[Rarebooks] fa: 1796 EPISTLES DOMESTIC, CONFIDENTIAL & OFFICIAL FROM GEN. GEORGE WASHINGTON ("Base forgeries")

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, March 17. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/mnokg2h

Thanks for looking,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

[George Washington:] Epistles Domestic, Confidential, and Official, from General Washington, written about the Commencement of the American Contest, when he entered on the Command of the Army of the United States. With an Interesting Series of his Letters, particularly to the British Admirals, Arbuthnot and Digby, to Gen. Sir Henry Clinton, Lord Cornwallis, Sir Guy Carleton, Marquis de la Fayette, &c. &c. To Benjamin Harrison, Esq. Speaker of the House of Delegates in Virginia, to Admiral the Count de Grasse, General Sullivan, respecting an attack of New-York; including many application and addresses presented to him with his answers: Orders and Instructions, on important  occasions, to his Aids de Camp, &c. &c. &c. None of which have been printed in the two volumes published a few months ago. New-York: Printed by G. Robinson, corner of William and John Streets, and J. Bull no. 115, Cherry-Street, and sold by James Rivington, no. 156, Pearl-Street, MDCCXCVI [1796] (Copy right secured). FIRST EDITION; 8vo (213 x 134 mm); xiv + 303 pp. (p. 206-208 misnumbered 106-108, as called for); engraved frontispiece portrait engraved by William Rollinson after the painting by Edward Savage. ESTC W31936; Howes W133; Evans 30392; Sabin 101743.

Handsomely bound in modern, but not recent, half burgundy morocco over marbled boards; untrimmed, with the original plain blue wrappers bound in. Some rubbing to the extremities and the front joint, light browning to the portrait and the first and last few leaves, last leaf laid down onto rear wrapper, occasional toning and very faint foxing; otherwise quite clean and fresh, with wide untrimmed margins, and firmly bound; a few signatures unopened (meaning that the leaves are still joined at the top edge as issued), hence unread. Title-page with the early/contemporary ownership signature of R. S. Livingston [?], possibly a member of the New York family so prominent in early American affairs. Front paste-down with the bookplate of the noted Americana collector Frank Cutter  Deering (d. 1939). A superior example.

A notorious book, containing a number of letters purportedly discovered in the portmanteau of George Washington’s mulatto servant when the latter was taken prisoner at Fort Lee. These are in fact "base forgeries," as Washington himself characterized them, manufactured by embittered Tories to tarnish the president's image and show that he "is a very different character from what [the public] had supposed him." The first seven letters here are spurious, and have been attributed to both the loyalist pamphleteer John Vardill ("Poplicola") and to John Randolph, the last royalist attorney-general of Virginia. These fraudulent epistles are of the "Domestic" variety, mostly addressed to Martha Washington and Lund Washington, a cousin. The rest of the volume consists of (authentic) correspondence with Clinton, Cornwallis, Carleton, Lafayette, Rear-Admiral Digby ("on the treatment of the American prisoners at New-York") and other military and political figures, as well as a number of resolutions, orders and addresses ("Address of the Irish Volunteers, and other inhabitants of the kingdom of Ireland emigrated to America, to General Washington"), etc. A handsome example of a fascinating and uncommon piece of Washintoniana, printed while he was president.