In times of distress, dealers and the collecting community in the rare books
field have made common cause to both raise the flag and raise money for
the disadvantaged. Such events tend to disappear in the miasma of uncertain
times. One such event was an occasion to voice support to the English People.
It’s date: July 3rd, 1941.
A Catalogue
Of
BOOKS AND MSS.
To be sold for
The
Distress Fund
On Aid of Booksellers who
Have suffered loss
From Bombing
Organized by
The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association
Which Will be Sold by Auction By
Messrs.
Hodgson & Co.
(Established 1807)
At their Rooms
115 Chancery Lane
London, W.C.2
On Thursday, July 3rd, 1941
At One o’clock
More recent but long receding into dissolving memory there was an auction staged as
Literary Auction
For Peace
Autograph Letters / Manuscripts
First Editions
Inscribed and Limited Editions
Tuesday, April 23, 1968
Exhibition: 1:00 – 7:45 PM
Auction: 8:00 – 11:00 PM
Held at the
Ethical Culture Society
2 West 64th Street
New York City
Auction Hall courtesy of the
Ethical Culture Society
This sale was especially well designed. Every item’s donor was listed. Every item’s virtues were concisely described. As well, their Sponsors List was included subject to space. That list also included um-teen hyper-famous personalities.
This sale probably drew a crowd just to see the crowd.
How did the sale did? Not particularly well. Almost all lots sold but the prices were modest. What turned out to be both good politics and good investments: ? Original manuscript material.
Net net. Both of these sales remind us that authors and collectors have stepped up when the chips were down.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
