25 Years For Bernard Shapero Rare Books
Bernard Shapero's 25th anniversary catalogue.
By Michael Stillman
This season marks the 25th year of bookselling for Bernard Shapero, and he celebrates that anniversary with a catalogue as gorgeous as many of the books listed therein. That is no small accomplishment as most of the items offered are illustrated books from the 18th and 19th century and the artistry is at times phenomenal. Shapero begins with a brief recounting of his career, from a 16-year-old beginner to proprietor of Bernard Shapero Rare Books, one of London's major booksellers and one which today possesses a worldwide reputation. The catalogue is called simply "25 years."
The major fields covered are travels and views of far off lands (far off from Europe, that is), and botanical and zoological books. These are topics well-suited for spectacular illustration, and these books do not let you down.
Item 92 is The Holy Land... by David Roberts. This is the earliest edition of this work, published in three volumes from 1842-1845. Roberts visited the Near East in the late 1830s and produced a vast number of drawings of sites in the biblical lands along with adjacent Syria and Jordan. Shapero notes that "many people consider this work to contain the finest prints of the area that have ever been produced." That is no exaggeration. Priced at £55,000 (all items are priced in British pounds. We will provide an approximate U.S. dollar conversion as well). US $98,571.
For a place about 100 degrees cooler than the Holy Land, there is a Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1819, 20, 21, and 22...[and]...Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1825, 1826, and 1827. The immediate question that comes to mind is why John Franklin, having already spent four years in that bitter cold, went back for a second time. The first journey had been horrific, with many of the explorers dying from the cold, hunger, and even murder. That journey had taken them to the mouth of the Coppermine River in far northern Canada, from which they surveyed the coast to the east. Franklin's second journey brought him from Great Bear Lake to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, from which more of the northern coast was explored. The book includes illustrations of the spectacular arctic scenery plus the natives who lived under these harsh conditions. Item 43. £4,500 (US $8,065).
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25 Years For Bernard Shapero Rare Books
Illustration from David Roberts' The Holy Land.
Another name associated with Canada is Vancouver. However, we are here speaking not of the city but of the explorer who gave it its name, George Vancouver. Vancouver had sailed on the last two of Cook's voyages, and then in 1790, led his own expedition to the west coast of America. Vancouver set out from England, making the long trip around Africa and Australia to the California coast. The main purpose was to determine once and for all whether there was a Northwest Passage, but other aims were the mapping of the west coast and negotiating disputes with the Spanish over the territory. Ultimately, Vancouver would find that there was no passageway to the Atlantic, at least not one from below the Arctic Circle. The report of his journey is called A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean... This edition consists of seven volumes and was published in 1801, six years after the journey's end and three years after Vancouver's death. Item 113. £4,750 (US $8,505).
Speaking of Vancouver's earlier commander, item 59 is The Life of Captain James Cook by Andrew Kippis. This is the first edition of the first English biography of Cook, published in London in 1788. This biography covers his entire life, birth to death, including Cook's earlier period of service on the St. Lawrence River in Canada, before undertaking his famed three Pacific voyages. It also includes Samwell's account of Cook's tragic death in Hawaii near the end of his third voyage. £3,750 (US $6,716).
Item 110 is John Thomson's Illustrations of China and its People. This is a first edition of Thomson's 4-volume work from 1873, including 200 photographs. Thomson spent five years traversing 5,000 miles through China and recording what he saw with his camera. £10,000 (US $17,908).
Item 82 is an interesting association copy. The book is Prisse D'Avennes' L'Art Arabe... Prisse spent many years in Egypt in the first half of the 19th century and created this record of the places he saw. This particular copy of the book once belonged to legendary silent film star Rudolph Valentino. Perhaps there is a connection between this book and Valentino’s role in the movie "The Sheikh." £17,500 (US $31,336).
Edward Kingsborough produced one of the greatest illustrated books of Mexican artifacts in 1831 entitled Antiquities of Mexico... Kingsborough scoured European libraries and private collections of Mexican manuscripts, and hired Italian painter Augustine Aglio to reproduce images. This was an extraordinarily expensive undertaking, with Kingsborough eventually dying in prison after failing to pay debts to a paper manufacturer. Item 58. £30,000 (US $53,732).
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25 Years For Bernard Shapero Rare Books
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James Burney prepared the most thorough early history of South Seas exploration in A Chronological History of the Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean. This is a five-volume set published between 1803 and 1817. The first volume starts with the earliest discoveries and runs through Sir Francis Drake's journey. The final volume covers the period 1726-1764, in other words, almost to but not including the first of Captain Cook's expeditions. Item 20. £13,500 (US $24,190).
Among the botanical and zoological books, there is Daniel Elliot's A Monograph of the Phasianidae or Family of the Pheasants. Daniel Elliot was one of America's leading ornithologists when this two-volume book was published in 1870-1872. Item 37. £95,000 (US $170,230). Item 34 is by Dru Drury, Illustrations of Natural History. Wherein are exhibited upwards of two hundred and forty of exotic insects… Along with describing and providing illustrations of the insects (by Moses Harris), Drury writes about their potential use in medicine and other purposes. £8,000 (US $14,337). Item 4 is Henry Andrews' The Botanist's Repository, for New, and Rare Plants... These are the first six (of ten) volumes of this 1797 work that focused on plants that had been introduced to England. £7,500 (US $13,445). Item 70 is The Universal Conchologist, by Thomas Martyn. The author used specimens from various collections as well as those brought back from returning 18th century South Seas explorations to create his illustrations of seashells. £19,500 (US $34,946). Item 100 is Johann Schaeffer's Fungorum qui in Bavaria et Palatinatu... This four-volume set from 1762-1780 provides illustration of fungi found by this Bavarian botanist. £12,500 (US $22,400).
Bernard J. Shapero Rare Books has a website at www.shapero.com and their phone number is +44 (0)20 7493 0876.
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