David Spilman Fine Books

Mountains and Molehills; Or Recollections of a Burnt Journal [with illustrations by Author]

Marryat, Frank

London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1855. Very Good. First Edition. [9x6in]; x, [2], 443 pp., eight colored lithograph plates by Hanhart and Marryat including frontispiece, eighteen woodcuts in text, index; Red leather calf half bound with marbled paper covers, five raised bands, gilt rule and lettering with ornamentation in panels on spine, marbled end papers, top edge gilt with other edges trimmed; Some shelf wear to all edges, colored plates fresh and bright, corners worn and bumped, rubbing to top and bottom of spine with some general darkening, front hinge repaired, frontispiece, tissue guard and title page with some foxing and offset, age toning of paper along all edges, all plates without tissue guards and some offset to facing page, some chips and closed tears in tears in text block, repaired closed tear and chip to rear end paper; amorial bookplate of Robert Dudley Winthrop on front paste down, bound without advertisements. [Kurutz 429a, Howell 50 619, Wheat Gold Rush Books 137, Graff 2685, Zamorano 80 52, Sloan Volkmann Auction page 185]. Item #13124

Samuel Francis (Frank) Marryat (1826–1855) was a sailor, artist, and author. He was the son of Fredric Marryat, a British Naval Captain and English novelist that knew Charles Dickens and was admired by Samuel Clemens. In 1850, Frank left England for California via Panama with Barnes, a manservant, and three hunting dogs. The intent was to participate in the Gold Rush and write a book about it as "a sportsman-tourist's chronicle of California in the early 1850s: hunting, horse races, bear and bull fights, and an Englishman's bemused comments on social life in San Francisco, Stockton, and the gold fields". Robert Dudley Winthrop (1861 to 1912), decendant of John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay Colony, son of Robert Winthrop, a New York Banker and Capitalist, brother to Beekman Winthrop, governor of Puerto Rico and Secretary to the Navy and also related to former Senator John Kerry.

This book is considered the best edition with the fine colored lithographs. Marryat’s work is one of the best descriptions of life in the mines and his eight colored lithographs, including “High and Dry” and ‘Winter of 1849” are noted by Kurutz as the best views of the time period.

Price: $2,100.00