I enjoy cataloging rare books and manuscripts. It’s one of the few activities – along with mowing the lawn, stacking wood, and painting the house – in which I can actually see the result of my labors. I might spend half an hour or a day engrossed in a manuscript, and when I’m in there with that item, I’m living in the world of the person who created it. Sometimes the phone will ring and I’ll reflexively pick it up. When the voice on the other end comes out, I’m totally confused because I’m back in the 18th or 19th century, mid Pacific, or the South Shetland Islands, or God knows where, and the 21st century is very far away. I stutter and stumble. The caller thinks he’s talking to an idiot. He has no idea he’s talking to a time traveler.
In the past couple of weeks I’ve shopped the three New York Book Fairs and the Ephemera Society fair and, believe me, I did not purchase any common books. Cataloging those purchases was my chance to articulate my fascination, to share my excitement and, hopefully, to turn some of it into the cash I need to continue to survive, with enough left over to do it all again – same as I’ve been doing, over and over, since 1976.
As always, there is no charge for postage and insurance on items shipped within the US.
Anon.
The Flags of all Maritime Nations, Prepared from the Most Authentic Sources, in Which are Accurately Represented the Royal Standards, Ensigns, Signals, Pennants, etc. in Use by the Nations of the World in Their Armies, Navies, and Marine Service: the International Code of Signals, and the United States and Canada Yacht Club Signals. To Which is Added … the Coats of Arms of the Various Nations of the World. Printed in Colors.
William T. Amies, ( n.d. (ca. 1880)), Philadelphia
Oblong 8vo. 16 pp. colored lithograph plates with multiple images.
Item #:40649
Price: $250
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Anon.
Log of the Incidents of the Voyage of Steamboat Cora, Capt. Jo. Armstrong, from Philadelphia to Mobile.
( n.d.), n.p.
12mo. 16 pp.
Item #:40653
Price: $750
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Atwood, John.
The Pilgrimage of a Pilgrim of Eighty Years.
Published by the Author, ( 1892), Boston
215pp. b/w frontispiece portrait.
Item #:40678
Price: $100
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Broadsheet.
The Yankee Ship, and the Fisherman’s Girl.
Hunts and Shaw, ( n.d. Circa 1836.), (Boston)
4to sheet with wood engraved image and border.
Item #:40659
Price: $150
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Broadside
Emigration from Bristol to New York. To Sail 1st May, 1851, the Fine, New, Clipper-Built First Class Barque Queen of the Ocean…
Folio sheet, 10 x 15 1/2 inches, with vignette of ship. Printed on blue stock
Item #:40661
Price: $500
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Broadside, U.S. Congress.
April 7, 1781. Be it Ordained and it is Hereby Ordained by the United States in Congress Assembled, the the Following Instructions be Observed by the Captains or Commanders of Private Armed Vessels…
(David A. Claypool), ( 1781), (Philadelphia)
Folio sheet 13 1/2 x 8 inches.
Item #:40668
Price: $5000
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Chamberlayne, Charles F.
Is it Sport or Business for Buzzards Bay Towns?
Rockwell and Churchill, ( 1892), Boston
41 pp. b/w folding map.
Item #:40666
Price: $50
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Coope, A.E. (Translator).
The Story Of The Voyage Of Abdullah Bin Abdul Kadir, Munshi.
Malaya Publishing House, ( 1949), Singapore
ix, 71 pp. b/w map.
Item #:40652
Price: $125
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Crosby, Everett U.
Susan’s Teeth and Much About Scrimshaw.
Tetaukimmo Press, ( 1955)), (Nantucket
62 pp. plus b/w photo halftone plates.
Item #:40660
Price: $850
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Cullen, Dr. (Edward).
Isthmus of Darien Ship Canal.
Effingham Wilson, ( 1853), London
xii, 204, (12 adverts) pp. b/w folding lithograph frontispiece, and folding maps.
Item #:40679
Price: $200
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Cunningham, Charles.
A Narrative of Occurrences That Took Place During the Mutiny at the Nore, in the Months of May and June, 1797…
William Burrill, ( 1829), Chatham
xii, (1 errata) 141, (1) pp.
Item #:40648
Price: $1500
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Dilke, Sir. Fisher.
Observer on Ranger.
Herbert Jenkins Limited, ( (1938)), London
4to. xvi, 111 pp. b/w plates.
Item #:40681
Price: $400
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(Du Halde, J.B., Louis Le Compte and others).
The Chinese Traveller. Containing a Geographical, Commercial and Political History of China.
E. and C. Dilly, ( 1775), London
2 vols. 12mo. vii, 267; iii, 299 pp. b/w frontispiece, folding map, and plates.
Item #:40670
Price: $350
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Ephemera.
Wade & Croome’s Panorama of the Hudson River from New York to Albany.
J. Disturnell, ( 1846), New York
12mo. 32 pp text plus according-style folding b/w engraving 6 inches wide x 12 feet long.
Item #:40639
Price: $1500
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Gibson, J.B.
Souvenir Program. International Yacht Races, 1930.
J.B. Gibson, ( (1920)), New York
Oblong 4to. 200 pp. b/w plates.
Item #:40669
Price: $350
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Hauk, Z. William (editor).
T Wharf.
Alden-Hauk, ( 1952), Boston
4to. 185 pp. line and photo ills., plates.
Item #:40667
Price: $100
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Herbert, Charles.
A Relic of the Revolution.
Charles H. Pierce, ( 1847), Boston
12mo. (2 wood engravings) (6), 7-258 pp. b/w frontipiece and illustrated titled.
Item #:40651
Price: $350
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M'Carty, William
History of the American War of Eighteen Hundred and Twelve…
M'Carty & Davis, ( 1816), Philadelphia
12mo; (viii), (9)-252pp. Frontispiece portrait, folding map, b/w plates.
Item #:40675
Price: $750
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M'Leod, John.
Voyage of His Majesty’s Ship Alceste, Along the Coast of Corea, to the Island of Lewchew; With an Account of her Subsequent Shipwreck
John Murray, ( 1817), London
(6), (errata), 288 pp. b/w and color plates.
Item #:40671
Price: $250
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Manuscript
Diary of a Young Woman on Martha’s Vineyard, 1914.
12mo, unpaginated. Approximately 350 pages of manuscript entries.
Item #:40650
Price: $200
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