Elements of the Theory and Practice of Chymistry. London: Millar and Nourse, 1758

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH of Macquer’s Elémens de chymie-theorique (1749) and Elémens de chymie-pratique (1751), translated by Andrew Reid from the 1756 editions. The theoretical section lays out the principles of chemistry, and the practical section presents a course of chemistry including engravings of apparatus.

$1,200

Horse-Hoeing Husbandry: or, An Essay on the Principles of Vegetation and Tillage. Designed to Introduce A New Method of Culture; whereby The Produce of Land will be Increased, and the Usual Expense Lessened. Together with Accurate Descriptions and Cuts of the Instruments Employed in it … fourth edition, very carefully corrected. London: Millar, 1762

The edition that Thomas Jefferson owned.  Jefferson wrote from Monticello in 1817, “While I was an amateur in Agricultural science (for practical knowledge my course of life never permitted me) I was very partial to the drilled husbandry of Tull.”

$600

The Works. London: Tonson et al., 1766

This handsome edition includes The Ambitious Step-Mother, Tamerlane, The Fair Penitent, Ulysses, The Royal Convert, Jane Shore, Jane Gray, and various poems.

$250

An Explanation of the Map of the City and Liberties of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Printed for the Author and sold by Nicholas Brooks, 1774

FIRST EDITION. This pamphlet was published in conjunction with “Reed’s Plan of First Purchasers,” a large and now rare landownership map, documenting the “First Purchasers” of Pennsylvania. The text includes copies of the original abstracts of communications from William Penn to the “first adventurers and purchasers in Pennsylvania,” abstracts of the charter of the city, reasons why the plan of the city was altered by Benjamin Eastburn, an alphabetical list of the first purchasers, and the courses, distances and dates of surveys of all the lots in the city of Philadelphia. Reed prepared this valuable document to bolster his family’s claims to land in the Philadelphia area.

$2,800

The Federalist: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution.. New York: John and Andrew M’Lean, 1788

George Washington family copy of the first edition. This is an important association copy of the central book of American political philosophy, signed and dated June 10, 1788 in the first volume by Dr. David Stuart, George Washington’s relation and political confidante.

$250,000

A Collection of Three Reports on the Treasury’s Receipts and Expenditures. Philadelphia: Childs and Swaine, 1790-1793

A collection of rare Treasury reports on the finances of the United States during its earliest years.

3 items: $8,500

An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. London: Strahan and Cadell, 1791

SIXTH EDITION of the most important book in the history of economics. One of 2000 sets. The sixth edition is the first to have been published after Smith’s death in 1790.

$6,800

Voyage to the South Sea Undertaken by Command of His Majesty, for the Purpose of Conveying the Bread-Fruit Tree to the West Indies, in His Majesty’s Ship The Bounty … including an Account of the Mutiny …. London: George Nicol, 1792

First edition of the official account of the Bounty expedition. The story of the mutiny and Bligh’s subsequent voyage is one of the great tales in maritime history.

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Esquisse d’un Tableau Historique des Progres de L’Esprit Humain. Paris: Agasse, 1795

A distinguished mathematician and friend of Voltaire, d Alembert, and Turgot, Condorcet played a major role in promoting the Revolution s democratic principles. In the Esquisse (An Historical Outline of the Progress of the Human Mind), he traces the history of man through ten epochs.

$2,800

The New American Practical Navigator. Newburyport, Mass.: Edmund M. Blount, 1802

FIRST EDITION. “The first complete epitome of practical navigation for the common man … Often termed the greatest book in all the history of navigation, Bowditch’s Navigator was indispensable to the maritime and commercial expansion of the nineteenth century” (Grolier/American).

$6,500