Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - December - 2012 Issue

25 Unusual Items from Simon Beattie

A very large number 05.

Simon Beattie recently issued his Short List 5. Considering the catalogue is 16” in height, it doesn't much look like a short list, but inside reveals just 25 items in this oversized publication. Beattie reports that it took him a year to find these 25 items, and they are such an odd mix we are not surprised. Though located in England, much of what Beattie offers comes from Russia, Germany, and France, and sometimes from places, at least spiritually, hard to pinpoint. If you enjoy the eclectic, you will like Beattie's catalogues. These are some samples of the 25.

Here is an item you probably don't have, unless, perhaps, you lived in the old Soviet Union, and even then, probably not. It is titled (sort of) Slava nebesnym brat'iam... or, in English, “Glory to our heavenly brothers! Verse and songs of Soviet cosmonauts.” The Soviets didn't have a lot of triumphs over the West in scientific and other such endeavors, but they did manage to get out first in space. They had the first satellite, and in the year before this was published - 1962 – they put the first man in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. That was worth some poems and songs, and this one contains some memorable ones, such as Fourteen minutes to liftoff, and The blue planet. March of the Soviet Cosmonauts. The latter was first sung by the multi-talented cosmonaut Pavel Popovich, eighth man in space. Item 7. Priced at £750 (British pounds or $1,202 in U.S. currency).

Here is a piece which is hard to fathom. Is it a touching tribute or an item of tacky “humor?” It is described as a “most worthy memorial of compassion.” Seeing that the poem on the second of the two leaves was written by a local preacher, Christoph Bezzel, it was probably a tribute, though one can't help but wonder what was this man thinking. The tribute is to Anna Maria Loffelholz von Colberg, who died in June of 1727. After her death, an enormous kidney stone weighing 14 ounces was removed from her body (why didn't they remove it before she died when it might have helped her?). The first leaf reproduces a life-size engraving of the kidney stone. Beattie notes, “If the reproduction of the stone seems ghoulish, the poem appears equally tasteless to modern sensibilities.” Bezzel seems to make puns using the word for “stone” (stein) such as she came from Holenstein, lived in Steinach, and so on. Item 16. £850 (US $1,363).

Here is another touching piece with a bit of a twist. It is a manuscript “book of daily worship” dated May 1, 1832. It was created by Stanislaw Debicki for his wife while in exile in France. Debicki had participated in the November Uprising, an unsuccessful attempt by members of the Polish military against Russian rule. Many of the soldiers made their way west to France rather than face the terrible consequences awaiting them at the hands of the Russians. Debicki has supplemented his handwritten text with 9 mounted engravings taken from elsewhere. However, it appears that, while evidently devoted to his wife, Debicki was a bit of a rogue. He made his money in France by cheating other people out of theirs. He claimed at times that he was a count, a major in the U.S. Army, and a member of the Legion of Honor. He was deported in 1848. By 1863, a note on the verso of the title page indicates the book had reached English bookseller J.A. Grimes of the East End bookshop. Grimes said he picked up the book in hopes of finding someone in the family, “to whom it must, I think, be considered a treasure.” Beattie continues the search. Item 8. £1,200 (US $1,924).

Item 10 is a pair of rebuses, the first theoretically a letter from a sailor at sea to his sweetheart back home, the second her reply. “Rebus” is one of those words you may not know, but you instantly recognize one when you see it. It is where pictures are used in place of some of the letters or words. I struggle to figure out the meaning of most of these images, perhaps because the English language was not quite the same in 1799 when these were printed, though the picture of an eye for the word “I” is an obvious one still used today. These two sheets, published by Laurie & Whittle of Fleet Street, London, appear very rare, only one uncolored copy showing up on OCLC (these have been colored). The two pieces are headed A Hieroglyphic Epistle and A Hieroglyphic Answer. £2,500 (US $4,009).

Item 20 is a book you are not supposed to see, but the purchaser will have a chance anyway. It is the second, expanded edition of the “infamous” Polunbi-Katalog. “Polunbi” stood for German Central Police Bureau for Combating Obscene Pictures, Books, and Advertisements. Evidently there was a lot of that stuff in 1926 decadent Weimar Germany. This book describes thousands of confiscated pieces and whether they were removed from circulation or cleaned up. The preface notes that it is “to be regarded as a secret file and therefore to be kept under constant lock and key.” If lost, the number of the copy had to immediately be turned over to the Central Police Bureau. Beattie notes, “As one might expect, the book is extremely rare.” £1,500 (US $2,406).

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.

Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions