Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - February - 2013 Issue

Legal and Law Related Works, Some Serious, Others Not So Much

The Devil made those lawyers do it.

The Devil made those lawyers do it.

The Lawbook Exchange has issued their Catalogue 72. Recently Acquired Books, Manuscripts and Ephemera. It covers much ground related to the law, from learned legal treatises, to more pop culture of their day stories of crime and punishment. There are many items which will interest the non-legal scholar, including numerous very old books, some being items of incunabula. We also find some broadsides and prints, these shorter pieces often being satiric rather than serious (though serious in their own way). A few manuscripts and photographs also make their way into the catalogue, such as those from notable American jurists such as Brandeis and Frankfurter. There is much to be found here, and you do not need to be a lawyer to appreciate it all.

We start with one of the most significant legal tracts ever printed. It has been described as the book that “made” the common law. Item 42 is La Grande Abridgement... together with the second part, the first edition published by Richard Tottell in London (1565). Up until the time Anthony Fitzherbert created this compilation of English cases in the early 16th century, it was difficult to determine what the law, as interpreted by judges, was. Fitzherbert abridged 13,485 cases, which he published under 263 titles listed alphabetically. He essentially took all of the important cases at common law and made the decisions available to the legal trade. For the first time, the tenets of common law became readily accessible to the public. Priced at $6,500.

From the not so serious side of the law, item 35 is the engraving depicted on the cover of this catalogue, The First Day of Term..., or The Devil among the Lawyers. Lawyers seem to have a bad press among the public, ranking almost as low as politicians and used car salesmen, even though it is not clear that their good to bad ratio is any different from that of other professions. Evidently, this unpleasant image is nothing new, as this satirical cartoon dates back to around 1760. In the picture, a smiling Satan is seen passing out briefs to eager lawyers, while another takes some coins in payment from what appears to be something of a country bumpkin. The papers at his feet say “Begun in 1699. Not yet finished.” $2,500.

Lawyers were made the butt of jokes even earlier. Item 97 is the unkindly named play Ignoramus, George Ruggle's biting satire of the English bar, first performed in 1615 (this first edition was published in 1630). This “comedy” is in Latin, and makes fun of the language of the common law and the dullness of lawyers. It is based on a legal dispute between the Mayor of Cambridge and the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. $750.

From the less serious we move to the grisly. Item 19 is The Trial & Execution of John Horwood, which Took Place at the New City Gaol, This Day, (Friday April 13 1821) For the Wilful Murder of Eliza Balsam. Friday the 13th was not a lucky day for Mr. Horwood, unless you consider being the first to be hanged in Bristol's new jail to be a strike of good fortune. John Horwood was a young man of 18 when he spied his former girl friend, Eliza Balsam, with another man. The young English miner was so upset that he threw a stone at Miss Balsam. Unfortunately, his aim was a bit too good, and while it apparently did not cause a major injury, she nonetheless died in surgery. Horwood was tried and promptly executed at the end of a rope, a detail illustrated on this broadside. In compensation for his unsuccessful work saving Miss Balsam's life, the surgeon was rewarded with Horwood's body. He skinned and tanned Horwood's hide and used it to bind the papers from the case. Horwood's skeleton was kept in a closet, the noose still around his neck, and was not buried until 2011, 190 years later. $1,250.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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
  • Bonhams, Apr. 8: First report outside of the colonies of the American Revolution, from American accounts. Printed broadsheet, The London Evening-Post, May 30, 1775. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce, James. The earliest typescript pages from Finnegans Wake ever to appear at auction, annotated by Joyce, 1923. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce's Ulysses, 1923, one of only seven copies known, printed to replace copies destroyed in customs. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S COPY, INSCRIBED. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento, 1667. $2,000 - $3,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713. "... first significant book on probability theory." $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Aristotle's Politica. Oeconomica. 1469. The first printed work on political economy. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: John Graunt's Natural and political observations...., 1662. The first printed work of epidemiology and demographics. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: William Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786. The first work to pictorially represent information in graphics. $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Anson's A Voyage Round the World, 1748. THE J.R. ABBEY-LORD WARDINGTON COPY, BOUND BY JOHN BRINDLEY. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: La Perouse's Voyage de La Perouse autour du monde..., 1797. LARGE FINE COPY IN ORIGINAL BOARDS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Francesca Woodman's Some Disordered Interior Geometries, 1981. Untrimmed publisher's proof sheets. $4,000 - $6,000
    Bonhams, Apr. 8: Charles Schulz original 8-panel Peanuts Sunday comic strip, 1992, pen and ink over pencil, featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy as a psychiatrist. $20,000 - $30,000
  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Johnson (C.). A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pyrates, 1724. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ordonez de Cevallos (Pedro). Viage del Mundo, 1st edition, Madrid: Luis Sanchez, 1614. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: North America. Merian (Matthaus), Virginia..., 1627 or later. £1,500-2,500
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: World. Waldseemuller (Martin), Tabula Nova Totius Orbis, Vienne: 1541. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Erasmus (Desiderius). The ... paraphrase of Erasmus... 2 volumes, 1st edition, 1549. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Bible [English]. [The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament, 1562]. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Smith (Lucy). Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, 1st edition, 1853. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Derain (Andre). Pantagruel, signed limited edition, Albert Skira, 1943. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Austen (Jane). Pride and Prejudice, illustrated by Hugh Thomson, Large Paper edition, 1894. £1,500-2,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ellison (Ralph). Invisible Man, 1st edition, New York: Random House, 1952. £200-300
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Taschen Collector's Edition. Annie Leibovitz, limited edition, 2014. £1,000-1,500
  • Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate's yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 4: Various entertainers, Group of 30 items, signed or inscribed, various dates. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 27: John Adams, Autograph Letter Signed to Benjamin Rush introducing Archibald Redford, Paris, 1783. $35,000 to $50,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 36: Robert Gould Shaw, Autograph Letter Signed to his father from Camp Andrew, Boston, 1861. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 53: Martin Luther King Jr., Time magazine cover, signed and inscribed "Best Wishes," 1957. $5,000 to $7,500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 127: Paul Gauguin, Autograph Letter regarding payment for paintings, with woodcut letterhead, 1900. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 169: Suck: First European Sex Paper, complete group of eight issues, 1969-1974. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 173: Black Panthers, The Racist Dog Policemen Must Withdraw Immediately From Our Communities, poster, 1969. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 187: Marc Attali & Jacques Delfau, Les Erotiques du Regard, first edition, Paris, 1968. $300 to $500.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 213: Andy Warhol, Warhol's Index Book, first printing, New York, 1967. $800 to $1,200.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 215: Cookie Mueller, Archive of 17 items, including 4 items inscribed and signed. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 249: Jamie Reid, The Ten Lessons / The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle; Sex Pistols, chromogenic print with collage, signed, circa 1980. $20,000 to $30,000.

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