Saturday, January 24, 2009

A Book List

Here's another list: AbeBooks' Most Expensive Sales in 2008


  1. Etudes à l'Eau-Forte by Francis Seymour Haden - $17,216: A collection of 25 etchings by Seymour Hayden - 24 of the plates depict the landscape around London, the Thames, Ireland and Wales and the final one is a portrait of Thomas Haden. The text reproduces an article printed in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts by Philippe Burty and contains a catalogue of the etched work of Seymour Haden.

  2. L'Abou Naddara, Journal Arabe Illustre (1878-1884) by James Sanua - $13,000: First edition published in 1878 and signed by author. The complete set of the first eight years of Sahifat Abou Naddara issued in Paris. Sanua was called Ya'qub Rufa'il Sanu in Arabic but was often referred to by his pseudonym, Abu Naddara (‘father of spectacles’).

  3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling - $12,874: Rare first edition signed by JK with the dust wrapper panels signed by the cover artist Cliff Wright. The first issue has a misaligned block of text which was corrected in the subsequent issues.

  4. Specimens of British minerals selected from the cabinet of Philip Rashleigh by Philip Rashleigh - $12,754: Cornish landowner Philip Rashleigh formed one of the most outstanding early collections of mineral specimens (housed in the Royal Cornwall Museum at Truro) and this work describes his best specimens.

  5. The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia by David Roberts - $12,360: First American edition from 1855 including 250 lithographed plates with historical descriptions from George Croly and William Brockedon.

  6. The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid by Euclid - $11,750: Charles Wittingham of the Chiswick Press published this edition of Euclid’s works on Euclidean geometry in 1847. Written and designed to simplify Euclid's propositions, this remarkable example of Victorian printing has been described as one of the oddest and most beautiful books of the 19th century.

  7. Autographed Letter by Edward Lear - $11,491: A two-page illustrated autograph letter by the nonsense poet Edward Lear, most renowned for writing The Owl and the Pussycat, dated 9th September 1867. The letter contains a detailed self-caricature sketch showing Lear with outstretched limbs, as well as a comedic request to visit the recipient.

  8. Grimms Fairy Tales by Jakob & Wilhelm Grimm - $11,388: A first edition, first issue copy of these famous fairy tales, including 22 etched plates by George Cruikshank. It is housed in a clamshell box.

  9. Peter Beard Collector's Edition by Peter Beard - $10,808: Published by Tashen in 2006, this is one of a limited number of collector’s copies signed by the renowned photographer.

  10. Biblia Latina Printed by Johannes Herbort de Seligenstadt - $10,807: Printed in 1484, these bibles were the first to use the original Greek and Hebrew manuscripts to improve the common Latin Vulgate bible text. The first ‘Fontibus Ex Graecis’ Biblia Latina was published 1479 by Amerbach and was named after the first line of three distichs (couplets) that were included in the texts. Johannes Herbort de Seligenstadt used Amerbach’s revised second edition for this Biblia Latina.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I lack the collecting gene. Books, to me, are all about the content. Rarity and first edition-ness hold no appeal. (Happily for my budget.)

Suzique said...

Gosh, at least one for each of my subject areas. Buy one for each and sit back the rest of the year!

note: they didn't cover this stuff in Bible study.