AntiquarianAuctions.com Sale #55 Highlights, Nov. 17-24
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All pricing is done in US$. No buyer’s premium is charged.
Lot 1
Gualtieri (Niccolò) INDEX TESTARUM CONCHYLIORUM QUAE ADSERVANTUR IN MUSEO NICOLAI GUALTIERI
Published: Florentiae, M.D. CC. XLII [1742]
Estimate: $8,000/10,000
Half title page, engraved frontispiece, title page printed in red and black and with an engraved vignette, xxiii preliminary pages, 110 engraved full page plates (engraved by by P.A. Pazzi after drawings by Giuseppe Menabuoni) numbered TI - T110 with descriptive text opposite, 17 vignettes on the section title pages (each section title is printed in red and black), 18 other engraving the text, with the portrait of the author opposite page ix and the errata leaf at the end.
Niccolò Gualtieri (9 July 1688 - 15 February 1744) was an Italian doctor and malacologist. In 1742, he published Index Testarum Conchyliorum, quae adservantur in Museo Nicolai Gualtieri (translation: List of the shells of shellfish which are preserved in the museum of Niccolò Gualtieri). Gualtieri was a professor at the University of Pisa. He was amongst the first to depict the argonaut. His collections are deposited at the Museo storia naturale di Pisa.
Lot 2
Harris (Captain William Cornwallis)
PORTRAITS OF THE GAME AND WILD ANIMALS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
Published: London, 1840 - 1843
Estimate: $14,000/16,000
The large paper issue with a lithographic additional title page with a hand-coloured vignette, 30 hand- coloured lithographic plates by Frank Howard after Harris and 30 uncoloured lithographic vignette tailpiece illustrations at the end of each chapter. Both title pages are dated 1840. In a contemporary half leather and marbled boards binding with matching marbled endpapers.
On the front endpaper is the small ex libris of the noted Africana collector, Birch Bernstein. The spine has six raised bands and seven panels, six of which have gilt embossed decorations of African animals. All edges gilt.
This huge work was first published in parts between 1840 and 1842 and in volume form in 1843. It was considered by Mendelssohn “One of the most important and valuable of the large folio works on South African fauna”. Each chapter has a detailed description of the animal illustrated in the accompanying plate.
Lot 3
Burchell (W.J.) TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
Published: London, 1822-1824
Estimate: $7,000/8,000
2 volumes: I. viii + [iv contents] + 582, II. [vi] + 648 pages,
errata leaf, half title page in volume I but not in volume II, hand-coloured aquatint frontispiece in each volume, 20 hand-coloured aquatint plates - 5 of which are fine folding panoramas, 96 wood engravings, early twentieth century half green morocco with marbled paper sides, marbled endpapers and edges, book plates on the front paste-down endpapers. The spines are faded to brown and the eather is lightly worn at the corners and the marbled paper is lightly worn along the edges. Foxing on the title pages and the following pages, the frontispiece in volume II is offset on the title page, occasional light foxing throughout, overall a very good set.
With 'Hints on Emigration tot the Cape of Good Hope' By the Same Author, 4 pages, bound in at the end of volume I.
The large folding map (850 x 720 mm) is bound in at the end of volume I as called for. It is lightly foxed.
Lot 7
Selous (Frederick Courteney) SIGNED LETTER TO JOHN HOPLEY, 1985
Published: Augsburg, 1778
Estimate: $3,500/5,000
Signed letter by F.C. Selous (1851-1917), dated Oct 16th 1895. The letter is a reply by Selous to a query from John Hopley, a famous sportsman. The subject of the letter was the possibility of a species of Eland with atypical horns. Synonyms of the Common Eand (Turotragus oryx) are the Taurotragus typicus Selous, 1899, and Aurotragus selousi (Lydekker 1910). In this letter, Selous rejects the notion of the atypical horns being the basis for describing another species of Eland (Antelope triangularis).
Frederick Courteney Selous was a larger than life British explorer, hunter, and conservationist, who was famous for his famous adventures in South-east Africa. He was also a soldier who received the DSO - the Selous Scouts were named after him. This life in Africa inspired Sir H. Rider Haggard to create the character of Allan Quatermain. He donated a large number of specimens to the British Museum. He remains one of the most revered big-game hunters of more than a century ago.
Lot 10
Schreiner (Olive) OLIVE SCHREINER'S "THE HUNTER" - WITH ORIGINAL SIGNED GRAPHICS
Published: Egon Guenther, Johannesburg, 1979
Estimate: $2,000/2,500
No. 6 of 75 numbered copies, which together with 10 artist's proofs and 5 hors commerce copies, constitutes the entire edition of this book.
The Hunter by Olive Schreiner first appeared in the South African classic "The Story of An African Farm", originally published in 1883. It subsequently appeared in the volume "Dreams" in 1891. This private edition contains 10 exquisite engravings by South African artist Wendy Vincent, each signed and numbered by the artist, and each a masterpiece of graphic art. The engravings are printed from the original blocks on Zerkall Buetten paper by Egon Guenther. The text is totally hand set in 24 point Bembo by Nicholas Pasoti and printed by Guenther. All edges uncut. Each copy in bound in quarter Oasis goatskin and paper covered boards by craft bookbinder Peter Carstens. The paper over the boards was hand designed and hand rolled by Guenther. The book is enclosed in a leather trimmed slipcase covered in the same matching hand decorated paper.
Lot 261
Meintjes (Johannes) MAGGIE LAUBSER
Published: Pretoria, 1944
Estimate: $150/200
47 pages, 3 tipped-in colour plates, 27 black & white illustrations in the text, original brown cloth titled in green on the upper cover and spine - the cloth is faded around the edges, inscription of a previous owner on the front free endpaper, contents crisp, a good copy in frayed dust jacket which is now preserved with a Brodart protector.
Czech (Kenneth) An Annotated Bibliography of Big Game Hunting Books 1785 - 1999 page 62:This was originally published in a shorter version as several articles in the British periodical, The Strand in early 1908.Churchill crossed British East Africa via the Uganda Railroad reaching Kampala and beginning his safari. At Simbax Station oryx and rhinowere hunted. After arriving at Murchison Falls, he bagged a white rhino. His party continued along the White Nile where hippo, waterbuck reedbuck and roan were collected with Col Wilson of the hunting party bagging an elephant.
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Next auction: Auction #55: 19 - 26 January 2016
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