-
Jeschke Jádi
Rare Book Auction 155
Saturday April 26, 2025Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 962. Baird. United States Exploring Expedition. Philadelphia 1858.Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 772. Edith Holland Norton. Brazilian Flowers. Coombe Croft 1893.Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 49. Petrarca. Das Gluecksbuch, Augsburg 1536.Jeschke Jádi
Rare Book Auction 155
Saturday April 26, 2025Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 1496. Jacob / Picasso. Chronique des Temps, 1956.Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 8. Augustinus. De moribus ecclesie. Cologne 1480.Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 17. Heures a lusaige de Noyon. Paris 1504.Jeschke Jádi
Rare Book Auction 155
Saturday April 26, 2025Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 13. Schedel. Buch der Chronicken. Nürnberg 1493.Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 957. Donovan. Insects of China. London 1798.Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 123. A holy martyr. Tuscany, Florence, mid-14th century.Jeschke Jádi
Rare Book Auction 155
Saturday April 26, 2025Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 438. Dante. La Divine Comédie. Paris 1963.Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 602. Firdausi. Histoire de Minoutchehr. Paris 1919Jeschke Jádi, Apr. 26: Lot 994. Westwood. Oriental Entomology. London 1848. -
Swann, Apr. 22: Lot 124: Henri Courvoisier-Voisin, et alia, [Recueil de Vues de Paris et ses Environs], depicting precursors of the modern roller coaster, Paris, [1814-1819?]. $2,000 to $3,000.Swann, Apr. 22: Lot 148: Pablo Picasso & Fernando de Rojas, La Célestine, First Edition, Paris, 1971. $30,000 to $40,000.Swann, Apr. 22: Lot 201: Omar Khayyam & Edward Fitzgerald, Rubaiyat, William Bell Scott's copy of the First Edition, London, 1859. $20,000 to $30,000.Swann, Apr. 22: Lot 223: Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, First Edition, extra-illustrated with hand-colored plates by Palinthorpe, London, 1861. $7,000 to $9,000.Swann, Apr. 22: Lot 248: L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, First Edition, inscribed by the illustrator, Chicago & New York, 1900. $20,000 to $30,000.Swann, Apr. 22: Lot 305: Tycho Brahe & Pierre Gassendi, Tychonis Brahei Vita, Paris, 1654. From the Collection of Owen Gingerich. $8,000 to $12,000.Swann, Apr. 22: Lot 338: Giovanni Battista Riccioli, Almagestum Novum, two folio volumes, Bologna, 1651. From the Collection of Owen Gingerich. $8,000 to $10,000.Swann, Apr. 22: Lot 350: Tobias Cohn, Ma'aseh Toviyyah, first edition, Venice, 1707-8. $3,000 to $5,000.Swann, Apr. 22: Lot 359: Alan Turing, Computing, Machinery, and Intelligence, first edition, Edinburgh, 1950. $3,000 to $5,000.
-
Sotheby's
Sell Your Fine Books & ManuscriptsSotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USDSotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USDSotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USDSotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USDSotheby's
Sell Your Fine Books & ManuscriptsSotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USDSotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBPSotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBPSotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR -
Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: BELLEFOREST (François de). La cosmographie universelle de tout le monde. €12,000 to €15,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: DESNOS (Louis Charles). Mappe-monde, ou Carte Generale de la Terre. €5,000 to €6,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: BLAEU (Willem Janszoon & Joan). Theatrum Sabaudiae. €18,000 to €20,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: LINASSI. Ferdinando Ie Maria Anna Carolina nel Litorale in Settembre 1844. €4,000 to €5,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: AMBROSOLI (Francesco). Monumento a Francesco Primo in Vienna. €3,000 to €4,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: Plano de la plaza de Mesina y de su ciudadel y castiglios. €5,000 to €6,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: ROCKSTUHL (Alois Gustav), GILLE (Florent A.). 78 Lithographies du Musée de Tzarskoe-Selo. €1,000 to €1,500.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: Chtchedrovski, Ignatiy Stepanovitch. €2,000 to €3,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: DE BRUYN (Cornelis). Voyage au Levant. €3,000 to €5,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: ABI ISHAQ AHMAD B. IBRAHIM AL-THAʿLABI (M. 1035) : TROISIÈME VOLUME DU KASHF WA-L-BAYAN ʻAN TAFSIRI AL-QURʼAN. €3,000 to €5,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: DESNOS (Louis Charles). L’Afrique. €3,000 to €4,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: DE BRUYN (Cornelis). Voyages de Corneille Le Brun par la Moscovie, en Perse, et aux Indes orientales. €1,500 to €2,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: DESNOS. (Louis Charles). Amérique septentrionale et Méridionale. €4,000 to €5,000.Gros & Delettrez, Apr. 23: ÉLIOT (J.B.) ; MONDHARE (Louis Joseph). Carte du théatre de la guerre actuel entre les anglais et les treize Colonies Unies de l'Amérique Septentrionale. €5,000 to €6,000.
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.