69. ECKFELDT, Jacob & William Du Bois. New Varieties of Gold and Silver Coins, Counterfeit Coins, and Bullion; With Mint Values. Philadelphia: Published by the Authors, and for Sale by the Principal Booksellers; also at the Agencies of Adams & Co., at Panama and San Francisco, 1850. 60 [2] pp., engraved frontispiece, plate of California and Mormon coins in gold and blue, and with actual gold samples. 12mo, original red paper boards with gilt lettering and illustrations of coins in gold and silver, spine gilt-decorated, a.e.g. (rebacked, original spine preserved). Small losses and light chipping to the binding (due to the delicate paper-over-boards binding), scattered light foxing, otherwise an excellent specimen of a particularly fragile imprint published for the use of Californians. Bookplate of Carrie Estelle Doheny on front free endpaper. Front pastedown with engraved bookplate of Edward Laurence Doheny (photograph of family surrounded by illustrations evoking Doheny interests: missions, books, oil well, etc.). Preserved in rose cloth slipcase with chemise.

The Doheny copy of Eckfeldt & Du Bois — with actual samples of California ‘grain’ and ‘bar’ gold
and reproductions of privately minted 1849 California and Mormon gold coins

            First edition. Cowan I, p. 76. Cowan II, p. 191: “This curious little work is somewhat rare.” Doheny Sale 219 (this copy). Eberstadt 114:139. Holliday 335. Howell 50, California 74. Huntington-Clifford Exhibit (“Possible Titles for an Expanded Zamorano 80”) A: “This book reports on the actual coinage of gold in the western U.S. and thus reflects directly the discovery of gold which prompted the stampede of hundreds of thousands of persons to California.” Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 217a. Sabin 21786. Streeter Sale 2629: “An important reference book for the beginnings of gold mining in California.”

Wheat, Books of the California Gold Rush 67: “Actual samples of California ‘grain’ and ‘bar’ gold, and reproductions of privately minted 1849 gold coins of California and of the Mormons in Utah render this little book an extraordinary and colorful contemporary souvenir of the Gold Rush.”
($5,000-10,000)

70. EDWARDS, Philip L. California in 1837: Diary of Colonel Philip L. Edwards Containing an Account of a Trip to the Pacific Coast.... Sacramento: A. J. Johnston, 1890. 47 pp. 12mo, original tan printed wrappers, stapled (as issued). Lightly browned as usual (due to the cheap paper on which it was printed), fragile spine with a few small chips, otherwise fine. The Littell copy with the printed bookplate affixed to the case. Maroon cloth clamshell case.
            First edition, first published in Themis 2 (1860). The book was published in two formats, cloth and wrappers. Adams, Herd 747: “Rare.” Cowan I, p. 82: “Apparently limited to a small edition, as the work is rarely seen.” Cowan II, p. 192. Dykes, Collecting Range Life Literature, p. 15; Western High Spots, pp. 13-14 (“Western Movement—Its Literature”). Graff 1216. Howell 50, California 447: “Among the most important early descriptions of pastoral California.” Howes E66. Merrill, Aristocrats of the Cow Country, p. 18. Plains & Rockies IV:48n. Reese, Six Score 36: “Narrative of the first recorded cattle drive in California.... Aside from its cattle interest, which recounts bringing some 630 head of cattle from California to Oregon, the book is also a California and fur item.” Rocq 14541. Streeter Sale 3008.
            The Willamette Cattle Company was the first cooperative venture among the Oregon settlers from the United States. In 1835, President Andrew Jackson sent William Slacum, a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, to report on the situation in Oregon. When Slacum discovered that the Hudson’s Bay Company held a monopoly on cattle in Oregon, he persuaded the American settlers to unite to buy cattle in California and bring them back to Oregon. In January 1837 the Willamette Cattle Company was formed for this purpose. That same year some 600 head of cattle were brought back to Oregon. The success of this venture gave American settlers a growing sense of independence from the Hudson’s Bay Company. The author, who served as Treasurer of the Willamette Cattle Company, originally came to Oregon in 1833 with Captain Wyeth’s party. Edwards arrived in San Francisco on February 29, 1837. This day-by-day narrative ends on September 18, somewhere near Mt. Shasta, as the company attempts to reach the Willamette Valley. Edwards’s account of the six months spent in the Bay Area is among the most important early descriptions of pastoral California. Here is an excerpt from Edwards’ journal describing the vicissitudes of driving a motley herd of wild, stubborn, skittish beasts overland and across waterways. In the genre of trail drive literature, Edwards’ account is very early, but the sentiments he expressed remained true to form to the end of the trail-driving days: “Horrors! Now we chased the cattle until after the moon rose, to get them across a little water [San Joaquin River] not more than knee deep. And then the state of camp! Shut the book! The last month, what has it been? Little sleep, much fatigue! Hardly time to eat, many times! Cattle breaking like so many evil spirits and scattering to the four winds! Men, ill-natured and quarreling, growling and cursing! Have, however, recovered the greater part of the lost cattle and purchased others. Another month like the last, God avert! Who can describe it?” (pp. 27-28).
($500-1,000)

71. [ELLIOT, George H.]. The Presidio of San Francisco: Concepcion de Arguello [half title]. [Washington, 1874]. 39 pp. 12mo, original black cloth neatly rebacked in black leather, title gilt on upper cover. Third leaf separating from binding. Author’s compliments slip tipped in. Printed bookplate of New England Historical, Genealogical Society on front pastedown, with their embossed stamp on two leaves and withdrawal stamp on the bookplate. Very rare.
            Second separate edition. BAL 7272. Cowan I, p. 77: “Having been privately printed, this is one of the scarcest works relating to San Francisco.... This history was largely drawn from Mexican archives in the office of the United States surveyor-general in San Francisco, which were destroyed in 1906.” Cowan II, p. 194. Howes E97. Huntington Sale 1698:284 (fetching $125 in 1923): “Excessively rare, with no record of sale at auction.” Rocq 9282. The author originally published this history of the Presidio in The Overland Monthly, and Out West Magazine (vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 336-344), at that time (April 1870) edited by Bret Harte, when he was stationed at San Francisco. After being reprinted once shortly after its original publication, it is here reprinted again unchanged but with the addition of the second item, a poem by Bret Harte about the ill-fated love affair of Concepción de Argüello and Russian explorer Rezanov.
($1,000-2,000)

72. ENGELHARDT, Zephyrin. The Franciscans in California. Harbor Springs, Michigan: Holy Childhood Indian School, 1897. [4] xvi, 516 [1, errata] pp., text illustrations (some full-page, portraits, scenes), map (Rand, McNally. The Old Franciscan Missions in California. 16.5 x 8.8 cm; 6-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches). 8vo, original black pebble cloth, paper spine label with title in manuscript. Light shelf wear, a few small tears in lower blank margins of first few leaves closed with paper repairs, otherwise fine. Blue ink ownership inscription of C. J. K. Jones, March 4, 1909, at upper right on title page.

            First edition. Blumann & Thomas 4949. Cowan I, p. 79: “The most complete work upon the colonization and evangelization of California by the Franciscans.” Cowan II, p. 196. Graff 1250. Howes E153. Streit III:2929. Wallace, Arizona History III:7. Weber, California Missions, p. 30: “This volume subsequently served as the ground-plan for the author’s more elaborate work on The Missions and Missionaries of California.” Michael Mathes (Volkmann, Zamorano 80, #34) points out that “Engelhardt had access to the California Archives destroyed during the disastrous earthquake-fire in San Francisco in 1906. This simply means that Englehardt’s work contains information no longer available to researchers, and thus makes it an irreplaceable source.” Engelhardt includes material on the plight of the missionized California Native Americans after secularization of the missions: “They would return to the wilderness and join the wild Indians in stealing cattle and horses, in order to sell them to the New Mexicans and foreigners” (p. 175).
            “As Catholic booksellers require a heavy security, not within the reach of a poor missionary, for the publishing of a historical work, the author decided to utilize what facilities his school afforded and to have the volume brought out at this establishment. The printing done by unskilled, youthful hands, instructed for that purpose by himself, added immensely to the difficulties of his position, so that he feels greatly relieved to find his task at last finished.... At all events, the novelty of possessing a literary work treating about Indian missions and missionaries, written and printed at an Indian school, may reconcile the readers to the small investment which will be used for the benefit of the Indian School” (p. iii)
($100-200)

73. FARQUHAR, Francis P. Exploration of the Sierra Nevada. San Francisco: California Historical Society, 1925. 58 pp., 3 photographic plates. 8vo, original printed wrappers, stapled as issued, wrappers lightly browned, otherwise fine. Signed presentation by author to Charles P[ryde] Cutten on front flyleaf and manuscript pencil corrections on pp. 24 and 55.
            First separate edition after its appearance in the March 1925 Quarterly of the California Historical Society, this being one of 70 author’s copies from an offprint edition of 275. Cowan II, p. 204. Neate, Mountaineering and Its Literature 252. Not in Rocq. “The purpose of this narrative is to trace the course of the exploration of the Sierra Nevada of California from the time when it first became known to white men to the present day” (p. [3]). Includes a listing of first ascents of significant mountains (pp. 54-55).
($150-300)