From limited editions to classic styles, shop our finest selection of handbags, jewelry, watches, books &amp; collectibles. To gift or keep: your next <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/fashion/handbag/hermes" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Hermès bag</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/jewelry/van-cleef-&amp;-arpels" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Van Cleef necklace</a>, an iconic <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/watches/watch/rolex" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Rolex Watch</a> or even a <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?Book%20Type=First%2520Edition" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">First Edition </a>book.

Gifts for Her

Gifts for Him

Classic Gifts

Grand Gestures

Sotheby's Wine

The Gift Guide

Andy Warhol

A double-sided hand-colored lithograph from Andy Warhol's self-published artist book In the Bottom of My Garden.<ul><li>Andy Warhol (American, 1928-1987).</li><li>Double-sided offset lithograph with hand-coloring in watercolor, on one sheet of woven paper.</li><li>Executed by Warhol circa 1956 as part of his artist book featuring 16 unbound lithographs with a small number of hand-colored prints.</li><li>This work is presented framed.</li></ul>

In the Bottom of My Garden Double Sided Lithograph

J.R.R. Tolkien

A&nbsp;set of the first printings of the second US edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, comprising The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3 volumes.</li><li>J.R.R. Tolkien (English).</li><li>Jackets and label designed by Robert Quackenbush.&nbsp;</li><li>Boston/Cambridge:&nbsp;Houghton Mifflin Company, The Riverside Press,&nbsp;1967.</li><li>424, 452 and 440 pages respectively.</li><li>With all folding maps (by Tolkien's son Christopher) present.</li><li>Houghton Mifflin review slips loosely laid into each volume.</li><li>Bound in the original publisher's full black gilt-stamped cloth all in original unclipped ($6.00) color pictorial dust jackets.</li></ul> Tolkien's Middle Earth grew not only from his experiences in World War I and studies as a professor of English language and literature at Oxford, but from his childhood hobby of constructed languages (conlangs). Tolkien argued in his essay "A Secret Vice" that "for perfect construction of an art-language it is found necessary to construct at least in outline a mythology" along with it. In other words, "your language construction will breed a mythology." Middle Earth sprang into being in part so that Tolkien could draw on a mature culture, history and mythology for his beloved conlangs. As a result, we have Bilbo, Frodo and Sam; Gandalf the Grey, and Aragorn who is Strider; the One Ring, the covetous Gollum; and a harrowing journey to Mount Doom. Houghton published the first US editions of the trilogy from 1954-1956. This second US edition follows closely the second UK from Allen &amp; Unwin of the previous year, which was heavily revised and corrected by the author. These books, marketed as the "Revised Edition" and including a new foreword by Tolkien, were issued both as individual volumes (as here) and a slipcased set.

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Frost, Robert 

An autographed manuscript signed and inscribed, "A Preview for Nita and Doc from R.F., After a good Bread Loaf, 1946."<ul><li>Robert Frost (American).</li><li>16 pages.</li><li>Includes 8 poems that would be published in Steeple Bush (1947).</li><li>Inscribed for Reginald Lansing Cook (1903-1984) and his wife Lydia Juanita Cook.</li><li>Side-stitched, with custom green half-morocco slipcase and matching chemise.</li></ul> Included Poems:1) "To an Ancient"2) "Something to Hope For": variant title ["Something for Hope" in published book]; line 12 starts "And in" (as in E38), rather than "And with" in book; line 15 has "noxious weed" rather than "wasteful weed" in book; line 17 starts "A cycle of say" (as in E38), rather than "A cycle we'll say" in book; line 21 ends in an exclamation point ("!") but in a comma (",") in the book3) "One Step Backward Taken"4) "Why Wait for Science"5) "But He Meant It": variant title, first published as such in The Atlantic Monthly (April, 1947) ["The Broken Drought" in book]6) "The Courage to Be New": has a quatrain, listed here as a postscript, that is cut in the published book: No one cavails at their killing / And being killed for speed. / Then why are we unwilling / They should do as much for creed? [The third line appears in E42, the fourth line appears in E38, with punctuation from E42]7) "A Mood Apart"8) "Bravado"

Autographed Manuscript of Poems

Proof copies of the first separate edition of the poem A Considerable Speck.&nbsp;<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2&nbsp;single folio sheets.</li><li>Includes one uncorrected page proof of the 33-line poem, without the printed title page, and with printer’s manuscript corrections and directions in red ink; and one final proof copy, with "Original Proof" printed on title-page.</li><li>Robert Frost (American).</li><li>Both copies are uncut on cream woven paper watermarked "HANDMADE”.</li><li>Laid in a custom green cloth chemise.</li></ul> Laid in is a photocopy of the handbill titled “The Colonial Society of Massachusetts” detailing the poem’s history: “This poem was written and delivered by Robert Frost at the Annual Dinner on November twenty-first, 1939. It has been printed by Mr. Dard Hunter, Jr. from the first font of type that he has cut and cast himself, and is one of the first pieces of printing. It is on hand-made paper, made by him and his father, an authority on paper, with whom he is associated at the Dard Hunter Paper Museum at Massachusetts Institute of Technology....” A Considerable Speck was first printed in the Atlantic Monthly in July, 1939. The first separate edition consisted of fewer than 100 copies, according to Crane.

A Considerable Speck

Emily Brontë | Samuel Warren

A first United States edition of the Gothic tale of romance and betrayal, published only a few months after the London first edition, bound with another novel, Now &amp; Then, by Samuel Warren, published by Harper the same year.<ul><li>(Wuthering Heights) Emily Brontë (English).</li><li>(Now &amp; Then) Samuel Warren (English).</li><li>New York: Harper &amp; Brothers, 1848.</li><li>288 pages.</li><li>Bound in modern full green goatskin, raised bands, gilt-stamped spine and gilt-ruled boards, with new marbled endpapers.</li></ul>

Wuthering Heights / Now And Then

Mark Twain

A single leaf from Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's work The Gilded Age.<ul><li>Single manuscript leaf, taken from a set.</li><li>Written in Mark Twain's hand.</li><li>This page is from chapter 34.</li><li>Removed from binding.</li><li>Embossed stamp at top left.</li></ul> Written by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age was hatched over the dinner table when Clemens and Warner were challenged by their wives to write a work that would be better than those they were busy complaining about. Clemens wrote the first eleven chapters, based on members of his family including his father and mother, while Warner wrote the next twelve chapters, purely fictionally. The remaining chapters were generally written by one or the other, while the resolution was written in tandem.

The Gilded Age Manuscript Leaf

David Hockney

A Bigger Book&nbsp;is a majestic visual survey of Hockney’s more than 60 years of work.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2: book and bookstand.</li><li>First listing photo of book on stand is for reference only and is not a photo of the actual copy for sale.</li><li>Köln: Taschen,&nbsp;2018.&nbsp;</li><li>Elephant folio.</li><li>498 pages.</li><li>13 foldouts, with an illustrated 680-page chronology book.</li><li>Signed by David Hockney.</li><li>Part of a limited collector's edition, this being number 1,343 of 10,000.&nbsp;</li><li>Housed in publisher's original box with limited-edition label.</li><li>Presented with a Marc Newson bookstand for display.</li></ul>

A Bigger Book

Various Authors

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/sothebys-&amp;-abbeville-press-capsule-libraries" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sotheby's &amp; Abbeville Capsule Libraries</a>&nbsp;present a curated selection of Abbeville Press books from the personal archive of publisher Bob Abrams, in conjunction with&nbsp;Art without Boundaries: The Abrams Family Collection. The Ultimate Abrams Family Collection&nbsp;is a set of 5 books on art and design, including the following titles: <ul><li>Botero.</li><li>Fernando Botero (Columbian).</li><li>Carter Ratcliff (American).</li><li>New York: Abbeville Press, 1980.</li><li>First edition.</li><li>272 pages.</li></ul> <ul><li>Goodnough.</li><li>Martin Bush (American).</li><li>New York: Abbeville Press, 1982.</li><li>First edition.</li><li>260 pages.</li></ul> <ul><li>Wesselmann.</li><li>Slim Stealingworth&nbsp;[pseudonym of Tom Wesselmann, American].</li><li>New York: Abbeville Press, 1980.</li><li>First edition.</li><li>320 pages.</li></ul> <ul><li>Jean Dubuffet: Towards an Alternative Reality.</li><li>Jean Dubuffet (French).</li><li>Mildred Glimcher (American).</li><li>New York: Abbeville Press, 1987.</li><li>310 pages.</li></ul> <ul><li>Cobra.</li><li>Jean Clarence Lambert (French).</li><li>New York: Abbeville Press, 1984.</li><li>English and French edition.</li><li>261 pages.</li></ul> Enter the personal world of Bob Abrams and wife Cynthia Vance-Abrams through the Ultimate Abrams Family Collection capsule library. The monographs selected here relate directly to artworks in the family’s collection as presented for sale this fall at Sotheby’s. Each book has a unique place within Abbeville Press’ history and are the most definitive and comprehensive texts on each artist. Slim Stealingworth’s&nbsp;Tom Wesselmann&nbsp;(1980) was pseudonymously written by the artist himself and includes dual dedications. First, to Harry Abrams, for his profound impact on the artist, and with whom Wesselmann began the journey of publishing this very monograph in the late 1960s; and second, to Bob Abrams, for seeing the project through to production. Two works offered in Sotheby’s sale are illustrated in the monograph (<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/art-without-boundaries-the-abrams-family-collection-live-sale/great-american-nude-75?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lot 11</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/art-without-boundaries-the-abrams-family-collection-live-sale/3-d-illuminated-drawing-nude-1966-for-great?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lot 12</a>), and Stealingworth sheds light onto Wesselmann’s groundbreaking practice of creating these exact vacuum-formed nudes with crisp clarity.&nbsp; Author and art critic Carter Ratcliff has been a frequent Abbeville collaborator since the house’s founding in 1977. Ratcliff captures the spirit of the prolific Colombian painter, and firmly establishes him within the western art historical canon, of which Botero constantly references in his own work.&nbsp; Bob Abrams continued a tradition, established by his father Harry, of inviting artists to produce hand-painted limited edition covers to celebrate the publication of their latest monograph. One such uniquely hand-painted cover is being offered for sale in September at Sotheby’s (<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/art-without-boundaries-the-abrams-family-collection-online-sale/painted-book-cover-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lot 525</a>) and thus the inclusion of Martin Bush’s monograph here is essential. The Abrams family maintained a long friendship with the artist and collected his work in depth. Abbeville Press’ publication of&nbsp;Jean Dubuffet: Towards an Alternative Reality&nbsp;displays Bob’s penchant for collaboration, as the artist himself wrote several important statements on his work and contributed significant text to monograph. The publication accompanied a retrospective of at Pace Gallery (March–June 1987). Finally, throughout their decades-long collecting journey, the Abrams family has paid a significant amount of attention to the CoBRA artistic movement, counting works by Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky, Asger Jorn and Lucebert (lot&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/art-without-boundaries-the-abrams-family-collection-online-sale/prediker" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">543</a>) within their collection. These artists directly prefigure the Pop art movement which subsequently defined the Abrams Family Collection, and stands as a testament to the family’s collecting interests as truly being global and without boundaries.

The Ultimate Abrams Family Collection

William Blake

The first letterpress edition of Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience.<ul><li>William Blake (English).</li><li>Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.</li><li>London: W. Pickering and W. Newbery, 1839.</li><li>74 pages.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Bound in full green morocco gilt, with circular gilt vellum label of William Twopeny.</li></ul> The first letterpress edition of Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience, preceded only by the small number of copies of the illuminated first edition engraved and colored by Blake, with a laudatory preface by the Swedenborgian James John Garth Wilkinson (1812-99), who edited and arranged the present volume for publication. Wilkinson worked from Charles Augustus Tulk's copy of the illuminated first edition (c. 1795-1807); Tulk had previously lent his copy to Coleridge. The work appears in two issues, with or without a poem entitled “The Little Vagabound” at page 71, which was supposedly canceled by the editor out of prudishness.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience (first letterpress edition)

Alexis de Tocqueville

The second edition in English of the first part, and the first edition in English of the second part of Tocqueville's Democracy In America.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4 volumes.</li><li>Alexis de Tocqueville (French).</li><li>Translated by Henry Reeve.</li><li>London:&nbsp;Saunders and Otley,&nbsp;1836 and 1840.</li><li>Octavos.</li><li>Volume one with half title.</li><li>With hand-colored foldout map.&nbsp;</li><li>Bound in quarter brown leather with marbled paper boards, newly rebacked with paneled spines and red and black labels with gilt lettering, edges of text blocks marbled, with marbled endpapers, all four volumes with Drayton Manor armorial bookplates of Sir Robert Peel to the front pastedowns</li></ul>

Democracy In America

A first-edition copy of the catalog for Keith Haring's exhibit at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, featuring the iconic neon Haring Three Eyed Smiling Face cover.<ul><li>Forward by Tony Shafrazi (American).</li><li>Includes texts by Keith Haring, Jeffrey Deitch, Robert Pincus-Witten and David Shapiro.</li><li>Includes photographs of Haring's subway drawings by Haring’s close friend Tseng Kwong Chi.</li><li>Designed by Dan Friedman.</li><li>New York: Tony Shafrazi Gallery, 1982.</li><li>144 pages.</li><li>Softcover.</li><li>Includes 15 double-sided lithographic inserts.</li><li>Part of a limited edition of 2,000 copies.</li><li>Metal wire bound.</li></ul>

Keith Haring at Tony Shafrazi Gallery Catalog

George Washington | Jared Sparks

First Sparks edition and the first collected edition large paper copies of correspondence, addresses, messages and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts, The Writings of George Washington, with A Life of the Author, notes and illustrations by Jared Sparks.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 12.</li><li>George Washington (American).</li><li>Jared Sparks (American).</li><li>Boston: American Stationers’ Company; Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Metcalf, and Hilliard, Gray, and Co.; Boston: Russell, Shattuck, and Williams, and Hilliard, Gray, and Co. 1834-1837.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>All first issues except volume III which is a second issue.</li><li>Illustrated with frontispieces to four volumes and thirty further plates as called for.</li><li>Bound in recent tan half calf over marbled boards, gilt titles on red and green morocco squares to spines, gilt tooling to spines, marbled endpapers.</li></ul>

The Writings of George Washington

Ian Fleming

Complete American first editions of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/james-bond" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ian Fleming</a>’s <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/james-bond" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Bond</a> series.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 14.</li><li>Ian Fleming (British).</li><li>Casino Royale; Live and Let Die; Moonraker; Diamonds Are Forever; From Russia With Love; Dr. No; Goldfinger; For Your Eyes Only; Thunderball; The Spy Who Loved Me; On Her Majesty’s Secret Service; You Only Live Twice; The Man with the Golden Gun; Octopussy&nbsp;and&nbsp;The Living Daylights.</li><li>New York: The Macmillan Company, The Viking Press, and the New American Library, 1955-1966.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Bound in publisher's hardbacks in illustrated dust-jackets.</li><li>The American edition of Octopussy was the first to be illustrated.</li></ul>

The James Bond Collection

First edition second impression and the first with color plates of The Hobbit, Tolkien's best-known work.<ul><li>J.R.R. Tolkien (English).</li><li>The Hobbit or There and Back Again.</li><li>London: George Allen &amp; Unwin Ltd, 1937.</li><li>Five plates (4 color), 8 illustrations by the author, advertisement leaf at end.</li><li>Bound in full dark green morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spine, covers ruled in gilt, Smaug the dragon gilt to lower right corner of the front cover, gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, original cloth covers and spine bound in rear, original front and rear map pastedowns and endpapers bound in, by Bayntun.</li></ul> Tolkien began writing The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, as a professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford University. Tolkien's creative perspective was born from a childhood spent briefly in South Africa and then rural England, a short but wretched tour during World War I, and an avid fascination with German philology. Although it was originally billed as a children's book, The Hobbit attracted a varied audience and has been wildly popular since its initial publication. Tolkien built upon the tradition of fantasy literature developed by George MacDonald, Lewis Carroll and the folk tales of Arabian Nights by inventing a new language—Elvish—and making it accessible for modern-day readers. Such creativity brought rave reviews for The Hobbit, which sold out of its original print run of 1,500 copies three months after publication.

The Hobbit

C.F. Lawlor

Early edition of this very scarce classic cocktail manual, by the onetime chief bartender of Cincinnati's Grand Hotel and the Burnet House.<ul><li>C.F. Lawlor (American).</li><li>The mixicologist or how to mix all kinds of fancy drinks containing clear and reliable directions for mixing all the different beverages used in the United States, embracing jueps, cobblers, cocktails, punches, durkees, "trilbys," etc. etc., in endless variety, with some recipes on cooking, and other general information: an up-to-date recipe book. </li><li>(Cincinnati):&nbsp;(Lawlor &amp; Co),&nbsp;(1895).</li><li>169 pages followed by [5] pages of advertisements.</li><li>Bound in original gilt-lettered brown cloth.</li></ul> "Is it better for a man to drink whiskey or to stick to beer? Now, that is a very proper question for thousands of people, and it is very important that it should be answered correctly."An authoritative guide for the aspiring barman, The Mixicologist extends beyond recipes alone to cover all aspects of the trade: essential stock for a first-class bar, the history of brewing and distilling, and the proper attitude, principles, and deportment for a young person just entering the profession. This early edition precedes the later Revised Edition, but includes two press notices from the Cincinnati Papers praising Lawlor as the "prince of mixicologists" (he was also the inventor and sole holder of the title, the simple "mixologist" being insufficient to his talents). The text through page 116 is identical to that of the first edition; beyond that point are a new and fascinating array of advertisements for Cincinnati's finest reliable dry goods, cigars, hatters, lithographers, corned beef dealers, dye houses, dairies, dentists, frogs, oysters, and young parrots ("warranted to learn to talk"), as well as any number of brewers and liquor merchants. C.F. Lawlor was the bartender at Cincinnati's Burnet House, and formerly the chief bartender at the Grand Hotel. An endorsement from The Enquirer (Cincinnati) in 1895 states, "As a prince of mixicologists C.F. Lawlor, of the Burnet House, has a national reputation; it only remained for him to write a book to gain immortality. Lawlor's commentaries on aspects of the bar trade ("The Model Bartender," "Preparation for Customer," and "Don'ts for Young Bartenders") alternate with the ads, and include two essays not present in the first: "The Wine Cellar" and "Cups and their Customs," which ends with the admonishment "When you drink–think." Rare. OCLC locates only five copies of this issue, and just thirteen copies of all editions. An unusually attractive copy of this essential historical reference for all mixers and historians of fancy drinks. Read more: A.W. Noling, A Bibliography of Books and Booklets on Beverages, Their History and Manufacture, 249.

The Mixicologist, or How to Mix All Kinds of Fancy Drinks

Maurice Sendak

First edition of the subversive Caldecott-award winner, in the rare original first-issue dust jacket.<ul><li>Maurice Sendak (American).</li><li>[New York]:&nbsp;Harper &amp; Row,&nbsp;1963.</li><li>[40] pages.</li><li>Bound in original quarter grey cloth, color pictorial paper boards, and in original price-clipped color pictorial dust jacket without Caldecott medal, and with three-paragraph blurb on front flap (blurbs are issue point, not price; ref. Hanrahan), color pictorial endpapers.</li></ul> "[I]t is through fantasy that children achieve catharsis. It is the best means they have for taming Wild Things." —Sendak, Caldecott acceptance speech.After illustrating nearly 50 other books, WILD THINGS was Sendak's first full-color picture book with his own text and illustrations. He took full advantage of that control to push the boundaries of the children's picture book genre. The story of a boy who gets in a fight with his mother and lets out his pent-up feelings in a fantastical Wild Rumpus, WILD THINGS focused on the complex inner experience of little Max, acknowledging the reality that children deal with anger, frustration, and fear just as adults do. For this reason, the book was initially not well received: before the rise of New Realism in children's literature, many critics felt children's books ought to model ideal behavior rather than accurately reflect children's emotional experiences. The book made a splash from the very beginning, as Sendak expected it would: many critics advised against buying the book, and some libraries banned it. Readers largely didn't know how to react to its unconventional approach—until it won the Caldecott. WILD THINGS is now one of the best-selling children's books of all time, paving the way for commercial picture books that explore our darker sides and encourage us to make friends with monsters. Hanrahan, Works of Maurice Sendak: 1947-1994, A58.

Where the Wild Things Are

Richard Tuttle | Alexey Brodovitch

Sculptural one-of-a-kind artist-bound copy of Alexey Brodovitch's&nbsp;Ballet.<ul><li>Alexey Brodovitch (Russian-American).</li><li>Sculptural-bound by artist Richard Tuttle (American,&nbsp;b. 1951) in 2013.</li><li>New York: J.J. Augustin, 1945.</li><li>First-edition limited original print at 500 copies.</li><li>104 black-and-white photogravures.</li><li>Bound in lambskin over sculpted boards.</li><li>Housed in walnut presentation box with etched glass featuring ballerinas in various poses.</li></ul> Tuttle creates one-of-a-kind works of art that merge the written word with fine leather, paper, paint, wood and veneer.&nbsp;These original book bindings have been featured in a PBS documentary on the Chicago Art beat. Tuttle describes his work as follows:&nbsp;“I make literary artifacts. They are designed to pull books down off the shelf and display them in the salon, gallery or home [...] I seek to find a perspective that shouts out a piece of the essence of the literary work. I try to put myself in the author's or character's mind to say something about the time it was written in; the attitude that is explored and expressed; the magic that makes it a work of art."

Ballet

Philip Van Doren Stern

A signed copy of Philip Van Doren Stern's story, The Greatest Gift: A Christmas Tale, which would later be adapted into the iconic film, It's A Wonderful Life.<ul><li>Philip Van Doren Stern (American).</li><li>New York: Privately published by the author, 1943.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>First edition and sole printing.</li><li>One of 200 copies, printed by the author to be distributed as Christmas cards.</li><li>Inscribed by the author.</li><li>Single gathering, wire stitched into the original tan wrappers, cream paper title label to front wrapper printed in black.</li></ul>

The Greatest Gift: A Christmas Tale

John Brown

Finely bound copy of John Brown's Self-Interpreting Holy Bible embellished with numerous highly finished steel engravings, the Old and New Testaments according to the authorized versions, and with approximately 8,000 explanatory and critical notes.<ul><li>John Brown (American).</li><li>The Self-Interpreting Holy Bible</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Johnson, Fry &amp; Co.,&nbsp;circa 1880s.</li><li>Bound in full black morocco with the covers and raised bands displaying gilt-tooled detailing, all edges gilt, gilt-tooled dentelles and marbled endpapers.</li></ul>

The Self-Interpreting Holy Bible

First edition, first printing of Tolkien's best-known work.<ul><li>J.R.R. Tolkien (English).</li><li>The Hobbit or There and Back Again.</li><li>London: George Allen &amp; Unwin Ltd, 1937.</li><li>Frontispiece and 8 black &amp; white plates and one vignette by Tolkien, advertisement leaf at end, top edge of text block tinted green.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's original stamped green cloth, map pastedowns and endpapers.</li></ul> Betty Jean Orton is the daughter of Harold Orton (1898–1975), English dialectologist and lexicographer remembered for his monumental Survey of English Dialects (1962–72).Tolkien began writing The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, as a professor of English language and literature at Oxford University. Tolkien's creative perspective was born from a childhood spent briefly in South Africa and then rural England, a short but wretched tour during World War I, and an avid fascination with German philology. Although it was originally billed as a children's book, The Hobbit attracted a varied audience and has been wildly popular since its initial publication. Tolkien built upon the tradition of fantasy literature developed by George MacDonald, Lewis Carroll and the folk tales of Arabian Nights by inventing a new language—Elvish—and making it accessible for modern-day readers. Such creativity brought rave reviews for The Hobbit. 1,500 copies were published on Sept. 21, 1937 and were sold out by December, less than three months after publication.

The Hobbit (First Edition, First Printing)

First printings of the Anniversary Edition of Ian Fleming’s <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/james-bond" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">James Bond</a> Novels.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 14.</li><li>Ian Fleming (British).</li><li>Casino Royale; Live and Let Die; Moonraker; Diamonds Are Forever; From Russia With Love; Dr. No; Goldfinger; For Your Eyes Only; Thunderball; The Spy Who Loved Me; On Her Majesty’s Secret Service; You Only Live Twice; The Man with the Golden Gun; Octopussy and The Living Daylights.</li><li>London: Viking / Penguin, 2002.</li><li>Small octavo.</li><li>One of 1,000 printed copies.</li><li>Cloth-bound hardcovers in photographic dust jackets by Toby MacFarlan Pond.</li></ul>

Lemony Snicket [Daniel Handler]

Complete series of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, eight of which are stamped and signed.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 14.</li><li>Lemony Snicket [Daniel Handler] (American).</li><li>Illustrated by Brett Helquist (American).</li><li>The Bad Beginning, [and] The Reptile Room, [and] The Wide Window, [and] The Miserable Mill, [and] The Austere Academy, [and] The Ersatz Elevator, [and] The Vile Village, [and] The Hostile Hospital, [and] The Carnivorous Carnival, [and] The Slippery Slope, [and] The Grim Grotto, [and] The Penultimate Peril, [and] The End, [and] The Unauthorized Autobiography.</li><li>(New York):&nbsp;Harper Trophy; HarperCollins,&nbsp;(1999-2006).</li><li>8 volumes (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) with Handler's characteristic embossed stamp "Library of Lemony Snicket" with ink inscription: "with all / [date] / due respect" and autobiography signed by Handler as Handler.</li><li>Bound in original quarter paper in various colors, glossy color pictorial paper boards, gray patterned endpapers and fore-edge machine deckle.</li></ul> Chronicling the arduous adventures of Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire, this collection includes all 13 volumes from The Bad Beginning to The End, with more than half of the books containing Lemony Snicket's specific method of signing: an embossed stamp with ink inscription "with all due respect" and the date. The Austere Academy (volume 5) is not only stamped/inscribed, but has the rare original dust jacket: several, but not all, of the titles were available in jacket only if ordered directly from the publisher, and very few were printed. Included is a copy of Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, with an introduction by Daniel Handler as "the official representative." This book is not only stamped/inscribed, but is signed by Handler as Daniel Handler. A splendiferous set for the covetous collector.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

A collection of black and white and color facsimile engraved plates, pencil drawings and watercolors by William Blake.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 6 volumes.</li><li>William Blake (English).</li><li>Introduction by Laurence Binyon and Geoffrey Keynes.</li><li>New York: The Pierpont Morgan Library, 1935.</li><li>Folio.</li><li>Bound in the original cloth-backed gray wrappers, printed labels on front cover, in cloth box.</li></ul>

Illustrations of the Book of Job

Winston Churchill

Set of first-edition volumes of Churchill's The Second World War.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 6.</li><li>Winston Churchill (British).</li><li>London: Cassell &amp; Co., 1948–54.</li><li>Bound in half green morocco over cloth boards, raised bands and gilt lettering and heraldic lion motif on spine.</li></ul>

The Second World War

Charles Dickens

Finely bound first edition, second state, copy of Dickens' The Chimes: A Goblin Story Of Some Bells That Rang An Old Year Out And A New Year In.<ul><li>Charles Dickens (English).</li><li>London: Chapman &amp; Hall, 1845.</li><li>Illustrated, second state of the additional engraved title page.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's original gilt and blind stamped red cloth, all edges gilt.</li></ul>

The Chimes (First Edition, Second State)

William Shakespeare | John Boydell

First American edition of the Boydell collection of the Illustrations of the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2.</li><li>William Shakespeare (English).</li><li>Edited by John Boydell (English).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Shearjashub Spooner,&nbsp;1852.&nbsp;</li><li>205 pages; 200 pages.</li><li>Folio.</li><li>51 illustrated plates; 49 illustrated plates.</li><li>Three-quarter bound in red morocco and red buckram with gilt ruling and lettering to spine and gilt ruling to boards.</li></ul> Boydell was a British publisher and engraver who decided to undertake the massive project of creating an illustrated folio edition of Shakespeare’s works that took nearly twenty years to complete, and the first edition was published in 1805. It incorporates engravings based on the works of dozens of prominent artists, including George Romney, Henry Fuseli, Benjamin West and Angelica Kauffman.

Illustrations of the Dramatic Works of Shakespeare

Frank Triplett

First edition of this controversial biography of Jesse James, "giving full particulars of each and every dark and desperate deed in the career of this most noted outlaw of any time or nation."<ul><li>Frank Triplett (American).</li><li>St. Louis, Missouri:&nbsp;J.H. Chambers &amp; Co,&nbsp;1882.</li><li>xvi-416 pages.</li><li>Includes frontispiece portrait of Jesse James and 26 full-page wood engravings (plus an additional copy of plate 11).</li><li>Bound in original green pictorial cloth stamped in gilt and black with a man shooting over the world "Revenge," cream-coated endpapers.</li></ul> This biography would become a standard resource for later works on Jesse James, including the novel The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford (1983) which was turned into the 2007 film of the same name. After publication, questions arose concerning the true extent of the cooperation of Jesse James's wife and mother in providing material, a somewhat fitting twist for a biography of the criminal who fibbed liberally about his own legend. The illustrations include tableaux of various robberies, and a group of firearms labeled "Jesse James' Best Friends." This copy is a second issue, published within months of the first issue: three issues were published in 1882, all of which are scarce and desirable, especially in the original cloth and in presentable condition.

The Life, Times, and Treacherous Death of Jesse James

Neil Leifer | TASCHEN

Limited edition print of Homage to Ali signed by Leifer.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2.</li><li>Neil Leifer (American).</li><li>‘Ali Invents the Double-Clutch Shuffle, 1966’</li><li>Köln:&nbsp;Taschen, 2023.</li><li>Edition of 40.</li><li>Dye-sublimation print on ChromaLuxe aluminum panels ready to hang.</li></ul>

Homage to Ali: Ali Invents the Double-Clutch Shuffle 1966

Annie Leibovitz | TASCHEN

Annie Leibovitz Art Edition No. 1-275 with David Byrne ChromaLuxe aluminum print with floating frame.<ul><li>Annie Leibovitz (American).</li><li>Köln: Taschen, 2023.</li><li>556 pages.</li><li>Signed and numbered print.</li><li>Hardcover in slipcase.</li></ul>

Annie Leibovitz Art Edition No. 1–275 David Byrne

Edmund Dulac | Laurence Housman

Finely bound and illustrated limited-edition copy of Arabian Nights.<ul><li>Laurence Housman (English).</li><li>Illustrations by Edmund Dulac (Franco-British).</li><li>London:&nbsp;Hodder &amp; Stoughton,&nbsp;1907.</li><li>Includes mounted drawings by Dulac.</li><li>This edition is limited to 350 copies, numbered and signed by the artist.</li><li>Bound in full vellum with the covers and spines displaying gilded and blue titles and decorative details, top edge is gilded and there is a linen tie attached to the covers.</li></ul>

Arabian Nights

Signed set of fine art prints manufactured in 1971, as part of a series of 19 images selected from eight different titles by Sendak, and newly re-photographed from the original artwork at the Sendak Archives.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4.</li><li>Maurice Sendak (American).</li><li>New York: Harper &amp; Row, 1971.</li><li>One of a limited edition of 200 signed sets from a larger unsigned edition of 6,000 sets.</li><li>Each print is signed in ink by the artist at the lower right corner.</li></ul>

Where the Wild Things Are Print Set

A.A. Milne

First edition signed limited large paper copy of Winnie the Pooh.<ul><li>A.A. Milne (English).</li><li>Illustrated by E.H. Shepard (English).</li><li>London:&nbsp;Methuen,&nbsp;(1926).</li><li>xvi, 158, [2] pages.</li><li>Folding map at rear. </li><li>Signed by Milne and Shepard on limitation page.</li><li>Limited edition of 350 numbered copies.</li><li>Printed on handmade paper and bound in original quarter blue cloth, light blue paper boards in blue printed dust jacket.</li></ul>

Winnie the Pooh

George Washington Bacon

A detailed map of Central London, based on the Ordnance Survey, overprinted with the routes of the Underground lines.<ul><li>George Washington Bacon (English).</li><li>London Transport Underground. Map of London.</li><li>London: Roadway Publications, 1934. </li><li>Color-printed map.</li></ul>

Quad-Royal poster map with Central London's Underground

First edition, signed copy of Holy Cats privately published by Warhol while still a commercial artist.<ul><li>Andy Warhol (American).</li><li>[New York]:&nbsp;[privately printed],&nbsp;[1954].</li><li>Illustrated with 21 offset lithographs.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Signed by Warhol with hand-drawn copyright symbol.</li><li>Illustrated dust jacket.</li></ul>

Holy Cats by Andy Warhol's Mother

Vanessa Bell

Original watercolor for the children's book Emlycaunt by Julia Duckworth Stephen.<ul><li>Vanessa Bell (English).</li><li>Depiction of donkey with monkey in foliage.</li><li>Artist's stamp to lower right corner.</li><li>Pencil, ink and watercolor on paper.</li><li>Framed and mounted on a folding matte under glass.</li></ul> One of 33 illustrations by Bell for her mother's children's story, Emlycaunt. This particular work was probably to illustrate the following passage of the story: "Tommy was very glad to do what the elephant said, and a monkey who came cantering up on a donkey advised him to go to the bathing place.&nbsp;'On such a warm day,' he said, 'we all like to take a swim.'"

Emlycaunt Original Watercolor

Jane Austen

Finely bound set of the novels, works and letters of Jane Austen.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 12.</li><li>Jane Austen (English).</li><li>Edinburgh: John Grant, 1911-12.</li><li>Engraved frontis portrait plate in volume one.</li><li>The Winchester Edition.</li><li>Bound by Atkinson in full tan morocco, gilt lettered red and green morocco spine labels, top edges gilt with marbled pastedowns and endpapers.</li></ul>

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Andy Warhol

J.R.R. Tolkien

Frost, Robert

Frost, Robert

Emily Brontë, Samuel Warren

Mark Twain

David Hockney

Various Authors

William Blake

Alexis de Tocqueville

George Washington, Jared Sparks

Ian Fleming

J.R.R. Tolkien

C.F. Lawlor

Maurice Sendak

Richard Tuttle, Alexey Brodovitch

Philip Van Doren Stern

John Brown

J.R.R. Tolkien

Ian Fleming

Lemony Snicket [Daniel Handler]

William Blake

Winston Churchill

Charles Dickens

William Shakespeare, John Boydell

Frank Triplett

Neil Leifer, TASCHEN

Annie Leibovitz, TASCHEN

Edmund Dulac, Laurence Housman

Maurice Sendak

A.A. Milne

George Washington Bacon

Andy Warhol

Vanessa Bell

Jane Austen