• Koller Auctions
    Books & Autographs
    20 March 2024
    Koller, Mar. 20: DADA - Der Zeltweg. Redaktion: Flake, Serner, Tzara. Zürich, 1919. CHF 5,000 – 8,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Jespers, Floris - Peeters, Jan. Kinderlust. Antwerpen, J. F. Bogaerts & R. R. Dodson, [1923]. CHF 2,000 – 3,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: FARBENLEHRE - Chevreul, M. E. De la Loi du contraste simultané des couleurs et de l'assortiment des objets colorés. Paris, 1839. CHF 4,000 – 5,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: BOTANIK - Schrank, Franz de Paula von. Flora Monacensis, seu plantae sponte circa Monachium nascentes. München, 1811-1818. CHF 20,000 – 30,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: French Bible manuscript. Latin manuscript on parchment. With 81 illuminated, ornamental and figurative initials. Paris, c. 1250. CHF 90,000 – 120,000
    Koller Auctions
    Books & Autographs
    20 March 2024
    Koller, Mar. 20: Gradual for the use of a Dominican convent. Latin manuscript on parchment, with Flemish rubrics in black and red. Mecheln (?), c. 1520. CHF 25,000 – 40,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Calendar. French manuscript on parchment. With 12 large colored thorn leaf initials on a gold background. Paris, c. 1380/1390. CHF 40,000 – 60,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Freud, Sigmund. Collection of 23 handwritten letters to Alphonse Maeder in Zurich. In addition to 4 letter drafts from Maeder to Freud. 2 February 1910 - 21 September 1913. CHF 50,000 – 80,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Jung, Carl Gustav. Collection of 26 autograph and 3 typescript letters and a postcard to Alphonse Maeder. 1911-1918. CHF 20,000 – 30,000
    Koller, Mar. 20: Nietzsche, Friedrich, philosopher. Handwritten letter signed to Richard Wagner. Basel, September 27, 1876. CHF 20,000 to 30,000
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - August - 2014 Issue

Travel and Exploration from the George S. MacManus Company

Travel and Exploration Part I.

The George S. MacManus Company has released Catalogue 412 Travel & Exploration Part I. This one takes us to the letter “I” in the alphabet, so we guess there will be two more parts to come. Most of these are travels within the North American continent, though some are sea voyages, and some go to other parts of the world – China, India, and other areas of Asia, Australia, Central and South America, various islands of the Pacific and Caribbean. These journeys mostly range from the 17th-19th century. What is surprising is how many accounts there are of internal American explorations, or just trips by curious visitors willing to take on inland travel at a time when this was difficult if not dangerous. I will admit that many of these travels are ones with which I was not familiar, making this catalogue a trove of books for those who collect accounts of such journeys. There is much, often little known, to be found. Of course, other explorations described are among the most famous of all, such as Cook and Lewis and Clark. Here are a few samples.

 

We start with a book that will not be at all unfamiliar to those who collect American travels. Item 78 is a first edition of Jonathan Carver's Travels through the Interior Parts of North America, published in 1778. Carver traveled farther west than any English explorer prior to the American Revolution. He visited the Great Lakes region, the headwaters of the Mississippi, and went as far west as today's Dakotas. His text was the first to mention “Oregon.” While not quite reaching his goal of the Pacific, he did bring back tales of a great mountain range about which he learned from the Indians. That would be the then unknown Rocky Mountains. Item 78. $5,000.

 

Here is a look at the American Southwest during the earliest days it was the American Southwest. Item 27 is Personal narrative of explorations and incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua, connected with the United States and Mexican boundary commission, during the years 1850, '51, '52, and '53. It was prepared by John R. Bartlett and published in 1854. America had just seized its southwestern territory, but the border was left unclear at the end of the Mexican War, requiring surveyors from both countries to plat the precise (or semi-precise) line. The Americans started in California, and moved with reasonable speed, but as they crossed into today's Arizona, determining the border became more difficult. Hence, the task took so many years to complete. Ironically, shortly after the work was completed, most of it became pointless. With the Gadsden Purchase, the difficult part of the work, the Arizona and New Mexico borders, were shifted south, the purpose being to build a Pacific Railroad in a location favorable to southern interests. $3,000.

 

There is probably nothing, other than maybe the Fountain of Youth, that has been so sought after as the Northwest Passage. In the days before the Panama Canal, there was no shorter way to travel from Europe to China and East Asia then to go all the way around the southern tip of South America. However, if there were a way to sail on the north side of Canada, the distance would be immeasurably shorter. And so, they searched. And they searched. Item 143 is Voyage to Hudson's Bay, by the "Dobbs Gallery" and "California", In the Years 1746 and 1747, For Discovering a North West Passage, by Henry Ellis, published in 1748. The first part of the book recounts 23 other English voyages in pursuit of the elusive passage. It then describes the mission on which Ellis served as hydrographer and surveyor. Like those before, and many after, the mission did not succeed in finding a route. However, it did provide one useful piece to the puzzle. This journey established that there was no route through Hudson's Bay. This meant that a hoped for easier route did not exist, and future missions would need to start farther north in their pursuit. It would not be for another century and half that the passage would finally be located, but even then, it was too shallow, and free of ice for too short a period of time, to be of much practical use. $2,250.

 

Next up we have Travels in the Interior of America, in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811, published in 1817. John Bradbury was a Scottish naturalist sent to study botanical life by the Botanical Society of Liverpool. Starting from St. Louis, he visited territories along the upper Mississippi River, as well as the states of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. He then proceeded farther west to the Mandan villages. In 1811, he headed down the Mississippi toward New Orleans, leaving New Madrid, Missouri, the day before the tremendous earthquake. He provides an account of that terrible event, along with much else besides botanical data about the United States in his book. Item 53. $8,500.

 

Here is another European traveler who picked a momentous time to visit America. March-Gabriel Hurt-Binet came to America in October of 1860, just before the election which placed Lincoln in the presidency. All Hell broke loose after that, as the southern states seceded over the next few months, and by spring, the nation was at war with itself. His nine months allowed him to witness this troubled time. Hurt-Binet's book is entitled Neuf Mois aux Etats-Unis d'Amerique. He describes the places he visited, which were in Union territory, and comments on Shakers and Quakers, Emerson and Agassiz. Item 222. $275.

 

This one is definitely not an American journey. Item 71 is Terra Australis Cognita: Or, Voyages to the Terra Australis, published 1766-1768. James Callender provides a collection of early voyages to Australia, from before the land was settled, or even visited by Cook. Callender saw Australia as a fertile place for settlement, predicted that Britain would be the country to colonize the land because of her naval power, and proposed locating a penal colony there. He was either influential or prescient. $16,500.

 

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

  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Colour Plate Books from the Library of Norman Bobins
    Part 2
    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.

Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions