Essais De Montaigne Suivis De Sa Correspondance, <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Type=Signed%2520and%2520Inscribed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">signed</a> by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Henry+James&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Henry James</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4 volumes.</li><li>Michel de Montaigne (French).</li><li>Edited by Charles Louandre.</li><li>Paris:&nbsp;G. Charpentier,&nbsp;early printing.&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Volume 1 is signed by Henry James (1843-1916) on the front free end page.</li><li>Text in French.</li><li>Half-bound in brown leather, with marbled paper boards, pieces of the spines and a label preserved in an envelope.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Essais De Montaigne Suivis De Sa Correspondance | Signed by Henry James

<a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book/first-edition?locale=en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">First edition</a>, first printing of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Henry+James&amp;pfilters.dateRange=upcoming" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Henry James</a>'s early novel, The Portrait of a Lady.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3 volumes.</li><li>Henry James (American-British).</li><li>London:&nbsp;Macmillan and Co,&nbsp;1881.</li><li>266; 253, [1]; 248 pages, followed by 24-page publisher's catalogue in Volume III, dated April 1881.</li><li>With all half titles.&nbsp;</li><li>Modern gilt-stamped half brown morocco with marbled boards, raised bands, gilt-stamped spine. Top edges gilt, other edges uncut, marbled endpapers.</li></ul> The Portrait of a Lady is among the most important 19th-century novels to lay the groundwork for the stream-of-consciousness approach of the great 20th-century modernists like Virginia Woolf. James describes the struggles of his American ex-pat heroine in Europe with all the tenderness and nuance of psychological realism. Bound in striking period style by leading contemporary bookbinder Trevor Lloyd, MBE, one of just 750 copies of the first edition.

The Portrait of a Lady | First Edition

Highlights from Fine Books and Manuscripts, Including Americana, Part 1

Curtis, Edward S. The North American Indian, Portfolios 1–20; and Volumes 1–20A complete original early subscriber’s copy on Japan Vellum, later owned by Andrew and Betsy Wyeth The North American Indian, being a Series of Volumes Picturing and Describing the Indians of the United States and Alaska. New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts: University Press, 1907–1930 723 large-format photogravures, published as Portfolios 1–20, Japan Vellum issue with letterpress copyright credit, title, plate numbers and printer’s credit (in the margin). Each approximately 393 x 280 mm, or the reverse, and laid in as issued in original half morocco folding case with gilt-impressed portfolio number, original cloth ties. [With:] Volumes 1–5: Cambridge, Massachusetts: University Press, 1907–1910; Volumes 6–20: Norwood, Massachusetts: Plimpton Press, 1911–1930 20 volumes, 4to. Text volumes printed on Japan Vellum containing a total of 1,505 small format photogravures, the text edited by Frederick Webb Hodge, foreword by Theodore Roosevelt, signed in ink by the author, each volume numbered 29 in ink on the colophon. Bound in the original half-brown morocco gilt by H. Blackwell. The whole housed in two custom wooden cabinets commissioned by Andrew and Betsy Wyeth. Full condition report upon request. Number 29 from the planned subscribed edition of 500 sets—of which only approximately 257 were produced. Only 157 of the 257 total sets issued now survive complete; fewer still are available in the condition of the present set, uncompromised by accession or deaccession library stamps.Only 49 of these sets are known to be signed by Curtis.Generally, an excellent set of a landmark work. “And when it is all finished it will be a monumental work, marvelous for the unstinted care and labor and pains that have gone into its making, remarkable for the beauty of its final embodiment, and highly important because of its historical and ethnographic value” — The New York Times, 6 June 1908 The North American Indian comprises a vast pictorial document of Native American cultures at the turn of the 20th century, though the original intent was to depict them as they were believed to be prior to European contact. To achieve a seemingly impossible task, for more than 30 years Edward Curtis photographed every major Native American tribe west of the Mississippi. In a letter from Roosevelt to Curtis dated 16 December 1905, the President extolled: “You are now making a record of the lives of the Indians of our country, which in another decade cannot be made at all, and which it would be the greatest misfortune, from the standpoint alike of the ethnologist and the historian, to leave unmade. You have begun just in time, for these people are at this very moment losing the distinctive traits and customs which they have slowly developed through the ages. [...] The publication of the proposed volumes and folios, dealing with every phase of Indian life among all tribes yet in a primitive condition, would be a monument to American constructive scholarship and research of a value unparalleled.” The more than 2,000 photographs that illustrate The North American Indian were selected from over 40,000 negatives, each produced from delicate and unwieldy glass plates that had to be transported and cared for in extreme circumstances. Just to produce the gravures was almost as monumental an undertaking as the journeys themselves—each image was transferred from the glass plate onto a copper plate and then chemically etched. The resulting prints yield an astonishing quality unattainable through any other process. This vivid transmission of his images was of immense importance to Curtis, who monitored his photoengraver throughout the long publication history. And this insistence on quality was yet another factor in the huge sums needed to complete the project—and what led to its eventual and seemingly inevitable bankruptcy. Curtis originally proposed that an edition of 500 complete sets of The North American Indian would be offered for sale. The sets—costing $3,000—were sold in advance by subscription, and the subscriber could then select from Japan Vellum, Holland Van Gelder, or Japanese Tissue paper stocks, and from a variety of bindings. The Japanese Tissue was issued in the fewest number, and while being the most lavish, it proved to be the most delicate and prone to condition issues. Very few of these survive in any acceptable condition. Most of the subscription was split evenly between Van Gelder or Vellum. While the former eventually proved to be the most commonly encountered on the market, there is less tonal depth than those printed on Japan Vellum. It is the Japan Vellum that has become the preferred issue, though difficult to obtain as many remain in institutional collections, are marked and stamped when occasionally deaccessioned, or were simply broken and dispersed by the print and photography trades. The total cost of Curtis’s project was staggering, and would have been impossible without the support of J.P. Morgan—and then that of his son, J.P. Morgan, Jr.—who contributed to the project well beyond his initial commitment of $75,000 ($15,000 per annum, and to be repaid by receiving the first 25 sets and another 500 prints). While the commonly held belief is that J. P. Morgan was a patron for Curtis, the arrangement held Curtis responsible for the printing, binding, and sales. The notion that income from subscriptions would sustain the venture proved untenable from the outset, not least because the subscription price for sets on Japanese Tissue was initially offered at $3,850, and if on Van Gelder or Japan Vellum, $3,000—the equivalent of over $100,000 in today’s money. Though prohibitive to most from the outset, by 1924 costs had risen by nearly another $1,000 each. The project was always deviled by a lack of funds, and an early casualty of this was consistency in what constituted a fulfilled set. Curtis himself apparently distinguished little between the Van Gelder and Japan Vellum paper stocks (“selecting whatever is best” in the moment), and sets are often found with both paper types mixed throughout the portfolios, or the text on one and the portfolios on another. The present set has largely been spared this fate, with only one of the later portfolios—Number 18, issued when Curtis was sliding towards insolvency—entirely on Van Gelder. Only six other plates only are on this stock, while the remaining plates and all of the text volumes are on the superior Japan Vellum. By 1928 Curtis essentially reached the end of his struggle and sold his rights to J.P. Morgan, Jr. In the final tally, the Morgans’ contributions totaled half or more of the $1.5 million the publishing venture consumed before its bankruptcy in 1930, shortly after the completion of the last two volumes. In the end, some sets 257 were completed, of which 214 were done under Curtis, and the remainder the result of a later publishing venture that was initiated when in 1935 the Morgan estate sold the rights to Charles E. Lauriat of Boston for $1,000,000. Many of the sets issued have been broken up and dispersed, and while approximately 85 remain in institutions, it is often from this pool that examples come to market with library stamps, heavily worn bindings, deeply offset and often foxed throughout. Superior copies, such as the present, are decidedly uncommon at auction. Early subscribers included Alexander Graham Bell, steel titan Andrew Carnegie, railroad magnate Henry Huntington, Edward VII King of England, Mrs. Frederick W. Vanderbilt, and J. P. Morgan, who received the first numbered set in the edition. Despite early acclaim from these notable figures as well as critics and curators, records indicate that few more than 200 sets on the various paper stocks were actually bound and sold by the early 1930s, just after the completion of the last volume, and when Curtis’s health failed. Original institutional subscribers include the American Museum of Natural History, Washington, D. C., and the Peabody Museum at Harvard. Complete sets are located in the collections of The Morgan Library & Museum; The Amon Carter, Fort Worth; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and the Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles, among others. Roosevelt’s early praise of the project was prescient.The North American Indian is now seen as the most significant publishing venture of the 20th century, rivalled only by one of the 19th century: John James Audubon’s lithographic masterpiece The Birds of America. Curtis’s project stands as the most lavish photographic work ever produced in the United States, the most important illustrated work on Native Americans, and the ultimate title in Western Americana. It also has become—particularly because of Curtis’s evocative portraiture—a monumental work of American Art. Individual images from the project were sold in gelatin, silver, or platinum prints, as well as orotone, and—as in the present set—remarkably well produced photogravures. These are, quite simply, some of the most revered images in American history. Beyond the inherent rarity and superior condition of the present set, it also boasts unparalleled provenance, having formed a part of the personal collection of Betsy and Andrew Wyeth. Prior to obtaining this set, Nogeeshik Aquash, from the Canadian Ojibwa tribe, visited the Wyeths. He was raising funds for his reservation, and was aware not only of Andrew Wyeth's interest in Native American life, but also of the numerous illustrations painted by Andrew's father, N.C. Wyeth, of the great American novels, such as James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans. Wyeth donated funds to his cause on the condition that Nogeeshik returned the following year to sit for a painting. Beyond posing for a portrait, Nogeeshik became a regular part of the Wyeths’ lives in Chadds Ford. Betsy Wyeth was an avid collector of Native American artifacts, and Nogeeshik trained Betsy's eye to distinguish good pieces from objects made "for the trade." All of this led to their acquisition of Curtis’s North American Indian, with Andrew even trading two of his watercolors for the set. Beyond the portrait of Nogeeshik Aquash, the relationship between Curtis and Wyeth is evident. Their works have endured as iconic representations of North America. Each a master of realism, they captured the breathtaking and the melancholy alike, preserving for generations landscapes and ways of life that are quintessentially American. An unrivalled example of a monument of Americana. REFERENCES Howes C-965; Roosens & Salu 2702; Truthful Lens 40

View 1 of Lot 203: Curtis, Edward S.  | A complete set of The North American Indian, owned by celebrated American painter Andrew Wyeth and his wife, Betsy

curtis, edward s. | a complete set of the north american indian, owned by celebrated american painter andrew wyeth and his wife, betsy

The Jay T. Snider Collection of Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Autograph letter signed ("BFranklin") to Dr. Edward Bancroft ("Dear Sir"), 2 pages (238 x 188 mm) on a single leaf of laid paper (unwatermarked), Philadelphia, 25 November 1786, discussing his plans for an autobiography and the future of the nascent United States; trace of album mount at left edge. Half green morocco folding-case, red morocco labels. An exceptional letter to Edward Bancroft—friend, physician, secretary to the American legation in Paris (and double-agent for England)—revealing the genesis of “the most widely read of all American autobiographies” (Grolier/American 21). Benjamin Franklin's autobiography has been said to “hold the essence of the American way of life,” and it was a text that Franklin long labored over. He completed the manuscript for the early years of his life (though 1731, when he was twenty-five) in 1771, but his many other interests and the American Revolution conspired to prevent him from taking the story further. A request from publisher Charles Dilly for a new uniform edition of Franklin's works, however, caused the polymath to consider again taking up his autobiography. Edward Bancroft had written to Franklin on 5 September 1786, reporting that Franklin’s “Philosophical Works are out of Print in this Country, and so is the Political Volume Published by Mr. B. Vaughan.” In light of this, Bancroft continued, “Mr. Dilly and one or two other Eminent Booksellers have therefore determined on Printing a new Elegant Edition of every thing of yours both Philosophical and Political which has yet appear’d or which can be procured in time; the Work being already in part sent to the Press. … To this Edition it is intended to fix an Account of the Author written by one of the Writers of the Biographia Brittanica, who I am told will accord with the Wishes of your Friends at least so far as the Writers Knowledge of Facts may enable him to be accurate and do you justice. … Having some reason to believe that among the Papers which you had left in America during the late War, as well as among those which you carried from Europe, there might be some that you would willingly see added to the intended Edition of your Works, I determined to give you this account of what was in Agitation and advised the Editors (particularly Mr. Dilly) to keep the impression unfinished until I could hear from you respecting it, which they have promised to do. If therefore you should have any thing to add to the materials before mentioned, I could wish that you or your Grandson, would take the trouble [of] sending it to me here, and if he should know and think proper to add any facts that might enable me to Correct or improve the Proposed Biographical part, I shall receive them with thanks and endeavour to make a becoming use of them.” Franklin quickly responded in the present letter, and while clearly flattered by the prospect of a new collected edition of his writings, he also expresses the desire that his earlier publishers be treated fairly. He further makes clear that the intended biographical notice of himself will almost certainly be unsatisfactory, but that he has been convinced by friends to write the story of his own life: “I received your kind Letter of Sept. 5. informing me of the Intention Mr. Dilly has of printing a new Edition of my Writings, and of his Desire that I would furnish him with such Additions as I may think proper. At present all my Papers and Manuscripts are so mixt with other things by the Confusions occasioned in sudden and various Removals during the late Troubles, that I can hardly find any thing. But having nearly finished an Addition to my House, which will afford me Room to put all in Order, I hope soon to be able to comply with such a Request; But I hope Mr. Dilly will have a good Understanding in the Affair, with Henry and Johnson, who having risqu’d the former Impressions may suppose they thereby acquir’d some Right in the Copy. As to the Life propos’d to be written, if it be by the same hand who furnish’d a Sketch to Dr. Lettsom, which he sent me, I am afraid it will be found too full of Errors for either you or me to correct: And having been persuaded by my Friends Messrs Benja Vaughan, M. Le Veillard, Mr. James of this Place, and some others, that such a Life written by my self may be useful to the rising Generation, I have made some Progress in it, and hope to finish it this Winter. So I cannot but wish that Project of Mr Dilly’s Biographer may be laid aside. I am nevertheless thankful to you for your Friendly Offer to correcting it.” Unfortunately, Franklin's projection of a completion date for his memoir was far too optimistic. His 1771 manuscript first appeared in Paris in 1791 in an unauthorized French translation that was wedded to a translation of Wilmer's Memoirs of Franklin for the period after 1731 (see lot 145). The English text first appeared in 1793, and although its author never formally completed it, Franklin's Autobiography has indeed been very useful to later generations. Franklin was very familiar with all of the publishers that he mentions here. David Henry and Joseph Johnson had both previously published volumes by Franklin (see lots 59, 120), and in 1787, Dilly did issue the new edition of Franklin's Philosophical and Miscellaneous Papers, which Franklin alludes to in this letter (see lot 137). (Dilly was later to publish the first edition of James Boswell's Life of Johnson.) After informing Franklin of “what was in Agitation” regarding the pending new edition of his works, Bancroft admitted “I have very little to say to you in the way of News.” Still, he alludes to the Eden Treaty, an anticipated commercial agreement between Britain and France, and observes that “There does not appear the smallest probability of any Commercial Treaty between this Country and the United States.” Franklin picks up this theme in the closing paragraph of his response, predicting a bright future for the youthful United States, despite some festering factionalist disputes, including the recently quelled Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts, and hinting at a coming federal constitution: “As to Public Affairs, it is long since I gave over all Expentations of a Commercial Treaty between us and Britain; and I think we can do as well or better without one than she can. Our Harvests are plenty, our Produce fetches a high Price in hard Money and there is in every Part of our Country incontestible Marks of public Felicity. We discover indeed some Errors in our general and particular Constitutions; which is no wonder they should have, the time in which they were formed being considered. But those we shall mend. The little Disorders you have heard of in some of the States, rais’d by a few wrong Heads are subsiding, and will probably soon be extinguis’d. My best Wishes and those of my Family attend you. We shall be happy to see you here when it suits you to visit us: being with sincere and great Esteem my dear Friend, Yours most affectionately. …” REFERENCES Franklin’s letter to Bancroft, as well as the Bancroft letter to which it is an answer, both remain unpublished, but they will be included in a forthcoming volume of The Papers of Benjamin Franklin; in the meantime, the texts, without editorial apparatus, are available at franklinpapers.org. PROVENANCE Christie’s New York, 28 November 1983, lot 311 (undesignated consignor) — James S. Copley (Sotheby’s New York, 13 December 2011, lot 259)

View 1 of Lot 136: Benjamin Franklin | “a Life written by my self may be useful to the rising Generation”

benjamin franklin | “a life written by my self may be useful to the rising generation”

Benjamin Franklin Experiments and Observations on Electricity, Made at Philadelphia in America. … To which are added, Letters and Papers on Philosophical Subjects. The Whole Corrected, Methodized, Improved, and now First Collected into One Volume. London: Printed for David Henry; and sold by Francis Newbery, at the Corner of St. Paul's Church-Yard, MDCCLXIX (1769) 4to (226 x 170 mm). Half-title, errata/advertisement leaf, 7 engraved plates (2 folding, 5 full-page) by T. Jeffreys, T. Hulett and B. Cole, woodcut text illustrations, headpiece and decorative initial, pp. 111–112, 416–417, and 465–472 duplicated in the pagination as issued, 16-page index at end; light browning and occasional light foxing. Near-contemporary vellum over boards, red morocco spine label, plain endpapers, blue-sprinkled edges; spine gilt-stamped; light soiling and rubbing, label faded. Vellum folding-case, large black morocco spine label. Presentation copy, now obscured by Franklin's inscription on the half-title—"Father Frisi | From the Author"—having inexplicably been erased (although still just legible). Paolo Frisi (1728–1784) was an Italian priest, mathematician and astronomer, who played a major role in the compilation, interpretation, and dissemination of the work of scientists such as Galileo, Newton, Cavalieri, and d’Alembert. Frisi also worked on electricity and was the first to introduce the lightning conductor into Italy. Although only one letter between him and Franklin is recorded, they were evidently in contact for many years and met at least once in London. The fourth, first collected, and most desirable edition of Franklin’s most significant scientific publication. "This edition is especially important because it includes additional material not present in the first edition of 1751" (Norman). This edition is the first to include complete notes on all of Franklin’s important experiments on electricity, as well as many other subjects. It includes the first appearance of his letter to Oliver Neave, encouraging him to learn how to swim and extolling the “enjoyment in so delightful and wholesome an exercise,” which was subsequently often reprinted under the title “The Art of Swimming.” REFERENCES ESTC T101040; Ford 307; Howes F320; Lipman/Celebration 43; Norman 830; Sabin 25506; Wellcome III:62; cf. Printing and the Mind of Man 69; cf. Antonio Pace, Benjamin Franklin and Italy (American Philosophical Society, 1958), passim PROVENANCE Paolo Frisi (erased presentation inscription) —C. E. Rappaport, bookseller, Rome (label) — Albert Edgar Lownes (bookplate) — S. S. Dunham (pencilled signature on front free endpaper) — James S. Copley (bookplate; Sotheby's New York, 15 October 2010, lot 588)

View 1 of Lot 105: Benjamin Franklin | Presentation copy of the first complete Experiments and Observations on Electricity

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