This month we review eight new catalogues. De Wolfe & Wood and Michael Brown Rare Books are offering an early printing of photographs taken by Walker Evans in Cuba in 1933. He developed this set while still in Cuba and gave them to Ernest Hemingway for safekeeping, in case authorities seized his negatives. From a very different part of the world, Patrick McGahern Books is focused on the Arctic, Polar, Sub-Arctic, Newfoundland, Labrador. Very different yet again, Peter Harrington targets the Arab and Islamic World. Or, heading back home (for Americans, anyway), the William Reese Company has a selection of American scenes and views.
Zephyr Used and Rare Books has created a catalogue celebrating their 30th anniversary in the trade. John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller presents some important and uncommon books for the recent RBMS conference. Raptis Rare Books has a collection of important books and documents for the most discerning of collectors. Samuel Gedge Ltd. has a new selection of unusual and very uncommon books and documents.
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
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