 1935, with 1 hit in all! (He went on to manage the U.S. baseball team in the 1984 Olympics.) Light edge stain, else fine. $65-85

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24. Americana

24-1. Shipping the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia “to Southern friends.” view image Fascinating, important A.L.S. of Chas. W. Alexander, on shipping the Liberty Bell. On ornate letterhead, “Office of The Committee on Municipal Exhibit of Philadelphia at the World’s Exposition at New Orleans,” Philadelphia, Jan. 5, 1885. 7-3/4 x 10-1/2. To S(argent) Prentiss Nutt, Natchez, Miss., (Special Commissioner to the World’s Industrial & Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans). “...I suppose you received my telegram and letter to St. Charles Hotel, New Orleans, concerning the bell...Or perhaps you did not? as you make no allusion to either. I sincerely hope that our hopes and mutual efforts may be crowned with happy success for our ‘solid’ country South and North. Our exhibit is now on its way and I hope that my little one (will) be pleasant to Southern friends.”

Thus began the first display of the Liberty Bell at a world’s fair outside Philadelphia. Nutt had assured that sending the Bell to New Orleans would “meet with the...heartiest greetings of all the people of the South. Our ancestors fought and bled for the time-enduring principles which that bell rang out on July 4, 1776 and, although the Bell is the property of the City of Philadelphia, are we not coinheritors of its glories?” Philadelphia’s Mayor, who appears on this letterhead’s masthead with Simon Gratz, proposed that sending the Bell to New Orleans “will...make evident to the people of the South that the City of Brotherly Love, true to her history, is anxious to aid in the restoration of perfect harmony throughout the nation.” It was stipulated that three Philadelphia policemen accompany and guard it at all times. The Liberty Bell Museum notes, “At a time when the nation’s sense of wholeness was still very fragile, the Liberty Bell’s trip from North to South proved to be a balm in the spirit of healing national unity...On Jan. 23, 1885 (about two weeks after this letter was written), the Bell was transported to New Orleans on a special flat railroad car and hung on a wood and decorated metal frame that permitted full view of the Bell during its travels. As the Liberty Bell train traversed through the countryside, large crowds gathered to cheer its passing, church bells rang, cannons fired. In towns where the Bell stopped, it was greeted with enormous crowds of people, parades, (and) speeches...Following a very successful exhibition, the Bell began its trip home to Philadelphia on June 13, 1885. The Mayor of New Orleans and city officials accompanied the Bell....” The addressee, S. Prentiss Nutt, had personally felt the rift in the nation: In 1860, when he was about six, his physician-father - a Union sympathizer - began construction of Longwood in Natchez, for his wife and eleven children. Work stopped upon outbreak of the war. When his father died in 1864, his mother sued the U.S. government for losses. It took some two decades, but her son - the addressee - would study at the University of Virginia, then law at Natchez, eventually recovering $200,000 of the family fortune. Inobtrusive pinhole near one junction, pleasing uniform eggshell toning, else fine.

Also, later pamphlet, “The Liberty Bell - Its History, Associations and Home - San Francisco to Philadelphia, Nov., 1915. Compliments of the City of Phila.,” 6 x 9-1/2, 32 pp. Illustrated souvenir of the Bell’s exhibition at Panama-Pacific Exposition, ironically printed by Dunlap Printing Co., Philadelphia. It describes the underwhelming scene at the Liberty Bell when the Declaration was first read publicly, on July 8, 1776: “...The plain people gathered in small number; the town’s gentlemen were absent...many of them were at their homes under surveillance...Others were in the gaol not far away. Precisely at noon John Nixon read the Declaration...There were very few respectable people present (wrote Charles Biddle in his autobiography)...It was received in serious and puzzled silence...with no apparent response....” Soft fold at lower right corner, cover coffee stains, else about very good. $600-900 (2 pcs.)

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24-2. A Fourteen-Page Montana Letter comparing Guns. Two items: Splendid letter from explorer and Presbyterian minister A.A. Haines, Armington, Cascade Co(unty), Montana, almost entirely devoted to firearms, discussing bullets and powder, comparing Marlin and Winchester rifles, and mentioned Colt and Savage. Sept. 10, 1898, 4-3/4 x 7-3/4, 14 pp., penned in a bold hand on individual leaves. To Percy Bowker, Wakefield, Mass. “To say that I was surprised at receiving a letter from you (an entire stranger) would not half express my feelings...Had my two articles been printed as written without any omissions, I think I should have made myself better understood...The advice you gave me has been thankfully received...I had not read a dozen lines of your letter before discovering that you were thoroughly informed...I think the reason my 20 grain charge black powder caused leading was that...no means whereby the rifling would be thoroughly cleaned, and as the black powder had a tendency to foul more easily...Yes, you are right in regard to the bullets being cast hard...To use heavy charges of high pressure smokeless powder and lead bullet would prove dangerous. Yes, I have used several Model 1894 Winchester reloading tools and believe there is no other tool that can compare...For perfect results I would (and always do) advise Winchester goods. The Marlin claim great things for their guns but after trying a great many of their different models I am convinced that they are not ‘in it’ with the Winchester...There is no hook attached to any of the moving parts to draw cartridge out of magazine...Its action is clogged...In working these Marlins rapidly...I have had that occur many times...The Winchester will always handle the shells properly...I have had the Marlin and Colts fail repeatedly... When shooting at target or at game...I always use my repeater as a single shot, keeping the magazine in reserve...But perhaps you are a Marlin man...Winchester carbine is to be my next gun, and I believe it will be the only one I need. I want a gun for the saddle...” Very fine.

The writer was a member of the Palestine Exploration Society. In 1874, they sought to raise $200,000 to send him and several others on an expedition embracing “the old territories of Edom, Moab, Gilead, and Bashan, now almost wholly unexplored. It is known to abound with ancient ruins and inscriptions...It was there, in 1868, that the famous Moabite Stone was found...a missing link to the history recorded in the third chapter of the second Book of Kings. It is believed that Moses died and was buried there....” The addressee was an attorney and member of the Richardson Light Guard. Around 1900, he was involved in a lawsuit involving a Marlin rifle which wore out after being fired only 800 times (modern copy of page accompanies). It is likely that this correspondence was in surrepetitious preparation for that case. • Sepia photograph, showing railroad boxcar converted into a house, its side decorated with “Paradise, Montana / Dec. 16, (19)07.” Nine men posed in front and sitting on roof. Old livery “Northern....” 3-1/4 x 5-1/2. Good contrast. About fine. $250-300 (2 pcs.)

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24-3. “I have been trying to get a gun to suit me for 14 years.” Second letter from A.A. Haines, Armington, Cascade Co(unty), Montana, Nov. 26, 1898, 4-3/4 x 7-3/4, 5 pp. “...Sorry you did not have better luck on your hunting big buck...I bought me a .25-35 carbine...yet I did not like the balance of the arm as well as the rifle and am now using my old ‘stand by’ .30-35 Winchester...I have been trying to get a gun to suit me for 14 years, and the .30-30 that I now own comes nearer filling the bill...I have killed wolves and coyotes up to 600 yards with this gun. I expect to have some fun hunting them this winter but hardly expect to get after deer or elk...I have been planning for a hunt down in the Gallatin Basis, 250 miles from here...The high pressure smokeless cartridge cannot be loaded satisfactorily with full charges. I presume you have the Winchester catalogue explaining this. I received the Marlin catalogue O.K....” Light toning, else fine. $90-130

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24-4. The Portal to the American West – through Buffalo. New England and the West, by R.W. Haskins, Buffalo, 1843. 5-1/4 x 8-1/4, yellow wrappers, 36 pp. In attractive custom binding commissioned in 1970s, 3/4 brown calf, marbled boards, gilt spine title, blind-embossed trim. Discussing “all that vast region of country known as the valley of the Great Lakes, together with no inconsiderable portion of the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi...,” and their “mutual relations and mutual dependencies” with New England. Referring to Erie and Ohio Canals, “the largest fossil coal field...in the known world,” with focus on Buffalo’s strategic economic importance. “The same causes which fixed the site of a city at Buffalo, are those which control the future destiny of that city...The West, while rising from zero to its present two millions of population, has made it what it is now...It is at Buffalo that the Western consumer for New England seeks a market for his bread-stuffs and his wool....” Advocates Buffalo as “the distributing point for the products of New England, destined for sale...in the West...There are three prominent branches of manufacturing that New England must prosecute, with her capital, at Buffalo, rather than at home, if she would control the trade of the West in these. They are, the manufacture of boots and shoes, glass, and white lead....” Some shelf scuffing of spine and outer hinges, else binding very fine; internally variously with very light scattered foxing or toning of blank margins, else fine. A notable landmark in the evolution of American industrialization, at the dawn of the age of the railroad. Very scarce. $140-180

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24-5. Tomato Young and the Texan. view image Papers of Lowrie A(lexander) Wallace (1854-1932) of Mt. Pleasant, Titus County, Texas, a farmer turned druggist. The group reveals his leverage of a six-month loan of $12 to buy half-interest in local land at 50¢ an acre, into a sizeable business and property holding by the end of W.W. I: Manuscript ordination of ancestor and noted churchman Marcus J. Wallace, in “Gospel Ministry of Presbytery of Eastern Texas...,” Marshall, Texas, 1853. In hand of Clerk M.W. Staples, a fellow frontier clergyman. • Stock certificate of Ellis-Kelley Country Club, Mt. Pleasant, Texas, 1919, to L(owrie) A. Wallace. 1 share. Low serial no. 46. Vignette of unusually personable moose. Signed by Pres. Jno. J. Ellis. Black and gold leaf. Goes. Uniform light mocha toning, one blank tip folded, else good plus. Very rare. • Letter to L.A. Wallace, on stationery of H.B. Hopkins, Tailor, Pittsburg, Texas, 1920. “I have on display...sample Knight Templar Regalia and Coat for inspection by all Sir Knights....” • Titus County, Texas poll tax receipt, serial no. 2, 1907. “Colored” race crossed out. “Occupation Farmer.” • Letter and receipt to Wallace for Liberty Bonds, State National Bank, Mt. Pleasant, 1919. • 8 bank checks, promissary notes, and documents, Cookville and Mt. Pleasant, 1915-23. • Intriguing letter to him from bank, pictorial letterhead, 1917, with Wallace’s pencilled “Index to Abstract” on verso, listing 87 items, including deeds involving him. • Manuscript promissary note signed by Wallace, for $12, 1896, “part payment for land this day deeded to me....” • Promissary note, $100 for half interest in 206 acres, 1894. • Pencilled worksheet, perhaps for tax preparation: “Sold 1917,” including “Corn 100.61, Meat 75.25, Mill 9.00, Butter & cream 75.00, Peas 61.50...,” plus hay, cotton seed, seed peanuts, mare, hogs, fruit, potatoes, profit on land sold, and more. Browned and chipped. • Highly ornate Benefit Certificate, 1904, Supreme Tent of the Knights of the Maccabees of the World, to Wallace, member of Green Hill, Texas branch. Two gold-leaf seals. Uniform toning, and about fine. • Large “facsimile printed on 1875 Campbell press...Dallas” of Texas Declaration of Independence, judged in second half of 20th century. Folds, else V.G. • 16 deeds to or relating to Wallace properties, mostly Mt. Pleasant, one 1874 (much worn), balance 1896-1921 (good and better). Most multi-page. Individuals include Tomato Young (with her signature!), Jewel White, and several signing with an “X.” Other items with varied defects, bank items tired, but generally fair to fine, and entirely satisfactory. With interesting modern research on Marcus and Lowrie Wallace. $140-180 (37 pcs.)

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24-6. Interesting Stampless Usage to “Financier of the Republic of Texas.” Folded lettersheet, Jan. 27, 1843, John Bartman(?), Marion, Ohio to “Dr. James H. Starr, Nacogdoches, Texas / Via Natchitoches La. & Camp Sabine.” Manuscript “Paid 25” crossed out, “50” penned below. “March 8th” notation in another hand suggests this took nearly six weeks to make its circuitous journey. Bartman may have been in the lumber business. Connecticut-born Starr, for whom Starr County was named, was a self-taught physician, selected by Sam Houston as Pres. of Board of Land Commissioners, then appointed by Lamar as Sec. of Republic of Texas Treasury. Because of Starr’s reputation as an authority on Texas land laws, his agency “served as a bureau for advertising Texas land to prospective settlers from all parts of the United States...In 1863 he was appointed Confederate agent for the postal service west of the Mississippi River...”--Handbook of Texas Online, Hudson. After the Civil War he founded one of the first banks in Texas, in Marshall. A 1950 biography is entitled, James Harper Starr: Financier of the Republic of Texas (by Cravens). Red wax wafer intact on verso. Pleasing uniform toning, trifle dust toning along one vertical fold, else fine and attractive. Fascinating Texas history. $125-175

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24-7. Crooked Creek and Alkali Lake, Idaho Territory. A.L.S. of noted Northwest frontiersman Capt. F.B. Sprague, for whom the Sprague River, Oregon is named. 1st O(re)g(o)n Inf(antry), “Comdg. Camp,” Camp Alvord, Ore., May 15, 1866, 8 x 12-1/2, 1-1/4 pp. To Commanding Officer (probably Maj. Lewis H. Marshall), District of Boise, Fort Boise, Idaho Territory. “...Stores are being removed from this Camp, via Camp C.F. Smith, to Camp Lyon, as fast as the transportation at my command will enable...The distance from this Camp to the fish water and grass, on Crooked Creek, is 43 miles, no water nor grass between here and there, that can be used by either man or beast, and the Alkali Lake...impassable, on account of water & quick sand. Again, we have over 40,000 pounds of surplus stores to move...at least two months....” Access to water and grass were essential for their teams of animals. The post-Civil War Northwest was increasingly dangerous, filled with still-unexplored regions, and constant clashes with Indians. Sprague’s exploits appear in The Deadliest Indian War in the West: The Snake Conflict..., by Michno. Under his command, Company I “built a wagon road in the Rogue River area, discovered Crater Lake, helped build Camp Alvord, and conducted scouting operations against the Shoshones....” Sprague’s abandonment of Camp Alvord is recorded in Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1866. (Modern copies accompany.) Dampstains at two fold junctions, else fine. Idaho Territory military material is extremely scarce. $200-250

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24-8. The F.B.I. and Cold War Espionage. Pair of T.Ls.S. of J. Edgar Hoover, on F.B.I. letterhead, Washington, July 5 and 24, 1967, 8 x 10-1/2. To Mrs. Robert Howe Baldwin in Vienna, widow of the General, influential Republican, and friend of Eisenhower, Nixon, Herbert Hoover, et al. “I have received your letter...concerning a possible crime against the U.S., involving a large amount of technical material... Additional information will be necessary...whether this matter is within this Bureau’s investigative jurisdiction...You may make your records available for review to Mr. Henry D. Grush, Attache, U.S. Embassy, Bern, Switzerland....” In reply to hers, Hoover writes, “...Upon your return to N.Y.C., if you will telephone...Special Agent in Charge of Criminal Div....” With one envelope, stamped “Par Avion.” Letters with single staple removed from upper left, earlier letter with curious remnants of label in right margin, with cryptic notes in lightly erased pencil, presumed by recipient, else both about fine. With interesting photocopies of period letters to Mrs. Baldwin, including one from Ambassador of League of Arab States, 1964, relating to her board position on Near East Foundation. $225-300 (3 pcs.)

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24-9. Grant, Halleck – and Idaho. Letter of (Capt.) Theodore J. Eckerson, Fort Vancouver, W(ashington) T(erritory), evidently as Military Storekeeper, Ordnance Bureau, Feb. 6, 1866, 5-1/4 x 8, 2 pp. To “Dear Major,” probably Lewis H. Marshall. “...Gen. Steele will send a telegraphic despatch tomorrow to Halleck in relation to sending me to Boise, and I expect to follow you in a very few days. Our mutual friend [Jacob] Ish spoke to me today...In regard to the train, I think it would be as well, as I had intended to discharge the present Maj. Master on my arrival at Boise...and Mr. J.W. Hopkins employed in his stead...Of course the train is not to leave Walla Walla until my baggage is reported as arrived...it being now your train...attached to Fort Boise.” Eckerson was an Oregon-born officer who established and taught the first school north of the Columbia River, served under U.S. Grant in the Mexican and Civil Wars, and a correspondent of explorer Col. Bonneville. Perhaps not coincidentally, this letter was dated the very day of a long letter, to him, from his old friend Grant, recalling that it was on his endorsement that Eckerson was originally appointed, and now wishing him success (modern copy accompanies). Eckerson published two anthologies of poems, one entitled, “To My Old Knapsack.” An unlikely appearance of Civil War Gen. Henry Halleck, at this time Commander of Dept. of the Pacific. Known as “Old Brains,” Lincoln’s General-in-Chief was characterized as “...pop-eyed, flabby, surly, and crafty - he had the reputation of being the most unpopular man in Washington...”--Boatner. Light edge stain, fold and handling evidence, but good plus. Modern research accompanies. $130-170

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24-10. An Amicable Divorce – 1800. Unusual manuscript legal document, Jan. 15, 1800, 7-1/2 x 12-1/2. “...Whereas unhappy Differences has taken place between Henry Hendricks & his wife Caty so that he cannot live together...in consequence of the good Effection [sic] I have for my sd. wife & children I agree to deliver up to my Trusty Friends Wm. Warren & James Howard my whole Estate Real & Personal that I now possess to be by them put to the best use for the Benefit of my sd. wife & children. I do hereby further agree not to meddle...with any part of the said Estate without the consent of my sd. Friends....” With “X” of Henry Hendricks, Frederick Hendricks, and Jos. Dearener. No place, but American, and probably further identifiable with research. Some toning, ink offset, else about very good. Divorce documents of this era are very scarce. $80-110

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24-11. Sunday Baseball Not Immoral. T.L.S. of Texas State Rep. Thos. B. Love, prominent politician and future Speaker of Texas House, on letterhead with Lone Star seal, Austin, Feb. 10, 1903, 7-1/2 x 8-1/2. Signed with blue crayon-pencil. To a Dallas constituent. “...Thank you for your kind interest in my children’s street car fare bill...I will give my hearty support to the English Anti-Cocaine Bill, but am compelled to differ with you on the proposition of Sunday base ball...I am convinced that it would be harmful rather than helpful to public morality and good order to prohibit Sunday base ball....” Blank lower portion trimmed, with no apparent loss of text, uniform cream toning, handling evidence, else good plus. Love appears in East Texas: Its History and Its Makers. A leading spokesman for prohibition, and early supporter of Woodrow Wilson, he was appointed Assistant Sec. of the Treasury. With modern research mentioning Love’s bill to take a census of Confederate soldiers and sailors in 1907. $70-90

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24-12. “New York has gone for Polk.” Splendid political letter from Mary C. de Ring, Skaneateles (N.Y.), Nov. 7, (18)44, 4 pp., and crosswritten, 8 x 9-1/2. Pale pink Skaneateles c.d.s. To her mother, Mrs. Edward Russell, Middletown, Conn. Thanking her father for gift of a bath(tub), “& if it proves the means of restoring me to health, I shall owe much...I would like to have it sent to Clyde by way of the canal...We have just received the news that New York City has gone for Polk, and Mr. de Ring has a long list of the miseries which are now to be entailed upon the country. I am the only Loco in the family, and Mr. de R. has been trying hard...to convert me to Whigism, but all of no avail. I will stand or fall with Locos. Not long since the Hon. Francis Granger, Thayer of N.Y., C. Morgan, & Dr. Bacon - all strong Whigs - & stump orators, dined with us. Mr. de R. told them that I was a black sheep, so Mr. Thayer said that he would stay that afternoon, and try & convert me...a greater honor to turn one Loco than to talk to a thousand Whigs. I told him that my father was a loco, and my husband a Whig, and asked him what I ought to do, & that was that if he had a wife who was a loco he would send her home to her father, so do not be surprised if you see me traveling home post haste...Mr. Thayer & I made ourselves quite merry in the political line. He told me I showed a great deal of independence in differing from my husband in so important a matter...& now for another little secret....” Her husband, Rev. Edward, was a clergyman recently obliged “to relinquish the Missionary Station at Vienna” due to illness. Break at one long fold, wear at junctions, loss of few words where opened at wax seal, some soiling at address panel, else clean and good plus, in an attractive delicate hand. $60-80

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24-13. An Early Allusion to Secessionist Sentiment – 1833. Prophetic, lengthy A.L.S. of Silas Wright, Jr., Gov. of N.Y., declined nomination as Polk’s 1844 running mate, here writing as N.Y. Senator. Washington, July 2, 1833, 1-3/4 pp., 8 x 10. Second, franking sig. on integral address-leaf. To 25-year-old lawyer C(hesselden) Ellis, Waterford, Saratoga County, N.Y. “There is no document such as you ask. The bill reported by Mr. Verplanck you have. Its effect, if passed, is matter of judgment and speculation... Passage of that bill as reported is no longer expected. The proposed duty upon tea and coffee have already been stricken out, and the duty upon wool and woolens have been modified...and stops at 25 per cent...You are no doubt right in the supposition that the proposed Union meeting is a meeting for mischief...to divide and distract the democratic party...I see the Committee upon the South Carolina reference have reported...This is but one in a series of efforts which are to pass over our State as I think, and the utmost vigilance of the true friends of democracy will be required to prevent confusion and consequent division among friends...My name (should) not be used...as such mention and use of it would certainly do harm....” Edge tear, and 1-1/4 x 2-1/4 fragment and a smaller semi-circle lacking from blank portion of address-leaf where opened, uniform toning, else about fine. Darkly penned. $100-130

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24-14. Really Old New York. Manuscript extract of “Saml. Bayard’s Patent dated June 17, 1697 - Original filed in the Secretaries office at New York,” 6-1/4 x 7-3/4, judged written c. 1760-75. Complete crown in partial watermark. His antecedent of the same name married Peter Stuyvesant’s sister – and, in turn, that earlier Samuel Bayard’s sister married Peter Stuyvesant! The Bayards also came to be intertwined with other leading colonial families, including the Van Cortlandts, Livingstons, Van Rensselaers, et al. For 2,000 acres in Orange County, N.Y., “called by the Indians Wherimius Perseck Gemackie and Narrashunk and are in several small pieces, and also another parcel...at the South bounds of the Land lately Granted unto Daniel Honon & Michael Harding...that runs into Demarres Creek...to a small river called Saddle River....” This land patent is specifically identified as being west of Haverstraw, and part of an enormous conglomeration which “covered the entire district from the New Jersey line to New Paltz and west to the line of the Shawangunk Mountains...”--The History of Orange County, Headley, 1908, p. 34. In the year following Bayard’s patent, “the English government began investigating the patents of such immense tracts in 1698, and the next year caused the Evans patent [of 650,000 acres!] to be annulled, after which the territory covered by it was conveyed in small tracts issued at different times up to 1775”--p. 36. (Perhaps the estimated date of this document ties in to this long-running chess game.) More than a few such transactions were consummated by rendering Indians drunk, then cheating them of their land. Very light wear, else fine. Fascinating association. $130-170

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24-15. The Shakers Campaign for 7-Year Presidential Term. Shaker magazine, The Manifesto, Sept., 1884, 5-1/2 x 8-3/4, (20) pp. Story of the adventures of Issachar, a Revolutionary War soldier. Editorial on the upcoming Presidential election: “Shakers - a quiet people...As the Jews - a natural people, were scattered through the nations of earth, yet remained a distinct people, so will Shakers...The Sovereign People [Shakers] should vote for Measures, not Party nor Men. As Grant recommends, extend the Presidential term to seven years, with no re-election...Add Woman Suffrage, Prohibition and land Limitation...Make Women and Indians citizens. Work toward the equalization of property, thus lessening poverty, removing the temptation to crime and putting war afar off...Landless people are the raw material of war. Make every man and woman a landlord or landlady, thus ending wars....” Advocacy of sunshine, bathing, and drinking pure water. Disbound, light uniform toning, else fine. Unusual political association. The Shakers survived until the 1930s. $55-75

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24-16. “Republican, Democratic, Socialist, Prohibition.” Printed thick “1918 Republican Canvass Book,” unused, issued by New York City office of Republican State Committee, evidently in preparation for that September’s Primary Day. 5 x 9, tan card cover, unusually high grade white text with diecut tabs A-Z, ruled in red and blue. In each spread, columns for voter’s name, address, “Republican, Democratic, Socialist, Prohibition, Doubtful,” “First Voter,” party in which enrolled, “Voted Last Election,” and Remarks. “Political Calendar, 1918” on back cover, with N.Y.C. details. Covers uniformly browned, light uniform toning internally, else excellent. Today treated as novelties, it is only in post- World War II America that third, fourth, and even fifth parties lost their relative visibility. $40-60

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24-17. Niagara Falls. Three items relating to Niagara Falls: Old souvenir cabinet photo, “Leach in the Whirl Pool Rapids.” Light milk chocolate-toned image, showing a barrel (with the daring professor inside) in the midst of furiously churning water. Letterpress caption. • Advertising folder, Niagara Falls Museum, “Oldest Museum in America - Largest Private Enterprise on Earth,” notwithstanding its modest five-story building. Blue and orange, opening to 8 x 16, evidently 1928. “The finest arranged building in the world for exhibition purposes...Every animal, bird, fossil, mineral, shell, fish, reptile, insect and beetle fly found on the American Continent...The Rarest Collection of Ancient and Modern Curios on the Continent...You have gone further and seen less...Over 700,000 Exhibits...Our registers contain the autographs...of most of the eminent people who have visited the Falls in the last 98 years, such as Lincoln, Grant, Audubon...Louis Bonaparte...More money and experience invested than any other private collection on earth...The Barrels alone are worth the price of admission, 50¢....” Full panel promoting Bobby Leach’s barrel, “the only man to go over the Falls and lived to tell the story....” • Postcard advertising Burning Spring, on Canadian side. C. 1940. Unused. Not unexpectedly, some water spots on photo; minor wear, else all very good. $65-85 (3 pcs.)

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24-18. American Theatre. Cast photograph of a minstrel and theatrical troupe, on stage, c. 1910, signed by 32 of its 34 players on verso, in pencil. With photographer’s notations beside each name of how many “plat(inum)” and “aristo” prints ordered by each. 6-1/4 x 9-1/4. Characters include blackface (seven), clowns, bandit, Charlie Chaplin, Gypsies, Indian chief, cowboy, and others; ages about 16 to 30. Old tape repairs on verso, worn, some handling creases and cracks, but rich brown-black, sharp, and interesting conversation piece. Using Census databases, it is likely that the location can be discerned. $45-70

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24-19. On Pictorial Colorado Stationery. Letter of Wm. Hayden from Central City, Colo., Aug. 1, 1901, 8-1/4 x 11, 4 pp., penned on two leaves, bearing total of eight different, highly detailed sepia gravure photographs of Colorado locales: Glenwood Springs, Georgetown, Denver, Soda Springs, Royal Gorge, In Canon of the Grand, Toltec Gorge, and Approach to Royal Gorge. To his mother in Rockland, Maine: “...Aunt Ella like us all sometimes makes mistakes, and while I do not underestimate the value of an education, I think that if Tom can get such a position he ought to take it. It is not always the college bred boy that is successful in this world...(Herb) told me he was going to send Tom $10 a month & was to send you $30...Now he didn’t do either...I have no patience with anyone who is always promising something big...It is much better to say no & have it over with...Don’t know what I’ll do about a vacation yet. Have had several chances to go out camping....” Minor handling, else very good. Unusual Colorado graphics in the first year of the twentieth century. • With envelope, lightly postmarked Central City. $50-70 (2 pcs.)

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25. Maps

25-1. Self-Cover Pocket Map of Antebellum Virginia. view image “Colton’s Map of Virginia,” 1857, 13-1/2 x 16, folding into original pocket-size covers, 3-1/2 x 5, darkest green blind-tooled cloth over boards, gilt title. Colton advertisement on front endpaper, listing their other “Maps, Atlases, Guides, Books, etc.” Hand-tinted in pink, red, green, and yellow. Street map insets of Richmond and Norfolk areas. Exceptional detail for such small scale, including railroads. Pencil computations of a traveler on blank inside rear endpaper, including “Boat 50¢....” Breaks at several fold junctions, very light foxing, blank paper lining at inside gutter chipped and mostly perished, moss green mottled toning of part of outside back cover, perhaps from perspiration in pocket, else cover good plus, and map very good. All antebellum self-cover maps are now scarce. This Virginia pocket map, first issued two years earlier as a flat in Colton’s epic Atlas of the World, is excessively rare. There would be no further printings, at least until the Reconstruction era: in the same year as this Virginia map was produced, Colton suffered a major setback when a Bolivian revolution blocked payment of $25,000 for maps made for that government. By 1859, Colton failed, though it resumed publication under a new business structure. WorldCat locates no examples. A charming item. $1100-1600

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25-2. Beer and Railroads - Tandem Business Empires. Oversize, important and excessively rare “Cram’s Official Railroad System Map of the United States and of the Republic of Mexico,” Chicago, c. 1895. About 7 x 8-1/2 feet. With fascinating provenance of George Ehret, America’s once-largest beer baron, this map certainly used to plan shipments of his lager nationwide. Indeed, “only one brewer owner, George Ehret, had something of a national market for his product...”--Trade Unions and Community: The German Working Class in N.Y.C., 1870-1900, Schneider, p. 155. Railroads, with their new refrigerated cars, were the key to distribution of bottled beer over long distances. On linen, turquoise cotton edging, two panels with original marbled paper covering. Tinted in lilac, red, yellow, blue, pink, and aqua. Magnificent typographically decorative title, “Expressly for...Bankers, Brokers & Business Men.” Period rubber stamp of seller “The Geographical Exchange, Wm. M. Goldthwaite, Prop., 107 Nassau St., N.Y.” Purple rubber stamps at margin, “From George Ehret, Brewer, N.Y.,” plus his round stamps on front and verso, “George Ehret, Brewer, 92d St. bet. 2d & 3d Ave., N.Y.” America’s largest brewer in the years following the Civil War, in 1914 Ehret returned to Germany to live. “In 1918 his son, George Ehret, Jr. turned over the family property with a value of $40 million to the federal government... The Alien Property Custodian, found Ehret, Sr. to be ‘of enemy character’...and under the protection of ‘powerful men’...”--Brewing Battles: The History of American Beer, Mittelman, p. 84, and “Nation Gets Ehret Property,” The New York Times, May 14, 1918, p. 1. In partnership with piano magnate William Steinway, Ehret built the amusingly named Bowery Bay Beach, today the site of LaGuardia Airport! The Ehret Brewery was subsequently acquired by Jacob Ruppert, owner of Babe Ruth’s Yankees, then by Schlitz. Original folds, usual variable glue toning on blank verso, light edge scuffing, unavoidable minor imperfections in such a large map, but clearly gently handled, remarkably sound, clean, and fine. Ex-oldest book store - and the last building with gas lighting - in New York City, the long defunct and lamented Mendoza’s Book Shop, in old envelope bearing proprietor’s markings c. late 1960s. Unsurpassable Americana, from the precipice of America’s turn-of-century industrial age, with astonishing detail of towns tiny and large, affording much fascination. None on abebooks.com. Neither Library of Congress Online Catalog nor WorldCat locate any examples. $2400-2900

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25-3. The West Indies at the Dawn of the American Revolution. view image Strikingly attractive first state, first edition of map, “The Virgin Islands from English & Danish Surveys...,” by Thomas Jefferys, “Geographer to the King,” 1775. 20-1/2 x 28-1/2. From West-India Atlas. Published by Robert Sayer, London. A superior exemplar of steel engraving of the genre, the impression crisp and choice. From eastern Puerto Rico to Anguilla, St. Martins, St. Bartholomew, St. Christophers, St. Eustatia, and Saba. Local place names including Negro Bay, Serpents Island, The Dead Chest, Witch Island, Drowned Island, and others. Charming remarks, such as “Crab Island, so called from the quantity of Crabs that are found there,” “Sr. Francis Drake’s Bay, who first sailed through these Islands in 1580...,” “Treasure Point, so called by ye Freebooters, from the Gold & Silver supposed to have been bury’d thereabouts after the Wreck of a Spanish Gallion,” “The Fallen City, or Old Jerusalem,” and more. Including profiles of twelve islands, showing elevations. Professionally conserved, minor toning on verso of old tape at four corners, trivial wrap at blank left margin, else excellent. Sellers & Van Ee 1982. An example of this first edition realized 4,760.00 in Old World Auctions, Sept. 2006. A major map dealer offers the later 1777 edition for 7,500.00. $3750-5500

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25-4. Phelps’s National Map. view image Utterly charming “Phelps’s National Map of the United States,” bound into Phelps’(s) Traveler’s Guide through the United States; Containing Upward of 750 Railroad, Canal, Stage, and Steamboat Routes.... Published by Ensign, Bridgman & Fanning, N.Y., date scratched but believed 1855. 3-1/2 x 5-3/4, 70 pp. + 2 pp. advertisements, red full morocco, all edges gilt, cover delightfully decorated in gold with railroad train emerging from a tunnel and a sidewheel steamboat, intricately interwoven with vinery; the same montage blind-stamped on outside back. Describing routes in the Northeast and South, plus Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, and California, and - in about 3-point type - a table of distances between cities along the major rivers. Period pencil signature “H.M. Fisher,” with notations of distances between cities in the Washington-Boston corridor. Some rub along cover edges, light but unobjectionable handling darkening along left and right vertical portions of cover, not diminishing beauty of decoration, scattered light foxing, else nearly fine. • Bound at rear, folding “Phelps’s National Map of the United States...,” about 21 x 24-1/2. Elaborate frame border of Presidents and state logos. Inset of western portion. Richly vibrant color outlines, the turquoise and strawberry especially strong. Minor foxing, brown toning along folds, expert (and expensive) acid-free tissue reinforcement of folds as needed, else very good plus. Request color photograph. Howes P-291. Clark III:382. Quintessential Americana. $800-1100

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25-5. “Some sinister Presidential plan to annex all Mexico....” view image Historically important Mexican War lithographed map, made by future Lincoln opponent George B. McClellan, as a 21-year-old captain in Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, together with Maj. (William) Turnbull and Lt. (Edmund La Fayette) Hardcastle, and drawn solely by McClellan. “Battles of Mexico - Survey of the Line of Operations of the U.S. Army, under command of Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott, on the 19th & 20th Aug. & on the 8th, 12th, & 13th Sept., 1847....” Litho. by C.B. Graham, Washington, D.C., 1848, on thicker paper. Inset of part of Valley of Mexico. Overall 26 x 36. Lightly accented in original persimmon and blue watercolor along lines of attack and defense. McClellan’s topographical textures, including “field of lava,” show painstaking work, his artistic skill overlooked by some sources. Considered the most accurate and detailed map of the final engagements of the Mexican War, it documents the battles around Mexico City and U.S. troop movements through Chapultepec, Churubusco, Contreras, Mexico City, Molina del Rey, San Angel, and the Valley of Mexico. Lists of units and killed, wounded, and missing, including Magruder’s Battery and Pillow’s Div. of the respective future Confederate Generals, future Union Gen. Jesse Reno’s Battery, “Storming Party,” “Sappers & Miners,” et al. McClellan’s map appeared in reduced form, in future Confederate Rear Adm. Raphael Semmes’ 1851 work, Service Afloat and Ashore During the Mexican War; Semmes’ Alabama was defeated by the Union Kearsage in one of the epic tales in maritime history. Old “25” stamped in upper right margin, break at original vertical center fold and one edge tear professionally conserved with acid-free tissue, light handling evidence, expected for such a large map, else fine and clean.

The cartographic significance of this map is best elucidated by historian William H. Goetzmann in his modern analysis of the role of Army topographers in the Old West and Mexican War: “Though it may be difficult to see a precise connection between armed combat and the accumulation of knowledge for peaceful pursuits, this was the task of the Army topographers during the Mexican War....All were somehow attuned to the quest for knowledge, and the Corps as a whole was acquiring that geographical information so valuable to those who would be working in similar lands and among similar people in the American West. The theme was epitomized when the victorious American armies battered down the gates of Mexico City to storm the Halls of Montezuma. There, on the heights of Chapultepec, in the ruins of the military academy, Lt. Edmund L.F. Hardcastle, Topographical Corps, laid down his saber to pick up the very instruments used by Humboldt himself in mapping the Valley of Mexico...His map...was made for a very different reason - to portray the final American conquest of the city. Both men, Humboldt and Hardcastle, were gatherers of knowledge, scientists, but their work, once completed, did not amount to the same thing. Humboldt’s data remained in the realm of pure knowledge, while Hardcastle’s descended to the market place of hard political reality to be used for good or evil. When it came to be published, there were those who viewed it, as they did the work of all the Topographical Engineers, in only a political sense. It was an excuse, they said, merely part of some sinister Presidential plan to annex all Mexico, and nothing more.”--Army Exploration in the American West, 1803-1863, Texas State Historical Association, 1991, pp. 151-152. Very scarce. Realms of Gold: A Catalogue of Maps in the Library of American Philosophical Society #1506. Garrett & Goodwin, The Mexican- American War, p. 429. $850-1150

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25-6. Map by Herman Moll. Delightful hand-colored double-hemisphere map of the world, “The World in Planisphere,” depicting California as an island, and “New Holland” (Australia) with an unfamiliar shape. By the important cartographer Herman Moll. Copperplate, marked 1709 in pencil in margin, believed from Thesaurus Geographicus..., by A. and J. Churchill and Tim Child, London. 7-1/2 x 8-3/4. A third, smaller sphere at top, showing North Pole, with “America,” “Tartary,” and other land masses projecting. Tinted in mustard-gold, desert rose, and grotto green. Possibly a variant of other recorded printings having a title header, dating to 1695; the evidence here of original binding along its vertical center line as a folding map, would suggest the unsuitability of a bold text title. Most of map, except center line, toned to uniform pale honey, few trivial edge chips, else very good. Tipped in sandstone mat. Shirley 571, plate 393. $275-425

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25-7. With Rarely Seen Mapmaker’s Overlay. A fascinating military map – with a cartographic innovation: “Plan de la Bataille de Vellinghausen...16 July 1761, par Armée de la Majeste Brittanique... Prince Ferdinand Duc de Brunswick et de Lunebourg....” Drawn by F.W. de Bawr [von Bauer], engraved 1762 under direction of J(acob) V(an der) Schley, by Pierre Gosse, Jr. and Daniel Pinet. 25-3/4 x 25-1/2. Original color highlights in lemon and raspberry showing troop formations – then, flapped on top in perfect alignment, a revised interpretation of part of the battlefield, 5-1/4 x 17, rounded ends, this also tinted. It is apparent that troop formations changed shortly after the map was printed - and already colored. The map was modified, printed and colored again, and this large frankfurter-shaped section trimmed and flapped. Comparison with the original details is easily done. Superb military cartouche, with cannon, barrel of cannonballs, drum, and a pike(!). Extensive description of the battle occupying balance of left portion of map, in French. Across bottom, list of regiments under British command, including Corps de Conway, Howard, Anhalt, Wolff, and others. An epic battle during the Seven Years’ War, Vellinghausen (also spelled Villinghausen) is still studied today by military strategists. French forces clashed with combined Prussian, Hanoverian, and British armies, numbering over 150,000 in all. Among the prominent officers in the battle was future Lord Cornwallis. (British King George was a prince of the House of Hanover – in fact, he spoke German.) Bottom 1” of printed area dust toned, edge tears; lesser dust toning along fold at right of title, and along blank right margin; fragments of strip to which tipped in atlas remaining, but easily matted, and wide margin; else sound, presentable, and a massive conversation piece. Rare on the market. WorldCat locates four examples, the National Library of Scotland’s lacking the overlay. $225-325

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25-8. Duke Ferdinand in the Lair of Charlemagne. Strikingly absorbing, profusely detailed oversize map of the battle of Minden (Germany), considered either the first or second printed map of any kind to have an overlay flap (in this instance, two). “Plan de la Bataille de Tonhausen près de Minden...,” with voluminous marginal descriptive text, and two overlays showing phases in the battle. In French. 25-3/4 x 31-3/4. Published 1760 in The Hague by P. de Hondt, engraved under direction of J(acob) V(an der) Schley. Based on version printed by Thomas Major, London, after work by William Roy, Scotland. Large and highly decorative title cartouche at lower right, two cherubs examining plumed helmet, as a lion watches, the ground littered with cannonballs, swords, and a drum. At left, within runaround Baroque border, an extensive account of the clash, “Journal des Mouvemens de l’Armée Alliée,” between July 14-Aug.2, 1759. Color key hand-colored in red and yellow, identifying fifteen different “Troupes des différentes Nations,” including respective armies’ infantry, grenadiers, artillery, and “Dragons Prussiens.” Complete with the two paper overlays illustrating the changes in troop formations during the battle, these tinted in pink and pale green: the first overlay shows the second position of the two armies, while the second overlay shows the third position of the Allies together with fourth and fifth positions of cavalry. Rich in history, and dating to Roman times, the bishopric in Minden was founded by Charlemagne in the eighth century. On Aug. 1, 1759, the French met defeat, as depicted in this threelayered map, at the hands of Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick. Though obscure in American history books today, the Battle of Minden is one of the most famous in British military history. Indeed, the red rose of Minden variously appears on gun barrels, flags, and vehicles of units to this day. Some staining and dust-toning at edges of wide margins, not affecting live matter, else about very good. With this map and one other (of the Battle of Quebec), printed “maps with flaps” emerged on the scene in 1760. This new innovation brought a dynamic quality to maps, showing the place depicted at multiple points in time--see splendid discussion of this map at mapforum.com/15/minden.htm. A feast for the eyes, and a significant novelty - and landmark - in cartography. Highly interesting modern research accompanies. WorldCat locates three examples, all in Germany, of which one lacks the overlays. Two additional reside in the British Library. Tooley S-43. $400-550

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25-9. Hand-Tinted Napoleonic Military Map. “Angriff [Attack] der Oesterreicher auf Neckerau und Mannheim, 18 Sept. 1799,” by Hauptm(ann?), Rosenberg, and Franz Reisser, attributed to Vienna, 1819. 22-1/2 x 33. Copperplate battle map, with exceptionally noteworthy microminiature detail, both of town outlines and natural features. Original hand-coloring of troop positions in vivid red, near-electric blue, and putty-brown. Elaborate cartouche flourishes. Letter-coded description of battle in column at right. Contemporary label at edge of verso, for identification in a map chest: “VII. Attaque et Prise de Mannheim.” Dating to the eighth century, Mannheim was captured in the Thirty Years’ War, destroyed, rebuilt, a century later captured by the French, then two years later - in the year of this map - won by the Austrians. Much dust toning on verso (only), old waterstains at top margin, just outside of live area, darker but narrower staining at bottom edge, moderately prominent quarter folds, else about very good. A superior, oversize exemplar of the state of Western Europe as the eighteenth century neared its end, displaying typography, artistry, mapmaking, dynamics of town and country – and the tide of geopolitics. WorldCat locates just one example, in Munich; a second is found in the Moravian Library, Brno. Rare. $275-375

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26. Financial

26-1. The Richest Man in America. view image Very scarce A.L.S. of Wm. B. Astor (Sr.), son and business partner of John Jacob. N.Y., Jan. 29, 1870, 5 x 8, 1-1/4 pp. To Charles M. Pond, railroad “Treasr., Hartford, Conn.” “I enclose herewith my check in your favor [not present], on the Gallatin National Bank of this City for $9,475.00. This sum together with the amount of $45.00 forwarded you on the 6th Decr. ulto. entitles me according to your circular of Decr. 2nd ulto. to subscribe for 379 full shares Hartf(ord) & New H(aven) R.R. St(oc)k. Please send me the scrip certificate, at your convenience.” Mailing folds, damp toning at top and bottom right, but his signature unaffected and darkly penned, and else about fine. Said to have been the richest man in America upon his inheritance of his father’s estate. By the date of this letter, William owned about 720 houses in Manhattan. The side-by-side mansions of his sons occupied the site of the first Waldorf- Astoria Hotel, followed by the Empire State Building. From the New York, New Haven & Hartford Papers. $750-950

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26-2. A Creek Indian, Blacks, and “Abram Lincoln” in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Highly interesting, lengthy manuscript document, “List of inrol(l)ed men,” Caernarvon Township, then in Lancaster County, today in Berks, Pa., c. 1861, 7-1/2 x 12, about 6-1/4 written pp. on four leaves, removed from old ledger. Comprising bounty tax records, listing over 250 men by name, together with amounts assessed each, between $10 to $60. Likely including Amish, Hutterites, Mennonites, Moravians, or other pacifists, who opposed war and violence on religious grounds, together with a Creek Indian, at least three blacks, and “Abram Lincoln.” To finance the enrollment bonuses given to Union volunteers, these men paid a Civil War bounty tax. Including: John Ammon, Lewis Buckwalter, Christian Burckhard, Levi Dehaven, John Hertzler, John Hollinger, Joseph Good, “Samuel Green, Colored,” Lehigh Gruber, Abram Lincoln, Solomon Schnader, Martin Sensenich, Isaac Shirk, “John Thomas, Collerd [sic],” et al. Together with a slip, 4 x 7-1/2, “Men Yet to be enrol(l)ed in Caernarvon township,” listing another six men, and evidently signed in ink by each, including “John Kurtz / Creek [Indian]” and “Harrison London Negro,” signed “John Kurtz Crick” and “Hares London,” respectively. Comparing the totals levied and actually collected, the unpaid shortfall was substantial: one page totals $482, of which only $35 was paid. In light coffee-and-cream ink, but legible with varying ease, some handling fingerprints, else fine. Needless to say, Civil War manuscripts combining Amish, blacks, and Indians are seldom encountered. $250-325 (2 pcs.)

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26-3. Wells and Fargo – and Johnson. Stock certificate of American Express Co., N.Y., Jan. 25, 1865, linking four express pioneers: For 1 share to Robt. L. Johnson of Albany - who at 17 years of age followed fellow Albany resident Henry Wells as a local express’ agent. (In that era, Albany was one of the ten largest cities in America.) Signed by Pres. Henry Wells, Sec. Wm. G. Fargo, Treasurer Alex. Holland, and on verso by Johnson. 5¢ revenue stamp, rubber-stamp cancelled “AE Co.”; on verso, 25¢ Entry of Goods revenue. “Safety & Dispatch” vignette. About three years before Johnson went into business, Wells had suggested his employer try the express route from Albany to Buffalo. Arduous and complicated, his employer made only three trips. Wells joined the firm, soon adding a Hudson River route, and he was on his way. His friend Robert Johnson did quite well too: “This smart, enterprising, and faithful young man” began as his own messenger. “Upon the opening of the Albany Northern Railroad in 1845, Robert L. Johnson and others established a northern express, under the style of Johnson & Co., from Albany to Rutland...”--Bi-centennial History of the County of Albany..., Howell, 1886, pp. 319-320. He soon became the owner of the Executive Mansion in Albany, renting it to Gov. Samuel J. Tilden. Johnson was still in the express business as of 1885, with “22 horses in daily use.” Wells, Holland, and Johnson signatures somewhat light, unusual “XII” pale pink rubber-stamp cancels on signatures, characteristic waterstaining, 11/2” tear affecting revenue on verso, very minor edge tears, else very satisfactory. An 1863 triple-signature example sold at Holabird Americana, June 2011, for 2200.00. We have encountered no examples linking four express pioneers. Rich in history. Fascinating research accompanies. $1150-1450

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26-4. Tea from China. Highly attractive partly printed “Entry of Foreign Merchandise” for the product which became a figure of speech – tea from China. “Imported by John Bromfield in the Brig Archer, C. Dexter, Master, from Canton, Two Boxes Tea.” Port of Boston, Sept. 30, 1820, 6-3/4 x 16-1/4 oblong. Signed by Bromfield, swearing that “nothing has been concealed...to avoid the just payment of the duties imposed by the laws of the U.S....” A pioneer in trade with China, Bromfield’s exploits and self-made wealth are mentioned in numerous books. From the age of 22, Bromfield traveled regularly on cargo ships to China and the Orient, living there for up to a year at a time; on one voyage the ship on which he was travelling “had a desperate encounter with pirates in the mouth of the Canton River”-- The Trade and Commerce of Boston, 1630-1690, Hill, p. 101. Never maintaining a store, Bromfield had a knack for buying merchandise in oversupply in China, and selling it where it seemed exotic. Canton was the only city open to Western traders. Top margin trifle irregular, as separated from larger sheet by Customs collector, attractive creamy toning, and fine. Splendid for display. With modern research. $90-120

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26-5. “Cask of your best Madeira....” A.L.S. of merchant J(ohn) Thomson, Amboy (N.J.), Feb. 16, 1790, 6-1/4 x 8-1/4, 1 p. With integral address-leaf, hand-delivered to “Nicholas Low, Merchant, New York.” “Please to let me have by Capt. Thompson another Demi John [a bottle with thin neck] of Madeira Wine. I shall want in April & May a qt. Cask of your best Madeira, which you will be so good as to lay by for me. I will then pay you for the whole....” Bold signature. Toned to pleasing dark cream, else about fine. The capital of East Jersey from 1684 and 1702, Perth Amboy became a summer resort in the nineteenth century. Thomson may have been half of Buchanan & Thomson, on Queen St. in New York, 1784-85, “dealing in dry goods, cotton, rum, sugar, &c.”--Biographical Register of Saint Andrew’s Society of the State of N.Y., MacBean, Vol. 2, p. 98. $60-80

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26-6. “New York is rather pleasanter than New Haven.” Fascinating, varied letter of the young W(illiam) P. (Van) R(ensselaer), who would later be the focus of the Rent Wars of New York, an obscure but dramatic period of civil unrest in antebellum America. From N.Y., Oct. 28, 1824, 2-1/2 pp., 8 x 10. To his brother Cortland Van Rensselaer, at Yale College, New Haven. “...You are comfortably settled for the winter, although I think you had better have stayed with Philip...It would be a great saving of expense... I purchased your stockings & likewise Philip’s and have given them to Miss Alice (for whom you seem to have a great regard) to mark. I will send them by Saturday’s boat...& will tell Capt. Beecher to keep them until you call & take them. They are colored ones which will answer your purposes as you never wear shoes...I commenced last Monday the sublime science of the law with Mr. J. He has 9 students, pretty clever fellows...I have a room to myself at Bunker with a nice coal fire and my bottle of wine at dinner, every thing as large as life. New York is rather pleasanter than New Haven. There is something going on, a man has a peep into the world. I went on board of the Constitution the other day and dined with the midshipmen, 25 in number, as jolly a lot as can be imagined. You can have no idea how a ship of war looks when she is ready for sea without actual inspection. She sails tomorrow for the Mediterranean...The person that stole your watch evidently returned your key in derision, not being able to wear it publicly...My advice is therefore that you attempt to bring the villain to justice. Tell Beach of the circumstances & he will find him out in a minute. I will pay all costs. Hayes the constable here could find him out in ten minutes...It is a duty every man owes to the community to endeavor to detect those who have violated its laws, and when such violation tends to his inquiry it should be a motive powerful enough for him to make an effort...The political thermometer is at boiling heat. There will be an elegant line of steamboats on the North River next summer, the Troy line...They are said to be very fast and have very superior accomodations such as the Brunswick & Delaware boats, and they have a place where a man can wait without going out in the cold...& can have a clean towel, different from the present boats. In short they will be just what has been wanted by travellers. Brother Stephen & Sister go up next week...It is outrageously cold.” Quarter-size internal hole in blank address-leaf where opened, dampstaining and dust toning at margins, several fold tears, some tape reinforcement, much handling evidence, but still very satisfactory, and darkly penned. “Heir to the East Manor,” the writer figured in the Rent Wars. “(He) had borne the brunt of the antirent attack. As long as unrest was confined to Rensselaer Manor, the rest of the landholders had been content to permit the Van Rensselaer family to shoulder the burden. But when in 1844 tenants in neighboring counties embraced such dangerous antirent doctrines as non-payment of rent, the landowners found it necessary to band together in self-defense...”--Landlords and Farmers in the Hudson-Mohawk Region, 1790-1850, by Ellis (modern copies accompany). $150-225

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26-7. The Smallest Stock Certificate? Lovely miniature hand-tinted child’s stock certificate of Am(erican) Board of Com(mittee)s for Foreign Missions, Boston, 1856, 4 x 6-1/2. For “the Missionary Packet, Morning Star” - the first ship to send missionaries and supplies to the “Gems of the Pacific,” the Gilbert and Caroline Islands 5,000 miles west of San Francisco. The ship’s construction was paid for by the contribution of children, here Alice Myers, at 10¢ per share. Charming view of the ship in a calm harbor. As each ship wore out or was wrecked, three more “Morning Star” packets were built in the twenty-eight years to follow, bringing civilization to the cannibal populations of the area. With modern copies of 19th-century articles on the Morning Star, describing the inhabitants of its destination as “wild and dark, both in mind and body. Some were copper-colored, some olive...Their almost naked bodies were tattooed. They were all liars and thieves, and were cruel to old people and to women....” Uniform toning, original folds, fine wrinkles of lightweight paper, else fine and rare. WorldCat locates only one other certificate, at Boston Athenaeum. $200-250

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26-8. Serial No. 2. Stock certificate of The Manufacturers’ Railway Co. of Toledo, Ohio, Sept. 7, 1895, serial no. 2. Pale spring green and black. Eagle vignette, ornamental typographic underprint “Shares One Hundred Dollars Each.” For 25 shares issued to company secretary W.H.A. Read. Signed five times by Read, and twice by Pres. Alex Backus, once each vertically in brilliant red upon cancellation. Stub neatly reaffixed in 1897. File wear and dust toning along part of blank upper edge, light handling evidence, else fine and pleasing. Both men are mentioned in A History of Northwest Ohio..., Winter, 1917. Read was a prominent attorney, and Sec. of the Ohio Bar Association; Backus was also Pres. of Vulcan Iron-Works Co. and Vulcan Steam Shovel, and appears in numerous railroad journals of the era. Accompanying modern research includes 1896 article describing first trip on their new Toledo railroad, loading “a monster Vulcan shovel...destined for the Mesabi Range.” All certificates with such ultra-low numbers are elusive; certificates of any kind from this firm are very rare. Their total road mileage was 3 miles, built for them by the Pennsylvania Railroad. $175-250

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26-9. Instant Investment Portfolio. Charming group of ten railroad stock certificates, all with vignettes and ornamental typography, all issued, some exhibiting curiosities: Boston and Providence R.R., 1868. American Bank Note. Signed thrice on verso by executor and railroad’s Pres. Henry A(ustin) Whitney. Nearly socked-on-nose railroad cancel on 25¢ revenue stamp. Two pie-slice cancels at bottom portion. • Oil Creek & Allegheny River Rail Way Co., Corry, Pa., 1870. A.B.N. Stub over edge of revenue stamp. • New York Central Sleeping Car Co., 1885. Hatch Lithographic Co. Shareholder in purple ink. • United Railways & Electric Co. of Baltimore, 1899. Olive green and black. Colorful array of 11 revenue stamps on verso, partially under stub. • United, chocolate brown variant, 1899. 500 shares. Signed by a different Pres., though issued only seven days after the olive green certificate! Five revenues on verso (one lacking corner), including black $10. • Michigan Central R.R. Co., $1000 bond, 1881, redeemed 1925. Larger format. Rich composite engraved vignettes, by A.B.N. Very fine. Scarce type. • Atchison & Nebraska R.R., 1880. A curiosity: issued for 5 shares, but redeemed as 3 – just six days later. • Burlington and Northwestern Railway, (Iowa), 1882. 1 share. Litho. by Strobridge & Co., Cincinnati. Especially poignant scene of train arriving at a small town station. • Chicago, Burlington and Quincy R.R., 1892. Camel brown and black. A.B.N. Uncommon. • Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co., 1920. Suburban trolley car. A.B.N. Varied light to moderate handling wear, occasional toning or minor defects, else generally good plus to fine plus, and all well suited for an attention-getting display. $190-290 (10 pcs.)

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26-10. Low Serial Numbers. Interesting group of eleven different stocks for manufacturing companies, all issued, some with low serial numbers or other curious features: New York Silica Brick Co., 1908. Very low preferred no. 3. No imprint. Orange with pre-Deco sunrays. Rare in any form. • New York Granite Brick Co. (N.J.), 1906. Low no. 84. Broun-Green Co., N.Y. Rare. • Royal Axminster Carpet Co., Camden, N.J., 1890. Low no. 68. View of modest factory on river bank. Litho. by Alten, Lane & Scott, Philadelphia. Uncommon text within ornate border, “Issued for Property Purchased.” Shares sold three weeks later. Very scarce. • United Shoe Machinery Corp., 1913. Currency-green. A.B.N. Markings and rubber stamps on verso reflect highly unusual division upon sale of the 10 shares the following year, with two shares to one party, five to another, one to another, and two to yet another! In all, nine rubber stamps and ten signatures. About fine and clean. • North & Judd Manufacturing Co., New Britain, Conn., 1917. Uncommon elongated size. Pale gold border, with aluminum-silver printed seal. George Rohn, Fulton St., N.Y. • Amazon Woven Cordage Co., Boston, 1890. Low no. 18. Formal black script, with currency-grade vignette of allegorical female. Infrequently seen style of A.B.N., sans border. • International Rubber and Trading Co., N.Y., 1903. Vignette showing man, probably in Dutch East Indies garb, standing beside rubber tree. Old tape reinforcement on verso, some edge chipping at top, else about very good. Surprisingly scarce. • Walpole Tire & Rubber Co. (Mass.), 1912. No. 301. Black and white. J.C. Hall Co., Providence. • Custer Channel Wing Corp., 1965. Olive green. Head-on photo vignette showing plane with the eponymous unusual wing design, each wrapping beneath engine in U-contour. An intriguing concept, the firm had been established in 1939. Some edge dampstains, else very good. • Rockford Silver Plate Co. (Ill.), 1927 penned over the printed date “188_.” Circular woodcut of the famous factory. Signed by Pres. Robert Lathrop in Waterman blue. Older tape reinforcement on verso at top and bottom edges, wrinkles, light toning, but still good plus and suitable for display. Very scarce. • Lancaster Drug Co., Lancaster, Pa., 1923. Low no. 33. Stub reaffixed. Several edge chips, toning, else very good. $325-450 (11 pcs.)

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26-11. Certificate No. 2. A novelty: Stock certificate of Hazard Wire Rope Co. (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.), 1927. Very low no. 2. Issued to themselves, for shares representing 90% of their $400,000 capitalization. Custom watermark of printer Broun-Green, John St., N.Y. Plain, black on cream vellum. Colorful array of higher-dollar stock transfer revenue stamps on verso from three jurisdictions: four Pa. (fifth stamp removed, possibly excess at time of transfer), five N.Y., and three U.S., including brown $60 Lincoln. Portion of stub neatly tipped, showing transfer in 1929 to Industries of America, Inc., 17 E. 42 St. Two vertical folds, some handling, tear at stub, else very good and unusual. Dating to 1846, Hazard supplied the wire rope for the 1924 dirigible Shenandoah; by World War II a division of American Chain & Cable, they played an important role in military production. Rare in any form. $140-180

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26-12. “Worthless.” Group of four financial stocks, all elusive names: Washington (D.C.) Investment Trust, 1927. Orange. A.B.N. 1956 pencil notation at top, “Charge off as worthless....” • Atlantic National Bank of Boston, 1932. Charming vignette of ships of every description in Boston harbor. Republic Bank Note, Pittsburgh. • Peoples Collateral Pledge Society, N.Y., 1913. Eighteenth-century-style format, with Old English, formal script, and printed penwork flourishes. Broun-Green Co. • National Building Trust (Springfield, Mass.), 1915. Unissued gold bond, low no. 35. Opening to 18 x 24, including all 40 coupons. “Promise to pay...$1000 in gold coin of the U.S.A. of the present standard of weight and fineness...on the first day of Dec., 1935....” Original sixth folds. Others with minor wear, else fine to very fine. $120-160 (4 pcs.)

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26-13. Living the Life of Librarians at Lake Placid. Scarce preferred stock certificate of Lake Placid Co., 1911, the elaborate club established by the originator of Dewey Decimal System. Signed by Pres. Melvil Dewey, who also founded the first school of library science (at Columbia), and co-founded American Library Association. To demonstrate his new language called Ro, Dewey changed his name from Melville Dewey to Melvil Dui. His Lake Placid Club attracted intellectuals (and of course outdoorsminded librarians); it came to encompass 356 buildings, 21 tennis courts, 7 golf courses - and 1,100 employees maintaining the year-round facilities. Also signed by his son, Godfrey Dewey, Pres. of 1932 Winter Olympics, and generally credited with bringing the Games to Lake Placid. “Excelsior” vignette. Typewritten transfer stapled to ornamental verso, 1929, green Bank of Montreal handstamp. Stub of New Rochelle shareholder neatly affixed. Imprint of Albert B. King & Co., N.Y. Uniform cream toning, some handling wear, separated and repaired at two vertical folds, else good. Attractive. $80-120

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26-14. 168,750 Shares! Unusual stock certificate for a superlative number of shares, in Ben Hur Mining Co., Ltd., Saltese, Montana, 1909. For 168,750 shares. To Marie F. Lalande, witnessed on verso by Gertrude Killfeather. Signed by Pres. Leo H. Reep. Charcoal-art mining vignette. Florid, oversize notation across face in bright red, “Cancelled...,” six weeks after issue. Located in Mineral County, adjoining the Last Chance Mine, Ben Hur produced lead, copper, and silver. (In 1921, Killfeather patented an article of women’s clothing!) Glue staining along blank left margin where tipped into company book, minor fold and handling wear, else about fine. An attractive conversation piece, for one of the largest blocks of shares we have encountered. $75-100

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26-15. Catskill Cottages for Christians. Stock certificate of Catskill Mountain Improvement Co., marketing to a Christian audience. Low no. 22. 1910. Olive green and black. Broun-Green Co., N.Y. Signed by Pres. Sidney A. Hughes. Ten 2¢ chocolate brown N.Y. revenue stamps, surprinted. Faint waterstain at lower left, else about fine. With modern copies of two of the Kingston firm’s ads in The Christian Advocate, offering “a few cottages in beautiful Ideal Park...Bungalow sites given free with 20 shares of stock...We want only good, congenial people.” $65-85

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26-16. Oil Boom. Group of oil stock certificates, all with vignettes (some smaller) and ornamental typography, all issued: Sherman & Barnsdall Oil Co., N.Y., May 8, 1865. Oil field woodcut. Brilliant red wafer seal, two orange revenue stamps. Printed by Snyder, Black & Sturn, N.Y. • Harvey Crude Oil Co., Delaware, 1920. On highly unusual paper watermarked “Brother Jonathan Bond.” Scarce. • Delvatex Petroleum Corp., 1920. The name a contraction of Delaware, Virginia, and Texas. Low serial number. Security Bank Note. Forest green. Three cigarette(?) burn holes at lower blank margin. • Richfield Oil Corp., 1937. Striking cobalt blue. Jeffries Banknote, Los Angeles. • California Diamond Oil Co., San Francisco, n.d. but pre-1910. Preferred. No imprint. • The Drillers’ Oil Co., Colorado, 1919. Columbian Bank Note. Evidently rare. • Eastern Consolidated Oil Co., 1903. Mocha border. Litho. by R.S. Peck & Co., Hartford, Conn. Two certificates, to same shareholder. Varied light to moderate handling wear, occasional toning or minor defects, else generally good plus to fine plus, and all well suited for an attention-getting display. $250-350 (8 pcs.)

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26-17. A Clerk Goes for the Gold. Appealing group of seven gold and mining stock certificates, all issued to the same shareholder, William P. Bartel, originally of LaCrosse, Wis. A hard-working young man, around the turn of the century Bartel was a messenger at the Bureau of American Ethnology. Promoted to clerk at the Interstate Commerce Commission around the time of these stock purchases, he rose, over some forty years – to become its Secretary. All with vignettes: Hidden Fortune Gold Mining Co., “Mines at Lead City, S.D.,” 1905. Fascinating vignette captioned “Hidden Fortune,” with miniature depictions of horses racing past Indian tepees, and locomotive hauling ore, with eagle and shield between. Interesting purple handstamp for payment of 3¢ per share assessment. • Greene Gold-Silver Co., W.V., 1907. Scene inside the mine (in Mexico), with precious ore on wheelbarrow. A.B.N. Forest green. Two (one with soft blind wrinkles). • Greene Consolidated Gold Co., 1907. Warm mocha. Different vignette. A.B.N. Infrequently seen Baroque border. • Bornite Copper and Gold Mining Co., Washington State, 1906. Two circular vignettes, and larger view, the mine nestled between scenic mountains. Letterpress and early offset by Lyman B. Brooks, Boston. Very rare. • Olalla Copper Mining and Smelting Co., Maine. A lovely item, in wine-red, with intricate pantograph border designs, and three crisply engraved vignettes. A.B.N. Bright gold foil seal. Scarce. • Humboldt Exploration Co., Arizona, 1910. Black and white. Portrait of von Humboldt. Operator of gold, silver, and copper mines in Mexico. Varied light wear, but generally very good to fine, clean, and fascinating conversation pieces. One certificate is signed on verso by Bartel, however the absence of cancellation markings and the fact that the certificates remained together, suggest that the young investor, presumed of modest means in those years, lost his money. $275-375 (7 pcs.)

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26-18. All that glitters.... Group of gold and mining stocks, several rare. To various shareholders. All with vignettes, all issued: Alaska Mexican Gold Mining Co., San Francisco, 1908. Scarce imprint of Schmidt Litho, San Francisco. Prospectors on scenic overlook, snow-capped mountains in distance. (In fact, their mine was on Douglas Island.) Purple handstamp of Treadwell Yukon Co. Orange embossed (Canadian) tax stamp. • Adventure Consolidated Copper Co. (Mich.), Boston, 1899. American Bank Note. Green. • Variant in mahogany brown. 1908. Large round and rectangular purple handstamps. • Greene Gold-Silver Co., W.V., 1908. Tangerine orange. A.B.N. • Brunswick Consolidated Gold Mining Co., California (though their site was on the Mother Lode, Grass Valley, Nevada). 1899. Lilac. Imprint of W.E. Badeau, John St., N.Y. Four “assessment...paid” handstamps on verso, each signed by officer. Scarce. • Western Consolidated Mining Co., 1905. Vignette of U.S. Capitol building. Very low no. 19, but for 5,000 shares. With accompanying manuscript letter on their ornate stationery, Hereford, Texas, 1908, to Western Bank & Trust Co., Amarillo. “Enclosed please find certificate no. 19...Please hold this certificate til a trade is consummated...to develop the mines....” Excessively rare. • Ajax Bullfrog Mining Co. (Arizona Territory), Denver, 1905. Rare. First item with some handling wrinkling and minor stains, else varied light wear, and generally very good to fine. $325-450 (8 pcs.)

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26-19. Uncut Sheets of Louisiana Currency. Two different, complete, strikingly attractive specimens, evidently trial press sheets: Four $5 bills, Citizens’ Bank of Louisiana at Shreveport. “Patented 30 June 1857.” 8-1/2 x 13-1/2. American Bank Note Co. Richly engraved on front in moss green and brown-black; verso in bright orange, in French, “Banque des Citoyens de la Louisiane....” The green and black registration crosshairs at four margins slightly off, and band of wet orange ink along right margin. Central vignette of two lovely belles seated on bale of cotton; separate oval portraits of Pres. Millard Fillmore and woman, in ornate floral frames. Some light chipping at edges of wide left and right margins, uniform toning to parchment tan, else fine, lovely, and crisp. • Sheet of two $1, one $2, and one $3 bill, same bank. Magnificently engraved in green-black on ivory, by American Bank Note, each denomination with different vignettes. Some black ink traces from press shoulder along margin, few trivial creases, else excellent and crisp. The artistry of both sheets is such that counterfeiting would have been extraordinarily daunting. Fascinating financial, Southern, and printing Americana. $225-300 (2 pcs.)

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27. Legal & Medical

27-1. Lincoln’s Postmaster General disputes a Gold Rush Mail Contractor. Lengthy L.S. of M(ontgomery) Blair, co-counsel to Dred Scott, and Postmaster General during Civil War. Though a member of a leading slaveholding family, Blair was an abolitionist. His postal administration established free city mail delivery, adoption of postal money orders, and introduction of railway mail cars. “Post Office Dept.,” Washington, July 22, 1862, 7-3/4 x 9-3/4, 2 full pp. To Edwards Pierrepont, friend of Lincoln, and Grant’s Attorney Gen. With a fascinating back story, including California mail, and shipment of gold and silver to the New Orleans Mint. “...On subject of the Carmick & Ramsey claim, I object totally to Mr. Whittlesey’s proceedings...It is clearly res judicata, his predecessor having decided against the claim. But I do not object to the opening of the case by Congress, and its submission...before whom the Post Office Dept. may go to contest the validity of the claim as well as the extent of the damages. But I am not willing to submit the case to anyone who assumes at the start that there is something due, and that his only business is to enquire what the amount is. I deny that there ever was any contract...and therefore that there is legally one cent due them. But it may be true, nevertheless, that they expended their money...under such circumstances as to appeal to the liberality of the Govt. to reimburse their losses...If these gentlemen will put their case on this footing, I will cheerfully cooperate in preparing the case for Congressional action...But if they persist in...only a question of how much they are to get, I will do my utmost to resist the claim....” File notation in Pierrepont’s hand. Dust toning at one fold, internal flap at deeply embossed stationer’s crest, else fine.

The dispute discussed here had been building for nearly a decade: In 1853, Edward Carmick and Albert Ramsey contracted with the Postmaster General to carry mail between New Orleans and Vera Cruz, and Acapulco and Gold Rush San Francisco, “on the oldest road on the continent of America... this road being free from robbers.” Supplementing Carmick’s earlier contract to deliver mail from New Orleans to San Francisco in 16-day cycles, the problem seems to have begun when the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. withdrew their weekly line, disrupting the mail schedule. Carmick and Ramsey were using “the very best built Albany and Troy post-coaches, Concord passenger wagons...and about 500 horses and mules...,” and had secured exclusive right of passage for fifty years. “As soon as the specie and express wagons of [Carmick and Ramsey] are fully at work, millions of dollars will flow into the New Orleans mint from the gold placers and silver mines of Mexico...Hundreds of millions of dollars have been...transported over this road, in the interchange of productions between the flotas of Spain and the galleons of the Indies, and millions of American commerce are yet to be rolled over it in the progress of American enterprise...”--modern copies of Congressional exposition accompany. Splendid postal content. With 16 pp. modern research. In all, a story worthy of publication. $300-400

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27-2. Mentioning John Peter Zenger’s Attorney. Partly printed command to Sheriff of City of New-York, June 19, 1750, to “Summons Johan David Woolf, Executor of the Last Will...of Jacob Christopher Forster...Gallow Chandeller, before our Mayor...at the City-Hall...to answer John Chambers Esq. of a Plea of trespass....” 2-3/4 x 12-3/4. Signed twice by Ab(raham) Lodge, Attorney, and once within text, presumed clerical, of Mayor Edward Holland (for whom Holland Ave. in The Bronx is named). Headed, “George the Second, by the Grace of God, of Great-Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c....” Chambers was John Peter Zenger’s attorney in the landmark freedom of the press case of 1735--New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth Century Manhattan, Lepore, p. 79. Chambers’ own slaves, Cuba and Robin, would be arrested for conspiracy. Chambers and Lodge were two of only eight lawyers allowed to practice before the Mayor’s Court. Woolf was a “taylor” in Old New York, and the brother of Forster, who was living in Nossen, Saxony, as of 1756. Compound wrinkle at blank top, minor stain on “June,” light toning, else very good, and a charming narrow-oblong format carried over from the Old World. $130-160

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27-3. “I have always been exceedingly fortunate in all my surgical cases....” Lengthy letter on attractive stationery of Edward P. Bartlett, M.D., “Physician and Surgeon,” Marietta, Ohio, Dec. 9, 1879, 8 x 10-1/4, 2 full pp. To a recovering female patient, he writes in a whimsical style of the successes - and risks - in surgery. “...Truly glad to know that my expectations and promises to you were fulfilled, in your restoration to health again...I think verily that you are an exceedingly lively corpse, but I wonder that any one can be so unwise to assert that a very trivial thing restored you to health. The only answer I could make to such a simple remark would be, ‘Why did you not build up the system and perform that very trivial operation?’ Alas it is too late to gain anything by such talk. Excuse me, Mrs. Fleming, for having indulged in even this much foolishness, in noticing the fluttering of a wounded hawk. I am quite busy, and have a surgical operation to perform upon a lady this week, and if successful, it will restore her to a life of comfort and usefulness again. I have but little doubt it will succeed, but I always make the promise, knowing full well that the very simplest operation may prove fatal in some instances. I have always been exceedingly fortunate in all my surgical cases, and have recorded but very few deaths...Save yourself during the winter, and by next spring you will be as well as anyone... Any time that you or any of your friends need any medical advice, it will afford me pleasure to furnish the same....” His postscript appears, upside-down, above the masthead, “...A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.” Inobtrusive repair of short tear with acid-free tape, some wear at two fold junctions, fold break, crease, coffee-and-cream ink but entirely legible, else very good. $90-120

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27-4. A Scientific Genius Paints his Vision – 1923. Fascinating group of medical and historical items from the files of Charles Lorenzo Clarke, who actually drew the familiar horseshoe filament for the light bulb, during his long collaboration with Thomas Edison. Comprising: his retained carbon copy of A.L.S., Schenectady, Aug. 3/16, 1923, 8 x 10-1/2, 9 + 2 pp. addenda, with General Electric wrapper, handlettered by him “Appearance and Other Characteristics of a Prismatic Halo.” To his friend, Dr. Myles Standish, Boston, descendant of the Pilgrim captain of the same name, one of the foremost ophthalmologists of his era, and Pres. American Ophthalmology Society. An exhaustive discussion of Clarke’s eye problems, showing the analysis of his own concerns by this pioneer figure in electric light. Having worn glasses since age 11, and now 70, “finally, one night, I became conscious of seeing something that I had never seen before...a halo in rainbow colors...Given a clear light in a clear atmosphere...the halo becomes...brilliant - as real as a bright rainbow, and more vivid by contrast because set in black...My fifty years experience in civil, mechanical and electrical engineering, in field, shop and laboratory, has schooled me to close observation and the correlation of physical phenomena...I have devoted much time in the past ten years to special spectroscopic investigations involving careful discrimination of colors and line structure in spectra. Naturally, the picture is lacking in that lustrous limpidity and mellowness of tone that I actually see...But I assure you that I see all these details...I trust that...what I have said may, in some way, be made of use in your profession for the good of humanity....”

With depiction on cold-pressed watercolor paper of the dramatic “prismatic halo,” hand-painted in color by Clarke, and signed and dated. • Three leaves of computations in Clarke’s hand, in pencil, with measurements of his halo, using “stereo field glasses.” 7 x 10-1/2, on sulphite, pinned. Uniform browning, triangular chip at center fold, else very good. • A.L.S. of Myles Standish in reply, (Aug. 12, 1923), 6 x 7-1/4, 6 pp. “Your beautiful drawing of the halo has been received by me, and the no less admirable verbal account of its appearance and characteristics. I am meditating writing an article on the subject of colored haloes...No such accurately observed description exists in ophthalmic literature. It will be a classic...When Coolidge was nominated, Vice Pres. Curtis asked me, ‘What kind of a man is Coolidge?’ I told him his career and related his physical and mental characteristics. When I finished he said, ‘Myles, that man will be President of the United States.’...I judged from published snap-shot photographs that he was suffering from a chronic kidney trouble. Events...have confirmed that snap diagnosis....” Neatly tipped by Clarke, with envelope, to album page. • Retained carbon copy of Clarke A.L.S., 1928, 1 full p., to Standish. “I presume you will be traveling northward from Miami with the other migratory birds, as the sun climbs higher...It is now nearly 4-1/2 months since Dr. Ellis performed my cataract operation... I have beautiful normal sight....” • A.L.S. of Dr. Edward K. Ellis, Boston, Apr. 26, 1928, 1-1/2 pp., to Clarke. “I was much pleased to find you had benefited by the needling operation...I am mailing...your very interesting observations on the halo. I hope you will not have occasion to observe any more, however. I received a note from Mrs. Standish this morning, saying that Dr. Standish had felt very ill, but is better now....” With envelope. • Lengthy newspaper obituary of Standish, just two months later, meticulously mounted and signed by Clarke on sheet, with his manuscript tribute below: “Myles was my Bowdoin College classmate and lifelong friend...and always the enlivening spirit of our reunions...He was an outstanding example of able, cultured manhood.” • Memorial pamphlet, “Memoir of Myles Standish...,” 1928, copperplate portrait frontispiece with tissue guard, 10 pp. Shaken. Notation by Clarke, “In memory of his love for the ‘Class of ‘75.’” Items with varied light to moderate wear, and generally good plus to fine. A fascinating assemblage on these two remarkable Americans, both giants in their fields of science, their intellectual pursuits overlapping in exploring the nature of light.

One of the most important seminal figures in electrical engineering - and by implication, in modern life - Clarke was hired by Edison in 1880 as a mathematical assistant in his Menlo Park “Invention Factory,” quickly rising to become Chief Engineer of both the parent Edison Electric Light Co. and Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of N.Y. Assisting Edison with his work on the just-patented light bulb, it was Clarke who drew the schematic for the iconic horseshoe filament adopted by Edison. Clarke superintended the design and construction of the world’s first electric light station. Resigning in 1884 to promote his own inventions, when Edison established the forerunner of General Electric in 1886, Clarke rejoined him. He would become the oldest of the Edison Pioneers, and the last of the original charter members of the A.I.E.E. A lengthy 1941 obituary (copy accompanies) states that Clarke had “charge of all the mechanical engineering involved in developing the Edison system...Clarke well remembers how Edison...remarked: ‘I think we’re ready, Clarke’....” $575-800 (10 items, including 2 ink signatures of Clarke, one on his color artwork, plus 3 signatures in carbon copy)

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27-5. The Anti-Doctors. Unusual letter to the noted Quaker Albert H. Johnson, Oberlin, Ohio, from his grandmother M. Mussey, Nov. 21, (18)61, 4-3/4 x 8, 2 pp., in pencil. Prominent in banking, gas lighting, and railroading, Johnson evidently shunned doctors, preferring cure-by-faith. His grandmother admonishes, “...The Bible says the well need not a physician but the sick?...Dr. Samprel has had a number of cases of typhus fever, some very bad, and has not lost one in the village...I do think if you had judicious treatment you would of been round by this time. Don’t be offended if I differ from you... I have had many years of experience, made health a study, and have a thousand to one on my side...I passed through the same fever last spring ago and a broken down constitution...and took medicine...I know your folks differ from me. I rejoice to think your mother lived through it but you may not. She would not have been sick half the time if she had doctor(e)d.” Old newspaper clipping affixed at top, “An Anti- Doctor Sect,” on the “‘New Lights,’ who think it a crime to use any medicine, God alone being the arbiter of human life and death.” Begun in America by Jonathan Edwards in the previous century, the “New Light” tradition influenced Christian Scientists, believing that God could heal without the use of medicine. In all events, the addressee was cured. Fine. • With envelope, blue Elyria c.d.s. on postal stationery. Marginal stain from glue of clipping, else fine. $90-130 (2 pcs.)

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27-6. “The first American ever to use the X-ray in medicine....” Fascinating T.L.S. of Henry Louis Smith, as Pres. Emeritus, Washington and Lee University, Greensboro, N.C., Jan. 30, (19)38, 8-1/2 x 11. “...Mr. Joseph Nathan Kane, the ‘Famous First’ Researcher, opened correspondence with me telling me that he had discovered by research that I was the first American ever to use the X-ray in medicine or take an X-ray photograph, and asking me if I would come to their Broadcasting Studio at 1440, New York City, and give out an interview over a nationwide network of the Mutual Broadcasting Co...I spoke on Sept. 5th to over a hundred stations...I give you my autograph below. But I would suggest that the next time you write to ask such a favor from a total stranger you should always be very careful to enclose a stamp for reply. Most men in such a state of affairs would toss such a request immediately into the waste basket.” Minor soft crease at blank upper left, six mounting stains on verso, not visible from front, light uniform toning, else very fine, with a sprawling choice signature. Smith’s work in pioneering the medical X-ray saved countless lives. $125-150

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27-7. To an Ill-Fated Physician in a Discontinued Unit. Ladies envelope, addressed to “Edward B. Mason, M.D., Assistant Surgeon of the 14th Mass. Volunteers, Fort Albany, Virginia.” 3¢ rose at upper left, black “Paid” boxed bar cancel, and “Boston / Apr. 22(?)” c.d.s. in shade closely approximating the postage stamp. Mason’s service in the 14th Mass. is actually unrecorded in standard reference works; the 14th was a six-month infantry unit, which had disbanded the month before this envelope was sent. (Also) serving in the 1st Mass. Heavy Artillery and 2nd Mass. Cavalry, the 26-year-old physician died in 1863 when “his horse, an undisciplined beast, at an evening parade...rearing, fell backward...”--citation accompanies. Flap torn and wrinkled, pleasant tan mottled toning, else very good and attractive. With modern copy of photograph. $60-80

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28. Newspapers

28-1. “It can only last three months.” Daily Richmond Examiner, Feb. 27, 1862 – five days after formal Confederate government established. 16-3/4 x 23-1/2, 4 pp. Editorial maintaining that “...The war must endure for years. One delusion, however, even the best informed Yankees seem to entertain still, that there will, at some time, be an evacuation of Eastern Virginia. Never will they see that day. The possession of the rich, honorable and valiant countries of the real Virginia is linked with the existence of the Confederacy...We have now gotten rid of all of the parts of the Southern territory that were tainted...For the ground yet left us, we will fight. It is scarcely probable, after the present lessons, that any other Southern army will surrender...They [the Union] have now begun their great effort for our subjugation. It can only last three months. After the first of June their plans become impracticable....” News of Fall of Fort Donelson, “The Tennessee Panic,” and “The Northern Congress”: “Some curious debates take place in this body. It contains an honest man - one Vallandigham, and the assembly of thieves and murderers cannot rest quietly while there is such a living exception to their rules....” Front page ads, “Confederate Reading Room,” lengthy notice of C.S.A. Dept. of Justice, with “mode of authenticating claims for money against the Confederate States...unless he be absent from his residence in the service of the Confederate States, or a prisoner in the hands of the enemy....” Fascinating details of proceedings of Confederate Congress. Proclamation signed in type by Jefferson Davis: “The termination of the Provisional Government offers a fitting occasion again to present ourselves in humiliation, prayer and thanksgiving....” Extensive summary of Acts of Confederate Congress, including admission of Kentucky and Missouri into Confederacy, employment of laundresses in military hospitals, payment to Indian troops, reward for loyalty of Seminole Chief, and many more. Some scuffing and soiling of p. 1, soft fold at blank top margin, average handling wear, but good. Ex-prominent Southern collection. $225-275

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28-2. The “Present Adventure” of the Merrimac. Daily Richmond Examiner, Apr. 14, 1862. 16-3/4 x 23-1/2, 4 pp., rich in significant war content, including ironclads, slavery, and Arizona Territory. Front-page Confederate Orders, including suspension of writ of habeas corpus by Jefferson Davis. “Martial law is hereby extended over the Dept. of East Tennessee...Distilleries will forthwith be closed....” Account of the “present adventure” of the [ironclad] Virginia [a.k.a. Merrimac], describing the efforts of the Confederate vessel to lure the Union Monitor into combat, and the capture by the Virginia of two brigs and a schooner. Editorial: “Sometime about the 20th of March, Gen. McClellan told his troops that they should enter Richmond within thirty days. Twenty-five of those days are gone...He has unquestionably put his army in the Peninsula to such an extent that he cannot leave it without a battle, even if the Merrimac-Virginia has gone down under the Monitor and the Lincoln gun...The next few days will be rendered memorable by one of the most important battles ever fought...It is too late to save us from many of the misfortunes...It is hoped that there will be unmanly complaint...in any State to a requisition now necessary for the self-preservation.” (Less than a month later, the Confederacy would blow up the Virginia to prevent its capture by the Union.) “Slavery is at length abolished in the District of Columbia...The abolition...in the border States would be an illegal act...The States of Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri have 170 millions of value invested in slaves...At the present rate of Northern war expenditure it is cheaper to buy up the border States by purchasing their slaves than to protract the struggle to the extent that is necessary for their violent subjugation....” Extensive text on p. 4 on the Confederacy’s “Act to Organize the Territory of Arizona,” comprising part of New Mexico Territory. Minor soiling, edge toning, soft fold, and crease at top blank margin, else about very good. Ex-prominent Southern collection. Superb content. $325-450

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28-3. Christmas Camels and Alabama Joins the Union. Newspaper, Columbian Register, New-Haven, Conn., Dec. 25, 1819, 14-1/2 x 21, 4 pp. Page 1-column 1 Resolution, with eagle woodcut, “Declaring the admission of the State of Alabama into the Union,” signed-in-type by Henry Clay and Pres. James Monroe Separate Acts to survey land at the “boundary line fixed by the Treaty with the Creek Indians...in the Alabama Territory....” Also, half column on the debate to restrict slavery; news of military executions, mentioning Andrew Jackson; Act authorizing free-franking for “transmission of certain documents free of postage.” Lengthy U.S. Treasury Report, showing cash balance of $334,996; the notion of the Federal government managing on well under a million dollars seems fictional. Editorial, “To be poor is a misfortune - not a crime...The old state party do earnestly contend that they possess all the Religion, all the goodness, all the talents, and all the riches...They are unwilling that those who do not possess real estate of certain value should become entitled to the privileges of Freemen...however meritorious may have been their deportment through life....” Charming advertisements, including Peach Brandy, “warranted old and good,” “Fur Caps to keep heads warm this cold winter,” coarse salt, St. Croix rum, Scotch plaids, bell foundry (with large woodcut), Clay’s itch ointment, “well fatted pork in the hog” wanted, and a Christmas amusement: two camels on local exhibition, where “they can be viewed with perfect safety” (with woodcut), and much more. Light mottling and fold-junction wear, else very good. Fascinating. $80-110

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28-4. The Year before the Emancipation Proclamation – and the Day before Gettysburg. Group of three newspapers: Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 26, 1862, 8 pp. Front-page news of Bull Run: “...Our people buried 3,000 Rebels, left...on the field by their friends, though it will be remembered the latter held the field after that bloody engagement....” Early reference to the impending Emancipation Proclamation: “There has been considerable commenting among those who feel exercised about the President’s Emancipation Proclamation, as to the reasons for Attorney-Gen. Bates’ refusal last night to refer to that act of our Chief Magistrate more particularly....” “Some of the paroled Harper’s Ferry troops do not like the idea of being sent to the Northwest for the purpose of fighting the Red Skins. Having enlisted to shoot white Rebels, they do not feel satisfied, at this interesting period, with the idea that they are to be packed off where they will have no chance to take a further hand in closing up the books of the C.S.A.” Much more. Some chipping along center horizontal fold, else very good plus. • Boston Post, June 30, 1863, 4 pp., oversize 21-1/4 x 30-1/4. Reporting Gen. Lee at Chambersburg, Gen. Longstreet already in Gettysburg, 37,000 Rebel troops passing through Harrisburg. Report of Gens. Hill and Early; Meade taking command of Union Army from Hooker. Some wear and chipping at original fold junctions, light toning; two fragments, 1/2 x 2 and 2 x 3, lacking at top of page 1, affecting some lines on verso only. An important paper, stating “indications that a strong effort will be made....” Indeed, the Battle of Gettysburg began the following day. • Boston Post, Sept. 7, 1864, 4 pp., oversize. Featuring Stanton’s report of the fall of Atlanta, Gen. McClellan’s run for President, and the death of John Morgan of Morgan’s Raiders. Original folds. Minor wrinkles, else fine and clean. $140-180 (3 pcs.)

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28-5. The Donner Party - and the Gold-Finder Machine. Newspaper, Sunday Mercury, N.Y., Apr. 29, 1849, 4 oversize pp. Filled with Gold Rush news, including morbidly detailed front-page account of Donner Party cannibalism - “this most monstrous food” - in “Terrific Journey of a Party of California Emigrants in 1846.” Front-page ads including “Charts for California,” Bowie knife sheaths, “California Excitement Outdone!” (for caps), “California Gold-Finder Machine,” “California Ginger-Bread, warranted to stay good in any climate for one year,” Goodyear’s patent metallic rubber goods for “California Gold Diggers, Exploring Parties, and others.” Medicine to prevent “the terror of fever...in crossing the Isthmus of Panama and at the Gold Regions.” Inside, articles “Communism and Individualism,” “El Dorado,” and much more: “My little girls can make $5 to $25 per day washing gold in pans....” Waterstain and some wear at one fold junction, top edge frayed, some dust toning, else good. A wealth of reading. $50-70

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28-6. “A nation’s cry of sorrow...will ascend to heaven.” Three New York City newspapers, chronicling the bewildering days in the collision of Lincoln’s murder and the end of the Civil War. Black mourning rules throughout: The New York Herald, Apr. 18, 1865, 15-1/4 x 22-1/4, 8 pp. Set in about 6 point type, the sheer flood of news threatening to overwhelm the confines of the pages. “Mourning - Further Details of the Terrible Tragedy at Washington...Deliberate Character of the Crime Fully Established - A Well Planned Conspiracy...Arrest of One of the Assassins...Funeral Preparations... Full Description of the Appearance of the City Draped in the Habiliments of Woe....” Description of the reaction of Dr. Charles Leale (of Yonkers) at Ford’s Theatre. Arrest of Booth; Mrs. Lincoln’s Condition.

Editorial likely written by James Gordon Bennett: “The assassination of Pres. Lincoln and the attempts to take the life of Sec. Seward and his sons...continue to form the engrossing and melancholy subject of thought, feeling, conversation and action throughout the North. The murder of a Chief Magistrate being an unprecedented event in our history...unmistakably shown in a nation spontaneously draping itself in the solemn weeds of mourning...Secession assassins have drowned the voice of mercy...Under Andrew Johnson, as Military Gov. of Tenn., that State has been completely shorn of every vestige of slavery...The institution is but a dead carcass...This removal of slavery, however, will not interfere with the reconstruction of (the South’s) labor system, on the basis of freedom and compensation...But Pres. Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation will doubtless now be regarded as consecrated laws by his successor....” Brief item on services at the Henry St. Synagogue, “opened with prayers for the soul of our late President. Such an earnest and touching invocation, we are assured, was never before offered for any man in any country who was not of the Hebrew faith...This synagogue is in communion with the orthodox Jews, and its members are among the most loyal of our fellow citizens.” Scattered light foxing, uniform toning, minor wear, else very good plus. • The New-York Times, Apr. 19, 1865. 8 pp. “Last Marks of Respect to Our Late President - Immense Throng to Visit the Remains - Preparations for the Funeral.” “North Carolina - Capture of Raleigh - Johnston Avoids a Battle with Sherman...Jeff. Davis Joins Johnston....” Heartrending editorial: “...Every city and town and village will be shrouded in mourning...and from the thronged churches a nation’s cry of sorrow and supplication will ascend to heaven...A nation’s jewels are the virtues of its illustrious dead. Its cities may crumble, its masterpieces of industry and art may moulder...but these are heirlooms that defy time....” Dramatic news of Lee’s surrender from Charleston, datelined the day Lincoln was shot: “...Many were so intoxicated with delight that they could scarcely refrain from seizing the newsbearer by the shoulders, and carrying him in triumph...and insisted that one of their number...should mount the office counter [at the Charleston Hotel] and repeat what had already been heard....” • Times, Apr. 22, 1865. 8 pp. “The Obsequies - Removal of the Remains from Washington - Reception of the Funeral Train at Baltimore and Harrisburg...Preparation for the Reception of the Remains in this City on Monday....” Exhaustive description of the train making its way to New York, and the plans in Manhattan. Editorials including, “Is justice revenge? ...The plea of ‘no more bloodshed’ is touching and potent, yet who thinks of appealing to it when we see the murderer on the drop, overwhelmed with the anguish of his fate?...Jeff. Davis and the other original conspirators have committed the most monstrous crime...If justice ever made a claim on earth, it claims these men for punishment...What then?...Let the old terms of amnesty offered by Pres. Lincoln remain....” Closely trimmed at right edge by printer, affecting beginning of all lines on p. 2, col. 1 (only). Both Times with old dampstaining at top and bottom margins, with some pale purple toning, very light occasional foxing, else crisp and apparently unread.

Few weeks in the annals of American history were as momentous as these days in April captured here. $550-700 (3 pcs.)

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28-7. The World of the Merry Monarch. Group of four issues of The London Gazette, Apr. 3-7, July 7-10, Aug. 25-28, and Sept. 18-22, 1679, during the reign of the Merry Monarch, Charles II. 7 x 11, 2 pp. ea. Filled with the fury of battle and intrigue throughout much of Europe; it nearly seems that everyone was at war with someone. Including: Death in action of British Lt. Admiral de Ruyter “in an Engagement against the French on the Coast of Sicily...”; war among the Turks, Muscovites, Poles, and British Crown; from Copenhagen, “all thoughts of Peace are laid aside...The great difficulty...is, that our King...declares that he will never restore those places he is at present possessed of in Schonen...The Princes of Lunenburg have made their Peace with France and Sueden [sic]...”; “The Princess of Orange has been for some days past under an indisposition...Her Highness was let blood on Sunday, and had yesterday her Third Fit...”; “Whereas divers Robberies have been of late committed upon the Highway...there are lately taken Prisoners in Cambridge Castle three Notorious Thieves,” with their descriptions: “...some pimples on his face, in a sad-colour’d cloth Suit...a short Rapier, a pair of Pocket Pistols...”; from Hamburg, “The King of Denmark’s bringing so considerable an Army together in Holstein, keeps this City in continual apprehension...”; “Marriage of the King of Spain with Mademoiselle d’Orleans...”; “The Imperial Troops are now on their march towards Bohemia....” Finally, on Sept. 7: “About four in the afternoon, the Peace between Spain and France was solemnly sworn by his Catholick Majesty....” Reward for “one Robert Taylor, a Dancing-Master, being in the company of several Neighbors in Covent-garden...killed one Mr. Price...at the Three Tom Tavern....” Ad for a German indentured servant runaway from his goldsmith master, taking with him “a large parcel of small Rubies unpolish’d, four Table Diamond stones....” Some foxing, one leaf with soft crease, else very good. $80-110 (4 pcs.)

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29. Military & Naval

29-1. Logbook of an Anti-Slaver Man-o-War – from the Height of the Slavery Debate. view image Manuscript logbook, titled in contemporary hand “Journal of a cruise in the U.S. Ship St. Louis,” July 18, 1856-Dec. 31, 1857, about 270 written pp., original hard marbled boards, 1/2 calf, 8-1/4 x 13. Penned in clear, attractive hands, with red rules for highlights. Contemporary pencil lettering on front flyleaf, “U.S. Ship St. Louis, West Coast Africa, J(ohn) W. Livington, Commander,” embellished with hand-drawn filigree. (Livingston was, in fact, the Senior Commander of the Africa Squadron by 1857. He was made Rear Admiral eleven years later.) With a remarkable history, the ship was the first American man-of-war to carry the flag into San Francisco, in 1839, and was present at Singapore when the first commercial treaty with China was being negotiated. This logbook is from her service as an anti-slaver, one of just four ships on tag-team rotation in the Africa Squadron. Though the Squadron was a nod to popular abolitionist sentiment, official support was intentionally minimized, partly because of pro-slavery sentiment within the Navy Department, making the ships’ job more trying. Sailing from New York in Nov. 1855 “to help suppress the slave trade along the western coast of Africa,” she returned in Feb. 1858--Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol. VI, 1976, p. 244. Exhaustive detail of the daily operations of a Navy ship on elite duty far from home. Reflecting much activity and drama in its role off the coast of Africa, including surveillance, interception, and boarding of ships. The Navy’s Annual Report for 1855 recorded the departure of the St. Louis, noting “...the slave trade south of the equator is entirely broken up...”--Message from the President of the United States..., 1855, Part III, pp. 5-6. Notwithstanding this glowing assessment, the issue of slavery was becoming red-hot in America. In 1857, within the timeframe of this logbook, the Dred Scott Decision was handed down, inflaming abolitionists, and helping set the stage for the Civil War. The period captured in this logbook was also a critical one in naval - and geopolitical - history, with ramifications into the present time. The treaty with Japan had recently been ratified, and America’s role in the world was growing.

Entries commencing at Palmas, Grand Canary Islands; Porto Grande, Island St. Vincent; Porto Praya, capital of Cape Verde Islands; Porto Novo, Dahomey (today Benin, whose shore was known as the “Slave Coast”), settled by Portuguese as center of slave trade; Prince’s Island; Little Fish Bay; Elephant’s Bay; Benguela (Angola); Monrovia (Liberia); and Madeira. Just a few extracts from the first half year:

Aug. 14, 1856: “At 9 the Summary Court Martial convened for the trial of Thos. Graham...The Prisoners were brought to the Mast & their Sentences read to them & put in execution. 8 to Mid(night) swell from S.W.” • Aug. 28: “...to board an English Barque at anchor off Porto Nova, 2 English Brigs, Barque & Portuguese Barque...Saw a vessel at Anchor off Badagry, sounded several times in 9 fathoms water...Lightning to the west.” [Slavers would sometimes fly a Spanish or Portuguese flag to elude interdiction.] • Sept. 1: “Master took the following compass bearings: Madam Ferrara’s House....” • Sept. 29: “Target overboard...Commenced firing as fast as the Guns would bear making good shots but not hitting the target....” • Oct. 12: “At 4 P.M., the southern pt. of Little Fish Bay...in chase of a Ship & Barque standing to the North. Hoisted our Ensign when the vessels showed American colors...passed under her stern & spoke to the Whaling Barque Globe, Capt. Trappe of New-Bedford, 15 months out with 400 Bbls. of Oil. Sent a Boat with the Master on board the Globe...proving to be the American whale ship Emma C...with 1000 Bbls. of Oil....” • Oct.13: “...Boarded the Whale Barque Kanawah, Capt. Terry from Greenport, Long Island...600 Bbls. of Oil bound on a cruise... An Eclipse of the Moon. At 12 nearly a Total Eclipse....” • Oct. 15: “Painting iron work outside...Hoisted the Portuguese Flag & fired 21 guns....” • Oct. 29, in Angola: “At 8 the Portuguese War Sch(oone)r together with the Merchantmen in port dressed ship. Sent an Officer to inquire the cause of celebration. Learned that it was the birth-day of the King of Portugal. At 9 hoisted the Portuguese Colors at the fore in honor of the Birth Day of Ferdinand...Fired a salute of 21 guns....” • Oct. 30: “Confined Geo. C. Shaugnessy, Sea(man), for disobedience of orders.” • Nov. 4: “Summary C(ourt) M(artial) convened for the trial of Jas. Bogart. The French Commodore visited the ship. On leaving saluted him with 13 guns, which was returned by the Frigate Jean d’Arc with the same number. (Interesting mention of other 9- and 11-gun salutes.) • Nov. 17: “Confined A.C. Graves in single irons for insubordinate conduct reported by Lt. Duvall....” • Nov. 22: “Confined J.H. Yew in double irons for disorderly conduct.” • Dec. 28: “John Moreland departed this life...Called all hands, bury the dead, read the funeral service, & committed the remains of Jno. Moreland to the deep. Lightning & misty about the horizon.” • Inlaid coroner’s inquest into demise of Francis Gibbs, “1st Class Boy,” killed instantly when “a gun loaded with powder & balls” held by another sailor accidentally discharged. • Much, much more.

Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, ships from far and near were summoned home, and the focus changed from anti-slavery efforts in Africa, to emancipation in America. In Apr. 1861, the St. Louis helped reinforce Fort Pickens, then joined the blockade of Southern ports. Fitted with new guns, “she criss-crossed the Atlantic, cruised the African coast...in search of Confederate commerce raiders... She returned to Port Royal, S.C., on Nov. 26, 1864, for service in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron. Three days later, sailors and marines from St. Louis went ashore at Boyd’s Landing to participate in the combined Army-Navy thrust up the Broad River...to assist Gen. Sherman as he approached Savannah at the end of his march across Georgia...”--Dictionary.... Charming watercolor-blue pictorial label of “W.H. Maurice’s Blank Book and Stationery Establishment, No. 123 Chestnut St... Philadelphia.” Nineteenth-century inscription on flyleaf, “Presented to U.S. Grant Post 327, Dept. of N.Y., G.A.R., by Bernard Callaghan, Member of the Post who Served in the U.S.N.” Callaghan served over five years in the Spanish-American War period; he was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in 1914, receiving $10 pension monthly. Spine covering mostly perished, boards understandably worn, binding shaken, internally with some light toning, else clean, and very good to fine, the ink varying from mellow mocha to deep brown, and almost every spread suitable for display. Possibly the only logbook of an American anti-slaver on the market. The vigilence and dedication shown in fulfilling their mission is impressive. A rare artifact showing America’s internationalization of antislavery efforts, and important primary source evidence. With ship’s history, courtesy Naval Historical Center, 1979, and other research. $2900-3500

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29-2. A Career of Superlatives. T.L.S. of Gen. Lucius D. Clay, on his One William St., N.Y. letterhead, Feb. 21, 1963, 7-1/4 x 10-1/2. “I am honored that the Near East Foundation still wishes to confer its Distinguished Service Award on me. I am truly sorry that my schedule is so very heavy for the next few months it is absolutely impossible...to be the Board’s guest of honor at its first annual dinner....” Steel-engraved imprint slightly smudged, else fine. • With envelope. Building on a remarkable prewar resume, Clay orchestrated the eleven-month Berlin Airlift, as commander of U.S. forces in Europe and postwar Military Gov. of Germany. Directing some 277,800 flights, Clay triumphed over the Soviets, and was a hero both in West Germany and here, fêted with a ticker tape parade in New York City. At this writing, he was an advisor to J.F.K. $90-130 (2 pcs.)

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29-3. Creator of the Medal of Honor. Carte of Lincoln’s Navy Sec. Gideon Welles, his efficiency in blockading the South contributing to the war’s outcome. Imprint of “Philada. Photographic Co., 730 Chestnut St....” Notation in contemporary hand on verso, possibly of institution receiving item as a donation: “Mrs. Z.E. Morgan, 555 Ave. E, Bayonne, N.J., Sent Nov. 9th, 1921.” Foxing in blank areas, black soot(?) rub at upper blank area, some wear across blank top margin, else more than satisfactory, the pose - with his near-record-setting whiskers - in dark tones. $45-60

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29-4. Massachusetts Military Forms – on Exotic Italian Paper. Unusual group of four military items: Two printed forms, unused, appointment of Sergeant, Mass., n.d. but c. 1820. Unusual large watermark of two-headed bird, with crown, believed made by Giorgio Magnani, the venerable Italian papermaker in Tuscany. 7-1/2 x 12. Detailed woodcut. Light handling, else fine. • Printed form, unused, “Return of Officers...Div. of the Militia of Mass.,” c. 1820, 8-1/2 x 12-1/4. To be signed by Commanding Officer, Brig. Gen., and Major Gen. Large heraldic watermark, “Gior[gio] Magnani.” Two odd circles on blank verso in twentieth-century ink, light deckle edge wear and toning, else about fine. Interesting curiosities for the student of old printing and paper. This same Italian papermaker appears among the manuscripts of Shelley - but apparently only in letters to him, from Italy. The use of these wonderful papers by the Massachusetts militia is intriguing. Examples of Gior Magnani papers reside in the Pennebaker Watermark Collection at Wintherthur. • With, letter of Capt. David Love, H.Q., 4th Co., Bennington (Vt.), May 4, 1829, 7-3/4 x 10. “You are hereby ordered to warn the Officers, Sergts., Corpls., Musicians & privates belonging to my Company to parade in front of the Meeting House in Bennington...for the purpose of Electing a Lieutenant...and also well Equip(pe)d for Military discipline....” Fold wear, else penned in rich brown on cream, and pleasing. $120-160 (4 pcs.)

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29-5. Hand-Colored Carte. Unusual and very scarce Continental carte of a German sailor, judged c. 1875-80, posed in studio beside column. His uniform expertly hand-tinted Cerulean blue, lighter blue collar, gold patch and cap trim, with brown hair and pink cheeks against flesh tones. “Matrose der Deutschen Marine.” Ornate imprint on verso of photographer Julius Hahn, Hamburg. About 1/4” larger than an American carte. Very minor tip wear, light handling toning on eggshell-white verso, else very fine. A strikingly attractive curiosity, the colors fresh. $50-75

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29-6. Governor of both Mexico City and Mississippi. A.L.S. of (Maj. Gen.) J(ohn) A. Quitman, n.p. but evidently Washington, D.C., Jan. 16, 1856, 4-1/2 x 7-1/2. “The Globe office will please send to my rooms over 242 Pen(n)a. Ave. two hundred copies of today’s Globe containing my remarks.” Penned as Congressman from Mississippi; previously Gov. of both Miss. and Mexico City (though not at the same time!), Brig. Gen. under Zachary Taylor in Mexican War, and advocate of North Carolina’s nullification doctrine. Nicely inlaid, old dealer’s catalogue description mounted at top, both probably late 19th century, perhaps Charles De F. Burns of N.Y., the sole autograph dealer in America before about 1885. Glue-brush stains at top and bottom horizontal, large period ink check mark and pencilled word “Sent,” else about fine. Quitman was one of three Congressmen to succumb to “National Hotel disease,” an enduring mystery surrounding Pres. Buchanan’s residency and inauguration at that Pennsylvania Avenue establishment, which sickened up to 400. The Hotel’s proximity to his “rooms” in this letter remain a mystery as well. $130-160

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29-7. Hickory Brooms, Whips, and Ratline: Shopping List for a Ship. Fascinating manuscript invoice for ship’s supplies, with quaint detail. Sold by ship’s chandler Chas. Dickinson, (N.Y.), month of Apr. 1808, to (Capt.) John Roach of Brig Hawk. 7-3/4 x 12-1/4, 1 p., penned in milk chocolate with mocha rules, on wheat laid sheet with large pictorial watermark of an allegorical female surmounted by a crown. Enumerating purchases over 20 days, most with multiple items: “2 Hickory Brooms, 37¢...1 Whip, Twine, 1 Barrel Tar, $3.31...300 Clout Nails...2 Barrels Rosin...1 gal. Fish Oil...Clasp Nails...Ratline...Pump Leather...Pad Lock...Thimbles....” Signed by Roach, with paraph; he had just returned from Havana. Very fine and attractive for display. From colonial times, a district of ship’s chandlers, selling every kind of maritime supply imaginable, grew in the footprint of the future World Trade Center. Almost all lost their property through eminent domain; one or two continued on Chambers St. as late as the 1970s. $70-90

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29-8. Oversize Spanish-American War Patriotic. All-over flag design, Scott #285 paying unusual 1¢ postal rate. Bright orange-red stripes and Navy blue field of 45 stars. “Buffalo, N.Y. / 1898” “hotdog” cancel. Stylized blue flap imprint of Larkin Soap Mfg. Co., with purple received postmark in Ohio. Bottom perfs curiously deckled, but from new. Glue staining on parts of two stars and on verso, corners rounded with wear, but colors eye-catching and good plus. $45-65

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30. Letters

30-1. The Originator of Santa Claus pays Trumbull for Portraits. Manuscript document, “Extract from the Minutes,” “In Common Council” (New York City), Apr. 25, 1808, 6-1/4 x 7-3/4. Signed by the fascinating John Pintard, Clerk. “Ordered that the Mayor issue his warrants to pay: No. 926, John Trumbull bal(an)ce for painting portraits of Governor & Mayor, $600; No. 927, Jacob Cholwell, on Acct. of Contract for lighting lamps, $3,000.” Browned at four rectangular blocks on verso, probably from contact with other paper in ancient filing bundle; otherwise toned to warm cream, breaks at folds reinforced on verso with acid-free tape, else satisfactory. Signer John Pintard was a remarkable personality: orphaned at eighteen months, he served during the Revolution as Deputy Commissioner of Prisoners. Becoming one of Old New York’s wealthiest merchants in the China Trade, he lost his fortune in 1792, imprisoned for having personally endorsed a million dollars in notes, in Alexander Hamilton’s plan to fund the national debt. Pintard is credited with convincing Jefferson to purchase the Louisiana Territory. “Perhaps his greatest contribution to American society, however, was his role in establishing the modern popular conception of Santa Claus based upon the Dutch legend of Sinterklaas. His papers demonstrate that he personally observed the feast of St. Nicholas in an era when such remembrances were still frequently considered ‘hagiolatry’ in America and when almanacs of the day omitted reference to such a feast day. His publication of a pamphlet proposing St. Nicholas as the patron saint of New York City became a theme later expounded upon by Washington Irving.”--wikipedia. Serving at Valley Forge during the Revolution, Trumbull opened a studio in New York City, painting George Washington a number of times. Dated shortly before his departure for Europe, not returning til 1815. Commissioned to paint four historical works for the Capitol rotunda, Trumbull’s collection formed the first art museum in America connected with an educational institution (Yale). A splendid association item. Pintard material is surprisingly scarce. $250-325

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30-2. Walking on Thin Ice, while Waiting for the Brooklyn Bridge. Pair of letters from Elizabeth, 194 Pearl St., Brooklyn, N.Y., Sept. 16, 1871 and Feb. 11, 1875, 7 pp. in all, 5-1/4 x 8-1/4 and 4-1/2 x 7, respectively. To her sister in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas. “...I do hope you will get the land you want... If you fail, why then believe failure is the best thing...This is my philosophy in all things. We know so little of what is for the best. Things that seem so right and good so often prove anything but good. To me the best way is to lean upon God...that I endeavor to become entirely submissive to His will. I admit this is not always easy, but in the end it brings contentment...Save that little likeness that you have of Mother as it is the only one she ever had taken.” With diminutive envelope, corner of stamp overhanging where letter opened but intact. • “...You speak of the cold weather...People have crossed the ‘east river’ two or three times this winter on the ice, so we are beginning to long for the bridge to be finished. I suppose you know the tower on the Brooklyn side is about completed, but it will take a long time yet to complete the ‘Bridge.’ Of course it must be a great convenience when you think that two thousand people crossed the river one day when the ice made a Bridge. That was in a short time, for the ice doesn’t remain packed together long. I have never seen people crossing the river on the ice. I should like to see the sight very much...You will excuse the looks of this letter when I tell you I am writing while five children are romping and playing around me, sometimes knocking my elbows or chair....” With envelope, green 3¢ stamp intact, but curiously not cancelled til Feb. 23. Covers somewhat soiled, letters fine. • Color woodcut, “Ferry House, at foot of Montague St., Brooklyn,” 3-3/4 x 4-1/4, c. 1870. $100-130 (5 pcs.)

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30-3. “One day when I was in the great city of Gotham....” Long, engaging letter of traveler A.W. Geming – one of the wittiest and most brightly written nineteenth-century letters we recall in some time. 200 Mulberry St., New York (City), Sept. 1, 1848, 5-1/2 pp., 7-3/4 x 10, on pale cream, last leaf on blue. To I. Woodward, Honesdale, Pa. “...After being three days at sea, our little vessel tossed about like a thing of chance, the sport of every wave, you may be assured that it was ‘magno amore arenae’ that I welcome again our mother Earth...It is an old saying that poverty makes strange bedfellows, and so sailors make strange companions. Yet good ones nevertheless. I love them, these sons of the ocean; a set of jolly, kindhearted, noble souls. Treat them well and they are your friends for ever. The recovery from sea-sickness is delightful. I imagine you...think that it is upon the same principle that induced the negro to say ‘he loved to hit his shin, it felt so good to rub it!’...It is as if one stood at a distance and aloof from the uproars of life, as if the tumult, and fever, and strife were suspended, and a respite granted...The ocean with its everlasting but gentle agitation mirrored forth not only the bright heavens above but a thousand forms of beauty...I should not have been surprised at any moment to have seen a group of mermaid misses reminding me of our Honesdale girls...

“I spent nearly one week on the Hudson River, called on Washington Irving at his residence, had a lovely yet delightful stroll through Sleepy Hollow, and saw the place where Andre was hung. Can go from N.Y. to Albany for 61/4¢. Have several times been obliged to buy tickets to avoid the importunities of the venders, like the young lady who married the man she didn’t love, to get rid of him. One day when I was in the great city of Gotham I was mightily oppressed with the thought that I had nothing to do...Made up my mind to wander definitely wherever fancy and my feet would carry me. The sun had begun to decline. I descended to the street and was one of the passing crowd in the great city of sin & of pleasure, of luxury & wealth. I looked into a thousand faces hurrying past, yet saw not one I had ever seen before or cared to see again. I stopped and entered that Temple of God which casts its dark and frowning shadow upon the sins of Wall Street [Trinity Church]. I entered but not to worship...Yet the sight of that passing crowd was more than a thousand homilies to me...The man of business and the man of pleasure walk side by side; the man of wealth was jostled by the beggar in his rags...the lady dressed in silks was looked upon with no respect by the girl in tatters...and which has the most honest heart Heaven only knows; but as I look upon this flow & reflow one thought rushes upon the mind – Life! Life!...Thy doings, O Wall Street! have made hearths desolate and hearts harder than thy pavements! Within this little space of forty rods is contained the wealth of a continent. Here are held the purse strings of the nation. The sound of gold, gold, gold, as it is poured into coffers falls upon the ear. Men with anxious eyes and dissatisfied brows are hurrying by...Men that walked this morning in front of Trinity with wealth at their command sufficient to buy one half our little town, this evening are beggars....” More, as he wends his way through Pearl Street and on to Broadway, describing the massive fire at the “gas factory,” with its thousand barrels of pitch. “Dark masses of cloud rolled up from the crater and covered half the city...The Theatres...were all closed. The Hotels, except the Astor, were all dimly lighted with flickering candles... I prowled about for half an hour in the darkness...The night was starless and the passersby flitted along like unquiet ghosts...I should like to go to California and trade, make ten or twenty thousand dollars and come back and live. When you get this I shall again be upon the deep and far away.” Original folds, else fine, penned in a clear, fluid hand in dark brown.

True to his word, the following year Geming braved peril, sailing around the Horn to Gold Rush San Francisco, living in a tent in “Happy Valley.” His missives are quoted in two modern books: Mud, Blood and Gold: San Francisco in 1849, by Richards, and Sailor’s Hope..., by Bittermann. An outstanding letter. $200-275

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30-4. “And then I shall expose them to the world.” Contemporary manuscript copy of unusual letter concerning a case of self-defense, complicated by political skulduggery. From Herbert McElroy, Doylestown (Pa.), Sept. 11, 1833, 2-1/2 pp., 7-3/4 x 10. To James N. Barker. “Yesterday I informed Gen. Duncan of a circumstance that has occured at Doylestown, sentencing me to 10 days imprisonment with a fine of $30...for a trifling case of assault & battery, committed on a man that has twice attempted to take my life: the last attack on me was about 2 months since, and in which I narrowly escaped being shot, he having loaded a gun with heavy shot for that purpose, and had not his son taken it from him, under pretence of shooting a rabbit, in all probability I should have received its contents and for no cause whatever; merely because I happened to be in his way at a time when he was crazy with liquor. Both times he beat me severely and laid me in bed for a week or two. The last attack...was in Jersey, and came very near leaving me without a nose, and for which I merely beat him in turn when he came to Penna., and for which I am arraigned before the court at Doylestown...The said sentence was passed for the purpose of vacating the office at Bristol. Unfortunately the leading politicians are all Inghamites and every one here at court sees to the bottom of the persecution...The Inghamites are striving manfully to obtain the office in consequence of my vacating it for 10 days...Two (judges) have gone to Washington City to obtain it, and will leave no stone unturned to promote the object of their wishes...Inghamism is the watchword among them and they are determined to carry the day...It will all be found out after a while, they and their proceedings and then I shall expose them to the world....” Minor breaks but no separation at folds, some stains, soiling on filing panel, else about very good. With modern copies of Federal Registers, showing McElroy employed at the Treasury Dept.’s Bristol, Penna. Customs House in 1833 - and 1835 - indicating he retained his post after all, though his salary was reduced from $1095 to $730. Addressee James N. Barker was a fascinating character, Customs Collector and one-year Mayor of Philadelphia – and poet and playwright of comedies and “melo drama,” some successful on the local stage. A biography of Barker was published in 1929, and is cited in the bibliography of Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases by Whiting. In the following decade, his appointment by Pres. Tyler as 1st Comptroller of the Treasury was voted down in the Senate by Henry Clay et al. The present letter-copy may be in Barker’s hand. $100-140

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30-5. “My Wife is Verry Perticular about her Butter.” Lengthy letter of Timothy I. Murphy, Key Port (N.J.), Sept. 18, 1865, 3-1/4 pp., 7-1/2 x 9-3/4. To Eleazor Cable, Cleveland. “...Business is very good with us in the Store. You wish to know whether there is a Railroad across Staten Island & how it paid. There is one. It starts from the Quarantine in the north side & runs to Totten Ville, opposite Perth Amboy. As to whether it is a paying road or not I cannot say, I should judge it was not, as the Steam Boat runs through the inside river from New Brunswick and touches all along the Island. That must take somewhat off the Road, & there is a new road from Perth Amboy to Ra(h)way then to New York that take off the Island road. The old Steam Boat company owns 2 good Boats which run here to Key Port...They are doing a good business. They charge 40¢ passage. The Oyster Business is very good, & some of them has been planted. Apples scarce & high, they have been...to $3 pr. basket, holds scant 3 pecks. Potatoes is worth only from 8/ to 18/ pr. Barrel...Please let me know whether you raise sweet potatoes or not...Get me a furkin [a large pot] of Butter laid down by someone that makes good Butter, for my Wife is Verry Perticular about her Butter. A furkin that would hold about 100 lb...I expect that is a Butter Country. We are buying here out of the Stores by the single lb., paying 40 and 45 cts. lb. I always have been in the habit every Fall to get some of the Farmers up in the Country to lay me down my Butter in pots to last me through the Winter...Butter is a heavy article with us to buy it here.” Original folds, else fine. • With envelope, very light Keyport c.d.s., recipient’s pencil notation overlapping 3¢ stamp, some soiling but good. Charming detail of Monmouth and Staten Island in the wake of the Civil War. $70-90 (2 pcs.)

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30-6. “Beating off a drove of negroes with my cane....” Lengthy letter of apparently ill-fated traveler Herman Knox, with superb black and Cuban content, from Trinidad de Cuba, Feb. 20, 1841, 4 pp., 7-3/4 x 12-3/4. To brother William in Canajoharie, N.Y. With vivid description of his journey through Cuba, and intended Caribbean “cruise through the Wind-islands...but the expedition failed and I then determined in taking the rail road to Batabano [Cuba] and the Steamer to Trinidad. This also failed... At the rail road depot, and while contesting with the (clerk) whether I should pay him double fare or not and at the same time beating off a drove of negroes with my cane who wanted 25¢ for passing my trunk a few feet, an American gentleman who spoke a little Spanish came to my rescue, and in a few minutes ‘put all to rights’ and presented me a ticket...in a small train of cars filled with Spanish Creoles, men, women & children...dogs and fighting cocks, one of the latter of which my friend priced at two doubloons, $34. Five hours on the rail road bro(ugh)t us to San Felipe...where we leave the rail road and proceed on roads on horseback to Batabano...The scenery along the whole route was to me particularly interesting...entirely different from any in our country...The coacoanut tree (is) truly beautiful. The coffee plantations are splendid beyond anything that I can describe. We dined at a Posada where meals can be had at all hours. The traveler calling for such dishes...as suit his taste...Obliged to call on the alcalde and have my passport embossed, notwithstanding that the Governor had on the previous day embossed it, permitting me to go to Trinidad...Went on board the Steamer, a small and filthy boat, built in N.Y...and probably condemned there, then sent here, repainted...and is considered by the Spaniards a first rate boat. The Steamer was quite full with the addition of 100 or more Slaves on the forward deck...I stepped into a splendid N.Y. omnibus and in half an hour was landed at the door of the consulate of the U.S.A. Mr. Hastings recognized in me an old acquaintance and invited me to take up my quarters with him...The city of Trinidad contains 13,000 inhabitants, is situated on a savannah...The heat is greater than at Havana where I was almost suffocated. Here I breathe with perfect ease...The pains in my heart are much less urgent than when I arrived in this climate. By remaining here I think I should enjoy good health...The bustling and noisy port of the business is at Casilda...The military...one regiment only, superior to any that I have seen. On Wed., five of us hired a sail boat to take us to Keyo Blanco (White Key), 12 miles, to get shells...Feb. 22 being the birthday of Washington, the Consul has caused the flags of our country & of Spain to be displayed over the door of the Consulate....” Light blue “Ship” and “Phila.” cancels. Wear at two fold junctions, uniform wheat toning, else very good, penned in rich brown. Evidently the writer died just months later, on May 8, 1841--usgennet.org (photograph of headstone accompanies). $170-220

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30-7. Setting up Utopia in America. Fascinating letter of Elizabeth Sears, Albany (N.Y.), May 8, 1843, 8 x 10, 3 full pp. To sister Hildah Monson, South Avon, N.Y. Describing establishment of a Utopia in Pennsylvania, having been mesmerized by lectures of Albert Brisbane, who had introduced the Fourier Utopian movement to the U.S. the previous year, and converts already moving to Pike County, Pa. “...The departure of Mary Ann, and Rhoda, with their husbands and families, together with several others from this City, and New York, as Socialists, on the Fourier System...There have been a number of lectures delivered here...some by Mr. Brisbane, Horace Greeley, and others, setting forth the advantages...the immense economy, and the pleasure with which all labor will be combined, and each one seeking the good of the whole, because every one will be interested in the general welfare, (as) all conducted with perfect equality, and full liberty to enjoy their own opinions and their own rights in all respects. But any description that I can give, will convey but a faint idea of the beautiful system...I have seen only a pamphlet, but I understand there are six volumes in the original...A number...have taken up stock in the Company. The shares are $25. They esteem it the beginning of a new era, as it is entirely different from anything that has ever been proposed, and if they can carry it out, in all its details...they will indeed form the most happy society that has ever existed. They have made a purchase in Pike County, Pa., adjoining the Hudson and Delaware Canal, and near the Delaware River. They started from Albany on the third instant, and were to meet the Company from N.Y. at Kingston....” Fourierism called for work to be done by “phalanxes” of 1,600 people, all living in one building, with the fruits of their labor divided according to a formula of labor, talent, and capital. Horace Greeley, a believer, was Pres. of their American Union of Associationists. In all, over thirty such utopian communities were established in America, but by 1850 the dream was over. Penned in midnight blue on ivory, in a dainty hand. Albany c.d.s. in strawberry pink. Two internal tears, affecting several words, some foxing, handling wear, else good. References to Fourierism in American manuscript material is excessively rare. $130-180

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30-8. Aliens and Infidels in America – 1836. Fascinating letter to a 16-year-old boy in Warwickshire, England, from his 21-year-old childhood friend living in America, Edmund Watts, 63 John St., New York, Sept. 1, 1836, 8 x 13, 3-1/2 pp. Filled with his eloquent observations of the highs and lows of Gotham, with strong religious content, describing New York’s varied theological landscape, and citing his own redemption from sin as a convert to Presbyterianism. “...As you wished me to send you some more news concerning the ‘Land of the Free’ I will endeavor to do so. The population of N.Y. has increased about 15 or 20,000 since I wrote you last...The population of the U.S. in 1830...are also 5,325 Deaf + Dumb + 3,968 Blind and 106,764 aliens. There are 319,576 Free Blacks + 2,000,000 slaves, 650 of which are Deaf + Dumb + 1,463 Blind...Some particulars of the great fire...16th of Dec. last...in the most thick(ly) settled part of the City and consumed, before it was extinguished, upward of 900 of the most valuable stores in the City...The fire seemed to sweep everything before it. It baffled all the skill of the firemen who are considered very expert in putting out fires. Coals of fire and letters were found next morning blown 5 & 6 miles across the river. Merchants who could the day before boast of their millions of dollars were now worse than bankrupt, for although they were principally insured, so extensive was the loss of property that it broke nearly all of the Insurance companies in the City...The next day as you passed along the streets sadness and sorrow seemed depicted on every countenance. This was a lesson from a merciful Providence which was calculated to lead the rich of this world to place their hopes on something more lasting than riches...I bless the day that I ever came to this country...My father & mother live still where they did near Pottsville...surrounded by coal mines and mountains. Instead of sinking a coal pit 60 or 80 ft...as they do in England, they cut right in the side of a mountain...Father drives a cart from Port Carbon to Pottsville...In this country there is no established religion. Everyone may worship God under his own ‘vine and figtree,’ no one daring to molest or make him afraid. The law protects every denomination, consequently they are very numerous...Besides Episcopalians, Universalist, Unitarian, Roman Catholick [sic], Infidels, and a variety of others too numerous to mention, the most dangerous doctrine I think is Infidelity. These are a sect who hold meetings on the sabbath at Tammany Hall who not only deny the doctrines of the Bible...but the existence of God himself. Here you find men who are the followers of Voltaire, Tom Paine, Hume and all those men whose doctrines have poison’d the community where they exist...Many young men have been led astray...to embrace their Hellish doctrines...Instead of listening to the sweet songs of the sanctuary you listen to a band of music playing ‘Hail! Columbia,’ or ‘Yankee Doodle’....” Broken at some folds, separations repaired with archival tape, 1/2” irregular hole in p. 3 affecting two words, text penned around an original marginal contour, else meticulously penned in dark brown on ivory, and good plus. Ship’s postal bar cancel. $90-130

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30-9. A Gift of Four Pet Birds. Delightful letter from Gibraltar, June 3, 1826, 8 x 10, 4 pp., from Julia B. Hill, to Harriet A. Williams, Roxbury (Mass.). Sent via sea captain - accompanying her gift of two pair of birds (not present!). “I expect this will be the most welcome letter you have yet received from me, as it is the avant courier of the safe arrival of part of my family, the long promised Canary birds...We have sent you two pair, one quite young, hatched within a year under Sally’s care. They have been kept together & never sung much. Perhaps for that reason, the others are older & fine singers, but one pair we thought too young & the other too old & I have settled the question by sending you both...Sally feeds them on nothing but seed...Both pair are of the masculine gender. The youngest in the smallest cage, Sally gives them a little turnip & rape seed...They saw her ladyship but once a day...She was sometimes so ungracious as not to speak to them. They’ll have a more attentive mistress now....” Asking that “a half barrel of those fine Crackers” and a small quantity of “the best of Butter” be shipped to her in Gibraltar; “it would be the greatest luxury you could furnish us with....” Tape repairs at old fold separations, some chips at fold junctions, but still very good, with delightful content. $65-80

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30-10. Remembering the Good Old Days – in 1839. Lengthy, eloquently introspective A.L.S. of A.M. Groome, Easton (Maryland), June 24, 1839, 7-3/4 x 9-3/4, 3 full pp. Penned in a fine hand in rich brown on cream, first leaf with blind-embossed floral frame around edges. To her cousin, Mary B. Corse, Wilmington, Dela. “...I was engaged the preceding day in culinary operations...I am so much changed in many respects, that I have no spirits left to write as I used to. I am now more engrossed by my own afflictions, than by things which are passing around me...You cannot imagine the mortification I endure, & which more than any pain, cause me to be gloomy & sad...The thought of meeting the companions & associates of early years...brought with it reflections...Oh! how changed are my feelings, since the happy summer you spent with me...Do you not recollect our pavement promenades, & our recitals of poetry? Delightful period, when all our woes could be scattered to the four winds of Heaven, by a single pleasant ride, or walk...My mind rests too, upon many a Brandywine stroll – one in particular stands always prominent, with a speech of Henry Clay’s, repeated in a manner that I then thought could not be surpassed. The Trio too, that used to wend their way down to the old Swedish Church, & wander amongst its ruins. Will they ever again be united? Sorrow has, no doubt, since then visited all three... Write me all you know about the Wanderer...How comes it on too with the Lawyer? Is he still making rapid strides to eminence...Helen has lost both her children, but is in daily expectation of a third...The Steamboat stops just at our door, twice a week, on her way from Baltimore, so that by leaving Wil(mingto)n on Mon. or Thurs., you could be with us by 3 or 4 o’clock the next day....” Mentioning family in Baltimore, Chestertown, and Elkton, Md. Black oval c.d.s. with manuscript date and “121/2” rate. Semicircular fragment lacking on p. 3 where opened at red wax seal, mousechew at gutter, in all affecting several words, wear at fold junctions, else about very good. With much patina and pathos. The Groome family was prominent in this important town on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, which once alternated with Baltimore in hosting Federal court. $75-100

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30-11. Self-Defense with a Gun in the City of Brotherly Love. Letter of Quaker merchant and philanthropist Townsend Sharpless, Philadelphia, “8th Mo. 12th 1816,” 8 x 10, 1 very full p. continued on address leaf. To his wife in Birmingham (presumed England). With detailed account of hanging of a man accused of murder with a gun, claiming self defense, and of a drowning. “...We proceeded leisurely along with a crowded Stage, and through Clouds of dust, and arrived at home about 1 o’clock...It appears too true indeed that the unhappy Smith has fallen a sacrifice to his offence against Society... Sixth day last, he requested an interview with the Sheriff, Inspectors of the Prison...and averred and appealed to his Maker, that on entering the room previous to the unfortunate event, it was not his design to take Carson’s life, that he had armed himself in his own defence, and would not have fired at Carson, had he not received a blow from him first...His knees trembled so that he was unable to stand up on the cross piece on the cart...He had nothing to say except to his Priest, whose name is Hurley, and who was so much agitated as nearly to faint & was obliged to retire. Smith’s hands was tied...he endeavoured to clasp the Priest with his hands, and kissed him: his conduct has excited much sympathy for him. It is said the knot was placed under his neck in a plan different from common, and not so likely to break his neck. He hung but about 25 minutes. Instead of the cart being driven from under him he stepped off. The rope was drawn nearly tight to the Gallow, to prevent a long fall. He was taken away in a hearse immediately and buried. All the circumstances combine to suspicion, that there is providentially...to save his life...Francis Cope had gone to the seashore with brother...He was drowned. Venturing in with William, a wave overtook them...and he was lost...Brother Joseph goes in the Stage today. I send a basket of Peaches for thee. Perhaps Pears may not be as suitable (as) sweet apples....” Tape repair at one fold and corner, dust toning, minor edge waterstains, some wear but very satisfactory. Sharpless founded the eponymous “great dry goods house” on the “Broadway of Philadelphia”--Encyclopædia of Contemporary Biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. II, 1890. $110-140

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31. Ephemera

31-1. A Manuscript Treasure. view front | view back A complete calendar of twelve months, each on its own leaf, c. 1420, from a Book of Hours, perhaps France or Belgium. Specially commissioned by a wealthy patron, with breathtaking ornamentation in color and liquid gold on first leaf (other eleven leaves somewhat plainer). Remnants of original binding. Tip of one leaf separated, else in astonishingly fine condition, and a magnificent showpiece, combining the art forms of the book – still years before Gutenberg – at its zenith. Single leaves from Books of Hours are prized; a complete calendar reaches the market only infrequently. Creation of such Books was reserved for the finest scribes. The first we have offered. Request color photograph. $1900-2500

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31-2. The Sermon on the Mount in Luke – c. 1250. view image Pair of consecutive manuscript leaves from a travelling mediæval English Bible, by an Oxford scribe, c. 1250, 5-1/4 x 7-3/4. One leaf with Book of Luke, portions of chaps. 2-4; a magnificent “A” in the rare blue ink, with peacock-like tracery in red, begins chapter 3, which contains John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. • Second leaf with portions of chaps. 4-6; a decorated “F” begins chapter 6, with The Sermon on the Mount. In Latin. Gothic microminuscule script in lovely coffee brown on fine warm cream vellum, ten lines per inch. Ruled in pale brown; initials and scrollwork in brilliant orange-red and blue. Both leaves with a 6” long Frenchcurve hairline razor cut through part of left column - but without loss of text. When laid flat, it is difficult to discern unless pointed out, and might not be noticed at all. This undoubtedly occurred in the distant past when leaves were being removed from the binding, as was the custom, and the knife slipped. In centuries past, such leaves were only curiosities, given as gifts or made into assortments. (A single unimpaired leaf from this Bible, with different content, was sold by Maggs of London c. 2000 for $450.) Else, trivial marginal toning, clean, fresh, and very fine. “The teachings of the Sermon on the Mount have been a key element of Christian ethics, and for centuries the sermon has acted as a fundamental recipe for the conduct of the followers of Jesus. Various religious and moral thinkers (e.g. Tolstoy and Gandhi) have admired its message, and it has been one of the main sources of Christian pacifism...”--wikipedia. $675-975 (consecutive pair)

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31-3. From a Miniature Prayer Book. Charming manuscript leaf in Dutch, by a Low Countries scribe, c. 1440. On paper, 2-5/8 x 3-7/8. Darkest brown ink, with a few letters touched with red, on sand-colored laid paper. Lettre bâtard script, 14 lines each side. Some waterstains and handling evidence, else good plus. The use of paper for a prayer book of this period and type is rather unusual. Scarce. $50-75

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31-4. Subject of the Opera “Don Carlos” – 1547. view image Lengthy portion of letter from the first King of Spain, Carlos I, King of Aragon, Leon, and Castile, and Holy Roman Emperor, the last emperor crowned by a Pope. With rich context, including incessant wars with the Moslem Suleiman the Magnificent, Spain’s golden age - literally awash in the precious metal – and murder. Dated Castile, Oct. 19, 1547. In Spanish, apparently the official retained copy by royal scribe; two signa on each side. On thick vellum, ruled in pale tan, about 8 x 11 irregular. To “Maximiliano,” Maximilian II of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, and later Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife, Mary. Stating that Maximilian’s letter of payment, signed by the Royal Treasurer Alonso (Gutierrez?), dated Mar. 20, 1547 and given in Brussels, provides that Prince Felipe, Carlos’ brother, is, by royal decree, authorized to undertake the sale of royal property, to finance future confrontations with the Moors at sea or within the ports, in support of the Catholic faith: “...Francia y Africa en contenia frontera(?) y guerra contra los moros, enemigos de nuestra sancta fe catholica y en la paga de la gente....” Brussels was capital of the Spanish Netherlands.

Carlos’ realm included not only much of Europe, but the vast colonial empire including the Americas and The Philippines. Son of Philip the Handsome and Joanna the Mad, and a blood relation of the Habsburgs, “Charles I gave Spain efficient government, continuing the work of Ferdinand and Isabella. On the other hand, his imperial position resulted in the...expenditure of much blood and money, a drain not so noticeable at the time because of the great influx of gold from the New World. Culturally speaking, the whole 16th and first half of the 17th century was Spain’s golden age...The period was one of equal greatness in the realm of literature and art...”--An Encyclopedia of World History, Langer, ed., 1948, pp. 388-9. Carlos’ betrothal to “Elizabeth...daughter of Henry II of France, (was) suddenly annulled and Elizabeth married to his father. Accused (1567) of plotting against his father’s life, (Carlos) died in prison, possibly murdered”--Webster’s. He was the subject of the tragic opera Don Carlos, and of dramas by numerous authors. A 3 x 5 quarter-egg segment lacking at corner, possibly from a fire long ago, with loss of ends of eighteen lines on one side, and of beginnings of only three lines on verso. Waterstained, smoke-darkened, remnant of original binding string, traces of notations in a different and possibly later hand at lower portion, apparently lightly abraded with a dull knife to obliterate, but otherwise entirely collectible, with an arrestingly compelling patina and appearance. Drenched in historical association. $475-675

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31-5. Engraving Plate. A surprisingly elusive item: the original heavy engraved steel printer’s plate, from which a steel engraving was made. Thick, 5 x 7, highly polished surface, with bust portrait and facsimile signature - in mirror image - of L(ester) Bradner, Jr., engraved by A.H. Ritchie, c. 1895. Gently beveled edges. Stamped “...Sellers / (S)heffield” on verso. A New Haven native, Ph.D. recipient Bradner was an orator at his 1889 Yale commencement. Later Rector, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Providence, R.I., he was a prolific author on religion. Five hundred of his letters reside at Yale. Also involved in manuscripts, in 1893 Bradner discovered important fragments of Enoch relating to the Revelation of Peter (regrettably not present!). Some rust spots, mostly in periphery, printer’s handling, else portrait sharp and almost eerily likelike, and very good. • With contemporary print made from this plate. Foxing, center scuff, edge tears, but presentable, and probably a proof impression. Nineteenth century steel engraving plates - of any subject - are seldom encountered. Fascinating pair for display. In 1985 Baltimore auction envelope, with tag. $110-150 (2 pcs.)

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31-6. Log of a Civil War Steamboat. Captain’s manuscript logbook of the Steamer Pelican, sailing the waters between New York City and Providence, Sept. 1, 1863-Dec. 13, 1864. Saml. D. Walden, Master. Suede boards, 3-3/4 x 6-1/2, unpaginated but 3/4” thick, about 2/3 written, in ink and pencil. A meticulous log of the ship’s journeys, commencing with its departures from Erie Pier, New York City, through Hell Gate, “Throgg Point,” Sands Point, into Long Island Sound, past Saybrook, Gull Island, Watch Hill, Point Judith, Beaver Tail, Dutch Isle, Warwick, and Nayatt, to Providence, and return. Occasional entry “Westchester.” Recording weather and times to traverse the approximate 18-hour journeys. Interesting comments: “Stopped several times to adjust machinery,” “fresh breeze all night,” “thick smoky weather,” “tide stopped in the Gate - drifted back - went through next time,” “kingfisher,” “a beautiful night.” At back, interesting page listing names and ports of fifteen ships seen at Hell Gate; another with Sept. 1864 food costs for the ship: “Fish bill, Providence, $1.37, Vegetable, N.Y., 18.69, Meat, N.Y., 40.26, Milk, 4.00. Cook came on board Thurs. afternoon. Sarah left Thurs. afternoon Nov. 19, 1864. Wm. Conklin cash 10.00, left. Henry Hulse went home....” Several pp. of entries at back, 1901-02, for “Grand Lodge.” In another hand, possibly the “Allen M. Hopkins, Auburn, R.I.” appearing on inside back cover. Front board detached, first signature nearly separated, some others shaken, spine covering much worn, but internally remarkably clean and very fine. Shipping news records the Pelican plying the busy waters between New York City and Providence from as early as 1860. $140-220

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31-7. A Letter from Jesus. Broadside, “A Copy of a Letter written by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, And found eighteen miles from Iconiam, sixty-three Years after our Blessed Saviour’s Crucifixion. Transmitted from the Holy City by a converted Jew....” “Sold by Howard and Evans, 42, Longlane” (London), n.d. but dated approximately 1797-1811 by British Book Trade Index. 10 x 14-3/4. Large round woodcut of Jesus holding orb, surmounted by crown of thorns, and bordered by text, “Fairer than the children of Men Psal(m) XLV.” “This letter was written by Jesus Christ and found under a great stone...at the foot of the Cross...There came out a little child...and turned it over without assistance, to the admiration of every person who was standing by...On the letter was written, The Commandments of Jesus Christ, Signed by the Angel Gabriel....” Subtitled, “King Agbarus’s Letter to our Saviour, and Our Saviour’s Answer. Also, His Cures and Miracles. Likewise, Lentulus’ Epistle to the Senate of Rome, containing A Description of the Person of Jesus Christ.” Dime-sized hole between paragraphs with no loss of text, wear at center fold junction, moderate foxing, edge fraying and one browned area, but in all, very satisfactory. One of several London printings, with slight variations in text, all rare on the market. No printings on AbeBooks. WorldCat locates only one example of this printing, in the British Library. $325-450

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31-8. The Gilded Age. Lovely mezzotint advertising sign, depicting a spacious New York emporium of luxury goods. 9-1/2 x 11-1/4, “Bufford Lith(ographers) 1867” in margin in old pencil. Believed their printer’s proof, the word “Broadway” not yet inserted. Captions in four fonts of stylish type, “Under the Metropolitan Hotel, N.Y. / William Gale Jr. & Co., Sterling Silver and Plated Ware, 572 & 574 Broadway / Brown & Spaulding, Fine Jewelry, Bronzes and Fancy Goods, 568 & 570 (Broadway) / New York City.” Microfine sprays of Victorian filigree behind type. Depicting oversize display cases bearing the vendor’s monogram, as men and women in their finest attire stroll the concourse between departments. Light evidence of mounting at two upper corners, minor dust soiling and handling, else very good. Unusual and very scarce, and a richly satisfying evocation of the dawn of America’s Gilded Age. Just opened the previous year, the tandem firms manufactured and sold their fine wares on the premises. A period magazine, De Bow’s Review, “Devoted to the Restoration of the Southern States,” breathlessly informed in 1866, “these two houses...exhibit some of the most beautifully manufactured articles to be found in the United States” (modern copy accompanies). It is not without irony that on Thanksgiving Day, two years earlier, the Metropolitan Hotel was among those bombed in a fizzled attempt to incite an uprising of the Northern Confederacy in New York City. $150-200

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31-9. Chicago Society in the Gilded Age. Intimidatingly beautiful printed invitation of Triennial Committee, Knights Templar, Chicago, Aug. 17, 1880, to “Yourself and Two Ladies...at a Grande Réception Musicale et Dansante, to be given at the Grand Exposition Building, on Lake Front Park....” Opening vertically to 4-3/4 x 15-1/2, large illustration of three Knights Templar on horseback, rendered in solidcoverage rich gold and silver, with pink, red, yellow, grey, and black. Gothic Revival typography and ornaments. Crests of Apollo, Chicago, and St. Bernard Commanderies, cross, and banners. Inside, lengthy rosters, in black on ivory, of Grand Reception Committee members, a veritable who’s-who of Chicagoans, including Marshall Field, George Armour, George M. and Albert Pullman, et al. Some characteristically darker spots in gold field, else fine. $55-75

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31-10. The King of Old New York’s Steak Houses. view image Uniquely rare 1/4-plate daguerreotype of 15-year-old New York restaurateur John A.P. Fisk, his name and “360 Pounds” in old red ink on gold mat. C. 1840s. Magnificent case bearing cranberry velvet lining richly embossed “(Wm. R.) Knapp / Artist / Alhambra / 559 Broadway.” Already conspicuous in the family restaurant business, Fisk would enjoy decades of culinary celebrity in Old New York. His establishment on Broad Street in the Gilded Age became an A-list eatery. Showing the rotund young gourmand seated in handsome suit. An account of his business failure years later, in 1894, appeared in The New York Times: “Everybody in the down-town knew Mr. Fisk. He came of a family of chop-house keepers, his father and grandfather preceded him in the business. Both were men of great avoirdupois. The condition of Mr. Fisk’s entrance into the family business was that his weight should equal that of his father, 295 pounds. At the age of thirteen he weighed 277 pounds, which was close enough to the required weight to suit his father, and he went into business.” “Fisk was for years the president of the Fat Men’s Club, a gentlemen’s association that restricted its membership to those weighing in excess of 200 pounds. The Club’s annual clambake festivals, held in Norwalk, Conn., were reliably reported on in the local and international press...”--Ex-Sotheby’s, Apr. 2010. Smoky sepia and sapphire blue edge halo, some very small and few medium-size white spots, else fine, with superb presence, his undoubtable charisma evident. • Dark brown case with unusual leafy moiré, and richly detailed oval scene of a large house, perhaps Gothic Revival, surrounded by landscaping, mountains in the distance, a large star at each corner. Fine gilt chain border. Light scuffing and wear, else V.G. plus, and a design we have not encountered before. Paramount American photographica. $1250-2500

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31-11. Mormon Discussion of Judaism. Pamphlet-style magazine, “The Latter-Day Saints’ Millennial Star,” Sept. 16, 1878, 5-1/2 x 9, (16) pp., “Price One Penny.” Published in Liverpool and London. Front-page article, “Are We of Israel?”: “Having traced the ten tribes to Media, the next question is, what has become of them, for they are not to be found in that land to-day...Jewish features have been traced in the Afghan tribes; rumors are heard occasionally of Jewish colonies in China, Thibet and Hindostan, whilst the Black Jews, of Malabar, claim affinity with Israel....” Also, “Marriage with Unbelievers”: “The Chicago Jewish Advance greatly deplores the increase of marriages between Jews and Christians ...The Advance maintains that the usual result of the union of Jews with Christians is disastrous to Judaism, the former generally embracing the religion of the latter...‘In the rays of the sun of freedom the wandering Jew loosens the Jewish cloak into which he had wrapped himself so closely while the storms of former ages were raging around him, and with unconcern throws it aside. It would be criminal neglect were we to take no notice of these disintegrating forces working with modern Israel, and threatening its dissolution’....” Much more on this and other subjects, including: “Science manages to get us into a terrible muddle...,” Mormon conference in Glasgow, letters on life in Bear Lake and Logan, Utah, progress in construction of Salt Lake City Temple. Outside pages soiled, else about fine and internally clean. $65-85

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31-12. “Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again.” Splendid cabinet photograph of poet William Cullen Bryant, in old age, his vast white beard dominating the image. Script imprint of “Mora, 2 Hamilton Place, Boston” on lower mount. Appealing chocolate tones. Some stray inclusions within image, mostly in background and at his left shoulder, probably from dust on glass plate, else very fine and clean. A fascinating portrait of an American icon. $70-100

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31-13. Go West.... view image Varied group of 10 pcs.: Souvenir packet of six panoramic silverprints of Oregon scenes, c. 1930, 3-3/4 x 10-1/2, with original kraft envelope, “Columbia River Highway Views, Fine Set $1.00, By Cross & Dimmitt...Portland, Ore.” Views of “Mt. Hood from Lost Lake, Alt(itude) 11,225 ft.,” “Wah-kee-na Falls,” “Cascade Locks,” “Columbia River,” “Vista House Crown Point,” and “Multnomah Falls, 620 Ft.,” all beautifully composed, exposed, and printed, one more breathtaking than the next. Photographer’s blue handstamp on versos. Choice condition. Imprinted envelope worn and bit soiled, but good. • Panoramic photo, “B(ritish) C(olumbia) Electric R(ai)lw(a)y Co. Observation Car, Vancouver, 1925...,” 3-3/4 x 9-1/4. By Bullen Photo Co. Ornate trolley, bedecked with two arches of incandescent lamps, filled with nattily dressed tourists, many men in straw hats. A group of young men idle near a lamp post, watching. A street sign in background points to “Auto Camp.” V.F., with much interesting detail. • Promotional folder, “Panoramic Views Along the Line of the Denver & Rio Grande R.R. - Scenic Line of the World.” C. 1900. 8 x 42. Full-width simulated-color montage of views, including Cañon of the Grand River, and more. Lengthy, closely-set text on “Colorado’s Advantages,” “Health and Pleasure Resorts of Colo.,” Salt Lake City, Pike’s Peak, “Manitou and the Garden of the Gods,” and other locales. Two-panel railroad map. Front panel with vertical crease, edge chipping, light soiling, and separated at fold; other folds vary from satisfactory to nearly separated, one neat tape repair, else easily matted for a pleasing display. • Booklet issued by Pueblo, Colo. Chamber of Commerce, c. 1930. Blue, black and white, 7-3/4 x 9, (16) pp. Illustrated. Interesting table showing airmail and freight service to other cities, in hours and days. “Pueblo leads the U.S. in combined percentage of homes owned and free from incumbrance - 54.7%.” V.F. $170-220 (10 pcs.)

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32. Books & Publications

32-1. “Extreme Politeness, or the Sword.” Enormously charming book, Principles of Politeness, “by the late Lord Chesterfield, with Additions by the Rev. Dr. John Trusler,” printed by Isaiah Thomas, Jr., “second Worcester (Mass.) ed.,” Aug. 1798. 3-1/2 x 5-3/4, 198 pp., original full calf. Chapters include Politeness, Cleanliness of Person, Observation, Absence of Mind, Laughter, Employment of Time, Rules for Conversation, Love and Marriage. and more. With a wealth of helpful hints: “...Should you invite any one to dine or sup with you, recollect whether ever you had observed them to prefer one thing to another, and endeavor to procure that thing...‘This is the wine I observed you like best, I have therefore been at some pains to procure it’...Forgetting names...to speak of Mr. What-d’ye-call-him, or You-know-who Mrs. Thingum, What’s her name...is exceeding awkward and vulgar...Our voice and manner of speaking, too, should likewise be attended to. Some will mumble over their words...others will speak so fast as not to be understood...Some will bawl as if they were speaking to the deaf...Remember there are but two alternatives for a gentleman: extreme politeness, or the sword...Some people have a silly trick of laughing whenever they speak, so that...their faces ever distorted. This and a thousand other tricks, such as scratching their heads, twirling their hats....” Advises gentlemen against “sports of exercise” including “foot ball, leap frog, cricket, driving of coaches, &c.” Small tear at back cover’s leather vertical edge, cover wear; some foxing and stains but lending patina, rear signatures shaken, but good. Very rare. Only one, later copy, of the British edition, on AbeBooks. Only the e-book of this American edition found on WorldCat. $170-240

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32-2. Uncle Tom’s Nemesis. Significant pro-slavery book, Aunt Phillis’s Cabin; or, Southern Life as it is – a vanguard in the quick reaction to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. By Mrs. Mary H. Eastman. Philadelphia, 1852, (first ed.), “fifteenth thousand.” 4-3/4 x 7-1/2, 280 + 16 pp. interesting publisher’s ads. Elaborately blind-tooled golden tan cloth. Frontispiece woodcut, “Negro Village on a Southern Plantation,” showing two slaves dancing, as several others recline under a shade tree, watching. Published in response to Uncle Tom’s Cabin later that same year, Eastman’s fiction was based on her family’s Warrenton, Virginia plantation, contrasting “the essential happiness of slaves in the South as compared
to the inevitable sufferings of free blacks and the working classes in the North”--utc.iath.virginia.edu/. Though a bestseller at the time, it receded into obscurity in the twentieth century, and is largely unknown to students today. A fascinating discussion is found in the modern work, Mightier than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America (Reynolds). Considerable foxing, evidently lacking the second front flyleaf, spine and tips with shelf wear, some fore-to-aft lean, but still good. All printings are very scarce on the market. Significant Americana, and an important entrant lacking in many black history collections. $120-160

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32-3. With Hand-Colored Plates of Indian Crafts. Third Annual Report of the Regents of the University, on the Condition of the State Cabinet of Natural History, “and the Historical and Antiquarian Collection...,” Albany, 1850, rev. ed. 6 x 9, 183 pp., blind-tooled pale lavender cloth, elaborately giltstamped spine. Ten scientific papers by noted scholars, on New York natural history, zoology, geology, mineralogy, fossils, shells, historical artifacts, Indian relics and crafts, “ancient remains of art,” and more. “...Endeavoring to bring together a full exhibition of the manufactures of the Indian tribes still remaining within our State...to order preserved specimens of the larger animals, still indigenous to our State. The Beaver can still be obtained, but it may be extinct ere another year elapses, the Moose is rapidly diminishing....” With 17 lithographic plates (one folding), hand-colored with uncommon skill and beauty, of Native American (including Seneca) crafts, including mocassins. dresses, belt, wrist and arm bands, superlatively rendered beaded “work bag,” pocket book, “baby frame” (papoose), and pipes. Using near-fluorescent scarlet, electric cobalt blue, three-dimensional persimmon orange, and other hues both striking and subtle. Also, 5 mezzotint plates of fossils, 4 maps of burial grounds, and numerous woodcuts. Soft watercolor paper of colored plates with considerable foxing (though treatable), varied fine speckle-foxing elsewhere, boards sun-faded from eons in a fixed position in book case, tip wear, but in all, good plus, the hand-colored plates notably beyond the norm. $120-160

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32-4. Pioneer in the Development of Science and Thought. Partial miniature Bible with fascinating American and French Canadian provenance. Gospels of Matthew through John, from the renowned press of Christophe Plantin, whose contribution to the development of science, humanist thinking, and Christianization of the Spanish colonies in the Americas, was probably unsurpassed in the century following Columbus. As the most prolific printer and publisher of such books in Europe, Plantin’s impact on the world was inestimable. Biblia Sacra, Novvm Iesv Christi Testamentum, Vulgatæ Editionis, Antverpiæ (Belgium), 1629. 2-1/2 x 4-1/2, 336 pp., original paneled calf. Blind-stamped fleurs de lis, delicate double gilt rules, marbled endpapers. Bearing the illustrious imprint, “Ex Officina Plantiniana”; Plantin’s books “became famous for typographical excellence and beauty”--Webster’s Biographical. Complete from Matthew through John, subsequent Gospels apparently separated before about 1785 and lost or bound separately, as thickness of text block matches that of spine. Signature and inscription dated 1785, in French, of owner Jacques Alexandre (Jacobus Alexander) Girardin, on both sides of title leaf.

A member of a noted extended family of New France, with births in North America dating to 1668, Girardin was only 15 years of age and likely in Detroit when he came into possession of this volume. It may well have been a family heirloom, perhaps originally acquired in France, where Plantin’s books were much in demand among nobility. Born, married, and raising nine children, all in Detroit, Girardin’s family is chronicled in Genealogy of the French Families of the Detroit River Region (1701- 1911), by Denissen. Modern research accompanies. Title leaf torn in two but complete, front board detached, about 2-1/2 of five spine panels perished, cover edge wear, relatively minor staining and foxing, but still collectible: because of the multi-century span of the family’s residence in the Detroit area - where it emerged on the market in 2001 - its condition is part of its history. WorldCat locates only two complete copies, both in Germany. In all, a charming item. $175-250

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32-5. The Soul of Lost New York. Early “Souvenir Book of the New York Hippodrome,” 1906, just opened the previous year, by the operators of Coney Island’s Luna Park. 8 x 12, (20) pp. “Price 10¢.” Delightful photographs, 19 in all, of the massive shrine to “amusement to the masses,” built by “two young men who snatched fame and fortune from the barren sands of Coney Island.” A predecessor in scale to Radio City Music Hall, with similar capacity of over 5,000, and “entirely novel mechanical arrangement for...raising and lowering the stage....” Breathless description of construction, layout, scenery, and the show, “a revelation in stage art.” Magnificent centerfold photo of “The Court of the Golden Fountains,” a truly resplendent tableau presaging Zeffirelli’s later Turandot - but perhaps even more stylized, and suitable for framing. Full-page ad for famed Luna Park, run by Hippodrome’s owners. Few edge tears and chips affecting no text, two old vertical pocket folds, short splits and bump at spine, else V.G. and clean. Decades after its demolition, the Hippodrome persisted in New York lore, its elephants of long ago providing the clue to a modern-day mystery (ask). Very scarce. $90-120

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32-6. Cuban Blacks in Cartoons. Our Artist in Cuba: Fifty Drawings on Wood. “Leaves from the Sketch-Book of a Traveler, During the Winter of 1864-5,” by Geo. W. Carleton, N.Y., 1865. 4-1/4 x 6-1/2, 50 heavy cream leaves, royal blue pebbled cloth, beveled boards, ornate gilt title. Quite funny cartoonish drawings, in the vein seen on Union patriotic envelopes but more elaborately drawn, with the ironic sophistication of The New Yorker. Including some showing blacks. “Arrival at Havana - A side elevation of the colored gentleman who carried our baggage...”; “Streets of Havana - The Free Negro - An every-day scene, when the weather is fine,” showing stout black woman with large jug on her head, smoking an enormous cigar, unclothed child at her side; “Cheerful Chinese chambermaid”; “The lizards of Cuba - Our Artist, on an entomological expedition...is disagreeably surprised to find such sprightly specimens”; “Our Artist becomes dumb with admiration, at the ingenious manner of toting little n----rs”; “A Colored Beauty toting Sugar Cane from the field to the grinding mill”; a ramshackle cluster of shacks, with sign “La Elegante,” and others. Tiny original label at rear, “Geo. W. Alexander, Binder, New- York.” Period signature on half-title “Hatty P. Ware.” One 4-pp. signature loose, top 11/2” of spine cloth torn, average cover wear, very light uniform edge toning of text, else internally V.G. +. $70-90

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32-7. “Adventures and Sufferings from the Bears and Whales.” Vivid, oversize printing of “Two Journals: The First Kept by seven Sailers [sic] in the Isle of St. Maurice in Greenland, in the years 1633, 1634; Who pass’d the winter, and all died in the said Island. The Second Kept by seven other Sailers, who in the years 1633 and 1634, winter’d at Spitsbergen; With An account of their Adventures and Sufferings from the Bears and Whales, insupportable Cold and Storms, &c.” “Done Out of the Low- Dutch.” 9 x 13, paginated 369-427 but catalogued similarly at the (only) three institutions with examples of this rare title (U.S. Navy Dept., Newberry, and Wisconsin Historical Society Libraries). Attributed to Awnsham Churchill’s Collection of Voyages and Travels, London, n.d. but before 1640. Exhaustively detailed description of a forbidding land: “...Finding two whales cast ashore near the old furnace of Amsterdam, we went to work with our harp-irons...but...they got clear of us by the advantage of the tide...Towards evening we got sight of a bear, but he no sooner saw us...(and) saved himself upon the ice at sea, these creatures being excessively shy here...Towards night, the bears appeared in such numbers about our hutts, that we scarce venture abroad...In the year 1634, the 1st of Jan., having wished one another a happy new year...we went to prayers to disburthen our hearts before God. The weather was dark, cold and frosty...[Apr. 6:] We saw innumerable whales both at sea and in the bay...Not being able to stir from our huts, by reason of the scurvy, which increases upon us each day....” Disbound from a larger volume, lacking pp. 381-382, though the nearest passage concludes mid-page, and a new heading commences after; pp. 421-422 razored at gutter but present, blank upper corner of last leaf lacking, light fraying at edges of first leaf, crimping along spine, probably since bound centuries ago, light marginal toning, else the thick handmade paper notably fresh and crisp, and generally fine. An early, rare and dramatic travelogue. $150-200

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32-8. Read by the Patriots. Delightful 1844 miniature reprint of the 1777 New-England Primer Improved, For the more easy attaining the true reading of English..., originally by Edward Draper, Boston, here reprinted by Ira Webster, Boston and Hartford. 3 x 4-1/2, unpaginated. On unusual pale robin’s-egg blue paper, original blue paper over wood boards. Full-page woodcut portrait of John Hancock, “Pres. of the American Congress.” Including “Directions for Spelling,” showing alphabet, with “italick letters,” Prayer of King Edward VI, and 26 charming tiny woodcuts embellishing rhyming Bible lesson: “...Queen Esther sues, And saves the Jews. Young pious Ruth, Left all for Truth....” Old waterstaining of boards, rear paper partly lifted from board, spine recovered with strip of grey sailcloth, much lighter staining of text, and internally very good. $45-65

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MAIL BID SALECatalogue No. 63Please note sale provisions.

Table of Contents

1. “For the defence of American liberty”

Receiving a Gun & a Bayonet on July 4, 1776

2. Valley Forge

3. Aviation

4. World Wars I & II

5. Judgment at Nuremberg The Missing Pieces of the Puzzle

Together with:

And:

6. Famous Persons

7. Civil War

Seventeen years later, Joshua Chamberlain writes the dishonored Fitz-John Porter, “I believe you will have your full vindication yet”

8. Confederate

J.E.B. Stuart Promotes Himself as “a gentleman of the finest moral deportment...”

9. Civil War Cartes

10. Black History

11. Transportation

To find out current bids, or to place bids,
just call 1-914-476-8500 or e-mail.
We do not use live Internet bidding.

MAIL BID SALE
Catalogue No. 63
Please note sale provisions.

5. Judgment at Nuremberg
The Missing Pieces of the Puzzle

Seventeen years later,
Joshua Chamberlain writes the dishonored Fitz-John Porter,
“I believe you will have your full vindication yet”

J.E.B. Stuart Promotes Himself
as “a gentleman of the finest moral deportment...”