LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 October Rare Books & Manuscripts #675  / 

30249

1702 Account Page from Albany Merchant's Book

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Paper Start Price:1,800.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
1702 Account Page from Albany Merchant's Book
<B>Rare 1702 Account Page from an Albany Merchant's Book</B></I> with drawings of a beaver, bear and Indians. (Albany, 1702). The sheet measures 12.75" x 8" and was professionally repaired to protect it from further wear or deterioration. The writing appears to be in Dutch but has wonderful detailed markings. The book is attributed to being that of Evert Wendell Jr. who followed his father's footsteps in the fur trade establishing his home on the second ward Serving as constable and juror, in 1694, he was elected assistant alderman. He held that office for several years - during which he was one of those appointed to take a census of the Iroquois. By 1697, his household included six children. Two years later, he joined his neighbors in signing a oath of loyalty to England. Evert Wendell, Jr. filed a will in 1690. He died in June 1702 and was buried from the Albany Dutch church someone undoubtedly continued this ledger after his death. A commercial fur trade in North America grew out of the early contact between Indians and European fisherman who were netting cod on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland and on the Bay of Gaspé near Quebec. Indians traded the pelts of small animals, such as mink, for knives and other iron-based products, or for textiles. Exchange at first was haphazard and it was only in the late sixteenth century, when the wearing of beaver hats became fashionable, that firms were established who dealt exclusively in furs. High quality pelts are available only where winters are severe, so the trade took place predominantly in the regions we now know as Canada, although some activity took place further south along the Mississippi River and in the Rocky Mountains. There was also a market in deer skins that predominated in the Appalachians. By the eighteenth century, the demand for furs in Europe was being met mainly by exports from North America with intermediaries playing an essential role. The American trade, which moved along the main water systems, was organized largely through chartered companies. At the far north, operating out of Hudson Bay, was the Hudson's Bay Company, chartered in 1670. The Compagnie d'Occident, founded in 1718, was the most successful of a series of monopoly French companies. It operated through the St. Lawrence River and in the region of the eastern Great Lakes. There was also an English trade through Albany and New York, and a French trade down the Mississippi. From the Guthman American collection. About fine condition.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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