Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2019 Issue

Children's Books from Shapero Rare Books

Children's Books.

Children's Books.

Oh to be young again! Shapero Rare Books is offering a new catalogue of Children's Books. It is filled with familiar names whose books you read once upon a time - Seuss, Milne, Potter (Beatrix, not Harry), Rowling (your kids read her even if she came along too late for your youth), Carroll, Disney, Sendak, and Baum. Other names are more obscure. Some you don't always associate with children's books, such as Ian Fleming, or how about a Darwin? They're all here and more, and no, you can't be young again, but you can remember. These books will help do that. Here are a few samples.

 

We begin with a story that is something like what you would expect from its author, but also different. The author is L. Frank Baum, and this book is not Kansas, nor Oz for that matter. It is the story of a boy who is fascinated with electricity. The title is The Master Key: An Electrical Fairy Tale, Founded Upon the Mysteries of Electricity and the Optimism of Its Devotees. It was published in 1901. That was the year after the publication of the first of the Oz books. In this story, the protagonist is a boy who is constantly playing with electrical devices. He gets a bit careless and sets off a reaction that opens the master key to electricity. It makes its presence known through the Demon of Electricity. The Demon promises three gifts a week for three weeks, and when the boy does not know what to request, the Demon makes the choices. In hindsight, we now know that many of the fantastic gifts he brought are things that have since been created by technological advances since 1901. There are gifts that provide communications around the world like a cell phone, news from everywhere like the internet, body armor, a taser-like device, and some things not yet created but coming soon, such as a pill that provides enough food for a day. Ultimately, the boy concludes society is not yet ready for all of this, and our use of some of these things today makes it questionable whether we are ready for them yet. Item 8. Priced at £380 (British pounds, or approximately $474 in U.S. dollars).

 

Here is a book that is even less expected for its author. If a Fleming or Darwin writing a children's book is surprising, how about Dr. Seuss writing one for adults? The dust jacket notes this is a good book to buy for your children, so long as you give it to them for their 70th birthday. The title is You're Only Old Once! A Book for Obsolete Children. It was Seuss' last book, published in 1986, when he was 82 years old. Seuss had spent more time than he liked in hospital waiting rooms. He began sketching the machines he saw in typical Seussian fashion. The result is now even old folks can read a Dr. Seuss book without feeling guilty. Besides, if you have to go to a hospital, who would you rather have as your attending physician than Dr. Seuss? This copy has been signed by the Doctor himself. Item 96. £580 (US $723).

 

Usually, an edition of a book encompassing the 82nd thousands of copies is not the most desirable. This is not, obviously, a rare or valuable book on its own. However, an inscription can change that judgment in a hurry. Item 24 is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, published in 1886, two decades after the first edition. This copy was inscribed by Lewis Carroll (pen name for the author and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) to "Ida Georgina Weddell from the Author Sep. 15 1886". As usual, Dodgson/Carroll got around the name issue by inscribing it from "the author." Weddell and her siblings were young neighbors of "the author" at the time. They fit into the category of his many "child friends," the nature of whose relationships with Carroll remain a subject for endless speculation and interpretation by scholars. £3,900 (US $4,846).

 

It's not that obscure that Ian Fleming wrote a children's book (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), but who was the Darwin? The answer is Bernard Darwin. If Bernard doesn't ring a bell, and it probably doesn't, he was closely related to the one you do know. He was Charles Darwin's grandson. He was the son of Francis Darwin, who worked closely with his father in the latter's later years. Bernard grew up in Charles and Emma Darwin's home. His mother died shortly after his birth. He was a journalist and writer, but even so, the children's book is somewhat surprising. Bernard was a very good amateur golfer and most of his career was spent as a journalist and book author on topics related to golf. However, he and his wife, Elinor, wrote some children's stories and these are two of them: The Tale of Mr. Tootleoo (1925) and Tootleoo Two (1927). The provenance of these books is shown by the signature on the first volume, Henry Blofeld (aka "Blowers"), a fellow sports journalist focused more on cricket. Item 38. £275 (US $341).

 

Here is a book that Shapero describes as a "modern classic of children's literature." The title is The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. You might think it is about one of those cameras that have replaced real tollbooths, that photographs your license plate and sends out a bill. However, thankfully, those did not yet exist in 1961. It is the story of a bored boy who passes through a phantom tollbooth into a magical world. It has been compared to the previously mentioned Alice or Oz books, but this world of strange logic is based on language and math play and puns. So, Milo (the boy) starts out in a town called "Expectations," gets stuck in "Doldrums," befriends a dog with clocks on his side ("a watchdog"), passes the "Mountains of Ignorance," and is served a meal where people get to eat their words. Juster's purpose was to encourage young people to think, and the greatest piece of wisdom Milo learns is there is much exciting going on right here in the world he previously thought was boring. After a stint in the navy, Juster rented an apartment in New York and got a job as an architect. While he wrote several books along the way, his primary career remained as an architect and professor of architecture. He rented that apartment in New York with two other young men, one of whom was Jules Feiffer, one of the greatest cartoonists of the past 60 years. Feiffer supplied the illustrations. This is a first edition, first issue, with the first issue dust jacket, signed by Juster. Incidentally, both Juster and Feiffer turned 90 this year. Item 58. £1,500 (US $1,865).

 

Shapero Rare Books may be reached at +44 (0)20 7493 0876 or rarebooks@shapero.com. Their website is www.shapero.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • GonnelliAuction 59Antique prints, paintings and mapsMay 20th 2025 GonnelliAuction 59Antique prints, paintings and mapsMay 20th 2025
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    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
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    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
    Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
    Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
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    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
    Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
    Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
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    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
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    Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
    Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
    Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
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    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
    Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
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    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
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    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: (Choiseul-Gouffier, Marie). Voyage Pittoresque de la Grece, 2 vols, 1st edition, 1782-1822. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Gentlemen's Magazine and Historical Chronicle, by Sylvanus Urban, 11 volumes. £700-1,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Shackleton (Ernest). The Heart of the Antarctic, 2 vols, 1st ed, presentation copy, 1909. £2,000-3,000
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    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Drayton (Michael). Poly Olbion..., London: 1622. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Scheuchzer (Johann Jacob). Ouresiphoites Helveticus, 4 parts in 1, 2nd ed, 1723. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Roberts (Henry, after). Chart of the NW Coast of America and NE Coast of Asia ..., [1784]. £500-800
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    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Maffei (Giovanni), Indiarum orientalium Occidentaliumque Descriptio..., 1589. £1,200-1,500
    Dominic Winter, May 14: World. Ortelius (Abraham), Typus Orbis Terrarum, [1598]. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Bible [English]. [The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New..., 1613]. £2,000-3,000
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    May 14
    Printed Books & Maps, Travel, Atlases & Exploration
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Taylor (John). All the Workes of John Taylor the Water-Poet..., 1630. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, May 14: Pierpont Morgan Collection. Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains, 1904 & 1906. £2,000-3,000
  • Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000. Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 4: Helena Bochoráková-Dittrichová, Z Mého Detství Drevoryty, Prague: Obzina, 1929. First trade edition, signed by the artist. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 10: Nancy Cunard, Negro Anthology, with a tipped-in A.L.S. to Karl Marx's niece, 1934. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 14: Margaret Fuller, Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845. First edition. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 17: Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun, inscribed first edition, 1959. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 28: Margaret Hill Morris, Private Journal Kept during a Portion of the Revolutionary War, for the Amusement of a Sister, 1836. First edition. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 38: Anna Sewell, Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse, 1877. First edition. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 43: Gertrude Stein, Portrait of Mabel Dodge at the Villa Curonia, signed presentation copy with photograph of Stein, 1912. First edition. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 48: Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, first edition in the scarce dust jacket, 1927. $6,000 to $8,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 54: Katherine Dunham, large archive of material from her attorney, 1951-53. $20,000 to $30,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 55: Margaret Fuller Signed Autograph Letter, New York City, 1846. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 92: Sonia Delaunay, illus. & Tristan Tzara, Juste Present, deluxe edition with original gouache, 1961. $20,000 to $25,000.
    Swann, May 15: Lot 93: Flor Garduño, The Sonnets of Shakespeare, 2006. Limited edition. $6,000 to $8,000.
  • Sotheby'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts Sotheby'sSell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
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    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
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    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

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