{"title":"250 Years of America | 4th July","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe 4th of July 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Journey across the evolution of America over two and a half centuries through this collection of rare manuscripts, maps, photographs, autobiographies \u0026amp; more.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"view-of-a-homestead-america-1800-american-topographicsl-view-72611","title":"View of a Homestead, America.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003eAttractive early American topographical view with a family and others in the foreground, painted in fresh, thick colours.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGouache on card.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"[ANON.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45546851991857,"sku":"72611","price":3200.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/72611_179d54a2-0440-4711-90a0-9b8d6c4d3951.jpg?v=1780922231"},{"product_id":"strand-paul-wall-street-1916-91270","title":"Wall Street.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003eicon of Modernism\u003c\/h4\u003eAn iconic image of Wall Street and a turning point in modern photography.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWall Street depicts a scene of everyday life in Manhattan's Financial District. Workers are seen walking past the J.P. Morgan building in New York City on the famous Wall Street, of which the photograph takes its name. The photograph is famous for its reliance on the sharpness and contrast of the shapes and angles, created by the building and the workers, that lead to its abstraction. This photograph is considered to be one of Strand's most famous works and an example of his change from pictorialism to straight photography. Strand moved from the posed to portraying the purity of the subjects. There is no focal point, with the lines converging off of the frame of the image. The financial building take majority of the frame. Emphasis is placed on the strong shapes created by the architecture of the building. The workers are included in the image, but are faceless and are trumped in size by the massive square shapes from the building they walk past. Also, the workers are captured in motion which on film makes them appear blurry. This aesthetic that Strand creates in Wall Street is his break toward the modern.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSocial change was important to Strand. With Wall Street, he sought to portray a social message. He captured the faceless people next to the looming financial building in order to give a warning. Strand shows 'the recently built J.P. Morgan Co. building, whose huge, dark recesses dwarf the passers-by with the imposing powers of uniformity and anonymity' (Ollman, Art Review: Paul Strand: A Transition, Caught on Film.) The people cannot escape the overwhelming power that this modern establishment will have on their future and the future of America. He warns us to not be the small people that look almost ant-like next to this building that has a massive amount of control over the American economy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe photo, now simply titled 'Wall Street', was one of six Paul Strand pictures Stieglitz published in Camera Work. In three of the six pictures, humanity strides out from abstract ideas, and each figure was a study in itself — an irregular item complimented by modular formats that surround it. Another set of eleven Strand photos were published in the magazine's final issue in 1917, and those pictures, overwhelmingly endorsed by Stieglitz as 'brutally direct' made Strand's reputation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePhotogravure on japan paper, from Camera Work No. 48, annotated on the reverse, image size 13.4 x 16.6 cm., sheet 28.1 x 20 cm, mounted and framed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"STRAND, Paul.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45547043160369,"sku":"91270","price":16500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/91270_d1521ac9-cb6b-4aae-a3b3-789fc11947b6.jpg?v=1782766690"},{"product_id":"lyndon-b-johnson-harold-wilson-photograph-album-state-visit-1965-99849","title":"Album of photographs commemorating the Prime Minister's visit to the US.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003eAn important album relating to the Wilson's visit to the US during Johnson's presidency; the gilt title to the upper board reads 'Prime Minister Harold Wilson from Lyndon B. Johnson', comprising c.70 photographs (colour and black \u0026amp; white).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLarge format, each of the c.70 photographs loose as issued, many bearing the stamp to verso: 'Robert L. Knudsen, The White House', each 14\" x 11\"; presented in original board portfolio, boards loose, lacking spine.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"JOHNSON, Lyndon B. (36th President of the United States); WILSON, Harold (Prime Minister of Great Britain).","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45547144184113,"sku":"99849","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/99849_2.jpg?v=1782766564"},{"product_id":"104144","title":"[North America Eastern seaboard] Carta VI. Seguono le Colonie Inglesi.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003eRare playing card map. Designed to play the Florentine version of the tarot game, the 'Minchiate'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe card features a miniature map to its upper part with a table of towns and rivers below.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEngraved playing card map, fine original hand-colour, cut to or slightly outside platemark, laid down on thin writing paper and tipped-in to contemporary laid paper.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMann Collection, 1125; Mann, Sylvia \u0026amp; Kingsley, David, 'Map Collectors' Circle No. 87: Playing Cards Depicting maps of the British Isles, and of English and Welsh Counties', p. 23, No.11; King, Geoffrey, 'Minature Antique Maps', p.160.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"[RABATTA, Augusto da \u0026 BAILLOU, Jean-Baptiste de].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45547253268785,"sku":"104144","price":400.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/104144.jpg?v=1780908911"},{"product_id":"robertson-history-of-america-1777-first-edition-103629","title":"The History of America.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003eThis was the first sustained attempt to describe the discovery, conquest and settlement of Spanish America since Herrera's Décadas. Robertson intended to continue his work with the history of the British Dominions in North America. The work remained unfinished with the outbreak of the American War of Independence and it was edited for publication by his son after Robertson's death. This part forms books 9-10 of The History of America and consists of the History of Virginia and The History of New England.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst edition. 2 volumes, 4to, xvii, [vii], 488; [iv], 535, [xxiii], viii, 143 [i] pp., 4 folding maps by Thomas Kitchin, 1 folding plate, small repairs to upper margin pp 133-135 vol I, not touching text, maps and plates foxed, occasional light foxing to text, contemporary polished calf gilt, red and green morocco labels, joints cracked but firm, a very good set.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"ROBERTSON, William.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45957821956401,"sku":"103629","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/103629_582ad01e-8077-4096-a362-52878ee871ad.jpg?v=1781730113"},{"product_id":"104146","title":"[California] I. Nuovo Messico appatiene alla Spagna. A. Luisiana Inglese. B. Luisiana Francese.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003eRare playing card map. Designed to play the Florentine version of the tarot game, the 'Minchiate'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe card features a miniature map to its upper part with a table of towns and rivers below.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEngraved playing card map, fine original hand-colour, cut to or slightly outside platemark, laid down on thin writing paper and tipped-in to contemporary laid paper.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMann Collection, 1125; Mann, Sylvia \u0026amp; Kingsley, David, 'Map Collectors' Circle No. 87: Playing Cards Depicting maps of the British Isles, and of English and Welsh Counties', p. 23, No.11; King, Geoffrey, 'Minature Antique Maps', p.160.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"[RABATTA, Augusto da \u0026 BAILLOU, Jean-Baptist de].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45987572711729,"sku":"104146","price":400.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/104146.jpg?v=1780908913"},{"product_id":"american-gold-1862-1876-90314","title":"American Gold. 1862-1876.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003egold exchange listings\u003c\/h4\u003eThe first section features daily high-low price quotation tables followed by book's rear numbered pages which provides a list of members of the New York Gold Exchange (pages 1-11) and list of members of the New York Stock Exchange (pages 12-19). Meysereau was the register of the American Gold Exchange Register.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSmall 8vo (13 x 8.25cm) pp.( [1-112], 1-19,  two stylish ink bird drawings on front endpapers,  with drawing on ffep recto and previous owner's annotations, library stamp upon title page and at top margin of page [39]; ink notation at bottom of page [5],  ink annotations on pages [35], [93], [97], and rear free endpaper verso. Original purple cloth gilt rubbed and worn,  shelf number handwritten in white ink at spine heel; a good firm copy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"MERSEREAU, J[ohn] C.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46169609077041,"sku":"90314","price":350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/90314_8d24149f-8d8f-4fb1-a5c5-4405d96cddaa.jpg?v=1780910602"},{"product_id":"111701","title":"The American Monument.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003eThe American Monument was published to coincide with the United States Bicentennial. When looking through his contact sheets, Friedlander noticed that a large number of public statues, memorials, plaques and reliefs had made their way into his photographs; after that, he began seeking them out. While some monuments in these photographs have become tourist attractions, most are overlooked and often abandoned. Leslie George Katz, founder of Eakins Press, writes in his afterword that monuments are 'metaphors for human values, persistent values that survive despite notice or neglect.' Friedlander's photographs show the modern world encroaching.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst edition; oblong folio (291 x 418 mm, 11½ x 16½ in); black-and-white photographs printed in gravure, epigraph by Walt Whitman, afterword by Leslie George Katz; green cloth-covered boards bound with three screws, titles stamped to spine and upper side in black, publisher's device in gold to spine, upper side ruled in gold, a fine copy; [176]pp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century pp236-7; The Open Book pp310-1; The Photobook: A History Il, p28.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"FRIEDLANDER, Lee.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48424308769073,"sku":"111701","price":875.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/111701_2f8bde07-7487-43da-bc7f-454e1c00a4eb.jpg?v=1782766283"},{"product_id":"alvan-fisher-views-lagrange-boston-1826-114155","title":"Views of Lagrange.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003eA smart set of four plates depicting the home of the Marquis de La Fayette (1757-1834). Titled: Northn. View, North-Western-View, Eastn. View, South Western View.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLafayette visited the United States in 1824-5, in part to celebrate the nation's upcoming 50th anniversary, visiting New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Alvan Fisher, an early American landscape painter, would have been present for the celebrations in Boston and was inspired to tour Europe, including Paris and Lafayette's home, in 1825. He witnessed the lithographic process in Paris, commissioned the lithographer Isadore Deroy to draw his paintings of La Grange on stone, returning in September 1826. They are one of the earliest examples of lithographs in America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst edition; folio (43 x 30 cm); 4 hand-coloured lithographic plates by Isidore Laurent Deroy after Alvan Fisher, plates clean; unbound in original printed paper wrappers as issued, preserved in modern chemise slipcase with gilt morocco title label, spine of wrappers torn, otherwise a very good copy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"FISHER, Alvan (illustrator).","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55211616698743,"sku":"114155","price":2500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/114155_3c93a65c-093b-41f7-a2c3-cbd2833f7d89.jpg?v=1780910593"},{"product_id":"bryant-picturesque-america-1872-first-116991","title":"Picturesque America;","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003ethe natural wonders of America\u003c\/h4\u003eA beautiful set illustrating the natural wonders of America, along with its towns and cities, at the start of the Gilded Age.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe text was written by William Cullen Bryant (1794- 1878), a fireside poet and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post, and serves as a love letter to America and its vistas. Bryant was highly influential in his day, being considered pivotal in the election of Lincoln as President, and celebrated widely as one of the greats of American poetry in the nineteenth century.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst edition; 2 vols, 4to (33 x 27 cm); 49 steel engraved plates including frontispieces and additional titles, 100s of further wood engravings in the text, occasional light foxing to margins only; publisher's half brown morocco, upper boards lettered in gilt, spines lettered in gilt in six compartments, all edges gilt, extremities a little worn, a very good set; viii, 568; vi, 576pp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"BRYANT, William Cullen.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55214516207991,"sku":"116991","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/116991_7043d5ef-df85-49d2-940b-fda2b91dec7a.jpg?v=1782766371"},{"product_id":"isaac-newton-roger-cotes-eighteenth-century-scientific-manuscript-115619","title":"18th century science manuscript.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003eciting newton, harvey, \u0026amp; pascal\u003c\/h4\u003eAn unusual late 18th century manuscript on classical physics that cites Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, William Harvey, Henry Power, and others.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe text, approximately 200 pages, presents an ordered and detailed account of a number of related topics: optics; hydrostatics and pneumatics; mechanics including simple machines such as the lever and screw, the behaviour of descending bodies, and pendulums; phosphorus and its chemical transformations; and fortifications and architecture. The notes are dense but generally neat and legible with carefully prepared diagrams, so this seems to be a fair copy rather than a working notebook. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNewton is cited in the section on light and colour: 'What Sir I.N. has said by way of [?] in the last edit of his Opticks will appear to be an established truth from most if not all the following examples, some of which he mentions himself\". And Harvey in a short section on chemical transformations: \"Harvey had (says he) the opportunity as well as the curiosity upon several occasions to examine the weight of [?] when some of them taken up in places very distant from one another...'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe origin of much of the material is unclear, though the long section on hydrostaticks was taken from Hydrostatical and Pneumatical Lectures by Roger Cotes (1682-1716), originally published privately in 1738 and with a second edition at Cambridge in 1747. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCotes was 'probably the most talented British mathematician of the generation after Newton'. He was nominated as the first Plumian professor of astronomy at Cambridge in 1706 and 'his appointment was favoured by his influential mentor Richard Bentley, master of Trinity; by Newton's successor as Lucasian professor, William Whiston, who claimed to be in mathematics \"a child to Mr Cotes\" (Whiston, 133); and by Newton himself... In 1709 Cotes became heavily involved in the work for which he is best remembered, namely the revisions for the second edition of Newton's Philosophia naturalis principia mathematica, the first being out of print' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). Cotes died young, and Newton was reported to have said that, 'if he had lived we might have known something'. A number of Cotes's lectures and mathematical analyses were published posthumously by his executor Robert Smith, the Hydrostatical and Pneumatical Lectures being one of them. It is tempting to question whether other portions of the present manuscript are also based on Cotes's work, and further academic scrutiny might be fruitful.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e100-leaf manuscript, rectos and most versos filled, wax seal remnants to front pastedown, leaves wavy at the edges, some spotting and marks to contents; contemporary calf-backed blue paper boards, gilt floral tools to spine compartments, binding marked and worn with spine cords partially exposed and loss of the blue paper, morocco label lacking, naphthalene smell, good condition, housed in a black cloth folding case.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"[NEWTON, Isaac; COTES, Roger].","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55311057715575,"sku":"115619","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/115619_03ecde7e-0bb9-4972-8374-f5a89e97038c.jpg?v=1782593931"},{"product_id":"ksrl-baedeker-united-states-1893-first-edition-110409","title":"United States with an excursion into Mexico.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003efirst edition\u003c\/h4\u003eA scarce first edition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe United States was the first Baedeker originally written in English by J. F. Muirhead, the English editor of the Baedeker Guides. He later published his own series of guidebooks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIssued c.1893. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst edition. pp. c, 516, 17 maps and 22 plans, staining along the upper hinge, some repair to the hinges, Charles Scribner's price list pasted down on front endpaper; publisher's red cloth gilt, spine faded; a good copy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e Hinrichsen E261.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"BAEDEKER, Karl.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55573340488055,"sku":"110409","price":400.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/110409_d3c40c95-819e-4a4d-a0e2-b5e2de085425.jpg?v=1780917576"},{"product_id":"cartier-bresson-wronecki-new-york-1949-116595","title":"New York.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003eThis book, published in the collection Merveilles de la France et du Monde, features 127 illustrations, including 64 by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 12 by J.-J. Languepin, 5 by Fred Stein, 19 by Daniel Wronecki, and various press agencies. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst edition; small 4to (240 x 170 mm, 9½ x 7½ in); black \u0026amp; white photographs printed in gravure, occasional offsetting; sewn adhesive-bound cream printed wrappers with titles in black, leaning slightly, reading creases, photo-illustrated dust jacket, minor toning to spine, light wear and rubbing to extremities, nick to bottom edge upper at spine, minor creasing at top edge, a very good copy; 192pp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"[CARTIER-BRESSON, Henri et al.] WRONECKI, Daniel.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56330357703031,"sku":"116595","price":250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/116595_0af074d9-4fbf-4281-8362-703c9ea42ac9.jpg?v=1780912264"},{"product_id":"121246","title":"The Americans. Photographs by Robert Frank. Introduction by Jack Kerouac.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003eassociation copy\u003c\/h4\u003eAn important presentation copy of the revised and enlarged edition of Robert Frank's The Americans, inscribed to Frank's friend and publisher Motomura Kazuhiko: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'To Kazuhiko Motomura \/ I hope to see you \/ again \/ and that we will \/ become friends \/ Robert Frank \/ Nov. 1970 \/ New York.'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSecond edition, revised and enlarged, inscribed in black ink; oblong 8vo (183 x 208 mm, 7¼ x 8¼ in); black \u0026amp; white photographs printed in 'stonetone' offset by Rapoport Printing Corp., New York, introduction by Jack Kerouac, afterword by Robert Frank with details of the four films he made 1959-68, occasional light spotting, light marking to edges, printer's ink mark to one page; plain endpapers, light spotting, black cloth-covered boards, titles to spine in gold, photo-illustrated dust-jacket, white, text in black, minor toning, lightly marked, a very good copy in Motomura Kazuhiko's card sleeve titled in black ink on upper side; [iv], vi, [182]pp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"FRANK, Robert.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56378926367095,"sku":"121246","price":8750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/121246.jpg?v=1780909917"},{"product_id":"margaret-thatcher-ronald-reagan-signed-121533","title":"[Colour Photograph taken on the verandah of the White House, Washington DC","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003esigned by 'The Iron Lady', Dennis Thatcher, President Ronald Reagan \u0026amp; The First Lady\u003c\/h4\u003eTaken on Thursday 26th February, 1981 during Margaret Thatcher's official visit to the United States following the recent election of Ronald Regan as President.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eColour photograph, signed by Margaret \u0026amp; Denis Thatcher and ronald \u0026amp; Nancy Reagan; photograph size 187 x 250 mm; framed and anti-UV glazed: 350 x 400 mm.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"[POLITICS] THATCHER, Margaret \u0026 Denis; REAGAN, Ronald \u0026 Nancy.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56567156081015,"sku":"121533","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/121533.jpg?v=1780918297"},{"product_id":"115559","title":"Mare Nectaris - Mare Imbrium. 1:2,500,000. Pictorial relief printing.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003eimportant pre-apollo lunar map\u003c\/h4\u003eFirst printing of a monumental and important lunar relief map produced by the US Army Map Service in the run-up to the Apollo program, incorporating all six future landing sites. Rare in commerce, with no other copies in auction records.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMare Nectaris - Mare Imbrium was compiled during 1961, the same year that Kennedy famously announced to Congress that the US would land a man on the Moon. It was the first Earthside stereographic map of any part of the Moon, highlighting the central portion of the visible half of the lunar surface, and was based on photographs taken by the Paris Observatory between 1896 and 1907. The map was available in two versions: gradient tint and shaded relief, as here (Surveying and Mapping, United States Superintendent of Documents, 1963). The names of the features were derived from the standard source Named Lunar Formations by Mary Blagg and K. Müller, and the verso is printed with a complete list of lunar places. A small, three-dimensional plastic version at 1:500,000 was produced the year before, and is somewhat more available.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Apollo sites (not yet designated as such at the time of printing) are the Sea of Tranquility, the Sea of Storms (Oceanus Procellarum) near Lansberg Crater, Fra Mauro near the Bonpland and Perry craters, the Appenine Mountains near Haldey Rille, the Descartes Crater, and the Taurus Mountains-Littrow Crater area.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eColour map, (54.5 x 40.5 in), glazed and framed; some wear and loss at the edges and to two round spots at the bottom of the lower text portion repaired with paper, with slight loss of some text, horizontal creases from folding, a few light spots; very good condition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"US ARMY MAP SERVICE.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56987777270135,"sku":"115559","price":10000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/115559.jpg?v=1780909441"},{"product_id":"thomas-paine-letter-colonel-john-fellows-paris-20-january-1797-122542","title":"Autograph manuscript letter signed Thomas Paine to Colonel John Fellows.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003e'It is time that Mr Washington retire' — signed Thomas Paine\u003c\/h4\u003eAn extraordinary, rediscovered letter signed by, and in the hand of, Thomas Paine (1737-1809) reiterating his call that President George Washington should retire from office. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe letter, dated 20th January 1797, was sent just weeks before Washington stood down at the end of his second term, thereby establishing the precedent, later codified in the Twenty-Second Amendment, that 'No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe thrust of the letter concerns the publication of Paine's infamous Letter to George Washington, which attacked the character of the President and the influence of the Federalists on government policy, including the highly inflammatory claims that John Adams had said 'that the Presidency should be made hereditary in the family of Lund Washington', and that John Jay believed 'that the Senate should have been appointed for life'. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePaine's animosity had been building since the ratification of the Jay Treaty the year before, which he saw as evidence not only of the Washington's administration pro-English and anti-French bias, but as a symptom of a general decline in the democratic ideals of the nascent republic. It also represents the culmination of Paine's personal animosity towards the President who he felt, and perhaps justly, had failed him in his hour of need. This harks back to Paine's imprisonment by the Jacobins in 1793 and the apparent refusal of the Washington administration to recognise Paine's American citizenship, for which treachery, Washington was never forgiven. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis animosity is felt particularly in the closing paragraph of our letter, which Paine wrote whilst awaiting 'news from America of the state of the federal elections. You will have heard long before this reaches you, that the French government has refused to receive Mr [Charles Cotesworth] Pinckey as minister. While Mr [James] Monroe was minister he had the opportunity of softening the matter with this governm[en]t for he was in good credit with them tho they were in high indignation at the infidelity of the Washington administration. It is time that Mr Washington retire; for he has played off so much prudential hypocrisy between France and England, that neither government believe any thing he says'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur letter recalls how Paine had sent his attack on Washington to his protégé Benjamin Franklin Bache (1769-1798) 'in August last' by way of his friend Captain Nathan Haley 'to be printed in a pamphlet'. However, still at the time of writing in January 1797, Paine had of 'yet no certain account of its publication. I mention this that the letter [to George Washington] may be enquired after, in case it has not been published or has not arrived to Mr. Bache. Barnes wrote to me from London 29 August informing me that he was offered three hundred pounds sterling for the manuscript. The offer was repulsed because it was my intention it should not appear till it appeared in America, as that and not England was the place for its operation'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIts publication had in fact been held back by Bache himself, who perhaps felt that it would not help the Jeffersonian cause in the upcoming presidential election. The Letter finally appeared on the 8th December 1796, the day after Washington had given his farewell address and signalled his intention to stand down at the end of his second term, where it was met with embarrassment from fellow republicans and irrevocably tarnished Paine's reputation with the federalists. Washington, in any event, did not respond.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAlthough anonymous, our letter's recipient has long been identified as Paine's particular friend, Colonel John Fellows (1759-1844), who had served in his uncle's militia during the Revolutionary War. Fellows shared Paine's republican sympathies and his bookshop-come-publishing house, established in 1793, soon became 'notorious for containing what the Federalists considered heretical works' ('Letter from Fellows to William Lee of Washington', May 1821). He acquired the copyright for Part I of the Age of Reason, which he brought to the press in 1794, and published pamphlets of Joel Barlow, to whom Paine had confided his manuscript on his way to prison. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eProvenance:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Firstly for the recipient, Colonel John Fellows, with a manuscript note to the top of the first page noting the letter's acquisition: 'From the late Col. Fellows original letter of Thom[as] Paine'.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2. Secondly for the English radical printer James Watson (1799-1874), who published a Life of Paine in 1839 (a copy of the 1849 edition of this work is provided with this letter). We know from this Life that Watson had obtained a different letter by Paine to Fellows dated July 31st 1805, which had been given to him by a Mr. William Clark, likely the printer who operated out of a shop on New Bond Street, who had obtained this letter directly from Fellows himself. It seems likely therefore, that our letter came by a similar route. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3. Thirdly for the Liberal MP Joseph Cowen Jr. (1829-1900), who served as Member of Parliament for Newcastle from 1865 until 1886. Cowen obtained the letter directly from Watson (see the accompanying note on ledger paper), and later gave permission to the American historian Moncure Daniel Conway (1832-1907) to publish the letter in full in his collected Writings of Thomas Paine, which appeared in four volumes between 1894 and 1896. The letter was then passed down by family descent to the present-day. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a rare opportunity to acquire a letter of real significance from the philosopher of the American Revolution, which has been in private hands since its acquisition in the nineteenth century. Paine is rightly regarded by most as a Founding Father, whose pamphlet Common Sense did more than any other to rally support for independence during the war years, and whose passionate commitment to the democratic ideal has shaped the course of the modern age.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA full transcription of the letter can be provided upon request.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAutograph manuscript letter signed; bifolium (21 x 16.5 cm); [3]pp in pen in the hand of Thomas Paine signed by him to the bottom of p.[3] in total forming 72 lines of text, manuscript corrections in text to lines 18 and 19 of p.[1], and line 1 of p.[3], later note in pen to head of p.[1] stating 'original letter of Tho[mas]s Paine' and 'from the late Col. Fellows', further pen note to verso of p.[3] 'Tho[ma] Paine Jan. 1797'; slightly browned, sometime folded in 8 further parts, split along central horizontal fold of second f., small hole at centre of first vertical fold of first f., and above 'w' of 'white' at the beginning of the 6th line of p.[3]; overall a fantastic, completely unrestored example, housed in a custom-made calf-backed folding portfolio case; with accompanying note of provenance, an 1817 printing of Paine's 'Letter to George Washington, disbound, and The Life of Thomas Paine printed by J. Watson, unbound.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"PAINE, Thomas.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57017996214647,"sku":"122542","price":95000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/122542_b1e05fa3-8981-41bb-9a35-584f138c5db7.jpg?v=1782766704"},{"product_id":"barack-obama-audacity-hope-signed-first-121321","title":"The Audacity of Hope.","description":"\u003ch4 class=\"srb-faux-head\"\u003esigned by the author \u003c\/h4\u003eWritten when he was Senator for the 13th district in the Illinois Senate and before he became the 44th President of the United States for two terms in office.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst edition, signed by the author; 8vo (245 x 170 mm); publisher's black cloth, photographic dust-jacket, a fine copy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"OBAMA, Barack.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57124538843511,"sku":"121321","price":1100.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4694\/1233\/files\/121321_d8b70d64-d276-4445-84e9-76b8343afcee.jpg?v=1780911233"}],"url":"https:\/\/shapero.com\/en-us\/collections\/250-years-of-america-4th-july.oembed","provider":"Shapero Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}