• Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - December - 2016 Issue

Two sales Dec. 7 at Bonhams: History of Science & Voices of the 20th Century

Highlight items from Bonhams' Dec. 7 sales of History of Science & Technology and Voices of the 20th Century

If you happen to be in New York on December 7, Bonhams has two superb reasons to stop by their location on Madison Ave. At 11am, 98 lots of History of Science and Technology will be up for bidding, followed at 1pm by 309 lots of Voices of the 20th Century. Both sales contain material by some of the most important figures in their fields—Einstein, Newton, and Darwin in Science, and Hemingway, Salinger, and Steinbeck in Voices.

History of Science and Technology is the first sale of the day. A first edition, monograph issue of Einstein’s general theory of relativity (Die Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie, Leipzig, 1916), signed by him with a scientific inscription to boot, has the distinction of carrying the highest estimate for a work on paper: $80,000 – 120,000. Less applicable to the focus of Rare Book Hub, but nonetheless incredibly fascinating and of vital importance to the outcome of World War II, several enigma enciphering machines, some still functioning (though the codes were long ago broken!), bear estimates reaching $200,000 and 300,000+.

Three items by Sir Isaac Newton are included in the sale. Lot 1061 is an autograph manuscript tracing his genealogy, which was motivated by his impending knighthood, and is a unique “testament to Newton’s preoccupation with his own heritage, as well as his incessant need to organize and codify all kinds of information” (Bonhams). The following lot, 1062, is a first edition of Newton’s Principia in English—The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (London, 1729). Principia was first published in Latin in 1687 and has been called the greatest work in the history of science (PMM 161). The final Newton item is a first edition of Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John (London, 1733). Estimates for these three lots are as follows:

1061: $50,000 – 70,000

1062: $20,000 – 30,000

1063: $400 – 600

Charles Darwin is of course most famous for his theory of evolution posited in his On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, which wasfirst published in 1859. Lot 1051, estimated at $25,000 – 35,000, is one such copy of this groundbreaking first edition.

Devoted collectors and students of physics are undoubtedly familiar with the name Werner Heisenberg. For the rest of us, the AMC TV show Breaking Bad might have been our first encounter with the name when the show’s protagonist, Walter White, adopts the pseudonym Heisenberg. Though not as famous in pop culture as some of his contemporaries, Heisenberg was a leading mind in the development of quantum mechanics theory and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 for the creation of it. Lot 1085 is an autograph manuscript by the man, being his draft lecture notes on the history of particle physics and the meaning of unified field theory from 1964. It can be yours for an estimated $15,000 – 25,000.

Moving on to the second sale of the day, Voices of the 20th Century contains 309 lots of books as well as many autograph manuscripts and other signed items, art books, and drawings. Russian literature and film is well represented, if not in the number of items, then certainly in quality. Highlights of the sale have to include the working script of Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky for the film Stalker (lot 218, est. $150,000 – 200,000), a rare carbon copy of the typed manuscript for Boris Pasternak’s “Doktor Zhivago” (lot 143, est. $30,000 – 50,000), and an inscribed presentation copy of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s first book, Odin den Ivana Denisovicha [One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich] (lot 147, est. $15,000 – 20,000).

Collectors of Hemingway likely have had this sale on their radars for some time. The first 73 lots of the sale are dedicated to the man, coming in the form of his books, manuscripts, letters, photographs, and even a custom leather hunting vest he wore. One particularly compelling and unique lot out of these 73 is lot 32, which contains an amalgamation of items related to the first of a series of travel-sport letters that Hemingway produced for the magazine Esquire. Included are the typed manuscript of “Marlin Off the Morro: A Cuban Letter” [1933] which was published in the Autumn 1933 issue of Esquire, 18 black and white photographs which made up the complete original set of illustrations accompanying the article, an autograph letter signed by editor Arnold Gingrich about the article with minor edits in Hemingway’s hand, and finally, a copy of the magazine itself. Lot 32 is estimated at $30,000 – 50,000.

J.D. Salinger was always known as a very private man. Lot 144 of Voices of the 20th Century represent a small, but intimate view into the mind and daily life of a man who was renowned for his guardedness. Ten letters, four autograph and six typed, written to a young woman Salinger befriended in the late 1970s share the author’s “full voice” on topics including writing, films, novels, music he loves, Eastern religion and philosophy, homeopathic medicine, his son, Matthew, as well as other subjects. This one of a kind collection is estimated at $30,000 – 50,000.

Twenty-nine lots of Steinbeck are being offered in the sale, comprising books and manuscripts. Two first editions stand out, the first being a first issue, family copy of Cup of Gold (New York, 1929), signed by the author. Cup of Gold is listed as lot 84 with an estimate of $15,000 – 20,000. The second standout is The Grapes of Wrath (New York, 1939), signed and inscribed by Steinbeck, and listed as lot 95 for an estimated $12,000 – 18,000.

Bonhams’ sale of History of Science and Technology takes place Wednesday, December 7, 2016 at 11am eastern time at their Madison Ave location. Voices of the 20th Century takes place the same day in the same location at 1pm. Bidding is available via the usual methods: live, telephone, absentee, and online. Catalogs for both sales are available on the Bonhams website here:

-       History of Science and Technology

-       Voices of the 20th Century

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD

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