Rare Book Monthly Reviews - January - 2009 Issue

Some Giants of Science and Much More from Dragon Books

By Michael Stillman

We have just received Catalogue 8 from Southern California bookseller Dragon Books. It is a spectacular catalogue with some spectacular offerings. Dragon Books does not specialize in any one particular field. What they do appear to focus on is books in the very best condition. Prices vary from a couple of hundred to a couple of hundred thousand dollars, but the excellence of condition is constant. This is a thoroughly illustrated and thoughtfully described presentation, up to the quality of the books being offered.

We will start with science as Dragon is offering ...

Cowboys, Cattle, Custer and More from Old West Books

By Michael Stillman

Old West Books of Arlington, Texas, has released Catalog 23 of Rare, Out of Print Books on the American West. As they note in their letter to collectors, "It's the collector ...

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The Spalding Collection of Western Americana from Randall House

By Michael Stillman

This month we have received our first catalogue from Randall House, of Santa Barbara, California. Randall House trades in all kinds of books, from literature to Americana, fi...

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19th Century Literature from James Cummins Bookseller

By Michael Stillman

James Cummins Bookseller has just released a catalogue of Nineteenth Century Literature. This is not, for the most part, filled with names you instantly recognize. There are ...

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Odd and Entertaining Antique Pamphlets from Marc Selvaggio

By Michael Stillman

Some catalogues are too captivating, too entertaining to keep under wraps. Such is Son of "Kept Under Wraps" from Marc Selvaggio, Bookseller. Actually, the "wraps" mentioned ...

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The Arctic and Canada from Bjarne Tokerud Bookseller

By Michael Stillman

It's time to put on your fur coat and snowshoes. We recently received Catalogue 57 from Bjarne Tokerud Bookseller, entitled Arctic and Canadiana, Including World Voyages. Thi...

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Eighty-Three Books from The Manhattan Rare Book Company

By Michael Stillman

The Manhattan Rare Book Company has issued a catalogue of Eight-Three Books. Just as you can tell from their name where this bookseller is located, you can deduce from the ti...

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Literature, Science, Americana, Fine Books, Etc. from Thomas Goldwasser Rare Books

By Michael Stillman

Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books is offering something on just about everything in their latest offering, Catalogue 22. It is divided into three main sections: Literature Bef...

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Letters, Literature and Film from James Pepper Rare Books

By Michael Stillman

James Pepper Rare Books has issued their Catalogue 178. Pepper catalogues are mostly filled with items of literature or those relating to film and theater. There are always a...

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Recent Acquisitions at John Michael Lang Fine Books

By Michael Stillman

John Michael Lang Fine Books has issued a brief, but intriguing new catalogue: Recent Acquisitions List 27. Lang's catalogues are short, but you seemingly can find just abou...

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Exceptional Antique Maps and Related Material from Martayan Lan

By Michael Stillman

Martayan Lan has issued a new catalogue, number 41, of Fine Antique Maps, Atlases and Globes. Actually, there are a few other items in here, including broadsides and even cab...

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Capri and Other Places from Elysium Books

By Michael Stillman

Elysium Books recently issued a new catalogue which we believe is entitled Capri. Believe because the title page has no title, but "Capri" can be found lightly shaded on the ...

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Winter Miscellany from Gert Jan Bestebreurtje Rare Books Features Continental and American Works

By Michael Stillman

Gert Jan Bestebreurtje Rare Books has released Catalogue 136 A Winter Miscellany. While Bestebreurtje is located in the Netherlands, and there are certainly many Dutch works ...

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American Politics from the William Reese Company

By Michael Stillman

Well-timed for the recent, momentous election is the latest catalogue from the William Reese Company: American Politics. This 265th catalogue from the New Haven bookseller i...

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Recent Acquisitions at the Veatchs Arts of the Book

By Michael Stillman

The Veatchs Arts of the Book has published their Catalogue 61: Recent Acquisitions. This is a catalogue for people who believe the title of one of the books offered within it...

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Literature, Film, Arts, Biography, Etc. from Waverly Books

By Michael Stillman

Waverly Books has issued a new catalogue, with the brief title List 161. Waverly regularly presents lists of the material they carry. This generally consists of 20th century ...

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A Look at America's Past from David Lesser Antiquarian Books

By Michael Stillman

The latest catalogue of Rare Americana from David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books is number 107 in their series. As we have come to expect, this is a collection of the obscu...

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Historic Documents from Stuart Lutz

By Michael Stillman

Stuart Lutz Historic Documents has issued a new catalogue of just what you would expect from a firm with such a name. The catalogue is untitled, but it is filled with documen...

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Mexican and Latin American Works from Plaza Books

By Michael Stillman

List 25 has just been issued by Plaza Books of Santa Rosa, California. Plaza specializes in books from south of the border, that is, Mexico and Latin America. Of course, as m...

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Law and Legal History from The Lawbook Exchange

By Michael Stillman

The Lawbook Exchange has issued their Catalogue 61. Recently Acquired Books, Manuscripts and Other Items Relating to Law, Legal History and Politics, With a Notable Selection...

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Americana, Californiana, the Southwest, Historical Reference, Etc., from Clark Rare Books

By Michael Stillman

Clark Rare Books has issued their Catalog 936 of Americana and the American West, this one with an emphasis on Historical Reference Material and Source Materials, California ...

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Featured Material at the Arader Galleries

By Michael Stillman

We have received the November-December 2008 edition of the Arader Galleries' Directors Report a bit on the late side, but that is all right. These aren't catalogues, but disc...

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Redoute, the Raphael of Flowers, from Librairie Thomas-Scheler

By Michael Stillman

We recently received a book/catalogue from French bookseller Librairie Thomas-Scheler focused on the great illustrator Pierre-Joseph Redoute. Entitled Le Raphael des fleurs (...

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Rare Book Monthly

  • 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
  • Sotheby’s
    Fine Books and Manuscripts
    8 December 2023
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane] — Isaac D'Israeli. Jane Austen's copy of Curiosities of Literature. 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition in boards of the author's debut novel. 70,000 - 100,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Brontë, Charlotte. "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me..." 100,000 - 150,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Eliot, George. The author's magnum opus. 25,000 - 35,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 8: Whitman, Walt. Manuscript written upon the Death of Lincoln, 1865. 60,000 - 80,000 USD
  • 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
  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 7, 2023
    Swann, 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, 2023
    Swann, 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, 2023
    Swann, 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, 2023
    Swann, 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.

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