• <center><b>Gonnelli<br>Auction 41<br>Books, Autographs & Manuscripts<br>March 21st-23rd 2023</b>
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Nabokov, <i>Lolita,</i> 1955. First edition, mint copy. Starting price 1900€
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Marinetti, <i>Zang Tumb Tuuum,</i> 1914. First edition. Starting price 1600€
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> A collection of <i>Playboy,</i> starting price from 20€
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Kepler, <i>Dioptrice,</i> 1611. First edition. Starting price 9500€
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Barbault, <i>Les plus beaux Monuments de Rome,</i> 1761-1766. Starting price 5500€
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Watson, <i>Dendrologia Britannica,</i> 1825. Starting price 380€
  • <b><center>Koller Auctions<br>Books & Autographs<br>29 March 2023</b>
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> DADA - <i>Cabaret Voltaire.</i> A collection of artistic and literary contributions. Edited by Hugo Ball. CHF 5,000 to 8,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> EXPRESSIONISM - <i>Der Sturm.</i> Weekly magazine for culture and the arts. Almost complete suite from the years 1910 to 1932. CHF 20,000 to 30,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> LISBON EARTHQUAKE - <i>Augsburg collection of copper engravings of Lisbon. CHF 40,000 to 60,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> Hamilton, William. <i>Campi Phlegraei. Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies as they have been communicated to the Royal Society of London.</i> Naples, 1776-1779. CHF 50,000 to 70,000.
    <b><center>Koller Auctions<br>Books & Autographs<br>29 March 2023</b>
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> Leonardi, Domenico Felice. <i>Le Delizie della villa di Castellazzo descritte in verso dall'abbate Domenico Felice Leonardi lucchese fra gli Arcadi Ildosio Foloetico.</i> Milan, 1743. CHF 12,000 to 18,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> Zwingli, Huldrych. <i>Von erkiesen und freyhait der speisen. Von ergernusz und Verbößerung. Ob man gewalt hab die speyß zu etlichen zeyten verbieten [...]</i>. CHF 2,500 to 4,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> HENDRIK VAN VULLENHOE, UMKREIS. Benedictional and other texts for Johannes von Venningen, Bishop of Basel. Latin manuscript on parchment. CHF 50,000 to 80,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> Gujer, Hans Rudolf. Master typist's book by Hans Rudolf Gujer from Wermetschweil (Wermatswil). German manuscript on paper. CHF 3,000 to 5,000.

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - April - 2013 Issue

Dorothy Sloan Auction No. 23:  an important sale

Sloananim1

Selected images from Auction No. 23

The Dorothy Sloan Auction No. 23 of Americana approaches. The sale will be on April 4th and 5th, 2013. These sales, one or so a year, are prepared with a care most associated with the skeptic.  Auctions are resurrections, the always-uncertain process of reconfirmation.  Fates will be decided in the rooms but this does not mean that the lawyerly Ms. Sloan will leave any information about the lots in the docket unstated.  She always makes her case and it makes her a creditable advocate for sellers and a trusted source for buyers.  She takes this seriously, as interested for the buyer and always makes the best case for ‘life goes on’ even as title is transferred.  To do this she employs detailed descriptions, a firm starting bid and high estimate.  The starting bid is her view of ‘wholesale’ and the high estimate what she believes is ‘retail’.  She has been doing this a long time and is the Meryl Streep of extraordinary cataloguing, her auction catalogues always among the best of the close to one thousand that are issued each year.  No. 23 is no exception.

Her sale this year, two years in the making, is a 600 lot foray, its focus on Americana with an emphasis on Texas, Mexico, California, the Trans-Mississippi West, and the Borderlands.  “Maps are a strong element, including early maps of America, California as an Island, Delisle’s 1718 Carte de la Louisiane, and the first printed map to name Texas.  Books of course are not over-looked.  Zamorano 80 volumes and plate books as well as important Texas printings are abundant.

Condition runs the gamut from very good to excellent along with a few exceptions for material such as lot 384, an early map of Stockton, California that exists in only a few copies.  For exceptional rarity Ms. Sloan will make the exception.

Befitting Ms. Sloan’s co-commitments to the past and the future the material on offer is consistently appealing and the online catalogue lush, most items illustrated with many images.  The world has shifted and continues to shift but for Ms. Sloan some things never change.  Her catalogues, whatever their forms, are classics at birth.

To this I’ll add two paragraphs from her explanation of the sale –

An intriguing genre of iconography for the West are bird's-eye views, which, as Ron Tyler explains at the Amon Carter Museum web site, are a much neglected source for studying history: "They appear as something between a panoramic view and a map, as though they were drawn by the artist while he was suspended in a hot-air balloon. In fact, they were drawn by hand using, most often, two-point perspective to produce a three-dimensional rendering. The city views are surprisingly accurate." Among such views, we offer Stockton (California, 1870); Laredo (1890); San Diego (1876); Mexico City during the French Occupation (1863-1864); and Colorado Springs & Pike's Peak (1890), the latter exceptionally beautiful and one of the most technically proficient examples of the medium of chromolithography. A related genre is the panorama. Present in the sale is an 1862 nine-foot panoramic 360-degree view of San Francisco from the top of Russian Hill by Gifford.

For collectors who pursue ephemera and the whimsical, some choice items are an 1842 broadside commemorating the burial of Santa Anna's leg during the Pastry War; Siler's rare illustrated pamphlet on boxing (The “Fight of the Century” printed in 1897), a rare Texas pictorial letter sheet with contemporary and illustrated vignettes (including the Alamo and camels in San Antonio during the Great Camel Experiment in the West); and two unrecorded memory games from Mexico with miniature lithographs, one teaching the history of Mexico by examining the life of Santa Anna (including a miniature litho of Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto), and another game from ca. 1855-1860 intended to teach children the alphabet by use of the genre of Mexican types and costumes, illustrating occupations and pastimes such as newlyweds, drunks, pickpockets, alms givers, fandango, dentist, etc.

Here are 20 items to consider –

The auction includes about fifty pocket maps, a rare and interesting cartographical genre with a special niche in the map collecting world.

Lot 31. Wellge's exceptionally beautiful bird's-eye view of  Colorado Springs & Pike's Peak in 1890, among the most accomplished examples of chromolithography in the history of the genre. ($5,000-10,000)

Lot 75. Castro's iconic illustrated album Mexico y sus alrededores, this 1863-1864 edition reflecting the short-lived Second Empire in Mexico under Maximilian and France, including Gendarmerie Mexicaine. ($10,000-15,000)

Lot 80. Catherwood's Views of Ancient Monuments (1844). A fine fresh copy of the tinted issue in publisher's original binding.  “In the whole range of literature on the Maya there has never appeared a more magnificent work” - Von Hagen. ($25,000-50,000)

Lot 82. Missa Gothica (Puebla de los Angeles, 1770), Salva's superb copy of one of the most unusual books printed in North America in the 18th century. "A tour de force of graphic arts.” ($10,000-20,000)

Lot 97. Original Archive of Terry’s Texas Rangers, the largest & finest contemporary collection in private hands, including  Major Benjamin Francis Weems' 1851 Navy Colt .36 caliber revolver with engraved Texas Navy naval battle scene on cylinder. ($200,000-300,000)

Lot 125. Three original sketches of Mexico by English artist Daniel T. Egerton in the 1830s. ($20,000-40,000)

Lot 176.  Hernández. Rervm Medicarvm. Rome, 1651. The handsome Doheny copy of the first illustrated edition of Hernández's great natural history of the New World. ($15,000-30,000)

Rare Book Monthly

  • <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>30th March 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Roman binding.- Pindar. <i>Olympia, Pythia, Nemea, Isthmia,</i> translated by Johannes Lonicer, contemporary Roman binding by Niccolo Franzese, Basel, 1535. £40,000 to £60,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Raverat (Gwen). Comprehensive album of 530 wood engravings, circa 1909-1950. £40,000 to £60,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Hemingway (Ernest). <i>Fiesta,</i> first English edition, first impression dust-jacket, 1927. £15,000 to £20,000.
    <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>30th March 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Fleming (Ian). <i>Casino Royale,</i> first edition, first impression, 1953. £12,000 to £18,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Dickens (Charles). <i>Great Expectations,</i> 3 vol., first edition, first impression, Chapman and Hall, 1861. £10,000 to £15,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Campbell (Colen) & others. <i>Vitruvius Britannicus, or The British Architect...,</i> 5 vol., vol.1-3 later editions, vol.4 & 5 first editions, [?1731]-31-67-71. £10,000 to £15,000.
    <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>30th March 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Geography.- Mela (Pomponius). <i>Cosmographia, sive De situ orbis,</i> Venice, Franciscus Renner de Heilbronn, 1478. £8,000 to £12,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> America.- [?Espinosa y Tello (José)]. <i>Relacion del Viage hecho por las Goletas Sutil y Mexicana en el Año de 1792,</i> 2 vol. including Atlas, first edition, Madrid, 1802. £8,000 to £12,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Australasia.- Péron (Francois) and Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet. <i>Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes,</i> 5 vol. including Atlas, second edition, Paris, 1824. £8,000 to £12,000.
    <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>30th March 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Botany.- Curtis (William). <i>The Botanical Magazine; or, Flower-Garden Displayed,</i> 83 vol. in 62, 1794-1956. £8,000 to £12,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Darwin (Charles).- Lecky (W.E.H.) <i>The Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe,</i> 2 vol., Darwin's copy with inscription "Charles Darwin 1865", pencil marginalia and pencil notes, 1865. £7,000 to £10,000.
  • <b><center>Swann Auction Galleries<br>Printed & Manuscript African Americana:<br>March 30, 2023</b>
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Victor H. Green, <i>The Negro Motorist Green Book,</i> New York, 1949. $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Papers of pianist-composer Lawrence Brown relating to Paul Robeson & more, various places, 1925-54. $5,000 to $7,500.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Freedom Summer archive of civil rights activist Karen Haberman Trusty, Atlanta & elsewhere, 1963-64. $5,000 to $7,500.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> E. Simms Campbell, <i>A Night-Club Map of Harlem,</i> New York, 1933. $8,000 to $12,000.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Archive of letters from the sculptor Richmond Barthé to a close Jamaican friend, various places, 1966-85. $25,000 to $35,000.
  • <b><center>Stargardt Autographenhandlung<br>Autographs: Literature, Music, Art, Science, History, Theatre & Film<br>March 28, 2023</b>
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Autograph album leaf signed, 1826. €9,000 to €12,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Franz Kafka: Autograph letter unsigned, 1924. €15,000 to €20,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Torquato Tasso: Autograph poem signed, no date. €12,000 to €16,000.
    <b><center>Stargardt Autographenhandlung<br>Autographs: Literature, Music, Art, Science, History, Theatre & Film<br>March 28, 2023</b>
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Charles Darwin: Autograph letter signed, 1866. €4,500 to €6,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Albert Einstein: Autograph letter signed, 1933. €6,000 to €8,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Heinrich Hertz: Autograph manuscript signed, 1889. €18,000 to €24,000.
    <b><center>Stargardt Autographenhandlung<br>Autographs: Literature, Music, Art, Science, History, Theatre & Film<br>March 28, 2023</b>
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Giambattista Bodoni: Autograph letter signed, 1787. €900 to €1,200.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Francisco de Goya: Autograph letter signed, 1789. €18,750 to €25,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Martin Luther: Notes from his desk, no date. €30,000 to €40,000.
    <b><center>Stargardt Autographenhandlung<br>Autographs: Literature, Music, Art, Science, History, Theatre & Film<br>March 28, 2023</b>
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Ludwig van Beethoven: Autograph letter signed, 1816. €22,500 to €30,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Gustav Mahler: Foto portrait signed and annotated, 1907(?). €7,500 to €10,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Bed?ich Smetana: Autograph letter signed, 1883. €4,500 to €6,000.

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