Oct 02, 2012 - Sale 2287

Sale 2287 - Lot 452

Price Realized: $ 5,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
(TEXAS.) A Visit to Texas. Folding hand-colored map, 4 plates. 12mo, modern calf gilt in period style; moderate foxing (minimal on plates), map with 4-inch repaired tear; early owner's signature on title page. New York, 1834
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Additional Details

first edition of an important early travel narrative. The author went in 1831 to inspect his land claim from the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company. Though the claim proved bogus, he visited Brazoria, Anahuac, Galveston Bay, and San Felipe, all within about 50 miles of modern Houston, and reported favorably on the territory. The authorship has never been settled, but has been variously attributed to Fiske, Morris, or Langworthy.
Clark, Old South III:114; Graff 1336; Howes T145 ("aa"); Jenkins, Basic Texas Books 209; Palau 370777; Sabin 95133; Streeter, Texas 1155 ("the plates . . . are well designed and perhaps are the earliest of sporting scenes in the west"); Streeter sale I:330. Provenance: title page inscription "Josh G Smith"; Dorothy Sloan auction, 2 March 2001, lot 78. The original owner may have been Sergeant Joshua G. Smith of Bastrop, TX, who died at the Alamo, although no other signatures of Sergeant Smith have been found for comparison.