The Outbreak of the Rebellion in the United States 1861

New York, Kimmel & Forster, 1865. Lithograph. Approximately 21" X 26. Very good. Lightly, evenly age toned; blank margins either trimmed or edgeworn, for the cream mat goes to the image edge at the top and sides, while the bottom includes the full title line (mat opening 23" X 18¼"). First edition. Magnificent allegorical lithograph issued by the famed New York print publisher, who also produced a companion piece entitled "The End of the Rebellion in the United States 1865." A large figure of Columbia stands at center atop a huge splitting rock, looking to the viewer's right and clutching a waving flag in her right hand; meanwhile her other hand wags a pointing finger toward the viewer's left side. At her feet lie a whip and open shackles representing the abolition of slavery. To the viewer's right stands Abraham Lincoln, and indeed the entire right side represents the Republican cause. A stern General Winfield Scott stand behind Lincoln, and a crowd of young men strain forward, some offering up bags of gold, some bearing arms, all willing to join the cause; a woman in the foreground covers her eyes and is comforted by two children. The background on this side is horizon of mountains and a glorious sunrise. On Columbia's other side stands the figure of Justice without her usual blindfold, raising up her scales in one hand and sword in the other, glaring angrily toward all those at the left side of this hectic scene. James Buchanan's sleeps blissfully at the edge of the split rock, while next to him crouches his secretary of war, John B. Floyd -- who was charged with corruption -- eagerly scooping up gold coins into a large sack. Further back Jefferson Davis (clutching a ripped U.S. flag) and Alexander H. Stephens stand beside a palm tree with a huge snake coiling up its length and spitting at the scales of justice. An angry cluster of soldiers swirls around them. The background on this side is grim and muted, with battle scenes. A superb, handsome example of this famous Civil War allegorical print. .

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Book number: 33225

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

AMMAN, Jost (1539-91)

Three Original Woodcut Plates

This prolific Swiss-German artist was famed for his many woodcut book illustrations. Two original woodcut prints (each trimmed to 2 7/8" X 2½" and paper matted to 12" X 8"), both from the "Sacra Biblia" published by Sigismund Feierabend in Frankfurt in 1571. Each near fine, boldly struck and vivid. One depicts Joshua condemning Achan and the other David ordering the death of the slayer of Saul. Accompanied by a third, larger original woodcut (trimmed to 6" X 4¼" and paper matted to 12" X 8") from an unidentified work. Near fine. Identified in pencil inside matte as "Titus Manlius conquering the giant Gaul," this busy scene depicts a Roman soldier about to slay a prone soldier on a bridge crossing a river as hordes of spear and shield-laden Roman soldiers watch. An evocative trio of 16th century small prints. .

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Book number: 48462

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

BEECHER, John

Bestride the Narrow World

Phoenix, AZ, Rampart Press, 1963. Broadside. 4to (9" X 12½"). Titled in red. Edition limited to 200 copies. Fine. First separate printing. Presumably inspired by the Ap Bac hamlet encounter in Vietnam, in which the Vietcong for the first time took on the American military and the South Vietnamese Army, Beecher ruminates upon war. A fine critique in true Beecher form, reading in part: "Proud / as pterodactyls in their prime are we, / mighty as mammoths.." His title comes from Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" : "He doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his luge legs, and peep about." One of the great American protest and radical poets, Beecher left his steel mill background to teach English and sociology at various universities; he worked various positions under the New Deal; his first published poem, "And I Will Be Heard" (1940), placed him on the literary map, and the book-length narrative poem "Here I Stand" came the following year; during World War Two he sailed aboard the first racially integrated ship, the S.S. Booker T. Washington, and wrote about those experiences in "All Brave Sailors"; blacklisted from teaching by refusing to sign a state loyalty oath in California in 1950, he became a rancher and farmer in Sonoma County; there he continued writing, founding the award-winning Morning Star Press in 1956 to publish his poetry and other socially-oriented pieces, becoming a gifted and accomplished practitioner in the process; this press then operated from San Francisco, Berkeley, and Jerome, Arizona; renamed, it relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona and other locales; "Report to the Stockholders & Other Poems" appeared in 1962 to critical acclaim and "To Live and Die in Dixie" in 1966; these later years were filled with guest teaching positions from Massachusetts to California, and Beecher was in great demand as a lecturer and poetry reader nationwide; descended from famed Abolitionists Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Lyman Beecher, much of John Beecher's poetry concerns itself with race relations, labor reform and other social injustices. .

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Book number: 27649

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

BEECHER, John

A Humble Petition to the President of Harvard

Phoenix, AZ, Rampart Press, 1963. Broadside. Folio (12½" X 16"). Titled in red. Limited to 250 copies printed on German mouldmade paper. Fine. First separate printing -- and although this broadside was never issued signed, Beecher's wife and printing partner, artist Barbara Beecher (1925-2016), handsomely signed a very small number in pencil at lower right and this is one such example. Although Beecher didn't graduate from Harvard, he did attend Harvard Graduate School for language and literature in 1926 -- hence his opening declaration here, "I am, sir, so to speak, 'a Harvard man.'" Possibly occasioned by a much later visit by Beecher to his almost-alma (he refers to "Nostalgic reminiscences brought on / by your most recent bulletin"), this delightful piece begins as a tribute to the legendary Harvard literature professor G.L. Kittredge (1860-1941), Shakespeare and Chaucer authority, prim and proper "in forked snowy beard and pearl-grey spats" whose teachings were equally fastidious: "Prince Hamlet / made no unseemly quips anent the thighs / Ophelia spread for him.." -- thus "Nice young men were we / in Kitty's class.." Personal recollections follow before a Lionel Trilling essay ("Commitment to the Modern") found in the "recent bulletin" shows the poet that "you do not change / at Harvard, like castrati whose voices / retain their boyish purity." Harvard's status quo conservative establishment, he suddenly realizes, rub this radical poet the wrong way: "Fend from me, I beg you, sir, / offers of chairs magnates endow. Waylay / me with no teaching sinecure.. Summon me never to recite my verse / before a convocation in my honor / nor to appear in doctoral costume / as orator at Commencement." A wonderfully dark, provocative, humorous poem. One of the great American protest and radical poets, Beecher left his steel mill background to teach English and sociology at various universities; he worked various positions under the New Deal; his first published poem, "And I Will Be Heard" (1940), placed him on the literary map, and the book-length narrative poem "Here I Stand" came the following year; during World War Two he sailed aboard the first racially integrated ship, the S.S. Booker T. Washington, and wrote about those experiences in "All Brave Sailors"; blacklisted from teaching by refusing to sign a state loyalty oath in California in 1950, he became a rancher and farmer in Sonoma County; there he continued writing, founding the award-winning Morning Star Press in 1956 to publish his poetry and other socially-oriented pieces, becoming a gifted and accomplished practitioner in the process; this press then operated from San Francisco, Berkeley, and Jerome, Arizona; renamed it relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona and other locales; "Report to the Stockholders & Other Poems" appeared in 1962 to critical acclaim and "To Live and Die in Dixie" in 1966; these later years were filled with guest teaching positions from Massachusetts to California, and Beecher was in great demand as a lecturer and poetry reader nationwide; descended from famed Abolitionists Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Lyman Beecher, much of John Beecher's poetry concerns itself with race relations, labor reform and other social injustices. .

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Book number: 42510

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

BEECHER, John

To Alexander Meiklejohn

Oakland, CA, Morning Star Press, 1956. Broadside. Folio (9¼" X 17"). Fine. Hand set and hand printed by Beecher. First separate printing. A tribute to the controversial educator and important civil libertarian Meiklejohn (1872-1964), a philosophy professor who founded the University of Wisconsin's radical Experimental College in 1928 (folded in 1932). In September 1929 Beecher became an English instructor there. Occasioned by reading some "testimony" of Meiklejohn's, Beecher seeks to celebrate his mentor before it's too late -- before "the long black limousine will stand / before your door and all unhearing you / will trundle off on casters while the winds / of elegiac oratory fill / the public prints and how the hearts will ache / of us who were your sons." A surprisingly emotional and personal outburst of affection for the educator whose "ideas broke the mould / of prejudice in which my mind was formed." He goes on: "You let the world in on me, were the yeast / that set me boiling with desire to know / not merely but to do. I thought I loved / my country. You taught why America / deserved my love and all mankind's because / America was more than just a land; / it was the sum of all that men had won / against the ancient darkness.." Meiklejohn would live to see this tribute -- and then some, living another eight years before passing away in 1964 at the age of 92. One of the great American protest and radical poets, Beecher left his steel mill background to teach English and sociology at various universities; he worked various positions under the New Deal; his first published poem, "And I Will Be Heard" (1940), placed him on the literary map, and the book-length narrative poem "Here I Stand" came the following year; during World War Two he sailed aboard the first racially integrated ship, the S.S. Booker T. Washington, and wrote about those experiences in "All Brave Sailors"; blacklisted from teaching by refusing to sign a state loyalty oath in California in 1950, he became a rancher and farmer in Sonoma County; there he continued writing, founding the award-winning Morning Star Press in 1956 to publish his poetry and other socially-oriented pieces, becoming a gifted and accomplished practitioner in the process; this press then operated from San Francisco, Berkeley, and Jerome, Arizona; renamed Rampart Press, it relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona and other locales; "Report to the Stockholders & Other Poems" appeared in 1962 to critical acclaim and "To Live and Die in Dixie" in 1966; these later years were filled with guest teaching positions from Massachusetts to California, and Beecher was in great demand as a lecturer and poetry reader nationwide; descended from famed Abolitionists Henry Ward Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Lyman Beecher, much of John Beecher's poetry concerns itself with race relations, labor reform and other social injustices. .

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Book number: 33338

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

(BENSON, Ezra Taft.)

News Agency Photographs

Trio of three vintage 7" X 9" black and white glossy news agency photographs issued in 1956 by International News Photos in Chicago. The first (condition good only) shows the then-agriculture secretary testifying before a Senate committee; the second (condition fine) shows Benson and other agriculture officials meeting with Eisenhower; and the third (condition fine) shows Benson chatting with reporters outside the White House. .

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Book number: 10188

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

Keywords: MORMONS

BRADLEY, Basil

Partridge Shooting

London, G.P. McQueen, 1880. Color aquatint. Large folio (ca. 29" X 21"). Fine. A bright, crisp, large-margined print by this well-known English painter and illustrator (1842-1904), remembered for his landscapes and animal scenes -- especially dogs. This scene, engraved by William Summers, depicts two hunting dogs in the foreground sniffing out their prey in a rural English landscape, with a shotgun-carrying hunter and his companion in the middle distance at right. This superb example has been single-matted in cream and framed in a simple 1¼" oak frame (overall dimensions 37½" X 29"). .

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Book number: 35602

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

(LOBBY CARD)

The Secret Land Starring Men and Ships of the U.S. Navy

N.p. Loew's Incorporated, 1948. Folio (14" X 11"). Heavy stock color pictorial lobby card. Very good. Minor edgewear. Handsome example of one of a number of color lobby cards issued for this 1948 documentary about "Operation Highjump," a U.S. Navy expedition to Antarctica in 1946. Movie star narrators (who all served in the war effort) are Robert Montgomery, Robert Taylor and Van Heflin and a "Who's Who" of naval figures make appearances in it: Chester W. Nimitz, Richard E. Byrd, James Forrestal and a host of lesser luminaries. .

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Book number: 48646

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

(LOBBY CARDS)

Anastasia

N.p. National Screen Service Corp, 1956. Complete set of 8 color lobby cards. Heavy stock 14" X 11". Very good overall. Minor soiling and occasional faint edgewear, with paper clip mark near center of top edge of each. Attractive and complete numbered set of lobby cards for this 1956 drama directed by Anatole Litvak and produced by Buddy Adler using Arthur Laurents screenplay. Ingrid Bergman won the 1957 "Best Actress in a Leading Role" for her portrayal of the destitute and suicidal woman coached by a Russian businessman (Yul Brynner) to pretend she is the Grand Duchess Anastasia. Helen Hayes, Akim Tamiroff, Natalie Schafer, Martita Hunt and Felix Aylmer also appear. Each yellow-bordered lobby card features a different color film scene. .

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Book number: 38946

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

(COAL MINING -- CENTRALIA, ILLINOIS)

State of Illinois Sixty-Fifth General Assembly House of Representatives Resolution... .

Springfield, State of Illinois, 1947. Broadside. Folio (12½" X 16½"). Very good. Single horizontal fold; lightly age toned, with mat darkening along right and bottom margins (not affecting border or text). Within a thick decorative border, this "true and official copy of House Resolution No. 44 of the Sixty-fifth General Assembly" opens: "Whereas, On Tuesday, March 25, 1947, there perished in an explosion at Mine No. 5 of the Centralia Coal Company, the following men" -- followed by four columns listing the names of 111 men, making this one of the worst coal mine disasters in U.S. history. Additional "Whereas"s note "the horror of their sudden death and the shock to parents, wives and children" and that "The whole state has been deeply aggrieved at the suffering and sorrow with which the community of Centralia has been afflicted." Copies of this Resolution were prepared for the families of those who lost their lives. Large circular flute-edged blind-embossed gold foil seal at lower left, signed by Fred W. Ruegg (Clerk of the House) immediately above. Signed at lower right by Hugh Green (Speaker of the House) and by Edward J. Barrett (Secretary of State). Despite margin toning that could easily be matted out, an impressive display piece. Produced in a small quantity and rarely found. .

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Book number: 39389

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

(NUREMBERG CHRONICLE)

Liber Chronicarum Leaf CCVII - CCVIII

Nuremberg, Anton Koberger, 1493. Single leaf (in Latin), printed recto and verso. Folio (12" X 17½"). Very good. Mildly age toned, with expected stitching traces along gutter edge. This encyclopedic account of world events is one of the best-known incunabula, highly regarded for integrating dramatic and numerous woodcuts with text. German merchant Sebald Schreyer and his son-in-law Sebastian Kammermeister commissioned scholar Hartmann Schedel to write the text, hired printer Koberger and produced versions in both Latin and German. The Latin version (1400 to 1500 copies) appeared in July 1493 and the German version (700 to 1000 copies) in December. According to one source about 400 Latin copies survive today and about 300 German copies, with some of each having been disbound. "Folium CCVII" offered here includes an image at upper left of two "Linea imperatory" ("Imperial rule") -- half-length portraits of Phillipus at top and beneath him Otto Quartus, each holding orb and scepter. Leaf CCVIII features large woodcuts of monastery structures at upper left and lower right, the former titled "Ordo cruciferorum" and the latter "Ordo carmelitarum." At upper right is a smaller woodcut of an unnamed clergyman clutching a crucifix. .

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Book number: 48447

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

(NUTT, Commodore and WARREN, Miss Minnie -- CARTE-DE-VISITE)

Commodore Nutt and Miss Minnie Warren, in the Identical Costumes Worn Before Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, at Windsor Castle, June 24, 1865

George Washington Morrison Nutt (1848-81) and Minnie Warren Bump (1842-78) were famous midgets who toured the U.S. and overseas with Barnum & Bailey; Nutt served as best man at the wedding of his friend, midget Charles "Tom Thumb" Stratton, and Warren was the sister of the bride, midget Lavinia Warren. Uncommon carte-de-visite photograph, 2½" X 4", New York, NY, n.y. [ca. 1865]. Very good. Mild age toning and slightest bit of wear. Title cited above bottom margin of recto. With a gilt double rule is a 2 1/8" X 3 1/8" albumen full-length portrait showing Nutt and Warren side by side. Center of verso bears the decorative backstamp of E. & H.T. Anthony ("Manufacturers / of the best / Photographic Albums"), "From / Photographic Negative / By Brady." Above are facsimile printed signatures of Nutt and Warren. A most handsome and rather uncommon Brady image. .

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Book number: 24787

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

(MEXICAN CORRIDOS)

Segunda Calavera Taurina de la Nueva Estudiantina...

[Mexico City], [Antonio Vanegas Arroyo], n.y. Broadside. Folio (11½" X 15 3/4"). Very good. A bit delicate about the edges, but overall strong, with only miniscule edge chips and a few old but expert archival edge mends on verso. Exceptionally clean and bright example, crudely printed on pale red stock, of the famed Mexican corrido -- down-to-earth or downright bawdy songs or tales, often in verse, performed in Mexico by roving troubadors, who would usually have them cheaply printed on thin wood-pulp paper stock of various colors in broadside form for sale inexpensively. Most of these contained rustic lithographs illustrating the song. The most celebrated artist who created these graphics was by far José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913), who is estimated to have created upwards of 20,000 lithographs for use on popular broadsides and pamphlets covering a variety of social and political topics; but his calaveras (skulls) images, which tie in to the Mexican "Day of the Dead" tradition, came to dominate his images and have garnished much attention. His mentor was Manuel Manilla (1830-95), who worked closely with the Mexico City publisher Antonio Vanegas Arroyo between 1882 and 1892, as did Posada. Manilla is credited with the graphic on this broadside, a large (6 3/4" X 3½") image depicting a large bull skeleton charging four prancing skeleton figures, all wearing monteras (bullfighter's hat) -- one brandishing a muleta (bullfighter's cape), another playing a guitar and two rattling tambourines. The three-column song beneath them is captioned "A este toro delgado cual espina, Hoy lo viene a torear la estudiantina." The graphic and song are enclose within a large decorative border. Although this is generally attributed to Mexico City's leading penny press operator Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, a credit line along the bottom notes, "Mexico. -- Imprenta Santa Teresa Num. 1. -- Mexico," which suggests that Imprenta Santa Teresa was the press actually employed and that this is the first in a series of numbered corridos. Undated, but likely printed between 1882 and 1892. This is a superb, handsome example of these broadsides which, cheaply printed on thin stock, more often appear in damaged condition. .

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Book number: 48066

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

(DARWIN, Charles)

Carte-de-Visite / Copper Printing Plate

The pioneering English naturalist, biologist and geologist (1809-82) turned the Earth on its axis with his concept of evolutionary biology in his landmark, still-controversial 1859 "On the Origin of Species." Two images: First, a choice carte-de-visite, 2½" X 4". Near fine. This superb c-d-v depicts Darwin in three-piece suit in later years, with bottom edge bearing the name of the preeminent Victorian photography studio Elliott & Fry and their address and the verso bearing their backstamp. Darwin sat for Elliott & Fry several times, and this likeness dates from an 1874 sitting. Second, a highly unusual copper printing plate bearing a head-and-shoulders stipple-point portrait of an elderly Darwin set within a partial oval, affixed to a heavy (2 pound 2 ounce) 7½" X 9" X 3/4" board. Very good. This plate was clearly used, but remains quite attractive, with the copper still gleaming. It depicts Darwin about the same age as in the carte-de-visite, although based on a different portrait. Stamped into the wood at each corner and also at lower left of the printing plate is a miniscule "LPIU" (Lithographers' and Photoengravers' International Union, an American and Canadian trade union) and the number "76P" whose meaning is unclear -- which identifies this as an American product. The portrait was most likely used either as a book frontispiece or illustration, though the book has not yet been identified. Such plates are difficult to date precisely but it is likely of late 19th or early 20th century vintage. A delightful pair of unusual images -- the carte-de-visite scarce and the copper printing plate likely one-of-a-kind. .

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Book number: 49640

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs

DAUMIER, Honore (1807-79)

Equitation Boutiquiere Sur Des Chevaux de Louage Et Ou IL N'y a Pas Autre Chose a Louer

Paris, Le Charivari, 1839. Lithograph. 4to (8 1/8" X 11½"). Very good. Mild wear and faint age toning only. Tipped to backing board and cream paper matte, old but nice and lightly age toned. The first plate in Daumier's "Les Parisiens" series (here trimmed, with series title cropped out by matte) from this illustrated newspaper. Title translates as "Shopkeepers riding hired horses.." and image shows two uncomfortable-looking Parisian gents in suits and hats astride two small left-facing horses in a wooded setting; street sign at further left notes "Avenue des Princes." Daumier's lithographed signature appears at lower left. Quite striking, with news text and advertisements on verso. "Le Charivari" (literally, "Hullabaloo") was a satirical newspaper that began in 1832 and continued until 1935, publishing reviews as well as political cartoons and caricatures such as Daumier's. .

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Book number: 48451

Catalogue: Prints & Photographs