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

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

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: Strahan and Cadell, 1791

SIXTH EDITION of the most important book in the history of economics. One of 2000 sets. The sixth edition is the first to have been published after Smith’s death in 1790.

$6,800

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

An Explanation of the Map of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Printed for the Author and sold by Nicholas Brooks, 1774

FIRST EDITION. This pamphlet was published in conjunction with “Reed’s Plan of First Purchasers,” a large and now rare landownership map, documenting the “First Purchasers” of Pennsylvania. The text includes copies of the original abstracts of communications from William Penn to the “first adventurers and purchasers in Pennsylvania,” abstracts of the charter of the city, reasons why the plan of the city was altered by Benjamin Eastburn, an alphabetical list of the first purchasers, and the courses, distances and dates of surveys of all the lots in the city of Philadelphia. Reed prepared this valuable document to bolster his family’s claims to land in the Philadelphia area.

$2,800

The Works. London: Tonson et al., 1766

This handsome edition includes The Ambitious Step-Mother, Tamerlane, The Fair Penitent, Ulysses, The Royal Convert, Jane Shore, Jane Gray, and various poems.

$250

Horse-Hoeing Husbandry: or, An Essay on the Principles of Vegetation and Tillage. Designed to Introduce A New Method of Culture; whereby The Produce of Land will be Increased, and the Usual Expense Lessened. Together with Accurate Descriptions and Cuts of the Instruments Employed in it … fourth edition, very carefully corrected. London: Millar, 1762

The edition that Thomas Jefferson owned.  Jefferson wrote from Monticello in 1817, “While I was an amateur in Agricultural science (for practical knowledge my course of life never permitted me) I was very partial to the drilled husbandry of Tull.”

$600

Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry. London: Millar and Nourse, 1758

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of Macquer’s Elémens de chymie-theorique (1749) and Elémens de chymie-pratique (1751), translated by Andrew Reid from the 1756 editions. The theoretical section lays out the principles of chemistry, and the practical section presents a course of chemistry including engravings of apparatus.

$1,200

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”

$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