CONNECTICUT RIVER BOOK AUCTION
will hold a LIVE and IN-PERSON BOOK AUCTION on FRIDAY, JULY 7TH, 2023 6pm
at the South Congregational Church located at 949 Main Street in South Glastonbury, CT 06075.
South Congregational Church • 949 Main St, South Glastonbury, CT • www.ctriverbookauction.com • 860-908-8067

SOUTH GLASTONBURY, CONN. — The July 7 Connecticut River Book Auction at 6 pm at the South Congregational Church offers two items that will satisfy the appetite of cartographers looking to understand what the North American Atlantic coast and later the United States was thought to look like.

The first example is a framed Eighteenth Century map titled Map of Virginia, Marylandia et Carolina in America Septentrionali Britannorum and is about 19 by 23 inches in size, hand-colored with evidence of water staining. Executed by Johann Baptiste Homan (1663-1724), the founder of Homan Heirs Publishing, he was an important Eighteenth Century German mapmaker and a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. The map was published at a time of considerable immigrant interest among German speaking parts of Europe. The cartouche suggests friendly inhabitants and that commercial enterprises were available, all to encourage German immigration to the colonies.

Of interest is Homan’s placement of Florida to the left of Virginia, the unusual shape and size of Lake Erie, the disproportionate size of New Jersey to New York and other geographic anomalies. The map’s title in Latin. “Septentrionali” is in the ablative case modifying America translating to in Northern America, and “Brittanorum” is the genitive plural meaning of the British.

The second item is a group of maps published by Samuel Augustus Mitchell in 1839 and titled Mitchell’s School Atlas, the revised edition. Unlike Homan, Mitchell was not a cartographer but rather an editor and publisher. His interest in atlases and school atlases in particular is said to have arisen from his displeasure in the quality of existing work. All 18 maps are present in the copy available for sale. Of note is Map No. 4 of the United States and Texas, which in 1839 was not yet a part of the United States. The “Great American Desert,” “Indian Territory,” and notations of great herds of buffalo and wild horses are noted on the colored map, which is approximately 10½ by 16 inches in size.

Joining these two items are an 1894 Atlas titled the New Topographical Atlas of the County of Hampden Massachusetts, published by L.J. Richards and Co. (1869), Atlas of Hartford City and County with a Map of Connecticut from Actual Surveys by Baker & Tilden (missing Glastonbury) and (1853) New Universal Atlas containing Maps of the various Empires, Kingdoms, States and Republics of the World by Mitchell.

The South Congregational Church is at 949 Main Street. For additional information, www.ctriverbookauction.com or 860-908-8067.

With Independence Day just a few days behind us, we offer attendees and absentee bidders an opportunity to celebrate our nation’s rich past while enjoying a cocktail as one dives literally or figuratively into our other offerings but first the history.
Want to know what Europeans thought the mid­Atlantic colonies looked like in the 1700s then consider Homan’s “Map of Virginia, Marylandia et Carolina in America Septentrionali Britannorum” drawn to entice German immigrants to the New World. Interested in how students imagined the emerging tract of land that would someday become the 48 states of the Union then examine Mitchell’s (1839) “Mitchell’s School Atlas” and compare it against his “New Universal Atlas containing Maps of the various Empires, Kingdoms, States and Republics of the World” published in 1853.
Turning to the written word, the early student of the American experience should consider Rogers (1831) “Reminiscences of the French War containing Rogers’ Expeditions[&) The Life and Military Services of Maj. Gen. John Stark:’ This is a 1st edition in its original boards. There is also a 1st edition author signed copy of Riley’s “The Life and Times of Booker T. Washington;’ with an inserted signed letter from Washington regarding the book.
Students of political history and WWII will be interested in the volumes by Shirer, Schlesinger, Churchill, Kearns and others with many of the volumes signed. Oh, and for those who like recent political posters, we have those too.
As for those cocktails, there is a 1st edition copy of “Burke’s Complete Cocktail & Drinking Recipes;’ in the very scarce cardboard Rooster cover. This will go along wonderfully with signed copies of Vonnegut’s “Jailbird” and “Fates Worse than Death:’ Like mysteries then just two of the many available are the 1st appearance of Dashiell Hammett’s (1951) “Woman in the Dark” and Chandler’s (1950) “The Simple Art of Murder;• a 1st edition in dj. Add to this signed material by Jimmy Carter, Thornton Wilder, Philip Roth, Arthur Miller, Rafael Sabatini and a nice 8 volume set of Ward’s “American Activities in the Central Pacific;• to accompany a 2nd edition of Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” and one has the making of a most enjoyable evening.
For more information on this  6 pm, Friday, July 7th book auction  to be held at the South Congregational Church,  949 Main Street, South Glastonbury, CT 06073  visit ctriverbookauction.com or  call Tom at 1-860-908-8067.