Americana
Rare Americana Books, Manuscripts & More for Sale Online
If you’re looking for first edition books celebrating the American experience, you’ve come to the right place. At Raptis Rare Books we maintain an extensive collection of rare Americana, books, manuscripts and more. Browse through our entire collection online, use our sorting tools or search to find exactly what you’re looking for then call with any questions you may have or order online today.
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Bust of Abraham Lincoln by famed artist George Bissell
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN] GEORGE BISSELL,.
Bust of Abraham Lincoln.
Patinated bronze cast of Abraham Lincoln by George Bissell, one of only three commissioned by Ralph Newman for THE USS AL. Boldly signed by the artist in the back Geo. E. Bissell Sc. George Bissell was an important American sculptor working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He produced two full length statues of Lincoln: one in Edinburgh and one in Clermont, Iowa. According to the letter from Lincoln College Curator Paul Beaver, the present item is one of three copies made from the school's original Bissell bronze bust of Lincoln by the Van Dyke Galleries of Chicago…
Price: $12,500.00 Item Number: 131044
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Bust of Abraham Lincoln by famed artist George Bissell; One of only three examples
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN] GEORGE BISSELL,.
Bust of Abraham Lincoln.
Patinated bronze portrait bust of Abraham Lincoln, marked "GEO. E. BISSELL Sc GORHAM CO. FOUNDERS copyrighted," and stamped "G 47." This is one of a series of popular desktop busts of Lincoln produced by the Gorham foundry in the early part of the 20th century. In fine condition. The piece measures 18 inches in height. An exceptional piece of American history.
Price: $15,000.00 Item Number: 133797
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Rare glass bust of the 23rd President of the United States Benjamin Harrison
[HARRISON, Benjamin].
Benjamin Harrison Glass Bust.
Rare frosted glass bust of the 23rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison. Mounted on a hollow glass pedestal. In near fine condition. The bust measures 5.5 inches in height. The entire piece measures 16.5 inches in height.
Price: $650.00 Item Number: 135664
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Fine porcelain bust of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson
[JEFFERSON, Thomas].
Thomas Jefferson Bust.
Fine porcelain bust of Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. Parian porcelain mounted on a marble base. In fine condition. The bust measures 28.25 inches in height. An exceptional presentation.
Price: $7,800.00 Item Number: 123933
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Rare Declaration of Independence Engraved Copper Plaque
[KOPPEL, Charles; John Trumbull].
Declaration of Independence Engraved Copper Plaque.
1776.
Rare mid-19th century engraved copper plaque replicating John Trumbull's celebrated oil painting, Declaration of Independence. Engraved "The Declaration of Independence. Congress 4th July 1776 Philadelphia." Housed in the original elaborately carved frame with the original paper label listing the sitters' names. In near fine condition.
Price: $4,800.00 Item Number: 126940
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Rare Ostrich Egg engraved with a portrait of George Washington and the Great Seal of the United States; from the library of Lloyd Millard Bentsen
[WASHINGTON, George].
George Washington and Great Seal of the United States Engraved Ostrich Egg.
Rare ostrich egg engraved with a portrait of George Washington, the Washington Coat of Arms, the Great Seal of the United States, and the Masonic compass and trowel. Mounted on a decorative brass stand. From the collection of former four-term United States Senator Lloyd Millard Bentsen who ran as the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket and served as the the 69th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Bill Clinton. As a primary architect of the Clinton economic plan, Bentsen contributed to a $500 billion reduction in the deficit, launching the…
Price: $7,500.00 Item Number: 119684
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"Where liberty dwells there is my country": Rare copperplate-printed toile fragment from the popular eighteenth-century English pattern "The Apotheosis of Franklin and Washington"
[WASHINGTON; GEORGE; BENJAMIN FRANKLIN],.
The Apotheosis of Franklin and Washington Printed Textile.
c. 1785-1790.
Rare copperplate-printed toile fragment from the popular eighteenth-century English pattern "The Apotheosis of Franklin and Washington." The fragment features a copper-plate printed portrait of Benjamin Franklin in academic robes and his famous cap after the famed 1777 portrait of him by Jean-Baptiste holding the ends of a banner reading "Where liberty dwells there is my country." The fragment has been framed within a patterned textile border. In near fine condition. The piece measures 13.75 inches by 11.25 inches. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box.
Price: $2,200.00 Item Number: 139191
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Rare plaster replica of the famed Houdon bust of George Washington
ANDERSON, Ronald Lee. [Jean-Antoine Houdon; George Washington].
George Washington Houdon Bust Sculpture.
Life-size sculpture of the head of George Washington, after the famed Houdon bust of George Washington of 1785. Plaster, the piece measures 11.5 inches by 9 inches and is attributed to American portraitist Ronald Lee Anderson who likely sculpted the work as an exercise as a college student. French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon was revered for his life-like portrayals of numerous notable eighteenth-century philosophers, inventors, and political figures including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Napoléon Bonaparte, and George Washington. In 1784, the Virginia General Assembly commissioned a statue of George Washington "to be of the finest marble and the…
Price: $2,000.00 Item Number: 121908
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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…
Price: $200,000.00 Item Number: 143567
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First edition of the second book on architecture published in America: Owen Biddle's The Young Carpenter's Assistant
BIDDLE, Owen.
The Young Carpenter’s Assistant; Or, A System Of Architecture, Adapted To The Style Of Building In The United States.
Philadelphia: Benjamin Johnson, 1805.
First edition of the second book on architecture published in America, second only to Asher Benjamin's Country Builder's Assistant' published in 1797( Shaw & Shoemaker, 8018). Quarto, bound in full calf, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, gilt ruled to the front and rear panels, illustrated with 44 engraved plates, 2 folding. In very good condition. Scarce with only 2 copies having appeared at auction in the past 50 years.
Price: $15,000.00 Item Number: 117672
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First edition of Randolph Caldecott: A Personal Memoir of His Early Art Career; from the library of Woodrow Wilson with his ownership signature
BLACKBURN, Henry. [Woodrow Wilson].
Randolph Caldecott: A Personal Memoir of His Early Art Career.
New York: George Routledge & Sons, 1886.
First American edition of Blackburn's biography of famed British illustrator Randolph Caldecott; from the library of Woodrow Wilson with his ownership signature. Octavo, original publisher's cloth decorated in gilt, with one hundred and seventy two illustrations, frontispiece portrait of Caldecott. Signed by Woodrow Wilson on the title page. One of the most influential children's book illustrators of nineteenth century, British artist Randolph Caldecott published 16 picture books throughout his career, including The House that Jack Built (1878), John Gilpin (1878), The Three Jovial Huntsman (1880), and The Great Panjandrum Himself (1885). The Caldecott Medal, first proposed by Frederic G. Melcher…
Price: $1,500.00 Item Number: 125249
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"the most extraordinarily good portrait of my father I have ever seen": Photograph by Gutzon Borglum of the Bust of Lincoln; Signed by Him
BORGLUM, Gutzon (Abraham Lincoln).
Gutzon Borglum Signed Photograph of a Bust of Abraham Lincoln.
1907.
Photograph signed and dated "Gutzon Borglum 1907." The photograph taken by Borglum shows his marble bust of Abraham Lincoln. On February 6, 1908, the President's son, Robert Todd Lincoln, wrote to Borglum regarding the bust as, "the most extraordinarily good portrait of my father I have ever seen." The sculpture is on display in the Crypt of the U.S. Capitol Building. A typed Lincoln quotation pasted to mount at lower left. In very good condition. Double matted and framed. The entire piece measures 15 inches by 17.5 inches.
Price: $2,500.00 Item Number: 87608
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"A Monument to the Natural and Cultural landscape of America": First editions of both volumes of Picturesque America; profusely illustrated and in the publisher's deluxe full morocco
BRYANT, William Cullen.
Picturesque America: Or, The Land We Live In. A Delineation by Pen and Pencil of The Mountains, Rivers, Lakes, Forest, Water-Falls, Shores, Cañons, Valleys, Cities, and Other Picturesque Features of Our Country.
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1872-1874.
First edition of this immensely popular and influential 19th century celebration of the American landscape. Folio, two volumes in the original publisher's deluxe full morocco with gilt titles to the spine in six compartments within raised bands, gilt titles and central vignette to the front panels, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles. marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, illustrated with nine hundred wood engravings and fifty steel engravings after Harry Fenn, A.C. Warren, Thomas Moran, Granville Perkins, and William Hart among others, tissue-guarded frontispiece and additional decorative pictorial title page to each volume. In very good condition. A nice example of this…
Price: $1,500.00 Item Number: 142507
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"In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins": Rare Henry Kirke Bush-Brown Bust of Ulysses S. Grant as the first general of the united states army
BUSH-BROWN, Henry Kirke. [Ulysses S. Grant].
Ulysses S. Grant Bronze Bust.
New York: Henry-Bonnard Bronze Co., [c. 1885].
Attractive bronze bust of of Ulysses S. Grant as General of the Army by famed American sculptor Henry Kirke Bush-Brown. The adopted nephew of sculptor Henry Kirke Brown, Henry Kirke Bush-Brown was revered for his accurate realist sculptures illustrating American history. He produced three equestrian bronze sculptures erected at the Gettysburg battlefield depicting General George Mead (the victor at Gettysburg), General John F. Reynolds (killed in action July 1, 1863), and General John Sedgwick (the senior most Union casualty of the American Civil War). In addition, Bush-Brown made a bust of Abraham Lincoln, dedicated in 1912 as part of the…
Price: $12,500.00 Item Number: 125381
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"The first full-sized marble statue in New England": Fine terracotta pedestrian statue of George Washington, after Sir Francis Chantrey's Washington as a Roman Senator, 1826
CHANTREY, Sir Francis. [George Washington].
Washington as a Roman Senator, 1826. [Sir Francis Chantrey George Washington Terracotta Pedestrian Statue].
c. 1850.
Fine terracotta statue of President George Washington, after Sir Francis Chantrey's Washington as a Roman Senator, 1826. Terracotta. In 1818, the Washington Monument Association commissioned Francis Chantrey to sculpt a pedestrian statue of George Washington in white marble. Unveiled in Doric Hall of the Massachusetts State House in November 1827, it was the first sculpture to be placed in the then new State House and the first full-sized marble statue in New England. In fine condition. The statue measures 14.75 inches in height.
Price: $5,500.00 Item Number: 123164
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"Florida - a Yachting Paradise and Land of Enchantment for the Voyager": First Edition of The Florida Intracoastal Waterway: from The St. Johns River to Miami, Florida
FLORIDA INLAND NAVIGATION DISTRICT COMMISSIONERS,.
The Florida Intracoastal Waterway: from The St. Johns River to Miami, Florida.
Jacksonville, Florida: H. & W. B. Drew Company, .
First edition of this work published by the Florida Inland Navigation District as an announcement of the completion of the Florida Intracoastal Waterway. Quarto, original pictorial wrappers, illustrated, folding map. In near fine condition. Designed by Associated Advertising, Inc. Illustrations by Karl M. Zink. Housed in the original presentation envelope.
Price: $850.00 Item Number: 123097
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RARE NINETEENTH CENTURY PORTRAIT OF PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN
GARDNER, Alexander. [Abraham Lincoln].
Abraham Lincoln Portrait.
c. 1860.
Rare original painting of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. After a photograph by Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner. Scottish photographer Alexander Gardner immigrated to the United States in 1856 where he became best known for his photographs of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, and the execution of the conspirators to Lincoln's assassination. In near fine condition. In a period frame. The entire piece measures 20.75 by 16.75 inches. Rare and desirable.
Price: $3,500.00 Item Number: 95830
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"I have never advocated war except as a means of peace": Rare Henry Shrady Ulysses S. Grant Bronze Bust
GRANT, Ulysses S.] Henry Merwin Shrady.
Ulysses S. Grant Bronze Bust.
Original bronze bust of Ulysses S. Grant by Henry Shrady, the famed sculptor of the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial on the west front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Mounted on socle and base, the entire piece measures 18.5 inches in height. In fine condition. An exceptional piece of Americana.
Price: $22,500.00 Item Number: 102885
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First edition of Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War
GUERNSEY, Alfred H. and Henry M. Alden.
Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War.
Chicago: Star Publishing Company, 1894.
First edition of this profusely illustrated compendium of American Civil War leaders and battles. Folio, two volumes, original publisher's binding decorated in gilt, illustrated. In good condition.
Price: $600.00 Item Number: 134094