AntiquarianAuctions.com Auction #68, July 19-26
AntiquarianAuctions.com is an online auction site dedicated to the sale of rare and out-of print books, maps & prints, documents, letters, ephemera and vintage photography.
All pricing is done in US$. No buyer’s premium is charged.
Lot 1 della Croce (Vincenzo Alsario) Vesuvius Ardens Sive Exercitatio Medico-Physica Motum & Incendium Vesuvii Montis in Campania XVI Mensis Decembris, Anni MDCXXXI Published: Js. Jenkins, London, (1814-1815)
Estimate: $1,500/2,000
Scarce work of 1632 about Vesuvio mountain by the physician from Genoa Vincenzo Alsario della Croce (b. 1570). He was teacher of medicine in Rome for more than 20 years, and the first one describing epilepsy. Physician of the Popes Gregorio XV and Urbano VIII, Alsario was expelled from Rome for his bad character "bisbetico, litigioso, millantatore soverchio e poco prudente"
Lot 2 Couch (Jonathan) A History of the Fishes of the British Isles Published: London, 1862-5
Estimate: $1,600/2,000
Couch was born in 1789 in Polperro in Cornwall and died there in 1870, having spent his life being interested in more or less everything,from potatoes to pilchards, although he was by profession a doctor. A History of the Fishes of the British Islands made a valuable contribution not only to science, but to the art of angling and it was relied on as a reference work for many decades after his death. The value of Couch's contribution lay not so much in his classification and descriptions of the species, but in his paintings, which were so accurate that they were relied for reference by later biologists, even when Couch's written identification was wrong.
Lot 183 Blaeu (Willem) Africae nova descriptio [A new description of Africa]
Published: Amsterdam, 1634/5
Estimate: $1,600/2,000
This landmark carte-a-figure map was published in 1634/5 and made by one of the Dutch master mapmakers. The map is in the uncommon 2nd state: Blaeuw (or Blaeu) signed the map using the name Guiljelemo (William) Blaeuw, having changed his surname in 1617 from Guil. Janssonio (i.e. Janssonius), which also was the surname of his arch- rival, Johannes Janssonius.
Lot 241 Burton (Richard Francis) Zanzibar Published: London, 1872 Estimate: $1,500/2,000
Zanzibar served as a base for the great journeys of exploration into Africa of the nineteenth century. Burton and John Hanning Speke set off from Zanzibar in 1857 on their expedition to the Great Lakes, also with the hope of discovering the source of the River Nile. One of the most important books of early travel & exploration into East Africa.
Lot 309 Lewis (Sinclair) The Trail of the Hawk (Inscribed First Edition) Published: Harper & Brotthers, New York, 1915
Estimate: $2,200/2,500
The fairly scarce first edition of this early and rather unsuccessful novel by Sinclair Lewis, the first US writer to win the Nobel Prize. This was his third book and the second under his own name. From the library of Dennis Wheatley, with his ex libris (by Frank C. Pape) on the front pastedown. With a wonderful full page inscription on the front free endpaper: "To Laurence Gomme, the only man living who can make one actually buy those strange exotic luxuries, books! With Mr. Wrenn's keen gratitude, & mine, Sinclair Lewis. Aug 31, 1915”.
Lot 317 Waugh (Evelyn) Robbery Under Law Published: Chapman & Hall, London, 1939 Estimate: $600/800
A near fine copy in the original fresh blue cloth with bright gilt lettering on the spine. Internally very clean and unmarked with mild offsetting to the endpapers and two small inoffensive abrasions on each of the front and rear pastedowns. In an about very good dustwrapper which is price- clipped and has some edge chipping, most noticeably an 8mm. deep piece missing at the top of the rear flap.
Lot 318 Bernard (?mile) & Dubois (Urbain François) La Cuisine classique, études pratiques, raisonnées et démonstratives de l'école Française appliquée au service de la Russie.
Published: Paris, 1856
Estimate: $600/900
Fine copy of the authorised first edition of one of the greatest treatises of modern era cooking: this work is considered to have been “the finest expression of the Golden Age of the French grande cuisine” (Britannica), and it chronicles “a progressive step up from the style of French cookery based on the work of [Marie Antonin] Careme” (OldCookBooks.com).
Urbain Dubois and ?mile Bernard were arguably the best known chefs of the 19th century. Dubois ran the palace kitchen of the King and Queen of Prussia, and is “credited with introducing the custom of having servants wait table” (Feret, 42). Bernard was one of France’s most talented pastry chefs, as well as Napoleon III’s personal chef. La Cuisine Classique is regarded as the most important of the six culinary works from Dubois’ hand.
Lot 321 [Wharton (Edith) Editor] The Book of the Homeless (Le Livre des Sans-Foyer)
Published: Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1916 Estimate: $2,500/2,500
Unique unbound, uncut and unopened copy of the limited edition: "Of this book, in edition to the regular edition, there have been printed and numbered one hundred and seventy-five copies deluxe, of larger format [all signed by Updike]. Numbers 1-50 on French hand-made paper ... Numbers 51-175 on Van Gelder paper." This copy on Van Gelder paper is numbered 65.
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All pricing is done in US$. No buyer’s premium is charged. Next auction: Auction #69: 30 August - 6 September 2018
