Mar 15, 2012 - Sale 2273

Sale 2273 - Lot 233

Price Realized: $ 55,200
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 40,000 - $ 60,000
THE STORY OF MASSACHUSETTS--BEFORE THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY (NEW ENGLAND.) A Briefe Relation of the Discovery and Plantation of New England. [35] pages. Small 4to, full morocco gilt by Morrell of London; shaved on top edge with slight loss to first line of title and some running heads (expertly restored in facsimile), last two bottom corners also restored, a bit of faint marginal dampstaining in the lower corner; with initial blank, though lacking final blank; mid-nineteenth century bookplate of William Borlase on front pastedown. London: John Haviland, 1622
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first edition. An important promotional tract by the Council for New England, with Sir Ferdinando Gorges sometimes credited as the author. It provides a concise history of the early efforts to settle and explore the New England coast from Maine to New York, beginning with Henry Challons in 1606, concluding that "we have made a most ample discoverie of the most commodious Country for the benefit of our Nation, that ever hath been found." This is followed by description of "the clime and condition of the country, and the present estate of our affaires there," including a long description of the moose, as well the grand prospects for fishing and agriculture.
The book is also of great significance to the earliest European settlement of New York, called by Stokes "the first English publication to mention the Dutch on the Hudson. It contains what is also believed to be the earliest application of Hudson's name to the river" (VI:259).
"One of the earliest and most important of the early books relating to the discovery and colonization in Massachusetts'--Church 394. European Americana 622/44; Sabin 52619; Vail 57. ESTC lists 5 institutional copies in America plus 3 in England. Only one other copy has appeared at an American auction since 1921, which sold for $5,000 at the 1967 Streeter sale, II:611.