Auctions in Pasadena while the ABAA is in Town

Over the second weekend of February, while the ABAA, is in the midst of its always popular annual winter weekend in California, both PBA and Bonhams will conduct auctions on Sunday the 11^th at the same venue next to the Pasadena Convention Center: the Pasadena Sheraton (in different suites).

Here is how PBA describe theirs.

A two-part sale to be held at the Pasadena Sheraton in the Cordova Room on Sunday February 11 at 8:00 am

Join us for this special sale, Sunday morning during the ABAA (Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America) Book Fair in Pasadena, California. The sale will be held at 8:00 am in the Cordova room of the Pasadena Sheraton, 303 East Cordova Street, just next door to the Pasadena Convention Center and the 51st California International Antiquarian Book Fair.

The first half of the auction will be PBA's offering of Rare Books & Manuscripts, with the second part devoted to books donated by ABAA members to benefit the Antiquarian Booksellers' Benevolent Fund which was established to benefit all booksellers in times of distress. The descriptions of the books are by the donor members, and we have worked with them on setting fair estimates for the wide range of fine material. As always, there will be full provisions for absentee, phone, and online bidding.

Here is a link to the PBA site.

Bonhams

Fine Books and Manuscripts featuring the Library of James “Ted” Watkins to be held on 11 February 2018, starting at 10:30 PST at the Sheraton Pasadena Hotel in the Magnolia Room

Ted’s collecting was informed by his faith and his interest in the history of the Catholic Church and the sale opens with a selection of his early printed material. His material then continues to appear randomly in the Science and Technology, Americana, History, Travel Literature and Plate Books, and Art and Literature sections. His library includes rare incunables of canon law and important theological tracts; books and manuscripts of Catholic writers such as Flannery O’Connor, whose faith was so central to her literary vision.

In our Science and Technology section, we offer a wide variety of property, from an early alchemical manuscript to an excerpt from Isaac Newton’s manuscript on prophecy to a remarkable archive of correspondence between Werner Heisenberg and Bruno Rossi. The section closes with a fine example of a 3-rotor German Enigma I Enciphering Machine.

Our Americana section is anchored by important manuscripts relating to New Spain conquistador Hernando Cortes and his heirs, (many of whom were viceroys in New Spain); a Peter Force Declaration of Independence; a second volume in original boards of a first edition of The Federalist Papers; the first English section of Lewis and Clark’s Travels to the Source of the Missouri River….; and a manuscript page from Webster’s dictionary.

Here is a link Bonhams’ upcoming sale.