by Mike

At Rare Book Hub we track not only auction sales of rare books, but also of other forms of collectible paper, such as manuscripts, maps, comic books, prints, trading cards, and photographs. This past week, the highest prices were dominated by these other forms of paper. This, to a large extent, can be attributed to a sale at Heritage Auctions that took in $7.6 million, almost five times as much as any other sale. Runner-up was a sale of postal items from Robert Siegel Galleries that raised $1.6 million.

The Heritage sale was of trading card games and manga. Manga is a Japanese art and writing form featuring those big-eyed children and strange Pokemon creatures. The top price this past week went to the “Holy Grail” of Pokemon collecting, the 1998 Pikachu Illustrator card. It brought $1,406,250. Runners-up were a Skyridge complete set of Pokemon trading cards from 2003 for $1,218,750, signed Pokemon and Misty artwork for $600,000, and a Pokemon Charizard set from 1999 for $550,000, all sold by Heritage. I believe Charizard, the fire-breathing dragon, is the second most popular Pokemon character, but feel free to correct me if I am wrong. My knowledge of Pokemon is about as great as my interest in purchasing one of these cards for a million dollars. If you have one of them, don't get your hopes too high yet. Condition matters. Condition was either mint (a perfect 10), or in the case of the Pikachu Illustrator, the best of any copy sold at auction (a 9). The only known Pikachu Illustrator rated at a 10 was sold privately recently for a reported $16.5 million.

The fifth through ninth highest prices were from Sotheby's and they were either of Japanese art or prints of The Arrival of Spring at Woldgate by David Hockney. There are 25 images of spring from Hockney and they are very popular, as attested by three of them selling for $277k to $391k. Those were certainly appropriate to be sold at this time of year. As for the Japanese art, these were works other than manga.

Last week's list of the top 3 prices included two copies of Katsushika Hokusai's Great Wave illustration. The Great Wave crashed into the top listings again this week, though this time for a more “modest” price of $228,600. Last week a copy sold for $2.1 million.

Banksy has apparently now been identified, after years of maintaining his anonymity. At least Reuters has claimed to have figured it out, and he might be considered the real world equivalent of Clark Kent. He's not someone who would stand out in a crowd. Christie's had a sale of contemporary art that took in well over $1 million. It contained works by Hockney other than springtime, several Banksys, and numerous others. Banksy sure is a one-of-a-kind original, but wait a minute, Mr. Gunningham, or whoever you are. This illustration is of a soup can. Hasn't that been done before? It's not Campbell's. It's Tesco Value Cream of Tomato Soup. It looks like both Banksy and Tesco are stealing Campbell's and Warhol's thunder. Nevertheless, it still brought in $37,000 which will buy a lot of Campbell's soup and even more of Tesco's.

This book recounts the story of a terrible beast that roamed the southern French countryside from 1764-1767. The title is Berattelse, om det grymma manniskofratande wildjuret... On the off chance you don't read Swedish, it means “story of the cruel man-eating beast.” However, it ate women and children too. The killings began in 1764 as the beast attacked people who were alone, tending to livestock in the countryside. As the killings mounted, hunting parties were sent out to no avail. The local bishop concluded, as often was the case those days, that the beast was sent by the wrath of God as punishment for the people's sins. He called for penance and prayer. That didn't work either. Word reached the King, who put out a reward and hired two wolf hunters. The beast, by most accounts, seemed closest to a wolf though larger and not quite alike. One of the hunters shot an unusually large wolf, the killing stopped, and the problem was solved. Only, it wasn't. They started up again. It wasn't until another hunter killed a second oversized wolf two years later that the killings finally came to an end. It was estimated there were 210 attacks and 113 killings. This book sold for the equivalent of $2,276 at Crafoord Auctioner.

After a somewhat slower time last week, the result of the holidays, the number of auctions are picking up again. Another 76 sales are set for this coming week, starting Wednesday, April 8. You can find them at this link: www.rarebookhub.com/auctions/calendar