Rare Book Monthly

Articles - November - 2013 Issue

Graham Arader: Defining the space between auction and retail

The Arader Galleries this month continue to explore the relationship between the retailing of important images in their shops and their selling of them at auction.  The entire category of collectibles is in transition and the firm, the leading dealer in the printed images field, testing the dividing line between these two very different markets.  Interest in their material, Audubon and other exceptional prints, is unabated but increasingly buyers are looking for market confirmation for the prices they pay.

 

To manage this shift Mr. Arader has been offering, in a series of auctions, material with high estimates of $10,000 and less on an unreserved basis.  This has made it possible for conservative bidders to acquire very nice lots at very affordable prices.  It has also acquainted them with the Arader Galleries and opened paths for the firm to become, for these buyers, a regular source for many of the more expensive prints that rarely pass through the rooms.  It is a remarkable effort.

 

Illustrating this story are 10 of the lots that will be sold without reserve.  On most AE pages the Arader Galleries have also posted images, brief descriptions and links to other lots, in many cases more expensive lots.  The education that Mr. Arader is getting is not tuition free and he has prepared himself for the possibility of occasionally losing money on lots in exchange for the clarification such sales provide.   

 

For bidders, with the holidays at hand, it looks like Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are arriving early.  If so, we now know that Santa lives in Pennsylvania.

 

The firm describes the sale this way:

 

‘A superb exhibition of nearly one third of the original hand-coloured aquatints from John James Audubon's magnificent double-elephant folio "The Birds of America", the single most important work on North American ornithology; about half of the original hand-colored lithographs from his Imperial folio "The Viviparous Quadrupeds", the first great all-American color-plate book; and some beautiful original watercolors on vellum from Pierre-Joseph Redoute's magnum opus "Les Liliacees."  All are currently on view at the Gallery at 1016 Madison Ave., NYC, NY 10021.’

 

The sale is on the 9th beginning at 1:00 pm at 1016 Madison Avenue in New York.  On the 8th, at 6:00 pm, Barney Lipscomb, the Leonhardt Chair of Texas Botany at the Botanical Research Institute Texas is giving an illustrated lecture “Art and Science:  A Botanist’s Eye:  Redoute and the Art of Floral Illustration.”  The public is invited.

 

To arrange to view lots in person or to learn about bidding options contact:

 

The Arader Gallery

1016 Madison Avenue [bet. 78th and 79th]

New York, New York 10021

 

View the entire sale on Live Auctioneers and on Proxibid

 

Arrange to Visit:  call 212-628-7625

 

Arrange to bid: Please contact Guernsey’s Auctioneers at 212-794-2280

 

Personally discuss your collecting interests with Graham Arader:  212- 628-3668

 

Descriptions for the numbered images accompanying this article.

 

Lot 12

John James Audubon
Red-tailed Hawk
Plate 51

Aquatint engraving with original hand color

37 5/8 x 25 ¼ inches

Retail price: $17,500

Estimate $4,000-5,000
No Reserve

 

Lot 13

John James Audubon

Chuck Will’s Widow

Plate 52

Aquatint engraving with original hand color

25 3/8 x 37 3/8 inches

Retail price: $25,000

Estimate: $6,000-8,000

No Reserve

 

Lot 90

John James Audubon

Ruddy Duck

Plate 343

Aquatint engraving with original hand color

38 1/8 x 26 5/8 inches

Retail price: $18,000

Estimate: $4,000-6,000

No Reserve

  

Lot 106

John James Audubon

Snow Goose

Plate 381

Aquatint engraving with original hand color

38 1/8 x 25 ¼ inches

Retail price: $18,000

Estimate: $5,000-7,000

No Reserve



Lot 113

John James Audubon

Red-breasted Merganser

Plate 401

Aquatint engraving with original hand color

38 ½ x 25 inches

Retail price: $45,000

Estimate: $7,000-10,000

No Reserve



Lot 140

John James Audubon

Canada Porcupine

Plate 36

Hand colored lithograph

21 ½ x 27 ¼ inches

Retail price: $14,000

Estimate: $3,000-5,000

No Reserve

 

Lot 169

John James Audubon

Common American Deer (Fawn)

Plate 81

Hand colored lithograph

21 x 27 1/8 inches

Retail price: $25,000

Estimate: $6,000-10,000

No Reserve

 

Lot 206

John James Audubon

American Black Bear

Plate 141

Hand-colored lithograph

20 ½ x 26 5/8 inches

Retail price: $22,500

Estimate: $7,000-8,000

No Reserve

 

Lot 221

Charles Lucien Bonaparte

American Ornithology; or, the Natural History of Birds Inhabiting the United States not Given by Wilson. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Carey; Carey & Lea, 1825-1833.

4 volumes

Folio (15 2/8 x 12 inches)

27 fine hand-colored engraved plates

Retail price: $13,750

Estimate: $8,000-10,000

No Reserve

 

Lot 256
George Brookshaw
Plate LXI-Grape Lady Bathurst Tokay, from Pomona Brittanica

Stipple engraving

Single sheet: 18 x 22 ½ inches

Image size: 13 ¼ x 17 inches

Retail price: $7,000

Estimate: $1,000-2,000

No Reserve

 

Rare Book Monthly

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  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.

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