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Doyle, Dec. 6: An extensive archive of Raymond Chandler’s unpublished drafts of fantasy stories. $60,000 to $80,000.Doyle, Dec. 6: RAND, AYN. Single page from Ayn Rand’s handwritten first draft of her influential final novel Atlas Shrugged. $30,000 to $50,000.Doyle, Dec. 6: Ernest Hemingway’s first book with interesting provenance. Three Stories & Ten Poems. $20,000 to $30,000.Doyle, Dec. 6: Hemingway’s second book, one of 170 copies. In Our Time. $15,000 to $25,000.Doyle, Dec. 6: A finely colored example of Visscher’s double hemisphere world map, with a figured border. $12,000 to $18,000.Doyle, Dec. 6: Raymond Chandler’s Olivetti Studio 44 Typewriter. $10,000 to $20,000.Doyle, Dec. 6: Antonio Ordóñez's “Suit of Lights” owned by Ernest Hemingway. $10,000 to $20,000.Doyle, Dec. 6: A remarkable Truman archive featuring an inscribed beam from the White House construction. $8,000 to $12,000.Doyle, Dec. 6: The fourth edition of Audubon’s The Birds of America. $8,000 to $12,000.Doyle, Dec. 6: The original typed manuscript for Chandler’s only opera. The Princess and the Pedlar: An Entirely Original Comic Opera. $8,000 to $12,000.Doyle, Dec. 6: A splendidly illustrated treatise on ancient Peru and its Incan civilization. $7,000 to $10,000.Doyle, Dec. 6: A superb copy of Claude Lorrain’s Liber Veritatis from Longleat House. $5,000 to $8,000. -
Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 37: Archive of the pioneering woman artist Arrah Lee Gaul, most 1911-59. $3,000 to $4,000.Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 66: Letter describing the dropping water level at Owens Lake near Death Valley, long before it was drained, Keeler, CA, 26 July 1904. $3,000 to $4,000Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 102: To Horse, To Horse! My All for a Horse! The Washington Cavalry, illustrated Civil War broadside, Philadelphia, 1862. $4,000 to $6,000Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 135: Album of cyanotype views of the Florida panhandle and beyond, 224 photographs, 174 of them cyanotypes, Apalachicola, FL and elsewhere, circa 1895-1896. $1,200 to $1,800Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 154: Catalogue of the Library of the United States, as acquired from Thomas Jefferson, Washington, 1815. $15,000 to $25,000Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 173: New Englands First Fruits, featuring the first description of Harvard in print, London, 1643. $40,000 to $60,000Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 177: John P. Greene, Original manuscript diary of a mission to western New York with Joseph Smith, 1833. $60,000 to $90,000Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 243: P.E. Larson, photographer, Such is Life in the Far West: Early Morning Call in a Gambling Hall, Goldfield, NV, circa 1906. $2,500 to $3,500Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 261: Fred W. Sladen, Diaries of a WWII colonel commanding troops from Morocco to Italy to France, 1942-44. $3,000 to $4,000Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 309: Los mexicanos pintados por si mismos, por varios autores, a Mexican plate book. Mexico, 1854-1855. $2,000 to $3,000Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 8: Diaries of a prospector / trapper in the remote Alaska wilderness, 5 manuscript volumes. Alaska, 1917-64. $1,500 to $2,500. -
![<b>Finarte, Nov 20-21:</b> Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia, [col commento di Jacopo della Lana e Martino Paolo Nidobeato, curata da Martino Paolo Nidobeato e Guido da Terzago. Aggiunto Il Credo], 1478](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/45a90570-7486-4199-91da-bd2e9a044380.jpg "<b>Finarte, Nov 20-21:</b> Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia, [col commento di Jacopo della Lana e Martino Paolo Nidobeato, curata da Martino Paolo Nidobeato e Guido da Terzago. Aggiunto Il Credo], 1478")
![<b>Finarte, Nov 20-21:</b> Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus, edita da Piero da Figino. Aggiunte le Rime diverse; Marsilius Ficinius, Ad Dantem gratulatio], 1491](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/99566626-91f5-42da-8f8c-05fae35b4c67.jpg "<b>Finarte, Nov 20-21:</b> Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus, edita da Piero da Figino. Aggiunte le Rime diverse; Marsilius Ficinius, Ad Dantem gratulatio], 1491")
Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia, [col commento di Jacopo della Lana e Martino Paolo Nidobeato, curata da Martino Paolo Nidobeato e Guido da Terzago. Aggiunto Il Credo], 1478Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus, edita da Piero da Figino. Aggiunte le Rime diverse; Marsilius Ficinius, Ad Dantem gratulatio], 1491Finarte, Nov 20-21: Lactantius, Lucius Coelius Firmianus - Opera, 1465Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - Le terze rime di Dante, 1502Finarte, Nov 20-21: Boccaccio, Giovanni - Il Decamerone. Di messer Giouanni Boccaccio, 1516Finarte, Nov 20-21: Giordano Bruno - Candelaio comedia del Bruno nolano achademico di nulla achademia; detto il fastidito. In tristitia hilaris: in hilaritate tristis, 1582Finarte, Nov 20-21: Petrarca, Francesco - Le cose volgari di Messer Francesco Petrarcha, 1504Finarte, Nov 20-21: Legatura - Manoscritto - Medici - Cosimo III de' Medici / Solari, Giuseppe - I Ritratti Medicei overo Glorie e Grandezze della sempre sereniss. Casa Medici..., 1678Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri con varie annotazioni, e copiosi Rami adornata, 1757Finarte, Nov 20-21: Lot containing 80 printed guides and publications dedicated to travel and itineraries in Italy -
Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 51. Ortelius' Influential Map of the New World - Second Plate in Full Contemporary Color (1579) Est. $5,500 - $6,500Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 165. Reduced-Size Edition of Jefferys/Mead Map with Revolutionary War Updates (1776) Est. $4,750 - $6,000Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 688. Blaeu's Superb Carte-a-Figures Map of Africa (1634) Est. $3,000 - $3,750Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 105. Striking Map of French Colonial Possessions (1720) Est. $2,750 - $3,500Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 98. Rare First Edition of the First Published Plan of a Settlement in North America (1556) Est. $3,000 - $3,750Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 181. Important Map of the Georgia Colony (1748) Est. $2,750 - $3,500Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 547. Ortelius' Map of Russia with a Vignette of Ivan the Terrible in Full Contemporary Color (1579) Est. $1,400 - $1,700Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 85. Homann's Decorative Map of Colonial America (1720) Est. $1,600 - $1,900Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 642. Blaeu's Magnificent Carte-a-Figures Map of Asia (1634) Est. $3,000 - $3,750Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 748. The Martyrdom of St. John in Contemporary Hand Color with Gilt Highlights (1520) Est. $1,000 - $1,300Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
Lot 298. Scarce Early Map of Chester County (1822) Est. $2,750 - $3,500
Rare Book Monthly
Articles - January - 2004 Issue
An Amazing Collection of Autographs<br>Offered by Catherine Barnes
Catherine Barnes’ Historical Autographs and Documents
By Michael Stillman
Catherine Barnes’ Catalogue 27, “Historical Autographs & Documents,” offers 130 famous autographs, and, in most cases, quite a lot more. While a few are just autographs, and some are fairly mundane documents, others are fascinating letters that reveal the hidden personal lives of early public figures. Considering there were no tabloids in those days to display every detail of their personal activities, letters are one of the few sources that can show the human side to these towering figures we rarely see.
For example, Item 25 is a letter from Benjamin Franklin to the mayor of Burlington, New Jersey. While Franklin was a very successful man, his youngest and favorite sister, Jane Mecom, had a tough life. She was usually short of money and her children had many problems. Two suffered from mental issues and had to be institutionalized. Franklin paid for the care of each. This letter came in response to a letter from the mayor saying that Benjamin Mecom was “Depriv’d of his Reason” and requesting that Franklin have him placed in a hospital. In response, the American statesmen says that he had had Mecom put in a hospital but that he had escaped and returned to Burlington. Franklin goes on to say that if his sister can send him back to the hospital, he will pay the costs, or pay for his nephew’s care elsewhere if that can be arranged. Ultimately, care was arranged for Mecom in Burlington, but sadly, he again escaped and this time was never found, probably dying nearby. This letter is of particular interest considering its date, July 23, 1776, less than three weeks after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin must have had a lot on his mind in those days. Priced at $25,000.
Teddy Roosevelt was noted as a big game hunter among many other things. After leaving office as president, Roosevelt embarked on a year-long African safari. Near the end of this time, he wrote a letter to naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton. “I have found that many antelopes here…deposit their dung in particular spots,” Roosevelt informs his friend, thereby adding to the naturalist’s knowledge of wild beasts. Roosevelt then goes on to question whether monogamy is universal among lions. “It is undoubtedly common to find a lion and lioness together, but it is equally common, indeed I think it is much more common to find an entirely different arrangement, say one lion and three lionesses…” It seems that Roosevelt found that lions, and antelope, have much in common with us. Item 62. $6,500.
