Lot 129: The top sheet of the famous Ratzer Map - with additions relating to an 1810 real estate dispute

RATZER, BERNARD. Plan of the City of New York, in North America surveyed in the Years 1766 & 1767. [London: Jefferys & Faden, 12 January 1776.] Engraved map with hand coloring and manuscript annotations, old linen backing, an autograph document laid down to verso, the document signed "In Chancery," "A. Bleecker," [New York,] 20 July 1810, the hand coloring, the manuscript annotations, and the document relate to a real estate dispute. 24 1/4 x 35 1/2 inches (62 x 90.5 cm) visible area. Displayed in a double-sided frame. Old folds with small losses at vertices, light toning, a few creases and pale stains, dampstaining along the lower edge, ink stains to linen backing, not examined out of frame.

The top sheet of the famous Ratzer Map, used to facilitate the resolution of a real estate dispute over Kips Bay in 1810. A fascinating survival, attesting to the overall accuracy and continued usefulness of Bernard Ratzer's map of New York City as it appeared in the mid 1760s. Using the top sheet only, Anthony Bleecker, New York's Examiner in Chancery, marks the extent of several properties in modern-day Murray Hill and Kips Bay to adjudicate a land dispute. At the top right corner, several areas have been colored with a key added below noting the locations of "Rose Hill," "Kipp's Bay," and "Bridgen's." A small tract, delineated in orange beside the Eastern Post Road or "Road to Kings Bridge," is identified in the key as "Lotts offered to Tibes," and another small section marked in light blue, located fronting the East River and carved out of "Kipps Farm," is a "Lot sold Coster." On the verso, Anthony Bleecker certifies that "Interrogatories were filed in my office on the part of the Defendants in this Suit … to be examined on the part of the complainants and that within it the original… referred to in the Said Interrogatories and deposed unto by Francis B. Winthrop, James A. Stewart, John R. Murray, Elbert Kip, Henry Brevoort, Henry Cruger, Theodorus Bailey[,] Silvanus Miller and David Hosack…." At present, the resolution of the case remains unknown, but as the case was being considered by the Court of Chancery, Cornelius Kip took out an advertisement offering "Houses & Land, at Kip's Bay, for Sale" located on the "corner of the Main Road and Louisa-street, opposite the pond…." The offering also included "a handsome lot situated on the East River, near the seat of Mr. Henry A. Coster, one hundred feet on the East River…" among other properties and structures. (New-York Evening Post, 12 July 1810, p. 3) A fascinating piece chronicling the development of Kips Bay, worthy of further research.