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Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - December - 2004 Issue

Historical Autographs From Catherine Barnes

Online catalogue from Catherine Barnes

Online catalogue from Catherine Barnes


By Michael Stillman

Catherine Barnes has issued a new catalogue of "Historical Autographs and Documents." The times they are a-changin' and so are catalogues as we know them. Rather than a printed catalogue, Catherine Barnes has sent her subscribers a letter and a link. The link takes you to Catalogue 28, or "Recent Additions." Here are a few of these new documents.

One of the more interesting, and perhaps surprising letters comes from future President James Buchanan, while Millard Fillmore was still in the White House. What's surprising is the extraordinary religious tolerance shown by this Pennsylvanian who would be elected president as a Northern man with Southern principles due to his great tolerance of slavery. In 1851, he wrote to James Campbell, a Catholic and Democratic candidate for the state supreme court, in an era of growing nativist and anti-Catholic sentiment. Buchanan predicts that Campbell's candidacy will not be seriously harmed by his faith, and speaking of those prejudiced against him, Buchanan says "if on earth there is any thing I do despise it is to witness a poor frail ignorant worm of the dust setting himself up in the place of God to condemn his fellow man because professing a different faith from himself." Buchanan then concludes, "....I rejoice that a Catholic is to be settled upon the ticket. It is destined to do much good in correcting the opinions of honest but prejudiced men. It will be a contest between Democracy & Bigotry in which the former is sure to prevail." If only it were so easy. Campbell lost, while his four Democratic running mates won. Over the next few years, anti-Catholic nativism would rapidly spread with the birth and sudden growth of the Know Nothing party, culminating with their nomination of the former President Millard Fillmore for president. The Know Nothings would be defeated by this same James Buchanan, but those progressive sentiments expressed in the letter would not carry over to his dealings on the issue of slavery, and ultimately Buchanan's presidency would be, in most historians' eyes, a failed one. Priced at $15,000.

While Catholics were shut out of many public roles in this era, Charles Carroll, a wealthy landowner and businessman from Maryland, was not. He is the lone Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence, and was the last surviving signer of that document. That's surprising as he was already 39 when he signed it. Carroll lived another 56 years, dying in 1832 at the age of 95. This is a letter he wrote when he was merely 89. It involves some business and legal matters the evidently still sharp Carroll was managing. $950.

If you collect letters written by presidents between their terms of office, you will not find many pieces to collect. Here's one. Of course it must come from Grover Cleveland, as he was the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms. Only a little over a week after attending the inauguration of his successor, Benjamin Harrison, Cleveland wrote his former Postmaster General. Cleveland states that he was amazed by the cheers he received as he rode through the streets of Washington. "To tell you the truth I could see no difference between the demonstrations now and those I used to encounter when I was actually President," says the surprised Cleveland. Speaking of his future, Cleveland writes, "I am not at all concerned and am enjoying my release from official care more than I can tell you." Evidently he didn't enjoy it all that much, as four years later he was back in office. $1,000.

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  • 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
  • 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
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Buzz Aldrin's FLOWN Apollo 11 Crew-Signed NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Cover. $15,000 to $20,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Lunar Surface Flown Mission Emblem Presented to Tom Stafford by John Young. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Extensive Chronology of Spacecraft From Apollo to Skylab, Signed by a Member of Every Crewed Apollo Flight and the Commanders of Each Skylab Mission. $5,000 to $8,000.

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