• Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - July - 2019 Issue

Photographic Treasures from the 19th Century Rare Book & Photograph Shop

Photographic Treasures.

The 19th Century Rare Book & Photograph Shop has issued a catalogue devoted to the latter of those two specialties. It is titled Photographic Treasurers. Naturally, 19th century photographs are going to be early, the first somewhat usable photographs having been developed in 1839. Some of the photos herein bleed over to the 20th century, as late as 1969, but there is much very early, as far back as the 1840s. The photographs selected for this catalogue are special, productions of great photographers, works of art, portraits of important people, features that make them extraordinary. Some are unusually large, especially considering their era. If a picture is worth a thousand words, those must be worth many thousands. Here are a few selections from this catalogue of photographs.

 

We begin with a collection of 40 mammoth plate photographs of the American West taken in 1863-1874 by Carleton Watkins. Watkins was able to create his spectacular photos by using his mammoth plates, affording the ability to capture greater detail than other photographs of this time. His camera could accommodate plates 18" x 22". These photographs are 16" x 20". He had a special cabinet made to hold the glass plates. It all weighed almost 2,000 pounds. Watkins got a wagon, hitched up a team of mules, and went out into the wilderness to take his photographs. This collection contains numerous pictures of Yosemite and some extremely rare ones from Utah. His photographs of Pulpit Rock and The Sentinel in Echo Canyon, Utah, are known only in two other copies. In 1876, Watkins took his photographs to Philadelphia for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, America's first world's fair. These are evidently ones he displayed there. Each is titled and attributed in a skilled calligraphic hand. Watkins commissioned master calligrapher Fulgenzio Seregni or his followers to label the photographs for his display at the fair. The collection was purchased by the 19th Century Shop from a Philadelphia family which identifies them as being the ones exhibited at the 1876 exhibition. Price On Request.

 

The stern face on the cover of this catalogue belongs to one of the great orators, senators, and holders of other important government positions during the first half of the 19th century. Along with Webster, Clay, and Benton, John C. Calhoun was one of the major forces in government through the sheer power of his words. Along with several terms as a senator and congressman, as well as Secretary of War and Secretary of State, Calhoun served two terms as Vice-President, under separate Presidents, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Unlike the others, who came from northern or border states, Calhoun represented the Deep South, South Carolina specifically. While early in their careers, the Era of Good Feelings, these great leaders who never became President were more closely aligned, the division between North and South separated Calhoun more as the years went by. In his second term as Vice-President, a rift developed between Calhoun and Jackson, much of it personal, but partly based on the emerging Nullification Crisis when South Carolina first threatened to secede. After Jackson beat this back, the divisions North vs. South continued to widen over the issue of slavery and Calhoun became slavery's greatest defender in the Senate. By the end of his life, in 1850, Calhoun was issuing dire warnings that Northern abolitionism was leading to a break down of the nation and Civil War. His warnings were not just observations but could be seen as support for such a move if any steps were taken by the federal government which might interfere with the South's "peculiar institution." The daguerreotype of Calhoun offered was taken in 1849, the year before his death, when he was 67 years of age. The photographer was one of the greats, Mathew Brady. He photographed many of the notable people in these early days of photography and operated a very popular portrait gallery. His camera preserved the images of Presidents Jackson and Adams, each of whom died in the early days of photography. He would later go on to be known for his photographs of the Civil War. Pictures of Calhoun are extraordinarily rare, the only other such large photograph, also taken by Brady, at the Beinecke Library at Yale University. $650,000.

 

For the sake of regional and political balance, here is another Mathew Brady photograph, though it comes 16 years later. This one is a cabinet card, and it is signed by Brady to J. E. Kelly. The photograph is of Ulysses S. Grant. Grant is seated, legs crossed, in military uniform. He carries the four stars of a four-star general, the photograph preceding his time as President by several years. The 19th Century Shop notes that there are many "signed" Brady photographs, but the great majority were signed by assistants in his studio. This one contains Brady's distinctive scrawl. Despite being a great photographer, Brady had very poor eyesight and was semi-literate. It made for a distinctive, though messy signature. J. E. Kelly was a sculptor and illustrator who, like Brady, concentrated on Civil War depictions at the time. $52,000.

 

Long before there was Disneyland and the myriad other theme parks of today, there was Coney Island. Coney Island isn't itself an amusement part. It includes residences and other features, but this piece of New York City was its premier beach and amusement park area in the first half of the 19th century. It drew in millions of visitors each year. Offered is a large panorama (9" x 48") of Coney Island in 1907. It was at its height of popularity then. The most dominant feature in this panorama is Dreamland. At this time, there were three major amusement parks on Coney Island, but the tall Dreamland towered over them all. Dreamland, designed to put competitors Luna Park and Steeplechase Park to shame, opened in 1904. Marked by its tower with one million electric light bulbs (still a relatively new invention), it was an amazing sight. It did not last long. Just before its season opening in 1911, a fire started in Hell's Gate, ironically, a water ride. It quickly spread throughout the park. Dreamland was totally destroyed, never to be rebuilt. $4,500.

 

Now, we will move ahead to more recent history. This one is out of this world. It is a picture of Neil Armstrong, the first human to step on the moon, next to the recently planted U. S. flag. The photograph was taken by Buzz Aldrin, the pilot of the lunar landing module. This is a large photograph, 20" x 16". It has been inscribed by the three members of the Apollo 11 mission, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Michael Collins, pilot of the command module. It is inscribed to William and Peggy Burden. William Burden was an heir to the Vanderbilt fortune who made his own fortune in aviation securities. $28,000.

 

The 19th Century Rare Book & Photograph Shop can be reached at 347-529-4534 or 410-602-3002, or at info@19thshop.com. Their website is found at www.19thshop.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas

Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions