Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - January - 2012 Issue

A New Miscellany from Kenneth Karmiole, Bookseller

New Miscellany #32.

Kenneth Karmiole, Bookseller, has issued a New Miscellany #32. It is, naturally enough, a collection of varied works. They range from incunable Latin texts representing the 15th century to items published in most of our lifetimes. Most, however, are quite old. Subjects vary widely, too much so to adequately describe. So we will describe a few individual items and leave it to your imagination what else may be found.

John Wise was one of America's first aviators, long before the Brothers Wright. Naturally, he was not flying airplanes. He was a balloonist. He began flying balloons in 1835, and despite the numerous accidents, mishaps and misadventures over the years, he returned to the sky constantly throughout his life. He delivered the first air mail, though he did not reach his intended target. He was called on to use a balloon to scout enemy positions during the Civil War, but his balloon got caught in trees. It is is hard to control where those things go. Nevertheless, he made many advances, including the development of a balloon that folded into a parachute when punctured to land safely. It sort of worked. He also discovered the prevalent west to east air current, and planned to ride it all the way to Europe. That never happened. Item 1 is Wise's Through the Air: a Narrative of Forty Years' Experience as an Aeronaut, published in 1873. In 1879, at the age of 71, Wise set out from East St. Louis, never to be heard from again. Neither he nor his balloon were ever found, but the body of his passenger was discovered in Lake Michigan, likely explaining his fate. Priced at $750.

Here is an account of some other travels, but of a more typical variety: Around the World with General Grant. After the completion of his second term as President, Ulysses S. Grant embarked on a two-year worldwide tour. Along the way he met with Queen Victoria, Bismarck, the Pope, and the Emperor of Japan, among others. It was a very successful trip, and Grant was met with much respect and honor wherever he traveled. This “profusely illustrated” account was written by John Russell Young and published in 1879, the year Grant returned home. Item 98. $200.

Item 50 is R.S. Kirby's The Wonderful Scientific Museum: or, Magazine of Remarkable Characters; Including All the Curiosities of Nature and Art... This is sort of science, though perhaps more in the freak show sense. It consists of six volumes, printed from 1803-1820, “A most amazing collection...on every imaginable subject, from murders and mermaids to heroic deeds and strange characters, from water-spouts in Iceland to the Hammersmith Ghosts, from giants, midgets, and bearded ladies to monsters human and animal, and from missionaries to a man who advertised long and unsuccessfully for a wealthy wife!” $2,000.

Item 11 is a letter that provides an interesting insight into the thinking of David Ben-Gurion, a leader in Israel's independence movement and its first Prime Minister. He had received a letter from a Mrs. Berman in 1964, a year after leaving office, who must have thanked him for his contributions and related how she benefited personally. To Ben-Gurion, however, he was not providing personal favors. “...I have done nothing for you or anybody else,” he writes. “What I did all my life was merely to do my duty – that is all.” $1,000.

Item 46 is one of those incunables, a 1486 edition of Epistolae Familiares by Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini. This includes Aeneas' serious letters. The man wasn't always so scholarly. He was a bit of a rogue as a youth. He reportedly fathered two illegitimate children, and wrote a popular risqué novel called The Tale of Two Lovers in 1444. If you remember your Gutenberg, it wouldn't have reached a very wide audience in 1444, but became popular later with the advent of printing. That may have embarrassed Aeneas a bit, as he became more serious, found a role in the Church, and just 14 years later, was named Pope - Pius II. By all accounts, he grew into his role and was one of the better Popes in an era when not all were so good. $8,500.

Item 75 is one of those religious/scientific books you still occasionally see today, but not very often. It is an attempt to reconcile Biblical events as literal history with scientific evidence. Robert Miln looked at the geologic evidence and attempted to match it with his belief in the Bible as revealed, literal truth. The title of his 1786 treatise is A Course of Physico-Theological Lectures upon the State of the World, from the Creation to the Deluge. $600.

Kenneth Karmiole, Bookseller, Inc., may be reached at 310-451-4342 or Karmbooks@aol.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 19th Century Shop
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    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
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    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
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    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
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    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
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    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000

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