AbeBooks Announces Their List of the 50 Most Expensive Books Sold on Their Site in 2014
- by Michael Stillman
#3. Mediterranean marine life.
Abebooks.com has released its list of the 50 most expensive sales on its website during 2014. We all know that some very high prices are paid on occasion for books, but through a click on a website? It turns out some surprisingly high amounts are spent that way, absent face-to-face contact. This past year, 50 items achieved prices of $9,000 or greater, with a simple click of a “buy” button.
Before we get to the ubiquitous Top 10 list, there were numerous fascinating items to be found between 11 and 50. There is a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by a man who depicted worlds as strange as Alice's, Salvadore Dali. We have a postcard from Mohandas Gandhi and a signed photograph of the Apollo 11 crew, inscribed to Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (Queen Juliana's husband). There is an incomplete copy of Romeyn Hough's American Woods, which came with wafer-thin samples from American trees, and a very complete copy of Voltaire's Oeuvres Completes de Voltaire – all 70 volumes.
The first substantial textbook on differentiated calculus appropriately achieved a high number. A 1584 book on witchcraft, and questioning its persecution, might have come in handy in Salem a century later. A signed Hobbit, signed by Tolkien, not a Hobbit, made the list. Mark Twain's first book, his Celebrated Jumping Frog, hopped onto the list. Then there is Metallotheca, which is not about a heavy metal rock band, but mineralogy and such as it was understood centuries ago.
And now, here is Abe's Top 10.
10. Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, eight double volumes published 1981-2009 concerning mythology as seen in sculpture and ceramics. $17,655.
9. A Farewell to Arms, an inscribed first edition by Ernest Hemingway to a friend. $18,000.
8. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, another copy of the 1969 Dali illustrated edition, but this copy was signed by the artist. $20,000.
7. Revue Africaine Société Historique Algérienne, 199 bound volumes of Algerian history from this French journal. It's barely $100 per volume. $20,718.
6. Recueil des Noticies et Mémoires de la Société Archéologique... a mere 71 volumes covering 96 years of a French archeological magazine. $21,060.
5. La Dioptrique oculaire ou la théorique... a 17th century treatise on lens making. $21,112.
4. Call for the Dead, by John le Carré, a signed 1961 first edition of the author's first book. $22,500.
3. Aquatilium animalium historiae... Italian Ippolito Salviani's book of Mediterranean fishes, the first book to use copper-engravings, rather than woodcuts, to depict marine life. $22,638.
2. Das Kapital, Karl Marx's 1867 treatise on economic concerns that changed the world in ways he probably never would have imagined. $40,000.
1. Les Maîtres de L'Affiche, the five volumes (1895-1900) of this French magazine devoted to Art Deco posters, 256 of them by 97 artists featured. $43,450.
Sure, AbeBooks is a great place to go to get a reading copy of an old book you like, but there is much more here, including fine rare and antiquarian material, highly collectible.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: APRES DE MANNEVILLETTE Le Neptune Oriental
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: CASSAS Eaux fortes de la Sicile et quelques vues d’Espagne
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: CASSINI DE THURY Carte générale et particulière de la France.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: JOUY; GARNERAY Vues des côtes de France dans l'Océan et dans la Méditerranée
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LA PÉROUSE Voyage autour du monde
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LE GENTIL DE LA GALAISIERE Voyage dans les Mers de l’Inde
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LICENT Hoang Ho, Pai Ho, Loan Ho, Leao Ho. Itinéraires suivis dans le bassin du golfe du Pei Tcheuly
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: FRENCH SCHOOL FROM THE 19th CENTURY Panorama d’Athènes
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: PEETERS Description des principales villes, havres et isles du golfe de Venise
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: PÉRON; FREYCINET Voyage de découverte aux terres australes
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: STACKELBERG La Grèce : vues pittoresques et topographiques.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: VALENTINER Atlas des Sonnensystems.
Forum Auctions Online Sale: The Detective Fiction Collection of John Cooper Ending 7th November, 2024
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). The Thirteen Problems, first edition, The Crime Club, 1932. £15,000 to £20,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Dumb Witness, first edition, 1937. £3,000 to £4,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Cards on the Table, first edition, The Crime Club, 1936. £2,000 to £3,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: [Carr (John Dickson)], "Carter Dickson" and John Rhode. Drop to his Death, first edition, Heinemann, [1939]. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: Berkeley (Anthony). Jumping Jenny, first edition, Hodder and Stoughton, 1933. £800 to £1,200.
Forum Auctions Online Sale: The Detective Fiction Collection of John Cooper Ending 7th November, 2024
Forum, Nov. 7: Marsh (Ngaio). Overture to Death, first edition, The Crime Club, 1939. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: [Day-Lewis (Cecil)] "Nicholas Blake". The Beast Must Die, first edition, 1938. £750 to £1,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Brand (Christianna). Green for Danger, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, John Lane the Bodley Head, 1945. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Murder is Easy, first edition, signed by the author, 1939. £3,000 to £4,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Sayers (Dorothy L.) Lord Peter Views the Body, first edition, Gollancz, 1928. £6,000 to £8,000.
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
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RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Available for Immediate Purchase
Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. 11,135 USD
Sotheby’s: Edgar Allan Poe. The Raven and Other Poems, 1845. 33,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Leo Tolstoy, Clara Bow. War and Peace, 1886. 22,500 USD
Sotheby’s: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1902. 7,500 USD
Sotheby’s: F. Scott Fitzgerald. This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, and Others, 1920-1941. 24,180 USD
Freeman’s | Hindman Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana November 14
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: LEROUX, Gaston. The Phantom of the Opera. FIRST AM. ED, FIRST ISSUE IN THE VERY RARE DUST JACKET. 1911. $6,000 – 8,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: GOULD, John. A Monograph of the Trochilidae...Humming-Birds. L., [1849-] 1861. $60,000 – 80,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: A COMPLETE RUN of Limited Editions Club publications, v.p. [mostly New York], 1929-2010. $50,000 – 60,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: ORWELL, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Lon., 1949. FIRST EDITION IN A VERY FINE DUST JACKET. $6,000 – 8,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: GOULD. A Monograph of the Ramphastidae...Toucans. L., [1852-] 54. SECOND ED. $35,000 – 45,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14:The Federalist. NY, 1788. FIRST EDITION, THICK PAPER COPY. $60,000 – 80,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: SELBY. Plates to Selby’s Illustrations of British Ornithology. Edin., [1833-] 34. $20,000 – 30,000.