History made in the USA

The Daguerreotype

Daguerreotype of a painting of a gentleman.

A sculptor working in metal, Edward Sawyer was born in Chicago, Illinois, and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and then at the Julian Academy in Paris where he was a student of Verlet. He also studied with Auguste Rodin and Jean Paul Laurens.

After 1900, he lived permanently in Toulon, France. During visits to the United States in the early 1900s, he made a series of forty bronze medals depicting members of various Indian tribes. Among his travels was the Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado, Arizona. Writing a letter dated July 1904 to J.L. Hubbell, proprietor, Sawyer wrote urging Hubbell to visit him in Paris: “Ganado is awfully hot now and soon your visitors will be coming for the Snake Dance. . . .I wish you could know a chance to have a vacation and come over here and see fine pictures and sculpture . . .” (Blue, 111)

The bronzes resulting from Sawyer’s travels to America were exhibited in New York City in 1923, and became the property of the American Numismatic Society. The Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming owns a series of the artist’s medallions with Indian portraits.

His Buffalo won a prize at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904.

Source:
Peggy and Harold Samuels, Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West
Martha Blue, Indian Trader: The Life & Times of J.L. Hubbell
Sarah Boehme, Curator,Whitney Gallery of Western Art, Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Philip Evan Thomas

Philip Evan Thomas (November 11, 1776 – September 1, 1861) was the first president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) from 1827 to 1836. He has been referred to as “The Father of American Railways”

Clerks of the Baltimore Yearly Meetings of Friends from 1790 to 1853.

Separation Epistle published after the 1828 meeting.

Louis Bonsal, bookseller and bookbinder ticket, after 1858, date of the last pamphlet bound in the book.

Does the margin markings indicate ownership?

Last Extracts of the Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1858.

Presentation in pencil to Philip Thomas Bell, Philip Evan's nephew. Philip E. Thomas's daughter, Harriet, married Christy James Bell. — Presentation in pencil to Philip Thomas Bell, Philip Evan’s nephew. Philip E. Thomas’s daughter, Harriet, married Christy James Bell.

Three quarter leather and marbled paper circa 1858.

Plain lealther spine, P.E.T. At the foot, iniatials of Philip Evan Thomas.

Note by Philip E. Thomas about the Separation Epistle.

Philip E. Thomas, clerk of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting, 1821 to 1832.

Manuscript list of separatists and their fate.

John Adams Harper

John Harper Adams ex-libris — John Adams Harper’s ex-libris

John Adams Harper (November 2, 1779 – June 18, 1816), American politician and United States Representative from New Hampshire.

Abbe Millot Elements of General History, Thomas C. Cushing, 1796

Walker, Lyman B. — of Gilford, Belknap County, N.H. New Hampshire state attorney general, 1843-47

3 different ex-libris. The center one belongs to John Adams Harper, the two other to Lyman B. Walker.

5 volumes set, full sheep. Leather labels on spine with title stamped in gold.

Earlier Lyman B. Walker exlibris, found under the larger one. Lyman B. Walker, listed as an attorney in The New-England and New-York law-register, for the year 1835.

Nine Dollars was the price for this set at the begining of the 19th century.

Price of the 5 volumes set on the second hand market in the early 19th century.

Contrasting leather label with title tooled in 22kt gold.

In 1825, Lyman Walker was the prosecutor in the trial of Amos Furnald for the murder by starvation of Alfred Furnald, his son out of wedlock.

The New Deal

Vincent Aderente (February 20, 1880 Naples, Italy – 1941 Bayside, Queens) was an Italian American muralist.

1933 American Weekly — The American Weekly, 1933

He studied at the Art Students League, and worked on the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel Ballroom.

His work is at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, the Denver Mint, the Detroit Public Library, the United States Post Office (Flushing, Queens), the Queens County Court House, Kings County Hospital, and the Long Island Savings Bank.

Aderente’s art was used in First World War propaganda. His painting of Columbia, standing atop the United States and charging forward with a billowing flag and sword at her side, was appears on at least two official recruiting posters from this period.

Herman Landon Vaill, itinerant preacher

Original document signed by Richard Varick President of the American Bible Society, 1828-1831.
Revolutionary war soldier, Inspector General at West Point, Attorney General of New York and mayor of New York City, Richard Varick led a distinguished career before joining as a founder of the American Bible Society and later being elected its president

Herman Landon Vaill, Rev., son of Benjamin and Sylvia (Landon) Vaill, born at Litchfield, Connecticut, 7 Dec. 1794; married by Rev. Joseph Harvey of Gorham, Connecticut, 22 Jan 1823, Flora Gold, born 25 September 1799, daughter of Colonel Benjamin and Eleanor (Johnson) Gold. Died at Litchfield, 28 Dec. 1870. His widow died 14 December 1883. They had eleven children.

Vaill

Rockwell Kent

Original Rockwell Kent bookplate from the 1920’s. Kent designedn it for George R. M. Ewing, J. The color woodblock on wove paper and was done in the 1920’s. Provenance is the library of George R. M. Ewing, Jr. and still attached to the book, a copy of Sidney HOWARD, NED McCOBB’S DAUGHTER.

The subject matter reflects the main focus of Ewing’s library: poetry (the recumbent muse) and plays (the theater). It also includes many of Kent’s iconic images including the star filled night sky and the distant mountain peaks. The Ewing ex-libris is listed in “The Bookplates of Rockwell Kent” (New York, Random House, 1929) and illustrated as entry 51.
Rockwell Kent was one of the most important American modernist painters and print makers of the early 20th Century. His work is in numerous public and private collections. Both his paintings and his prints are highly sought after by collectors.

Measurements are, 3 7/8 inches x 2 1/2 inches.