Redburn: His First Voyage. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1850

“An association copy linking two of the greatest figures in American literature” (Reese), this is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s copy of Herman Melville’s Redburn. A remarkable association highlighting not only Melville’s greatest creative period but also his fall to obscurity.

$72,000

Torat ha-Elohim. The Law of God [Five Books of Moses]. Philadelphia: C. Sherman, 5605-6 (1845-46)

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of the Pentateuch translated by a Jew and the first American translation of the Torah. Isaac Leeser was the single most influential Jewish figure in 19th-century America. His many accomplishments include establishing the vernacular sermon as a permanent feature in the American synagogue, publishing the first successful American Jewish newspaper, and founding the first American rabbinical school.

$17,000

Strategikos in: Scriptores rei militaris [also with military works by Vegetius, Frontinus, and Aelian]. Rome: Eucharius Silber, 1494

First edition of Onosander’s Strategikos , also known as The General. This is “the earliest military treatise wherein so much stress is laid upon the commander’s duties, the morale of the troops, and the ethical side of warfare. It enjoyed much popularity in the Renaissance” (Sarton).

$12,500

A collection of images associated with South Carolina physician and plantation owner Sidney Smith. South Carolina, 1845-50

A unique survival. This important collection of largely identified photographs documents the home and family of Dr. Sidney Smith and those he enslaved at Gravel Hill, his South Carolina plantation. The collection includes an extraordinary daguerreotype depicting Dr. Smith, his two daughters, and his brother, posed together with two enslaved African American men. This is one of the earliest known images—if not the very earliest photograph—of an identified plantation owner posing with enslaved African Americans.

$60,000

“Whereas a great many false reports have been raised, by Deserters from the Virginia Regiment …” in The Maryland Gazette, 5 September 1754, p. 3. Annapolis: Jonas Green, 1754

FIRST EDITION of George Washington’s second appearance in print. This rare document shows George Washington at the dawn of his military career, building the experience and reputation that would ultimately lead to his appointment as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War.

$85,000

Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign, embracing scenes of the occupation of Nashville, the great battles around Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, the campaign of Atlanta, march to the sea, and the great raid through the Carolinas. [New York: Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck], [1866]

FIRST EDITION. George N. Barnard’s Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign is, together with Alexander Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book, one of the two greatest photographic monuments of the Civil War. Its 61 original mounted photographs include some of the most famous images of the war.

$390,000

General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. London: Macmillan, 1936

First edition of this classic of modern economics, “on which Keynes’s fame as the outstanding economist of his generation must rest” (DNB).

$24,000

Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Continens Dissertationes Aliquot. Hamburg: Heinrich Künraht [i.e. Amsterdam: Rieuwertsz], 1670

First edition of this landmark of 17th-century thought, the Theological-Political Treatise. This is the rare first edition, readily identified by the misspelled “Künraht” imprint and the mis-numbering of page 104 as 304.

$120,000

Photo Album Operation Greenhouse. Hollywood, California: United States Air Force Lookout Mt. Laboratory, [1951]

This rare album documents Operation Greenhouse, the first series of tests in the nascent American thermonuclear weapons program. The four tests were performed in April and May 1951 at the Enewetak Atoll of the Marshall Islands. Following the Soviet Union’s successful test of an atomic bomb in August 1949, the United States made the controversial decision to proceed with the development of thermonuclear weapons. These fusion weapons (the “Super” or hydrogen bomb) would be orders of magnitude more destructive than the fission weapons used against Japan.

$17,500

The Vocal Standard, or, Star Spangled Banner: being the latest and best selection ever offered to the public, particularly of American patriotic songs. Richmond: Nash and White, 1824

RARE AMERICAN PATRIOTIC SONGSTER. The Star-Spangled Banner appears at pp 15-16. The song’s great fame at this early date is reflected in its inclusion in the book’s title and its use as the running headline in every page

$1,200