Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2017 Issue

June 7: Fine Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams

Less than a week from the time of Rare Book Monthly’s June 2017 release, a Bonhams’ sale on June 7th will be taking place in New York. With 359 lots, Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Illustration Art is split into morning and afternoon sessions beginning at 11am and 2pm EDT respectively. The first morning session is devoted to art, artists’ books, and illustrated works from the 18th through the 21st centuries, and the afternoon includes a Nobel Prize, natural history and travel, literature, Americana, and a collection of New York Yankees material from former Yankees co-owner Daniel Topping. A full breakdown of the categories and their lots follows:

Session 1

Lots 1 - 28: Art and Architecture Before 1880

Lots 29 - 95: Modern Artists’ Books

Lots 96 - 131: [Arthur] Rackham and His Contemporaries

Lots 133 - 181: Illustration Art and Children’s Books

Session 2:

Lot 182: Nobel Prize [for Physics] of Victor Hess

Lots 183 - 202: Natural History and Travel

Lots 203 - 222: Literature to 1900

Lots 223 - 267: Modern Literature, Film and the Performing Arts

Lots 268 - 312: Americana

Lots 314 - 359: Daniel Topping Collection of the New York Yankees 

With the first session focused on art, there are many highlights that still span a wide range of subjects, from Colen Campbell’s Vitruvius Britannicus, or the British Architect (1715-1725), an exhaustive catalog of the architectural style of great British buildings of the time, to a complete set of Ed Ruscha’s sixteen artist’s books, many of which are signed and/or inscribed by Ruscha, the quality of material is consistently high. One particular standout, lot 80, is a jeweled binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe of Lord George Gordon Byron’s Ode to Napoleon, which includes six illuminated miniatures illustrating historic events during Napoleon’s career.

In 1936, Victor Franz Hess was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of cosmic radiation—the discovery that radiation in the atmosphere comes from space and not from the Earth itself as it was previously thought; it was a pivotal moment for 20th century research about the universe. The lot, #182, for this Nobel Prize includes of course the medal in gold itself, 65.8 mm in diameter and weighing 206.2 grams, but it also includes the Nobel Prize Diploma, on two leaves, signed by Carl Benedicks, the President of the Royal Academy, and Henning Pleyel, the Secretary of the Royal Academy.

Under the heading of Natural History and Travel, Daniel Giraud Elliot’s The New and Heretofore Unfigured Species of the Birds of North America, a first edition and one of 200 copies printed, represents the “last great color plate bird book to be produced in America” (Bonhams). If travel (and maps) are of greater interest, La Geografia di Tolomeo nuovamente tradotta di Greco in Italiano, da Ruscelli, con espositioni del medesimo, a 3-parts-in-one volume atlas featuring maps by Ptolemy and Girolamo Ruscelli that includes two world maps and seven others relating to the Americas, is a lot worth considering. 

The section on Modern Literature, Film and the Performing Arts contains several noteworthy items. Two archives from producer Charles Feldman stand out, one archive on the production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, which includes a series of typed letters and edits to the script by Williams, and another archive on the production of Nelson Algren’s Walk on the Wild Side, also containing one of a kind material. Another archive, one of correspondences by Harper Lee, includes 35 autograph letters signed by the author.

Americana is strongly represented as well. A series of six letter descended through the family of founding father Gouverneur Morris includes a letter from George Washington, addressing Morris’ plan to attack New York. McKenney and Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America is also on offer, being a subscriber’s copy in early state.

For collectors of baseball, and specifically the Yankees, the closing section of the sale made up of the collection of former Yankees co-owner Daniel Topping is a dream come true. Everything from behind the scenes documents, to photographs, to of course baseballs is here. One immediate highlight is a framed presentation for the 1961 World Champion New York Yankees, including a photograph of the team, two special information panels, and 31 signatures of players and staff mounted below. The year 1961 is also significant as it was during this season that Roger Maris surpassed Babe Ruth’s 60 home run record.

Bonhams’ sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Illustration Art takes place Wednesday, June 7, with the morning session beginning at 11am and the afternoon session at 2pm EDT. The entire catalog is viewable here on Bonhams’ website.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: ALDROVANDI, Ulisse (1522-1605) - [Opera omnia]. Bologna: Bellagamba, Benacci, Bonomi, Tebaldini, Ferroni, 1599-1668. €22.000-€28.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: [CANALETTO] - VISENTINI, Antonio (1688-1782) da Giovanni Antonio CANAL (1697-1768, detto 'Il Canaletto') - Urbis Venetiarum prospectus celebriores. Venezia: Giovanni Battista Pasquale, 1742-51. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) - Fables Choisies. Parigi: Claude Barbin, 1668. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: MERCATOR, Rumold (1545-1599) - [I continenti] - Europa; Africa; America Sive India Nova; Asia. Amsterdam: S.d. [ca. 1633]. €2.000-€3.000
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: MUNSTER (Sebastian). Cosmographiae universalis lib. VI. Basilea
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Typus Orbis Terrarum. [Antwerp, 1587]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: BRION DE LA TOUR (Louis). Atlas Monde. Paris, Desnos ou Jaillot, [1783 - An XIII-1799].
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: ORTELIUS (Abraham). Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Anvers, Christophe Plantin, 1579.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: VISSCHER (Nicolas Joannes). Theatrum praecipuarum urbium [...]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: DE BRUYN (Cornelis). Voyage au Levant.
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: AZARA (Félix de). Voyages dans l'Amérique Méridionale.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: JOUTEL (Henri). Journal historique du dernier voyage que feu M. de la Sale […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: LA SALLE (René Robert Cavelier de) ; TONTI (Henri de). Dernières découvertes dans l’Amérique Septentrionale
    Gros & Delettrez
    Travel: Books & Cartography
    6 February 2025
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: NOLIN (Jean-Baptiste) ; CORONELLI (Vincenzo). L'Amérique septentrionale, ou, la partie septentrionale des Indes Occidentales […]
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: [Caroline du Sud]. A large draft of South Carolina from Cape Roman to Port Royal.
    Gros & Delettrez, Feb. 6: PÉRON (François) ; FREYCINET (Louis de). Voyage de découverte aux terres australes.
  • Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 746. Speed's Dual Atlas of Britain & the World with 96 Maps (1676). Est. $70,000 - $85,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 9. Visscher's Superb Double-Hemisphere World Map with Representations of the Elements (1658). Est. $4,750 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 58. One of the Most Important 16th Century Maps of the New World (1554). Est. $5,000 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 745. A Complete Example of Ortelius' Atlas of Ancient Geography (1624). Est. $12,000 - $15,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 73. First English Map to Show California as an Island (1625). Est. $16,000 - $19,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 156. Bachmann's Dramatic View of the Mid-Atlantic Region (1861). Est. $1,800 - $2,200
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 741. Early Announcement of Continental Congress' Declaration of Independence (1776). Est. $9,000 - $11,000
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 695. The First Printed Map Devoted to the Pacific (1589). Est. $8,000 - $9,500
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 733. Superb Image of the Presentation of Jesus in Hand Color (1502). Est. $700 - $850
    Old World Auctions (Feb 12):
    Lot 52. Produced by the Psychological Warfare Branch to Encourage Surrender (1945). Est. $200 - $230

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