Ending Mar 7, 2024 11:03 EST
Maps, Travel & Sporting Books Including The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection
61
John Bute Holmes' 1872 map of Manhattan from 26th from 43rd streets
Estate / Collection: Collection of a New York Surveyor
[MAP - NEW YORK CITY]
HOLMES, JOHN BUTE. Map of the Common Lands From 26th to 43rd Street Showing the Old Streets and Plots as Surveyed and Mapped in 1796. By Cassimer T. H. Goerck, City Surveyor. And the Distance between those old Streets and our Present Streets. New York: John Bute Holmes, 1872. Lithographed map, hand colored, pink cloth border, backed with linen, rolled, nailed to a wooden dowel. Light toning near the dowel, creasing, a few manuscript annotations mostly to verso, altogether a very nice example.
John Bute Holmes produced a series of maps showing historic property lines in Manhattan, including old farms, roads, and buildings, superimposed over the contemporary city's rapidly expanding grid. Holmes, a colorful character, was a surveyor under the Tweed administration and likely intended these maps to be used by the city in seizing private land from historic landowners under eminent domain laws. This particular map shows the area between 26th Street and 43rd Street, from Broadway to Lexington Avenue, part of the Common Lands surveyed by Casimir Goerk in 1796. At the end of the eighteenth century, the city had very little tax revenue, so it sold five-acre plots from these Common Lands at auction to raise revenue. This map includes Sun Fish Pond, the Distributing Reservoir (now the site of the New York Public Library), and land belonging to the New York and Harlem Railroad, now the site of Grand Central Station. All of Holmes' maps are quite scarce - we cannot trace another copy of this map to have appeared at auction (per RBH), one copy was sold in the trade, and we locate only three copies in libraries (per Worldcat).
Sold for $1,216
Estimated at $200 - $400
Includes Buyer's Premium
Estate / Collection: Collection of a New York Surveyor
[MAP - NEW YORK CITY]
HOLMES, JOHN BUTE. Map of the Common Lands From 26th to 43rd Street Showing the Old Streets and Plots as Surveyed and Mapped in 1796. By Cassimer T. H. Goerck, City Surveyor. And the Distance between those old Streets and our Present Streets. New York: John Bute Holmes, 1872. Lithographed map, hand colored, pink cloth border, backed with linen, rolled, nailed to a wooden dowel. Light toning near the dowel, creasing, a few manuscript annotations mostly to verso, altogether a very nice example.
John Bute Holmes produced a series of maps showing historic property lines in Manhattan, including old farms, roads, and buildings, superimposed over the contemporary city's rapidly expanding grid. Holmes, a colorful character, was a surveyor under the Tweed administration and likely intended these maps to be used by the city in seizing private land from historic landowners under eminent domain laws. This particular map shows the area between 26th Street and 43rd Street, from Broadway to Lexington Avenue, part of the Common Lands surveyed by Casimir Goerk in 1796. At the end of the eighteenth century, the city had very little tax revenue, so it sold five-acre plots from these Common Lands at auction to raise revenue. This map includes Sun Fish Pond, the Distributing Reservoir (now the site of the New York Public Library), and land belonging to the New York and Harlem Railroad, now the site of Grand Central Station. All of Holmes' maps are quite scarce - we cannot trace another copy of this map to have appeared at auction (per RBH), one copy was sold in the trade, and we locate only three copies in libraries (per Worldcat).
Auction: Maps, Travel & Sporting Books Including The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection, ending Mar 7, 2024
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Timed Auction of Maps, Travel & Sporting Books Including the Esmond Bradley Martin Collection
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Bidding Will Open on February 22 and Close on Thursday, March 7, 2024 beginning at 10am
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Consignments Are Currently Being Accepted for Future Auctions
NEW YORK, NY -- Doyle will hold a timed online auction of Maps, Travel & Sporting Books closing on Thursday, March 7, 2024 beginning at 10am. Explore the world through a fascinating range of offerings featuring maps, Americana, travel, sporting books, literary sets and the Esmond Bradley Martin Collection of Africana.
Esmond Bradley Martin
Esmond Bradley Martin (1941-2018) was educated as a geographer and philosopher. He and his wife Chryssee had an enduring fascination with Africa, and settled in Nairobi, Kenya, in the mid-1970s. He wrote extensively, oftentimes in conjunction with his wife, publishing works including Zanzibar. Tradition and Revolution, Hamish Hamilton, 1978; Cargoes of the east. The ports, trade, and culture of the Arabian Seas and western Indian Ocean, Elm Tree Press, 1978; and many other works on African history and conservation. In the late 1970s, he began extensive research into the illegal trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn, which included substantial stints incognito posing as a buyer of illicit wildlife products. For a while, he served as special envoy for rhino conservation for the United Nations.
For about thirty years, beginning in the mid-1960s, Esmond Bradley Martin assiduously collected books and manuscripts on Africa and its history, acquiring a phenomenal collection of letters by many of the major English explorers of the nineteenth century, as well as numerous rarities from earlier centuries. He was buying at a time when troves of such material surfaced frequently at English auctions. Doyle was privileged to offer the first selection from his collection in the November 7, 2023 auction. We are pleased to present this second offering of property from The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection.
VIEWINGS BY APPOINTMENT
Please email Books@Doyle.com
TIMED ONLINE AUCTION
Bidding in the timed online auction will open on Thursday, February 22 and close on Thursday, March 7 beginning at 10am. Lots will close sequentially, one lot per minute, with a soft close. Should any bids be placed in the final minute, bidding will remain open on that lot for three (3) additional minutes.
PAYMENT
Please note that all purchases are subject to a Buyer's Premium
Payment can be made in the following ways:
· By credit card (an additional 3.5% fee will be charged)
· By wire transfer. For instructions, please email client.accounts@Doyle.com
PICKUPS & SHIPPING
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We Invite You to Auction!
Consignments are currently being accepted for future auctions. We invite you to contact us for a complimentary auction evaluation. Our Specialists are always available to discuss the sale of a single item or an entire collection.
For information, please contact Peter Costanzo at 212-427-4141, ext 248, or Edward Ripley-Duggan at ext. 234, or email Books@Doyle.com
