Rare books from William Reese Company

London, 1772.. Two volumes. viii,404,[4]; iv,342pp. plus folding table. Half title in first volume. Modern half cloth and marbled boards. Small ink stamp in upper outer corner of both titlepages. Very good. Prints a group of treaties from 1689 to 1771, many of them bearing on American affairs, including the 1730 treaty with the Cherokees, the treaty ending the French and Indian War, the 1766 treaty with France regarding the liquidity of paper money in Canada, the Treaty of Utrecht, and much more. The folding table relates to the treaty on Canadian money. A useful compilation of British treaties up to the period just before the American Revolution. SABIN 14371.

Winnipeg, 1882-1930.. Thirty-three pamphlets. Original printed wrappers. A few rear wrappers lacking, some chipping to a few wrappers. Ownership signatures on some front wrappers. Overall, very good. In a tan cloth chemise and slipcase, leather label. An excellent collection of Canadian pamphlets relating to the Red River settlement in present-day Manitoba, all published by the Manitoba Historical and Scientific Society. Some issues likely belonged to a colleague, or perhaps a relative of Charles Napier Bell, as the ownership signature of Robert Bell appears on two pamphlets, and Charles Napier Bell has inscribed two of his own publications. Bell was a passionate and multi-talented figure, and along with George Bryce was a founding member of the Society, serving as its president from 1889-1891 and again from 1913-1929. The imprints included here are as follows: 1) McArthur, Alexander: THE CAUSES OF THE RISING IN THE RED RIVER SETTLEMENT, 1869-70. Publication No. 1. [Winnipeg. 1882]. 2) Bryce,… Read More

Boston: Benjamin Edes and Sons, February 3, 1783.. 4pp. Folio. Old fold lines. Minor foxing and soiling. Very good plus. THE BOSTON GAZETTE, published weekly, was established in 1719 as a competitor to the BOSTON NEWS-LETTER and ran for nearly a century (1719-1798). From April 1756 to December 1793 it was published with the additional "AND THE COUNTRY JOURNAL." During the American Revolution, the GAZETTE was a leading publisher of material protesting British taxes and anti-British sentiment. Contributors included such notable personages as Samuel Adams, Phyllis Wheatley, and Paul Revere, who also did the engraving on the masthead. This issue, from the end of the American Revolution, contains a lengthy article written by "Grotius" on the evil of a federal impost and the rights of states to be independent. He writes: "For the general court to pass an act which they consider in its nature irrepealable, thereby giving Congress the power of levying imposts of the property of this state...is 'delivering… Read More

New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1904-1905.. Seven volumes bound in fourteen parts, plus atlas volume. Plates (many in color), facsimiles. Quarto. Original gilt green cloth. Octavo atlas maps laid in a red cloth drop-front box. Cloth somewhat worn, particularly at spine ends. Library bookplates with withdrawal stamps on front pastedowns, shelf labels on spines, reference stamps across top edges. Some occasional offsetting from plates, but generally clean internally. A solid set. Text volumes untrimmed. One of 200 large paper sets on Van Gelder paper, with the atlas supplied from the reprint edition done by Argosy-Antiquarian Press. "The most elaborate work on this expedition" - Howes. A cornerstone of modern historical research, printing for the first time many major primary documents which did not appear in the Biddle edition, including the Floyd and Whitehouse journals, and material from the Clark-Voorihis papers, along with facsimile manuscripts, maps, portraits, and other illustrative matter. Also… Read More

Knoxville: Printed at the Knoxville Republican Office, 1831.. 208pp. Contemporary calf, spine gilt, leather label. Binding lightly worn but quite sound. Contemporary ownership inscriptions on front flyleaf. Light to moderate foxing. Very good. "Long considered to be the first novel printed in Tennessee, until dealer George Webb uncovered a copy of a previously unknown book, titled 'ELIZABETH, OR EXILES IN SIBERIA,' by a 'Madame de Cottin', printed in Fayetteville in 1825" - Allen. Rare, with fewer than ten copies listed in OCLC. A handsome copy in contemporary condition. AMERICAN IMPRINTS 7282. ALLEN 920. ALLEN, MORE TENNESSEE RARITIES 296.

London, 1833.. Six volumes. Portrait frontispiece in first volume. Folding facsimile plate in third volume. Seven (of eight) plates and maps (five folding) in sixth volume. Original green patterned cloth, black paper labels, gilt. Moderate to considerable shelf wear to the bindings, spine ends frayed or chipped, some volumes a bit shaken. Occasional minor foxing. Overall, a very good set. Lacking plate five in the sixth volume. The scarce second issue of the 1818-19 London edition of this monumental collection of Franklin's works. According to Sabin, this edition is simply "the first edition of 1818, with new title-pages only." This authorized edition of Franklin's works was edited by his grandson, William Temple Franklin; it includes Franklin's AUTOBIOGRAPHY along with over thirty additional Franklin pieces. FORD, FRANKLIN 567. HOWES F323. SABIN 25545.

New York: G.W. & C.B. Colton, 1874.. Handcolored pocket map, 20 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches, folded to 5 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches. Minor wear and toning. In original brown publisher's cloth folder, stamped in gilt. Spine partially separated, corners worn, map detached. Very good. A handsome map of Texas, showing each county outlined in color, as well as adjacent parts of Indian Territory (i.e. Oklahoma) and New Mexico, with border portions of Louisiana and Arkansas. Insets show the panhandle, Matagorda Bay, Galveston Bay, and Sabine Lake. A striking and fairly large-scale map of the Lone Star State. Not in Rumsey. PHILLIPS, MAPS, p.848 (ref).

London: Printed for Richard Phillips, 1804-1807.. Five volumes. xxxvi,579,[1]; viii,633,[1]; viii,572; viii,684; viii,843,[1]pp., including one in-text illustration, plus twelve folding maps. Frontispiece in three volumes (two of them folding). Contemporary tree calf, gilt spines, gilt leather labels, all edges marbled. Moderate wear to bindings, corners bumped and worn, a few of the labels tender. Armorial bookplate of Spains Hall at Finchingham in Essex (home of the Ruggles-Brise family since 1760) to each front pastedown, ink ownership signature of John Ruggles on each front free endpaper. Scattered foxing, some dust-soiling, a couple maps with small repairs to verso. Overall very good. Octavo issue of the British edition which, according to Howes, is the best edition of Marshall's classic biography of Washington. "After the able, accurate and comprehensive work of Chief Justice Marshall, it would be presumptuous to attempt a historical biography of Washington" - Jared Sparks. The first American… Read More

Boston: By I. Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews, 1790.. v,322,iv pp. plus eight maps (one folding) engraved by Amos Doolittle. 12mo. Contemporary calf, gilt leather label, raised bands. Chipped at spine ends, moderate edge wear, hinges reinforced with white paper tape. Contemporary ownership signature on front free endpaper, some toning, occasional minor foxing. Still, a very good copy. In a half morocco and cloth clamshell box, spine gilt with raised bands. Second edition of the first American geography textbook. First printed in New Haven in 1784, this rather scarce second edition was printed in Boston by Isaiah Thomas. The original edition had only two maps; the present edition expands that number to eight, depicting a range of subjects around the globe. The most important map is the folding map of the United States, often missing in this book. It is one of the earliest maps of the young United States to be printed in America, and shows the westernmost states reaching the Mississippi River, and a… Read More

Lahainaluna: Press of the High School, 1836.. iv,132pp. printed in double columns. Modern three-quarter red morocco and marbled boards, spine gilt. Closed tear in upper inner corner of titlepage (not affecting text, and no paper loss), shallow chip in foredge of titlepage and following nine leaves. Moderate foxing, faint stain in upper inner margin. Very good. A pioneering Hawaiian dictionary, this is the first Hawaiian to English dictionary. Andrews's work contains some 5700 Hawaiian words with brief definitions and occasional usage examples. The final page lists an additional forty non-Hawaiian words that have been incorporated into common usage on the islands, including the words for dollar, soap, book, gold, and tobacco. The first forty pages were printed in Honolulu in the first half of 1835, and then the printing was moved to Lahainaluna, where the work was completed at the high school in an edition of one thousand copies. "The first book-length work issued in Hawaii that contains Hawaiian… Read More

[New York: James Sutton & Co., 1874].. Oil chromolithograph on heavy board, 10¾ x 15½ inches, with facsimile of original label on the verso reading: "Aldine Chromo for 1874." Minor soiling, slightly darkened. Very good. Framed. A striking chromolithograph of the Cliffs of Green River, Wyoming Territory, made to exactly replicate an oil painting by Thomas Moran and constituting the earliest example of chromolithography produced after Moran's work. This is among the earliest western publications of Moran, preceding his work for Hayden's famed Yellowstone Park portfolio by two years, and was produced by the same chromolithographer, Louis Prang - the greatest color printer of his day. This chromolithograph was originally issued as one of a pair, along with another titled, THE WHITE MOUNTAINS - NEW HAMPSHIRE. The origin of these prints has been little known, but they were produced as a free gift for subscribers to an art periodical called THE ALDINE, published by James Sutton & Company of New York.… Read More

London: James Fraser, 1837.. Three volumes. vii,404; vii,422,[2]; vii,448pp. Uniform half brown patterned cloth and drab paper-covered boards, printed paper labels. Edges and corners rubbed, front joint of second and third volumes partially split, labels worn and darkened. Bindings somewhat shaken, with all hinges cracked but cords holding strong; occasional gatherings standing proud. Bookplate on each front pastedown, minor scattered foxing to first few and last few leaves of each volume. Withal, a very good set in contemporary bindings. Untrimmed. In a red half morocco clamshell case, spine gilt. The first edition of Carlyle's classic study of the French Revolution, complete with all half titles and the integral advertisement leaf in the second volume, in its original, contemporary binding, and with all edges untrimmed. Carlyle arranged his work in three parts, the first subtitled "The Bastille," the second part "The Constitution," and the final part "The Guillotine." "Of the three great… Read More

Honolulu: Pacific Commercial Advertiser Steam Print, [1886].. 108pp. plus [40]pp. of printed advertisements, many illustrated. Original printed blue front wrapper bound into modern half calf and marbled boards, spine gilt. Front wrapper worn and soiled. Titlepage foxed and loosening, some wear to the edges of a few terminal leaves. Moderate tanning, light scattered foxing. About very good. The third and most elaborate issue of this annual Hawaiian almanac and directory, which began in 1884. The editor, Robert J. Creighton, was an Irish-born member of the New Zealand Parliament, and towards the end of his life spent a handful of years in Hawaii where he became editor of the PACIFIC COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER and, therefore, this series of directories. Contents in this issue include a calendar (recording noteworthy dates in Hawaiian history), a timeline (beginning with years "since the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands by Captain Cook"), a full list of government employees and their offices, a dissection of… Read More

Honolulu: Published by the Board, 1922.. 674pp. plus [26]pp. of manuscript notes laid in. Original tan buckram, gilt leather labels. Light shelf wear, labels starting to chip. One introductory page torn in lower margin and gutter (with no loss of text), with tape repairs. Light scattered foxing. Contemporary ownership inscription of Governor Walter F. Frear on front pastedown (see below). Very good. In a tan cloth clamshell box, printed paper label. Hawaii's first Supreme Court Chief Justice and third Governor's copy of an important Hawaiian reference work, with over two dozen pages of his handwritten notes laid in. This copy belonged to Walter Francis Frear (1863- 1948), a judge who served in the Hawaiian provisional government's Supreme Court, as Chief Justice of the Territory of Hawaii's Supreme Court after annexation, and as the Islands' third Territorial Governor, from 1907 to 1913. In addition to his ownership inscription, twenty-six pages of his manuscript notes written in the Hawaiian… Read More

London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, in the Poultry, 1775.. [12],464pp. plus folding frontispiece map. Half title. Quarto. Contemporary half green calf and marbled boards, spine gilt, raised bands. Boards rubbed and shelfworn, spine sunned. Offsetting from map to half title, occasional pencil annotations, but quite bright and clean. A very good copy. A very bright, wide-margined copy of James Adair's notable description of the Native Americans of the southeast. Adair, "one of the most colorful figures in Southern colonial history" (Clark), emigrated from Ireland to South Carolina in 1735. He was heavily involved in trading with the indigenous tribes of the Southeast, including the Catawba, Cherokee, and Chickasaw, between 1735 and 1759, and this work contains a chapter on each of these major groups. Considered by many to be the leading authority of his time on the southeast, he offers detailed descriptions of Indian customs and religion, with many observations on the life of a trader. A… Read More