Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2012 Issue

Works Antiquarian and Modern from Blackwell's Rare Books

Antiquarian and modern books from Blackwell's.

Antiquarian and modern books from Blackwell's.

Blackwell's Rare Books has issued a selection of material Antiquarian & Modern Catalogue B171. The rare book store is located within Blackwell's large store for new books in Oxford, England, opposite the Bodleian Library. The catalogue is divided into two distinct sections: Antiquarian Books, and Modern First Editions. For this review, we will focus on the antiquarian material, as these items tend to need a bit more explanation, but those who collect modern firsts should know that there are 136 titles offered in this category. Here, now, are some of the older books and related material available in this latest Blackwell's catalogue.

We will start with what must be the least expected item to appear in this catalogue, and one that will be of more interest to American readers than British. Those in the latter category can skip through to the remaining pieces. Item 160 is a letter from George Washington, written after the conclusion of the Revolution, but before he returned to public service as President. It is dated August 10, 1784, and while the letter's existence was known based on letters from its recipient (longtime Washington friend Rev. William Gordon), this letter itself had been “lost.” In it, Washington speaks of personal matters, in particular, his property in the west, where he had large, but mostly unused land. Writes Washington, “I am now indeed repairing my pack saddles, and preparing for a journey to the Western Country, where it is necessary for me to pay some attention to the property I hold in it.” Washington owned 20,000 acres in the west, but had a problem with squatters, who would build homes on his unused land. Washington undertook a 680-mile round-trip journey the following month, and began litigation that would successfully force the squatters off his land. However, he was not able to visit some of his more outlying land on this journey as some of the Indians out there were not in a very good mood. The letter contains Washington's familiar signature. Priced at £14,000 (British pounds, or roughly $21,826 U.S. dollars).

Now we will return to England, and a tawdry affair that would have shocked Americans, at least those as upstanding as General Washington. Item 47 is Genuine Copies of all the Love Letters and Cards which passed between an Illustrious Personage and a Noble Lady, during the course of a Late Amour. This is a polite way of saying the publisher was printing the private, amorous correspondence between Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, younger brother of King George III (maybe Washington would have expected as much from the brother of such a scoundrel), and Lady Grosvenor, the “noble lady” who was very much married to Lord Grosvenor at the time. While Lady Grosvenor was obviously amused by the Duke, Lord Grosvenor was not. He sued the Duke for criminal conversion (adultery) and won a judgment of £10,000, which, when legal costs were added, would be the equivalent of around $2 million today. The Duke had to borrow the money from his displeased kingly brother to pay the judgment. This book and others certainly besmirched Cumberland's reputation, not only because of his illicit behavior, but by the adolescent emotions expressed and the poor grammar of his letters. £600 (US $933).


Such indiscretion is by no means limited to royalty. This next book takes us back to the late 15th/early 16th century, and a time when German priests were not adhering too closely to a lifestyle devoid of worldly pleasures. Indeed, passions of the flesh were apparently being fulfilled on a regular basis. This did not please the more conservative theologian Arnoldus von Tongern, who condemned such practices in Avisamentum de concubinariis... published in 1507. Blackwell's quotes various sources on the subject that speak of, “the profligacy of the clergy at German cathedrals, as well as their rudeness and ignorance, was proverbial,” “the extraordinary immorality to which priests and monks yielded themselves,” and “in the 15th century the worldliness of the clergy reached a height not possible to surpass.” Since priests were forbidden to marry, they lived with concubines, thereby gaining the benefit of wives without the obligations. Item 9. £850 (US $1,322).

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025 Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    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’sGeek Week2-17 July | New York Sotheby’sGeek Week2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    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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  • DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025 DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025
    DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    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

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