The Robert Jackson Auction October 18th
- By Bruce McKinney
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
On Tuesday October 18th at Bohhams in New York and simulcast to Los Angeles The Robert H. and Donna L. Jackson Collection of 19th Century Literature [Part I] will be held. For the Jacksons who have built and sold many collections over the past thirty-five years this is the first to be sold at auction. Bob is the restless acquirer and Donna his co-conspirator. Their collections are so substantial and ever changing that a second library to their home in Ohio was added twenty years ago. They barely contain the material but cannot contain the enthusiasm that Bob, at 74, effervesces for books and collectibles. To the question recently asked, what is next he said “I’m open to suggestions.” There will be several next collections. While the man breathes he buys, often with stunning success. His collections have been objects of passion.
Over the decades Bob has built many book collections, most related to fiction, most later gifted and a few sold to institutions and private collectors. His collections begin with the premise that completeness can be achieved. He then nurses them to life, envelops himself in the material and when they achieve ‘completeness’ moves on. He dates his serious collecting to the purchase of Eugene O’Neill material from the Goodwin Collection, at auction, in the late 1970s. Thereafter, in short order he began to collect Aldous Huxley and the printed material and art of Rockwell Kent. In 1980 he purchased a collection of William Burroughs, the beat poet that was later sold to Arizona State. He has also collected Virginia Wolfe and Vita Sackville West and continues to fan the embers of another half dozen promising subjects. Most collectors in the field collect subjects. Bob collects collections.
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The Robert Jackson Auction October 18th
- By Bruce McKinney
Trollope: Ralph the Heir
In the early 1980s he began his collection of 19th century English literature with an intensifying focus on material in its original form, particularly in their highly perishable original parts, few complete sets of which have come down to us today. In the 19th century in England popular and important authors sometimes issued their books in paper bound sections as serials before later issuing the complete book with a hard cover. Such paper bound sections are therefore the veritable first editions. In this category, books in parts, the numbers were typically substantial but the material highly perishable. As a consequence complete sets in their original state are exceptionally rare. For Bob these books in parts, issued before the traditional first editions and with illustrated wrappers, advertisements and publishers’ statements lost in book-form first editions, are a stimulating subject and worthy pursuit for a consummate collector. In this sale such materials figure prominently.
This material is bibliographically complex and was the source of substantial research by Bonhams to describe all parts and issues accurately. Such parts are so rare that the traditional source of information on them, book auction records, provides few if any examples. For many of the items offered a handful or less have appeared over the past century.
While books in parts are exceptionally rare and important, the catalogue contains many other categories of material. Five examples of three decker, or triple-decker English novels, are offered; autograph manuscripts by Dickens, Ainsworth, Whitman and Thackeray, literary artifacts and book format first editions included. Bob’s emphasis has been on rarity, social and literary significance, and condition.
Bob’s life with books, in addition to their pursuit, has involved studying the material and writing and lecturing about it. His collections have been displayed at the Grolier Club and the Whitney Museum and material in this sale was exhibited in London this past June and at several of Bonhams locations in the United States this summer. In sending his material to auction his approach is on full display – a master collector in pursuit of the bibliographically complex.
For the Jacksons this is the first collection they are sending into the rooms. For the past three decades they have nursed to life many collections and later gifted or sold them to institutions and private collectors. This collection however is particularly personal. Each item will include a Jackson bookplate.
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The Robert Jackson Auction October 18th
- By Bruce McKinney
Audubon: Quadrupeds of North America
Bob has identified ten items as of special interest to him. He has also gone to great pains to state that he really has no particular favorites. He loves all his books, has read most and will miss each of them. He will of course be starting a new collection. Bibliophiles do not stop. They merely pause.
Here are links to the items he reluctantly identified
Lot 6. Ainsworth, William Harrison. Autograph Manuscript for “The Tower of London”
Lot 28. Cruikshank, George. Autograph Manuscript Signed 6 times and initialed
Lot 41. Heath, Williams. Dickens, Charles. Autograph Manuscript leaf from The Pickwick Papers
Lot 60. Dickens, Charles. The Personal History of David Copperfield
Lot 88. Eliot, George. Middlemarch
Lot 154. Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare’s Plays
Lot 172. Thackeray, William Makepeace. Vanity Fair, A Novel Without a Hero
Lot 192. Trollope, Anthony. Ralph the Heir
Lot 221. Finden, Edward Francis and William. The Port, Harbours, Water-Places and Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain
Lot 228. Percier, Charles, and Pierre Francois Leonard Fontaine. Choix des Plus Celebres Maison de Plaisance de Rome et de ses Environs
For information and to discuss lots and bidding contact Christina Geiger in New York at 212.644.9094, [christina.geiger@bonhams.com], or Catherine Williamson in Los Angeles at 323.436.5442 [catherine.williamson@bonhams.com].
Here is a link to the full sale on the Bonhams website.
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