• Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2015 Issue

The AE Top 500 Prices Paid at Auction in 2014

It was the year of Tintin. Thirty-four drawings.

Once again a year has come to an end, meaning it is time to look back at the top 500 prices paid at auction in 2014 in the field of books, maps, manuscripts and ephemera (see end of article for a description of what is included). Once again, there was one eight-digit item at the top that far exceeded anything else. Last year, the Bay Psalm Book went for more than double the second highest priced item. This year, it was more than triple.

 

More telling about the overall health of the upper end of the market was the price at #500. This year, the low end of the top 500 was more than $10,000 higher than last year, coming in right around $80,000. Those with the means were spending it more freely in 2014. What we also see is a shift in the market. Whereas books once dominated this list, ephemeral material that in the past rarely made it to these lofty prices is now filling the majority of places. One of a kind manuscripts, both beautifully illuminated ones from many centuries ago, and those of historic importance are bringing high prices. Original illustrations used in books are often bringing in prices much greater than the books themselves.

 

Another form of book, virtually unheard of at the top a few years ago, is now peppered throughout the list. We are talking about comic books, and the original art created for them. They particularly dominate twentieth century material on the list, while books and illuminated manuscripts are strongest among the older works.

 

This past year, the most appearances were made not by Shakespeare or Washington or names we have seen in the past. An amazing performance was put in by a name it is unlikely most Americans even know. The leader for 2014 is Belgian Georges Remi, better known (but probably not to most Americans) as Hergé. Hergé was a comic book writer and artist, creator of the strip and character Tintin. Hergé's creations fill an incredible 14 places in the Top 500. Most are original artwork for Tintin's comic book adventures. Another frequent visitor to the list is John James Audubon, the result of auctions of individual plates from his Birds of America conducted by the Arader Galleries. Single plates are now so highly valued that they make the Top 500. The Beatles also made numerous appearances. They come in the form of manuscripts - letters, music lyrics, and drafts of a number of writings by John Lennon.

 

Still, that does not mean there is no room for the great names in literature and history. They are still here where they belong. You will find writers such as Fitzgerald, Carroll, Whitman, Baudelaire, Beckett, Proust, Salinger, the Bronte Sisters, Goethe, Hemingway, Camus, Melville, Potter, Joyce, Doyle, Tolkien, Nabokov, Kerouac, Wilde, Eliot, Austen, Hugo, Roth, Baum, Arthur Miller, Dylan Thomas, Chaucer and Shakespeare.

 

From political leadership there is Washington, Napoleon, Churchill, Kennedy, Jefferson, Paine, Gandhi, Revere, Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, John Smith, and Catherine of Aragon (the first Mrs. Henry VIII).

 

From science and exploration we find Darwin, Cook, Ptolemy, Lewis & Clark, Flinders, Newton, Kepler, Watson, Champlain, Drake, Galileo, Bligh, Einstein, and Copernicus.

 

From the field of music we have Rachmaninov, Dylan, Mozart, the Beatles, and Beethoven.

 

Here are the top 10 highest prices from 2014. At the end of this list is a link to the complete Top 500.

 

10. An unfinished Mozart manuscript Kyrie. It is undated, but has been estimated, based on handwriting, as coming from 1772 when Mozart was 16 years old. $971,880.

 

9. We hear of huge prices for American superhero comics, but 2014 was the year of Tintin, the French reporter. This item is cover art for L'Ile Noire (the Black Island), original black and white version, by Hergé (Georges Remi), 1942. $1,385,344.

 

7. Recuyell of the Histories of Troye, by Raoul Lefevre, circa 1473-74. This history of Troy is noted as the first book printed in English, by translator and printer William Caxton. $1,851,075.

 

7. Illuminated vellum manuscript Missal for use in Udine, circa 1430-35. $1,851,075.

 

6. Autograph manuscript for Sergei Rachmaninov's Second Symphony in E Minor, circa 1908. $2,020,200.

 

5. Original autograph manuscript of Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone, recorded in 1965. $2,045,000.

 

4. The Birds of America, a double elephant folio first edition (1827-38). The Indiana Historical Society copy that was once used in a library, making it a good but not great copy (hence the “cheap” price). Until just over a year ago, another copy of Birds achieved the highest price ever for a printed book at auction. $3,525,000.

 

3. He's back again. A double page of 34 drawings of Tintin and related characters/scenes from 1937 by Hergé. It achieved a record price for a work related to comics. Take that, man of steel! $3,636,528.

 

2. The first printing of the Torah (or Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible) in its original language, and the first printed Hebrew book which includes vowels and signs. Contains Rashi's commentaries. Printed in January 1482. $3,871,845.

 

1. The Rothschild Prayerbook, a Book of Hours circa 1505-10, that is considered a masterpiece of Renaissance manuscript illumination. $13,605,000.

 

To see the complete AE Top 500 list click here.

 

An Explanation of What Is Included in the List

 

This list covers the top items in books, maps, manuscripts and ephemera (or works on paper), which of necessity requires some parameters. Here is what gets in: books of any kind, maps and manuscripts virtually all, with ephemera, it depends. Most “ephemera” in the works on paper field consists of images – photographs, prints, drawings, paintings. If all of these were included, virtually the entire top 500 would be art, but that's a different field. What is included are images that are in effect textual, that is, they relay information more than beauty. Photographs from the dawn of the discovery of photography, or those which capture historical events are included. Photographs of Lincoln, war, and the suffering of the Depression are in. Photographs by photographic artists are not. Drawings and paintings intended for books are in. Every year, there is always some E. H. Shepard artwork for Winnie-the-Pooh included. Drawings for comic books are included too. Why? Because of the second word in the expression “comic books.” However, Picasso and Warhol, who would dominate the list if included, are not.

 

Books that are essentially coffee table books, plates of images and little else, still make the cut. They may be art, but they are still books. Put them in a portfolio, and they are out.

 

Almost everything on the list is composed of paper, but even that is not a certainty. Vellum manuscripts or sheepskin make the cut. Once in awhile, there is something totally different, like cuneiform tablets. They are really just yesterday's manuscripts. If anyone ever discovers the true first edition of the Ten Commandments, it too will make the list.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.

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