Our Latest Catalog-

Now that Thanksgiving is over the Book Elves are in full Christmas Mode, stringing lights, unpacking ornaments and hiding my 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' cd. In fact, after they got done stringing about 300 strands of lights the little disk on our electric meter spun so fast it tore out of its bracket, went flying off through the air and decapitated the garden gnome. But before they bought 900 life-size plastic Santas on Ebay and used them to recreate the Battle of Waterloo on the croquet court, they finished our latest catalog-

"RECENT ACQUISITIONS -Old & New Books on ANTIQUES & THE ARTS & Related Subjects for DECEMBER, 2006" is now available on our website. It features 220 titles on furniture, glass, ceramics, silver, interiors, metals, fashion, trades, color, and life in other times. We also have printed copies- please send us your mailing address if you would like one.

Emily Dickinson. Vivacious redhead.

There's an interesting pair of articles in this morning's Springfield Republican newspaper about local poet Emily Dickinson, the 'Belle of Amherst'. The main article addresses her legendary reclusiveness, which some scholars are now casting doubt on. The second article reveals that Emily, known to us only through that famous black & white photograph taken when she was 17, was actually a redhead!

No, this is not the pronouncement of some 21st century revisionist-historian scanning her work for hidden clues and reading tea leaves- Amherst College actually has a lock of her hair which she sent to a friend.

A Truly Great Silver Book-

This week we are releasing our new "Books on American Silver and Silversmiths" catalog, and have we got a bargain for you!


"COLONIAL MASSACHUSETTS SILVERSMITHS AND JEWELERS. A biographical dictionary based on the notes of Francis Hill Bigelow & John Marshall Phillips"

By Patricia Kane. Published by Yale University Art Gallery in 1998.

A book almost a hundred years in the making, and quite simply the most important book on American silversmiths since Belden’s study of the Ineson-Bissell Collection at Winterthur. Pioneering collector and scholar Francis Hill Bigelow died before his notes, for a proposed Magnum Opus on Massachusetts silversmiths, could be completed and made into book form.

John Marshall Phillips, Curator of the Garvan Collection at Yale, took over the project and added to the research, but his untimely early death once again stopped the study in its tracks. Finally, in the 1980s, Patricia Kane and her colleagues, working from the original notes, embarked on a project to complete this ultimate reference, now published here in all its massive glory.

There are biographies of 296 silversmiths and jewelers who worked in Massachusetts before the American Revolution, along with 93 craftsmen in allied trades. Kane’s preface chronicles the ninety-two years of research and scholarship that went into the book, and her essay focuses on the creative ferment in Boston. Barbara McLean Ward’s essay describes the tools of the trade. Gerald W. R. Ward discusses the differences between metropolitan and rural silversmiths.

The ‘New York Silver Society Newsletter’ called this a “masterful accomplishment … and a source book that will well serve the next generations of gold, silver, and jewelry historians.” Our Book Elves at Joslin Hall simply describe the book as “damned heavy”.

Hardcover. 8.5”x11.5”, 1,241 pages; marks, dj. New. [90139]

This book was published at $150.00 and was a bargain at that price, but for a limited time we have a carton or two of Publisher's Overstock copies to sell for only $75.00 each!

Our New Silver Catalog-

Thanksgiving is fast approaching at Foggygates, and the book elves are in a tizzy making preparations. The carriage house is piled high with pumpkins, squash, potatos, and onions, and Fedex just delivered 2 cartons of "Satan's Helper XXX Hot-Death Pepper Sauce" (you know, sometimes I just don't ask what's going on, because it usually works out better if I don't know ahead of time. I believe politicians call that "plausible deniability"). There are 24 semi-wild turkeys out back which the book elves have been raising "free range" style all year, or at least there were until somebody left the pen gate open the other day.

But before they embarked on the Great 2006 Thanksgiving Wild Turkey Roundup (we've got Arlo interested in the song rights) they finished our latest printed catalog-

"BOOKS ON AMERICAN SILVER & SILVERSMITHS" features 190 books and catalogs on, well... American silver & silversmiths. Nothing tricky here, it's all pretty straightforward.

This catalog may be browsed on our website , or if you'd like a free printed copy, please send us your mailing address.

An Interesting Shaker Image-

I came across an interesting woodcut over the weekend featuring an African-American Shaker. This is a woodcut from an 1831 issue of "Atkinson's Casket" and is titled "Shaker's Worshipping"-



It has many nice details, including hats and coats hung on pegs, a presumed “outsider” looking on, and, at the right side, an African-American Shaker. You don't hear too much about Afrian-American Shakers, or at least I never have. Here's a closer detail-



We put the print up for auction on Ebay last night -you can see the auction here, or click our Ebay Auctions link in the right-hand column.

To the Memory of What-??

Funeral cards were very popular in Victorian times- they would be sent to family and friends announcing the death, with the same sorts of particulars you might see on a tombstone; they were not invitations to a funeral, as such, but acted as an anouncement of a death and were saved as a remembrance of the deceased.

But some of them were not all that they seemed at first glance. While preparing our latest "Grave Affair" catalog I ran across a very interesting little piece (not for sale in the catalog) which appears to be a funeral card, but is not...



For a larger picture, where you can see the lettering better, go to this page on our Grave Affair website. You can see our new "Grave Affair" catalog here.

A Grave Affair-

It's Halloween and the book elves are in fine fettle, rigging Foggygates up as a Haunted House. As they pointed out, we had the advantage that the
place is a 100+ year-old Victorian that's full of spiders, squeaky doors and dark corners already, and since we never get around to dusting we don't have to buy fake cobwebs this year. And then there's the resident ghost... but before they rigged up the 1,500-watt speakers on the porch roof and put Bobby Pickett's "Monster Mash" on an endless tape loop, they finished our latest printed catalog, on an eerily relevant topic-

"A GRAVE AFFAIR", a catalog featuring 154 books and other items about gravestones, epitaphs, cemeteries, funeral and mourning customs, how Society deals with death, and related topics, is now posted on our 'A GRAVE AFFAIR' website.

The new website also features a bibliography of 500+ books on graveyards, gravestones, epitaphs, cemeteries, mourning and funeral customs, and related topics, a links page, and some surprises...

While you're there you can also sign up for our 'Grave Matters' email list, where we announce website updates, and will be running catalog-related specials this week.

Please email us if you would like a printed copy.

Have fun, and have a Happy Halloween!

oh, and um...

BOO!

Time Tunnel-

I love old postcards. We're still unpacking boxes from the move a year ago, and today I found a stash of postcards from my old office drawer. It's like looking into a Time Tunnel (remember that show?).

The Japanese Garden at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, around 1910-



"Mrs. Jack Gardner's Venetian Palace", now the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston's Back Bay, on a postcard postmarked 1908-



This card is addressed to a "Miss Anne Hitchcock" of Utica, New York and has an interesting inscription- "I still want you but am going away in July. Will write a letter soon, Love FBS". You have to wonder...

Here is the Esplanade in Boston along the Charles River on a 1923 postcard. Today Storrow Drive's ugly four concrete lanes go right through ths scene-

Did you hear a cracking noise?

Right next to the house we have two huge, 250-year old sugar maples. One of them, by far the larger, lost its main trunk some years ago, but the right half of the tree remained, with three 50+ foot long, very thick limbs/trunks going off at about a 30-degree angle from the main trunk. I had always marvlled at how the old trunk supported all that weight...


Well, on Friday afternoon a cold front came through with 50-mph winds, and right in the middle we noticed a huge crack start to open up in the main trunk, working down from the top. As the winds blew the entire remaining part of the tree went back and forth and we could see the crack get bigger and then smaller, bigger and then smaller. Suddenly several tons of sugar maple were hanging on by an increasingly small thread...

The tree guys took one look at it yesterday morning and shook their heads. So down it cames, before it came down on its own and took out (depending on which way it fell) the carriage house, the kitchen or the porte cochere, removing, whichever way it went, a nice birch which stands directly underneath it.

It's a big, complicated job to get the tree down without smashing things underneath it, and they've been hard at it for two days now.


The episode has inspired some psuedo Haiku-


Storm winds make the big tree sway
and wave -how graceful...
What was that odd cracking sound?????


Big tree falls down and goes BOOM!
uh oh... Say Goodbye to
recently re-roofed carriage house.


Storm winds crack the giant tree-
Tree surgeon tells wife-
"Christmas in Bermuda this year!"

Our New Fall Catalog-

Fall has arrived at Foggygates and the gold and red maple leaves are falling thick and fast on the lawn. The Book Elves quit work in the Cataloging Cave early every afternoon to go out and rake them into huge piles on tarps and then drag them back into the woods. That's the second way they get rid of leaves. The first involved half a dozen vacuum cleaners they picked up "cheap" on Ebay and about 3,000 feet of heavy-duty extension cord. But before they blew out every fuse in the house and got themselves featured on an upcoming installment of the cable show "Don't Try This at Home", they finished our new printed catalog-

"RECENT ACQUISITIONS AND OTHER INTERESTING BOOKS ON ANTIQUES AND THE ARTS for FALL, 2006" features more than 220 books and catalogs on furnture, glass, ceramics, silver, textiles, art, and related topics. Please let us know if you would like a copy. You can also browse it on our website.

Ceramics in America-

The latest volume in an acclaimed series of ceramics essays has just arrived from the publisher-

"Ceramics in America –2006", edited by Robert Hunter. Published in 2006 by the Chipstone Foundation.

A selection of essays on historical ceramical subjects, issued every year. This year's studies include- ceramics representations of Uncle Tom’s Cabin; commemorative wares in George Washington’s hometown; ceramics at Hampton, Maryland; dated examples of pottery by the slave-potter “Dave”; African-American face jugs; 17th –century tobacco pipe production in the Chesapeake region; J. Palin Thorley (1892-1987), potter; Dutch maritime tiles; a Yankee jug in Dixie; early examples of American architectural terracotta in Charleston, South Carolina; many more! Also contains book reviews and a checklist of recently published books and articles on ceramics in America.

This is a softcover book, 8.5”x11”, xiii + 336 pages, color and b/w illustrations. New. $60.00.

Let us know if you would like a copy!

Of Tomes & Trattorias-

A hazy reminiscence from our last Italian trip...

In Florence it always rains at night in September.

It can be cozy - or murderous. I dodged maniac scooters and cars as I ran down the narrow cobbled streets with lights glinting off them like slivers of ice and ducked in for the 8 pm seating at my favorite neighborhood trattoria. A little vino, a dish of white beans in tomato sauce, maybe try the sole, some sambuca.

A companion...

She was tall and dark and slender, her eyes flashing with centuries of Florentine pride and passion. She moved as smoothly and naturally as a river running swiftly between rocky banks, and when she walked into a room everyone would turn and gaze. It was another of her talents that she could slip out of a room without anyone noticing, just the soft scent of perfume, a swift rustle of silk and she would be gone. She was my main contact in this city of brick and stone and soot-stained art, and I had no reason not to trust her. Sure, her last contact here had come to a bad end in vat of boiling rotini, but that was five years ago.

We opened a bottle of Chianti -not the kind you buy back in the States for $5 a bottle, the good stuff. The waiter came with a plate of porcini quickly grilled and drizzled with a little olive oil. She made small talk, asked about my flight, pushed the plate toward me and I reached out with my fork...

Something about the glint in her eye set off an alarm in the back of my mind. The Chianti was working, but there was still that danger flag. I hesitated and she frowned and reached for something in her purse. I wasn't looking, not really, but I saw the cracked leather spine of a small book in there. Faded guilt lettering stamped on the red spine label told me all I needed to know -it was the mushrooms.

I reached for the purse and she struggled with me for a moment, then gave up and went limp. I took the book and handed the purse back to her. Everyone in the trattoria was frozen, watching us. I knew better than to make a move. She gave me a quick, wry smile and got up and walked quickly out the door. No point following. I knew I'd never see her again. I finished off my Chianti and left. I've kept that little 18th century book on poisonous mushrooms for a dozen years, but now I'm going to sell it.

I'm a bookseller.

That's my job.

Upcoming- A Grave Affair-

We've been hard at work cataloging material for a new edition of our "A GRAVE AFFAIR" catalog, which is devoted to gravestones, mourning cutoms, epitaphs and other death and mourning-related material. We've been putting things aside for some time now for the new edition, and have some really interesting material. The schedule at this point is to issue the catalog for Halloween Week, so if you'd like a copy, please let us know!

Harmonious Coloring-

We have a very interesting book about Victorian color theory in interior decorating in our new Catalog 184-

"The Interior Decorator, being the Laws of Harmonious Coloring adapted to Interior Decorations. With Observations on the Practice of House Painting" by D[avid] R[amsay] Hay, published in Philadelphia by Henry Carey Baird in 1867. First American, from the 6th London, edition.

David Ramsay Hay was one of the most influential color theorists of the Victorian era, and was a practical craftsman as well, attaining the status of Decorator to the Queen. This title was first published in 1828, and completely re-written for the 6th edition. The text is divided into two parts, the first treating the theory and laws of colors, the second addressing decorating issues more practically.



The second section begins by describing plain painting materials and types of colors and paints, and then moves on to decorative painting, including imitating woods and marbles, gilding, paper-hanging, stippling, decorative borders, imitation damasks, gold embroidery and leather. There is additional material on the analogies between sound and color, “cheap” painting, and “Reminiscences of the painting and decorating of Abbotsford”. This last refers to one of Hay’s most famous commissions, the redecorating of fellow-Mason Sir Walter Scott’s manor.

An influential and increasingly uncommon treatise on Victorian-era interior painting and decorating, and one of a very few Baird books to have a color illustration.

Hardcover. 5”x7.5”, 207 pages, colored frontispiece; publisher’s black cloth with gilt spine title; a little wear, but a very nice, clean, tight copy. [09461] $300.00

To see all the books in Catalog 284, click here.

Odd Things in the Peach Tree-

We've got a nice Ann Beattie first edition up on Ebay at the moment with a great inscription-

I love inscriptions like this- it's great to find nice, warm, clever inscriptions and sometimes I just can't resist buying books with them, even if they are outside our fields. This one ends Sunday night and is still very reasonably priced- click the link to our Ebay auctions in the right-hand column for a link to the auction.

Wandering Tailors-

We have an interesting mid-19th century travelogue in our new September-October catalog, the tale of a wandering tailor-

"Wanderings of a Journeyman Tailor through Europe and the East, During the Years 1824 to 1840" by P.D. Holthaus, translated by William Howitt. Published in London by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman's in 1844. 3rd edition.

Holthaus was a journeyman tailor, from Werdohl in Westpahlia, who took up his knapsack, needle and pen and set off through the highways and byways of the world, over Europe, Asia and Africa. Through Turkey, Wallachia, Greece, Syria, Egypt, Italy and France he walks and sews. Howitt notes in his Preface-

“We see here the German, both as master and man...marching off, and establishing himself in the remotest countries, and amongst the strangest people. The Germans...insinuate and settle themselves down in every region, and often amongst people where we little expect to find them. Holthaus himself works in Constantinople, Athens, Beyrout, etc. He depends for the gratification of his passion for travel, solely on his needle. He literally sews his way from continent to continent..."

"His travels are not only well written, and display a great deal of shrewd observation and excellent feeling, but they have a peculiar advantage of observing everyday life from a new point of view. Our traveler does not glide on luxuriously in an easy-cushioned carriage, with his letter-book stuffed with introductions to all the prominent men of every prominent place; but he trudges on through desert-ways, works amid the swarming mass of strange cities, meets with all the rubs and rebuffs attendant on his humble station, and looks on things not as they show through the halo of wealth, luxury and favour, but to the eyes of the multitude”.

Hardcover. 4.5"x7", 286 pages, woodcut portrait frontispiece showing Holthaus in a broad-brimmed hat, with his walking stick, knapsack, dagger, tobacco pouch and pipe; old quarter leather and marbled boards, covers scuffed, but else a nice copy. [09526] $275.00

See more items from our new catalog by clicking here.

Our New Catalog!

We had the big 6th Annual Library Sale/Vintage Auto/Antique Tractor Show & Volunteer Fire Dept Barbecue this weekend in Hatfield, and the Book Elves were beside themselves, wolfing down burgers and hot dogs, along with glasses of cider from the old cider press they were operating at the Farm Museum. There was that one regrettable incident involving the Mayor's vintage T-Bird and what the police are blindly insisting on calling "auto theft" and "joy-riding", but before three of the Book Elves were seen driving off down Main Street on a 1948 John Deere tractor, completely nude and blitzed on hard cider, singing "We Are Family" at the top of their lungs, they finished our new catalog-

Catalog #284 - RECENT ACQUISITIONS FOR SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2006 is now available in printed format, or on our website. If you would like a printed copy of the catalog, please email us, and remember to include your mailing address. Or you can browse it on our website!

HIGHLIGHTS include -

*The earliest printed book on American silver collections.

*The scarce 1917 Memorial Exhibition catalog of paintings by John J. Enneking.

*Howard's 1838 study of color as used by artists, a very early example of the use of chromolithography in book illustration.

*A 1935 Maggs Brothers catalog completely devoted to books about Royalty, issued to commemorate King George V's Silver Jubilee.

*A beautiful leatherbound copy of the catalog to the 1963 Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition of American furniture & other arts, limited to 445 copies.

*James Jackson Jarves' influential 1867 study of Japanese arts.

*An important and influential 1846 book on fresco painting techniques.

*An unusual pamphlet promoting of a scheme to fix up Independence Square for the 1876 Centennial.

*A very interesting 1881 study of the development of the Christian altar and its fittings.

*A very scarce 1915 Worcester County exhibition catalog of American silver.

*The first book on American gems, published in 1838.

*An enlightening 1894 study of the evolution of the electric light bulb.

*A scarce 1867 book on the laws of color as used in interior decoration.

*An important and comprehensive 1895 report on worker housing around the world.

*Noted antiquarian Charles Dorman's copy of Harrington's 1939 book on Delaware silversmiths, limited to 300 copies, and with extensive handwritten notes by Dorman.

*An interesting 1845 book about collecting paintings.

*A complete 1890s guide to Victorian construction and decorating work methods and tools.

...and many more books on silver, ceramics, glass, furniture, folk art, metals, textiles and other arts, and related topics.

Please take a look by clicking here.

The Booklet that Started a Catalog-

A few years ago at the Los Angeles Book Fair I came across this very cool 1862 catalog/promotional book. When I got it back to the office I began to catalog it, but then the idea popped into my head- why not look for some other material and issue an entire ice-related catalog? That eventually morphed into "Fire & Ice", our new catalog out this week. Here is the book that began the project-

"Ash’s Patent ‘Piston’ Freezing Machine and Wine Cooler, For Freezing and Cooling Liquids..." London; George Simpson, Ice Merchant: [1862]. 2nd edition.

The title page continues- “The first perfect application of the natural law of congelation adapted to domestic use; producing results never before accomplished. Also a cheap and effective method of preserving ice, and a recipe for preparing the celebrated freezing powders, (the best substitute for ice yet discovered), together with a variety of other choice recipes for mixing desert ices, ice puddings, &c., including valuable information, interesting to housekeepers, confectioners, &c., and essentially important to residents of all hot climates”.

The Ash Machine, manufactured by Simpson, used an up and down motion which produced ice or cooled liquid in a fraction of the time that cranked machines did. The first 34 pages of this booklet describe and illustrate the machine and the various uses to which it may be put; the booklet then goes on to describe a method for storing ice in the ground, an ice chest sold by Simpson, Simpson’s Patent Freezing Vase, a Patent Butter Cooler, the Seltzogene seltzer bottle, and several other Simpson inventions. This is followed by several pages of testimonials and then a list of nobility, clergy, gentlemen and ship’s officers who use the Ash machine. An interesting and elaborate early promotional book.

Hardcover. 4.5”x7”, 54 pages, line illustrations; elaborately impressed brown cloth with gilt titles; some soil, a little cover wear; text browned, lightly soiled, and with foxing to the title page. [09352] $400.00

See the entire Fire & Ice catalog here.

FIRE & ICE-

The last dregs of Summer linger around Foggygates and the Book Elves cling to their lawn chairs every afternoon, resolutely sipping ice-cold lemonade even as the sun sinks behind the trees and the temps dip into the 40s. Evening cookouts are no longer as much about cooking food as keeping warm, which may have given them the idea for our latest printed catalog...

FIRE & ICE -Catalog 282

is now available. It features a selection of books on two diverse yet oddly-related topics- the use of fire and the use of ice in everyday life. Books and other materials on fireplaces, lighting devices, fire-making tools, as well as ice harvesting, icy foods and pastimes, and the making and use of ice for refrigeration are all included.

We have printed copies available (if you would like one, please remember to send us your mailing address), and the catalog is also posted on OUR WEBSITE.

Have fun!

Bon Apetit!

Yes, that's Julia Child and her kitchen in corn! This year's "Mike's Corn Maze" at Warner Farm in Sunderland, Massachusetts, features Julia Child, "The French Chef", a graduate of nearby Smith College. Mike has a complete website devoted to this year's maze, past mazes, and other interesting stuff. The designers have even added some "additions" this year to keep things interesting, including a potato bazooka and tomato trebuchet (a sort of catapult). The maze opens this coming weekend, and stays open through October. Amy and I will be mosying over and will have a full report...

Giant Thistle-

We had the world's tallest thistle growing behind the garage this summer. We never measured it, but Amy is about 5'3"...

Fire & Ice

It's funny- some catalogs put themselves together with very little interference from me, and others have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, all the way to the printer. Our new "Fire & Ice" catalog is behaving like that. I'm finally into final paste-up, and it will go the the printer in a few days, to be sent out sometime in early September. It's an interesting catalog, one I've been getting together for at least two years, but kept putting off. One part of it is fire-making devices, fire-powered lighting, fireplaces & fireplace accessories, and so on, and the other is ice-harvesting, ice-deserts, ice-sports, you name it. There are some very cool items included. One of my favorites is a nice copy of Marshall's 1885 book "Ices, Plain and Fancy", which includes some mouth-watering colored illustrations of iced deserts-

Stay tuned for more information!

When Irish Eyes are Smiling...

We just got a great book on Irish arts and their history, at a bargain price!

"Making the Grand Figure. Lives and Possessions in Ireland, 1641-1770" by Toby Barnard. Published by Yale University Press in 2004.

”In this pioneering study of the material culture of Stuart and Hanoverian Ireland, Toby Barnard reveals a hitherto unsuspected richness and diversity of lifestyle, habitat and mentality. The compass of the book is impressively wide, from the governing elite of Dublin Castle to provincial towns and the countryside beyond. Looking yet further, it follows the Irish overseas to Britain and the continent of Europe. Through such everyday articles as linen shirts, wigs, silver teaspoons, pottery plates and engravings, Barnard evokes a striking variety of lives and attitudes. Possessions, he shows, highlighted and widened divisions, not only between the rich and poor, women and men, but also between Irish Catholics and the Protestant settlers.”

There are chapters focusing on the house, interiors, goods, pictures, the park & garden, sport, dress, Dublin, going abroad, and Society.

Hardcover. 8”x9.5”, xxii + 497 pages, b/w and some color illustrations, dj. Published at $50.00. We have a limited number in stock for $25.00.

Going Once! Going Twice!

Our newest printed catalog of vintage auction catalogs is now available- it features 182 auction catalogs on a variety of topics- Great & Notable Collections; Furniture & Americana; French Furniture & Decorations; Bronzes; Ceramics & Glass; China Trade; Orientalia; Clock & Watches; Jewelry; Garden Statuary & Furniture; Arms & Armor; Fine Arts; Antiquities; Books & Manuscripts, and 'Varia', which includes catalogs featuring antique autos, aviation, canes, carpets, cat art, chess sets, cutlery, dolls, interiors, Ireland, the Queen's Jubilee, magic, Medieval arts, movie memorabilia, needlework, tapetsry, textiles, and wine.

The catalog is also viewable on our website.

If you'd like a printed copy, please let us know!

A Beautiful Publisher's Overstock-

Have we got a great book about Egyptian arts!

"Gifts of the Nile. Ancient Egyptian Faience", edited by Florence Dunn Friedman, and published by Thames & Hudson in 1998.

”This catalog, from the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design's international traveling exhibition, is an in-depth study of ancient Egyptian faience—figures, jewelry, and objects made from a non-clay ceramic material with a bright blue or polychrome glazed surface. More than 200 pieces spanning 3,000 years are displayed here in 224 color plates, with an additional 250 black and white photos and drawings, depicting a variety of small domestic items: lidded jars and pots; a portable, partitioned inkwell with a rotating top; a royal cosmetic jar; inlay tiles; goblets; scarabs; and amulets. Illustrated essays explore the meaning of faience within Egyptian culture, discussing its uses, symbolism, and technology.”

This is a hardcover. 9.5”x12”, 288 pages, color and b/w illustrations. New.

Published at $75.00, and a bargain at that price, we are offering a limited number of copies for $40.00 each.

Our New Summer Catalog-

It's Summertime, and the living is muggy at Foggygates. The Book Elves knock off work in the Cataloging Cave early every afternoon and spend the rest of the day lounging in beach chairs on the lawn, under the apple and cherry trees. They've hooked up some old plumbing stuff we had in the carriage house, along with some old concrete garden gnomes, into a sort of fountain which seems to be shooting out lemonade.

However, before they violated at least 3 town ordinances and attracted every bee in Western Massachusetts to the backyard, they finished work on a new printed catalog-

"SUMMER, 2006" is now available either in printed format, or here, on our website. It features almost 150 books, a mix of recent acquisitions and other books from our stock on the decorative and fine arts, as well as other odd material that just happened to slip by.

If you'd like a printed copy, please let us know.

More Things We Find in Books-

One of the most fascinating things about bookselling can be the odd items you find in books, and the stories they can lead you to unearth once you begin hunting around. A case in point is a copy of Stanley Casson's 1928 study "Some Modern Sculptors" which we bought a few years ago. It's a great book, but neither scarce nor expensive.

However, when we examined our copy we found that it had once been owned by Francis Henry Taylor, a Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and had three typewritten letters from Casson to Taylor tucked inside the rear endpapers!

Well, that seemed interesting, so we started doing some further research...

Stanley Casson (1889-1944) was a multi-talented art scholar and army officer who read Classical Archaeology at Oxford, served as Assistant Director of the British School at Athens, Special Lecturer in Art at Bristol University, and was Director of British Academy Excavations at Constantinople in 1928-1929. His publications include numerous articles and books on the subject of Classical Antiquities.

He also had two distinguished war records, starting the First World War as an officer with an infantry regiment in the trenches of Flanders before becoming part of the British Salonika Force in 1916 and finally serving on the General Staff in 1918. His war poems, written in the Flanders mud, are now part of the War Poetry Collection at Napier University in Edinburgh.

Starting in 1939 he again served the British government in Holland, and later transferred to Greece where he was serving as a liaison officer when he was killed in an airplane crash in 1944.

Now, what about Francis Henry Taylor? Taylor (1903-1957), was a former Curator of Medieval Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Director of the Worcester Art Museum at about the time the letters we found were written, and eventually became Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The three typewritten letters were written to Taylor by Casson, on New College, Oxford letterheads, from the early 1930s. The first letter simply greets him and extends Casson's admiration for an article that Taylor wrote on Greek sculpture; the other two were evidently written after Taylor had taken a trip to London and the two had become friends.

A few excerpts give a general idea of the scholarly goings on:

[Aug 7th] "I enjoyed that evening in London more than I have enjoyed anything in this country for a very long time. My only sorrow is that I cannot give the return party to you here... How precisely I got home after you had decanted me from the taxi I cannot say. By strange luck I got into the right train and there remained semi-comatose until Oxford. Again Heaven aided and there was actually a taxi at the station... Meantime I suggest a good line of research would be to find out if Miss [R] keeps a stature of Hermes in her bedroom... By the way, Wilenski has just written a crazy book on "Modern Sculpture" that I find would serve as an admirable whipping post for discussing the ultra-modern coprolite-sculptors... Eric Gill, whom I saw on Sunday after our carouse, is commissioned to do some 150 full size figures on a new cathedral at Guildford in Surrey. He is getting together a band and going to do it in the real mediaeval manner (I mean as regards the organisation)."

[Nov 2, 1932] "As to the statue, actually I see no reason to doubt it and it really is a scoop... but there will be Hells own row in Greece and someone will get the permanent push in Athens. I cant imagine how on earth they get such things out without being spotted. ... Meantime if in due course I can come over your way, as you suggest, I feel little doubt that I shall see U.S.A. a bit more from the right viewpoint than most of the many academics that sour the atmosphere of your genial land. Gawd, what stiffs we do send you sometimes!".

I love this stuff. Sometimes it's true- you can't judge a book by its covers!

It's Hot Outside!

Well, "late next week" turned into more than two weeks, but we are back now, and will be posting here on a regular basis for the rest of the Summer. We've got our new Summer catalog coming out this coming week- watch for more announcements about that in the next few days!

We haven't been blogging the past few weeks, but we've been quite busy getting ready for August and the Fall.

Stay tuned!

Some Patriotic Music-

Just in time for 4th of July Week, we found an 1831 salute to Old Glory, a single leaf printing the music and words to “Our Flag is Here! An American Patriotic Song”, removed from a disbound portion of the August, 1831 edition of ‘Atkinson’s Casket’. We do not normally go around slicing pages, but this edition was already mutilated, and it seemed that the song would be of interest to American flag enthusiasts of all stripes. The note at the top of the page states-

"The Music and Words of the following Song, were, we understand, composed by a sailor, on board the Java frigate. They have never before, we believe, been published. The feelings of an American tar, are truly expressed in these words, and many a landsman will cordially join in the Chorus. The Song has, we judge, only to be known to become very popular.”

The “Java frigate” referred to was an American 44-gun vessel, named for the famous War of 1812 naval battle between the USS Constitution and the British frigate Java. The American frigate was laid down in Baltimore in 1814, and made her maiden voyage from Baltimore under the command of Captain Oliver Hazard Perry on August 5, 1815. After fitting out she was ordered to the Mediterranean in 1816, still under Perry’s flag, and while there Perry went ashore in Algiers and “persuaded” the Dey of Algiers that it would be better to stop harrassing American interests, as he had promised in a treay signed the previous summer, than to ignore it as he had been doing before the American fleet showed up. Before returning home Perry and Java also sailed, in company with the Constellation, Ontario, and Erie to show the flag off Tripoli. In 1827 Java returned to the Mediterranean under Captain William M. Crane, and was the flagship of Commodore James Biddle for a time. She returned to America in 1831, was based at Norfolk for several years, and was broken up in 1842.

As for the song's immortality, a Google search for the title only brings up one possible match, a transcription of verse by the same title in the Civil War journal of a young woman. The words, while not quite as memorable as those of the Battle Hymn of the Republic or as moving as those of America the Beautiful, have a certain ring to them-

“Our flag is here! Our flag is here!
We hail it with three loud huzzas!
Our flag is here! Our flag is here!
Behold its’ glorious stripes and stars.
That flag is known in every sphere,
The standard of a gallant band,
Alike unstain’d in peace or war,
It floats o’er freedom’s happy land.

Stout hearts have fought for that bright flag,
Strong hands maintain’d it mast-head high;
And oh! To see how proud it waves,
Brings tears of joy in ev’ry eye.

Our flag is here, &c.

That flag has stood in battle’s war,
‘Mid foemen strong and foemen brave,
Strong hands have tried that flag to low’r,
And found a speedy, wat’ry grave.

Our flag is here, &c.

We have put the sheet up on Ebay in an auction starting July 6th. "Foggygates" will be on vacation mode for the week, and will return late next week.

Catalogs & stuff-

Things are slowing down at Foggygates as we move toward the 4th of July Week, but we do have a new catalog out this week- Books on Decorative Arts, including folk art, interiors, metalware & iron, textiles, & other “Americana” & related subjects. This catalog is available only as a printed catalog, so if you would like a copy, please let us know.

Things are also quiet on Ebay as we juggle our own and other folks vacations around the 4th; we have a pair of aviation items up now, and will be adding new material beginning on July 1st. Stay tuned for more details...

Gentlemen- More Dolce, Please...

I'd like to spend today featuring one of my favorite items in our current crop of books on Ebay- I'll be sad to see this one go to a new home. It's an uncommon early American traveler's phrase book for a popular 1830s destination of American writers and artists- Italy!

The title is "De Porquet’s Italian Phrases; or, Il Fraseggiatore Toscano. A Copious Choice of Italian Sentences to facilitate a complete knowledge of the formation of the verbs and syntax of that elegant tongue" and it's by Carlo Alfieri, "Professor of the Italian language, London". Published in Boston by S. Burdett & Co., in 1832. “With familiar and easy dialogues in Italian and English, and rules on the different forms of addressing persons, used by the Italians”.

Entire books have been written on the exodus of Americans to the Continent in general, and Italy in particular, in the 1830s and 40s. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and sculptors Hiram Powers and Horatio Greenough all sojourned there. American artist Rembrandt Peale wrote his own guide to traveling in Italy, and sculptor Thomas Crawford settled down in Rome and became a leading figure in the American expatriate community there for several years.

Charleston, South Carolina artist James DeVeaux loved Italy so much that he lived there for several years before his tragic early death in 1844. In fact, although he loved Rome and Venice and Florence, DeVeaux did not enjoy the excess of visiting Americans very much. While staying in Florence he wrote- "There are American painters and sculptors here of all sorts. I find nothing in their society to please me, and so keep to myself. Strange that so much venom should exist among professors of a liberal art -but the truth is, that envy and jealousy are our (painters) besetting sins, and the first thing I heard of here was a flare up at Rome 'mongst the American artists, and now they are all in Florence for the summer, so I keep housed."

And yet, the warm Italian sun and pretty signoras and centuries of art and monuments would draw the visitor out again. DeVeaux continued a few months later-

"Whilst looking down from the steeple of the Campodoglio upon Rome, my companion warmed into a classic fit, and bringing up from the bottom of his pockets notes and memoranda of history gathered from Goldsmith and others, he would glance from one scene to another, till I was deluged in declamation, -flinging his arms into the air and stretching himself so far over the railing, as to induce me to wrap the skirt of his coat around my hands to ensure his safety, -he pointed to the spot where "Ceasar's body lay", -passed to Lucrezia the chaste, and Virginia the innocent, -Camillus pausing to look back upon the city, from whence he was issuing a banished man; and had got as far into his story as to be busily engaged with the Goths and Vandals in sacking Rome over again, when the old attendant cut short the oration by declaring that the "Signore" had detained him too long, as his wife waited his presence for dinner."

But we have strayed far from our charming little phrase book. Or perhaps not, because this is just the sort of book any of these American travelers would have picked up when preparing to take the “The Tour”, or join the expatriate community there. An interesting little piece of Americana and not all that common- a search of internet sources failed to turn up another copy, and the OCLC database of institutional library holdings (which is an imperfect tool, but still gives some indication of scarcity) locates only 3 copies.

It sells on Ebay Sunday evening, and I'll be sorry to see the little fella go.

A Great 19th Century American Library Catalog

Every so often a book will give us a glimpse of an important change in the way we do or see things. Such is the case with Charles Ammi Cutter's "Catalogue of the Library of the Boston Athenaeum 1807-1871", published in Boston between 1874 and 1882.

Cutter [1837-1903], a founding member of the American Library Association, was an important influence on modern librarianship and cataloging. He graduated third in his class at Harvard at age 18, spent several years cataloging the Harvard library, and married Sarah Appleton, one of the first female library assistants in the Harvard cataloguing department.

The Boston Athenaeum was a leading literary and artistic society in the 19th century, and its library contained a wide breadth of important material on American art, history and literature.

When Cutter became the Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum he was faced with the daunting task of cataloging its quarter-of-a-million volumes, a project that would eventually take almost a decade. Cutter's approach, which was designed to be most helpful to the patron looking for books (instead of the librarian or cataloguer organizing them) would be expanded upon in his "Rules for a Dictionary Catalog", and would become a cornerstone of modern Library Science. Throughout his career at the Athenaeum and as a President of the ALA and editor of its Journal, Cutter would be concerned with making the library more useful to patrons, especially those who needed it to further their educations and place in life.

After he left the Athenaeum and was Librarian of the Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts, Cutter would write- "We are to buy the best books... Not the best book for the librarian, nor for the book committee, nor for the self-educated book committee outside the library, nor for the shelves (to keep them warm by never leaving them); but the best books to satisfy our clients for amusement and knowledge and mental stimulus and spiritual inspiration. The library should be a practical thing to be used, not an ideal to be admired."

Ben Franklin rewrites the Bible-

Got time for another Ben Franklin tale? I've been a big fan of ol' Ben, from the time I first read Robert Lawson's "Ben and Me" in third or fourth grade.

We recently found a copy of a little American Institute of Graphics Arts keepsake booklet done in 1927 called- "The Parable Against Persecution. A Proposed New Chapter for the Bible. By Benjamin Franklin".

Why, you ask, was Ben Franklin writing Bible chapters? That's a perfectly reasonable question...

The parable itself can be traced back to ancient times (but it was never in the Bible)- it tells the tale of a visitor to Abraham who is at first welcomed, and then chased into the night when he admits that he does not worship God. God then rebukes Abraham- “Have I borne with him (the visitor) these hundred and ninety eight years, and nourished him, & cloathed him, notwithstanding his rebellion against me; & couldst thou not, that art thyself a sinner, beare with him one night!”

So Ben Franklin rewrote the original parable in Biblical verse and committed it to memory. When he was in the company of a Bishop or other church figure Franklin would open a Bible and then recite the parable from memory, while pretending to read from the book. He'd then slam the book shut and demand of the churchman what chapter and verse he had just read.

Now was that really very nice?

The fun was ruined when a friend in England published the parable and attributed it to Franklin. We put the booklet, which has a striking Art Deco illustration by Carl Purlington Rollins, up on Ebay. Click our Ebay link for more info.

Glass Furniture?

We just got a carton full of a great new book from the Corning Museum of Glass- "European Glass Furnishings for Eastern Palaces" by Jane Shadel Spillman. Corning Museum of Glass: 2006.

“Written as a supplement to the Museum's major summer exhibition, ‘Glass of the Maharajahs’, this book explores the little-known era in glassmaking history when European glass manufacturers tailored one-of-a-kind and limited-production glass furniture to the tastes of the wealthy Indian elite. The very idea that a chair could glitter like a diamond, catch light like a colored gemstone, and still function as seating must have astounded those who first encountered glass furniture in the mid- to late-19th century. Some of the furniture and printed materials are drawn from The Corning Museum of Glass; others are borrowed from Indian palaces, private homes and archival collections.”

A fascinating catalog. The text begins by discussing the early 19th century glass furniture of Europe and Russia, and then moves on to India. Firms such as F.& C. Osler, Jonas Defries & Sons, Coalbourne Hill Glass Works, Baccarat and Elias Palme are all discussed at length. One of the most fascinating aspects of this book was the ability of the author to find modern photographs, period prints, and original factory designs for the same pieces of furniture and lighting.

Hardcover. 8.5”x11”, 144 pages, 125 illustrations. New. [90217] $24.95

Which Washington?

We have a charming and interesting little limited edition, 1927 book about bookplates selling tomorrow night on Ebay. It's called "Washington Bookplates" and I bought it at an auction a few weeks ago, thinking it was about George Washington's bookplates, or bookplates featuring him, or connected with him, or something like that... but no, it's about bookplates created for Washington-state artists for Washington-state bibliophiles. Well... rats! Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that I was expecting otherwise. So, we put it up on Ebay, with no reserve, and it will go to the highest bidder tomorrow. Click the Ebay auctions link to see the listing.

And next auction I will look at the books more carefully...

Fridays-

We've finally got some decent weather here at Foggygates, so the outside of the house is swarming with painters and roofers. They got the last of the gutters down (it came crashing to earth right outside my office window), and the new sheathing is going up. Exciting, eh? Well, it looks a lot better.

We put in a real burst of energy and posted a number of auctions for Americana and related stuff on Ebay. Click our auction link to the right for details- we included a very nice collection of 19th century maps of the Panama-area, a scarce 1825 American militia manual, some good hunting books -all sorts of stuff, all starting at $9.99 with no reserves. Go ahead- get a bargain!

The Furniture Catalog is out this week, and you can see a copy on the website, or let us known and we can mail you one.

The Problem with Publishers-

We put a very amusing Ben Franklin item up for auction on Ebay last night, which is worth quoting from. The booklet is titled "A Letter from Benjamin Franklin, Passy, April 21, 1785, to Benjamin Vaughan, containing some observations on the prodigal practices of publishers". It was published in Princeton by the Friends of the Princeton Library in 1949. This is a facsimile of Franklin’s famous letter denouncing the practices of English publishers, together with a line-by-line transcription, and introductory remarks by Carl Van Doren and Julien P. Boyd. Franklin begins by writing of the controversy over cheap Irish goods in the English marketplace, and eventually gets around to books-

"If Books can be had much cheaper from Ireland, (which I believe for I bought Blackstone there for 24s when it was sold in England at 4 Guineas) is not this an Advantage, not to English Booksellers indeed, but to English Readers and Learning? And of all the Complainants perhaps these Booksellers are least worthy of Consideration. The Catalogue you last sent me amazes me by the high Prices, (said to be the lowest) affix’d to every Article. And one can scarce see a new Book, without observing the excessive Artifices made use of to puff up a Paper of Verses into a Pamphlet, a Pamphlet into an Octavo Volume, and an Octavo into a Quarto, with Scab-boardings, white Lines, sparse Titles of Chapters, & exorbitant Margins, to such a degree, that the Selling of Paper seems now the Object, and Printing on it only a Pretence".

For more information click the "Our Ebay Auctions" link in the right-hand column.

Our New Furniture Catalog-

The Book Elves are glued to World Cup action on the TV in the Cataloging Cave, and were quite upset by yesterday's loss by Team USA. However, before they donned the traditional black and crimson robes which either signify deep mourning or graduation from an Ivy League College (we're still not quite sure where they got them) they finished our new catalog-

Catalog #277: BOOKS ON FURNITURE & CABINETMAKERS is now available, either as a printed catalog (please send us your mailing address) or you can browse it on our website.

If you'd like a printed copy, please let us know (and include your mailing address).

Speaking Plainly-

Today we're happy to bring you an important American furniture reference which has just been reissued- "Neat Pieces. The Plain-Style Furniture of 19th Century Georgia" by William & Florence Griffin, et al. University of Georgia Press: 2006.

This is a new edition of the classic and important 1983 catalog. This loan exhibition of Georgia "plain" furniture of the period 1820-1860 was the result of five years of painstaking work; 2,000 pieces of furniture were studied before the final 126 were chosen. Each piece is carefully described and illustrated, and there is an introduction which explains the development of Georgia, her cabinetmakers, and their furniture. In addition to the furniture the organizers turned up a wealth of information on individual Georgia cabinetmakers, and this information is also presented here. An important contribution to the literature on early Southern decorative arts. This augmented edition features color illustrations of most of the pieces, and a new Introduction. Softcover. 8"x11", 236 pages, color and b/w illustrations. New. [90193] $39.95

Trapped in Poetry

An interesting thread came up on an eamil list earlier in the week. Somebody mentioned "The Eyre Affair" by Jasper Fforde, in which one of the minor characters gets trapped inside a Wordsworth poem. This brought up the question- if you could be trapped inside a poem, what poem would it be? Or, if you feel like you are trapped inside a poem, what poem is it?

For some reason for me Lewis Carroll immediately sprang to mind...

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.


well now.

Here's the poem that started the discussion-

"Daffodils" by William Wordsworth (1804)

I Wander'd lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Of course, given the fact that it's been raining here for about a month and a half, maybe something about rain would be more appropriate...

Railroads...

We have some interesting lithographs of the early West up for auction on Ebay this week. These plates are from the 12-volume set "Reports of Explorations and Surveys, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean", published by the Government Printing Office between 1855 and 1861. What was this all about? The answer is a single word: Railroads.

In the 1850s everyone agreed that a transcontinental railroad should be built, but the question was where to build it. Political and business rivalries contended to stop any project, or even preparation for the project, for a number of years. Which states would it traverse and, most importantly, where would it start and end? Did the Constitution even allow the Federal Government to be involved in the project? Finally, in 1853-4, Senator Gwin of California got an appropriation into the War Department budget to allow the Secretary of War (Jefferson Davis) to send out surveying parties. The trouble was just beginning...

After the political and sectional dust settled there were four routes to be surveyed- a northern route along the Missouri River, over the northern Rockies and to Puget Sound, along the 47-49th parallels. A middle route, favored by Senator Thomas Hart Benton, following the Kansas River to the Arkansas, through Salt Lake, along the 37-39th parallels. Another route, the 35th parallel route, went from Arkansas through New Mexico and Arizona and across the Mojave Desert. The fourth route, the southern-most and the one favored by Secretary of War Davis, traveled from Texas along the Gila River to San Diego. There were further surveys on the Pacific coast, outlining routes to link San Diego with San Francisco, and San Francisco and the Pacific northwest. Originally the project report was envisioned as taking up three or four volumes.

By the time the final volume was published in 1861 the number of volumes had swelled to twelve and the country had other problems to deal with. The final volumes were an unparalleled survey of the flora, fauna, peoples and landscape of the American West. The books and illustrations provided details not only on the topography of the land, but the scenery, animals, plants and inhabitants. It remains a cornerstone piece of Americana, and a complete set today can cost $10,000.

We have some interesting prints from various volumes in the set. One word of explanation- the prints we are selling (illustrated here) are not actually framed- I've done some computer wizadry to show them as they will look when they are framed. And just so there's money left over for framing, we're starting them at $9.99 each, with no reserve. Click our Ebay auction link in the right-hand sidebar for all our current auctions.

A Whale of a Silver Book-

Have we got a silver book for you! "English, Irish, and Scottish Silver: at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute" by Beth Carver Wees is a giant of a book, 9"x12", and 595 pages. Here's what the publisher had to say-

"The Clark Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, holds one of the largest and finest collections of English silver outside of England, including many masterpieces. It was begun in the 1910s by Singer sewing machine heir Robert Sterling Clark, who bought both luxury items by prominent makers and domestic wares, many of which had been owned by the most celebrated patrons of the 18th and 19th centuries. This substantive volume, with more than 1200 duotone illustrations and 19 color plates, catalogs every object in the collection, including 76 pieces by Paul de Lamerie and many more by other great Huguenot silversmiths. Detailed entries about some 850 objects provide marks, inscriptions, heraldry, construction notes, comments, provenance, and exhibition and publication history."

The book was published for $125. We have a limited number available for $40.

Let the Sunshine In-

As I have mentioned before, sometimes I come across books which have interesting stories behind them. Usually the stories concern either the author or the history of the book itself, but sometimes they have to do with prior owners.

We have a copy of an 1884 book by Arthur Charleston titled "Tin: Describing the Chief Methods of Mining, Dressing & Smelting it Abroad". An interesting enough book itself, if you are inclined tin-ward, but additionally, this copy bears the ownership signature- "Rev. M.A.G. Himalaya, Braga, Portugal, 1907" on the title page, and therein lies another story.

Manuel Antonio Gomes 'Himalaya' [1868-1933(?)], "Father Himalaya", is considered to be the father of solar energy in Portugal, and a visionary pioneer in the field of renewable energy. After taking Holy Orders in the Society of Jesus he studied natural sciences, physics, chemistry, mathematics and astronomy, and traveled to France where he studied with the noted chemist Marcelin Berthelot.

In 1899 he was granted a patent by the French government for a device to produce heat by focusing the sun's rays; in 1900 he constructed a test device in the Pyrenees and attained a temperature of 1100 degrees centigrade.

In 1902 an experiment in Lisbon attained 2000 degrees, and he made a final, startling demonstration of the power of such a device at the St. Louis Exposition in Missouri 1904. There he constructed his "Pireliofero", a 3-story high parabolic mirror mounted on a monstrous iron framework which focused sunlight on an oven mounted at the top of the structure. The oven reached a temperature of 3500 degrees, melting a test chunk of basalt, and Father Himalaya won a Grand Prize for his efforts.

He promoted other forms of renewable energy as well, including tidal energy and hydroelectric power, wind power, and geothermal power. Alas, there was plenty of cheap coal and oil available, and his work was generally ignored and forgotten. Father Himalaya retired to become chaplain at Viana Castle, a charity home, where he died at the age of 65. His work has excited interest in Europe in recent years, and his ideas have only lately attained a measure of the respect which eluded them in his lifetime.

Father Manuel Antonio Gomes 'Himalaya' and his "Pireliofero"