Emily Dickinson, John Keats, and Zora Neale Hurston Top Freeman’s | Hindman Book Month
Emily Dickinson first editions of Poems, Poems Second Series, and Poems Third Series sold for $22,860
Works by Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, and F Scott Fitzgerald were among the headliners of the five books and manuscripts auctions across three salerooms as part of Freeman’s | Hindman book month in June.
On June 6 in Chicago, the Fine Literature from the Collection of Richard C. McKenzie sale included fine copies of high spots of American and English literature from the last two centuries. Highlights included:
- Emily Dickinson's Poems, Poems Second Series, and Poems Third Series, first editions ($22,860)
- Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, first American edition ($22,860)
- F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and Damned, first edition, first printing ($16,510)
The top lot of the month came from the June 25 Books and Manuscripts auction in Philadelphia, where a rare portolan chart of the Mediterranean by Joan Oliva sold for $152,400, more than seven times its presale estimate. Oliva was the most prolific and highly regarded member of the distinguished Oliva family, a mapmaking dynasty that dominated chartmaking production in Europe in the 16th to mid-17th centuries. The chart offered in the auction 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. Other highlights from the auction included:
- John Keats's copy of Edmund Spenser's Collected Works, 1818 , sold for $60,325
- Sarah Bowdich's The Fresh-Water Fishes of Great Britain. Drawn and Described by Mrs. T. Edward Bowdich, first edition , sold for $47,625
- Gabriel Thomas's An Historical and Geographical Account of the Province and Country of Pensilvania; and of West-New-Jersey in America, first edition, sold for $31,750
Early photography did well at the American Historical Ephemera and Photography spring sale with an image of San Francisco at the height of the gold rush topping the auction selling for $66,675. The whole plate daguerreotype captured the southeast corner of Front and Sacramento Streets either in 1852 or 1853. Images from this era of San Francisco are rare, especially of this quality.
On June 7, the Chicago Fine Books & Manuscripts auction was led by Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, (1937, first edition in the rare dust jacket, $38,100), Homann Heirs, and Georg Matthäus Seutter's Composite Atlas, 1728-1765
(which also sold for $38,100), and Robert John Thornton's New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus Von Linnaeus... And the Temple of Flora ([1799-] 1807-[1812], which made $34,925).
On July 27, Freeman’s | Hindman's inaugural Western Manuscripts and Miniatures auction included glossed Bibles, theological treatises, legal texts, psalters, missals, and breviaries. The top lot of the sale was a collection of John Keats poems which were beautifully illuminated by 19th century calligrapher and Alberto Sangorski and bound in a superb jeweled binding signed by Riviere & Sons. The manuscript sold for $76,200. Other highlights from the sale included:
Master of Raoul Du Fou and Jean Serpin (Both Active Rouen, C. 1480-1520), Book of Hours in Latin and French, illuminated manuscript on parchment ($47,625) and The Decretals of Gregory IX, Books I-III, illuminated manuscript on parchment, France, ca 1250-1275 ($28,575).
In total, the sales made a combined sales total of $3.3 million, with a white glove sale of Fine Literature from the Collection of Richard C. McKenzie.
