Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2004 Issue

A Collection for the Ages<br>From The 19th Century Shop

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For those with a literary interest, 19th Century offers a set of Henrik Ibsen first editions, including Hedda Gabler, A Doll’s House, and four more. $15,000. Or, you can find the earliest publication of selections from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden. Two essays, entitled The Iron Horse and A Poet Buying a Farm, were published in the July and August 1852 issues of Sartain’s Union Magazine. Thoreau would go on to publish this material in the book Walden two years later, while Sartain’s would fold after the August issue. Also in these volumes is the first publishing of Jules Verne in America in the article A Voyage in a Balloon. $2,200.

Turning to the political, there’s a signed manuscript draft of an editorial from famed newspaperman William Randolph Hearst. From 1933, Hearst reacts to Hitler’s takeover of Germany. He warns Americans to be vigilant in preserving their democracy, or they too may lose their liberty, “the most precious possession of mankind.” $7,500.

Finally, we turn to some documents from the second half of the 20th century. We have a signed presentation copy of Winston Churchill’s 6-volume The Second World War. $7,500. Moving from the largest to the smallest documents, there’s a ticket to the 1956 Notre Dame-Michigan State football game, signed by Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy and then current Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson. $1,200. For fans of the theater, there’s an early mimeographed script for the original off-Broadway production of the musical Hair. $3,500. And there’s a 1962 first-day postcard from Satellite Beach, Florida, containing the signatures of all seven of the original Mercury astronauts. Included are Alan Shepard, the first American in space, Gus Grissom, the second, and John Glenn, first American in orbit. Documents containing all seven signatures are uncommon as Grissom died in a terrible launch pad fire in 1967. $9,500.

The 19th Century Shop can be found online at www.19thcenturyshop.com or reached by phone at 410-727-2665.

Rare Book Monthly

  • ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.
    ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections
    Open for Bidding 2-17 April
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun]. Le Roman de la Rose, [Geneva or Lyons, c.1481], first printed edition of the most important medieval French vernacular poem. £200,000 to £300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Castiglione. Il libro del cortegiano. [Venice], April 1528, first edition, in a magnificent binding by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Jacobus de Cessolis. Schachzabelbuch, Strasbourg, 1483, von der Lasa copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: World Championship, 1972. A collection of 84 press photographs of the famed match between Spassky and Fischer. £2,000 to £3,000.
    Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Ben Franklin. Autograph letter signed, to Lord Shelburne, British Prime Minister, during peace negotiations, November 1782. £15,000 to £20,000.

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