News
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.
2010-03-02
Medicine, Science, Antiquarian Books including Travel and Topography
Bloomsbury’s sale of Medicine, Science, Antiquarian Books including Travel & Topography on 10th March will particularly excite collectors of books on medicine and science.
The first 166 lots were carefully put together by a single private owner; amongst the highlights is A Systeme of Anatomy in two volumes by Samuel Collins (lot 38) which has 73 engraved plates, is dated 1685 and is estimated £2500-3500. Another impressive work is a second edition of William Cowper’s The Anatomy of Humane Bodies (lot 46) with 114 engraved plates and which is expected to fetch £1500-2000. Lot 53 is a scarce earlier Anatomy of Human Bodies by Isbrand de Diemerbroeck of 1689 estimated £600-800. The two volume 1726 History of Physick by John Freind (lot 62) is noteworthy, as Freind was the first English historian of medicine; he planned this work while in The Tower of London charged with high treason (estimate £200-300). It has been said that Giovanni Battista Morgagni was the true founder of modern pathological anatomy and this collection includes the first English edition of The Seats and Causes of Diseases (1769), estimated £1000-1500 (lot 116). Another interesting first English edition is Ambroise Pare’s The Workes translated by Thomas Johnson (lot 122). Pare was not only considered the greatest of army surgeons, but he also popularised the truss, introduced artificial limbs and dental implants (estimate £2000-3000).
Amongst the books on Mathematics is lot 211 a first edition of George Boole’s 1854 scarce An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (estimate £2000-3000). Boole invented the first practical system of logic in algebraic form and today most who understand the workings of a computer, are familiar with Boolean Logic. Particularly eye-catching and rare amongst the Antiquarian Books, is The History of the Barbarous Cruelties and Massacres Committed by the Dutch in the East Indies by Richard Hall of 1712 (lot 247) expected to fetch between £1000-1500. The Travel and Topography section of the sale offer a gentler more poetic view of life; on pastoral note is lot 263, the charming two volume An History of the River Thames by John and Josiah Boydell (estimate) of 1794-96. Dedicated to Horace Walpole, it has 76 fine hand-coloured aquatint views and is estimated £2500-3500.