Rare Book Monthly

Articles - September - 2021 Issue

Christie's: The Exceptional Literature Collection of Theodore B. Baum

Exceptional Literature!

Exceptional Literature!

Christie's New York is pleased to announce The Exceptional Literature Collection of Theodore B. Baum, which will take place in two parts, live and online, this September. Part One will commence as a live sale on 14 September at 10am, comprising literature to 1900. Part Two will be online only from 2-17 September, featuring twentieth-century literature.

 

Mr Baum's library of literary first editions is among the finest ever assembled and particularly strong in works by English and American authors—from Edmund Spenser and John Milton in the 16th & 17th centuries through Jonathan Swift (the Berland copy of Gulliver's Travels), Mary Shelley (the Manney copy of Frankenstein, uncut in original boards), a wealth of Jane Austen (including the Kern copy of Mansfield Park, in original boards, from a lending library), Charlotte Brontë, and Charles Dickens in the 18th & 19th centuries, all the way to James Joyce, Virginia Woolf (including Night and Day, in dust jacket), Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, and much more in the 20th century. The library, more than 500 titles, was assembled by Mr Baum with love and care over the course of decades, as he worked with top dealers and auction specialists to find the greatest copies of the most beloved books.

 

Viewing is by appointment only, 9-13 September. For more information contact Heather Weintraub Hweintraub@christies.com.  

Rare Book Monthly

  • Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
    Sotheby's
    Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
    Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
    Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
    Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR

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