By Michael Stillman
Just received in our mailbox is Catalogue 807 from Gene W. Baade Books on the West. I've figured the catalogue numbering code to mean August 2007. Baade regularly provides an assortment of interesting and obscure works from America's western states. That means you can anticipate accounts of explorations, gold rushes, gunfighters, cowboys and Indians, and railroads, along with the more mundane issues of the West. Baade offers 150 new items this month, and doesn't expect you to break the bank to buy one. Here are a few of his items.
No western catalogue would be complete without outlaws, and who better to fill this requirement than Jesse James? Item 3 is A.C. Appler's Train and Bank Robbers of the West. A Romantic but Faithful Story of Bloodshed and Plunder, Perpetrated by Frank and Jesse James. This is the first issue of the "new" edition, it combining an 1875 book on the Youngers, with whom the James Brothers "worked" before establishing their own reputation, with the James' story. The edition was published in 1882, the year Jesse was struck down by an assassin. Frank wisely retired from the business. Priced at $250.
Here is a form that was filled too many times -- a Printed Application Form from the Ku Klux Klan. This application is circa 1927, just as membership in the hate group was peaking. It includes many of the type of questions you would expect to find on a fraternal organization's membership form, such as "Gentile or Jew?" and "Do you believe in White supremacy?" Included with the application form is a broadside announcing, K. K. K. Come and Hear the Truth about the Klan. Rev. Burdick, Speaker -- Amherst, N.H. Aug. 11, 1927. Item 85. $225.
This is a book for those who collect poetry or love horses. We really don't know what these poems are about, so we'll let you guess from the title: Mares, Mud, and Manure. A Collection of Poems for Horse Lovers. These must be for people who love horses very much. Item 17, published in 1996, and signed by author Nancy Callery. $35.
Item 12 is an unusual book, The Commandment Breakers of Walla Walla, by Henry Broderick. Broderick was the Warden at the Washington state prison, and sat in on 2,500 hearings before the Parole Board. Evidently he must have heard every excuse in the book, and he writes about them in this 1934 title. This copy contains an inscription from him. $77.50
Item 92 offers a look at Bleeding Kansas from the eyes of a clergyman: In Perils by Mine Own Countrymen Three Years on the Kansas Border by a Clergyman of the Episcopal Church. Author and clergyman John McNamara was strongly opposed to slavery, which is what got him into trouble with his border ruffian countrymen, who tried to impose slavery on the territory despite majority opposition. $85.
-
Sotheby’s
Fine Books from a Distinguished Private Library
28 November 2023Sotheby’s, Nov. 28: Captain Thomas Brown | Illustrations of the American ornithology. £80000-120000Sotheby’s, Nov. 28: William Hamilton | Campi phlegraei. £40000-60000Sotheby’s, Nov. 28: Nicola Zabaglia and Domenico Fontana | Castelli, e ponti con alcune ingegnose pratiche. £6000-8000Sotheby’s, Nov. 28: Bible, German | Nuremberg: Koberger, 1483. £40000-60000Sotheby’s, Nov. 28: Bible, English | King James version. £8000-12000 -
Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
30th November, 2023Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Saint Jerome penitent, woodcut with contemporary hand-colouring and letterpress text beneath, [Augsburg], [Johann Froschauer], [c.1498]. £15,000 to £20,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Elimithar (Elluchasem) "Ibn Butlan". Tacuini sanitatis, first edition, Strasbourg, Johann Schott, 1531. £15,000 to £20,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: [Missale Romanum], Latin, Incipit ordo missalis secundum consuetudinem Curiae Romani, manuscript in Latin, on vellum, 234ff. [c. 1400]. £15,000 to £20,000.Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
30th November, 2023Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Foyle copy.- [Shakespeare (William)]. Macbeth. A Tragedy: With all the Alterations, Amendments, Additions, and New Songs. As it is now Acted at the Theatre Royal, for Hen. Herringman, 1687. £5,000 to £7,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Dickens (Charles). A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, first edition, first impression, first issue, Chapman & Hall, 1843. £12,000 to £18,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Lawrence (T.E.) Revolt in the Desert, working draft typescript, 1927. £10,000 to £15,000.Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
30th November, 2023Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Hampstead Bindery.- Phillips (Stephen). Marpessa, exquisitely bound by The Hampstead Bindery, almost certainly P.A. Savoldelli, 1900. £6,000 to £8,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Matisse (Henri).- Joyce (James). Ulysses, one of 1500 copies, this one of 250 signed by the author and artist, New York, The Limited Editions Club, 1935. £8,000 to £12,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Burroughs (Edgar Rice). Tarzan at the Earth's Core, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to his son, New York, 1930. £5,000 to £7,000.Forum Auctions
Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
30th November, 2023Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Fitzgerald (F. Scott). Tender is the Night, first edition, first printing, signed by the author, New York, 1934. £15,000 to £20,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: Fleming (Ian).- Hooks (Mitchell) and David Chasman. Dr. No, British film poster, Stafford & Co Ltd, [1962]. £10,000 to £15,000.Forum Auctions, Nov. 30: America.- California.- Palou (Francisco). Relacion Historica de la Vida Y Apostolicas Tareas delVenerable Padre Fray Junipero Serra..., first edition, second issue, 1787. £6,000 to £8,000. -
Swann
Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
December 7, 2023Swann, Dec. 7: Samuel Augustus Mitchell, A New Map of Texas, Oregon and California with the Regions Adjoining, Philadelphia, 1846. $3,500 to $5,000.Swann, Dec. 7: 17th–19th-century case maps of various locations. $1,500 to $2,000.Swann, Dec. 7: Andreas Cellarius, Haemisphaerium Stellatum Boreale Cum Subiecto Haemisphaerio Terrestri, celestial chart, Amsterdam, 1708. $2,500 to $3,500.Swann
Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
December 7, 2023Swann, Dec. 7: Vincenzo Coronelli, Set of engraved gores for Coronelli’s monumental 42-inch terrestrial globe, Venice, circa 1688–97. $18,000 to $22,000.Swann, Dec. 7: Lucas Janszoon Waghenaer, group of four navigational charts, Antwerp, 1580s. $2,000 to $3,000.Swann, Dec. 7: Thomas Bros, Block Book of Berkeley, Oakland, 1920s. $800 to $1,200.Swann
Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
December 7, 2023Swann, Dec. 7: John Nieuhoff & John Ogilby, An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, map of China, plan of Canton, London, 1673. $1,200 to $1,800.Swann, Dec. 7: Frederick Sander, Reichenbachia, St. Albans, 1888-1894. $5,000 to $7,000.Swann, Dec. 7: Two early illustrated works on horsemanship and breeding, Nuremberg, early 18th century. $700 to $800.Swann
Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
December 7, 2023Swann, Dec. 7: John Gould, A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans. Supplement to the First Edition, London, 1834; 1855. $40,000 to $60,000.Swann, Dec. 7: John Pinkerton, A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World, London, 1808–14. $1,500 to $2,500.Swann, Dec. 7: Oakley Hoopes Bailey, Hackensack, New Jersey, Boston, 1896. $800 to $1,200. -
CHRISTIE’S
Valuable Books and Manuscripts
London auction
13 December
Find out moreChristie’s, Explore now
TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000Christie’s, Explore now
VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000Christie’s, Explore now
PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALICE & NIKOLAUS HARNONCOURT. Master of Jean Rolin (active 1445–65). Book of Hours, use of Paris, in Latin and French, [Paris, c.1450–1460]. £120,000–180,000Christie’s, Explore now
A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000Christie’s, Explore now
AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
C.1311. £100,000–150,000