Americana, Travel & Cartography Coming Up at PBA Galleries
Rare gold rush-era clipper ship sailing card. Estimate: $10,000-15,000
Berkeley, California – PBA Galleries announces an auction of Americana – Travel – World History – Cartography on May 5th, 2022. The sale includes over 500 lots of rare, interesting, and valuable material relating to California, the Americas, and the far reaches of the globe.
The sale comprises books, manuscripts, photographs, and ephemeral material covering history, natural history, social progress, cultural evolution, the African American experience, economic development, and much more. The sale also features titles from the Zamorano Eighty, as well as a wide section of maps, atlases, prints and views.
Among the very nice selection of ephemera presented in this sale, you will find a rare gold rush-era clipper ship sailing card. It was for the ship Fanny S. Perley, bound for San Francisco from the harbor of New York, the color card on porcelain coated stock announcing her imminent departure (Estimate: $10,000-$15,000). Another major lot in this section is a scarce miner’s cover from the gold rush, an envelope designed and printed in San Francisco to convey a letter sent from California to loved ones back east. This example shows the “Traveling Miner” design and rare Ophirville cancellation (Estimate: $1,500-$2,500).
This sale makes us travel historically but also geographically with works related to exploration and travel. The 1790 first edition of John Meares’ narrative of his two fur-trading voyages to the northwest coast of North America will be offered (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000). These trips, made from 1786 to 1789, helped solidifying British claims to the region. Another major work is Edwin James’ Account of the Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains…under the command of Maj. S.H. Long, the first English edition, 3 volumes, 1823, an important expedition up the Platte River (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000).
A number of atlases and maps will be offered, including Abrahami Patriarchae Peregrinatio, et Vita, a rare map of Palestine by Abraham Ortelius, detailing the wanderings of the Patriarch Abraham through the Holy Land. It is surrounded with engraved vignettes of scenes from his life, from the rare 1608 Italian language edition of the Theatrum (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000).
Other sale highlights include Freedom, a Fable: A Curious Interpretation of the Wit of a Negress in Troubled Times, by Kara Elizabeth Walker, being the future vision of a soon-to-be emancipated 19th century African American woman, with four double-page pop-up silhouette illustrations (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000). Also present in the sale is The James Earle Jewell collection of early Bohemian Club Grove Plays, Grove Play props, Boho publications and ephemera, including the plan layout for the 1969 Grove Play Rip Van Winkle (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000).
PBA is open by appointment only. PBA limits live auction participation to online or phone bidding. For more information about upcoming sales, to schedule a Zoom preview or phone bidding for a future auction, please contact the galleries at 415.989.2665 or pba@pbagalleries.com.
