Rare Book Monthly

Articles - May - 2017 Issue

Pick of the Litter

Lake Mohonk Hotel around 1900

Lake Mohonk Hotel around 1900

Once a year or so I receive an unpretty box that is wrapped in a nuclear-proof way to ensure the contents arrive in good order.  The shipper is one of the great holdouts to today’s upscale packing conventions that have slowly become the norm over the past twenty years.  But not every dealer has taken the plunge and not this one in particular and I have no complaints for this dealer shops on my behalf for most a year and then, when prompted, admits he’s got a box or two of interesting material that he’ll soon send along.

 

Soon is a rather vague term.  If you are late to turn in homework I can confirm that “soon” doesn’t cut it.  But from experience soon is this gentlemen’s vague but ultimately reliable promise and so it was a few months back that a box, deep into its second life after having been born a storage box, emerged with the appropriate groans of the post office staff, “What’s in this box anyway?”  When/if I mention “it’s books” it often prompts an “Oh really?”

 

The book dealer?  It’s Peter Luke of New Baltimore, New York [on the Hudson River south of Albany] and this is an annual rite.  He lives near to the area I collect and looks for ephemera and the occasional book for me.  Every collector should have such support.

 

This year’s material is a single box that weighs 19.8 pounds.  Fed-ex Ground, now contesting the United Parcel Service’s dominant position in the delivery business, brought the box overland and delivered it in good order.  The box is recognizable for the exceptional amount of wrapping tape employed.  Peter’s boxes don’t fall apart.

 

Peter’s note, with the shipment, mentions that the material is not well described.  Okay, I’ve received these shipments for many years and they are never described at all.  He provides a list written in a cranky hand with a brief name, item number, and price.  The prices fall into the mid-range generally [for rarity, condition and importance].  This year there are 52 of them, more than 90% of it ephemera, that price out at $4,655.  There is also an incentive to buy all the material, this year a $1,405 discount which is void if I take even one item less than the full group offered.  In past years I’ve tried to divide the material into more and less desirable groups but the math just doesn’t work that way.  So I buy everything.  It’s much simpler though my family will someday ask “Why did Dad buy 3 copies?”  For that possible occasion, I’ll leave notes in these multiple copies suggesting they ask Peter himself.  For myself I have no complaints.

 

Here are the 52 items I purchased this year:

 

1.  Guide to the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains.  1893.  $125

2.  A Summer Paradise.  1902.  $75

3.  Tourist Map of the Hudson River.  1923.  $55

4.  The Hudson by Daylight.  1878.  $125

5.  The Story of Mohonk.  1911.  $30

6.  Image taken by a Kingston firm.  Unknown.  $45

7.  Claverack Centennial with 5 images pasted in.  1867.   $175

8.  Souvenir of the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. [Albany].  $50

9.  Poughkeepsie and its Points of Interest.  1895.  $95

10.  Hudson-Fulton Souvenir Program.  1909.  $45 

11.  Van Loan’s Catskill Mountain Guide.  1892.  $285

12.  Views of The Hudson River.  Circa 1918.  $135

13.  The Scenery of the Catskill Mountains.  1876.  $100

14.  Choice Bits of Scenery in the Catskills.  Circa 1888.  $100

15.  Haunts of Rip Van Winkle.  1884.  $150

16.   Almanac, 1885.  $15

17.  Maple Grove House.  1910.  $45

18.  The Closing Argument in the case of The People vs, Reuben Dunbar for Murder.  1851.  $185

19.  Lake Mohonk Letter.  1894.  $45

20.  The Scenery of the Catskill Mountains.  Circa 1850.  $150

21.  A Sermon by Samuel Austin, D. D.  1808.  $45

22.  Mountain Echos through the Catskills.  Undated.  $45

23.  Souvenir Letter:  Athens, New York.  Circa 1905.  $35

24.  Winter Clove House, Catskill Mountains.  Circa 1890.  $45

25.  The Athens Sesquicentennial 1805 – 1955.  1955.  $25

26.  Rocks of Greene County.  1912.  $10

27.  Greetings from the Catskills.  1922.  $150

28.  Farms up the Hudson around Newburgh.  Circa 1921.  $50

29.  The Catskills:  Indelible Images.  1892.  $125

30.  The Laurel House.  Date unknown,  $100

31.  Enjoying the Catskills.  1950.  $20

32.  Views of and near Laurel House.  No date.  $285

33.  West Shore River Division Time Table.  1939.  $10

34.  Guide to Rambles from the Catskill Mountain House.  1862.  $100

35.  Sunset Park Inn.  No. date.  $75

36.  American Historical and Genealogical Publications.  Undated but early 20th century.  $20

37.  Sunset Spring Water.  Haines Falls.  Date unknown.  $20

38.  Various issues of Olde Ulster 1901-1912 est.

39.  Sally Hamilton, a put together record.  Undated.  $75 

40.  Early image of Lake Mohonk Mountain House.  Circa 1880.  $95

41.  View from the Catskill Mountain House.  Undated.  $145

42.  Image of Catskill Mountain House.  Undated.  $225

43.  Image of Kaaterskill Falls.  Undated.  $95

44.  Mid-18th to mid-19th Century Receipts in both Dutch and English.  $200

45.  Image of the Otis Elevated Rail Road.  1892.  $145

46.  Receipt for a coffin, Kingston, 1861.  $20

47.  Hudson Navigation Company.  Undated but circa 1880.  $10

48.  Catskill Mountain Guide with Maps.  1878.  $150

49.  Historic Catskill [Vedder].  Date unknown.  $75

50.  The “Old Times” Corner.  1932.

51.  The Fabulous Butlers of Brandy Hill.  1953.  $30

52.  Reminiscences of Catskill.  1868.  $65

As is always the case some of the material is exceptional and others simply good.  Overall, the shipment is simply great, good fun.  So I’m already looking forward to next year’s shipment to discover what he’s recently located.

 

Here’s the guy in the flesh.  Consider him highly recommended.

 

Peter Luke Antiques

P. O. Box 282

New Baltimore, New York 12124

Tel:  518.756.6492

[No, he doesn’t have a website]

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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
  • 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.

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