November 9

Our November 9 auction brings together 200 lots spanning an admirably wide range of subjects and periods, with a particularly strong thread of Rhode Island history and genealogy running through the sale — from John Osborne Austin's genealogical works and early Providence directories to regimental histories, church records, town surveys, and scarce pamphlets touching on the Dorr Rebellion and the colonial era. Beyond the regional material, collectors of Americana will find much to pursue: illustrated travel narratives with Doré plates, Eighth Census volumes in original leather, Western Americana on the Gold Rush and the Mormon frontier, and a striking Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition leporello with its accordion-fold panorama of views. Practical and technical literature is well represented, with titles on mining, fish culture, carpentry, gas engines, dynamo building, and the early automobile, while the decorative arts and trade catalog enthusiast will note offerings on photo-engraving, painter's supplies, and dairy barn equipment. Among the finer individual items are a gilt red morocco presentation binding of the 1870 New York Legislative Manual, a Morocco-spined copy of William Rosser Cobbe's opium addiction memoir printed at the Lakeside Press, a hand-colored McLoughlin chapbook, and a scrapbook documenting the life and death of World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle, assembled from contemporary newspaper clippings in 1945.