BERKELEY, Calif. – On Thursday, Nov. 7, PBA Galleries will offer an auction of Art & Illustration – Fine Books. The auction will feature over 425 lots featuring original art, prints from old masters to the Bauhaus, rock posters and the art of the underground—with collectible children’s books including Bertuch’s Bilderbuch fur Kinder series, several signed works by Edward Gorey, an Oz library and more. Bid absentee or live online through LiveAuctioneers.
PBA will showcase rare first edition, signed and illustrated children’s books. Standouts include lovely hand-colored illustrations in an early children’s book series, Bilderbuch zum Nutzen und Vergnügen der Jugend (1802-c.1813). The series (above) is described as “a pleasing collection of animals, plants, flowers, fruits, minerals, costumes and all manner of instructive objects from the realms of nature, the arts and sciences; all selected and engraved from original works and accompanied by a short scientific commentary adapted to the comprehension of the child” ($7,000-$10,000).
Three classic Winnie-the-Pooh limited first editions, signed by A.A. Milne and illustrator Ernest H. Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner are limited editions 1/350 ($4,000-$6,000). Now We Are Six, 1/350, will also be on offer ($3,000-$5,000). Additionally, bidders can follow PBA’s yellow brick road to a first edition, first state copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum ($4,000-$6,000).
Significant European and American artists are well-represented in the auction. Austrian-American artist Betty Lark-Horovitz’s archive comprising over 1,000 individual pieces with assorted woodblock prints, etchings, engravings, drawings, film negatives, printing blocks, proof and ephemera ($4,000-$6,000) will garner active bidding.
From early modern France, Jacques Callot’s Les Deux Grandes Vues de Paris (c. 1630) are standout rarities (below). PBA has both the Vue du Louvre and Vue du Pont Neuf, separately offered etched views of Paris by the master printmaker from Alsace ($3,000-$5,000 each).
Other highlights include Liverdun by James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1858). The etching was drawn from nature during Whistler’s etching tour of the Rhineland in October 1858 ($1,500-$2,500).
Finally, Rick Griffin’s psychedelic Jimi Hendrix experience appears in a rare concert poster from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, John Mayall and the Blues Breakers, and Albert King at the Fillmore Auditorium and Winterland ($5,000-$8,000).
The sale will begin at 11 a.m. Pacific Time/2 p.m. Eastern. For more information, contact the galleries at 415-989-2665 or pba@pbagalleries.com.
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