Date: Thu 04-Jun-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDIR

Quick Words:

Swann

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Rare Books Auction

w/2 cuts

NEW YORK CITY -- Swann Galleries offered incunabula and early printing, press

and illustrated books, Nineteenth Century literature and children's books on

April 16 at its spring auction of rare books.

Highlights among the early books included Dominicus de Sancto Geminiano, Super

sexto decretalium, a clean, wide-margined copy of a work on canon law, Venice,

1477, which sold for $5,290; "He" and "She" Bibles, London 1611, and 1613,

which brought $25,300 and $14,950 respectively; and Henricus Cornelius

Agrippa, Female Pre-Eminence;...Done in English...by H[enry] C[are], London,

1670, which garnered $2,185.

Featured illustrated books included works on the performing arts and scarce

travel items. Cesare Negri, Nuove Inventioni di Balli, an important late

Renaissance treatise on dance, first edition, Milan, 1604, realized $14,950,

and Gaspare Galliari, Numero XXIV Invenzioni Treatrali, with pictorial title

and 24 uncolored aquatint plates depicting stage designs by the master

designer at La Scala, Milan, 1814, sold for $8,625.

Works on Travel included Pasquier and Denis, Plan Topographique et Raisonne de

Paris, Paris, 1758, a charmingly produced engraved pocket guide with two

folding maps, which fetched $1,725; a bound volume containing 29 aquatint

views of northern Italy, Florence, 1820s, which reached $2,185; and Eugene

Fulgenizi, Collection de Costumes Civils et Militaires, scenes populaires,

portraits, et Vues de l'Asie Mineure, a rare Ottoman color plate book with 25

(of 30) hand-colored plates, Smyrna, 1838, which realized $2,760.

A selection of Nineteenth Century literature featured Alexandre Dumas, pere,

The Count of Monte-Cristo, first edition in English, London, 1846, which sold

for $7,475; Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, first edition, second issue,

Brooklyn, 1855, which realized $19,550; and Oscar Wilde, The Pictures of

Dorian Gray, one of 250 numbered large-paper copies signed, London, 1891,

which rang up $5,2990.

Among the desirable children's books were a set of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's

German Popular Stories, illustrated by George Cruikshank, first edition in

English, London, 1823-26, which fetched $3,680; Clemens Brentano, Gockel

Hinkel Gakeleja, Marchen, one of the most famous German illustrated books of

the Romantic period, first edition, Frankfurt, 1838, in a later binding with

the contemporary covers laid down, which brought $3,220; a complete set of

Randolph Caldecott, Picture Books, first editions, London, 1878-85, which

garnered $1,610; and all four Christopher Robin books A.A. Milne, including

When We Were Very Young, London, 1924, which sold for $3,680, and

Winnie-the-Pooh, London, 1926, which reached $1,840.

Finally, the sale offered the first book on television, Alfred Dinsdale,

Television. Seeing by Wireless, first edition, London, 1926, which brought

$2,070.

All prices include premium. For information, 212/254-4710.