The Federalist: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution. New York: John and Andrew M’Lean, 1788

First edition. This splendid example of The Federalist is one of a very small number of special deluxe copies printed on thick paper.

$450,000

The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated. London: by Robert Barker, 1613-1611

The Great “She” Bible, the “authorized version” or King James Bible, one of the greatest monuments of English literature.

$270,000

Common Sense; Addressed to the Inhabitants of America . . . the third edition [bound with:] Large Additions to Common Sense. Philadelphia: R. Bell, 1776

FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING sheets of Common Sense, here with the third edition title page and prefatory leaf. “It is not too much to say that the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, was due more to Paine’s Common Sense than to any other single piece of writing” (Streeter).

$250,000

An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. London: Printed by Eliz. Holt, for Thomas Basset, 1690

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE (with the integral Eliz. Holt title-page). An excellent, fresh copy of this classic of philosophy, the first modern attempt to analyze knowledge. “Few books in the literature of philosophy have so widely represented the spirit of the age and country in which they have appeared, or have so influenced opinion afterwards” (Fraser).

$120,000

Rhetorica ad Herennium [and] Cicero. De Inventione [edited by Omnibonus Leonicenus]. Venice: Nicolas Jenson, 1470

FIRST EDITION. Rhetorica ad Herennium, “a book more precious than gold” (Leonhard Spengel).

$85,000

Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, traduit de l’Anglois.. “Londres [Paris]: Fletcher Gyles”, 1755

First edition of the book that is, “more emphatically than any other single work, the cradle of political economy”

$75,000

The Debates and Proceedings of the Convention of the State of New-York, assembled at Poughkeespsie, on the 17th June, 1788. To deliberate and decide on the Form of Federal Government recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia, on the 17th September, 1787. Taken in short hand. New York: Francis Childs, 1788

$75,000

Commentaries on the Laws of England. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1765-1769

First edition of Blackstone’s Commentaries, a monument of the Anglo-American legal and political system and one of the key influences on the thought of the Founding Fathers and the shaping of the Constitution.

$68,000

De la Democratie en Amerique. Paris: Charles Gosselin, 1835, 1840

FIRST EDITIONS. The most influential commentary on America in the nineteenth century, Democracy in America was based on Tocqueville’s travels in the United States in 1831 and 1832. Tocqueville came to America to study the American prison system on behalf of the French government. The book resulting from these investigations is generally considered the 19th century’s most insightful commentary on the development of our unique American culture and political system.

$58,000

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.. London: Strahan and Cadell, 1776-1788

First editions of all six volumes of the most celebrated historical work in English literature. Gibbon’s Decline and Fall covers the thirteen centuries from the age of Trajan to the fall of Constantinople with unmatched erudition, clarity, and organization. “Gibbon brought a width of vision and a critical mastery of the available sources which have not been equaled to this day; and the result was clothed in an inimitable prose” (PMM).

$48,000