Early Printed Books at Swann's
Yesterday's Early Printed Books auction at Swann Galleries in New York was, according to the Swann blog, an "extraordinary success," with 97% of lots sold. Saint Thomas Aquinas' Commentum in octo libros Physicorum Aristotelis, dated May 9 1492 (pictured here), was the day's top seller at $9,600. The first Baskerville edition of the King James Bible in a contemporary binding went for slightly less.
Unfortunately, lot 272--John Hawkesworth's A New Voyage Around the World (1774) with an engraved frontispiece by Paul Revere--was unsold, after an estimate of $8,000-$12,000.
Unfortunately, lot 272--John Hawkesworth's A New Voyage Around the World (1774) with an engraved frontispiece by Paul Revere--was unsold, after an estimate of $8,000-$12,000.
