Thursday, June 25, 2015

Antiquarian Book News

PBA Galleries – July 9 – 11am
Sale 564

Fine Illustrated Books: The Collection formed by Dr. & Mrs. Hugh Stalker of Grosse Pointe, Michigan (with additions)

Among the highlights:
  • Du Jeu des Echecs, a striking manuscript on chess with illuminations in gold and colors of the six chess pieces plus initials and decorations, prepared in 1865 for Prince Abd Al-Halim Pasha of the dynasty that ruled Egypt from the 19th to mid-20th century. Estimate: $10,000-$15,000.

PBA

  • Metropolitan Opera Fine Art, a portfolio of original graphic works by eight contemporary artists, created for performances at the Metropolitan Opera, limited to 250 copies, each print signed and numbered in pencil. Estimate: $6,000-9,000.

  • Neuer Lust-Weg, published in Germany around 1700, a rare quadri-lingual Alphabet and Orbis Pictus, with hand-colored illustrations throughout. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000.

  • Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, with 12 tipped-in color plates by Arthur Rackham, in the original full vellum binding, one of 525 copies signed by the illustrator. Estimate: $2,000-$3,000.

  • Aristophanes' Lysistrata from the Limited Editions Club, illustrated by Pablo Picasso including 6 original etchings, one of 1500 copies signed by the artist. Estimate: $3,000-$5,000.

  • Three Poems by Octavio Paz, with 26 lithographs by Robert Motherwell, one of 750 copies published by the Limited Editions Club, signed by the author and initialed by the artist, as issued. Estimate: $4,000-$6,000.

  • Autograph Letter signed by Arthur Rackham, 1927, to a Miss Hester Everard, about a drawing in her possession that he had made over twenty years earlier for the "Graphic" weekly journal. Estimate: $2,000-$3,000.

  • The New Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, the first printing of the third edition of the first Oz book, c.1913, in the rare original dust jacket. Estimate: $1,500-$2,000.

  • Terriers and Toys, 1903, with 25 photogravure plates from paintings by Maud Earl, the premier canine artist of her era, featuring the smaller breeds, one of 500 copies signed by Earl. Estimate: $2,000-$3,000.

Each lot illustrated in the online version of the catalogue.
Bid directly from the site. Now available in the Bid Live Now section

Over 500 lots of rare and enticing illustrated and children's books, ranging from Golden Age artists Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac to modern classics by Maurice Sendak and Dr. Seuss, plus early examples of chapbooks and other rarities, and a lengthy excursion to the land of Oz. A strong selection of titles from the Limited Editions Club includes fine printings illustrated by Pablo Picasso, Robert Motherwell, Jacob Lawrence, Fritz Eichenberg, Balthus, and others. And the section of original illustrative art, graphics and prints contains many examples of comic strip art from the 1920's onward.

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Melbourne Rare Book Week

Melbourne Rare Book Week began in 2012 as a partnership between ANZAAB, the University of Melbourne and eight other literary institutions. In 2014, over 40 free events were held at libraries, literary and historical societies and bookshops throughout Melbourne, attracting local, national and international visitors. Melbourne Rare Book Week is now well established in the City of Melbourne’s calendar.

It is a major attraction for book collectors, librarians and all who have a love of words, print on paper and literary heritage. The event this year will be held from July 16-26 culminating in the Book Fair from July 24-26 in the University of Melbourne’s historic Wilson Hall. It coincides with the biennial University of Melbourne Cultural Treasures Festival and the annual Open House Melbourne.

Admission to all events is free 

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Did Columbus use this Map?

Henricus Martellus, a German cartographer working in Florence in the late 15th century, produced a highly detailed map of the known world. According to experts, there is strong evidence that Christopher Columbus studied this map and that it influenced his thinking before his fateful voyage.

Martellus’ map arrived at Yale in 1962, the gift of an anonymous donor. Scholars at the time hailed the map’s importance and argued that it could provide a missing link to the cartographic record at the dawn of the Age of Discovery. However, five centuries of fading and scuffing had rendered much of the map’s text and other details illegible or invisible, limiting its research value.

A team of researchers and imaging specialists is recovering the lost information through a multispectral-imaging project. Their work is yielding discoveries about how the world was viewed over 500 years ago.

Revealing the map’s faded details provides a more complete picture of Columbus’s perception of geography. The discoveries are the result of painstaking effort. The multispectral images are processed using special software that finds the precise combination of spectral bands to enhance the visibility of text. The work involves a lot of experimentation. The map’s text was written in a variety of pigments, which complicates the task of recovering lost letters because individual pigments respond differently to light. Once the project is completed, the new images will be made available to scholars and the public on the Beinecke Library’s website.

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