Travelling to the top of the sale during session one was this four-volume set, including atlas, of Captain George Vancouver’s A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World…, London, 1798; it achieved $10,800 and is heading back to England.
Review by Carly Timpson
SOUTH DEERFIELD, MASS. — Conducted in two sessions, March 25 and April 2, New England Book Auctions offered more than 450 lots of books, lithographs and more in their Early Printing Americana Exploration & Selections from the Inventory of Periodyssey auction. Paul Muller-Reed, principal at New England Book Auctions shared that the two days had a sell-through ate of about 90 percent and realized a total of $100,000. He added, “It was a pretty standard sale for us. About five percent of our bidders were international. We often sell this type of material to Hong Kong and Europe, and some of it went to the Middle East.”
The highest-achieving lot in either session was a record of Captain Vancouver’s survey of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. Published in London in 1798, this first edition of A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World; in which the Coast of North-west America has Been Carefully Examined and Accurately Surveyed included three volumes plus a corresponding atlas. Printed for G.G. and J. Robinson, Paternoster-Row and J. Edwards, Pall-Mall, this record outlines the voyage performed “Under the Command of Captain George Vancouver” in the years 1790-95. The text volumes included 18 engraved plates, while the atlas included 16 engraved folding maps or plans. Rebound in a contemporary style of full calf ruled in blind, the volumes had gilt-lettered spine text and the atlas was rebacked with its original boards. Considered “one of the most important voyages for the history and the cartography of the Northwest coast in general and of Alaska in particular,” the documentation of this journey sold to a buyer in England for $10,800.
Travel books and other surveys such as Vancouver’s made for some of the most notable results across both days of the auction. Following with the second-highest price overall was an account of Captain James Cook’s Third Voyage. Titled A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean…In The Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780, this the four-volume second edition copy by Cook and James King was complete with an atlas. According to the auction catalog, the second edition is preferred and “is considered typographically superior to the first edition.” The three text volumes comprise 54 engraved plates, maps, charts and a letter press folding table; the atlas volume includes 84 engraved plates, some being duplicates as seen in the text volumes. Rebacked, this 1785 edition, published in London by H. Hughs for G. Nichol and T. Cadell, went out for $6,000.
This four-volume second edition, with complete atlas, of Captain James Cook and James King’s A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean…In The Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780 — commonly known as Cook’s Third Voyage — London: H. Hughs for G. Nichol and T. Cadell, 1785, sailed off to its new library for $6,000.
Italian explorer and scientist Filippo De Filippi’s Karakoram and Western Himalaya, 1909; An Account of the Expedition of H. R. H. Prince Luigi Amadeo, Duke of the Abruzzi exceeded its $800-$1,200 estimate to achieve $1,560. Published in London in 1912, this edition included a preface written by the Duke and 36 mounted plates after photographs taken by Vittorio Sella and was accompanied by its portfolio volume containing 18 photographic panoramas on 17 leaves, three folding maps and an index booklet.
Zoologist and botanist Peter Simon Pallas might now be best known thanks to the nomenclature of the manual, or Pallas’s cat. However, it was his experience on the first Russian Siberian expedition as well as his later expedition to the southern provinces of Russia that provided much of his initial acclaim — and led to the naming of the Pallas’s cat, as well as other species and landforms. Published in two volumes, Pallas’s Travels through the Southern Provinces of the Russian Empire, in the years 1793 and 1794 included 51 etched plates and 28 vignettes, almost all hand colored, and four uncolored folding maps. The edition sold in this auction, which was bid to $570, was the first printed in English and it was published in London in 1802-03.
While many Americans are familiar with the tales of “Davy” Crockett, far fewer have read his actual accounts. David Crockett’s An Account of Col. Crockett’s Tour to the North and Down East (Philadelphia, 1835) was offered with a high estimate of $150, but bidders took the first edition to $540. This first-edition copy contained a frontispiece portrait of the frontiersman and bore an ex-libris marking on the title page. Notably, the auction catalog mentioned that the text is “Sometimes ascribed to Augustin S. Clayton or William Clark as ghostwriter” and that “This volume includes a tourists account of the infamous Five Points neighborhood in New York.”
Titled “A Map and History of Peiping,” Frank Dorn’s highly detailed pictorial map of Peiping, China, was accompanied by an “Explanatory Booklet” with the same name (Tientsin-Peiping: The Peiyang Press Ltd., 1936). The color lithograph map was loosely inserted in the publisher’s printed wrappers, though it had some tears at its folds and margins. Together the map and book brought $480.
Frank Dorn’s A Map and History of Peiping, Tientsin-Peiping: The Peiyang Press Ltd., 1936, included this 34-by-28-inch color lithograph map of Peiping, China, as well as an explanatory booklet; it unfolded for $480.
Also originating in Asia was a handwritten Portuguese manuscript edition of Christianity in India. The auction catalog describes this edition as “A compilation of copies of four of the founding documents of the Mosteiro (monastery, or ‘convent’ in this case) of Santa Monica, located within the monumental complex of Augustinian buildings on Monte Santo in the old town of Goa. The Mosteiro of Santa Monica was the first conventual house of religious women in colonial India and played an important role in the Augustinian missionary program in the Portuguese colonies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” Published in Nova Goa, India, in 1847, the 471-page book was written by a professional copyist on mould-made paper; it closed for $600.
Drama and poetry also found their niche, with a highly detailed Renaissance binding of Lusius Annaeus Seneca’s Tragoediae topping the auction’s second session. Comprising nine closet dramas, or plays meant to be read rather than performed, this edition of Tragoediae was housed in gilt red morocco Roman binding by Marcantonio Guillery (Lyon: Seb. Gryphium, 1547). Its title page had several markings from former owners, including some that were covered. It went out at $2,280.
Leading the poetry category was a first American edition of Scottish poet Robert Burns’s Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (Philadelphia: Peter Stewart and George Hyde, 1788). In a contemporary sheep binding with a gilt-lettered spine label, this edition more than doubled its $900 high estimate, selling for $1,930.
Steps To The Temple by Richard Crashaw, first edition, London, 1646, found a buyer after 33 bids, climbing to $1,320 and exceeding its high estimate by nearly four times.
A first edition copy of English poet Richard Crashaw’s Steps to the Temple. Sacred Poems, With other Delights of the Muses, published in London in 1646, climbed to $1,320 — far surpassing its $350 high estimate. This edition had a woodcut border surrounding the title page and it was bound in leather-backed boards by Pickering. The leading document, achieving $2,160, was a promotion manuscript relating to Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. Signed “Marie Antionette” by Pierre Jean Baptiste Beaugeard, the Queen’s secretary, and countersigned with his own name, the document issued the promotion of “Jean Nicholas Gaspard to the office of wine steward or cupbearer to the Queen in the chansonnerie commun, the department of the household charged with overseeing the Queen’s beverages.” Bearing remnants of its original wax seal and stamp, the French parchment was promoted to $2,160.
American history was documented with an anthology of pamphlets relating to the American Revolution, which became the second-highest selling lot of session two. Comprising six pamphlets — Henry Brooke’s “Gustavus Vasa” (1778), “The Political Duenna” (1778), Hugh Brackenridge’s “The Battle of Bunkers-Hill” (1776), Brackenridge’s “The Death of General Montgomery” and John Laycock’s “The Fall of British Tyranny” were listed in the auction catalog — the sammelband was published in Philadelphia by Robert Bell or Styner and Cist; it rose past its $300 high estimate to achieve $1,440.
Americana collectors also took interest in another collection of pamphlets, though these, which sold together for $780, were not bound together. All dating from the 1790s to 1800, the 29 issues in this lot were in generally sound condition though some had chipped or frayed margins. Notable inclusions in the selection of sermons, reports, letters, messages and dissertations were “A Letter to the Citizens of Pennsylvania…” by George Logan (1800) and John Adams’ “Message from the President…Touching on the Suspension of the Arrete of the French Republic” (1799). Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.nebookauctions.com or 413-665-3253.
