• 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.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - April - 2017 Issue

Music, Art, Literature, Film and More from Schubertiade Music & Arts

Music and art from Schubertiade.

Schubertiade Music & Arts issued a catalogue for the 2017 New York Antiquarian Book Fair. Schubertiade, not surprisingly, considering their namesake is Franz Schubert, specializes in music, but other art forms are also well represented. Literature, film, theater, dance, painting & drawing, history, and culture are also to be found. Within music, there is a range from classical to jazz to Broadway, and even rock (the Beatles and Bob Dylan). There is both printed material and personal manuscripts to be found. Here are a few samples from the catalogue.

 

First up we have the musical score to the Broadway play Show Boat, published in 1928. Show Boat was something of a breakthrough, a musical play more realistic than the typical lighthearted musical fare of the the day. It takes place on a "showboat," sort of a floating theater that plied some of America's rivers in the 19th century, the Mississippi in particular. The lyrics to the music were written by Oscar Hammerstein while the music was penned by Jerome Kern. The most famous song to emerge from the play was Ol' Man River. Show Boat was based on a book of the same name by Edna Ferber. This copy contains humorous inscriptions by Hammerstein and Kern to Samuel Marx. Samuel wasn't a Marx brother, but he was a film producer and screenwriter who had a long career in Hollywood. There is also a mounted letter from Ms. Ferber to Marx in the book. While Kern is best known for his music, in the book world he is known for his exquisite timing, selling his book collection at the peak in 1929, shortly before the stock market crash, which would depress prices for decades. Item 37. Priced at $6,500.

 

Item 3 presents an extensive look at most of the life of the noted mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian. Her talents were such that numerous writers composed music for her, including her first husband, Luciano Berio, and Igor Stravinsky. Berberian was American born and went to school in New York, where she met another student, David Greene. They became lifelong friends, and even if personal visits were few, they corresponded for the remainder of her life. Offered is an archive of 88 letters she wrote to Greene, who would become a professor, writer and critic, from 1948-1982 (she died in 1983). In 1948, she visited Paris, where she came to recognize her opportunities: "I have a charming voice of a quality rare, artistic nature and infinite possibilities of future. With study I can become one of the great singers of our time." She determined to return to Europe, which she did in 1949, choosing Milan. While she would return to America on occasion to perform, Milan would be home for the remainder of her life. She married Berio in 1950 (they divorced in 1964), and her letters to Greene cover the growing success, mature career, and personal doings of Berberian through the rest of her life. $15,000.

 

Item 77 is original sheet music for Slavery Chains Am Broke At Last, lyrics by James A. Bland, music by Samuel Butler, published in 1880. This may be the only song celebrating the end of slavery by the prolific songwriter Bland. He was the first well-known African-American songwriter, though it is doubtful that many of the whites who loved his songs were aware of his race. Some of his songs still familiar today include Carry Me Back to Old Virginny, Oh! Dem Golden Slippers, and Hand Me Down My Walking Cane. Despite the success of some of his songs, and his being more appreciated when he toured overseas than he was in his homeland, Bland's life ended in obscurity and poverty. This piece was dedicated to Billy Kersands, perhaps the most successful of the black minstrel performers, who gave Bland his musical start. $350.

 

Next we turn to a work of art, of sorts. Perhaps comic art would describe these two ink drawings better. The artist was Elizabeth Tatham, who lived in Victorian England. We don't know much more about her, other than she possessed artistic talents and a sense of humor. One of the drawings is dated – 1868. In her pictures, Ms. Tatham pokes fun at the then very popular chignon hair style. This is where hair is coiled up in a bun at the back of the head. During this time, the chignons kept getting larger, with clips and other decorations placed within them. One of the drawings is labeled "Next hideous 'Sensation Chignon.'" In this one, a giant insect is clipped to the wearer's chignon. The other drawing is labeled "Horrible idea suggested by the Twisted Chignon." In this one, a coiled snake is placed in the coiled hair. Item 55. $1,400.

 

Item 80 is a copy of Die Unbesungen Helden (the unsung heroes), a 1957 book by Kurt Grossmann. Grossman's book is about German resisters during the war, heroes who resisted Nazi atrocities despite the personal risk at which it placed them. One of those resisters was Oskar Schindler, whose heroic actions were made known to the public through the Steven Spielberg 1993 movie Schindler's List. Schindler and his wife, Emilie, saved the lives of 1,200 Jews who worked in his factory from death in the concentration camps. It required all of his ingenuity, plus numerous bribes that dissipated his wealth, to protect his workers from extermination until liberation finally arrived. This book is remarkable as it is the only known book signed by Schindler. He has inscribed this copy to his wife in 1957, with the words (translated from German), "To my dear Mily in remembrance of her courageous time." $20,000.

 

Item 70 is the rare print of Paul Gachet's Vincent Van Gogh on his Deathbed, this copy inscribed by the artist to his son. Gachet (who used the name Paul van Ryssel for his artworks), was Van Gogh's physician. He had treated Van Gogh in a hospital a few weeks earlier. On July 27, 1890, Van Gogh, depressed through much of his life, shot himself with a revolver. He lingered for two days, and Gachet treated him as best he could. However, infections set in, and Van Gogh wished to die anyway. Gachet, who had become Van Gogh's personal friend and was deeply upset by his death, sketched two versions of this final remembrance. $10,000.

 

Schubertiade Music & Arts can be reached at 617-308-4019 or schubertiademusic@gmail.com. Their website is www.shubertiademusic.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
  • 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

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