The Description of America: A 17th Century Interpretation of the Western Hemisphere

by walnutts Posted on January 27, 2012

If you were holding this, you’d be holding the world in your hands. Or, the Western Hemisphere, at least, as interpreted in the mid-1600′s. It is an original, 1646 / 1662, “Miniature Speed” Map of the Western Hemisphere depicting North and South America. California, as you can see, is depicted as an island. The piece was engraved by Pieter van den Keere (also Petrus Kaerius). It is fully titled with a cartouche reading, “America / Petrus Kaerius / Anno Do 1646.” A pencil notation on the reverse identifies the map as being from the 1662 edition of Speed’s Pocket Atlas and engraved by Pieter van den Keere.

The reverse features text title “The Description of America.” The map shows the continents in full as known at the time and is taken directly from Speed’s important and influential 1627 map of the same name which, for its depiction of California as an island, has solidified its place in history. The original, 1627 rendering of this map is particularly famous, for it was the first atlas map upon which this misconception appeared and Speed’s depiction of the island of California was thus a major contributing factor in the longevity of this notorious myth. The inclusion of this map in Speed’s Pocket Edition did even more to disseminate the long held misconception.

John Speed (1552-1629) was one of the most famous British mapmakers of the seventeenth century, and indeed perhaps the most popular of all with map collectors around the world. Historically, he is noted for placing England into the mainstream of map publishing, which had been dominated by the Dutch since the late sixteenth century. Speed began by issuing maps of Great Britain as early as 1611 in his famous Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine. That publication contained maps of the entire British Isles, their kingdoms, and the counties of those kingdoms. Beginning in 1627, this was then accompanied by A Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World with maps of the world, its regions and its countries. Although Speed used many Dutch geographers and engravers, such as Jodocus Hondius and Abraham Goos, in his works and he copied many Dutch maps, his work is important in establishing a thriving British cartographic industry.

Pieter van den Keere, or Petrus Kaerius, was the engraver responsible for the maps which are now referred to as the “Miniature Speed’s” (including the Map of the Western Hemisphere offered here). Having fled the Low Countries as a refugee because of religious persecution, he arrived in London in 1584, and began his career as an engraver and cartographer. This was made all the easier as a result of his sister Colletta’s marriage to another refugee from the Low Countries who had recently arrived in London. His name was Jodocus Hondius – an already well-established engraver of maps. In the course of a long working life, Keere engraved a large number of individual maps for prominent cartographers of the day, but he also produced an Atlas of the Netherlands (1617-22) and county maps of the British Isles, as well as other countries of the World which have become known as “Miniature Speeds.”

Highly collectable for a long time now, these tiny maps got their name when John Speed’s publisher, George Humble, issued a pocket edition of Speed’s Atlas in 1627, using plates Keere had engraved almost 20 years previously. He had used various sources for his plates, Saxton and Ortelius for the English and Scottish plates, and the famous map by Baptista Boazio for the Irish offerings. For his small pocket atlas, George Humble used the descriptive text of the large Speed maps (part of which is found on the reverse of the map offered here), and reduced in size a couple of these larger Speeds. However, the 40 or so of the van den Keere plates were the mainstay of the publication. The publication was a success and proved very popular, going through numerous re-issues right up until 1676. The name “Miniature Speed” for these maps was one that caught the imagination, and they are now almost universally referred to by that name.

If you’d like to learn more about this piece, further details can be found at our eBay listing.

Posted in 17th Century Europe, Collectibles: Printing, Maps | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Movie for a Rainy Day: The Collector

by Rebecca Posted on January 26, 2012

Allan Stone was a giant in the art world, and had one of the most diverse and consuming collections of the 20th-century. He discovered and launched the careers of some of Modern Art’s greatest: Willem de Kooning, John Chamberlain, Wayne Thiebaud, to name a few.

After Stone’s death in 2006, his daughter, Olympia, released The Collector, a documentary of personal moments and stories in his life. He talks about his love (obsession, really) with collecting, and Olympia showcases some pretty stunning shots of his mansion in Purchase, NY, filled to the brim with artworks and antiques.

While no two collectors are exactly alike, they all share the same bond: the unrelenting pursuit of beauty. Whether you collect cabinet cards or teeth, each object is somehow beautiful and special. Each inspires curiousity. That is the wonder of collecting, to me. It is not about having *things*, but about filling your world with objects that inspire and excite you.

I highly recommend renting The Collector to share in the wonder that was Stone’s life and collection.

Posted in American Art | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Ache That Providence Bears: “Armless Wonder” Anne E. Leak, CDV Photograph and Her Story

by walnutts Posted on January 23, 2012

Ann E. Leak was born without arms in Georgia in 1842. Her mother’s physician predicted that she would die within a few days but she survived and, while behind others her age in learning to walk, she eventually learned to use her feet as most use their hands. She became so adept at using her feet that she could skillfully sew and braid hair!

Like many Southern families, the Leaks lost their money and livelihood during the Civil War, so Ann did all she could to support both herself and her family. For a while she gave classes in braiding, but the money wasn’t enough to support both her and her parents, so she, reluctantly at first, chose to exhibit her skills. She first appeared at P.T. Barnum’s American Museum in New York. It was not easy for Ann, but eventually she reconciled herself to the life of a “sideshow attraction.” She wrote poetically in her autobiography about the life she had chosen:

Only the conviction that it seemed best, reconciled me to it. My lot was not one of my own choosing, but such as Providence had assigned me, and my feet seemed to be directed in the path that I was about to tread. It is the doom of man that his sky should never be altogether without clouds.

Ann eventually traveled around the eastern United States under the name “Ann E. Leak – Born Without Arms,” and while being taken advantage of a few times, for the most part those she met in her travels treated her very well. She eventually married and traveled under the name Ann Leak Thompson.

As with many handless and armless sideshow performers, Ann would sell CDV photographs of herself as an additional source of income. It was her habit to inscribe these photos with inspirational messages related to the challenges of her life (and the lives of all men) similar to the one found on the CDV pictured above.

The image above has an inscription on the back, written by Ann with a pen held between her toes. The Inscription reads “Expect not to pass through life without a mixture of good and evil. / Ann E. Leak, Born without arms, Georgia. / Age 34 years, July 25, 1876.”

Much of the information about the life of Ann E. Leak is taken from this wonderful web site.

If you’d like to learn more about this piece, further details can be found at our eBay listing.

Posted in Daredevils Deviants and Circus Folk | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

WALNUTTS NEEDS YOUR HELP: An Early American Prank, Information Needed About a Ship’s Passport from Marblehead, Mass, Signed by Pres. Fillmore and “Mac”

by walnutts Posted on January 20, 2012

The “Mediterranean Passport” (more commonly referred to as a “Ship’s Passport”) was a document issued by the United States Government from 1795 through the mid-19th century to American Ships leaving port and headed to Europe or Africa. The document identified a ship as being protected under a treaty between the U.S. and states of the Barbary Coast. Known today as the Barbary pirates, these North African states required countries to pay tribute in exchange for not capturing that country’s ships and crews. These passes identified ships that had safe passage.

The document pictured above appears to be a typical, circa 1851 Vellum Mediterranean Passport/“Ship’s Passport” of the 19th century. It is signed by Millard Fillmore as President of the United States, and Daniel Webster as Secretary of State. This document is quite a unique instrument, however, as it was apparently issued as a prank or joke by a Customs Collector at Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Document measures approx. 11 ¼” by 15 1/8” and is printed on vellum stock. It features beautiful, engraved images of a sailing vessel and harbor scene with lighthouse at the top. The top edge is scallop cut – as was the practice to irregularly cut the top “coupon” portion of a Ship’s Pass and send that section to officials along the Barbary Coast, so cruisers from those ports would have samples for comparison with the edge of a document presented by a foreign ship. The document features an applied, water seal of the United States of America at the lower left hand corner.

What makes this document unique and a simply amazing example of an otherwise rare but familiar historical item, is the fact that it was not issued to a sailing ship leaving an American port for foreign waters, but was issued by a Customs Collector to a private citizen and friend (perhaps a seaman or ship’s captain) as some type of joke or comic prank.

The pass is filled out to “Bearer Wm. L. Barnes” for a “one-gun” vessel of “under a half ton” to “navigate with one woman” – clearly this part is some type of jest. The document is dated “30 February, 1801” (when Millard Fillmore was barely one year old). It is further filled out from the “State of Inebriety, District of Swamps cut.” The countersignature (the place where the District Customs Collector, who had the duty to fill out these Ship’s Passports, would have signed the Document) is simply a large “Mac.”

The document is absolutely and unquestionably original and period. Fillmore took office July 9, 1850, and Webster died in 1852, so it surely dates from this period. The circumstances of its issue are, as yet, undiscovered. We have not been able to identify Barnes or “Mac,” but do believe that “Swamps cut” refers to the port town of Swampscott, Massachusetts, which was part of the Marblehead District. Documents such as this one would have been issued by the Customs Collector at Marblehead, Mass.

It is known that the President and the Secretary of State would sign blank Ship’s Passports, and that these documents would be sent to the various Customs Districts where the District Customs Collector would fill in the names, sizes, armaments, etc. of ships in need of the documents that were leaving port. The Customs Collector would countersign the document.

Why a Customs Collector would appropriate an official document – SIGNED BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE – and issue it as part of some sort of jest is hard to understand, and we have NEVER heard of another such document coming to light.

The Ship’s Passport was discovered with a letter of transmittal further documenting its origins. That letter is a typed letter signed by Henry Tolman Jr. of the Massachusetts Surgeon General’s Office. Tolman notes that he found the document in his grandfather’s papers, and is conveying it to a friend who is an autograph collector, stating that the signatures are genuine, but making no mention of the circumstances regarding the content. He also states that his grandfather received the document sometime in the “40’s or early 50’s.” Tolman’s letter is dated Oct. 29, 1910.

There is no doubt that this perplexing document is worthy of further research – there is certainly a fascinating story to be uncovered here, and we have only begun to scratch the surface of the available research avenues.

ANY INFORMATION THAT MIGHT HELP UNCOVER THE HISTORY OF THIS FASCINATING DOCUMENT, WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

For more pictures and details about this item, please visit our Ebay listing.

Posted in 19th Century, Nautical History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The History Behind the Wrapping: Joseph Tinchant and His Life In Cigars, an African American Family’s Journey Around the World, From Slavery to Freedom

by walnutts Posted on January 19, 2012

The stunningly beautiful, 1890′s embossed and extensively gold gilt-encrusted chromolithograph advertising sign pictured above is among the most striking pieces of advertising we have ever come across. To say that the chromolithography is of THE very highest quality is a gross understatement – this sign is the consummate example of the very finest art and craftsmanship of the Lithographic Art. It is signed by the lithographer – Hermann Schott, who along with Klingenberg Bros., produced many of the most elaborate and highly sought-after cigar labels of the same style and period.

But above and beyond the beauty of the sign, it is its content wherein lies the story. The sign advertises “Don Jose” Cigars manufactured by “Jose Tinchant y Gonzales & Co. Cigars,” owned and operated by transplanted African-American Cigar maker, New Orleans Creole “free man of color,” and second lieutenant in the 6th Louisiana Volunteers (Colored) during the Civil War, Joseph Tinchant. At the center of the sign is a stunning portrait of Joseph Tinchant, himself!

Although the factories of “Jose Tinchant y Gonzales & Co.” were located in Belgium, the company had extensive American connections. Three generations of the Tinchant family lived and worked in New Orleans. The patriarch was brought from Africa in slavery to the island of Haiti, and was emancipated during the Haitian Revolution of the 1790′s. He married a woman who was the child of a white man and a free woman of color, and the couple immigrated to Louisiana where, as a “free man of color,” Jacques Tinchant (father of Joseph and Edouard of “Jose Tinchant y Gonzales & Co. and son of the freed Haitian slave) married a mixed race woman and spent his life in various business interests which straddled the line between the white and Creole communities of New Orleans. While census records describe Jacques Tinchant as a “f.m.c.” (free man of color), in his business dealings that designation sometimes appeared and sometimes did not. It was not that Jacques was “passing for white” (as the designation would disappear and reappear over and over), but the stigma associated with that designation was sometimes “inconvenient” to the customers (white or black) that he was dealing with.

In the antebellum years, New Orleans society was much more complex than the “slave and master” society that dominated most of the American South. Jacques made a living and held a prominent position in society as a land developer who facilitated the transfer of land and real estate from white owners to “free people of color.” By 1840, however, the structure of society in New Orleans had begun to change and the actions of the so-called “free person of color” became much more restricted. The Tichant family made the decision to sail for France with their 5 young boys, and after some hard times in France, eventually ended up in Antwerp. There the family established themselves as cigar makers, and around 1860, at least 3 of the boys had returned to New Orleans (Joseph included) where they were listed in census reports as either “cigar makers” or “tobacconists.”

When Union forces captured New Orleans in 1862, Joseph Tichant helped to raise the 6th Louisiana Infantry (Colored) and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. His brother Edouard enlisted in the regiment. After the War, Edouard became the representative of the 6th Ward of the city of New Orleans, at the Constitutional Convention of the State of Louisiana in 1867–68, a Radical Republican convention made up of mostly men of color which framed the Louisiana State Constitution that took effect during Reconstruction.
By 1877, with the end of Reconstruction in the South and the plight of African Americans there firmly in the hands of the segregationist elements, Joseph and his brother Edouard had again crossed the Atlantic and joined their brothers who had established a cigar factory in Antwerp. Joseph took on the name of his wife – Gonzales – and modified his own name to reflect a Cuban heritage (a great advantage in the cigar industry – even if most of the tobacco for the cigars manufactured at the factory came from Mexico). The company name was changed to “Jose Tinchant y Gonzales & Co.” Their premier brand was “La Flor de Don Jose” with a portrait of Joesph on the cigar’s label and cigar band.

Click here to read more about the fascinating history of the African American Tinchant family.

If you’d like to learn more about this piece, further details can be found at our eBay listing.

Posted in Collectibles: Advertising, Collectibles: Printing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment