On the crowded planes fired from distant places, rifle shots of people determined to have fun and heading for the Las Vegas bulls eye - McCarran Airport, are warming up in expectation of becoming overheated once they reach the strip. The flights are the dead spot that precedes the hoped for euphoria. Whether the draw is the gambling, the girls or adventure, everyone has a reason for going, an objective. Even the prissy sorts that will soon parade their “I’m not doing this or that” are part of the tapestry. Howard Hughes, it turns out, had a good eye for depravity and we, today’s recruits, will spill our credit cards in obeisance whether we gamble or not. We are heading into an America with its hair down.
So it was recently that I visited Vegas, the trip the prize for my wife reaching a signal level of years. Her wish was to bring in our families for a memorable long weekend and two weeks ago we did just that.
As a person good with numbers the probabilities for me outweighed the possibilities so I used my free time to visit old and rare book dealers. What I found were three companies working their opportunities, each in different ways.
I first visited Bauman Rare Books, the Philadelphia based upscale booksellers with locations on the upper east side in Manhattan and on the strip in Las Vegas at the Gallery – The Shoppes at the Palazzo. Their facility here is serious, the shelves lined with the visually appealing as well as the historically significant. The presentation is very “A” scale and the audience, more often than not, the well-to-do cardiologist, psychiatrist, broadcast anchor, businessman or movie star. They are located at 3327 Las Vegas Boulevard, Suite 2856 and keep open-every-day Vegas hours, that is open 5 days a week from 10:00 am to 11:00 pm and on Friday and Saturdays 10:00 am to midnight. The audience tends to change dramatically from week to week and so inventory is airlifted in to put a first of Common Sense in front of lawyers, Freud’s firsts in front of psychiatrists, and rare cookbooks in front of chefs. It is altogether a smart way to sell books, customizing the inventory and making it visible along the route that the world’s talent takes in its circumnavigations of the Las Vegas bubble.
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.
