Archive: Business & Technology

National Book Auctions, located in Ithaca, NY hosted early and late-June auctions featuring a wide assortment of Ireland-related material, incunabulum, children’s books and signed first editions. Among the featured items was an 1819 First Edition of “Constitutional Law: Comprising The Declaration of Independence; The Articles of Confederation; The Constitution of the United States; And the Constitutions of the Several States Composing the Union” (uncredited) which fetched a $1,500 hammer price (including buyer’s premium).

Also sold at the gallery in June was a 1493 printing of “Tragoediae” by Lucius Annaeus Seneca. This Latin piece of incunabulum is a collection of tragedies from the acclaimed Roman philosopher and dramatist, Lucius Annaeus Seneca. This volume contains ten tragedies, including: Hercules Furens, Thyestes, Thebais, Hippolytus, Oedipus, Troas, Medea, Agamenon, Octavia and Hercules Oetheus and realized a hammer price of $1,620 (including buyer’s premium).

Alongside the hundreds of other lots, was a 1913 Limited Edition printing of “Designs on the Dances of Vaslav Nijinsky” by George Barbier. Bound in large cream thin-card wrappers with blue and black lettering and a pictorial design on the upper cover, this antique volume is a scarce limited edition of acclaimed artist George Barbier's collection of illustrations, translated into English by C. W. Beaumont and containing a foreword by Francis de Miomandre. This work is from a limited edition printing, number 99 of 400 and was the sole edition printed in English. The hand-colored volume sold for $2,280 (including buyer’s premium).


Accompanied by numerous other antique and vintage children’s books was a 1912 copy of “Grosses Betes & Petites Betes” by Andre Helle (Tolmer & Cie. Publisher). This large pictorial features paper-covered boards with gray cloth backing and is a very scarce first edition of this French children's book. This work features illustrations by the author of animals from Noah's Ark and is gorgeously illustrated with twenty tipped-in pochoir illustrations surrounded by text and black outline drawings. The plates are signed with the artist/author's monogram, lower case initials "ah" inside a circle. This fun book fetched a hammer price of $1,260 (including buyer’s premium).

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