Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - June - 2004 Issue
North American Exploration<br>From Helen R. Kahn Rare Books
Helen Kahn's Lewis & Clark, Western Exploration, and Louisiana Purchase.
By Michael Stillman
Helen R. Kahn and Associates Rare Books has recently released a catalogue of Americana focused on the "Lewis & Clark Expedition, Western Exploration, Louisiana Purchase." For those who collect books on the western exploration of America, this catalogue cannot be missed. You will find many if not most of the principal works covering the pre-1850 journeys into and across the heartland.
Undoubtedly the most collectible of all these travel narratives is the one commonly known as "Lewis and Clark," but technically History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark...prepared for the press by Paul Allen. Helen Kahn offers a copy of the first edition, printed in Philadelphia in 1814. This copy lacks the original map, but comes with one of 150 numbered copies made from the original copper plate by the American Philosophical Society. Item 41. The price reflects the absence of the map - $25,000 for an item otherwise priced in six figures. Item 42 is the first London edition of this same work, also printed in 1814, and complete with the map. $29,500.
There are several more Lewis and Clark related items in the catalogue. Item 40 is the 1809 unauthorized and unproofed The Travels of Capts. Lewis & Clarke...(Clark spelled his name without an "e").With serious delays in the official version, which was not published until 1814, and great interest in the journey from the public, some unauthorized reports were prepared. This is one. $5,000. Item 24 is Patrick Gass' A Journal of the Voyages and Travels of a Corps of Discovery under the Command of Capt. Lewis and Capt. Clarke... (Gass couldn't spell Clark's name either). Gass was a member of the expedition and published his work in 1807, the first book about the journey to be released. $11,500. Item 15 is a more recent book (1970) which contains biographies of most of the participants in the famed expedition. It is called The Men of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: a Biographical Roster of the Fifty-one Members and a Composite Diary of their Activities from All Known Sources, by Charles Clarke. And yes, this Clarke spells his name with an "e". $450.
Rare Book Monthly
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ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000. -
Sotheby’s
Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections
Open for Bidding 2-17 AprilSotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun]. Le Roman de la Rose, [Geneva or Lyons, c.1481], first printed edition of the most important medieval French vernacular poem. £200,000 to £300,000.Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Castiglione. Il libro del cortegiano. [Venice], April 1528, first edition, in a magnificent binding by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier. £100,000 to £150,000.Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Jacobus de Cessolis. Schachzabelbuch, Strasbourg, 1483, von der Lasa copy. £50,000 to £70,000.Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: World Championship, 1972. A collection of 84 press photographs of the famed match between Spassky and Fischer. £2,000 to £3,000.Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Ben Franklin. Autograph letter signed, to Lord Shelburne, British Prime Minister, during peace negotiations, November 1782. £15,000 to £20,000.