Rubbish Hid Book valued at $12,000 in 1932

jeff of pa

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  • The Press Herald (Pine Grove, Pennsylvania)
  • 15 Jul 1932, Fri
  • 000aaa.jpg
 

That Atlas was published in London in 1777. A copy sold at Sotheby's in 2018 for $300K. Only five copies have appeared for sale in since 1969.

Part of the listing for the 2018 Sotheby's sale is below. I would link to it but it is behind a paywall.

THE NORTH AMERICAN ATLAS, SELECTED FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC MAPS, CHARTS, PLANS, &C. HITHERTO PUBLISHED. LONDON: FADEN, 1777

Letterpress title with engraved vignette. ILLUSTRATION: 27 engraved maps, charts and plans on 31 sheets, some hand-colored, many folding, on guards throughout. Broadsheet folio (21 1/2 x 16 in.; 546 x 406 mm). BINDING: Expertly bound to style in half 18th century Russia and period marbled paper covered boards, spine with raised bands in seven compartments, red morocco lettering piece in the second the others with a repeat decoration in gilt.

THE GREATEST ATLAS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, famed mapmaker William Faden capitalized on the growing interest in the American colonies by producing and publishing separately-issued maps of the region and battleplans of the war. In 1777, Faden marketed bespoke collections of these maps, bound together in atlas form with the letterpress title The North American Atlas. "The rarest and most important atlas treating the events of the American Revolution was The North American Atlas published by William Faden in 1777. The total number of maps in this atlas varies with the specific edition [i.e. copy] ... Although the great regional maps of the period were represented, the atlas's major historical contribution is the series of detailed battle plans drawn by eyewitness observers" (Schwartz & Ehrenberg, The Mapping of America, page 204). The bespoke nature of this atlas results in a great variety of the maps present in the few extant examples, although some maps would appear to be consistent across all known copies.
 

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