Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2023 Issue

The Torah had a Good Day

The Sassoon Codex

The Sassoon Codex

At Sotheby’s in New York on May 17th the Codex Sassoon was sold to the American Friends of ANU – Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, made possible by a donation from Alfred H. Moses for $38,126,000.  Occasionally some material’s value and importance transcends the normal and expected high quality that auctions regularly offer.  The Codex hit the triple bingo with old, rare, and significant to a large and well healed religious community.  Religion has long been a powerful motivator to acquire relevant material.  Such opportunities randomly occur.  Here are several other examples.

 

The original printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon brought $35,000,000 in 2017.

 

The Old South Church’s copy of the Bay Psalm Book was sold at auction to David Rubenstein in November 2013 for $14.2 million.

 

The St. Cuthbert Gospel, a pocket gospel book that was buried with Saint Cuthbert (d. 687), was subsequently removed from his coffin in 1104 and became associated with the Durham Cathedral.  This divine relic brought $14.3 million in April 2012.

 

The Sherborne Missal, an illuminated missal used in Sherborne Abbey, was purchased for $21.2 million by the British Library in 2001.

 

The Rothschild Prayerbook, an illuminated book of hours thought to date to 1505-10, originally owned by Anselm Salomon von Rothschild was purchased by Kerry Stokes in January 2014 for $13.6 million.

 

As well, if you go back further the Gospels of Henry the Lion, that were commissioned by Henry the Lion (1129/1131-1195) for the Brunswick Cathedral was purchased by the German government in December 1983 for $11.7 million.

 

And there is the Babylonian Talmud, one of 14 complete sets printed by Danial Bomberg that are known to exist.  It was purchased by Stephan Loewentheil December 2015 for $9.32 million.

 

Of course there were many other significant acquisitions of non-religious materials that tower within their categories but, while religion has seemed to lose some luster in every day life, their icons continue to be deeply appreciated.

 

Collecting lives on even as their form and intensity shifts through the decades.

 

The acquisition of the Sassoon Codex reminds us that very important material finds solid footing through periods of uncertainty.  Congratulations to Mr. Alfred H. Moses.  Mazel tov!

 

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts Sotheby'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby's
    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
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    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
  • Leland Little, Jan. 22: The First Issue of Robert Frost's A Boy's Will, In Extremely Scarce Binding.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Knight's An Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Locke's Important Treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: The Richly Illustrated First French Edition of Voyages de Corneille Le Brun par la Moscovie, en Perse, et aux Indes Orientales.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Scarce First Issue of An Account of the Province of Carolina in America, Finely Bound and With Celebrated John Speed Map.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Humphrey's An Historical Account, Complete with Scarce Folding Maps.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: First Edition of Chamberlain's Scarce Civil War Memoir The Passing of the Armies.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: A Rare Photograph of David Bruce Brown and #48 Fiat.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: George Cruikshank (England, 1792-1878), Archive of Sketches, Notes, and Letters.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Extremely Scarce Copy of Die Samländische Ode (The Samland Ode), Signed by Max Pechstein.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Andy Warhol's The Thirteen Most Wanted Men Exhibition Catalogue.
    Leland Little, Jan. 22: Edward Ruscha (American, b. 1937), Every Building on the Sunset Strip.
  • RareBookBuyer.comWe Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide RareBookBuyer.comWe Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide
    RareBookBuyer.com
    Specialized in Purchasing
    Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
    RareBookBuyer.com
    We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide

Article Search

Archived Articles

Ask Questions