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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.
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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.
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Old World Auctions (April 23):
Lot 748. Second volume of Blaeu's atlas featuring 89 maps of the Americas and Asia (1642) Est. $12,000 - $15,000Old World Auctions (April 23):
Lot 12. A world map with popular cartographic myths and unique embellishments (1788) Est. $3,000 - $3,750Old World Auctions (April 23):
Lot 30. One of the most sought-after charts from Cellarius' work (1708) Est. $1,200 - $1,500Old World Auctions (April 23):
Lot 38. Anti-Vietnam War persuasive cartography on a velvet poster (1971) Est. $350 - $425Old World Auctions (April 23):
Lot 43. Ortelius' influential map of the New World - second plate (1584) Est. $4,750 - $6,000Old World Auctions (April 23):
Lot 95. Scarce German map illustrating the French & Indian War (1755) Est. $8,000 - $9,500Old World Auctions (April 23):
Lot 149. Bachmann's dramatic view of the Mid-Atlantic region (1864) Est. $1,200 - $1,500Old World Auctions (April 23):
Lot 373. De Jode's very rare map of Europe with costumed figures (1593) Est. $6,000 - $7,500Old World Auctions (April 23):
Lot 674. De Bry's Petits Voyages, Part VII with all plates and map of Sri Lanka (1606) Est. $1,400 - $1,700Old World Auctions (April 23):
Lot 704. The first printed map devoted to the Pacific in full contemporary color (1589) Est. $7,500 - $9,000Old World Auctions (April 23):
Lot 734. Superb hand-colored image of the Tree of Jesse (1502) Est. $700 - $850
Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2010 Issue
A Century of Posters from Burkhard Sulzen
By Michael Stillman
It can be hard to appreciate a catalogue written in a language you do not understand. Then again, there are always exceptions. One such exception is Katalog 14 from Burkhard Sulzen of Berlin: 53 Stummfilmplakate 1913-1926 & 116 schone und seltene Plakate verschiedener Themen 1888-1989. I can read hardly a word of German, and were it not for the magic of Google Translate, could not tell you that this title roughly means "53 silent film poster from 1913-1926 and 116 beautiful and rare posters on various topics from 1888-1989." Nevertheless, I could have told you that this is an exciting catalogue, and the posters, all of which are shown, speak for themselves without need of translation (and some of these posters are in English anyway). Some of the posters are sinister, others fun, but each was intended to sell its audience on something, whether a product in trade or someone's political point of view. Here are just a few of these posters and their fascinating looks at their times.
Item 9 is one of those silent film posters, for Die Hochzeit im Excentric Club, the Wedding at the Eccentric Club. This was a mystery directed by Joe May, but it also began the career of Fritz Lang, who did the screenplay. Lang would go on to write, with the help of his actress wife Thea von Harbou, film classics such as The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, M, and one of the greatest of silent films, Metropolis, a look at an eerie futuristic city where management lives in resplendent luxury high in the skyscrapers, while workers toil in horrific conditions underground. Lang could not have realized even worse horrors would soon be visiting his real world. Opposed to the rising Nazi regime, which von Harbou supported, they divorced in 1933, and the following year he fled the country. Lang would go on to have a long career in Hollywood. Priced at €2,800 (euros, or approximately $3,453 U.S. dollars).
Item 44 is a portrait for the Austrian opening of a silent classic, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) in 1920. It is an early horror film, featuring the murderous Dr. Caligari and his sleepwalking assistant, a story with a totally unexpected ending. €60,000 ($73,966).
Item 64 is a poster you might not expect to find in Germany. It is for the Press Ball in Dresden on February 1, 1907. What is unusual is the title, Wild-West. Evidently the American West was the subject for this ball, as the poster depicts an Indian on horseback, feathers in his hair, and teepees in the background. A dancing couple to the side looks more like stereotypical Pacific Islanders, but it is unlikely historic accuracy was important to the revelers. €480 (US $591).