Donald Heald Rare Books

138 Pages·2017·3.98 MB·English

Donald Heald Rare Books
A Selection of Rare
Books & Manuscripts

Donald Heald Rare Books
A Selection of Rare
Books & Manuscripts
Donald Heald Rare Books
124 East 74 Street New York, New York 10021
T: 212 · 744 · 3505 F: 212 · 628 · 7847
[email protected]
www.donaldheald.com
California Book Fair 2018
Americana: Items 1 - 34
Travel and Voyages: Items 35 - 53
Natural History: Items 54 - 70
Miscellany: Items 71 - 75
All purchases are subject to availability. All items are guaranteed as described. Any purchase
may be returned for a full refund within ten working days as long as it is returned in the same
condition and is packed and shipped correctly. The appropriate sales tax will be added for New
York State residents. Payment via U.S. check drawn on a U.S. bank made payable to Donald A.
Heald, wire transfer, bank draft, Paypal or by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover
cards.
AMERICANA
1
ADAMS, Ansel Easton (1902-1984) and Mary Hunter AUSTIN (1868-1934).
Taos Pueblo.
San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1930. Folio (17 x 12 1/2 inches). [6] preliminary pages
followed by [14]pp. of text. 12 original mounted photographs, printed on Dessonville paper
by Ansel Adams, various sizes to 9 x 6 1/2 inches, each with a corresponding caption leaf.
Publisher’s tan morocco backed orange cloth, spine with raised bands in six compartments,
marbled endpapers (minor fading to the leather).
From an edition of 108 numbered copies signed by the author and the photographer, containing
magnificent photographs by Ansel Adams.
Possibly the most famous of modern photographic works on the West, Taos Pueblo was a
collaboration between the young photographer, Ansel Adams, and one of the most evocative
writers on the Southwest, Mary Austin. An elegant design by the Grabhorn Press provides
a counterpoint to Adams’ photographs of the adobe Pueblo. The book distilled the romance
and naturalism that many Americans found in the Indian pueblos of New Mexico, and defined
the style that was to make Adams the most popular of photographers of the American West.
“It was at Taos and Santa Fe that Ansel Adams first saw the Southwest. The time was the spring
of 1927... His visit resulted in a Grabhorn Press book now of legendary rarity. It includes
Ansel Adams’ photographs and Mary Austin’s essay on Taos Pueblo. Genius has never been
more happily wed. Nowhere else did she write prose of such precise and poetical authority
... Their Taos Pueblo is a true and beautiful book by two consummate artists” (Ansel Adams:
Photographs of the Southwest, 1970, p. xxv).
Produced in a small edition, the book is difficult to obtain today. This example is signed by
both Austin and Adams and is in beautiful condition. One of the greatest books produced by
the Grabhorn Press and featuring beautiful photographs by Ansel Adams, it is a landmark of
American photographic depiction of the Southwest.
Heller & Magee, Grabhorn Bibliography 137; Roth, The Book of 101 Books 58.
(#29693)   $ 85,000
.
2
CALIFORNIA, Universal Pictures.
Universal Beauty Trip to the California Expositions and Universal City [cover title].
United States: 1915. Oblong small 4to. 149 photographs, mounted recto and verso on black
sheets within the album, each with printed captions. Plus five related photographs mounted
on the endpapers. The first few pages detached. Period cloth, upper cover titled in gilt and
stamped with the name of the original owner. Provenance: Mollie Julian.
In 1915, to celebrate the opening of the Universal City studios, sixty women from across
the United States were chosen by local newspaper editors to represent their hometowns in
a pageant sponsored by Universal Motion Pictures. The women travelled together across
the country by rail and automobile, stopping in cities along the way to promote Universal,
en route to the California Expositions in San Francisco and San Diego. Stops included New
York, Chicago, Kansas City, Colorado Springs, Denver, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, the Grand
Canyon, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and more. Upon the final arrival in Universal City, a
single contestant was chosen as the winner and offered a position at Universal. In the end,
the ultimate winner Ruth Purcell of Washington, declined the offer of a starring engagement
to return to her home Washington where she worked as a stenographer.
This album of captioned photographs was evidently issued to all the contestants as a memento
of their trip; the present album belonging to Mollie Julian, a contestant from Delaware.
(#34698)   $ 2,500
.
3
CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH.
The Miners’ Own Book, containing Correct Illustrations and Descriptions of the Various Modes
of California Mining, including all the improvements introduced from the earliest days to the
present time.
San Francisco: Hutchings & Rosenfield, 1858. 8vo (9 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches). 32pp. Woodcut
illustrations after C. Nahl and others. Period ink bookseller’s stamp on title (Carswell’s News
Depot, Sacramento). Publisher’s brown pictorial wrappers, expert paper restoration along
spine.
First edition of a scarce early guide to modern mining methods in California.
The publishers write in the prefatory note that they intended to inform the public on “the
various modes that have been adopted to extract the precious metal ... by rendering familiar,
though correct views and descriptions, everything connected with the immense mining
operation of the State. We believe it is the first book of the kind ever published.”
The illustrations, many of which appeared in Hutchings Magazine, are as instructive as the
text, and though many are signed by celebrated California artist Charles Christian Nahl,
artists Harrison Eastman and Warren C. Butler also contributed.
Scarce, with only two other examples at auction in the last thirty-five years.
Cowan II, p. 431; Graff 2813; Howes M639; Kurutz 444a; Streeter sale 2839; Eberstadt 168:121; Greenwood
967; Wheat 141
(#29950)   $ 6,750
.
4
CATHERWOOD, Frederick (1799-1854).
Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan.
London: F. Catherwood, 1844. Folio (21 1/8 x 14 1/8 inches). Chromolithographed title
by Owen Jones printed in red, blue, and gold, 1 lithographic map printed in red and black,
25 tinted lithographic plates after Catherwood. Publisher’s green morocco-backed moiré
cloth-covered boards, titled in gilt ‘Catherwood’s Views / in Central America / Chiapas and
Yucatan’ on upper cover, flat spine titled in gilt, yellow endpapers.
“In the whole range of literature on the Maya there has never appeared a more magnificent
work” (Von Hagen).
This beautiful and rare plate book was printed in an edition of 300 copies. It is seldom found
in presentable condition, and is one of the first and primary visual records of the rediscovery
of Mayan civilization. Until the publication of the work of Alfred Maudslay at the turn of the
century, this was the greatest record of Mayan iconography.
Frederick Catherwood was a British architect and artist with a strong interest in archaeology.
These combined talents led him to accompany the American traveller and explorer, John
Lloyd Stephens, on two trips to the Mayan region of southern Mexico in 1839 and 1841. These
explorations resulted in Stephens’ two famous works, Incidents of Travel in Central America,
Chiapas, and Yucatan and Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. These immensely popular works,
foundation stones in Mayan studies, were both illustrated by Catherwood and inspired him
to undertake the larger portfolio.
The Views was produced in London, although issued with both London and New York
titlepages. Catherwood recruited some of the most distinguished lithographers in London
to translate his originals onto stone: Andrew Picken, Henry Warren, William Parrott, John
C. Bourne, Thomas Shotter Boys, and George Belton Moore. The beautiful titlepage was
executed by Owen Jones. Three hundred sets were produced, most of them tinted, as in the
present copy (there is a coloured issue on card stock, which is exceedingly rare). The views
depict monuments and buildings at Copan, Palenque, Uxmal, Las Monjas, Chichen Itza,
Tulum, and several scattered sights.
The work of Stephens and Catherwood received great praise, but neither lived to enjoy
it long. Stephens died in 1852 of malaria contracted in Colombia, and Catherwood went
down on a steamship in the North Atlantic in 1854. “Catherwood belongs to a species, the
artist-archaeologist, which is all but extinct. Piranesi was the most celebrated specimen and
Catherwood his not unworthy successor” (Aldous Huxley).
Sabin 11520; Tooley (1954) 133 (gives a list of the plates); Von Hagen, Search for the Maya, pp. 320-24; Palau
50290; Groce & Wallace, p.115; cf. Hill 263. Not in Abbey.
(#15972)   $ 58,500
.