Amherst, Massachusetts—Owls, some of the most widely depicted creatures in children's literature, swoop into The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art from December 8, 2018 to April 21, 2019 for the exhibition Illustrated Owls: A Who's Hoo from the Museum's Vault. Nocturnal birds of prey, owls have figured in world cultures throughout history, from Greek mythology to Harry Potter's Hedwig. Their large, forward-facing eyes give the appearance of intelligence, inspiring artists and writers to portray owls as symbols of wisdom.

Illustrated Owls features the noble birds as represented by 22 artists whose work is on long-term loan or in The Carle's permanent collection. Interpretations range from the realistic to the charming. 

Highlights include Garth Williams's 1955 Children's Book Week poster, Maurice Sendak's lithograph from A Kiss for Little Bear (1971), José Aruego and Ariane Dewey's watercolors from Owliver (1974), and numerous E. H. Shepard illustrations of Owl, Pooh, Tigger, and other friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. 

The exhibition includes three Eric Carle artworks in different media. On display is the screech owl from Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?, created in Carle's signature tissue paper collage, an abstract metal owl sculpture, and an early linoleum print of a great horned owl. Gallery activities invite guests to create owl drawings to take home or add to our parliament (a parliament is a group of owls--a term first used by C. S. Lewis in The Chronicles of Narnia). Owl-themed picture books, ambient owl sounds, and fun fact family labels complete the installation. 

"I was delighted to discover so many artistic representations of owls," says Ellen Keiter, the Museum's chief curator. "The exhibition highlights the variety of artists, stories, and techniques represented in our world-class Picture Book art collection." 

Illustrated Owls includes prints, collages, pen and ink drawings, and watercolors. The featured artists are José Aruego and Ariane Dewey, Howard Berelson, Walter Harrison Cady, Eric Carle, Antonio Frasconi, Michael Hague, Ezra Jack Keats, Dorothy Lathrop, Arnold Lobel, Petra Mathers, J. P. Miller, Barry Moser, Marian Parry, Jerry Pinkney, Maurice Sendak, E. H. Shepard, Susanne Suba, Simms Taback, Matthew Van Fleet, Leonard Weisgard, and Garth Williams.

Dallas, Texas - The Belgium-based Boon Foundation for Narrative Graphic Arts cast the $600,000 winning bid to add the original art for the eight-page story Master Race (EC 1955) to its collection of artworks from comic strips and graphic novels.

Heritage Auctions offered the original art for the first time since its publication in 1955 at a public auction of vintage comic books and comic art held Thursday, Nov. 15, in Dallas, Texas.

“These eight pages date from 1955 and were the first major representation of the Holocaust in the history of graphic narrative,” said Daniel Spindler, a representative of the Boon Foundation. “Master Race is one of the world masterworks of graphic narrative.” 

Created in Belgium in June 2018 by Philippe Boon, the Boon Foundation for Narrative Graphic Arts houses several thousand works, in particular strip comics and graphic novels. This collection of artifacts, illustrations and original pages stands at the heart of a vast cultural project dedicated to the narrative graphic arts. A permanent venue will be opened shortly to the public in Brussels, and travelling exhibitions will be organized. 

“The foundation’s mission statement to ‘share, enthrall and preserve’ matches Heritage Auctions’ mission perfectly,” said Jim Halperin, Co-Founder of Heritage Auctions. “We’re thrilled that this artwork, for one of the most critically acclaimed comic stories of all time, will tour the world on public display.” 

Frequently called the Citizen Kane of comic books, Master Race is a powerful look at the effects of Nazi concentration camp atrocities upon those who survived them, while retaining EC Comics’ signature "twisted" ending. EC Comics co-editor Bill Gaines and writer Al Feldstein developed the important Holocaust story, but critics point to Bernie Krigstein’s storytelling artwork that perfected the piece and influenced the comic genre for more than 60 years.

Master Race was the cover feature for Impact #1, one of EC's "New Direction” wave of books, which was released in 1955. Krigstein's jaw-dropping formal invention of mirroring previous panels and layouts from one page to another became an iconic template for both mainstream and underground cartoonists for many decades to come.

New York—On December 14, 2018, The Grolier Club will unveil its reconstructed state-of-the-art Exhibition Hall, capping a total renovation of the public spaces in the century-old building. To mark the occasion, The Grolier Club is mounting the celebratory exhibition French Book Arts: Manuscripts, Books, Bindings, Prints, and Documents, 12th-21st Century. On view through February 2, 2019, the approximately 90 works are drawn entirely from The Grolier Club’s own rich and extensive collections.      

This inaugural exhibition is a wide-ranging survey of the book arts of France, covering a thousand years of artistic achievements, from Medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts to artists’ books and designer bookbindings of the current generation. Notwithstanding the many hundreds of public exhibitions that have been displayed at The Grolier Club in its 135 years, it has never before offered such a broad and deep survey of the artistic and typographic monuments of France.

The Grolier Club has maintained a strong Francophile tradition since its founding in 1884, beginning with its name. The Grolier Club was named for Jean Grolier, the Renaissance collector who was renowned for his patronage of scholars and printers, for the magnificent bindings he commissioned, and for a generous habit of sharing his library with friends.  

The works on display are as diverse as one would expect from a millennium of French artistry:  The authors range from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to Voltaire, Anatole France, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jacques Brel. The artists, from anonymous scribes to the miniaturists Boyvin and the Master of the Claremont Hours; to Abraham Bosse, Felix Bracquemond, and Henri Matisse.  Bookbinders, from the late Middle Ages to the precocious Odette Lamiral, the dramatic Paul Bonet, the fabulous Santiago Brugalla, the imaginative Florent Rousseau. Bibliophiles, from our patron saint, Jean Grolier, of course, to Jacques-Auguste de Thou, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Count Hoym, Madame de Pompadour, Marie-Antoinette, and latter-day French collectors and Americans inspired by France, include some of the Grolier Club’s own Founders.

Among the highlights are manuscript and printed illuminated Books of Hours, including a Mannerist stunner from the 1540s; early printed books by Robert Estienne and Aldus Manutius; extraordinary bindings from seven centuries; a letter from Jefferson to his Parisian bookseller; portrait prints of the great and the good; Matisse’s major livre d’artiste of the Occupation years, Pasiphaé; and commemorative medals and documents. The Grolier’s patron saint, Jean Grolier, the “Prince of Bibliophiles,” is honored with six of his books, four in their distinctive Grolier bindings, and three documents, including his royal appointment as Treasurer of France when he was 20 years of age.  

Many of the books have special provenances but perhaps the strangest is an 18th century manuscript that has an unusual 20th century provenance. The book contains an inventory of Madame de Pompadour’s library. 

It was liberated by the French Second Armored Division, and officially stamped by the Deuxième Division Blindée, on May 4, 1945. Found by French soldiers of the “Day-Day-Bay” in the Berghof, Adolf Hitler’s Berchtesgaden retreat, its presence is unaccounted for and was possibly given to Hitler by Göring.

The reopening of the newly designed Exhibition Hall and inaugural exhibition continue The Grolier Club’s long-standing dedication to offering free access to exhibitions and programs that celebrate the art and history of the book.

Curated by H. George Fletcher, the exhibition honors the memory of Mary K. Young, a devoted member of The Grolier Club, who championed Franco-American cultural ties as a director of the Florence Gould Foundation.

CATALOGUE: A fully-illustrated companion volume by Mr. Fletcher is available from The Grolier Club and from Oak Knoll Books.

ABOUT THE CURATOR:

The exhibition and its accompanying book have been organized and written by H. George Fletcher, a long-serving member of The Grolier Club, elected to membership in 1973. He was the Astor Curator of Printed Books and Bindings at The Morgan Library & Museum and the inaugural Brooke Russell Astor Director for Special Collections at The New York Public Library. He has been involved with scores of exhibitions in the United States and France, many of them on French bookish themes, and France honored him in 2013 as a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.  This is his third exhibition at the Grolier in recent years. With French colleagues, he organized “Printing for Kingdom, Empire, and Republic: Treasures from the Archives of the Imprimerie Nationale” (2011-2012) and, with G. Scott Clemons, “Aldus Manutius: A Legend More Lasting than Bronze” (2015).

Free Lunchtime Exhibition Tours: December 14 and 19, and February 1, 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm, and January 25, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm. The Curator will lead free public tours of the exhibition. No reservations necessary.

Currently on view in the Second Floor Gallery:

• A.J.A. Symons: A Bibliomane, His Books and His Clubs from the collection of Simon Hewett. November 8, 2018 - January 5, 2019.

Followed by:        

• Two American Poets: Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams from the collection of Alan Klein. January 16 - February 23, 2019.
• A Matter of Size: Miniature Bindings & Texts from the collection of Patricia J. Pistner. March 5 - May 19, 2019.

Looking forward in the newly designed Exhibition Hall:

• Alphabet Magic: Gudrun & Hermann Zapf and the World They Designed. February 20 - April 27, 2019
• Poet of the Body: New York's Walt Whitman. May 15 - July 27, 2019

New York—The Morgan is excited to announce that it is expanding its collection—one of the most important collections of drawings in the United States—to include eleven drawings by five major twentieth-century African-American artists from the South. Largely self-taught, these artists—Thornton Dial, Nellie Mae Rowe, Henry Speller, Luster Willis, and Purvis Young—use drawing to express their personal and cultural identity, finding inspiration in their own lives as well as in common experiences and folk imagery. The Morgan acquired the drawings through a gift-purchase agreement from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, whose mission is to preserve and disseminate the works of African-American artists from the Southern United States. 

This acquisition supports the Morgan’s goal to expand the scope and depth of its collection of modern and contemporary drawings by including works from the vernacular, nonacademic traditions of the visual arts. It recognizes the important contribution made to the history of drawing by artists working outside the conventional channels and expands the reflection on the role and significance of the medium of drawing as a vehicle to express a particular identity. 

In addition, this acquisition encourages more in-depth study of the dialogue between vernacular, nonacademic traditions in the visual arts and the production of mainstream artists. Canonical twentieth century artists from Pablo Picasso and Jean Dubuffet, to Jasper Johns and Rosemarie Trockel found inspiration in the creations of the non-academically trained to infuse their work with a new energy. The major retrospective Dubuffet Drawings, held at the Morgan in 2016, made clear the importance of the dialogue between the mainstream and alternative traditions in twentieth-century art. 

“We are working toward building a more representative collection,” said Colin B. Bailey, Director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “These drawings are an invaluable contribution to the study of  modern and contemporary drawing, and we are proud to expand the body of works that the Morgan exhibits to the general public and makes available to researchers of all types in the Morgan’s Drawing Study Center.”

Dr. Maxwell L. Anderson, President of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation adds, “Our core mission is to advocate for artists of the African American South represented in our collection. We could not be happier to announce that the Morgan Library & Museum will now have significant holdings of these artists in their permanent collection. These acquisitions will broaden the exposure of drawings by these important American artists among audiences around the country and provide new opportunities for exhibition, research, and other partnerships.”

These works also complement objects in other collecting areas at the Morgan, notably African-American folk songs in the Printed Music Department, and African-American poetry and first editions of Harlem Renaissance writers such as LangstonHughes, abundantly represented in the Carter Burden Collection of modern American literature in the Printed Books Department. The Morgan is planning to feature these new acquisitions in an exhibition in 2021. 

New York - Swann Galleries continues their auction season with Illustration Art on Thursday, December 6. The sale boasts an array of original works rife with nostalgia including children’s literature, American illustration and works from as early as 1817.

Ludwig Bemelmans leads a stellar assortment of illustrations from beloved children’s books with Madeline, Miss Clavel and the 11 schoolgirls. The heroine and her friends make an appearance in two illustrations from Madeline in London, 1961, the author’s final Madeline publication. After Everybody had been Fed features Miss Clavel and the girls dancing around Pepito’s birthday cake, and Everyone was in his Bed, shows the headmistress wishing her students a good night. The works demonstrate Bemelmans’ editorial process-the final publication featured different captions for illustrations-each are estimated at $30,000 to $40,000.                                  

Other children’s literature illustrations include Jerry Pinkney’s vibrant drawing for the cover of School Library Journal, published in December 2009. The special holiday watercolor features his characters from The Lion & The Mouse catching snowflakes on their tongues (Estimate: $7,000-10,000). Four of Maria Louise Kirk’s well-known illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1904, depict Alice in her rarely seen yellow dress ($5,000-7,500). Maurice Sendak is present with a preliminary sketch and final illustration for Little Bear’s New Friend, which appeared in a 2001 edition of Nick Jr. Magazine ($30,000-40,000). Also available is Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar and H.A. Rey’s 1939 color pencil work for Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys-the first book to introduce Curious George ($8,000-12,000 and $10,000-15,000, respectively).

The sale is led by a Norman Rockwell study for the cover of the March 18, 1939 edition of The Saturday Evening Post. The study features James K. Van Brunt, a friend of the artist and one of his favorite models, as a serious yet slightly unkempt alchemist. By the time the image was created Van Brunt had passed and Rockwell was using photo references to execute the cover ($70,000-100,000). Also by Rockwell is The Maternity Waiting Room, an early color study for the illustration published in a 1946 issue of The Saturday Evening Post ($20,000-30,000).

Charlie Brown and Snoopy take the spotlight in this auction with Swann’s largest offering of Peanuts cartoons to date. The assortment of original comic strips by Charles M. Schulz include The Years are Going By Fast, featuring Schroder and Lucy ($8,000-12,000), as well as four additional comic strips and one charcoal drawing, each featuring everyone’s favorite beagle. Additional cartoons include an original 11-panel Doonesbury strip by Garry Trudeau featuring his character Rufus Jackson. Created in the early 1970s the, strip is dedicated and inscribed to the influential psychologist, educator and civil rights activist Kenneth B. Clark ($6,000-9,000).

Early twentieth-century originals include Sir William Russell Flint’s 1924 gouache and watercolor piece for Homer’s Odyssey, which shows a detailed image of Penelope weaving her shroud, is expected to bring $10,000 to $15,000. Illustration 34 from Simón Bolivar and His Time: 51 Miniatures by Arthur Szyk, created circa 1929, but published in 1952, displays a sympathetic portrait of the liberator ($8,000-12,000). A late-1930s manuscript broadside with a message “To all Fascists:” by Rockwell Kent for the League of American Writers, protesting the Spanish Civil War and signed by dozens of members, is estimated at $3,000 to $4,000.

Skaters on the Ice by James Daugherty is the earliest New Yorker cover the house has offered, published in January 1926 and estimated at $4,000 to $6,000. A Charles Addams cartoon of a couple walking past an alarmingly large bird house is expected to bring $6,000 to $9,000. Other highlights from the iconic magazine include a 1964 cover by Peter Arno, cover illustrations from Heidi Goennel and cartoons from Charles Barsotti. 

Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) invites the community to attend New Editions, a two-day event that celebrates and fosters the collection of book art. Over 130 new original works—from chapbooks and zines, to broadsides, artist’s books, and fine press editions—will be available for viewing and purchase. The curated offerings will include something for everyone, from the most seasoned collector to the newest enthusiast, with items at a wide variety of prices. 

New Editions begins on Friday, November 30 from 6-9pm with a special preview night. Be the first to explore and purchase a curated collection of bookish works from Minnesota and around the country. At 7pm, learn more about the importance of collecting book art from a panel of artists, featuring Harriet Bart, Regula Russelle, and Gaylord Schanilec, and moderated by Karen Wirth. Enjoy hors d’oeuvres, craft wine and beer, and creative company with other book and art lovers. Tickets are $50 and available for purchase on MCBA’s website or in The Shop at MCBA. Each ticket holder receives a commemorative limited edition broadside printed by Laura Brown during the event.

New Editions continues with a public sale on Saturday, December 1 from 10am-4pm. Attendees will be able to find special gifts for those on their shopping list, or treat themselves to a unique work of art. Saturday’s event is free and open to the public, and seasonal refreshments will be provided.

Minnesota Center for Book Arts celebrates the book as a vibrant contemporary art form that takes many shapes. From the traditional crafts of papermaking, letterpress printing and hand bookbinding to experimental artmaking and self-publishing techniques, MCBA supports the limitless creative evolution of book arts through book arts workshops and programming for adults, youth, families, K-12 students and teachers. MCBA is located in the Open Book building in downtown Minneapolis, alongside partner organizations The Loft Literary Center and Milkweed Editions. To learn more, visit www.mnbookarts.org.

On Nov. 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The Library of Congress will recognize the 155th anniversary of this historic speech with a one-day celebration, including work stations for a hands-on experience transcribing Lincoln documents using the Library’s new crowdsourcing tool.

Visitors will have the opportunity to view the earliest known draft of the Gettysburg Address and participate in a live interactive crowdsourcing challenge of Lincoln’s manuscripts Monday, Nov. 19, beginning at 10 a.m. in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building Great Hall, 10 First Street, Washington, D.C. The event will begin with an introduction by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. She will be followed by historian and manuscript specialist Michelle Krowl, who will talk about Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address. A portion of this program will be livestreamed at Youtube.com/LibraryofCongressand Facebook.com/LibraryofCongress. Lincoln county schools across the country and the general public are invited to virtually participate via the livestream and our new crowdsourcing website at crowd.loc.gov.

The Gettysburg Address is considered one of Lincoln’s most prominent speeches. Lincoln had been invited to give a "few appropriate remarks" during a ceremony to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Library holds two original drafts of the Gettysburg Address that reveal the ways in which Abraham Lincoln prepared his now-famous comments.

These drafts are part of the Abraham Lincoln Collection. The papers of the lawyer, representative from Illinois and 16th president of the United States, contain approximately 40,550 documents dating from 1774 to 1948. Roughly half of the collection, more than 20,000 documents, comprising 62,000 images, as well as transcriptions of approximately 10,000 documents, is available online. Between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. visitors will engage with the primary sources of this collection and decipher Lincoln’s handwriting using the crowd.loc.gov website.

The excitement can be followed and shared on Twitter @LibraryCongress and #LetterstoLincoln. 

Crowd.loc.gov is a crowdsourcing program that invites virtual volunteers to transcribe text in digitized images from the Library’s historic collections. This program enables anyone with access to a computer to experience first-handaccounts in history while contributing to the Library’s ability to make these treasures more searchable and readable. The program launched in October with the Letters to Lincoln Challenge, inviting the public to transcribe 10,000 items from the Abraham Lincoln papers by the end of 2018.

Crowd.loc.gov and this event reflects advancement toward a goal in the Library’s new user-centered strategic plan: to expand access by making unique collections, experts and services available when, where and how users need them. Learn more about the Library’s five-year plan at loc.gov/strategic-plan/ and the digital strategy at loc.gov/digital-strategy/.

The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States— and extensive materials from around the world— both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.

Chicago — Potter & Potter Auctions is pleased to announce its 750 lot Vintage Travel Poster Sale to be held on Saturday, December 1, 2018 starting at 10am at the company's gallery, located at 3759 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL 60613. All lots from this upcoming sale from are on display and available for public preview on Wednesday, November 28th, Thursday, November 29th, and Friday, November 30th from 10:00am to 5:00pm in the Potter & Potter facility. 

This travel poster event offers a grand tour of European cities, with two examples taking top spots in the sale. Lot #166, a 1951 Venezia poster by Frenchman Adolphe Mouron (1901-1968) features a tranquil vista on a Venetian canal with a man in renaissance dress operating a gondola whose image is inversely reflected in the water.  It was printed in Milan by Calcografia & Cartevalori and is estimated at $2,000-3,000. And lot #355, a c. 1935 Swedish American Line poster, is illustrated with an imposing ocean liner, likely the MS Kungsholm. This impressive, Art Deco style example is estimated at $2,000-3,000 and was printed by the Swedish firm Icasons.  

Other European destinations are also well represented in this sale.  A top dog here is lot #80, a British travel poster featuring an English bulldog on a blue background with a jet above.  This c. 1960 poster for Qantas was designed by Australian Harry Rogers (1929-2012.)  Lot #309, a Berliner Allee cityscape of Dusseldorf, Germany from the perspective of a table on a patio, is a breath of fresh air indeed. It was designed by H. Gutschow in 1955.  And lot #290, an Air France color lithograph with vignettes of various sites, landmarks, and characters of Europe, was designed in 1960 by Frenchman Jean Carlu (1900—1997.) All three are conservatively estimated at $250-350 each. 

It is possible to go great distances without leaving home via the marvelous Russian and Far East posters available through this event.  Bidder battles are certain to break out over lot #214, a 1939 Georgian Military Highway poster by Russian artist Alexander Zhitomirsky (1907-1993.) This stunning example, published in the USSR by Intourist, pictures a blue sedan racing through the mountains on the highway and is estimated at $1,500-2,500. It's also back to the USSR with lot #431, a Pan Am poster vividly illustrated with the St. Petersburg Church of the Savior Blood turrets. This example is from 1970 and is estimated at $500-700.   And lot #298, a Discover Japan Fly JAL 1950s-era color lithograph of a  kite in the form of a samurai on a teal background is certain to take flight, given its charming and period presentation.  It is estimated at $250-350.

Posters representing southern destinations lend a touch of southern comfort (and hospitality) to this auction.  Lot #288, a c. 1955 poster from the Mexican National Tourism Council, is illustrated with a photograph of a large Mexican fruit display complete with a man and woman topper in traditional dress. This "Paradise of Tropical Fruits" is estimated at $150-250.  It's impossible not to make eye contact with Lot #300, a Pan American poster for Tahiti featuring a beautiful woman with a suggestive gaze.  This looker from the 1970s is estimated at $300-500.  And lot #540, a c. 1950 Habana, Cuba poster from Artes Graficas promotes the city's twinkling lights, landmark buildings, and main thoroughfares. It is estimated at $1,400-1,600.

This sale proves you don't have to leave the USA to view world-class landmarks and events.  Lot #14, a Fly TWA to Las Vegas poster from 1968 combines the daytime and nighttime view of the desert oasis with sun, sand, gambling, and glamour.  Lot #15, a small format version of the iconic Fly TWA to New York poster from 1960, is estimated at $800-1,200.  Both these Las Vegas and New York posters were illustrated by David Klein (1918 - 2005), a talented artist best known for his work with TWA and Howard Hughes in the 1950s and 1960s. Also on track in this category is lot #565, a Gustav W. Krollman (1888-1962) Mission Range poster for Northern Pacific Railways.  This example from 1930 pictures a train speeding through Montana. This handsome and period poster is estimated at $1,200-1,800

This sale comes rounds out with can't look away selections of posters featuring sports, events, adventure, and other exotic destination themes. Lot #236, a rare and original 1946  Air France travel poster for West Africa by Vincent Guerra is estimated at $1,500-2,000.  It comes to life with an abstracted, patterned image of African elephants among their native terrain, with a jet flying overhead.  You can go anywhere with lot #152, a classic modernist travel poster from American Airlines advertising the concept of travel rather than a specific destination. This inspiring example was designed by Edward Mcknight Kauffer in 1948 and is estimated at $1,500-2,000. And last to take a pole position in this summary is lot #102, a Dorothy Waugh (1896-1996) poster promoting winter sports for the US Parks Service.  This Art Deco style piece, showing a pair of skiers silhouetted in snowy white against a blue and green background, is estimated at $1,400-2,000.

According to Gabe Fajuri, President at Potter & Potter Auctions, "We're pleased to offer such a diverse selection of posters, in such wonderful condition, and all from a single owner collection. Any enthusiast with an interest in modern master poster designers should find something appealing at this sales event. These striking images should also catch the eye of designers, decorators, and anyone looking for first-class examples of mid-century modern decorative art."

Potter & Potter, founded in 2007, is a Chicago area auction house specializing in paper Americana, vintage advertising, rare books, playing cards, gambling memorabilia, posters, fine prints, vintage toys, and magicana - antiques and collectibles related to magic and magicians. The company's next sale, an online only Winter Magic Auction, will be held on December 15, 2018. The auction will be conducted exclusively on Potter & Potter's online bidding platform. The online catalog will be posted approximately two weeks before the date of the sale. For more information, please see www.potterauctions.com.  Follow us on Facebook (potterandpotterauctions), Twitter (PnPAuctions), and Instagram (potterauctions). 

New York - On December 5, Bonhams Books and Manuscripts sale will offer Glenn Gould's extensively annotated copy of his recording for the second "Goldberg Variations," one of the most significant and well-known interpretations in classical music (estimate: $100,000-150,000). This annotated complete score and accompanying notes offer profound insight into the landmark recording. Gould manuscripts are very rare in the marketplace, with no substantial Gould manuscript ever having been sold at auction.

Darren Sutherland, Books and Manuscripts Specialist, commented: "It's very exciting to offer this extensively annotated Glenn Gould score from his 1981 recording of the Goldberg Variations. The vast majority of Gould material is held institutionally, and never reaches the private market."

Pianist Glenn Gould (1932-1982) of Canada, rocketed to stardom in 1955 with his recording of his interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's Aria mit verschiedenen Veränderungen (Aria with Diverse Variations), popularly known as the Goldberg Variations. The work comprises a set of 30 contrapuntal variations, beginning and ending with an aria. The piece had long been considered, when considered at all, as too esoteric and demanding to be part of the standard piano repertoire, with very few pianists even attempting it. Glenn Gould's innovative 1955 recording changed all of that. He had first played the Goldberg Variations in concert in 1954, and the composition became a staple of his performances. But it was his 1955 recording that launched his career as an international figure, fast becoming one of the world's best-known piano recordings. In 1964, at the pinnacle of his performing career, Gould retired from performing at the age of 30. Increasingly dissatisfied with his 1955 original, Gould made a new recording of the Goldberg Variations in 1981, this time with years of experience behind him. It was released a week before he died in 1982, winning a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Solo Performance, and it now stands as the coda to Gould's outstanding career.

These pages offer an important window into Gould's famous final recording, as he notes in minutiae the timings of various takes and levels, while sometimes emphasizing pauses, microphone placements, etc. The four additional manuscript pages likewise contain notes on the recordings, referencing the score and providing additional commentary and instruction, such as at Var. XVII: "? at Bar 5 could be just a wee shade less"; or "Var 20 ... Bar 8; look once again for another last beat, 9 as we know tends to rush"; or simply "Var XVIII Perf-" [Perfect]. Gould the pianist had lived closely with this piece of music for 25 years and was unlikely to need notes for playing—the present manuscript contains minute detail of his assembly of the recording.

New York — The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at The New York Public Library has acquired the full archive of actors and activists Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. The extensive archive includes more than 178.85 linear feet of material spanning eight decades of the couple’s careers in theater, film and television; their near 60-year relationship and marriage; and their social, civic, and political activities between 1932 and 2014.

Correspondence between Davis and Dee included in the archive provides an intimate look into the couple’s influence as partners in love and life. Handwritten letters between the two capture the affectionate moments of their courtship, proposal, and marriage. Exchanges with friends such as Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, and Lena Horne reflect the breadth of their close relationships with some of America’s leading cultural and political figures of the 20th century.

Both Dee and Davis spent their early careers in Harlem theater companies at the New York Public Library. Dee performed at the American Negro Theatre, then located at the 135th Street Branch, now the Schomburg Center. Davis performed as a member of the Rose McClendon Players at the 124th Street Branch, now the Harlem Library. Over their 50-year careers, the couple would go on to star in, develop, and produce projects across the world, creating new opportunities for Blacks in the performing arts, and influencing the ways narratives centered on Black life were told.

As activists, Davis and Dee publicly and privately advocated for many civil rights and social justice issues of their time, including speaking against the executions of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, helping to restore Paul Robeson’s passport after it had been revoked, organizing artists and entertainers for the 1963 March on Washington, and demonstrating against the Vietnam War. The Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee archive captures this rich history and the couple’s role in it through letters, diaries, news clippings, notebooks, scripts, photographs, and audio and moving image recordings. The archive is currently being processed and will be available to the public for research with a New York Public Library card in spring 2019.

“Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis were pillars of creativity, friendship, and support during the greatest artistic and political movements of our time,” said Kevin Young, Director of the Schomburg Center. “Their love for each other and for their closest friends, as well as their commitment to advancing social progress through the arts and advocacy, is reflected in the vastness of this archive. Having their archive home to Harlem will help scholars and researchers tell an even more comprehensive story of the cultural and political evolution of the 20th century. We are privileged to be stewards of the Dee and Davis legacies, and to make them available to the public for study and exploration.”

“The Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee archive is crucial for the study of black theater and film history, African Americans in television, the work of black playwrights and filmmakers, and of artists as activists,” said Mary Yearwood, Director of Collections and Information Services at the Schomburg Center. “The archive complements a number of Schomburg Center manuscript, photograph, and audio moving image collections including those of the American Negro Theater, the papers of actors Frederick O’Neal, Hilda Sims, Canada Lee, Alice Childress, and the New World A-Coming radio series. The Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee archive not only documents their history and contributions to the performing arts and to the civil rights struggle, but to African American history, Harlem history and the history of the Schomburg Center. Those studying these topics will find this archive to be an important primary resource.”

Highlights of the Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee archive include:

• 50 years of correspondence between Davis and Dee, dating back to their courtship, offering an intimate window into their relationship and in some instances, their perspectives concerning their craft
• An array of never-before-seen materials devoted to Davis and Dee’s relationship with Malcolm X, including 15 postcards and three letters from Malcolm X during his foundational Hajj in Mecca and his 1964 trip to Africa
• Ruby Dee’s original bound script of "A Raisin in the Sun" with autographed text changes and notes, and printed notation that the title was pending approval from Langston Hughes
• A note to Ruby Dee from Lorraine Hansberry on the opening night of "A Raisin in the Sun"
• A Western Union telegram from Langston Hughes to Ruby Dee expressing appreciation for her performance of his poem at the A. Philip Randolph testimonial
• Handwritten greeting card from Coretta Scott King to Davis and Dee
• Material related to the couple’s years of political and social work, including the March on Washington and the couple’s activities with union Local 1199
• A large number of Davis and Dee’s television interviews, speeches and appearances over the decades, as well as master copies of their television show "With Ossie & Ruby"
• A rare copy of an independent film “Countdown at Kusini” that Davis directed and that the couple starred in
• An extensive reference archive of poetry, folk songs, tales, and sayings, many directly related to the African American experience

This acquisition is the latest within the Schomburg’s Home to Harlem initiative, following those of James Baldwin, Sonny Rollins, Ann Petry, and annotated manuscripts of the "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." Home to Harlem is centered on bringing the archives of Harlem’s most influential social and cultural figures to the Schomburg for research and study, on Arturo Schomburg’s legacy of Black librarianship, and on exploring the historical and contemporary role of Harlem as the Black cultural capital of the world.

Scholars interested in accessing the Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee archive must make an appointment with the Schomburg Center’s Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division. For more information, visit SchomburgCenter.org.