Bloomsbury Auctions

2010-03-02

Medicine, Science, Antiquarian Books including Travel and Topography

Bloomsbury’s sale of Medicine, Science, Antiquarian Books including Travel & Topography on 10th March will particularly excite collectors of books on medicine and science.

The first 166 lots were carefully put together by a single private owner; amongst the highlights is A Systeme of Anatomy in two volumes by Samuel Collins (lot 38) which has 73 engraved plates, is dated 1685 and is estimated £2500-3500. Another impressive work is a second edition of William Cowper’s The Anatomy of Humane Bodies (lot 46) with 114 engraved plates and which is expected to fetch £1500-2000. Lot 53 is a scarce earlier Anatomy of Human Bodies by Isbrand de Diemerbroeck of 1689 estimated £600-800. The two volume 1726 History of Physick by John Freind (lot 62) is noteworthy, as Freind was the first English historian of medicine; he planned this work while in The Tower of London charged with high treason (estimate £200-300). It has been said that Giovanni Battista Morgagni was the true founder of modern pathological anatomy and this collection includes the first English edition of The Seats and Causes of Diseases (1769), estimated £1000-1500 (lot 116). Another interesting first English edition is Ambroise Pare’s The Workes translated by Thomas Johnson (lot 122). Pare was not only considered the greatest of army surgeons, but he also popularised the truss, introduced artificial limbs and dental implants (estimate £2000-3000).

Amongst the books on Mathematics is lot 211 a first edition of George Boole’s 1854 scarce An Investigation of the Laws of Thought (estimate £2000-3000). Boole invented the first practical system of logic in algebraic form and today most who understand the workings of a computer, are familiar with Boolean Logic. Particularly eye-catching and rare amongst the Antiquarian Books, is The History of the Barbarous Cruelties and Massacres Committed by the Dutch in the East Indies by Richard Hall of 1712 (lot 247) expected to fetch between £1000-1500. The Travel and Topography section of the sale offer a gentler more poetic view of life; on pastoral note is lot 263, the charming two volume An History of the River Thames by John and Josiah Boydell (estimate) of 1794-96. Dedicated to Horace Walpole, it has 76 fine hand-coloured aquatint views and is estimated £2500-3500.

2010-02-10

Natural History & Travel Books, Maps and Photographs (25th-26th February 2010).

The ornithological library of the late Peter Goodfellow is an important part of Bloomsbury’s two day sale of Natural History & Travel Books, Maps and Photographs (25th-26th February 2010).

Comprising some 213 lots, the collection has several gems for bird enthusiasts, such as the (mainly) first edition 132 volume set of The New Naturalist Library (lot 40) inscribed by the author William Collins and estimated £3000-5000. British ornithologists will particularly appreciate the first local avifauna, Ornithologia Dammoniensis Devonshire Birds by Andrew Trucker, 1809 (lot 184) estimated £1500-2000). A great rarity is the four volume lot 77 British Ornithology, Containing Portraits of all the British Birds of 1815-22 by John Hunt with 181 hand-coloured plates and which carries an estimate £1500-1800. Another good generic set is Edward Donovan’s 1794-1819 The Natural History of British Birds in 10 volumes, with 245 hand-coloured plates(lot 52) and estimated £2000-4000. A particularly charming item in the collection, is lot 197 which consists of 32 fine coloured pen and ink drawings on vellum of Tancnwch Birds by the potter Mollie Winterburn (estimate £600-900). Other ornithological books from private collections include Henry Leonard Meyer’s 1835-41 Illustrations of British Birds (lot 316), which is regarded as ‘the finest and most complete atlas of portraits of British avifauna (with their eggs) ever published’ and is estimated £3500-5000.

This sale also includes four items by Charles Darwin (lots 378-381); lot 378 is the 3rd edition of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection of 1860 and has the first use of Darwin’s renowned phrase ‘survival of the fittest’(estimated £800-1200). Amongst the many interesting titles is also The Natural History of British Shells by Edward Donovan (lot 415) with 180 hand-coloured plates, which is estimated £1000-1500.

Lots 442-539 are a single owner collection of books on Mediterranean islands including a first edition of John Skinner’s Roughing it in Crete in 1867 (estimate £250-350). In the Africa section are two photograph albums (lot 542) documenting the survey of the difficult terrain of swamps, rivers and mountains which were crossed when building the Benguela Railway in Angola from 1909-11 (estimate £800-1200). Another interesting photograph album of Africa is lot 548 by BW Caney and is datable to 1885; it has views of Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg showing the cultivation of coffee, tea, sugar cane, cotton etc and a good group of 15 portrait studies of Zulus and other South Africans (estimate £800-1200). An album of similar views including figure studies from the 1870s and 80s, is lot 562 which is estimated £1000-1500.

A particularly handsome and fine, leather-bound first edition is lot 586 Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter and Trader by John Long of 1791 which conveys the life and manners of the Indian and Canadian traders (estimate £1500-2000). A very eye-catching set of The Costume of the Russian Empire with 73 hand-coloured stipple-engraved plates of the early 19th century with contemporary green straight-grain morocco and gilt, is expected to fetch £4000-6000. A scarce first edition (only 325 copies were printed) of Voyage Dans le Levant by Louis Forbin of 1819 (lot 659) is one of the first important French books to use lithography on a grand scale (estimate £6000-8000). Another important work of lithography is Anatoly Nikolaevich Demidov’s Voyage Dans la Russie Meridionale et la Crimee...of 1842 (lot 716)which outlines his four month scientific and geological expedition to Ukraine and Crimea (estimate £5000-7000). The personal photograph album related to Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich (grandson of Alexander II) and his family (lot 722), is estimated £3000-4000.