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Dominic Winter Auctioneers
December 13/14
Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated BooksDominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Fleming (Ian). Dr. No, 1958; You Only Live Twice, 1964, 1st editions, presentation copies. £20,000-30,000Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Doyle (Arthur Conan). The Sign of Four, 1st edition, 1890. £5,000-8,000Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Huxley (Aldous). Brave New World, 1st edition, London: Chatto & Windus, 1932. £3,000-5,000Dominic Winter Auctioneers
December 13/14
Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated BooksDominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Stenbock (Eric Stanislaus). The Shadow of Death, 1st edition, 1893. £2,000-3,000Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Tolkien (J. R. R.). The Lord of the Rings, 1st one volume edition, signed, 1968. £3,000-5,000Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Orwell (George). Animal Farm, 1st edition, London: Secker & Warburg, 1945. £2,000-3,000Dominic Winter Auctioneers
December 13/14
Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated BooksDominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Cunard (Nancy, editor). Negro, Anthology made by Nancy Cunard, 1st edition, 1934. £2,000-3,000Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Table Game. [The Little Artist Magic Painter, Austria], circa 1775. £1,000-1,500Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Kirnig (Paul, 1891-1955). Austria, Vienna: Christophe Reisser's Söhne, c. 1930. £700-1,000Dominic Winter Auctioneers
December 13/14
Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated BooksDominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: A collection of letters including from T. S. Eliot, Siegfried Sassoon, Bertrand Russell, Aldous Huxley et al, from the Lady Ottoline Morrell collection. £700-1,000.Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: The Gentleman's Magazine, or Monthly Intelligencer. 175 volumes, 1731-1844. £2,000-3,000Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Mont Blanc peepshow. Mr Albert Smith's Ascent of Mont Blanc in Miniature, 1854. £1,500-2,000 -
Bonhams: FREDERICK DOUGLASS RETURNS TO AMERICA A FREE MAN. Sold for $353,175.Bonhams: TORTILLA FLAT INSCRIBED TO STEINBECK'S LITTLE SISTER, MARY. Sold for $57,600.Bonhams: A FRAGMENT OF THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF OF MICE AND MEN, EATEN BY THE DOG. Sold for $12,800.Bonhams: KEPLER INVESTIGATES PLANETARY MOTION. Sold for $1,008,375.Bonhams: AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT DRAFT LEAF FROM DARWIN'S DESCENT OF MAN, SIGNED BY DARWIN AT THE FOOT. Sold for $239,775.Bonhams: AUDOBON, JOHN JAMES. 1785-1851. THE BIRDS OF AMERICA. Sold for $32,000.Bonhams: FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN (1706-1790). AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED. Sold for $38,175.Bonhams: MILNE, A.A. (1882-1956). BOXED SET OF 4 CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Sold for $20,480.
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Sotheby’s
Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker
8 December 2023Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Kerouac, Jack. Typescript scroll of The Dharma Bums. Typed by Kerouac in Orlando, Florida, 1957, published by Viking in 1958. 300,000 - 500,000 USDSotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. The autograph manuscript of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." [Key West, finished April 1936]. 300,000 - 500,000 USDSotheby’s, Dec. 8: Miller, Henry. Typescript of The Last Book, a working title for Tropic of Cancer, written circa 1931–1932. 100,000 - 150,000 USDSotheby’s, Dec. 8: Ruscha, Ed. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with a lengthy inscription to Joe Goode. 40,000 - 60,000 USDSotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. in our time, first edition of Hemingway’s second book. 30,000 - 50,000 USD -
Forum Auctions
Online Sale
Books and Works on Paper
Ending 13th December 2023Forum, Dec. 13: Ackermann (Rudolph) [Views of Country Seats...], 146 hand-coloured aquatints from 'Repository of Arts’. £1,000 to £1,500.Forum, Dec. 13: Campbell (Colen) & others. Vitruvius Britannicus, or The British Architect..., 5 vol., [1751-1819]. £7,000 to £10,000.Forum, Dec. 13: Austen (Jane). The Novels, 12 vol., Edinburgh, John Grant, 1911. £1,500 to £2,000.Forum, Dec. 13: Murder broadside.- Horrid and barbarous murder of a female by cutting off her head, arms, and legs,… £200 to £300.
Rare Book Monthly
Articles - August - 2006 Issue
Shakespeare First Folio Sells For Over $5 Million
By Michael Stillman
A copy of the rare First Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays was sold at auction for the first time in five years on July 13, 2006. When the hammer went down at Sotheby's in London, the final bid stood at £2,808,000, or approximately $5,153,000 in U.S. dollars. It was the highest price ever paid for a First Folio at a London auction, and the highest price for any printed book at a Sotheby's London auction. From what we have seen, this appears to be the highest price paid for any book this year, and it is more than was paid for any book or manuscript in 2005 save one -- a copy of the double elephant folio edition of Audubon's Birds of America which went for $5,616,000.
The winning bid was placed by Simon Finch Rare Books of London. However, Finch was not buying on speculation or for stock, but evidently on behalf of a specific buyer. The ultimate buyer was not named. Sotheby's auctioneer and specialist in charge of this sale, Peter Selley, described the final purchaser simply as a "collector."
The price paid was within the estimated range, but did fall at the lower end, and was less than was paid for a copy sold at auction five years ago in New York. Asked whether the lower bid versus the 2001 sale indicated anything about the state of the market, Mr. Selley responded, "The 2001 copy was different, that is all one can say." He noted that in some respects, the 2001 copy was inferior to the one sold by Sotheby's (Dr. Daniel Williams' copy). The earlier copy, he noted, was partly made up, that is, had a few leaves taken from other copies. It also had a later binding. On the other hand, Dr. Williams' copy was missing the "To the reader" leaf at the front, which the previous one contained, a significant drawback. Mr. Selley said that he did not believe the heavy annotations in the Williams' copy, in a very old hand, detracted from the value. "They would add value, if anything," was the view he expressed.
Mr. Selley stated that he believes it is too early to reach any conclusions about the book market based on this sale. At this level, there are not many potential customers, so prices can fluctuate significantly based on the presence or absence of even a single highly motivated buyer. "One has to remember that for the book market any figure above £1 million is a very large sum, perhaps equivalent to £50 - 60m in the picture market," he explains. "There are normally only going to be a very small number of actual bidders on the day."
The Shakespeare First Folio is certainly the most important piece of English literature ever published. Many of Shakespeare's works were not published at the time they were performed, this collection being the only contemporary printing of them. Eighteen of his works, including the likes of MacBeth, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, and Twelfth Night would almost surely have been lost forever if a group of Shakepeare's admirers had not published this edition in 1623. It is estimated that around 750 copies were printed, and that about a third of them survive. As such it is not the rarest of books, but it certainly is one of the most important ever published.
Dr. Williams' copy had been left to a trust which managed his library. After holding the copy continuously since 1716, the longest any first folio has remained in a single collection, the trust decided to sell its copy so that its value could be used for other purposes. The considerable funds raised in this sale should help the Trust substantially in its other endeavors.