Dallas, TX - An extremely rare first edition considered one of the most significant books of photographs of 19th-century China and a copy of perhaps the rarest book about birds in the Americas sold for $100,000 each to lead Heritage Auctions’ Rare Books & Maps auction Sept. 13 in Dallas, Texas. The final total for the event was $1,093,325, or 164 percent of the pre-sale estimate.

John Thomson’s 1873 Foochow and the River Min. A Series of Photographs quadrupled its pre-auction estimate to reach its $100,000 return. The collection of powerful autotype carbon photographic prints from Foochow (now Fuzhou) chronicled the trip by the Scottish photographer, geographer and traveler up the River Min. His subsequent work with photographing street people in London secured his legacy and served as part of the foundation for photojournalism. This is one of perhaps as few as eight copies still known to exist from a run of just 46 copies that were produced for subscribers.

Jean Théodore Descourtilz’s Oiseaux brillans du Brésil topped its $20,000 pre-auction estimate by an even wider margin en route to the $100,000 plateau. From the library of Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orléans, the volume contains 60 fine hand-colored lithograph plates and is so scarce the former director of the United Nations Library in New York once questioned whether any copies remained. Two other copies of the volume by one of the world's most famous painters of birds reside in institutional holdings - one in the Teyler Museum in Haarlem, The Netherlands, and the other in the National History Museum in London.

“The top two lots are exceptionally rare books - in the case of Oiseaux brillans du Brésil, this complete copy is believed to be the fifth copy known and boasts all 60 hand-colored lithographs of birds, where the last copy only had 59 prints present,” Heritage Auctions Rare Books Director James Gannon said. “It’s no surprise that the demand among serious collectors was so high, as each is the kind of book around which elite collections can be built.”

Multiple bids drove the final price of The Federalist: A Collection of Essays. Written in Favour of the New Constitution, as Agreed Upon by the Federal Convention, September 17, 1787 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay to $87,500, more than double its reserve. This reissue of the first collected edition of the “Federalist Papers” is a two-volume rarity without a single previous auction record in ABPC or Rare Book Hub.

Tsuguharu Foujita’s A Book of Cats - Being Twenty Drawings. Poems in Prose by Michael Joseph sparked a flurry of competitive bidding before closing at $22,500. A first edition signed by the artist that is No. 28 in a limited run of 500 copies, this volume contains 20 engraved plates inserted throughout (included in pagination), each rubber-stamped “Made in France” on the bottom corner of each recto, as issued.

The auction included the largest collection of maps ever offered through Heritage Auctions, many of which fared exceptionally well, including:

·         John Speed. A New and Accurat Map of the World. Drawne according to ye truest Descriptions latest Discoveries & best Observations yt have beene made by English or Strangers: $17,500

·         Hartmann Schedel Secunda etas mundi [Nuremberg: 1493]: $12,500

·         Herman Moll A New and Correct Map of the World, Laid Down [London]: Bowles, 1709 (circa 1730): $8,750

·         Abraham Ortelius. Islandia. [Antwerp: circa 1585]: $8,125

Other top lots included, but are not limited to:

·         David Roberts. Egypt & Nubia, From Drawings Made on the Spot...: $21,250

·         John [Jack] Kerouac. The Town and the City: $21,250

·         John James Audubon. The Birds of America. From Drawings Made in the United States and their Territories $19,375

·         Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon: $17,500

Dayton, OH - Salt Houses, Hala Alyan's debut novel about a displaced Palestinian family, and We Were Eight Years in Power, Ta-Nehisi Coates's exploration of race and identity through the lens of the Obama presidency, today were named the winners of the 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction and nonfiction, respectively.

Pachinko, Min Jin Lee's debut novel following four generations of a Korean-Japanese family, was named runner-up for fiction, while Reading with Patrick, Michelle Kuo's memoir of mentoring a teenager from one of the poorest counties in the U.S, was named the nonfiction runner-up.  

Inspired by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia, The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. The Prize celebrates the power of literature to promote peace, social justice, and global understanding. This year's winners will be honored at a gala ceremony hosted by journalist and author Wil Haygood (The Butler and Showdown. a 2016 finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in nonfiction) in Dayton on October 28th. Winners receive a $10,000 honorarium and runners-up receive $5,000. 

"This year's winners and runners-up remind us just how much individual lives are shaped by broader political circumstances - and how abruptly those circumstances can change," said Sharon Rab, founder and chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. "From Alyan's portrait of characters repeatedly displaced by an age-old conflict to Coates's incisive analysis of the modern US presidency, these books help us view politics through both an emotional and an intellectual lens, strengthening our empathy while sharpening our powers of political perception."

The 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Fiction:

Hala Alyan's heartbreaking debut novel, Salt Houses (Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt), follows three generations of a Palestinian family as they are uprooted by one military clash after another, giving up their home, their land, and their story as they know it and scattering throughout the world. A lyrical examination of displacement, belonging, and family, the book humanizes an age-old conflict, illuminating the experiences of all refugees and challenging readers to confront that most devastating of all truths: you can’t go home again.

On receiving the prize, Alyan said: “One of my earliest memories is watching my father’s face light up as I chatted excitedly about the first book I read on my own. It’s taken me years to truly understand that moment—that, in that instant, my father witnessed my foray into the sacred world of fiction, of perspective-taking and erasing borders, of understanding the complexity of others. He watched me untangle from the confines of immigration, the Gulf War we’d just fled from, and the ensuing otherness, and when I began to write my own stories, that sense of freedom magnified. Writing has taught me to pay homage to my ancestors and envision the world after I am long gone; it has empowered me to tell stories of oppression and restoration, to envision peace as something tangible. I am my most human when I am writing, my most alert and engaged and compassionate. To have my novel seen as a conduit for peace-building is remarkably humbling. Thank you for the honor of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.”  

The 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Nonfiction:

We Were Eight Years in Power (One World PRH) is a collection of essays by Ta-Nehisi Coates, one of America’s most influential voices. Revisiting each year of the Obama administration through Coates's own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, the book offers a vital account of eight years that began with great hope of black progress and ended with an election and  vicious backlash that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. 

The 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Runner-Up in Fiction:

In Pachinko (Grand Central), Min Jin Lee brings the historical sweep of Dickens and Tolstoy to the saga of four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family who, exiled from a homeland they never knew, fight to control their destinies in 20th-century Japan. As they encounter both catastrophes and great joy, the novel's exceptional protagonists confront enduring questions of faith, family, and identity.

Lee said: “The world is broken because we do not love enough. War, peace, and art require at least three elements: imagination, will, and action - and ironically, all three are enacted because men and women feel love. This is the central paradox - we love - the other, self, family, faith, or nation - and we use that love - of something, or someone, for anything - to justify our violence, compromises, and creation. We know that peace is far more difficult than war or art, because peace requires both forgiveness and restraint; so somehow, we must learn to love peace far more than war. If literature bears witness to true narrative and if it awakens compassion, reconciliation may indeed be possible. Where men and women have failed to love, literature may inspire greater love for all those we'd once thought we feared or hated. I write fiction because I believe that our love can refine our worse nature. I am deeply honored to join the Dayton Literary Peace Prize family of writers as we pursue our collective call toward global peace."

The 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize Runner-Up in Nonfiction:

In her stirring memoir Reading with Patrick (Random House), Michelle Kuo, the child of Taiwanese immigrants, shares the story of her complicated but rewarding mentorship of Patrick Browning, a teenaged student from one of the poorest counties in the U.S., and his remarkable literary and personal awakening.

Kuo said: “By telling the story of an incarcerated person learning to read and write, I hoped to show how books can charge an inner life with imagination and beauty. I sought to grapple openly with the question: What do we owe each other in a world of inequality, and how can we do the hard work of coming to know one another? Reading together is one way to create a shared world. I am deeply grateful to be recognized by the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In honoring my book, it honors the idea that there can be no peace without economic and racial equality, and no freedom without literacy.”

Organizers previously announced that writer John Irving, whose novels champion outsiders and often explore the bigotry, intolerance, and hatred directed at sexual minorities, will receive the 2018 Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, named in honor of the noted U.S. diplomat who helped negotiate the Dayton Peace Accords.

To be eligible for the 2018 awards, English-language books must have been published or translated into English in 2017 and address the theme of peace on a variety of levels, such as between individuals, among families and communities, or among nations, religions, or ethnic groups.

A judging panel of prominent writers selected the winners and runners-up, including Lesley Nneka Arimah (What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky), Robin Hemley (Reply All: Stories; Nola: A Memoir of Faith, Art, and Madness; Invented Eden: The Elusive, Disputed History of the Tasaday), Susan Southard (Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War), and Alan Taylor (William Cooper’s Town; The Internal Enemy).

Amherst, MA --An exhibition depicting African American life, history, and culture by some of the most notable picture-book artists in the field is coming to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Featuring more than 30 illustrators, Our Voice: Celebrating the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards opens October 21, 2018 and remains on view through January 27, 2019. The touring exhibition helps kick off a national celebration of the Coretta Scott King Awards in 2019, celebrating 50 years as a champion of books about the African American experience. The awards commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and honor his wife, Coretta Scott King, for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace. 

The Illustrator Award, which is given each year by the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee of the American Library Association (ALA), is one of the most prestigious citations in children's literature. It recognizes outstanding African American artists of children's books who demonstrate an appreciation of African American culture and universal human values. 

Our Voice is the largest and most comprehensive presentation of Coretta Scott King illustrator winners and honorees ever assembled since the award was established in 1974. The exhibition, organized by the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature (NCCIL) in Abilene, Texas, presents art from 100 of the 108 winning books. Honoring the struggles and triumphs of African Americans, the exhibition features historic events and figures including Josephine Baker, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman. The art is as varied as the stories themselves, including collage, oils, watercolors, photography, quilts, and ceramics.

Artist George Ford, the first award recipient, said it was "totally unexpected" when he won for his painted acrylic illustrations in Ray Charles (1973). "Although the award was a recognition of artistic excellence, I was most proud of the fact that it was a reward specifically intended as a source of inspiration and encouragement to African American children." 

The scale and variety of artwork is remarkable. One of Faith Ringgold's vibrant painted quilts from Tar Beach, winner of the 1992 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, is on view. Tar Beach, Ringgold's first children's book, was also awarded a Caldecott Honor Medal. Baba Wagué Diakité illustrated his 1998 Coretta Scott King Honor book, The Hunterman and the Crocodile, on ceramic tiles painted with West African motifs. In his four winning books, artist Floyd Cooper used a technique he calls "oil erasure," in which he paints oil on illustration board and then erases the paint to make his pictures. A beautiful example is on view from Cooper's 2009 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award-winning book, The Blacker the Berry: Poems. 

Javaka Steptoe won the 2017 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Steptoe used bits of New York City--discarded wood he found in the dumpsters of Brooklyn brownstones and on the streets of Greenwich Village and the Lower East Side--to create his richly textured assemblages. "For me," says Steptoe, "'collage is a means of survival. It is how Black folks survived four hundred years of oppression, taking the scraps of life and transforming them into art forms. I want my audience, no matter what their background, to be able to enter into my world and make connections with comparable experiences in their own lives." One of the few photographs in the exhibition is a black-and-white portrait by South African photographer Peter Magubane from his book Black Child. Winner of 1983 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, Black Child was banned in the artist's home country by the Apartheid government. Magubane recalls, "I wanted the world to see what is going on in South Africa. The only way to show the world was through pictures."  

Several artists are multiple-time winners and have numerous artworks on view. Illustrator and author Jerry Pinkney, winner of ten Coretta Scott King awards, has a pencil drawing from his 1981 Honor book Count Your Fingers African Style and a watercolor from his recent 2017 Honor citation for In Plain Sight. "I am a storyteller at heart," says Pinkney. "Each project begins with the question, 'is this story worth telling? Is it surprising and challenging?' My intent and hope is to lead the viewer into a world that only exists because of that picture. Many of these speak to my culture, while other works are based on my experience of being Black in America."  

Ashley Bryan, the recipient of nine Coretta Scott King awards, is represented by, among others, a cut paper collage from Beautiful Blackbird (2003) and a tempera painting from Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life (2016). At 95 years old, Bryan is renowned for his extraordinary range and depth as an artist, writer, storyteller, and scholar. He received the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. Bryan Collier, another nine-time winner, won the 2001 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Uptown, his first authored book and one that took him seven years to get published. Collier is also represented by an enormous collage from his 2011 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award book Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave. 

Kadir Nelson, a seven-time Coretta Scott King recipient, painted powerful imagery for We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, his 2009 Coretta Scott King honor book about the unsung heroes who overcame segregation, hatred, terrible conditions, and meager wages to play ball. Also on display are oil paintings from Nelson's other historical picture books including Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (2007 Honor), I Have a Dream: Martin Luther King Jr. (2013 Honor) and Nelson Mandela (2014 Honor). 

"The Coretta Scott King Book Awards has enlarged the prominence of children's literature about the Black experience and heightened the work of our winning African American authors and illustrators," says Dr. Claudette S. McLinn, Chair, Coretta King Book Awards Committee, 2017-2019. "On behalf of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee of the American Library Association's Ethnic & Multicultural Information Exchange Round Table (EMIERT), it is with great pleasure to partner with The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in presenting this extraordinary exhibition, Our Voice: Celebrating the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Awards." 

Additional features in the exhibition are iPads where guests can listen to audio clips of many artists speaking about their work. "We are pleased to highlight these award-winning illustrations and the books that feature them," says chief curator Ellen Keiter. "Hearing the artists' voices adds another layer of interest in the exhibition. Guests not only see the richly narrative art, they can hear the stories behind it too." Also in the gallery, visitors can enjoy custom-designed reading nooks that provide comfortable spaces to peruse the over 100 books represented in the exhibition. In hopes that visitors will leave inspired to think more about the exhibition and its themes, small cards with quotations by Coretta Scott King will be free for guests to take home.

Illustrators participating in this exhibition include:

Benny Andrews, Colin Bootman, Ashley Bryan, R. Gregory Christie, Bryan Collier, Floyd Cooper, Pat Cummings, Nancy Devard, Baba Diakité, Leo & Diane Dillon, Shane Evans, Tom Feelings, George Ford, Jan Spivey Gilchrist,  Ekua Holmes, Gordon C. James, E. B. Lewis, Peter Magubane , Christopher Myers, Kadir Nelson, Brian Pinkney, Jerry Pinkney, James Ransome, Synthia St. James, Joe Sam, Charles R. Smith, Daniel Minter, Frank Morrison, Sean Qualls, Faith Ringgold, Christian Robinson, Reynolds Ruffins, Javaka Steptoe, John Steptoe, Michele Wood, and Kathleen Atkins Wilson.

Timothy Rub, the George D. Widener Director and Chief Executive Officer at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, announced today that Louis Marchesano will become the Museum’s new Audrey and William H. Helfand Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs, succeeding Innis Shoemaker who retired earlier this year. The appointment of this new department head concludes a national search that yielded an exceptional group of candidates.

Dr. Marchesano has served as Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Getty Research Institute (GRI) in Los Angeles since 2002. In this capacity he has organized a robust schedule of exhibitions and programs on a broad range of subjects. He has also played a central role in the development of the GRI’s collection of prints and drawings, substantially increasing the number of works on paper ranging from the fifteenth through twentieth centuries.

After completing a BA with honors in the Visual Arts from the University of Western Ontario in 1987, Marchesano received an MA (1990) and PhD (2001) in the History of Art from Cornell University. Dr. Marchesano has written and lectured on topics ranging from antiquarianism in the Renaissance and Baroque and French prints from the period of the Revolution to the end of the Bourbon Restoration to the graphic work of the German artist Käthe Kollwitz. Much of his scholarship has focused on the history of printmaking in France from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, and for these contributions the French government this year bestowed upon him the honor of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters).

Timothy Rub remarked, “Louis will bring a wealth of experience to his new position and has proven himself to be an exceptional leader, a capable administrator, and a valued colleague. He has a strong track record, having worked effectively across the Getty, playing an important role in numerous important initiatives, among them its Collection Development Council at the GRI and the Getty Trust’s digital humanities working groups. It was not only the breadth of his experience but also the breadth of his interests across the field that made Louis such a compelling candidate for this position.”

Louis Marchesano commented: “I am absolutely thrilled to take on such an important position, overseeing a distinguished collection and department, which has recently generated ground-breaking exhibitions and publications on Paul Strand, modern Mexican printmaking, German romantic prints, and self-taught art from the Bonovitz collection. With holdings of such extraordinary breadth and depth, I am also looking forward to strategically expanding the collection. And I’m especially excited about working with colleagues across the museum and thinking creatively about new exhibitions and research projects. This is a great moment to be joining the PMA given its ambitious campaign to transform and renew the institution.”

Dr. Marchesano is expected to begin his duties in January of 2019. His appointment follows the tenure of the distinguished curator Innis Shoemaker who served the institution for more than 30 years, overseeing a period of substantial growth, particularly in works on paper by African American artists, Mexican modernist prints, Italian drawings, and most notably, the Julian Levy collection of photographs and the Paul Strand collection.

About the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs
The Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs is responsible for the largest group of objects in the Museum’s collections. It constitutes a collection of collections, developed through large en-bloc acquisitions, some of them bearing the imprint of successive major collectors, ranging from A. E. Gallatin and Louise and Walter Arensberg to Muriel and Philip Berman. They comprise remarkable records of taste, erudition, and philanthropy, and play an active role in shaping and illuminating both the history of art and the history of museum development in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The print collection is among the most significant in the United States, including over 110,000 European, Latin and North American, and Japanese prints. It encompasses a full range of print techniques and includes a collection of technical materials, such as plates, blocks, stones, screens, and tools, which are regularly used to help visitors understand the printmaking process. The photography collection includes over 28,000 examples from the medium’s infancy in the 19th century to the very present. The collection of drawings—numbering almost 12,000—contains many individual masterpieces as well as groups that strengthen, support, and increase the didactic potential of works of art in other curatorial departments in the Museum. Also noteworthy are maps, illuminated manuscripts, and artists’ books that add to the breadth of the collection.

San Marino, CA—Documenting one of the most creative and influential periods in Southern California architecture, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens this fall presents “Architects of a Golden Age: Highlights from The Huntington’s Southern California Architecture Collection.” The exhibition will be on view in the West Hall of the Library from Oct. 6, 2018 to Jan. 21, 2019.

About 20 carefully selected original drawings and plans depicting elegant, powerful, whimsical, and iconic buildings will tease out the story of a place and time (1920 to 1940) that was ripe for architectural innovation—with rapid growth and the arrival of new talent from other parts of the U.S. “Architects of a Golden Age” highlights renderings that helped bring into existence some of the most extraordinary buildings in the greater Los Angeles area, including Downtown L.A.’s Union Station, Mayan Theater, Stock Exchange building, and Chinatown structures, as well as seminal examples of the California Bungalow. 

The Huntington’s focus on collecting architectural documentation coincided with the inception of Los Angeles’s preservation movement, which sprang into action around 1978. “For curators at The Huntington, that was the time to actively seek out and salvage as much of the architectural record as possible, as dozens of significant buildings fell to the wrecking ball and the downtown skyline was forever changed,” said Erin Chase, assistant curator of architecture and photography at The Huntington. “This show is an opportunity to showcase our collection, which has become invaluable in the study of the history of the region’s built environment.”

There was a dire need to rescue the records of local architects in the late 1970s, as archives were being destroyed and buildings demolished to make way for redevelopment. The Huntington, with an existing strong foundation of rare architecture book holdings and Californiana, joined in the cause and committed to collecting these records with a concentration on projects in most jeopardy of being lost: those created in Southern California between 1920 and 1940. In the last 40 years, the collection has grown to a trove of thousands of plans, renderings, photographs, and project records that cover not only work created between World Wars I and II, but also before and after that period—representing the evolution of architects’ work over time.

Highlights of “Architects of a Golden Age” include a charcoal presentation rendering of the façade of L.A.’s Union Station, designed by Edward Warren Hoak, that illustrates his blend of Spanish, Mission Revival, Southwest, and Art Deco styles; and, from the massive collection of the Morgan, Walls & Clements firm’s papers, a highly detailed drawing of the Mayan Theater on Hill Street. The incredibly detailed sketch maps out the ornate 1927 building’s façade, with its stylized pre-Columbian reliefs by Mexican sculptor Francisco Cornejo (1892-1963).

Another highlight is a look at the imposing 12-story granite Stock Exchange building by Samuel Lunden (along with John and Donald Parkinson), which is captured in two striking gouache renderings by artist Roger Hayward—one of the towering exterior, and the other of the vast trading floor, designed by Julian Ellsworth Garnsey with ancient Near East and Native American influences. Completed in 1931, which happened to be at the start of the Great Depression, the grand edifice was designed to impart a sense of financial stability. It was declared a Los Angeles Cultural Monument in 1979 and remains preserved, presently serving as a popular nightclub. “Though Lunden’s is not a household name, The Huntington is privileged to have his papers,” said Chase. “He left his mark across Los Angeles, not only with the Stock Exchange building but also with USC’s Doheny Library and the 1928 wing of the Biltmore Hotel.”

Other important collections featured in the exhibition include the papers of Wallace Neff, one of the most sought-after residential architects from the 1920s through the 1960s. Neff practiced chiefly in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, creating both residential and commercial buildings in a mostly Spanish and Mediterranean vernacular style that is still widely emulated in the region. The exhibition includes an elevation drawing for Neff’s 1923 Libbey Stables, which was designed for Edward Drummond Libbey, the original owner of the Ojai Valley Inn, along with renderings for an Airform house, Neff’s solution to the mass-housing shortage during and after World War II.

Another group of records in the collection are those of Roger S. Hong, a Los Angeles architect who, along with his father You Chung Hong, was involved in efforts to develop a new Chinatown in the 1930s when the original was relocated to make way for Union Station. Y.C. Hong hired Erle Webster and Adrian Wilson to design several of the buildings that form the core of Chinatown as it is known today. Two of their renderings in colored pencil, as well as a neon light study, will be on view.

Visitors familiar with the California Bungalow will enjoy the Foss Building and Design Collection works in the exhibition that document the company’s residential structures in the Pasadena area in the first half of the 20th century. The firm was one of the most prominent bungalow-style builders in the region, and the exhibition features three original ink drawings of archetypical homes in the Bungalow Heaven neighborhood. “The Foss drawings illustrate all the practical and aesthetic traits we tend to associate with Craftsman architecture in Pasadena,” said Chase. “These early designs took full advantage of Southern California’s weather at various times of the day. There’s a welcoming covered front porch, a screened porch for comfortable indoor/outdoor living, and even a sleeping porch for hot summer nights.”

The recently acquired archive of landscape architects Florence Yoch and Lucile Council is represented in the exhibition by two plans, including one for movie director George Cukor’s 1936 garden at his West Hollywood home. Yoch and Council, who were active from the 1920s to the early 1970s, were well versed in botany, horticulture, and design, and they traveled the world to source ideas. They worked on a range of projects, from the Vroman’s Bookstore courtyard in Pasadena to huge estates, and survived the Great Depression by designing sets for “Gone with the Wind,” among other films.

Demonstrating a precursor to the golden age of architecture in Southern California, the earliest work on view will likely stop visitors in their tracks: a remarkable six-foot long gouache rendering of Arthur Lett’s Holmby Park residence, made in 1908. Letts, founder of the Broadway department store in Los Angeles, purchased 60 acres in what is now known as Los Feliz, where he built a Tudor mansion and hired William Adolph Peschelt to landscape it with an unrivaled selection of carefully sourced trees, succulents, and other plants. The botanical specimens eventually were dispersed and sold to nurseries and private collectors, including Henry E. Huntington, founder of The Huntington.

As a sort of epilogue to the exhibition, visitors can feast their eyes on a large rendering of a luxurious living room of the post-World War II era. Designed by architect A. Quincy Jones and interior designer William Haines in 1952, the Sidney and Frances Brody residence (in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles) brings the exhibition narrative to the edge of the next aesthetic that was influenced by the Southern California lifestyle—mid-century modern. “William Haines’s simply gorgeous interior for the Brody living room is the pinnacle of what can be achieved with California innovation as it enters the modernist period,” said Chase. “It beautifully brings the pre-war history of architecture in the region to an uplifting sendoff.”

New York-Sotheby’s is thrilled to announce that the Nobel Prize, papers and personal research library of the brilliant, inspiring, and much-beloved theoretical physicist Richard P. Feynman will headline our second annual History of Science & Technology auction in New York on 30 November 2018 - in the year of the centenary of his birth. The group is led by the Nobel Prize - including its associated presentation materials - that Feynman shared in 1965 with Julian Schwinger and Shin’ichiro Tomonaga “for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics.” The offering also features a remarkable and enlightening collection of manuscripts spanning the full length of Feynman’s career - the only known collection of manuscripts by Feynman to exist outside of the archive at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he taught for nearly four decades. 

Select highlights will be on public view at Sotheby’s London from 14 - 16 September before the full auction exhibition opens in New York on 25 November. 

Cassandra Hatton, Vice President & Senior Specialist in Sotheby’s Books & Manuscripts Department, commented: "A towering intellect, an inspiring teacher, a masterful storyteller, and a lover of fun with a relentless curiosity. His lessons about life have inspired countless people around the world (including myself) to find what fascinates us and to pursue it relentlessly; to always question authority and to think for ourselves; to ignore others' expectations of who we ought to be; and to embrace doubt and failure as important steps in the pursuit of understanding. One of the keenest intellects to have ever graced us with their presence, he peered into the quantum realm, and had the passion to help us learn how to see the world around us. I am thrilled and incredibly honored to have been entrusted with the sale of these incredibly rare and important items from the rockstar of physics, who has long been one of my personal heroes."

RICHARD P. FEYNMAN

Richard Phillips Feynman (1918-1988) was one of the most brilliant and beloved theoretical physicists of the 20th century. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he obtained his B.Sc. in 1939, and went on to obtain his Ph.D from Princeton in 1942. He was a research assistant at Princeton from 1940-41 and went to Los Alamos to work on the development of the Atom Bomb with the Manhattan Project from 1942-45, where he soon distinguished himself as one of the most brilliant and original thinkers of his time. He then spent several crucial years as Professor of Theoretical Physics at Cornell University from 1945-1950, before becoming professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, where he spent the remainder of his career. 

Feynman is considered by many to be the father of nanotechnology for two prizes he offered in a 1959 talk entitled, “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom,” where he prompted thinking on a very small scale. Between 1961-63 Feynman gave a series of lectures on introductory physics for freshmen and the following year, sophomores, at Caltech. The series was edited and published as “The Feynman Lectures of Physics,” which is thought to be the most popular physics book ever written. 

In 1965 he won the Nobel Prize in Physics, sharing it with Julian Schwinger and Shin’ichiro Tomonaga for his work remaking the theory of quantum electrodynamics, by introducing his “Feynman diagrams.” He was one of only 13 people to have been awarded the Albert Einstein Award - other recipients include Stephen Hawking, Kurt Gödel, John Wheeler, and Julian Schwinger. His collection of reminiscences and personal anecdotes, “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman,” was published in 1985 and became a runaway bestseller. In 1986, Feynman was again in the public eye, this time working on the commission investigating the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle. He died in 1988 after a long battle with abdominal cancer.

1965 NOBEL PRIZE & PAPERS

The November auction will be led by Feynman’s 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics (estimate $800,000/1.2 million). Feynman shared the prize with fellow physicists Julian Schwinger and Shin’ichiro Tomonaga, “for their fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles.” Feynman’s invention of ‘Feynman diagrams’ - pictorial representations of particle interactions - in particular revolutionized the field. 

Feynman Manuscripts

The trove of manuscripts on offer spans the full length of Feynman’s career, from his early work on the Manhattan Project to his long tenure at Caltech, and addresses topics such as the Atom Bomb, Quantum Electrodynamics, Computing, Organic Chemistry, Nanotechnology, Mathematics and Physics. The archive also includes books from his personal research library — many annotated — as well as his tambourine. Individual and themed groups of manuscripts will be offered across a number of lots.

Outside of the Feynman Nobel Prize and archive, the History of Science & Technology auction will include books & manuscripts, scientific & technological instruments, original artwork, and other artifacts spanning from the 16th through the 21st centuries in categories ranging from physics, mathematics and cryptography, to medicine, biology, computing and astronomy. 

A private collection of magnificent 15th-19th century books & scientific instruments will offer early astronomical treatises and celestial atlases - many hand-colored - and spectacular planetary models, including armillary spheres, orreries, and planetary models. The breathtaking work of Neuroscientist-turned artist Dr. Gregg Dunn and paper sculptor Rogan Brown will also be represented, in what will be an auction debut for both of these highly talented and totally original artists.

The personal notebooks and sketchbooks of world-renowned double Oscar®-winning British costume designer, John Mollo, the concept artist behind the international Star Wars franchise, are to be offered at Bonhams in a stand-alone 62-lot sale, Designing an Empire: The John Mollo Archive, in London on Tuesday 11 December 2018.

The archive contains a wealth of drawings, notes and designs which illustrate the artistic development behind the creation of some of the best-known and best-loved costumes in cinematic history, and that gave John Mollo iconic status in Hollywood.

John Mollo knew his destiny from an early age. As a child of six he visited the cinema for the first time and was dazzled by the costumes.  As he once said, “I came out of the cinema knowing that was what I wanted to do when I grew up.”

It was in 1975, after enjoying success as an advisor on historical military dress for films such as The Charge of the Light Brigade, that John Mollo was commissioned by George Lucas to create uniforms and ensembles for Star Wars. At the time, he was unfamiliar with the sci-fi genre and considered the film ‘a sort of space western,’ adding that ‘one of the heroes is a dustbin.’ Lucas urged Mollo to avoid the stereotypical space-age look of earlier science fiction productions and instead to focus his designs on the pivotal concept of light versus darkness - ‘I just want to see light versus dark,’ he said. 

With just three months to go before shooting begun, Mollo went to London film costumiers Bermans and Nathans to get some ideas. “For Darth Vader I had to go to three departments: the ecclesiastical department for a robe, the modern department for a motorcycle suit and the military department for a (Second World War) German helmet and gas mask. We cobbled it all together and there was Darth Vader.”

Lucas also tasked him with convincing the reluctant Sir Alex Guinness to play the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Mollo recalled it wasn’t until he showed him the monastic brown cloak and cowl design that he believed Guinness was truly convinced. 

John Mollo’s son, Tom Mollo said: “This collection is a very personal insight into my father’s creative process. As these wonderful sketches demonstrate, he was a man of boundless imagination, but he never forgot the practical side of costume design - that actors had to be able to move and breathe and speak their lines. We can see him wrestling with these issues in his designs and, of course, producing the wonderful solutions that gave life to the characters and have made them recognised and loved the world over. My father once said with typical understatement, ‘I think on the whole I did a good job.” History has surely proved him right.”

Highlights include:

• A sketchbook, dating from April 1975 to July 1976, showing some of the first hand-drawn costume designs for pivotal characters in Star Wars including Darth Vader, Chewbacca and the stormtroopers. The book also served as Mollo’s personal production and development diary, containing pages of costume budgets, production notes and meeting notes with the Director/ Writer George Lucas. A section also holds costume sketches from Stanley Kubrick’s renowned 1975 film Barry Lyndon. The book is estimated at £100,000-150,000.
• A sketchbook of designs from The Empire Strikes back, Alien and Zulu Dawn, estimated at £80,000-120,000. The book covers the period 1978-1979, predominantly including the production of Irvin Kershner’s Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. Other sections of the book show work for Ridley Scott’s Alien and Douglas Hickox’s Zulu Dawn. The volume also includes Oscar® Nomination and invite cards for the 1978 Academy Awards® Ceremony at which John Mollo won an Oscar® for best Costume Design in Star Wars.

Katherine Schofield, Head of Entertainment Memorabilia, says, “John Mollo created costumes that elevated characters to cult cinematic status and this highly important archive of his notes and sketches demonstrates how brilliantly the designer merged fantasy and practicality. These sketchbooks are a unique part of cinema history - in my experience nothing like this has been seen before at auction - and will have immense appeal to collectors.”

New York—Swann Galleries’ September 27 auction boasts the Harold Holzer Collection of Lincolniana, a 176-lot offering of the noted Abraham Lincoln scholar’s lifelong passion. The sale’s general Printed & Manuscript Americana catalogue features Revolutionary, Civil War and frontier material, with diaries, archives and important publications.

Compiled in a separate catalogue, the Holzer collection explores America’s fascination with depictions of the 16th president, highlighting the breadth of representations of Lincoln. Notable lots include an 1860 painting of the president, still beardless, by John C. Wolfe, and a plaster bust by Sarah Fisher Ames (estimates: $12,000-18,000 and $6,000-9,000, respectively). Among the many nineteenth-century prints is a fourth edition of the scarce “Wigwam Print,” produced for the May 1860 Republican Convention in Chicago. Any edition of the engraving-which was the first standalone print of Lincoln-is a rarity: only four, including the present example, are known to exist.

Other items of note include Victor D. Brenner’s 1907 bronze relief plaque, which became the model for Lincoln’s portrait on the penny ($1,500-2,500). Satirical anti-Lincoln cartoons such as Miscegenation or the Millennium of Abolitionism ($5,000-7,500) will be offered, and autographs include a commission signed by Lincoln for his personal secretary William O. Stoddard in July 1861 ($7,000-10,000).

The afternoon session of Printed & Manuscript Americana boasts an array of manuscript material relating to life on the frontier, including the diary of Francis W. de Winton, who accompanied Canadian Governor General John Campbell on a grand tour of the Northwest Territories in 1881. The unpublished diary includes historically significant notes on meetings with First Nations leaders ($15,000-25,000). Other frontier accounts include a California Gold Rush diary from 1849; the extensive family papers of the Kniskerns, early Palatine German settlers in Schoharie County, NY; and the 1880s correspondence of Henry Hubman, an Iowa medical student turned Infantryman in Montana, who eventually deserted (estimated at $8,000-12,000 apiece).                             

Revolutionary material includes the 9 August 1775 issue of the Massachusetts Spy, featuring the “Rules and Articles for the Better Government of the Troops,” the first set of regulations governing rebel troops passed by the Continental Congress, and an edition of Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis published in Fishkill, NY by Samuel Loudon, “23 December 1776” ($6,000-9,000 and $25,000-35,000, respectively).

A third-edition Book of Mormon, printed in Nauvoo, IL, 1840, is set to bring $8,000 to $12,000. Other LDS highlights include a daguerreotype of a young man believed to be Frederick Granger Williams Smith, the son of Joseph Smith. The late 1850s image is hand-tinted, and the subject holds a book that appears to be a Book of Mormon. It comes with an extensive account of provenance and is consigned by a descendant of Hyrum Smith, brother of Joseph ($10,000-15,000).

The auction concludes with a large section of Latin Americana, with a series of featured firsts, including: the first novel set in Spanish America, Francisco Loubayssin de Lamarca’s Historia tragicomica de Don Henrique de Castro, a probable first edition, 1617, and the only copy of any edition known to appear at auction ($15,000-25,000); a first edition of the first book of sermons in Nahuatl, 1577, which has not been traced at auction since 1869 ($30,000-40,000); and a first edition of the first full-length book printed in Puebla, Juan de Palafox y Mendoza’s Historia real Sagrada, 1643 ($8,000-12,000).

Westport, CT- A superb John Hancock signed manuscript from 1783 in remarkable condition, plus items pertaining to other signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Judaica, JFK and family, Rev War, U.S. presidents, Napoleon and other foreign leaders, Bruce Lee and more will be in University Archives’ online-only auction, slated for Wednesday, September 26th. 

Live bidding will begin at 10:30 am Eastern time. In all, 288 lots will be offered in a sale packed with rare and highly collectible autographed documents, manuscripts, books and relics. The full catalog can be viewed now, at www.UniversityArchives.com. Internet bidding will be provided by Invaluable.com and LiveAuctioneers.com. Telephone and absentee bids will also be accepted.

“As we enter the new auction season we’re very proud of our current offering, most of which has never been on the market before or not in a long time,” said John Reznikoff, president and owner of University Archives. “We’re very happy with our range of material. Where else can one buy a book signed by Jefferson, a Napoleon at war letter, a Malcolm X letter on a postcard and a Bruce Lee signed certificate? We service an international clientele, with bidders in over 50 countries.”

The signed Hancock manuscript, with an estimate of $4,000-$5,000, is a superb document, one in which Hancock, during Revolutionary War times, signs with a bold version of one of the most recognizable and famous signatures in history. Mr. Reznikoff observed, “This is exactly how Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence. He wanted to make sure King George III would not miss his imprint.”

Another famous Declaration signer, Thomas Jefferson, is represented with a book from his personal library written by Maximilien de Bethune, which Jefferson recommended for historical and legal reading and one he personally signed (est. $16,000-$18,000); and a Congressional Act signed by Jefferson and dated Aug. 10, 1790, authorizing Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton to finish construction on a lighthouse project in Portland, Me. (est. $12,000-$14,000).

George Washington didn’t sign the Declaration, but he’s still hugely popular with collectors. A Rhode Island lighthouse keeper’s provisional contract from 1790, signed by Washington and William Ellery (who did sign the Declaration), should hit $12,000-$14,000; while a handwritten letter to Ellery from the ever popular Alexander Hamilton regarding duties and tariffs, while Hamilton was the Secretary of the Treasury and negotiating the Compromise of 1790, should make $5,000-$5,500.

Abraham Lincoln is represented with six lots, including a letter handwritten by Martin L. Bishop to his friend and esteemed legal counsel dated Nov. 16, 1858, in which Lincoln replies with his handwritten advice on the third and final page regarding Bishop’s patent ownership and pending lawsuits. The letter is estimated to sell for $8,000-$10,000.

Collectors can never get enough of JFK and Marilyn Monroe. This auction features two original first-generation glossy photos from Kennedy’s after-party bash at the Krim residence, hours after Monroe sang “Happy Birthday Mr. President” to him at Madison Square Garden. One shows Diahann Carroll singing at a piano, with various guests looking on, including Monroe (est. $800-$900); the other shows JFK talking to singer Maria Callas and Adlai Stevenson (est. $3,000-$3,500).

A rare letter written by Kennedy in May 1944 to his friend from Harvard Richard Flood, while both were still in the Navy and months after the destruction of JFK’s boat the PT109, in which Kennedy makes a never before seen anti-Semitic remark, has an estimate of $8,000-$9,000. Also, a one-page letter written from prison in December 1999 by the late crime boss John Gotti, to Barbara De Cicco, in which he tells her to “have a Christmas martini for me,” should fetch $1,000-$1,200.

Fans of Bruce Lee will have several lots to consider, including a superb and highly ornate printed document dated Jan. 30, 1968, signed by Lee and promoting his close friend Herb Jackson to the First Rank of the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute; and a rare photo of Lee, signed and with a personal inscription to Herb Jackson, “To a dear friend of the family, Herb, Peace, Love, Brotherhood, Bruce,” with a Chinese character below his name. Both lots have estimates of $20,000-$24,000.

A vellum hand-illuminated manuscript signed by Czar Alexander II of Russia, undated and written in Cyrillic (seven pages on four sheets), in which Alexander grants Adam Ilyn Galonen, a medical officer in the Russian Navy, a coat of arms, should reach $5,000-$7,000. Also, a one-page war letter written in French by Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) on March 11, 1807, from Germany during the Polish Campaign, War of the 4th Coalition, should garner $1,200-$1,500.

A letter written and signed by “Malcolm X” on the message side of a picture postcard of New York City, dated Oct. 22, 1958 and addressed to Gloria Owens in Cleveland Ohio, in which he says, “Happy you were able to hear The Messenger” (meaning Elijah Muhammad) is expected to finish at $3,500-$4,000; while a first edition presentation copy of Alex Haley’s literary triumph Roots (Doubleday, 1976), signed and inscribed by Haley to “Cora”, should rise to $400-$500.

An original first-generation photo of two lifeboats from the RMS Titanic, taken during the rescue mission by a passenger aboard the rescue vessel RMS Carpathia, showing passengers in lifeboat #6 (containing “the Unsinkable Molly Brown”), is expected to command $2,000-$2,400. Also, a check for $500 from 1961, signed by baseball great Jackie Robinson and Marion Logan, with the money earmarked to help harassed white families in New Orleans who had defied segregationist picket lines to send their children to newly integrated schools, has an estimate of $1,200-$1,400.

As with all University Archives online auctions, this one is packed with important, scarce and collectible signed documents and other items relating to some of the most famous names in all of history. The firm has become world-renowned as a go-to source for rare material of this nature.

University Archives was founded in 1979, as a division of University Stamp Company, by John Reznikoff, who started collecting stamps and coins in 1968, while in the third grade. Industry-wide, Reznikoff is considered the leading authenticity expert for manuscripts and documents. He consults with law enforcement, dealers, auction houses and both major authentication companies.

For more information about University Archives and the Wednesday, September 26th online auction, please visit www.universityarchives.com.

Philadelphia, PA - Freeman’s autumn Books, Maps & Manuscripts auction will be held Thursday, September 27 at our Philadelphia headquarters. With close to 500 lots of rare and important books, historical documents, prints, maps, and related ephemera, this auction offers buyers a range of collecting areas and price points, and aims to attract both seasoned collectors as well as those just starting out.

One highlight of the sale is a three-volume set by John James Audubon, The Quadrupeds of North America, from 1856 (Lot 264, estimate: $8,000-12,000). The present lot is the third edition and the last to be produced by the Audubon family, by sons Victor Gifford and John Woodhouse Audubon, who decided to issue this octavo edition of the enormous folio Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1845-1848), with the same text by John Bachman, during the last years of their father’s life. This octavo edition, so much more approachable in size and price than the imperial folio work, brought a level of commercial and artistic success for the two brothers and saw them keeping their father’s legacy alive. Additionally, a fine cut signature of John James Audubon is tipped into the first volume.

Additional highlights include some important American history publications. A first English edition of Common Sense by Thomas Paine, bound with his Plain Truth and several other complementary titles (Lot 291, estimate: $8,000-12,000). A document signed by Theodore Roosevelt, appointing William C. Howell to the position of Postmaster of Blairstown, New Jersey, is part of a lot of three signed Presidential documents including a second document signed by Roosevelt as well as one signed by William Howard Taft (Lot 398, estimate: $250-400). A presentation copy of Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders (Lot 396, estimate: $3,000-5,000), warmly inscribed by Roosevelt to Anna “Nannie” Cabot Mills Davis Lodge, wife of Henry Cabot Lodge, a U.S. Congressional Representative, Senator from Massachusetts, and historian: “Dear Nannie, I send this book to you because, next to my own family, it was of you and yours that I thought most while I was before Santiago. Ever your friend Theodore Roosevelt May 18th 1899.” Inscribed barely ten months after the Spanish surrendered at Santiago. A fantastic association.

Of similar historic importance is a photo album depicting the Spanish-American War, 1898 (Lot 400, estimate: $1,500-2,500). The oblong folio album contains 96 original silver print photographs mounted on 22 leaves of cardboard stock, and 22 large-format silver prints. Images include U.S. naval vessels and their guns, troop landings, cavalry and infantry operations, armed troops firing from a trench, U.S. military field camps, a wounded combatant being evacuated on a stretcher, barbed wire fortifications, Cuban civilians, and other related images.

An engraved, hand-colored 1608 Ortelius World Map, floated in a gilt frame (Lot 435, estimate: $3,000-5,000) and a 1676 map of Virginia and Maryland by John Speed, engraved and hand-colored (Lot 406, estimate: $3,000-5,000) are just two of the more than 50 fine examples of maps included in the sale.

Books by American authors will also feature prominently in the auction. Eighteen works by William Faulkner, including first editions of “Light in August” (Lot 130, estimate: $1,500-2,000) and “Sartoris” (Lot 140, estimate: $1,500-2,000) will be offered, as well as near-fine first edition copies of Truman Capote’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (Lot 125, estimate $500-800), and “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway (Lot 145, estimate: $800-1,200). A 1936 first edition of “Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell (Lot 158, estimate: $3,000-5,000) and a numbered and signed copy of “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury (Lot 70, estimate: $300-500, one of two books in this lot), will also be offered. A first edition of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” (Lot 151, estimate: $1,500-2,500), an icon of 20th century literature and pop culture, and a first edition copy of John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” (Lot 171, estimate: $500-800) round out the assortment. Each of these books have withstood the test of time in the field of modern American literature, as evidenced by their continuing popularity since their respective publications.

The auction will be the department’s first since the appointment of Darren Winston as Head of Books, Maps & Manuscripts as well as representative for the New York, Connecticut, and Western Massachusetts areas. Mr. Winston began his career as a vintage bookseller in 1995. He spent 14 years selling at book fairs and flea markets, as well as privately, before opening his eponymous bookshop in 2009. Located in Sharon, Connecticut, Darren Winston, Bookseller offered vintage books, prints, and fine art, and hosted over 50 in-store events including book signings and art shows in its nine-year run.