LA SAGRA Ramon deLivre Rare Book
2.538 Ergebnisse
1842Best.-Nr. 19517Paris Impr. et lithogr. de Maulde et Renou 1842 in-folio chagrin bleu nuit, filets dorés et à froid et large décor de motifs dorés encadrant les plats, armes dorées au centre du premier, monogramme doré au centre du second, dos lisse orné de motifs dorés, tranches dorées, encadrement intérieur de motifs dorés, [Rel. de l'époque], restaurée, manque le f. de table, la dernière planche est plus courte
Best.-Nr. LCS-17530Rare et bel album sur la vie cubaine des années 1850, entièrement lithographié en couleurs, conservé dans sa très décorative reliure en velours vert orné de fers rocailles dorés. [Berlin ou Hambourg], Storch & Kramer pour May y Cia, s.d. [c. 1851]. Petit in-folio oblong contenant 1 titre en chromolithographie, 27 chromolithographies, une carte dépliante de l’île et un plan dépliant de La Havane (infime déchirure ds. la marge bl.). Relié en velours vert de l’éditeur, large encadrement rocaillé en or autour des plats avec titre en lettres dorées au centre, tranches dorées. Reliure de l’époque. 242 x 342 mm.
1889Best.-Nr. 4403Havana Cuba 1889. Good. 69pp. of manuscript text plus 77pp. of newspaper extracts. Contemporary quarter calf and marbled paper-covered boards. Moderate scuffing and wear to boards and edges spine scuffed. Hinges broken with text block only nominally attached by threads with many leaves detached. Ownership ink stamp on front free endpaper "Manuel F. Barranco" with a gilt insignia affixed below reading "MB." A unique and personal manuscript journal and scrapbook composed and maintained by an important but obscure Cuban-American poet and author Manuel Francisco Barranco y Miranda 1843-1894. Barranco was born in Puerto Principe and lived about half of his life in Cuba before emigrating to Florida in 1875. He married Mercedes Fernández y Fernández-Mora and the couple raised a family in Cuba Florida and New York. Mentions of Barranco are rare in available records but he seems to have been a colleague of famed Cuban revolutionary figure Jose Marti. Barranco and Marti were involved with a Cuban revolutionary emigrant colony in Key West as well as Cuban literary and political societies in Havana and New York such as La Liga. Regarding the latter one of Barranco's poems in the present work composed in eleven parts is titled "Versos recitados en la sesion ordinaria de la Sociedad Literaria Hispano-Americana la noche del 17 de Maya de 1889." The Sociedad Literaria Hispano-Americana or Spanish American Literary Society provides a further connection to Jose Marti as Marti was one of the most prominent members of the club in the 1880s and '90s. Barranco presumably spent the remainder of his life between Cuba and the eastern coast of the United States where he passed away in Tampa Florida in 1894. The present material was written and compiled by Barranco over about a thirty year period in the mid-19th century before and after he emigrated to the United States. The chief feature of the present work is contained in almost seventy pages of manuscript poetry by Barranco. The poems which number around a couple dozen compositions include "Un Delirio" written in six parts "Versas improvisados en el Bautiro de mi hija Ana Maria el dia 1 de Enero de 1875" "Versos improvisados en comemora cion del Bautiro de mi hija Ana Maria el dio 1 de Enero del 1876" "Al congreso de la Paz" and various sonnets and other poems dated between 1875 and 1889. Barranco authored a few poems here about his wife Mercedes with titles such as "A Mercedes" "Improvisados a la orrilla del mon - A Mercedes" and "Al contemplar tu retrato." He also composed poems about his mother Ana Maria Sebastiana de Miranda. Several of the later poems from 1888-89 are datelined Havana next to the date of composition indicating Barranco moved back and forth between Cuba and America. The manuscript text is supplemented by almost eighty pages of newspaper extracts featuring various articles letters and printed poetry by Barranco published under his own name and a pen name "Leunam." The subject matter of these pieces include education women literature and various family members and other subjects in his own poetry. An example of the latter is a memorial poem for his granddaughter Margarita Barranco who died in Puerto Principe in 1866. Following the manuscript poems themselves is a single handwritten page of contents relating to these newspaper extracts. The extracts very likely come from Cuban newspapers and periodicals since they predate his move to Florida in 1875. A printed note laid into the book reads: "A Bound Journal Containing Published and Unpublished Handwritten Letters and Poems by My Grandfather Manuel Francisco Barranco y Miranda in Habana in the mid-19th Century Probably During the Period 1859-1869." Not much else is easily discovered about Barranco providing an excellent chance for original research into the work of this obscure but important 19th-century Cuban-American poet and writer. unknown
1561In 4° (234 x 163 mm), 3 parti in 1 volume.; [8], 358, [2] pagine; [28] carte; 47, [49] pagine, 64 carte geografiche a doppia pagina delle quali 27 raffiguranti il mondo antico e 37 raffiguranti il mondo moderno con la descrizione al retro, 12 xilografie e diagrammi nel testo, marche tipografiche (alcuni difetti.). Solida legatura coeva in pergamena con unghie (sguardie nuove).
Best.-Nr. 0012156Havana Cuba Santiago DE Cuba. Very Good with no dust jacket. Non-Book. On offer is a substantial 1937–1959 Bacardi Cuba corporate operations archive comprising approximately 110 documents from Compañía "Ron Bacardí " S. A. And related Cuban rum-industry files. Centered chiefly on Santiago de Cuba and Havana the archive documents Bacardi's pre-nationalization business through export invoices checks purchase requests receiving forms supplier correspondence freight records label orders tax payments advertising records and banking endorsements. What makes the archive particularly strong is that many records are functionally connected. Purchase requests correspond to receiving forms supplier letters explain pricing and material changes export invoices trace named overseas shipments and checks document freight taxes advertising transport and government-related payments. Together they provide a detailed working record of Bacardi as a producer exporter taxpayer advertiser purchaser of printed packaging user of Cuban freight networks and participant in the country's banking and fiscal systems during the final decades of privately operated Bacardi production in Cuba. Many documents identify the company as Compañía "Ron Bacardí " S. A. Santiago de Cuba y Habana Sucesores de Bacardí y Cía. Establecidos en 1862. Others describe it as "Propietarios del Bacardí y la Cerveza Hatuey " directly linking the archive to both Bacardi rum and Hatuey beer. Among the most historically important records are 1959 Bacardi checks showing ordinary private commercial activity continuing after the January Revolution and before the confiscation of Bacardi's Cuban assets in October 1960. A January 26 1959 check to Agrupación de Transporte S. A. Pays for hauling performed during the second half of January. Another check that day to Porteadora Cubana de Carga S. A. References a waybill and carries banking and customs-related endorsements. A June 1959 check pays the Cámara de Comercio de Camagüey for advertising while an August 1959 Trust Company of Cuba check covers freight on packages and boxes containing promotional materials. Two additional January 1959 checks concern relief at Sagua de Tánamo Oriente including one issued "Para socorrer a los habitantes de Sagua de Tánamo" to assist the inhabitants of Sagua de Tánamo. These records capture Bacardi still conducting transport advertising banking freight and civic activities during Cuba's revolutionary transition. A major portion of the archive documents Bacardi's label packaging and lithographic supply chain particularly through Compañía Litográfica de la Habana S. A. 1957 purchase requests include orders for 1000000 Carta Blanca analysis labels 1000000 Ron Palmas labels 100000 Carta de Oro labels 70000 Bacardi Imports Carta Blanca labels 12000 Añejo Brand miniature labels and 6000 aluminum-paper Añejo bottle wrappers. Several have corresponding receiving forms showing delivery through Porteadora Cubana de Carga. The Hatuey beer records reveal even greater scale. One receiving form records 3000000 Hatuey Clara labels another records 1200000 additional oval labels while supplier invoices document runs of 4000000 and 2800000 Cerveza Hatuey Pilsener labels. Supplier correspondence adds unusually detailed operational context. A 1956 letter explains that an order for 33000 aluminum-paper Añejo wrappers could only be partly filled at the old price because existing stock was exhausted forcing the remainder to be produced from more expensive new material. Other records concern paper substitutions cancellation of 50000 lithographed Bacardi envelopes and quotations for 26000 holiday greeting cards and 26000 envelopes. The archive includes 1950s export records documenting shipments to the United States Canada and Newfoundland Holland Honduras El Salvador and Hong Kong. A 1953 invoice to Gande Price & Co. Ltd. Hong Kong records 25 cartons of Bacardí Carta Blanca marked "DOUBLE STEEL STRAPPED. " A related Bacardi letter identifies the shipment as Embarque No. 157 and discusses documentation required for a Cuban public-works charge. A 1953 invoice to The Board of Liquor Control St. John's Newfoundland shipped aboard the Canadian Observer via Halifax records 500 cartons of Bacardí Carta de Oro Rum marked "DOUBLE STEEL STRAPPED " "STRENGTH: 40.0 G. L. " and "NO FODDER USED. " The total including freight was $8145.50. Related Nova Scotia material further documents Bacardi's Canadian-Caribbean trade. Earlier correspondence documents Bacardi's American label and distribution system. A 1939 letter to H. B. Estrada at the Empire State Building concerns "Etiquetas U. S. A. " and records shipment of 1200 Bacardí Carta Blanca labels 400 Bacardí Carta de Oro labels and 2000 analysis foot-labels. A 1940 letter on José M. Bosch Agent for Compañía Ron Bacardi Empire State Building letterhead requests additional Carta Blanca and Carta Oro label sets to be sent by air. The archive also documents Bacardi's interaction with Cuba's fiscal and banking systems. A 1950 check for $26928.00 records the purchase of liquor-tax stamps. Other documents concern income taxes wage-tax matters public-works charges treasury payments and banking clearance. Many retain original endorsements and stamps from institutions including the Tesorería General de la República Cámara Nacional de Compensaciones The Bank of Nova Scotia and other Cuban banking and fiscal bodies. Advertising records include Bacardi-Hatuey newspaper advertising Chamber of Commerce advertising promotional freight and a 1957 Propaganda Department order for 26000 greeting cards and 26000 envelopes for the 1958 holiday season. One unusual letter from F. M. Hitchcock of Wichita Kansas thanks Bacardi for miniature labels and requests sets of its full-size labels and medal label showing that Bacardi packaging was already being collected as brand ephemera during the period. Also included is related Cuban rum-industry material notably a 1959 José Arechabala S. A. Check providing comparative documentation from another major Cuban liquor producer during the same revolutionary year. The archive documents Bacardi's continued private operations in 1959 rum exports across North America Europe Central America and Asia multi-million-unit production of Hatuey beer labels Bacardí Carta Blanca Carta de Oro Ron Palmas and Añejo packaging lithographic suppliers and packaging production freight transport banking taxes and customs-related processing prewar U. S. Distribution through New York advertising and promotional material local civic and relief activity in Oriente and related José Arechabala rum-industry material. Founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1862 Bacardi became one of Cuba's most internationally recognized brands. Its Cuban assets were confiscated by the revolutionary government on October 14 1960. This archive preserves a detailed paper trail of the company before that event including 1959 records showing Bacardi still operating as a private Cuban business during the revolutionary transition. More than a group of isolated invoices and checks the archive shows how Bacardi actually functioned: labels ordered by the million bottles and promotional materials packaged overseas shipments processed suppliers negotiated with taxes paid freight moved and banking transactions cleared. Approximately 110 documents are included consisting of checks export invoices supplier invoices purchase requests receiving forms letters freight records tax and fiscal records advertising records and related commercial correspondence. Condition varies as expected for working corporate records. Documents show folds handling wear filing holes edge wear creases stamps endorsements perforated cancellations annotations and occasional tears or staining. Many retain original fiscal stamps bank and treasury marks routing notes and cancellation perforations. Overall Fair to Good. ; Manuscripts; Oblong Small 4to 9" - 11" tall; 110 pages; Signed by Author .
1875Best.-Nr. WRCAM56107Cuba 1875. Twenty-two partially-printed forms on folio sheets completed in manuscript in a variety of hands. Most printed and accomplished on the recto only though a few with print or manuscript on the verso as well. Some with old folds chipping and small tears to edges of most documents one document with the upper right corner cut away. Occasional foxing tanning and ink offsetting and bleedthrough. Several documents with additional manuscript annotations. About very good overall. An important collection of contracts documenting Chinese indentured servitude in Cuba two signed in Chinese. All but one are from various municipalities in the Matanzas Province usually attested to with an ink or blind stamp from a local official one with paper tax stamps affixed. Each contract stipulates the term of service for the "colono" - one or two years along with wages to be paid food and clothing issued duties and hours to be worked and so forth. The laborers are identified in the contracts by their assigned Spanish names with no surnames though some forms have a section for their "nombre nacional" and place of origin as well. There are provisions for what happens if the servant cannot complete their term of service due to illness pending agreement with the "patrono" and a section on options for contract renewal. The latest of these contracts dated May 24 1875 bears the laborer's signature in Chinese. He is described as "al asiatico José" aged 30 of Macao and is contracted to work for Ignacio de Cardenas for six years. Another contract from Bejucal in the Mayabeque Province is also signed in Chinese this one by "Antonio" "natural del pueblo de Leo Chao en China." This is also the only document in the collection with a signature area labeled: "Firma del interpréte ó de dos personas de confianza del colono ó dos testigos." Formal slavery continued in Cuba until it was abolished by Spanish royal decree in 1886; it was accompanied however by a significant population working in indentured servitude. As sugar exports rose in the mid to late 18th century there was a dramatic increase in the need for enslaved workers. "One of the explicit goals of Spanish reformist policy in the last third of the eighteenth century became the need to emulate other European nations' success with slave plantation development in the Caribbean. Partly because of this slave-based coffee and sugar estates sprang up in increasing numbers in portions of Cuba especially around Havana Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico. An expanded slave trade was a necessary condition of such growth. In Cuba alone approximately seventy thousand slaves were imported between 1763 and 1792 and another three hundred twenty-five thousand were brought in between 1790 and 1820.For the entire nineteenth century imports to Cuba amounted to about seven hundred thousand persons." - Drescher. The abolition of slavery in the British West Indies however meant that from the 1830s onward a new source of labor was necessary. It is this gap that indentured servitude filled. Unlike the earlier waves of European immigrants who travelled to the New World as indentured servants Asia was now the primary source. Between 1848 and 1874 125000 Chinese indentured servants arrived in Cuba alone - a figure outstripped only by the number who indentured themselves in California. "Some contemporaries and later historians.have condemned the servitude of the Asians as a thinly disguised revival of slavery. These critics have pointed to a variety of abuses to which the Asians were subjected both legally - with severe laws governing absenteeism vagrancy and insufficient work - and illegally in the form of harassment by vicious masters. Yet other observers have defended the system as a boon to the Asian workers. Voluntary reindenture at the end of their terms was common among the migrants suggesting that many Asians judged the system to be beneficial to them" - Drescher. Voluntary or not a large number of Chinese migrants were laboring in Cuba in the 19th century; for most of them these contracts are the only existing records of their work if not of their lives. Seymour Drescher & Stanley L. Engerman editors A HISTORICAL GUIDE TO WORLD SLAVERY New York 1998 pp.140-42 239-42. hardcover books
1869Best.-Nr. 5608Various places in Cuba including Bejucal Havana Matanzas & Sagua la Grande 1869. Good plus. Sixteen broadside broadsheet and bifolium forms completed in manuscript. Previously folded with some short separations along old folds; one longer closed tear from lower left corner of one form. Some chipping and wear at edges not affecting text. Contemporary ink stamps. Varying degrees of tanning and foxing. A group of sixteen contracts for Chinese indentured laborers in Cuba executed during the 1860s. The importation of Chinese labor to Cuba began in earnest in 1853 and in 1860 a law passed by the colonial government essentially enjoined Chinese workers to renew their agreements. The forms present here are sixteen such contract renewals signed by Chinese workers who had completed their initial term of indentured servitude but had no recourse to fairer forms of employment or means to leave the island. "The new law required a change in the contract that required coolies who completed their original term of service to recontract with the same or another master. Otherwise they were obligated to leave Cuba within two months. There is no doubt that the Cubans issued the recontracting regulation in order to keep as many as possible of this captive alien labor force on the plantations knowing full well that very few of the coolies could have saved enough from their meager wages to pay for their passage home" - Hu-DuHart. The present group dating from 1862 to 1869 includes five renewals from Havana; four from Matanzas; three from Colon; two from Guanabacoa; and one apiece from the towns of Sancti Spiritus and Sagua la Grande. Each form gives the adopted Spanish name of the laborer his age place of birth the new and old masters in some cases the same and the duration of the new indenture from six months to two years. The forms also state that the laborers are signing fresh contracts in compliance with the law of 1860 and give the terms for worker and employer including daily hours to be worked amount of food provided weekly shelter if any and meager salaries amongst other stipulations. One contract is signed in Chinese but the preponderance are signed by "witnesses" or "interpreters" for the workers. Fascinating primary documents of the exploitative Chinese labor system in Cuba during the mid-19th century. Elizabeth Hu-Duhart "Chinese Coolie Labor in Cuba in the Nineteenth Century" Contributions in Black Studies 12 1994 pp. 43-46.
1866Best.-Nr. 4747Havana: July 10 1866. Good. 3pp. on a bifolium. Separated at fold. Some wear to edge of first leaf cause some minor loss to text. A few scattered tape repairs and reattachments. Some offsetting. A colonial Spanish manuscript slave manifest for the steamship Cristobal Colon carrying dozens of enslaved Africans from Bailen to Partido del Cano both in Cuba. The text at the head reads as follows: "Nomina de los Africano bozales que conducten el vapor Cristobol Colon embarcado hoy a las siete de la mañana por el muelle de Bailen con destino al Partido del Cano unos de la propridad de D. José Rafael Diaz y otros de D. José Garcia y por encargo de sus dueños los custodia D. Juan Antonio Sanchez Bustamante y este individuo tiene biencia annal del Partido de Consolacion del Sur." Bailen is on the southern coast of Cuba north of the Isle of Pines; "El Cano" seems to have been a plantation outside of Havana while Consolacion del Sur is coastal town in the Pinar del Rio region of Cuba. The manifest lists 133 "Africanos bozales" that is slaves who could not speak Spanish in two or three columns separated between men "varones" and women "hembras" - their assigned names are given generally of Christian origin but with some range e.g "Ciforiana" "Liborio" and "Dionisia." Their ages are given one as young as nine several in their late thirties but most in their teens to early thirties. An additional leaf signed from Manila and dated July 10 1866 notes that although 133 people were sent only 115 survived the journey and lists the names of those who perished. July 10
1869Best.-Nr. WRCAM56566Camagüey Cuba 1869. Pictorial letterpress broadside 18 1/2 x 13 inches. Numbered "54" in manuscript bearing the embossed red seal of the Republica Cubana and signed in ink by Salvador Cisneros y Betancourt Eduardo Agramonte Ignacio Agramonte Loyn áz Francisco Sánchez y Betancourt and Antonio Zambrana. Old horizontal folds minor creasing handful of small edge chips. Small hole in bottom margin just touching one ink signature. Very good condition. A rare and significant pictorial Cuban decree from the provisional rebel government abolishing slavery on the part of the island they controlled issued by the radical faction of the Cuban nationalists fighting against Spanish rule in the first months of the Ten Years' War. This proclamation is illustrated with a dramatic woodcut signed "LFR" depicting an ill-clad but exultant freed slave and a rebel celebrating in front of the Cuban flag. This decree stipulated freedom for all the enslaved people of Cuba in hopes that they would join the revolutionary struggle. The decree also provided for eventual compensation to slaveholders and ordered that freed individuals must serve the revolution either through military service or by continuing with their previous work. Among the important leaders who signed the present document were Salvador Cisneros y Betancourt as president just below the printed text and Ignacio Agramonte y Loynáz as secretary to the left of the engraving. The practical effect of this decree was modest as the rebels only controlled limited territory before their ultimate defeat and their territory was generally under the control of more conservative military commanders but such a proclamation joined a growing chorus of abolitionist sentiment in Cuba which finally realized the end of slavery in 1886. A powerful statement of anti-slavery policy in mid-19th century Cuba with a striking illustration of a jubilant slave celebrating his short-lived freedom. Rare with no copies recorded in OCLC. unknown books
1847Best.-Nr. LL 559"Appointment of Lieutenant General Federico Roncali count of alcoy "as governor and captain general of the island of cuba and president of the courts of the same" in replacement of general leopoldo o'donell. Given in the palace on november 30 1847. Begins: Doña Isabel Segunda por la gracia de Dios y por la constitucion de la monarquia española Reina de las Españas. "5750 Handwritten bifolio on paper with the printed heading of Isabel II. Queen's stamp signature and plate seal with fleur-de-lys shaped paper protection. Signature of Ramón Narváez. On the second page different statements appear in Madrid and Havana signed by the Count of Villanueva also by the Marquis of Selva Alegre. Federico Roncali count of Alcoy Cádiz 1800- Madrid 1857 came to generalship at the hands of Espartero. Between December 14 1852 and April 14 1853 he was president of the council of ministers after his time as Captaincy of the island of Cuba a position in which he replaced O'Donell. His mandate in Cuba was characterized by the creation of different infrastructures and the increase in the arrival of Chinese laborers that had begun in the previous period. During his mandate the lighthouse that bears his name Roncali was built of great importance for navigation in the Yucatan Strait "the last place on the island where the sun sets"; it is located at Cape San Antonio which was the last place where the aborigines remained at the time of colonization. The document talks about the replacement of Captain General Leopoldo O'Donell the oath that must be taken before taking office and how it should be exercised. UNIQUE AND OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE
2018Best.-Nr. 9560San Francisco CA: Cuba 2018. Unique. Hardcover. Fine. Minor edge wear else tight bright and unmarred. Loosely bound sheets. 8vo. np. Illus. colored plates. Unique copy. Signed by the artist. Acrylic paint marker drawings on paper. Artist' shop-book used to test/design work and color schemes. A unique books of acrylic paint marker drawings of graffiti murals most of which have been executed on walls throughout the San Francisco Bay area from 2009 2012. This is an amazingly beautiful example of urban art and valuable primary research materials for African American studies calligraphy type design urban studies art history and visual art. This an unusual work as he seldom does 'women' focused typically on more political issues. Here he blends women and politics with style and flare. Also unusually he includes a small self portrait. Cuba is one of the grandfathers of the San Francisco Mission School supplying both the aesthetic styles and the radical leftist politics that formed what may be the only coherent new school of American art since the Punk/graf rock art scene of the 1980s. It was a lot of punk rock shows and stuff like that. There was always graffiti in these places and I was just like "Who is this guy I keep on seeing this guy." There was this one guy Cuba he wrote "Cuba" and it was at all the same hardcore shows in the bathroom on the door and on the street. And then I was like "What who's doing this" It was different than my idea of what graffiti was before that. - Barry McGee in PBSs Art of this Century 2005 "We want to flex our skills and make the community look better" says the 41-year-old painter known as Cuba who has been working on walls with and without permission for more than 25 years. "It's our own form of urban renewal." -San Francisco Chronicle Monday March 7 2005 Cuba hardcover books
1900Best.-Nr. WRCAM51843Havana 1900. Approximately 520; 600pp. including several folding charts. Over 200 separate imprints. Original half leather and brown cloth boards spine gilt. Corners and edges worn spine rubbed boards scuffed. Initial leaves of first volume torn away but present. Several other leaves chipped and torn throughout. With many official signatures and docketing stamps. Good. Two volumes of orders promulgated in 1889 and 1900 by the American military government of Cuba after the cessation of hostilities in the Spanish-American War. Under the terms of the Teller Amendment to the Congressional Joint Resolution for war with Spain in 1898 the United States denied the intention of using the conflict as a pretext for the annexation of Cuba and promised to leave the island following the termination of the war. The American military therefore oversaw the creation of the new independent Cuban government before departing in 1902. The documents contained in this collection consist of over two hundred orders in both English and Spanish from the Headquarters Division of Cuba that helped to shape the emerging civilian government. They include instructions for the running of elections the organization of the courts and school system the appointments for various government offices provisions for tax regulations and many other critical issues facing Cuba at its independence. The directives cover two periods from January to July in 1899 and from July to September in 1901. Many of the orders are signed in manuscript by the assistants to the military governor for the island Gen. Leonard Wood including assistant adjutant generals J.B. Hickey and L.W.V. Kennon and Brig. Gen. Chief of Staff Adna R. Chaffee. An interesting documentation of the first American occupation of Cuba. hardcover books
1864Best.-Nr. 981Havana: Viuda de Barcina y Comp 1864. Good. Twenty-three issues each approximately 32pp. No. 11 with folding chart lacks pp.25-32. No. 13 lacking last few leaves. With title page and half title at start of each volume. Original quarter calf and boards spine gilt. Spine ends chipped and worn some crude glue residue; hinges solid. Boards heavily worn. Light toning and wear to text light scattered worming throughout. A rare run of the first two years of the first Cuban pharmacological magazine and one of the island's earliest medical periodicals. La Emulacion was published from 1863 through 1867 with the present sammelband containing all issues published in 1863 and 1864 a total of twenty-three issues. Their mission statement that heads the first issue here reads in part: "Animados del deseo de ser útiles al pais -- en cuanto nuestras fuerzas lo permitan-- hemos resuelto dar à luz en esta ciudad un periódico que ocupándose preferentemente de todo lo relativo à la Farmacia no descuide por eso la química é historia natural médicas y la toxicología ciencias de que no pueden prescindir ni los Médicos ni los Farmacéuticos y cuya importancia en el dia pocos podrán desconocer. Procurarémos pues que en nuestro periódico hallen cabida las producciones originales de los que en Cuba cultivan la Farmacia la química é historia natural médicas y la toxicología; mas no olvidarémos por eso que léjos de nuestro suelo existen los mas célebres y laboriosos de los cultivadores de esas ciencias y que La Emulacion no llenaría la mision que nos proponemos si no hiciéramos figurar en ella lo que se dé à luz en Europa y merezca la sancion de las personas ilustradas." The resulting publication contains numerous original articles by Cuban pharmacists doctors and scientists as well as important work published outside of Cuba. Additionally the issues include biographies of significant figures in the field accounts of local scientific societies including the Real Academica de Ciencias de la Habana and publication of new pharmacological formulas discovered in Cuba or "adapted for the needs of the country." As a result the periodical forms an important record of medical and pharmacological developments and thought on the island in the mid-19th century. We locate only one run of this pioneering periodical at the National Library of Cuba with only the present set of issues appearing in auction records. Bound between Volumes I and II is a pamphlet by Fernando Paez "Manual de farmacia practica" Havana 1864 possibly incomplete at 8 pages; no examples of this pamphlet appear in OCLC. Viuda de Barcina y Comp unknown books
1962Best.-Nr. 4785Various locations in Cuba Europe and the United States 1962. Very good. 113 leaves of scrapbook cardstock illustrated with 388 photographs chiefly silver gelatin photographs several colored or in color in mounting corners. Most captioned in Spanish. Square folio. Contemporary brown cloth spring-loaded spine cover gilt. Joints split but holding well moderate rubbing and dust-soiling. Light foxing handful of images lacking some images slightly browned or with mild edge wear. An extensively-annotated vernacular family photograph album centering on the German-Cuban Coyula-Moeller family picturing their lives family members travels and more in Cuba the United States Germany and other locations in Europe mainly during the 1920s and '30s. The album was likely compiled by Gerardo Coyula y Moeller who was born in the early-1920s and attended Aloisiuskolleg in Bad Godesberg in the late-1930s. The album includes numerous pictures of Coyula y Moeller as a toddler young man and teenager traveling with his mother and various family members attending school and more with numerous photographs featuring the family and their environs in Cuba and Germany. The caption to a family photograph indicates that the Coyula family were shareholders in the German Club "Club Aleman" in Havana from 1939 to 1960. Other family members identified through the profuse captions include Aunt Merci Aunt Hortensia Uncle Gustavo Estela grandfather Enrique Moeller grandmother Rosa Gelpi and others. The album also contains several photographs relating to the Nazi Party in Germany before the war as well as two photographs with captions poignantly noting one young man who would die in a concentration camp in Germany. One of the latter examples pictures a young man named Gerd Wolf with the Spanish caption translated as "Rabbi Fidellis eating bananas - He was with the Resistance and died in the Dachau concentration camp." Notably an antecedent of the family was apparently friends with a German individual who is documented as later helping usher Hitler into power and the album records two additional Nazi individuals who "visited grandfather's house" and "fled to Brazil" to escape the consequences of their war crimes. Yet another family photograph shows a group of adults posed in a garden with the caption reading: "Nuestro amigo: Resulto ser Himmler" "Our friend: turned out to be Himmler". Indeed the image shows the man third from right is clearly Heinrich Himmler. In addition to pictures of the family at home in Cuba the album captures them in various locations in Germany mainly Bonn Hamburg and the aforementioned Bad Godesberg. The family also traveled to New York in the United States and Southampton England among other places with several photographs documenting their travels in each location. The album is also replete with identified photographs of a legion of family friends and acquaintances providing ample opportunity for deeper research into the connections within the family but also to the family's larger community. According to a previous owner the album came out of the noted Weber family in Cuba. An exceptional and well-preserved collection presenting the lives of this noted German-Cuban family. unknown
1867Best.-Nr. 3978Macau: April 6 1867. Very good. 6pp. on large folio partially-printed forms printed in two columns completed in manuscript. Old folds with minor losses at a few spots along the horizontal fold. Five hundred and fifty Chinese laborers bound for Cuba aboard the Spanish galley "Cervantes" are listed by name with their age and town or city of origin given. The laborers hail from several different cities in China and their ages range from 18 to 36 with the majority of the men in their 20s. The end of the document is signed and dated on the final page by José de Aguilar the Spanish consul at Macau. The left side of the final page contains two separate lists one with five numbers and the other with four numbers keyed to the manifest. The list of five names has an "x" next to each number perhaps noting that these men did not in fact make the trip to Cuba; each "x" could also signal that these men died during the voyage from Macau to Cuba which was a common-enough occurrence that it is often noted on manifests of this kind. Chinese indentured servitude in 19th-century Cuba was an insidious practice tantamount to slavery which flourished in Cuba even after the abolition of the peculiar institution in the British West Indies. With their free source of labor no longer available plantation owners in Cuba looked elsewhere; and they looked east. From around 1848 to the mid-1870s over 100000 Chinese indentured servants made their way to Cuba often sailing to Cuba in large groups. Once they arrived Chinese laborers indentured themselves to Cuban masters for terms of at least five years. The treatment of Asian indentured servants in Cuba varied widely with reports of some particularly ill-treated laborers ending their lives by suicide. "Some contemporaries and later historians.have condemned the servitude of the Asians as a thinly disguised revival of slavery. These critics have pointed to a variety of abuses to which the Asians were subjected both legally - with severe laws governing absenteeism vagrancy and insufficient work - and illegally in the form of harassment by vicious masters. Yet other observers have defended the system as a boon to the Asian workers. Voluntary reindenture at the end of their terms was common among the migrants suggesting that many Asians judged the system to be beneficial to them" - Drescher. Seymour Drescher & Stanley L. Engerman editors A Historical Guide to World Slavery New York 1998 pp.239-42. April 6 unknown
1867Best.-Nr. 3977Havana: August 3 1867. Good. 7pp. on pre-printed folio forms completed in manuscript. Later staple. Moderate tanning and edge wear short separations along some folds. A manuscript manifest listing of 285 Chinese field hands who undoubtedly signed up as indentured laborers in their quest to escape the hardships of China in the vain hope of a better life in Cuba. The document begins "Lista de los colones que fueron embarcados en China." with the name of the French ship on which they were transported "barca francesa nombrada Ephrem" filled in and the captain noted as Boucand. The Chinese name of each "colono" settler is given and also their adopted Christian name as well as age ranging from 18 to 35 sex all men and profession all field laborers "campo". Seven of the listings have an "X" next to them along with "Falleco" passed away written in the column headed "Defuncion." Among those who died on the voyage is a 26-year-old man named Ping Chiong given the Christian name of "Angel." Formal slavery persisted in Cuba until 1886 but from the mid-19th century it was accompanied by a significant population working in indentured servitude. Cuba's massive sugar industry had consumed huge imports of African slaves in the 18th century. The abolition of the slave trade in 1808 vigorously enforced by the British Navy meant that a new source of labor was necessary. Indentured servitude became the predominant source for labor in the region. Unlike the earlier waves of European immigrants who travelled to the New World as indentured servants Asia was now the primary source. Between 1848 and 1874 125000 Chinese indentured servants arrived in Cuba alone - a figure outstripped only by the number who indentured themselves in California. A high percentage of these laborers were kidnapped from their homeland with many unable to survive the long passage from China to Cuba as the present document illustrates in sad detail. If these Chinese indentured laborers were fortunate enough to survive the voyage to Cuba these men quickly found out that their working life in the coffee and sugar fields was tantamount to slavery. August 3 unknown
1796Best.-Nr. 5074Mexico City: May 13 1796. About very good. Broadside 17 x 12.25 inches. Old fold lines. Slight separation and loss at center fold slightly affecting a few letters. Minor wear else. Proclamation made by the Viceroy of New Spain authorizing trade between Cuba and the United States. The Caribbean was in tumult in the 1790s with Toussaint L'Ouverture overthrowing the French colonial government and outlawing slavery. Likewise in Cuba there was a similar revolt against slavery demanding abolition and equality -- both revolutions were of substantial concern to slaveholders in the American South. Specifically the present decree mentions flour and other vital foodstuffs as a measure against shortages in Cuba intended to prevent further trouble. "Para precaver la escasez de viveres y con especialidad de harinas que verosimilmente causaria la guerra concedio El Rey Permiso por Real Orden de 25 Junio de 93. para que los Anglo-Americanos.pudiesen conducirlos a la Havana pagando los derechos los puertos habilitados de España." The Viceroy at the time was Don Miguel de la Grua Talamanca de Carini y Branciforte First Marques de Branciforte. The Marques was notoriously corrupt even for colonial Spain having gained position through marriage to the Prime Minister's sister. He made sure to make some profit on everything that passed through his hands including taking advantage of the war in Cuba to remove the French from their lands and sell them to his benefit. A rare and interesting decree. We locate a single copy in OCLC at the University of Minnesota. May 13 unknown
1873Best.-Nr. 12720Cuba 1873. Twelve manuscript documents on folio sheets approximately 8.5 x 12.5 inches all with official rubber-stamped seal. Small pinholes along left margin light wear occasional chipping to edges some ink bleed and light damp staining. Overall very good. A collection of documents recording the liberation or attempted liberation of numerous men women teenagers and a child from enslavement. The child is but seven years old while the remaining slaves range from fifteen to fifty-seven years old. The slave trade ended in Cuba around 1867 but the practice of owning slaves remained legal until 1880 and then was abolished completely by Spanish decree in 1886. Cuba was the penultimate country to outlaw slavery in the western hemisphere beating Brazil to formal abolishment by two years. Even before the official abolition of slavery in Cuba African or criollo slaves were manumitted by a variety of owners and at various costs as evidenced here especially after the practice of importing Chinese indentured servants began. Each of the present documents names the slaveholder and the slave granted "libertad" along with the cost in escudos or pesetas of that liberty. The slaves liberated here are as follows: 1 Luis criollo 7 years old for the sum of 28 pesos 2 Maria Antonia part criolla 20 years old for the sum of 2500 pesetas 3 Catalina morena de Africa 41 years old for c.200 pesetas 4 Lorenzo moreno criollo 21 years old for 2500 pesetas 5 Lucia morena criolla 15 years old for 320 pesos or 1600 pesetas 6 Frigidae "negro.de Africae" 56 years old 7 Augusto criollo 19 years old for 1750 pesetas 8 Marta criolla 16 years old for 1621 pesetas 9 Gil moreno de Africa 57 years old for 1500 pesos 10 Carmita morena criolla 20 years old for 1750 pesetas 11 Augustina Prieto morena criolla 30 years old for 1750 pesetas 12 Edwigio 39 criolla; Lazara 36 criolla; and Maria Leoncia 15 criolla for 2000 pesetas. These Cuban slave manumissions are offered with one 1844 manumission document liberating a slave in Spain totaling two pages and measuring about 8.5 x 13.5 inches. The document also has three rubber-stamped official seals at the head noting Isabella II. This document appears to free slave Nicolas 25 years old for the sum of 400 pesos and is signed November 5 1844. unknown
1865Best.-Nr. 974Santiago de Cuba 1865. Very good. 10 leaves. Removed from a larger volume and restitched. Minor wear and one small area of worming at edges. Light tanning and foxing. Accomplished in several legible hands. A fantastic set of manuscript records for a slave auction house the General Slave Depository in Santiago de Cuba dating to January 1865. Santiago along with Havana and Cienfuegos was one of three major sites for slave sales on the island during the 19th century. The first leaf of the document provides a statement that the documents were assembled in accordance with the rules established for slave auctions which had been updated and approved at the end of the previous year. The second two documents lay out mortgage agreements and financial obligations between the slave house and the Real Sociedad Economica de Amigos de Pais of the city in which the auction owners acknowledge debts and forthcoming payments on the order of several thousand pesos. Following these are two leaves containing a "Relacion de los esclavos ecsistentes en el deposito de esta Ciudad en el dia de la fecha" that is a list of slaves at the depository on the day of the auction and their owners and renters which perhaps were a part of the collateral for securing the loan. A total of twenty-nine slaves are listed and the leaf that follows certifies that the list is correct according the to the director and the auctioneer of the depository. The final two leaves provide official recognition of the loan from two distinct government offices. All documents are signed by the relevant parties and government officials involved in the agreement. In all the present group of documents provides a detailed assessment of debts and human assets of the slave auction house in Santiago de Cuba in the mid-1860s and is a fascinating and valuable document of the bureaucracy and regulation surrounding the financial realities of selling slaves in Cuba during this period. unknown books
Best.-Nr. PB62Oblong Folio album ca. 26x33.5 cm. 50 card stock leaves. With ca. 218 mounted and 1 loosely inserted gelatin silver photographs including 2 large images ca. 175x25 cm 7 x 9 ¾ in and 2 panoramas from ca. 75x28 3 x 11 in to ca. 85x21 cm 3 ¼ x 8 ¼ in; the rest of the photos from ca. 12x175 cm 4 ¾ x 7 in to ca. 75x11 cm 2 ¾ x 4 ½ in. Most of the photos with period white ink manuscript captions. Period maroon patterned cloth album fastened with a string; front board with an embossed gilt pictorial image of a ship. A couple of photos removed ca. three images slightly loose A couple of photos with mild silvering but otherwise a very good album with strong interesting photos. Historically important extensive collection of vivid and lively vernacular photos taken by a U.S. Navy serviceman from Aerial Squadron 51 during the Neutrality Patrol in the Caribbean in 1939-1941. The Patrol initiated by President Franklin Roosevelt in September 1939 aimed to preserve American neutrality during the early years of WWII by monitoring and reporting on belligerent warship activities in the Atlantic and the West Indies. The album features over eighty interesting views of Panama Cativa Panama City San Blas Portobello captured during the compiler's stay at Coco Solo Naval Air Station. Most of the candid urban photos portray Colon showcasing local hotspots - the Silver Spray Casino “One of the ‘Elite’ Nite Clubs in Colon” Bilgray’s Tropical Bar 1924-1974 the Atlantic Night Club and the Chinese Bar adorned with delicate posters of Chinese ladies. There are also lively scenes of Panamanian Boy Scouts carrying American flags butchers selling meat in the native market locals buying lottery tickets “Everybody buys a lottery ticket” uniformed men examining theatre posters and people enjoying meals at a soda fountain. About ten photos capture the festive atmosphere of the 1941 Pre-Lent Celebration in local streets several signboards are clearly visible with participants in ceremonial attire joyfully waving from cars. Additionally a series of images document the aftermath of the 1940 Great Fire and the temporary quarters for the fire victims “furnished by the U.S. Army. " The rest of the interesting “Panamanian” photos capture scenes of the San Blas Indian Village including native children swimming in canoes sharing smiles with Squadron soldiers standing alongside native huts and an “Indian family” dressed in traditional clothing seated in a boat. Several photos show the Madden Dam near the city of Gamboa completed in 1935 Berlanga Cathedral in Panama City and likely the compiler posing beside the "Ruins of Old City of Panama. " Most photos from Puerto Rico the San Juan Camp and Cuba Guantanamo Bay Naval Base vividly document Squadron 51’s military life showcasing officers' quarters washrooms tents the exterior & the interior PBY plane lineups morning musters soldiers during exams rifle practices and abandon ship drills. One interesting image features Frank Knox 47th United States Secretary of the Navy on his early inspection trip to the Squadron camp in San Juan. There are also about forty lively group portraits mostly with captions of the squadron members playing baseball volleyball poker & billiard joining in a “tug-of-war” game drinking & laughing at a beer party singing playing violin & drums “quenching thirst in the Jungle” visiting the Caribbean National Park etc. Several photographs show the Capitol and the University of Puerto Rico as well as the aerial view of the Bacardi Rum Mill in Guantanamo. The album also includes two large photos Guantanamo Harbor and "Squadron Baseball Game " and two panoramas the city of New Panama and the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay. Overall a historically important collection documenting the American Presence in the Caribbean during the Neutrality Patrol. hardcover
1852Best.-Nr. List2521London 1852. Five groups of documents measuring 13 x 8 inches various paginations see full description below. Fine condition. A scarce set of primary source documents relating to the protection of British territory in the Caribbean in particular along the Mosquito Coast during the period of varied interests in the area in the period following the Anglo-Spanish agreement on the slave trade. Consisting of a series of secretarial copies of reports delivered to Peter McQuhae Commodore of H.M.S. Imauam stationed in Jamaica these dispatches offer an overview of the issues confronting the British Navy in Jamaica during the period and in the Caribbean more broadly. Most of the documents refer to issues with Cuba the most interesting perhaps being a letter warning of an impending filibustering expedition against Cuba by a pro-slavery faction in the American South. The group consists of five groups of bound documents some bound out of order and likely bound later. Contents are as follows: 1. Addington A.M. Four Page Report Concerning Placing a Ship of War at Grey Town to Discourage Invasions on the Mosquito Coast March 13 1851. Henry Addington writes McQuhae to recommend stationing a warship at Grey Town: ".it would be sufficient that a Ship of War should from time to time look in grey Town without remaining there at any time long enough to endanger the health of the crew. to provide for the case which is possiblee tho' not at all likely that during the interval between the visits of a Ship of War some expedition of Nicaraguan or some of the North Americans returning from California might take advantage of the comparatively unprotected state of the lace to take possession of it and that the cruiser on its return to Grey Town might find the place so occupied Lord Palmerston concieves taht in such an event it would seem to be inconsistent with the Honor of this Country that a British Ship of War should acquiesce in such an aggression and it would be right that the intruder should be expelled if the Commander of the Ship of War should find as he probably would that he had the means of doing so without much difficulty and that in case he should repel the intruders and re-establish the authorities of the Mosquito Government demanding the liberation of any British or Mosquito subjects who might have been made Prisoners and holding hostages for their relief if they should have been removed up into the interior of the Country. It It is to be hoped however that all questions of dispute in regard to Grey Town will beoon be settled because Her Majesty's government has through Her Majesty's Minister at Washington proposed to the Government of the United States that an arrangement should be made by which the Sovereignty of Grey Town. should be transferred to the State of Costa Rica. Lord Palmerston desires me to add that there are at present at Washington a plenipotentiaries both from Nicaragua and Costa Rica for the purpose of conducting this negotiation." 2. Addington G.M. Single Page Letter in Secretarial Hand Warning of Incoming Ships to Cuba Carrying Enslaved Individuals January 24 1852. Addington writes to McQuhae about two incoming vessels carrying enslaved Africans passing on information received at Rio De janeiro by another British vessel: "I am directed by Earl GraH.M. Minister at Rio reporting that he had recieved information that two Slavers had sailed from Havana to. the coast of Africa. with the intention of returning with Cargoes of slaves which are to be landed at the Entrade de Cuchillo in Cuba." 3. Seymour G.F. et al. Four Reports Bound Together on Varied Subjects including the Case of the Creole British Fishing Rights in Spanish Waters off of Cuba and Porto Rico and the Case of a Detained British Vessel in Cuba 1852. A series of four reports addressed to McQuhae on various subject as follows: A. Report dated May 17 1852 from Seymour discussing the case of the Creole detained in 1851: ".enclosing copies of a letter from the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs approving of the course I had pursued with regard to the Creole and of a despatch from the Earl of Malmesbury to Her Majesty's Minister at Madrid relative to the rights of British Subjects to fish on the coast of Cuba." B. Letter from Augustus Stafford Apriul 23 1852 discussing the Creole mostly discussing the enclosure of varied reports on the subjects but with little specific information. C. Addington A.M. April 21 1852 letter discussing the Creole case and the enclosure of documents. D. Earl of Malmesbury April 14 1852 letter discussing the Creole case in more detail: " The Right thus claimed rests on this universally admitted precept of international Law "dominium finitur ubi finitur armorum vis" which in modern practice has been construed to mean "about one marine league from the mainland" and H.M.'s Govt are clearly justified in demanding that the Spanish authorities shall be ordered not to meddle or interfere with British fishermen outside that three mile boundary." 4. Earl of Malmesbury et al. Series of Three Secretarial Copies of Reports Concerning Impending Filibuster Raids on Cuba Giving Instructions for Assisting Spanish Forces. A very interesting series of reports detailing the planned response to pending "Piratical Attacks" showing the extent to which British forces were prepared for an American filibuster attack on the island and the degree to which they intended on assisting the Spanish forces. As follows: A. Seymour G.F. Secretarial Copy of Letter Written on May 5 1852 from Cumberland at Bermuda relaying the transmission of a full report of instructions to the British forces regarding an impending filibuster raid: " I hereby enclose for your guidance. orders. relative to the assistance which is to be afforded by Her Majesty's Ships on the application of the Captain General of Cuba in the Transport of Troops in the event of a Piratical attack being again made on that island by which you will govern your conduct." B. Earl of Malmesbury. Secretarial Copy of a Letter Dated April 10 1862 discussing piratical attacks: ".that in the event of a Piratical Attach being made upon that island. HM's ships might assist in conveying troops to any poiunt of the Coast of Cuba at which the invading Party might effect a landing." C. Honley P. Secretarial Copy of an Undated Letter c. 1852 regarding piratical attacks: "Her Majesty's ships might assist in coveying Troops to any point off the Coast of Cubat at which the invading Party might effect a landing. you should be instructed until further ORders that if the Captain General of Cuba should require your assistance for the transport of troops in the manner pointed out in your abovementioned dispatch you should comply with that demand." 5. Crampton Sir John. Copy of a Letter in Secretarial Hand Relaying the Impending Danger of a Pro-Slavery Filibuster Mission from Florida May 17 1852. A fascinating letter relaying information received from M. Calderon de la Barca concerning an impending filibuster mission against Cuba led by a Dr. Wren part of an organization called "The Lone Star Association:" ".it would appear that the government of the United States has also received an intimation that something of the sort is on foot for the President informed M. Calderon that orders had already been sent to the U.S. Authorities at the different Ports of the Union to be prepared to take vigorous measures for the repression of any such attempts. an expedition is in fact meditated by certain parties in the South and that it is intended that it should leave some Port of Florida. The real object of this expedition however as as I am told not Cuba. but San Domingo for the purpose of acting as auxiliaries to the Dominicans against the Haytians. it is by no means impossible that its ultimate aim would be Cuba. the persons I am given to understand engaged in the expedition are a Dr. Wren who is president of a society called "The Lone Star State Association." The letter is worthy of further study - we find references to a Dr. Wren in newspaper articles from the period but were unable to pinpoint his identity or the history of his organization. An article from a Loudon Tennessee newspaper describes Dr. Wren as a "representative of New Orleans societies" and described a meeting in Loudon in 1852 trying to recruit for the overthrow of the Spanish colonial government of Cuba through an invasion. unknown
Best.-Nr. 114571aafB. May y Ca, / Berlin, Oilprinting Storch & Kramer, (1853), in-4to oblong, 28 planches en chromolithographie (page de titre incluse) avec légendes en espagnol + 1 carte dépl. de l’ile + 1 plan de la ’Havane, rousseurs surtout dans les marges, reliure en toile rouge d’origine, plat devant avec titre doré dans un décor pressé à froid, dos restauré.
1824Best.-Nr. 6529Bristol R.I.; Matanzas Cuba 1824. Good plus. Nine letters totaling 17pp. plus docketing. Some loss where previously sealed not affecting text. Otherwise old folds light wear at edges and some toning and dampstaining. Nine manuscript letters addressed to Edward Spalding a shipping agent in Havana and Matanzas with connections to trade out of Bristol and New England during the 1820s. The letters highlight the significant commercial networks between Cuba New England Europe and South America. The correspondence concerns shipments of sugar coffee molasses tobacco cotton and indigo and also reflects on the effects of European political tensions on Atlantic commerce. Several letters are from members of the notable DeWolf family who were major players in trade from Rhode Island to the Caribbean and also quite involved in the transatlantic slave trade that was a large part of the 19th-century Cuban economy. Spalding himself was active in the Cuban slave trade and in its many other facets until at least the end of the 1820s. A good group of correspondence with much firsthand information on trade between Cuba and the United States in the early 19th century. unknown
1847Best.-Nr. WRCAM56260Havana Cuba and onboard ship to New Orleans 1847. 11pp. in black or blue ink on two different Cuban pictorial letter sheets plus a folded sheet of plain paper the latter also used as the enclosure for the entire letter addressed on verso of last page of enclosure. Minor soiling old folds with a few short fold separations and a longer separation in last folded sheet. Last sheet with small abrasion from removed wax seal most of which remains. Overall good plus condition. A lengthy and interesting letter from a Pennsylvania businessman named M.L. Dawson to his "dear wife" back in Philadelphia written over the course of a few weeks during his time in Havana and onboard a ship traveling from Cuba to New Orleans in the spring of 1847. Being written over the course of several entries the letter also acts as a kind of brief diary of Dawson's time in Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico and contains much information on the people and places he saw in and around Havana and much on the ship's activities on the way to Louisiana. Two- thirds of the letter is written on two separate Cuban letter sheets that are themselves rare and desirable printed ephemeral items from mid-19th century Cuba. The eleven-page letter covers Dawson's stay in Havana and his voyage to New Orleans. He writes that he had previously arrived in Havana from Philadelphia. His letter begins on March 7 and Dawson details trips on horseback to the Cuban countryside which he finds beautiful. He comments on odd Cuban funerary practices Cuban agricultural products seeing the home where Santa Anna spent his exile and gives firsthand observations on the effects of slavery. He witnesses a scene in Havana where slaves are chained and forced to make repairs while being overseen by men with whips and muskets. Dawson comments that despite the beauty of the countryside "the evidence of Slavery is every where apparent." Also apparent are "the ravages of the awful storm of the 10th month last" a reference to the devastating October 11 1846 hurricane the effect of which is depicted in each of the letter sheets here. Dawson also reports on being invited to breakfast by a Cuban nobleman but was so taken aback by the food and the experience that he vows never to repeat the experience. After departing Havana for New Orleans on May 9 on the Brig P. Soule Dawson reports on various shipboard activities a disagreeable cursing captain slow progress boredom and seasickness. He comments on claret as the typical drink for breakfast. The letter ends on April 1 when Dawson's ship anchors in New Orleans Road. He closes with a promise to write again soon after he lands in New Orleans and sends kisses and love to his children and relatives. The Cuban letter sheets Dawson employs for more than two-thirds of his letter are interesting and attractive printed items in their own right. The first titled HURACAN DEL 11 DE OCTUBRE DE 1846 EN LA HABANA shows a lithographed scene of various ships in an angry sea being tossed against a breakwater in Havana harbor during the October 11 1846 hurricane. One passenger is being rescued with a breeches buoy while other ships flounder in the distance. The second letter sheet is titled TEATRO PRINCIPAL DE LA HABANA. The scene at the head of this sheet shows further destruction of the October 11 hurricane centered on the damaged ruins of the Teatro Principal Main Theater near the harbor. Two men in top hats survey the damage while an African-American man stands at left center holding long boards. Havana harbor is visible in the background showing two paddlewheel steamers and other ships damaged or sunken in the harbor. Mordecai L. Dawson was the proprietor of M.L. Dawson & Co. a brewery in Philadelphia. Here Dawson addresses the letter to his company noting the letter is specifically intended "for E Dawson" his wife. The Dawson brewery opened in 1820 at 79 Chestnut Street then moved to the corner of 10th and Filbert Streets in 1830 after the company purchased the old Farmers' Brewery in 1829. Dawson apparently closed his brewery in 1849 not long after penning this letter home. Though he does not state it explicitly in his letter Dawson may have been traveling to Cuba to establish an import business. Philadelphia was a pipeline for numerous imports into Cuba in the mid-19th century including beer. An interesting record of one man's sojourn to Cuba in the 1840s with notable observations on slavery and the Cuban situation in the wake of the October 11 1846 hurricane written mostly on two attractive and rare Cuban letter sheets that also memorialize the hurricane. hardcover books
1884Best.-Nr. 2025Matanzas 1884. Still very good. 3 leaves plus 4pp. pamphlet in original plain wrappers string tied. Light wear at edges. A few very small worm holes. Contemporary ink stamps. Light tanning and foxing. The Spanish Cortes approved a gradual manumission law in 1880 for slaves in Cuba that provided for an eight-year period of patronato tutelage for all slaves liberated according to the law which essentially amounted to indentured servitude. The transition to the patronato system was overseen by a provincial network of government agencies called Juntas de Patronato. Most of the workings of the slave system were preserved but patrocinados as former slaves came to be known received a minimal set of legal rights and were to be paid a token wage. This fascinating set of Cuban manumission documents from the Junta de Patronato of Matanzas records this process and contains a rare cedula de patrocinado an identification booklet stating a slave is now a freedman with a supporting sponsor. The cedula completed in manuscript states that "Moreno Luis Morejon Natural de Africa.Vecino del Potrero Miraflores.Patrocinado de Da Josefa Morejon de Rodriguez" is "Gratis Sin Enmienda" as of September 15 1881. The second leaf of the pamphlet prints the rights of the freedman and the responsibilities of the sponsor such as the provision of food clothing and nominal salary. The second document present here is a contemporaneous manuscript letter from Josefa Morejon de Rodriguez confirming that she will act as sponsor for the freedman and the final document dated January 28 1884 and signed by Rodriguez and the relevant local magistrates states that the sponsorship has been completed and is now legally concluded. With the ink stamp of the Matanzas Junta Provincial on first page and the contemporary stamps of several other relevant authorities. An outstanding record of the process of gradual manumission in Cuba during the last years of legal slavery on the island with a rare surviving freedman's identification book. unknown books
