AbeBooks Lists Its Top 10 Most Expensive Sales for 2016
- by Michael Stillman
Sam I Am, serving up green eggs and ham.
For many, the AbeBooks' website is a great place to buy used books for a low price. Students and casual readers have made the most of their bargains for twenty years. But then, there is a rarefied group, the serious collector. They inhabit AbeBooks too. At the top of this group, you need to have a five figure credit line on your charge card, and a willingness to use it. Here is the cream of the crop. These are the Top 10 highest prices paid on AbeBooks for 2016.
10. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (1960). This one has been a classic from the moment it was published 56 years ago. This is a signed first edition by Ms. Lee, who died in 2016. $16,000.
9. A Handful of Dust, by Evelyn Waugh (1934). Inscribed copy of a semi-autobiographical book. $16,450.
8. The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (1908). Fourteen volumes, one of 80 copies of this limited edition. $16,500.
7. An original drawing of Sam I Am carrying a plate of green eggs and ham, by Dr. Seuss. $17,832.
6. Abstraction Création Art Non Figuratif 1932-1936, a 1973 reprint of the five yearbooks of Abstraction-Création, a loose association of abstract artists in the 1930's. $19,300.
5. Description Géographique Historique, Chronologique, Politique et Physique de l'Empire de la Chine, by Jean-Baptiste du Halde (1735). An 18th century French look at China. $19,770.
4. The Works of H. G. Wells, (1924-1927). This is a 28-volume set, number 524 of 1,050 copies, signed by H. G. himself (first volume only). $20,792.
3. Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens (1861). The personal copy of children's poet Eugene Field. Came with a letter from Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend, to whom the book was dedicated. $25,000.
2. Selectarum Stirpium Americanorum Historia, by Nicolaus Joseph Jacquin (1763). Early detailed account of American botany. $25,679.
1. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll (1866). First American edition, or, technically speaking, second issue of the first edition. The first issue of the first edition was recalled, Carroll and illustrator John Tenniel displeased with the quality. Rather than throw the unused pages out, the publisher shipped them to America, where tastes are less discerning, for use in the American edition. Meanwhile, a revised, or second edition was published in England. Therefore, this is a second issue of the first edition, though it came out after the second edition. $36,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s Geek Week 2-17 July | New York
Sotheby’s, July 17: Album Containing Four Signed Photographs of Albert Einstein, With Eleven Additional Einstein Photographs, From His Journey to Japan Aboard the S.S. Kitano Maru, 1922. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Fred Freeman. Illustration of the Channel Tunnel’s British Portal (Presumably at Folkestone), ca. 1958. $5,000 to $7,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Wolfgang Kurt Hermann Panofsky Group of Awards. Pief Panofsky's 1961 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, National Medal of Science, Enrico Fermi Award, and Others. $8,000 to $12,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Seymour Cray; Cray-3. Manuscript Cray-3 Logbook, 1989-90. — The Only Significant Cray Manuscript to Come to Auction. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.