• 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 - July - 2013 Issue

Books from the Library of Diane-Adelaide de Simiane from Croft and Spademan

Mme de Simiane.

Justin Croft Antiquarian Books and Benjamin Spademan have released a catalogue of Books from the Library of Diane-Adelaide de Simiane (1761-1835). Though Croft and Spademan are English booksellers, Mme de Simiane was a French woman, and naturally enough, she read books in the French language. She was a reader, not a classic collector, so these books reflected the tastes of a typical gentlewoman of the time. And, despite being French, English fiction and historical novels were quite popular then, so her library was filled with English books in translation. Most books range from late 18th century to the first three decades of the 19th century, the period when she would have been reading. A few, however, were clearly older books by the time she obtained them.

Diane-Adelaide de Damas d'Antigny was the daughter of the Marquis of Antigny. In 1777, at the age of 16, she married Charles-Francois de Simiane, the Marquis of Miremont. It must have been quite the event, as Diane was considered by many to be the most beautiful woman in all of France. That is her picture on the catalogue's cover. However, the marriage also must have been one of combining prestigious families rather than a passionate love affair. Charles was very likely gay and the relationship platonic. Others tried to take advantage of this, but Mme de Simiane resisted their attempts. Resisted most, anyway. Charles had accompanied the Marquis de Lafayette to America, and once back in France, the French and American hero took up with his wife. Though Lafayette was also married, and remained so, he carried on an affair with Mme de Simiane for many years, and they remained close long thereafter. Indeed, Lafayette's wife became friendly with her as well (Mme de Simiane was reportedly a very nice person) though there must have been some awkwardness.

In 1787, Charles de Simiane died in what was described as a hunting accident. However, circumstances led many to conclude it was a suicide. She never remarried. During the Revolution, she was imprisoned, but fortunately managed to escape the times with her head still firmly implanted on her shoulders. It was after this that she moved to the country, accumulated her library, and lived another four decades. Here are a few of the books that graced her library.

We will start with the first item in the catalogue, if only for the amusing description of it. Very popular in France at that time, particularly among women, were novels of an exaggerated, impossible romantic nature. This one is Le Solitaire (the lonesome) by Victor-Prévost Vicomte d'Arlincourt, published in 1821. According to the Oxford Companion to French Literature, “The hero, a miraculously resurrected Charles the Bold, is a gloomy hermit who has retired to a mountain-top to expiate innumerable fearful crimes, and only sallies forth to perform incredible rescues or steal the heroine’s blue hair-ribbons. The heroine, Élodie, is a tender virgin who can accept the fact that the hero has murdered her father, seduced her cousin, and wrecked her uncle’s happiness, but cannot face love without a wedding-ring.” Priced at £300 (roughly $465 in U.S. dollars).

As long as we are pillorying poor M. d'Arlincourt, item 2 is his second novel, Le Renégat (the renegade) published in 1822. The French Quarterly Review tells us of these novels, “The style of those romances, stilted and inflated almost to bombast, the extravagance of the incidents, and the gross and revolting improbabilities of the stories, were such, as to make the reading of them alternately a source of pain and a provocative of laughter.” £300 (US $465).

Item 16 is a far more weighty novel, though it is unclear whether Mme de Simiane understood it as such or as another sentimental book of the time. It is titled Ourika, written by Claire de Duras. This is the first trade edition of 1824, after a tiny (25-40 copies) edition of 1823. It is based on a true story, a young black slave girl given to the Duchess of Orléans by the colonial administrator for Senegal. The young girl was raised like any white child by the Duchess, being instructed in art and voice by the best teachers, and taught several languages. She died of an unknown illness at the age of 16. In this novel, Ourika grows up not knowing any prejudice, having been told she is an angel. However, at the age of 12, she overhears a woman tell the Duchess that raising her this way is a disgrace. What man would marry her, the woman inquires of Ourika. For the first time, Ourika comes to see herself as different, as less than others, covering up her skin and avoiding mirrors. The story is told with Ourika as its narrator, now a nun in a convent, speaking to a doctor come to treat her deathly illness. This book was the first fully developed European attempt to portray a black woman as its heroine. £250 (US $388).

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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