Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2007 Issue
Hispanica Americana from The Antique Bookshop
A Mexican Railroad illustration from Casimiro Castro's 1877 book.
Item 11 is the 1773 second edition (in English, after the first in French) of a trip to the Falkland Islands by French explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville: The history of a voyage to the Malouine (or Falkland) Islands, made in 1763 and 1764. Bougainville had fought for the French in North America during the French and Indian War, but after the French defeat, was sent south in hopes of establishing a far more modest colony in the Falklands. This book includes much on the natural history of the Falkland Islands plus descriptions of adjacent areas of South America. Bougainville set up the first colony on the islands at Port Louis, but by 1767, the French had turned the islands over to the Spanish, leaving it to be disputed for centuries between the British and Spanish, and after independence, Argentina. Bougainville would then proceed to undertake the first French circumnavigation of the globe. $4,000.
There are few subjects more collected than railroads, and the Antique Bookshop has two beautifully illustrated books on Mexican railways. Item 9 is Historia del Ferrocarril Mexicano, by Baz and Gallo, published in 1874. This is a beautifully illustrated history of the Mexican railway from Veracruz to Mexico City. There are many lithographs of scenes such as tunnels, bridges and stations along the railroad. $9,000. Item 22 is Album del Ferrocarril Mexicana, an 1877 work by Casimiro Castro. This book celebrates the opening of the same Veracruz-Mexico City line five years earlier. It contains 24 lithographic railroad scenes. $17,500.
The Antique Bookshop may be reached by telephone at (5411) 4813-1090 or by email at book@fibertel.com.ar.
