Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - December - 2012 Issue

Signed Material from David Schulson Autographs

Schulson152

Catalog 152 from David Schulson Autographs.

David Schulson Autographs has released their Catalog 152. It contains, naturally enough, autographed materials, primarily personal letters, along with signed photographs and other documents. The catalogue is divided into two sections, one of new material, the other of items that have been steeply discounted. The signers come from varied walks of life – art, music, science, government, literature, acting, and more. They are people whose names you will recognize. The material, letters in particular, however, tends to deal more with personal issues than with their fame or noted accomplishments. For example, Winston Churchill, the great politician and Britain's unbending leader during its “darkest hour,” along with being a prolific history writer, orders paints from a friend. He was also a painter. These are some of the signed items you will find inside this new Schulson catalogue.

We will start with one of the more unusual signed documents. The great photographer Ansel Adams' signature appears not on a letter or photograph or even a cancelled check. It here appears on a restaurant menu. The cover of this 1939 menu for “The Ahwahnee” restaurant in Yosemite National Park featured an Adams photograph entitled The Grizzly Giant. The “Grizzly Giant” is a very large sequoia tree in the park, one of the largest trees in the world. On the back cover of the menu is a lengthy description of the image. Below the description, Adams has signed his name. Item 1518. Sale priced at $450.

Here is that letter from the painter Winston Churchill. It was written to Willy Sax, a Swiss paint manufacturer and friend to Churchill and other painters, in 1946. Churchill had been “retired” by the voters the previous year, so he would have had a little more time on his hands. Churchill has questions about the use of Sax's tempera paint, whether it can be painted on top of oils, or oils on top of it. Churchill also orders some more tubes of paint. Churchill and Sax would continue to correspond until the latter's death in 1964. Item 1532. Sale $2,200.

Mark Twain is noted for his humorous stories, but he regularly used humor in his private letters as well. Here he writes to publisher Henry Oscar Houghton in 1890 concerning a subscription to a publication he cannot recall having placed. Writes Twain, “I can't remember about this. Of course I am not denying or repudiating the subscription; I merely have no memorandum of it, & there may be some error. I can forget things; once forgot to die; when four doctors said I was going to...” Twain has signed using his actual name, “S.L. Clemens.” Item 2216. Sale $4,125.

Here is a letter from another notable writer employing humor. This time it is A.A. Milne, but in his pre-Pooh days. Indeed, it is dated May 1, 1920, three months before the birth of his son Christopher Robin, who, along with his stuffed animals, was the inspiration for the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. At the time, Milne was a playwright, his first successful play, Mr. Pim Passed By, having opened to a run of 246 performances in London earlier that year. Writes Milne, “I don't really think that I am better than Shakespeare; it is only that 'Shakespeare and Milne' would be even more deadly than pure Milne. But I am much too proud that you like any of the play to resent your finding fault with the rest of it, and I shall be grateful for your advice...” Item 2363. $2,850.

Rare Book Monthly

  • <b>Bonhams, inviting consignments for Sep 27:</b> Newton. <i>Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica</i>. London, 1687.
    <b>Bonhams, inviting consignments for Sep 27:</b> Josephus. <i>De antiquitate Judaica.</i> Lubeck, 1475-76.
    <b>Bonhams, inviting consignments for Sep 27:</b> Carlerius. <i>Sporta fragmentorum, Sportula fragmentorum</i>. Brussels, 1478-79.
    <b>Bonhams, inviting consignments for Sep 27:</b> Fridolin. <i>Der Schatzbehalter</i>. Nuremberg, 1491.
    <b>Bonhams, inviting consignments for Sep 27:</b> Pinder. <i>Der beschlossen gart des rosenkrantz marie</i>. Nuremberg, 1505.
    <b>Bonhams, inviting consignments for Sep 27:</b> Isidorus Hispalensis. <i>Synonyma de Homine</i>. Nuremberg, 1470-71.
    <b>Bonhams, inviting consignments for Sep 27:</b> Durer. Sammelband including <i>Underweysung der messing</i>. Nuremberg, 1525-29.
  • <b>Swann Auction Galleries: Fall 2017 Auction Schedule</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 19: 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Sep 28: Printed & Manuscript Americana</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Oct 5: African-American Fine Art</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries: Fall 2017 Auction Schedule</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Oct 17: Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Oct 19:<br>Art & Storytelling: Photographs & Photobooks</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Oct 26: Rare & Important Travel Posters</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries: Fall 2017 Auction Schedule</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 2:<br>Old Master Through Modern Prints</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 7: Autographs</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 14: 19th & 20th Century Literature</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries: Fall 2017 Auction Schedule</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Nov 16: Contemporary Art</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 5:<br>Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books</b>
    <b>Swann Auction Galleries Dec 14: Illustration Art</b>
  • <b>Announcing a new Books for Sale platform hosted by Biblio</b>
    <b>List your books simultaneously on Rare Book Hub and Biblio</b>
  • <b>19th Century Shop’s Catalog 170 Great Books and Photos. Please inquire for a copy.</b>
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> Exodus 10:10 to 16:15. Complete Biblical scroll sheet in Hebrew, a Torah scroll panel. Middle East, ca. 10th or 11th century.
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> Copernicus Refuted. (Astronomy.). Scientific manuscript of a course of studies at Collège de la Trinité, Lyon. 1660s.
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> Israel’s War of Independence and the Early Days of the IDF. 58 photographs presented to Israel Ber, IDF officer and later convicted spy.
    <b>19th Century Shop’s Catalog 170 Great Books and Photos. Please inquire for a copy.</b>
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> Early Unpublished Darwin letter on the races of man. Autograph Letter Signed [to Henry Denny]. Down, Kent, June 1, [1844].
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> Classic Image of American Slavery. Kimball, M. H. <i>Emancipated Slaves</i>. New York: George Hanks, 1863.
    <b>19th Century Shop:</b> (Underground Railroad.) Scaggs, Isaac. Important Runaway Slave Poster: $500 Reward Ran away, or decoyed from the subscriber…

Review Search

Archived Reviews

Ask Questions
http://www.rarebookhub.com/reviews/1430
www.rarebookhub.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2017-34
72364
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:HB2L76DV4CO6Y5QUV43FNIMT6JRTXWRQ
<urn:uuid:ba9c59d9-838b-4f44-bf13-1e3a7a5501fc>
2017-08-20T13:27:34Z
54.225.48.124
text/html
sha1:NTOEDVH3I5BURNMVKDIONW3NFGO6XPKV
<urn:uuid:4c424d0e-fa1e-43f7-9d83-6ec629bb6dc7>
http://www.rarebookhub.com/reviews/1430
response
<urn:uuid:64583d8b-0936-4c51-9841-104b60c0030c>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-166-40-189.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-34
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf