Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - September - 2012 Issue

A Summer Catalogue from Peter Harrington

A summer catalogue.

A summer catalogue.

Peter Harrington of London has issued a catalogue for Summer 2012. Harrington offers a variety of types of material. There is much in the way of notable literature, but then again, there is much of other types of works – photography, children's books, exploration and discovery, art, fine press works, and more. You really need to look inside one of these catalogues to understand what is there, which we will make an attempt to do now.

Item 12 could be described as the “First Folio,” but one at a far more affordable price than the version featuring the plays of William Shakespeare. Two more folio collections of British plays were produced in the first half of the the 17th century, also put together by admirers of the playwrights. Neither quite reached the same caché as the Bard. One was for Ben Jonson, and this one for Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. It bears the similar title of Comedies and Tragedies Never Printed Before... and although not published until 1647, they also wrote during Shakespeare's time (Beaumont died in 1616, Fletcher in 1625). At times they collaborated, but some plays were written individually or with others. Fletcher actually worked with Shakespeare on a couple of plays, and wrote a sequel to The Taming of the Shrew. If these playwrights are not as well remembered now, Goodspeed points out that many phrases still used today originated with these plays, such as “beggars must be no choosers,” “as cold as cucumbers,” and “kiss till the cows come home.” This copy is from the second state. £4,750 (British pounds, roughly $7,496 U.S. dollars).

Americans may associate witch trials with Salem, Massachusetts, but the French were perfecting the art many years earlier at Aix-en-Provence. Published in 1612, item 180 is The Life and Death of Lewis Gaufredy: A Priest of the Church of the Accoules in Marseilles in France, (who after hee had given him selfe soule and bodie to the Divell) committed many most abhominable Sorceries, but chiefly upon two very faire young Gentle-women, Mistris Magdalene of the Marish, and Mistris Victoire Corbier... It seems the “abhominable sorceries” Louis Gaufridi may have committed on one of the women, Miss Magdalene, were what we would refer to as sexual acts today. If there is a lesson in this story, it is do not get involved in this manner with a partner who is a head case. Magdalene claimed that Gaufridi possessed her with demons, ones that led her to acquiesce to behavior in which she undoubtedly would not have participated were she not under their control. Other women in the convents soon discovered they too were possessed by Father Gaufridi's demons, and began acting in strange ways, similar to the pattern to be repeated by the young girls in Salem many years later. As you might guess, this is not leading to a good conclusion. Under the influence of enhanced interrogation, Father Gaufridi signed a confession, and the court would not hear of his retraction when such techniques were not being applied to his being. Gaufridi was burned alive, whereupon Miss Magdalene immediately recovered, though she would suffer recurring bouts of possession through the remainder of her life. £5,750 (US $9,072).

Item 30 is an account of one of the most important archeological explorations ever made: The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen discovered by the late Earl of Carnavon and Howard Carter... by Carter and A.C. Mace. Carter was the archeologist, the Earl being primarily the financier of the search. King Tut's tomb was the extreme rarity, one that had survived the millennia untouched by grave robbers and other looters. It provided an undisturbed look back to the time when the boy king ruled Egypt. £2,250 (US $3,549).

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • 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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