• 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
  • 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€
    Gonnelli
    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€
    Gonnelli
    Auction 59
    Antique prints, paintings and maps
    May 20th 2025
    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€
    Gonnelli
    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€
  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    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
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    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
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    May 14
    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
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers
    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 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.

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - March - 2025 Issue

The Southern Confederacy at War from The George S. MacManus Co.

In Tall Cotton.

In Tall Cotton.

We are admittedly a bit late in reviewing this catalogue, but since most of the entries are around 150 years old, a few extra months is not that important. The catalogue is number 429 from The George S. MacManus Co., In Tall Cotton. Of course, “In Tall Cotton” is the most famous bibliography of the American Confederacy. This is not that “In Tall Cotton.” Instead, it is a selection of 207 items in MacManus' inventory that appeared in the original “In Tall Cotton.” These are stories about the “Lost Cause,” mostly from the time before the Confederates realized their cause was lost. They hung on as long as they could, and even after it was lost, they still did their best to justify the cause. Unfortunately, the Confederate cause suffered from one momentous shortcoming that made its defeat a moral necessity, and wasted the lives of so many young southern men. Such is war. These are a few selections.

 

This is one of the more thorough looks at the Confederate military considering it consists of 12 volumes. The title is Confederate Military History. A Library of Confederate States History, edited by Clement A. Evans, published in 1899. It has volumes for each state, with this set including the expanded West Virginia and Maryland volume. They were written by “Distinguished Men of the South,” which is to say, the volumes had different authors expert in their particular states. The bibliographic In Tall Cotton describes this as “A still excellent reference work for the embattled Confederacy.” Item 51. Priced at $900. Other copies without the expanded volume and in lesser condition are available for $100.

 

For an account of the Confederacy that is guaranteed not to be remotely objective, there is no better source than the Confederate President himself, Jefferson Davis. He remained obstinate to the end in his belief in the justness of his cause and his interpretation of the Constitution with regard to secession. He just couldn't let go. His book is The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, published in, of all places, New York, in 1881. In Tall Cotton says, “Conceals more than it reveals of the inner history of the Confederacy; mainly an argumentative dissertation on secession and states' rights.” Item 32. $4,000. Other copies are available for $1,000 and $2,000.

 

This next book is a legendary Confederate rarity, the highlight of any such collection if you are lucky enough to find a copy. Well, here is one. The title is Fourteen Hundred and 81 Days in the Confederate Army. The author was W. W. Heartsill. He served mostly with W. P. Lane's Rangers of Texas. He experienced just about the entire war, entering on April 19, 1861, and serving until May 20, 1865. He writes of his experiences as well as his thoughts on generals such as Braxton Bragg, Stonewall Jackson, and Albert Sidney Johnston. He describes the battles of Chicamauga and Vicksburg, and of being a prisoner of the Union Army. He was held in Virginia until released in a prisoner exchange. He then traveled back to Texas, after spending some time in Richmond, participating in the Battle of Chikamauga, then back through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. He then guarded Union prisoners in Tyler, Texas, before finally returning the rest of the way and being released from service. It is a good account by an ordinary ranger, but there is more that makes this book special and a great rarity. Heartsill did not have a publisher nor even a printer. He purchased a small novelty press and printed it himself, one page at a time, creating 100 copies in two years of his spare time. But, that was not all. He then solicited photographs from his fellow rangers, 61 of them, which he has named and mounted in each copy. He added a list of the rangers that had died between the date of their discharge and July 1876. William Williston Heartsill survived until 1916. Jenkins described this book as “the rarest and most coveted book on the Civil War.” Apparently, very few of the 100 copies have survived. In recognizing the difficulty of his task, Heartsill announces in the preface, that along with his bad grammar, “...a 'Second Edition' of this journal will never be printed by the undersigned on an Octavo Novelty Press.” However, there have been a few reprints in the second half of the twentieth century. Item 95. $55,000.

 

This is Martin Hardwick Hall's account of Sibley's New Mexico Campaign, published in 1960 by the University of Texas Press. Henry Hopkins Sibley led the Confederates farthest penetration into the West. He had big plans. He would lead a group of Texas volunteers on a mission up the Rio Grande from Texas to Santa Fe, and then capture Fort Union near the Colorado border on the Santa Fe Trail. That would enable him to capture the unguarded gold fields of Colorado, to refill the South's depleted treasury, and then move on to California where he would open a port on the Pacific. This was important as the Confederates had no access to any ocean ports because of the Union blockade in the East. Sibley's forces met little resistance as they marched up the Rio Grande to Albuquerque, then Santa Fe, and on to Glorieta Pass, which would open up an easy route to poorly manned Fort Union. However, a contingent of Colorado volunteers trying to protect their land joined Union forces at Glorieta Pass, realizing this was their last opportunity to stop the invaders. It was a long, fierce battle, but Confederate forces gradually gained the upper hand. However, the Union side came up with a plan Sibley was not prepared for. A group of Union men managed to climb down dangerous cliffs on the other side of the pass unseen. They then attacked Sibley's unguarded supply train from the rear. They burned the 80 supply wagons, spiked the canon, and killed or drove off 500 horses and mules. With no supplies, the Confederates could go no farther. They were forced to retreat, making a ragtag run back to Texas while Union soldiers attacked them from ridges along the Rio Grande. The Confederates never attempted to go farther west again. Item 87. $125.

 

The Union blockade of southern ports did more than just keep arms from reaching the Confederates and interfere with cotton shipments. It denied the South access to basic products needed in everyday life. They needed some alternatives. Francis Peyre Porcher was there to lend a hand. His book is Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural. Being also a Medical Botany of the Southern States; with Practical Information on the Useful Properties of the Trees, Plants, and Shrubs. It was published mid-war, in 1863. Porcher was called on by the Confederate Surgeon General to identify medicinal plants found in the South. The result was this work. Item 158. $5,000.

 

The George S. MacManus Co. may be reached at 610-520-7273 or books@macmanus-rarebooks.com. Their website is www.macmanus-rarebooks.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books
    Auction May 26th
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
    Ketterer Rare Books, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
  • Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
    Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
    Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
    Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
    Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
    Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
    Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
    Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
    Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
    Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.

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