Archive: Business & Technology

National Book Auctions, located in Ithaca, NY, hosted a Sunday, November 20th auction featuring a broad range of rare antique and vintage books, as well as a fine array of artwork, maps, and ephemera. Highlights of this auction included several personal libraries of scholarly books relating to art, theology and a private collection of works by Anthony Burgess. This 422-lot auction also featured antique engravings with architectural content, Victorian chromo-lithographic items, and a collection of Asian art and artifacts.

A British first edition volume of Anthony Burgess’s “A Clockwork Orange” fetched a hammer price of $2583.00 (including buyer’s premium). In 1998, the Modern Library ranked “A Clockwork Orange” 65th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. This 1962 dystopian novella contains an experiment in language: the characters often use an argot called "Nadsat", derived from Russian.

A lot containing two albums of antique Victorian chromolithographs reached an impressive hammer price of $3690.00 (including buyer’s premium). The albums contain a beautiful assortment of items, including vividly colored trade cards and advertisements.

Realizing a hammer price of $1291.50 (including buyer’s premium) was a first edition printing of “La Pirotechnia o Sia Trattato Dei Fouchi D'artificio” by Giuseppe Antonio Alberti Bolognese. This 1749 printing is the first Italian work on recreational fireworks. This volume is lavishly illustrated with fold-out plates showing a variety of fireworks.

An antique bronze Chinese Buddhist statue of Kwan Yin achieved a hammer price of $1140 (including buyer’s premium). Also known as the Goddess of Mercy, Kwan Yin is one of the most universally beloved of deities in the Buddhist tradition. This statue depicts Kwan Yin sitting cross-legged on a lotus blossom, which is an iconic symbol of Buddhist purity.

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