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Bloomsbury’s Magnificent 25th Anniversary Sale
On 15th May Bloomsbury Auctions celebrates its 25th Anniversary with a 500 lot sale of Important Books and Manuscripts. Bloomsbury has come a very long way since it first started; today the five floor head office is in central London with highly successful branches in Rome and New York, selling more books than any other auction house in the world.
This is a handsome sale which embraces all manner of books and manuscripts from Private Press and Limited Editions, Illustrated Books, Children’s Books, Modern First Editions, History, English and Continental Literature and to Fine and Applied Arts, Architecture, Design, Travel, Topography, Natural History, Sports, Science and Medicine.
The morning session, which is entirely devoted to Private Press and Limited Editions, kicks off with an extremely important Kelmscott Chaucer (1896) one of 425 copies on paper, printed in red and black. Arguably the most important work from the famous Kelmscott Press, it was printed in 1896 a few weeks before the death of William Morris its founder (estimate £30000-40000). This session also boasts a complete collection of the Golden Cockerel Press including many of the ‘specials’ and other related material.
The afternoon sale has a fine first and only edition of the first book ever published by William Thackeray. Flore et Zephir Ballet Mythologique… (lot 252) was the first ballet where dancers performed on pointe; it is a volume of caricatures of a ballet divertissement (with two original drawings by Thackeray), in which he ridicules the illusion of flying using elaborate stage machinery (estimate £6000-8000). No major sale which includes Children’s Books can be without Beatrix Potter and Bloomsbury offers a first edition second issue of The Tale of Peter Rabbit (lot 258). Privately printed by Beatrix Potter after being rejected by at least six publishers, this is one of only 200 copies and is estimated £10000-15000. Of course, no group of Modern First Editions would be complete without Ian Fleming, especially at Bloomsbury which has come to be the place for Bond books; lots 268-269 From Russia, With Love and Goldfinger are both inscribed to Agatha Soames, a first cousin of Winston Churchill’s son-in-law (estimated £7000-9000 and £6000-8000 respectively). Another ubiquitous author in any sale which includes First editions is JK Rowling, a first edition, first impression of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (lot 283) is estimated £10000-15000. A scarce first edition of Quotations from Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book in the first issue white paper wrappers (lot 277), is expected to fetch between £4000-6000.
Amongst the Manuscripts is an autograph manuscript of Sir Isaac Newton’s Note on Devils, Arianism and Antitrinitarianism (lot 292) estimated £6000-8000. Lot 297 is an apparently unpublished autographed letter from Felix Mendelssohn the composer, in which he writes of his first visit to Britain (estimate £2000-30000. One of the most interesting items in this section, if not the sale, is lot 303 a letter in German from Einstein, on his view of God and Judaism,‘The word God is nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish…’ This extraordinary letter is estimated £6000-8000. A less lofty subject matter is covered in the first English edition of The Pathway to Knowledge by Nicolaus Petri translated by William Phillip (lot 321). Printed in 1596 it is one of the earliest works on accounting to be printed in England, and is a fascinating association copy with the 17th century mathematician William Oughtred’s notions.
One of the most important books in the sale must be the handsome first edition of the so called Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493 (lot 365) with rare contemporary hand-colouring. It is a history of the world from the Creation to contemporary times, including several blank pages for the owner to fill in whatever he considered to be appropriately important. Remarkable also for its descriptions of cities (with around 116 places being identified by name), illustrations, design and woodcuts it is estimated to fetch £90000-110000.
The penultimate lot in this magnificent sale is a handsome, clean first edition of De Humani Corporis Fabbrica by Andreas Vesalius of 1543. This work is regarded as having revolutionised the understanding of anatomy as a science and how it was taught (estimate £120000-160000).
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April 30th, 2008 at 3:59 am