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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
Nautical Books from the Columbia Trading Co.
By Michael Stillman
The Columbia Trading Company of West Barnstable, Massachusetts, has issued its Catalog 148 of Nautical Books and Artifacts. It is filled with works relating to the sea. From battleships to yachts, important voyages to personal sailing, it's all here. There are even a few items related to inland boating, such as navigation along America's rivers, but most of the waterways underlying these books are heavily salted. Now it's time to dip a toe into this catalogue to see what type of material can be found.
Travel at sea has long been associated with both great discoveries and enormous danger and tragedy. Item 294 is an account of the latter: The Lusitania's Last Voyage. Being a Narrative of the Torpedoing and Sinking of the R.M.S. Lusitania by a German Submarine off the Irish Coast, May 7, 1915. Britain and Germany were at war when the British ship Lusitania left New York on May 1, 1915, with approximately 1,800 passengers and crew on board. It was a civilian passenger ship, though it was carrying some small arms. America, at the time, was neutral, as neither President Wilson nor the American public had any desire to be dragged into a European conflict. However, the Germans had recently announced that they would consider any ships entering English waters fair game for its new U-boats (submarines), and warnings were issued that the Lusitania could be a target. It is doubtful that most passengers, including many Americans, took this too seriously, but on May 7, a single torpedo from a German submarine hit with deadly results. The Lusitania listed dramatically, and not too long after sank. The extreme tilt made it difficult to launch the lifeboats. In all, almost 1,200 of the passengers and crew died. It was a successful mission for the Germans militarily, but a public relations disaster. Anger was great in America, although the desire to stay out of war still prevailed, and Wilson would win reelection in 1916 on a "kept us out of war" platform. Nonetheless, American opinion was now tilting decidedly to the British side, and the President was aiding England, leading to further disputes with Germany and eventual American entry into the war. Charles Lauriat's account of the Lusitania was published in 1915, the year of its sinking, and well before America's participation in the war. Priced at $40.
Here is another great war-related tragedy at sea, though this one came on fresh water, and was the result of carelessness and greed rather than an attack. The loss of life was greater than that on the Lusitania or the Titanic. At the end of America's Civil War, the Union needed to move thousands of prisoners of war from southern prisons back home. Naturally, both the Union and the prisoners wanted them to return as quickly as possible, and there was money to be made on the transportation. The steamship Sultana, with a capacity of 376, took on a load of 2,300 returning soldiers. It had a leaky steam boiler, but the owners were not about to delay their schedule to repair the boiler as they feared they would lose their load of passengers to competing ships. At $5 a head, the Sultana was a money machine. It picked up most of its passengers at Vicksburg, and near Memphis, the boiler exploded. Most of the weakened ex-prisoners drowned, some 1,700-1,800 of them dying in the wreck. Item 237 is Gene Salecker's 1996 account of this great tragedy, Disaster on the Mississippi. The Sultana Explosion, April 27, 1865. $20.
Here is an item for collectors of nautical works or of Robert Louis Stevenson. The title is In The South Seas. An Intimate Photographic Record. Though published in 1987, nearly a century after Stevenson died, it contains photographs and letters written from sailing voyages in the South Pacific by Stevenson and his family between 1888 and 1890. Item 536. $25.
Item 105 is a 1955 facsimile of an ode to Sir Francis Drake, naval hero or brutal pirate, depending on your point of view. Drake was the English privateer who captured many Spanish ships and murdered more than his share of men along the way, in service to his Queen. He was also the first Englishman to accomplish a circumnavigation of the world. In 1587, poet Thomas Greepe published this ode to Drake's work: The True and Perfecte Nevves of the Woorthy and Valiaunt Exploytes, Performed and Doone by that Valiant Knight Syr Francis Drake. You would think by 1955 they could have cleaned up the spelling, but they stuck to the letter of the first edition. $75.
The Columbia Trading Company may be reached at 508-362-1500 or info@columbiatrading.com. Their website is found at www.columbiatrading.com