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Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), Frankenstein, engraved frontispiece and title page. Third edition, features picture of monster. Image courtesy of Gray’s Auctioneers.

Shelley’s Frankenstein in the spotlight at Gray’s, May 6

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), Frankenstein, engraved frontispiece and title page. Third edition, features picture of monster. Image courtesy of Gray’s Auctioneers.
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1851), Frankenstein, engraved frontispiece and title page. Third edition, features picture of monster. Image courtesy of Gray’s Auctioneers.

CLEVELAND – Gray’s Auctioneers will conduct its first Fine Printed Books Auction on May 6, 2010, with Internet live bidding provided by LiveAuctioneers.com. The online-only sale will include travel guides, illustrated books, art books, modern first editions and sets.

Among the highlights of the sale is a third edition of Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece Frankenstein. This was the first edition of the title to include an illustration of the monster as well as Shelley’s introduction in which she explains the origin of the story written while on holiday at Lake Geneva with her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron. The estimate is $1,500-$2,500.

Numerous books illustrated by Maxfield Parrish are being offered, including Irving’s A History of New York, Hawthorne’s Wonder Books and Tanglewood Tales, his fine collaboration with Edith Wharton Italian Villas and Their Gardens, and numerous others. Estimates range from $75-$100 to $400-$600.

Other important lots include a first edition of George Burchett’s Memoirs of a Tattooist based on his 55-year career as Britain’s most famous tattoo artist (estimate: $200-$300); Edward Gordon Craig’s Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, etc., A Book of Portraits signed by both Irving and Terry (estimate: $200-$300), and Gustave Witkowski’s curious treatise on décolletage titled Tetoniana, Anecdotes historiques er religieuses sur les aeins et l’allaitement comprenant l’histoire du décolletage et du corset (estimate: $100-$200).

This sale is online and absentee only.

View the fully illustrated catalog and register to bid absentee or live via the Internet as the sale is taking place by logging on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.

ADDITIONAL LOTS OF NOTE

Four-volume set of Joan Miro (Spanish, 1893-1983) lithographs, Fernand and Michel Mourlot, Barcelona. First edition in Spanish. Image courtesy of Gray’s Auctioneers.
Four-volume set of Joan Miro (Spanish, 1893-1983) lithographs, Fernand and Michel Mourlot, Barcelona. First edition in Spanish. Image courtesy of Gray’s Auctioneers.

Slavery and Emancipation, dated 23 November, 1850, with the certificate of freedom from the Clerk of the Circuit Court of St. Louis, dated 3 December 1850, on verso. Image courtesy of Gray’s Auctioneers.
Slavery and Emancipation, dated 23 November, 1850, with the certificate of freedom from the Clerk of the Circuit Court of St. Louis, dated 3 December 1850, on verso. Image courtesy of Gray’s Auctioneers.

Gerard De Jode (1509-1591) series of 15 circa-1580s engraved plates. Image courtesy of Gray’s Auctioneers.
Gerard De Jode (1509-1591) series of 15 circa-1580s engraved plates. Image courtesy of Gray’s Auctioneers.