• 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
  • 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.
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    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
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    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.
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    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.
  • 19th Century Shop
    Catalogue 198 just published
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Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2017 Issue

The Wreck of The Medusa, a Political Parable.

Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa.

It is a gigantic painting, displayed in the Louvre Museum, Paris. It has darkened over the years, which makes the scene it depicts even more dreadful: this is Géricault’s The Raft of the Medusa. A book inspired it: Corréard’s true relation of the wreck of the frigate Medusa, off the African coast, in 1816. Out of 150 men thrown onto the infernal sea on a hastily-made raft, only 15 came back alive. Two centuries later, it remains as terrible a reading as ever.

 

Everyone French has heard of the raft of the Medusa, whose passengers were forced to eat human flesh to survive. Thus, laying my hand on a 1818 (second) edition of this testimony, I knew exactly what to expect. Well, not exactly. Leafing through the book, I casually read the first lines that my eyes came across, and they slapped me in the face: “The unfortunates who had escaped death during this terrible night turned to the dead bodies scattered all over the raft and cut them into slices (...) but many refused to touch them—including all of the officers. But since this dreadful food had revived those who had tasted it, it was suggested that we should dry it in order to make it more chewable. (...) Some tried to eat pieces of clothes, or the leather of their hats; but it led them nowhere. One sailor tried to eat his own faeces, but he could never do it.” Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard the raft of the Medusa!

 

The popular writer Cousin d’Avallon (1769-1840) wrote a relation of these events, which was published by Démoraine and Boucquin—the successors of Mr. Tiger, reads the title page (see article here). He writes: “We know that the French colonies of the West coast of Africa were captured by the English in 1808. They were given back to them by the Treaties of Paris in 1814 and 1815, and the Ministry of Marine set up an expedition of four ships bound for Senegal.” The Medusa was the command ship of the expedition, which counted 392 passengers, including civilians. Unfortunately, because of the incompetence of Captain Chaumareys (1763-1841), the Medusa hit the sandbank of Arguin, off Senegal, on July 12, 1816. The panic-struck officers built a raft in haste. 150 passengers were packed on board, including 129 soldiers and officers.

 

Our edition of Corréard’s book comes with an engraving representing the raft: “It was made of topmasts, yards, twines, (...) it was perfectly solid.” Yet, it was not very comfortable. “We were standing and we couldn’t move. We were all tightly packed (...). At the extremities of the raft, people had water up to their waists.” The first night was a stormy one and in the morning, “a dozen of unfortunates, who had been unable to take off their feet trapped in the gaps left between the various pieces of the raft, had drowned; several others had been taken away by the sea.” Forsaken by the rest of the expedition, many fell into despair, including two young ship’s boys and a baker, who “jumped overboard, after bidding farewell to their friends.”

 

The second night was a nightmare: “Mountains of water covered us restlessly and furiously broke among us. Those who stood at the rear and at the top of the raft were washed away; we all gathered at the centre, and those who could not reach there perished. We were so tightly packed together that a few of us died under the weight of their comrades who rolled over them every minute.” Out of the 75 persons who died this night, a quarter committed suicide. The following day, the stress and the pain triggered hallucinations, and “those who were not strong enough to fight them, inevitably perished.”

 

Géricault’s painting created a scandal when first displayed in 1818. The artist was even forced to modestly title it: Scene from a wreck—the political stakes were high. Indeed, as revealed in the introduction of Corréard’s book, the captain of the Medusa was to be blamed for such a disaster. His name was Chaumereys, and he was a poor sailor; but he had many acquaintances. And cowardice was added to incompetence, since he abandoned the raft without commandment, sailing away on a safety boat himself. When Corréard accused him in the first edition of his book, Chaumerey threatened to sue him. “Are we still living in a time when men and things are sacrificed to the whim of favour?” our author asks. Of course they were. Yet, Chaumarey had gone too far, and his guilt far too openly established. He was tried in 1818, relieved from his command and condemned to three years of prison. Indeed, the story took on incredible proportions in a society riddled with corruption and political resentment—the marine was said to be under the archaic control of the royalists, who ignored the recommendations of the Empire. In fact, the whole Restauration (in 1814, following Napoléon’s abdication the monarchy was restored until 1830) came under fire with this story.

 

This book became that powerful because it is shocking—in lesser proportions, it reminds us of Las Casas’ Destruction of the Indies. The very first relations such as the booklet of 8 pages printed at Sétier’s, Paris, in 1816, do not mention cannibalism. Géricault himself couldn’t represent it in his painting—that would have been far too provoking at the time; but after the publication of the full story by Corréard, it was on everyone’s mind. Man eating man to survive after being abandoned by those who were supposed to guide them? A political allegory of the time. But on the raft itself, it was everything but a parable. On the third day, “some wretches (...) turned to the dead bodies scattered all over the raft and cut them into slices; some devoured them right away.” The most educated ones—the officers, of course—allegedly first refused to eat “this sacrilegious meat.” But they eventually had no other choice; throwing some dead bodies into the sea, they spared one of them to eat it up.

 

The same day, a part of the passengers ran amok—so Corréard says: “They attacked us; we charged them, and the raft was soon covered with their dead bodies. Those of our adversaries who had no weapon tried to tear us with their teeth; several of us were badly bitten.” The fight came to a halt, after a while. But during the fourth night, “the Negroes convinced a handful of men that the land was near, and they decided to kill everyone on board. When he realized his plot had been unveiled, the leader (...) went to the top of the raft, enveloped himself in the sheet which he wore around his chest and jumped into the sea. His comrades rushed us to revenge his death. (...) With extraordinary effort, we repelled them again, and calm followed.” Thus, as the next day broke, “there were only 30 of us left.”

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum Auctions
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    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Alken (Henry). Sporting Notions, first edition, T.McLean, 1832-33. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Bardi (Lorenzo). Nuova Raccolta delle piu interessanti Vedute della Citta di Firenze…, Florence, Lorenzo Bardi, [c.1840]. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Crawfurd (John). Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava..., first edition, 1829. £1,000 to £1,500.
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    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Dawe (George, engraver). The Life of a Nobleman, first edition, Geo. Henderson, [c.1825]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: [Doyle (John)], "H.B.". Political Sketches &c., 10 vol. including The Descriptive Key to H.B., Thomas McLean, [1829-51]. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Eben (Adolphus Christian Frederick, Baron von) and Nicolaus Heideloff. Modèles de l'Uniforme Militaire Adopté dans l'Armée Royale de Suède, Rudolph Ackerman, 1808. £1,500 to £2,000.
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    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Geissler (J.G.G.) and Friedrich Hempel. Mahlerische Darstellungen der Sitten, Gebrauche und Lustbarkeiten bey den Russischen, Tartarischen…, 4 parts in 1, Leipzig and Paris, [1804]. £1,000 to £1,500.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Hunt (Charles). Portraits of Winning Horses...of the Derby, Oaks, & St. Leger, from the Year 1842 to 1849…, Rock Brothers & Payne, 1849. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Kunike (Adolf Friedrich). Zwey hundert und sechzig Donau-Ansichten nach dem Laufe des Donaustromes…, Vienna, Leopold Grund, 1826. £3,000 to £5,000.
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    27th March 2024
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Lasinio (Carlo). [Matrimony], Florence, 1790. £1,500 to £2,000.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Reinhardt (Joseph). A Collection of Swiss Costumes, in Miniature, second English edition, James Goodwin, [1828]. £800 to £1,200.
    Forum Auctions, Mar. 27: Wengen (Gottfried Durst von). Die Öffentliche Maskerade Bamberg am Fastnachts-Montage 1833…, Bamberg, [1833]. £2,000 to £3,000.
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