Apr 16, 2013 - Sale 2310

Sale 2310 - Lot 18

Price Realized: $ 1,920
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(AMERICAN INDIANS--SENECA.) [Wright, Asher.] Gowana Gwaih Sathah Yon De Yas Dahgwah. A Spelling-Book in the Seneca Language. 16mo, modern morocco gilt; minor dampstaining; uncut and partially unopened, later engraving of the Seneca Mission House tipped to flyleaf; later owner's inked stamp on rear free endpaper, modern bookplate on front pastedown. Buffalo Creek Reservation, NY: Mission Press, 1842
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Additional Details

The earliest of just three known books from the Seneca Mission Press while at its original location at the Buffalo Creek Reservation. "In its way one of the most interesting and scholarly works, as it is one of the rarest, ever published in Buffalo"--Severance, Buffalo Imprints, page 587.

This book once belonged to the noted Seneca scholar Arthur Caswell Parker (1881-1955), who was born on the Cattaraugus Reservation and later became president of the Society for American Archaeology. His inked stamp is quite clever. It appears to read "Urwik Haoho Tprto Rcesb Arkns," which means as little in Seneca as in English. Reading it vertically and starting from the bottom, though, it reads "Arthur C. Parker owns this book."
Arthur Howland, "Seneca Mission at Buffalo Creek," Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, page VI:159; Pilling, Iroquoian page 176; Sabin 105546; Streeter sale II:913. One other copy known at auction since 1982, at the Siebert sale.