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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. -
Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 2:
John Ford Clymer, U.S. Troops' Triumphant Return to New York Harbor, oil on canvas, circa 1944.Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 44:
Edward Gorey, Illustration of cover and spine for Fonthill, a Comedy by Aubrey Menen, pen and ink, 1973.Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 50:
Harrison Cady, frontispiece for Buster Bear's Twins by Thornton W. Burgess, watercolor and ink, 1921.Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 54:
Ludwig Bemelmans, Pepito, portrait of Pepito from the Madeline book series, mixed media.Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 79:
Gluyas Williams, Fellow Citizens Observation Platform, pen and ink, cartoon published in The New Yorker, March 11, 1933.Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 86:
Thomas Nast, Victory, – for the moment, political cartoon, pen and ink, 1884.Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 91:
Mischa Richter, Lot of 10 cartoons for Field Publications, ink and pencil, circa 1940.Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 111:
Arthur Getz, Sledding In Central Park, casein tempera on canvas, cover of The New Yorker, February 26, 1955.Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 124:
Richard Erdoes, Map of Boston, illustration for unknown children's magazine, gouache on board, circa 1960.Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 155:
Robert Fawcett, The old man looked him over carefully, gouache on board, published in The Saturday Evening Post, June 9, 1945.Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 170:
Violet Oakley, Portrait of Woodrow Wilson, charcoal and pastel, circa 1918.Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 188:
Robert J. Wildhack, Scribner's for March, 1907, mixed media. -
CHRISTIE’S
Valuable Books and Manuscripts
London auction
13 December
Find out moreChristie’s, Explore now
TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000Christie’s, Explore now
VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000Christie’s, Explore now
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALICE & NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT. Master of Jean Rolin (active 1445–65). Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, [Paris, c.1450–1460]. £120,000–180,000Christie’s, Explore now
A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000Christie’s, Explore now
AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
C.1311. £100,000–150,000 -
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Roberts (David) & Croly (George). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Lond. 1842 - 1843 [-49]. First Edn. €10,000 to €15,000.Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Incunabula: O'Fihily (Maurice). Duns Scotus Joannes: O'Fihely, Maurice Abp… Venice, 20th November 1497. €8,000 to €12,000.Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: An important file of documents with provenance to G.A. Newsom, manager of the Jacob’s Factory in Dublin, occupied by insurgents during Easter Week 1916. €6,000 to €9,000.Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: WILDE (Oscar), 1854-1900, playwright, aesthete and wit. A lock of Wilde’s Hair, presented by his son to the distinguished Irish actor Mícheál MacLiammóir. €6,000 to €8,000.Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Heaney (Seamus). Bog Poems, London, 1975. Special Limited Edition, No. 33 of 150 Copies, Signed by Author. Illus. by Barrie Cooke. €4,000 to €6,000.Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Binding: Burke, Thomas O.P. (de Burgo). Hibernia Dominicana, Sive Historia Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum, ... 1762. First Edition. €4,000 to €6,000.Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: COLLINS, Michael. An important TL, 29 July 1922, addressed to GOVERNMENT on ‘suggested Proclamation warning all concerned that troops have orders to shoot prisoners found sniping, ambushing etc.’. €3,000 to €4,000.Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Scott Fitzgerald (F.) The Great Gatsby, New York (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1925, First Edn. €2,000 to €3,000.Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Limited Edition, No. 46 of 375 Copies Only, Signed by W.B. Yeats. €1,500 to €2,000.Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of the Russian Empire, Description in English and French, Lg. folio London (S. Gosnell) 1803. First Edn. €1,000 to €1,500.Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of Turkey, Illustrated by a Series of Engravings. Lg. folio Lond.(T. Bensley) 1802. First Edn. €800 to €1,200.Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Mason (Geo. Henry). The Costume of China, Illustrated with Sixty Engravings. Lg. folio London (for W. Miller) 1800. First Edn. €1,400 to €1,800
Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2010 Issue
A Century of Posters from Burkhard Sulzen
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on the latest Burkhard Sulzen catalogue.
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).
