Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2017 Issue

Arader Galleries Spring Auction March 25th

Arader Galleries Spring Auction

March 25th – 1pm at 1016 Madison Avenue, New York

The Arader Gallery is holding an important sale of rare books and images on March 25th.  The sale will be hosted by Mid-Hudson Auctions and the material in the sale available for inspection beginning on the 9th at 1016 Madison Avenue in New York. Gallery hours are 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday through Saturday.  Viewing by appointment at 29 East 72nd Street [and Madison].

 

To make an appointment 212.628.3668.  Please call or email at auctions@aradernyc.com

 

The following are a few selections

Lot 19 - Rosate Spoonbill, Plate 321. J John James Audubon (1785 - 1851) from Birds of America. Double Elephant Folio. First Edition Engravings with Original Hand Color

London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838. 25 x 37 3/4 inches sheet, 37 x 49 inches framed

Estimate: $110,000 - 150,000. Retail: $225,000. Reserve: $100,000

Guidance: Mid-Hudson, 2016 - $176,900

 

Lot 23 - American White Pelican, Plate 311. John James Audubon (1785 - 1851). First Edition Robert Havell Aquatint Engraving with Original Hand Color From Birds of America Double Elephant Folio. London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838.

Estimate: $100,000 - 140,000. Retail Price: $750,000. Reserve: $125,000

 

Lot 128 - Birds of Asia

John Gould  (1804-1881)

London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, 1850-83

Estimate: $80,000 - 130,000

Guidance: Christie’s, 1999 - $126,887

Reserve: $72,000

7 volumes. Folio (21 5/8 x 14 1/2 inches). 530 hand-colored lithographs after John Gould, H.C. Richter, Josef Wolf and W. Hart. Contemporary half green morocco, all edges gilt, spine gilt, 7 compartments with 6 raised bands (vol 1, front marbled endpaper detached, vol. 4 front marbled endpaper loose. vol. 5 front marbled endpaper loose).

 

Lot 129 - The Birds of Europe

John Gould (1804-1881)

London: by Richard and John E. Taylor,

published by the Author 1832-37

Estimate: $60,000 - 90,000

Guidance: Sotheby’s, 2007, $145,000

Reserve: $54,000

 

Physical Description: 5 volumes. Folio (21 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches). 448 hand-colored lithographs [numbered to 449, nos. 447 and 448 on one] by C. Hullmandel after Elizabeth Gouldand Edward Lear, from John Gould’s sketches. Contemporary calf binding, rebacked to style (covers knicked). With gilt and blind roll tools, spine and binding edges gilt, 6 compartments with 5 raised bands. Book plate removed.

 

Lot 132 - The Birds of Great Britain

John Gould (1804-1881)

London: Taylor and Francis for the author, [1862]-1873

Estimate: $30,000 - 45,000

Guidance: Christie’s, 2006 - $78,000

Reserve: $27,000

 

Physical Description: 5 volumes. Folio (21 x 5/8 x 14 1/2 inches). 5-page list of Subscribers. 367 EXCEPTIONALLY FINE hand-colored lithographs after John Gould, Josef Wolf, and H.C. Richter. Half red morocco, spine gilt, top edge gilt, 6 compartments with 5 raised bands. Provenance: Bookplate of Wrest Park.

 

Lot 133 -  The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands

Mark Catesby (1682/83–1749)

London: at the expense of the author, [1729-] 1731-1743 [-1747]

Estimate: $275,000 - 350,000

Guidance: Sotheby’s, 2007 - $657,000. Sotheby’s, 1989 - $462,500

Reserve: $250,000

Physical Description:  2 volumes. Folio (20  1/2 x 14 1/2 inches). 220 hand-colored plates, double-page map; two leaves with a marginal tear (one catching a headline), scattered spotting and the usual offsetting, but a generally VERY FINE COPY. With the 44-page Appendix (of 1747) bound in vol. 2. Contemporary diced russia, covers with gilt borders incorporating insect and animal tools, gilt spines; joints split, one cover nicked.

Provenance: Front pastedown with 18th century armorial bookplate of Fane William Sharpe, “Student of Ch[rist] Ch[urch, Oxford]”; From the Estate of Clarence Dillon, Far Hills, New Jersey.

A rare first edition with engravng & hand coloring done by Mark Catesby

 

VERY FINE First Edition. Trained as a botanist, Catesby travelled to Virginia in 1712. He lodged in Williamsburg with his sister and brother-in-law, who had emigrated to the New World in 1712, and began to fulfill his “passionate desire of viewing as well the Animals as Vegetable Productions in their Native Countries; which were Strangers to England” (preface). He remained in British America for seven years, sending back to England collections of plants and seeds, as well as beginning to make natural history drawings.

 

Lot 134 - Dell’arcano del mare [Books 1-4]

Robert Dudley (1573-1649)

Firenze: Francesco Onofri, 1646

Estimate: $50,000 - 70,000. Retail: $190,000

Guidance: Sotheby’s, 1988 - £ 48,400 GBP

Reserve: $40,000

Physical Description: 2 volumes [of an eventual 3] in one. Folio (13 x 9 1/2 inches). Half-title, title-page dated 1646, with fine engraved vignette of a compass (without half-title and title-page to volume 2, ie Books 3-4, and errata leaf at end, dampstaining to half-title, title-page and folding engraved patent plate, some minor and occasional spotting), folding engraved facsimile of the patent of nobility granted to Dudley in 1620 by Ferdinand II, 15 engraved folding charts in Book 2, including 5 double-sheet, and 66 (of 69) engraved plates by Antonio Francesco Lucini, various sizes, 49 folding, the plates variously numbered (see Phillips), , including 30 plates of astronomical or nautical instrument designs with volvelles, pointers or string-pointers, 7 double-sheet plates of diagrams of ship-building in Book 4, and one very small engraved diagram pasted down in lower margin of folio I2 in Book 4, four plates in Book 1 with letterpress text on versos, 5 inserted unnumbered leaves in Book 3 containing 10 letterpress diagrams of naval formations (without 2 plates in volume one, and one folding plate in Book 4, three plates with tears near the gutter, map of the Americas with small tear at fold juncture, a few of the double-sheet maps slightly browned along sheet junctures from original paste, else EXCEPTIONALLY FINE). Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine, edges stained red (a bit creased, especially at the extremities, and with a few pale stains, pastedowns torn).  Provenance: with the near contemporary ownership inscription of the library of the Colegio Mayore Cuenca in Salamanca (“En la libreria del Colegio . Cuenca”) on the title-page, numbering to the plates, and extensive underscoring and a few marginal notes in red pencil throughout.

  

Lot 137 - Cartes Generales de Toutes les Parties du Monde

Nicholas Sanson D’Abbeville (1600-1667)

Paris: The Author and Pierre Mariette, 1658 [but 1659]

Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000. Retail: $90,000

Guidance: Christie’s, 2010 - $47,500

Reserve: $18,000

Physical Description: Folio (17 x 11 3/4 inches). Title-page with woodcut arms (dampstained), 3-page contemporary manuscript “Repertoir des Cartes de ce livre” (without letterpress table of contents). 85 FINE engraved double-page maps, including 10 folding, hand-colored in outline, mounted on guards throughout (one or two early repairs, tears, stains and edges frayed to folding map of Gascony, last map of Ancient Greece stained and laid down on contemporary stock). Contemporary mottled calf, spine in seven compartments with six raised bands, morocco lettering piece in one, the others decorated with small gilt tools (scuffed and worn with loss to extremities).

  

Lot 193 -

A Map of the Inhabited Part of Virginia, containing the whole of the Province of Maryland with Part of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and North Carolina.

Joshua Fry (1699-1754) and Peter Jefferson (1708-1757).

Engraved map with original hand color in outline by state, the title within a fine rococo cartouche.

London: Thomas Jefferys, August 1753.

30 3/8 x 48 6/8 inches sheet, 41 x 50 inches framed.

Estimate: $150,000 - 300,000. Retail Price: $750,000. Reserve: $125,000

 

The most important engraved map of Virginia to ever be offered for sale. This map was used by the French Naval and Military Commanders to plot strategy for the French and Indian War and the American Revolution

  

Lot 218 –

Voyage dans l’Interieur de l’Amerique du Nord

execute pendant les annees 1832, 1833 et 1834

BODMER, Karl (1809-1893, illustrator) - Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (1782-1867)

Coblenz, Paris, and London: J. Hoelscher, A. Bertrand, Ackermann and Co., [1839-1841]

Large Folio (24 1/4 x 17 1/4 inches). 81 engraved and aquatint plates 48 large aquatint tableau plates [all 48 hand colored and heightened in gum arabic], & 33 vignette plates on full folio sheets [all 33 hand colored and heightened in gum arabic], Vignette X pasted down on contemporary paper. All 81 plates with Bodmer blindstamp. 1 large folding engraved map by Lieut.-Col.W. Thorn, titled “Map to illustrate the Route of Prince Maximilian of Wied,” hand colored in outline. Contemporary quarter calf with marbled boards, spine gilt, 8 compartments with 6 raised bands. contemporarily rebound and cover extended.

Estimate: $525,000 - 750,000. Reserve: $500,000

Guidance: Christie’s, 2004 - $477,900; Siebert, 1999 - $415,000

Rare Book Monthly

  • Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 11. Blaeu's Superb World Map on a Polar Projection (1695) Est. $5,500 - $7,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 36. Schedel's Ancient World Map with Humanoid Creatures (1493) Est. $14,000 - $17,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 49. One of the First Lunar Globes to Show the Far Side of the Moon (1963) Est. $1,000 - $1,300
    Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 5. The First World Map with Lavish Allegorical Vignettes of the Continents (1594) Est. $15,000 - $17,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 55. Anti-British Propaganda Map with Churchill as an Octopus (1942) Est. $2,000 - $2,300
    Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 197. One of the Most Influential Maps of Westward Expansion (1846) Est. $9,500 - $12,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 10. Scarce Pitt Edition of Carte-a-Figures Map of the World (1680) Est. $9,500 - $11,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 220. A Fine, Early Rendering of San Francisco (1874) Est. $2,200 - $2,500
    Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 707. Hand-Colored Image of the Presentation of Jesus with Gilt Highlights (1450) Est. $1,600 - $1,900
    Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 80. One of the Most Important Maps Perpetuating the Myth of the Island of California (1680) Est. $3,250 - $4,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 725. Homann's Atlas Featuring 26 Folio-Sized Maps in Original Color (1715) Est. $4,500 - $5,500
    Old World Auctions (Feb 11):
    Lot 169. One of the Earliest Maps to Show Philadelphia (1695) Est. $4,750 - $6,000
  • Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: DALVIMART, Octavien ou d’ALVIMAR(T). The Costume of Turkey
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: DALVIMART, Octavien ou d’ALVIMAR(T)]. CLARK. The Military Costume of Turkey
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: HOMMAIRE DE HELL, Ignace-Xavier. LAURENS, Jules. Voyage en Turquie et en Perse
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: POSTEL, Guillaume. De la République des Turc
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: PREZIOSI, Amadeo. Stamboul. Souvenir d’Orient.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: COSTUMES. EMPIRE OTTOMAN.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: PRISSE D'AVENNES, Achille Constant T. Emile. L'Art Arabe
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: PRISSE D'AVENNES. Histoire de l'art Egyptie
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: BESANCENOT, Jean. Costumes et types du Maroc.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: COSTUMES OTTOMANS. Suite de figures ottomanes à l’aquarelle
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: LES MILLE ET UNE NUIT, contes arabes
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: SCHLEGEL, Hermann et A. H. VERSTER van WULVERHORST. Traité de Fauconnerie - Planches
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11: THEVENOT, Melchisédec. Relation de divers voyages curieux
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 11:
  • Forum Auctions
    Online: India
    Ends 19th February 2026
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 40
    Ramasvami (Kavali Venkata). A Digest of the Different Castes of India, 83 charming hand-coloured lithographed plates, Madras, 1837. £5,000-7,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 50
    Watson (John Forbes) & John William Kaye. The People of India: A Series of Photographic Illustrations...of the Races and Tribes of Hindustan, 8 vol., 480 mounted albumen prints, 1868-75. £4,000-6,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 53
    Afghanistan.- Elphinstone (Hon. Mountstuart). An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul, first edition, hand-coloured aquatint plates, a fine copy, 1815. £2,000-3,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 57
    [Album and Treatise on Hinduism], manuscript treatise on Hinduism in French, 31 watercolours of Hindu deities, Pondicherry, 1865. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 62 Allan (Capt. Alexander). Views in the Mysore Country, [1794]. £2,000-3,000
    Forum Auctions
    Online: India
    Ends 19th February 2026
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 76
    Bird (James). Historical Researches on the Origin and Principles of the Bauddha and Jaina Religions..., first edition, lithographed plates, Bombay, American Mission Press, 1847. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 100
    Ceylon.- Daniell (Samuel). A Picturesque Illustration of the scenery, animals, and native inhabitants, of the Island of Ceylon: in twelve plates, 1808. £5,000-7,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 123
    D'Oyly (Charles). Behar Amateur Lithographic Scrap Book, lithographed throughout with title and 55 plates mounted on 43 paper leaves, [Patna], [1828]. £3,000-5,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 139
    Gandhi (known as Mahatma Gandhi,) Fine Autograph Letter signed to Jawaharlal Nehru, Sevagram, Wardha, 1942, emphasising the importance of education in rural communities. £10,000-15,000
    Forum Auctions
    Online: India
    Ends 19th February 2026
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 140
    Gantz (John). Indian Microcosm, first edition, Madras, John Gantz & Son, 1827. £10,000-15,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 146
    Grierson (Sir George Abraham). Linguistic Survey of India, 11 vol. in 20, folding maps, original cloth, Calcutta, Superintendent Government Printing, 1903-28. £2,000-3,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 195
    Madras.- Fort St. George Gazette (The), No.276-331, pp.493-936 and Index to all of 1834 at end, modern half calf, Madras, 2nd July - 31st December 1834. £2,000-3,000
    Forum, Feb. 19: Lot 205
    Marshall (Sir John) and Alfred Foucher. The Monuments of Sanchi, 3 vol., first edition, 141 plates, most photogravure, [Calcutta], [1940]. £3,000-4,000
  • Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: HAMILTON, Sir William (1730-1803) - Campi Phlegraei. Napoli: [Pietro Fabris], 1776, 1779. € 30.000 - 50.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: [MORTIER] - BLAEU, Joannes (1596-1673) - Het Nieuw Stede Boek van Italie. Amsterdam: Pieter Mortier, 1704-1705. € 15.000 - 25.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: TULLIO D'ALBISOLA (1899-1971) - Bruno MUNARI (1907-1998) - L'Anguria lirica (lungo poema passionale). Roma e Savona: Edizioni Futuriste di Poesia, senza data [ma 1933?]. € 20.000 - 30.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: IL MANOSCRITTO RITROVATO DI IPPOLITA MARIA SFORZA. TITO LIVIO - Ab Urbe Condita. Prima Decade. Manoscritto miniato su pergamena, metà XV secolo. € 280.000 - 350.000
  • Sotheby's Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: Balthus, Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights, New York: The Limited Editions Club, 1993. 6,600 USD.
    Sotheby’s: Charles Dickens. Complete Works, Philadelphia & London: J.B. Lippincott Company & Chapman & Hall, LD, 1850. Limited Edition set of 30 volumes. 7,500 USD.
    Sotheby’s: John Lennon, Yoko Ono. Handwritten Letter from John Lennon and Yoko Ono to their Chauffer. 1971. 32,500 USD.
    Sotheby’s: Winston Churchill. First edition of War Speeches, Cassell and Company, Ltd., 1941. Set of 7 volumes. 5,500 USD.
    Sotheby’s: Andy Warhol, Julia Warhola. Holy Cats First Edition, Signed by Andy Warhol. 1954. 30,000 USD.

Article Search

Archived Articles