On offer is an original, hardcover handprinted book from 1788, regarding the Natural Science of Mineralogy (the scientific study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts). The book comes at the end of the Scientific Revolution in the Western World, roughly from 1600-1800 and is a translation of a book written by Baron Axel Fredrik Cronstedt, the famous Swedish mineralogist and chemist who discovered nickel in 1751 and is regarded as one of the founders of modern mineralogy. The title page reads like many in the 17th and 18th century, long a... View More...
On offer is a super manuscript relic of 18th Century religious devotion being a vellum covered notebook titled 'Memoria' handwritten by Carlo Antonio Di Cesare, a Jesuit in Naples between 1744 and 1764. Superbly intimate look into the life of this Catholic man using the book as a 'vade mecum' or catchall thusly a diary of notes detailing the life of this Jesuit scholar: it begins with his graduation into the Congregazione de' studenti sotto la protezzione dell'Annunciata of the Jesuit College Gesù Vecchio in Naples to study 'Logic' under Professore Giuseppe Guidone. On 24 November 1744, he pas... View More...
On offer is a superb, original historical early 18th Century travel journal of three [3] Dutch men, Daniel van Alphen, P. van Dorp and the writer of the journal Hendrik van Alphen (1708-1764) who travel from Holland to Germany from April 9th 1739 through late summer. Hendrik is listed on Dutch genealogical sites as a 'koopman' or in English a merchant and given the many references that include numbers the approximately 8 x 10 inch very full 133 hand numbered page book is unlike diaries there is little detail of the daily doings but rather Hendrik described landscape and the community, where th... View More...
On offer is a fantastic group of notebook journals that belonged to Horace R. Hobart. Hobart led a long and illustrious life in newspapers, gazettes, and magazines. Born in 1839 he was a Wisconsin Cavalry Quartermaster in the Civil War starting in 1861 until being wounded in Arkansas. Beginning in 1866 he wrote for the Chicago Tribune as a reporter than was Editor of Chicago Evening Post (1867-1870), Co-founder of the Chicago Evening Mail (1871-1873), Editor of Chicago Evening Post (1873) again, editor and 1/2 owner of Daily Journal in Jacksonville, IL (1874-1875), editor of the Chicago Morni... View More...
On offer is a super, original, naïve 18th Century manuscript diary handwritten by James Blakeman [sometimes Blackman] of Stratford Connecticut and as inscribed on the title page: "My Journal for the year 1786 James Blakeman's Journal for the year 1786" a 4 x 6¼ inch 13 page monthly account [one title page and then one month to a page] of besides his numerous farming activities including cutting, carting, plowing, making cider, mending fences, transporting hay, flax+++ he tells much local history in his direct, terse notes: "I was at Fairfield on the jury. Came home, dressed flax. I... View More...
On offer is are two lovely and fascinating letters from a father and mother to their daughter detailing their situation mere weeks after moving to New Frankford, Virginia. The letter is signed “Moses Starr and Elizabeth Starr” and addressed to their “Dear Daughter.” The first letter is dated November 17th, 1797 and the second is dated December 23, 1797. In the letters, they describe their journey to their new home in West Virginia, their home and their farm. They now live in “New Frankfurt,” in “Harrison County, Simpsons Creek, Eight Miles From Clarkburg.” The first letter begins, “Dear Daught... View More...
On offer is the original handwritten manuscript "Voyages and Travels of Richard Renshaw" of the British Army's heralded Royal Regiment of Artillery, Renshaw of the 4th Battalion. Some parts of this manuscript were later published as 'VOYAGE TO THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE' in 1804. Renshaw retells in detail and with a keen observer's eye the story of his service for Great Britain. He is an educated man who writes insightful and sometimes rollicking accounts of his and the group's adventures. He describes everything he sees through Africa and into Egypt as part of Admiral Nelson's fleet and th... View More...
On offer is a stunning look into the the mind, finances and economy of Rudelle Dalzon a landlord, caterer and food supplier in pre Revolutionary France on the French Riviera. Many layered, very thick, elephant folio list many, many hundreds of transactions for rents, properties listed, supplies purchased, traded, sums loaned and paid plus many pieces of ephemera stuffed inside. Unpaginated, in original boards on thick paper there are at least 200 pages at two inches thick. Rudelle begins in 1745 and writes well into 1780s. There are at least two businesses running and ancilliary loans with cor... View More...