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Orders for any of the listed books may be placed at the following link which allows one to send us an email order. Please click on the link below and send us full particulars about the book you wish to order. Remember to include your email address and/or phone number. Thank you for your consideration.

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       ALL THE FEDERAL ACTS CONCERNING THE GOVERNMENT OF THE NEW STATES

[AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONS]. The Constitutions of the United States, according to the latest amendments. To which are prefixed, the Declaration of Independence, and the Federal Constitution. 12mo. xxiv, 381pp. (last 4 pages are mispaginated). Newly bound in paper-covered boards, paper spine label. A fine copy, collated complete. Philadelphia: Printed by John Conrad & Co., 1804.   $1,200.
              First edition. Very scarce. Only one copy of this title has sold at auction during the last 30 years. “This edition contains all the federal acts concerning the government of the new states, &c., down to the month of March, 1804.” Includes the United States seal (eagle and shield with stripes) and the United States motto, “E. Pluribus Unum” engraved on the blank recto of the half title. This important work also prints the full text of “An Act Erecting Louisiana into two Territories, and Providing for the Temporary Government Thereof,” approved the same year as this publication. Penciled at top of the title page is the contemporary signature of “Moses Brown,” most likely the same Moses Brown (1742-1827) of Newburyport, Massachusetts, a well known merchant and philanthropist who helped found the library at the Andover Theological Seminary (see DAB). [Sabin: 16101].
 

     AN EXTENSIVE AND THOROUGH STUDY

COCHRANE, Capt. Charles Stuart. Journal of a Residence and Travels in Colombia, During the Years 1823 and 1824. 2 volumes. Octavo. xv, [1], 524 + viii, 517pp. 2 hand-colored engraved frontispieces, large folding map. Full nineteenth-century polished calf, gilt-decorated spines, gilt-lettered leather labels. Lacking half-title in volume I. Light offsetting to titles from frontispieces and light offsetting to folding map, else a fine and clean set throughout with virtually no foxing. London: Printed for Henry Colburn, 1825. $1,750.
                First edition. Captain Cochrane of the Royal Navy arrived in Colombia in 1823 in an attempt to help the natives reduce the number of casualties among divers in the pearl fishery industry. His journal provides an extensive and thorough study of the cities, citizens, customs, natural history, resources, etc. of the country. The work is highlighted by the two handsome plates which include a hand-colored engraving of “The Author in the Travelling Costume of the Country” and a hand-colored aquatint of a “Precipitous Descent of a Cordillera of the Andes in the Province of Choco.” The large folding map of Colombia is extremely detailed and was engraved by Sidney Hall specifically for this work.

       The first full-length biography of Clarence King

[KING, Clarence]. Wilkins, Thurman. Clarence King. A Biography. xiii [1] 524 pp. 32 plates. Extensive bibliography and chapter notes, index. A very fine and bright copy with pictorial dust jacket. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988. $90.
        Revised and enlarged edition. The first full-length biography of King: mountain climbing expeditions for the California Survey in 1863-1866; the first Director of the U.S. Geological Survey; exposing the notorious “Arizona diamond fields;” silver mining in Mexico & Nevada, etc., etc. This edition has nearly 100 more pages and 27 more illustrations than the original edition. Also the text has been extensively revised.

       DEALS EXCLUSIVELY WITH BLACK FORTY-NINERS IN THE GOLD RUSH

LAPP, Rudolph M. Blacks in Gold Rush California. xiv, 321pp. plus 12 unnumbered pages of illustrations. Illustrated from portraits and photographs of mining scenes; notes, bibliography and index. Yellow cloth. A fine copy in pictorial dust jacket. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977.  $100.
        First edition. The first and only book to deal exclusively with the general history of Black Forty-Niners in the Gold Rush, including both free blacks and slaves, and their role in the development of California. Although Chinese and Latin Americans have deserved commentary in numerous accounts, blacks have been (prior to this book) singularly neglected. It appears from Lapp’s extensive research on the subject that blacks worked singly, in companies with other blacks and in companies with whites and that they enjoyed the same degrees of success and failure in the gold fields as others. This fine work also includes a detailed account of the California Colored Convention.

       ONE OF THE MOST USEFUL CONTEMPORARY AUTHORITIES ON FRENCH LOUISIANA

[LOUISIANA]. LePage Du Pratz, Antoine. Histoire de la Louisiane. Contenant le Découverte de ce vaste Pays; sa Description géographique; un Voyage dans les Terres; l’Histoire Naturelle; les Mœurs, Coûtumes & Religion des Naturels, avec leurs Origines; deux Voyages dans le Nord du nouveau Mexique, don’t un jusqu’à la Mer du Sud… Small octavo. 3 volumes. Pp. xvi, 358 + [4], 441, [1, blank] + [2], 451, [3], [1, errata]. Forty plates (3 folding), 2 folding maps. Handsomely rebound in three-quarter leather, marbled sides, raised bands, gilt-lettered red spine labels. Blank lower corner of one leaf torn off (not affecting text), lacking half title in volume III, else a fine and exceptionally clean set. Paris: Chez de Bure, l’Aîné, 1758.    $2,750.
              First edition. Complete with the forty plates (including a folding plan of New Orleans) and 2 folding maps. .“Le Page du Pratz lived in Louisana for about sixteen years; he acquired much information and misinformation about the colony. His descriptions of the native inhabitants are valuable. He includes a short account of the expedition of Louis de St. Denis to New Mexico in 1715” (Graff). “One of the most useful contemporary authorities on French Louisiana” (Streeter). “Relation, based on a residence from 1718 to 1734, valuable for showing French claims to southern territory east of the Mississippi and for particulars concerning Indian nations there” (Howes). The two folding maps include a large folding map of Louisiana Territory (“Carte de la Louisiane Colonie Française”) from Santa Fé to “Nouvelle Angleterre” and from Lahontan’s system of rivers and lakes in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south, and a smaller folding map of the lower quadrant of Louisiana around New Orleans. The folding plan of New Orleans shows the layout of the city, the fort, government buildings, hospital, the levee along the river, etc. [Field: 910; Graff: 2462; Howes I: L-266; Howes II: L-265; Rader: 2219; Raines: p.73; Sabin: 40122; Streeter: 127].

       “THE FASHIONABLE PRIVATE ADDRESS DIRECTORY”      

[SAN FRANCISCO BLUE BOOK]. The San Francisco Blue Book. Being the Fashionable Private Address Directory, and Ladies’ Visiting and Shopping Guide… Octavo. Pp. a-h, 391 plus ads throughout (many illustrated). Original light blue cloth lettered and decorated in black. Minor wear to corners, rebacked in similar cloth, else a fine copy. San Francisco: The Bancroft Company, 1889.    $275.
              First edition, second year of publication from this publisher. Quite scarce. “Containing the names, addresses, reception days, and country residences of the elite of San Francisco, Oakland, Alameda, Los Angeles, Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Mateo, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, and Santa Clara, San Rafael, Sausalito, Stockton, and California Colony in New York.” Covers everyone of any importance as well as Art Associations; a Club Directory; Hotels; Personnel of the Press; Private Memoranda, Advertisements and Educational Institutions; Diagrams of Theatres; a Shopping Guide; etc. Illustrated advertisements include a bird’s-eye-view as well as a fold-out view of the Hotel del Monte, Monterey, another fold-out view of the Hotel Vendome in San Jose, etc.

       With a rare presentation, signed by the architect

WRIGHT, Frank Lloyd. The Story of the Tower. The Tree That Escaped the Crowded Forest. Quarto. 134pp. Illustrated throughout with frontis portrait, photographs and plans, 2 folding color plates. Black cloth decorated and lettered in red and gilt. Tiny scar to center of inner rear hinge. A fine copy. New York: Horizon Press, 1956.    $2,500.
              First edition. Presentation, signed by the author, “To Harry Riskes – Frank Lloyd Wright / 57.” Very rare thus! Harry Riskes was a contractor working for Frank Lloyd Wright for many years. Also includes another presentation to Riskes from his colleague, John G. Phillips. Well-illustrated full story of Wright’s nineteen-story office and apartment skyscraper for the H.C. Price Company in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

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Date last modified 01-29-2008