AbeBook Lists Their Top 10 Most Expensive Items for 2017
- by Michael Stillman
Salvador Dali's even weirder take on Rabelais' images.
"I am" seem to be the magic words for the AbeBooks annual Top 10. Last year, it was "Sam I am," this year "I think, therefore I am." Who knew Dr. Seuss and Rene Descartes had so much in common? We don't know how many books are sold on AbeBooks' website each year, but it is many millions. Most are inexpensive, reading or studying copies. However, some of what you will find there are collectible, expensive volumes, for a following of serious book and paper collectors who inhabit their virtual stores. Here are what the most serious, or at least those with the largest budgets, bought last year. These are the ten highest prices reached among the millions of books sold on the AbeBooks website during 2017.
10. Principia Philosophiae + Specimina Philosophiae, by Rene Descartes. First edition of Descartes' major work on physics and philosophy. Source of the the familiar quote, "I think, therefore I am." $14,535.
9. Lord of the Rings Trilogy, by J. R. R. Tolkien. First editions of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. $14,546.
8. Ueber die vierfache Wurzel des Satzes vom zureichenden Grunde. Ein philosophische Abhandlung, by Arthur Schopenhauer. This translates to "On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason. A Philosophical Dissertation," which probably doesn't tell English speakers much more than does the title in German. Schopenhauer in the years ahead developed many followers, but when this first edition was printed in 1813 in just 500 copies, most still had to be trashed for want of sales. $15,000.
7. Quadragesimale Aureum, by Leonardo de Utino. Forty-two sermons by de Utino, but the book is probably more notable for its early date than its sermons – 1471. $16,016.
6. Songes Drolatiques de Pantagruel, by Salvador Dali. This is Dali's 1973 adaptation of Francois Rabelais' illustrations of seriously grotesque monsters from his 1565 book. $16,840.
5. Les Passions de l'Ame, by Rene Descartes. Descartes is back again, this time looking at the connection between the soul and body. $17,500.
4. Speculum Historiale, by Vincent of Beauvais. There are not so many titles in English this year. This was something of an encyclopedia for its time, the thirteenth century. That was when it was written by Dominican Friar Vincent of Beauvais, but this edition was published in 1473. $18,900.
3. A Voyage Round Great Britain, Undertaken in the Summer of the Year 1813, and Commencing from the Land's-End, Cornwall, by Richard Ayton & William Daniell. Eight volume work, noted for its engravings of the British coastline. $19,300.
2. Warhol vs Basquiat Paintings Exhibition Poster. Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat are dressed and gloved as boxers preparing for a fight. However, what was really happening is they were promoting a joint exhibition by the painters who collaborated in 1984-85, in time for this fall 1985 exhibition in New York. The poster is signed by both artists. $20,700.
1. Nine Stories, by J. D. Salinger. Little Brown & Company's only file copy of Salinger's second work, with a penciled word count calculation. This was before there were computer word counters. Someone must have done this by hand (or eye). For the record, it says 61,823. $22,500.
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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 Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library. The Aldine Collection D-M 18 October 2024
Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Herodianus Syrus, Herodiani Historiarum, Venice, Heirs of Aldo & Torresano, 1524, Parisian binding for Jean Grolier by Jean Picard, ca. 1540
Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Musaeus, Opusculum de Herone et Leandro, Venice, Aldo, 1495 (Greek text), interleaved with 1497–1498 (Latin text), English olive morocco by Charles Lewis, the Botfield copy
Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Horatius Flaccus, Horatius, Venice, Aldo, 1501, Bolognese brown goatskin (between 1501 and 1503), arms of Mino Rossi and illuminated initials throughout
Sotheby’s, Oct. 18: Lucretius, De rerum natura, Venice, Aldo, 1500, English early eighteenth-century red morocco, the Fletcher copy
One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions Rare Autograph and Book Auction October 17th, 2024
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Abraham Lincoln Signed Letter on Executive Mansion Stationary To Secretary of The Navy re: Appointment for Naval Academy!
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Extremely Rare Ben Franklin Printed: Considerations on Keeping Negroes...Part Second. 1762.
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: An impressively extra-illustrated copy; Including an Original leaf from Shakespeare’s 1623 First Folio!
One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions Rare Autograph and Book Auction October 17th, 2024
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Rarest Naval Autograph James Lawrence “Don’t give up the ship On " U.S. Ship Hornet June 19th 1812.
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Oversize Ernest Hemingway Signed Photo with long Inscription about Drinking Wine to his dear friend and Secretary Roberto Herrera.
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: VOLTAIRE Signed Receipt about a partial payment of debt for the Duke of Wuerttemberg.
One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions Rare Autograph and Book Auction October 17th, 2024
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: [Maps] Gio. Ant. Magnini, Italia, 1620.
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: LAWMAN SALOON JUDGE ROY BEAN Signed Legal Document 1895-RARE!
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Autograph Album with James Garfield as President, Chester A. Aurthur as VP, William T. Sherman, Burnside, P.T. Barnum and many more!
One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions Rare Autograph and Book Auction October 17th, 2024
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Thomas Jefferson and James Madison Signed Four Language Ship's Paper.
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Hector Berlioz Autograph Musical Quotation Signed.
One of a Kind Collectibles, Oct. 17: Important Memorandum the Day after Gettysburg July 5th, 1863 where Lincoln asks all Department Heads of the cabinet to meet him at the Executive Mansion.