Antiquarian Book Auction Preview

Rachel Littlewood previews the forthcoming antiquarian book auction, which includes the Rosemary E Coleridge Middleton Collection of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The 56 lot collection includes furniture, works of art, silver, ceramics, manuscripts, books and paintings. The sale promises to be exciting with just under 600 lots in total.

Salvo For Russia (BK19/106) by Nancy Cunard and John Banting (Editors) is being offered in the rare book auction with a pre-sale estimate of £3,000-£4,000.

The Antiquarian Book Auction to be held on 14th March 2018 offers a huge variety of lots.

The auction starts with the Rosemary E Coleridge Middleton Collection of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and family memorabilia. There are 56 lots in total, including furniture, works of art, silver, ceramics, manuscripts, books and painting. Highlights include an early 19th Century continental creamware wine cooler (BK19/4a) reputedly gifted to Samuel Taylor Coleridge by a member of the Wedgwood Family, a set of six late 18th Century/early 19th Century Spode coffee cups and seven saucers (referred to as a tea service by Derwent Coleridge) (BK19/6) used by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Sarah Fricker, an early 19th Century gold and hair plait brooch initialled STC (BK19/29) and the early 19th Century mahogany and inlaid secretaire chest (BK19/53) of Derwent Coleridge (Son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge).

Second in the line up of the auction is a collection belonging to a Gentleman from Dorset of miniatures and small portraits, totalling approximately 50 lots. Highlights include an English School miniature portrait of a Naval Officer (BK19/58), which carries a pre-sale estimate of £150-£200 and a miniature portrait of a young man by Maude E Pilkington (fl 1888-1914), estimated at £100-£150.

There are approximately 500 lots of books, manuscripts and prints on offer including Nancy Cunard and John Banting (editors) Salvo for Russia, a limited edition of new poems, etchings and engravings produced in aid of the Comforts Fund for Women and Children of Soviet Russia (BK19/106) with an estimate of £3,000-£4,000, JC Loudon's The Architectural Magazine and Journal of Improvement oin Architecture, Building and Furnishing (BK19/122) a 5 volumes set, 1834–38, which carries an estimate of £300-£500.

Within the children's and illustrated books is Harry Clarke’s (illustrator) Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (BK19/142) with 24 plates, a limited edition of 125 copies, signed by the artist (1919) estimated at £450-£650 and Taki Kwatei's Japanese Paintings Flowers and Birds (BK19/143) a copy of twelve coloured woodblock prints, Tokyo 1887, with an estimate of £600-£800.

Topical at the moment with the recent release of the highly acclaimed film starring Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill Darkest Hour are two lots signed by Churchill. One of the lots is the scarce and much sought after second book to be published by Churchill The River War (1899) (BK19/328), 2 volumes with an estimate of £3,000-£4,000 and then four volumes of The World Crisis by Winston Churchill (BK19/329) dated 1923–27 are expected to fetch £2,500-£3,500.

In the science and natural history section of the sale is an illustrated book by TS Cooper titled Thirty Four Subjects of Cattle (BK19/445), with 32 lithograph plates with a pre-sale estimate of £250-£300 and Sir William Jardines The Naturalists Library (BK19/458) in 14 volumes carries an estimate of £300-£500.

As always in the manuscripts section of the sale there are some extremely interesting lots being offered, including Siege of Paris (BK19/528) – a manuscript letter sent by balloon during the Siege of Paris with an estimate of £100-£200 and a suffragette archive (BK19/528a), including a four page In Memoriam for Emily Wilding Davison (1913), seven suffragette broadsides and leaflets, including two on forcible feeling and one of twelve pages about police brutality and various others, which is estimated at £250-£500.

In the maps and prints, there is a fascinating Admiralty chart – Australia – South Coast Port Phillip Surveyed by Lieutenants TM Symonds and HR Henry and Mr F Shortland of HMS Rattlesnake Captain W Hobson (BK19/533) estimated at £300-£500 and James Wyld's New General Atlas of Modern Geography (BK19/582), with 56 hand coloured map carries a pre-sale estimate of £800-£1,000, whilst Guiseppe Vasi's Raccolta Delle Piu Belle Vedute Antiche, E Moderne Di Roma (BK19/579) in two volumes is expected to fetch between £1,500-£2,000.

The sale includes just under 600 lots in total.

Entries are currently being invited for the next Antiquarian book sale to be held in September 2018.