Bauman Rare Books: October Holiday 2010 Catalogue

October Holiday 2010 Catalogue

Recentemente, saiu mais um belo Catálogo desta prestigiada livraria-atiquária americana. Como sempre recheada de obras de excepcional beleza e de grande raridade … claro que os preços estão de acordo com estes dois itens (mas, mesmo assim, parecem-me sempre um pouco elevados demais para certas obras – será apenas impressão minha?)

Reúne, como sempre, um conjunto de obras sobre vários temas, ainda que algumas mais viradas para o mercado americano, como aliás seria de esperar, mas com algumas outras também de interesse para nós europeus. Como curiosidade, apresenta já algumas propostas para ofertas natalícias – se calhar pelos seus preços… para se começar a economizar para a sua aquisição.

Índice do Catálogo

Apresenta igualmente o depoimento de um coleccionador americano, que como narrativa de uma experiência bibliófila, a sua leitura é sempre de utilidade para nós ... descontando evidentemente o carácter publicitário da mesma.

Como apontamentos de abertura, aqui ficam três exemplares para os apreciadores de encadernações. Grupo no qual, como é do conhecimento de todos, também estou incluído.

King James Bible

24. (BIBLE) (BOOK ARTS). The Holy Bible, Containing the Old Testament and the New. London: 1619. Thick 12mo, contemporary full white satin fully embroidered in colored silks, silver cords and thread silver braid, all edges gilt and gauffered.

Early edition of the King James Bible, bound with the Book of Common Prayer, Metrical Psalter and the Genealogies, which includes 34 pages of woodcut genealogies and a double-page woodcut map of the Holy Land (with an inset map of Jerusalem), in a splendid contemporary embroidered binding.

This early edition of the magisterial King James Bible, which was first published in 1611, has been lovingly bound in embroidered red satin. On both covers, a floral centerpiece in white, red, light green and dark green silks is surrounded by intricate silver thread work and smaller floral designs in blue, white and green. The spine is similarly adorned in floral designs of silver thread and multicolored silks. A roll border worked over with silver thread ornaments the outer edges. This highly decorative and unusual style of binding reached the height of its popularity and the pinnacle of its artistic development in the first half of the 17th century and is rarely found after the Restoration. The majority of such bindings were the work of professionals, members of the Guild of Embroiderers. Bible bound with an edition from the same year of Sternhold and Hopkins’ Metrical Psalter (bound after the New Testament), and with an edition from the same year of the Book of Common Prayer and the Genealogies (both bound before the Bible). With separate wood-engraved New Testament and Book of Common Prayer title pages. Includes Apocrypha. Text hand-ruled in red throughout. Darlow & Moule 287. Herbert 369. STC 2257. Early owner signature. Interior exceptionally clean. A few signatures partially sprung, cords holding. Far less than the expected age-wear to beautiful and delicate embroidered binding; colors still bright and beautiful. A splendid volume.

F. Scott FITZGERALD – The Beautiful and Damned. New York, 1922.

39.FITZGERALD, F. Scott. The Beautiful and Damned. New York, 1922. Octavo, modern full crushed blue morocco gilt.

First edition, first issue, an exceptional presentation/association copy whimsically inscribed by Fitzgerald to his friend and fellow author Hyatt Downing, “For Father Hyatt Downing S.D., A.P.A. P.H.D., T.A.B., S.O.L., D.D. O.K. Especially O.K. from F. Scott Fitzgerald, St. Paul March 2nd,” handsomely bound in elegant morocco gilt by Asprey.

“The Beautiful and Damned brought Fitzgerald accolades from those whose opinions he valued. Mencken congratulated him for staking out new ground… Fitzgerald was aiming high; he only wanted to be the best novelist of his generation” (Turnbull, 130-31). Fitzgerald wrote to Zelda in 1930, “I wish The Beautiful and Damned had been a maturely written book because it was all true. We ruined ourselves… I have never honestly thought that we ruined each other” (Bruccoli, 180). First issue, with “Published March, 1922” on copyright page.Without very scarce dust jacket. Recipient Hyatt Downing met Fitzgerald when both “were at the center of an extraordinary colony of writers, artists and art patrons that flourished briefly in St. Paul in the early 1920s” (Haeg, 171). Downing, who sold his first story in the early 1920s to Scribner’s Magazine, became a successful author and, like Fitzgerald, later worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood. A fine presentation copy.

BOSWELL, James – The Life of Samuel Johnson. London, 1791

BOSWELL, James – The Life of Samuel Johnson. London, 1791

50. (JOHNSON, Samuel) BOSWELL, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson. London, 1791. Two volumes. Tall quarto, contemporary full brown tree calf rebacked.

First edition of the greatest of literary biographies, handsomely bound in contemporary tree calf.

“Everyone with an interest in Johnson is very much in debt to Boswell not only for the years of devotion he invested in the study of Johnson’s life, but for the uncanny skill with which he conveyed the quality of Johnson’s personality and his effect on the people about him. If there had been no Boswell, Johnson would have been one of the most famous names in English literature; but that he has become a household name… is due to the chance that brought Boswell into his company… Boswell is the sniffing bloodhound who will follow the scent of individuality into whatever territory it leads him. The fascination of their dialogue, that dialogue of mind, heart and voice round which Boswell organized his great Life, is that it is not merely between two very different men but between two epochs. In its pages, Romantic Europe speaks to Renaissance Europe, and is answered” (Wain, 229)

Volume I is second state, with “gve” corrected to “give” on page 135, line 10 (a change made before publication). With the engraved portrait of Johnson by James Heath after Sir Joshua Reynolds in Volume I and two engraved plates in Volume II. Early armorial bookplates. Interiors generally quite fresh with only light scattered foxing. contemporary tree calf boards with expert restoration.

Na Secção 2: Literature apresenta um excelente conjunto de obras de Oscar Wilde, das quais deixo as páginas respectivas para uma consulta mais rápida.

 

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A Secção 3: Historical Figures: Presidents, Statesmen, Royalty and Warriors apresenta um conjunto importante de obras sobre Napoleão Bonaparte, figura tão controversa como incontornável da História.

 

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Na Secção 7: Travel and Exploration, saliento a obra  136. (EGYPT) BRUCE, James. Travels to Discovery the Source of the Nile. Edinburgh, 1790. Five volumes. Thick quarto, modernhalf brown calf gilt. 

Catálogo – pág. 104

Para terminar, refiro este livro sempre apetecível, para os apreciadores de livros ilustrados e amantes de ornitologia:

10. AUDUBON, John James. The Birds of America, from Drawings Made in the United States and Their Territories. New York: 1861. Seven volumes. Royal octavo, original full blind-tooled brown morocco gilt.

Muito ficou por referir, em parte propositadamente, pois apenas quis estimular a vontade para a vossa leitura e consulta do conteúdo deste magnífico catálogo.

Saudações bibliófilas.