More from the Library of H.P. Kraus
At Oak Knoll Books
Part two of The Reference Library of H.P. Kraus.
By Michael Stillman
Oak Knoll Books has just issued the second part of its catalogue "From the Reference Library of H.P. Kraus." H.P. Kraus was the legendary New York bookseller who developed one of the largest private reference libraries ever assembled, many times the stock of the books he actually had for sale. Mr. Kraus died in 1988, and after his wife passed away last year, his inventory and reference material was put up for sale at auction. Oak Knoll, being a specialist in reference and bibliography, bought a large part of that material, which it is now offering for sale.
Not all of the items in this catalogue came from the H.P. Kraus library, as Oak Knoll has augmented the collection with related titles. However, books from the Kraus library do include a loose bookplate indicating the provenance. There are many works in French and German as well as English as Kraus always had an orientation to his native Europe. As the collection offered is quite extensive, with almost a thousand titles in this second part of the catalogue alone, we will limit our examples to one very targeted subject alone. What better topic to focus on than Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press and the world's first publisher?
The first book Gutenberg printed was hardly new, its age already being measured in millennia when it rolled off his press in 1454 or 1455. We use the terms "rolled off" loosely as it took several years to complete the printing and production of 180 bibles, but even that was about 180 times the speed of the average scribe. It is believed that around 50 of those copies survive complete or substantially complete.
When George Hibbert, a successful British merchant retired to live in the country in 1829, he put his huge collection up for sale at auction. There were 8,726 items in total, including a paper copy of the Gutenberg Bible. The auction lasted 42 days, and when completed, brought in a total of around £23,000. Item 903 is the Catalogue of the Library of George Hibbert, a copy with admitted faults. Priced at $95.
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More from the Library of H.P. Kraus
At Oak Knoll Books
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Fast forward to 1911. That was when Robert Hoe put his magnificent collection on the block. The sale was enormous, bringing in almost $2 million, which was larger than the next four largest book auctions combined at the time. It took eight catalogues to cover it all, which were published from 1911 to 1912 by the Anderson Auction Company, the major book auction of that era. Item 908 is the complete set of the Catalogue of the Library of Robert Hoe of New York. $450. Among the items sold was a copy of Gutenberg's Bible for $50,000, more than the entire Hibbert auction 80 years earlier. Hoe's copy of Gutenberg would be purchased by Henry Huntington, one of the greatest collectors ever, whose collection can now be found in the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.
Item 927 can fill you in more on the early books at the Huntington. It's Herman Mead's Incunabula in the Huntington Library. From 1937. $75. Item 926 is Henry E. Huntington's Library of Libraries by Donald Dickinson. This will tell you more about how Huntington assembled his library, including the purchase of entire collections from others. $24.95.
Now we move ahead to one of H.P. Kraus' own catalogues. This was titled Monumenta Xylographica et Typographica, the Cradle of Printing Part II from 1971 (Part I was published in 1964). Item 976. $75. The first item Kraus was offering was a Gutenberg Bible, but the price was now $2,500,000. I cannot imagine what a Gutenberg would command today, but single leaves from this 1282-page book crossed the $10,000 mark at auction back in the 1980s. Suffice to say it has been a good investment.
Item 108 is Histoire de l'Invention de l'Imprimerie by Johann Lichtenberger. This is an 1825 book about the invention of printing, and includes a lithographed portrait of Gutenberg plus eight woodcuts of type specimens. In this book, Lichtenberg argues that Gutenberg made his first attempts at printing in Strasbourg, later perfecting the process in Mainz where his bible was printed. $150.
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More from the Library of H.P. Kraus
At Oak Knoll Books
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At least Lichtenberger gave Gutenberg credit for inventing the printing press. Jan Hessels claimed otherwise. His 1887 book's title says it all: Haarlem, the Birth-Place of Printing, Not Mentz. Not. Hessels attacked the conclusions of Antonius van der Linde concerning the origin of printing, conclusions which, of course, have since proven correct. However, this incorrect book comes with an inscription from its mistaken author plus a bookplate indicating it came from the Kraus Library. Item 902. $125.
Margaret Stillwell discusses this controversy in Beginning of the World of Books 1450 to 1470... published by the Bibliographical Society of America in 1972. She notes occasional references to printing in manuscripts between 1420 and the settling of Gutenberg's estate in 1468, which she does not find conclusive, but also recognizes acknowledgements of Gutenberg's role by his contemporaries and successors in the period from 1470-1499. This book also contains a bibliography of 215 items printed by 1470. Item 1284. $17.50.
Item 857 is a complete 71-volume run from 1926-2000 of the periodical Gutenberg Jahrbuch. This periodical covered the history of printing and other related topics, with an average of over 300 pages per volume of articles in many languages. $6,000.
Item 858 is a publication released to commemorate the opening of the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. The museum was opened, and this item printed, in 1901. The title is Gutenberg - Fest zu Mainz im Jahre 1900...and it tells of the opening events, includes a program, contains a commemorative photo, and several letters from invitees, including Mark Twain. $55.
Oak Knoll Books is located on the internet at www.oakknoll.com and can be reached by phone at 302-328-7232. For a review of Part I of this catalogue, go to www.americanaexchange.com/NewAE/aemonthly/review_1.asp?id=78&page=1.
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