On Thursday, September 24th at 10am Freeman’s is pleased to have its Fall Rare Books, Maps, Prints & Autographs auction which includes many desirable and rare books and prints from a variety of genres and periods. One of the most desirable of all the prints issued by Currier & Ives, “American Express Train,” is among the highlights of the auction. This hand-colored lithograph, offered here in a bright, well-preserved example, depicts a train of the West Shore Railroad with the Hudson River in the background, and is ranked in Currier & Ives: The New Best 50 as number 14. An account of ghetto life in Poland illustrated with original lithographs by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec is also represented in the sale. Georges Clemenceau’s Au Pied de Sinai, Paris, 1898 contains 10 lithographs by Toulouse-Lautrec based on sketches of poor Russian & Polish Jewish immigrants then residing in the Tournelle quarter of Paris.
A collection of botanical & other natural history books, mostly illustrated with hand-colored engraved or lithographic plates, will also be found in this sale. Among these Robert Sweet’s The Florist’s Guide, London, 1827-1829, stands out for its 200 exquisite color plates, John Hill’s Eden, London, 1757, for its status as an early & comprehensive horticultural guide & Buffon’s Storia Naturale delle Scimie, Milan, 1812 for its winsome & sometimes fanciful engravings of apes & monkeys.
Nineteenth-Century taxonomy in the form of an intriguing seaweed specimen album is also included in the sale. Titled “Seaweeds from The Sea of Japan, Lauriston B. Hardin, Washington D.C., 1855,” the specimens in this album were likely collected by a member of Commodore Mathew G. Perry’s Japan Expedition of 1852-1854 and presented to Mr. Hardin, then clerk & Registrar of the Navy Department.
In addition, American Presidents are represented in the sale by documents signed by Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Andrew Jackson & others; French Kings & rulers by letters & documents extending from Louis XI (1423-1483) to Napoleon Bonaparte.
The sale will be on exhibition Tuesday, September 22nd through Wednesday, September23rd.
www.freemansauction.com
