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Ketterer Rare Books
Auction May 26thKetterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000Ketterer, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000Ketterer Rare Books
Auction May 26thKetterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000Ketterer, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000Ketterer Rare Books
Auction May 26thKetterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000Ketterer Rare Books
Auction May 26thKetterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000Ketterer, 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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Sotheby's
Sell Your Fine Books & ManuscriptsSotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USDSotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USDSotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USDSotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USDSotheby's
Sell Your Fine Books & ManuscriptsSotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USDSotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBPSotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBPSotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR -
Gonnelli
Auction 59
Antique prints, paintings and maps
May 20th 2025Gonnelli: 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 2025Gonnelli 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 2025Gonnelli: 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 2025Gonnelli: 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€
Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - August - 2006 Issue
Early American Maps and Atlases from Martayan Lan
By Michael Stillman
New York map seller Martayan Lan has issued a catalogue of special interest to collectors in the field of Americana. Catalogue 39 is called Fine Maps of America and Atlases, and if you are planning a cross-country trip, what is offered herein won't be of much help. The newest maps are from the 19th century, while most are older. A few go back as far as the early 16th century, when the pilgrim's landing was still a century away. The North American continent turned out looking much different from what was once believed, so following these will surely get you lost. Nonetheless, these maps provide a fascinating look at history, as European explorers slowly figured out what this new, large landmass really looked like.
As you look through the evolution of maps offered, you will find New England and Florida to be among the first areas to be mapped in forms reasonably similar to what we know today. The entire Atlantic coast filled in quickly. The Pacific coast took much longer, as it was less frequently explored. It was not until a few decades into the 18th century that depictions of California as an island finally disappeared. On many maps, the entire Northwest was simply a blank slate.
The most difficult areas to map were those of the inland continent. Voyagers could do a reasonably accurate job on the coastline, but early on, had to rely on Indians for news about what existed inland. Mapmakers back in Europe would then use Indian reports, or perhaps rumors and explorers' imaginations, to depict what existed inland. Sometimes they would come away with reasonable interpretations of what would later be observed, such as lakes or mountains. Other times, they would show the most fanciful of features. Many early maps depicted an inland sea, an extension of the Pacific Ocean, reaching all of the way from the west coast to the Carolinas. North America, at this point, was just a narrow strip of land. Of course, this not only turned out to be false, but there are no features even remotely resembling this. The imaginary sea may have come from a misinterpretation of barrier islands, explorers thinking the water between them and the coast was an arm of the Pacific.
It is always very difficult to write about map catalogues. Books can be readily described with words. Maps require images. We will mention a few items you will find in this catalogue, but issue the caveat that you need to either obtain a copy yourself, or go to Martayan Lan's website, to appreciate the wonderful, historic maps they have to offer.
Item 7 is a striking, early 17th century map of the Americas by Dutch mapmaker Jodocus Hondius. At this time, the Dutch were still actively involved in the exploration and settlement of North America (remember New Amsterdam?). Hondius presents a reasonably accurate image, though North America has been squashed, becoming much wider east to west then it proved to be. He also incorporates the early belief in a huge southern polar continent. It reaches all the way to the tip of South America, Hondius somehow ignoring what he learned from Drake's voyage around the Horn. However, Hondius, like other early mapmakers, had California right, showing it (including Baja) as a peninsula, rather than an island. It would not be separated from the mainland until later in that century. Priced at $8,500.