LITHOS OF CUBA & TEXAS, INCLUDING ALPINE HOUSTON
PUBLISHER’S ORIGINAL WRAPPERS
140. HOUSTOUN, Matilda C. Texas and the Gulf of
Mexico; or Yachting in the New World, or Yachting in the
New World. London: John Murray, 1844. viii, 314 + viii,
360 pp., 10 lithographed and wood-engraved plates,
including city views of Galveston, Houston, and Havana,
portraits of Sam Houston and Santa Anna, etc. 2 vols., 8vo,
publisher’s original plain mauve wrappers, original
dark green gilt-lettered cloth backstrips. An exceptionally
fine copy of this work, the plates and text wonderfully
fresh. Preserved in a maroon cloth slipcase.
First
edition. Basic Texas Books 97: "This sprightly account
was written by a wealthy English lady who visited Texas in
1842 in her husband’s private yacht. Her view of the
Texans is surprisingly free of snobbery, although she
viewed them with the same paternalism that the English of
her day viewed all non-Englishmen. Moreover, she had that
rare gift of intellect and character that enabled her to
perceive the idiosyncrasies of the Texans without the
bitterness and mockery of Dickens or Mrs. Trollope. Her
narrative is so light and breezy that it is easy to shrug
it off as superficial; in fact, she gives us some
exceptional insights into Texas of the 1840s." Clark
III:182. Howes H693. Raines, p. 230. Streeter 1506: "Mrs.
Houstoun, accompanied by her husband, Captain Houstoun of
the 10th Hussars, sailed from England...on their yacht the
Dolphin in September, 1843, and after stops at the
Azores, Barbados, Jamaica and New Orleans, entered
Galveston Harbor....This is a pleasant and quite readable
account of life at Galveston, with an excursion to the
‘up country’ of a wealthy English couple in the
winter of 1843-1844." Winegarten, Texas Women’s
History Project Bibliography, p. 221.
The Texas
lithographs are included in Holman and Tyler’s
preliminary research on nineteenth-century Texas
lithographs. They are beautifully executed by the excellent
English firm of Day and Haghe, Lithographers to the Queen.
The "Alpine" Houston view, while apocryphal, may well be
the first published view of the city, and served as the
prototype for several later views showing the city in the
midst of mountains.
(2 vols.)
($1,000-$2,000)