A full-page woodcut from the 1570 ‘La Cosmographia, y Geographia,’ a rare instructional text for pilots of the Casa de Contratacion in Seville. PBA Galleries image.
SAN FRANCISCO – PBA Galleries will hold their quarterly Fine & Rare Books sale on Sept. 26, beginning at 11 a.m. Pacific time. The sale offers 400 lots of fine, rare, and significant material with high spots of science, medicine, literature, philosophy, politics, art, exploration, and other realms of human endeavor.
LiveAuctioneers.com will provide Internet live bidding.
Fine press books from the Collection of Phillip Keuhlen will feature striking examples from the Kelmscott, Doves, Golden Cockerel, Arion, Eragny, Incline, and other fine presses, with numerous publications from the Limited Editions Club. Also included are a selection of original photographs by Berenice Abbott, Ansel Adams, Joel Meyerowitz and Robert Misrach.
The sale will start with 288 fine and rare books. Among them is a fine example of the rare instructional text for pilots of the Casa de Contratacion in Seville, La Cosmographia y Geographia from 1570. This volume contains a full-page woodcut of an astronomer using a quadrant to observe the moon and a double-page woodcut world map after Gaspar Volpell and other fine illustrative woodcuts (estimate $30,000-$50,000).
Also included in the Fine & Rare section is the 1651 first edition of Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, his seminal work of political philosophy (estimate: $12,000-$18,000). De Sedibus, et Causis Morborum per Anatomen Indagatis by Giovanni Baptista Morgagni, 1761, is a foundation work on pathological anatomy and among a number of important medical texts in the auction (estimate: $10,000-$15,000). Discourses on Davila by John Adams, in the rare first edition in book form, is a series of essays written by Adams during his first term as vice president (estimate: $10,000-$15,000). The large folio Antiquités de la Grande Grèce, 1837 has over 100 plates from drawings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi of the ruins, buildings and artifacts of ancient Pompeii (estimate: $10,000-$15,000).
One of a number of fine original photographs in the auction is Spencer Tunick’s chromogenic print Nude Gathering – Santiago, Chile. Tunick, best known for organizing large-scale nude shoots, photographed thousands of naked Chileans lying on the ground (estimate: $7.000-$10,000).
The last part of the sale is dedicated to the fine press books from the collection of Phillip Keuhlen. He has collection a number of books issued in very limited numbers. Lepidoptera Fantastica, by Eric Korn and published by Gehenna Press, contains 14 original color etchings by Leonard Baskin, each signed and numbered in pencil; bound in cloth-backed marbled boards and housed in a cloth drop-back box, it is No. 15 of a total edition of 30 (estimate $2,000-$3,000). Kelmscott Press’s The Life and Death of Jason, A Poem from 1895 features full-page woodcuts and elaborate woodcut border designs and is one of 200 copies (Estimate: $2,500- $3,500). One of 40 copies is Traite de la Relieure des Livres finely custom bound by Don Rash in full red morocco, two bone pieces set the covers, custom box, plus a separate red morocco standing display case (estimate $600-$900).
For more information contact PBA Galleries at 415-989-2665 or pba@pbagalleries.com.
ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE
A full-page woodcut from the 1570 ‘La Cosmographia, y Geographia,’ a rare instructional text for pilots of the Casa de Contratacion in Seville. PBA Galleries image. ‘Lepidoptera Fantastica’ by Eric Korn and published by Gehenna Press contains 14 original color etchings by Leonard Baskin, each signed and numbered in pencil.’ PBA Galleries image. ‘Leviathan’ by Hobbes. PBA Galleries image. ‘Life and Death of Jason,’ Kelmscott Press. PBA Galleries image. ‘Nude Gathering’ by Spencer Tunick. PBA Galleries image. ‘Traite de la Relieure des Livres.’ PBA Galleries image.
