Manual of the Corporation of the City of New-York, 1863
New York: Edmund Jones & Co., Printers, 1863. First Edition. Original cloth. 8vo. Pp. [3], iv-xii, [1], 2-852. Frontis. engraved portrait of David Valentine. Lavishly published with maps, charts and tinted lithographic views. Bound in violet cloth stamped in blind and gilt on front and rear boards, and spine. Maps with closed tears along folds, sporadic foxing throughout. Front hinge starting, spine faded. The plate of John Watts de Peyster (1821-1907) is tipped in to the verso of the title page. (Please see last photo.). Good+. Item #7239 David Valentine's Manual remains "one of the best and most used sources for information about New York City during three decades of the nineteenth century ... published annually between 1841 and 1870 (except in 1867)" (Lawrence, Valentine's Manuals: A General Index, p. 1). In 1830, when Valentine became Deputy Clerk of the Common Council, he manifested his interest in city history by staunching the outbound flow of municipal documents being channeled "to second-hand book- and print-shops, and so passed on into the outstretched hands of covetous autograph- and relic-hunters" (Lawrence, p. ix). As Valentine's title suggests, his manuals served as guides to current New York City with contemporary maps, plans, facts and figures (elected officials, demographics, tax rolls, etc.), but also reproduced historical print matter under his care as ad hoc archivist. Thus, in addition to acting as preservationist, Valentine shared his enthusiasm for Gotham history by reproducing, in this volume for example, the "The Nicolls Map 1664-1668," a fold-out view of the steamship Roanoke and a chromolithograph fold-out of "A View of Harlaem from Morisania" in 1765, along with many other historical reproductions, all amid the facts and figures of contemporary New York City. Included in the latter are votes received by politicians, costs of operating jails, a roster of licensed pawnbrokers, names of every policeman and the wards in which they serve, and so forth. A good, complete copy that remains well bound.
Military historian and philanthropist John Watts de Peyster was born to a wealthy New York City family that arrived New Amsterdam in the mid-1600s; his first cousin was Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny.
Price: $275.00