Rare Book Monthly

Articles - March - 2017 Issue

Arader Galleries Spring Auction March 25th

Arader Galleries Spring Auction

March 25th – 1pm at 1016 Madison Avenue, New York

The Arader Gallery is holding an important sale of rare books and images on March 25th.  The sale will be hosted by Mid-Hudson Auctions and the material in the sale available for inspection beginning on the 9th at 1016 Madison Avenue in New York. Gallery hours are 10:00 am to 6:00 pm Monday through Saturday.  Viewing by appointment at 29 East 72nd Street [and Madison].

 

To make an appointment 212.628.3668.  Please call or email at auctions@aradernyc.com

 

The following are a few selections

Lot 19 - Rosate Spoonbill, Plate 321. J John James Audubon (1785 - 1851) from Birds of America. Double Elephant Folio. First Edition Engravings with Original Hand Color

London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838. 25 x 37 3/4 inches sheet, 37 x 49 inches framed

Estimate: $110,000 - 150,000. Retail: $225,000. Reserve: $100,000

Guidance: Mid-Hudson, 2016 - $176,900

 

Lot 23 - American White Pelican, Plate 311. John James Audubon (1785 - 1851). First Edition Robert Havell Aquatint Engraving with Original Hand Color From Birds of America Double Elephant Folio. London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838.

Estimate: $100,000 - 140,000. Retail Price: $750,000. Reserve: $125,000

 

Lot 128 - Birds of Asia

John Gould  (1804-1881)

London: Taylor and Francis for the Author, 1850-83

Estimate: $80,000 - 130,000

Guidance: Christie’s, 1999 - $126,887

Reserve: $72,000

7 volumes. Folio (21 5/8 x 14 1/2 inches). 530 hand-colored lithographs after John Gould, H.C. Richter, Josef Wolf and W. Hart. Contemporary half green morocco, all edges gilt, spine gilt, 7 compartments with 6 raised bands (vol 1, front marbled endpaper detached, vol. 4 front marbled endpaper loose. vol. 5 front marbled endpaper loose).

 

Lot 129 - The Birds of Europe

John Gould (1804-1881)

London: by Richard and John E. Taylor,

published by the Author 1832-37

Estimate: $60,000 - 90,000

Guidance: Sotheby’s, 2007, $145,000

Reserve: $54,000

 

Physical Description: 5 volumes. Folio (21 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches). 448 hand-colored lithographs [numbered to 449, nos. 447 and 448 on one] by C. Hullmandel after Elizabeth Gouldand Edward Lear, from John Gould’s sketches. Contemporary calf binding, rebacked to style (covers knicked). With gilt and blind roll tools, spine and binding edges gilt, 6 compartments with 5 raised bands. Book plate removed.

 

Lot 132 - The Birds of Great Britain

John Gould (1804-1881)

London: Taylor and Francis for the author, [1862]-1873

Estimate: $30,000 - 45,000

Guidance: Christie’s, 2006 - $78,000

Reserve: $27,000

 

Physical Description: 5 volumes. Folio (21 x 5/8 x 14 1/2 inches). 5-page list of Subscribers. 367 EXCEPTIONALLY FINE hand-colored lithographs after John Gould, Josef Wolf, and H.C. Richter. Half red morocco, spine gilt, top edge gilt, 6 compartments with 5 raised bands. Provenance: Bookplate of Wrest Park.

 

Lot 133 -  The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands

Mark Catesby (1682/83–1749)

London: at the expense of the author, [1729-] 1731-1743 [-1747]

Estimate: $275,000 - 350,000

Guidance: Sotheby’s, 2007 - $657,000. Sotheby’s, 1989 - $462,500

Reserve: $250,000

Physical Description:  2 volumes. Folio (20  1/2 x 14 1/2 inches). 220 hand-colored plates, double-page map; two leaves with a marginal tear (one catching a headline), scattered spotting and the usual offsetting, but a generally VERY FINE COPY. With the 44-page Appendix (of 1747) bound in vol. 2. Contemporary diced russia, covers with gilt borders incorporating insect and animal tools, gilt spines; joints split, one cover nicked.

Provenance: Front pastedown with 18th century armorial bookplate of Fane William Sharpe, “Student of Ch[rist] Ch[urch, Oxford]”; From the Estate of Clarence Dillon, Far Hills, New Jersey.

A rare first edition with engravng & hand coloring done by Mark Catesby

 

VERY FINE First Edition. Trained as a botanist, Catesby travelled to Virginia in 1712. He lodged in Williamsburg with his sister and brother-in-law, who had emigrated to the New World in 1712, and began to fulfill his “passionate desire of viewing as well the Animals as Vegetable Productions in their Native Countries; which were Strangers to England” (preface). He remained in British America for seven years, sending back to England collections of plants and seeds, as well as beginning to make natural history drawings.

 

Lot 134 - Dell’arcano del mare [Books 1-4]

Robert Dudley (1573-1649)

Firenze: Francesco Onofri, 1646

Estimate: $50,000 - 70,000. Retail: $190,000

Guidance: Sotheby’s, 1988 - £ 48,400 GBP

Reserve: $40,000

Physical Description: 2 volumes [of an eventual 3] in one. Folio (13 x 9 1/2 inches). Half-title, title-page dated 1646, with fine engraved vignette of a compass (without half-title and title-page to volume 2, ie Books 3-4, and errata leaf at end, dampstaining to half-title, title-page and folding engraved patent plate, some minor and occasional spotting), folding engraved facsimile of the patent of nobility granted to Dudley in 1620 by Ferdinand II, 15 engraved folding charts in Book 2, including 5 double-sheet, and 66 (of 69) engraved plates by Antonio Francesco Lucini, various sizes, 49 folding, the plates variously numbered (see Phillips), , including 30 plates of astronomical or nautical instrument designs with volvelles, pointers or string-pointers, 7 double-sheet plates of diagrams of ship-building in Book 4, and one very small engraved diagram pasted down in lower margin of folio I2 in Book 4, four plates in Book 1 with letterpress text on versos, 5 inserted unnumbered leaves in Book 3 containing 10 letterpress diagrams of naval formations (without 2 plates in volume one, and one folding plate in Book 4, three plates with tears near the gutter, map of the Americas with small tear at fold juncture, a few of the double-sheet maps slightly browned along sheet junctures from original paste, else EXCEPTIONALLY FINE). Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine, edges stained red (a bit creased, especially at the extremities, and with a few pale stains, pastedowns torn).  Provenance: with the near contemporary ownership inscription of the library of the Colegio Mayore Cuenca in Salamanca (“En la libreria del Colegio . Cuenca”) on the title-page, numbering to the plates, and extensive underscoring and a few marginal notes in red pencil throughout.

  

Lot 137 - Cartes Generales de Toutes les Parties du Monde

Nicholas Sanson D’Abbeville (1600-1667)

Paris: The Author and Pierre Mariette, 1658 [but 1659]

Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000. Retail: $90,000

Guidance: Christie’s, 2010 - $47,500

Reserve: $18,000

Physical Description: Folio (17 x 11 3/4 inches). Title-page with woodcut arms (dampstained), 3-page contemporary manuscript “Repertoir des Cartes de ce livre” (without letterpress table of contents). 85 FINE engraved double-page maps, including 10 folding, hand-colored in outline, mounted on guards throughout (one or two early repairs, tears, stains and edges frayed to folding map of Gascony, last map of Ancient Greece stained and laid down on contemporary stock). Contemporary mottled calf, spine in seven compartments with six raised bands, morocco lettering piece in one, the others decorated with small gilt tools (scuffed and worn with loss to extremities).

  

Lot 193 -

A Map of the Inhabited Part of Virginia, containing the whole of the Province of Maryland with Part of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and North Carolina.

Joshua Fry (1699-1754) and Peter Jefferson (1708-1757).

Engraved map with original hand color in outline by state, the title within a fine rococo cartouche.

London: Thomas Jefferys, August 1753.

30 3/8 x 48 6/8 inches sheet, 41 x 50 inches framed.

Estimate: $150,000 - 300,000. Retail Price: $750,000. Reserve: $125,000

 

The most important engraved map of Virginia to ever be offered for sale. This map was used by the French Naval and Military Commanders to plot strategy for the French and Indian War and the American Revolution

  

Lot 218 –

Voyage dans l’Interieur de l’Amerique du Nord

execute pendant les annees 1832, 1833 et 1834

BODMER, Karl (1809-1893, illustrator) - Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied (1782-1867)

Coblenz, Paris, and London: J. Hoelscher, A. Bertrand, Ackermann and Co., [1839-1841]

Large Folio (24 1/4 x 17 1/4 inches). 81 engraved and aquatint plates 48 large aquatint tableau plates [all 48 hand colored and heightened in gum arabic], & 33 vignette plates on full folio sheets [all 33 hand colored and heightened in gum arabic], Vignette X pasted down on contemporary paper. All 81 plates with Bodmer blindstamp. 1 large folding engraved map by Lieut.-Col.W. Thorn, titled “Map to illustrate the Route of Prince Maximilian of Wied,” hand colored in outline. Contemporary quarter calf with marbled boards, spine gilt, 8 compartments with 6 raised bands. contemporarily rebound and cover extended.

Estimate: $525,000 - 750,000. Reserve: $500,000

Guidance: Christie’s, 2004 - $477,900; Siebert, 1999 - $415,000

Rare Book Monthly

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  • Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
    Swann
    Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books
    December 9, 2025
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
    Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.
  • SD Scandinavian Art & Rare Book Auctions
    The Odfjell Collection
    Polar – History – Ornithology – Colour Plate Books
    Ending December 4th
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ROALD AMUNDSEN: «Sydpolen» [ The South Pole] 1912. First edition in jackets and publisher's slip case.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: AMUNDSEN & NANSEN: «Fram over Polhavet» [Farthest North] 1897. AMUNDSEN's COPY!
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ERNEST SHACKLETON [ed.]: «Aurora Australis» 1908. First edition. The NORWAY COPY.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ERNEST SHACKLETON: «The heart of the Antarctic» + SUPPLEMENT «The Antarctic Book», 1909.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: SHACKLETON, BERNACCHI, CHERRY-GARRARD [ed.]: «The South Polar Times» I-III, 1902-1911.
    SD Scandinavian Art & Rare Book Auctions
    The Odfjell Collection
    Polar – History – Ornithology – Colour Plate Books
    Ending December 4th
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: [WILLEM BARENTSZ & HENRY HUDSON] - SAEGHMAN: «Verhael van de vier eerste schip-vaerden […]», 1663.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION | LIEUTENANT HENRY ROBERTSON BOWERS: «At the South Pole.», Gelatin Silver Print. [10¾ x 15in. (27.2 x 38.1cm.) ].
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: ELEAZAR ALBIN: «A natural History of Birds.» + «A Supplement», 1738-40. Wonderful coloured plates.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: PAUL GAIMARD: «Voyage de la Commision scientific du Nord, en Scandinavie, […]», c. 1842-46. ONLY HAND COLOURED COPY KNOWN WITH TWO ORIGINAL PAINTINGS BY BIARD.
    Scandinavian Art & Rare Books Auctions, Dec. 4: JAMES JOYCE: «Ulysses», 1922. FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL WRAPPERS.
  • Sotheby’s
    Book Week
    December 9-17, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.

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