Rare Book Monthly
Articles - February - 2006 Issue
Triple Play in LA
Dramatic Reverse Glass Painting of the Death of Cook [Sloan Auction 17]
Gold Rush maps, especially pocket maps, are well represented, such as Jackson's Map of the Mining Districts of California (1851), estimated at $10,000-20,000 (Lot 103) with the warning: "We could advise any one who is doing well at home, not to venture to California." Lot 65 features a map described by Wheat as the earliest European map to indicate the discovery of gold in California--the English map that appears in a British edition of Foster's book on the Gold Regions of California. For reasonable price and maximum historical impact, Lot 146, a fat 1850 U.S. government report on the gold discovery features an epochal map of the Gold Region ($1,000-2,000), which Ralph E. Ehrenberg describes as "the first map of large general circulation to announce to the world the epochal finds in the West which would now transform the life and society of that once-distant country."
Auction 17 contains 75 lots with interesting material such as Streeter copies of two Cook rarities. One is James Magra's A Journal of a Voyage Round the World, in His Majesty's Ship Endeavour, in the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, and 1771 [London, 1771], the first published account of Cook's very first circumnavigation estimated $30,000 to $60,000 [Lot 13]. The other is a rare and desirable early American imprint of Hawkesworth's account of Cook's first voyage, printed at New York in 1774 and with Paul Revere's engraving and an estimate of $10,000 to $20,000 [Lot 16]. Perhaps the most unusual item in Auction 17 is not a book at all--but rather, a highly interesting icon of Captain Cook, a dramatic reverse glass painting of the death of Captain Cook from the collection of Sir Maurice Holmes, the noted bibliographer and collector of Captain Cook. It's estimated $10,000 to $20,000 [Lot 37].
There is also a set of the three Cook Voyages. You'll need plenty of shelf space for the eleven volumes that comprise these bibliographically complex books. I asked Ms. Sloan for examples of condition rarities and she suggested this material which is estimated $30,000 to $60,000 [lot 12].
For those looking to make some progress building their Zamorano 80 collection there is a first edition of No. 49 La Perouse's Voyage, one of the great and rare voyages for California history (and many other parts of the world, for that matter). It is a beautiful example of eighteenth-century French printing and bookmaking. [5 vols.] Estimated $20,000 to $40,000.
There is also Zamorano No. 77, George Vancouver's A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and round the World; in Which the Coast of North-West America Has Been Carefully Examined and Accurately Surveyed. This is four vols. and printed in 1798. The estimate is $50,000 to $100,000. There are 19 other Zamorano firsts distributed through the sales.
