Exceptional catalogues: <br>Livres Anciens and Livres Precieux
- by Bruce E. McKinney
Many fine book dealers are located near Librairie Thomas-Scheler.
Those beginning Florida collections will be interested in the Laudonniere's 1586 L'Histoire notable de la Floride situee es Indes Occidentales...[Item no. 23] You might as well start at the top. Of the early Florida books this one comes up very occasionally. Here is what the Servies have to say about this title:
"A compilation of the narratives of four different French expeditions: Ribaut's voyage in 1562, Laudonniere's in 1564, Ribaut's second voyage in 1565, and that of Gourges in 1567. The first three are described by letters of Laudonniere; the last is an anonymous account, perhaps by Basanier, the editor of the collection. The dedication to Sir Walter Raleigh (containing of the earliest mentions of Virginia in any printed book) is dated Paris, March 1st, 1586...." No. 52 in A Bibliography of Florida by James A and Lana D. Servies. Vol. 1. This important, and very rare book, is 100,000 euros.
For those who collect the early circumnavigations of the globe here is the second Dutch success at what was then a very hazardous enterprise: Speculum Oriententalisque Indiae navigationum... by Joris van Spilbergen, Leyde, 1619 [lot 30]. This exploration accomplished the discovery of a passage at the tip of South America that was named Le Maire in honor of another Dutch explorer. This copy is 45,000 euros.
And then there are two copies of Champlain's Les Voyages de la Nouvelle France occidentale,...one printed in 1632 and the other in 1640. These books contain important maps. Collectors of the New World and in particular Canada can count these books as highly important. They are each priced at 280,000 euros.
Of course there is more. There are 60 lots in all.
Such catalogues offer the opportunity to acquire specific examples of important and collectible books that now become forever linked to these exceptional catalogue presentations. Dealer provenance matters. In the years ahead, assuming the dealer history is carefully maintained, these copies will fetch premiums to whatever market pricing then prevails.
Congratulations to both firms and thank you to the Clavreuil family for permitting us to add this catalogue to the AED.
Here is the search box to the entire Chavreuil catalogue.