Catalogue Review: Mac Donnell Rare Books, #50

If I didn't know that Mac Donnell Rare Books is based in Austin, Texas, I might have guessed New England after surveying catalogue #50. The ABAA bookseller specializes in literary first editions, and its recent list is full of Massachusetts Transcendentalists and Romantics -- Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Herman Melville.

Of the many books offered, two particular titles in this area interested me. First: Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors, 1864, edited John Pendleton Kennedy and Alexander Bliss. Says the catalogue: "The best literary anthology ever published in the nineteenth century ... entirely lithographed, reproducing the original manuscripts of each contribution" ($850). Sounds like a book I'd cherish. Second: an 1839 first edition of Jones Very's Essays and Poems, containing family inscriptions ($500).

On another note, Mac Donnell has "the rarest American edition of any Bronte sisters' work, and here it its rarest format": the first American edition of Anne Bronte's 1848 double-decker, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, in original brown printed wrappers ($15,000). 

Two other non-book items manifest the nature of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century literary fame and objectified authorship. A signed photograph of William Dean Howells, c. 1920, shows him posed with pen in one hand and glasses in the other, with an inkwell and manuscripts under his gaze ($500). An earlier photograph, c. 1880-1895, measuring 2" x 2", of John Greenleaf Whittier is mounted under a piece of octagonal beveled glass with faux morocco backing ($75). Mac Donnell calls it "a charming relic and the only one of its kind that we have encountered."

If these subjects are as appealing to you as they are to me, check out Mac Donnell's inventory of more than 3,000 volumes online here: http://www.macdonnellrarebooks.com/.

milesromney.jpgHere's a reason to pay attention to those dusty old books on family genealogy:

Judith Thurman, an author and biographer of Raymond Chandler, just handed Mitt Romney a bill for $25,000.  She wants to settle a debt owed to Thurman's family from the Romney clan dating back to the 1880s.  It would appear that great-grandfather Flake (Thurman's relation) bailed great-grandfather Romney out of jail for $1,000.  Romney never repaid the debt.  By Thurman's calculations, this is worth about $25,000 in today's money.

The tale gets more sordid:

Thurman described the family heads as "patriarchs of adjoining Mormon communities in the high, cold, hard country of northern Arizona, a region known as Apache County." Both Flake and Romney were practicing polygamists when US law enforcement began cracking down on the practice.  Flake and Romney were tossed in jail, where Flake, described as a "deeply respectable man," posted his own bail, then did the same for Romney.  Freshly freed from jail, Romney fled with his three wives to Mexico, reneging on his debts.  Flake, meanwhile, served a six-month prison sentence.

The events led a newspaper editor of the era to describe Romney as having "the character of a louse, the breath of a buzzard and the record of a perjurer and common drunkard."

Thurman wrote about the incident in the LA Review of Books. "Since it's never too late to make a situation right, and since Mitt Romney seems to have sufficient funds now to cover his ancestor's old debt, I'd like to call upon him to do so. I've done some calculation, and $1,000 from the 1880s would today be worth about $25,000, not counting interest (and since I'm not a smart enough to figure up the interest, I'm willing to let that part slide). Because William Jordan Flake has about 15,000 descendants living at the moment, I realize I'll have to divide up the money should Romney do the right thing and write out that check."

So, will Romney repay the debt, repairing relations between two of the foundational Mormon families?  Well, I don't think anyone is holding their breath...

(Photo of Miles Park Romney from Wikipedia)

North_American_Indian_fullset2.jpgSwann Galleries will offer a rare, complete set of Edward S. Curtis' The North American Indian during its Fine Photographs & Photobooks sale on October 4. Considering that the estimate is $1,250,000 - $1,750,000, this has the potential to be big news in the rare book world (a copy from the Kenneth Nebenzahl library made a record $2.9 million at Christie's earlier this year over a similar estimate).

This set is consigned by Detroit bookseller John King, and, says the auction house, it "appears to be the only complete version in which a treasure trove of photogravures with Curtis' stylized signature exists." This unique suite includes 722 large-format photogravures on Japan tissue, with 111 signed plates in Folios I, IV and V. The accompanying 20 text volumes contain an additional 1,505 photogravures, 4 maps and 2 diagrams, and were produced by Lauriat from Curtis' original copper plates.

We asked John King about his experience with Curtis' work.

RRB: You've been in the book trade for more than forty years -- is this the most beautiful photobook you've ever handled?

JK: We've handled Brett Weston portfolios, original Ansel Adams, Fox Talbots, Albums of Civil War carte-de-visite views, but this is by far the most important piece.

RRB: Do you collect personally (apart from your business interests)?

JK: I collect some modern American poetry but just reading editions only. Plus, I collect images and other representations of people reading and/or selling books. I try not to compete with our customers, though. I do enjoy handling fine and important items, and while owning them is fleeting it still satisfies my soul.

RRB: How long have you owned this set?

JK: The Curtis set was a multi-year project for me, and I feel fortunate to be its owner.

RRB: Why is now the time to part with it?

JK: Though I was mesmerized with each and every photogravure, and if I could I would have kept this to the end of my life, my job is bookselling and that's what I've done for over 4 decades. I need to pass this one on to someone who can bestow on it the care and love it deserves.

RRB: Will you come to NY to attend the auction in person?

JK: I'd like to go but I can't commit to it. Being an active bookseller, there might be a library to purchase that might get in the way. There is often a fine line between buying and selling great books.

RRB: Edward Curtis is a fascinating character -- a man obsessed by the multi-year, multi-volume project to document the 'vanishing' race of Native Americans. What do you think of the fact that he died virtually unknown and penniless?

JK: Just like a great many accomplished artists of the past, their work preceded their deserved compensation after death. Curtis deserved accolades while he was still alive, but unfortunately it didn't work out that way.

To read more about this auction, or to register to bid go to: http://www.swanngalleries.com/full.cgi?index_id=559&sch_id=581
One of our ongoing concerns here at Fine Books is the intersection of books and art.  We recently began an occasional series on this blog profiling small, independent publishers who produce exquisite editions of their books.  (The first entry in our series was Scarlet Imprint).

Today, we feature Three Hands Press, a fine publisher of occult books which began life in 2003 as a side venture of Xoanon Publishing.  The house quickly built a strong reputation of producing beautiful books with many of their limited editions selling out before their publication.

I recently interviewed one of the press's founders, Daniel Schulke, over e-mail:


COC_std.jpg
NP:  What was the genesis of Three Hands Press?  What's the significance of its name?

DS: Three Hands Press was initially conceived as a side project of Xoanon Publishing, the official publisher of the witchcraft order Cultus Sabbati. These books are very arcane in content, and assume the format of grimoires or manuals of magic. In 2000, Andrew Chumbley, the order's Magister, re-oriented Xoanon as a publishing entity strictly run by our initiates, with nearly all phases of production and dissemination controlled by our own people. This allowed for a greater ability for manifestation of our vision: shortly thereafter Xoanon was incorporated as a Limited Company with Chumbley as Director and myself as Secretary. In 2003 he and I began to discuss the necessity of proper stewardship of our initiates' writings which fell outside the purview of Xoanon - mainly magical essays which had appeared in occult journals, and also academic work. Andrew also wanted to have a means of publishing his PhD thesis on ancient ritual dream incubation outside of a strictly academic context, as it treats many concerns of interest to magical practitioners today.

During this temporal phase where these discussions were taking place, one of our initiates experienced a vision of an Angelic being whose form was comprised of three outstretched hands. Similar emblems appeared during this period. Given the context of the vision, it was clear that this was the presiding spirit of the nascent endeavour, and thus the name and stylized image was adopted. As to its meaning, there are many levels of interpretation. One might consider the emblem as indicative of a trinity of power which animates our work: the Hand of the Author, the Hand of the Publisher, and the 'Hand' of the book's genius or governing spirit. This evokes the Magical Triangle of Evocation -- the minimum configuration of points necessary to enclose space and hallow ground. In a more cryptic and gnostic vein, it also evokes the words of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there
am I in the midst of them." Others have interpreted the Three Hands as the Trident of the Arte Magical, being the Left-Hand, or sinistral path; the Right-Hand or dextral path; and the 'Hand of Mediation' which governs the Crooked or Middle Path between them.

303004.jpg

NP: What is the publishing vision of the house?

DS: We have broadened the vision since the initial conception of Three Hands Press, and have a community of diverse authors extending far beyond Xoanon. Our vision as a publisher is to provide the esoteric and occult community with superior magical content, in a manner supportive of our artists and authors, and which also possesses a sense of perpetuity in magical time. Here I feel it is important to clarify that "content" is not only the book's subject matter, and its actual texts and images. It is also the substance comprising the book, its materials, design, and a peculiar quality I might call numen or radiance. These things speak to a reader with a different voice than text and image, but they convey magical language just the same. With regard to perpetuity, I am specifically referring to a book's relevance, not only to the present generation of readers, but also future ones.

NP: Could you tell us about the process of producing your fine editions?

DS: The fine editions, being the best-quality bindings of any given title, arise very much from the nexus of the 'Three Hands' aforementioned: -- Writer, Publisher, and indwelling Spirit of the Book. This is to say
that we work closely with our writers in the design work to manifest each book as it should be, taking three major bibliomorphic vectors into consideration. When I say 'Spirit of the Book', this refers to its animating force, but also the field of aesthetic resonance it generates about itself as it moves from inspiration to manuscript to embodiment. In this process events happen in the magical field, as well as in real-time. A particular colour may come to dominate the sensorium of the author, chance occurrences' lead to refinement of design parameters, a series of dreams or a cascade of mutual epiphanies may generate a seed-crystal which contains the entirety of a book's gross and subtle anatomy. Sometimes a design arises because a book accretes a particularly adverse set of circumstances about it, and this resistance to aesthetic imposition liberates the whole from an inappropriate incarnation, giving way to something previously unimaginable. There is a vivifying power for each book which unites force and form as a trajectory from inspiration through manifestation.

In terms of craftsmanship we have been blessed to work with a number of fine artisans in the fields of illustration, bookbinding, engraving, papermaking, printing and tanning, as well as the newer fields of digital sculpting and type design. We have an enormous amount of respect for these time-honored disciplines, but at the same time recognize and incorporate new technologies such as digital typesetting. Years ago, when I was learning letterpress printing, I appreciated digital layout as never before after spending a day hand-setting a single page of metal type.

ORS_2.jpgNP: How do you decide on your limitations for each print run?

DS: Each title is different. For certain texts, numbers may be readily apparent as a numerological arcanum, as with Robert Fitzgerald's A Gathering of Masks. The deluxe edition, limited to 44, numerically resonated with the enumerated aspects of the "Genii of the Domes", the book's chief concern. Where a numerological basis does not arise from the text itself, the limitation number may be commemorative, or may have personal significance to the author. Larger limitations such as with standard hardcover editions, are often governed by economic feasibility: because we refuse to print on demand, or use other inferior technologies, we generate books via offset lithography, and this is the more expensive route; there is a certain production threshold which must be attained.

NP: How do you feel about the idea of "grimoire scalping" -- that is, people purchasing your fine editions solely to sell them at a profit soon after they've sold out from the publisher?

DS: Looking at Xoanon, one of the things that sets it apart from other occult publishers is that it seeks to place its books in the hands of those worthy of owning them. This longstanding policy is explained concisely on its web site, and will of course continue. Here, the best editions of the work are offered only to a small group of people of established character, a relationship of trust which has been built up over time. However, this group is not static, it evolves. Similarly, Xoanon refuses to offer certain fine editions to some individuals. With Three Hands Press, a similar situation is in effect, though somewhat more liberal. Both strategies limit the problem, but not entirely. My personal feelings about 'grimoire scalping' have less to do with the money aspect of it than the particular streak of character demonstrated by someone who
lists one of our deluxe editions on eBay for five times our selling price, a day after the book is released. While the market certainly allows for this, a great many people find this behaviour distasteful, myself included. However, let us be clear: producers of fine occult editions cannot complain too loudly about speculators, because, like a certain stratum of organisms on the food-chain, they are a small but important
force in the market.

thpom3_std.jpgNP: What events do you have planned for the 20th anniversary of Xoanon? I know you will be exhibiting at the Esoteric Book Conference.  Could you tell us a bit about that?

DS: Xoanon Publishing is the visible surface manifestation of a largely secret magical organisation, the Cultus Sabbati. Its main point of outer engagement is through the magical book. However, the Exhibition may be likened to a magical book that, when opened, becomes self-reflective. Thus, those in attendance will have a larger view of our corpus of work, and how it relates to a historical procession of magical text over time. It will also allow the viewer to look at books on display comprising the rarest editions, which are sometimes limited to only a handful of copies. The magical relationship between these scarce editions to the standard versions, also rare in their own right, will be explicit. As part of the event we have a unique limited edition art print as well as an exhibition catalogue available. Further, we will have several books on display that exist wholly on the inner circle, the so-called 'Monadic Transmissions' of which there are only single copies extant. Finally, concurrent with the exhibit will be the release of EIKOSTOS, an official bibliography of Xoanon's last 20 years, with technical data on all editions, rare images, and historical information. Providing the Daimones of the Book will it, there will be some of these at the Exhibition too.

masks_std.jpg

NP: What's next on the slate for Three Hands?

DS: September 3rd will see release of Andrew Chumbley's "The Leaper Between", his now-classic research on the Toad Bone Amulet for used for gaining witchcraft power. Although a small book at only 66 pages, its design was a labour of love by many different hands, and is a manifestation I am particularly pleased with. We also will be releasing Arcanum Bestiarum, a modern bestiary by Robert Fitzgerald, by September's end. This autumn we will be publishing Michael Howard's book on Witchcraft in Scotland, followed by Opuscula Magica 3 by Andrew D. Chumbley, which contains a selection of his previously-unpublished academic essays. We also have a number of titles in progress for 2013 and 2014, including my own "Granary of the Fauns," a 600-page work which has been in process for 25 years.








The Woman Reader
Reviewed by Edith Vandervoort

One could confidently say that all women in Western societies are permitted to enjoy the pleasures of reading. We are able to chose what we would like to read and how often we want to read. This is, even today, not the case in countries with restrictive rights for women, nor was this the case throughout much of history. In her engaging book, The Woman Reader (Yale UP, 2012), Belinda Jack traces the history of reading and education for women--notably linked to the accomplishments of the women's movement--and, with the inclusion of drawing and photographs, highlights important female readers, writers, and literary critics.

woman reader.jpgReading for women (and men) was based on whether or not one was wealthy and had the books and the time to read. In the twelfth century, book ownership was limited to members of the nobility, but convents, which had been established as early as the fifth century when they served to offer protection from the scourges of war, provided a more egalitarian system of education in French, English, and Latin for women of various socioeconomic classes. They varied greatly by the number of book bequests and the literacy of the community, but provided women with the opportunity to achieve a high level of scholarship. In the early middle ages, men and women collaborated in writing the scripture for the purpose of serving God in the conversion of non believers. With the invention of the printing press in the sixteenth century, women largely read religious works, but also secular materials on "acceptable" topics. Romances were not included in this category and were, for many centuries, considered morally damaging and conducive to frivolity and the release of inhibited sexual desires. The Reformation provoked contentious, often dangerous religious ideas. At this time, women began to write to express their religious and political views. With improved technology came the increased availability of secular reading materials and, with it, the degradation of women through inexpensively produced pamphlets and booklets, leading to hotly-debated rebuttals written by women. 

The commercialization of books thrived and women were encouraged to read advice manuals, how-to books on household activities, books on etiquette, but also pulp fiction. The debate of whether or not women should be educated abated and women became more assertive. Various salons in the seventeenth century and the Bluestockings in the eighteenth century were intellectual societies where women could freely exchange ideas. Rousseau's theories proclaiming that women should be educated to promote men's happiness was discarded and in the eighteenth century women's magazines, printed for the sole purpose of pleasure in reading what other women wrote, increased in number. The idea of reading for personal edification eventually became largely accepted for all people.

Jack's well-researched and fascinating book makes us appreciate the gift of reading and equally conscientious of how slaves, women, and disenfranchised populations are manipulated through illiteracy and the lack of quality education.

--Edith Vandervoort is a freelance writer based in California.

Catalogue Review: Seth Kaller

GW_Cat_Cover.pngThis week I had the pleasure of reading Seth Kaller's new catalogue, Washington, The Revolution, and the Founding. I say reading because this is very much a reading catalogue--full of histories, long excerpts from correspondence, and provenance details. This catalogue of highlights contains documents, newspapers, maps, books, and artwork that manifest the vibrancy of American history. Of course this is all par for the course for the NY-based Seth Kaller, who has acquired, appraised, and sold some of the most important historic documents.

The Declaration of Independence, for example. There are a couple listed here. A rare July 1776 broadside printed in Salem, MA (price on request) and two Stone-Force facsimile editions from 1833 (one unfolded, $45,000; one folded $38,000).

Some amazing letters are offered as well. One is signed by Washington imparting his plans to "execute an enterprise against Staten Island" ($27,500). Another letter, entirely in his hand, from 1780, seeks "an entire new plan" for the nascent nation ($300,000). His famous 'Throne of Grace' letter from early in his presidency ($315,000) is now back on the market, after its exhibition at the National Museum of American Jewish History.

The famous 'Tombstone Edition' of the Pennsylvania Journal for Oct. 31, 1765 complete with skull and crossbones at the top is an incredible sight ($75,000). It is one of many historic newspapers seen in the catalogue.

A letter from Martha Washington as first lady to her niece ($47,500) and a hand-painted ivory miniature of her by Louis Andre Fabre ($9,500) bring us beyond politics and the war.

And in books, John Hancock's Psalm book, signed by him with an autograph inscription warning against stealing (this book, presumably) is shiver-inducing ($68,000). Richard Rush, son of Signer Benjamin Rush, extra-illustrated his copy of Washington in Domestic Life, filling it with autograph signed letters between Rush and Tobias Lear, Washington's private secretary ($7,500).

And, forgive me, I could not help but love the July 3, 1776 receipt for Saltpeter ($2,750). The image of Mr. and Mrs. Adams singing about it in the movie-musical 1776 is too strong!
bulwerlytton.jpgIt was a dark and stormy night.

That famous sentence originated with the Victorian author Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, the undisputed King of Purple Prose.  "It was a dark and stormy night" opened his otherwise completely forgotten novel Paul Clifford.  In Bulwer-Lytton's honor, the San Jose State University English Department hosts an annual contest for writers to submit their absolute worst opening lines.

This year's winners were just announced:

In first place, Cathy Bryant of Manchester England with this stunner, "As he told her that he loved her she gazed into his eyes, wondering, as she noted the infestation of eyelash mites, the tiny deodicids burrowing into his follicles to eat the greasy sebum therein, each female laying up to 25 eggs in a single follicle, causing inflammation, whether the eyes are truly the windows of the soul; and, if so, his soul needed regrouting."

The Bulwer-Lytton offers awards in a variety of genres as well, such as Romance, Fantasy, and Crime.  But my favorite category is Purple Prose, which seems the closest in spirit to Bulwer-Lytton's famously wordy writing.  This year's winner is a gem, hitting all the worst possible notes:

"William, his senses roused by a warm fetid breeze, hoped it was an early spring's equinoxal thaw causing rivers to swell like the blood-engorged gumlines of gingivitis, loosening winter's plaque, exposing decay, and allowing the seasonal pot-pouris of Mother Nature's morning breath to permeate the surrounding ether, but then he awoke to the unrelenting waves of his wife's halitosis."  (Guy Foisy, Orleans, Ontario).

Check out the website for the contest to read more winning entries.

Yesterday, BookFinder.com issued its annual report on books that are "out-of-print and in demand," i.e. the top one hundred old books that remain popular among book buyers.

Unsurprisingly, Madonna's 1992 book, Sex, topped the charts once again. Stephen King (as himself and as Richard Bachman) and Nora Roberts are the other leaders. Thereafter follows quite an eclectic group of authors/books who are apparently "sought after:" Lynne Cheney's 1981 novel, Sisters, which the author refuses to reprint (she also denies that it contains lesbian content) is #15; Marie Simmons' Pancakes A to Z, a 1997 cookbook, is #71; and Edward Matunas' Practical Gunsmithing is #59. (Strangely the latter is not the only gunsmithing title on the list; James Virgil Howe's The Modern Gunsmith is #78.)

One of the questions this list evokes is why some of these titles are out-of-print. Cameron Crowe's Fast Times at Ridgemont High (#11) would be awesome re-issued. Surely a reprint of Cecil Beaton's The Glass of Fashion (#52) would be heartily embraced by a certain milieu. Johnny Cash's Man in Black (#7) was in Bookfinder's top ten last year, too. The 1983 Zondervan edition of Man in Black shown on Amazon.com's page says "More Than 700,000 Copies in Print." Where the heck are they all?! Bookfinder's report makes it clear that the market wants more.

Bookfinder has issued this annual report for ten years. See the whole list here: http://www.bookfinder.com/books/bookfinder_report_2012/.
Today, we begin an occasional series at Fine Books where we conduct brief interviews with bibliomystery authors.  Lovers of antiquarian books and lovers of mystery novels find few reading pleasures greater than the bibliomystery.  A bibliomystery, for the uninitiated, is a mystery centered around books.  (More info here). 

I recently spoke with Carolyn Hart, author of the "Death on Demand" series, which just reached its 22nd entry this summer with the publication of "Death Comes Silently."  Hart has won multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity awards.  Her series features a bookshop owner, Annie Laurance, who operates a mystery bookshop called "Death on Demand" on a South Carolina island. Laurance also, of course, moonlights as an amateur detective.


cgh2011.jpgNP: Could you tell us a bit about the Death on Demand series?

CH: In 1985, I had written seven books in seven years and at that point not sold any of them.  I decided I would try one more time. I set out to write the kind of book I love to read, a traditional mystery with appealing characters and (I hoped) a good puzzle.

I had written a few pages when I attended a meeting of the Houston chapter of MWA. Bill Crider, whose first book was coming out, asked if I'd ever been to Murder by the Book. I said no and asked what it was. His reply excited me: a mystery bookstore. I'd never heard of a mystery bookstore.
   
I took a cab to MBTB. From the moment I walked in, I was enchanted, mysteries, mysteries everywhere. When I came home, I decided to set my new book in a mystery bookstore. That gave me the chance through my protagonist to talk about wonderful mysteries of the present and the past. That book was Death on Demand, the first in the series. The 22nd in the series - DEATH COMES SILENTLY - was published this week by Berkley Prime Crime.
   
NP: What sort of research do you do for the Death on Demand series?

CH: I have a bookshelf filled with books about South Carolina, but the flavor and background are drawn from Hilton Head island as it was in the 1970s when my family first began visiting there. Of course, each book will require other reseaech. For SOUTHERN GHOST, I thoroughly enjoyed learning about South Carolina's famous ghosts. THE CHRISTIE CAPER was an exercise in pleasure as I revisted Agatha Christie's life and work.

147800197.JPGNP: What do you think makes bibliomysteries so appealing to readers?

CH: Readers love books so mysteries about books are an extra pleasure for them.

NP: What do you enjoy about writing them?

CH: Mysteries are socially important, intellectually challenging, and a bulwark of morality. I agree with Christie that mysteries are parables and thus they serve to reinforce moral teachings. Every time a reader chooses to read a mystery, they are reaffirming a commitment to goodness.

12515148.jpgNP: Are you personally a book collector? (And if so, what do you collect?)

CH: Not in the sense of first editions. I collect reading copies of mysteries of the past, including titles by Constance and Gwyneth Little, Phoebe Atwood Taylor, Mary Collins, and Juanita Sheridan.

You can find out more about Carolyn on her website.  Her latest entry in the "Death on Demand" series, entitled "Death Comes Silently," is available now




Next month Sotheby's New York will sell property from the Estate of Brooke Astor. Nine hundred items from her Park Avenue duplex and her Westchester country home, Holly Hill, will go under the hammer during the two-day auction.

Astor was a legendary figure in New York society until her death in 2007. She was primarily a collector of decorative arts, furniture, and jewelry, a piece of which is a jewel-encrusted lion brooch (estimate $20,000-30,000) that evokes the iconography of the NYPL, an institution the Astors have supported for more than a century.

Astor Lib small.jpgBut was she a book collector? Holly Hill boasts this lovely library (above), and yet there appears to be only one lot (#67) consisting of "A Very Good Reading Library of Standard Authors Mostly 19th Century." There are approximately 711 volumes in the lot, and the asking price is $3,500-5,000. Not bad. A pre-fab library of classics mostly bound in morocco or calf with a charming provenance. Later in the auction, fifteen lots of miscellaneous books sorted by subject (Reference, Cooking, Dogs, New York, etc.) turn up, with low estimates of $100-500 for lots of one hundred-plus books each.

BookVase.pngThere are some book objects of interest. A French earthenware vase in the form of a stack of books (seen here at left; estimate $1,000-1,500) and a painted book box (estimate $100-200) and a few historical documents crop up too, but the evidence suggests that Brooke was not much of a book collector even if she had a beautiful library. Still, for the right antiquarian bookseller or book collector, her books might yield surprising opportunities -- association copies from society artists, or tucked-in treasures related to this Old New York family...