Rare Book Monthly
Articles - January - 2005 Issue
The AE Top 350 Book Auction Results For 2004!
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There was one sale that went for an even higher price, but it doesn't quite fit the criterion. On December 2, Sotheby's sold the O'Fallon Collection of American Indian Portraits by George Catlin. However, the entire collection was sold as one, rather than individual lots. The price was a staggering $17,368,000.
There are many more intriguing finds as you go through the full list. Quick, what do T.E. Lawrence's (of Arabia) Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a signed Lincoln document concerning the earlier proposed 13th Amendment which would have protected slavery, and Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit have in common? Give up? All sold for $95,600 in 2004. Which will prove to be the best investment? I'd vote for Lincoln, but who knows. Here's an even starker choice. For $268,000 and change, you can have either (1) Versuche uber Pflanzen-Hybriden, Gregor Mendel's book on genetics, or (2) a set of Andy Warhol's signed silkscreens of Mick Jagger. I like Jagger's music, and Warhol as an investment, but would prefer Mendel's book.
There are many other fascinating items in this list. There is a list of property put together by Thomas Jefferson for tax purposes, which includes - this is not pleasant - 85 slaves. There is the log of a transport ship bringing prisoners from England to Australia. Also sold was a rare letter from Jesse James to his stepfather after an attack by Pinkerton agents on the family home. One of only two extant copies of the first American printing of the Book of Common Prayer and Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species went for virtually the same price. John's Western Gallery shows up only one time on this list, but someone picked up a classic piece of the Old West for $115,000 - a diagram of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral drawn by Wyatt Earp. Lawrences Auctioneers broke into the list with a $147,516 copy of The Young Cricketer's Guide...for Playing the Noble and Manly Game of Cricket. For American sports fans, there's Lou Gehrig's 1936 baseball contract with the Yankees (he won the MVP that year). Gehrig was paid for $31,000 for his labors, the previous owner of his contract received $115,000.
There are many more fascinating lots on this list. For a look at the complete Americana Exchange 350 list of the top book auction sales, click this link: AE Top 350.
