Bloomsbury Auctions

2010-03-17

Children's, Illustrated, Private Press, Conjuring

Bloomsbury Auctions forthcoming sale of Children's and Illustrated Books, Private Press and Limited Editions, Performing Arts including Conjuring, Antique and Decorative Prints on 25th March is a fascinating 700 lot sale with some iconic pieces to set pulses racing.

Particularly attractive are the drawings and original artwork such as Arthur Rackham's delicate pen and ink and watercolour from The Compleat Angler, 'Go and See One of the Coffee-Houses, Westminster,' which is estimated £4000-6000 (lot 125) or his charming pen and ink drawing Two Winged Friends (lot 123) depicting a couple of insect/fairies sitting together, one with his arm over his friend's shoulder (estimate £200-400). George Cruikshank's amusing pen and ink drawing The Middle-Aged Lady in the Double Bedded Room (lot 24) is estimated at £3000-4000. Rarely do works by John Ryan depicting Captain Pugwash come on to the market, and Bloomsbury is offering seven typically bold and colourful original watercolours (lot 140) by him, they had been donated by the artist to the vendor, are expected to fetch £4000-6000. A highlight of this sale must be the five original pencil drawings by the much-loved Maurice Sendak (lots 141-145); all are signed and the estimates range from £1500-5000.

The afternoon session of the sale has a substantial group of Conjuring Books, Memorabilia and Apparatus from the collection of John Fisher (lots 272-462). Lot 269 is a first edition (number 83 of an unspecified number for private circulation only) of Magic of Robert Harbin edited by Peter Warlock and is estimated £500-700. There are numerous lots of groups of conjurers' correspondence and photographs and lot 399 is a series of sixteen scrapbooks compiled by Larry Turnbull dating from 1930-1981 (estimate £500-750). The star item amongst the Apparatus must be the Mystery Clock made by the founder of modern conjuring, Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin (lot 458), the son of a clock maker. It has no visible mechanism to turn the hand and yet it keeps perfect time (estimate £4000-6000). Still in the section but not part of the Fisher Collection, is lot 507 a very large collection of 973 signed portrait postcards of actresses and actors dating from 1900-1930 (estimated £3500-5000).

2010-03-11

Bibliophile Sale

On 18th March the Godalming saleroom is hosting another of Bloomsbury Auctions’ popular Bibliophile sales.

This time the sale offers a substantial selection of fifty two Art Reference Books including The Drawings of the Florentine Painters and Italian Pictures of the Renaissance by the renowned art historian Bernard Berenson (lots 12 and 13), each estimated £300-500. The Italian Renaissance Interior 1400-1600 by Peter Thornton is another fascinating tome and together with other similar books in lot 51, it too is estimated £300-500. Noteworthy amongst the Travel Books is an 1818 first edition of Captain Basil Hall’s Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great Loo-Choo Island (lot 114) which is expected to fetch £300-500. The Gun at Home and Abroad (lot 160) might well appeal to those interested in Sports and Pastimes (estimate £300-400).

For some reason Bloomsbury has always attracted books on bees and bee-keeping and in this sale there is a group of six such items in lot 181, including a first edition of Melisselogia, or, the Female Monarchy, Being an Enquiry into the Nature, Order and Government of Bees by John Thorley, estimated £300-400.

A two volume Latin and Hebrew Bible edited by Benjamin Kennicott 1776-80 (lot 255) is estimated (£600-800), while the 1888 A Dream of John Ball and a King’s Lesson by William Morris (lot 302) with a frontispiece etched by Edward Burne-Jones is expected to fetch £250-350.