Just “Catalogue 89” From <br>James Cummins, Bookseller
Notes on Motor Carriages from 1896.
Here is one of those items that really touches on the emotional conflicts of war. It is a brief signed note from Harriet Beecher Stowe to a photographer in Boston. From around May 1861, she asks the photographer to take a picture of her daughter so that her son Frederick would have one to take with him as he “leaves for the seat of war on Saturday.” One of the most important anti-slavery voices ever, Stowe was a strong supporter of the Union cause in the Civil War, and was publicly grateful to the young men who volunteered for this cause. Still, she was greatly concerned for her son, who brought his share of emotional problems along with him to the “seat of war.” Evidently, her fears were well-founded. Frederick survived the war though wounded at Gettysburg, but returned an alcoholic. In 1870, he went off to California and was never heard from again. He would be the inspiration of some of his mother’s later works in which she treated alcoholism as an illness, rather than a personal failing as was the belief in that day. Item 84. $3,000.
Sir Richard Francis Burton was a Renaissance man in the Victorian era. He created maps, translated works such as the Arabian Nights, took part in the Speke Expedition which located the source of the Nile, and wrote many books. You will find a virtual collection of books by or relating to Burton in the Cummins catalogue, sixteen in all. But did we need this one? Item 22 is his Notes on Scalping. No, this is not about overcharging for concert tickets. This is about the other kind of scalping. It was taken from an article in the Anthropological Review, and surveys scalping customs in different cultures. Cummins notes that he describes “the distinctive sound made by the process.” I don’t ever want to hear that sound. $400.
Item 58 is a rare autographed document from Hawaiian King Kamehameha II. Kamehameha I served a long reign, but his son died at the age of 27. He ascended to the throne in 1819, but others exercised most of the real power. In 1823, he traveled to England in hopes of getting protection for his country from King George IV. However, he never met the British king. He and his wife caught the measles, for which they had no immunity, and died on the trip. Cummins says this document is one of only seven known samples of Kamehameha II’s handwriting. $12,500.
A New System of Domestic Cookery by Maria Eliza Rundell was evidently a very popular cookbook in the first half of the 19th century. Originally published in London in 1806, this is a first American edition from 1807. By 1840, this book was in its 64th edition. Item 52. $950.
Item 100 is a major one for those who collect that region between the Hudson River and the Berkshire Mountains. From around 1835, it is a collection of 14 pen and ink maps of the area from William C. Young, made in preparation for the railroad that would run from Greenbush (Rensselaer) to Stockbridge. $7,500.
And finally, we will end with a variant item in this very catalogue. Item 104 in the online version of the catalogue is the Latin dictionary De Significatione Verborum by Sextus Pompiens Festus (and here I must admit that I cannot see the name “Festus” without thinking of the character from “Gunsmoke”). This is an item of incunabula, having been printed in 1483. $12,500. It is this book which forms the backdrop of the cover image for the catalogue. And yet in my printed copy, item 104 is Sensus Communis by Anthony Shaftesbury. Do I have a rare variant of the Cummins catalogue that will make me rich in another 100 years? Who knows. But, if you would like to see the “Festus” version, just go to www.jamescumminsbookseller.com and click “browse our catalogue.” It will bring you to a page where you can download the entire catalogue for your own perusal.
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
![Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Bible [English]. [The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament, 1562]. £3,000-5,000](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/e47bb03e-3f3d-4f68-9e79-b0b2739ca87c.jpg "<b>Dominic Winter, Apr. 9:</b> Bible [English]. [<i>The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament,</i> 1562]. £3,000-5,000")
