Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - February - 2005 Issue
Recent Acquisitions From the William Reese Co.
Stock certificate in Nauvoo House.
Ewh Oowahweendahmahgawin Owh Tabanemenung... What language is this? The answer is Ojibwa (Chippewa), and this is a translation of the New Testament into this native language. From 1854. Item 32. $1,600. So how about Wicoicage Wowapi Qa Odowan Wakan...? It can't be English, since we know "u" always follows "q" in English. This one is Dakotan, and this is a two-volume rendition of the Bible from 1842-3. Item 51. $6,000.
Alexander Hamilton was America's first Treasury Secretary and a founder of the Bank of New York. However, in 1782, he was a soon-to-be ex-military man searching to find enough money to meet his own needs. So, on February 17, he sat down and wrote a letter to Jeremiah Wadsworth, a fellow officer in the war who would go on to found or lead several banks in the years ahead. Hamilton, in the most proper of manners, hits up Wadsworth for a loan. Though Wadsworth was also a financial partner with Mrs. Hamilton's brother-in-law, Hamilton asks no special favors. In his letter, Hamilton says that he understands that Wadsworth has loaned some money at interest, and requests a loan of 100 pounds on the same terms he has loaned it to others. Item 84. $5,000.
That was one letter. Here's a whole collection of them. William Few was a Georgia patriot, who served in the Constitutional Convention, the U.S. Senate (one of Georgia's first two senators), as well as the Georgia militia and various other public offices. He would later go on to have a successful banking and public career in New York. Interestingly, while Few owned a southern plantation, he was an opponent of slavery. In another oddity, while a supporter of the Democratic-Republicans, he was a believer in commercial development, rather than focused on the agrarian interests of his party's leaders. Perhaps this explains his turn to New York banking. Item 63 is an enormous collection of Few family letters, from William, his wife Catherine, and other family members. They span a period of 62 years, from 1782 to 1844. In all, there are around 500 letters and several thousand pages. $12,500.
Here are a couple of the most sought after classics of Americana. Item 13 is the seven-volume first Octavo edition of John James Audubon's Birds of America. This was apparently a gift of Audubon to Charlotte Cushman, one of the greatest actresses of the time. $95,000. Item 112 is the official account of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, officially History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clarke... However, this is neither the American nor the notable London edition, both of 1814. This is the very rare first Dublin edition printed in 1817. With the Dublin edition, you get an extra "e" in Clark's name. $50,000.
