Rare Book Monthly

Articles - December - 2014 Issue

Christie's New York: Americana and Botany Collectors Converge

Items from Christie's December 4th sale Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana

Items from Christie's December 4th sale Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana

With a veritable cornucopia of rare and significant material, Christie’s New York will soon be offering collectors of rare books, manuscripts, maps, ephemera, and autographs a sale to be grateful for this holiday season. Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana is 267 lots to be sold one week after Thanksgiving, on December 4th, 2014, at Christie’s Rockefeller Plaza location.

The sale opens with a section dedicated to Americana, and autograph and signed letters and documents are out in force. The Presidential likes of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, as well as more contemporary Heads of State, such as Eisenhower, Truman, and Kennedy, are all here. Interspersed among these men are other figures from history: Davy Crockett, Albert Einstein, and Nathanael Greene leave their literal marks, too.

While autographs absolutely outnumber any other type of Americana, other items deserve to be mentioned. Henry James Warre’s Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, a first edition from 1848, contains sixteen hand-colored and tinted lithographic plate views of the Pacific Northwest. Howes considered these works to be the only western color-plates comparable to the gold standard set by Swiss artist Karl Bodmer. Available as lot 75, this excellent copy is estimated $80,000 - $120,000. For map collectors, cartographers Robert Sayer and John Bennett present The Seat of War in New England, by an American Volunteer, with the Marches of Several other Corps Sent by the Colonies towards Boston, with the Attack on Bunker Hill. Printed in London only three months after the battle of Bunker’s Hill, the map contains a detailed depiction of the early phases of the Revolution. Equally at home in American map and Revolutionary collections, this important item is listed as lot 61 and estimated $20,000 - $30,000.

The rest of the sale is grouped under the general heading of Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts but is also broken into some sub-categories. Lots 86 through 106 are Sets and Bindings, and the Works of many famous authors and historically significant people are contained within. Samuel Clemens (lot 88, est. $5,000 - $7,000), John Muir (lot 96, est. $2,000 - $3,000), Theodore Roosevelt (lot 98, est. $3,000 - $4,000), and Henry David Thoreau (lot 103, est. $5,000 - $7,000) are some that jump out. All are finely bound and make for impressive sets of important material.

In September 2014, the Holden Arboretum and Cleveland Botanical Garden entered into an affiliation which, when combined, made them the 13th largest public garden in the United States. As a result of this union, important botanical books formerly in the collection of the Cleveland Botanical Garden have come to auction. Lots 109 through 180 make up these items, and the large majority are illustrated. There are also additional botanical books offered from lots 181 to 199. Collectors of botanical material will already have this sale highlighted on their calendars.

Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana concludes with a final offering of rare books, manuscripts, maps, and autographs. Depending on your perspective, it may appear Christie’s saved the best for last. Many significant items are available, with subjects ranging widely. At lot 230, a first edition, limited issue of Joyce’s Ulysses is available and estimated $30,000 - $40,000. Two copies of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life are also here, one copy in better condition than the other. At lots 202 and 203, their estimates are $80,000 - $120,000 and $60,000 - $80,000, respectively.

I usually make a point in these AE auction previews of highlighting the item with the highest estimate, and in this case, it’s a tie between two items in the last part of the sale. They are quite different. Going in order of lot number, lot 227, Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s Exercita Spiritualia, dated September 11, 1548, is regarded as an extremely important book in Christian history, and has been called “the most famous modern textbook on ascetic discipline, the nature of sin and Christian perfection by grace” (PMM). This first edition is extraordinarily rare, the last seen at auction being the Harmsworth copy in 1946, and that example was admittedly in tougher shape. Owning this item will not come cheaply—its estimate sits at $200,000 - $300,000. Sharing the same estimate is lot 251, which is the second folio edition of Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies… This particular edition is important because it is in the second folio that John Milton first appears in print. Additionally, this particular copy remains in a rare early binding.

As is standard for sales through Christie’s, bidding is available in-person at Rockefeller Plaza, over the phone, or through their website. Please register here if you plan on bidding online. The begins at 10AM ET on December 4, 2014.

As is standard for sales through Christie’s, bidding is available in-person at Rockefeller Plaza, over the phone, or through their website. Please register here if you plan on bidding online. The entire catalogue may be viewed online, and a PDF copy is also available for download. The sale begins at 10AM ET on December 4, 2014.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • 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

Article Search

Archived Articles