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AMERICA - WAR OF INDEPENDENCE DONKIN (MAJOR R.) Military Collections and Remarks, FIRST EDITION, New York, H. Gaine, 1777 image 1
AMERICA - WAR OF INDEPENDENCE DONKIN (MAJOR R.) Military Collections and Remarks, FIRST EDITION, New York, H. Gaine, 1777 image 2
AMERICA - WAR OF INDEPENDENCE DONKIN (MAJOR R.) Military Collections and Remarks, FIRST EDITION, New York, H. Gaine, 1777 image 3
Lot 2

AMERICA - WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
DONKIN (MAJOR R.) Military Collections and Remarks, FIRST EDITION, New York, H. Gaine, 1777

27 November 2018, 13:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £7,500 inc. premium

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AMERICA - WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

DONKIN (MAJOR R.) Military Collections and Remarks, FIRST EDITION, engraved frontispiece, 19-page list of military or naval subscribers, footnote on p.190 excised as usual, some foxing, frontispiece near detached and with damp spots causing loss at edges, clean tear to L1 without loss, contemporary speckled calf, joints split, some loss to spine [Howes D422; Sabin 20598], 8vo, New York, H. Gaine, 1777

Footnotes

As with most other surviving copies of this scarce work by a survivor of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, ours has had the controversial footnote on p.190 excised by the printer. In the note Major Donkin foresaw the use of biological warfare, albeit with the intention of causing disarray rather than infection: "Dip arrows in matter of small-pox and twang them at the American rebels in order to inoculate them; this would sooner disband these stubborn, ignorant, enthusiastic savages than any other compulsive measures. Such is their dread and fear of that disorder".

The list of subscribers includes soldiers from the Royal Fencible Americans, the Queen's American Rangers and the Prince of Wales's American Volunteers.

Provenance: Thomas Hopkins, Newland, Gloucestershire, bookplate. See illustration overleaf.

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