• Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • 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.
  • 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

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2014 Issue

World's Fairs from Marc Selvaggio

Off to the fair we go!

Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera has issue a new collection of World's Fairs & Expositions. Since the first such fairs around the middle of the 19th century, these events have drawn worldwide crowds to celebrate special occasions. They started in Europe, but America has had more than its share now. Anniversaries of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark's expedition, and Columbus' discovery of America have been among the events celebrated at American fairs. Participants have mainly been nations, states/provinces/communities within a nation, or businesses promoting their wares. Of course, rides and sideshows often accompanied the more serious displays. Marc Selvaggio has put together a selection of almost 600 items pertaining to various fairs from 1851-1970. Most would have been available at the fairs had you been able to attend. Now they are available in this catalogue. Here are a few examples.

 

We start with an item from the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, and it was provided by the printing firm of Rex and Bockius. They were displaying The Old Ephrata Printing Press. They described this as “the same press on which the Declaration of Independence was printed – and the same press which printed this broadside.” Well, yes, maybe, sort of. The press was used by one of the cloisters of German brethren in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. That community is located in Lancaster County, about 50 miles from Philadelphia. It seems unlikely that the printer of the first copies of the Declaration of Independence, John Dunlap, dashed all the way to Ephrata to print the Declaration instead of in his shop. Of course, the broadside does not say first printed, just printed, and lots of presses have printed copies of the Declaration of Independence over the years. However, it is not unlikely that early copies were printed on this press, perhaps the first German translation. Item 26. $75.

 

Item 8 is filled with irony the speaker must have missed. It is a Speech upon the Representation of the United States at the Exhibition of the World's Industry, Paris, 1867. Delivered in the House of Representatives, March 14,1866. The speaker was Congressman Nathaniel P. Banks, who appears to have been a generally good, if imperfect man. He was a leading abolitionist, and supported other good causes such as woman's suffrage and government reform. He was a governor of Massachusetts, was Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives in the 1850's, was a Union general during the Civil War, and served various terms in the House of Representatives between 1853-1891. Selvaggio describes Banks' speech as “enthusiastic and long-winded,” perfect for a politician. Among his statements, Banks says, “The strength of our civilization is more in ideas than in force. The lesson the old world is to learn of us and which we ought better to comprehend ourselves is, that in the wise economy of nations, ideas are better than blows, and brains better than blood.” This came just a year after the end of the Civil War, where northerners and southerners met on fields across the nation, using their brains and ideas to amiably and rationally discuss their differences. Well, at least Banks did recognize that at times we ought to “better comprehend” our own lessons. $60.

 

Those who like Ferris Wheel rides would have loved Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893. It was there that George Washington Ferris constructed his gigantic wheel. It was almost 250 feet high, and contained 36 passenger cars, each able to hold 60 people. In other words, 2,160 people could ride this Ferris Wheel at one time. It was by far the largest, and dominating structure at the fair. Item 64 is a cabinet card of this marvel. The wheel would be set up in a different Chicago location after the exposition, then transported to St. Louis for the 1904 World's Fair. After that, it was demolished. $75.

 

Next up we have A Century After. A Souvenir of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis, Commemorating the marvelous growth of our country. This patriotic piece from 1904 was created by the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company. They were in the plumbing and bathroom design field. And what could go better together than America and bathroom fixtures, except, maybe, America and apple pie? Item 119. $60.

 

Or, we have this piece from the Philadelphia fair of 1926, that city now back to celebrate the nation's sesqui-centennial: Landmarks of Liberty. This was published by the La France Mfg. Co., a maker of laundry detergent. It includes a fair flyer and a bunch of postcards and other cards. Among those important freedoms of La France's landmarks of liberty is the all-important “women's freedom from wash-day drudgery.” That's what George Washington was fighting for! Item 235. $30.

 

Here is another exciting revelation, from the 1934 Chicago fair: I Have Seen a Century of Progress, from the Shakeproof Lock Washer Co. This is an unused memorandum book that attendees could use to record their observations at the fair. The center contains an ad celebrating “A Century of Progress in Lock Washers.” A century of progress in lock washers? How much can lock washers progress? Aren't they, like, lock washers? Item 431. $45.

 

From the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition in Dallas in 1936 comes this gem: Visit the Incubator Baby Exhibit, published by the Women's Auxiliary of the Bradford Memorial Hospital. As Selvaggio notes, “I have always been baffled by the exhibition of premature babies at world's fairs!” I would have been too, except I had no idea they had such exhibitions. I've been to a couple of world's fairs, but somehow missed them. Do they display the preemies in the science hall, or on the midway? Item 443. $45.

 

This next one is really creepy: 1937 Exposition Internationale, Paris. Pavillion Allemand / German House / Deutsches Haus. It is a folder with die-cut window and 12 postcards with views of a modern German house. A mosaic window in one glorifies the Nazis. Three years later, the Germans would be back in Paris, but with a much larger number of people, and they were not friendly exhibit guides. Item 463. $75.

 

Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera, may be reached at 510-548-8009 or dsbooks@comcast.net.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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.
  • Sotheby’s
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    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
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