• 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
  • 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.
  • Koller Auctions
    Books & Autographs
    20 March 2024
    Koller, Mar. 20: DADA - Der Zeltweg. Redaktion: Flake, Serner, Tzara. Zürich, 1919. CHF 5,000 – 8,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Jespers, Floris - Peeters, Jan. Kinderlust. Antwerpen, J. F. Bogaerts & R. R. Dodson, [1923]. CHF 2,000 – 3,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: FARBENLEHRE - Chevreul, M. E. De la Loi du contraste simultané des couleurs et de l'assortiment des objets colorés. Paris, 1839. CHF 4,000 – 5,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: BOTANIK - Schrank, Franz de Paula von. Flora Monacensis, seu plantae sponte circa Monachium nascentes. München, 1811-1818. CHF 20,000 – 30,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: French Bible manuscript. Latin manuscript on parchment. With 81 illuminated, ornamental and figurative initials. Paris, c. 1250. CHF 90,000 – 120,000
    Koller Auctions
    Books & Autographs
    20 March 2024
    Koller, Mar. 20: Gradual for the use of a Dominican convent. Latin manuscript on parchment, with Flemish rubrics in black and red. Mecheln (?), c. 1520. CHF 25,000 – 40,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Calendar. French manuscript on parchment. With 12 large colored thorn leaf initials on a gold background. Paris, c. 1380/1390. CHF 40,000 – 60,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Freud, Sigmund. Collection of 23 handwritten letters to Alphonse Maeder in Zurich. In addition to 4 letter drafts from Maeder to Freud. 2 February 1910 - 21 September 1913. CHF 50,000 – 80,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Jung, Carl Gustav. Collection of 26 autograph and 3 typescript letters and a postcard to Alphonse Maeder. 1911-1918. CHF 20,000 – 30,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Nietzsche, Friedrich, philosopher. Handwritten letter signed to Richard Wagner. Basel, September 27, 1876. CHF 20,000 to 30,000
  • 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

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - September - 2022 Issue

Recently Acquired Material in the Law from The Lawbook Exchange

All about the law.

The Lawbook Exchange has published a catalogue of Recently Acquired Rare Books and Manuscripts in Law and Related Fields, America, Great Britain and Europe 1846-2020. Or, using the short title, Catalogue 103. It is filled with titles relating to the law, law books for practitioners, important cases, personal effects of notable jurists and lawyers, and a great number of salacious case histories, usually involving murders and subsequent hangings. A couple of centuries ago justice was swift, unapologetic, and irreversible. Entertainment through gruesome morality tales was popular with the literary public of the time. Here are a few items from this selection.

 

We begin with an item from the first American edition of William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, better known as Blackstone's Commentaries. This is volume four (only), published in 1772. It belonged to Virginia's influential Byrd family, intimately involved in the state's politics for centuries. It apparently came from the library of William Byrd III, containing signatures of his second wife, Mary Willing Byrd, and two of his sons, Francis Otway Byrd and William Powell Byrd. A couple of annotations are found which testifies to the progressive attitude of its owner. Where Blackstone refers to “Offenses against God and Religion” saying “Doubtless the preservation of Christianity, as a national religion...” the annotation reads “Bill of Rights of Va. 16.” Where Blackstone writes of “These [forms of blasphemy] are offences punishable at common law by fine and imprisonment, or other infamous corporal punishment...” the annotation says, “happy for Va the same has by the 16 article of the Bill of Rights been referred to conscience.” That article provides that “religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence.” Unlike the European powers, America was choosing a path of tolerance. Item 12. Priced at $2,500.

 

Next is a speech by one of the most famous legal orators in American history, Clarence Darrow. Darrow was called in to defend a man popular with workers, but not with the powerful, accused of murder. William “Big Bill” Haywood was the leader of the Western Federation of Miners in 1905. The victim was Frank Steunenberg, a former governor of Idaho, one-time friend of workers but who brought in the military to put down unrest after a non-union mine was destroyed. A few years later, he was assassinated, and after initially claiming innocence, Harry Orchard, a miner, confessed. However, hoping for mercy, Orchard implicated several union leaders in a plot to commit the assassination, Haywood included. It was a long trial, hundreds of witnesses for both parties, concluding with a lengthy closing statement by Darrow. It was emotional and atypical of closing arguments, but it resulted in an unexpected acquittal of Haywood. Orchard was sentenced to life. The publication of his statement (1908) is titled Sytton: Lakimies Clarence S. Darrowin Paatajaispuhe Haywood Jutussa Idahossa. If you are struggling with that one, it means “Blameless: The Speech of Clarence S. Darrow in the Haywood Case in Idaho,” in Finnish. The reason for this translation is that there was a large community of Finnish miners in the upper peninsula of Michigan who admired Darrow for his defense of laborers. Item 42. $650.

 

Here is another defense of liberties. Item 120 is from playwright George Bernard Shaw. This is one of 250 copies of the only edition of Shaw's statement in 1909: Statement of the Evidence in Chief of George Bernard Shaw Before the Joint-Committee on Stage Plays. Shaw was dedicated to ending censorship in the theater. It was prepared for the Parliamentary committee, but, perhaps anticipating Shaw's position, they would not let him read it out loud and did not print it in their report. Shaw had to have these copies privately printed himself. It took a long time, but censorship in the theater was finally abolished in 1968, 18 years after Shaw died. $450.

 

Society has never quite known how to deal with people having mental or other attributes outside of the mainstream. Parliament enacted a couple of laws back in 1740 to address these issues. Item 57 contains two such acts. The first is An Act for Amending and Enforcing the Laws Relating to Rogues, Vagabonds, And Other Idle and Disorderly Persons... It deals with treatment and confinement of people “of little or no Estates, who by Lunacy, or otherwise, are furiously mad or so far disordered in their senses” as to pose a public risk. The act made it legal to imprison such people without charge. The second is An Act to Prevent the Marriage of Lunaticks. This act disallows the marriage of “Persons who have the Misfortune to become Lunaticks,” as they are “liable to be surprized into unsuitable Marriages.” Item 57. $650.

 

If you want to read about crime and criminals, all the gory details, there were publications in 18th century London to keep you abreast of all the latest news. The Newgate Calendar began as a monthly publication of executions from the keeper of the Newgate prison. However, that title was later appropriated by various publishers who printed sensational accounts of crime and punishment to entertain the masses. Item 37 is such a publication, The Malefactor's Register, Or, The Newgate and Tyburn Calendar. It was published in 1779. We will let the publisher describe it further: “Containing the authentic lives, trials, accounts of executions, and dying speeches, of the most notorious violators of the laws of their country, who have suffered death, and other exemplary punishments...from 1700 to lady-day 1779.” It continues, “and complete narratives of all the capital trials for bigamy, burglary, felony, forgery, highway-robbery, high treason, murder, petit-treason, piracy, rapes, riots, street-robbery, unnatural crimes, and various other offences.” If that doesn't pique the reader's interest I don't know what will. $3,000.

 

The Lawbook Exchange may be reached at 732-382-1800 or law@lawbookexchange.com. Their website is www.lawbookexchange.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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.

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