Books and Manuscripts, Medieval to Modern

[Sylvia Plath] The Bell Jar. London: Heinemann, 1963 FIRST EDITION, 8vo (184 x 124mm.), 258pp., contemporary ownership inscriptions to front free endpaper, publisher's dark brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt, Heinemann windmill logo stamped in blind to lower cover, original dust-jacket, spine ends slightly bumped, dust-jacket slightly frayed and browned at extremities with: Professor Trevor Thomas. Sylvia Plath: Last Encounters. Bedford: published privately, 1989. First and only UK printing, number 139 of an unknown limitation, signed by author on title-page, 4to (299 x 209mm.), 38pp. with type-written text on rectos only, black comb binding with red paper wrappers, drawing design by Thomas on upper cover, wrappers slightly faded and creased with small marginal inkstain The first edition of Plath's only novel (published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas), complete with an original dust-jacket (un-price clipped and unrestored). This lot also includes a copy of Last Encounters, a suppressed account of Plath's final weeks by Professor Trevor Thomas, who lived at 23 Fitzroy Road in north west London, and who was the last person to see Plath alive.

View 1 of Lot 277: [Sylvia Plath] | The Bell Jar, 1963, first edition, dust-jacket, with Trevor Thomas, Plath: Last Encounters

[sylvia plath] | the bell jar, 1963, first edition, dust-jacket, with trevor thomas, plath: last encounters

Emma Hawkins: A Natural World

Italian, 17th century Devotional Pendant rock crystal and silver, in a later glass bell jar the octagonal form carved: IHS 75mm., 3in. the bell jar: 16.5cm., 6½in.

italian, 17th century

Your Own Sylvia: Sylvia Plath’s letters to Ted Hughes and other items, property of Frieda Hughes

Sylvia Plath Typed letter signed, to Edith and William Hughes ("Dear Ted's mother & dad...") writing in idyllic terms of their life together in a cottage on Cape Cod ("...The sea air here, the privacy in the pine grove, the peace, the good food & shiny little cabin are working wonders on both of us..."), their ambition to "write like fury" over the summer, and her confidence in Hughes's future ("...Ted's book, I am sure, will be a best-seller here for poetry books!..."), 1 page, 8vo (174 x 138mm), blue paper [Eastham, MA,] "Monday morning" [c.22 July 1957] Hughes and Plath reached their remote cabin on Cape Cod on 13 July, and remained until late August. It was a productive period for Hughes, who began writing the poems that would become Lupercal, but Plath struggled to begin writing again after nine months given over to academic study. However, she worked on four stories, one of which ('The Trouble-Making Mother') would become the basis of The Bell Jar. Her fine poem 'Mussel Hunter at Rock Harbor' (1958) was also inspired by these weeks on the Cape. LITERATURE The Letters of Sylvia Plath: Volume Two, p.165

View 1 of Lot 28: Sylvia Plath | Typed letter signed, to Edith and William Hughes, "we'll be writing like fury", [22 July 1957]

sylvia plath | typed letter signed, to edith and william hughes, "we'll be writing like fury", [22 july 1957]

Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern

Property of Frieda Hughes Sylvia Plath--Mirror Bevelled mirror owned by Sylvia Plath, bronze coloured metal mount with embossed design of fruit and flowers, red corduroy over wood cushion frame surround, 270 x 190mm., some very light scratches on mirror, corduroy faded "I have looked at it so long I think it is part of my heart" (Plath, "Mirror", Crossing the Water, 1971) Mirrors assume a powerful symbolic role throughout Plath's work. Plath's 1955 undergraduate thesis at Smith College was entitled "The Magic Mirror: A Study of the Double in Two of Dostoevsky's Novels", and "explores literary doubles made up of a character's repressed traits" (Kelly Coyne). The symbolic power of the mirror resurfaces in The Bell Jar (1963), when Esther is abandoned, reaches for the "side mirror" in her pocketbook, and catches a troubling glimpse of her face which "seemed to be peering from the grating of a prison cell". Moreover, a posthumously published 1961 lyric is written from the point of view of a personified mirror, and reflects Plath's fears about ageing and death: in the poem the mirror's reflection - truthful, not cruel - is the eye of a little god.

View 1 of Lot 376: Sylvia Plath | Mirror previously belonging to Plath

sylvia plath | mirror previously belonging to plath

Sylvia Plath Autograph letter signed, to Edith Hughes describing her communal ward and fellow patients as she lies in bed recovering from her appendectomy, reassuring her of her good spirits and Ted's kindness, 2 pages, 8vo (177 x 135mm), 6 March 1961, waterstaining resulting in some ink smudging to second page, small wear-hole at centre "...The other women & girls here are wonderful - full of good spirits & fun - there are only two really sick ones. One had a brain operation & is unconscious all the time with tubes up her nose & looks quite gruesome & the other is an old lady who was run over & both her legs broken. She yells a lot - it sounds like playacting but may not be - calls 'Police, help, police, get me out of here!' & calls the nurses devils who are trying to murder her & knocks all the medicines out of their hands & won't take them..." Plath's upbeat tone in this letter was partly relief at the success of her operation, partly a result of the rare period of enforced rest, and partly to reassure her parents-in-law - although her precise description of the torment of a fellow-patient reveals something of her darker thoughts. A hospital visit is of course always a period of anxiety, and Plath's surviving journals reveal that she was haunted by memories of her 1953 hospitalisation at Valley Head: "I feel curiously less worried about losing my appendix than being electrocuted" (Journals, p.601). Plath was by now beginning some of her greatest work. Hughes later claimed that The Bell Jar began to take shape in hospital, and it also inspired the poems 'In Plaster' and, above all, the masterful 'Tulips': "The tulips are too excitable, it is winter here. Look how white everything is, how quiet, how snowed-in. I am learning peacefulness, lying by myself quietly As the light lies on these white walls, this bed, these hands." LITERATURE The Letters of Sylvia Plath: Volume Two, pp.586-87

View 1 of Lot 42: Sylvia Plath | Autograph letter signed, to Edith Hughes, recuperating in hospital, 6 March [1961]

sylvia plath | autograph letter signed, to edith hughes, recuperating in hospital, 6 march [1961]

History of Science & Technology, Including the Nobel Prize and Papers of Richard P. Feynman

A gilt bronze heliocentric clock-top orrery with central sun, orbited by Mercury and Venus, and with orbiting Earth and moon, rotating year calendar with coloured enamel plaques depicting the signs of the zodiac, with removable bell-jar cover (12 inches tall with jar); the whole mounted on a 8 1/4 inch diameter wooden base. Orrery driven by and ivory hand-crank found at side of base. Come chips to edge of bell jar. 

signed "françois ducommun"

a royal doulton stoneware jardiniìre, 1922-1956, the bell-shaped body moulded...

A rare archaic bronze straight-handled Bell (Zheng)

A rare archaic bronze straight-handled Bell (Zheng) late Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Warring States period / 3rd Century BC of tapered oval section, the convex sides falling to an arched rim, finely cast on either side with a stylised taotie mask flanked by stylised dragons composed of C- and S-scrolls, above a skirt of pendent triangular blades enclosing scrolls, the facetted slender handle cast with four registers of further triangular lappets alternating with stylised S-scroll, the lowest register in higher relief opposite the loop terminal formed by confronting tigers 26 cm., 10 1/2 in It is extremely rare to find a bell of this type, which is called zheng and differs from the conventional yongzhong bells in that it has no lug at the side of the shank and could therefore not be hung, obliquely, like other bells, but was either suspended straight, with the rim down, or hand held, with the rim up. Bells of this type do apparently not occur in graded sets, as is the case with yongzhong bells, but were used in combination with the chunyu drum. For a discussion of this type of bell see Jenny So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York, 1995, pp.395f., where four different zheng are illustrated, pl.81 and figs.81.1 and 81.2, all with a plain body and a differently worked shank. One zheng of very similar form, with the design very worn but probably also very close to that of the present example, was sold in our Los Angeles rooms, 8th June 1981, lot 207. For the fine scrollwork design on this bell compare a wine jar hu decorated with very similar borders and blades, in the collection of the Department of Archaeology, Peking University, included in the exhibition Treasures from a Swallow Garden, Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology, Peking, 1992, pl.103.

a rare archaic bronze straight-handled bell (zheng)

Natural History, Including The Juvenile Ceratosaurus, and the Largest Piece of Mars on Earth

Gibeon Meteorite Sphere — A Sculpture From One of the Largest Meteorite Strewn Fields

Gibeon Meteorite Sphere — A Sculpture From One of the Largest Meteorite Strewn Fields Iron – IVA Great Namaqualand, Namibia (25° 30'S, 18° 0'E) 40 mm (1⅝ inches) in diameter. 276 grams (.61 lb). 6 inches tall in bell jar presentation, including wood base and plexiglass stands.

View 1 of Lot 96: Gibeon Meteorite Sphere

gibeon meteorite sphere

Mario Buatta: Prince of Interiors

Sold Without Reserve TWO DUTCH DELFT BLUE AND WHITE TOBACCO JARS AND ONE METAL COVER, LATE 18TH CENTURY each painted with an Indian smoking a pipe and seated by a jar inscribed either 'RAPPE' or 'VIOLET', beside other cargo vessels, one monogrammed VOC, before two ships under sail on the water, Rappe with BP mark in blue for for De Vergulde Blompot (The Gilt Flowerpot) factory, Violet with three blue painted three bells marks for De Drie Klokken (The Three Bells) factory (tallest excluding cover) height 10 ½ in. 26.5 cm

two dutch delft blue and white tobacco jars and one metal cover, late 18th century

Modern British Art

Vanessa Bell 1879 - 1961 Pinks in a Jar, Charleston signed with initials VB (lower right) oil on canvas unframed: 45.5 by 37.5cm.; 18 by 14¾in. framed: 61 by 53cm.; 24 by 20¾in. Executed in 1954. We are grateful to Richard Shone for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.

View 1 of Lot 351: Pinks in a Jar, Charleston

pinks in a jar, charleston

At Home: Sotheby’s Designer Showhouse and Auction

each painted with an Indian smoking a pipe, seated by a jar inscribed 'VIOLET' or 'F. RAPPEE', the first with the three bells mark for the Drye Glokken factory and the second with B:P: mark in blue for De Porceleyne Bloompot factory.

two dutch delft blue and white tobacco jars and brass covers, 18th century

a federal-style bell-jar lantern 20th century

a pair of federal-style bell-jar lanterns 20t h century

three colorless glass federal-style bell-jar lanterns, american

a pair of glass bell jars, late 19th/early 20th century, of typical form, 51cm.;...

pair of bell jars

a similar pair of bell jars, eu$250-400

a similar pair of glass bell jars, eu$250-400

The Duchess Precious Objects and Property from the Estate of Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe

of baluster form, each painted with the same cartouche of Mercury leaning against a barrel in a harbour, flanked by crates of tobacco leaves, the largest vase labelled 'ST. DOMINGO', the smaller two labelled 'No.7' and 'No.8', all inscribed 'IHR / RAPPE', blue painted three bells marks for De Drie Klokken (The Three Bells) factory,

three dutch delft blue and white tobacco jars, late 18th century

 L’Art de Vivre: Property from the Collection of Kathleen and Martin Field

the bell-shaped body boldly painted in brilliant enamels with massive peonies blossoming in shades of fuchsia, lavender, turquoise, and iron-red surrounded by lush foliage, rockwork, and butterflies, a circular aperture at the base, wood stands, 4 pieces

a pair of large chinese famille-rose jardinieres, late qing dynasty / 20th century |

7½-inch enamel dial signed John Jardin, London set on a foliate engraved brass plate with subsidiary dials in the arch for regulation and strike/silent, three train six pillar (two removed) fusee and chain trip repeating  movement similarly signed, with anchor escapement, rise and fall regulation, chiming the quarters on eight bells and with a further bell for the hour, the backplate and the pendulum bordered with engraving, the front plate and the rear of the dial signed Robson 1370, the formerly ebonised fruitwood case with concave sided cresting inset with brass scale frets to the sides and a wood fret at the front, ball finials and broken-arch moulded cornice, the brass framed door flanked by stop-fluted quadrant pilasters, the sides with carrying handles above further scale frets, bracket feet

L12305

5¾-inch dial with winged cherub spandrels, matted centre with date aperture, strike/silent lever at XII, the fusee movement with six knopped and ringed pillars, verge escapement, pull quarter repeating on three bells and striking on a further bell, the backplate with gadrooned border and engraved with a spray of flowers and signed Richard Jarratt, Londini Fecit, folaite pierced and engraved apron, the case with domed top surmounted by a brass carrying handle and with finely chased foliate mounts, brass ball finials, foliate repousee brass frieze fret, hinged glazed side panels and brass bun feet

a gilt-mounted ebony quarter repeating table clock, richard jarrett, london, circa 1685

Treasures

5½-inch enamel dial with centre seconds, paste-set bezel, the rear wound three train chain fusee movement with verge escapement, rack striking on a bell, the musical train playing one of four tunes at the hour on a nest of eight bells with eight hammers and supplying the driving force for the automaton, the case with canted scroll corners, urn finials, pierced scroll side panels, and friezes and inset with panels of blue basse-taille enamel decorated in green and gilt with trailing leaves and flowers, the rectangular jardinière on boldly cast sunflower feet and set with similar enamel panels and containing a leafy tree surmounted by an automaton pomegranate and butterfly,

an ormolu and enamel musical automaton 'jardinière' table clock, the case chinese, qianlong, probably guangzhou; the movement by robert philp, london, circa 1785

LUXE: ART OF DESIGN | European Decorative Arts and 20th Century Design

of inverted bell-form, the body painted with peonies in iron-red, yellow, white, and pink enamels issuing from rockwork

a chinese famille-rose jardiniere 19th century

Egyptian, Classical, and Western Asiatic Antiquities

comprising an amber glass date flask, two globular jars with flaring mouths, a jar with straight flaring sides and flaring mouth, an unguentarium with indented body, a bottle with ribbed cylindrical body, a bowl with vertical sides, an aryballos with ancient bronze bells attached to the handles (one attachment loop appearing ancient), a cobalt-blue bottle with panels of scrolling vine in sunk relief, and a swizzle stick with spiral decoration.

nine glass vessels and a swizzle stick

Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art

the body of inverted bell shape with broad everted rim, supported on a high double knopped fluted spreading foot, and covered overall in a pale ice-blue glaze, 8cm., 3 1/8 in; together with a 'Qingbai' globular jar and cover, and a water pot

a 'qingbai' lampsong dynasty

of broad cylindrical form raised on a hexagonal pedestal with six bracket feet, the reticulated drum case intricately cast and gilded with the eight 'bajixiang' auspicious symbols including a wheel of the law, conch-shell, umbrella, canopy, lotus, jar, fish and mystic knot, the beribboned symbols suspended amidst a ground of scrolling clouds, the openwork pierced to reveal the interior mechanism including two bells striking at the hour and half hour, the enamel dial with roman numerals marking the hour encircled within a ring denoting minutes, all enclosed within a domed glass dial cover mounted with a rim of alternating white and red glass gems, the stand pierced at the base with a central bloom issuing a complex foliate scroll, key

of broad cylindrical form raised on a hexagonal pedestal with six bracket feet, the reticulated drum case intricately cast and gilded with the eight 'bajixiang' auspicious symbols including a wheel of the law, conch-shell, umbrella, canopy, lotus, jar, fish and mystic knot, the beribboned symbols suspended amidst a ground of scrolling clouds, the openwork pierced to reveal the interior mechanism including two bells striking at the hour and half hour, the enamel dial with roman numerals marking the hour encircled within a ring denoting minutes, all enclosed within a domed glass dial cover mounted with a rim of alternating white and red glass gems, the stand pierced at the base with a central bloom issuing a complex foliate scroll, keyQuantity: 3

a canton gilt-bronze jewelled clockqing dynasty, 18th century

The Passion of American Collectors: Property of Barbara and Ira Lipman | Highly Important Printed and Manuscript Americana 

(Chalmers, James) Plain Truth; Addressed to the Inhabitants of America, containing, Remarks on a Late Pamphlet, entitled Common Sense. Wherein are Shewn, that the Scheme of Independence is Ruinous, Delusive, and Impracticable … and that Circumstanced as we are, Permanent Liberty, and True Happiness, can only be Obtained by Reconciliation with that Kingdom [Great Britain]. Written by Candidus. Philadelphia: Printed, and Sold, by R. Bell, 1776 8vo (203 x 122 mm). With preliminary leaf ("The Printer to the Public"); scattered browning and staining, stamp removed from foot of [A]3. Nineteenth-century brown morocco over marbled boards, pink pastedowns, sprinkled edges; extremities rubbed. A scarce Loyalist refutation of Common Sense, issued within a couple of months of Thomas Paine's revolutionary pamphlet; this printing is variously designated as the second edition or a reissue of the first edition, with additions. Dedicated to John Dickinson, Plain Truth provides a point-by-point rebuttal to Paine's incendiary polemic, arguing that independence would not only deprive the American colonies of their most important trading partner, but also invite invasion by Spain or France. Chalmers, a wealthy Maryland planter who adopted the pen name Candidus, issued his response to Common Sense so quickly, in fact, that Paine had not yet been identified as its author. Chalmers's Additions to Plain Truth has its own title-page (but continuous pagination and signing). Between the two parts of Plain Truth appear a critique of Common Sense, signed Rationalis, and William Smith’s pseudonymous "Cato's Letter (being his Second) to the People of Pennsylvania. … With some Observations against American Independency." Perhaps the most intriguing part of the work is a stirring declaration by Robert Bell on a preliminary advertising leaf (often lacking) headed "The Printer to the Public: On the Freedom of the Press." Bell writes, "Having very lately, without any other authority, than the Liberty of the Press, ushered into the hands of the public, certain speculations For American Independency. By the same Authority, viz., the Liberty of the Press: Robert Bell, Provedore to the Sentimentalists; hath printed, published, and is now selling (Price Three Shillings) to all who are capable of practicing so much impartiality, as to give a hearing to the other Side, by lending their attention towards certain speculations. Against American Independency. And that no malicious person, or persons, may plead ignorance of this indubitable and firmly established Authority, The Liberty of the Press, which doth, and forever will prevail in all those countries, where Freedom is the Basis of the Constitution." Appropriately, then, opposite the title-page for Plain Truth is printed an advertisement for Common Sense. PROVENANCE Michael Sharpe (morocco label) REFERENCE Celebration of My Country 64; Adams, American Independence 208c; Bristol B4191; ESTC W27653; Gimbel CS-208a; Hildeburn 3345; Shipton & Mooney 43001

View 1 of Lot 92: (Chalmers, James) | The principal Loyalist reply to Common Sense

Results for "The Bell Jar"