• <center><b>Potter & Potter Auctions<br>Nobu Shirase and the Japanese Antarctic Expedition: the Collection of Chet Ross<br>October 12, 2023</b>
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> [BYRD]. VEER, Willard Van der and Joseph T. RUCKER, cinematographers. The 35mm motion picture Akeley camera that filmed the Academy Award-winning documentary “With Byrd at the South Pole”. $30,000 to $50,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> [SHIRASE, Nobu, his copy]. RYUKEI, Yano. <i>Young Politicians of Thebes: Illustrious Tales of Statesmanship.</i> Tokyo(?), 1881-84. $15,000 to $20,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> SHACKLETON, Ernest H. <i>The Antarctic Book.</i> Winter Quarters 1907-1909 [dummy copy of the supplement to: <i>The Heart of the Antarctic</i>]. London, 1909. $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> [USS BEAR]. The original auxiliary deck wheel from the famed USS Bear, 1874-1933. “PROBABLY THE MOST FAMOUS SHIP IN THE HISTORY OF THE COAST GUARD” (USCG). $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> HENSON, Matthew. <i>A Negro Explorer at the North Pole.</i> With a forward by Robert Peary. Introduction by Booker T. Washington. New York, [1912]. $3,000 to $4,000.
  • <center><b>Gonnelli: Auction 46 Books<br>Autographs & Manuscripts<br>Oct 3rd-5th 2023</b>
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Tilson - Zanotto, Il vero tema. 2011. Starting price 150 €
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Munari, Storia di un filo. Starting price 400 €
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Debord, Contre le cinéma. 1964. Starting price 150 €
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Futurism books and ephemera
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Travel books
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Medicine books
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Levaillant, Histoire naturelle des perroquets. 1801-1805. Starting price 52.000 €
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Carrera, Il gioco de gli scacchi. 1617. Starting price 3200 €
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Vergilius, Opera. 1515. Starting price 800 €
  • <center><b>Swann Auction Galleries View Our Record Breaking Results</b>
    <b>Swann:</b> Charles Monroe Schulz, <i>The Peanuts gang,</i> complete set of 13 drawings, ink, 1971. Sold June 15 — $50,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Family Archive of Photographs & Letters. Sold June 1 — $60,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> Victor H. Green, <i>The Negro Motorist Green Book,</i> New York, 1949. Sold March 30 — $50,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> William Shakespeare, <i>King Lear; Othello;</i> [and] <i>Anthony & Cleopatra;</i> Extracted from the First Folio, London, 1623. Sold May 4— $185,000.
    <center><b>Swann Auction Galleries View Our Record Breaking Results</b>
    <b>Swann:</b> William Samuel Schwartz, <i>A Bridge in Baraboo, Wisconsin,</i> oil on canvas, circa 1938. Sold February 16 — $32,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Lena Scott Harris, <i>Group of approximately 65 hand-colored botanical studies, all apparently California native plants,</i> hand-colored silver prints, circa 1930s. Sold February 23 — $37,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Suzanne Jackson, <i>Always Something To Look For,</i> acrylic & pencil on linen canvas, circa 1974. Sold April 6 — $87,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Gustav Klimt, <i>Das Werk von Gustav Klimt,</i> complete with 50 printed collotype plates, Vienna & Leipzig, 1918. Sold June 15 — $68,750.
  • <b><center>Case Auctions<br>Fall Fine Art & Antiques Auction<br>October 6-7, 2023</b>
    <b>Case Auctions, Oct. 7:</b> John Speed 1676 Map of Virginia, Maryland, and Chesapeake Bay. $1,000 to $1,200.
    <b>Case Auctions, Oct. 7:</b> Andrew Jackson Coffin Handbill and Political Cartoon. $800 to $900.
    <b>Case Auctions, Oct. 7:</b> Three Andrew Jackson Bank War Cartoons, incl. Way to Arabay. $800 to $900.
    <b>Case Auctions, Oct. 7:</b> Three Andrew Jackson period Political Cartoons inc. Petticoat Affair. $500 to $600.
    <b>Case Auctions, Oct. 7:</b> Cdre. Jesse D. Elliott ALS and Sarcophagus Print, Andrew Jackson & USS Constitution elated. $500 to $600.
    <b><center>Case Auctions<br>Fall Fine Art & Antiques Auction<br>October 6-7, 2023</b>
    <b>Case Auctions, Oct. 7:</b> Presidential Autographs & Portrait Prints incl. Eisenhower Photo, 18 items. $400 to $500.
    <b>Case Auctions, Oct. 7:</b> Group of three Robert E. Lee Cabinet Card Photographs, Miley Studio. $400 to $500.
    <b>Case Auctions, Oct. 7:</b> Eight Fugitive Writer related books incl. Andrew Lytle, R.P. Warren, J.C. Ransom, Allen Tate. $400 to $500.
    <b>Case Auctions, Oct. 7:</b> Group Early Southern and Civil War Era Sheet Music. $300 to $350.
    <b>Case Auctions, Oct. 7:</b> Henry Miller, <i>Insomnia or the Devil at Large;</i> Signed; Loujon Press 1970. $500 to $600.

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - March - 2017 Issue

The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries from Antiquates Ltd.

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The 16th and 17th centuries.

Antiquates Fine & Rare Books is offering a catalogue highlighting The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. This is seriously old stuff, mostly from England. The English were always fighting each other over something (along with fighting the rest of Europe – how did they manage it?). There are satires, political tracts, some plays, science, medicine, and lots of theology. I don't think they were that much more devout than we are today. Theology was often the means of skewering your opponents, or at least, deciding who it was you didn't like. This may not sound like the stuff of healthy living, but in the days before technology, there wasn't much to do but argue with your neighbor. The English were good at it. Here are a few items from this fascinating look at times 300-500 years ago.

 

If old folks complain about this generation not being sufficiently religious and moral, you can be sure their parents thought the same of them. Here is a work dating to 1667 which claimed religious values were already sinking fast: The Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety. The writer was Richard Allestree. He had been chaplain to the king and held various high university positions by this time. He was not some sort of fanatic, but a man highly respected and moderate in his views for his time. Still, the decay he was witnessing would likely be seen as quaint today, even by our older generations. Item 2. Priced at £950 (British pounds, or about $1,188 U.S. dollars).

 

Andrew Marvell was a writer, poet, politician, and generally incorruptible man of strong opinions. He was also a great friend of John Milton and may have saved the anti-monarchical poet's life after the Restoration. Marvell served in Parliament at various times through the Restoration until his death in 1678, so he knew his colleagues well. He was not impressed. Item 80 is Flagellum Parliamentarium: Being Sarcastic Notices of Nearly Two Hundred Members of the First Parliament After the Restoration. A.D. 1661 to A.D. 1678. This edition was published in 1827, and contains a different (and more inflammatory) title than the 1677 original, which was published anonymously and in Amsterdam. It describes the character and motives of 178 MP's. For example, Sir Gilbert Talbot is described as, "The King's Jeweller; a great cheat at bowls and cards, not born to a shilling." £100 (US $125).

 

Speaking of John Milton, item 83 is a first edition of his Epistolarum Familiarium, published in 1674, the year he died. The title translates to "familiar letters." It is a collection of 31 letters he wrote between 1625 and 1666. Along with being a renown poet, Milton was a strong republican in terms of political beliefs. He went into hiding after the Restoration and was briefly imprisoned despite a general pardon. It was then that influential friends such as Marvell saved him. £350 (US $437).

 

Here is another satire: Triumphs of Rome over Despised Protestancy. The title itself is satirical. Author and Bishop George Hall despised Catholicism, not Protestantism. This was a time of division between conformists and nonconformists, so this allowed Hall to ridicule those whom both sides despised. Among the targets of Hall are the Church's lists of prohibited books and the Inquisition. This first edition was published in 1667. In 1668, Hall died when he was stabbed by a knife in his pocket after he fell from a terrace in the rectory garden. Item 54. £250 (US $312).

 

Here is a fun book: The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying. In which are described the means and instruments of preparing our selves, and others respectively, for a blessed death... by Jeremy Taylor, published in 1651. Not only must we live right, we need to die right too. The book is designed to prepare the Christian for a blessed death. It was intended to be a tribute to the Countess of Carbery, wife of his patron, but she died before it was completed (hopefully in a holy manner). Instead, the book was dedicated to the Earl of Carbery himself. Taylor added a note concerning his own wife who also died prior to publication. This is all way too sad. Item 109. £125 (US $156).

 

If your recognizing someone's death, holy or otherwise, this book will come in handy. Item 45 is Threnoikos. The House of Mourning; Furnished with Directions for Preparations to Meditations of Consolation at the Houre of Death. Daniel Featley provides some sermons preached at funerals for "divers faithfull servants of Christ." It was published in 1640, and presumably the sermons could be recycled for use today for those who are faithful Christians. £350 (US $437).

 

There are lots of men who will defend women's rights today, but not so many in 1683. I'm not sure there were any besides James Norris, author of Haec & Hic; or, the Feminine Gender More Worthy than the Masculine, Being a Vindication of that Ingenious and Innocent Sex from the Biting Sarcasms, Bitter Satyrs, and Opprobrious Calumnies, Wherewith They are Daily, Tho Undeservedly; Aspers'd by the Virulent Tongues and Pens of Malevolent Men. That title says it all. As for "haec" and "hic," those are the feminine and masculine Latin words for "this." Published in 1683. Item 87. £3,500 (US $4,377).

 

In the 17th century, thought was very much scattered and divided as to what causes tides. Thomas Philipot tried to unravel this mystery in A Phylosophical Essay, Treating of the Most Probable Cause of that Grand Mystery of Nature, the Flux & Reflux: or, the Flowing and Ebbing of the Sea, published in 1673. Philipot describes ten theories, which he is able to reject. Some were far-fetched, such as the guidance of an angel, giant earthly lungs, subterranean fires, huge whirlpools, electric like forces, and the movement of the earth. He rejected all of those, along with Kepler's theory that it was caused by the pull of the moon's gravity. Philipot can be forgiven for rejecting that theory as Galileo rejected it too, believing it was a sloshing motion from the earth's spinning. Instead, Philipot attributes it to some sort of salts or spirits in the sea, combined with atmospheric pressure and impressions from the sun and moon. Newton would clear this one up a few years later. This pamphlet is offered within a sammelband of eleven other works. Item 94. £1,250 (US $1,563).

 

Antiquates Fine and Rare Books may be reached at (+44) 01929 556 656 or sales@antiquates.co.uk. Their website is found at www.antiquates.co.uk.

Rare Book Monthly

  • <b><center>Australian Book Auctions<br>Voyages, Natural History &c.<br>October 4, 2023<br>9:00 AM Australian Western Time</b>
    <b>Australian Book Auctions, Oct. 4:</b> PURCHAS, Samuel (circa 1577-1626). <i>HAKLUYTUS POSTHUMUS OR PURCHAS HIS PILGRIMES…,</i> London, 1625-1626. First edition. $40,000 to $60,000 AUD
    <b>Australian Book Auctions, Oct. 4:</b> GOULD, John. <i>THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA,</i> Volume IV. Folio, 104 fine handcoloured lithographed plates. London, 1848. $20,000 to $30,000 AUD
    <b>Australian Book Auctions, Oct. 4:</b> REICHENOW, Dr. Ant. <i>VOGELBILDER AUS FERNER ZONEN, abbildungen und beschreibungen der Papageien.</i> Kassel, 1878-1883. Folio, 33 hand-finished chromolithograph plates. $3,000 to $5,000 AUD
    <b>Australian Book Auctions, Oct. 4:</b> WALLIS, <i>E. WALLIS’S ELEGANT AND INSTRUCTIVE GAME exhibiting the Wonders of Nature, in Each Quarter of the World.</i> Handcoloured view, 26 numbered scenes. $400 to $600 AUD.
    <b>Australian Book Auctions, Oct. 4:</b> GREENAWAY, Kate. <i>ALMANACK FOR 1883</i> [and following years]. Twenty-two volumes, including six duplicates in variant bindings. $1,400 to $1,800 AUD.
  • <b><center>Sotheby’s<br>Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library<br>Magnificent Books and Bindings<br>11 October 2023</b>
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Francesco Colonna, Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. $300,000 to $400,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Leonardo da Vinci, Trattato della pittura, manuscript on paper, [Rome, ca. 1638–1641], a very fine pre-publication manuscript. $250,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Paradis, Ung petit traicte de Alkimie, [Paris, before 1540], contemporary morocco by the Pecking Crow binder for Anne de Montmorency. $300,000 to $350,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Capocaccia, Giovanni Battista, A wax relief portrait of Pius V, in a red morocco book-form box by the Vatican bindery, Rome, 1566–1568. $250,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Serlio, Il terzo libro; Regole generali, Venice, 1540, both printed on blue paper and bound together by the Cupid's Bow Binder. $400,000 to $500,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Tiraboschi, Carmina, manuscript on vellum, [Padua, c. 1471], the earliest surviving plaquette binding. $280,000 to $350,000.
    <b><center>Sotheby’s<br>Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library<br>The Aldine Collection A–C<br>12 October 2023</b>
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Anthologia graeca, Venice, Aldus, 1503, printed on vellum, Masterman Sykes-Syston Park copy. $150,000 to $200,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano, Venice, Aldus, 1528, contemporary Italian morocco gilt, Accolti-Landau copy. $200,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano, Venice, Aldus, 1545, contemporary morocco for Thomas Mahieu, Chatsworth copy. $200,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Cicero, Epistolae familiares, Venice, Aldus, 1502, printed on vellum, illuminated, Renouard-Vernon-Uzielli copy. $200,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Colonna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Venice, Aldus, 1499, Gomar Estienne binding for Jean Grolier, Spencer copy. $400,000 to $600,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Crinito, Libri de poetis Latinis, Florence, Giunta, 1505, Cupid's Bow Binder for Grolier, Paris d'Illins-Wodhull copy. $250,000 to $300,000.

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