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mark twain

Photo Tour: Bonhams & Butterfields Fine Books & Manuscripts Auction Preview

Filed under: Auctions, Books


Sometimes in these days of iPads and smartphones it's a pleasure to look at real writing, at old books, scrawled signatures, the things that could be mere curiosities to future generations. Bonhams & Butterfields Fine Books & Manuscripts auction is coming up on February 13. One of the showcase lots is a book, prominently featuring California backdrops, of 100 hand-colored lithograph plates and accompanying text by famed German-Russian painter and explorer Louis Choris. Choris' volume has more than 100 plates depicting areas of San Francisco, such as the Presidio, the Mission, and the Bay; as well as the Hawaiian Islands; Alaska; the Philippines; Chile; and Easter Island. It is estimated at $100,000-$150,000.

The illustrated auction catalog for the Fine Books & Manuscripts Sale is available online for review and purchase at www.bonhams.com/18686. Take a look some other items after the jump...

Saving Mark Twain's House

I've written before of the problems facing the Edith Wharton home, The Mount, now another museum in a famous writer's home is also in trouble. The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut is flailing, partly due to architect Robert A.M. Stern's 32,000-square-foot Modernist museum structure, which opened in 2003 and cost the museum $19.5 million. The expenditure may have bankrupted the nonprofit organization that runs the Mark Twain House & Museum. The museum was expected to double the amount of visitors but end up in a more modest gain. Construction of the museum was originally supposed to cost $11 million but energy costs and fallout from the recession led to overruns.

The historic home was decorated by Louis Comfort TIffany and includes a wooden mantelpiece from a Scottish castle and a carved Venetian bed decorated with cherubs. Writers are rallying to help keep the house and museum open to the public. Jon Clinch, who wrote the novel "Finn" about the father of Twain's iconic character Huckleberry Finn has organized a writers' benefit for the Twain House on Sept. 23.

Unfortunately, I predict this is not the last time I'll be writing about a small museum in trouble. The current economic climate hits smaller museums from several different angles. Operating costs such as energy expenditures and repairs are rising while donations are starting to become smaller as people feel less secure and have less to spare. Add to this the real estate slump, which makes the actual properties worth less and you have a recipe for disaster.

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