When I was a kid, in the 1950’s, Christmas was the way my family compensated for the disaster we were living through. It was almost worth it but left me memories of how my family when in trouble, tried hard to make those few days seem perfect. My family lived suspended between feast and famine and when there was feast, it was wonderful. One such Christmas my father bought me a Lionel 0 Gauge Santa Fe 3 part engine for $65 when our rent was $25. It was a treasure.
On the recent 23rd December, a gift arrived that topped it by a very wide margin, 3 brown boxes each weighting 18 pounds. What could it be?: the collected records of the Waverly Auction Company, 1978 to 2004.
The Lionel trains arrived in a single box, the Waverly Auctions in three, holding 179 auctions, 147 of them priced, altogether 100,992 lots. Hallelujah! For a person who loves the history of the printed word, Waverly’s records tracing the explosion of interest in collectible paper at auction in the pre-Internet period, providing a unique perspective on how the market was adjusting. They will soon be added to Rare Book Hub’s Transactions+.
We expect to start January 1st and expect to complete them by the end of February. Along the way, Waverly’s records will show up in the Advanced Search.
Bonhams: Consign With Us Today These are the Times that Try Men's Souls. Paine, Thomas. Sold for US$152,900.
Bonhams: Consign With Us Today The First Printed Work on Political Economy. Sold for US$127,000.
Bonhams: Consign With Us Today Signed Lincoln Photograph with Son Tad. Sold for US$76,700.
Bonhams: Consign With Us Today First Expanded Edition of Common Sense. Paine, Thomas. Sold for US$76,700.
Bonhams: Consign With Us Today Presentation Copy of Hemmingway's First Book. Sold for US$70,350.
Bonhams: Consign With Us Today St. John's Gospel on Vellum, A Fragment in Greek, 5th Century. Sold for US$70,350.
Bonhams: Consign With Us Today Only A Handful of Surviving Copies. Joyce, James. Ulysses. Sold for US$58,880.
Bonhams: Consign With Us Today A Pivotal Step in Einstein's Development of General Relativity. Sold for US$51,200.
Bonhams: Consign With Us Today A Fine Jewelled Binding Signed by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Sold for US$56,320.
Bonhams: Consign With Us Today Joyce's Annotated Typescript Draft for Finnegan's Wake. Sold for US$48,640.
Bonhams: Consign With Us Today One of 30 Pre-Publication Copies, Inscribed by Hemingway to Spencer Tracy, Who Played "The Old Man". Sold for US$83,050.
Sotheby’s Year in Review
Sotheby’s Year in Review: A Rare Hebrew Bible with Micrographic Masorah. Sold: 1,514,000 USD
Sotheby’s Year in Review: "The Freedman's Primer.” Sold: 241,300 USD
Sotheby’s Year in Review: Smith, William. "The Map that Changed the World." Sold: 139,700 USD
Sotheby’s Year in Review: Psalter, C13th. Illuminated Psalter. Sold: 330,200 GBP
Sotheby’s Year in Review: Lincoln, Abraham. The abolition of slavery. Sold: 13,697,500 USD
Sotheby’s Year in Review: Vergilius. Opera, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, 1501. Sold: 1,041,400 USD
