New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-05-24
A REMARKABLE BOOK SALE.
THE FIELD COLLECTION TO BE DISPERSED
TO-DAY.

rat;onal r,rroach that effort has been made on
tho mart of the General or any State Government 10
secure and preserve intact tits not mere collection
of nuggets OF books whose rarity or quantness has
made them the object of jealous competition among
bibliomanacs books of which other editions exist |
that will fully supply the want and even Crafty the
taste of a choice student. The collection OF Mr.
Thomas w. Field was made from patriotic motive
and has national value His object was to get TO-
petber AZ far as possible all works bearing on the In
dian tribes of America. No collection of works on
this subject has ever reached the dimensions OF MI
Fields. unless indeed il be that OF Mr. Bancroft OF
San Francisco which is devoted tothc Indians OF the
Pacific coast. 1t puts to shame this department III
all our public libraries, and though it extends to more
than 5000 lots is not. as Mr.. Field himself states
more than the nucleus of what would be complete
indian collection. AS such il would be invaluable
to any State which should take it basis, and by
the additions of successive years make 1t what we
certainly should be able to present somewhere IN
the country perfect collection of works bearing on
the history manners. tribal relations, languages,
myths and antiquities of the primitive dweliers on
this soil Unfortunately, there Is a singular apathy
OH this subject. Collections OF antiquities gathered
in the United States going constantly abroad 10
swell the museums of Europe. The languages OF
Indians who lived our rivers and lakes are better
studied IN Germany than in America. Our bibll-
y
them TO describe our ancient relics, classify our
books make special studies of every kind Mar
CRY can obtain an appropriation from Congress OF
thousands OF dollars TO print manuscripts OF when ne
had already, in many cases sold copies to students
here but nothing is spent to secure what is ready at
hand
Mr. Fields collection comprises works professedly
Oh the Indians in general, any particular trlDe;
works in which any special part is devoted to the
f,oo rlx ali of
works of personal intercourse with Indians as cap
tive or otherwise works with authentic illustra-
tions of Indian lifc works of fiction where the
manners and customs of the red men form the main
topic end lastly works containing grammatical an
ayses or vocabularies of Indian dialects or IAN
guages. rs well as works published in the various
Indian languages Official pubhcaions.torm an I'M
portant class Of works bearing on this tcpc 10 III
tie value has been attached to this species of tera-
ture; il has so generally been scattered broadcast
sent as almost worthless and received at that vaua-
ton that in line when it becomes necessary to refer
to some public document it proves, 10 the dlsnay OF
the student or investigator, that no copy is
accessible. This is the case III many
branches and departments There is hardly
single State or municipal body that can i'll any de-
partrnent show complete set of its own documents
Few States even now have complete set OF the re-
ports of their Adutant Generals during the late war;
What is rua in general is especially true of the H.
dian Depar. ment. Neither that Bureau nor the
Library OF Congress possesses complete set OF the
reports Of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, vet
this is the official record of the relations of the ma
ton to its wards, and consequently one of the all
important collections of material for their history.
II the great Government repositories lack these, the
minor incidental reports will he found still worse
represented. Mr. Fields collection of the reports of
the Commissioners is complete; his array of de-
L al ina to,,t
and in value. To gather them has been a work of
almost inexhaustiblc patience and unlimited time
They are not books that in trade, that You can
90 out and purchase. They are in many cases docu-
ments that you may seek in vain at the depaime
whence they emanated.
Mr. Field il will be seen, collected library for
real use not for show. Yet his collection embraces
many works that will draw to the salesroOm OF
Bangs Merwin & Co. bibophles and amateurs. His
set of De Bry alone is worth pilgrimage to see.
De Bry, with Landonnieres journal in his hand,
Travelled from Holland to London to lie Moine,
the artist of that staIred Hucuenot colony in Flor
ida This brought him in contact with llariot's
Vironia Journal, with Hakuyt, and Sir Walter
Raleigh. Ont Of this fortuitous acquaintance with
what are now States of the Union, Florida and Vr-
ginia arose De Brys great "Feregrinations in In
dian Ocodentalem," issued at FrankiOrt-on-the
Main in 10 volumes folio. This famous work was
not sent forth at once. 1t was labor of time, of
great care and merit in the engrayings and letter
press. Father, son, and grandson successfully I'M
dcrtook the publication, that while the first vol
ume bears the date of $780, it not till Al years
later in 1854, that the thirteenth volume
appeared. As a necessary consequence OF this mode
of publication volumes were bought separately and
sets were rarely complete For generations collectors
have been seeking TO form complete sets. In the
heart of Russia. Baron Soboewski proved himself
most zeaoUs D. Bry hunter For years he searched
and tried by agents in all paris De Bry was his cs-
pecial hobby and his collection was one of acknowl
edged extent and merit III the choice condition Of
the various parts. The SobOlewsk sale brought
petitors from i'll parts but from them all Mr. Field
bore away the prize at the cost of nearly thousand
dollars The SObOlcwski De Bry consisted Of choice
set of the earliest copies from the press, with bril-
liant impressions of the plates but Mr. Field
cot satisfied. There gaps, missing pages, which
Sobolewsl had failed to secure. Mr.. Field set to
work. and the r.,ult is that the magnificent set
TO be sold is Absolutely perfect except two leaves of
letter press in Part -. Is this noble set to 90 back
to Europei Surey some publc-spirited individual,
# Libraries apathetic, Will serve ne eceat on it,
The Eliot Tracts the little priceless works issued
by the Massachusetts, Apostle OF the Indians during
his labor of love among the native tribes of New
England well represented here By five out of the
eleven, and most of these are extremely rare. For
these the competition will be keen and spirited.
These lttle quartos, ranging from eleven pages TO
seventy-siX, viii every one of them Gs1an any bid
that does not approach 800. They are of the vcTi-
est arisocrats in the book line. And if New-En-
gland has such gentry, New-York is not far behind.
Here is a Mohawk prayer-book, turned ont by New
York's first printer, Bradford in l71j. What shall
il be started at When Mr. Field got it, there was
hot agf olb ~ utlo