Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2009 Issue

Timing is Everything

From eBay to Christies in 81 days

From eBay to Christies in 81 days


By Bruce McKinney

Timing is everything. In the December issue of AE Monthly we wrote the improbable but true story of a book posted in September to eBay for $2332 [BP1,299] by an English bookseller. It was then purchased by Michael Burnley of Los Angeles who sent it on to Christie's in New York who accepted, catalogued, composed, printed and distributed its description as lot 267 in its December 5th sale: Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana. The lot brought $52,500. The entire cycle of discovery, purchase, discussion, posting, acceptance, description and sale took 81 days. It was a remarkable demonstration of skill and determination all around. The story in AE Monthly was the most widely read article of 2008. In the dark days of economic uncertainty that the world now passes through, the discovery and disposition of such an important book conveyed a hopeful message.

For those who missed the December article here is the item as listed in the Christie's catalogue "LEDYARD, John (1751-1789). A Journal of Captain Cook's last voyage to the Pacific Ocean and in quest of a North-West Passage between Asia & America. Hartford, Conn.: Nathaniel Patten, 1783. Estimate $50,000 to $70,000." Copies of the book come up from time to time. Copies with the map do not. This copy had a highly acceptable copy of the map.

There were many other interesting items offered. The difficult to obtain first edition of Oviedo's 1535 history of the new world [La historia general de las Indias] brought $23,750. It lacked one leaf.

A second edition of the first dictionary printed in the New World, Alonso Molina's Vocabulario en lengua Castellana y Mexicana, Mexico [1571] was estimated at $800 to $1,200 and brought $21,250. A copy of the first [1555] was offered by H. P. Kraus in their Catalogue 185 in 1991 for $350,000. This was an exceptional value even at 20 times the estimate.

Good fortune of the wholesale variety descended upon Profiles in History of Calabasas Hills, California that had the challenge of selling the remaining contents of the Collector's Book Store in Hollywood. They created an excellent full color catalog, a collector's item in its own right. There were three thousand lots and three days to sell them. Most were estimated $200 to $300 and offered without reserve. The average lot contained more than 1,000 examples of Hollywood books, photographs and ephemera. Most lots were purchased by dealers. One high profile collector remarked, "I buy objects, not inventory." He wasn't a bidder. One high profile dealer, 48 hours after the sale, said "I bought well and now wish I bought more." Such opportunties do not come often. In the days leading up to the event a snip about the sale cycled through the CNN ticker.

All but a few lots sold. The total realized, including the buyers premium, was $4,469,690.00. That works out to about $1.30 per item.

Even in the toughest times there is money to be made.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: ALDROVANDI, Ulisse (1522-1605) - [Opera omnia]. Bologna: Bellagamba, Benacci, Bonomi, Tebaldini, Ferroni, 1599-1668. €22.000-€28.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: [CANALETTO] - VISENTINI, Antonio (1688-1782) da Giovanni Antonio CANAL (1697-1768, detto 'Il Canaletto') - Urbis Venetiarum prospectus celebriores. Venezia: Giovanni Battista Pasquale, 1742-51. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: LA FONTAINE, Jean de (1621-1695) - Fables Choisies. Parigi: Claude Barbin, 1668. €7.000-€10.000
    Il Ponte, Feb. 25-26: MERCATOR, Rumold (1545-1599) - [I continenti] - Europa; Africa; America Sive India Nova; Asia. Amsterdam: S.d. [ca. 1633]. €2.000-€3.000
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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