Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2012 Issue

Sotheran's Latest “Piccadilly Notes”

The latest Piccadilly Notes.

The latest Piccadilly Notes.

Sotheran's, of London, has issued their Piccadilly Notes 2011, the latest in a long-running series of generalist offerings from the 250-year-old bookseller. Sotheran's offers many subject specific catalogues, but in their “Piccadilly Notes” you may find just about anything. Titles centuries old can be found with items printed last year. There is literature, history, science, art, archeology... you name it, it's probably here. Let's take a look inside this latest selection from Piccadilly to see what Sotheran's is offering up this time.

Mary Wolstonecraft Shelley is primarily remembered for two things – for being the author of Frankenstein, and the wife of Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. However, she also wrote a variety of other material, including this travel work which was her last book. She and her husband spent the last few years of his life in Italy. Percy had just turned 30 when he died in a tragic boating accident in 1822.The following year, she returned to England, and could not bring herself to visit Italy again until 1840. She then undertook several trips with her only surviving child, Percy Florence Shelley (he was named after the Italian city, hence the unusual middle name for a son). Mary wrote about her adventures in Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842, and 1843. It was published in 1844. Item 10. Priced at £1,495 (British pounds, or around $2,328 in U.S. Dollars).

Item 311 is the tale of another trip, but one that would not have been as pleasant as that of Mary Shelley. John White was a surgeon in the Royal Navy in the days when being a surgeon didn't require years of medical school. In 1787, he was appointed as the head surgeon for the transportation of British criminals to the new penal colony in Australia. The convicts were shipped under miserable conditions, made somewhat better by the humanitarian efforts of White. After arrival in Australia, White became Surgeon-General for New South Wales. In 1790, he published the book offered as item 311 in this catalogue, Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales. In it, he tells us about much more than just the voyage. He describes many plants and animals found in Australia, for many, the first printed descriptions. There are 65 engraved plates in this book, all but one of natural history. The result is that this work is considered both a major item of natural history and a “Foundation” book of Australia. Despite his extensive travels around Australia, White never much took to the place, and sailed back to England a few years later, never to return. This copy of his book is a colored issue of the first edition. £7,950 (US $12,390).


We aren't sure whether John R. Neill was a frustrated author, though he would seem to be an ideal candidate. Neill was an illustrator, one of the most notable of the first half of the 20th century. Neill began as a commercial and then newspaper illustrator, and his output for various magazines, at the height of their popularity, was extensive. However, Neill is primarily remembered for illustrations of one particular series of books. That would be the Oz books. He did not illustrate the first, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. That job went to W.W. Denslow. However, author L. Frank Baum had a falling out with Denslow, so Neill was hired to illustrate the second Oz book, which was published in 1904. He then went on to illustrate all of the remaining of the 14 Oz books Baum wrote. After Baum's death in 1919, the job of continuing the series was given to Ruth Plumly Thompson. She produced 19 more titles between 1921 and 1939 before retiring from the position. Neill illustrated them all. It was only then, 33 books into the series, that illustrator Neill was also called on to write the books. Thirty-seven years after he illustrated his first Oz book, the first in the series he wrote was published in 1941. Unfortunately, this came near the end of his life. Neill only lived to 1943, enough time to write but three titles in the series (a fourth was unfinished). Item 228 is the middle of Neill's three Oz books, 35th in the series, The Scalawagons of Oz, published in 1941. It is a first edition, first issue, with the first issue dust jacket. As with all but one of the preceding Oz books, Neill is also the illustrator. £398 (US $620).

How much do you know about cement? Well... here's your chance to learn a whole lot more. Item 72 is a collection of eight works produced by The Cement & Concrete Association bound as one. They were published circa 1938. There is the timely Air-Raid Protection along with favorites such as The Construction of Cement-Bound Macadam Roads, How Concrete Can Help The Dairy Farmer, How Concrete Can Help The Pig Breeder, and All-Weather Tennis Courts And Cricket Pitches. £80 (US $125).

Rare Book Monthly

  • Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000. Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 10: Nancy Cunard, Negro Anthology, with a tipped-in A.L.S. to Karl Marx's niece, 1934. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 14: Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845. First edition. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 17: Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, inscribed first edition, 1959. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 28: Margaret Hill Morris, Private Journal Kept during a Portion of the Revolutionary War, for the Amusement of a Sister, 1836. First edition. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 38: Anna Sewell, Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, 1877. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 43: Gertrude Stein, Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia, signed presentation copy with photograph of Stein, 1912. First edition. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 48: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, first edition in the scarce dust jacket, 1927. $6,000 to $8,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 54: Katherine Dunham, large archive of material from her attorney, 1951-53. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 55: Margaret Fuller Signed Autograph Letter, New York City, 1846. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 92: Sonia Delaunay, illus. & Tristan Tzara, Juste Present, deluxe edition with original gouache, 1961. $20,000 to $25,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 93: Flor Garduño, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, 2006. Limited edition. $6,000 to $8,000.
  • 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
  • GonnelliAuction 59Antique prints, paintings and mapsMay 20th 2025 GonnelliAuction 59Antique prints, paintings and mapsMay 20th 2025
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
  • Dominic Winter AuctioneersMay 14Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration Dominic Winter AuctioneersMay 14Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: (Choiseul-Gouffier, Marie). Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece, 2 vols, 1st edition, 1782-1822. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Gentlemen's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, by Sylvanus Urban, 11 volumes. £700-1,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Shackleton (Ernest). The Heart of the Antarctic, 2 vols, 1st ed, presentation copy, 1909. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Drayton (Michael). Poly Olbion..., London: 1622. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Scheuchzer (Johann Jacob). Ouresiphoites Helveticus, 4 parts in 1, 2nd ed, 1723. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Roberts (Henry, after). Chart of the NW Coast of America and NE Coast of Asia ..., [1784]. £500-800
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Maffei (Giovanni), Indiarum orientalium Occidentaliumque Descriptio..., 1589. £1,200-1,500
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Ortelius (Abraham), Typus Orbis Terrarum, [1598]. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Bible [English]. [The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New..., 1613]. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Taylor (John). All the Workes of John Taylor the Water-Poet..., 1630. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Pierpont Morgan Collection. Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains, 1904 & 1906. £2,000-3,000

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