HOTEL VENDOME. SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA. GEO. P. SNELL, MANAGER. San Francisco: H. S. Crocker & Co., Stationers and Printers, 215, 217 and 219 Bush St., 1891. 19.8x13 cm, pp. [1-3] 4-64, five inserted plates with chromolithograph illustrations, other illustrations from photographs in the text, original pictorial wrappers, stapled. First edition. An elaborate advertising booklet promoting the 150-room grand resort hotel which opened on 7 February 1889, and the Santa Clara Valley, including a long article on the valley and adjacent regions by Hon. Judge [Josiah] Belden (whose 12-acre estate was purchased in 1887 for the site of the hotel). The booklet was probably sponsored by the Southern Pacific Company, specifically their Coast Division. Accompanied by a defective (?) copy (missing one leaf -- pages 5-6) of the 1894 edition (Rocq 14130) which has illustrations that differ considerably from those in the 1891 edition, including a map on the inside front cover (showing the California rail system of the Southern Pacific), floor plans of the hotel and many changed illustrations -- but no color plates. Not much text is missing from pages 5-6 -- leading one to wonder what might be missing in addition to a couple of paragraphs of text, and why the leaf was cut out. See Rocq 14129-14131 (locating editions dated 1893, 1894 and 1897. Cover worn at edges, a good copy. OCLC reports 4 copies of the 1891 edition: New York Historical Society Library; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; California Historical Society; and University of California, Berkeley. (#166309).
Price: $125.00
No statement of printing.