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Fonsie Mealy’s
Chatsworth Summer Fine Art Sale
18th June 2025Fonsie Mealy, June 18: William IV, c1830, oversized slope-top Rosewood Davenport Desk, Attributed to Gillows of Lancaster. With Provenance to Oscar Wilde.Fonsie Mealy, June 18: William IV, c1830, oversized slope-top Rosewood Davenport Desk, Attributed to Gillows of Lancaster. With Provenance to Oscar Wilde.Fonsie Mealy, June 18: William IV, c1830, oversized slope-top Rosewood Davenport Desk, Attributed to Gillows of Lancaster. With Provenance to Oscar Wilde.Fonsie Mealy, June 18: French Bateau Bed, exhibition piece from the Exposition Universelle—The Paris World’s Fair, 1878. Third quarter of the 19th century. With Provenance to Oscar Wilde. -
Bonhams, June 16-24: KELMSCOTT PRESS. RUSKIN. The Nature of Gothic. 1892. $1,500 - $2,500Bonhams, June 16-24: ASHENDENE PRESS. The Wisdom of Jesus. 1932. $2,000 - $3,000Bonhams, June 16-24: CHARLOTTE BRONTE WRITES AS GOVERNESS. Autograph Letter Signed, 1851. $15,000 - $25,000Bonhams, June 16-24: FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF WUTHERING HEIGHTS. BRONTE, Emily. New York, 1848. $3,000 - $5,000Bonhams, June 16-24: IAN FLEMING ASSOCIATION COPY. You Only Live Twice. London, 1964. $7,000 - $9,000Bonhams, June 16-24: DELUXE EDITION WITH ORIGINAL PAINTING. BUKOWSKI, Charles. War All the Time. 1984. $3,000 - $5,000Bonhams, June 16-24: EINSTEIN'S MOST POWERFUL STATEMENT ON THE ATOMIC BOMB. Original Typed Manuscript Signed, "On My Participation in the Atom Bomb Project," 1953. $100,000 - $150,000Bonhams, June 16-24: EINSTEIN ON SCIENCE, WAR AND MORALITY. Autograph Letter Signed, 1949. $20,000 - $30,000Bonhams, June 16-24: SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. WASHINGTON, George. Engraved document signed, 1786. $8,000 - $12,000Bonhams, June 16-24: AN EARLY CHINESE-MADE 34-STAR U.S. CONSULAR FLAG. $8,000 - $12,000Bonhams, June 16-24: SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN WITH HIS SON TAD. 1864. $60,000 - $90,000Bonhams, June 16-24: MALCOLM X WRITES FROM KENYA. Postcard signed, 1964. $4,000 - $6,000
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Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 567. One of the Earliest & Most Desirable Printed Maps of Arabia - by Holle/Germanus (1482) Est. $55,000 - $65,000Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 681. Zatta's Complete Atlas with 218 Maps in Full Contemporary Color (1779) Est. $27,500 - $35,000Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 347. MacDonald Gill's Landmark "Wonderground Map" of London (1914) Est. $1,800 - $2,100Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 1. Fries' "Modern" World Map with Portraits of Five Kings (1525) Est. $4,000 - $4,750Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 539. Ortelius' Superb, Decorative Map of Cyprus in Full Contemporary Color (1573) Est. $1,100 - $1,400Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 51. Mercator's Foundation Map for the Americas in Full Contemporary Color (1630) Est. $3,250 - $4,000Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 667. Manuscript Bible Leaf with Image of Mary and Baby Jesus (1450) Est. $1,900 - $2,200Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 226. "A Powerful Example of Color Used to Make a Point" (1895) Est. $400 - $600Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 290. One of the Most Decorative Early Maps of South America - from Linschoten's "Itinerario" (1596) Est. $7,000 - $8,500Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 62. Coronelli's Influential Map of North America with the Island of California (1688) Est. $10,000 - $12,000Old World Auctions (June 18): Lot 589. The First European-Printed Map of China - by Ortelius (1584) Est. $4,000 - $5,000
Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - February - 2007 Issue
New Material from Bauman Rare Books
By Michael Stillman
We find ourselves a bit late with this catalogue, a December Holiday Catalogue, so we will pretend it was really meant for Presidents' or Valentine's Day and review it anyway. It is an outstanding assortment of top shelf material from Bauman Rare Books of New York and Philadelphia. Bauman is more of a generalist, offering material across a wide spectrum of fields with excellence in condition and importance being the common threads which run through the material they offer. These are books fit for a president or a very special Valentine. Here are a few of the new items Bauman is offering.
Robert E. Lee managed to come out of the Civil War better than most who lead the defeated side. He was treated with dignity and respect by the victorious Union forces. Though surrendering at Appomattox in the spring of 1865, by fall his concerns were focused on such things as ordering furniture. Item 102 is a signed letter from Lee dated November 1, 1865, and there is some real irony here. In it, Lee writes about furniture he is ordering, "The difficulty with me is not that it is not handsome enough, but I fear it is too handsome for my present condition, judging from the price... I do not want furniture too handsome or costly for my position...but wish it good and genteel. Neither do I think it right to spend too much money on furniture right now." It is odd to hear Lee, whose decisive military leadership kept the much larger Union forces at bay for so long, sound so indecisive when it comes to ordering furniture. Even McClellan probably could have ordered furniture more decisively. Lee's letter is priced at $14,000.
Now for balance, item 10 is the Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. This is the two-volume set from 1885-6, completed shortly before the General and former President died. The biography did much to restore his tarnished reputation. While Grant established an excellent reputation by finally confounding Lee, that reputation was seriously tarnished by the corruption which surrounded him during his presidency. If his presidential career was bad, his post-presidential career as an investor was worse yet, forcing the dying Grant to complete this book so that his family would have enough money to get by. In this he did succeed, the book being very popular while reminding people of what had made Grant great in the first place. This copy comes with a note from Grant's physician concerning his health approximately two months before he died, and page 16, with hand corrections, of Grant's December 5, 1870, State of the Union speech. $16,000.
Item 90 is another Grant document, but an odd one. It is a lengthy manuscript pardon for a horse thief, signed by Grant as President in 1871. Evidently, presidents had more time for relatively trivial matters in those days. It's hard to imagine a president signing pardons for car thieves today. $5,500.