NEW YORK – On Tuesday, August 1, starting at 7 pm Eastern time, Jasper52 will present a sale titled Ink of Ages: 15th-19th Century Antique Books. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.
The 501-lot sale delivers a generous range of titles printed before your grandparents were born. Choice examples include the first English-language edition of the first book on Africa written by an African, dating to 1600; a 13-volume edition on James Cook’s travels, printed between 1795 and 1803 in Dutch, and boasting more than 200 engravings; a treatise on medicinal plants, printed in French in 1680 and featuring almost 1,500 woodcuts; a 1580 copy of Plutarch’s Lives, in Latin; a 1784 first Spanish edition of Leonardo da Vinci’s Treatise of Painting; and a 1580 first edition of Illustrated History of Popes, with portraits of the 130 men who had held the office to that point in time.
Also of note is a 1672 study of Roman funerals by the German scholar Kirchmann; an alphabetical dictionary of Greek idioms, published in 1588; a 1778 edition of Aesop’s Fables; a seven-volume set of the dramatic works of William Shakespeare, printed in Boston in 1849; Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in eight volumes printed in 1827; and a scarce 1582 first edition on ancient Roman gladiatorial displays.
First among the highlights of the August 1 sale is a 1627 King James Bible, published in London by Bonham Norton and John Bill. It is estimated at $2,000-$2,500.
Also featured is a five-volume set of post-incunabula volumes, published in Paris between 1500 and 1515, of Sermons by Olivier Maillard, a Franciscan friar who was confessor to King Charles VIII. According to the lot notes, Maillard “owes his reputation to the brutality of his sermons where he borrows from those he blames a coarse language, peppered with words taken from the wrong places.” Its estimate is $4,000-$5,000.
Completing the highlights is a circa-1930s travel poster touting the charms of Soviet Armenia, estimated at $1,500-$2,000. The unknown designer deftly contrasted a bucolic landscape with the marvels of the age: a train streaking across a viaduct and a glamorous-looking car rolling between one of the viaduct’s arches.
[av_button label=’Click to view the auction catalog and sign up to bid’ icon_select=’no’ icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ link=’manually,https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/296415_ink-of-ages-15th-19th-century-antique-books/’ link_target=’_blank’ size=’small’ position=’center’ label_display=” title_attr=” size-text=” av-desktop-font-size-text=” av-medium-font-size-text=” av-small-font-size-text=” av-mini-font-size-text=” margin=” margin_sync=’true’ padding=” padding_sync=’true’ av-desktop-margin=” av-desktop-margin_sync=’true’ av-desktop-padding=” av-desktop-padding_sync=’true’ av-medium-margin=” av-medium-margin_sync=’true’ av-medium-padding=” av-medium-padding_sync=’true’ av-small-margin=” av-small-margin_sync=’true’ av-small-padding=” av-small-padding_sync=’true’ av-mini-margin=” av-mini-margin_sync=’true’ av-mini-padding=” av-mini-padding_sync=’true’ color_options=” color=’theme-color’ custom_bg=’#444444′ custom_font=’#ffffff’ btn_color_bg=’theme-color’ btn_custom_grad_direction=’vertical’ btn_custom_grad_1=’#000000′ btn_custom_grad_2=’#ffffff’ btn_custom_grad_3=” btn_custom_grad_opacity=’0.7′ btn_custom_bg=’#444444′ btn_color_bg_hover=’theme-color-highlight’ btn_custom_bg_hover=’#444444′ btn_color_font=’theme-color’ btn_custom_font=’#ffffff’ btn_color_font_hover=’white’ btn_custom_font_hover=’#ffffff’ border=” border_width=” border_width_sync=’true’ border_color=” border_radius=” border_radius_sync=’true’ box_shadow=” box_shadow_style=’0px,0px,0px,0px’ box_shadow_color=” animation=” animation_duration=” animation_custom_bg_color=” animation_z_index_curtain=’100′ hover_opacity=” sonar_effect_effect=” sonar_effect_color=” sonar_effect_duration=’1′ sonar_effect_scale=” sonar_effect_opac=’0.5′ css_position=” css_position_location=’,,,’ css_position_z_index=” av-desktop-css_position=” av-desktop-css_position_location=’,,,’ av-desktop-css_position_z_index=” av-medium-css_position=” av-medium-css_position_location=’,,,’ av-medium-css_position_z_index=” av-small-css_position=” av-small-css_position_location=’,,,’ av-small-css_position_z_index=” av-mini-css_position=” av-mini-css_position_location=’,,,’ av-mini-css_position_z_index=” id=” custom_class=” template_class=” av_uid=’av-8g51b4u’ sc_version=’1.0′ admin_preview_bg=”]
Click to view top auction results on LiveAuctioneers: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/pages/recent-auction-sales/