?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 250 - $ 350
(CALIFORNIA.) De Luxe Edition of Southern California. Profusion of illustrations. 144 pages. Folio, 13 1/2 x 10 1/4 inches, original color pictorial wraps, minor wear and soiling, tastefully rebacked with tape; minimal wear to contents. Los Angeles, CA: J.L. LeBerthon, [1906]
This pictorial souvenir book begins with a short publisher's preface and a 2-page essay on "The Old Los Angeles and the New" by journalist Benjamin C. Truman in which he promises that there is "no tale so sweet, so picturesque, so brilliant and so promising as the story of Los Angeles." The remainder consists mostly of well-captioned photographs of Californian architecture, businesses, and prominent citizens. Most of the volume is devoted to Los Angeles, but the surrounding towns and San Diego are also represented. At this early date, a full 9 pages are devoted to automobile manufacturers and related services (78-87). Bibliophile and library founder Henry E. Huntington appears on page 33. A review in the Rural Californian magazine gushed that the book "is indeed a beautiful souvenir--nothing in fact so pretentious and elegant of the kind ever having been issued by any Californian printing house" (June 1906 issue, page 269). None traced at auction.
