Rare Book Monthly

Articles - December - 2002 Issue

“Sold!,”A New Monthly Feature

Cowan’ Lot 59

Cowan’ Lot 59

Despite its superior condition and relative rarity, it failed to sell on an estimate of $30,000-$40,000. Although both these facsimiles are basically identical, it is curious to observe the effect of the passage of about 25 years and the removal of a single line of text. In this case, only the original facsimile seemed to be of substantial interest, an interesting twist in the world of reproductions at auction.

United States Presidents were also well represented in the sales in both manuscript and printed forms. Much of the material was fairly typical. Scattered among the guns, furniture, and CDVs of the Cowan sale, however, were several Lincoln paper ballots. Among them was lot 59, a 7 x 3.5 inches Lincoln-Hamlin Ohio paper ballot in German for the 1860 election printed on yellow paper with a portrait of Lincoln that fetched $632.50 on an estimate of $200-$300. It was followed by lot 62, a similar Ohio paper ballot in English for Lincoln-Johnson in the 1864 campaign printed in red and blue. It went for $373.75 on an estimate of $250-$350. Lot 63 consisted of another Ohio Lincoln-Johnson ballot in English printed in red and blue ink. Although a fairly large ballot (8.25 x 4.75 inches), it had been trimmed at the bottom. Apparently this damage caused it to sell for only $195.50 on an estimate of $300-$400. Another large ballot, at 11.5 x 4 inches, was a Lincoln-Johnson example in English from Missouri. This example was extremely interesting because it had local candidates’ names entered at the bottom in contemporary manuscript, an indication that it was probably really used by a voter in the 1864 election. It went for $345.00 on an estimate of $300-$400. Finally, an especially nice, wide-margined broadside 15 April 1865 extra of the Daily Ohio State Journal announcing Lincoln’s assassination went for $805.00 on an estimate of $300-$500. What is especially interesting about those items is that they indicate it is still entirely possible for the average collector to acquire quite interesting presidential material for fairly modest sums. For those with more money, there was Swann lot 128, a 1 May 1944 issue of Newsweek signed by Churchill, FDR (as President), H. H. Arnold, and Eddie Rickenbacker. It failed, however, to sell for its $10,000-$15,000 estimate.

One old Presidential chestnut was available in the PBA sale #252 as lot 43: a fair copy of Herbert and Lou Hoover’s translation of Agricola’s De Re Metallica (London, 1912). This book demonstrated academic achievements few US Presidents had ever or have ever since attained. Inscribed and signed by Hoover to mining engineer and metallurgist Charles Butters, it was knocked down for $632.00 on an estimate of $500-$800. Another Presidential chestnut was Thomas Jefferson’s Handbuch des Parlamentarrechts (Berlin, 1819), a translation of his Manual of Parliamentary Practice, first published Washington, 1800. Jefferson’s Manual was an influential document that was published by itself in English well into the nineteenth century and is still the basis for the US Senate’s parliamentary procedures. It was also translated into French (1814) and Spanish (1827). All contemporary translations are rare in the market. This copy sold for $598.00 on an estimate of $450.00.

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.
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  • 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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