• 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.
  • 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.

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - June - 2017 Issue

Fantastic Bindings from Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Manuscripts

Decorative bindings.

Decorative bindings.

Phillip J. Pirages Fine Books and Manuscripts has issued their Catalogue 71: Historically Significant and Decorative Bindings From the 15th Century to the Present. Words escape me. One can coldly describe the art in terms of tooling and shapes and colors, and it's about as effective as describing the Sistine Chapel by paint types and colors. Something can be red and blue and be beautiful, or it can be ugly, which tells you how useful that information is. Fortunately, the catalogue includes pictures of the bindings, so you can see what the various elements look like as put together by the bookbinder. In most cases, it's spectacular. It's amazing what a skilled artist can produce.

 

That is not to say the books are not of interest for their text. Many are, a few aren't, but at least textual content is more amenable to textual descriptions than is art.

 

One thing of note is the evolution of bookbindings. For about four plus centuries of artistic binding, they feature various classically beautiful features in terms of raised bands, colors and gilt, leather and such. In more recent years, the styles have exploded, so that today, the bindings often reflect what is inside. A book on sheep is bound in the shape of a sheep. A Poe book contains a macabre binding. Classicism has been thrown out the window. Here is one final thought before we move to specific examples. No ebook will ever be able to brag of such fantastic bindings. Now for a few samples.

 

We begin with the oldest book in the catalogue, which is a bound manuscript rather than a printed book. The title is Sententiarum Libri IV, the "Four Sentences" of Peter Lombard. Lombard was a 12th century theologian, at one time Bishop of Paris. This may be the most important theological work of that century, continuing to be widely read until the 17th century. The manuscript itself in very attractive, with careful hand illuminated initials. It contains 288 leaves and was completed in 1463. This copy features a contemporary, unrestored binding, including its original metal fittings. It contains five brass bosses on the cover and raised bands. Item 1. Priced at $85,000.

 

Item 30 is an unusual book, The Consent of Time, Deciphering the Errors of the Grecians in Their Olympiads, the Uncertaine Computation of the Romanes... published in 1590. The author was Lodowick (or Ludovic) Lloyd, who held a sergeant at arms position under Queen Elizabeth I, and later James I. In this book, he looks at what he determined to be chronological errors made, not just by the Greeks and Romans, but in Persia, Spain, France and Turkey. While Lloyd's method "would not commend itself to a modern scholar," he still felt free to point out the shortcomings of others. Lloyd believed the chronology written in the Bible was infallible, what came later was found wanting. The beautifully bound book still has its original silk ties, and is emblazoned with the royal coat of arms. This leads one to think this book may have once belonged to Queen Elizabeth considering the binding, the royal coat of arms, and the Queen's friendship with Lloyd, though this is not known for certain. $15,000.

 

The pre-eminent binder of the Arts and Crafts movement would have to be Thomas Cobden-Sanderson. Cobden-Sanderson was encouraged to go into bookbinding by the movement's leading light and printer, William Morris. A total of 167 bindings were known to have been personally produced by him from 1884-1893 when he opened the Doves Bindery. At that point, health issues prevented Cobden-Sanderson from doing the bindings personally, but he brought in some of the most skilled artisans and he continued to design the bindings and supervise their production. Item 185 is The Celebrated Romance of the Stealing of the Mare, by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, published in 1892, bound by the Doves Bindery. This work is from an old Arabic tale, translated by Lady Anne Blunt, and put to verse by her husband. Wilfrid Blunt wrote a lot of poetry that has been described as "uneven," was ahead of his time in opposing imperialism, which he figured was conducted not to lift up the colonized people but to make the colonists rich, but is mainly known for his numerous amorous affairs. He is said to have left "behind him a trail of seduced women, outraged husbands...and numerous illegitimate offspring." Somehow, Lady Anne, a granddaughter of Byron, put up with him for 37 years before finally separating. $1,950.

 

This next book comes from the noted English bindery firm of Sangorski & Sutcliffe. It is a third edition (1892) of the two-volume The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley had a much better reputation as a poet than did Blunt, primarily because of this compilation put together by his widow, Mary Shelley, after he drowned at a young age. There are features to this binding too numerous to mention, but Sangorski & Sutcliffe was noted for their Cosway bindings. These feature an inlaid ivory miniature portrait, in this case within a laurel frame with six semi-precious stones. The portrait is of Shelley. It appears on the doublure of the first volume. For those unfamiliar with the term "doublure," as I used to be, it is a leather version of a pastedown. Item 206. $12,500.

 

Here is one of those examples of a newer binding. It comes on the book Mr. Chesteron Comes to Tea, by Aidan Mackey, published in 1978. It is from a limited edition of 370 copies and is signed by Mackey. The book includes Mackey's essay accompanying previously unpublished drawings by G.K. Chesterton. Chesteron originally planned to be an illustrator, but later turned to writing. The binding by Angela James features a blue door with a brass knob and hinges on the cover. It can be opened to reveal Chesterton at tea. Item 230. $6,800.

 

Item 236 is Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe, published in 1919. It is highlighted by an imaginative and macabre binding by Susan Allix. The cover features a silver dagger stabbed through the black leather. There is also an inserted round glass case containing a quail skull. The slipcase displays a mannequin's hand in a lace half-glove, the finger tips holding a rabbit's skull. This is an example of a binding that fits well with its author's work. $5,000.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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€

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