Remarkable Single-Owner Book Collection Heads to Hindman Auctions
Chicago — Hindman will sell the 85-lot rare book collection of a single Midwestern collector that includes extremely fine first editions of Charles Darwin, Euclid, Galileo Galilei, James Joyce, Issac Newton, J. K. Rowling, Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton and many others.
Head of Hindman Book Department, Gretchen Hause, comments: “This highly curated, 85-lot sale offers the rare opportunity to own a number of the most influential books in the development of western thought and civilization. It is a unique opportunity for all bibliophiles or anyone who values rare objects of great cultural significance.”
The collection consists of landmark titles, many with notable provenance, in the fields of science, technology, math and statistics, literature, Americana, and the social sciences, including:
CHARLES DARWIN. On the Origin of Species. London: John Murray, 1859. First edition.
Est. $120,000–180,000.
The superb Garden Copy, also previously owned by American philanthropist Paul Mellon (1907–1999), the most significant scientific work of the nineteenth century in which Darwin “revolutionized our methods of thinking and our outlook on the natural order of things.” (Printing and the Mind of Man).
SIR ISAAC NEWTON. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. London: Joseph Streater for the Royal Society, to be sold by Samuel Smith and other booksellers, 1687. First edition.
Est. $150,000–250,000
This edition of Newton’s pivotal book was described by Albert Einstein as “The greatest intellectual stride that it has ever been granted to any man to make,” and in Printing and the Mind of Man as “The greatest work in the history of science.”
GALILEO GALILEI: Dialogo. Florence: Giovanni Batista Landini, 1632. The First edition of Galileo’s Dialogo, which, “more than any other work, made the heliocentric system a commonplace” (Printing and the Mind of Man)
Est. $30,000-40,000
EUCLID: Elementa geometriae. Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, May 25, 1482. First edition of (Printing and the Mind of Man)
One of the "oldest mathematical textbooks still in common use today" (Printing and the Mind of Man) and one of the earliest printed books with geometrical figures.
Est. $60,000-80,000
JAMES JOYCE. Ulysses. Paris: Shakespeare and Company, 1922. First Edition. Original publisher’s “Greek flag” blue wrappers in a cloth slipcase. Limited issue, copy 74 of 100 copies on Dutch handmade paper, signed by the author on the limitation page.
Est. $120,000–180,000
First edition of the most significant English-language novel of the 20th century.
ADAM SMITH. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. First edition. London: for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1776. 2 volumes. Provenance: Jn. Evans (signature on title-page).
Est. $70,000–90,000
Smith’s landmark opus is considered the first classic of modern economic thought, and the first major exposition of free trade.
[FEDERALIST]. ALEXANDER HAMILTON. — MADISON, James. — JAY, John. The Federalist: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution. First edition. New York: J. and A. M'Lean, 1788. 2 volumes.
Est. $60,000–80,000
A collection of all 85 essays written by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay in defense of the new Constitution, first published anonymously and serially in New York newspapers. Described in Printing and the Mind of Man as “One of the new nation’s most important contributions to the theory of government.”
J. K ROWLING. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. First edition. London: Bloomsbury, 1997. Original publisher's pictorial boards. Signed by the author (6/9/97).
Est. $80,000–120,000
A superlative copy of the first edition of Rowling’s first work, signed by the author in the year of publication.
