Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2010 Issue

AE Top 500 Auction Results For 2009

Silverminingbohemia

Silver Mining in Bohemia, courtesy of Sotheby's.


By Michael Stillman

No one will accuse 2009 of being the greatest year ever for matters of finance, but as we look back at auctions in the field of books and ephemera, we find it wasn't all that bad either. Perhaps we have reached a bottom. The AE Top 500 for 2009 reveals that there was still a lot of activity at the high end of the book world. Each year, the Americana Exchange looks at several hundred thousand books and related material sold at auction and compiles a list of the top 500 prices. For the record, the 500th most expensive book still would have put you out for $43,750. Regardless of the economy, there are still buyers at the top.

The price at #500 provides an interesting comparison to last year. In 2008, the price at the bottom of the list was $51,000. That's a decrease of 14% from last year, a sign that prices have dropped year to year. However, 2008 was a split personality, a strong start, bad finish. For the first six months, the comparable value was $61,000. For the second half, it was $43,750, a huge intra-year drop (28%), but the exact same amount as for 2009. The implication is prices have stabilized, at least at the high end of the book market. After last year's collapse, stability sure looks good.

Near the end of this article, we will provide a link to the complete list of the Top 500. Now, let's take a look at some of the highlights.

Topping the list for most appearances were George Washington and Charles Darwin, with seven each. All of Washington's listings were for manuscript items, all of Darwin's for editions of the same book, On the Origin of the Species. Following with six were perennial favorites Charles Dickens, Abraham Lincoln, the Bronte family, and a man who lived more than a millennium before printing, Ptolemy. Edgar Allan Poe was next with five, but three of those were in the top 27, four in the top 68. Here are some specifics.

Photographs normally don't belong on a books list, but this one is an exception. It is a photograph of the three Dykes sisters, ages 6, 8 and 10, taken in 1862 by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Dodgson was a college teacher who had a few side hobbies, including photography and writing. He would become better known for the latter a few years later when, under the penname "Lewis Carroll," he wrote about Alice's adventures in Wonderland. #488. $45,072.

An Australian auction made the list selling a copy of Matthew Flinders' 1814 A Voyage to Terra Australis. #480. $46,018. Frankenstein may still be a frightening character, but not in the book rooms. Mary Shelley's 1818 classic came in at #429. $50,000. It's hard to imagine what a Gutenberg Bible would be worth today, as a single leaf was #399, taking in $52,500. Tied at 399 was another single page, this one a souvenir Sgt. Pepper poster signed by all four Beatles.

At #337 we find an autographed letter from the notorious John Dillinger to his niece, signed "Johnny." "Johnny" promises this will be his last Christmas in jail, which it was. The following March he escaped, only to be shot down in Chicago that July. $60,400. Three places higher, at #334, was a library of chess books and much personal manuscript material from the eccentric and unpleasant American chess master Bobby Fischer. Fischer left it in a storage unit when he departed America in 1992, never to return. $61,000.

Doctrina Christiana, the first book published in South America (Peru, 1584), was #271. $72,000. A group of 125 photographs from Eadweard Muybridge's classic study of Animal Locomotion (humans being one of the animals) that was a precursor of motion film was #230. $81,000. The premier sport book, Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton's The Compleat Angler, published in 1658, was #215. $86,500.

A personal letter from Martin Luther discussing his upcoming debates with a Papal legate was #159. $106,650. The Beatles make the list again at 144, this time with a 1969 "love and peace" placard signed by John and Yoko. $114,636. Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven is always a favorite as attested by this first edition, first issue. #68. $182,500. The same is true of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, with a first edition (1855) at #53. $218,500. One of three known copies of the first Poor Richard almanac, by Benjamin Franklin, was #15, bringing in $566,500.

Rare Book Monthly

  • <b>Bonhams: September 25, New York</b>
    <b>Bonhams, June 12 results:</b> Ernst, Max. <i>Mr. Knife and Miss Fork</i>. Paris, 1932. DELUXE EDITION. Sold for $15,625
    <b>Bonhams, June 12 results:</b> Cage, John. Autograph musical leaf from his Concert for Piano and Orchestra, NY, 1958. Sold for $18,750
    <b>Bonhams, June 12 results:</b> Cage, John. Autograph musical leaf from his Concert for Piano and Orchestra, NY, 1958. Sold for $18,750
    <b>Bonhams: September 25, New York</b>
    <b>Bonhams, June 12 results:</b> Einstein, Albert. Signed Passport Photo for his US citizenship application. Bermuda, 1935. Sold for $17,500
    <b>Bonhams, June 12 results:</b> Verard, Antoine. Illuminated printed Book of Hours. Paris, 1507. Sold for $7,500
    <b>Bonhams, June 12 results:</b> Wetterkurzschlussel. German Weather Report Codebook - for Enigma use. Berlin, 1942. Sold for $225,000
    <b>Bonhams: September 25, New York</b>
    <b>Bonhams, June 12 results:</b> Morelos y Pavon, Jose Maria. Autograph letter signed to El Virrey Venegas, February 5, 1812. Sold for $6,250
    <b>Bonhams, June 12 results:</b> Milne, A.A. Complete set of <i>Winnie-the-Pooh</i> books. 4 volumes. All first issue points. London, 1924-1928. Sold for $5,250
    <b>Bonhams, June 12 results:</b> A 48-star American Flag, battle worn flown at Guadalcanal and Peleliu, 1942-1944. Sold for $35,000
    <b>Bonhams, June 12 results:</b> Locke, John. Autograph Letter Signed mourning the death of his friend, William Molyneaux, 2 pp, October 27, 1698. Sold for $20,000
  • <b>19th Century Shop:</b> Charles Darwin on sexuality and the transmission of hereditary characteristics: Autograph Letter Signed to Lawson Tait. Down, 17 January [1877].
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> MILTON, JOHN. <i>Paradise Lost. A Poem written in ten books.</i> London: 1667. A very rare example with the contemporary binding untouched and with a 1667 title page.
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> Hamilton secures the ratification of the Constitution: <i>The Debates and Proceedings of the Convention of the State of New-York, assembled at Poughkeespsie, on the 17th June, 1788.</i>
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> The social contract “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains”: ROUSSEAU, JEAN-JACQUES. <i>Principes du Droit Politique [Du Contract Social]</i>. Amsterdam: Michel Rey, 1762
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> “The first English textbook on geometrical land-measurement and surveying”: BENESE, RICHARD. <i>This Boke Sheweth the Maner of Measurynge All Maner of Lande…</i>
  • <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Luis de Lucena, <i>Arte de Ajedres,</i> first edition of the earliest extant manual on modern chess, Salamanca, circa 1496-97. Sold for $68,750.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Carte-de-visite album with 83 images of prominent African Americans & abolitionists, circa 1860s. Sold for $47,500.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Gustav Klimt, <i>Das Werk,</i> Vienna & Leipzig, 1918. Sold for $106,250.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Man Ray, <i>[London Transport] – Keeps London Going,</i> 1938. Sold for $149,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Thomas Jefferson, Letter Signed, to Major-General Nathanael Greene, promising reinforcements against Cornwallis, 1781. Sold for $35,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Nicolas de Fer, <i>L’Amerique Divisee Selon Letendue de ses Principales Parties,</i> Paris, 1713. Sold for $30,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Russell H. Tandy, <i>The Secret in the Old Attic,</i> watercolor, pencil & ink, 1944. Sold for $35,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Ernest Hemingway, <i>Three Stories & Ten Poems,</i> first edition of the author's first book, Paris, 1923. Sold for $23,750.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries:</b> Walker Evans, <i>River Rouge Plant,</i> silver print, 1947. Sold for $57,500.
  • <b>Chiswick Auctions: Summer Books. August 22, 2018</b>
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> Adams (Richard). <i>Watership Down,</i> FIRST EDITION, author inscription on front free end paper, folded map tipped in, original boards, dust-jacket. £800 to £1,200
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> Bowles (John). <i>Several Prospects of the Most…la Ville de Londres, avec des Remarques Historiques fort Succinctes, qui les Regardant,</i> 20 double page engraved plates only, of 23, 1724. £200 to £300
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> Auden (W.H.). <i>Our Hunting Fathers,</i> FIRST SEPARATE EDITION, 1 of 22 copies, COPY B OF 5 PRINTED ON NORMANDIE, original patterned wrappers, Cambridge, for Frederic Prokosch, 1935. £800 to £1200
    <b>Chiswick Auctions: Summer Books. August 22, 2018</b>
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> Barrie (J. M.) & Attwell (Mabel Lucie, illustrator). <i>Peter Pan & Wendy,</i> FIRST EDITION, 12 chromolithograph plates, publisher's blue cloth, original printed dust jacket, [c.1920]; and 3 others (4). £200 to £300
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> Bartolozzi (Francesco). Genius Calling Forth the Fine Arts to Adorn Manufactures and Commerce; Agriculture (Husbandry Aided by Arts and Commerce), glazed and framed. £200 to £300
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> A collection of engraved caricatures, including Gillray ([James]) Tales of Wonder!, 1802; Rowlandson (Thomas) Sports, Smock Racing, 1811;Irish Jaunting Carr, 1814. £400 to £600
    <b>Chiswick Auctions: Summer Books. August 22, 2018</b>
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> Bennett (Charles H, illustrator). <i>Æsop’s Fables,</i> 1875; Buchanan (Robert). <i>Ballad Stories of the Affections,</i> [1866]; Douce (Francis), The Dance of Death, 1833. £200 to £300
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> Chinese Illustrations. A group of 6 Cantonese rice paper illustrations, depicting scenes of torture with different instruments, gouache, c.340 x 220mm, original wrapper boards preserved, [c. 1800]. £200 to £300
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> Dulac (Edmund). <i>The Queen of Romania, The Dreamer of Dreams,</i> 5 coloured plates, [1915]; and others illustrated by Edmund Dulac. £300 to £400
    <b>Chiswick Auctions: Summer Books. August 22, 2018</b>
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> Fronth (Per). Xingu Chronicles, the portfolio, comprising 30 plates, photogravues in colours, each signed, dated and titled in pencil, each numbered 10/35, on wove paper, 790 x 600 x 60mm, 1997. £300 to £400
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> Pasternak (Boris). <i>Doctor Zhivago,</i> FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, original red publisher’s cloth, pictorial dust jacket, 4to, Collins & Harvill Press, 1958. £200 to £300
    <b>Chiswick Auctions, Aug. 22:</b> 13 sepia photographs of visitors to the Thermes Nationaux d’Aix-les-Bains, c. 150 x 105mm, c.1890 (12). £300 to £400

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