In a PBA report (see Seventeenth century diversions..., above) I have mentioned a collection of early editions of Walton’s Compleat Angler which sold for $80,000, and there was, too, one of those famous Noble Fragment volumes of 1921, each of which contains a single leaf from a Gutenburg Bible of 1455, that here sold for $30,000 (£20,690).
A 1784 French prayer book in a contemporary embroidered binding which, in gold, silver and coloured threads picks out the arms, monogram and distinctive cross of Charles Alexandre de Lorraine, made $7500 (£5170), and the 1809 edition of Tacitus pictured here, in an Edwards of Halifax-type painted vellum binding decorated with views of Buckingham Palace and Garrick’s villa at Hampton, was sold at $4000 (£2760).
Before we get to New Zealand
The principal focus of the Christie’s Los Angeles sale of February 22 was a collection of Pacific voyages, with particular emphasis on New Zealand, and I shall return to that sale next week (see issue no. 1483) – but there were a few other things as well.
