American and English Literature
Sale highlights include first editions from Emily Dickinson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Herman Melville
Freeman's | Hindman secured its place as one of the leading auction houses in the books and manuscripts category with over $3 million in sales this past June. Leading the charge was the sale of Literature from the Collection of Richard C. McKenzie with all 297 lots selling.
Courtesy of Freeman's | Hindman
“We were surprised and thrilled with the white-glove result of the sale of Literature from the Collection of Richard C. McKenzie,” said Gretchen Hause, Senior Vice President, Co-Head of Department, Books & Manuscripts. “We always hope a single-owner collection will sell well, but this result was a bit of a surprise. It is uncommon to achieve a white-glove result for an auction, particularly for a sale of this size.”
Sale highlights included fine copies of high spots in American and English literature from the last two centuries. First editions of Emily Dickinson’s Poems, Poems Second Series, and Poems Third Series sold for $22,860. A first American edition of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick; or, The Whale sold for $22,860. And a first edition, first printing of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Beautiful and Damned sold for $16,510.
In addition to the McKenzie sale, Hindman’s held four additional books and manuscripts auctions across three salerooms in June, covering a diverse area of collecting interests.
The top lot of the month was included in the June 25 Books and Manuscripts auction in Philadelphia. A rare portolan chart of the Mediterranean sold for seven times its presale estimate at $152,400. The map was made by Joan Oliva, a highly-regarded member of the Oliva mapmaking dynasty that dominated chart-making production in Europe in the 16th-17th centuries. The chart was one of only four extant works from Oliva’s short chart-making period in Marseille, and the only one from this period still in private hands.
Courtesy of Freeman's | Hindman
“One of my favorite collections of the season was the group of Langston Hughes books from the collection of his friend and patron Noël Sullivan,” said Hause. “The collection had remained intact for several decades and included several Hughes rarities. Sullivan’s copy of Scottsboro Limited, given to him by Hughes in 1932, was copy number 1 of a limited edition of only 30 copies—no copy of the limited edition of this work had ever appeared on the market at auction. The collection also included a carbon copy typescript of an apparently unpublished poem by Hughes about the Scottsboro boys.”
“It was a privilege to research and catalog the collection and present it to market,” said Hause. And speaking of that market, Hause sees no signs of it slowing down. “The books and manuscripts market remains very strong for fresh-to-market objects estimated well. We were very pleased with strong sell-through rates and prices realized across all of our spring sales.”
Interested collectors will be glad to know that Freeman's | Hindman has two book auctions coming up this fall: Books and Manuscripts offered in Philadelphia on September 10 and Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, including Americana on November 14 in Chicago.
