AUCTION AWARD No. 2: ‘FIRST OF A FOUNTAIN PEN’

Reiss & Sohn’s upcoming Rare Books & Manuscripts Sale features, supposedly, a mechanical treatise that includes the first illustration of a fountain pen. An FYI for the scribophiles out there.

Lot 1219 Schwenter, D. Deliciae physicae-mathematicae. Oder mathemat. und Philosophische Erquickstunden. Nürnberg, J. Dümler, 1636. 4to. Mit gest. Titel u. ca. 180 Textholzschn. 5 Bll., 574 S. Hprgt. d. 18. Jhdts., Rücken fachmännisch erneuert.

First edition. – “Schott said that the Physico-Mathematical Delights of Daniel Schwenter, a work which first appeared in 1636, presented many most entertaining machines, hydraulic and pneumatic. It has a description and picture which are said to be the first of a fountain pen. The tricks are taken partly from previous authors such as Nicolaus Taurellus and Cardan, or, more recently, Galileo” (Thorndike VII, 594). – Mild dampmarking to a few leaves, else fine in 18th cent. half vellum, spine expertly renewed.

Poggendorff II, 878; Smith, Rara I, 421; Cantor II, 765; Dünnhaupt 1972 (unter Harsdörffer; mit weiteren Literaturangaben); Thorndike VII, 594. – Erste Ausgabe “des nachgelassenen Werks von Harsdörffers großem Lehrer Daniel Schwenter, in Schw. Todesjahr erschienen und von H. in 2 weiteren Bänden fortgesetzt. Enthält 663 math.-naturphilosophische Aufgaben” (Dünnh.). Enthält die erste Darstellung und Beschreibung eines Füllfederhalters. – Wenige Bll. mit unbedeutenden Wasserspuren.

AUCTION AWARD No. 1: WRITTEN ON BIRCH BARK

Part of my job description entails combing through all book auctions of interest on a weekly basis. The winner this week for best & most amusing: Swann Galleries, Printed & Manuscript Americana

Lot 210. (MICHIGAN.) Seeley, Lewis W. Letter from a lonely lumberjack, written on birch bark. Autograph Letter Signed. 2 pages on one strip of bark, 11 x 3 inches; original folds and missing a few letters but surprisingly stable. Summit, Ogemaw County, MI, 2 January 1879
Estimate $300-400. [LINK]

Lewis W. Seeley was born in New York in 1857, and wrote this letter on his twenty-second birthday from a logging camp in northern Michigan. Writing to his cousin Elcety, he employs some creative spelling along with his unusual choice of stationery: “Well I am old enough to think of giting me a woman. I have ben looking the woods all over but I can’t find any, so I have got discourage and am goin to be a old old old bach as long as I live.” He also describes life in the camp: “I can’t think of more to write, thare is so mutch nois. Thare is thirty six men run out and in, sou I can’t keep track of my leter. The forman he sits rite side of me a swaring about som thing. I have a good mind to give him a clip rite a crost the mouth. I will if I ever catch him in town. He is as mean a man as the Irsh race ever had.” Seeley married two years after writing this letter, raised a family in Petoskey, MI, and had a long career on the railroad.

Please excuse the Anti-Irish sentiment of Mr. Seeley, especially on St. Patrick’s Day.