Rare Book Monthly

Articles - November - 2016 Issue

Nov 22-25: Bubb Kuyper's semi-annual auction of books, manuscripts, prints and drawings approaches

Items mentioned in the auction preview

At Rare Book Hub, we try to include in our Upcoming Auctions all auction houses whose material is relevant to our focus on rare books, maps, and ephemera. That means houses of varying sizes from all over the world, from the mom and pop shop that has a sale every year or two, to the biggest players in the game. A quick check of our auction house list from our Upcoming Auctions portion of the size revealed 271 individual auctioneers. This month, I’m highlighting one I haven’t written about before who has a sale occurring later this month.

Bubb Kuyper is a Dutch company based in the town of Haarlem. Covering books, manuscripts, prints, and drawings, their material is certainly in our wheelhouse. Their auction records have been going into the Rare Book Transaction History since 2007, and in that time, we’ve archived 132,855 lots from them. They hold sales twice yearly—one in May, the other in November—with this month’s taking place November 22 through 25. These sales are not small affairs. Spanning four days, the upcoming sale offers 6139 lots. With a number as large as this, Bubb Kuyper does interested buyers a favor by breaking the auction up into sections, which are as follows: Bibliography & Typography; Cartography; Fine and applied arts & Art Reference; Children’s Books; Dutch Literature (including autographs); Fine Printing — The Collection of M.B.B. Nijkerk and K.J. Nijkerk; Foreign Literature; Various — Erotica, Fashion & Costume, Gastronomy; Judaica, Music, Theology; Indonesia; Dutch History & Topography; Foreign History, Topography & Travels; Natural History, Medicine, Science, Technology & Transport; Manuscripts, Documents & Autographs; Old and Rare Books; and Prints, which are broken into their own eleven subsections. With such a substantial offering, interesting material for collectors of all calibers and scopes abounds.

I asked for help in choosing lots to highlight, and fortunately, a Director at Bubb Kuyper provided me some guidance. These are but a few of the 6139 lots coming to auction.

The cover of the sale’s catalog bears the image of what has been called “the most ambitious and remarkable,” as well as the “most splendid,” of the Kelmscott Press (Bubb Kuyper). This volume is The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer now newly imprinted printed in 1896. The Kelmscott Press needs no introduction for veterans of the field, but I will provide a little background for anyone just starting out or whose focus lies elsewhere.

The Kelmscott Press was the final chapter in the life of William Morris, an English artist, designer, writer, and socialist. His career lasted over forty years, during which he published a magazine, wrote poetry, painted, designed illuminated manuscripts and embroidery, and founded a decorative arts company. He was a known figure in Britain during his lifetime. It was only in the last years of his life that Morris turned his attention to the publishing of books, and in this endeavor, he sought to produce “some which would have a definite claim to beauty, while at the same time they should be easy to read and should not dazzle the eye, or trouble the intellect of the reader by eccentricity of form in the letters” (Arts & Crafts Museum). Books printed at the Kelmscott Press were as much works of art as they were literary printings, and the Chaucer is the pièce de résistance. Lot 1369 is a very fine copy estimated at €40.000-50.000.

The next item on our short list of highlights also comes from a private press, being The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke, printed in 1930 at the Cranach Press. The Cranach was a German interwar press founded by Count Harry Graf Kessler in 1913, and this printing of Hamlet is the company’s greatest work. It features eighty woodcut illustrations by the Englishman Edward Gordon Craig and is “often regarded as the most bold and ambitious example of 20th-century book art” (Bubb Kuyper). The copy being offered at auction is one of seven copies printed entirely on vellum and is also estimated at €40.000-50.000 as lot 1263.

Being an auction house in the Netherlands, Bubb Kuyper specializes in material of Dutch origin. One such lot in their upcoming sale is a handwritten poem by one of the country’s most famous figures—Anne Frank. It consists of eight lines addressed to a friend of Frank’s, encouraging the owner to work hard.  The poem is dated 28 Maart [March] 1942, a little more than three months before the Frank family would move into their now famous hiding place. This incredibly rare item is listed as lot 2390 and estimated for €30.000-50.000.

Another Dutch item of note, one that collectors of natural history may find of keen appeal, is lot 3185, which has the distinction of being one of “the finest birdbook ever published in the Netherlands” (Bubb Kuyper). Consisting of five volumes printed in Amsterdam between 1770 and 1829, Nozeman and Houttuyn’s Nederlandsche vogelen; volgens hunne huishouding, aert, en eigenschappen beschreeven contains 250 plates with contemporary hand coloring and is a sight to behold that belongs in collections alongside Audubon. The five-volume set is estimated €40.000-50.000.

The last highlight for this auction preview is on a set of individual leaves from the personal archives of the Dutch avant garde typographer Piet Zwart. The items in question are loose leaves of the printing firm Trio’s advertising book, a volume that was never actually publicly published. Three copies of it exist, all of which are in Dutch museums. These individual pieces of paper come from Zwart’s collection and have never been offered for sale before now. This is a very big deal for collectors of graphic design and typography.

Bubb Kuyper’s upcoming sale takes places Tuesday, November 22nd through Friday, November 25th, 2016. You can view all 6139 lots of the sale online on their website.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
    19th Century Shop. Darwin and Wallace, first printing of the first paper on natural selection
    19th Century Shop. Shakespeare’s Poems, first collected edition
    19th Century Shop. Walt Whitman portrait inscribed with a Leaves of Grass poem
    19th Century Shop. Major Elizabeth Barrett Browning manuscript notebook
    19th Century Shop. Spock's Baby Book, original MS
    19th Century Shop. Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica, the great celestial atlas
  • Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [RUTH, George Herman “Babe” (1895-1948)]. Signed photograph. Circa 1930s. 191 x 248 mm. $1,500 to $2,500.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HARRISON, Benjamin. Document signed (“Benj Harrison”) as governor of Virginia, certifying the service of Daniel Cumbo, a Black Revolutionary soldier. $6,000 to $9,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ANNOUNCEMENTS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: FIRST PRINTING OF LINCOLN’S IMMORTAL GETTYSBURG ADDRESS. $4,000 to $6,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: HIGHLY IMPORTANT MORMON ARCHIVE. ALLEY, George. Archive of 23 Autograph Letters Signed by Mormon Convert George Alley to His Brother Joseph Alley. $10,000 to $20,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [AVIATION]. [ARMSTRONG, Neil A.] Aviation Hall of Fame Gold Medal MS64 NGC, Awarded to Neil Armstrong in 1979. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: NEWLY DISCOVERED FIRST PRINTING OF "WITH MALICE TOWARDS NONE... " FROM THE ONLY NEWSPAPER ACTUALLY ALLOWED TO PARTICIPATE IN LINCOLN’S SECOND INAUGURAL PROCESSION. $4,000 to $8,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: THE MOST IMPORTANT GEORGE WASHINGTON DOCUMENT IN PRIVATE HANDS; GEORGE WASHINGTON’S COMMISSION AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF, 1775, ONE OF ONLY TWO ORIGINALS. $150,000 to $250,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: A VERY RARE ACCOUNT OF BLACKBEARD’S DEATH AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PIRATE ITEMS EXTANT. $3,000 to $5,000.
    Potter & Potter Auctions
    How History Unfolds on Paper:
    Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection
    Part IX
    April 18, 2024
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: EDISON, Thomas. Patent for Edison’s Improvements on the Electric-Light, No. 219,628. [Washington, D.C.: U.S. Patent Office], 16 September 1879. $2,000 to $3,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: [VIETNAM WAR]. The original pen used by Secretary of State William P. Rogers to sign the Vietnam Peace Agreement, Paris, 27 January 1973. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Potter & Potter, Apr. 18: SONS OF LIBERTY FOUNDER COLONEL BARRÉ ANNOTATED TITLE-PAGE, “WHICH OUGHT TO ROUSE UP BRITISH ATTENTION”. $4,000 to $6,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: [Langland (William)]. The vision of Pierce Plowman, nowe the seconde time imprinted..., Roberte Crowley, 1550. £8,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: [Shakespeare (William)]. [Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies], second folio edition, [by Tho.Cotes, for Robert Allot], [1632]. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Bible, Czech Biblia Bohemica, first complete Bible printed in the Czech vernacular, Prague, August 1488. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Shabthai Tzvi.- Collection of four printed and illustrated broadsides detailing the appearance, rise and fall of the false messiah, Shabthai Tzvi, Augsburg, 1666-67. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Leaf from the Beauvais Missal, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment, [Northern France (perhaps Beauvais or Amiens)], [fourteenth century (c.1310)]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Aubrey (John). [Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme], manuscript in English, Latin and Greek, [c. 1693]. £30,000 to £50,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Poems on Various Occasions, first edition, Harriet Maltby's copy, Newark, Printed by S. & J. Ridge, 1807. £30,000 to £40,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Tolkien (J.R.R.) The Hobbit, first edition, second impression with dust-jacket, 1937 [but 1938]. £7,000 to £10,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Blake (William).- Thornton (Robert John). The Pastorals of Virgil, 2 vol., engraved plates by William Blake, 1821. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    28th March 2024
    Forum Mar. 28: America.- Mount (William J.) & Thomas Page. The English Pilot…, [bound with] The Fourth Book, describing The West Indies Navigation from Hudson's-Bay to the River Amazones, 1721. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Oldfield (Henry Ambrose), Rajman Singh Chitrakar & others. An album of 160 photographs and 13 original artworks, (1833-1919), [c. 1850s-1880s]. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Forum Mar. 28: Audubon (John James) [and William MacGillivray]. Ornithological Biography…, 5 vol., first edition, presentation copy inscribed by Audubon, Edinburgh, 1831-49 [i.e. 1831-39]. £10,000 to £15,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Winston Churchill. The Second World War. Set of First-Edition Volumes. 6,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: A.A. Milne, Ernest H. Shepard. A Collection of The Pooh Books. Set of First-Editions. 18,600 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Salvador Dalí, Lewis Carroll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Finely Bound and Signed Limited Edition. 15,000 USD
    Sotheby’s
    Modern First Editions
    Available for Immediate Purchase
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ian Fleming. Live and Let Die. First Edition. 9,500 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter Series. Finely Bound First Printing Set of Complete Series. 5,650 USD
    Sotheby’s, Available Now: Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell to Arms. First Edition, First Printing. 4,200 USD
  • Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG BEADED JUDICIAL COLLAR. $80,000 - $120,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THE ONLY BOOK BY THE REMARKABLE EVE ADAMS. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A COMPLETE RUN OF VISIONAIRE MAGAZINE THROUGH 2010. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: LAW REVIEW OFFPRINT SIGNED AND INSCRIBED BY RUTH BADER GINSBURG. $3,000 - $5,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: META REBNER'S WORKING SCRIPT OF THE LOVED ONE. $1,500 - $2,000
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A KATHY GROVE PORTRAIT OF CYNDI LAUPER FOR THE FEBRUARY 1989 DETAILS COVER. $800 - $1,200
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A PLASTIC COAT BY MILLIE DAVID FEATURED IN SOHO NEWS STYLE SECTION, FROM THE COLLECTION OF ANNIE FLANDERS. $500 - $700
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A RUTH BADER GINSBURG JEWELRY BOX. $600 - $900
    Bonhams, Mar. 22 – Apr. 2: A SET OF JONI MITCHELL LYRICS FOR "IF I HAD A HEART." $2,000 - $3,000

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