c.1783 FIRST SUMMARY ACCOUNT OF AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY WAR with MAP & ENGRAVINGS

Description: Allgemeines historisches Taschenbuch oder Abriss der merkwürdigsten neuen Welt-Begebenheiten enthaltend für 1784 die Geschichte der Revolution von Nord-America. Berlin: [for Haude & Spener, 1783] by Mathias Christian Sprengel. 24mo (3 1/8" x 4 3/4"), 18 engraved plates mostly after Daniel Chodowiecki (of which one double-page and 3 hand-colored), hand-colored engraved folding map of North America by Sotzafter after Faden; Contemporary half leather with marbled boards.First edition, "the first summary account of the American Revolution to appear in German after the war" (Wolfenbüttel). The plates chronicle various episodes of the Revolution, beginning with the Stamp Act protests and the Boston Tea Party. Also depicted are scenes of the Battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill (1775); a meeting of the Continental Congress; Washington's defeat of the Hessians at Trenton on Christmas Day 1776; Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga (1777); Franklin presenting his credentials at the Court of Versailles (1778); the landing of the French fleet in Rhode Island (1780); the arrest of Major John André (1780), Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown (1781); and the British surrender and evacuation of New York (1783). There is also a group portrait of Washington, General Gage, Franklin in his coonskin cap, Henry Laurens as president of the Continental Congress, and John-Paul Jones, and a double-page plate of coinage.Most notable are the three color plates at the end, which includes what is generally regarded as the first accurate published view of the American flag. The flag bears thirteen stripes in a red, blue, and white sequence and a blue canton with thirteen stars arranged in a 3-2-3-2-3 pattern; below it is a similarly treated pennant. The other two plates pair Washington in his Continental uniform with that of his Life Guard, the other depicts a sharpshooter in a rustic white uniform (most likely a Morgan rifleman) with a regular in the Pennsylvania infantry. REFERENCEChurch 1207; Howes S846; Revolutionary Hundred 77; Sabin 89755; Wolfenbüttel, The New World in the Treasures of an Old European Library 228

Price: 7500 USD

Location: Providence, Rhode Island

End Time: 2024-10-20T00:11:44.000Z

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