Antiquarian Book Auction Preview
Published 20th February 2014
Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood's Book, Prints and Maps Auction on the 19th March 2014 has the usual broad and exciting range of entries covering all interests.
Printed ephemera continues to be an interesting area of collecting. For instance, we are offering a fascinating collection of Napoleonic Broadsides that includes such titles as Buonaparte and Talleyrand (being a satirical poem on the idea of Bonaparte invading England), a sheet of patriotic songs and a sheet offering a £20,000 reward for his capture. This important lot has an estimate of £5,000-£6,500.
A Suffragette flyer advertising a deputation to Buckingham Palace on 21st May 1914, printed in green and purple, is estimated at £100-£200. This demonstration became notorious when its leader, Emmeline Pankhurst, was photographed being arrested outside the Palace and the resulting image is one of the most famous relating to the Suffragette Movement.
An entirely less revolutionary work is the 1737 volume The Whole Duty of a Woman, which details all accomplishments suitable for a lady, especially cookery. I suspect Emmeline would not have approved. But despite that, early cookery books continue to be popular and this lot is estimated at £400-£600.
Travel and exploration are well-represented in this sale. Francis Carter's A Journey from Gibraltar to Malaga from 1777 describes a journey, which is only a short car ride today, but then was something entirely more complicated. Robert Kerr's Collection of Voyages and Travels is an extensively illustrated work, dating from 1811-1824. It is estimated at £500-£750. On the exploration side, John Franklin's Narrative of Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea from 1823 is beautifully illustrated, which is reflected in the estimate of £1,000-£1,800.
Military subjects are represented with a run of both the Royal Military Chronicle and the Naval Chronicle estimated at £250-£350 and £600-£1,000 respectively.
Natural History subjects remain collectable, especially works with attractive illustrations. Such A one is The Herefordshire Pomona by Robert Hogg and Henry Bull. This highly-sought-after work is expected to fetch £3,000-£4,500 and was recently blogged about by our book consultant Roger Collicott.
Other works in the sale include a number of fine bindings, an interesting section on African travel, an extensive set of A & C Black colour plate books as well as a selection of maps and prints.