Stone, William L.

[History of] New York City from the discovery to the present day

A NEW YORK CITY HISTORY NOT IN HOWES 
RICHLY EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED AND FINELY BOUND 
FROM THE COLLECTION OF ELIZABETH WILLETS LAMBERT 

 

One volume in two. New York: Virtue & Yorston, 1872. First edition.

Octavo in 4s (9” x 5 15/16”, 228mm x 151mm).
Vol. I: π⁴(–π1) 2-3π⁴ 2-41⁴ 42⁴(–42₄) [$1 signed]. 174 leaves, pp. iii-v vi-xx, [4] (3pp. list of illustrations, blank), 9 10-334. [≈xxii, 326] With 101 insertions: an engraved title-page and 71 (mostly steel-)engraved plates of which 2 are hand-colored, an engraved map, a folding engraved map, 26 lithographs of which 3 are chromolithographs and 3 double-sided, and an autograph (of Richard Varick) clipped from a letterpress document.
Vol. II: binder’s blank, π1 42₄ 43-80⁴ 81⁴ 82⁴ 83⁴ 84-97⁴ χ⁴ 2χ⁴(+3χ1), binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 231 leaves, pp. i-ii, 335-658, [2] (appendixes fly-title, blank), ₂1 ₂2-110 ₂113 ₂114-136. [≈ii, 324; ii, 134]. With 85 insertions: 49 engravings of which one is hand-colored, an artotype (a proprietary version of a collotype), 32 lithographs of which 11 are chromolithographs (of which 1 is folding) and 1 is folding, and 3 silver-gelatin photographs.
With 186 insertions: 121 engraved plates (of 20; plus 85 wood-engravings integral with the text) of which 3 are hand-colored, an engraved map, a folding engraved map, an artotype, 58 lithographs (of which 14 are chromolithographs, of which 1 is folding) of which 3 are double-sided and 1 folding, 3 gelatin-silver photographs, and an autograph clipped from a letterpress document.

Bound in slightly later morocco (re-backed, with the original back-strips laid down) with the (1915) seal of New York city gilt at the center of each board within a quintuple gilt fillet border and a dotted gilt roll border with gilt corner-fleurons. On the spine, five raised bands. Title gilt to the second panel, author and number gilt to the third, and “EXTRA ILLUSTRATED” to the tail. Gilt fillet to the edges of the boards. Gilt inside dentelle. Brown end-papers. Top edges of the text-block gilt.

Re-backed, with the original back-strips laid down. Rubbed, with wear to the extremities. Altogether quite clean, with occasional offsetting. Splits to the folds of the large engraved map in vol. I. Title-page in vol. II (trimming “History of” from the beginning of the title) and many of the insertions set into paper frames, and most with graphite markings verso indicating their placement. The engraving mounted opposite I.374 with a manuscript caption in ink, and a handful of engravings in vol. II with short graphite captions. Armorial bookplate of Elizabeth Willets Lambert to the front paste-down of both volumes.


As New York grew from a Dutch encampment at the southern tip of the Lenni Lenape island of Manaháhtaan (“the place for gathering bow-wood”) into the first capital of the United States in 1785, the biggest port in the nation with the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, and over the course of the XIXc the premier destination for immigration, New Yorkers’ egos began to match the grandeur of their city. “Valentine’s Manual” — D.T. Valentine’s Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York — ran from 1841 to 1870 (resurrected in the XXc) and published a great many historic documents as well as depictions of the city, largely by lithograph.

William Leete Stone Jr. (1835-1908), a New York City native educated at Brown University (his maternal uncle was the Rev. Dr. Francis Wayland, Brown’s president), filled the gap of antiquarian interest and published the History of New York City in 1872. Richly illustrated, it surveys the city from Hudson (not Verrazzano, who entered New York harbor in 1524) right through to the year of publication, and includes appendixes of potted histories and primary documents.

An early owner of the book — perhaps even Lambert (on whom more below) — used the roughly 800-page book as a mere scaffolding for a collection of engravings, lithographs, photographs and even an autograph (that of Richard Varick, who served 11 consecutive 1-year terms as mayor from 1789 to 1801) that evidence not only a proud New Yorker but a one committed to collecting illustrations. There is not space to discuss each insertion (over 160), but particular mention might be made of the facsimile of a 1755 plan of the city, the folding chromolithograph of Central Park (which was not completed till 1876) and the manuscript caption to the steel-engraving of the court house in White Plains at which the selection of delegates to the First Continental Congress was made.

Elizabeth Willets Lambert (1864–1942) came from a distinguished Quaker family (her great uncle was the founder of Swarthmore College) and married Dr. Samuel Waldron Lambert, who served as head of Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as the president of the New York Academy of Medicine (responsible for the reprinting of the original blocks of Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica). Mrs. Lambert was a distinguished collector in her own right, largely — if the evidence of records of her bookplate is brought to bear — of New Yorkiana and culinary books (a major strength of the Academy of Medicine).

Not in Howes; Nestler, Bibliography of New York State Communities 856.

Item #JLR0666

Price: $2,500