Portrait of Indian Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. New York, 1949, printed 2017.

$2500 unframed; framed: $3,000

Portrait of Albert Einstein. Princeton, New Jersey, 1950, printed 2017

In this portrait Sternberger shows Einstein dressed informally. Einstein was keenly aware of his public image, and often attempted to show a cheerful visage. The common backgrounds of the two men helped the photographer to put Einstein in a relaxed state and to capture him in a more vulnerable pose.

$1,250

Portrait of Artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Mexico City, 1952, printed 2017

$3,500

A Collection of Three Reports on the Treasury’s Receipts and Expenditures. Philadelphia: Childs and Swaine, 1790-1793

A collection of rare Treasury reports on the finances of the United States during its earliest years.

3 items: $8,500

A Compendious Exercise for the Garrison and Field Ordnance, as Practised in the United States. Washington City: Weightman, 1810

FIRST EDITION of “the first official drill manual for either the American regular or militia artillery” (Graves). This manual constrains detailed instructions on procedures in firing and handling artillery and training soldiers in its use.

$2,200

Interstellar and Interplanetary Communication by Optical Masers. Washington, February 27, 1961

PRE-PUBLICATION RARITY. “The classic paper published in Nature that started it all” (coseti.org), this is the founding work of optical SETI. This pre-publication form is dated more than a month before the article’s publication in Nature. For years SETI research focused on radio transmissions, but the development of powerful lasers has made Optical SETI (OSETI) a highly promising area of research. Townes’s prescient proposal is even the more remarkable given the very limited power of masers and lasers at the time this paper appeared.

$8,500

Reports Regarding Sir William Thomson’s Compass and Sounding Machine. Glasgow: University Press [for Thomson], 1877

An important early offering brochure regarding the sale of the first modern compass and early navigational aids. This is a price list and an extensive collection of reports and testimonial letters from ship captains concerning Thomson’s sounding apparatus (the first to use wire instead of hemp) and compass. “The modern compass dates from 1876, when Sir William Thomson patented his dry-card compass” (Singer, History of Technology V). Thomson was deeply interested in the application of science to industry, and he apparently prepared this rare, ephemeral publication to promote his products, which helped to make him a wealthy man. This brochure includes a detailed price list for Thomson’s navigational instruments.

$350

“Plancks Gesetz und Lichtquantenhypothese” in Zeitschrift fuer Physik, vol. 25-26. Braunschweig and Berlin, 1924

“With their work Bose and Einstein established the field of quantum statistics one year before the appearance of quantum mechanics” (Brandt, The Harvest of a Century)

$800

“Theorie der Lichterzeugung und Lichtabsorption” [and] “Prinzip von der Erhaltung der Schwerpunktsbewegung und die Trägheit der Energie” in Annalen der Physik, 4. Folge, Band 20. Leipzig, 1906

FIRST EDITION of “On the Theory of Light Production and Light Absorption” and “The Principle of Conservation of Motion of the Center of Gravity and the Inertia of Energy.”

$1,200

“Allgemeinen molekulare Theorie der Wärme” in Annalen der Physik, 4. Folge, Band 14. Leipzig, Annalen der Physik, 1904

FIRST EDITION of Einstein’s fifth published paper, “On the General Molecular Theory of Heat” (pp. 354-362). Weil 5.

$400