Memoir Prepared at the Request of a Committee of the Common Council at the Celebration of the Completion of the New York Canals.

COLDEN, Cadwallader David (1769-1834).

Published by New York: Printed by the Order of the Corporation of New York, 1825 [1826].

About this Item

4to (9 3/4 x 7 3/4 in.; 24.8 x 19.8 cm). 45 engraved and lithographed plates, including portraits (one after George Catlin), lithographed title to the appendix, 2 large folding hand-colored engraved maps, views (some folding), and an additional 8 facsimiles of testimonial letters; occasional offsetting, some spotting, closed tears to folding maps and views, some neatly repaired, occasional toning. Elaborate presentation binding ordered by the City of New York, bound by Wilson & Nichols, contemporary straight-grained bright crimson morocco, covers with broad elaborately gilt borders, upper cover gilt-lettered "Presented by the City of New York to Miss Rachel Ann Robertson, Jany. 1st 1827," spine with raised bands in six compartments, third and fifth gilt lettered, others with repeat overall decoration in gilt, marbled endpapers, edges gilt; slight rubbing to extremities, minor soiling. [With:] An original silk ribbon badge by Asher B. Durand representing the alliance of Neptune and Pan or the Union of Erie with the Atlantic, and two elaborate engraved tickets (Miss Robertson's) to the celebration and a letter acknowledging Robertson's contribution to the volume, neatly laid in. (64F20E) A SUMPTUOUS SOUVENIR FROM THE OPENING OF THE ERIE CANAL IN A SPLENDID PRESENTATION BINDING. Though initially deemed "Clinton's Folly" when first proposed by Governor Dewitt Clinton, the Erie Canal "proved to be the key that unlocked an enormous series of social and economic changes in the young nation." The present work is one of the first books published in the U.S. to be extensively illustrated by lithography, and is the first book to contain an illustration by George Catlin. Rachel Ann Robertson, the 20-year-old daughter of artist Archibald Robertson, executed the plate facing page 380 from "The Students of Colombia College," "by a young Lady"; a letter laid into the text acknowledges her contribution to the celebratory volume. Other plates include views of the New York harbor crowded with shipping, maps of the waterways in the United States and New York State, badges and emblems of the societies of saddlers, house painters, chair-makers, rope-makers, and a series of fire engines. PROVENANCE: Rachel Ann Robertson (binding, and accompanying ribbon, tickets, and letter)- Jay T. Snider (bookplate on front pastedown and his sale, Christie's New York, 22 June 2005, lot 143) REFERENCES: Howes C-562; Peters, America on Stone, pp. 228-232; Shoemaker 20118; Voorsanger, Catherine and John K. Howat, Art and the Empire City, New York, 1825-1861 (2000) 117. Binding: Papantonio, Early American Bookbindings 47.

Seller Inventory # 65ERM0123

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Memoir Prepared at the Request of a Committee of the Common Council at the Celebration of the Completion of the New York Canals.
• Publisher: New York: Printed by the Order of the Corporation of New York, 1825 [1826].
• Binding: Hardcover