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Sotheby’s
Fine Books and Manuscripts
8 December 2023Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane] — Isaac D'Israeli. Jane Austen's copy of Curiosities of Literature. 100,000 - 150,000 USDSotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition in boards of the author's debut novel. 70,000 - 100,000 USDSotheby’s, Dec. 8: Brontë, Charlotte. "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me..." 100,000 - 150,000 USDSotheby’s, Dec. 8: Eliot, George. The author's magnum opus. 25,000 - 35,000 USDSotheby’s, Dec. 8: Whitman, Walt. Manuscript written upon the Death of Lincoln, 1865. 60,000 - 80,000 USD -
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 -
Swann
Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
December 7, 2023Swann, Dec. 7: Samuel Augustus Mitchell, A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining, Philadelphia, 1846. $3,500 to $5,000.Swann, Dec. 7: 17th–19th-century case maps of various locations. $1,500 to $2,000.Swann, Dec. 7: Andreas Cellarius, Haemisphaerium Stellatum Boreale Cum Subiecto Haemisphaerio Terrestri, celestial chart, Amsterdam, 1708. $2,500 to $3,500.Swann
Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
December 7, 2023Swann, Dec. 7: Vincenzo Coronelli, Set of engraved gores for Coronelli’s monumental 42-inch terrestrial globe, Venice, circa 1688–97. $18,000 to $22,000.Swann, Dec. 7: Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, group of four navigational charts, Antwerp, 1580s. $2,000 to $3,000.Swann, Dec. 7: Thomas Bros, Block Book of Berkeley, Oakland, 1920s. $800 to $1,200.Swann
Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
December 7, 2023Swann, Dec. 7: John Nieuhoff & John Ogilby, An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, map of China, plan of Canton, London, 1673. $1,200 to $1,800.Swann, Dec. 7: Frederick Sander, Reichenbachia, St. Albans, 1888-1894. $5,000 to $7,000.Swann, Dec. 7: Two early illustrated works on horsemanship and breeding, Nuremberg, early 18th century. $700 to $800.Swann
Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
December 7, 2023Swann, Dec. 7: John Gould, A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans. Supplement to the First Edition, London, 1834; 1855. $40,000 to $60,000.Swann, Dec. 7: John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World, London, 1808–14. $1,500 to $2,500.Swann, Dec. 7: Oakley Hoopes Bailey, Hackensack, New Jersey, Boston, 1896. $800 to $1,200. -
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
Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - September - 2010 Issue
A Summer Miscellany from Michael Thompson Books
By Michael Stillman
Michael Thompson Books of Los Angeles has issued a Summer Miscellany, Consisting of 100 Books [101 actually], Mostly Recent Acquisitions. This is truly a miscellany. The topics and types of books vary so widely that it is impossible to put a label on them. You will need to sort through this catalogue for yourself to understand what is here. For now, we will provide a few samples, not particularly reflective of the whole.
Most Americans are familiar with Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, a favorable look at American political institutions by the visiting Frenchman who came during the 1830s. However, de Tocqueville wrote one other major tome a couple of decades later, meant to be a three-part set. Unfortunately, it was cut off at one by his untimely death. Item 85 is the first edition (in French) from 1856 of his L'Ancien Regime et la Revolution. Originally, de Tocqueville planned to carry his work about his native France from the Old Regime through the time of Napoleon, but never got past the Revolution. Priced at $1,250.
Here is a book that would not likely be so popular today, but it was well received during its era: The American Ladies' Memorial: an indispensable home book for the wife, mother, daughter, in fact useful to every lady throughout the United States. This was much about the proper role for women in 1850. Indeed, that point was not necessary to state. It simply covers activities that would have been appropriate for a woman at the time, such as dressmaking, embroidery, etiquette, floral arrangements and such. Item 95. $650.
Item 40 is a Traite contre les danses et les mauvaises chansons. This translates to a treatise against dancing and bad music. You might think it is a book about disco, but its date of 1769 would seem to preclude that. Author Francois Louis Gauthier was a curate who, like most churchmen of his time, did not believe in having fun, considering music and dancing to be immoral. $650.
Item 56 is an account of one of those geographic myths, that, in reverse of the normal order, arose after the correct understanding of the land, rather than before it. In the 16th century, explorers recognized that California, or at least Baja California, was a peninsula. The great maps of Mercator and Ortelius displayed it correctly. However, in the early 17th century, someone became confused. Maps began to show California as being an island. By the latter part of that century, that was the general understanding. However, missionaries settling the area recognized its true nature, and by the early 1700s, maps again began to display California as it truly is. The last of the bad maps disappeared later that century. Item 56 is John Leighley's California as an Island. An Illustrated Essay...showing California as an Island 1622-1785. This book, with plates and a bibliography of California-as-an-island maps, was published by the Book Club of California in 1972. $1,250.
Speaking of maps, item 92 is the definitive cartographic history of the American West, Carl Wheat's Mapping the Transmississippi West. 1540-1861. This includes six volumes of facsimile maps of the very old to more recent old west, published from 1957-1963. $3,500.
Here is a work of fakes as unreal as island California, but some clever ones nonetheless. Item 6 is Notorious Ex Libris, published in 2008. It was printed by students at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. The students created imaginary bookplates of various notable and notorious individuals, such as Al Capone, George Armstrong Custer, Madonna, and the Marquis de Sade. $250.
Michael Thompson Books may be reached at 323-658-1901 or mrtbksla@pacbell.net. Their website is www.mrtbooksla.com.