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Bonhams, June 25: Vesalius, Andreas. 1514-1564. De humani corporis fabrica libri septem. $200,000 - $300,000Bonhams, June 25: Gersdorff, Hans Von. 1455-1529. Feldtbuch der wundartzney. $40,000 - $60,000Bonhams, June 25: Pare, Ambroise. C.1509-1590. La Methode Curative des Playes, et Fractures de la Teste humaine. Avec les pourtraits des Instruments necessaires pour la curation d'icelles. $25,000 - $30,000Bonhams, June 25: Reisch, Gregor. 1470-1525. Margarita Philosophica. $20,000 - $30,000Bonhams, June 25: Bright, Richard. 1789-1858. Reports of Medical Cases, Selected with a View of Illustrating the Symptoms and Cure of Diseases by a Reference to Morbid Anatomy. $12,000 - $18,000Bonhams, June 25: Berengario da Carpi, Giacomo. C. 1460-1530. Tractatus de fractura calve sive cranei. $10,000 - $15,000Bonhams, June 25: Vicq D'Azyr, Felix. 1748-1794. Traite d'antomie et de physiologie. $8,000 - $12,000Bonhams, June 25: Croce, Giovanni Andrea Della. 1509?-1775. Chirurgia libri septem... $8,000 - $12,000Bonhams, June 25: Bruno Da Longburgo. 1200-1286. La cyrogia di Maistro Bruno: Expertissimo in quella. Tradutta in vulgare. $8,000 - $12,000Bonhams, June 25: Schwann, Theodor. 1810-1882. Mikroskopische Untersuchungen uber die Ubereinstimmung in der Struktur und dem Wachsthum der Thiere und Pflanzen. $8,000 - $12,000Bonhams, June 25: Cowper, William. 1666-1709. The Anatomy of Humane Bodies, with Figures Drawn after the Life… $6,000 - $9,000Bonhams, June 25: Bidloo, Govard. 1649-1713. Anatomia humani corporis, centum & quinque tabulis, per artificiossis. G. de Lairesse ad vivum delineatis. $6,000 - $9,000
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Dominic Winter Auctioneers
Auctions on June 19
and June 20Dominic Winter, June 19: Lot 70 - Warner (Robert). The Orchid Album, 11 volumes, 1882-1897. £5,000 to £8,000Dominic Winter, June 19: Lot 151 - United States. Melish (John), Map of the United States with..., British & Spanish Possessions, 1816. £40,000 to £60,000Dominic Winter, June 19: Lot 159 - World. Speed (John), A New and Accurat Map of the World, 1676. £4,000 to £6,000.Dominic Winter Auctioneers
Auctions on June 19
and June 20Dominic Winter, June 20: Lot 503 - American Civil War playing cards. Union Cards, New York: American Card Co., 1862. £500 to £800Dominic Winter, June 20: Lot 573 - Shepard (Ernest Howard), 'The Hour is Come’, original watercolour, [1959]. £10,000 to £15,000Dominic Winter, June 20: Lot 922 - Wilde (Oscar). An Ideal Husband, large paper limited issue, 1899. £4,000 to £6,000Dominic Winter Auctioneers
Auctions on June 19
and June 20Dominic Winter, June 20: Lot 744 - Disney (Walt). “Sketch Book” [of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs], 1938. £700 to £1,000Dominic Winter, June 20: Lot 771 - Auden (Wystan Hugh). Portrait of the head of W. H. Auden, 1970. £1,000 to £1,500Dominic Winter, June 20: Lot 822 - Fleming (Ian). Goldfinger, 1st edition, signed by the author, 1959. £6,000 to £8,000Dominic Winter Auctioneers
Auctions on June 19
and June 20Dominic Winter, June 20: Lot 895 - Rowling (J. K.). A complete inscribed set of Harry Potter books plus ephemera. £8,000 to £12,0000Dominic Winter, June 20: Lot 883 - Orwell (George). Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1st edition, London: Secker & Warburg, 1949. £3,000 to £5,000Dominic Winter, June 20: Lot 700 - Ashendene Press. T. Lucreti Cari De Rerium Natura Libri Sex, Chelsea: Ashendene Press, 1913. £4,000 to £6,000 -
Heritage Auctions, June 27
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925Heritage Auctions, June 27
Mary Shelley
Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus
London: Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, 1818Heritage Auctions, June 27
J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again
London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1937Heritage Auctions, June 27
Jane Austen
Emma: A Novel. In Three Volumes. By the Author of "Pride and Prejudice," &c. &c.
London: Printed for John Murray, 1816Heritage Auctions, June 27
Robert Louis Stevenson
An Inland Voyage
London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1878Heritage Auctions, June 27
Ernest Hemingway
Three Stories & Ten Poems
Paris: Contact Publishing Co., 1923Heritage Auctions, June 27
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
History of the Expedition under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark
Philadelphia, 1814Heritage Auctions, June 27
Emily Dickinson
Autograph letter signed ("Emily and Vinnie"), to Mary Adelaide Hills
Amherst, MA, Late April, 1880Heritage Auctions, June 27
John Keats
Autograph letter signed ("John Keats"), to Mrs. Jeffrey
Honiton 4 or 5 May 1818Heritage Auctions, June 27
Samuel Johnson
A Dictionary of the English Language: In which the Words are deduced from their Originals…
London, 1765Heritage Auctions, June 27
H. P. Lovecraft
Small archive of nine lengthy autograph letters signed variously over a period of six years to J. Vernon Shea.
Various places, 1931-1937Heritage Auctions, June 27
Izaak Walton
The Compleat Angler or the Contemplative Man's Recreation…
London: T. homas Maxey for Rich. ard Marriot, 1653
Rare Book Monthly
Articles - September - 2006 Issue
<i>The Fate of Their Country</i>. A Look Forward and Back
Fast forward to 1854. Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas pushes through the Kansas-Nebraska Act, allowing for popular sovereignty in territory previously barred from having slavery by the Missouri Compromise. There have long been questions why Douglas pushed for this controversial change, though it aligned with his political calling card, "popular sovereignty." Perhaps it was part of Douglas' desire to expand the railroads west, which would bring new settlers, and with new settlers, the desire to form new states, in turn reopening the slavery question. Whatever his intentions, this political move led to enormous discontent in the North, and the bloodshed of bleeding Kansas. Yet even in Kansas, neighbor to slave state Missouri, and the territory with the greatest likelihood of adopting the "peculiar institution," slavery was voted down, despite pro-slavery advocates' attempts to fix the vote. Once again, Holt's thesis that the popular sovereignty issue was much ado about nothing is upheld.
Holt even goes to the point of tearing down the holiest of holies in his attempt to blame political machinations for the Civil War. In his "House Divided" speech, Lincoln raises the specter that advocates of slavery may succeed in spreading it to all of the states, even the old northern ones. Holt sees this as a bit of hyperbole intended to gain northern votes by generating fears of a spread of slavery that he knew would never really happen. Perhaps, but the Dred Scott Decision, fully implemented, would effectively have done just that.
While politicians clearly made the situation worse (don't they always?), I still question whether their acting like statesmen instead would have been sufficient to stop this speeding train. Some differences are too intractable, too divisive, too irresolvable to lend themselves to normal solutions. Lincoln's claim that "a house divided against itself cannot stand" may not have been political rhetoric, but an essential truth. Slavery is too significant an issue, too much of a moral claim upon the consciences of too many people to lend itself to compromise. For too many Northerners, it was morally intolerable. To the Southern economic leadership, it was too much a way of life to give up.
The nation finessed being "half slave, half free" for seven decades, but this was never a permanent solution. Four of America's first five presidents were southerners, and even Washington was a slaveholder. However, the southern founding fathers did not look on slavery as a good thing. The nation was able to compromise on the issue as even in the South it was regarded as no better than a "necessary evil," something economically necessary at the time, but an evil to be eliminated in time by future generations. Washington himself set the tone by freeing his slaves when he died (technically, when Martha died). In the North, states where slavery existed adopted plans for its gradual elimination.