A lifelike illustration from Gerard Van Spaendonck.
Another great report on the Carolinas came at the other end of the 18th century, Travels through North & South Carolina, Georgia, East & West Florida, the Cherokee Country… This is a 1791 first edition of William Bartram's report on his journey into America's southern settlements and Indian lands. Bartram embarked on a similar, though longer trip than Lawson's, recording data about the natural history and Indian tribes of the area. He is particularly noted for his sketches of over 200 newly discovered botanical specimens, including the Venus Fly Trap and the now extinct in the wild Franklin Tree, named for his friend Ben Franklin. The Franklin Tree survives only through seeds Bartram collected on his trip and brought back to Philadelphia. $45,000.
Here is one of the most important books about Gold Rush California, particularly its early days: Eldorado, or, Adventures in the Path of Empire, by Bayard Taylor, published in 1850. Taylor was a newsman from New York who traveled to California not to find gold, but to report on the rush. He writes about the mining camps, California's constitutional convention, and other aspects of life at the time the state was being inundated with prospectors. $1,150.
The Arader Galleries are located in New York, Philadelphia, Houston, Denver, and San Francisco. The telephone number for the New York office is 212-628-3668. Their website is found at www.aradergalleries.com.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
