1790 DECREE REGARDING CATTLE BRANDS

1). [Cattle Brands] Viceroy Conde de Revillagigedo. [Juan Vicente Güémez Pacheco de Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo.] Decree on Cattle Brands. Mexico: April 26, 1790. One sheet of laid paper, watermarked “FS” folded into four leaves. Sent to the Gobernador Intendente de Durango. Two inch tear to the top of the last, blank leaf, else very good.             OCLC shows no holdings for this decree. By Royal decree of January 27, 1789, his Majesty approved in all its parts the decree of the Real Audiencia Gobernadora of January 13, 1787, which was in accord with the request by the “Fiscal de la Real Hacienda” (Procurator for the Royal Treasury) on October 20, 1786, regarding the licenses for irons to mark cattle for slaughter, transport, sales and inns and others, which were communicated to all the Justices in the Kingdom. The incidents that occurred after this decree moved my predecessor, consulting the correct compliance with the Royal Order and another dated on February 25th, to consultations with the Minister and with the General Counselor of the Viceroyalty, Pedro Jacinto Valenzuela. Their conclusions became the decree of June 23th. All these resolutions are included in my decree dated November 9th. Being this Decree of the utmost importance, I order you to comply with all that is contained in it.  As for the request of the Procurator of January 13th, you need inform the Justices of your district that they need deliver to you all the records they have on this matter, and all the money they had collected which you will deposit in the Royal Treasury of your province. You will be in charge from now on of all the matters of this affair, and you will give to me reports on this matter. (Rough translation) This decree emphasizes the importance of cattle raising – and the revenue therefrom – in Mexico during this period.

1880’S TEXAS RANCH BRANDS

1). [Cattle Brands][Texas] Nunn Brothers. Business card and list of Marks and Brands. [Colorado City, Texas. [No publication information] [Circa 1877-85] Printed card. 7.5 x 12 cm. One corner trimmed. Light spotting. Good.             OCLC shows no holdings for this Scurry County, Texas ranch. In 1877 one of the first large ranches in Scurry County was established by the Nunn brothers, who had previously raised cattle in Southern Texas. They partnered with Samuel C. Wilkes and they soon became the largest cattle raisers in that region. In 1885 John Nunn moved a thousand cattle to pastures in Terry County and then bought 65,000 acres of the newly available land in Hockley and Lubbock counties, which became the NUN Ranch with its headquarters near Rich Lake, southeast of present-day Meadow. This card appears to predate that 1885 purchase, as it refers only to a ranch in Scurry County.

LINCOLN ASSASSINATION TRIAL

1) [Lincoln] Trial of the Conspirators for the Assassination of President Lincoln & Argument of John A. Bingham, Special Judge Advocate…. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1865. Printed wraps. 122 pp. Spine taped. Image of Lincoln’s funeral car pasted to front inner wrap. Some ink notes, corner bends and chips to cover. Good.             OCLC shows 28 holdings, one in Texas (Texas Tech). Monaghan, Lincoln Bibliography1839-1939 No. 403. Sabin 5451. McDade 625. Bingham was an American politician who is best remembered for his role in the trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination. Judge Bingham’s powerful argument in the trial of seven men and one woman accused of conspiring to assassinate Lincoln, delivered June 1865, only two months after Abraham Lincoln’s death, arguing that the “intense hate and rage” of Confederate President Jefferson Davis made him as “clearly proven guilty of conspiracy as is John Wilkes Booth.” Here he answers the objections raised by the lawyers for the accused that the military tribunal set up to try the conspirators had no jurisdiction, was illegal and unconstitutional. He argues that Lincoln, as commander-in-chief, has been murdered within military lines, and that in such circumstances the president may not be able to carry out his oath to protect the constitution without a declaration of martial law, and martial law allows for the use of military commissions.

Lea, Tom. Calendar of the Twelve Travelers through the Pass of the North. El Paso: Carl Hertzog. 1947. Limited edition. Tan linen in yellow pictorial dust jacket. 20 cm. Illustrated by Tom Lea. Includes bibliographical references. [36] [1] [Colophon] [1] pp. Dust jacket shows discoloration. One of 50 copies on hand-made paper bound in hand-made semi-flexible binding. With a signed Christmas greeting card from Hertzog laid in. This edition not in Hinshaw. Lowman 48A. Sloan 295.

ADVOCATING THE RETURN OF THE JESUITS TO MEXICO

1). [Mexico][Jesuits] Francisco Mendizábal; Luis Abadiano y Valdés. Representación que al Soberano Congreso dirije el presbítero Francisco Mendizabal. México: Imprenta de Luis Abadiano y Valdes, 1841. Bound in new leather with gilt printing. Original wraps bound in. 17.5 cm. 26 pp. Initials and bookplate of J.R.H. Very good.

            OCLC shows 10 holdings. (Univ. Ariz.; Fuller Theol. Sem.; Tulane; [2]; Univ. NM; SMU; UT-Austin; Biblio. Natl. de Chili; Biblio. Nat. de Espana; & Instit. Tech. de Estudios Sup.) The Jesuits established missions in North America early in the 17th Century. They disappeared during the suppression of the Society of Jesus around 1763. In this pamphlet Mendizába advocates to Congress for the return of the Jesuits. He talks about his unjust expulsion, and how they could once again occupy an important place in Mexican society. Of special interest is his mention of the important work they could do on the northern border, exploring and establishing missions, and evangelizing the “savage Indians,” as follows:

The Company of Jesus, which with its apostolic ministry will serve as an auxiliary in the interior of the Republic, may at the end of sometime be your expeditionary army in the most remote confines … crossing plains of an admirable extension, fertilizing the fields or lands of its majestic transit, it will finally occupy the Californias, the Apacherias, the Tarahumara: it will establish wisely regulated missions for the conversion of those Indians infidels; and working with zeal, with activity, and constancy in this chief object of his glorious institute, they will pacify them with loving softness, as he has done in other ages; It will teach them the true Religion, it will soften their customs, it will make them enter little by little into such a civilization, it will contain the invasions with which they plague us so much, and perhaps the time will come when the Comanche, the Nayarita, the Apache, all the innumerable tribes that they populate those regions with danger of ours, come to be an integral and safe part of the Mexican Republic. – p.17 (Rough translation) It is interesting that in 1843 when President Santa Anna issued a decree allowing the Jesuits to re-establish missions in the border provinces, including Texas and California, he explicitly cited the argument made here: “Since three hundred years of force and conquest had not been sufficient to introduce civilization to the wild Indians of the Mexican frontier areas,” the Jesuits were allowed to return with “the sole purpose of dedicating themselves to the civilization of the barbarian tribes through the preaching of the Gospel.” – Decree of June 22, 1843.

A Brief Bibliography for Researching Mexican Documents

OCLC’s World Catalog is very helpful because many of the documents have been cataloged by institutions

Medina, Jose Toriba. La Imprenta en Mexico (1539-1821)

The Pronunciamiento in Independent Mexico 1821 – 1876 https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/pronunciamientos/dates.php

Wilkie, Everet. Lilly Texana. Lilly Library, 2009

Thomas Streeter, Bibliography of Texas.

Eberstadt, Texas. Catalog 162

Eberstadt, The Spanish Southwest 1555-1799, Catalog 147

Garrett & Goodwin, The Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 TAMU Press 1995

Mexican Prints https://digital.iai.spk-berlin.de/viewer/collections/joseposada/

Rocq, Margaret Miller. California Local History

Primary Sources: Mexico https://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/history/latinamerica/ps-mexico

Jenkins, John. Printer in Three Republics Pemberton Press 1981

Spell, Lota. Pioneer Printer UT Press 1963

Papers of Agustín de Iturbide, 1799-1880 http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b18586873~S1

Los presidentes de Mexico ante la Nacion http://lanic.utexas.edu/larrp/pm/sample2/mexican/history/index.html

Mexcian Political Pamphlets 1808-1932. http://wayback.archive-it.org/6473/20170713154204/https://resource.library.utoronto.ca/mexicanpamphlets/

Documentos para la historia de la guerra de independencia, 1810-1821 (México: Impr. de M.L. Sánchez, 1923-1933)

García, Genaro, et al. Documentos inéditos o muy raros para la historia de México (México: Vda. de C. Bouret, 1905-1911)

Grajales, Gloria. Guía de documentos para la historia de México en archivos ingleses, siglo 19 (México: UNAM, 1969)

Grajales, Gloria. Guía de documentos para la historia de México existentes en la Public Record Office de Londres, 1827-1830 (México: UNAM 1967.

Hernández y Dávalos, Juan E. Colección de documentos para la historia de la Guerra de Independencia de México de 1808 a 1821 (Nendeln: Kraus Reprint, 1968)

Rosenbach Museum & Library. The Viceroyalty of New Spain and Early Independent Mexico: a Guide to Original Manuscripts in the Collections of the Rosenbach Museum & Library (Philadelphia: [The Museum & Library], 1980)

Portal de Archivos Españoles (PARES) http://pares.culturaydeporte.gob.es/inicio.html

Dorothy Sloan Catalogs https://www.dsloan.com/cms/past/catalogues/

Compiled by William Allison and Elena Gallego – April 2021

I will admit to being biased, as Kurt is a friend and my co-founder of the Book Hunters Club of Houston, but this book definitely lives up to the promise of its title and cover photo. It is a series of engaging essays and observations that will keep you turning the pages and alternating between wry chuckles and knowing nods. His poignant remembrances of some of the late, great booksellers whose paths crossed his are worth the price of admission. It may even get you fired up to finish writing your own book-related projects. It did so for me!

The reviews are in! Well at least the first one. See Rebecca Rego Barry’s excellent summary here:On the Hunt for Rare Books with Kurt Zimmerman

The new normal is virtual – on line – books fairs. These have proliferated as the pandemic has gone on. I have exhibited at several and shopped at others. There is good news and bad news.

The good: (1) better a virtual fair than no fair; (2) I have met new clients from California, North Carolina and Pennsylvania who I may never have met through the fairs I do in Texas; and I met some new dealers; (3) the cost is less than an in person fair, especially with no travel costs; and (4) no loading many boxes of books.

The bad: of course virtual fairs are nothing like in person book fairs. The size and scope of an in person fair dwarfs what can be exhibited on an online fair, at least in their current state. Seeing the books in person is also quite different, and there is no substitute for holding something in your hand. The primary thing I miss, above all, is not getting to see the people, dealers and customers at the fair. Zoom calls only go so far!

Given we have no choice I will continue to exhibit at the virtual fairs. I even hope they may continue in the future so I can reach customers outside of Texas. The ABBA Boston Book Fair is going virtual this November. If you have not checked out the online fairs, this one will be a good place to start.

Visit my friend Kurt Zimmerman’s blog for a very timely book story of a book lost and found under tragic circumstances.

http://www.bookcollectinghistory.com/2020/05/a-book-i-shouldnt-have-had-yet.html

What?

The Houston Book Show Cancelled due to Covid 19

We hope to reschedule in Spring 2021

Featuring Rare, Antiquarian and Collectible Books, Ephemera, Prints, Photographs, Postcards & Maps

Texana, Literature, Cook Books, Mystery,

Modern First Editions, Hispanic, Sci-Fi, Americana & More

Book Appraisal Saturday 10:00 am- noon

For one or two items (donation suggested)

Where?

Winter Street Studios at Sawyer Yards

2101 Winter Street

Houston TX 77007 https://www.sawyeryards.com/WinterStreetStudios

As a Western Americana dealer I have few occasions to refer to a classic story many of us read in high school, but this post includes a Bartleby the Scrivener reference. Of course it does.

Monroe Edwards (circa 1808-1847) was an early Texas slave smuggler and forger. He moved to the Galveston Bay area of Texas about 1825 as a clerk for the merchant James Morgan. Soon after his arrival, however, he found more lucrative, if less respectable, pursuits. He became involved in smuggling slaves to Brazil from Africa and soon made a profit of $50,000. Through his mistress’s husband, a Mexican official, he obtained a large land grant in Brazoria County. He called his property Chenango Plantation, and used it as a base for continued slave smuggling to Texas from Cuba. His only claim to favorable historical recognition was his arrest and brief imprisonment, with others, by the Mexican garrison at Anahuac in 1832. – Handbook of Texas.   Among his misdeeds, he once sold an entire plantation of slaves he did not own to an abolitionist who had intended to free them. He was finally convicted for an elaborate and lucrative cotton-broker forgery scam in 1842. Several sensational accounts of his offenses and trial were published after his death, and he was mentioned in Herman Melville’s 1853 short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener.”

We recently acquired a a land survey for “one third of a league of land for Monroe Edwards situated 10 miles below San Patricio on the west side of the Nueces River.” It includes a small inset manuscript map of the property. Texan politician Alexander Russell is mentioned as a neighbor. This is a certified 1839 copy of a January 1838 survey, drafted and signed by James M. Manning, the original surveyor. Below Manning’s signature is an additional attestation by a county surveyor dated 1840 which has been crossed out.

James M. Manning was one of the initial surveyors in the San Patricio, Nueces County, and South Texas areas. He was appointed Deputy Surveyor of San Patricio County on March 8, 1838, at a time when much of South Texas, including present day Nueces County, was a part of that jurisdiction. His appointment likewise occurred only two years after the establishment of the General Land Office of the Republic of Texas and one year after legislation created land districts with surveyors and deputy surveyors in each county. When the Texas boundary was permanently extended to the Rio Grande in 1846, Manning served as one of the first Anglo-American surveyors of this region. His work influenced other early South Texas surveyors such as Felix A. Blucher. His papers are held at TAMU-Corpus Christi.

[Republic of Texas.] Manning, James M. Survey and map of land on the Nueces River, done for the notorious crook Monroe Edwards. 2 manuscript pages, 10 x 7 3/4 inches, plus integral blank with docketing; folds and minor wear. San Patricio, Texas, 29 January 1839.

Bertram Rota was a London bookseller, specializing in modern literature. Together with his son Tony he developed the University of Texas as a client and became friends with a number of like-minded folks in Austin through his annual trips to visit the University. Among them were Austin book seller Franklin Gilliam, Warren Roberts, then the Associate Director of the Humanities Research Center, John Henry Faulk, Bill Ferguson and Frank Dobie.

In 1960 Rota spent a memorable evening at Dobie’s Paisano ranch with this august group of bookmen. He recorded the highlights in a pamphlet entitled “The Night of the Armadillos” that he sent out as a Christmas card.  Few copies crossed the Atlantic and Dobie’s friend and bookman Jeff Dykes listed it as one of the fifty rarest Dobie items. Dobie inscribed a copy “For my paisano and amigo Jeff Dykes who understands poetic license.”

Rota followed up the publication of his Christmas pamphlet with a letter to Dobie about the evening and adding to the tale told therein. Dobie gave a copy of the letter to Warren Roberts, with his note that it made a postscript to “The Night of the Armadillos.” It is reproduced here as a fitting coda to this legendary Dobie rarity.

January l4. 1961

Dear Sage,

          Your acceptance of my strictly factual report on the night of nights delighted me. But tell Edward Soph that “The Night of the Armadillos” is a much better title than “A Night Among the Armadillos.” The former makes the night unique, as it is in my memory.  The latter could be any old night. Before that evening was over I knew I must write the story and that “The Night of the Armadillos” was the inevitable title.

          Harry Graham’s “Elsie Gloy” has 22 eight-line verses. To quote them in full would have overweighed my little booklet, but you shall have the complete version. It was first printed in “Life and Letters” Vol 5, No. 27, for August 1930. Later it was included, I think, in a book of Harry Graham’s verse, which I will try to find for you. Meanwhile here is one more verse, to go on with:

          “An artist he, in velvet cape

             With palate, oils and brushes

          Who wished to paint an aquascape

             And, noticing a female shape

          Entangled in the rushes,

             He came to ask what he had found

          That was so large and smooth and round.”

          And another:

          That is the life she loves to lead

             As Queen of all Bohemia.

          Her courtiers may belong, indeed,

             To what is called the ‘Weldflow’r breed,

          And suffer from anemia,

             But still her heart with pleasure thrills

          When dancing with those daffodils.

          There is, however, one grave error of misquotation in my booklet. I wrote “With the poet I could sing” and then misquoted some lines of Kipling — even though I gave them just as I heard them long ago. They should read:

          “I’ve never seen a jaguar

            Nor yet an armadil –

          O delloing in his armor

            And I spose I never will.”

          Much better. There have been requests for extra copies, for inclusion in Dobie collections in university libraries, from Larry Powell and others; but I have a few spares and send you three more at once. I’m flattered.

          Did I tell you I’ve ordered “The Ghost Bull of the Mavericks,” so that I may refresh my memory of your treasured tones and share my delight with my friends? And that story of my night at Paisano has had a wonderful reception from all points of the compass. A friend writes from Wilmington, Delaware, to-day to tell me that there is a different formula for each species of cricket, when calculating the temperature from the frequency of the chirping!

          How earnestly I hope to come to Texas again next Fall, though Anthony and I won’t be able to be away from London together.

          Good luck, good health, good hunting!

                                      Your eternally grateful

                                                       Bertram