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Rare Book Monthly

Articles - May - 2022 Issue

The Reese Americana Collection Appears

The quality of the material is no surprise considering the source

The quality of the material is no surprise considering the source

The life of Bill Reese ended 3 years ago, but his discernment, judgment and collecting acumen continue to be admired. His name will soon be illuminated on the marquees at Christie’s in New York.  On May 25th and 26th, his personal library of travel and exploration books, printed Americana from the 17th to 20th centuries, American paintings and drawings, natural history books, and important literature will be sold in a three-session live auction.  Reese Collection sales will continue into June with both an Online auction (19 May – 2 June) and a suite of important paintings by Agostino Brunias selling on 10 June in the Old Masters Evening Sale. This spring, about 600 books and artworks will be dispersed to clients, friends, fellow dealers and competitors.

 

Bill’s depth of enthusiasm was legendary, but the extent of his knowledge even more rare. His understanding conveyed confidence to collectors and collecting institutions who wanted to possess great Americana and wanted certainty.  He understood the material, be it from the discovery of the New World, to the founding of the American nation, to America’s development politically and socially.  To understand America’s history through its documents, books, maps and ephemera became his life’s work. Many of the important collections of Americana today reflect his influence.

 

Soon the public will have the opportunity to compare what he offered over his 300+ catalogues with what he collected.  Not surprisingly, he was as discerning a collector as he was a dealer.

 

During his career, when meeting with a new collector he invariably asked about their preferences and could—off the top of his head—suggest a list of material from his inventory that would further their collecting ambitions.  Many collections, born of nebulous curiosity, grew with his first guidance into lavish manifestations of history. In time, many of those collections themselves became spectacular events at auction or prized gifts to the greatest collecting libraries.  He knew the material and the market’s confidence in his judgment will soon be reflected in the auction outcomes of his storied collection. 

 

Having built his business and collections over forty years, Bill saw prices rise and fall, and was ever mindful that unusual copies had to be pursued when they were offered, even if the outside world was in turmoil.  One and only examples do not often reappear.  So it is an odd circumstance that the Reese Collection of Americana will be sold at one of those times, when foreign war and American political uncertainty may shake a collector’s confidence and step aside.

 

About such times, I remember Bill saying, when it’s hardest to feel assured, the purchases will be remembered fondly.  It was good advice and I pass it along as a whisper in the room, reach for the prize.  His material is exceptional, you are in the presence of an event.

 

The catalogues for Part One and Part Two of the Private Collection of William S. Reese are online now.  The preview exhibition is open to the public from May 20-25 at Christie’s Rockefeller Center.

 

As to what to consider – here are a few of the high spots to get you started:

 

Lot 2 Oviedo https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6368237?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intObjectID=6368237&from=salessummary&lid=1

Lot 8 John Smith https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6368243?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intObjectID=6368243&from=salessummary&lid=1

Lot 15 Massachusett Bible https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6368250?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intObjectID=6368250&from=salessummary&lid=1

Lot 30 Evans Map https://www.christies.com/en/auction/the-private-collection-of-william-s-reese-part-one-20528-nyr/?filters=&page=1&searchphrase=&sortby=highestimate_desc&themes=

Lot 42 Franklin’s Dickinson https://www.christies.com/en/auction/the-private-collection-of-william-s-reese-part-one-20528-nyr/?filters=&page=1&searchphrase=&sortby=highestimate_desc&themes=

Lot 50 Declaration of Independence https://www.christies.com/en/auction/the-private-collection-of-william-s-reese-part-one-20528-nyr/?filters=&page=1&searchphrase=&sortby=highestimate_desc&themes=

Lot 61 Federalist https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6368296?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intObjectID=6368296&from=salessummary&lid=1

Lot 90 Lewis & Clark https://www.christies.com/en/auction/the-private-collection-of-william-s-reese-part-one-20528-nyr/?filters=&page=1&searchphrase=&sortby=highestimate_desc&themes=

Lot 127 Quadrupeds https://www.christies.com/en/auction/the-private-collection-of-william-s-reese-part-two-20529-nyr/?filters=&page=1&searchphrase=&sortby=highestimate_desc&themes=

Lot 297, Charles Bird King portrait https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6368867?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intObjectID=6368867&from=salessummary&lid=1

Yale https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6368292?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intObjectID=6368292&from=salessummary&lid=1

Millard https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6368986?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intObjectID=6368986&from=salessummary&lid=1

Shakespeare https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6369045?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intObjectID=6369045&from=salessummary&lid=1

Sassoon https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6369068?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intObjectID=6369068&from=salessummary&lid=1

Rare Book Monthly

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    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
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    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
  • Fonsie Mealy’s
    Rare Books & Collectors’ Sale
    April 30th & May 1st
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Taylor (Geo.) & Skinner (A.) Maps of the Roads of Ireland, Surveyed 1777. Lond. & Dublin 1778. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Messingham (Thos.) Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum seu Vitae et Acta Sanctorum Hibernia, Paris 1624. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus). The Haw Lantern, L. (Faber & Faber) 1987, First Edn., Signed and dated. €225 to €350.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Valencey (Lt. Col. Chas.) Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, Vols. I-IV, 4 vols. Dublin 1786. €400 to €600.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Powerscourt (Viscount). A Description and History of Powerscourt, Lond. 1903. €350 to €500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Moryson (Fynes). An Itinerary ... Containing His Ten Yeeres Travel Through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohermerland, Sweitzerland…, Lond. (John Beale) 1617. €700 to €1,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: After Buffon, Birds of Europe, c. 1820. Approx. 120 fine hd. cold. plts., mor. backed boards. €125 to €250.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Dunlevy (Andrew). An Teagasg Criosduidhe De Reir Ceasda agus Freagartha... The Catechism or Christian Doctrine by Way of Question and Answer, Paris (James Guerin) 1742. €400 to €700.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: The Georgian Society Records of Eighteen-Century Domestic Architecture in Dublin, 5 vols. Complete, Dublin 1909-1913. €500 to €750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Scale (Bernard). An Hibernian Atlas or General Description of the Kingdom of Ireland, L. (Robert Sayer & John Bennet) 1776. €625 to €850.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: [Johnson (Rev. Samuel)]. Julian the Apostate Being a Short Account of his Life, together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism,L. (Langley Curtis) 1682. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Nichlson (Wm.) Illustrator. An Almanac of Twelve Sports, Lond. 1898. €300 to €400.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) trans. The Light of the Leaves, 2 vols., Mexico (Imprenta de los Tropicos/Bunholt) 1999. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Fleming (Ian). Moonraker, L. (Jonathan Cape) 1955. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Apr 30-May 1: Heaney (Seamus) & Egan (Felim) artist. Squarings, Twelve Poems, D. (Hieroglyph Editions Ltd.) 1991. €1,750 to €2,250.
  • ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
    abaa.org/vbf
    ABAA Spring VBF
    May 1-3
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