[Holland: seventeenth century]. Folio. (12 1/2 x 8 inches). 48 watercolours of tulips on vellum, interleaved with plain paper with horn and crown... More

[Holland: seventeenth century]. Folio. (12 1/2 x 8 inches). 48 watercolours of tulips on vellum, interleaved with plain paper with horn and crown watermark, each watercolour titled in ink below image, the first watercolour signed "Grein" at the lower right. Contemporary vellum over pasteboard, contained in a modern dark green morocco box, the covers with gilt-ruled borders, the spine in six compartments with raised bands, lettered in the second, the others with elaborate repeat pattern made up from flower-sprays and various small tools. A spectacular album containing finely-executed images on vellum of all the greatest 17th century varieties of tulips: a landmark in the history of botanical art in the Low Countries, and a unique record of the bulbs that inspired the speculative financial-madness called Tulipomania. The tulip, introduced to Europe in the middle of the sixteenth century from the Ottoman Empire, experienced a strong growth in popularity boosted by competition among the wealthy for possession of the rarest varieties. The tulip rapidly became a coveted luxury item, appearing in main-stream art as a symbol of wealth and as a decorative motif on ceramics and textiles. Special varieties were given exotic names or named after popular figures of the time: generals, admirals, etc. The most spectacular and highly sought-after tulips were the so-called "broken" varieties. These had two or more vivid colours: often a base colour of white or cream with red lines, or flames to the petals. The present album is devoted exclusively to these most expensive varieties. Tulipomania eventually reached a level where fantastic, unsustainable prices were being paid for individual bulbs. In 1637, the bubble burst and the over-heated market collapsed. For some years after this, the tulip's popularity remained at a low level but by the time the present album was produced its unique beauty was beginning once again to be appreciated. Tulip albums were produced for two principle reasons. First, as a selling tool for the bulb dealers: accurate images of what the bulbs they were offering were going to look like were obviously vital and the high prices of the tulipomania era set a precedent of employing artists of a very high quality to record the colours and details of the bulbs. These albums are almost exclusively made up of drawings on paper. One of the best known examples of this type of album is probably the 1637 tulip book of P. Cos, a nurseryman from Haarlem, Holland (now in the collection of the Wageningen Universiteit en Researchcentrum). Second, albums were produced as a collective record of the ephemeral beauty of the blooms grown by individuals, either professional growers or wealthy amateurs. The present album probably falls into this latter category: the original presentation of this album is on a much more luxurious scale than trade albums. The most obvious sign of this is the fact that each of the drawings is on vellum. Vellum, especially the prepared vellum used for the present album, was an expensive luxury material and an indicator that the drawings were commissioned by a wealthy individual (in France, for instance, King Louis XIV had all his botanical drawings executed on vellum: the so-called "velins du Roi"). Tulip albums, whatever their origin, are now very rare: according to Sam Segal (a world-renowned expert on tulips and the author of "Tulips in Visual Art",) there are now only about 50 of these albums extant. This includes albums with drawings on paper and also 18th century albums; thus, the actual number of seventeenth century albums with drawings on vellum is almost certainly no more than a handful. Most albums are in institutional collections, so the present album may well be the final example offered on the open market. Sam Segal offered the following information about the present album: the artist "Grein" is an unrecorded artist, but his name "is a Dutch name known since the early seventeenth century." The paper used for the interleaves is watermarked with a horn and crown, similar to paper known to have been made in Amsterdam and Leiden from 1665. The tulip types are from this period as well, before a relative great change in form and size during the eighteenth century. The flowers themselves carry names that "are known from the 1630s and 1640s, the period of and directly after the tulipomania ...they include the very expensive types of that period, like the 'Semper Augustus' and 'Viceroy.' As in many tulip books meant as a catalogue of a seller of bulbs, the illustrations show many related types. That might mean that they are tulips from one nursery or one collection from which the owner gave an order to the artist to paint his collection. The names of some of the tulips could point to a possible commissioner of the album, like 'General Doriszlav' and 'Grootvorst van Moscovicz.'" Dash,Tulipomania , London, 1999; Goldgar,Tulipomania , Chicago, 2007; Pavord,The Tulip,London, 1999; van der Goes (editor) Tulipomanie, Zwolle/Dresden, 2004; Wijnands,Tulips portrayed, Wageningen, 1987. Less

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New York: Printed and sold by John and Andrew M'Lean, 1788. 2 volumes, 12mo. (6 1/8 x 3 3/4 inches). vi, 227; vi, 384pp. Expertly bound to style in... More

New York: Printed and sold by John and Andrew M'Lean, 1788. 2 volumes, 12mo. (6 1/8 x 3 3/4 inches). vi, 227; vi, 384pp. Expertly bound to style in contemporary tree calf, the covers with a neo-classical Greek-key roll- tool border, the flat spine tooled in gilt, divided into six compartments with a Greek-key roll, lettered in the second compartment, numbered in the fourth, the others with an elegant repeat pattern in gilt, both contained within a recent black morocco box, spine gilt. Rare first edition of the most important work of American political thought ever written and according to Thomas Jefferson "the best commentary on the principles of government." The first edition of The Federalist comprises the first collected printing of the 85 seminal essays written in defense of the newly-drafted Constitution. The essays were first issued individually by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay in New York newspapers under the pseudonym 'Publius' to garner support for the ratification of the Constitution. This first collected edition was published in early 1788: volume I published in March, contains the first 36 numbers, volume II published in May, includes the remaining 49, together with the text of the Constitution. Upon its publication, George Washington noted to Alexander Hamilton that the work "will merit the Notice of Posterity; because in it are candidly and ably discussed the principles of freedom and the topics of government, which will always be interesting to mankind" (George Washington, letter to Hamilton, 28 August 1788). The genesis of this "classic exposition of the principles of republican government" (R.B. Bernstein, Are We to be a Nation? The Making of the Constitution, 1987, p.242) is to be found in the "great national discussion" which took place about the ratification of the Constitution, and the necessity of answering the salvos in print from the Anti-Federalists and other opponents of a strong Federal government. The original plan was that James Madison and John Jay were to help Hamilton write a series of essays explaining the merits of their system, whilst also rebutting the arguments of its detractors. "Hamilton wrote the first piece in October 1787 on a sloop returning from Albany...He finished many pieces while the printer waited in a hall for the completed copy" (R. Brookhiser Alexander Hamilton: American, 1999, pp.68-69). In the end, well over half of the 85 essays were written by Hamilton alone. Despite the intense time pressures under which the series was written "what began as a propaganda tract, aimed only at winning the election for delegates to New York's state ratifying convention, evolved into the classic commentary upon the American Federal system" (F. McDonald Alexander Hamilton: A Biography, p.107). The Federalist is without question the most important commentary on the Constitution, the most significant American contribution to political theory and among the most important of all American books. Church 1230; Cohen 2818; Evans 21127; Ford 17; Grolier American 100, 19; Howes H114, "c"; Printing and the Mind of Man 234; Sabin 23979; Streeter Sale 1049. Less

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Landschut: Joannem Weyssenburger, [1521].. [8]pp. Woodcut map on titlepage. Small quarto. Modern three-quarter vellum and marbled boards, leather... More

Landschut: Joannem Weyssenburger, [1521].. [8]pp. Woodcut map on titlepage. Small quarto. Modern three-quarter vellum and marbled boards, leather label on cover. Very good. In a red half morocco and cloth slipcase. First edition of geographer Peter Apianus' first printed work, describing a large world map of which no copy has survived. The ellipsoidal map herein described is thought to have been based on the great Waldseem?r map of 1507, the first world map to use the term "America." Published about four years before his COSMOGRAPHICUS LIBER (which passed through thirty-five editions in the 16th century), the ISAGOGE is divided into twelve "Propositiones" showing how to use the map. Many of the comments and instructions in this guide are intended to explain the use of the map for astronomical and calendrical calculations. In his preface, he mentions his "Cosmography," which was not published until 1524, and which still stands as a foundational work on the subject. The preliminary section of the ISAGOGE was reissued in part in his DECLARATIO ET USUS TYPE COSMOGRAPHICI at Regensburg, probably the next year. "Harrisse, who knew this 'rare pamphlet' only in the copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, believed that it could not describe the 1520 map and argued ingeniously that the 1520 map was published at the expense of Luc Alantse, whereas the ISAGOGE was dedicated to the Duke of Saxony. Ducal patronage would almost certainly supersede that of a private citizen. The James Ford Bell catalogue dates the ISAGOGE to 1520. Weyssenberger was the publisher of both the ISAGOGE and the COSMOGRAPHICUS LIBER. The map described in the ISAGOGE, although no copy is known, is a landmark in the history of the geography of the New World and this pamphlet describing it is an Americanum of the greatest rarity and cartographical significance" - Nebenzahl. Apianus was a Professor of Mathematics in Vienna, as well as a mapmaker, writer, and leading authority on cosmography - a subject encompassing astronomy, geography, and cartography. The woodcut map on the title of the ISAGOGE shows Europe, Asia and Africa, with Venice, Portugal, and "Callicut" (i.e. Kozhikode) identified. Very rare in the market, with only three copies traced for sale in the last century. EUROPEAN AMERICANA 521/2. BELL CATALOGUE A-280. VAN ORTROY, BIBLIOGRAPHIE DE L'OEUVRE DE PIERRE APIAN 10. HARRISSE, HISTORY OF AMERICA, p.534. BAGROW, HISTORY OF CARTOGRAPHY, p.130. STILLWELL I:22. NEBENZAHL CATALOGUE 12:9. LeCLERC 31. SHIRLEY, MAPPING OF THE WORLD 45 (ref). Less

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