Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2015 Issue

Michael S. Kemp Bookseller Offers a Wide Variety of Material

Michael Kemp's Catalogue 80.

This month we received out first catalogue from Michael S. Kemp Bookseller. It is his Catalogue 80. We are a little late to the game, as Kemp has been selling books since 1979. He is located in Sheerness, a town on an island in northern Kent, England. Naturally, English material would predominate, but as we shall soon see, it is not exclusive. What you will find in Kemp's catalogue is a lot of rare if not unique items, mostly books and other works on paper, but there is an occasional non-paper item, such as an 1840 Charles Tilt child's bookcase. Here are a few of the varied works we find in this 80th catalogue from Michael Kemp.

 

We start with the first item in the catalogue and it is totally American. It is an album of 50 mounted (and one loose) cartes de viste from the Civil War era. Cartes de vistes are portrait photo cards, usually of notable celebrities, that were passed around. They were sort of the baseball cards of their day. They took advantage of the relatively new medium – photography – to let people see what the personalities about whom they read looked like. This collection is a who's who of the time, featuring many generals, on both sides of the conflict, presidents and other leaders, and a few others, such as one of Longfellow and one of Longfellow's daughters. There are numerous generals from both sides, some well remembered, others not. From the Union side we find Halleck, Burnside, Hooker, Fremont, Banks, Pope, Butler and McClellan, who would unsuccessfully attempt to unseat Lincoln in the 1864 election. Strangely missing is one U.S. Grant. Union admirals include Wilkes and Farragut. The Confederates didn't have much of a navy, but they had generals, and this collection includes Lee, Jackson, Beauregard, and Magruder. Presidents, naturally enough, include Lincoln, but we also find cards for former Presidents Van Buren, Pierce, and Jackson. For Jackson, it is the 1844 Mathew Brady portrait, taken just as photography was being born and Jackson was about to die. Other notable political leaders are Seward, Stanton, Everett and Sumner. From the Confederate side we find their President, Jefferson Davis, along with Breckenridge, Slidell and Mason. Another card features the Beechers – Dr. Lyman, Rev. Henry, and Mrs. Harriet Stowe. Priced at £3,250 (British pounds, or roughly $5,084 U.S. dollars).

 

Before Noah Webster, even before Samuel Johnson, there was Nathan Bailey. Bailey was a lexicographer who expanded the art to include many more common terms, prior English dictionaries having focused on technical words. Item 5 is a second edition of his dictionary (1736), Dictionarium Britannicum: or a More Compleat Universal Etymological Dictionary Than Any Extant... which would appear in 30 editions through 1802, though Bailey died in 1742. It was the most popular dictionary of its time, and is generally regarded as the best until Johnson came along. £420 (US $657).

 

Item 24 is a 10-volume collection of the works of Aelius (or Claudius) Galenus, better known simply as Galen. It was published in 1597, though this date would have been the distant future to Galen who died sometime around the year 200. Galen was knowledgeable in several fields, but his greatest specialty was medicine. His teaching dominated the field until the second half of the second millennium, an example of how slow progress was for around 1,500 years. Obviously, Galen lacked the resources later physicians would have, and lived under the theories of his day. He understood the need for first-hand observation of anatomy, but dissection of humans was prohibited in the Rome of his time so he was forced to use animals. Galen got some things right, a lot of things wrong, but it would take many years for modern medical researchers to improve on what Galen offered and replace his theories where they were mistaken. The title of this 1597 set is Galeni. Opera ex Septima Iuntarium Edione. £2,750 (US $4,303).

 

Item 20 is an amazing collection of illustrations, Nature Printing in Many and Diverse Ways, published in 1878. It contains 36 nature prints, 31 etchings, and 10 original drawings. It was the work of Richard Cockle Lucas, who started as a sculptor but evolved to producing various forms of art. He was also noted as a very eccentric individual, riding around the streets of his town in a Roman Chariot (Galen could have gotten away with this, but not someone living in 19th century Britain). Nature printing involves the inking of specimens, most frequently botanical ones, and printing directly from them. The process became particularly popular during the 1850's, but faded from use because of its high cost. This was evidently not so much of a concern for Lucas who was printing on a very small scale. Lucas expanded nature printing from just a means of creating a more accurate representation of the subject to a form of art. He would apply different colors to the leaves, overlay one impression with another, or add his pen work. It appears that each copy was unique, as might be expected from such a work, with the overall number quite small. £15,000 (US $23,476).

 

What could provide an even more accurate representation of a specimen than nature printing? The answer is the specimen itself. Item 21 is Algae Hibernicae by William M'Calla, two volumes published in 1845 and 1848. Each of these volumes contains 50 leaves (paper leaves, that is) with a mounted specimen. Page leaves contain a printed name and location for the specimen. Some of the smaller specimens are housed in a pocket attached to the page. The specimens are described as being "in excellent state of preservation." £9,750 (US $15,257).

 

Michael S. Kemp Bookseller may be reached at +44 (0) 1795 663675 or orders@kempbooksellers.co.uk. The website is found at www.michaelkemp.co.uk

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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.
  • 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

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