Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2016 Issue

Six Specialties from John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller

30 books in 6 specialties.

John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller has issued Short List 3. 30 Books in Six Specialties. Those six specialties are William Blake, Literature, Children's Books, Illuminated Manuscripts, Fine Press, and Fine Bindings. We must acknowledge that Windle is fair and balanced. There are five representatives from each of the six categories. Here are a few samples of them.

 

We begin with one from the category of literature. Item 7 is James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, a first edition, first issue published in 1791. Boswell is remembered as one of the greatest biographers ever. Johnson is remembered because he was a friend of and admired by Boswell, one of the greatest biographers ever. Johnson was an important lexicographer. His 18th century dictionary was the finest up to its time. Obviously, he had a way with words. Still, it wasn't his lexicography wordsmithing that so impressed Boswell. Johnson was also a great conversationalist and wit, and this is what led Boswell to be such an admirer, and one who listened to his every word, and recorded most of them. Boswell met Johnson in 1763, and wrote down much of what he said until he died in 1784. Priced at $3,750.

 

Next up is a children's book, though it obviously has some adult fans. Item 11 is the Boston classic, Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey, published in 1941. It is the story of Mrs. Mallard and her eight young children who have to make their way from the Charles River to Boston Public Garden. Unfortunately, they are too young to fly. They need to make their trip through traffic and various obstacles. Fortunately, the police and citizens of Boston are there to protect them on their journey. Along with statues of various patriots to be found in Boston, hotbed of America's revolution, there is one in the Garden of Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings. As to that comment about this book appealing to some adults as well, this copy contains the signed bookplate of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, along with a loosely inserted card from him. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was an astrophysicist who won the Nobel prize for physics in 1983. It had something to do with black holes, not baby ducks. $12,500.

 

Item 19 is an illuminated leaf on vellum from a Book of Hours, circa 1430, from Brittany. It contains six illuminated initials, in gold and other colors, and two large miniatures (no, that is not an oxymoron). The image on the recto shows St. Nicholas blessing three boys in a pickling tub. This is not the St. Nicholas of "A Visit from..." but the 4th century saint. Nicholas was a church father with his serious, theological side, but was also said to be a giver of presents and a favorite of children. Legends grew about him, including one where he was said to have restored life to three children who had been killed by a butcher and tossed into a pickling tub. The miniature on the verso depicts St. Sebastian, about to be shot by two archers. St. Sebastian is usually depicted this way, but the story is he survived this attempted execution and went back to the Roman Emperor to protest the persecution of Christians, whereupon he was clubbed to death. The miracle attributed to Sebastian later was one of saving many people from the plague. $9,500.

 

Next is another leaf, but this time within a fine press book. Item 21 is Great Polyglot Bibles, Including a Leaf from the Complutensian of Acala, 1514-1517... For the occasional person not familiar with the term "complutensian," it means pertaining to Complutum, the Latin name for the city of Alcala de Henares, a city in Spain. A polyglot bible, or polyglot anything else, is one using several languages. The Complutensian Bible could justly have been called a poly-polyglot bible as it used four – Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Armaic. That certainly would have covered all necessary languages for biblical scholarship in the 16th century. The text in the four languages is shown on each page in four columns, which Windle describes as "one of the greatest feats of typography." The Allen Press book containing this leaf, published in 1966, includes a scholarly biblical essay by Basil Hall. It was published on behalf of the Book Club of California. The Allen Press of Lewis and Dorothy Allen was in operation in the San Francisco area from 1939 until the 1990's. $550.

 

John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller may be reached at 415-986-5826 or john@johnwindle.com. Their website is www.johnwindle.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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

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