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Travel & Exploration

PBA Galleries promotes Travel & Exploration at Aug. 10 auction

Travel & Exploration
Clipper ship sailing card for Wild Rover. PBA Galleries image

 

SAN FRANCISCO – On Thursday, Aug. 10, PBA Galleries will host an Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography sale of over 450 lots of historical materials relating to the Americas and the world at large, including books, manuscripts, ephemera, photographs and maps. Absentee and Internet live bidding is available through LiveAuctioneers.

There are letters and booklets relating to slavery and the African-American experience, rare California ephemera and promotional items from the 19th and 20th centuries, important works on the exploration of the American West; a collection of scarce clipper ship sailing cards, early directories of states and cities; desirable real estate and cadastral maps of local California communities and more. Travels to the far reaches of the world includes excursions into Africa, central Asia and the subcontinent, the Middle East, China and Japan, the great cities of Europe, and the steppes of Russia.

Featured in the sale is a first edition of the First Peter Parley book, The Tales of Peter Parley About America. This rare children’s book by Samuel Griswold Goodrich, published in 1827, was the first of over 100 different titles issued with the Peter Parley name and its success spurred many imitations. Goodrich explains in the preface that he was conveying “to children, under the guise of amusement, the first ideas of Geography and History.” It has a $10,000-$15,000 estimate.

 

Travel & Exploration
‘Tales of Peter Parley About America.’ PBA Galleries image

 

Ka Palapala Hemolele a Iehova ko kakou akua o ke Kauoha Kahiko a me ke Kauoha Hou i unuhiia mailoko mai o na’olelo kahiko is a complete Bible in Hawaiian. Printed at the Hawaiian Mission Press in 1843, it is the first octavo edition, but second edition of the Bible in Hawaiian (est. $5,000-$8,000).

 

Travel & Exploration
The Bible in Hawaiian, 1843. PBA Galleries image

 

Also in the sale is an original World War II propaganda poster in Russian. With four hand-stenciled color images depicting vivid scenes of Russian victory and German defeat. It is one of some 1,250 different posters produced by Tass during the war (est. $4,000-$6,000).

 

Travel & Exploration
World War II Russia propaganda poster. PBA Galleries image

 

For the Californiana collectors sale highlights include a superb 19th-century photograph album with nearly 60 original images of California and Colorado, including rare views of San Francisco’s Chinatown (est. $4,000-$6,000); 21 lots of clipper ship sailing cards including an original color engraved card for Wild Rover with an iconic image representing sail power versus steam (est. $2,500-$3,500); the 1884 Mining Map of Inyo County by J.M. Keeler (below) with an early view of Mount Whitney from Lone Pine, folding into its original printed paper wrapper trimmed in gilt (est. $2,000-$3,000); and an extensive archive of original blueprints and designs for various features of San Francisco’s Transbay Terminal, which was open from Jan. 14, 1939, until it closed on Aug. 7, 2010, to make way for the Transbay Transit Center (est. $4,000-$6,000).

 

Travel & Exploration
Inyo County, California, mining map, 1884. PBA Galleries image

 

Two additional noteworthy lots are featured in this sale. A rare subscriber’s copy of the first edition of George Anson’s Voyage Around the World will be offered. This edition includes 42 copper-engraved maps, charts, views coastal profiles, etc., most folding but is also known for the text chronicling adventure and discovery as Anson roamed the Pacific in pursuit of Spanish treasure (est. $2,000-$3,000). Also in the auction is Francis Trevelyan Miller’s 1930 The World in the Air in two volumes and one of the limited Pioneers Edition signed by important figures in aviation history including Glenn Curtiss, Louis Bleriot and others. This is the “first historic collection of official prints and photographs from government archives and private collections recording five thousand years of man’s struggles to conquer the air” (est. $2,000-$3,000).

The sale will begin at 11 a.m. Pacific Time. For more information, contact the galleries at 415-989-2665 or pba@pbagalleries.com.

 

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