It's time for the California Book Fair! Highlights include an incredible photographic archive of elephants used as billboards; a rare broadside about the Texas Santa Fe Expedition; a unique 19th century photobook documenting the Kansas City, Pittsburgh & Gulf Railroad; an underground Masonic newspaper from 1870s Havana; an archive of ledgers kept by a Texas farmer with operations in Mexico; numerous pieces of Japanese Americana, Latin Americana, Californiana, and much more.
Download PDF of California International Antiquarian Book Fair 2023
Nashville: McQuiddy Printing Co., 1955. 52pp. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Moderate edge wear to wrappers, short vertical tear to top edge of front wrapper, mild soiling and rubbing. Light dampstain at bottom of gutter throughout. The rare 1955 reprint of Etienne Maxson's 1930 history of the progress of African Americans..... More
Palatka, Fl. 1947. [5]pp., typed on folio sheets, stapled. Old folds, minor wear and creasing, light dust-soiling. An unsigned petition from the Hattie Q. Brown Club, asking "The Honourable City Commission of the City of Palatka, Florida...to recognise its status as the 'Hattie Q Brown Club which the Commission gave..... More
Little Rock: [1944]. 29pp. 16mo. Original black cloth, gilt titles on front cover. Minor edge wear. Minor toning to title leaf. An unrecorded African-American Masonic pocket book published for the Trinity Lodge of Little Rock, Arkansas. The work includes the original charter, the twenty articles comprising the organization's by-laws, and..... More
Richmond, Va. Saint Luke Press, [1927]. 12pp. Oblong octavo. Original pictorial self wrappers, stapled. Minor soiling and edge wear, soft vertical crease. [with:] Community Hospital Campaign June 10 - June 25 1927 (Inclusive) To Our Workers...[caption title and beginning of text]. Small broadside, 5.25 x 6.25 inches. Printed in blue..... More
Nome, Ak. November 1, 1900. 6pp., with original transmittal envelope. Loose octavo sheets. Previously folded; light, even tanning. In a slightly hurried, but quite legible script. Missouri natives Edwin Sherzer and his brother were two of Nome's first postal workers, while they endeavored to develop a dog sledding business on..... More
[Cook Inlet, Ak.]: 1896. Pocket diary, [64]pp. of entries; two "Notices of Location" for Wiswell’s claims in the Turnagain Arm Mining District, with two related Power of Attorney documents; a manuscript letter addressed to Wiswell at "Hope City, Cook’s Inlet, Alaska;" and a receipt for Wiswell's return passage to Seattle;..... More
Tokyo: Nihon Kokusai Shinzen Kosei Zaidan, 1963. 384pp., plus twelve halftone plates. Original green cloth, spine gilt lettered; publisher's printed cardboard slipcase. Minor wear to slipcase. Small bump to head of spine. Light tanning. "An autobiography of an Issei nursery operator in Gardena [California] with essays on American life, money-making..... More
Pine Bluff, Ar. F.K. Lyman & Co., 1872. 23,[1]pp. Original printed self-wrappers, stapled. Minor wear and slight creasing; a couple of small areas of biopredation. Light tanning and dust soiling. Unrecorded promotional for the Arkansas city of Pine Bluff, on the Arkansas River forty-five miles south of Little Rock. The..... More
Mexico City: En la Imprenta del Real y Mas Antiguo Colegio de S. Ildefonso, 1766. [10],155pp., plus large folding plate. Small quarto. Contemporary limp vellum, manuscript spine title. Remnants of vellum ties at fore-edge; spine mostly perished. Minor dampstaining to vellum. Two short tears at gutter of folding plate, well..... More
[N.p., probably Portland: 1916]. 36pp., plus two multi-panel folding panoramic photographic plates. Original tan wrappers printed in brown, accompanied by original printed mailing envelope reading, "A Souvenir of The Third Oregon Infantry on the Mexican Border." Very light wear. A scarce work featuring the officers, staff, and soldiers of the..... More
Lincoln: 1870-1874. Eighteen partially-printed documents, each two pages, completed in manuscript. Large folio. Old folds, some tears, a few partial fold separations, scattered foxing. Overall a nice group. A collection of eighteen contracts made between land speculators and the Nebraska Land Department of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company..... More
![Item #3206 [Letter Written by a Miner from the California Gold Fields]. California Gold Rush,...](/pictures/thumb/McBRB3206.jpg?v=1674046947)
Coyoteville: September 12, 1855. [2]pp., plus integral blank. Original mailing folds, moderate toning, staining, and ink spotting, but still easily readable. Bottom fourth of integral blank excised. An informative Gold Rush letter about mining in the long-vanished ghost town of Coyoteville, which was an extraordinarily rich gold area for a...... More
[San Diego: 1909-1916]. Eight volumes, totaling 2,635 pages, and approximately 85,000 words, with individual daily entries ranging from a single line to an entire page. Six volumes octavo, final two volumes twelvemo, all matching "Date Book" annual diaries, uniformly bound in matching limp red cloth. Varying levels of rubbing, edge..... More
Sweetland, Ca. 1867. Hand-colored manuscript map, approximately 15 x 21.5 inches. Matted and in corner mounts. Mounted on linen. A few short closed tears and minor chips at edges, not entering map area. Horizontal crease across center of map. Light tanning and scattered foxing. A neatly composed and hand-colored manuscript..... More
![Item #3366 Map of Long Beach Oil Field, Los Angeles Co., Cal. [caption title]. California, Oil](/pictures/thumb/McBRB3366.jpg?v=1663336388)
San Francisco: California State Mining Bureau, 1922. Blueline map, approximately 29 x 44 inches. Old folds, scattered dust-soiling, minor wear at crossfolds, light wear and occasional short closed tears to edges, subtly reinforced with tape on verso, a handful of small pencil emendations. An impressive plat map showing land and..... More
Cincinnati: May 3, 1863. [3]pp., plus docketing, on a bifolium. Previously folded. A few stray ink marks and contemporary manuscript corrections. Light tanning. A lengthy and fascinating letter by Louis P. Stone, a U.S. Secret Service operative during the Civil War. The "Secret Service," before it was officially inaugurated as..... More
[Corral Falso de Macuriges: 1884]. Four manuscript documents, totaling [14]pp. Sewn with thin thread; previously bound, with small stabholes at left margin; blank front wrapper, lacking rear. Minor worming, minimally affecting text. Toning and foxing. Accomplished in several legible scripts, with two contemporary Chinese ink stamps. A rare and complete..... More
Mexico City: 1888. iv,204pp. Small octavo. Contemporary marbled boards, printed spine label, edges sprinkled red. Light wear at edges, minor rubbing to boards. Light toning internally. An uncommon, multifaceted account of and promotional for the National Railroad of Mexico produced during the late 1880s. The first part provides a brief..... More
![Item #3679 Directory. Hiroshima Keijin of Southern California 1963 [cover title]. Directories,...](/pictures/thumb/McBRB3679_01.jpg?v=1670514848)
Los Angeles: 1963. 173,20pp., plus five plates. Original pictorial cloth boards, lettered in black and white. Boards slightly bowed, with minor wear and rubbing. Light toning internally. A scarce directory of members of the Hiroshima Prefecture Society (Kenjinkai) of Southern California, with a printed introduction and information about the group..... More
![Item #3694 Carta y Plan del Señor General Don Gabriel Duran... [caption title]. Gabriel...](/pictures/thumb/McBRB3694.jpg?v=1668771187)
Mexico City: 1833. Broadsheet, approximately 12 x 8.5 inches. Previously folded. Light wear at edges and along old fold. Moderate dust soiling. An animated and rare 1833 broadsheet attack on the political beliefs and actions of Lorenzo de Zavala, one of the foundational figures of the Texas Republic. Zavala was..... More
Guatemala: Imprenta de Joachin de Arevalo, Impressor de, 1756. [23]pp. Small quarto. Later marbled wrappers. Very light dampstaining at fore-edge, otherwise minor toning and dust soiling. A quite rare, mid-18th-century Guatemalan imprint, comprising a pastoral letter by Francisco José de Figueredo y Victoria, the Archbishop of Guatemala, that advises immediate..... More
Pueblo de Mixco: Don Antonio Sanchez Cubillas, 1774. [2],12pp. Small folio. Modern decorated paper boards; manuscript paper label on front cover. Title page repaired along gutter margin. Minor dust soiling. A historical account of devastating earthquakes in Guatemala from 1541 to 1773. In the last quarter of that year, the..... More
Houston: Gray, Dillaye & Co., 1909. viii, 230pp. Modern half black morocco and black cloth, spine gilt, preserving original gilt cloth label on front cover reading, "A.C. Gray." Title page a bit chipped, diagonal crease in first few text leaves, moderate even toning to text. The printer's copy of one..... More
Guatemala: 1839. Broadsheet, approximately 12.25 x 8.5 inches. Unevenly trimmed. Small chips at top edge and lower right corner, repaired with tape. Light dampstain across most of sheet. A rare, short-lived treaty of alliance between Guatemala and the short-lived Republic of Los Altos. The nation was created from parts of..... More
Mexico: Por la Viuda de Miguel de Ribera Calderon, 1711. [10],28pp. 4to. Later plain vellum. Boards bowing at fore-edge; small, narrow wormhole through front hinge. Title page printed in black and red; detached and reaffixed to stub. Light tanning and foxing; some dampstaining, heavier to rear leaves. A rare sermon..... More