Page 107 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript Americana - Sale 2310 - April 16, 2013

225 ● (NEW YORK CITY.) Pair of Bleecker auction catalogues for sale of
property in Harlem and what is now Penn Station. 21 maps, total. 4to, original
printed wrappers, worn, disbound; earlier catalogue has tape repairs and is lacking its rear
wrapper; the upper corner of the second catalogue has been excised without loss of text.
As both of these catalogues appear to be unique, we have no way of determining whether
they are complete. New York, 1835-52 [600/900]
Each catalogue consists of a printed front wrapper and a group of disbound printed plat maps,
with pencil notations on the purchasers and sale prices. The earlier one, issued by James
Bleecker & Sons for a 1 September 1835 auction, includes 7 folding maps, most of them
showing land between 5th and 7th Avenues and 105th and 116th Streets, around what is
now the northern edge of Central Park. One map shows 161 parcels of land where
Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden now stand.
The second catalogue is titled “Large and Peremptory Sale of About 325 Harlem Building
Lots,” and was issued by Anthony J. Bleecker for a 14 April 1852 sale. Its 14 single-page
maps cover land east of 2nd Avenue between 113th and 122nd Streets.
226 ● (NORTH CAROLINA.) Laws of North-Carolina, at a General Assembly . . .
on the Seventh Day of July. Folio, unbound, on 3 sheets; stitch holes in margins, foxing,
minor soiling, edge wear. Newbern, NC: Francois X. Martin, 1794 [700/1,000]
Includes an act granting control to the federal government of Fort Johnston on Cape Fear River
and of the lighthouse at Cape Hatteras; and also two long acts regulating the state militia.
Evans 27425.
“HAVE BUT LITTLE TO SAY TO YOUNG NEGROES”
227 ● (NORTH CAROLINA.) Potts, Joshua. Information and Advice of Joshua
Potts to his Son. 2 manuscript pages, 13 x 73/4 inches, plus integral address leaf; worn and
dampstained, but complete and legible.
Smithville (now Southport), NC, October 1818 [300/400]
Joshua Potts was a Wilmington surveyor who founded the nearby town of Southport, NC.
This letter was apparently written on his deathbed to his ten-year-old son Robert James Potts
(born 1808), who was being sent off to live with relatives: “We have severally bestowed on you
and your brother . . . all that could be saved in the unfortunate life which your parents have
experienced. . . . The value of them may rise by the time you and your brother may arrive to
age of freedom.” In order to preserve what was left of the family’s social stature, Joshua advises:
“Keep good company, and as there will be many white boys about your age for you to play
with, you will have but little to say to young Negroes; and never quarrel with nor strike them.”
The family’s story was told in Susan Carson’s 1992 book, “Joshua’s Dream: A Town With
Two Names: A Story of Old Southport.”
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