Rare Book Monthly

Articles - November - 2014 Issue

Brooke-Hitching: a collector's collector

When dealers sell at the end of their careers a few are celebrated for their knowledge, intuition and judgment.  When the sale or sales are at auction the ordinarily private process becomes a public one.  One such dealer enjoying the acclaim of his peers, is Franklin Brooke-Hitching, the private English dealer now in his early 70’s, whose material has been the subject of two successful sales at Sotheby’s in London this year and the subject of two more in 2015.  Mr. Brooke-Hitching, by all reports, sold many very good items during his career but the best examples he apparently kept for himself.  This explains the marvelous success his dispersal is achieving.  In this success he is following in the path of other dealers, in particular Ken Nebenzahl who himself collected and was the subject of memorable high dollar auctions over the past ten years.  It is not surprising then that Mr. Brooke-Hitching worked for Ken in Chicago for several years in the 1960s when he entered the trade after a brief career in finance and determined, that for a collector, the gold standard is perfection.  Ken, who had an open shop for 33 years, dealt in material of varying quality but what he took home to be part of his personal collection and decades later sent to auction to achieve great success, were the often-exceptional copies.  Mr. Brooke-Hitching observed his mentor’s methodology and adopted it for himself when he later moved to England.  This is what could be done and it is what Mr. Nebenzahl has in the intervening years brilliantly confirmed, returning to the market what he acquired over his decades as a dealer.   And now it is what Mr. Brooke-Hitching is in the midst of doing.  His first two sales brought $10,236,165 in the rooms.  In defining the essential difference between the Nebenzahl and his approach – Ken was I think a dealer-collector and Franklin a collector-dealer.   Ken bought to sell, Mr. Brooke-Hitching to collect.

 

Such collector-dealers live in the purgatory between committed collector and committed seller but invariably, except when short of money, honor the collecting impulse ahead of the desire to sell.   They like their material too much to part with it cheaply.  There are dealers on both sides of this approach, Bill Reese the leading dealer-collector in the Americana field, agrees.  “It’s a matter of degree.”

 

In his pursuit of a career in rare books Mr. Brook-Hitching would manage to both build his business and his collection, a relentless struggle in the best of times between what's needed to make ends meet and what the dedicated collector must acquire when the best opportunities present themselves.  Certainly his connections were helpful.  His father Desmond Brook-Hitching was a prominent lawyer, and his wife the Hon. Emma Caroline Blades, daughter of Rowland Roberts Blades, 2nd Baron of Ebbisham and Flavia Mary Meade.  He came well armed.

 

Beyond this, per John Windle, his long time friend and fellow dealer, “Emma is the grand or great grand-daughter of the printer and bibliographer William Blades who wrote the book on “Enemies of Books” and a book on Caxton and according to the DNB achieved enduring fame for “his pioneering use of type identification as a method of dating undated early books, a method still used by incunabulists at the beginning of the 20th century.” “ We used to tease Franklin that he married Emma for her books . . .”

 

Brooke-Hitching, once established in England, was able to become agent for the British Rail Pension Fund that would pursue the goal of building an important library and then, fifteen years later, manage its dispersal when such holdings became impolitic.  He was also able to purchase the Aynhoe Park Library at Oxfordshire that, according to Hugh Bett of Maggs Bros., was an exceptional decision.  In the pursuit and management of this business he honed his skills and here and there, when the printed examples were supreme, acquired them for himself.  It was a very smart way to build a collection.  In other words, as is often the case the library owner is every bit as interesting as the wonderful books they collect.

 

This then explains, to some extent, why the Brooke-Hitching and a few other end-of career sales experience exceptional success.  Collections discerningly built over decades, in time become the outer evidence of the inner collector.  It’s a test that most dealers and collectors fail for the standards are impossibly high.  Exactly where does contempt end and admiration begin?  It’s unanswerable except we have an answer that a United States Supreme Court Justice inadvertently provided when asked to define pornography:  “I know it when I see it” and so it is with the academic book community, the small world of very important dealers, important collecting institutions and well heeled collectors whose discernment matches their bankrolls.  Through two sales the votes are in and these sales are achieving “exceptional” status.

 

Such sales rarely occur but when they do the invisible divider between excellence and exceptionality is breached.  Such efforts are widely applauded, their collectors lionized and their copies pursued when offered in the rooms or later by dealers.  Such acclaim can be measured against the lower prices paid for the same titles, if not necessarily equal examples, sold over the past two decades at auction by those who tried but failed to scale these ramparts.  They are numerous.  As for the few achieving eminence over the past 25 years four collections come to mind, Mr. Nebenzahl’s and Frank Streeter’s sales at Christies and Frank Siebert’s and the Wardington Sales at Sothebys are the gold standards. 

 

The Brooke-Hitching sales are entering this pantheon, the world of rare books equivalent to enshrinement at Cooperstown.  Such are the results Mr. Brooke-Hitching is achieving as his sales continue into 2015.

 

Such collections are not easily built.

 

For both dealers and collectors Mr. Brooke-Hitching’s success is salutatory for it can sometimes feel it is almost impossible to build a great collection.  A great eye and an exceptional memory are, for exceptional collectors, givens.  And pre-opening access to what dealers bring to shows and exhibitions has been and continues to be very important, an advantage Mr. Brooke-Hitching, as a participating dealer, would often have had.  But so would others and he ended-up with the exceptional collection while so many others did not.  Book collecting is a gauntlet and his sales proving he ran the race well.

 

Graham Arader, who has known Brooke-Hitching for some thirty years, has provided a compelling picture of this collector-dealer, “a Hollywood-handsome man, for me impossible to buy from and impossible to sell to.  He both knew what he had and what he wanted and as a collector was particularly unwilling to part with what he admired.  We had great conversations but I don’t recall we ever did any significant business.  I have admired his approach.”

  

Mr. Brooke-Hitching is hardly the first collector-dealer but it’s instructive that his introduction to the trade came at the knee of Ken Nebenzahl who in the modern era set records in the auction rooms for the treasures he acquired as a dealer-collector over his sixty-year career.  So, in the Brooke-Hitching dispersals we are seeing something we have seen, if only rarely, before; determination, resources and judgment set to the music of book collecting and achieving great success.  It is a sweet song and for those of us laboring on the hillsides of tall mountains, inspiring.

 

Here then are the top ten lots, by price realized, in each of the first two sales.

 

Sale L14411 Brooke-Hitching S/O Part One 27 MAR 14

Grand Total: £2,347,206 ($3,892,137) Exch Rate: 1.66

 

Sold by Lot: 98.6% Lots Offered: 350

Sold by Value: 98.4% Lots Sold/Unsold: 343 / 5

  

Lot number, Price in GBP and US$ followed by the estimate in GBP and then a brief description

 

317 £182,500 ($302,622) £70,000 - 100,000

 

Cook—Shaw, A Catalogue of the Different Specimens of Cloth collected in the Three Voyages (1787)

 

288 £134,500 ($223,028) £80,000 - 120,000

 

Cook—Banks, Untitled chart of “The Great Pacific Ocean” (1772)

 

315 £104,500 ($173,282) £50,000 - 80,000

 

Cook—Samwell, A Narrative of the Death of Captain James Cook (1786)

 

286 £92,500 ($153,384) £20,000 - 30,000

 

Cook, A set of first editions of the official accounts of his three Pacific voyages (1773-1784)

 

146 £80,500 ($133,485) £30,000 - 40,000

 

Bligh—Christian, A Short Reply to Capt. William Bligh's Answer (1795)

 

295 £68,500 ($113,587) £8,000 - 12,000

 

Cook—Forster, A Letter to the right honourable The Earl of Sandwich (1778)

 

292 £52,500 ($87,056) £20,000 - 30,000

 

Cook- Dalrymple, A Letter from Mr. Dalrymple to Dr. Hawkesworth (1773)

 

299 £47,500 ($78,764) £8,000 - 12,000

 

Cook--Forster, J. Characteres Generum Plantarum (1776)

 

145 £40,000 ($66,328) £15,000 - 25,000

 

Bligh--Barney and Christian, Minutes of the Proceedings of the Court-Martial at Portsmouth (1792)

 

322 £37,500 ($62,182) £20,000 - 30,000

 

Cook—Webber, Views in the South Seas (1808)

 

174 £37,500 ($62,182) £15,000 - 20,000

 

Broughton, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean (1804)

 

 

Sale L14412 Brooke-Hitching S/O Part Two 30 SEP 14

Grand Total: £3,900,417 ($6,344,028) Exch Rate: 1.63

 

Sold by Lot: 99.4% Lots Offered: 350

Sold by Value: 99.8% Lots Sold/Unsold: 348

 

Lot number, Price in GBP and US$ followed by the estimate in GBP and then a brief description

 

579 £458,500 ($745,750) £180,000 - 240,000

 

Hakluyt. The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation. 1598-1600

 

363 £302,500 ($492,016) £120,000 - 160,000

 

Dalrymple. A complete set to date of Dalrymple's maps, charts and views (454 on 443 sheets). 1776-1788

 

479 £290,500 ($472,498) £150,000 - 200,000

 

Flinders. Observations on the coasts of Van Diemen's Land. 1801

 

402 £212,500 ($345,631) £60,000 - 90,000

 

Dobbs-Middleton controversy. A collection of seven works in 3 volumes

 

369 £182,500 ($296,836) £35,000 - 50,000

 

Darwin. Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of his Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle. 1839

 

371 £158,500 ($257,800) £50,000 - 70,000

 

Darwin. The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Beagle. 1840-1843

 

416 £146,500 ($238,282) £50,000 - 70,000

 

Drake. The world encompassed. 1628

 

578 £146,500 ($238,282) £40,000 - 60,000

 

Hakluyt. The Principall Navigations, Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation, made by Sea or over Land. 1589

 

602 £122,500 ($199,246) £15,000 - 25,000

 

Harrison. The Principles of Mr. Harrison's Time-Keeper. 1767

 

495 £98,500 ($160,210) £50,000 - 70,000

 

Foxe. North-West Fox, or Fox from the North-west passage. 1635

 

Rare Book Monthly

  • Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: ANDERSEN'S EXTREMELY RARE FIRST APPEARANCE IN PRINT. "Scene af: Røverne i Vissenberg i Fyen." in Harpen, 1822.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST ISSUE OF THE FIRST THREE FAIRY TALE PAMPHLETS, WITH ALL INDICES AND TITLE PAGES. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: THE FIRST FAIRY TALES WITH A SIGNED CARTE DE VISITE OF ANDERSEN AS FRONTIS. Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. 1835-1837.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: KARL LAGERFELD. Original pastel and ink drawing in gold, red and black for Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes (1992), "La cassette de l'Empereur."
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY OF THE SIXTH PAMPHLET FOR PETER KOCH. Eventyr, Fortalte For Børn, Second Series, Third Pamphlet. 1841. Publisher's wrappers, complete with all pre- and post-matter.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN RARE AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED IN ENGLISH from "The Ugly Duckling," c.1860s.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: HEINRICH LEFLER, ORIGINAL WATERCOLOR FOR ANDERSEN'S SNOW QUEEN, "Die Schneekönigin," 1910.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: FIRST EDITION OF ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES IN ENGLISH. Wonderful Stories for Children. London, 1846.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: ANDERSEN ON MEETING CHARLES DICKENS. Autograph Letter Signed ("H.C. Andersen") in English to William Jerdan, July 20, 1847.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR EDGAR COLLIN. Nye Eventyr og Historier. Anden Raekke. 1861.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: DOLL HOUSE FURNITURE BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSON, DECORATED WITH FANTASTICAL CUT-OUTS, for the children of Jonna Stampe (née Drewsen), his godchildren.
    Bonhams, Apr. 21-29: PRESENTATION COPY FOR GEORG BRANDES. Dryaden. Et Eventyr fra Udstillingstiden i Paris 1867. 1868.
  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Books & Collectors’ Sale
    April 30th & May 1st
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Taylor (Geo.) & Skinner (A.) Maps of the Roads of Ireland, Surveyed 1777. Lond. & Dublin 1778. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Messingham (Thos.) Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum seu Vitae et Acta Sanctorum Hibernia, Paris 1624. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus). The Haw Lantern, L. (Faber & Faber) 1987, First Edn., Signed and dated. €225 to €350.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Valencey (Lt. Col. Chas.) Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Vols. I-IV, 4 vols. Dublin 1786. €400 to €600.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Powerscourt (Viscount). A Description and History of Powerscourt, Lond. 1903. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Moryson (Fynes). An Itinerary ... Containing His Ten Yeeres Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohermerland, Sweitzerland…, Lond. (John Beale) 1617. €700 to €1,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: After Buffon, Birds of Europe, c. 1820. Approx. 120 fine hd. cold. plts., mor. backed boards. €125 to €250.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Dunlevy (Andrew). An Teagasg Criosduidhe De Reir Ceasda agus Freagartha... The Catechism or Christian Doctrine by Way of Question and Answer, Paris (James Guerin) 1742. €400 to €700.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: The Georgian Society Records of Eighteen-Century Domestic Architecture in Dublin, 5 vols. Complete, Dublin 1909-1913. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Scale (Bernard). An Hibernian Atlas or General Description of the Kingdom of Ireland, L. (Robert Sayer & John Bennet) 1776. €625 to €850.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: [Johnson (Rev. Samuel)]. Julian the Apostate Being a Short Account of his Life, together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism,L. (Langley Curtis) 1682. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Nichlson (Wm.) Illustrator. An Almanac of Twelve Sports, Lond. 1898. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) trans. The Light of the Leaves, 2 vols., Mexico (Imprenta de los Tropicos/Bunholt) 1999. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Fleming (Ian). Moonraker, L. (Jonathan Cape) 1955. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) & Egan (Felim) artist. Squarings, Twelve Poems, D. (Hieroglyph Editions Ltd.) 1991. €1,750 to €2,250.

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions