This Month’s New Catalogues:<br>Travels, Americana, and More
- by Michael Stillman
Oak Knoll Books’ "Catalogue 250."
For example, in the field of bibliography is item 12, Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century Now in the British Museum. This comprehensive work will provide information about much of the incunabula known to exist. $1,250. Oak Knoll has reprinted Jacob Black’s nine-volume Bibliography of American Literature. This one is a major reference for American literature. Item 2. $975. Item 18 is The Celebrated Collection of Americana Formed by the Late Thomas Winthrop Streeter. Streeter created one of the finest collections of Americana ever assembled. It was auctioned in 1968. $750. Subscribers to the Americana Exchange Database will find the records from the Streeter sale within the database.
Item 77 is a reprint of the Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson not only found time to write the Declaration of Independence and serve as president, but also built what may have been the most important book collection in America at the time. It was his collection that started off the Library of Congress. $550.
Item 200 is a compendium catalogue of 21,470 entries of books offered by the venerable London bookseller Bernard Quaritch from 1875-1877. It even includes pricing, but don’t expect them to honor those prices today. $275. Item 201 is a ten-volume set consisting of 74 catalogues from legendary Philadelphia bookseller A.S.W. Rosenbach between 1904 and 1951. $650. Many Rosenbach catalogues (those of Americana) can also be found in the Americana Exchange Database.
Speaking of Dr. Rosenbach, item 217 is Edwin Wolf and John Fleming’s classic Rosenbach. He was a colorful and convincing man. Oak Knoll describes it as “the best look at bookselling in the 20th century…” It is also a very readable title. $90.
Item 228 includes 356 issues of the Horn Book Magazine about children’s books and their authors. The issues run from 1930-1987. Included, from 1941, is a description of the blitz in London by Beatrix Potter. Hopefully, Peter Rabbit was safely ensconced in his rabbit or fox hole. $1,250.
Item 486 is a two-volume compilation of the Correspondence of Walt Whitman (1842-1875). Elsewhere in this month’s Æ Monthly you’ll find a review of Roy Morris’ moving The Better Angel. Whitman was a generous man who voluntarily spent much of the Civil War tending to the wounded and dying from both sides. The Correspondence includes first source information about this period of Whitman’s life in the form of letters to his mother, as well as letters from many other times of his life. $150.
Oak Knoll Books may be found on the web at www.oakknoll.com or reached by phone at 302-328-7232.
High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19: Lot 212. Kelsey Letterpress
High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19: Wood & Metal Type. Many fonts and faces.
High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19: Print Shop Miscellany including type, tools, and equipment.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €5,500 to €7,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Rare First Edition of a Classic Work. [Stafford (Thos.)] Pacata Hibernia, Ireland Appeased and Reduced…, 1633. €1,500 to €2,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Signed by author, limited edition. €1,250 to €1,750.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Fishing: Literal Translation into English of the Earliest Known Book on Fowling and Fishing, Written originally in Flemish and Printed at Antwerp in 1492. London (Chiswick Press) 1872. €1,500 to €2,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Fishing: Blacker's - Art of Fly Making, etc., Comprising Angling & Dying of Colours..., Rewritten & Revised. Lond. 1855. €250 to €350.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Joyce (James). Finnegans Wake,, London (Faber & Faber Ltd.) 1939, Lim. Edn. No. 269 (425) copies, Signed by the Author (in green pen). €3,000 to €4,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Synge (J.M.) & Yeats (Jack B.) illus. The Aran Islands,, D. (Maunsel & Co. Ltd.) 1907, Signed Limited Edn. €4,000 to €5,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Meyer (Dr. A.B.) Unser Auer -, Rackel-Und Birkwild und Seine Abarten, Wien (Verlag Von Adolph W. Kunast) 1887. €2,500 to €3,500.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Carve (Thomas). Itinerarium R.D. Thomas Carve Tripperariensis, Sacellani Maioris in Fortisima iuxta…,, Moguntia (Mainz) impriemebat Nicolaus Heyll, 1639. €1,500 to €2,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2 vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. First Edition. €3,000 to €5,000.
Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Heaney (Seamus) & Le Brocquy (Louis) artist. Ugolino, D. (Dolmen Press) 1979, Signed Limited Edition No. 87 (125) Copies. €3,500 to €4,500.
Sotheby's Fine Books, Manuscripts & More Discover Upcoming Auctions
Sotheby’s, Dec. 9: Coronelli, Vincenzo Maria. "Epitome Cosmografica." With the 6 circular celestial and terrestrial charts. 7,000 – 10,000 USD
Sotheby’s, Dec. 9: Hurley, Frank. Collection of 69 photographs taken during Ernest Shackleton's Endurance Expedition. 80,000 – 120,000 USD
Sotheby’s, Dec. 10: Sendak, Maurice. Original artwork for the inaugural "New York is Book Country" poster, 1979. 300,000 – 600,00 USD
Sotheby’s, Dec. 10: [Brontë, Emily, and Ann Brontë] — Ellis Bell and Acton Bell. An outstanding survival of the sisters' debut novels Estimate. 90,000 - 130,000 USD
Bonhams, Dec. 18: A Very Fine Composite Atlas Magnificently Illuminated and Heightened with Gold in a Fine Contemporary Hand Throughout. $300,000 - $500,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Saint-Exupéry's Revised Ending for Wind, Sand and Stars. $40,000 - $60,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Edith Wharton's Gold Medal from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1924. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Salinger on the Glass Family and on Detachment. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Fanny Burney's Groundbreaking First Novel. Evelina, Or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Kafka's Earliest Extant Piece of Writing. Autograph Note Signed ("Franz Kafka"). $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Wagner Signed "Ride of the Valkries." $6,000 - $9,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Dickens on the Death of Little Nell. $5,000 - $8,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Sylvia Plath's Copy of Joy of Cooking. $4,000 - $6,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: Whitman to James Russell Lowell. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: The Genesis of his Lincoln Lectures. $6,000 - $9,000
![<b>Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12:</b> Rare First Edition of a Classic Work. [Stafford (Thos.)] <i>Pacata Hibernia, Ireland Appeased and Reduced…,</i> 1633. €1,500 to €2,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/2bfa5105-2bf9-4a52-8ab5-45f3ef7b1eb4.jpg "<b>Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12:</b> Rare First Edition of a Classic Work. [Stafford (Thos.)] <i>Pacata Hibernia, Ireland Appeased and Reduced…,</i> 1633. €1,500 to €2,000.")
![<b>Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12:</b> Heaney (Seamus). <i>Eleven Poems,</i> Belfast (Festival publications - Queens University) [1965], First Edn., (First Issue) Signed. €2,500 to €3,500.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/d8cd5291-2e7d-4a24-8d22-f316554ec8f8.jpg "<b>Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12:</b> Heaney (Seamus). <i>Eleven Poems,</i> Belfast (Festival publications - Queens University) [1965], First Edn., (First Issue) Signed. €2,500 to €3,500.")
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 10:</b> [Brontë, Emily, and Ann Brontë] — Ellis Bell and Acton Bell. An outstanding survival of the sisters' debut novels Estimate. 90,000 - 130,000 USD](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/b074d0c9-0c77-4e80-a457-f59c4262ea72.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 10:</b> [Brontë, Emily, and Ann Brontë] — Ellis Bell and Acton Bell. An outstanding survival of the sisters' debut novels Estimate. 90,000 - 130,000 USD")
