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Exceptionally rare First edition of Herman Melville's first and most popular book Typee A Peep at Polynesian Life During a Four Months' Residence in A Valley of the Marquesas; inscribed by him to Captain Charles Ball
MELVILLE, HERMAN.
Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life. During a Four Months’ Residence in A Valley of the Marquesas.
New York: Wiley and Putnam 1846.
First edition of Melville’s first book and his most popular during his lifetime. Octavo, two volumes bound into one in the original cloth stamped in blind with gilt titles to the spine, frontispiece map, both half-titles and 6 pages of publisher’s advertisements at rear. BAL 13653. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper one month after publication, “Captain Ball, With the respects of the author, Westport April 18th 1846.” The recipient, Captain Charles Ball was captain of the whaling ship Theophilus Chase, on which Thomas Melville, the author’s youngest brother, set sail for the first time at the age of sixteen. Thomas’s decision to follow in his older brother’s footsteps was likely due to hearing Herman’s stories of his time at sea which began in 1841 with his voyage aboard the whaling ship the Acushnet. Thomas set sail aboard the Theophilus Chase on March, 18 1846 for the South Atlantic from Westport but was homeward bound by April, at which point Herman apparently visited Westport and inscribed this copy of Typee, just one month after its American publication on March 17th. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. Books inscribed by Melville are scarce.
Price: $250,000.00 Item Number: 138349
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First Edition, First Printing of J.K. Rowling's Rare First Book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone; With an original Illustration of Harry Potter by Thomas Taylor
ROWLING, J.K.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
London: Bloomsbury 1997.
First edition, first printing of the rarest book in the Harry Potter series, a cornerstone of young adult literature, and one of the best-selling books of all time. First printing with “First published in Great Britain in 1997”, the full number line “10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1”, “Joanne Rowling” for “J.K. Rowling”, and “Thomas Taylor1997” (lacking the space) on the copyright page and “1 wand” listed twice (as the first item and last item) on the “Other Equipment” list on page 53. Octavo, original illustrated boards, without a dust jacket as issued. In fine condition. With an original illustration by cover artist Thomas Taylor of Harry Potter on the dedication page. At the time of the book’s publication in 1996, illustrator Thomas Taylor had just graduated from art school and was working at Heffers Children’s Bookshop in Cambridge. At Heffers, Taylor educated himself on the children’s book market and its major publishers and decided to submit a portfolio of his illustrations to the offices of Bloomsbury Publishing, including several drawings of dragons and wizards. Taylor heard back from Bloomsbury’s editor, Barry Cunningham (who had recently decided to take a chance on publishing Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone after it had been rejected by twelve other publishers) almost immediately. Cunningham phoned him at Heffers and asked if he could create a design for the cover of a relatively unknown author’s first book about a schoolboy wizard. He sent Taylor an incomplete manuscript of the book and, after two days, Taylor had a final product: a watercolor painting of a young Harry Potter with his lightning-bolt scar standing next to the Hogwarts Express on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Only 500 copies of the first printing were published, 300 of which were distributed directly to libraries. An exceptional example, easily one of the nicest examples extant.
Price: $225,000.00 Item Number: 124950
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"First and greatest classic of modern economic thought": First Edition of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations
SMITH, ADAM.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
London: Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell 1776.
First edition of Adam Smith’s magnum opus and cornerstone of economic thought. Quarto, 2 volumes, bound in full brown calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, front and rear panels, red morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers. In near fine condition. Remarkably clean throughout with some light toning. Housed in a custom half morocco calf clamshell box, elaborately gilt decorated spines. An exceptional example of this landmark work.
Price: $225,000.00 Item Number: 144265
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“The constancy of the laws of nature, or the certainty with which we may expect the same effects from the same causes, is the foundation of the faculty of reason”: Rare First Edition of Malthus' An Essay on the Principle of Population; With An autograph Note from Him
MALTHUS, THOMAS ROBERT [T.R.].
An Essay on the Principle of Population, as It Affects the Future Improvement of Society.
London: J. Johnson 1798.
First edition of this cornerstone text of modern economics. Octavo, bound in three quarters calf. Laid in is a clipping from an original manuscript signed by Malthus and entirely in his hand which reads in part, “If at one time such a given product would make an effectual demand for certain commodities the conditions of the supply of which are supposed to remain the same, it would immediately cease to make such effectual.” Signed by Malthus in the lower right corner, “Malthus.” The verso features two further partial lines of text relating to supply and demand. In near fine condition. First editions of Malthus’ magnum opus are exceptionally scarce.
Price: $200,000.00 Item Number: 116955
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"To Jack L. Warner - Thank you for your courage and for a magnificent picture - with my profound gratitude": First Edition of Ayn Rand's Magnum Opus The Fountainhead; Inscribed by Her to Jack Warner
RAND, AYN.
The Fountainhead.
Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company 1943.
First edition, first issue with first edition stated on the copyright page of the author’s first major novel, as well as her first best-seller. Octavo, original red cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Jack L. Warner – Thank you for your courage and for a magnificent picture – with my profound gratitude – Ayn Rand. January 7, 1949.” The recipient, Jack Warner, was the co-founder, president, and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios. His career spanned some 45 years, its duration surpassing that of any other of the seminal Hollywood studio moguls. Rand sold the film rights to Warner several years earlier with the contractual proviso that she would provide the screenplay, which would be unalterable. In fact, the director wanted changes, but Warner supported the author and honored the contract. This book’s inscription, clearly referring to this, was presented about a half year prior to the film’s release. Of Rand’s fiction, The Fountainhead is generally conceded to be her most important and enduring work, a passionate portrait of uncompromising individualism. In the decades since its debut, the film has gained the critical acceptance, even the acclaim, that initially evaded it. Near fine in a near fine first-issue dust jacket with a touch of rubbing and no fading to the spine, which is endemic to this title. Housed in a custom full morocco clamshell box by The Harcourt Bindery. One of the finest association copies possible, linking the famed author with the legendary founder of Warner Brothers and producer of the iconic film.
Price: $200,000.00 Item Number: 125425
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"In memory of that week we went rowing in a bull-fiddle through the lovely lakes of Central Park": Exceptionally Rare Presentation Copy of The Great Gatsby; with a beautiful full-page inscription signed by F. Scott Fitzgerald
FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT.
The Great Gatsby.
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1925.
First edition, second issue of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece with all six second issue points present, including: “echolalia” on page 60, “southern” on page 119, “sickantired” on page 205, and “Union Station” on page 211. Octavo, original dark green cloth with gilt titles to the spine. Presentation copy, lengthily inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Theodore L. Liedemedt in memory of that week we went rowing in a bull-fiddle through the lovely lakes of Central Park, from Stravinski (Alias F. Scott Fitzgerald) May 1885 ‘Stuttgart.'” The recipient, Theodore L. Liedemedt, was a German-born musician and close personal friend of Fitzgerald’s. Kept in Liedemedt’s family for over ninety years, family lore has it that the two first met on board a transatlantic ship crossing in the 1920s (Fitzgerald traveled to Europe in 1921, 1924, 1928, and 1929). Liedemedt was a working musician who performed on some of those crossings. He died in 1929, just making it to 30. Fitzgerald, older only by three years, just outlived his friend, dying in 1940 at 44. A South New Jerseyian in the later part of his short life, Liedemedt arrived on American shores in 1915 during the First World War. He worked first on the crew of a German merchantman, interned in the Delaware River, then from June 1916 at a day job in Philadelphia. When the United States entered the First World War officially on April 6, 1917, Liedemedt was detained by the FBI on April 7. He was released a few days later when they found that he did not hare the political convictions of his home country and was, therefore, not a threat to the United States. Fitzgerald took up residence in New Jersey in in 1911 when he attended the Newman School, a Catholic prep school in Hackensack. After graduating he attending Princeton University, only a few miles from Liedemedt’s stomping grounds, where Fitzgerald abruptly left in 1917 to join the American Army. Having avoided active service in Europe he moved to New York City where he would begin his career as a writer. Fitzgerald and Liedemedt were never more than roughly 80 miles from each other, from Liedemedt’s landing in 1915 to his early death 14 years later. The nature of the inscription—knowing, familiar, full of inside references—points to an intimacy not documented in an other sources in Fitzgerald’s archives. In very good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery. An exceptional inscription from Fitzgerald.
Price: $200,000.00 Item Number: 138936
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First octavo edition, presentation copy of John James Audubon's The Birds of America; warmly inscribed by him in both volumes I and II to Lydia E. E. Greene
AUDUBON, JOHN JAMES.
The Birds of America, From Drawings Made In The United States And Their Territories.
New York: Published by J. J. Audubon. Philadelphia: J. B. Chevalier 1840-1844.
First octavo edition of Audubon’s landmark work; one of the most spectacular collections of ornithological prints ever produced. Royal octavo, 7 volumes bound in full 19th-century morocco by P. Low of Boston with their ticket, gilt titles and ruling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, ribbons bound in. Illustrated with 500 hand-colored lithographed plates after Audubon by W. E. Hitchcock, R. Trembly and others, printed and colored by J. T. Bowen, wood-engraved anatomical diagrams in text. Presentation copy, inscribed by John James Audubon on the on the contents leaf of volume one, “Miss Lydia E. E. Greene with the affectionate good wishes of her friend and servant, John J. Audubon, Boston, June 8, 1844” and additionally on the front free endpaper of Vol. II., “Miss Lydia, E. E. Greene; and may God bless her, with the sincerest wishes of her old friend and servant, John J. Audubon, Boston, June 8, 1844.” The recipient, Lydia E. E. Greene became a Proprietor of the Boston Athenaeum in 1854. Audubon spent only a few months living in Boston from 1832-1833, but the city made an impact on him; his wife Lucy wrote to a friend that the city “is a more interesting place than any I have seen in the United States, and where we met with a most cordial welcome and obtained eight subscribers to our work [The Birds of America].” Audubon exhibited sketches of his Birds of America at the Boston Athenaeum in August 1832. In very good condition with the plates exceptionally clean.
Price: $200,000.00 Item Number: 143567
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“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment": Rare First Edition of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
AUSTEN, JANE.
Pride and Prejudice.
London: Printed for T. Egerton 1813.
First editions of all three volumes of Jane Austen’s second novel and most popular. Octavo, three volumes, bound in contemporary three quarter calf over marbled boards with gilt titles to the spine. In very good condition. Armorial bookplates to each pastedown. Period gift inscription from the year of publication to the title page of Vol. I.: “Mary Anne King given her by her mother April 1813.” An exceptional example of this landmark work in English literature, rare and desirable bound in contemporary calf.
Price: $175,000.00 Item Number: 133221
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REVOLUTIONARY WAR-DATE LETTER FROM WASHINGTON TO ROCHAMBEAU ON A PROPOSED EXPEDITION TO PENOBSCOT
WASHINGTON, GEORGE.
George Washington Letter Signed.
: April 10, 1781.
Highly important letter signed (“Go: Washington”), as Commander-in-Chief, 2 pages folio, “Head Quarters New Windsor April 10 [17]81”, to his French ally Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, the body of the letter in the hand of his trusted aide-de-camp, Alexander Hamilton; horizontal fold separation repaired, minor tears and chips along margins.
In the spring of 1781, officials from Massachusetts approached Rochambeau with a proposal to attack the British post at the mouth of the Penobscot river— established in June 1779 to secure timber for shipyards in Halifax and to protect Nova Scotia from any American advance. On 6 April, Rochambeau informed Washington he was willing to send a detachment of troops and that Admiral Destouches was willing to offer naval assistance. But, observing that he was under Washington’s command, he would await his approval before approving the action (Rochambeau to Washington, 6 April 1781, Papers of George Washington, Library of Congress). Washington responds in the present letter offering his gratitude. The Commander-in Chief explains that Destouches, who had only recently lost a naval engagement with the British in an unsuccessful attempt to relieve Lafayette in Virginia, would be willing “to undertake the expedition to Penobscot and to you for your readiness to furnish a detachment of troops for the same purpose. The object is certainly worth attention and if it can be effected will be very agreeable to the States, particularly to those of the East.”
He trusts that Destouches “can best judge from the situation of the enemy’s fleet how far it may be attempted with prudence, and Your Excellency from the information you have recently received what number of troops will be sufficient for the enterprise—I am persuaded it will be calculated how far it is probable the enemy may follow with a part of their fleet—whether the post can be carried by a coup de main, or may require so much time as to make it likely the operation will be interrupted before its conclusion—in case of a superior squadron being sent by the enemy what possibility there is of protection or a safe retreat for the ships and even for the land force (through an unsettled country in which numbers perished for want of provision in a former attempt)—All these are points too important not to have been well weighed, and your conversations with the Massachusetts deputies will have been able to enlighten you upon them.” Here, Washington is referencing the unsuccessful attempt by Massachusetts in 1779 to destroy the post, abandoned when British ships with reinforcements forced an arduous overland retreat by the Americans.
Despite his assurances that Rochambeau and Destouches have matters well in hand, Washington takes the “liberty to remark [on] two things—one that it appears to me frigates without any ships of the line will answer the purpose as well as with them and less will be risked than by dividing the body of the fleet. Frigates (especially the forty fours) will afford a safe escort to the troops against any thing now in those Seas, and with respect to a detachment from the enemy’s fleet, it would be always proportioned to the force we should send and if we have two sixty fours, they would even be an object for their whole fleet. The other observation I would make is, that dispatch being essential to success, it will in my opinion be adviseable not to depend on any cooperation of the Militia, but to send at once such a force from your army as you deem completely adequate to a speedy reduction of the post. The country in the neighbourhood of Penobscot is too thinly inhabited to afford any resource of Militia there, and to assemble and convey them from remote places would announce your design—retard your operations, and give leisure to the enemy to counteract you. Indeed I would recommend for the sake of secrecy to conceal your determination from the State itself.”
On 15 April Rochambeau replies to Washington observing that while he had sufficient troops to spare, “your Excellency’s observations upon the Separation of our fleet, and upon the danger to be interrupted by superior forces, during the course of the Expedition, which Mr Destouches does not Look on as possible to be undertaken with his frigates only, are the motives which cause this project to be Laid aside for the present moment.” (Rochambeau to Washington, 15 April 1781, Papers of George Washington, Library of Congress). It was not long before the attention of both Washington and Rochambeau returned again to Virginia, and within months their combined forces would be closing in on Yorktown.
The sole communication between the storied commanders of the Yorktown campaign to appear at auction in more than a century.
Most of the letters from Washington to Rochambeau were kept by the Rochambeau family until 1952 when the collection was sold to H.P. Kraus, who in turn sold them to Paul Mellon in 1958. In 1992, Mellon bequeathed the collection to Yale University and the collection is now housed at the Beinecke Library. The only other communication from Washington to Rochambeau that can be found in auction records was part of the collection of James Crimmons (Anderson Galleries, 5 May 1904), being Washington’s autograph letter signed of 13 July 1781 to Rochambeau for the reconnaissance in force of the British defenses around northern Manhattan.
Provenance: The family of Charles-René-Dominique Sochet Destouches.
Price: $175,000.00 Item Number: 125872
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First French Edition, Presentation copy of the Constitutions of the Thirteen United States of America; inscribed by Benjamin Franklin who requested the book's publication and personally distributed the 600 privately printed first edition copies
[FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN].
Constitutions des Treize Etats-Unis De L’Amerique. [Constitutions of the Thirteen United States of America].
Paris: D. Pierres/Pissot, Pere & Fils, Libraries 1783.
First French edition of the Constitution of the United States of America, inscribed by Founding Father Benjamin Franklin who had the translation published and personally distributed each of the 600 copies produced. Octavo, bound in one quarter calf with gilt ruling to the spine, burgundy morocco spine label lettered in gilt. Presentation copy, inscribed by Benjamin Franklin on the front free endpaper, “A Madame, Madame la Presidente de Manieres [sic] de la parte du. B. Franklin.” The recipient, Madame Durey de Meinires was a a French writer best known for her translations of Samuel Johnson, David Hume, and Sarah Fielding. On March 24th, 1783, Franklin wrote to the Comte de Vergennes, “I am desirous of printing a translation of the Constitutions of the United States of America, published at Philadelphia, by Order of Congress. Several of these Constitutions have already appeared in the English and American newspapers but there has never yet been a complete translation of them.” At Franklin’s suggestion, the Duc de La Rochefoucault produced the first French translation, and Franklin is believed to have contributed the fifty-plus footnotes. Franklin had 600 copies of Constitutions des Treize Etats-Unis de l’Amerique privately printed by Philippe-Denis Pierres, first printer ordinary of Louis XVI, which were not made available for sale. Franklin distributed them himself, and was happy to fulfill the request of Madame Durey de Meinires, who wished to receive a copy. On August 31, 1783, Franklin sent a copy of the newly published volume to Madame Durey de Meinires, along with a letter, “I send with great Pleasure the Constitutions of America to my dear & much respected Neighbour, being happy to have any thing in my Power to give that she will do me the honour to accept, and that may be agreeable to her.” The inscribed page included in the present volume was previously sold as a loose flyleaf by Charles Hamilton in 1959, and it has since been professionally tipped into an edition of the book with which it was originally sent. The book contains the Constitutions of each of the thirteen States of America, the Declaration of Independence of the 4th of July 1776, the Friendship and Commerce Treaty, the Alliance Treaty between France and the United States, as well as the treaties between the United States and the Netherlands and Sweden. The title page contains the first appearance of imprint of the United States seal in a book. Franklin‘s grand gesture in publishing and distributing these constitutions‚ about which there was intense interest and curiosity among statesmen‚ was one of his chief achievements as a propagandist for the new American republic. In good condition.
Price: $175,000.00 Item Number: 138381