 and some that aren't along with a few items that aren't even books Member : A. B. A. A. and I. L. A. B. Beverly Hills, CA 90212 [310] 271-2173 www.abaa.org/biblioctopus *** We will NOT accept orders via email *** | |
 |
to the memory of the great John F. Fleming
Amis, Martin 1st edition. His second and scarcest book. Fine in fine jacket. 750 |
Anderson, Sherwood
1st edition, 1st issue. Rare dustjacket, neatly restored. Yellow cloth a bit toned on the sides but still pretty fresh, the spine bright as new and the label still clean, suggesting that it always had a dustjacket over it. If the doctor says you have six months to live, move to Winesburg Ohio where every day is an eternity. On the other hand, the book about it had a powerful, almost spiritual, influence on an entire generation of American writers and copies in jacket must have been stacked at the Roswell crash site because we never seen them at auction or in the trade. 6000
Barrie, James M. 1st edition. 3 vols. 1 inner hinge restored. Cloth slightly dusty but an nice set, tight and unworn. ALs from Barrie to his editor tipped into vol. I. Old half morocco case. A $500 set in 1929, but Barrie’s now seen as a one trick pony, so except for Peter and Wendy collectors have tossed him aside like an ugly shirt. 600
Beagle, Peter 1st edition. Fine in fine dustjacket. Signed and inscribed with a sappy self portrait. 250
"There is no money in poetry but then there is no poetry in money either." The Beatles changed all that.
[The Beatles]
McCartney’s, 1967, handwritten, working, manuscript, as Beatle, for Lovely Rita from the album Sgt. Pepper. First draft, 10 lines, all on a single side of an irregular scrap of paper (7 1/2" X 5"), torn from a spiral notebook. 7 lines are in black ink and these appear to be Paul’s first concept. 3 lines of changes have been added later in blue ink, such as, "...writing all the numbers in her little black book..." changed to "...filling in a ticket with her little blue pen..." and still later recorded as "...filling in a ticket in her little white book...". Another Lovely Rita manuscript is known, a later version mostly in the hand of Mal Evans (assistant to The Beatles), however, this is McCartney's original draft for this renowned song from Sgt. Pepper, the greatest album and most identifiable commercial product in the history of rock & roll. Sumptuously matted and framed with a color proof photograph of the album cover, nearly identical, except that there are 2 extra faces in the crowd (airbrushed out for the final cover) and Paul is kneeling. And for those of you who are into the visual thing, this item is seriously gorgeous. Icon Time. "Lovely Rita, meter maid, nothing can come between us, when it gets dark, I’ll tow your heart away..." 225,000
Manuscripts from Sgt. Pepper hold all the records, the most recent pinnacles being $249,200 for a page of Paul's Getting Better, an early draft, but not the first (Sotheby's, September 14, 1995), and $102,920 for 11 lines of John's Mr. Kite, a fragment of a fair copy on a small card (Sotheby's, September 18, 1996). Original manuscripts of the Beatles hit songs may or may not be the Van Goghs of the 1960s but there's established upside value at our price, and respectable company too, as the British Museum has already displayed their Beatles manuscript, on more than one occasion, right next to the Magna Carta.
Bellow, Saul 1st edition of the Nobel Laureate's first book. Cloth and dustjacket, the latter price clipped and with tiny tears at the edge on the back, but the tears are minuscule and the dustjacket price is not a point of issue and this is a finer copy then can usually be found these days. The original Bellow anti-hero, tormented by the existential dilemma of trying to define himself with dignity despite the constant impediments of objective and subjective circumstances in a world that is "too much of everything". 2200 | |
 |
Bellow,
Saul 1st edition. Fine in fine, price clipped, jacket (not a point). 500 |
Bullfinch, Thomas 1st edition, 1st state. A beautiful copy in original cloth with just minor wear at the tips of the spine, superior condition for this American classic. Number 65 on the Grolier 100 Am. list. 1500
Burke, James Lee 1st edition, his rarest book. Inscribed. Fine in fine jacket. 4000
Burroughs, Edgar Rice Over 3000 letters and documents, the former heavy with intimate family and pointed business correspondence, the latter embracing licenses, diaries, manuscripts, photographs, journals, financial records, contracts and creative papers for books, newspapers, radio shows and films, and checks for his stories including the one that he cashed for Tarzan of the Apes. Some extraordinary books are included. A 108 page list is available upon request. 575,000 | |
 |
Burroughs, Edgar Rice 1st American edition. Inscribed to his wife, "My first copy of the American edition; rec'd Nov. 2, 1921, with love to Emma from Ed, Tarzana Ranch". Gorgeous example of the rare dustjacket though some tape's been removed from the inside and the small tears underneath have been invisibly restored. His first non-Tarzan or non-Mars novel, and though his wife usually got the first copy of each of his books, he didn't always mention it in the inscription. Gee, I guess this is the best copy in the world. 10,000 |
inscribed to his wife Burroughs, Edgar Rice 1st edition. Tarzan of the Apes' plotline rewritten as a western. Fine in fine dustjacket. Contemporary signed presentation copy to his wife Emma, "To my dear wife, who has read forty nine of my stories - no fifty two - and still lives. Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzana Ranch Sept. 27, 1827", the month of publication. 7500 | |
 |
Burroughs, Edgar Rice 1st edition. Fine in fine dustjacket. Author to publisher presentation copy, inscribed to Cyril Ralph Rothmund, President of Burroughs' family publishing company, Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. and responsible for all of E. R. B's. business matters. "Dear Ralph - Perhaps you have seen this book before, but I'll bet you haven't read it. One nice thing about your job is that you don't have to read the books you publish. Yours, B. Tarzana Feb. 17, 1938" (2 days after publication). 5000… |
Burroughs, William S. 1st edition of his first book (the junkman cometh). Original pictorial wrappers (the only binding). A fine, unread copy. Written in a heavier time when drug addict meant something more than mixing NyQuil with DayQuil and this book is filled with all the gruesome and surreal consequences of life on heroin. Copies of Junkie that are "else fine", "near fine" or "otherwise fine" are easy to buy at $750-$1000, but so what. 1500
| |
 |
Burroughs, William S. 1st edition. The most famous underground book of the 20th century. A brilliant, unread copy in wrappers and dustjacket with just a tiny speck of wear at the joint invisibly restored. Published at 1500 francs, the price on the back cover not overstamped with the converted new franc price "NF 18" but with a faint sticker shadow. Maynard mentions it and assigns no priority but if you believe everything you read, better not read. He does state that the first copies sold had no dustjackets, but don’t buy a naked copy. 3300 |
Burroughs, William S. 1st edition. Wrappers (shadow from a tiny bookstore sticker on the corner of the endpaper), dustjacket (lettering on the spine a bit faded and a little wear at the corners). 400
Burroughs, William S. 1st edition. Fine in a fine dustjacket. Signed by Burroughs. Savage power, but not deliberately political. Narcotics addiction, but chemicals are like adversities, they don’t change men, they unmask them. 275
Camus, Albert 1st edition (in French). A review copy (service du presse), fine in wraps and tissue jacket and of the greatest rarity in this condition as all but review copies were printed on poor quality wartime paper that inevitably turns brown and brittle. Camus' first novel, seemingly the supreme French novel of the 20th century, the most widely read and influential in America and this is way the finest copy I've seen in 20 years of looking. The stranger (the outsider) lives a somewhat more than ordinary and uneventful life which climaxes when he commits and is condemned for murder, all of it faced with listless detachment. Fine full morocco case. 8500 | |
 |
Camus, Albert 1st edition (in French). One of 225 deluxe copies on velin pur fil, from a total 1st printing of 1305. Fine in wrappers and fine tissue jacket. Cloth case. The Fall explores the difficulty in finding an active life compatible with awakened consciousness. A Parisian lawyer in a shady Amsterdam bar basks in the self-esteem of a lifetime defending noble causes, when one inescapable instant of downfall, reveals that no man is so innocent or so righteous as to judge others. Camus won his Nobel Prize for Literature a year after La Chute, not entirely a coincidence. 1500 |
Carlyle, Thomas 1st edition. Inscribed to Lady Ashburton, a Christmas gift dated "Dec. 25, 1850". Cloth worn, upper joint, top of the spine and inner paper hinges repaired (Ex-Edward Scissorhands?). Revolutionary essays contrasting the power of the individual against the machines of industrialism. Lady Ashburton was no stranger to the power of the individual and played the other woman in a triangle with Carlyle and his wife Jane from 1845-1857. Ex-Michaelis. 1900
Chandler, Raymond 1st American edition. Fine in a jacket with just slight rubbing to the tips of the spine. Presentation copy and a warm inscription beginning, "With my love..." and signed twice, once in the familiar, "Ray" and also in a full signature, "Raymond Chandler". Great inscription and condition. Fine full morocco case. 18,500 | |
 |
Christie, Agatha 1st edition. Fine in fine dustjacket (immaculate). An ingenious tour de force, as sublime a mystery as any she ever wrote. From the end of WW II rationing, and impressive in this condition. 900 |
[Cinema] Prop Books Folio, manuscript diary stamped in gilt "Daily Journal Thomas E. Wayne" (Batdad). Full red leather, gilt decorated. Fine. From the film Batman Forever. The pages are nearly filled with a tenable (although reiterated) account of the last 2 weeks in the elder Wayne’s life, all handwritten in a fine calligraphy. The last entry anticipates an evening at the cinema where Wayne and his wife are shot and killed leaving young Bruce an orphan, scarred by the event, and irreversibly set on the path to becoming Batman. In Batman Forever, he flashes back (twice) to his parent’s wake where he runs into the rain (father’s diary in hand) and accidentally discovers what is to become the Bat Cave where he takes a vow to devote his life to justice. An artistic and detailed prop, executed to director Joel Schumacher’s exacting specifications and this is a film where the props are important, since the plot leaves no confusion as to who will triumph, the villains cry out for a silver bullet, and the human characters are from the "let’s walk up to the spooky mansion to call a tow-truck" school of credibility. 1850 | |
 |
[Comix Art] Complete pen and ink manuscript story and a complete set of 18 drawings, all on a single side of two sheets of heavy art paper, each 10 1/4" X 7 3/4". Drawn in 1967 and published Feb. 1968 as pages 21 and 22 of Zap #1 (the very first underground comix). This is Crumb’s original contemporary manuscript accompanied by a handwritten and signed note, all in fine condition. A fantastic manuscript by the master transcendent comix artist, exactly what you'd want. Any fragment from this first issue is both prized for its significance and of the utmost rarity, more so than his later work, or his earlier work for that matter, and this one is an art-attack from the sensitive side of the street. 17,000
Crumb’s graphic art for social protest has found the mainstream. His drawings have brought $50,000 (Fritz, Sotheby’s, 1996), the record for any comic art regardless of genre or vintage. I’ve seen no other manuscripts from this initiatory comix at auction or in the trade and though much of his work is just as good, no other Crumb art, from any other production equals the unassailable historical importance, seminal stature and no brainer importance of what’s offered here, an original manuscript from Zap #1. |
Crichton, Michael [as John Lange] 1st edition, his second hardbound novel. Fine in fine jacket. 400
Crichton, Michael 1st edition. Fine in fine jacket. Since Watson discovered DNA a novel about recreating dinosaurs was inevitable, and writing it was one of the smartest things done in the ‘90s. The dumbest so far, was the World Trade Center bomber going back to the van rental agency for his security deposit, but the difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. 45
Dickens, Charles 1st edition, 1st binding. His third book. The Buss plates are present and the Seymour and Phiz plates are from the earlier steels but application of data based on the chronological sequence of changes made during the books prior serialization in parts is like bibliography by the Cat in the Hat, who himself does nothing wrong but delights in leading others into mischief. A clean, sound copy of a very great book, faded and neatly restored, used but never abused. 2250
A 1st edition, 1st binding of Pickwick in original cloth, in perfect condition is a $25,000 book, if you can find one, which you can't. This copy is one tenth the cost, further proof that book prices are controlled by the Mafia, but don't tell them I told you so or they'll kill us both. | |
 |
Dickens, Charles 1st edition, 1st issue (state A) with "A Love Story" in plain letters and with no banner on the title page. The fourth of his five Christmas books. Strap on your nose bandage and tie up the dog. Put as simply as possible (but not any simpler), this is Charles Dickens’ rarest book. No 1st issue at auction in 50 years. Smith located 2 copies (both in a university library) and we have this one, and there’s another in a California private library, making 4 the current total, but fanciful tales of additional copies, recalled under recovered memory therapy, are more irritating than daybreak solicitations from long distance carriers, and the historical register of Dickens collectors ever lacking a 1st issue Battle of Life, reads like a who’s who of bookmen rich and famous. Full green morocco (signed by Riviere), complete and perfect with the original cloth bound in. A fine copy. Fine full morocco case. I usually prefer best to rarest, but this book is once in a lifetime and only those who’ll never own one, will say it isn't worth it. The girl who can’t dance, says the band can’t play. 75,000 |
Greenaway, Kate 1st edition, 2nd binding (the "G" in "Goose" upside down). Very good in the Greenaway designed pictorial jacket, about as early as pictorial dustjackets get. Mother Goose in jacket? C'mon. 1750
Haggard, H. Rider 1st edition, 1st printing, of the prototype calamitous adventure novel. 1st issue with October ads and the author’s signed presentation inscription dated "October", the month of publication. Rare. This is the only inscribed 1st issue to sell for the record in a generation. Bradley Martin had an inscribed 2nd issue, worn and repaired ($17,600, Sotheby's NY, 1990 and £4715, London, 1995). A fine and faultless copy. Fantastically bound by Donald Glaister, in multi-dimensional sculptured morocco with African shield themes and designs. Cavities in both covers recall the mine shaft, which is layered in rock and ice and jeweled with a treasurette of more than 100 gems, mostly fine diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires, each in its own hand made setting of 18k gold. Glaister is the most acclaimed and visionary, living binder. This was the first application of modern art to jeweled bindings and the first new conception since the turn of the century doily designs. King Solomon’s Mines was a surprise bestseller and the 1st issue of 1000 copies was quickly consumed by readers of all ages. Few were given as presentation copies at publication and even these gifts were read to rag. Today, uninscribed copies of the 1st issue in fine, unrepaired condition bring $15,000. Presentation copies are many times rarer, but this is no dog and pony show. Haggard had Treasure Island (1883) as a sort of inspiration, but this novel brings together for the first time, all of the elements still found in the modern adventure story (except the babe is disposable). Charismatic and rare book. High art binding. Fine condition. Fine full morocco case. 55,000
Hammett, Dashiell 1st editions. 10 vols. Original pictorial wrappers. A fine set, carefully assembled by your octopus, one book at a time (we do all our own stunts) and surprisingly uncommon in this condition. Together: 10 vols. 2500
includes: $106,000 Blood Money (1943).
Hardy, Thomas 1st edition. 3 vols. 1st printing without closing quotation mark after A Pair of Blue Eyes on the vol. I title page. Brown cloth (brilliant). Triple borders on the back covers identify Purdy's 2nd binding state and Sadleir's 1st binding state, but Purdy's right. Nonetheless, only 1000 copies were printed and only 878 were sold and this is one of them and you can cling to that like a baby to a woobie. Rear inner hinge in vol. III invisibly restored but that's the only fault and this set is dazzling and entirely original. Hardy's magnum opus and significant triple deckers in this condition are harder to find than peace and quiet. 12,500 | |
 |
Hawthorne, Nathaniel 1st edition, 1st printing of a classic American historical novel. A bright, crisp copy in superior collector's condition, not quite fine but not far from it. Fine full morocco case. 14,000
"For the preservation of chastity, an empty and rumbling stomach and fevered lungs are indispensable." -St. Jerome |
[Hemingway, Ernest] 1st appearance anywhere. The Exiles' Number, printing chapters 1 to 6. Fine, spectacularly so. Unopened. The terse and pithy Hemingway drops 6 little war stories, each just a single paragraph, and changes modern literature forever. Hardly recognized at the time as a defining moment in the art of writing, but all new ventures are forced through the same stages: enthusiasm, complication, disillusionment, search for the guilty, punishment of the innocent and decoration of those who did nothing. 1000
Hemingway, Ernest 1st edition, one of 510 large paper copies signed by Hemingway. Razor sharp in original vellum backed boards and publisher's slipcase, all in fine condition, the vellum white as a marshmallow, the fragile slipcase fresh, unworn, unrubbed and unfaded, rare condition for this book. Fine full morocco case. We own this beauty with Heritage so you can buy it from them if you like and it may even get you invited to one of their way cool parties. 11,500 | |
 |
Hemingway, Ernest 1st edition. Fine in fine jacket. #1 on the NY Times bestseller list for 19 weeks and still a monument to the joy of reading. 225 |
 |
Hesse, Herman
1st edition in English. Fine in fine 1st issue dustjacket (a blazer). Among the monumental classics of 20th century literature, a turbulent and perplexing novel, touching Hesse's usual message, the isolation of the artist as outsider and the fundamental duality of existence. Magic Theater: Entrance Not For Everybody. 2850 |
 |
Ibsen, Henrik 1st edition. Publisher's deluxe gilt cloth, gilt edges (also issued in plainer cloth and printed wrappers). A fine copy. The greatest revolution in the theater since Shakespeare. Printing and the Mind of Man number 375 (the only modern play), an undeniable inclusion, even with PMM's Euromanic prejudice against novels and plays, raising visions of the selection committee squatting on their haunches and grooming each other. 1500 |
James, Henry 1st edition, 1st issue. Minor bump to one corner but this is a fine, untouched and unworn copy. Fine half morocco case. 2000 were printed, with 500 of them used for the American edition. 11 perfect essays by he who could write them best, including 10 on his literary peers and one on the art of fiction. 500
James, Henry 1st edition (the London edition was issued as an extension of James' Works). Fine in an exceptional dustjacket with only some little chips at the top of the spine. 1500 copies printed. James' last novel, begun years earlier and intermittently polished and reworked until his death in 1916. Scarce in jacket, especially in this condition. 1500
Kerouac, Jack 1st edition. Fine in a jacket with a single 1/4" tear. Fragment of a wreck in progress, a counter-attack in the war on joy, influencing the culture as much as any other postwar novel and still alive with the sound of axes grinding. 5500
Lane, Mark 1st edition. Fine in a jacket with 1 small tear. The first (and still the best selling) critique of the Warren Commission inquiry into the murders of President Kennedy, Officer J. D. Tippit and Lee Harvey Oswald. Disbelief in one thing often follows blind belief in another. A commission of the best and brightest or a bunch of stooges arguing over which one gets to be Moe? A crack in the dike or pie in the sky? Mostly fact or mostly fiction? Absorbing the evidence or letting it pass right through them, only to lodge in Governor Connally's wrist? Uncovering a cover up or filling a much needed gap? The dogs bark but the caravan passes. 200
Lewis, Sinclair 1st edition, defining "hope" as the feeling you have that the feeling you have isn't permanent. Inscribed to Harry Korner, a close friend of Lewis', the recipient of presentation copies of Lewis' 1st editions from 1914 to 1929, an early champion of Our Mr. Wren and Lewis' companion for a portion of the "Free Air" motor car trip. The book is fine. The fragile (and unrestored) dustjacket is quite attractive despite a small chip at the lower front corner, light wear at the extremities and a short edgetear on the back. 11,000
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth 1st American edition, 1st printing. A tiny point of wear at one corner, still a fine copy. Longfellow tries, no less than, an epic poem for the new world. He falls short but this is still the most famous long poem in all of American literature. 750 | |
 |
Malamud, Bernard 1st edition. Slightly bumped at top of spine, bright and beautiful dustjacket with a speck of rubbing and little creases. A big league copy of a high demand book, as likely as not, to be looked back upon as the great sports novel of the 20th century. 3500 |
fine and inscribed Nabokov, Vladimir 1st edition (in English). 2 vols. 1st issue with 900 franc price uncanceled and without sticker shadows or any signs of repricing. Original green wraps, a few tiny spots rubbed to white still fine condition, seemingly unread and carefully preserved. Fine full French morocco case. An all you could want signed presentation copy to journalist and fellow butterfly collector Robert Boyle who wrote an intimate and extensive interview with Nabokov published in Sports Illustrated. Nabokov has added a fine drawing of a butterfly as part of the inscription. The quintessential young babe novel of our time, as steadily appreciated as anything from the hand of a Russian in the 20th century. Add it up. A worldly famous modern classic, undeniably the first issue, splendid condition, tolerable association and fine butterfly inscription. Rarity, quality, significance and beauty, the fundamental quartet for any antique. 65,000
"What kind of man do I like? We seduced this gem of a book from the original owner in partnership with Ken Lopez, Peter Stern and Tom Congalton so you can order it from whichever of us you have on speed dial. As if. | |
 |
Orwell, George 1st edition. Fine in green dustjacket with minor rubbing and a small tear on the back edge. That said, this jacket is an admirable example unsoiled and unfaded. More astounding, the book itself has no fading to the spine or edges, a fault endemic to even the most lovingly cared for copies. Shots at priority for either red or green dustjackets are all airballs as both jackets were issued simultaneously. Classic demonstration of the power of the novel, highly rated on every single list of the 20th century's great books. And who'd have ever thought that the fatal flaw of Communism would be that there wasn't any money in it. 3750 |
Poe, Edgar Allan 1st edition, state A. His third book, commencing the ultimately amplified power of poetry. 500 printed, about 20 survive. A gift from Poe to the man whom he said gave him "the very first words of encouragement I ever remember to have heard". Inscribed "Mr. John Neal with the author's best wishes" (the only known inscribed copy). Bound for Neal in calf over boards, with 2 similar size volumes of poetry, Dana's Poems, 1827 and Simms' Vision of Cortes, 1829, (also inscribed to Neal). Full morocco case. Poe's inscription is on the original yellow coated endpaper, now browned, obscuring all but a few faint letters, but there is no doubt of this book’s authenticity. It was featured at Yale in 1959 after a long and noble provenance, a spotless, unbroken chain of acclaim, connecting every owner from Poe to you. Ex-John Neal (1831), Richard Stoddard (ca. 1876), R. W. Gredes (1880), Frederick Locker-Lampson (before 1886), Elihu D. Church (1905), Stephen Wakeman (ca. 1907), Mrs. George Blumenthal (1924), Bradley Martin (ca. 1939), John McGuigan ($41,250, Sotheby's, 1990). Telling it like it is, the nearly hidden inscription keeps this book from being twice the price but it's still the best copy of Poe’s Poems in the world. 90,000
Edgar Allan Poe is the golden boy of American Literature, our principal starving artist and original tortured poet, but consider yourself sprinkled with pixie dust and transported to Xanadu if you don't know that in the land of the free and the home of the brave, the alleys are littered with the wreckage of those who minded beyond reason the opinions of others. | |
 |
Potter, Beatrix 1st edition, 1st printing. A fine copy. Timmy the squirrel gets framed, mugged, trapped, befriended, kidnapped and finally saved by a deus ex machina gust of wind. 900
"Every year, back comes Spring,
with nasty little birds |
[Printed Currency] The earliest obtainable commercial printing on paper, and nearly the earliest obtainable printed anything. Folio sized sheet of slate gray, hand made, mulberry paper, printed on both sides, 8 3/4" X 13 7/16", full, large margins. The obverse has floriated borders surrounding the text, surmounted by the title inscription. The printing of the ornamentation and text is in black and carefully done from a block. In contrast, official scarlet seals are roughly stamped on both sides, the seals being to these notes what the signature is to modern ones. The printing states that the value is 1 Kwan (1000 cash), with 10 strings of coins pictured, that the note is fully redeemable, circulation is compulsory and counterfeiting is punishable by beheading, all these aspects of Chinese currency also noted by Marco Polo. Minor paper faults, small chip from one corner, a few tiny specks of wear but phenomenal condition for circulating paper of this vintage, finer than either the example pictured by Andrew McFarland Davis in his Certain Old Chinese Notes, from the proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Boston, 1915, Vol. L, Number 11, pages 245-286) or that pictured in the Chinese Government’s book of their own holdings, A History of Chinese Currency (1983). A rare item. The documented date of A.D. 1375, places this printing at the dawn of the Ming dynasty and a lifetime before Gutenberg. It is clearly the culmination of a long evolution, beginning, in the 6th century, with the first block printing (non-commercial), through the 9th century, with simple receipts for goods or cash deposited, and finally evolving to these 14th century notes. Somewhat earlier dates of Chinese currency exist in a single, or perhaps 2 examples but most are worn to shred, many have incomplete features, some were backed with linen for hanging in Chinese houses as omens of good luck, and the few that approach the condition of this one were likely printed centuries later from surviving blocks or plates. Our note’s modern provenance traces from the Boxer rebellion (1898-1900). The Peking palace precincts were pillaged by European soldiers and a large Buddha toppled and broken. Inside the pedestal was a cache of jewels, ingots of gold and silver and a handful of these notes. Having no intrinsic value they were handed to a surgeon in the U. S. Army who placed the majority into museums in Shanghai, London, New York and Berlin, the remainder being sold to C. R. Hoffman of Shanghai. Most of his notes have also found their way into institutions. Ours was purchased in the 1940s, by Los Angeles’ oldest enduring, Antiquarian Bookshop, and by us from them. Ref: Carter & Goodrich, The Invention of Printing in China and its Spread Westward (NY, 1955, Chapter 11, pages 103-116, "The Printing of Paper Money"). 6500 | |
 |
[Space]
Cotton/silk blend Stars and Stripes, printed in colors, 6" X 4". Flown to and around the moon and back with the first manned mission, which circled the moon on Christmas eve, 1968. Neatly mounted on a N. A. S. A. Astronaut certificate (11" X 14") reading, "Carried on board Apollo 8 with the first Lunar flight 21-27 December, 1968". The certificate is hand signed in ink (not autopen) by the 3 men who flew the mission, Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders. Certificate evenly foxed (expected with these). The flag is in fine condition and is surely among the lowest-tech items sent on this initial flight. Apollo 8 was the first voyage from Earth to somewhere and a verifiably flown American Flag is a civilized object, so distinctly marking the arrival of American enterprise, as to transcend the adjectives. Ex-Webb, a principal N. A. S. A. executive (the official inscription above the crew’s signatures is, as usual, in a secretarial hand). An archetypal symbol from the mast of the Pinta. 4500 |
 |
Tolkien, J. R. R.
1st edition. A near fine copy in a bright and beautiful dustjacket with some small chips very skillfully restored. Still the best selling children's book of the 20th century (including paperback sales), now surpassed (in hardback) by the likes of Hop on Pop and Green Eggs and Ham, without any tarnishing of its celestial reputation. A precious enough copy of a scarce and charismatic 1st edition, hot enough to open an Olympics. Fine full morocco case. 40,000 |
Tolkien, J. R. R. 1st edition. Signed in ink, "J. R. R. Tolkien". Nice, unworn copy in white jacket with no soiling. Of 5000 copies printed, only 500 were bound in cloth for libraries while 4500 were bound in smoother cloth for the trade. This is one of the 500, seldom seen and not thought to have been sold in bookstores, but our copy has a diminutive Oxford bookstore stamp and it’s in a trade jacket priced 6s. and it’s the only copy I’ve seen like this and the only one I know of, that was signed by Tolkien. 3000 | |
 |
Verne, Jules 1st American edition, hardbound issue. Among the scarcest of Verne’s hardbound novels in English. Pictorial green cloth decorated in silver and black. 74 plates are called for in the list of illustrations, the book was actually published with 75 and our copy is complete. Spine a little dusty, minor fraying at tips, still sound and plenty attractive. Verne’s novels in English from the 1890s are much scarcer than most of those from the 1870s, this one notably so. 950 |
 |
Walker, Alice 1st edition. Fine in fine dustjacket. Wants to be a classic. 850 |
Walpole, Horace 1st edition of the first gothic novel. The author wrote that the idea came to him in a dream. 500 copies printed. Original gray wrappers, entirely unrestored, uncut, spine ends chipped else complete and perfect, the front blank here used as a pastedown endpaper. The only copy to ever sell for the record in original wraps and the only survivor in the publisher's binding that I could locate. The archetypal gothic, an immortal invention of supernatural influence, dominating the last third of the 18th century and precursor of countless 19th century classics including, Shelley's Frankenstein, Austen's Northanger Abbey, Poe's House of Usher, Hawthorne's House of Seven Gables, Bronte's Jane Eyre and Stoker's Dracula. In the 20th century, the founders of Surrealism claimed the gothic as their inspiration as did a generation of Southern writers, among them, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora Welty, Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams. And the Gothic still lives. Just open your eyes in any chain bookstore to see Walpole's formula reincarnated, or check out the lines at a multiplex cinema to see people buying tickets to a Walpole replication adapted for the screen. Fine full morocco case. Printing and the Mind of Man number 211. Ex Sothebys, $5,462.50 in 1993. 17,000 | |
 |
Welty, Eudora 1st edition of her first novel. Fine in fine dustjacket. Based on the tale by the Brothers Grimm but reset for adult readers in the 1790s in Natchez Trace, Mississippi. Welty tries a revolution, a fabulous plotline of crossed paths and mistaken identity, charactered by the archetypal wicked stepmother, beautiful daughter and good-hearted bandit but also including real historical figures appearing in legendary guise. The background is firmly rooted and the personalities of the characters are boldly developed and explored with 20th century techniques. The result is the model for a new kind of novel, one now seen as a modern American classic but seldom seen in this condition. 1000 |
 |
White, T. H. 1st edition. An Arthurian classic from the day it was published. One of just 5 ultra deluxe copies for presentation (this one to author David Garnett) with all 42 of the author’s printed line drawings in the text, beautifully hand watercolored by him. White's signed presentation inscription is on the title page and his signed, handwritten limitation notice is on the half-title, defining the edition and naming all 5 recipients. Both White's title page presentation inscription and his limitation on the half-title are embellished by him with designs in watercolor. Incredibly luxurious, emerald, ruby and sapphire jeweled binding, (signed) by Donald Glaister in a sensational, surreal Gothic design of multi-colored gilt decorated morocco and stingray, with plunging sword, castle walls, Escher-like stairs to nowhere and through cathedral windows, a vista of Britain in the distance. Some intermittent foxing but that's the only thing even resembling a fault, still, fine condition, lofty quality. The jewels are of the very highest water. Fine full morocco case. Book art, not to be confused with art book. 38,500
"The Sun never sets on the
British Empire because |
100 Twentieth Century Books (one book for each year) designed and assembled by Jennefer T. Hime |