52 24th September 2011 antiquarian books


Left: Snowy and Tintin added to a presentation inscription by Hergé to a 1976 first of Tintin et les Picaros sold for £1900 by Bloomsbury Auctions.


illustrations continued from page 51


23rd and last completed title in Hergé’s series of comic-strip books, and the Picaros of the title are a drunken guerilla band under the command of Tintin’s old friend, the hen-pecked General Alcazar. See also the Dogs’ Party, a Dean’s


‘Moveable’ book – sold recently by Tennants – illustrated on page 50.


British & Irish Book Auctions


Sep 21@ Sep 21*@ Sep 21*


Sep 21*@


Books & Maps. incl. Travel, Bibles, Sport, Dominic Winter – Sth Cerney (01285 860006) 36-lot Book Section, J.P. Humbert – Towcester (01327 359595)


Book & Ephemera Section, McCubbing & Redfern – Wells (01749 678099) Sporting Book Section, Golding Young & Thos. Mawer – Lincoln (01522 524984)


Sep 22@ Cetus Library: Food/Drink, Gardens, Agric., Soc. History, Bloomsbury Auctions (020 7495 9494) Sep 22*@ Sep 22*@ Sep 23*@ Sep 24*@ Sep 24*@ Sep 24*@ Sep 24*@ Sep 24*@ Sep 27


Sep 27@ Sep 27*


Sep 28*@ Sep 28-29*


Sep 28-30*@ Sep 28*


Sep 28*@ Sep 29* @ Sep 29@


Sep 29-30@ Oct 1*


Books, Maps (incl. Cornish) & MSS, Bonhams – Oxford (01865 853648) Books, Maps & Prints, Cheffins – Cambridge (01223 213343) Book Section, Eldreds – Plymouth (01752 721199)


16-lot Book Section incl. Wisdens, Bearnes Hampton Littlewood – Exeter (01404 510000) Book Section, Ewbank Clarke Gammon Wellers – Send (01483 223101) 80-lot Book & Bindings Section, Bamfords – Derby (01332 210000) Book Section, incl. A.A.Milne Firsts, Jefferys – Lostwithiel (01208 871947) 75-lot Book Section: Golf Memorabilia, Mullocks – Ludlow (01694 771771) Book & Ephemera Sections: Rugby & Football Sale, Mullocks – Ludlow (01694 771771) Travel, Science & Natural History, Christie’s South Kensington (020 7752 3165) Antiquarian & General Books, Maps, Ephemera, Keys – Aylsham (01263 733195) Film & Opera Book Sections, Mulberry Bank Auctions – Glasgow (0141 225 8181)


Sales marked with an * are those in which books and ephemera form part of a larger sale. Sales marked @ are viewable on antiquestradegazette.com. Auctioneers are asked to send details of specialist book sales, as well as those sales that may contain significant book and ephemera sections, to: Ian McKay Tel: (01795) 890475 • Fax: (01795) 890014 • ianmckay1@btinternet.com


34-lot Book, Map & Ephemera Section, Martel Maides – Guernsey (01481 722700) 20-lot Book Section, Wright Manley – Beeston Castle (01829 262150) 40-lot Book Section, Rendells – Ashburton (01364 653017)


54-lot Book Section, Churchgate Auctions – Leicester (0116 287 4856) Book & Ephemera Section,Whytes – Dublin (+353 1 676 2888) 13-lot Book Section, Addisons – Barnard Castle (01833 690545)


61-lot Book/Cat. Section: Woodworking Tool Sale, David Stanley – Whitwick (01530 222320) Book Section, Barnes Auctions (020 8878 9223)


On the comic front, Dominic Winter


came up with a copy of the 1938 first issue of Beano on June 16. The ‘Whoopee Mask’ given away free with the launch issue was no longer present and the upper cover was a little browned, but it sold at a mid-estimate £8000. A 1937, first issue of Dandy, valued at £3000-5000, failed to sell. At Comic Book Auctions on June 7, a


Frank Hampson colour artwork for a ‘Dan Dare’ story published in Eagle in 1956 sold well at £3025.


The wonder of Worm’s Wunderkammer


MUSEUM Wormianum..., published by Elzevir in Leiden and Amsterdam in 1655, was the posthumously published, first illustrated catalogue of the most famous Scandinavian Wunderkammer – that formed by Olaus Wormius also known as Ole Worm (1588-1654). A distinguished Professor of Medicine


in Copenhagen, Worm’s interests were far ranging and in 1642-43 he had published the earliest written accounts of the rune stones of Denmark and Norway, one of few early sources for many inscriptions now lost. Worm was familiar with other


Wunderkammern of his age, and is known to have visited that of Ferrante Imperato of Naples in 1609, to have seen Bernardus Paludanus’ collection at Enkhuizen in the following year, and in 1611 travelled to Kassel to the Kunstkammer of Moritz the Learned. In turn, his own collection received its


fair share of visitors, encouraged by the appearance in 1642 of a modest but now exceptionally rare handbook, and became one of the city’s major attractions. Worm’s collection was divided in


traditional manner into natural and artificial objects and the double- page, engraved title-cum-frontispiece reproduced above from a copy offered by Lyon & Turnbull on September 7, shows the arrangement of its contents on open shelves, along with boxes and trays of shells, minerals, stones, rare earths and animal bones. The larger specimens on the higher


shelves are mixed in with bronzes, antiquities, ethnographical items, racks of spears and utensils, while horns, antlers and stuffed animals hang on the wall, and from the ceiling are suspended large fish, a rather small polar bear and even a Greenland kayak.


The Edinburgh copy, in a dustmarked


period vellum binding, now splitting at the hinges but internally clean and bright, was described as lacking the portrait but as having an unspecified number of woodcuts and engravings in the text. According to my copy of Paul Grinke’s


From Wunderkammer to Museum (Quaritch, 2006), a work to which I am indebted for much of my background, these amount to the double-page title engraving seen here, 139 woodcuts and 13 text engravings. The Edinburgh copy sold at £3100 and only two others have made more at auction. In 2008, the Macclesfield Library


copy, in English blind stamped calf of the period, and with the portrait and title-frontispiece both present but detached, sold at £5500 at Sotheby’s, and in 2001, the ex-Hopetoun Library copy, in contemporary calf, made $9500 (then £6365) as part of Joseph Freilich’s scientific library at Sotheby’s New York. After Worm’s death the museum was


purchased by Frederick III of Denmark and transferred to Copenhagen Castle, later being absorbed into the Danish Royal Kunstkammer, but before it moved, Worm’s son had prepared this catalogue for publication.


BUYER’S PREMIUMS


Bloomsbury Auctions, London: 22% to £250,000, 12% thereafter Christie’s & Sotheby’s, London: 25% to £25,000, 20% to £500,000, 12% thereafter Christie’s & Sotheby’s, New York: 25% to $50,000, 20% to $1m, 12% thereafter Comic Book Auctions: 10% Dominic Winter, Sth. Cerney: 17.5% Lyon & Tunbull, Edinburgh: 25% to £25,000, 20% thereafter Tennants, Leyburn: 15% to £50,000, 10% thereafter NB: premiums may not apply or have been set at different levels where prices from sales of previous years are quoted. Exchange rates are those in effect on the day of sale.


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