Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2023 Issue

After Fifty Years in the Book Trade, a Swan Song (of Sorts, or Lots)

A few highlights from Rick Watson's upcoming sales

A few highlights from Rick Watson's upcoming sales

My introduction to rare books and manuscripts happened in 1964, when I was living in Palo Alto and working at Lanyon Gallery, on the periphery of the Stanford campus. A few blocks down from where we lived was the home/office of William P. Wreden where I first saw rare books and manuscript leaves, and was kindly guided through the maze by Carl Zamboni. The art gallery owner, Dr William Fielder, and his wife, Louise, gave me my first Old Masters print: a Hendrik Goltzius engraving of Christ before Caiaphas—as a Christmas present! I was hooked. A year later, living in San Francisco and working in the post office, I met Ray Lewis, and bought Odilon Redon prints from him, and Warren Howell, who was too grand to acknowledge my presence when I tried to buy the facsimile edition of The Book of Kells (he said later he knew I couldn’t afford it, but the USPS was paying well in those days). More importantly, San Francisco was full of great bookshops and booksellers from whom I starting collecting Ford Madox Ford, Joseph Conrad, Wyndham Lewis, et al. I also began collecting small press poetry by writers I admired, like Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan, and later became friends with Duncan and his partner the painter Jess. 

 

Fast forward to London, where I started to collect Darwin books that I really couldn’t afford, while working in the original Hard Rock Café. John Chancellor was a neighbor in Kew Gardens and had a floor of his Georgian house full of bulging bookshelves devoted to natural history, horticulture, and Darwin and Darwiniana, where I would spend hours browsing but not buying. John soon ascertained I was not going to be a client, so he offered me a job, liberating me from bartending. He left me in charge of Kew Books while he expanded his business in Germany. We bought a lot from Quaritch and Dawsons at that time as John had some rich German clients for color-plate books (at this time neither firm did any business with Germany, and later at BQs Ted Dring expressed serious disapproval of my attending a German auction in Heidelberg). When John finally became exasperated with me (his charming reproach was ‘I am failing to make any money in Germany and you are here in Kew replenishing the coffers; it is offensive to my amour propre’), he fired me but also recommended me to Quaritch. Quaritch had recently been taken over by Milo Cripps (soon to become Lord Parmoor) and George Warburg, with backing from Simon Sainsbury. Those were great years, and I had great teachers: Nicholas Poole-Wilson, Howard Radcylffe, Arthur Freeman, and most of all Milo.

 

In 1987 after the success of the Robert de Belder sale a sense of depression set in, and I realized that it was time to strike out on my own. I had some money saved, we had our first house with a huge mortgage (18% interest rate then!), and a child on the way. Ladislaus von Hoffman, who was the major purchaser of the de Belder library, offered me a retainer for being an advisor for my first year, which really helped to get started. Even more, Nico Israel, who I had dealt with a lot while with Quaritch, and Jacques Vellekoop were very encouraging and supportive during my early independence, and I was able to sell some of their stock on commission. Diana Parikian, whom I already knew from Quaritch, became a great friend and companion on book hunting trips to Italy, always combined with time off for museum and church visits, and wonderful meals. She knew every bookdealer going in Italy, and all doors seemed open to her on our travels. Over lunch chez Carlo Alberto Chiesa and his charming wife Elena, Chiesa bemoaned, in doleful tones, the ‘tragedy’ of Nicholas Poole-Wilson violating the ‘tradition’ of incunable collecting, by instilling in clients a taste for copies in original and untouched condition. His lament was so well performed that Diana and I left both laughing and bemused as to whether he was serious or not.

 

Bookselling has been a sustaining profession and pleasure for many decades. I have made close friends who were also colleagues and clients. I met my friend Allard Schierenberg shortly after starting with John Chancellor, and Allard and I shared careers, sailing holidays in the North Sea with Jeanne and our children, and wild adventures in the marketplace together. There are so many other colleagues I would mention if I could do so, and I only ask their forgiveness for not acknowledging them here. But one last mentor has to be named, Barney Rosenthal, whose charm, erudition, and humor were beyond measure. Now, having turned 75, I want to devote my life to other things, and return my books, manuscripts, and prints to the marketplace that has sustained me, with the hopes that others will gain pleasure and profit from them. I should add that I intend these books to sell, and that reserves will be well below cost (except maybe one or two I’m not quite ready to totally relax my grip on!). Thank you all, and bonne chance!

 

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Christie’s New York is honored to be selling property for Rick Watson in two auctions this month. Mr. Watson is renowned for his erudition, his kindness, and—above all—his exacting standards of condition. It is delightful and truly rare to encounter such a wealth of important scientific books, often in original bindings, which are such fresh and unpressed copies.

 

The first part (92 lots) of his scientific books and manuscripts is in an online auction closing on 27 January, with additional selections to be sold in June 2023 and perhaps beyond. Old Master Prints will sell on 24 January.

 

24 January 2023: Old Master Prints

 

13-27 January 2023: Scientific Books sold on behalf of the William P. Watson Family Trust, Part One  

 

Viewing times: 

21 Jan, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM 

22 Jan, 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM 

23 Jan, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM 

24 Jan, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM 

25 Jan, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM  

 

Enquiries: Andrew Darlington, adarlington@christies.com, 212-636-2665 

Christie’s 20 Rockefeller Plaza  New York, NY 10020

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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.
  • 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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