August 5th: A Pirate's Bounty at the Arader Galleries Auction
- by Thomas C. McKinney
Select items from Arader Galleries' August 5th Sale of the History of the Caribbean
On August 5thArader Galleries will be holding an auction on site at their Madison Avenue location. Featuring sixty five lots, The History of Caribbean Pirates & Treasure as told through Maps, Atlases, & Natural History Watercolors and Engravings is a focused subject event. With starting bids well below low estimates, this is a sale that will appeal to both existing collectors of the Caribbean as well as those with an eye for getting into the field.
Arader Galleries is well known for its excellent cartographic material, and The History of Caribbean Pirates & Treasure is made up of about one third maps. Lot 6, a 1591 copperplate engraving of Florida and the Southeastern portion of the United States by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is the first map to accurately represent the Florida coastline. Lot 12, Chart of the West Indies and Spanish Dominions in North America, is a very large, impressive wall map with original hand color by Aaron Arrowsmith, an important British cartographer of the 18th century. This item is his most rare map. Lot 24, an engraved map by James Edward Oglethorpe, is one of the earliest printed maps of Savannah, Georgia, dating from approximately 1735.
There are also more than a handful of depictions of views of locations and scenes from the era—most are engravings, but there are also paintings included in the mix. These are best seen with one’s own eyes (several are featured in this article’s slideshow), but the following are some of the standouts. Lot 7, Four Views: Portus Acapulco, Domingo, Pagus Hispanorum, Havana, is a set of four hand-colored engravings of bird’s-eye views of important trade cities on the Gulf Coast. Lot 23 is a hand-colored lithograph of the Explosion of the British Frigate, Guerriere, a scene from the War of 1812 depicting a naval victory for the United States over Great Britain. Lot 33, Shipping off Charlotte Amalie in the Danish West Indies, is an oil painting by Carl-Ludwig Bille, and shows the harbor of Charlotte Amalie, the main harbor of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands.
Equally well-known for their collection of natural history, Arader Galleries has included sixteen natural-history items including drawings, watercolors, and engravings. The watercolors in particular are the highlights of the sale, with four by Jacques le Moyne de Morgues (lots 36 through 39), each painted during the 1560s and estimated at $90,000 or more.
The sale takes place at 5:30 p.m. eastern time at 1016 Madison Avenue in New York City. For questions regarding the auction, please contact Gallery Director Lori Cohen at [email protected] or at (215) 735-8811. Online bidding is available via LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable. Online catalogs are available at both sites as well.
Sotheby’s, July 14: Henry De La Beche. "Awful Changes," 1830. $6,000 to $9,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 11]. Flight Plan, Complete Original Printing Signed by Buzz Aldrin. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Thomas Alva Edison. Documents Establishing and Ending the Edison Electric Railway Company. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Richard P. Feynman. Feynman's Lectures on Gravitation 1-16, Including the Original Transcriptions of Lectures 12-16 by Morinigo and Wagner, With Richard Feynman's Manuscript Notations, 1971. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 9]. A Group of Manuals and Mission Documents used by Stuart Roosa as a member of the Astronaut Support Crew. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [BYTE: The Small Systems Journal]. A collection of early foundational issues of Byte: The Small Systems Journal, with rare hardcover editions. $5,000 to $8,000.
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000
