• Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. 11,135 USD
    Sotheby’s: Edgar Allan Poe. The Raven and Other Poems, 1845. 33,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Leo Tolstoy, Clara Bow. War and Peace, 1886. 22,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1902. 7,500 USD
    Sotheby’s: F. Scott Fitzgerald. This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, and Others, 1920-1941. 24,180 USD
  • Gonnelli:
    Auction 55
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    November 26st 2024
    Gonnelli: Stefano Della Bella, 23 animal plances,1641. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli: Stefano Della Bella, Boar Hunt, 1654. Starting price 180€
    Gonnelli: Crispijn Van de Passe, The seven Arts, 1637. Starting price 600€
    Gonnelli: Giuseppe Maria Mitelli, La Maschera è cagion di molti mali, 1688. Starting price 320€
    Gonnelli: Biribissor’s game, 1804-15. Starting price 2800€
    Gonnelli: Nicolas II de Larmessin, Habitats,1700. Starting price 320€
    Gonnelli: Miniature “O”, 1400. Starting price 1800€
    Gonnelli: Jan Van der Straet, Hunt scenes, 1596. Starting Price 140€
    Gonnelli: Massimino Baseggio, Costantinople, 1787. Starting price 480€
    Gonnelli: Kawanabe Kyosai, Erotic scene lighten up by a candle, 1860. Starting price 380€
    Gonnelli: Duck shaped dropper, 1670. Starting price 800€
  • Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 37: Archive of the pioneering woman artist Arrah Lee Gaul, most 1911-59. $3,000 to $4,000.
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 66: Letter describing the dropping water level at Owens Lake near Death Valley, long before it was drained, Keeler, CA, 26 July 1904. $3,000 to $4,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 102: To Horse, To Horse! My All for a Horse! The Washington Cavalry, illustrated Civil War broadside, Philadelphia, 1862. $4,000 to $6,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 135: Album of cyanotype views of the Florida panhandle and beyond, 224 photographs, 174 of them cyanotypes, Apalachicola, FL and elsewhere, circa 1895-1896. $1,200 to $1,800
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 154: Catalogue of the Library of the United States, as acquired from Thomas Jefferson, Washington, 1815. $15,000 to $25,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 173: New Englands First Fruits, featuring the first description of Harvard in print, London, 1643. $40,000 to $60,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 177: John P. Greene, Original manuscript diary of a mission to western New York with Joseph Smith, 1833. $60,000 to $90,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 243: P.E. Larson, photographer, Such is Life in the Far West: Early Morning Call in a Gambling Hall, Goldfield, NV, circa 1906. $2,500 to $3,500
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 261: Fred W. Sladen, Diaries of a WWII colonel commanding troops from Morocco to Italy to France, 1942-44. $3,000 to $4,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 309: Los mexicanos pintados por si mismos, por varios autores, a Mexican plate book. Mexico, 1854-1855. $2,000 to $3,000
    Swann, Nov. 21: Lot 8: Diaries of a prospector / trapper in the remote Alaska wilderness, 5 manuscript volumes. Alaska, 1917-64. $1,500 to $2,500.
  • Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia, [col commento di Jacopo della Lana e Martino Paolo Nidobeato, curata da Martino Paolo Nidobeato e Guido da Terzago. Aggiunto Il Credo], 1478
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Commedia [Commento di Christophorus Landinus, edita da Piero da Figino. Aggiunte le Rime diverse; Marsilius Ficinius, Ad Dantem gratulatio], 1491
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Lactantius, Lucius Coelius Firmianus - Opera, 1465
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - Le terze rime di Dante, 1502
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Boccaccio, Giovanni - Il Decamerone. Di messer Giouanni Boccaccio, 1516
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Giordano Bruno - Candelaio comedia del Bruno nolano achademico di nulla achademia; detto il fastidito. In tristitia hilaris: in hilaritate tristis, 1582
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Petrarca, Francesco - Le cose volgari di Messer Francesco Petrarcha, 1504
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Legatura - Manoscritto - Medici - Cosimo III de' Medici / Solari, Giuseppe - I Ritratti Medicei overo Glorie e Grandezze della sempre sereniss. Casa Medici..., 1678
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Alighieri, Dante - La Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri con varie annotazioni, e copiosi Rami adornata, 1757
    Finarte, Nov 20-21: Lot containing 80 printed guides and publications dedicated to travel and itineraries in Italy

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - November - 2024 Issue

Great Literature from Whitmore Rare Books

Catalogue 27 from Whitmore Rare Books.

Catalogue 27 from Whitmore Rare Books.

Whitmore Rare Books has issued their Catalogue 27. Whitmore specializes in the great literary works. That includes both fiction and nonfiction, great novels and historic works, poetry, science, even children's books and a dictionary. If the books are noteworthy, they may show up in a Whitmore catalogue. Here are a few selections from this latest collection.

 

We begin with the first published edition (second edition) of the book that turned children's literature on its head. Children's books were generally rather moralistic fare until Alice's Adventures in Wonderland came along. Instead of telling children what to think, it made them think, its twisted logic fascinating children and soon, adults as well. The author was logician, mathematician, and children's portrait photographer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, though readers knew him by his pen name, Lewis Carroll. Alice, and there was a real Alice, was the daughter of friends. Dodgson liked to tell stories so Alice asked him to tell one about her. The book was originally printed in 1865, but illustrator John Tenniel was displeased with the reproduction of his images and demanded the pages be withdrawn. A few copies were bound but not published, which is why what is technically the second edition of 1866 is the first published edition. The extremely rare first is essentially unobtainable. Item 8. Priced at $50,000.

 

Many people consider this the most important science text ever written. Considering that it is competing against the likes of Newton and Einstein, that is quite an honor. The book is On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Its importance is that unlike the works of those other greats, who taught us how better to look at the universe, Charles Darwin made us look at ourselves in a completely new way. The bad news was, we are no longer the center of the universe, a message many people did not want to hear. This is a copy of the first edition, published in 1859, one of 1,250 copies printed. It didn't take long to sell out. Item 15. $135,000.

 

Here is that dictionary, and it is an amazing feat by Samuel Johnson, its author. Most lexicographers get to crib from preceding dictionaries, but there weren't any of much substance when Johnson took on the task in 1747. How can you think of all the words? He must have missed some, but Johnson came up with 42,773 in the nine years it took him to complete his dictionary. Printing and the Mind of Man described what Johnson accomplished as “the most amazing, enduring and endearing one-man feat in the field of lexicography.” Johnson read great writers such as Shakespeare, Milton and Locke in his search for words. He then had to come up with definitions for each. Item 39 is a 1755 first edition of A Dictionary of the English Language. $19,500.

 

Its hard to imagine that anyone spending nine years writing an almost 43,000 word dictionary could have had any life, but he must have as here is The Life of Samuel Johnson, bound with The Principal Corrections and Additions to the First Edition of Mr. Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson. These are first editions, 1791, 1793. Actually, the much younger Boswell only met Johnson long after he had finished his dictionary. Johnson was some sort of wit and public celebrity, and James Boswell quickly turned into a friend and slavish admirer. Boswell was an extreme note-taker, and wrote down practically everything Johnson said. Assisted by his copious notes and Johnson's own diary, Boswell wrote what has become the standard for biographies, perhaps the greatest one ever written. Light on the first 50 years of Johnson's life, it is intensely focused on those last years when Boswell knew the elder man. Ultimately, the two became intertwined in history. Johnson, for all of his reputation a couple of centuries ago, would be mostly forgotten today, as would Boswell except for this book. They made each other into historic figures, for whatever that is worth. Item 4. $9,500.

 

This is not Ernest Hemingway's greatest work, but it is his first and rarest making it the most valuable. The title is Three Stories and Ten Poems. The three stories had never been published before, but some of the poems had. It was printed in a run of just 300 copies. Hemingway was unknown at the time, but thanks to this and other writings, that quickly changed. This copy contains an inscription from Hemingway to Ernest Walsh and Ethel Moorhead, editors of Paris literary magazine This Quarter. Item 36. $150,000.

 

This is not the oldest nor greatest literary achievement in this catalogue. It is actually the newest book and is unlikely to ever be compared to Shakespeare. However, its extraordinary popularity, particularly with younger people, has made it the leading book sensation of the past three decades. It is in reality a series, but this is the first book in that series – Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling. When this first edition was published, Rowling was as obscure as Hemingway when he published his Three Stories. Obscurity would not last long for Rowling either. Whitmore notes that “Harry Potter is the most successful book franchise of all time, with over 600 million copies of the books in print.” Only 500 copies of this hardback first printing were made, half of which went to libraries where users made them less than desirable for collectors. This one was privately owned. Is Harry Potter a lasting literary treasure or a phenomenon of its time, to be mostly forgotten a century from now? I don't know. It brings to mind the $12 million spent on a Mickey Mantle baseball card. Will much of anyone know who Mickey Mantle was a century from now? These are questions we will have to leave to our great grandchildren to answer. Item 63. $225,000.

 

Whitmore Rare Books may be reached at 626-714-7720 or info@whitmorerarebooks.com. Their website is www.WhitmoreRareBooks.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 51. Ortelius' Influential Map of the New World - Second Plate in Full Contemporary Color (1579) Est. $5,500 - $6,500
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 165. Reduced-Size Edition of Jefferys/Mead Map with Revolutionary War Updates (1776) Est. $4,750 - $6,000
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 688. Blaeu's Superb Carte-a-Figures Map of Africa (1634) Est. $3,000 - $3,750
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 105. Striking Map of French Colonial Possessions (1720) Est. $2,750 - $3,500
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 98. Rare First Edition of the First Published Plan of a Settlement in North America (1556) Est. $3,000 - $3,750
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 181. Important Map of the Georgia Colony (1748) Est. $2,750 - $3,500
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 547. Ortelius' Map of Russia with a Vignette of Ivan the Terrible in Full Contemporary Color (1579) Est. $1,400 - $1,700
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 85. Homann's Decorative Map of Colonial America (1720) Est. $1,600 - $1,900
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 642. Blaeu's Magnificent Carte-a-Figures Map of Asia (1634) Est. $3,000 - $3,750
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 748. The Martyrdom of St. John in Contemporary Hand Color with Gilt Highlights (1520) Est. $1,000 - $1,300
    Old World Auctions (Nov 6-20):
    Lot 298. Scarce Early Map of Chester County (1822) Est. $2,750 - $3,500
  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    H. Schedel, Liber chronicarum, 1493. Est: € 25,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    P. O. Runge, Farben-Kugel, 1810. Est: € 8,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    W. Kandinsky, Klänge, 1913. Est: € 20,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    W. Burley, De vita et moribus philosophorum, 1473. Est: € 4,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    M. B. Valentini, Viridarium reformatum seu regnum vegetabile, 1719. Est: € 12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    PAN, 10 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: € 15,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    J. de Gaddesden, Rosa anglica practica medicinae, 1492. Est: € 12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    M. Merian, Todten-Tanz, 1649. Est: € 5,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    D. Hammett, Red harvest, 1929. Est: € 11,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction November 25th
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    Book of hours, Horae B. M. V., 1503. Est: € 9,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    J. Miller, Illustratio systematis sexualis Linneai, 1792. Est: € 8,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, Nov. 25:
    F. Hundertwasser, Regentag – Look at it on a rainy day, 1972. Est: € 8,000

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