Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - May - 2005 Issue

Rare Books in the Arts and More from Charles Wood

R0501

One Hundred Nine Rare Books from Charles Wood.


By Michael Stillman

Charles Wood Antiquarian Booksellers'
latest catalogue, One Hundred Nine Rare Books, or "Catalogue 122," lives up to its name and Wood's reputation. Certainly these are rare books, all 109 of them. And, most fit within the types we have come to expect from Charles Wood, high quality printing and illustrating, with a concentration of titles in artistic realms, such as architecture, perspective and gardens. A few of the items we found in this collection of uncommon books follow.

Item 12 is a 300-year-old book that is very current as it is filled with images we were watching on television for days. The title is Numismata Summorum Pontificum Templi Vaticani fabricam...by Filippo Buonanni, the 1700 edition of a book first published in 1696. This is described as the first thorough survey of the architectural history of St. Peter's. Buonanni used unpublished manuscripts, published literature, medals minted over the centuries, as well as other sources to reconstruct the history the site. The book includes many illustrations and plans (not all actually put in place) to reconstruct the building as it has appeared over the ages. Priced at $4,500.

Item 46 is a rare American architectural book on Newport, Rhode Island. Newport is one of those very pricey communities where the wealthy of an earlier generation built summer homes, or "cottages." Indeed the price of the book indicates it was intended for the well-heeled - $50. That may not sound outrageous, but the year was 1875. I cannot imagine what $50 was worth then, but rest assured it was more than most people could spend on a book, probably on a house. The writer was George Champlin Mason, the premier resident architect of Newport at the time. This book was limited to 100 copies and is an elegant production (according to Mason, it cost $30 a copy to produce not including any payments to the author). The title is Newport and its cottages. $4,000.

Here is a book for those who love to dance: The Rudiments of Genteel Behavior by Francois Nivelon. This 1737 book was designed to introduce the British to the subtleties of dancing the minuet, things better understood by the French. The steps and movements were supposed to exude an air of class. Sort of Sunday afternoon fever. The book comes in two parts, one for women, one for men. Women are taught how to curtsey, walk, dance, and give their hands. Men learn how to salute, bow, and, of course, dance. Not that men pay attention to directions. Item 56. $8,750.

Stealing other authors' material is neither genteel nor polite, but that is evidently what was done in The Polite Academy; or school of behavior for young gentlemen and ladies intended as a foundation for good manners and polite address in Masters and Misses... The book offers detailed instructions on how to behave in public, and includes plates demonstrating how to bow, give your hand, etc., when dancing the minuet. Wood notes that "the similarity of some of these plates to the...[preceding book]... is so striking that one may safely say they were copied (although badly...). This is a later edition (circa 1823) of a book first published in 1762, but all editions are now rare. Item 74. $1,350.

Rare Book Monthly

  • <b>Bonhams: Results from Fine Books and Manuscripts on March 9, 2018</b>
    <b>Bonhams, Mar. 9:</b> BEETHOVEN, LUDWIG VAN. Autograph Manuscript sketch-leaf part of the score of the Scottish Songs, "Sunset" Op. 108 no 2. [Vienna, February 1818]. Inscribed by Alexander Wheelock Thayer. SOLD for $131,250
    <b>Bonhams, Mar. 9:</b> Violin belonging to Albert Einstein, presented to him by Oscar H. Steger, 1933. SOLD for $516,500
    <b>Bonhams, Mar. 9:</b> EINSTEIN, ALBERT. Autograph Letter Signed ("Papa") to his son Hans Albert, discussing his involvement with the atomic bomb, September 2, 1945. SOLD for $106,250
    <b>Bonhams: Results from Fine Books and Manuscripts on March 9, 2018</b>
    <b>Bonhams, Mar. 9:</b> HAMILTON, ALEXANDER. Autograph Letter Signed, to Baron von Steuben, with extensive notes of Von Steuben's aide Benjamin Walker, June 12, 1780. SOLD for $16,250
    <b>Bonhams, Mar. 9:</b> NEWTON, ISAAC. Autograph Manuscript in Latin, being detailed instructions on making the philosopher's stone. 8 pp. 1790s. SOLD for $275,000
    <b>Bonhams, Mar. 9:</b> 1869 Inauguration Bible of President Ulysses S. Grant. SOLD for $118,750
  • <b>Doyle, April 25:</b> E.H. SHEPARD, Original drawing for A.A. Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner.<br>$40,000-60,000
    <b>Doyle, April 25:</b> BERNARD RATZER, Plan of the City of New York in North America, surveyed in the years 1766 & 1767. $80,000-100,000
    <b>Doyle, April 25:</b> THOMAS JEFFERSON, Autograph letter signed comparing Logan, Tecumseh, and Little Turtle to the Spartans. Monticello: 15 February 1821. $14,000-18,000
    <b>Doyle, April 25:</b> JOHN C. FREMONT, Narrative of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, in the Year 1842.. Abridged edition, the only one containing the folding map From the Sporting Library of Arnold “Jake” Johnson. $3,000-5,000
    <b>Doyle, April 25:</b> ZANE GREY, Album containing 94 large format photographs of Grey and party at Catalina Island, Arizona, and fishing in the Pacific. From the Sporting Library of Arnold “Jake” Johnson. $5,000-$8,000
    <b>Doyle, April 25:</b> WILLIAM COMBE, A History of Madeira ... illustrative of the Costumes, Manners, and Occupations of the Inhabitants. produced by Ackermann in 1821; From the Sporting Library of Jake Johnson. $2,000-$3,000
    <b>Doyle, April 25:</b> ERIC TAVERNER, Salmon Fishing... One of 275 copies signed by Taverner, published in 1931,From the Sporting Library of Jake Johnson. $2,000-$3,000
    <b>Doyle, April 25:</b> JOHN WHITEHEAD, Exploration of Mount Kina Balu, North Borneo. Whitehead reached the high point of Kinabalu in 1888. Part of a major group of travel books from the Sporting Library of Jake Johnson. $2,000-$3,000
    <b>Doyle, April 25:</b> JOHN LONG, Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter and Trader, describing the Manners and Customs of the North American Indians... The first edition of 1791. $3,000-$5,000
    <b>Doyle, April 25:</b> SAMUEL BECKETT, Stirrings Still. This, Beckett’s last work of fiction with original lithographs by Le Brocquy, limited to 200 copies signed by the author and the artist. From the Estate of Howard Kaminsky.. $1,500-$2,500
  • <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 Apr 26:</b> Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann, wallpaper sample book, circa 1919. $15,000 to $25,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Apr 26:</b> Archive from a late office of the Breuer & Smith architectural team, New York, 1960-70s. $3,500 to $5,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Apr 26:</b> William Morris, <i>The Story of the Glittering Plain or the Land of Living Men,</i> illustrated by Walter Crane, Kelmscott Press, Hammersmith, 1894. $2,500 to $3,500.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Apr 26:</b> Gustave Doré, <i>La Sainte Bible selon la Vulgate,</i> Tours, 1866. $15,000 to $25,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Apr 26:</b> Gustav Klimt & Max Eisler, <i>Eine Nachlese,</i> complete set, Vienna, 1931. $15,000 to $25,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Apr 26:</b><br>Eric Allatini & Gerda Wegener, <i>Sur Talons Rouges,</i> with original watercolor by Wegener, Paris, 1929. $5,000 to $7,500.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Apr 26:</b><br>C.P. Cavafy, <i>Fourteen Poems,</i> illustrated & signed by David Hockney, London, 1966. $5,000 to $7,500.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Apr 26:</b> Jean Midolle, <i>Spécimen des Écritures Modernes...</i>, Strasbourg, 1834-35. $3,000 to $4,000.
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Apr 26:</b><br>E.A. Seguy, <i>Floréal: Dessins & Coloris Nouveaux,</i> Paris, 1925. $3,000 to $4,000.

Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions
http://www.rarebookhub.com/reviews/173
www.rarebookhub.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2018-17
81389
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:EYER7KPDI2PTXFRJYUPBFD76DTYHXXTG
<urn:uuid:63f7e2c0-0c30-4926-a88f-fbdb9ab17628>
2018-04-23T00:10:46Z
54.225.48.124
text/html
sha1:YTDGODXYXOZUZ6YERYNXCGOLAZ6KWOUR
<urn:uuid:306be725-6db7-4e0c-bd92-984e53bea8eb>
http://www.rarebookhub.com/reviews/173
response
<urn:uuid:43afe56b-63bf-4591-9a3f-2c27c5234a0e>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-152-23-81.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-17
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for April 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf