Image of Hall Sisters' captivity on Bestebreurtje catalogue.
By Michael Stillman
Gert Jan Bestebreurtje Rare Books has issued their Catalogue 135 - A Summer Miscellany. This certainly is a miscellany, with all types of nonfiction works covering all corners of the globe. What we found surprising was the large number of American works offered by this Dutch bookseller. Many deal with political issues of the 19th century, with a large number concerned with America's most confounding issue of the time - slavery. We don't know exactly how these books made their way to the Netherlands, but undoubtedly some American collectors will want to bring a few home. Therefore, we will focus a bit more on the pieces of Americana, but with the caveat that there are many books herein pertaining to other lands, and written in European languages other than English. Now, we will take a look inside.
Bestebreurtje offers copies of two major speeches given in the American Senate in the year 1850 from two of her most famous orators, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Each spoke out in favor of the great yet doomed Compromise of 1850. Item 43 is the Speech of Henry Clay, of Kentucky, on taking up his compromise resolutions on the subject of slavery. Delivered on February 5 and 6, the comprise proposed consisted of several different parts, eventually admitting California into the Union as a free state and banning slave sales in the District of Columbia, favored by northerners, while opening the new territories in the west to slavery through popular sovereignty, and imposing enforcement of the fugitive slave laws on the north, positions favored by southerners. Priced at €65 (approximately $103 in US dollars). Item 227 is Daniel Webster's Speech upon the subject of slavery; delivered in the United States Senate on March 7, 1850. This is Webster's famed "Seventh of March" speech, and it destroyed the outstanding reputation he had built over half a century with his neighbors in the North. Webster's guiding light throughout his career was preservation of the Union, and in this speech he declared he was an American before a Northerner. He thereby accepted the hated Fugitive Slave Law, because he believed this compromise would preserve the Union. That it did, but only temporarily, and at the cost of Webster's reputation. €75 (US $118).
Item 82 is one of those terrible Indian Captivities: Narrative of the Capture and Providential Escape of Misses Frances and Almira Hall, Two Respectable Young Women (Sisters) of the Ages of 16 and 18 Who Were Taken Prisoners By the Savages, at a Frontier Settlement, Near Indian Creek, in May Last, When Fifteen of the Inhabitants Fell Victims to the Bloody Tomahawk and Scalping Knife; Among Whom Were the Parents of the Unfortunate Females. That sums up the gruesome tale, mitigated somewhat by the dubious accuracy of the story. Howes attributes the anonymous book to William P. Edwards, who wrote other similarly gruesome tales about Indians, and notes that the Hall sisters names were Rachel and Sylvia, not Frances and Almira. This might throw the quality of Edwards' research into doubt. The book also includes "the Sufferings of Philip Brigdon," in case those of the Hall Sisters isn't enough to make you angry with the Indians. While much of the accuracy herein is in doubt, the book does provide some insight into the Sac and Fox War in Illinois at the time of this publishing - 1832. A woodcut from this book is pictured on the catalogue's cover (click the thumbnail image above to see). €1,250 (US $1,975).
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate's yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. $10,000 to $20,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 4: Various entertainers, Group of 30 items, signed or inscribed, various dates. $1,500 to $2,500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 27: John Adams, Autograph Letter Signed to Benjamin Rush introducing Archibald Redford, Paris, 1783. $35,000 to $50,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 36: Robert Gould Shaw, Autograph Letter Signed to his father from Camp Andrew, Boston, 1861. $10,000 to $15,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 53: Martin Luther King Jr., Time magazine cover, signed and inscribed "Best Wishes," 1957. $5,000 to $7,500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 127: Paul Gauguin, Autograph Letter regarding payment for paintings, with woodcut letterhead, 1900. $6,000 to $9,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 169: Suck: First European Sex Paper, complete group of eight issues, 1969-1974. $800 to $1,200.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 173: Black Panthers, The Racist Dog Policemen Must Withdraw Immediately From Our Communities, poster, 1969. $2,000 to $3,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 187: Marc Attali & Jacques Delfau, Les Erotiques du Regard, first edition, Paris, 1968. $300 to $500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 213: Andy Warhol, Warhol's Index Book, first printing, New York, 1967. $800 to $1,200.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 215: Cookie Mueller, Archive of 17 items, including 4 items inscribed and signed. $3,000 to $4,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 249: Jamie Reid, The Ten Lessons / The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle; Sex Pistols, chromogenic print with collage, signed, circa 1980. $20,000 to $30,000.
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
Bonhams, Apr. 8: First report outside of the colonies of the American Revolution, from American accounts. Printed broadsheet, The London Evening-Post, May 30, 1775. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce, James. The earliest typescript pages from Finnegans Wake ever to appear at auction, annotated by Joyce, 1923. $30,000 - $50,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce's Ulysses, 1923, one of only seven copies known, printed to replace copies destroyed in customs. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S COPY, INSCRIBED. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento, 1667. $2,000 - $3,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713. "... first significant book on probability theory." $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Aristotle's Politica. Oeconomica. 1469. The first printed work on political economy. $80,000 - $120,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: John Graunt's Natural and political observations...., 1662. The first printed work of epidemiology and demographics. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: William Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786. The first work to pictorially represent information in graphics. $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Anson's A Voyage Round the World, 1748. THE J.R. ABBEY-LORD WARDINGTON COPY, BOUND BY JOHN BRINDLEY. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: La Perouse's Voyage de La Perouse autour du monde..., 1797. LARGE FINE COPY IN ORIGINAL BOARDS. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Charles Schulz original 8-panel Peanuts Sunday comic strip, 1992, pen and ink over pencil, featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy as a psychiatrist. $20,000 - $30,000