Rare Book Monthly

Articles - August - 2021 Issue

The personal collection of William [Bill] S. Reese is to be sold by Christie's beginning in May, 2022

Bill Reese, who passed away in 2018, was both a rare book dealer and a collector of Americana, other books, prints, and art.  It was a great privilege for me to be his client for a decade.  In 2002, Bill Reese became the very first member of Americana Exchange (now RareBookHub).  In 2022 his exceptional personal collection will be sold at Christie's and it will be a monumental event.

 

The collection, acquired over decades, will be dispersed in a matter of days and hours:  his fourteen thousand days in the field, converted into "May I have an opening bid?  On the left, yes in the back and on the right!"  The sales are going to be memorable.

 

Although auctions - no matter how important - are brief events, auction houses have long known how to convey long-term significance.  In this era,  the cataloguing and photography will be remarkable.  The auction catalogue will live on to become a valued reference, taking its place alongside those of George Brinley, Robert Hoe and Thomas Streeter.  Bill's personal selections will be accorded respect.  And virtually every item will then be forever remembered as "Bill Reese's copy" or "the Reese copy."  Such formalities are well understood but are rarely consistently applied.  I have no doubt Christie's will convey a sense of homage.  He earned it.

 

Auction Announcement provided by Christies

 

Across the latter decades of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, few individuals contributed so greatly to the field of American rare books as William Sherman Reese (1955-2018). The founder of the eponymous William Reese Company of New Haven, Connecticut, he was a seminal figure in antiquarian Americana—a man whose expertise and intellect left an indelible impact on both his trade and the nation’s most important rare book collections. For William Reese, rare books and manuscripts existed at the intersection of what he described as “text and icon, appealing to us in both an intellectual and physical sense.” For nearly half a century, Reese embodied the curiosity, engagement, and passion for history at the heart of both text and icon. He left a legacy in connoisseurship that continues to grow.

 

It is our great honor to announce that the Private Collection of William S. Reese will be sold in a series of four dedicated auctions in 2022, at Christie’s New York, Rockefeller Center.

 

In counterpoint to Reese’s extraordinary renown as a bookdealer and philanthropist, the extent of his personal collecting has been relatively little known. When the books, paintings, manuscripts, prints, and artefacts are shown at Christie’s next spring, it will be the first time in over 30 years that any portion of the current collection has been publicly exhibited—with the exception of one volume in the “Grolier Club Collects II” exhibition in 2016. The book Reese selected then was acquired by him in the late 1980s: a presentation copy of Herman Melville’s Typee, 1865, given by the author to Henry Smythe, collector of the Port of New York.

 

However, Reese’s fascination with the world of printed things began with birds and John James Audubon, pre-dating his Melville and other author collections. The several fine prints from Audubon’s Birds of America are among the items which were probably acquired the earliest. Reese shared an enthusiasm for these prints with his father and the two made collecting trips together from Havre de Grace, Maryland to Philadelphia and New York when Bill Reese was a teenager. On the other end of the spectrum, one of the more recent items acquired is a July 1776 broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence—likely the first printed in Massachusetts—which was won at the James Copley auction in 2010.  The Reese Collection is as strong in colonial, Revolutionary, and Federal Americana as it is in American color-plate and Western Americana.

 

Indeed, across all categories of printed Americana—plus Melville, natural history, travel, and literature—William Reese’s private collection is every bit as inspiring an achievement as his life and career. We deeply look forward to presenting it to the public over the coming months.

 

Auction Schedule

 

MAY 2022

  • THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF WILLIAM S. REESE: PART ONE

Evening sale devoted to New World Exploration and Americana to 1814

  • THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF WILLIAM S. REESE: PART TWO

Day sale with morning session of Americana after 1814 and the “Best of the West”; afternoon session of Natural History, Travel, and  Literature

  • THE PRIVATE COLLECTION OF WILLIAM S. REESE: ONLINE

Online auction with diverse subjects including favorite authors, Yale, American practical arts including architecture, and bibliophily

 

SEPTEMBER 2022

  • THE HERMAN MELVILLE COLLECTION OF WILLIAM S. REESE

 

The Collection will be presented in three fully-illustrated and cloth-bound auction catalogues. Advance orders are recommended and can be made online at the Christie’s Catalogue Shop.

 

Other enquiries:

Christina Geiger

212-636-2667

cgeiger@christies.com

 

Twitter: @ChristiesBKS  #ReeseCollectionChristies

Rare Book Monthly

  • Swann, June 12: Lot 3:Thomas McKenney and James Hall, History of the Indian Tribes of North America, 1848-1854. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000. Swann, June 12: Lot 3:Thomas McKenney and James Hall, History of the Indian Tribes of North America, 1848-1854. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, June 12: Lot 3:
    Thomas McKenney and James Hall, History of the Indian Tribes of North America, 1848-1854. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, June 12: Lot 3:
    Thomas McKenney and James Hall, History of the Indian Tribes of North America, 1848-1854. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, June 12: Lot 8:
    Invoice to the Town of Boston for advertising pre-revolutionary content in the Boston Post Boy, manuscript document, Boston, July 1768. Estimate $5,000 to $7,500.
    Swann, June 12: Lot 13:
    Clairac and Nicola, L'Ingenieur de Campagne; or, Field
    Swann, June 12: Lot 81:
    Journals of Major Robert Rogers . . . of the Several Excursions he Made . . . upon the Continent of North America, London, 1765. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, June 12: Lot 99:
    Photograph albums and papers from the family of W.G. Fargo, photo albums containing 442 photographs, 1865-88. Estimate $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, June 12: Lot 112:
    Isaac Leeser, Discourses on the Jewish Religion, 10 volumes, Philadelphia: Sherman & Co., 1866-1868. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.
    Swann, June 12: Lot 176:
    Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Boston, 1845. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, June 12: Lot 190:
    Thomas Hariot, Admiranda narratio fida tamen, de commodis et incolarum ritibus Virginiae, 1590. Estimate $25,000 to $35,000.
    Swann, June 12: Lot 200:
    Correspondence of a regimental cavalry commander in Wyoming and Utah, July 1865 to February 1866. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, June 12: Lot 226:
    Maturino Gilberti, Vocabulario en lengua de Mechuacan / Aqui comienca el vocabulario en la lengua Castellana y Mechuacana, 1559. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000.
  • Sotheby'sBibliothèque Jacques Dauchez - Autour de Dubuffet
5-19 June
Sotheby'sBibliothèque Jacques Dauchez - Autour de Dubuffet
5-19 June
    Sotheby's
    Bibliothèque Jacques Dauchez - Autour de Dubuffet
    5-19 June
    Sotheby's
    Bibliothèque Jacques Dauchez - Autour de Dubuffet
    5-19 June
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Bissière, Roger. Cantique à notre frère soleil de saint François. 1954. 1,000 - 1,500 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Céline, Louis-Ferdinand. La vie & l’œuvre de Philippe Ignace Semmelweis. 1924. Rare édition originale, avec envoi. Joint : La Quinine en thérapeutique, 1925. 4,000 - 6,000 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Céline, Louis-Ferdinand. Mort à crédit. 1936. Édition originale. Bel exemplaire sur Hollande. 2,500 - 3,500 EUR
    Sotheby's
    Bibliothèque Jacques Dauchez - Autour de Dubuffet
    5-19 June
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Chillida, Eduardo ─ Emil Cioran. Face aux instants. 1985. Un des 100 exemplaires sur Arches. Eau-forte signée. 600 - 800 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Dubuffet, Jean. Ler dla canpane. L’Art Brut, 1948. Édition originale. 3,000 - 5,000 EUR
    Sotheby’s, June 5-19: Dubuffet, Jean. L'Herne Jean Dubuffet. 1973. Un des 100 exemplaires du tirage de luxe avec une sérigraphie originale en couleurs. 1,000 - 1,500 EUR
  • Gros & DelettrezLivres & Manuscrits ArméniensJeudi 12 juin 2025Paris, Francis Gros & DelettrezLivres & Manuscrits ArméniensJeudi 12 juin 2025Paris, Francis
    Gros & Delettrez
    Livres & Manuscrits Arméniens
    Jeudi 12 juin 2025
    Paris, Francis
    Gros & Delettrez
    Livres & Manuscrits Arméniens
    Jeudi 12 juin 2025
    Paris, Francis
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: BIBLE, Venise 1733, reliure arménienne
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: CHARAKNOTS, manuscrit XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: CHARAKNOTS, manuscrit daté 1606, reliure arménienne
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: CHARAKNOTS, manuscrit début XVIIIe siècle, reliure arménienne
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: CHARAKNOTS, Amsterdam 1664
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: CHARAKNOTS, Amsterdam 1702, reliure arménienne
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: DICTIONNAIRE arménien, manuscrit XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle.
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: EVANGILE, manuscrit 1735-1737, reliure arménienne
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: LIVRE DE PRIERES, Grégoire de Narek, manuscrit
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: GEOGRAPHIE, Ghoukas INDJIDJIAN, Venise 1802-1806
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: MANUSCRIT THEOLOGIQUE, XVIe-XVIIe siècle
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: MASHTOTS, manuscrit XVIIIe-XIXe siècle, reliure arménienne
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: LETTRE ENCYCLIQUE, manuscrit XIXe siècle
    Gros & Delettrez, June 12: NOUVEAU TESTAMENT, Amsterdam 1668, reliure arménienne
  • Rose City Book & Paper FairJune 14-15, 20251000 NE Multnomah, PortlandROSECITYBOOKFAIR.COM Rose City Book & Paper FairJune 14-15, 20251000 NE Multnomah, PortlandROSECITYBOOKFAIR.COM
    Rose City Book & Paper Fair
    June 14-15, 2025
    1000 NE Multnomah, Portland
    ROSECITYBOOKFAIR.COM
    Rose City Book & Paper Fair
    June 14-15, 2025
    1000 NE Multnomah, Portland
    ROSECITYBOOKFAIR.COM

Article Search

Archived Articles