• CHRISTIE’S
    Valuable Books and Manuscripts
    London auction
    13 December
    Find out more
    Christie’s, Explore now
    TREW, Christoph Jacob (1695–1769). Plantae Selectae quarum imagines ad exemplaria naturalia Londini in hortus curiosorum. [Nuremberg: 1750–1773]. £30,000–40,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    VERBIEST, Ferdinand (1623–88). Liber Organicus Astronomiae Europaeae apud Sinas restituate. [Beijing: Board of Astronomy, 1674]. £250,000–350,000
    Christie’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]. £120,000–180,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    A SILVER MICROSCOPE. Probably by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), c.1700. £150,000–250,000
    Christie’s, Explore now
    AN ENGLISH HORARY QUADRANT
    C.1311. £100,000–150,000
  • Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Roberts (David) & Croly (George). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumae, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. Lond. 1842 - 1843 [-49]. First Edn. €10,000 to €15,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Incunabula: O'Fihily (Maurice). Duns Scotus Joannes: O'Fihely, Maurice Abp… Venice, 20th November 1497. €8,000 to €12,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: An important file of documents with provenance to G.A. Newsom, manager of the Jacob’s Factory in Dublin, occupied by insurgents during Easter Week 1916. €6,000 to €9,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: WILDE (Oscar), 1854-1900, playwright, aesthete and wit. A lock of Wilde’s Hair, presented by his son to the distinguished Irish actor Mícheál MacLiammóir. €6,000 to €8,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Heaney (Seamus). Bog Poems, London, 1975. Special Limited Edition, No. 33 of 150 Copies, Signed by Author. Illus. by Barrie Cooke. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Binding: Burke, Thomas O.P. (de Burgo). Hibernia Dominicana, Sive Historia Provinciae Hiberniae Ordinis Praedicatorum, ... 1762. First Edition. €4,000 to €6,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: COLLINS, Michael. An important TL, 29 July 1922, addressed to GOVERNMENT on ‘suggested Proclamation warning all concerned that troops have orders to shoot prisoners found sniping, ambushing etc.’. €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Scott Fitzgerald (F.) The Great Gatsby, New York (Charles Scribner's Sons) 1925, First Edn. €2,000 to €3,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Limited Edition, No. 46 of 375 Copies Only, Signed by W.B. Yeats. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of the Russian Empire, Description in English and French, Lg. folio London (S. Gosnell) 1803. First Edn. €1,000 to €1,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Miller (William) Publisher. The Costume of Turkey, Illustrated by a Series of Engravings. Lg. folio Lond.(T. Bensley) 1802. First Edn. €800 to €1,200.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 12-13: Mason (Geo. Henry). The Costume of China, Illustrated with Sixty Engravings. Lg. folio London (for W. Miller) 1800. First Edn. €1,400 to €1,800
  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    December 13/14
    Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated Books
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Fleming (Ian). Dr. No, 1958; You Only Live Twice, 1964, 1st editions, presentation copies. £20,000-30,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Doyle (Arthur Conan). The Sign of Four, 1st edition, 1890. £5,000-8,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Huxley (Aldous). Brave New World, 1st edition, London: Chatto & Windus, 1932. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    December 13/14
    Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated Books
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Stenbock (Eric Stanislaus). The Shadow of Death, 1st edition, 1893. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Tolkien (J. R. R.). The Lord of the Rings, 1st one volume edition, signed, 1968. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Orwell (George). Animal Farm, 1st edition, London: Secker & Warburg, 1945. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    December 13/14
    Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated Books
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Cunard (Nancy, editor). Negro, Anthology made by Nancy Cunard, 1st edition, 1934. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Table Game. [The Little Artist Magic Painter, Austria], circa 1775. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Kirnig (Paul, 1891-1955). Austria, Vienna: Christophe Reisser's Söhne, c. 1930. £700-1,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    December 13/14
    Printed Books, Maps & Original Art, Modern First Editions & Illustrated Books
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: A collection of letters including from T. S. Eliot, Siegfried Sassoon, Bertrand Russell, Aldous Huxley et al, from the Lady Ottoline Morrell collection. £700-1,000.
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: The Gentleman's Magazine, or Monthly Intelligencer. 175 volumes, 1731-1844. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Dec. 13/14: Mont Blanc peepshow. Mr Albert Smith's Ascent of Mont Blanc in Miniature, 1854. £1,500-2,000
  • Bonhams: FREDERICK DOUGLASS RETURNS TO AMERICA A FREE MAN. Sold for $353,175.
    Bonhams: TORTILLA FLAT INSCRIBED TO STEINBECK'S LITTLE SISTER, MARY. Sold for $57,600.
    Bonhams: A FRAGMENT OF THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF OF MICE AND MEN, EATEN BY THE DOG. Sold for $12,800.
    Bonhams: KEPLER INVESTIGATES PLANETARY MOTION. Sold for $1,008,375.
    Bonhams: AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT DRAFT LEAF FROM DARWIN'S DESCENT OF MAN, SIGNED BY DARWIN AT THE FOOT. Sold for $239,775.
    Bonhams: AUDOBON, JOHN JAMES. 1785-1851. THE BIRDS OF AMERICA. Sold for $32,000.
    Bonhams: FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN (1706-1790). AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED. Sold for $38,175.
    Bonhams: MILNE, A.A. (1882-1956). BOXED SET OF 4 CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Sold for $20,480.

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - June - 2008 Issue

New and Old West Books from Gene W. Baade

The latest from Gene W. Baade.


By Michael Stillman

Just received is Catalogue 508 of Books On The West from Gene W. Baade. Baade describes the catalogue as "slightly unpredictable," the reason being it's a mix of antiquarian books with more recent ones about olden times. Something about the Old West is the common thread which connects almost all of the books in this catalogue. Among the more recent titles are many from Baade's home of the Pacific Northwest, but among older works you are as likely to find something pertaining to Texas, about as far removed, physically and culturally, from the Northwest as any other place in the U.S.A. These are a few of the items Baade is offering.

The Black Hawk War was more a series of small skirmishes than a true war, yet it remains one of the more notable confrontations between American natives and settlers. In 1830, the American government signed an agreement with some members of the Sauk (or Sac) and Fox tribes in what is today Illinois. The agreement ceded large amounts of land east of the Mississippi to the government, placing the Indians on the west side. Among the places to be ceded was the native village of Saukenuk. However, Black Hawk, a Sauk Chief, did not sign on to this agreement and refused to accept it. He and a band of his followers among the Sauk, Fox and other tribes became involved in a series of skirmishes in 1832 with the army, local militia, and settlers. A few random killings of settlers created fear among them, leading to a response beyond one Black Hawk could match. The war was over within a few months, Black Hawk captured. As an aside, two figures with minor involvement on the government side were Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, who would serve as presidents of the opposing sides in the Civil War. Item 8 is The Sauks and the Black Hawk War... by Hon. Perry A. Armstrong of Morris Illinois. Armstrong, who held a variety of local public offices as well as being involved in several businesses, did not get around to publishing his book until 1887, over a half a century after the war, but as a boy he had lived through it and had to seek protection at a local fort for a while. Priced at $575.

Strange religious cults are by no means a new phenomenon. In 1903, Edmund Creffield descended upon the Oregon town of Corvallis, and soon began enlisting converts to his new church. His group was referred to as "Holy Rollers," evidently because of a habit of rolling around on the ground. Other practices, such as shedding clothes to be more like Adam and Eve, raised even greater suspicions. However, Creffield must have exuded charisma with the best, as he gathered many followers, especially women, despite his strange customs and proclamations of his own divinity. In time, the citizens of Corvallis drove him out of town. He resettled in Portland, and eventually moved on to Seattle, where one day a man who claimed his sister had been "ruined" by Creffield shot him. Just three years after he burst onto the scene, Creffield lay dead on the streets of Seattle. His story is told by Theresa McCracken and Robert Blodgett in Holy Rollers: Murder and Madness in Oregon's Love Cult, published in 2002. Item 95. $20.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Online Sale
    Books and Works on Paper
    Ending 13th December 2023
    Forum, Dec. 13: Ackermann (Rudolph) [Views of Country Seats...], 146 hand-coloured aquatints from 'Repository of Arts’. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum, Dec. 13: Campbell (Colen) & others. Vitruvius Britannicus, or The British Architect..., 5 vol., [1751-1819]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum, Dec. 13: Austen (Jane). The Novels, 12 vol., Edinburgh, John Grant, 1911. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum, Dec. 13: Murder broadside.- Horrid and barbarous murder of a female by cutting off her head, arms, and legs,… £200 to £300.
  • Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 2:
    John Ford Clymer, U.S. Troops' Triumphant Return to New York Harbor, oil on canvas, circa 1944.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 44:
    Edward Gorey, Illustration of cover and spine for Fonthill, a Comedy by Aubrey Menen, pen and ink, 1973.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 50:
    Harrison Cady, frontispiece for Buster Bear's Twins by Thornton W. Burgess, watercolor and ink, 1921.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 54:
    Ludwig Bemelmans, Pepito, portrait of Pepito from the Madeline book series, mixed media.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 79:
    Gluyas Williams, Fellow Citizens Observation Platform, pen and ink, cartoon published in The New Yorker, March 11, 1933.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 86:
    Thomas Nast, Victory, – for the moment, political cartoon, pen and ink, 1884.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 91:
    Mischa Richter, Lot of 10 cartoons for Field Publications, ink and pencil, circa 1940.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 111:
    Arthur Getz, Sledding In Central Park, casein tempera on canvas, cover of The New Yorker, February 26, 1955.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 124:
    Richard Erdoes, Map of Boston, illustration for unknown children's magazine, gouache on board, circa 1960.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 155:
    Robert Fawcett, The old man looked him over carefully, gouache on board, published in The Saturday Evening Post, June 9, 1945.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 170:
    Violet Oakley, Portrait of Woodrow Wilson, charcoal and pastel, circa 1918.
    Swannm Dec. 14: Lot 188:
    Robert J. Wildhack, Scribner's for March, 1907, mixed media.
  • Sotheby’s
    Important Modern Literature from the Library of an American Filmmaker
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Kerouac, Jack. Typescript scroll of The Dharma Bums. Typed by Kerouac in Orlando, Florida, 1957, published by Viking in 1958. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. The autograph manuscript of "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber." [Key West, finished April 1936]. 300,000 - 500,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Miller, Henry. Typescript of The Last Book, a working title for Tropic of Cancer, written circa 1931–1932. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Ruscha, Ed. Twentysix Gasoline Stations, with a lengthy inscription to Joe Goode. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Hemingway, Ernest. in our time, first edition of Hemingway’s second book. 30,000 - 50,000 USD

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