April Catalogue Review Book Collecting: Seeking a Southern Exposure
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Once in a while a dealer has enough material, spanning the five centuries since Columbus planted the Spanish flag in the new world, to issue a catalogue in date order that conveys the march of history. The Breitfelds do this and do it very well. For those of us in the northern half it is easy to ignore the extraordinary history just to the south. It was in fact South America that was discovered and explored first. When Ponce de Leon came ashore in Florida in 1513 to lay claim to what turned out to be North America he was looking for the fountain of youth. Discovery and development to the south was already under way while the first permanent settlement in North America would not be made until 1565 at St. Augustine. Even then Florida would remain a penciled note on the larger canvas that centered on the gold and silver deposits well to the south.
Those who collect Americana may stop at the water’s edge, never venture south, never cross the language barriers to Latin, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Italian, but in limiting their pursuit of the earliest materials to those in English they simply wipe the first 60 years of development of the new world off their literary map. The first obtainable (and only with patience and money) item in English is Richard Eden’s The Decades of the New World printed in 1554. If you really want to connect to the entire history of the new world you will want to inhabit the world that Alfredo & Gustavo Breitfeld bring to life in their newest catalogue. Of course, they are going to going to try to keep you south of the border. They want you to think of Mexico, Paraguay, Ecuador and Brazil the way Edward Eberstadt thought about Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado and California 80 years ago. In Eberstadt’s time the Americana relating to the western states was the undiscovered frontier of book collecting. Alfredo & Gustavo want you to think that way about the nations to the south.
DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s Geek Week 2-17 July | New York
Sotheby’s Geek Week 2-17 July | New York
Sotheby’s, July 15: Buzz Aldrin's FLOWN Apollo 11 Crew-Signed NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Cover. $15,000 to $20,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Lunar Surface Flown Mission Emblem Presented to Tom Stafford by John Young. $8,000 to $12,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s Geek Week 2-17 July | New York
Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Extensive Chronology of Spacecraft From Apollo to Skylab, Signed by a Member of Every Crewed Apollo Flight and the Commanders of Each Skylab Mission. $5,000 to $8,000.
![DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/4ce5fa1d-1943-4413-a80d-7b5c75383e7e.jpg "<b>DOYLE, July 23:</b> [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800")
![DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/fa635c85-6b12-44f2-8832-2087579574d9.jpg "<b>DOYLE, July 23:</b> [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. <i>Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions.</i> San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.")
![DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/af9f4e1a-90c2-428c-8d49-9624b070c7a9.jpg "<b>DOYLE, July 23:</b> TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. <i>Anna Karénina ... in eight parts.</i> New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600")
![Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/148a7ca4-9746-44c9-a75e-86229b6f10d2.png "<b>Forum, July 17:</b> Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.")
![Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/863855a8-4b41-4512-b168-a4a3eab5d6a6.png "<b>Forum, July 17:</b> Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.")
