A Medieval Masterpiece To Call Your Own

By Nancy Mattoon

Sir Gawain In Battle,
An Image From The Rochefoucauld Grail.
(All Images Courtesy of Sotheby's.)

Medieval romances of chivalry have inspired everyone from Tennyson to Twain, from T.H. White to T.S. Eliot, from Walt Disney to Monty Python, and from Richard Wagner to Lerner & Lowe. But there was a time when the many tales of King Arthur and the Knights of The Round Table had just begun to be united into a single volume. Of the early collections telling the entire story of Camelot, one stood out in its size, scale and magnificence. It was known as The Rochefoucauld Grail, after the French nobleman for whom it was created, Guy VII, Baron de Rochefoucauld, sometime between 1315 and 1323.

Sir Lancelot And Sir Gawain In A Cart, Being Pelted With Filth.

The artists and scribes who produced this four-volume illuminated masterpiece for Baron de Rochefoucauld are known to have created only three copies. Two complete four-volume sets belong to the British Library. The fourth volume of what once was the Baron's set is now in two parts, with half of it owned by the Bodleian in Oxford and half by the John Rylands University Library in Manchester. And what of Rochefoucauld's other three volumes? Well, if you have about $3 million burning a hole in your pocket, they can be all yours on December 7, 2010.

Sir Lancelot About To Behead Melyagans.

Sotheby's of London will be auctioning off three volumes of what is believed to be one of the finest medieval manuscripts still in private hands. Created in Flanders or Artois, the volumes are presumed to have belonged to the Rochefoucauld family for nearly 500 years, until they were were dispersed in the 1720's. Three of the volumes were reunited in the early 1800's by Sir Thomas Phillipps (d.1872), possibly the greatest modern collector of medieval manuscripts. It is these three that will go under the hammer at the request of their current owner, Joost Ritman, for the benefit of his private library, the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica in Amsterdam.

Sir Lancelot Attempts To Take His Own Life.

Dr. Timothy Bolton, medieval manuscripts expert and head of this sale at Sotheby’s, emphasized the opulence of the Rochefoucauld Grail, "It is the most extraordinary thing, a manuscript of royal quality, on a stupendous scale – I put my back out twice carrying the three volumes. It would have taken 200 cows to get the vellum, and the illuminations are in rare and costly minerals, against a background of thick gold made from coins beaten flat. Are we selling it cheap compared to its 14th-century cost? Of course we are." (Something to bear in mind as you mortgage the house, empty the kid's college fund, and cash in your 401K to scrape up the money for that winning bid.)

Queen Guinevere Leading A Wounded Sir Lancelot.

Having been sold very few times over the past 700 years, and only twice in the 20th century, the Rochfoucauld Grail is in amazingly good condition. Most manuscripts of the same era have literally been read to shreds. As Dr. Bolton points out, "It is a grand book, in a monumental format, with 107 miniatures, each a dazzling jewel of early Gothic illumination. The subjects are almost entirely secular – a breathtakingly unusual thing at the time – with scenes of jousts, tournaments and battles, noble adventures and daring tests of strength and courage. The scenes often have a riotous energy, and often stretch beyond the boundaries of the picture frames, with lofty towers poking through the borders at the top, and figures tumbling out of the miniatures onto the blank page as they fall or scramble to escape their enemies."

King Arthur Battles The Saxons.

And Bolton has one more thing to add to those naysayers who don't think spending you last dime on this baby is a swell idea, "Who would buy such a thing? Who in their senses if they had the money would not?" Information on bidding is available on Sotheby's website.
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Fashion Takes a Hike: Jane Austen in Drab Boards Walks the Runway at Sotheby's

by Stephen J. Gertz

The fashionable, glitzy, and glamorous world of rare books is rocked by the news that The Library of an English Bibliophile's collection of Jane Austen first editions will be seen in public wearing nothing but the dull, drab, and dreary publisher's original boards they were brought into the world with when they make their debut at Sotheby's in London, October 28, 2010.

Basil Tombstone-Epitaph, high society arbiter of taste, declared, "Books should be seen and not read. In outfits like this I'd rather be dead."

Collectors disagree. " I like my books like I like my women. Plain and simple on the outside, just like they were on the day they were born, readable on the inside," the mysterious English Bibliophile said.

The Mysterious English Bibliophile.
Artist sketch based upon witness sightings.

Indeed, first editions published during the Regency Period, their cheap bindings a scandal, are highly sought-after. The original buyers routinely took their copies to a binder and had simple-to-elaborate leather bindings made for them. Who knew that someday people would actually pay top dollar for the book as-is? Books in their original boards are rare; from this era, scarce.

A Celebrity-Only, Strictly on the Down-Low Sneak Preview was held in Sotheby's Sales Room in print. Booktryst was, of course, invited. Here's our report.

[AUSTEN, Jane]. Sense and Sensibility: A Novel. In Three Volumes.
By a Lady.
London: Printed for the Author, by C. Roworth, 1811.
Gilson A1. Keynes 1. Sadleir 62a.

Sense and Sensibility has never made more sense than in this sober frock. Three for the price of one! Quarter warm cream over misty-blue paper-covered cardboard with irresistibly attractive paper spine labels in roseate cockatoo pink. Look at them - so very little loss, and all text intact and va-va-voom visible! A bit soiled but we like our books a bit soiled, it shows character; the book's been around, it knows a thing or two, if you know what I mean. Only seven copies in this garb have come to auction in the last thirty-five years. It's sensibly estimated to sell for $62,500 - $93,500. And, did I mention? Uncut!

[AUSTEN, Jane]. Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion:
By the Author of "Pride and Prejudice;" Mansfield Park," &c.
With a Biographical Notice of the Author. In Four Volumes.
London: John Murray, 1818.
Gilson A9. Keynes 9. Sadleir 62e.

Dear Northanger Abbey:

My husband has fallen in love with another book! Like you, it was completed in 1798 (or 1799) and then substantially revised over time until posthumously published in 1818. He's in love with a ghost! Whatever shall I do?  It's spooky! Literary Ectoplasm-Envy in Zanesville, OH.

Dear L.E-E.:

BOO! (Sorry).

Look no further than this fine copy of my autobiography, published together with "Baby Jane" Austen's Persuasion! Proletarian-chic grey-brown boards, original spine labels, with the rubbing, bumps, and spots you'd expect to see from schlepping through one collection to another over the past 192 years but rarely so charmant for the wear! The estimate of $31,200 - $46,700 is quite persuasive, n'est pas?

[AUSTEN, Jane]. Emma:  A Novel. In Three Volumes.
By the Author of "Pride and Prejudice."
London: Printed for John Murray, 1816.
Gilson A8. Keynes 8. Sadleir 62d.

Just because she stooped from her class to appear in this fashion disaster don't think Emma clueless! All things considered, look at how fresh and clean she looks. She really knows how to wear clothes, transforming these sad-rags into glad-rags. Sheer elegance! This is surely her finest outfit. Yes, a few flaws to her spine labels but I like my books the way I like my women, with scars. Saddle-stitched, a plus. Estimated at only $31,200 - $46,700, this plain Jane Emma is the  emmis!

[AUSTEN, Jane]. Pride and Prejudice: A Novel in Three Volumes.
By the Author of "Sense and Sensibility."
Printed for T. Egerton, 1813.
Gilson A3. Keynes 3. Sadleir 62b. Ticknor 204.

Don't let pride and prejudice allow you to judge this book by its cover! Funeral-wear. Vapid. Lifeless. Ennui, oui? Non, ma cher! Only two copies of this most popular and lasting roman in its birthday suit have come to auction since 1975. To a collector, Yves St. Laurent could not have dressed her better; trés chic! Rebound in contemporary calf, it's a $65,000 - $75,000 book. Here, in the original binding only a mother (or collector) could love, the estimate is $117,000 - $156,000. C'est magnifique! 

[BRONTË, Anne]. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall..
By Acton Bell. In Three Volumes.
London: T.C. Newby, 1848.
Smith 4. Parrish 91.

Jumping on the fashion bandwagon and bringing up the rear, the last word belongs to Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, from the looks of her way behind in rent and tenement-chic. But at least she has some cloth on her back! Feel free to hang your laundry on this copy, the only one in original boards to show its face at auction since Gerald Ford was president of the United States, Harold Wilson ruled Britannia, flared denim skirts ended just below the knee, bootboy parallel jeans stopped at mid-calf, and plumbers pants began at mid-butt. It's estimated to sell for $93,500 - $109,000. A rags to riches story!

The reaction from fabulous fashionistas was mixed.

Actress/trendster Chloe Sevigny in a fundamentalist Mormon blouse by J. Smith.
"I can take or leave the peasant look," she said. Then she left.

Vogue editor Anna Wintour and designer André Leon Talley
could not contain their enthusiasm.
"Take me to your leader," they each commanded a Sotheby's functionary.

"I like my books the way I like my women," fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld said.
"Nowhere near the bedroom.
But these could change my mind.
Now, take me to your leader!"

Actress and fashion designer wanna-be Lindsay Lohan,
in attendance on a pass from rehab and radiant in a J. Crew hoodie,
was intoxicated by what she saw.
"I take full responsibility for my actions," she seductively slurred
to this reporter before she was handcuffed and taken away.
"I'm blotto for books."

 Not to be outdone, James Boswell pushed that most reluctant of mannequins, the anti-poseur himself, Samuel Johnson, onto the runway for a pass before the press.

BOSWELL, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LLD.
Comprehending an account of his studies and numerous works,
in chronological order; A series of epistolary correspondence and
conversation with eminent persons; and various original pieces
of his compositions, never before published.
London: Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, 1791.
First edition, first issue (vol. 1, p.135, line 10, "gve for "give").
Pottle 79. Rothchild 463. Tinker 338.

Original blue-grey paper boards with cream paper spines later lettered in black ink, minor localized marginal worming in volume 1, sans initial blank leaf in volume 2, occasional light spotting or soiling to boards, joints cracking, extremities worn but who's complaining? It's just great  to see the old man out and about, even in this shabby suit and without the initial leaf to cover his privates.

"I like my books the way I like my women. Like friends: few, well chosen, and modestly attired," Samuel Johnson said.

Not exactly a Don Juanson, and spoken like a man who buys his books at J.C. Penny. But not at this estimate: $23,400 - $31, 200. That's a lot of pennies!

Too many other goodies falling under the hammer at this sale to list in their entirety. But yet another ne'er-do-well shows up in original drab  boards, appearing, like its author, tubercular.

KEATS, John. Poems.
London: (C. Richards) for C. and J. Ollier, 1817.
Ashley III, p. 9. Hayward 231.

Doesn't look like much but, wow, what a personality! Don't forget, Camille was a catch and her kisses were  sweet, if sanguine. Estimated at $32,200 - $46,700. Yet the fashion cognoscenti will notice that this modest little miss is missing a key accessory necessary to make her ensemble complete. With the called-for and wholly intact printed spine label it's a $100,000 book.

That wraps up our report on Sotheby's upcoming Library of an English Bibliophile sale. Next week, we're in Paris for Le Bibliothéque d'un Bibliophile Français Fou sale. Strict dress code enforced: Straight-jackets only. Dust jackets verboten.

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Images courtesy of Sotheby's. 

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Super Copy of Sherlock Holmes' Debut Estimated At $375,000-$600,000

The only known inscribed copy, apart from the author's own, of the first printing of A Study in Scarlet, the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes, will be auctioned at Sotheby's - London on July 15, 2010. Published in Beeton's Christmas Annual, November 1887, it is estimated to sell for £250,000 - £400,000 ($375,000 - $600,000).

Arthur Conan Doyle, at the time a respected though not particularly successful doctor in his mid-twenties, sold the story and copyright to the publisher, Ward, Lock and Co., for £25 ($37).

There are only three signed or inscribed copies recorded of this monument in  the detective genre of literature, one of the rarest and most highly sought books of modern times, (only twenty copies in U.S. and British libraries and merely eleven in private hands) a volume keenly desired by Doyle and/or detective fiction collectors all over the world: the author's copy, currently in the possession of the Estate of Dame Jean Conan Doyle (the author's youngest daughter, who died in 1997); that under notice; and a copy at Yale's Beineke Library. The copy at the Beineke Library, tragically however, was mutilated, its inscribed page excised at some point prior to March 2003, when the crime was discovered. This, then, is one of only two signed or inscribed copies known to exist.

Inscribed on the front endpaper, January 9, 1914.

"This is the very first independent book of mine which ever was published"

This copy was bound by Zaehnsdorf, c. 1914, in three-quarter morocco with the original color-printed wrappers preserved.

For many Boomers and below, their first exposure to Sherlock Holmes was through movies, the series starring Basil Rathbone providing the introduction with the many subsequent television and film incarnations of the master of deduction firmly and indelibly imprinting the character upon modern Western culture. The four Holmes novels and fifty-six short stories continue to attract and fascinate readers 123 years after this, Sherlock's first case.

 Classic Sherlock: Deerstalker hat, calabash pipe, and magnifying glass.

Boomers may have also met Sherlock and A Study in Scarlet through Classics Illustrated comic books, as did this writer.

#33, January 1947. 
Containing A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

  #110, August 1953. First Separate Comics Edition.

The first published and first comics edition of A Study in Scarlet share a similar literary and publishing culture. Both are pulp editions. After unsuccessfully trying to place the story with  traditional publishing houses Doyle finally broke down and sold it to Ward, Lock and Co. which had a reputation for making, in Doyle's words, "a specialty of cheap and sensational literature," the very definition of pulp lit. And, significantly, publishers of pulp literature routinely bought all rights, outright, from writers; the pulps were where many struggling authors paid their dues in lieu of earning royalties. Note, too, the sensationalistic, blood-red-bold-lettered wrapper design right out of the pulp playbook, created to attract the eye and invade and stir the imagination. This is one of the great works of pulp fiction.

The copy under notice possesses sterling provenance; it was once owned by famed Holmes collector and Baker Street Irregular, William S. Hall. As astounding as its estimated market value is, it would be dwarfed, I believe, by the Doyle copy currently in the possession of the Jean Doyle Estate; it's the holy grail of Holmesiana. Should that copy ever come to auction, I think it not unreasonable to estimate its market value at $700,000 - $900,000.

I'd like to acknowledge Sotheby's English Literature Specialists, Peter Selley, Dr. Philip Errington, and Dr. Gabriel Heaton, one of whom or in concert have written one of the best auction catalogue descriptions for a rare book I've read in quite a while. The full e-catalogue can be found here.

DOYLE, Sir Arthur Conan. A Study In Scarlet [in] Beeton's Christmas Annual, Twenty-eight Season. London: Ward, Lock and Co., [November 1887]. Illustrations by D.H. Friston.

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Continuing  our ongoing exploration of bibliographies of dubious worth as yet unwritten, i.e. Bobliography: A Bibliography of Books Written By Guys Named Bob, we add A Study in Scarlet to The Crimson Tidal Wave: A Check-List of Swell Literature With "Scarlet" in the Title.

1.  The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850).

2.  A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle (1887).

3.  In Scarlet and Grey by Thomas Hardy (1896).

4.  The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy (1905).

5.  The Scarlet Bat by Fergis Hume (1905).

6.  The Scarlet Plague by Jack London (1915).

7.   Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin (1928).

8.   A Scarlet Pansy by Robert Scully (1933).

9.   Scarlet Fever by George F. Dick (1937).

10. The Scarlet Ruse by John D. McDonald (1980).

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