Rare Book Monthly
Articles - January - 2005 Issue
The AE Top 350 Book Auction Results For 2004!
Runner up for highest price at auction was Bill W.'s manuscript copy of Alcoholics Anonymous' Big Book
Well, we've waited long enough. So let the drum roll begin as we start counting down the top 10 book auction sales for 2004!
10. This is one of the famed Shakespeare folios, but a mere $623,500 will no longer get you a complete first folio or even a second. This is a third.
9. A complete 40-volume set of Edward Curtis' mammoth limited edition of The North American Indian, with a forward by Theodore Roosevelt and signed by T.R. himself. All of Manhattan Island didn't cost this much. $679,500.
8. An autographed manuscript for the Gustav Mahler song, "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen." I don't know this song, but it must be a real toe tapper. $739,242.
7. This is a copy of the Texas Declaration of Independence with a price as big as Texas. $764,000.
6. This one is an etching of La Femme qui pleure by Pablo Picasso. Picasso never comes cheap. $813,900.
5. An illuminated manuscript from the 16th century of what is called the "first great travel book of the Renaissance," by Cristoforo Buondelmonti. It was once part of the collection of eccentric collector Sir Thomas Phillipps. $822,649.
4. De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri vi, by Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543. Copernicus is the guy who came up with the revolutionary idea that the planets revolve around the sun, rather than the sun around the earth. $1,208,583.
3. More Picasso. This is La Suite Vollard, one of 260 copies of a collection of 100 etchings from Picasso signed in pencil. $1,228,261.
2. Bill W.'s (William Wilson) manuscript copy of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous. $1,576,000.
1. 252 leaves of what is called the "Macclesfield Pslater," a previously unrecorded illuminated manuscript from the 14th century. The many illustrations are often too bizarre to describe on a family website, so you'll need to read the full description in the AE 350 list. $3,057,004.
