New York — Old Master Through Modern Prints at Swann Galleries on Tuesday, October 29 will offer an important selection of prints by Rembrandt van Rijn. Also on offer are works from European and American virtuosos.

Rembrandt etchings from the John Villarino Collection form the cornerstone of the Old Master offering. In 1995 Villarino turned his collecting tastes toward Rembrandt as he recognized the profound influence the Dutch artist had on the works of later artists. Villarino was captivated by a small etching saying, “I saw his eyes, and the look was, ‘I’m going to conquer the world.’” Highlights from the collection include A Beggar Seated on a Bank, 1630, likely an early self-portrait in the guise of a beggar ($20,000-30,000); Sheet of Studies, with a Woman Lying Ill in Bed, etc., circa 1641-42 ($25,000-35,000); and The Rat Catcher, 1632 ($12,000-18,000). Additional etchings by the Dutch master include some of the earliest dated landscapes by the artist: Landscape with a Cottage and Haybarn: Oblong, 1641 ($60,000-90,000)—one of his most sought-after landscape etchings—and Landscape with a Cottage and a Large Tree, 1641 ($40,000-60,000).

Further Old Master printmakers include Albrecht Dürer, who leads the sale with a 1504 engraving Adam and Eve at $80,000 to $120,000, and Lucas Cranach with The Judgement of Paris, woodcut, 1508, at $15,000 to $20,000.

European prints include Paul Klee’s etchings Der Held mit dem Flügel—Inv. 2, 1905, an early etching (of which only three impressions have been found at auction in the past 30 years) ($70,000-100,000), and Höhe!, 1928 ($60,000-90,000). Career-spanning works from Pablo Picasso are on offer with Taureau ailé conteplé par Quatre Enfants, a 1934 etching from the Vollard Suite, at $25,000 to $35,000, and a 1962 color linoleum cut Portrait de Jacqueline en Carmen (L’Espagnole), at $35,000 to $50,000. Edvard Munch’s lithograph based on the 1895 painting of the same name, Der Tod im Krankenzimmer, 1896, is available at $40,000 to $60,000.

Exemplary works from the nineteenth century feature Mary Cassatt’s In the Opera Box (No. 3), etching, 1880, estimated at $20,000 to $30,000 and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec’s Aux Ambassadeurs—Chanteuse au Café-Concert, color lithograph, 1894, which is expected to bring $15,000 to $20,000.

American printmakers are led by a run of drypoints by Martin Lewis that offer a study in chiaroscuro. Of note is Shadow Dance, 1930 ($30,000-50,000); Spring Night, Greenwich Village, 1930 ($15,000-20,000); and Chance Meeting, 1940-41 ($7,000-10,000). Color woodcuts by Edna Boies Hopkins and Gustave Baumann also feature.

Exhibition opening in New York City October 24. The complete catalogue and bidding information is available at swanngalleries.com and on the Swann Galleries App.

Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) is pleased to announce the recipients of our fifteenth series of the MCBA/Jerome Foundation Book Arts Fellowships:

    •    Austin Nash, printmaking
    •    Shun Jie Yong, photography
    •    Collaborative team Sarah Evenson and Jade Herrick, illustration and printmaking

Three jurors, reflecting diverse perspectives and expertise, reviewed the 29 applications received to select the winning fellows. They were: Tricia Heuring, Director and Curator of Public Functionary and Studio 400 in Minneapolis; Aki Shibata, artist and past MCBA/Jerome Book Arts Fellowship recipient; and Keith Taylor, photographer and past MCBA/Jerome Book Arts Mentorship recipient.

With generous funding from the Jerome Foundation and technical guidance from MCBA, the Fellowship recipients will develop new independent projects throughout the coming year. The program culminates in a group exhibition at MCBA opening in November 2020.

“It was an amazing experience to have a large-scale, long-term project to work on, and the resources to do it," said Eric Gjerde, recipient of an MCBA/Jerome Fellowship in 2015-16. "Nothing helps motivate artistic focus and inspiration more than a deadline, the appeal of a public exhibition, and finances to make the work come into being. This was my first time with such a large undertaking and I learned a great deal from the process—about myself as an artist, about streamlining workflows for larger-scale projects, and about refining concepts for large endeavors. I value the experience I had and I am tremendously grateful for it.”

Since 1985, MCBA has partnered with the Jerome Foundation to help early career artists push the boundaries of contemporary book arts by supporting the creation of new work. Under the previous fourteen series of fellowships and seven series of mentorships, this program has served Minnesota artists of diverse disciplines, including printers, papermakers, bookbinders, painters, sculptors, poets, photographers, choreographers, filmmakers and others. With projects ranging from exquisitely-crafted fine press volumes and documented performances to one-of-a-kind installations, Minnesota early career artists have created work that breaks the bindings and redefines conventional notions of book form and content.

As the largest and most comprehensive center of its kind in the nation, 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 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.

Tucson, AZ — The University of Arizona Center for Creative Photography has acquired the archive of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Hume Kennerly.
 
Spanning more than 50 years of history dating from 1965, the David Hume Kennerly archive features almost one million images, prints, objects, memorabilia, correspondence and documents. It includes iconic portraits of U.S. presidents, world leaders, celebrities and unknown individuals, as well as personal correspondence and mementos such as the helmet and cameras that Kennerly used while photographing the Vietnam War. The archive attests to the integrity of this news photographer’s career, as he trained his lens on history as it was being made—often providing exclusive documentation of momentous global events.
 
Kennerly is one of the most celebrated photojournalists of the modern era. His images have appeared in hundreds of publications around the world, including on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Life. He has photographed ten U.S. presidents from Lyndon B. Johnson to Donald Trump, and such leading world figures as Queen Elizabeth II, Mikhail Gorbachev, Anwar El Sadat, Fidel Castro, Deng Xioping and many others.
 
“The extraordinary archive of photos by David Hume Kennerly is an asset for scholars, students and visitors to campus. His visual legacy will be an integral part of our curriculum,” said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. “He is already working with the Center for Creative Photography to create programming that will draw on his experience and expertise and will spark conversations throughout our campus and broader community.”
 
The University of Arizona acquires this archive at the same time as it introduces a new interdisciplinary curriculum that will leverage the power of photography to change how history is understood. Last year, Kennerly was appointed as the first University of Arizona Presidential Scholar, dedicated to encouraging interdisciplinary work and the study of photography among the arts, humanities and social sciences. Kennerly’s archive will provide innovative resources to learn and build upon current understanding and knowledge of world history.
 
In conjunction with the acquisition of the archive, the Center for Creative Photography will present an exhibition, David Hume Kennerly: Witness to History from October 11 through October of 2020. A talk with Kennerly and fellow Pulitzer Prize-winner, the writer and historian Jon Meacham, will be held on October 11 at the University of Arizona. They will introduce the university’s In the Room series, which shares firsthand accounts of being “in the room” where history was being made.
 
Kennerly said, “The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona is the pinnacle of photographic institutions. Their dynamic leadership values the importance of images, and they are committed to incorporating them into the wider curriculum at the university. Having my archive join the work of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and so many other great photographers at the CCP is hands-down one of the most exciting and satisfying moments of my life.”
 
Depicting the powerful and the powerless, Kennerly’s photographs helped define the genre of political photography and portraiture in the modern era. Giving viewers a renewed understanding of both famous personalities and unknown subjects, his images offer a probing examination of everyday life and intimate explorations of global political events such as the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Middle East Peace process and Camp David Accords in the 1970s, Jonestown, the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, and 9/11. Seeking to record historic events, often in dangerous places, Kennerly’s foresight about how images could impact the public catalyzed his relentless drive to create intimate documentation of history in the making.
 
The archive’s photographs reveal Kennerly’s extraordinary eye for capturing subjects both human and geographical. Whether celebrities on set, vacationers on holiday, or presidential candidates during intimate moments of celebration, such as the 2009 photograph of the Obamas on the night of his inauguration, Kennerly’s images capture the historical zeitgeist of the era, and define the high standards of candid journalism that the American public expects from the media.
 
Anne Breckenridge Barrett said, “David Hume Kennerly’s contribution to the practice of photojournalism is unmatched and the Center for Creative Photography is poised and proud to steward such a critical body of work. Adding the Kennerly archive to our unparalleled holdings will not only allow the Center to connect the relevance of Kennerly’s work to the photographic legacy we uphold, but will allow us to focus our priorities around digital access, engagement and expansion.”
 
It is fitting that the Kennerly Archive finds its home at the very place founded by his colleague, friend and world-renowned photographer, Ansel Adams. The Center collects, protects, and promotes the relevance and importance of photography today, deepening an understanding of how the medium impacts society. Kennerly’s work now joins the canon of the Center, comprised of the work of more than 2,200 other photographers, including W. Eugene Smith, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Edward Weston and Garry Winogrand.

Support for the exhibition David Hume Kennerly: Witness to History from October 11 through October of 2020 is provided by the Marshall Foundation and Bank of America.

Boston — The extraordinary ‘Book of Mormon’ carried to the moon on Apollo 16 by Commander John Young and later presented to NASA photographer M. Edward Thomas following the mission will be auctioned by Boston-based RR Auction.

The signed and flight-certified opposite the title page, "This Book of Mormon flew on Apollo 16 to the moon & returned to earth, John Young, 7/7/72."

In his capacity as NASA's astronaut photographer, Marion Edward Thomas (known as 'Ed') spent countless hours with America's spacemen and grew to closely know them.

While working with John Young in 1972, he was inspired to ask if the Apollo 16 commander planned to take a Bible to the moon with him.

Young agreed that having the Lord's book with him on the momentous occasion was a good idea, and Ed promised to provide him with one.

Fearing that the family's heirloom Bible may not return if tragedy struck, his wife—a devout member of the LDS Church—lent her personal, purse-sized Book of Mormon for the task. John Young proceeded to carry this Book of Mormon to the moon and return it safely to Earth, where it became central to the conversion and baptism of Ed Thomas, the only non-LDS member of his family.

Published in Salt Lake City, Utah, by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1964. Bound in soft white faux leather wrappers as a triple combination, containing the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. The first free end page bears an ownership inscription: "Please return to: Ruth C. Thomas, (Mrs. Ed Thomas), 373 Dover Street, Satellite Beach, Florida, 262-4619." Presented in a wooden display case with engraved plaque: "This Book of Mormon flew on Apollo 16 and returned to Earth by CMDR John Young.”

Accompanied by a full letter of authenticity, an official vintage color glossy NASA photo of Young handing this book to Thomas upon his return to Kennedy Space Center in May 1972, and several packets of provenance information concerning the history of this flown Book of Mormon and the conversion and baptism of M. Edward Thomas.

This book is also known to be manifested on John Young's Personal Preference Kit list for the Apollo 16 Command and Service Module ‘Casper.'

This flown Book of Mormon later led to Thomas's introduction to Spencer W. Kimball, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who became the most influential figure in his spiritual development: the two grew to be close friends, and Thomas served as a photographer for a number of Kimball's trips and special events.

Thomas would be baptized—by his son, to whom President Kimball had delegated his personal authority while ill—in Salt Lake City on October 5, 1981.

“It’s an important sacred text flown to the moon —  that proved pivotal to one man's conversion, this is a truly awe-inspiring relic of Apollo 16,” said Bobby Livingston, Executive VP at RR Auction.

Among other items featured in the online offering the substantial archive from the career of M. Edward Thomas. The collection includes three of his cameras, over 300 original vintage photographs, 200 official NASA lithographs, and unique ephemera gathered during his time as a NASA insider. In addition, Thomas’s impressive vintage collection of 100’s early NASA photographs, taken during his 25 year career as NASA's official astronaut photographer at Kennedy Space Center.

The Space & Aviation Auction from RR Auction will begin on October 11 and conclude on October 17.  For more information, go to www.rrauction.com.

Los Angeles — The U.S. experienced a number of major changes during the first half of the 20th century: new infrastructure, progressive social reforms, increased immigration, economic booms, and the Great Depression. Seeking to capture the shifting world around them, printmakers and photographers of the time employed innovative techniques to disseminate the vitality of the urban American experience.

Gathering depictions of street life and urban leisure as well as skyscrapers, subways, and tenement apartments, True Grit: American Prints and Photographs from 1900 to 1950, on view from October 15, 2019, through January 19, 2020, at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, offers diverse perspectives on the early twentieth-century American urban experience.

With works drawn from local museums, a private collection, and the Getty’s own collection, the exhibition provides two vibrant surveys of city life: one featuring early 20th-century American prints and a second showing contemporaneous photographs.

“The artists featured in True Grit were acute and tireless observers of daily life,” says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “In their work, they sought to convey not only the beauty of the modern metropolis, but also the everyday triumphs and challenges, the sardonic asides, and the small epiphanies of modern urban life. With few exceptions, the individuals represented in these scenes are members of the working class and recent immigrants whose lives tumble together in congested city spaces. Focusing on recent technological wonders such as the skyscraper, the suspension bridge, and the subway, the artists in this exhibition managed to inject the grit and bustle of early twentieth-century life into images of timeless power and social relevance.”
 
True Grit: American Prints from 1900-1950
 
Looking for effective ways to express the vitality of the urban American experience, artists gravitated to printmaking as a relatively inexpensive medium with great potential for wide circulation. Artists such as Ida Abelman, George Bellows, Mabel Dwight, and Louis Lozowick employed lithographic crayon on limestone to evoke the rugged tenor of the American spirit; Martin Lewis and Edward Hopper experimented with sand-ground etching to suggest the nebulous light of the American city; and Peggy Bacon and Armin Landeck used drypoint needle to produce sharp-edged social satires.

True Grit: American Prints from 1900-1950 also celebrates the rich holdings of prints throughout the L.A. region, with loans of American works on paper from The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the Hammer Museum; and the private collection of Hannah S. Kully.

“True Grit: American Prints from 1900 to 1950 provides a broader geographic, political, historical, and cultural context for the European art on view in the Museum’s galleries,” says Stephanie Schrader, drawings curator at the Getty Museum and co-curator of the exhibition. “This exhibition complements the Getty’s holdings of early 20th-century American photographs, so it seemed natural to present a companion exhibition in an adjacent gallery to allow for a comparative study of related subject matter in a different media.”
 
True Grit: American Photographs from 1900 to 1950
 
True Grit: American Photographs from 1900 to 1950 traces developments in the history of photography as it simultaneously reveals the character and the evolution of New York City. As a center of commerce and culture, the metropolis inspired many photographers to document its growing infrastructure, towering architecture, and increasingly complex social fabric. Artists featured in the exhibition include Paul Strand, Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott, Lisette Model, Alfred Stieglitz and Helen Levitt.

“The photographs chosen for this exhibition dramatically document the transformation of New York City, while also reinforcing how technical and stylistic aspects of photography evolved as rapidly as the urban environment,” said Jim Ganz, senior curator of photographs at the Getty. “Moving from the Pictorialist tradition at the turn of the century and its emphasis on moody, soft-focused cityscapes to modernist visions that accentuate sleek architectural forms and dynamic perspectives, the history of photography in the early 20th century changed dramatically in a relatively short period of time.”

The combined exhibition, True Grit: American Prints and Photographs from 1900 to 1950, shown in adjacent galleries, is on view October 15, 2019—January 19, 2020. It is curated by Stephanie Schrader, curator of drawings at the J. Paul Getty Museum, James Glisson, Bradford and Christine Mishler Associate Curator of American Art at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, and Jim Ganz, senior curator of photographs at the Getty Museum.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Getty publications will release a catalog, True Grit: American Prints from 1900 to 1950. Written by Stephanie Schrader, James Glisson, and Alexander Nemerov, this catalog examines a rich selection of prints by well-known figures like George Bellows and Edward Hopper as well as lesser-known artists such as Ida Abelman, Peggy Bacon, and Mabel Dwight. Written by three scholars of printmaking and American art, the essays present nuanced discussions of gender, class, literature, and politics, contextualizing the prints in the rapidly changing milieu of the first decades of twentieth-century America.

New York — Early Printed, Travel, Scientific & Medical Books comes to Swann Galleries on Thursday, October 24, featuring notable works on science, a standout selection of incunabula, and an extensive offering of volumes on innovations in medicine.

The sale is led by a first edition, first issue of Sir Isaac Newton’s Opticks, London, 1704, which summarized the scientist’s discoveries on light and color. The volume is available at $15,000 to $25,000. Further science offerings of note include a 1632 first edition of Galileo Galilei’s dialogue on the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems that established the validity of heliocentricity ($10,000-15,000); a scarce complete set of first editions in 32 parts of Michael Faraday’s Experimental Researches in Electricity, London, 1832-56, which contributed to the modern understanding and industrial use of electricity ($3,000-4,000).

A choice selection of incunabula brings to auction infrequently seen editions of Johannes Jacobus Canis’s guide to the study of civil and canon law, De modo studendi in utroque iure, Padua, 1476 ($6,000-9,000); Albertus Magnus’s comprehensive book on gems De mineralibus, Pavia, 1491 ($3,000-5,000); and Philippus Beroaldus’s philosophical tract on happiness, De felicitate opusculum, Bologna, 1495 ($4,000-6,000).

A large medical section features first editions of Franz Anton Mesmer’s 1779 manifesto of Mesmerism Mémoire sur la Découverte du Magnétisme Animal, Geneva, at $800 to $1,200. The first book on lip reading, Philocophus, London, 1648, by John Bulwer, and an inscribed and signed copy of Harvey Cushing’s 1932 report on intercranial surgery technique that reduced the mortality rate from the procedure Intracranial Tumors, Springfield, both are estimated at $1,000 to $2,000. Also of note is René Descartes final work, Les Passiones de l’Ame, Paris, 1649, available at $3,000 to $5,000.

Additional highlights include a complete set of nine volumes of James Cook’s Southern Hemisphere, South Pole, and Pacific Ocean voyages, London, 1773-84, which formed the foundation of modern knowledge of the Pacific ($10,000-15,000); a first edition of Athenaeus’s Deipnosophistarum, Venice, 1514, an early third century work that describes a series of imaginary banquets ($8,000-12,000); John Bulwer’s Chirologia, London, 1644, a first edition on an exhaustive study of gesture as it relates to religious ritual ($1,500-2,500); and a first separate edition of acrostic poems Panegyricus dictus Constantino Augusto, Augsburg, 1595, by Publilius Optatianus Porphyrius ($1,000-2,000).  

Exhibition opening in New York City October 19. The complete catalogue and bidding information is available at swanngalleries.com and on the Swann Galleries App.

Dallas, TX – A signed carte de visite from legendary American frontiersman Kit Carson is just one of dozens scarcely seen period photographs highlighting the Bret J. Formichi American Civil War Rarities Collection, offered Oct. 23 by Heritage Auctions. The Formichi collection features fine examples of cartes de visite, many signed, as well as letters and documents from strong as well as little known personalities behind the bloody conflict.

“Of the nearly 500 lots in the auction, 179 make up Bret Formichi’s extraordinary collection that he curated over a period of four decades,” Heritage Auctions Historical Manuscripts Director Sandra Palomino said. “His collection features an exceptional array of images, manuscripts and printed ephemera, including several significant cartes de visite. The collection includes rare items representing Black Americana, women in the Civil War, three John Wilkes Booth autographs and a collection of manuscripts and images related to Fort Sumter.”

Among the top lots from the Formichi collection are:

A Christopher “Kit” Carson Carte de Visite Signed “Kit Carson” (estimate: $40,000+) features a three-quarters-seated portrait of Carson, dressed in his brigadier general uniform with his left arm resting on a table. That he signed his nickname on the mount below the albumen is unusual and significant, as the majority of Carson autographs are signed “C. Carson.” The use of his nickname, “Kit,” usually was reserved for items signed to Carson’s close friends, so to see it included on this carte de visite adds to the rarity. The lot is offered along with a signed letter of introduction from George H. Carson, the nephew of Kit Carson, and a copy of De Witt C. Peters’ The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, The Nestor of the Rocky Mountains From Facts Narrated by Himself, which was published in New York by W.R.C. Clark & Meeker in 1858.

A John Wilkes Booth-Signed Copy of Rifles and Rifle Practice, by C.M. Wilcox (estimate: $30,000+) is a 276-page first edition with five fold-out diagrams, as well as numerous illustrations and charts. Signed by Booth on the inside front cover, “John Wilkes Booth, May 10th 1861,” it was inscribed less than a month after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, which could suggest that Booth bought the book as a direct result of the beginning of the Civil War. Booth did not fight in the war, but was a loyal devotee of the Confederate cause and hoped to find a way to assist the Confederate cause. Booth made no secret of his displeasure over the South losing the Civil War and Lincoln’s plan to free slaves, a stance that played out in his assassination of the 16th president.

A George A. Custer Carte de Visite Signed (estimate: $12,000+) features a vignette portrait of the flamboyant general, wearing the wide-brimmed hat for which he is known. This card, which is signed “Yours truly G A Custer,” is captioned as being “Entered according to Act of Congress by M.B. Brady & Co. in the year 1865 in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Columbia.” The image, labeled K-77V, was taken sometime around March 23, 1865, according to Custer in Photographs, before he reverted to the rank of captain.

A Millard Fillmore Signed Carte de Visite (estimate: $10,000+) includes an E. Anthony imprint on verso, a mark that declares the image was published from a photographic negative from Brady’s National Portrait Gallery. The 13th president of the United States is shown in a stand-up portrait, his hand resting on the back of a chair. Signed at the lower margin, “Millard Fillmore March 6, 1862” and on verso in ink, “W F Pollard 1862/B_5 No. 234.” Fillmore is notable for trying to reach a compromise on slavery, an effort that alienated him from both sides of the debate, and for a later effort to run for president on the “Know-Nothing Party” ticket.

[Hubbard Pryor.] Samuel Pryor: Pair of Cartes de Visite of a Black Union Soldier (estimate: $4,000+) both have A.S. Morse imprints on verso. The images show Pryor before and after his enlistment in Co. H of the 44th United States Colored Troops. On verso of the first image, which shows Pryor wearing rags and a slouch hat, is Negative No. 3801. On verso of the second image, which shows dressed in a Union uniform and standing at attention with a musket in his right hand, is Negative No. 3800. The images were taken by Department of the Cumberland photographer A.S. Morse, and records date the photos to 1864. National Parks Service records suggest the man in the pictures is Hubbard Pryor, although the inscription suggests he used a different name. Pryor enlisted in the Union’s black infantry regiment after escaping from his master in Tennessee. These pictures were sent to the war department in December 1864 as part of a report on the black regiment. The 44th USCT troops fought at the Battle of Dalton, where Pryor was captured by Confederates, an ordeal he survived.

A Confederate Richard C. Morgan Signed Carte de Visite (estimate: $3,000+) includes a John L. Gihon’s Philadelphia imprint on verso. A bust portrait of Morgan dressed in his uniform, Morgan inscribed on verso “Yr affect. Cousin R. C. Morgan Col C.S.A. Morgan's Div Cavy Ft Delaware May 16, 64.” Col. Morgan was the younger brother of Gen. John H. Morgan and served on the staffs of Gen. John Breckenridge and Gen. A.P. Hill. After he helped to lead Confederate forces into Ohio in July 1863, he and about 750 others were captured by the Union, which kept him imprisoned until August 1864; this photo was taken while he was held as a prisoner of war at Fort Delaware.

London — To mark its move to new premises in Bloomsbury, Bernard Quaritch Ltd., one of London’s oldest purveyors of rare books and manuscripts, is pleased to announce the release of two important, and topical, collections. 
 
Expected to spark excitement among collectors and fans alike, the personal library of seminal English author and poet Laurie Lee includes the first edition of Cider with Rosie (1959) – his famous memoir of childhood in the rural Cotswolds, which celebrates 60 years in 2019,  and contains a passage for which Laurie Lee was sued for written defamation. This is just one of 113 books by Lee himself in the collection, kept as file copies but often signed and annotated by the author. Also featured are 167 books by other notables writers, many signed or inscribed to Lee, including works by John Betjeman, Stephen Spender, Cecil Day-Lewis, Betty Askwith, Ted Hughes, Nadine Gordimer, P. J. Kavanagh, Wendy Cope, and many more. The library is expected to fetch £30,000.
 
The collection of the highly respected human rights and civil liberties lawyer Sir Geoffrey Bindman, QC is also likely to be hotly contested. Assembled over many years, this serendipitous exploration of political protest comprises books, pamphlets, prints and ephemera, and has at its heart the radicals and radical societies of the 1790s leading up to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 (the 200th anniversary of which was marked by a number of events earlier this year). Radical publications – often rare pamphlets or news-sheets – are accompanied by accounts of the prosecutions they underwent in the name of a free press, and of the legislation introduced to repress their fight for electoral reform and universal suffrage. From there the library steps back in time to take in earlier radical movements, in particular the Levellers of the mid-seventeenth century. ‘English Radicalism and the Struggle for Reform – the Collection of Sir Geoffrey Bindman, QC’, the first catalogue of highlights from the library, will feature 250 items with prices ranging from £75 to £5,000.
 
As Donovan Rees, head of English Books at Quaritch, explains: ‘We specialise in uncovering rare books and manuscripts that capture history in the making.  Laurie Lee’s library, offered in the anniversary year of his most famous work, Cider with Rosie, allows us an extraordinary glimpse into the life of one of Britain’s best-loved writers.  His intense political engagement – including a period in Spain during the Civil War – connects very well with the topic of our second library, that of Sir Geoffrey Bindman. To see how political agitation, often at great personal risk, changed the political landscape, is a very salient reminder of the power of the written word’.
 
The release of both collections coincides with Bernard Quaritch Ltd.’s fitting move from London’s Mayfair to 36 Bedford Row, a five-storey, airy building in the heart of London’s legal quarter in Bloomsbury.  Built in the 1690s by Nicholas Barbon – an economist and physician known for advocating the free market – and remodelled in the eighteenth century, its past tenants have included Sir Gilbert Heathcote, Governor of the Bank of England, and several firms of lawyers.

Paris – Christie's Books department is pleased with today’s results totaling €2,5 million. After the Books sale, which top lot was a deluxe edition of the Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde inscribed to Pierre Louÿs sold for €100,000 (against a presale estimate of €30,000-40,000), international collectors payed a last tribute to Alfred Cortot whose collection sold for €1,839,000 selling 93% by lots and 95% by value. The top lot of this sale was a portrait of Franz Liszt by Friedrich von Amerling which was sold for €137,500 (estimate: €12,000-18,000).

Frédéric Chopin admirers were also very active during the sale. Amongst the top lots, his portrait by Teofil Kwiatkowski sold for €132,000 against a presale estimate of €6,000-8,000, the lock of Chopin’s hair sold for €40,000 previously estimated at €1,000-1,500 and the cast of his hand sold for €6,000.

Marcel Proust was also honored today as we are celebrating the centenary of the Prix Goncourt awarded to A l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs. The deluxe edition of this masterpiece was sold for €87,500 while an exceptional corrected and annotated typescript of unpublished fragments of two chapters of Du côté de chez Swann realised €43,750.

Additional standout results were achieved for the section dedicated to Victor Hugo. The top lot of the section was a beautiful pen and brown ink drawing sold for €27,500, which was preempted by the Bibliothèque municipale of Reims. Another preemption was made by La Maison de Victor Hugo museum for an album with twelve drawings by François-Victor Hugo, the fourth child of Victor Hugo, and other artists, sold for €6,875 (initial estimate: €1,500-2,000).

The successful sale of Alfred Cortot’s collection was intended by his son Jean whose three paintings, sold at the end of the sale, realised a combined total of €14,250.

Alfred Cortot will be celebrated once again at Christie’s on 27 November in the Exceptional Sale which will present an extremely rare portrait of the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart attributed to Veronese artist, Giambettino Cignaroli.

New York — The New York Public Library will present a rare glimpse into the life and work of author J.D. Salinger with an exhibition of manuscripts, letters, photographs, books, and personal effects drawn exclusively from the novelist’s archive. This will be the first time these items – on loan from the J.D. Salinger Literary Trust – have ever been shared with the public.

The exhibition, entitled simply J.D. Salinger, is organized by Salinger’s son Matt Salinger and widow Colleen Salinger with Declan Kiely, Director of Special Collections and Exhibitions at the Library. The free exhibition coincides with the centennial of J.D. Salinger’s birth, and will be on display October 18, 2019 through January 19, 2020 in the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

The exhibition will feature more than 200 items spanning Salinger’s life, including:

    •    The original typescript of The Catcher in the Rye, revised by the author, as well as the revised galley proofs of the novel
    •    The original typescripts of some of Salinger's shorter fiction, including “Franny” and “Zooey” 
    •    An original pencil portrait by E. Michael Mitchell, who made the original cover design for The Catcher in the Rye
    •    Family photographs from J.D. Salinger’s childhood, youth, and later life, including photographs from his World War II service, and time as entertainment director on the cruise ship MS Kungsholm in 1941 
    •    Correspondence between J.D. Salinger’s friends, fellow soldiers, and authors and editors, including William Shawn, William Maxwell, and Ernest Hemingway 
    •    A bookcase from his bedroom filled with books from his personal library
    •    Items from his childhood, including a bowl he meticulously made at summer camp when he was about 10 years old (and kept his whole life) 
    •    Notebooks, passports, honorable discharge papers from the army in which he identified his civilian occupation as “Playwright, Author,” and personal artifacts such as his pipes, eyeglasses and wrist watch 
    •    One of the author’s two typewriters, his film projector, and numerous other personal effects
 
The exhibition also includes a description of J.D. Salinger’s life and profession written by Salinger himself, a rare glimpse into how Salinger viewed himself. The description was written as part of a 1982 legal document. The description reads, in part:

“I am a professional short-story writer and novelist. I write fiction and only fiction. For more than thirty years, I have lived and done my work in rural New Hampshire. I was married here and my two children were raised here. . . . I have been writing fiction rather passionately, singlemindedly, perhaps insatiably, since I was fifteen or so . . . I positively rejoice to imagine that, sooner or later, the finished product safely goes to the ideal private reader, alive or dead or yet unborn, male or female or possibly neither.”
 
"Generations of readers, including myself, have been captivated by the life-changing work of J.D. Salinger,” said New York Public Library President Anthony W. Marx. “As an institution that profoundly respects the cultural heritage of literature, works every day to spark a lifelong love of reading in our visitors, and encourages everyone to take a closer look at the world around them, The New York Public Library is excited and honored to present this unique look at the life of a writer who means so much to so many. We thank Matt Salinger for sharing a part of his father's important story."

"When my father’s long-time publisher, Little, Brown and Company, first approached me with plans for his Centennial year my immediate reaction was that he would not like the attention,” said Matt Salinger. “He was a famously private man who shared his work with millions, but his life and non-published thoughts with less than a handful of people, including me. But I’ve learned that while he may have only fathered two children there are a great, great many readers out there who have their own rather profound relationships with him, through his work, and who have long wanted an opportunity to get to know him better. The Library has given us this opportunity, and while it is but a glimpse into my father’s life, it is my hope that lifting the veil a bit with this exhibition will throw some light on the man I knew and loved that will be welcomed by many. In short, while I’ve long respected and honored (and zealously protected) his privacy, I also have come to see the value in sharing a direct and uninterpreted glimpse of his life with those readers who want it, and who want to mark his 100th year in some personal way. The show may also help introduce his fiction (beyond The Catcher in the Rye) to some new readers, as I agree with him: that the best way to get to know an author is to read his or her work!”

“This exhibition presents Salinger in his own words,” said Declan Kiely, New York Public Library Director of Special Collections and Exhibitions. “It provides fresh insight into his writing process, his views on the design and appearance of his books, his network of friendships with school and army buddies—some spanning over half a century—as well as with fellow authors and New Yorker magazine editors. Through his letters, photographs and personal possessions, this exhibition allows us to see Salinger from childhood to old age, revealing many facets of the writer: friend, father, grandparent, soldier, correspondent, spiritual seeker and, importantly, avid and eclectic reader—we shouldn’t forget that, in his youth, Salinger spent many hours reading at the New York Public Library and retained a lifelong affection for the Rose Main Reading Room. Many  of the objects on view in the exhibition are intensely poignant, most of them speak to a deep commitment to the life of the mind.”