[Bound with:] Prima Pars, Praecipuarum effigierum ac ornamaentorum, amplissimae Curiae Amstelrodamensis, maiori ex parte, in candido marmore effectorumm per Artum Quellinium, eiusdem civitatis statuarium, Amsterdam: Frederick de Witt, 1665, and Secunda Pars, Amsterdam: Frederick de Witt, 16th Jan. 1668.

The Amsterdam Stadt Huis, or town hall, is an enduring incarnation of the city’s, and the Dutch Republic’s, self-confidence, wealth, power and civic vitality at the height of the Golden Age. The cornerstone was laid in 1648, eight months after the Treaty of Munster ended the Eighty Years’ War with Spain, and when completed in 1655, Constantijn Huygens extolled the Stadt Huis as the “eighth wonder of the world.” Jacob van Campen's design and the sculptural program of Artus Quellinus symbolized not only Amsterdam’s glory and (in keeping with the building's function) principles of good governance, but also the perfection of the universe. The Stadt Huis indeed is proof that, as van Campen and Huygens believed, harmonious proportion is the measure of perfection in the universe, the human body, civic government and architecture. Perhaps that is why it remains my favorite building. I had the good fortune to acquire this beautiful and monumental tribute to a beautiful and monumental building early in my collecting, and it remains a cornerstone of my library.
]]> Each photograph approx. 8 x 10 in.

A souvenir travel album representing highlights in photography of the major architectural and archaeological sites of southern Italy. Carlo Brogi and his son Giacomo, along with the Fratelli Alinari, were Italy’s leading nineteenth-century documentary photographers and prepared elegant albums of original albumen photographs for purchase by mostly British, American and German tourists.

Depicted is a view of Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in the background, among the chief destinations for visitors to Naples and environs following Pompeii’s excavation in the mid-eighteenth century.

Collecting travel albums is an adjunct to my interests in photography and European prints, especially of the late Renaissance and Baroque periods.]]> The first American transcontinental expedition, by Lewis and Clark, to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase and beyond, ended in 1806. However, for various reasons, the official report of that expedition, with map, was not published until 1814. In the meantime, others began to publish some of the much-anticipated information about that trek. This 1809 French map, in a book of travel narratives, is one of the earliest cartographic representations of the route of Lewis and Clark to the Pacific. It is probably based on an early publication by one of the participants, possibly Clark himself or Patrick Gass, author of A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery under the Command of Capt. Lewis and Capt. Clarke … 1804, 1805 & 1806 (1807).]]>
The first New Jersey imprint.

For forty-three years I have collected, studied, and written about early New Jersey books and the book trade in eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century New Jersey. My collection has formed the basis of several books, including a descriptive bibliography of eighteenth-century New Jersey printing published in 2012.

If New Jerseyana collecting has a Black Tulip, it is the 1723 Perth Amboy laws. Only five other copies are known, with all but one in major institutional collections. Acquiring a copy for myself was so far beyond the realm of possibility that I never considered it. One year ago I acquired this Sammelband of early New Jersey laws that includes the 1723 laws. The volume is annotated throughout by Chief Justice David Brearley (1745–90), who presented it to William Paterson (1745–1806), the second governor of New Jersey (1790–93).]]> Grolier binding forgery by Louis Hagué.

A fine forgery of a Grolier binding by Louis Hagué, from my “fake bindings” collection. The famous Belgian binder Hagué (1822 or 1823–91) was probably the most skillful forger of his time. Active in Brussels between 1875 and his death, he produced bindings purporting to be sixteenth-century French. The present book is the second Froben edition of Lazare de Baïf’s illustrated trilogy of studies on ancient manufactures. In 1888, a catalogue of Bernard Quaritch described this sumptuous copy: “The wonderful freshness and perfect preservation of this beautiful binding have led to doubts being thrown upon its genuineness, some persons even going so far as to allege that it is a modern fabrication” (B. Quaritch, Catalogue 99, 1888, no. 124). The work executed by Hagué on this copy was remarkably credible at the time by its coherence and its precision, in spite of the use of painting to realize the interlaced designs, and also of the motto “Tanquam ventus est vita mea,” which has nothing to do with Grolier himself.]]>
Provenance: Count Pál Teleki (1897–1941), former prime minister of Hungary.

This copy is the first edition and very rare second issue of Brahe’s most important work, with numerous contemporary annotations. Brahe was the last major astronomer to work without the aid of a telescope. His “Astronomiae instauratae progymnasmata was produced in 1602 by the author’s own press at Uraniborg, and only a small number were printed for dedication purposes. It contains important investigations on the new star of 1572 which Brahe had discovered in Cassiopeia. This discovery led to far-reaching consequences in the history of astronomy as this work became the foundation on which Kepler, and later Newton, built their astronomical systems.” (Sparrow, Milestones of Science, 12.)

“‘Tycho possesses the best observations and consequently, as it were, the material for the erection of a new structure … He lacks only the architect who uses all this according to a plan. For, even though he also possesses a rather happy talent and true architectural ability, still he was hindered by the diversity of the phenomena as well as by the fact that the truth lies hidden exceedingly deep within them. Now old age steals upon him, weakening his intellect and other faculties or, after a few years, will so weaken them that it will be difficult for him to accomplish everything alone.’ With this insight, Kepler came to understand the task that lay before him. He considered himself summoned as the architect who should erect the new structure ...” (Caspar, Kepler, 102–3.) “Tycho began printing his principal work at his Uraniborg observatory on the island of Hveen, but the ‘Exercises in the Reform of Astronomy’ was finally published posthumously at Prague in 1602 with an appendix by Kepler.” (Gingerich, Rara Astronomica, 24.)]]>
Do spend a moment reacting as if you had received the letter from Lincoln. He is very persuasive in a most genteel manner. “I shall be glad if, by your acquaintance with the rich men, you can render him some assistance.”

That this letter and other documents are available for private collectors is wonderful to me. I realize I am but a steward for a period of time and I hope that they will pass on to others at some time, providing future collectors with the pleasure of owning and appreciating these items.]]> Provenance: Philip D. Sang.

“One of the most striking characteristics of an American is his self dependence. Born to no fortune he knows, from his earliest years, that he has nothing but his own mental and bodily exertions to rely on in the great struggle of existence. This self dependence produces a remarkable quickness and versatility of talent. He turns his mother wit, as the Indian does his knife, to all purposes, and is seldom at a loss. At his first outset in life the world lies before him, like the wilderness of his own country, a trackless waste, through which he must cut his own path; but what would be a region of doubt and despondency to another mind appears to him a land of promise, a region of glorious enterprise tinted with golden hope.”

My Western Americana collection of letters, diaries, books, maps, prints and paintings is focused on people going west for the freedom to change their lives from the bonds of their birth and upbringing to maximize the opportunity to be who they can be. It is about self-realization—the freedom to make your own destiny.

This manuscript was offered at auction in 1976 and I was willing to pay all that I could afford, and accept all the credit that Parke-Bernet would extend to me, to acquire it. These thoughts by Washington Irving, the author of many books about the West, have defined my collection. I have written two books based on my collection (The Western Pursuit of the American Dream and The Great West: Pursuing the American Dream) and this manuscript was the frontispiece in both books.]]>
In 1959, my father was returning from a business trip, and his seatmate was none other than the poet Carl Sandburg. My father had him sign a postcard for me, and when I met him at the airport, I was too excited to see him to even notice who he was introducing me to. As we were walking away, I realized who I’d just met, and ran back to recite “Fog” to the poet, just as strangers recited “The Raven” to each other on the street during the height of Edgar Allan Poe’s fame.

This postcard is one of my most treasured items. It represents for me what a collection is all about: a connection to the past, and a concrete and living piece of writing. ]]>