Space Flight … When? [and] Space Flight. Westwood, New Jersey, 1946

This rare fanzine was printed in tiny numbers. We have found traces of the 1946 number on the Internet, but the 1947 number appears to be even more rare. Each number publishes the result of the author’s survey of science fiction writers, editors, and aficionados concerning the likelihood of space travel for humans.

two volumes: $750

Catalogue of the celebrated collection of works of art and vertu known as “The Vienna Museum,” the property of Messrs. Lowenstein Brothers, of Frankfort-on-the-Main. London: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1860

This important volume is “the earliest photographically illustrated auction catalogue” (Gernsheim, Incunabula, 122). It contains 36 photographs on salted paper by Hermann Emden of Frankfurt.

$12,000

An important collection of 40 mammoth-plate photographs of the American West, created for the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Watkins, c. 1863-74.

Carleton Watkins exhibited these very photographs at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, the first world’s fair in America.  Watkins is the greatest of the first generation of photographers of the American West. His early photographs of Yosemite and Utah have never been surpassed. When his work was exhibited back East, the New York Times declared, “As specimens of the photographic art they are unequaled. The views are … indescribably unique and beautiful. Nothing in the way of landscapes can be more impressive.”

Please inquire

Autograph letter signed to [Fanny Kellogg]. Down, Beckenham, Kent, April 13, 1879

Darwin discusses the hereditary transmission of behavior and a vivid example of the phenomenon from the opening chapter of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

$18,000

Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies … the Second Impression. London: Printed by Tho. Cotes, for Robert Allot, 1632

This is an excellent example of the Second Folio, the second edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays. This is “incomparably the most important work in the English language” (Jackson, Pforzheimer Catalogue).

$475,000

Panoramic view of Washington, D.C., with the Capitol dominating the scene in the distance. Washington, c. 1877-1882

This magnificent mammoth plate panorama shows the National Mall and the Capitol as seen from the Smithsonian Castle.

$15,000

splendid large portrait of John Burroughs. Photographic Portrait by Pach Brothers., 1890s

John Burroughs (1837-1921) was, after Henry David Thoreau, the greatest American nature essayist. He played an important role in the development of he American conservation movement. Burroughs is also remembered for his close friendship with Walt Whitman, whom he resembled in old age.

$3,800

Hyperion: A Romance. New York: Samuel Colman, 1839

Hyperion is one of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s first published works. It was published in 1839, and is a prose romance that follows a young American named Paul Flemming as he travels through Germany. The journey of the character is partially inspired by the death of a friend, and the romance in the tale is based on Longfellow’s own failed marriage proposals to his beloved.

$3,500

Esquisse d’un Tableau Historique des Progres de L’Esprit Humain. Paris: Agasse, 1795

A distinguished mathematician and friend of Voltaire, d Alembert, and Turgot, Condorcet played a major role in promoting the Revolution s democratic principles. In the Esquisse (An Historical Outline of the Progress of the Human Mind), he traces the history of man through ten epochs.

$2,800

Opening day of the Suez Canal. Port Said , Nov. 16, 1869

This photograph depicts the harbor and canal on the day of the opening of the Suez Canal, the “greatest engineering feat of the nineteenth century” (Smith). “Clearly, the canal’s opening festivities placed Egypt in a new way on the European cultural map” (Haddad, “Digging to India: Modernity, Imperialism, and the Suez Canal”).

$8,500