Bound together in octavo format and earning the sale’s highest price of $152,900 were Thomas Paine’s (1737-1809) The American Crisis (Numbers I and II and The Crisis Extraordinary, Philadelphia: Styner and Cist, 1776-77 ($80/120,000).

Review by Carly Timpson

NEW YORK CITY — On October 23, Bonhams’ books and manuscripts department auctioned 236 lots in its Americana, Exploration and Travel sale, including items from the collections of William C. Nesheim, Bruce Maclin and Jan Muhlbauer. In total, the auction realized $858,500 with just short of 80 percent sold.

“We’re incredibly proud of the results from our most recent sale, especially the strong performance of the Thomas Paine materials. Time and time again, we see that private, named single-owner collections, such as those of William Nesheim, Bruce Maclin and Jan Muhlbauer last week, help drive interest and engage buyers across the sale. Revolutionary War material continues to perform exceptionally well, and we’re already planning sales for next year to celebrate the anniversary,” commented Darren Sutherland, senior specialist, fine books and manuscripts at Bonhams in New York.

Reaching the sale-high price of $152,900 was a rare first issue of Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis, Number 1 and Number 2. Bound together with Paine’s The Crisis Extraordinary (Philadelphia: Styner and Cist, 1776-77), these three volumes were sold in 1780 as one by William Harris at his store in Second Street and featured “the most eloquent of [Paine’s] revolutionary essays” and perhaps “one of the most eloquent and important statements of the American Revolution,” according to the auction catalog. Despite some losses and staining, the edition did not “try bidders’ souls,” and it rose well beyond its $80/120,000 estimate.

This first expanded edition of Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1737-1809), Philadelphia: [Steiner and Cist for] W. and T. Bradford, 1776, brought $76,700 ($30/50,000).

An expanded first edition of Common Sense, Paine’s most well-known text, which played a significant role in inciting America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776, was bid to $76,700. This edition, bearing the subtitle A New Edition, with several Additions in the Body of the Work, included Paine’s additions and was the first Bradford edition (first issue) of the text. According to the auction catalog, “The Bradfords, William and his son Thomas, were printers of the Pennsylvania Journal (with the famous ‘Unite or Die’ masthead), and had recently been appointed official printers of the Continental Congress.” As inscribed on the title page, this edition had provenance to Sabrare Bindery.

The work of another revolutionary, though not an American, achieved the sale’s third-highest price. Volume I of Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1965) featured a portrait frontispiece of Chairman Mao and was signed by him on a tipped-in sheet, addressed to the wife of Sultan Mohammed Khan, the Pakistani ambassador to China in 1966. This provenance, authenticated with a signed statement from Khan’s son, as well as the understanding that Mao was not one to give out autographs, surely contributed to the voracity in bidding, which took the volume to $43,520.

Other items with provenance to Ambassador Khan included an early English edition of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1966) signed by Chou en-Lai (Zhou Enlai) and Marshal Chen Yi and a printed dinner menu signed by En-Lai, both earning $9,600. The book by Chairman Mao was presented to the Ambassador and his wife by Chen Yi’s children and included a typed letter signed by his daughter, Jun Cong, stating, “We all know that you are one of the best and time-honored friends of China and trusted friends of my father.” The menu, dated “7/11/1971,” was “from the farewell dinner hosted by the Pakistani delegation in Beijing during talks regarding the developing tension between India and Pakistan,” according to catalog notes, and featured the official Pakistani National Emblem at the head. Additionally, another edition of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, signed by En-Lai alone, went out at $8,320.

Signed by its author, this copy of Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung (Mao Zedong), Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1965, was a first edition in English and it brought $43,520 ($40/60,000).

The Colonial Americana collection of William C. Nesheim was led, at $40,960, by a first-hand account written by Thomas Lechford and published in London in 1642. Plain Dealing: or, Newes from New-England was called “One of the most interesting and authentic of the early narratives relating to the colony” of New England, as written in volume three of Justin Winsor’s Narrative and Critical History of America (1884). The author was the first individual to practice law in New England, though he prepared this text upon returning to England in 1641; this first edition featured a woodcut coat of arms on the reverse of the title page.

Also relating to Colonial New England was The Light appearing more and more towards the perfect Day. Or, A farther Discovery of the present state of the Indians in New-England (London: T. R. & E. M. for John Bartlet, 1651). This text was one of 11 “Eliot Tracts,” “the early Massachusetts Bay Colony missionary reports of John Eliot, Thomas Mayhew and Thomas Shepard (among others)” as described on the webpage of the Princeton University Library, which is one of the few institutions to have first printings of all 11 tracts. This edition, published by Henry Whitfeld, the founder of Guilford, Conn., had provenance to Henry Stevens, Sir Thomas Phillipps and Nesheim; it achieved $20,480.

The Nesheim collection also included several first-hand accounts of prominent events, such as the Boston Tea Party and the Salem Witch Trials. A December 23, 1773, issue of The Massachusetts Spy Or, Thomas’s Boston Journal included coverage of the tea tax protests with a celebratory statement that read, “A number of brave and resolute men, determined to do all in their power to save their country from the ruin which their enemies had plotted, in less than three hours, emptied every chest of tea on board the three ships commanded by the captains, Hal, Bruce and Coffin, amounting to 342 chests, into the sea!!” The broadside bifolium newspaper sold for $20,480. Achieving $17,920 was the first contemporaneous account of the Salem Witch Trials, Cotton Mather’s The Wonders of the Invisible World: Being an Account of the Tryals of Several Witches, Lately Executed in New-England… (London: John Dunton, 1693). This was the first London edition — the only complete London edition — making it even more rare than others.

Written by Cotton Mather (1663-1728), this first London edition of The Wonders of the Invisible World…The Tryals of Several Witches…, published by John Dunton, 1693, earned $17,920 ($15/25,000).

Jumping ahead in time, the California Gold Rush collection of Bruce Maclin also contributed to the top results. This collection was led by an album of California pictorial letter sheets, which was bid to $20,480. Comprising 18 sheets, this album depicted rare California subjects, including city plans, early views of Gold Rush towns and scenes of everyday life. Lithographers featured in the album include Britton & Rey, Cooke & Le Count, Quirot & Co., G. S. Wells and one other unattributed publisher. One of the rarest Gold Rush books, F. Goodwin’s A Brief Description of California, from the Time of its First Occupation by the United States and Subsequent Growth… (New York: Printed by George E. Leefe, 225 Fulton Street, 1855), included a lithographed folding map, Map of California and the Adjacent Country, with vignettes of bears, deer, Native Americans, ships and colored regions indicating where gold was found. As described by Howell in the auction catalog, “the text of this small pamphlet is probably more important than the map since it provides a comprehensive description of the new state of California from its geography and climate to its population and history.” It was bid to $14,080.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.bonhams.com or 21-644-9001.