Review of March 2011 Book Sale in Honiton, Devon
This Spring's book sale at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood in Honiton on 30th March 2011
featured collections as diverse as James Bond first editions, and a fine collection
of 16th century continental books; this latter being part of a large consignment
from the Dartington Hall Trust.
Prices were generally high with scarce and unique items often well exceeding their
estimates. Also with online Internet bidding available in the saleroom for the first
time in this book sale, most items were keenly contested.
A rare and highly desirable printed catalogue, contemporary with the voyages of
Captain Cook, of the different specimens of cloth collected in the three voyages
of Captain Cook to the Southern Hemisphere.
However, one item stood out in the sale - a Captain Cook rarity, discovered in a
house clearance by one of Bearnes Hampton & Littlewoods' valuers. Published in 1787,
just eight years after the violent death of Captain Cook in Hawaii, it is titled,
"A Catalogue of the Different Specimens of Cloth Collected in the Three Voyages
of Captain Cook, to the Southern Hemisphere ...".
Incredibly it still contained the original cloth samples made from bark and other
wonderful natural materials. Used principally for clothing, these exotic materials
were also a medium of exchange and wealth. When presented with them for the
first time Europeans would have greeted these cloths with wonder and excitement.
On the day, with two major British dealers going head-to-head, the final hammer
price was £130,000. This auction price exceeded any other for this item, primarily
as this one was complete in a contemporary binding. The price was also a house record
for any single object sold by the firm since the two salerooms merged in 2008.
There were a number of other unusual items sold, including a rare mid-eighteenth
century Armenian pierced silver and gilt binding which depicted the Virgin Mother
and the Christ Child surrounded by numerous symbols of religious iconography. After
spirited bidding, the rarity of this item was reflected in a final price of
£3,100.
Another rare and beautiful item was a pack of astrological playing cards. Published
in 1827, it was complete with 52 cards and one duty card, with fine hand coloured
illustrations of the stars, constellations and planets. In its original box, albeit
rather battered, it also importantly still had the original 18 page set of rules.
It finally fell to a telephone bidder at £3,100.
Possibly the most unusual item in the sale was a 14–foot-long panorama titled "Going
To Epsom Races ..." etc. In its original rosewood cylinder, with the printed title
label still present, it was published in 1819. It reflected the thrill, excitement
and general milieu of the race day, with strutting dandies, beautifully dressed
ladies and of course the colourful jockeys with their horses. There was some slight
damage which perhaps kept the price to just £1,150.
Two literary collections saw some healthy hammer prices, with first editions of
Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native", in three volumes in original decorative
cloth covers selling at £3,400. Similarly a first edition of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles"
in original cloth sold for £1,250. An early set of the novels of Jane Austen, published
in the Richard Bentley Standard Novels series in 1833, made a healthy £2,800. And
from the sublime... a first edition (1958) of Ian Fleming's "Doctor No" sold for
£850.
Association can mean everything. This was the case for a beautifully bound
set of Flaubert's Oeuvres in eight volumes, containing the ownership inscription
of Henry James, which fetched £2,900. James was a lover of Flaubert's writings and
wrote several essays on his works.
Manuscript items included a single page signed letter by Lewis Carroll, sold at
£1,500. An envelope addressed to Samuel Richardson in the hand of Doctor Samuel
Johnson sold at £300. A valuation of a slavery plantation in Jamaica, dating
from 1789 on six folio leaves, it fetched a bid of £700. £400 was the price achieved
for a manuscript warrant signed by several members of William of Orange's government
in 1692, for the imprisonment of several of his opponents in the Tower of London.
A consignment of books illustrated by Arthur Rackham among others saw a welcome
return to bullish prices for illustrated books, with a limited edition of "Rip Van
Winkle" selling at £1,900, and "The Tempest" in a dust wrapper at £350. However,
the best price in this section was for a limited edition of Edgar Allan Poe's "Tales
of Mystery and Imagination", a fine copy in full gilt vellum beautifully illustrated
with Harry Clarke's malevolent drawings, finally selling at £2,100.
Sporting books were well represented with books on angling, hunting, and motor racing.
More unusually, a small but select collection of books on fencing saw a best price
of £2,400 achieved for the 1765 first bilingual edition of Angelo's famous "School
of Fencing", illustrated with 47 fine large copper engraved plates.
The second highest price of the day, £8,800, was achieved by an editio princeps
of Euripidies' "Tragoediae Septendecim", despite lacking the final 'anchor' leaf
in volume one. It was one of the most important books in Greek tragedy. This copy
was published for the first time by Aldine in Venice in 1503.
A small album illustrated with original photographs depicting seal hunting, biplanes,
Eskimos, and geological sites dating from c 1920s made an exceptional price
of £1,450. It illustrated a little known expedition apparently to find likely sites
for gold exploration within the Arctic Circle. It was commanded by GV Blanchet,
and titled the "Dominion Explorers".
Written by Roger Collicott (Book Consultant)
- Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood
- Dowell Street, Honiton, Devon
- Captain Cook
- Book Sale
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