• CHRISTIE’S
    Valuable Books and Manuscripts
    London auction
    13 December
    Find out more
    Christie’s, Explore now
    TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000
    Christie’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]. £120,000–180,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
    C.1311. £100,000–150,000
  • ABAA VBF: Holiday Edition
    November 30-December 2
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA VBF: Holiday Edition
    November 30-December 2
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA VBF: Holiday Edition
    November 30-December 2
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA VBF: Holiday Edition
    November 30-December 2
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA VBF: Holiday Edition
    November 30-December 2
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA VBF: Holiday Edition
    November 30-December 2
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA VBF: Holiday Edition
    November 30-December 2
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA VBF: Holiday Edition
    November 30-December 2
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA VBF: Holiday Edition
    November 30-December 2
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA VBF: Holiday Edition
    November 30-December 2
    abaa.org/vbf
  • 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
  • Sotheby’s
    Fine Books and Manuscripts
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane] — Isaac D'Israeli. Jane Austen's copy of Curiosities of Literature. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition in boards of the author's debut novel. 70,000 - 100,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Brontë, Charlotte. "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me..." 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Eliot, George. The author's magnum opus. 25,000 - 35,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Whitman, Walt. Manuscript written upon the Death of Lincoln, 1865. 60,000 - 80,000 USD

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2012 Issue

Winnie-The-Pooh, Milne, and Shepard Too, from Peter Harrington

The Pat McInally collection of Winnie-the-Pooh.

Peter Harrington has issued their Catalogue 80, and it is a very special collection for those who are very young, at least at heart. It is The Winnie-The-Pooh Collection of Pat McInally. Works by A.A. Milne & E.H. Shepard. It is probably safe to say that everyone here knows Pooh Bear and Milne and Shepard, but many of you may not be familiar with McInally. Pat McInally was a (American) football player, spending ten seasons in the National Football League with the Cincinnati Bengals. Perhaps if he had played with the Dallas Cowboys you would know him better. McInally was primarily a punter during those years, but also was a receiver at times. Stereotypes to the contrary, McInally was a football player of very great brain, a Harvard graduate and the only player to ever obtain a perfect score on the Wonderlic test, given professional football players to determine their ability to learn complex plays. In his post-football days, McInally became a book collector, and what is offered today is the spectacular collection related to Winnie-the-Pooh, his author and illustrator, McInally put together.

The four Pooh books were not the first from A.A. Milne. He was already an established and successful writer, two decades in the making. He wrote material for Punch magazine (where he met Shepard), short stories, essays, mysteries, and more. Still, it is the children's tales, Pooh in particular, for which we remember him. His first stab at writing for children appeared in the November 1923 issue of The Merry-Go-Round. The poem he included was The Doormouse and the Doctor, and it would reappear a year later in When We Were Very Young. Item 3. £300 (British pounds, or about $464 in U.S. dollars).

Item 9 is a signed copy of the first U.S. edition of the first of the Pooh books, When We Were Very Young. It was part of a limited run of 500 copies, 100 of which were signed. However, this is a very special signed edition. It is double signed. Along with that of Milne is a child-like scrawl of “Billy Moon.” Who is “Billy Moon?” Just the hero of the books, or perhaps second hero next to that of Pooh himself. “Billy Moon” was the nickname of Christopher Robin, that is, the real Christopher Robin – Christopher Robin Milne. This Christopher Robin, on whom the stories were based (along with Christopher's collection of stuffed animals), was only four years old at the time. To his parents, Christopher was known as “Billy,” and because he had a bit of difficulty saying his last name, Milne, it came out as “Moon.” Young Christopher/Billy Milne/Moon thought he should help out with the book signing, so the first 8 of the 100 signed copies also have the bonus of having the “Billy Moon” signature. £9,500 (US $14,700).

Item 22 is a 1926 letter from A.A. Milne to his illustrator, Ernest Shepard. Harrington notes that while they were not close personal friends, they were quite friendly to each other and each admired the other's work. Milne was in the process of writing Winnie-the-Pooh at the time, and the procedure the collaborators used was Milne would send Shepard a couple of chapters he had finished, and based on those, Shepard would create his drawings. Writes Milne, “Dear Shepard, I enclose the latest Pooh. I saw the drawings of the first two at Methuens yesterday, and I loved them.” The letter goes on to discuss a project where Milne would prepare a book of Mother Goose rhymes and Shepard would illustrate them. Milne had earlier offered Shepard a 20% royalty stake in Winnie-the-Pooh, an unusually high amount, and proposed an even more generous 50/50 split on Mother Goose. However, this project never came to pass. £7,500 (US $11,611).

Later that year, Winnie-the-Pooh was released, and item 34 is a copy of the first U.S. trade edition. Milne has inscribed it to Shepard, and it reflects well the high esteem Milne had for his partner. Writes Milne:

When I am gone,

Let Shepard decorate my tomb,

And put (if there is room)

Two pictures on the stone:

Piglet from page a hundred and eleven,

And Pooh and Piglet walking (157)...

And Peter, thinking that they are my own,

will welcome me to Heaven.

Shepard has also signed this copy. £65,000 (US $100,664).

McInally's collection included several of Shepard's original drawings, including some iconic images you will likely instantly recognize. Item 23 is a preliminary sketch of the map of the Hundred Acre Wood, which eventually would find itself on the endpapers of Winnie-the-Pooh. A few handwritten changes can be seen, such as changing Eeyore's “Pasture Land” to his “Gloomy Place.” £115,000 (US $178,216).

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby’s
    Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’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 USD
    Sotheby’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 USD
    Sotheby’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 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Ruscha, Ed. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with a lengthy inscription to Joe Goode. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’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, 2023
    Swann, 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, 2023
    Swann, 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, 2023
    Swann, 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, 2023
    Swann, 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.

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