Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2005 Issue

Gardens and Landscapes from Charles Wood

Landscape and Garden History from Charles Wood.

Landscape and Garden History from Charles Wood.


By Michael Stillman

We recently received the latest catalogue, number 124, from Charles Wood Antiquarian Booksellers of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wood specializes in buildings and grounds, so to speak. His catalogues are some of the best available for those who collect architectural works. However, this month the focus is on the grounds, or more specifically, Landscape and Garden History. For those of you looking to spruce up the grounds around your 17th or 18th century estate, you will find some wonderful guidebooks. The same is true for those who simply collect books in the field. Here are a few examples.

His name was Jens Jensen, but he came from Chicago, not Wisconsin. And he wasn't a lumberman. This Jens Jensen emigrated from Denmark and went on to be one of the most noted landscape architects in the area. He created Columbus Park in Chicago, as well as redesigning several others on the west side. He also designed parks in Dubuque, Springfield, and - yes - Madison, Wisconsin. Jensen believed people needed to keep in contact with nature, and was involved in promoting the state park system. Item 54 is his 1964 biography, Landscape Artist in America, the Life and Work of Jens Jensen, by Leonard Eaton. Item 54. Priced at $200.

The Kitselman Brothers were sole manufacturers of The Duplex automatic ball bearing woven wire fence machine. It was "the greatest invention of the age!" It was capable of making over 100 different styles of fences, 26 of which were illustrated in this catalogue. This catalogue was published in Ridgeville, Indiana, in 1900, but by the 1930s, Kitselman Brothers fence would be a major company in Muncie, playing a prominent role in that city's growth as an industrial power. Founded in 1883, the company was run by the four Kitselman Brothers until 1940, when the last, Alva Kitselman, died. Item 107. $110.

Item 1 is an Album of snap shots of Brightwaters, Long Island, from 1914. Developed by T.B. Ackerson and Company, Brightwaters is a community, then new, near Bay Shore, New York. This pamphlet contains five pages of text and 23 of photographs of the community. Along with houses and bungalows, the pictures show fountains, a harbor, lakes, boathouses, and other features of this community, which might draw city dwellers looking for a more relaxed lifestyle. Two years later, the Ackerson Company went broke, and homeowners banded together to incorporate Brightwaters as a village. Today, Brightwaters remains a desirable residential community. While houses sold for $3,500-$20,000 in Ackerson's day, today's prices are generally in the $300,000-$1,000,000+ range. The album is a more modest $350.

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
  • Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Peter Max, Portrait of Mary Tyler Moore (Versions 1,2, 5, 6), 2001. Estimate $10,000-15,000
    DOYLE: The iconic screen-used wall-mounted "M" from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Estimate $5,000-8,000
    DOYLE: The Mary Tyler Moore Show by Al Hirschfeld. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Annie Leibovitz presents Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke for Vanity Fair. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    DOYLE: Al Hirschfeld presents Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke in the CBS Wednesday Night Lineup. Estimate $4,000-6,000
    DOYLE: Richard McKenzie, Portrait of Mary Tyler Moore. Estimate $1,000-2,000
    Doyle
    The Collection of Mary Tyler Moore
    June 4, 2025
    DOYLE: Three Original Bill Hargate Costume Designs for The Mary Tyler Moore Hour. Estimate $600-800
    DOYLE: The famous Bonnie and Clyde "Wanted" broadside. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE: Ticket to the Final Episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show Estimate $400-600
  • 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

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