The sale embraces five centuries of the written word, from Aldus Manutius's first edition of the works of Aristotle (Venice, 1495-98)—the most important Greek-printing project in the 15th century—to a very rare set plans for the building of the Twin Towers/World Trade Center (1968-72).
Other sale highlights include: an attractive, richly decorated double portolan chart of the Mediterranean (Messina, Sicily, 1617), and the original floorplan of the first U.S. Treasury Building, designed by George Hadfield and signed and approved by George Washington, 1 March 1797, both from the collection of Nina R. and Arthur A. Houghton, Jr.; Chréstien Le Clercq's Histoire des Colonies Françoises (Paris & Lyon, 1691-92), the first edition, with the suppressed dedication to Count Frontenac, of this controversial history of the Great Lakes and Niagara region; John Mitchell's 1755 map of the British and French dominions in North America, widely regarded as the most important map in American history; Henry Pelham’s magnificent 1777 map of Boston under siege commissioned by British intelligence, the first complete copy to appear at auction in 25 years; and John F. Kennedy’s notes taken during the Kennedy-Nixon debates on 20 September, 1960, the first televised presidential debate in American history.
