World's Fairs and Expositions from Marc Selvaggio.
By Michael Stillman
This month we have our first review for Marc Selvaggio, Bookseller. The Berkeley, California, bookseller starts us out with an exciting collection of fair books, World's Fairs and Expositions, 1851-1940. Nothing can generate excitement like a world's fair, and Selvaggio has over 500 pamphlets and other pieces pertaining to a century's worth of them. Here is a chance to relive the thrills.
The most represented fairs are: 1851 London, 1876 Philadelphia, 1888 Barcelona, 1889 Paris, 1893 Chicago, 1901 Buffalo, 1904 St. Louis, 1915 San Francisco, 1929 Barcelona, 1933-34 Chicago, 1937 Paris, 1939-40 San Francisco, and 1939-40 New York. However, smaller exhibitions are also represented, including ones held in Denver, Cincinnati, Brooklyn, New Orleans, Portland (Oregon), Seattle, Omaha, Ottumwa (Iowa), San Diego, Vienna, Moscow, Madrid, Stockholm, Brussels, and even the Philadelphia Sanitary Commission Fair held during the midst of the Civil War. Here are a few samples.
Item 31 is an album containing 212 photographs and captions (in English) from the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. This fair produced the most famous of fair buildings, the eyesore that came to be beloved by Parisians, the Eiffel Tower. It is shown in one of those pictures. Priced at $400.
Also from that Paris Fair comes Le Kansas en 1889. The copy was written by Emile Fermin, a French immigrant who helped settle Florence, Kansas. No, this wasn't Dorothy's Le Kansas. Item 29. $200.
Item 5 is a notebook prepared for America's centennial celebration in Philadelphia in 1876. The notebook points out that while there will be many printed reports on the centennial, "a diary or personal narrative of one's own observations and impressions may be made a most interesting souvenir." No one ever made this souvenir "interesting" as the pages are blank. You could still fill them in, but we would know you didn't really attend. $65.
Item 356 is the third volume of a three-volume set, Participations etrangers, covering foreign participants at the 1937 Paris International Exposition. This volume includes the German pavilion, designed by Hitler's personal architect Albert Speer. The Germans would return a few years later under much less welcoming conditions. $450.
By the time of the Golden Gate International Expo in San Francisco of 1940, war had broken out in Europe. Under the circumstances, the fair's theme of "Fun in the Forties" was a bit ironic. Item 364 is a four-page brochure marking Czechoslovak Day. Saturday, July 6, 1940. Czechoslovakia had been the first to fall to the German onslaught, and so this exhibit, first planned by the "Fallen Republic," was maintained by the "Committee for the Czechoslovak Cause." $20.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: APRES DE MANNEVILLETTE Le Neptune Oriental
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: CASSAS Eaux fortes de la Sicile et quelques vues d’Espagne
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: CASSINI DE THURY Carte générale et particulière de la France.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: JOUY; GARNERAY Vues des côtes de France dans l'Océan et dans la Méditerranée
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LA PÉROUSE Voyage autour du monde
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LE GENTIL DE LA GALAISIERE Voyage dans les Mers de l’Inde
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: LICENT Hoang Ho, Pai Ho, Loan Ho, Leao Ho. Itinéraires suivis dans le bassin du golfe du Pei Tcheuly
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: FRENCH SCHOOL FROM THE 19th CENTURY Panorama d’Athènes
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: PEETERS Description des principales villes, havres et isles du golfe de Venise
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: PÉRON; FREYCINET Voyage de découverte aux terres australes
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: STACKELBERG La Grèce : vues pittoresques et topographiques.
Gros & Delettrez, 7 November: VALENTINER Atlas des Sonnensystems.
Forum Auctions Online Sale: The Detective Fiction Collection of John Cooper Ending 7th November, 2024
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). The Thirteen Problems, first edition, The Crime Club, 1932. £15,000 to £20,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Dumb Witness, first edition, 1937. £3,000 to £4,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Cards on the Table, first edition, The Crime Club, 1936. £2,000 to £3,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: [Carr (John Dickson)], "Carter Dickson" and John Rhode. Drop to his Death, first edition, Heinemann, [1939]. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: Berkeley (Anthony). Jumping Jenny, first edition, Hodder and Stoughton, 1933. £800 to £1,200.
Forum Auctions Online Sale: The Detective Fiction Collection of John Cooper Ending 7th November, 2024
Forum, Nov. 7: Marsh (Ngaio). Overture to Death, first edition, The Crime Club, 1939. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: [Day-Lewis (Cecil)] "Nicholas Blake". The Beast Must Die, first edition, 1938. £750 to £1,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Brand (Christianna). Green for Danger, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, John Lane the Bodley Head, 1945. £600 to £800.
Forum, Nov. 7: Christie (Agatha). Murder is Easy, first edition, signed by the author, 1939. £3,000 to £4,000.
Forum, Nov. 7: Sayers (Dorothy L.) Lord Peter Views the Body, first edition, Gollancz, 1928. £6,000 to £8,000.
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
RareBookBuyer.com Specialized in Purchasing Institutional Collections & Deacccessioned Books
RareBookBuyer.com We Buy Librairies & Rare Books Nationwide ABAA Dealer
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
Freeman’s | Hindman Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana November 14
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: LEROUX, Gaston. The Phantom of the Opera. FIRST AM. ED, FIRST ISSUE IN THE VERY RARE DUST JACKET. 1911. $6,000 – 8,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: GOULD, John. A Monograph of the Trochilidae...Humming-Birds. L., [1849-] 1861. $60,000 – 80,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: A COMPLETE RUN of Limited Editions Club publications, v.p. [mostly New York], 1929-2010. $50,000 – 60,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: ORWELL, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Lon., 1949. FIRST EDITION IN A VERY FINE DUST JACKET. $6,000 – 8,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: GOULD. A Monograph of the Ramphastidae...Toucans. L., [1852-] 54. SECOND ED. $35,000 – 45,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14:The Federalist. NY, 1788. FIRST EDITION, THICK PAPER COPY. $60,000 – 80,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, Nov. 14: SELBY. Plates to Selby’s Illustrations of British Ornithology. Edin., [1833-] 34. $20,000 – 30,000.