PBA Galleries Sells Rare Books, Manuscripts In February

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.

:Sandwiched between the 39th California International Antiquarian Book Fair in Los Angeles and The San Francisco Antiquarian Book, Print & Paper Fair, PBA Galleries took advantage of the presence of major dealers and collectors of rare books, manuscripts and visual materials drawn to California and presented an auction of rare books and manuscripts on February 23.

The sale featured a selection of literary and visual material, books from the earliest decades of printing, high spots of science and other valuable items. The sale was well attended with many others participating through absentee bidding, telephone and live online bidding. The solid prices and widespread interest demonstrated once again the revitalized strength of the rare books and collectibles market.

The highest price at the auction was achieved by perhaps the most important scientific work of the Nineteenth Century. Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, the 1859 first edition, a book of influence and controversy even to the present day, split the $20/30,000 estimate at $23,000, an excellent price for a copy that had been rebound, albeit splendidly.

Next in line, in terms of value, was a creation of artist/calligrapher Alberto Sangorski, an illuminated manuscript on vellum, containing calligraphed versions of two poems by Rudyard Kipling, "If" and "Recessional." Comprising eight leaves, with striking illuminations and initials in gold and colors, in elaborate full morocco binding by Riviere, the stunning creation brought $17,250, falling just under the $20/25,000 estimate.

The following lot was a reproduction of a manuscript of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam written and illuminated by Francis Sangorski (Alberto's brother) and George Sutcliffe, limited to just 25 copies. The manuscript was bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe in full vellum elaborately gilt with a peacock painted in colors. Estimated at $6/9,000, the book was bid to $11,500.

Reaching back to the infancy of printing, a collection of 155 leaves from the Hortus Sanitatis, circa 1497, less than half of the entire work, but notable for the presence of one or more woodcuts of plants and animals, hand colored, on all but a handful of the leaves, sold for $5,463. Another important early work on natural history also proved sought-after, with the third edition, 1636, of John Gerard's massive Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes, finely bound in full calf replicating bindings of the period, topping the $3/5,000 estimate at $5,463.

Modern fine printing was also in demand, as a copy of the massive Arion Press Bible, two volumes, one of 400 copies (and one of 150 with illuminated initials), designed by Andrew Hoyem, produced in 2000, sold at $6,900, sliding just under the $7/10,000 estimate.

Two high spots of American literature also proved their endurance. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the 1850 first edition, first issue, in the original cloth, sold for $4,888 against an estimate of $4/7,000. And the first edition, first printing of Edgar Allan Poe's Tales, 1845, the Adrian Homer Goldstone copy with his bookplate, rebound in full morocco, went for $8,050, just within the $8/12,000 estimate.

Among the more unusual items in the 195-lot auction were two large manuscript broadsides on vellum. The first, a Seventeenth Century chronology of the world from the creation to the accession of Urbanus in 1025, with many hand drawn figures including multiple-headed dragons, was driven above the $4/6,000 estimate to sell for $6,900. The second, an elaborate heraldic coat of arms for an Irish lord, executed in the Eighteenth Century, sold for $5,463 against the same estimate as the chronology.

Other notable lots included a first edition of the three-volume official account of James Cook's Third Voyage, 1784, the medallion issue, in original boards (with modern rebacking) and the unusual feature of the plates normally issued in a separate atlas being bound into the body of the text, selling for $9,775; a rare work on the discovery of the New World, Itinerarium ad Regiones sub Æquinoctiali...written by Alexander Geraldinus, a friend of Columbus, in 1524 but not published until 1631, fetched $4,888 and the first edition of Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies, 1863, in a striking Cosway-style binding of full blue morocco gilt, with a painting on ivory inset into front cover, and a fore-edge painting as well, was bid to $6,900.

A first edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula, second issue, 1897, in the original yellow cloth, accompanied by a letter from Bram Stoker written in 1891, was hammered down at $9,775.

All prices reported include the 15 percent buyer's premium. For information, www.pbagalleries.com or email Bruce MacMakin at bruce@pbagalleries.com or Steve Blackmer at steve@pbagalleries.com.