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<center><b>Christie’s<br>Charlie Watts: Literature and Jazz<br>London and online auction<br>15–29 September</b><b>Christie’s, Explore now:</b><br>F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940). <i>The Great Gatsby.</i> New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925. £100,000–150,000<b>Christie’s, Explore now:</b><br>Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930). </i>The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes.</b> London: George Newnes, 1902. £70,000–100,000<b>Christie’s, Explore now:</b><br>Agatha Christie (1890–1976). <i>The Thirteen Problems.</i> London: for the Crime Club Ltd. by W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1932. £40,000–60,000<b>Christie’s, Explore now:</b><br>Dashiell Hammett (1894–1961). <i>The Maltese Falcon.</i> New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. £30,000–50,000
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<b><center>CONSIGN NOW</b><b>Ketterer Rare Books, Preview:</b></br> H. Scherer, <i>Atlas novus exhibens orbem terraqueum,</i> 1702-10.<br>Est: € 15,000<b>Ketterer Rare Books, Preview:</b></br> L. de Varthema, <i>Die Ritterlich und lobwirdig rayß,</i> 1515.<br>Est: € 60,000<b>Ketterer Rare Books, Preview:</b></br> G. Heym, <i>Umbra vitae,</i> 1924.<br>Est: € 8,000<b>Ketterer Rare Books, Preview:</b></br>F. de Wit, <i>Orbis maritimus ofte Zee Atlas,</i> around 1680.<br>Est: € 15,000
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<center><b>Gonnelli: Auction 46 Books<br>Autographs & Manuscripts<br>Oct 3rd-5th 2023</b><b>Gonnelli:</b> Tilson - Zanotto, Il vero tema. 2011. Starting price 150 €<b>Gonnelli:</b> Munari, Storia di un filo. Starting price 400 €<b>Gonnelli:</b> Debord, Contre le cinéma. 1964. Starting price 150 €<b>Gonnelli:</b> Futurism books and ephemera<b>Gonnelli:</b> Travel books<b>Gonnelli:</b> Medicine books<b>Gonnelli:</b> Levaillant, Histoire naturelle des perroquets. 1801-1805. Starting price 52.000 €<b>Gonnelli:</b> Carrera, Il gioco de gli scacchi. 1617. Starting price 3200 €<b>Gonnelli:</b> Vergilius, Opera. 1515. Starting price 800 €
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<b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins<br>26th September 2023</b><b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Alken (Henry), Thomas Egerton et al. <i>The Melange of Humour,</i> first collected edition, Printed by W. Lewis, [c.1835]. £2,000 to £3,000.<b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> [Cheny (John) and Thomas Butler, publishers]. <i>[Horses & Their Pedigrees],</i> Cheny & Butler, 1740-1746 or 1751-1753. £4,000 to £6,000.<b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Dikenman (R.) Voyage en Suisse, Zurich, [c.1830]. £2,000 to £3,000.<b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins<br>26th September 2023</b><b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Eckert (H.A.) Monten (Dietrich) and F. Schlever. <i>Das K.K. Russische Militair aus dem grossen Werke Saemmtliche Truppen von Europa,</i> first edition, Wuerzburg, 1840 [but c.1842]. £4,000 to £6,000.<b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Havell, Junior (Robert). <I>Costa Scena, or a Cruise along the Southern Coast of Kent,</I> hand-coloured aquatint panorama with original boxwood drum, 1823. £3,000 to £4,000.<b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Heideloff (Victor). <i>Ansichten des Herzoglich Württembergischen Landsitzes Hohenheim,</i> first edition in original 6 parts, Nuremberg, 1795-1800. £4,000 to £6,000.<b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins<br>26th September 2023</b><b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Jones (Owen) and Jules Goury. <i>Views on the Nile: from Cairo to the Second Cataract,</i> first edition, Graves and Warmsley, 1843. £3,000 to £4,000.<b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Meyer (Johann Heinrich). <i>Der Rigiberg in Zeichnungen nach der Natur,</i> Zurich, Fuessli, 1807. £3,000 to £4,000.<b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Nichol (Andrew). <i>Five Views of the Dublin and Kingstown Railway,</i> first edition, Dublin, William Frederick Wakeman, 1834. £5,000 to £7,000.<b><center>Forum Auctions<br>Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins<br>26th September 2023</b><b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Schetky (J. C.) A series of four sketches, illustrative of various situations of His Majesty's Ship Pique, Portsea, Trives & Maynard, 1835. £4,000 to £6,000.<b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Stackelberg (Otto Magnus von). <i>Costumes et Usages des Peuples de la Grece Moderne,</i> first edition, Rome, 1825. £20,000 to £30,000.<b>Forum, Sep. 26:</b> Stucchi (Stanislao). <i>Raccolta di Scene Teatrali eseguite o disegnate dai più celebri Pittori Scenici in Milano,</i> 3 vol., Milan, 1817. £6,000 to £8,000.
Rare Book Monthly
Collecting Fine Bindings and Designs: Margaret Armstrong

Title page from Henry Van Dyke, Music and Other Poems. New York : Scribner's, 1904. Signed by Margaret Armstrong in the plate.
By Renee Roberts
This weekend I was, as usual, working, going over some boxes of books that had just arrived, and a slender volume caught my eye. It was bound in green silk, with the word Music in a stylized script encircled by a wreath of doves, a violin in the center with two horns to either side, and a flurry of ribbons ending in small hearts, in gilt. The title page was also pretty printed in red and black again with stylized script, the u in Music a roman V, the R a delicate toe–pointing, slightly trembling Art Nouveau marvel, surrounded by a design in black and white, partly in reverse, of entwined flowers and vines, finished off with a muse in flowing robes playing what looks to be an early stringed instrument, perhaps a lute. And then the expected MA at the top, indicating that this was the work of one of Americas most gifted book designers, and one of the earliest recognizable women book artists, Margaret Neilson Armstrong (1867-1944). This particular book was one of a series Armstrong designed for works by Henry Van Dyke and published by Charles Scribners Sons, clearly more notable for their design than their content.
One thing led to another, and I found myself perusing The Boston Book Companys (www.bostbook.com) online catalogue of its Margaret Armstrong collection (asking price $19,500.00). With over 300 titles, the catalogue is a handy guide to Armstrongs work, both in books bearing her name as author and/or illustrator, as well as books containing decorative bindings, titles, and internal decorations, signed and unsigned, as well as books that might be attributed to her.
Armstrong lived in Greenwich Village, on West 10th Street, virtually her entire life. She was born to an old New York family of means (descended, according to one writer, from Peter Stuyvesant) who had her privately educated and trained by working artists. According to Charles B. Gullans and John Espey, Armstrong collectors and authors of the primary bibliography of her work (Margaret Armstrong and American trade bindings: with a checklist of her designed bindings and covers. Los Angles: Department of Special Collections, University Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991), most of her work was done for Scribners — some three hundred book designs — between 1890 and 1940. One of her most famous series, the works of Myrtle Reed, was done for Putnam. Armstrong was also hired by publishers in New York and Chicago, including Macmillan, Harper, Bancroft, McClurg, Dodd Mead, and Bobbs-Merrill.