Search Results: Titles starting with O from Kurt A. Sanftleben, LLC

Three sketchbooks created by a budding artist who later found success as a commercial illustrator of horse races, trucks, and railroad trains.These 8" x 11" standard-size spiral notebooks contain a total of approximately 425 pages, almost all filled with detailed pencil sketches of construction sites. Photographs and clippings from magazines and newspapers are both laid in and attached to about ten pages. Among the many projects documented in the sketchbooks are work at Gifforf Pinchot State Park, the expressway that would become Interstate 83, filtering basins for the P. H. Gatfelter Co., the Quarryville Sr. High School, U.S. 30 and 230, Borg-Warner Corporation headquarters, etc. The vehicles and equipment in Karsten's drawings are usually annotated with company, manufacturer, numbering, and/or license information. The sketches and photographs are all in nice shape. The clippings have tape stains, Karsten was a talented artist from York, Pennsylvania whose works have appeared on national magazine… Read More

Retsoff, New York to Springboro, Pennsylvania, 1888. Envelope or Cover. Very good. This grouping contains a March 10th, 1888, bill of lading from the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad Company and a shipping notice from Foster & Brown, agents of the "Retsof Mining Co., Miners and Shippers of Salt," dated March 14, 1888 along with the two-cent green stamped envelope used for mailing. All in nice shape. Until the late 1800s, the need for salt in New York was met primarily by using brine springs near Syracuse. However, in 1882, an amateur geologist named Carroll Cocher predicted that there were vast underground deposits of salt in Livingston County. He obtained funding from several New York City investors and dug test wells that discovered a massive vein of salt 1,000 feet below the surface. The principal investor, William Foster, became president of the mining company which he named Retsof, i.e. Foster spelled backwards. Foster and the Retsof Mining Company built a company village, Retsof, near… Read More

Spooner, Wisconsin, 1905.
Four card-mounted photographs, each measuring approximately 7" x 5". One of the cards is blind-stamped "L. L. Richardson, Spooner, Wis." and one has a later annotation on the reverse, "Shell Lake Lumber / Spooner, Wisconsin." The photographs are in nice shape; there is some wear and soiling to the cards; one card has a marginal dampstain.
The photographs show:
* Seven lumberjacks posed on a small dock with an axe, adze, and two-man crosscut saw,
* Five lumberjacks resting on a large log in front of what appears to be a very large hoist or crane,
* Two lumberjacks posing in front of a 15-foot high log pile taking a break from stripping bark, and
* Two lumberjacks posing with a two-horse team in a snowy clearing. L. L. Richardson was a Walworth County photographer who worked from a shop in Spooner between 1905 and 1906.
Shell Lake Lumber was the largest lumbering company in the region during the early 1900s. The rivers and streams in this area of Wisconsin were not suitable… Read More

New York: Firth, Pond & Co, 1853. First Printing. Sheet Music. Very Good. First printing of Stephen Foster's classic minstrel song, "Old Dog Tray." Meets all points listed on pp 39-40 of Whittlesey and Sonneck including the ornamental border and song No. 18 listed below Foster's name. 6 pages including the cover. Untrimmed, but once bound so the left edge is a little rough. Clean with some very light marginal smudges on page 3. Written by Foster while under contract with Christy's Minstrel's and during the period he composed his most popular songs ("The Old Folks at Home," "Camptown Races," "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair," and "My Old Kentucky Home").

Camp Lucas (St. Louis), Missouri to Warren Court House, Pennsylvania, 1847.
This one-page stampless folded letter measures 15.5" x 10" unfolded. It is dated "Camp Lucas May 30th 1847." The cover must have been delivered by hand, outside of the postal system, as it is unfranked and bears no postmarks. It is in nice shape. A transcript is included as is a copy of Masters's service summary showing he was assigned to Lt. Col. Powell's Missouri Volunteers.
In the letter John Masters informs his father that he has been appointed an ensign in "1st Battalion of St. Louis Volunteers, Comp (E)" and will be departing for Santa Fe the next morning. He asks his father to pay a $15 debt he incurred with a St. Louisan and informs him to address future letters to him in care of the battalion at Santa Fe, noting that mail for Santa Fe departs St. Louis on a monthly basis.
Masters's official military records show that he had enlisted as a private in Lt. Col I. E. Powell's Battalion of Missouri Mounted Volunteers (also… Read More

Unlisted Publisher, 1861. Map. Very Good. Map size - 7.75"x9". Leaf size - 9"x10.5". Clean with some folds; probably from a book. Very short closed tear at right margin; small piece of tape on reverse. Uncommon Civil War map showing the Battle of Port Royal. Publisher unknown, but probably contemporary. The Battle of Port Royal was one of the earliest amphibious operations of the American Civil War, in which a United States Navy fleet and United States Army expeditionary force captured Port Royal Sound, South Carolina, between Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina, on November 7, 1861. The sound was guarded by two forts on opposite sides of the entrance, Fort Walker on Hilton Head Island to the south and Fort Beauregard on Phillip's Island to the north.