• Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - November - 2022 Issue

Quinn’s Nov. 29 Rare Books, Prints & Autographs auction features collection and library of distinguished ecologist Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy

FALLS CHURCH, Va. – On Tuesday, November 29, Northern Virginia’s Quinn’s Auction Galleries will present a Rare Books, Prints and Autographs auction, loaded with over 450 lots of rare books, antique maps and Americana. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.com. The auction will begin at 12 noon Eastern time.

 

The catalog features such items as two Presidential signing pens, signatures of the presidents from Nixon to Joe Biden and the Rehnquist Supreme Court, a copy of the Faeden map of New York from 1776, books signed by Robert Frost and other rare and desirable items.

 

The auction’s headliner, however, is the collection and library of Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy (1941-2021), who became known as the godfather of biodiversity after he coined the term. Dr. Lovejoy was a pioneer in the conservation movement and a central figure in the effort to preserve the Amazon Rainforest since the 1960s. His collection showcases his dedication to the wilderness, flora, and fauna of the Amazon, as well as his interest in Brazil and SouthAmerica at large.

 

A 1648 first edition copy of Historia naturalis Brasilia, the most notable scientific work completed in Brazil in the 17th century, is expected to realize $4,000-$6,000. The book, by Willem and Georg Marcgraf, is two parts in a one-volume folio, with over 400 woodcut illustrations after Georg Marcgraf and Albert Eckhout. The volume contains records of the first astronomical observations made in Brazil, and valuable ethnographic and linguistic information on the northeastern region of Brazil and its inhabitants.

 

A first edition copy of De natura Novi Orbis libri duo by Jose de Acosta, dated 1589 on the title page but 1588 on the second title page and colophon, should find a new home for $2,000-$3,000. Presented on contemporary vellum, with ink title to the spine, the book is divided into two treatises. The first describes the history and physical features of America. The second is chiefly concerned with the conversion of the natives to Christianity, usually omitted in the translation. This would become one of the most influential guides for missionaries in the New World.

 

A second edition copy of A True & Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes (1673), by Richard Ligon, has an estimate of $1,500-$2,500. The folio, with a folding map of the island, three charts and six plates, is from the library of John Roland Abbey, the renowned book collector and bibliographer of travel books. It’s an early account of Barbados, with documentation on cocoa, cucumbers and pomegranates, as well as illustrations of bananas and pineapples.

 

A first edition copy of Alfred Russel Wallace’s book, The MalayArchipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan, and the Bird of Paradise. A Narrative of Travel, with Studies of Man and Nature (1869) is estimated to bring $1,500-$2,500. The book, two volumes in one, has been described as “clearly one of the finest scientific travel books ever written." Included is a folding map of Wallace’s route, backed on linen. Wallace, who independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection, appropriately dedicated the book to Charles Darwin.

 

A framed, oval photograph signed by Tsaritsa Alexandra Feodorovna – the last Empress of Russia as the consort of Emperor Nicholas II from their marriage in 1894 until his forced abdication in 1917 – showing her holding TsesarevichAlexei as a baby in 1904 (and later also signed by TsesarevichAlexei as well), should fetch $4,000-$6,000. Both signatures are in Cyrillic (hers as “Alexandra” in bold black ink). The photo is housed in the original frame.

 

A copy of William S. Auchincloss’s book Ninety Days in the Tropics, or Letters from Brazil (1874), featuring nine mounted photographs of Brazil, carries an estimate of $300-$500. The book was described as “a lecture on the importance of extending and developing our commercial relations with SouthAmerica.” It’s the first time the book has been offered at auction in over 100 years, the last time being in 1911.

 

A five-volume set of The Christmas Books by Charles Dickens (1844-1848), handsomely bound in modern ¾ red Morocco gilt over marbled boards, should rise to $1,200-$1,600. The books include Dickens’s classic A Christmas Carol, plus The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year Out and a New Year In; The Cricket on the Hearth: A Fairy Tale of Home; The Battle of Life: A Love Story; and The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain: A Fancy for Christmas Time. Each book is beautifully illustrated with wood engravings.

 

A baseball signed by former President Harry Truman, signed on the “sweet spot” in black pen, has an estimate of $2,000-$3,000. The ball is accompanied by a letter from George Bradshaw, stating the ball was signed by Truman while he was attending a Washington Senators game in 1952.

 

An extremely rare first state engraving of a full bust drawing of George Washington in uniform, executed by the French engraver Juste Chevillet and drawn in Paris circa 1785 by Michel-Honore Bounieu from a painting provided by the Marquis de la Fayette by Charles Wilson Peale, is estimated to command $700-$1,000. The oval rendering shows a tree and landscape in the background. It’s titled but, remarkably, Washington’s name is misspelled (as “Wasington”).

 

A fine example of an 1851 Benjamin Franklin 1-cent stamp (Blue, Type lb, 5A), noted by Scott as one of the two best examples of this type, should finish at $4,000-$6,000. The stamp is accompanied by a 1979 American Philatelic Expertizing Service certificate.

 

No in-person floor bidding will be available. All bidding will be remote, either by phone, absentee, or live via the Internet through Quinn’s websiteLiveAuctioneers or Invaluable. An open preview will be held at the auction gallery (360 S. Washington St., Falls Church, VA 22046), Wednesday, November 17, thru Monday, November 28, from 11-4 Eastern time. Quinn’s will be closed November 25 and 26 for the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

For additional information about any item in the auction, please call Andrew Shifler at Quinn’s, 703-532-5632, ext. 576; or email Andrew.Shifler@quinnsauction.com. Visit Quinn’s online at www.quinnsauction.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas

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