Doyle is offering the interesting and obscure on November 7th: Be mindful!
- by Announcement, Rare Book Hub staff
Salem Witch Trials + very early New England
· Auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at 10am
· Including the Esmond Bradley Martin Collection of Africana and Travel
· 100 years before the Revolution: from Plymouth Colony to the Salem Witch Trials – The Victor Gulotta Collection
NEW YORK, NY -- Doyle's auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at 10am presents material ranging from early illuminated manuscripts to modern literary first editions.
Lots 1 to 48 comprise 100 years before the Revolution: from Plymouth Colony to the Salem Witch Trials - The Victor Gulotta Collection, a curated collection of 17th and 18th century manuscripts documenting life in colonial New England. Handwritten material originating from first- and second-generation settlers at Plymouth and the nearby Massachusetts Bay Colonies is naturally scarce; now, 400 years after the 1620 landing at Plymouth, fire, water, and other ravages of time have destroyed many a paper record. The documents within the Collection offer interesting, inspiring, and unusual episodes of 17th-century New England using the 1692 Salem Witch Trials as its lens (view lots). Read a fascinating essay by Specialist Peter Costanzo profiling this Collection. Click here.
Lots 50 -67 are general Americana, including a copy of the Alecto edition of Bodmer's plates (lot 50). The following sequence, 68-109 consists of maps. The first group of these are maps of American interest, including several of the Revolutionary war era. Of New York appeal, there are a group of survey maps, 18th and 19th century, showing the growth and development of the city. The section of maps concludes with a number of maps of general interest, and a few interesting atlases. The theme of Americana concludes with a small group of American autographs, including a George Washington letter (lot 120). General autographs end with lots 121-128.
Lots 129-219 are all from The Esmond Bradley Martin Collection of Africana and Travel. This includes an extraordinary trove of letters by David Livingstone, General Gordon, and other major figures from the era of British exploration and conquest in Africa. These include one of Livingstone's final letters, addressed to Sir Henry Rawlinson (lot 180), a presentation map prepared in Cape Town for Livingstone in 1852, showing the areas that he had preliminarily explored (lot 178), and a charming letter from Charles George Gordon claiming his discovery of the site of the Garden of Eden (lot 157). The Bradley Martin collection also includes a copy of the first Latin edition of the earliest published collection of voyages, including those of Columbus and Vespucci: the 1508 Milan Fracanzo da Montalboddo (lot 188). This is an exceptional collection, fresh to market and in its category containing some truly noteworthy material (view lots). Lots 217-221 are travel books from other consignors.
Literature starts off with a Pickwick in parts (lot 222) and concludes with a presentation Whitman Leaves of Grass (lot 232). A small general antiquarian collection begins with a Darwin Origin of Species in first edition (lot 233), and includes a fascinating manuscript from the Dering and Phillipps collection (lot 238). Lots 240-250 are fine bindings, highlighted by a splendid Legrain binding on the Schmied Daphne (lot 241). A small group of private press and illustration takes up lots 251-263, and then a substantial collection of artist books and documentary material occupies lots 264-325, much of it Property from the Collection of Rosa and Aaron Esman, of which the extraordinary Surrealist masterpiece, the Magritte and Jouffroy Aube à l'antipode, with its seven signed and lettered etchings, is the undisputed highlight. The sale concludes with a small group of illustration art, lots 326-332, with a charming Rackham drawing for The Compleat Angler (lot 330).
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Sotheby’s Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone 25 June – July 7
Sotheby’s, July 7: Ludwig van Beethoven. Autograph sketches for the overture "Die Weihe des Hauses", op.124, [1822], UNPUBLISHED. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 1813, first edition, 3 volumes, contemporary half calf. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, 1855, first edition, first issue, original green cloth, the Doheny copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Binding—Sangorski & Sutcliffe—Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat, London, 1872, third edition, in a magnificent jewelled Peacock binding. £15,000 to £20,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: George Eliot. Middlemarch, Edinburgh and London, 1871, first edition in the original parts. £20,000 to £30,000.
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Hassall (Joan) A large collection of over 300 original woodblocks of engravings for various books, v.d., with Hassall's engraver's glass water-globe (Qty) - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Eragny Press.- [Bradley (Katherine Harris) & Edith Emma Cooper], "Michael Field." Whym Chow, Flame of Love, one of only 27 copies, inscribed by Bradley, the rarest book from the press, 1914. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: [Moore (Thomas Sturge)] [Wood Engravings], 71 wood-engravings printed by David Chambers from the original blocks, the only set on Japanese Hosho paper, from an edition of 5 sets, [1970]. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: La Fontaine (Jean de) Contes et Nouvelles en vers, 2 vol., engraved plates after Eisen, fine early 19th century blue morocco, gilt, by Bradel l'ainé, Amsterdam [Paris], 1762. - Est. £2,000-3,000
Forum, July 9: Erotica.- Prostitution.- Pretty Women of Paris (The); Their Names and Addresses, Qualities and Faults..., [Paris], privately printed at the Press of the Prefecture de Police, 1883. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: Vale Press.- Ricketts (Charles) & Lucien Pissarro. De la Typographie et de l'Harmonie de la Page Imprimée…, [one of 216 copies], bound in dark blue morocco tooled in gilt, by Sarah T.Prideaux, 1898. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Martin (John) Illustrations of the Bible, complete set of 20 mezzotints, good impressions, rarely found in early states, [c.1831-1835]. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum, July 9: Golden Cockerel Press.- Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ (The), one of 500 copies, Mary Gill's copy, Waltham St. Lawrence, 1931 with a signed proof of engraving on japon numbered 10/10 (2) - Est. £5,000-7,000
Forum, July 9: Boccaccio (Giovanni) The Decameron, 3 vol., vol.1 extra-illustrated by John Buckland Wright with c.150 erotic original drawings in pen & ink and pencil, 1886 [extra-illustrated c.1940]. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Cox (Morris) Collection of Gogmagog Press Books, 35 vol., rare complete collection of printed books issued by the press, limited editions, most signed by Cox, 1957-83. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Wynkyn de Worde.- [Terentius Afer (Publius)] [Comedie...], [Paris, Josse Badius: sold in London by Wynkyn de Worde, & others], [15 July 1504]. - Est. £4,000-6,000
Forum, July 9: Mosley (James) Ornamented Types. Twenty-Three Alphabets from the Foundry of Louis John Pouchée, 2 vol., one of 10 copies for presentation, from an edition of 210, 1992-93. - Est. £1,000-2,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000
