Auctions | August 16, 2012

Doyle NY to Auction Rare Books, Auotgraphs, and Maps on Nov. 5

Doyle New York will auction Rare Books, Autographs and Maps on November 5, 2012 at 10am. The material ranges from early illuminated manuscripts to modern first editions. Categories include Americana; bibliography and fine printing; illustrated books of all periods, including atlases and color plate books; literature; fine bindings (both bound sets and remarkable examples of the bookbinder's art); science and technology; travels and voyages; children's and illustrated books; and a diverse range of interesting books in other fields.

AMERICANA
??The sale is strong in manuscript Americana and is highlighted by an historically important 1783 George Washington letter to James McHenry, written in the days before his retirement as Commander of the Continental Army, where Washington announces his plan “get translated into a private Citizen”. Other autographs include an 1862 Abraham Lincoln signed pardon; a gold pendant containing two strands of the hair of Robert E. Lee collected after the Mexican War and the Civil War, descended in the Lee family with two letters of provenance; autographs and letters signed by Presidents and American notables such as Andrew Jackson, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Charles Lindbergh and others.

The Civil War period is represented by a group of original drawings prepared by then cadet Charles William Whipple portraying life at West Point; this is followed by a group of Whipple’s notebooks containing original drawings and notes carried by him on Wheeler’s Expedition west in 1875. Also of note is the original letter from Dr. William Eustis (a surgeon in the Revolutionary Army, later a Governor of Massachusetts) to Dr. David Townsend, recounting the infamous 1776 New York plot to assasinate George Washington. From the same group we offer a collection of Townsend’s medical appointments, one signed by John Hancock; and a copy of Townsend’s rare 1793 book on Pearl Ash and Potash, together with the copyright documents and a document pertaining to the technology endorsed by Hancock. Printed Americana includes a remarkable bound volume of early American sermons variously dated between 1701-1741, of which four are by Cotton Mather, including his very rare Nicetas of 1705, aimed at young people; and The Laws of Harvard College, Boston 1790, which includes a substantial section on the regulation of the library.

An American object of note is the original cast metal nameplate from the USS PT 109, the famous patrol cruiser captained by John F. Kennedy before its sinking in the Solomon Islands in August 1943. The plaque was ordered removed before the PT boat saw service and kept by PT 109’s previous Quartermaster Guy Manningand his family for the next 70 years. Artifacts from the PT109 are extremely scarce.

ENGLISH AUTOGRAPHS??
English autographs are represented an exceptionally fine letter from Lady Emma Hamilton to Admiral Lord Nelson, written shortly before the Battle of Trafalgar, Few of her letters to Nelson exist, as he destroyed them so they would not be used by scandalmongers. Tragically, by the time these reached the fleet, Nelson was dead. A second item of considerable note is an inscribed copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. A copy of the seventh edition of 1844, this is inscribed on the half-title "Mrs. Smithson/from/Charles Dickens/18th April 1844." This copy was presented to the wife of Dickens’ close friend the York solicitor Charles Smithson, after Smithson’s tragic and unexpected death at the age of 39 in 1844.

OTTO FRANK ARCHIVE??
On offer is a highly important archive of documents and correspondence between Otto Frank, the father of Anne Frank, Nathan Straus, and Joseph Schildkraut, the actor who portrayed Frank in the play and film versions of The Diary of Anne Frank. The relationship between these men was forged after Schildkraut’s masterful perfomance as Frank prompted the exchange of rare primary documents relating to efforts to gain exit visas for the Frank’s out of Holland in 1941 and a correspondence that lasted beyond Schildkraut’s death in 1964. To be offered separate from the archive is Joseph Schildkraut’s 1937 Academy Award for his role as Dreyfus in The Life of Emile Zola.

EARLY ENGLISH PRINTING??
The sale has a substantial collection of early English printing, including a large group of Elizabethan books. These include the very rare Martin Marprelate tract Hay any worke for Cooper… [Coventry: 1589]. This is a spectacular example of Elizabethan invective. Another high-spot is the first English book on cockfighting: George Wilson The commendation of cockes, and cock-fighting, London 1607. There is a copy of Richard Harvey’s An astrological Discourse vpon the great and notable Coniunction of the tvvo superiour planets, Saturne & Iupiter, which shall happen the 28. day of April, 1583, the second edition, London 1583; Stephen Batman The golden booke of the leaden goddes, London 1577; Henry Holland A treatise against vvitchcraft, London 1590; A briefe discouerie of Doctor Allens seditious drifts, London 1588. A pre-Elizabethan work of considerable interest is John Bale’s A mysterye of inyquyte contayned within the heretycall genealogye of Ponce Pantolabus… Antwerp, 1545, which was among the books banned by the July 5, 1546 Proclamation for the Abolishing of English Books that alsobanned Coverdale's Bible. Given the rarity of Elizabethan material, both in absolute terms and on the marketplace, we are excited to offer such an expansive selection.

ILLUSTRATION??
In the area of illustration, the sale offers two original copper printing plates by John Prideaux Selby for his great Illustrations of British Ornithology [Edinburgh and London, (1821)-1834(-1839). These are for the Egyptian Neophron and the Scops Eared Owl. In the field of fashion, we offer a collection of approximately two hundred and eighty pencil renderings (many with fabric swatches) by the legendary American couturier John Galanos, including many of his fur designs. His customers included Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Grace Kelly, Diana Ross and a huge range of prominent socialites. Color plate books are represented by an attractive set of the Microscosm of London, a fine set of Michaux’s North American Sylva, Denton’s Moths and Butterfles of the United States, etc. In illustration art, the sale offers an original drawing for a Charles Schulz Peanuts cartoon.

LITERATURE??
The sale has some choice literary items, including a set of the Author's Manuscript Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman  New York, 1902, one of 32 sets only. Attractively bound, this includes a manuscript leaf from Specimen Days, which in turn has a quote from a poem that was eventually incorporated into Leaves of Grass. Also offered is a fine example of the signed limited edition of Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce, London 1939. The American proto-feminist writer Kate Chopin is represented with a rare inscribed copy of her Bayou Folk, Cambridge 1894.

MUSIC AND ART
??In the fields of music and art, the sale offers an archive of the work of the African-American composer Margaret Bonds. She worked closely with Langston Hughes, and separately offered are a number of very fine inscriptions from Hughes to Bond. Opera is represented by an attractive Puccini postcard signed, with an autograph quotation from La Bohème. In fine art, we offer a fine collection of artist autographs, including an autograph letter from Paul Gauguin to Camille Pissarro, a letter from Cezanne to the artist ?mile Bernard, and a Claude Monet letter, among many others similar artist letters of note.

MANUSCRIPTS??
Manuscripts include a fine Book of Hours (probably Western Flanders, perhaps Bruges) with fifteen miniatures, in a seventeenth century French binding, and a sixteenth century Carta Executoria in a very interesting Spanish binding of the period.
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We Invite You to Auction!??Consignments are currently being accepted for Doyle New York's November 5, 2012 sale. We invite you to contact us for a complimentary auction evaluation. Our specialists are always available to discuss the sale of a single item or an entire collection. For information, please call Edward Ripley-Duggan or Peter Costanzo at 212-427-4141, ext 234 or 248, or email books@DoyleNewYork.com