Mr. Hardy Lee, His Yacht: being XXIV sketches on stone by "Chinks"
Boston: Club of Odd Volumes, 1950. First Edition Thus Limited to 150 Copies. Facsimile edition of the rare (less than a dozen copies known to exist) 1857 edition with an introduction by Alexander Crosby Brown. Oblong quarto; [32]pp. Features 24 sepia caricatures by the author depicting sailing scenes and the tall ships of the period. A Near Fine copy in illustrated light blue paper-covered boards, navy blue spine titled in gold (light spotting inside front cover & ffep). The limited reprint of one of the first books on yachting in America. Item #22573
Charles Ellery Stedman was from a Massachusetts family dating back to the Colonial period. He graduated from Harvard in 1855 and became a doctor in Boston. A navy surgeon during the Civil War, Charles Stedman remains well known amongst collectors of Civil War memorabilia for his pencil sketches during the War that provide an intimate, first-hand glimpse of events in the Union Navy during that period. Stedman's original drawings for "Mr. Hardy Lee, his Yacht..." depicts a prominent Bostonian who builds a yacht and then takes groups of ladies yachting. His illustrations, converted to sepia lithographs, include the interior of a shipbuilding shop, the schooner sailing, and a view of the Boston Harbor with the becalmed yacht. It has been alleged but not proven that Winslow Homer did the lithography for this publication.
Price: $200.00