Rare Book Monthly
Articles - December - 2004 Issue
December Auctions <br>Lost in the Moment
On the 6th there is the Important Medical and Scientific Books from the collection of Irwin J. Pincus at Christies in New York.
By the 9th if you haven't yet won any lots Waverly welcomes you to their December sale. Children's books are the largest part. For Dr. Suess fans and collectors there are 229 lots. If you are a large-hearted Dr. Suess fan you are at the right place. Grab a Who-pastry and buy everything right down to the hooks and wire. Then rush home to carve the roast beast.
On the 14th we begin to run the December auction gauntlet, eleven sales between Tuesday the 14th and Friday the 17th. If you plan to attend all of them I want to wish you lots of luck. You'll start the 14th in London running between Bonhams and Bloomsbury and then jet to Boston, or Worcester if it's a private jet, where in either case you'll need a motorcade to arrive on time at New England Book Auction's sale which begins promptly at 6:30. Then it's back to Europe on a night flight for three sales on Thursday, the 15th: Dominic Winter in Wiltshire, UK, the Dorotheum in Vienna and Sotheby's Books and Manuscripts in Paris. On Thursday the 16th you may end up wishing you left bids yesterday for Dominic Winter's second sale; Modern first editions, children's and illustrated books and Sotheby's London sale of English Literature, History & Children's Books and Illustrations because you are now facing a flight to San Francisco where PBA's sale of The Golfing Library of Hal Gevertz will be getting underway. Fortunately, at PBA, you can bid online but you'll still have to convince the pilot it's important. Just tell him you are a book-eccentric. Please write down what he says. We'll all want to hear it. After the sale, take a peek at the Golden Gate Bridge from the air as you head toward 30,000 feet because, although you are tired, you need to fly to New York. Before you doze off you'll need to ask the pilot to patch you through by air-phone to Christie's Rome for the Libri e Stampe sale because you are not going to make it in person. This is quickly becoming auction triage but it is both honorable and acceptable. No one else has ever tried to do what you are now doing [and perhaps for good reason!]. Now, between midnight and 6:00 am, is the best time to get from the New York airports into the city. During certain daylight hours the drive in can take longer than your flight. Stay at a nice New York hotel to prepare for Christie's Friday sale. It's the appropriate finale to a wild week: Rock & Roll and Entertainment Memorabilia. If you can remember please place a bid for me on the Buddy Holly biology test. The sale starts at 10:00 am. It's all do-able: barely.
Don't forget to keep your receipts. Have the auctioneers at each sale sign your catalogues. Keep them in pristine condition. After the sale all the material will be bound in sumptuous uniform leather. All newspaper articles and magazine articles about your saga should be laid in custom glassine folders. All bidding notes and purchase receipts should be included.
Rare Book Monthly
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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.
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Sotheby’s
Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections
Open for Bidding 2-17 AprilSotheby’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.
