• Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. 11,135 USD
    Sotheby’s: Edgar Allan Poe. The Raven and Other Poems, 1845. 33,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Leo Tolstoy, Clara Bow. War and Peace, 1886. 22,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1902. 7,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: F. Scott Fitzgerald. This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, and Others, 1920-1941. 24,180 USD
  • Gonnelli:
    Auction 55
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    November 26st 2024
    Gonnelli: Stefano Della Bella, 23 animal plances,1641. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli: Stefano Della Bella, Boar Hunt, 1654. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli: Crispijn Van de Passe, The seven Arts, 1637. Starting price 600€
    Gonnelli: Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, La Maschera è cagion di molti mali, 1688. Starting price 320€
    Gonnelli: Biribissor’s game, 1804-15. Starting price 2800€
    Gonnelli: Nicolas II de Larmessin, Habitats,1700. Starting price 320€
    Gonnelli: Miniature “O”, 1400. Starting price 1800€
    Gonnelli: Jan Van der Straet, Hunt scenes, 1596. Starting Price 140€
    Gonnelli: Massimino Baseggio, Costantinople, 1787. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli: Kawanabe Kyosai, Erotic scene lighten up by a candle, 1860. Starting price 380€
    Gonnelli: Duck shaped dropper, 1670. Starting price 800€
  • Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 37: Archive of the pioneering woman artist Arrah Lee Gaul, most 1911-59. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 66: Letter describing the dropping water level at Owens Lake near Death Valley, long before it was drained, Keeler, CA, 26 July 1904. $3,000 to $4,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 102: To Horse, To Horse! My All for a Horse! The Washington Cavalry, illustrated Civil War broadside, Philadelphia, 1862. $4,000 to $6,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 135: Album of cyanotype views of the Florida panhandle and beyond, 224 photographs, 174 of them cyanotypes, Apalachicola, FL and elsewhere, circa 1895-1896. $1,200 to $1,800
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 154: Catalogue of the Library of the United States, as acquired from Thomas Jefferson, Washington, 1815. $15,000 to $25,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 173: New Englands First Fruits, featuring the first description of Harvard in print, London, 1643. $40,000 to $60,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 177: John P. Greene, Original manuscript diary of a mission to western New York with Joseph Smith, 1833. $60,000 to $90,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 243: P.E. Larson, photographer, Such is Life in the Far West: Early Morning Call in a Gambling Hall, Goldfield, NV, circa 1906. $2,500 to $3,500
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 261: Fred W. Sladen, Diaries of a WWII colonel commanding troops from Morocco to Italy to France, 1942-44. $3,000 to $4,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 309: Los mexicanos pintados por si mismos, por varios autores, a Mexican plate book. Mexico, 1854-1855. $2,000 to $3,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 8: Diaries of a prospector / trapper in the remote Alaska wilderness, 5 manuscript volumes. Alaska, 1917-64. $1,500 to $2,500.
  • Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia, [col commento di Jacopo della Lana e Martino Paolo Nidobeato, curata da Martino Paolo Nidobeato e Guido da Terzago. Aggiunto Il Credo], 1478
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus, edita da Piero da Figino. Aggiunte le Rime diverse; Marsilius Ficinius, Ad Dantem gratulatio], 1491
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Lactantius, Lucius Coelius Firmianus - Opera, 1465
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - Le terze rime di Dante, 1502
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Boccaccio, Giovanni - Il Decamerone. Di messer Giouanni Boccaccio, 1516
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Giordano Bruno - Candelaio comedia del Bruno nolano achademico di nulla achademia; detto il fastidito. In tristitia hilaris: in hilaritate tristis, 1582
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Petrarca, Francesco - Le cose volgari di Messer Francesco Petrarcha, 1504
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Legatura - Manoscritto - Medici - Cosimo III de' Medici / Solari, Giuseppe - I Ritratti Medicei overo Glorie e Grandezze della sempre sereniss. Casa Medici..., 1678
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri con varie annotazioni, e copiosi Rami adornata, 1757
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Lot containing 80 printed guides and publications dedicated to travel and itineraries in Italy

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - May - 2018 Issue

Chiswick Auctions’ forthcoming sale of Printed Books on 30 May

Highlights from Chiswick Auctions' May 30 sale

Highlights from Chiswick Auctions' May 30 sale

Chiswick Auctions sale on May 30th  will feature many classic and highly collectable editions, in sought-after dust-jackets together with rare  inscribed copies.  English and American  literature included in the sale are first editions of popular titles by Ernest Hemingway: In Our Time, first edition one of 170 copies, original printed boards, 1924.  est.  £15,000 - £18,000, first editions in original dust-jackets of  A Farewell to Arms, inscribed by Hemingway, 1929. est. £4,000 - £6,000 and Dashiell Hammet’s The Maltese Falcon, 1930.  est. £8,000 - £12,000.

 

Children’s  literature includes; Anna Sewell: Black Beauty, first edition, 1877. est. £3000 - £4000  Beatrix Potter: The Tale of Peter Rabbit, first edition, one of 250 copies privately printed, 1901, together with a 1902 first published edition of the same title, est.  £12,000 - £15,000 GBP, plus other Beatrix Potter titles,  Lewis Carroll’s The Nursery Alice, first edition inscribed by the author to the dedicatee 'Marie Van de Gucht, with the Author's love. Mar. 25. 1890’. 1890.  est. £8,000 - £10,000,  a complete set of Winne the Pooh Books and a complete set of Harry Potter Deluxe Editions.

 

Full descriptions.-

 

Hemingway (Ernest)

In Our Time, first edition, number 137 of 170 copies
, woodcut frontispiece by Henry Strater, original decorated boards with newspaper cuttings design, edges uncut, light rubbing to head and tail of spine, usual browning to endpapers, bookplate to front pastedown, tall 8vo., Three Mountains Press, Paris, 1924

 

 

Hemingway (Ernest)
A Farewell to Arms, first edition, inscribed by the author
 'To Mike Murphy, Good luck, Ernest Hemingway' on fly-leaf, original black cloth, printed label on upper cover and spine, top edge trimmed other edges uncut, book-plate to front paste-down, original dust-jacket, very light rubbing to extremities and labels, custom slipcase, 8vo., New York, 1929

***Mike Murphy was a Hemingway biographer and scholar. A loose note explains that this copy was inscribed by Hemingway in Havana.

 

Hammett (Dashiell)
The Maltese Falcon, first edition
original decorated cloth, top edge stained blue/green, original pictorial dust-jacket, light damp stain to inner margin first few leaves not affecting text, small chip to base of dust-jacket, with some other minor wear to extremities, price-clipped 9as usual, preserved in quarter morocco fold-over box, 8vo., New York, 1930

***A very good copy of the most influential of detective fiction novels.

 

Sewell (Anna)

Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions. The Autobiography of a Horse. Translated from the original Equine, FIRST EDITION, engraved frontispiece, 8 pp. publisher's advertisements at end, some overall foxing, text-block almost broken between gatherings G and H, original red cloth with gilt and black design [variant of Carter's B binding], hinges split, extremities worn, preserved in a red morocco folding case, 8vo, Jarrold and Sons [1877]

 

Carroll, Lewis [Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge]

The Nursery Alice, FIRST EDITION, inscribed 'Marie Van de Gucht, with the Author's love. Mar. 25. 1890.' on the half-title, to the dedicatee, printed in brown throughout, illustrations in colour by John Tenniel, original cloth-backed pictorial glazed boards, foxing to title-page and frontispiece, end-papers slightly browned, slightly rubbed and soiled, spine frayed at head and tail, 1890


*** Dodgson first met Maria on July 24th., 1885. On July 29th., 1885 Dodgson asked her if she would like to accompany him to Eastbourne. She initially said 'yes' with her mother's consent, but she lost courage. On April 10th., 1886 Dodgson took her to see The Mikado at the Savoy Theatre and also spent time together in Eastbourne and Guildford. 
The only other known dedication copies of this book being the Liddell/Hargreave copy, and another copy sold at Sotheby's July 2012. The printed dedication is hidden in the dedicatory verse 'A Nursery Darling' using the second letters of each line to spell out the name Marie Van der Gutch.

 

Telephone:  +44 (0)208 992 4442

Email: info@chiswickauctions.co.uk

 

The website:  https://chiswickauctions.co.uk

 

 

Chiswick:

1 Colville Road,

London W3 8BL.

 

South Kensington:

127 Fulham Road,

London SW3 6RT.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 51. Ortelius' Influential Map of the New World - Second Plate in Full Contemporary Color (1579) Est. $5,500 - $6,500
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 165. Reduced-Size Edition of Jefferys/Mead Map with Revolutionary War Updates (1776) Est. $4,750 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 688. Blaeu's Superb Carte-a-Figures Map of Africa (1634) Est. $3,000 - $3,750
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 105. Striking Map of French Colonial Possessions (1720) Est. $2,750 - $3,500
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 98. Rare First Edition of the First Published Plan of a Settlement in North America (1556) Est. $3,000 - $3,750
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 181. Important Map of the Georgia Colony (1748) Est. $2,750 - $3,500
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 547. Ortelius' Map of Russia with a Vignette of Ivan the Terrible in Full Contemporary Color (1579) Est. $1,400 - $1,700
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 85. Homann's Decorative Map of Colonial America (1720) Est. $1,600 - $1,900
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 642. Blaeu's Magnificent Carte-a-Figures Map of Asia (1634) Est. $3,000 - $3,750
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 748. The Martyrdom of St. John in Contemporary Hand Color with Gilt Highlights (1520) Est. $1,000 - $1,300
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 298. Scarce Early Map of Chester County (1822) Est. $2,750 - $3,500
  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    H. Schedel, Liber chronicarum, 1493. Est: € 25,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    P. O. Runge, Farben-Kugel, 1810. Est: € 8,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    W. Kandinsky, Klänge, 1913. Est: € 20,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    W. Burley, De vita et moribus philosophorum, 1473. Est: € 4,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    M. B. Valentini, Viridarium reformatum seu regnum vegetabile, 1719. Est: € 12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    PAN, 10 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: € 15,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    J. de Gaddesden, Rosa anglica practica medicinae, 1492. Est: € 12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    M. Merian, Todten-Tanz, 1649. Est: € 5,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    D. Hammett, Red harvest, 1929. Est: € 11,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    Book of hours, Horae B. M. V., 1503. Est: € 9,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    J. Miller, Illustratio systematis sexualis Linneai, 1792. Est: € 8,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    F. Hundertwasser, Regentag – Look at it on a rainy day, 1972. Est: € 8,000

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