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<b>Christie’s London, Dec. 11:</b> ALBUM AMICORUM OF SCHELOMITH FLAUM. Autograph album containing drawings, autograph quotations and signatures from over 47 contributors, India, Europe, America, Israel and elsewhere, 1923–50. £40,000 to £60,000.<b>Christie’s London, Dec. 11:</b> FLEMING, Ian (1908–1964). <i>Live and Let Die.</i> London: Jonathan Cape, 1954. £15,000 to £20,000.<b>Christie’s London, Dec. 11:</b> HISTORY OF CINEMA. Animal Farm (1954), an animation archive from the Halas and Batchelor studios, [c.1954]. £20,000 to £30,000.<b>Christie’s London, Dec. 11:</b> LE HAY, Jacques – [Charles de FERRIOL]. <i>Recueil de Cent Estampes representant differentes Nations du Levant...</i> Paris, 1714. [With:] <i>Explication des cents Estampes.</i> Paris, 1715. £25,000 to £35,000.<b>Christie’s London, Dec. 11:</b> THE LAST JUDGEMENT, historiated initial 'A' on a leaf from an Antiphonal on vellum illuminated by Nikolaus Bertschi [Augsburg, first quarter 16th century]. £7,000 to £10,000.<b>Christie’s London, Dec. 11:</b> VALTURIUS, Robertus (1413–1484). <i>De re militari.</i> [Verona:] Johannes Nicolai de Verona, 1472. £170,000 to £250,000. -
<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b><br>Dr. Seuss, pen, ink & watercolor, calendar illustration, Thomas D. Murphy Company, 1937. $10,000 to $15,000.<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b> Georges Lepape, <i>Sur la Terrasse,</i> gouache & pencil, cover for <i>Vogue,</i> 1930. $8,000 to $12,000.<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b> Charles Dana Gibson, <i>The Coming Game, Yale vs. Vassar,</i> pen & ink, for <i>Life</i> magazine, 1895. $2,000 to $3,000.<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b><br>H.A. Rey, color pencil, charcoal, watercolor & gouache, for <i>Rafi et les 9 singes,</i> 1939. $10,000 to $15,000.<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b> Ernest H. Shepard, pen & ink, for Kenneth Grahame’s <i>Bertie’s Escapade,</i> 1949. $10,000 to $15,000.<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b> Charles Schulz, <i>The Biggest Star Measured So Far,</i> ink & wash, original <i>Peanuts</i> cartoon, published 1961. $8,000 to $12,000.<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b> Saul Steinberg, <i>12 Biographies, A to B,</i> pen & ink with collage, final illustration in his book <i>The Labyrinth,</i> 1960. $12,000 to $18,000.<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b><br>Jo Mielziner, <i>A Streetcar Named Desire,</i> watercolor, graphite & gouache, first color study for the award-winning 1947 production. $7,000 to $10,000.<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b> Charles Addams, <i>Nevermore,</i> watercolor & ink, for <i>The New Yorker,</i> 1973. $12,000 to $18,000.<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b> James Montgomery Flagg, <i>I Should Worry,</i> watercolor, gouache & graphite, cover for <i>Judge</i> magazine, 1914. $5,000 to $7,500.<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b> Edward Gorey, <i>Swan Lake, Hunters/Siegfried, Van Rothbart,</i> watercolor, pen & ink, costume designs, 1975. $8,000 to $12,000.<b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 10:</b> Ludwig Bemelmans, <i>Sketch for Madeline,</i> gouache & ink. $6,000 to $9,000. -
<b>Sotheby’s: English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations.<br>Online now through December 10<b>Sotheby’s, now to Dec. 10:</b> Adam Smith. <i>The Wealth of Nations</i>. First edition, 1776. £50,000 to £70,000.<b>Sotheby’s, now to Dec. 10:</b> William Shakespeare. <i>Comedies, Histories, Tragedies</i>. 1632, the Second Folio. £70,000 to £100,000.<b>Sotheby’s, now to Dec. 10:</b> The Saint Albans Chronicle.] <i>Here begynneth a shorte & a breue table on these cronycles.</i> Westminster : Wynkyn de Worde, 1497. £50,000 to £70,000.<b>Sotheby’s: English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations.<br>Online now through December 10<b>Sotheby’s, now to Dec. 10:</b> E.H. Shepherd. “A Very Grand Thing – The Trouble at Owl’s House”. Original ink and watercolour. £40,000 to £60,000.<b>Sotheby’s, now to Dec. 10:</b> Charles Darwin. <i>On the Origin of Species</i>. First edition, 1859. £15,000 to £20,000.<b>Sotheby’s, now to Dec. 10:</b> William Blake. <i>Illustrations of the Book of Job.</i> 1825 [but 1826]. £10,000 to £15,000. -
<b>Leland Little: Important Single-Owner Collection Featuring Works by Andrew Wyeth. December 6, 2019</b><b>Leland Little, Dec. 6:</b> Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669), <i>Bearded Man in a Velvet Cap with a Jewel Clasp,</i> 1637.<b>Leland Little, Dec. 6:</b> Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606–1669), <i>Christ Before Pilate: Large Plate,</i> 1635-1636.<b>Leland Little, Dec. 6:</b> Andrew Wyeth (PA, 1917-2009), <i>Breakup</i> with bronze life casts of the artist's hands, 1994.<b>Leland Little, Dec. 6:</b> Andrew Wyeth (PA, 1917-2009), <i>In the Orchard</i> Study, 1972.
Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2007 Issue
Law and Legal History from the Lawbook Exchange
Catalogue 48 from the Lawbook Exchange
By Michael Stillman
The Lawbook Exchange has issued its Catalogue 48 of Recent Acquisitions. The Lawbook Exchange mixes scholarly legal treatises with law-related works more accessible to the general public. Whether looking for useful information for a legal practice, or building a collection related to the law or interesting/entertaining legal cases, you will find valuable material in this catalogue. Along with the many antiquarian works offered, the Lawbook Exchange also provides current works of legal scholarship. Here are a few of the new acquisitions now available.
Item 16 is a set of first editions of perhaps the most famous of English legal treatises, Commentaries on the Laws of England, better known as simply Blackstone's Commentaries. Identifying true first editions of this set can be a bit tricky, as second and third editions of the first and second volumes were published before first editions of the third or fourth. This set includes the first editions of all four volumes, including the Supplement, which was printed after the first edition of volume one, but before the second. Now that this has been cleared up, we can say that the Commentaries were the most important law books of 18th century England, and of pre-Revolutionary America. They were extremely important in the formation of law in independent America. The first editions of the four volumes were published between 1765 and 1769. Priced at $15,000.
Item 38 includes the first official printings of some of the most hated of all laws ever passed in America, the Alien and Sedition Acts. These acts enabled the government to stifle free speech and deport aliens it did not care for. They ended up doing more to turn the people against the Federalists who controlled the government than to quiet opposition. President Adams would be swept from office in 1800 and the Federalists would never hold national office again, completely disappearing two decades later. Offered is Volume 4 of The Laws of the United States of America. In Four Volumes. This volume, which contains other laws, including a 1798 treaty with the Cherokee Indians, was a continuation of a three-volume set completed in 1796. $200.
For those more interested in scandal than scholarship, item 40 includes 1719 editions of The Case of Impotency, by George Abbot, and The Tryal of Mervin Lord Audley...For A Rape and Sodomy, probably written by Edmund Curll. Curll specialized in pornography covered by a veneer of law or theology to make it appear respectable. The former recounted a trial in which "Lady" Essex claimed her husband was impotent as a reason for divorce. The claim was false and used to cover an affair she was having with the Earl of Somerset. The trial included an explicit discussion of the Earl and Lady's genitalia, definitely an extra-legal topic. The more graphic second volume describes the trial of a nobleman engaged in bisexual relations with his servants. He was said to have ordered his servants to rape his wife, at times assisting by holding her down. The Lawbook Exchange describes this as a "highly embellished account." And you thought all books about the law were dry! $1,500.
