You can buy books, manuscripts and ephemera every day in LA but one week every two years the ABAA's west coast book fair comes to town and with it some of the most sophisticated and exotic printed materials available anywhere. It attracts dealers and collectors from across the country and around the world. This year two auction houses are adding fuel to the collecting fire as Dorothy Sloan Books auctions material on Wednesday February 15th and Bonhams & Butterfields conduct a sale on Sunday, February 19th. The ABAA Show runs three days: Friday February 17th through Sunday the 19th. This link will take you to the official show site, a full list of participating dealers and specifics as to hours and location.
Dorothy Sloan of Austin, Texas, is conducting three sales at Bel Age, the Grand Salon, on the second level, 1020 N. San Vicente Blvd. West Hollywood CA 99069. Each one is relatively small and separately catalogued. They are: Auction 16 - "The World Rushed In": The California Gold Rush; Auction 17 "Voyages & Travels with an Emphasis on Captain Cook; and Auction 18 - Texas, California, the Southwest U.S., Mexico & the Borderlands: Interesting books, broadsides, maps & ephemera. Here are some items to consider:
Sale 16 is "The World Rushed In" covering all aspects of the California Gold. Spread among its 165 lots are numerous items of factual information and of fiction, items containing significant maps and iconography, broadsides, and items in rare bindings, such as wrappers and boards. For those who wish to own some real California gold actually dug up during the Gold Rush, Eckfeldt and Du Bois' New Varieties of Gold and Silver Coins, Counterfeit Coins, and Bullion; With Mint Values. (Philadelphia, 1850) will be of interest (Lot 55). This copy--in its original blue wrappers printed in gold--is estimated at $7,500-15,000. The coverage of the international aspect of the Gold rush is well represented, with early accounts from Germany, Sweden, Norway, France, and England. Perhaps the most unusual foreign item is a fine copy of the rare first edition of Joseph Heco's The Narrative of a Japanese; What He Has Seen and the People He Has Met in the Course of the Last Forty Years (Yokohama, 1895), in original cloth and estimated at $12,000-$18,000 (Lot 76). This book, accompanied by four of Heco's autograph letters signed, is the first published autobiography of a Japanese American, and the only account of the California Gold Rush by a Japanese.
Among the classics of humor on the gold mania are Bausmann's 1854 The Idle and Industrious Miner illustrated by Charles Nahl (Lot 7); J. Goldsborough Bruff's exceedingly rare rebus letter from 1856 lithographed in script and with phonic illustrations (Lot 16); A Good Natured Hint about California by Alfred Crowquill created in 1849 by Alfred Henry Forrester, editor of the English humor magazine Punch (Lot 64), and Read & Read's classic spoof on the Forty-Niners, Journey to the Gold Diggins by Jeremiah Saddlebags published in Cincinnati in 1849 (Lot 118). Illustrated humor on the Gold Rush is a strong collecting area, and classics like these are increasingly difficult to find.
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.
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