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<b>Bonhams:</b> MANDELSHTAM, OSIP. 1891-1938. Autograph Manuscript, 2 pp, [Petersburg,] January 1913, entitled

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David Lesser Antiquarian Books Issues Their 100th Catalogue The 100th catalogue from David Lesser Antiquarian Books By Michael Stillman David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books has issued its 100th catalogue of Rare Americana. The first was issued 18 years ago. Lesser notes of number 100, "...it's a bit bigger and, I hope, better than usual." However, he points out, "It's a lot like its predecessors..." and that, too, is true. This is fine. Lesser's catalogues are among the best in Americana you will find. He rarely handles the really expensive pieces, but generally low to mid range items, within the budget of many collectors. His books and manuscripts are always fascinating, mostly quite rare and hard to find, and provide a window on America in its early years that only something actually a part of that time can provide. For example... In the days before medical licensing standards and AMA references, a physician was on his own to defend himself from attacks on his competence. In 1840, poor Dr. Ahlenfeld of Hampshire, Virginia, was evidently the subject of such an attack. To defend his practice he printed a broadside, with the following head: To the public. I can refrain no longer from noticing the unremitting hostility, which I have had to encounter ever since my removal to Hampshire, by a combination of invidious and malicious individuals, who are harassing me in every way, and insidiously trying to injure my practice as a physician, by their nefarious calumniations, in endeavoring, both directly and indirectly, to make the people of this community, and out of this neighborhood believe that I am but a common quack... Ahlenfeld was a German immigrant, perhaps part of his problem, with degrees from Berlin and the University of Maryland. He prints recommendations from a Maryland physician and professor and claims the attacks "are actuated by disgraceful and selfish motives." Today, physicians have to fend off malpractice suits. In 1840, they had to defend nefarious calumniations. It isn't easy being a doctor. Item 5. Priced at $600. Lesser has several song sheets available. Item 31 includes eight from the 1870s from San Francisco publisher Bell and Company. Among the songs are 'Make Room For Your Uncle,' 'New Year's Song, 1876,' 'First She Would and Then She Wouldn't, or, O You Naughty, Naughty Man,' and the ever popular 'Since Mary Ann Learned How To Dance The Tra-La-La-Loo.' $175. Item 46 is a collection of 59 ballads from the 1850s-1880s by H. De Marsan, including 'Captain De Wellington's Boots,' 'The Landlord's Pet,' 'The New Skeddadle Song,' and 'Smiggey McGuirrel.' Favorites all. $850. Item 81 is an unusual collection of Lincoln items. It contains thirty orders from Lincoln following his review of military courts martial. Charges include treasonous activities by civilians, spying by Confederates, desertion and the like by Union soldiers, as well as more serious crimes such as rape and murder. Lincoln overturned many verdicts and commuted most death sentences unless the crimes were most serious. Lesser notes that these orders provide a great insight into Lincoln's careful performance of his duties of office. $1,500.
David Lesser Antiquarian Books Issues Their 100th Catalogue none One generally does not think of Indiana as a place for French land claims, but think again. Item 67 is a Translation of a Memorial in the French Language, of Sundry Citizens of the County of Wayne, in Indiana Territory, published in 1805. Indiana, along with most of the American Midwest, was once part of New France. The French claims to the land were by 1805 long gone, having been extinguished by treaty in 1763 at the conclusion of the French and Indian War. However, descendants of the early French settlers remained on their land, and hereby sought to have their claims legally recognized. $250. Item 85 was a book for the gullible, The Moon Hoax; or, a Discovery that the Moon has a Vast Population of Human Beings, by Richard Adams Locke. The title of this 1859 work gives away that it was a hoax, but when originally published serially in the New York Sun in 1835, it apparently was not made so clear. Reportedly, many people believed the stories about upright walking beaver-like creatures, horned bears, and a "Vespertilio-homo," a flying bat-man (a creature resuscitated in the late Weekly World News -- remember "bat boy?"). The articles reported that astronomer Sir John Herschel had spied these things through a very powerful telescope at the Cape of Good Hope. Herschel evidently was unaware of the claims being made in his name. $750. Item 167 is Congress of the United States...An Act making Certain Appropriations Therein Mentioned, from 1790. One of these special appropriations was the United States agreeing to pay for the education of George Morgan White Eyes at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton). The beneficiary's father, White Eyes, was a Delaware Indian Chief who worked for many years to keep peace between whites and Indians on the frontier, and eventually establish a 14th state for his people living at peace with white countrymen. Toward his ends, White Eyes joined an American military mission in Ohio during the Revolution, but died under mysterious circumstances. It was initially reported he died of smallpox, but in reality he had been murdered. It was to try to balance this wrong that Congress passed and President Washington signed a bill to pay for his son's education. $950. David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books is found online at www.lesserbooks.com, telephone 203-389-8111.

David Lesser Antiquarian Books Issues Their 100th Catalogue

The 100th catalogue from David Lesser Antiquarian Books

By Michael Stillman

David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books has issued its 100th catalogue of Rare Americana. The first was issued 18 years ago. Lesser notes of number 100, "...it's a bit bigger and, I hope, better than usual." However, he points out, "It's a lot like its predecessors..." and that, too, is true. This is fine. Lesser's catalogues are among the best in Americana you will find. He rarely handles the really expensive pieces, but generally low to mid range items, within the budget of many collectors. His books and manuscripts are always fascinating, mostly quite rare and hard to find, and provide a window on America in its early years that only something actually a part of that time can provide. For example...

In the days before medical licensing standards and AMA references, a physician was on his own to defend himself from attacks on his competence. In 1840, poor Dr. Ahlenfeld of Hampshire, Virginia, was evidently the subject of such an attack. To defend his practice he printed a broadside, with the following head: To the public. I can refrain no longer from noticing the unremitting hostility, which I have had to encounter ever since my removal to Hampshire, by a combination of invidious and malicious individuals, who are harassing me in every way, and insidiously trying to injure my practice as a physician, by their nefarious calumniations, in endeavoring, both directly and indirectly, to make the people of this community, and out of this neighborhood believe that I am but a common quack... Ahlenfeld was a German immigrant, perhaps part of his problem, with degrees from Berlin and the University of Maryland. He prints recommendations from a Maryland physician and professor and claims the attacks "are actuated by disgraceful and selfish motives." Today, physicians have to fend off malpractice suits. In 1840, they had to defend nefarious calumniations. It isn't easy being a doctor. Item 5. Priced at $600.

Lesser has several song sheets available. Item 31 includes eight from the 1870s from San Francisco publisher Bell and Company. Among the songs are 'Make Room For Your Uncle,' 'New Year's Song, 1876,' 'First She Would and Then She Wouldn't, or, O You Naughty, Naughty Man,' and the ever popular 'Since Mary Ann Learned How To Dance The Tra-La-La-Loo.' $175. Item 46 is a collection of 59 ballads from the 1850s-1880s by H. De Marsan, including 'Captain De Wellington's Boots,' 'The Landlord's Pet,' 'The New Skeddadle Song,' and 'Smiggey McGuirrel.' Favorites all. $850.

Item 81 is an unusual collection of Lincoln items. It contains thirty orders from Lincoln following his review of military courts martial. Charges include treasonous activities by civilians, spying by Confederates, desertion and the like by Union soldiers, as well as more serious crimes such as rape and murder. Lincoln overturned many verdicts and commuted most death sentences unless the crimes were most serious. Lesser notes that these orders provide a great insight into Lincoln's careful performance of his duties of office. $1,500.

David Lesser Antiquarian Books Issues Their 100th Catalogue

none

One generally does not think of Indiana as a place for French land claims, but think again. Item 67 is a Translation of a Memorial in the French Language, of Sundry Citizens of the County of Wayne, in Indiana Territory, published in 1805. Indiana, along with most of the American Midwest, was once part of New France. The French claims to the land were by 1805 long gone, having been extinguished by treaty in 1763 at the conclusion of the French and Indian War. However, descendants of the early French settlers remained on their land, and hereby sought to have their claims legally recognized. $250.

Item 85 was a book for the gullible, The Moon Hoax; or, a Discovery that the Moon has a Vast Population of Human Beings, by Richard Adams Locke. The title of this 1859 work gives away that it was a hoax, but when originally published serially in the New York Sun in 1835, it apparently was not made so clear. Reportedly, many people believed the stories about upright walking beaver-like creatures, horned bears, and a "Vespertilio-homo," a flying bat-man (a creature resuscitated in the late Weekly World News -- remember "bat boy?"). The articles reported that astronomer Sir John Herschel had spied these things through a very powerful telescope at the Cape of Good Hope. Herschel evidently was unaware of the claims being made in his name. $750.

Item 167 is Congress of the United States...An Act making Certain Appropriations Therein Mentioned, from 1790. One of these special appropriations was the United States agreeing to pay for the education of George Morgan White Eyes at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton). The beneficiary's father, White Eyes, was a Delaware Indian Chief who worked for many years to keep peace between whites and Indians on the frontier, and eventually establish a 14th state for his people living at peace with white countrymen. Toward his ends, White Eyes joined an American military mission in Ohio during the Revolution, but died under mysterious circumstances. It was initially reported he died of smallpox, but in reality he had been murdered. It was to try to balance this wrong that Congress passed and President Washington signed a bill to pay for his son's education. $950.

David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books is found online at www.lesserbooks.com, telephone 203-389-8111.