John F Kennedy’s birthday programme
The night, just three months before her death, that Marilyn Monroe sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in sultry tones at a Democratic Party fundraiser celebrating John F Kennedy’s 45th birthday, caused a sensation.
Her dress, made of a sheer and flesh-coloured fabric and sewn with 2500 shimmering rhinestones, was so tight-fitting that, though otherwise naked, she had difficulty putting it on.
Sold for £6000 plus 24% buyer’s premium by Bloomsbury Auctions on November 9, 2017, was a copy of the programme signed by Marilyn, Maria Callas, Jimmy Durante, Peter Lawford, Eddie Jackson and Henry Fonda. The signatures were obtained by Monroe’s NYPD bodyguard.
Columbus Letter
“My lord, because I know that you will take pleasure in the great victory which our Lord has granted me on this voyage, I write you this letter, by which you will learn how… I crossed to the Indies, where I found many islands populated with innumerable inhabitants; and I have taken possession of all of them…”
In simple terms, this is Christopher Columbus telling Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain that he had found the American continent. Perhaps as many as 19 printed editions of the ‘Columbus Letter’ were printed in the final few years of the 15th century.
A copy of the ‘Columbus Letter’ from an edition issued by Johann Bergmann de Olpe of Basel in April 1494, that sold for $620,000 (£462,000) at Bonhams.
Of the very first, printed in Barcelona in early April 1493, there is just one recorded example – sold by Quaritch in 1892 to the New York Public Library. There are, however, a relatively large number of surviving copies of an edition issued by Johann Bergmann de Olpe of Basel in April 1494, and it was one of those that sold for $620,000 (£462,000) plus 25/20/12% buyer’s premium in a Bonhams New York sale of September 26, 2017.
Rousseau’s Confessions
At Forum Auctions’ sale in London, beautiful copies of the first two volumes of Rousseau’s autobiographical work, Les Confessions, published in Geneva in 1782, sold at a surprise £36,000 plus 25% buyer’s premium on October 12, 2017.
The first two volumes of Rousseau’s autobiographical work ‘Les Confessions’ that sold for £36,000 at Forum Auctions.
In contemporary French bindings of red morocco gilt with inner gilt dentelles, the armorials to the covers are those of Maria Theresa of Savoy, the wife of Charles Philippe, Comte d’Artois. Following the storming of the Bastille in 1789, Charles and Maria Theresa fled France.
Nineteen years after she died in 1805, her husband reclaimed the French throne as Charles X.
Ripley Scroll
The ‘Ripley Scroll’, an early 17th illuminated manuscript emblematic of the prime alchemical quest of turning base metal into gold, sold for £480,000 plus 25/20/12% buyer’s premium at Christie’s on December 13, 2017.
The ‘Ripley Scroll’ that sold for £480,000 at Christie’s.
Its composition is attributed to the foremost English alchemist, George Ripley (d.1490), an Augustinian canon at Bridlington in Yorkshire and author of The Compound of Alchemy. A mix of cryptic verse, legend and pictures, it is the only one of 23 known copies still in private hands.
Pictured here is the opening section of the 12ft (3.7m) long scroll in which a large figure holds the Hermetic vessel or ‘Philosopher’s Egg’ – a two-handled glass flask containing a toad.
Cortés' Mexican campaigns
An exceptionally rare, complete copy in a 17th century binding of Hernán Cortés’ Praeclara Nova maris Oceanii Hyspania… of 1524 sold for €240,000 (£212,390) plus 20% buyer’s premium at Hartung & Hartung in Munich on November 6-7, 2017.
A complete copy in a 17th century binding of Hernán Cortés’ ‘Praeclara Nova maris Oceanii Hyspania…’ of 1524 sold for €240,000 (£212,390) at Hartung & Hartung in Munich.
The second of five reports on his Mexican campaigns that Cortés sent back to Spain, it provided a valuable account of the Aztecs, their civilisation and wealth, along with their practices of brutal human sacrifice.
The copy offered in Munich also included the woodcut map of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital city on Lake Texcoco, that is lacking in many copies.
This is the first plan of any urban site in the New World and it shows temples, Montezuma’s palaces, numerous houses, canals and causeways. One large building flies a flag bearing the double-eagle emblem of the Hapsburgs, and is presumably where Cortés set up his headquarters. A map of the Gulf of Mexico is the first to use the name Florida and the first to show the mouth of the river we now know as the Mississippi.
Harris’s List
London’s Covent Garden district was not known only for its theatrical diversions. In 1760 there appeared the first edition of Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies: or, Man of Pleasure’s Kalendar…, a directory of London prostitutes that was issued almost annually thereafter for 34 years.
A 1786 edition of ‘Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies: or, Man of Pleasure’s Kalendar…’ sold for £16,000 at Bonhams.
Each of the entries, with the ladies’ names thinly disguised, includes an address and a physical description, often accompanied by a note on prices and particular specialities. In 1794 two London booksellers were prosecuted for publishing a new edition of what court records described as a “wicked, nasty, filthy, bawdy, and obscene” book.
The 1786 edition offered by Bonhams on November 15, 2017, is one of only two known (the other is in the Bavarian State Library). Stab-stitched, un-pressed and un-trimmed in original pale blue wrappers, it sold at £16,000 plus 25% buyer’s premium.
Buzzing sale
British bee books formed an unusual feature of a November 8, 2017, sale held by Dominic Winter.
The engraved frontispiece of John Worlidge’s ‘Apiarium; or, a Discourse of Bees’ that sold for £2800 at Dominic Winter.
Offered in 50 lots, this was a collection formed by the late David A Smith, QC (1938-2015), author of the standard bibliographical reference, British Bee Books 1500-1976, and for 50 years secretary of the International Bee Research Association.
Sold at a record £2800 plus 19.5% buyer’s premium was a very rare, 1676 first in a good 20th century calf binding of John Worlidge’s Apiarium; or, a Discourse of Bees, the engraved frontispiece to which is shown here.
Beatrix Potter
It was in poor condition, but this copy of The Tale of Mrs Tiggy-winkle offered by Greenslade Taylor Hunt in Taunton on November 2, 2017, was redeemed by the presence of a presentation inscription.
It was inscribed in now faded brown ink “Muriel Blackwell with love from Beatrix Potter. Sept 8th 05”. As the book was officially published in October of that year, it was presumably one of those sent out earlier as gifts to friends. It sold at £1300 plus 19% buyer’s premium.
Birds of Great Britain
Perhaps the most extraordinary work in the history of ornithological publishing, the 1789-94 first edition of William Lewin’s Birds of Great Britain was limited to just 60 sets for subscribers – and for a very good reason.
‘A Green Woodpecker’, one of the original watercolour drawings from William Lewin’s ‘Birds of Great Britain’. A set the first edition sold for £30,000 at Bonhams.
The 323 illustrations of birds and their eggs in each copy of this remarkable work are original watercolour drawings, all of which Lewin completed either by his own hand or with assistance from his sons, Thomas and William.
Bound as seven volumes in red morocco gilt of the period, a set first owned by a William Leatham sold for £30,000 plus 25% buyer’s premium in a Bonhams sale of November 15, 2017. Pictured here is A Green Woodpecker, one of the original watercolour drawings.
Dr Seuss’ first book for children
The PBA Galleries sale of November 2, 2017, included a copy of Dr Seuss’ first book for children, And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street of 1937. The white shorts worn by the boy on the front cover of the dust jacket identify it as a first issue. It made $3250 (£2500) plus 20/15% buyer’s premium.
A copy of Dr Seuss’ first book for children ‘And To Think I Saw It On Mulberry Street’ that sold for $3250 (£2500) at PBA Galleries.
George Brookshaw’s fruit studies
Originally published in parts in the years 1804-12, George Brookshaw’s Pomona Britannica contains 90 colour-printed and hand-finished aquatint and stipple-engraved plates of fruits then cultivated in Britain.
A plate from George Brookshaw’s ‘Pomona Britannica’ , a copy of which sold for $130,000 (£99,250) at Arader Galleries.
Until quite recent times little was known about Brookshaw, but it seems he had first worked as a cabinetmaker – noted for over-painted decoration, especially floral scenes.
Pomona Britannica took 10 years to produce, a great undertaking that found relatively few subscribers at almost £60 for the first edition. At his death in 1823 Brookshaw had £100 in his bank account.
This copy, in a handsome contemporary binding of crimson morocco gilt, sold for a record $130,000 (£99,250) plus 22% buyer’s premium in an Arader Galleries sale of October 28, 2017.
Titanic letter
This letter, written on RMS Titanic notepaper bearing the White Star Line pennant, was found in the pocket of passenger Oskar Holverson when his body was pulled from the freezing Atlantic waters.
The letter sold for £100,000 at Henry Aldridge & Son of Devizes.
Holverson, a first-class passenger, was writing the day before disaster struck to tell his mother: “This boat is giant in size and fitted up like a palatial hotel.” He also notes that among his fellow passengers were Mr and Mrs JJ Astor: “He looks like any other human being even tho he has millions of money. They sit out on deck with the rest of us…”
Holverson added: “If all goes well we will arrive in New York Wednesday A.M.” It became the most expensive Titanic letter ever sold at auction when it went for £100,000 plus 20/15/10% buyer’s premium in an October 21, 2017, sale held by specialist auction house Henry Aldridge & Son of Devizes.
Arthur Rackham's Wind in the Willows drawing
This drawing of Rat and Mole loading their boat, the final illustration for the 1940, Limited Editions Club version of Wind in the Willows, was the last Arthur Rackham ever completed.
A drawing of Rat and Mole for ‘Wind in the Willows’ by Arthur Rackham sold for £42,000 at Sotheby’s.
Rackham’s biographer Derek Hudson wrote: “Rackham’s daughter [Barbara] remembers his great exhaustion and the extreme difficulty he had in getting it done. When he had, as he thought, he suddenly discovered there were no oars in the boat.
“Barbara tried to persuade him that this was a detail that did not matter, but he insisted that everything must be right. After [altering the drawing] he lay back in bed and said: ‘Thank goodness, that is the last one.’ And so it proved in every sense.”
The 1939 drawing, one of 50 lots sent to auction by family descendants at Sotheby’s on December 11-12, 2017, sold at £42,000, plus 25% buyer’s premium.
Hobby horse
Published by Ackermann in 1819 in its ‘Repository of the Arts’ journal, the aquatint Four & Twenty Hobby-Horses All of a Row is accompanied by verses that begin ’Hobby’s the word, and onward sliding, All London Town is set a-riding’.
The aquatint ‘Four & Twenty Hobby-Horses All of a Row’ sold for $1500 (£1155) at Cowan’s in Cincinnati.
The hobby horse bicycle had been all the rage in London since the previous year, when Denis Johnson, a coachmaker of Covent Garden, introduced the machine invented in Germany by Baron Carl Von Drais. He also offered lessons in its use.
A parson, a lawyer, a dandy, a Quaker and actors in costume are all shown on machines that had no brakes and were both powered and slowed down by the rider’s feet.
This example raised $1500 (£1155) plus 20/15% buyer’s premium in a September 8, 2017, sale held by Cowan’s in Cincinnati as part of Eric Caren’s enormous ‘How History Unfolds on Paper’ collection.
Simeon Solomon's vision
A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep, an 1871 prose-poem by the Pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist painter, Simeon Solomon, is regarded as a pioneering work in the history of gay literature.
‘A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep,’ an 1871 prose-poem by Simeon Solomon that sold for £3000 at Lawrences of Crewkerne.
Two years after it was published, the painter was arrested for indecent behaviour, an incident that proved ruinous to his career and led in time to an alcoholic decline and the workhouse.
This copy, included in the December 8, 2017, sale held by Lawrences of Crewkerne sold at £3000, plus 19.5% buyer’s premium.
Spiderman cover
The comic book artist John Romita Sr evolved the character of Spider-Man from ”…a kind of nerdy high school kid to a more confident college student”.
The original cover artwork for the 100th issue of Amazing Spider-Man comic that sold at $400,000 at Heritage Auctions.
This, the original cover artwork for the 100th issue of Amazing Spider-Man comic, shows Spider-Man (aka Peter Parker) surrounded by two dozen other characters, villains and friends alike, executed in Marvel Comics’ popular “floating heads” style.
Signed, apparently at a later date, by Romita in the lower margin, it sold at $400,000 (£285,715) plus 19.5% buyer’s premium at Heritage Auctions on February 22-24, 2018.
Darwin at Christie's
Sold for £650,000 plus 25/20/12% premium at Christie’s on December 13, 2017, was a ‘long-lost’ 1861 edition of On the origin of Species… complete with autograph revisions by Darwin that were sent to his German translator, HG Bronn.
An 1861 edition of ‘On the origin of Species…’ sold for £650,000 at Christie’s.
The majority of those changes were incorporated into the fourth English edition to create what is regarded as the definitive text. The rediscovery of this annotated copy allows for the first time a precise reading of Darwin’s exact revisions, “without the veil of reconstruction and translation”.
The volume (rebound in green cloth) was accompanied by an 1879 letter from Darwin to Melchior Neumayr, a German palaeontologist whose descendants sent the work to auction.
Drawing by Ralph Steadman
Sold for $28,000 (£20,820) plus 25% buyer’s premium by Christie’s New York on December 5, 2017, was this original drawing by Ralph Steadman for the 1971 first appearance of Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
An original drawing by Ralph Steadman sold for $28,000 (£20,820) at Christie’s New York.
This famous classic of counter-culture literature was first published in two consecutive issues of Rolling Stone magazine, and this Steadman drawing featured as a coloured version on the cover of the second of them, in November of that year.
Photographs of India
A country house library was the source of an album of 19th century photographs of India that sold for a surprise £32,000 plus 25% buyer’s premium at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh on February 14, 2018.
One of the photographs of India that sold for £32 at Lyon & Turnbull in Edinburgh.
It had come by descent from a family member who had served in India as an officer in the 19th century.
Most of the 126 albumen prints are known from William Johnson’s Photographs of Western India, a rare three-volume work c.1855-62. Johnson worked as a civil servant in Mumbai but was also a keen semi-professional photographer.
Helpfully, some of these prints include, alongside a title and the type of negative used, the names of fellow photographers working in the subcontinent.
Instructions for pikes and muskets
Via 116 coloured engraved plates, Jacob de Gheyn’s Wapenhandelinghe van roers, musquetten ende spiessen provides instructions in handling pikes and muskets.
A coloured engraved plate from Jacob de Gheyn’s ‘Wapenhandelinghe van roers, musquetten ende spiessen’ sold at €12,000 (£10,715) at Reiss & Sohn.
This large format 1608 Dutch edition would not have been intended for common soldiers, but was aimed instead at those in command of local militias. It has been suggested that Rembrandt may have used its plates as a model for some of the figures in The Night Watch.
Showing some browning, foxing and dampstaining, this copy sold well at €12,000 (£10,715) plus 18% buyer’s premium at the November 14-16, 2017, sale held by German saleroom Reiss & Sohn.
Brunel’s Thames Tunnel
These two watercolour designs relating to the construction of Marc Isambard Brunel’s Thames Tunnel were part of a family archive sold by Bonhams on November 15, 2017.
Earlier attempts or plans to tunnel under London’s river, made by Richard Trevithick and others, had failed and many believed that it was not possible. Brunel, however, used his own patented hydraulically powered tunnelling shield. Work on this epic project began in 1825 and did not finish until 1843.
It has emerged that the buyer of these 30 drawings at £160,000 plus 25% buyer’s premium was the Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe. It is based at the site south of the river which was originally the tunnel’s engine house and the shaft intended as the Grand Entrance Hall.
