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Placing an Order

For assistance or to place an order please click on the following link to send us an email. Remember to include full particulars of the item as well as your email address and/or phone number. Alternatively, you may phone [1] 415-474-9067. Thank you for your consideration.

Orders:  Book_Orders@PacBell.net

 

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     PRESENTATION INSCRIPTION TO DEAN WITTER

ABDY, Rowena Meeks. “San Francisco’s Wall Street.” Period print of one of the artist’s charcoal drawings. 7x5¼ inches plus borders. Signed within the plate. Framed and glazed. A fine copy. (San Francisco: by the artist, 1921).  SOLD.
                Print of one of the artist’s charcoal drawings. Titled by the artist at lower left margin. Presentation inscription by the artist at lower right margin: “To Mr. Dean Witter from the artist, Christmas, 1921.” Rowena Meeks Abdy (1887-1945) was an American painter who flourished in Northern California. The artist worked in oil, watercolor and charcoal and achieved prominence in the plein air painting school. The print offered here is of San Francisco’s Montgomery Street, our “Wall Street” of the West. The image is inscribed by the artist to Dean Witter (1887-1969), head of Dean Witter & Company, the well-known stock brokerage and securities firm with company headquarters on Montgomery Street. Provenance: the late Ann Witter of San Francisco.

 

     EXCELLENT  HISTORICAL WORK ON THE TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD

AMBROSE, Stephen E. Nothing Like It in the World. The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, 1863-1869. 431pp. Reproductions of vintage photographs. Notes, bibliography, index. Two-tone boards. A very fine copy with pictorial dust jacket. New York: Simon & Schuster, (2000).  SOLD.
                First edition. The full story of the building of the railroad and the men involved: the backers, engineers, surveyors, the Chinese, Irish and defeated Southern laborers, and others. Book and jacket flawless.

 

     A MASSIVE UNDERTAKING AND SUPERB REFERENCE

BAIRD, Jr., Joseph Armstrong and Edwin Clyve Evans. Historic Lithographs of San Francisco. Oblong atlas folio (2x3 feet). Extensive descriptive text. 47 facsimile lithographs of San Francisco, many hand-tinted or exquisitely hand-colored, 1 folding. Typographic design by Adrian Wilson. Original blue cloth, bound by hand. Offsetting to front blank endpaper from binder’s glue (typical). A fine copy, crisp and clean. San Francisco: Published by Steven A. Waterson for Burger and Evans, 1972.   $5,000.
                First and only edition. A massive undertaking listing and collating over 230 lithographs of San Francisco during the 19th and early 20th centuries, with superb reproductions of some of the best examples. A majority of the facsimile lithographs were printed full size and hand-colored or tinted to match the originals. The stated limitation is 1000 copies. In fact, less than 150 copies were ever completed. Mr. William Burger has stated that no more than 120 copies of this book were produced (ie: hand-colored, bound and numbered). The present copy is numbered “
102.”

 

      CLASSIC ACCOUNT OF 18TH CENTURY AMERICAN TRAVEL

BARTRAM, William. Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws… Pp. xxiv, 520, [12, index]. Frontis portrait, 7 engraved plates (1 folding), folding engraved map. Collated complete. Early 20th century three-quarter tan polished calf, marbled boards, gilt decoration between spine panels, red leather spine label, gilt. An exceptional copy, crisp and clean throughout. London: J. Johnson, 1792.   $6,500.
                First English edition (published the year after the extremely rare American first edition) of Bartram’s “unrivaled” account of life on the southern frontier. The frontispiece is a portrait of the chief of the Seminoles; the seven engraved plates show botanical and zoological subjects. This classic account of 18th-century American travel is one of the most lively and informative works published on the South. Bartram traveled from Georgia and South Carolina as far north as Tennessee and west to modern-day Louisiana. His account is notable for its literary style. “Bartram’s account of the remote frontier, of the plantations, trading posts, and Indian villages at the end of the 18th century is unrivaled” (Streeter II: 1088). Although primarily a naturalist, Bartram neglects nothing. He not only gives us an accurate picture of Indian life, but includes the peculiarities of the tribes he visited. Especially informative are the tables of the names and localities of the numerous towns of the populous nations of the Creeks and Cherokees. “Extensive travels, in the early years of the Republic, through the southern frontiers and among the Creeks and Cherokees. A work of high character well meriting its wide esteem” (Howes). The copy offered here is in exceptional condition. Penciled on the endpaper in a neat hand: “March 4, 1878. From the T. W. Riley collection” Also penciled is the name, “Blanchard.” [Clark I: 197; Howes I: B-223; Howes II: B-220; Sabin: 3870; Streeter: 1088; Vail: 849].

 

     ONE OF FIFTY COPIES WITH AN ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR

BEELER, Joe. The Joe Beeler Sketch Book. Foreword by Frederic G. Renner. Quarto. x, 141pp. Profusely illustrated with black & white reproductions (one in color). Full pictorially embossed leather. A very fine copy with pictorially-stamped cloth slipcase. (Flagstaff): Northland Press, (1974).    $1,250.
                First edition. Number 23 of 50 copies, specially bound and slipcased, and signed by the artist, and with an original watercolor portrait sketch of an Indian. Very scarce. Includes the artist’s character sketches, book illustrations, lithographs, early works, etc.

 

     THE LAST OF THE ARCTIC VOYAGES

BELCHER, Sir Edward. The Last of the Arctic Voyages; Being a Narrative of the Expedition in H.M.S. Assistance, Under the Command of Captain Sir Edward Belcher, C.B., in Search of Sir John Franklin, During the Years 1852-53-54... 2 volumes. Royal octavo. Pp, xx, 383 + vii, [1], 419. Collated complete with 3 folding engraved maps, 1 lithograph map and 36 lithograph plates (11 in color); 25 wood engravings in the text. Handsomely bound in three-quarter black goatskin, blue marbled sides and ends, red leather spine labels. Ex-library (withdrawn in the 1920’s) of Dartmouth College with their perforation on blank portion of title and a few other pages. With the exceptions noted, a fine and clean set. London: Lovell Reeve, 1855.   $4,000.
                First edition. Halifax-born Belcher gained considerable distinction as a surveyor in the royal navy. He served under Beechey on the western arctic coastal survey in 1825-27, and subsequently headed surveys of the west coast of North and South America and in the South China Sea. In 1852, he was placed in command of an expedition of five ships (Resolute, Intrepid, North Star, Assistance and Pioneer) to search in the Canadian Arctic for Sir John Franklin, missing since 1845. Belcher records his sailing through Wellington Channel and discovery of Exmouth and North Cornwall Islands and the Belcher Channel leading to Jones Sound. Also described is the meeting and rescue of Commdr. Robert McClure of the Investigator on northern Banks Island by the western arm of the expedition under Henry Kellett. Belcher's decision to abandon four ships icebound in Wellington Channel in 1854 led to his court-martial, and despite his acquittal, he continued to be severely criticized in England. Weather and ice conditions are recorded throughout, as well as optical phenomena, natural history, scurvy, etc., and a summary of results of Franklin's search expeditions to date. Appended are several scientific reports on natural history: John Richardson’s on fishes, J. W. Salter on fossils, Lovell Reeve on shells, Thomas Bell on crustacea, etc. [Abbey: 645; Hill: p.21; Hill II: 106; Sabin: 4389].

 

     CORRUPTION WITHIN THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

BONELLI, William G. Billion Dollar Blackjack. xii, 230pp. Bibliography and index. Original pictorial wrappers printed in yellow, black and blue. Light rusting to staples at gutter of front flyleaf, tiny gouge to fore-edge of last few leaves, but a fine copy, apparently unread. Beverly Hills: Civic Research Press, (1954).   $125.
                First edition. The story of corruption within the Los Angeles Times. The author was a member of the State Board of Equalization. The book was suppressed by the newspaper and every copy found was destroyed. The original paperback version, as offered here, is extremely obscure. “...first complete and authentic report on the Otis-Chandler family and three generations of civic, governmental and industrial corruption unparalleled anywhere else in American history” (dust jacket). We also offer the hardback version.

 

     THE FIRST MOUNTAINEERING EXPEDITION INTO CHINA

BONINGTON, Chris. Kongur, China’s Elusive Summit. Foreword by H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh. Introduction by Michael Ward. 224pp. Profusely illustrated with (mostly) color and black & white photographs; maps, Black cloth. A very fine copy with unclipped pictorial dust jacket. London: Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., 1982.  $75.
                First edition. The main Himalayan chain of the unexplored mountains of Tibet and Chinese Central Asia is now open to foreigners. The British Mount Kongur expedition was the first to be allowed into China. This excellent work discusses the expedition that conquered the summit. The author was part of the 4 man expedition.

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This site last updated on
05/27/2011