Auction House Specializing in Photographs, Posters, Prints & Drawings, Books, Maps, Autographs, and African-American Fine Art.
In the world of rare bibles a typo is worth a lot. Bible errors have led some bibles to be known for their mistakes such as the so-called wicked bible which has a omitted a crucial "not" in one of the commandments, turning it into "thou shalt commit adultery." ...more
Two of Swann Galleries’ autumn auctions feature desirable Bibles from the collection of Mel and Julie Meadows—it is the largest offering of Bibles to come up for auction in recent years. The September 17 auction of Printed & Manuscript Americana offers American examples; while the October 20 Early Printed Books sale features 59 early English Bibles and other religious texts.
The Meadows collected important editions of the Bible in English, and among their treasures are such rarities as the 1781-82 Aitken Bible, also known as the Bible of the Revolution. It was the first complete Bible in English printed in America and the only Bible ever authorized by Congress. Fewer than 100 copies are known to exist. Estimate: $40,000 to $60,000.
Also estimated at $40,000 to $60,000 is a later 17th-century edition of the Bay Psalm Book. This new translation of the Psalms by the colonists was the first book printed in British North America and went through several editions after its original publication in 1640, The copy offered here is thought to date from 1682. All of these editions are extremely scarce and rarely appear on the market.
Noteworthy in the October 20 sale are early editions of the major English Bible translations. These include the 1540 edition of the Great Bible, the first English-language version authorized for public use, here in an early 19th century Masonic binding ($15,000 to $20,000); a hand-colored copy of the 1552 first illustrated quarto edition of the Tyndale version ($15,000 to $25,000); the 1560 first edition of the Geneva Bible, which became the household Bible of Elizabethan England ($20,000 to $30,000); the 1568 first edition of the lavishly illustrated Bishops’ Bible, which replaced the Great Bible as the version authorized for church use; and the 1613-11 second edition of the King James version, known as the “She” Bible because of the reading “she” instead of “he” in Ruth 3:15 ($10,000 to $15,000).
Another Bible with a typographical variation is the “Vinegar Bible,” Oxford, 1717-16, which contains the word “vinegar” instead of “vineyard” in Luke 20, among other misprints ($3,000 to $5,000).
For schedule of public previews and auctions, please visit Swann Galleries' website.
It’s the kind of story that makes people clean out their attics, maybe the garage and shed where grandma used to store the old trunks. It’s a local tale for fans of “Antiques Roadshow.” more...
Rats Carry off the Dollars, 1924, is estimated to sell between $1,000 and $1,500
In the desert of summer auctions, Swann’s colorful sale of vintage posters is an oasis. The selection on Aug. 5 includes some serious images, such as the unforgettable First World War poster exhorting young men to “ENLIST,” the giant letters suspended beneath a haunting image of two ghostly victims of the Lusitania disaster, a veritable Madonna and Child.But, for the most part, the posters in the sale, some of which date back to the nineteenth century, are happy evocations of pleasurable and chic destinations such as Cannes, Monte Carlo, Biarritz, Hawaii, and Mykonos; in one particularly lovely example, an impossibly elegant couple surveys the manicured grounds of a fancy hotel at Saint-Honoré-les-Bains, circa 1928. The auction also features a series of sports posters celebrating football, track and field, and baseball.
Charles White's General Moses (Harriet Tubman), Chinese ink on illustration board, 1965,
