• Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: (Choiseul-Gouffier, Marie). Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece, 2 vols, 1st edition, 1782-1822. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Gentlemen's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, by Sylvanus Urban, 11 volumes. £700-1,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Shackleton (Ernest). The Heart of the Antarctic, 2 vols, 1st ed, presentation copy, 1909. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Drayton (Michael). Poly Olbion..., London: 1622. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Scheuchzer (Johann Jacob). Ouresiphoites Helveticus, 4 parts in 1, 2nd ed, 1723. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Roberts (Henry, after). Chart of the NW Coast of America and NE Coast of Asia ..., [1784]. £500-800
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Maffei (Giovanni), Indiarum orientalium Occidentaliumque Descriptio..., 1589. £1,200-1,500
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Ortelius (Abraham), Typus Orbis Terrarum, [1598]. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Bible [English]. [The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New..., 1613]. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Taylor (John). All the Workes of John Taylor the Water-Poet..., 1630. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Pierpont Morgan Collection. Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains, 1904 & 1906. £2,000-3,000
  • Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 10: Nancy Cunard, Negro Anthology, with a tipped-in A.L.S. to Karl Marx's niece, 1934. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 14: Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845. First edition. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 17: Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, inscribed first edition, 1959. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 28: Margaret Hill Morris, Private Journal Kept during a Portion of the Revolutionary War, for the Amusement of a Sister, 1836. First edition. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 38: Anna Sewell, Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, 1877. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 43: Gertrude Stein, Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia, signed presentation copy with photograph of Stein, 1912. First edition. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 48: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, first edition in the scarce dust jacket, 1927. $6,000 to $8,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 54: Katherine Dunham, large archive of material from her attorney, 1951-53. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 55: Margaret Fuller Signed Autograph Letter, New York City, 1846. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 92: Sonia Delaunay, illus. & Tristan Tzara, Juste Present, deluxe edition with original gouache, 1961. $20,000 to $25,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 93: Flor Garduño, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, 2006. Limited edition. $6,000 to $8,000.

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2015 Issue

Fine City Plans and Views from Martayan Lan

Fine City Plans and Views.

Fine City Plans and Views.

Martayan Lan has issued their Catalogue 52 – Fine City Plans and Views. These views and plans cover a wide range of territory. Martayan Lan has broken those down into sections: Large-Scale City Plans, City Atlases, New York City & State, New England, Mid Atlantic United States, South Midwest & West, Canada, Latin America, Asia & Africa, British Isles, Paris, Italy, Low Countries, Poland, Germany/Hungary. Some of these are somewhere in between a view and a map. Looking as if drawn from the top of a nearby tall mountain, they provide a view of the city from which all streets and buildings can be seen, enabling it to be used as a map. Most are quite old, from as early as the 15th century up to the 19th. Here are just a few samples of what is in store.

 

We begin with a View Of The Ruins After The Great Fire In New-York, Decr. 16th and 17th. 1835. It depicts smoldering ruins the day after the worst fire in New York City's history. Believed to have been started by a broken gas pipe and a coal stove, the fire occurred on the coldest night in the city in 35 years, with temperatures in the teens below zero. The nearby East River was frozen over, requiring firefighters to cut holes through the ice to reach water. Even then, hoses froze up and pumps stopped functioning. Seventeen city blocks and almost 700 buildings were destroyed. Most of the city's insurance companies were bankrupted. Fortunately, the area, around today's financial district, was mainly warehouses and businesses rather than residential, so only two people died. The loss was $20 million, which was several times the cost of the Erie Canal, trade from which had made the city's business district prosperous. Continuing trade enabled it to be rebuilt in a relatively short time. This hand-colored view was engraved by William J. Bennett in 1836. Item 8. Priced at $3,850.

 

We move from a look at a city after the conflagration to one from before. Item 22 is a Map Of The City Of Galveston Texas, by E. A. Hensoldt/Galveston Land & Improvement Co. This company promoted an expansion of the city to the west, which is depicted on this plan. The company had been formed by a group of Colorado businessmen who wanted to participate in the growth of what was a very prosperous and growing city. Along with the plan, it lists Galveston's churches, hotels, businesses, cotton presses, schools and colleges, and cultural institutions, including an opera house. What no one could have imagined at the time is that just a decade later, the island city would be overrun by a disastrous hurricane, killing 8,000 people (the worst natural disaster in terms of lost lives in American history), and totally destroying the city as it existed on this map. $9,500.

 

Item 35 is Lundinum, feracissimi Angliae Regni metropolis, by Braun and Hogenberg of Cologne. This 1572 map of London is described as “the first surviving map of the whole of London and Westminster,” though it was surprisingly created in France. It was the first plan to appear in Civitatis Orbis Terrarum, the earliest atlas of city plans and views published. The presence of the spire of St. Paul's indicates it depicts London in the 1550's as the spire was destroyed by a fire in 1561. It likely was based on an earlier map, explaining this oldest surviving coming from France. It depicts London from high across the Thames, four people in period dress standing in the foreground. A single bridge spans the Thames. A paean to the Hanseatic League, an organization of merchants along the northern coast of Europe, is printed in the corner (it may have been responsible for the plan, which would explain its French origin). $10,000.

 

The next map is of La Luisiana, a Spanish map dating from 1762. It actually contains three maps, the major one being of the Louisiana Territory, the second a street map of New Orleans, and the third the headwaters of the Mississippi River. The last one was necessarily speculative since no one had actually discovered the source of the great river at that time. The map, by Spanish cartographer Tomas Lopez y Vargas Machuca, and written in Spanish, evidently reflects Spain's attempt to understand the large territory it had just acquired. France had been routed in the just ending French and Indian War, and its Spanish ally was forced to cede Florida to the victor, Great Britain. As compensation to its ally, France gave the territory to Spain. It would remain there until 1803 when Napoleon, now in control of Spain, took the territory back and sold it to the United States. This map also shows the area west of New Orleans, now known as Texas, appropriately labeled “Tejas.” Item 18. $12,000.

 

Next is Plano General de Mexico... the work of Diego Garcia Conde. Martayan Lan describes this as “the most important early plan of Mexico City and one of the most significant maps of any kind produced in Mexico.” Conde was both a military officer and a mapmaker. He was assigned the task of preparing this map during the brief, enlightened period of Viceroy Conde de Revillagigedo. Begun in 1793, it was not published until 1807. This is a copy of the only printing of the rare large format, nine sheets that when joined together measure approximately 4 ½ x 6 ½ feet. It was later reprinted in a smaller format but the original plates were lost. Conde would later return to his military role, fighting Mexican rebels on behalf of Spain, but after the rebels succeeded, he was one of the few Spanish military leaders to stay on and serve the new nation. Item 4. $85,000.

 

Martayan Lan may be reached at 212-308-0018 or info@martayanlan.com. Their website is www.martayanlan.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
    Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
    Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.

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