Sotheby’s, June 25: Theocritus. Theocriti Eclogae triginta, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, February 1495/1496. 220,000 - 280,000 USD
Sotheby’s, June 26: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby, 1925. 40,000 - 60,000 USD
Sotheby’s, June 26: Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Printed ca. 1381-1832. 400,000 - 600,000 USD
Sotheby’s, June 26: Lincoln, Abraham. Thirteenth Amendment, signed by Abraham Lincoln. 8,000,000 - 12,000,000 USD
Sotheby’s, June 26: Galieli, Galileo. First Edition of the Foundation of Modern Astronomy, 1610. 300,000 - 400,000 USD
Finarte Books, Autographs & Prints June 24 & 25, 2025
Finarte Books, Autographs & Prints June 24 & 25, 2025
Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE / LANDINO, CRISTOFORO. Comento di Christophoro Landino Fiorentino sopra la Comedia di Danthe Alighieri poeta fiorentino, 1481. €40,000 to €50,000.
Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE. La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus]. Aggiunta: Marsilius Ficinus, Ad Dantem gratulatio [in latino e Italiano], 1487. €40,000 to €60,000.
Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE. Il Convivio, 1490. €20,000 to €25,000.
Finarte Books, Autographs & Prints June 24 & 25, 2025
Finarte, June 24-25: BANDELLO, MATTEO. La prima [-quarta] parte de le nouelle del Bandello, 1554. €7,000 to €9,000.
Finarte, June 24-25: LEGATURA – PLUTARCO. Le vies des hommes illustres, grecs et romaines translates, 1567. €10,000 to €12,000.
Finarte, June 24-25: TOLOMEO, CLAUDIO. Ptolemeo La Geografia di Claudio Ptolemeo Alessandrino, Con alcuni comenti…, 1548. €4,000 to €6,000.
Finarte Books, Autographs & Prints June 24 & 25, 2025
Finarte, June 24-25: FESTE - COPPOLA, GIOVANNI CARLO. Le nozze degli Dei, favola [...] rappresentata in musica in Firenze…, 1637. €6,000 to €8,000.
Finarte, June 24-25: SPINOZA, BARUCH. Opera posthuma, 1677. €8,000 to €12,000.
Finarte, June 24-25: PUSHKIN, ALEXANDER. Borus Godunov, 1831. €30,000 to €50,000.
Finarte Books, Autographs & Prints June 24 & 25, 2025
Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - LECUIRE, PIERRE. Ballets-minute, 1954. €35,000 to €40,000.
Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - MAJAKOVSKIJ, VLADIMIR / LISSITZKY, LAZAR MARKOVICH. Dlia Golosa, 1923. €7,000 to €10,000.
Finarte, June 24-25: LIBRO D'ARTISTA - MATISSE, HENRI / MONTHERLANT, HENRY DE. Pasiphaé. Chant de Minos., 1944. €22,000 to €24,000.
Bonhams, June 16-25: 15th-CENTURY TREATISE ON SYPHILIS. GRÜNPECK. 1496. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, June 16-25: THE NORMAN COPY OF BENIVIENI'S TREATISE ON PATHOLOGY. 1507. $12,000 - $18,000
Bonhams, June 16-25: FRACASTORO. Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus. 1530. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, June 16-25: THE FIRST PUBLISHED WORK ON SKIN DISEASES. MERCURIALIS. De morbis cutaneis... 1572. $10,000 - $15,000
Fore-Edge Play - Is Turning Your Books Around Backwards Art?
- by Michael Stillman
A better way to display your books?
Backward facing books? Apparently, it has become the rage, or outrage. It all depends upon your point of view. The trend, at least among the trendy, is to place your books backwards on a bookshelf. Fore edges are finally getting their due. The spine goes to the back, where it cannot be seen, while the fore edge is exposed.
Why? Evidently, it has something to do with art. Exactly what is hard for some of us to understand. However, "why" is a question that should never be asked when it comes to art. It implies there is a rational answer. Art is not accountable to reason. This is fortunate, because if reason were applied here, it would clearly say this is a dumb idea. Seriously, how are you supposed to find a book this way?
The explanation for the beauty in viewing books backwards is that it provides a more consistent, neutral appearance. The spines can be all sorts of different, clashing colors, and have such unattractive features as words on them. Unless the fore edge has been colored, or worse yet, features a fore-edge painting, putting books on a shelf backwards will present a consistent, neutral, off-white look. It will match your neutral, off-white walls that real estate agents say buyers desire in a house. Of course, this begs the question why have these books in the first place? Why not just have more neutral wall instead of a neutral bookshelf? Perhaps the answer is this enables you to store old books you will never read again without taking up closet space. Or maybe this is another reminder that we shouldn't be asking "why" questions when it comes to art.
This trend is somewhat reminiscent of another trend that appears still to be going strong - buying books by the foot. This is where you buy a bunch of old books that no one wants to read to fill your bookshelf. Usually, they will be based on a theme. Often, that theme will be color. You buy only red books or blue books, which is a bit more daring than the typical colorless fore edge. Alternatively, you might buy them based on subject matter. You can fill your bookshelf with physics books, which implies you are erudite, someone with a passion for the same type of learning as Einstein. Others will buy books based on size, providing a uniformity of appearance similar to a row of off-white edges.
While artistic expression is a matter of taste, and there is no right or wrong when it comes to taste, it does say something about the person. For example, what if you start a new trend with paintings, where you turn the paintings on your walls around? Perhaps that will show you are on the cutting edge of artistic appreciation, but I'm more likely to interpret that as an expression of what you think of your paintings. They suck. Or, how about if you turn those family photographs we all have on our walls around? Does that say something about your artistic taste, or about what you think of your family? Try it and see what your spouse or children say. So, doesn't turning your books around say something similar about your feelings toward your books? Just wondering.
Forum Auctions A Sixth Selection of 16th and 17th Century English Books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library 19th June 2025
Forum, June 19: Euclid. The Elements of Geometrie, first edition in English of the first complete translation, [1570]. £20,000 to £30,000.
Forum, June 19: Nicolay (Nicolas de). The Navigations, peregrinations and voyages, made into Turkie, first edition in English, 1585. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, June 19: Shakespeare source book.- Montemayor (Jorge de). Diana of George of Montemayor, first edition in English, 1598. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, June 19: Livius (Titus). The Romane Historie, first edition in English, translated by Philemon Holland, Adam Islip, 1600. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum Auctions A Sixth Selection of 16th and 17th Century English Books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library 19th June 2025
Forum, June 19: Robert Molesworth's copy.- Montaigne (Michel de). The Essayes Or Morall, Politike and Millitarie Discourses, first edition in English, 1603. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, June 19: Shakespeare (William). The Tempest [&] The Two Gentlemen of Verona, from the Second Folio, [Printed by Thomas Cotes], 1632. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, June 19: Boyle (Robert). Medicina Hydrostatica: or, Hydrostaticks Applyed to the Materia Medica, first edition, for Samuel Smith, 1690. £2,500 to £3,500.
Forum, June 19: Locke (John). An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding in Four Books, first edition, second issue, 1690. £8,00 to £12,000.
Bonhams, June 16-24: KELMSCOTT PRESS. RUSKIN. The Nature of Gothic. 1892. $1,500 - $2,500
Bonhams, June 16-24: ASHENDENE PRESS. The Wisdom of Jesus. 1932. $2,000 - $3,000
Bonhams, June 16-24: CHARLOTTE BRONTE WRITES AS GOVERNESS. Autograph Letter Signed, 1851. $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, June 16-24: FIRST AMERICAN EDITION OF WUTHERING HEIGHTS. BRONTE, Emily. New York, 1848. $3,000 - $5,000
Bonhams, June 16-24: IAN FLEMING ASSOCIATION COPY. You Only Live Twice. London, 1964. $7,000 - $9,000
Bonhams, June 16-24: DELUXE EDITION WITH ORIGINAL PAINTING. BUKOWSKI, Charles. War All the Time. 1984. $3,000 - $5,000
Bonhams, June 16-24: EINSTEIN'S MOST POWERFUL STATEMENT ON THE ATOMIC BOMB. Original Typed Manuscript Signed, "On My Participation in the Atom Bomb Project," 1953. $100,000 - $150,000
Bonhams, June 16-24: EINSTEIN ON SCIENCE, WAR AND MORALITY. Autograph Letter Signed, 1949. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, June 16-24: SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI. WASHINGTON, George. Engraved document signed, 1786. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, June 16-24: AN EARLY CHINESE-MADE 34-STAR U.S. CONSULAR FLAG. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, June 16-24: SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN WITH HIS SON TAD. 1864. $60,000 - $90,000
Bonhams, June 16-24: MALCOLM X WRITES FROM KENYA. Postcard signed, 1964. $4,000 - $6,000
![Finarte, June 24-25: ALIGHIERI, DANTE. La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus]. Aggiunta: Marsilius Ficinus, Ad Dantem gratulatio [in latino e Italiano], 1487. €40,000 to €60,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/4ee20109-25f3-42e8-93ab-bd4c8e17093a.png "<b>Finarte, June 24-25:</b> ALIGHIERI, DANTE. <i>La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus]. Aggiunta: Marsilius Ficinus, Ad Dantem gratulatio [in latino e Italiano],</i> 1487. €40,000 to €60,000.")
![Finarte, June 24-25: BANDELLO, MATTEO. La prima [-quarta] parte de le nouelle del Bandello, 1554. €7,000 to €9,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/5adfdf34-8a9a-47e5-9288-5e65dac5ce79.png "<b>Finarte, June 24-25:</b> BANDELLO, MATTEO. <i>La prima [-quarta] parte de le nouelle del Bandello,</i> 1554. €7,000 to €9,000.")
![Finarte, June 24-25: FESTE - COPPOLA, GIOVANNI CARLO. Le nozze degli Dei, favola [...] rappresentata in musica in Firenze…, 1637. €6,000 to €8,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9a1b8605-a566-4fb7-8a4c-5fb72ac539bc.png "<b>Finarte, June 24-25:</b> FESTE - COPPOLA, GIOVANNI CARLO. <i>Le nozze degli Dei, favola [...] rappresentata in musica in Firenze…,</i> 1637. €6,000 to €8,000.")
![Forum, June 19: Euclid. The Elements of Geometrie, first edition in English of the first complete translation, [1570]. £20,000 to £30,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/dbc5286a-4210-44e3-bbf0-6031c1c49801.png "<b>Forum, June 19:</b> Euclid. <i>The Elements of Geometrie,</i> first edition in English of the first complete translation, [1570]. £20,000 to £30,000.")
![Forum, June 19: Shakespeare (William). The Tempest [&] The Two Gentlemen of Verona, from the Second Folio, [Printed by Thomas Cotes], 1632. £4,000 to £6,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/655b361c-71c7-48ba-9455-09c14e8c7494.png "<b>Forum, June 19:</b> Shakespeare (William). <i>The Tempest</i> [&] <i>The Two Gentlemen of Verona,</i> from the <i>Second Folio,</i> [Printed by Thomas Cotes], 1632. £4,000 to £6,000.")
