Rare Book Monthly

Articles - September - 2014 Issue

Koller Auctions Hosts Major Book and Autograph Sale on September 20th

From Redouté's Roses.

The Swiss auction house Koller Auctions will be holding a major sale on September 20 in the category of Books and Autographs. Switzerland is an appropriate place for this sale. It is an international country, where different cultures and people mix freely. The same can be said of the material offered, as it consists of works from different lands, people, and times. With the advent of internet bidding, collectors from around the world can bid at ease without making any long journeys. Book collecting today knows no boundaries, and what better place is there than Switzerland to symbolize the international aspect of book collecting today?

 

With almost 550 lots offered, this is a sale that will appeal to almost every collector's interests. The specific categories listed and their lots are:

 

Helvetica 101-145

History & Cultural History 146-182

Children's Books 183-194

Silver Books 195-207

Literature of the 17th-19th century 208-245

Erotica 246-287

Art & Architecture 288-297

Varia 298-313

Technology & Science 314-368

Topography & Travel 369-397

Early Printed Books & Bibles 398-445

Manuscripts 446-471

Autographs 472-522

Modern Literature 523-601

Photography & Photo Literature 602-646

 

While not separately listed, you will find some magnificent botanical illustrations within the Technology & Science category.

 

Not only is the material varied, there are items suitable for a wide range of collecting budgets. There are many items expected to sell in the low three digits in euros (somewhat less in dollars), while others are on the highest scale of collectability. We will mention a few of the items that are on the higher level, but those without four and five figure budgets can rest reassured they will find appropriate material here as well.

 

Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica. Printing and the Mind of Man describes this scientific work as “the greatest work in the history of science.” Einstein was even more effusive in his praise. Copernicus and Galileo had led the way in predicting the movements of the sun and planets, but they did not explain the why. It was left to Issac Newton to describe the laws of motion and gravity which underlay the observations others had made. Newton also recognized that these were universal laws, ones that could be applied to observations on earth as well as those seen in the heavens. Offered is a first edition, published in 1687. There were two states of the first edition, the first with a two-line imprint, the second with three lines that included the name of bookseller Samuel Smith. It is believed that the second state was earmarked for sale in Europe, while the first was intended for sales in Britain. This copy is of the first state. Lot 353. Estimated (euros) €291,670 - €458,330.

 

The Holy Land. This first edition was produced in parts but is now generally found in sets. David Roberts traveled from England to the Holy Land, including adjacent areas of Arabia, Syria, Jordan and Egypt during the 1830's. Most people had limited familiarity with remains from antiquity that could still be found in the biblical lands, and at this time, just before the dawn of photography, Roberts determined to make images of what could still be seen available to the people back home. He was a master artist, and his drawings were both of high quality and quantity. A total of 238 colored lithographs are found in the six volumes. Roberts had the utmost praise for the work of his lithographer, Louis Haghe. This work is one of the most highly regarded books of its kind ever published, being described with such superlatives as the most famous of travel plate books, and the finest collection of prints of the Holy Land ever produced. Lot 386. Estimated €116,670 - €166,670.

 

Les Aphrodites. Robert-André Andréa de Nerciat was a French soldier and secret agent, as well as a writer in the days leading up to, and after, the Revolution. The writing was done on the side while serving as an agent/soldier. Andréa de Nerciat knew the age-old answer as to what people wanted – erotica (some would say pornography). If this is somewhat tame by today's standards, it certainly was beyond the standards of decency for its age, hence its popularity. Offered is a Brussels reprint edition from 1864, the rare luxury edition on China paper. Lot 246. Estimated €2,500 - €4,170.

 

Les Roses. Pierre-Joseph Redouté was a great artist and political survivor. He worked for both Marie Antoinette and Empress Josephine, and somehow managed to escape the brutal French Revolution in between. He may be the greatest of flower artists, and certainly is the greatest painter of roses. His precision and detail were outstanding; his subject matter of such beauty that artistic license was unnecessary. His Roses was Redouté's great masterpiece, a work of spectacular beauty. Offered is the third (second octavo) edition published in 1828-29, which contains 21 additional plates. Lot 331. Estimated €16,670 - €25,000.

 

Histoire naturelle. Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon was a major 18th century French naturalist. The topics he considered were numerous; his writings prolific. He did not get everything right, not surprising considering how much ground he covered and the knowledge available to him at the time. Nonetheless, he was amazingly productive and a major force in moving science forward. Offered is the special edition of his Natural History published after his death, an 80-volume set. Lot 361. Estimated €10,000 - €15,000.

 

An online catalogue may be found at this link: www.kollerauktionen.ch/en/asp/search.asp?st=GK&dept=17&pg=1

 

For a pdf version, click this link: www.kollerauktionen.ch/shared/pdf/A170_W242/A170bu_low.pdf

 

To access Koller's website, go to this link: www.kollerauktionen.ch/en/index.asp

 

The online catalogue provides a link on how to bid (and if you are not yet registered to bid with Koller, how to do so), and a link to ask questions.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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
  • 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:
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    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
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    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
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    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.

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