Rare First Edition of America's Earliest Drawing Book to Auction

Nate D Sanders Auctions will offer a rare first edition of Fielding Lucas' Progressive Drawing Book on September 25, the earliest American drawing instruction book predating John Gadsby Chapman's The American Drawing Book by two decades.

Published in Baltimore in 1827 by cartographer and publisher Fielding Lucas Jr., the complete title is Lucas' Progressive Drawing Book, in Three Parts…Consisting Chiefly of Original Views of American Scenery, and Embracing the Latest and Best Improvements in the Mode of Instruction.

Lucas aimed to establish a distinctly American alternative to the drawing books that had gained popularity in England. The book features original American views including The Susquehanna, Mississippi, and Hudson Rivers, ships on the Atlantic Ocean, and Warrior Mountain.

The offered copy is complete with 38 plates, including nine by John H.B. Latrobe that were hand-colored in aquatint by John Hill, along with two reproduction plates (numbers 7 and 15).

Only one copy of the 1827 first edition has appeared at auction in the past 50 years, going fo $88,200 at Christie's in 2022. Bidding begins at $30,000. 

Other highlights from the auction include:

• original Thomas the Tank Engine artwork handdrawn and signed by Timothy Marwood
• an original Charles Schulz handdrawn Peanuts strip from 1959 with a Beethoven theme
• typed letters by John Steinbeck and Joseph Heller
• John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, first edition, first printing, in first printing dust jacket (New York,The Viking Press, 1939)