Albums, Manuscripts and Private Press Books - A Review of Rare Book Auction #38

Auction 38 has started and will run until 16.30 GMT on the 16th of October. 465 lots are being offered covering a wide variety of subjects.

Lot no. 1 is Liuet.-Colonel Sir Harry Darell’s unusual lithographic album of Chinese, Indian and African interest entitled China, India, Cape of Good Hope and Vicinity, a Series of Thirteen Treble-tinted Views from Sketches, published by Day and Son in 1853 (reserve $4000). Other items of travel interest are Matthew Perry’s Narrative of the Expedition of An American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan (1856, reserve $3200) and Burchell’s Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, 2 volumes (1822-1824, reserve $7000).

Among autograph & manuscripts is a letter from Admiral George Dewey from his ship - the Flagship Olympia - in Manila written in 1899 - the year after he led the US forces to victory in the Battle of Manila Bay in the very same ship. He became a national hero and was the only American to have been given the title "Admiral of the Army". A scarce item which is sold with a copy of a biography of Dewey (reserve $400).

A small selection of private press books includes the Kelmscott Press Syr of Perecyvelle of Gales edited by F.S.Ellis (reserve $1200) and the Bibliography of the Grabhorn Press 1940-1956 (with the check-list 1916-1940) (reserve $600). The account by Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal of Scotland from 1846 to 1888, of his expedition to ascertain how far astronomical observations can be improved, by eliminating the lower part of the atmosphere, Teneriffe, An Astromoner’s Experiment, published in 1858, was the first book to be illustrated with stereoscope photographs. To view the stereoviews a special viewer could be purchased for an addition three shillings and six pence. A copy in the original cloth but without the viewer is offered with a reserve of $600. A selection of maps includes the Du Halde / D’Anville A Map of China, Chinese Tartary, Korea (1770, reserve $320).