Complete Run of Apple2000 and Apple Slices Fanzines to Auction
In addition to a good selection of bibliography from a bookseller’s reference library (teamed with the bookseller’s partner’s rug and textile reference library), the AntiquarianAuctions.com in the US sale #15 includes a number of unique and very rare titles.
Lot 60 is an unrecorded 1820s broadside poem by Charlotte and/or Martha Rowles An Ode to Thought. The poem was published subsequently in the Rowles sisters’ only substantial work Nadaber, a Tradition: With Other Poems (London: for the authoresses by Samuel Bagster, 1829). This later book was dedicated to poet James Montgomery (a supporter). The present broadside was part of an archive bought (indirectly) from the family of Samuel Bagster, which may mean that it is essentially a printer’s proof.
At the other end of the spectrum is Lot 193 a complete run of Apple2000 and its running-mate Apple Slices. These fanzines were written, designed, edited and published by the British Apple Systems Users Group (or BASUG) - 37 issues of the first title appeared between August 1986 and November 1992, and 28 issues of the second from May 1987 and March 1992. Real ‘incunables’ from the early days of Apple, these are all in excellent condition (with one exception), appear to be very rare, and deserve to find a place in a computing and technology collection.
From the relative forefront of technological innovation the sale swings back to Lot 93 Robert Owen’s The Crisis of 1833-34. This socialist periodical, espousing the rights of the working man is incomplete, but is very rare in any form, particularly, as here, when unbound and in the original parts (there are 85 parts in this selection: the whole of volumes 2,3 and 4).
Even further back is lot 65, a 4-vol vellum-bound set (1723-1731) of a Dutch-language work by Gerard van Loon, illustrating the history of the Netherlands from 1556 to 1716 using engravings of over 3000 historical medals and medallions. Three hundred years later this work is still the standard reference.
Lot 20 offers a survey of a different kind. Editors Franz Roh and Jan Tschichold in 76 images showcase the work of many the greatest ‘New Vision’ photographers of the 1920s. A fragile work, this copy of Foto-Auge … Oeil et Photo … Photo-Eye 76 photoes [sic.] of the period has been somewhat protected by being bound into a cloth binding shortly after publication.
The ‘New Vision’ survey is interesting and beautifully designed, but the prize for most surprising book in the auction must go to Lot 92 Jim Simmons survey of road-kill in New England, Feathers and Fur on the Turnpike… Part I a study of wildlife casualties on the highway Part II a study of present trends in wildlife conservation (1938). Surely the first American book on the subject? Unexpectedly engaging and a very nice copy, inscribed, with a dust-jacket and a related letter from the author.
Preview from 12.30am ET May 3, the auction starts 12.30am May 10 and finishes May 17 12.30am.
