Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - May - 2010 Issue

Books About Books from Oak Knoll

Oakknoll293

Catalogue 293 from Oak Knoll Books.


By Michael Stillman

Oak Knoll Books has released its Catalogue 293 of Books About Books. It is divided into two sections. The first covers the broad range of books about books, including fine printings, bindings, papermaking, design, etc. The second section is devoted specifically to bibliographies. Oak Knoll has been a leader in this field for 30 years, and once again they are offering an outstanding selection from their extensive inventory. These are a few.

Here is one of those bibliographies, and it is a thorough accounting of works related to one of those places where no one wants to live, but fascinates us anyway - the Arctic. Why so many attempted to explore this bitter place is hard to fathom, but they did, and wrote lots of books about it. Item 233 is Arctic Bibliography, edited by Marie Tremaine and published by the U.S. Department of Defense under the direction of the Arctic Institute of North America in 1953. The three volumes include 20,003 titles, and these are just of works published through 1949. Listings are provided in both author and subject alphabetic order. Priced at $475.

Item 162 is one of those 20,000 books, Farthest North. Being a record of the Voyage of the Ship "Fram" 1893-1896... by the mission's leader Dr. Fridtjof Nansen. Nansen was more than an explorer, being a scientist and diplomat as well, earning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work with the League of Nations. However, in the 1880s and 1890s he was focused on exploring the north. Nansen set the "Fram" into the Arctic ice, believing it would drift over the North Pole, a goal that had not yet been reached. He proved wrong, so he and Hjalmar Johansen left the ship and set out on foot. They did not attain the pole, but did go farther north than anyone else had before, then had to winter over on an island before finally reaching a British camp a year later. The "Fram," like Nansen, would also be involved in future adventures, it being the ship used by Roald Amundsen's expedition which was the first to reach the South Pole in 1911. Nansen's book was published in 1897. $300.

Item 78 is a look at one of the more interesting literary forgeries, poems supposedly by an antiquarian poet actually written by a youth who, by today's standards, was barely of high school age. The book is Poems, Supposed to have been Written at Bristol, by Thomas Rowley and Others, in the Fifteenth Century... by Thomas Warton, published in 1777. Rowley was supposed to have been a monk from three centuries prior, but in reality, "he" was the best known of several pseudonyms used by Thomas Chatterton. Many were fooled by the antiquarian style Chatterton used in his poems, but Warton, himself a noted poet of the time, was suspicious. Chatterton, who spent most of his time holed up in his room writing, supposedly discovered these antiquarian works. He was something of a loner and unusual person, and the pressures of life evidently proved too great. He committed suicide at the age of 17, but it took several years before suspicions about the authenticity of "Rowley's" poems led to serious questioning. $350.

Despite Warton's expose, many remained convinced of the authenticity of "Rowley's" poems, and so in 1782, Warton wrote another book in response to some of "his" defenders: An Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Poems Attributed to Thomas Rowley. In which the Arguments of the Dean of Exeter, and Mr. Bryant, are Examined. $750.

Item 268 is the Catalogue of the Library of Edward Gibbon, Author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Left by Him at Lausanne. Gibbon was a student and scholar as well as a writer, and many of the books used to research his greatest work were found in his library. However, the timing of this sale is rather perplexing. It took place at Sotheby's in 1934, though Gibbon had died in 1794. The 140-year delay can be explained by what happened to many of his books after Gibbon died. A large part of his library was purchased by the eccentric and very wealthy collector-politician-writer William Beckford. Beckford passed the books down largely intact until they ended up with a French dealer, who put them up for auction in 1934. $150.

Oak Knoll Books may be reached at 302-328-7232 or orders@oakknoll.com. Their website is www.oakknoll.com.

You will find many of Oak Knoll's books listed in "Books For Sale" on this site. Click here.

Rare Book Monthly

  • <center><b>Potter & Potter Auctions<br>Nobu Shirase and the Japanese Antarctic Expedition: the Collection of Chet Ross<br>October 12, 2023</b>
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> [BYRD]. VEER, Willard Van der and Joseph T. RUCKER, cinematographers. The 35mm motion picture Akeley camera that filmed the Academy Award-winning documentary “With Byrd at the South Pole”. $30,000 to $50,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> [SHIRASE, Nobu, his copy]. RYUKEI, Yano. <i>Young Politicians of Thebes: Illustrious Tales of Statesmanship.</i> Tokyo(?), 1881-84. $15,000 to $20,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> SHACKLETON, Ernest H. <i>The Antarctic Book.</i> Winter Quarters 1907-1909 [dummy copy of the supplement to: <i>The Heart of the Antarctic</i>]. London, 1909. $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> [USS BEAR]. The original auxiliary deck wheel from the famed USS Bear, 1874-1933. “PROBABLY THE MOST FAMOUS SHIP IN THE HISTORY OF THE COAST GUARD” (USCG). $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Potter & Potter, Oct. 12:</b> HENSON, Matthew. <i>A Negro Explorer at the North Pole.</i> With a forward by Robert Peary. Introduction by Booker T. Washington. New York, [1912]. $3,000 to $4,000.
  • <center><b>Swann Auction Galleries View Our Record Breaking Results</b>
    <b>Swann:</b> Charles Monroe Schulz, <i>The Peanuts gang,</i> complete set of 13 drawings, ink, 1971. Sold June 15 — $50,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Family Archive of Photographs & Letters. Sold June 1 — $60,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> Victor H. Green, <i>The Negro Motorist Green Book,</i> New York, 1949. Sold March 30 — $50,000.
    <b>Swann:</b> William Shakespeare, <i>King Lear; Othello;</i> [and] <i>Anthony & Cleopatra;</i> Extracted from the First Folio, London, 1623. Sold May 4— $185,000.
    <center><b>Swann Auction Galleries View Our Record Breaking Results</b>
    <b>Swann:</b> William Samuel Schwartz, <i>A Bridge in Baraboo, Wisconsin,</i> oil on canvas, circa 1938. Sold February 16 — $32,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Lena Scott Harris, <i>Group of approximately 65 hand-colored botanical studies, all apparently California native plants,</i> hand-colored silver prints, circa 1930s. Sold February 23 — $37,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Suzanne Jackson, <i>Always Something To Look For,</i> acrylic & pencil on linen canvas, circa 1974. Sold April 6 — $87,500.
    <b>Swann:</b> Gustav Klimt, <i>Das Werk von Gustav Klimt,</i> complete with 50 printed collotype plates, Vienna & Leipzig, 1918. Sold June 15 — $68,750.
  • <b><center>Sotheby’s<br>Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library<br>Magnificent Books and Bindings<br>11 October 2023</b>
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Francesco Colonna, Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. $300,000 to $400,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Leonardo da Vinci, Trattato della pittura, manuscript on paper, [Rome, ca. 1638–1641], a very fine pre-publication manuscript. $250,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Paradis, Ung petit traicte de Alkimie, [Paris, before 1540], contemporary morocco by the Pecking Crow binder for Anne de Montmorency. $300,000 to $350,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Capocaccia, Giovanni Battista, A wax relief portrait of Pius V, in a red morocco book-form box by the Vatican bindery, Rome, 1566–1568. $250,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Serlio, Il terzo libro; Regole generali, Venice, 1540, both printed on blue paper and bound together by the Cupid's Bow Binder. $400,000 to $500,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 11:</b> Tiraboschi, Carmina, manuscript on vellum, [Padua, c. 1471], the earliest surviving plaquette binding. $280,000 to $350,000.
    <b><center>Sotheby’s<br>Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library<br>The Aldine Collection A–C<br>12 October 2023</b>
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Anthologia graeca, Venice, Aldus, 1503, printed on vellum, Masterman Sykes-Syston Park copy. $150,000 to $200,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano, Venice, Aldus, 1528, contemporary Italian morocco gilt, Accolti-Landau copy. $200,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano, Venice, Aldus, 1545, contemporary morocco for Thomas Mahieu, Chatsworth copy. $200,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Cicero, Epistolae familiares, Venice, Aldus, 1502, printed on vellum, illuminated, Renouard-Vernon-Uzielli copy. $200,000 to $300,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Colonna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, Venice, Aldus, 1499, Gomar Estienne binding for Jean Grolier, Spencer copy. $400,000 to $600,000.
    <b>Sotheby’s, Oct. 12:</b> Crinito, Libri de poetis Latinis, Florence, Giunta, 1505, Cupid's Bow Binder for Grolier, Paris d'Illins-Wodhull copy. $250,000 to $300,000.

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