Livres & Manuscrits

[Avant-garde russe ─ Grand Bal des Artistes Travesti-Transmental] ─ Pierre Choumoff

[Avant-garde russe ─ Grand Bal des Artistes Travesti-Transmental] ─ Pierre Choumoff Photographies inédites du Grand Bal des Artistes Travesti-Transmental. Paris, février 1923. 8 tirages argentiques d’époque, par Pierre Choumoff, avec au verso son tampon violet : "Choumoff, Photographe, 6 Faubourg Saint-Jacques, Paris". Formats d'environ 170 x 223 mm (variations d'une photo à l'autre). Ces photographies représentent les décors éphémères et les participants du célèbre Grand Bal des Artistes Travesti-Transmental de février 1923. Témoignages visuels inédits de ce bal mythique d'avant-garde. Photographies, avec planche coloriée par Gontcharova, invitation et programme. Après les horreurs de la guerre, tout le monde veut faire la fête dans les années 20 à Paris : les Années folles voient les bals et fêtes costumées se multiplier partout dans Paris, au Bal Bullier, aux Salles Huyghens, à Magic City, au Moulin de la Galette à Montmartre ou dans l’atelier de Van Dongen. Plusieurs associations d'artistes organisent des bals, comme l’AAAA (Association pour l’Aide aux Artistes). Entre 1923 et 1925, l’Union des Artistes Russes à Paris organise de grands bals au profit de la caisse du secours mutuel. Ces événements réunissaient les artistes russes et de toutes nationalités, exilés ou installés à Paris : il y eut d’abord ce Grand Bal des artistes Travesti-Transmental à la salle Bullier en février 1923, puis le Bal banal (14 mars 1924), le Bal olympique, "Vrai Bal Sportif costumé" dans les caves de l’Olympia (11 juillet 1924) et enfin, le Bal de la Grande Ourse (8 mai 1925). Plus tard, il y eut également le Bal des deux Dianes (1926) et le Bal fantastique en l’honneur de Jules Verne (1929). Sous l’égide de Hélène Oettingen et organisés par Iliazd, Natalia Gontcharova et Mikhaïl Larionov, ces bals marquent la vie artistique de l’époque. Ces soirées font l’objet d’une production artistique originale : affiches, décors éphémères, spectacles théâtraux et performances, etc. Faisant exploser les limites du cadre de la scène, investissant murs, sol et au plafond, ces mises en scènes éphémères permettent aux artistes et participants de communier artistiquement. "Dans ces entreprises qui mobilisent un nombre considérable de participants la théorie de l’’union des arts’ chère à l’avant-garde se concrétise peut-être plus pleinement que dans les Ballets Diaghilev par l’adjonction de la poésie, de la calligraphie et de la sculpture et l’art de l’affiche. La scène n’est plus séparée de la salle, le spectateur est en même temps acteur, et la fête rappelle que l’art doit changer la vie" (H. Menegaldo, p. 259). Le premier et le plus célèbre de ces bals, le "Grand Bal des artistes Travesti-Transmental" fait référence aux conceptions poétiques de Khlebnikov, Kroutchenych et Zdanévitch. "Au nombre des attractions, ‘le fœtus à quatre têtes’, l’élection des femmes à barbe reines de la nuit, la ‘Compagnie transatlantique de pickpockets’ de Robert Delaunay" (H. Menegaldo, p. 259). Les costumes et les décors de théâtre créés par Natalia Gontcharova sont d'une importance majeure dans l'histoire de l'art théâtral décoratif, car ils ont révolutionné la scénographie en intégrant les avant-gardes artistiques au spectacle vivant et ont profondément transformé la relation entre espace, acteur et spectateur. Par nature éphémères, ces lieux transformés n’ont pas survécu : rares en sont les témoignages visuels. Les documents présentés sont probablement inédits. 8 photographies de Pierre Choumoff (1872-1936). Formé à Saint-Pétersbourg, le photographe s’exile en France afin d’échapper aux arrestations auxquelles l’exposaient ses activités artistiques. Initié à la photographie par Jan Strożecki, il travaille dans son atelier parisien de la rue du Faubourg-Saint-Jacques de 1911 à 1933. Principal photographe de Rodin, il réalise également les portraits de nombreuses figures majeures de son temps, parmi lesquelles Bakst, Chagall, Einstein, Fauré, Gleizes, Kerenski, Léger, Maïakovski, Monet, Pavlova, Pitoëff, Prokofiev, Stravinsky et Tsvetaïeva. Parmi ces huit photographies, on distingue celles qui présentent les décors de la manifestation de celles où des acteurs, artistes et invités du bal prennent la pose. S’il est délicat d’identifier tous les personnages sur ces clichés, on reconnaît cependant Foujita, installé à Paris depuis 1913, qui était de toutes les fêtes, adorant se déguiser. Le programme du bal annonce un spectacle intitulé "Foujita et les merveilles du Japon" : c’est lui que l’on distingue sur une estrade, entouré d’acteurs grimés ou vêtus de kimonos. [1]. Salle à décors peints sur toile tendue, un personnage assis au premier plan ; on distingue une affiche portant la mention "Avis Le prix des C[onsom]mations est majoré [au profit ?] de la Société [des a]rtistes Russes". [2]. Salle à décors peints sur toile tendue, avec un mannequin en costule féminin et un personnage (en carton ?) représentant une femme (il pourrait s’agir d’une des poupées-portraits de Marie Vassilieff ou de sa "poupée diseuse de bonne aventure" annoncée au programme ?). Sur les décors, on aperçoit le nom d’André Lasserre, celui de Olga Vtoroff (1898-1936) et la mention "La cachiri Rego-Monteiro", probablement Vicente do Rego Monteiro (1899-1970), artiste brésilien actif à Paris dans les années 1920, qui publia en français notamment Quelques Visages de Paris en 1925. [3]. Salle à décors peints sur toile tendue, dont un porte le nom de "Claire Fargue" (l'artiste émigra de Russie avant 1921, date à laquelle elle commence à exposer au Salon d'Automne, au Salon des Tuileries, et au salon de l'Araignée) ; un des décors est probablement de Serge Férat ou d'Irène Lagut. [4]. 7 personnages, en habits japonais posant sur une estrade avec inscriptions en japonais : certains en kimonos, avec éventails, ombrelle, etc. ; on reconnaît Foujita, torse-nu ; une femme en smoking avec un chapeau haut-de-forme). On distingue une femme attablée à l'arrière-plan. Il s'agit probablement des participants au spectacle "Fête villageoise au Japon" monté par "Foujita et ses amis" et, comme l'indique le programme, des "costumes et orchestre du vieux temps au Japon". [5]. Personnage travesti, devant une grande effigie peinte avec des inscriptions ("Cez..", "Manouche", "la bonne Av…", "mon ventre", etc. [6]. Groupe d’une cinquantaine de personnes, certaines costumées, d’autres en habits de soirée. On reconnaît Foujita au centre (torse nu, maquillé), etc. Plusieurs personnes sont en costumes japonais, on voit aussi un clown, un homme coiffé d'un turban, des femmes habillées en homme ou vêtues de mini-jupes, des masques, etc. [7]. Groupe d’environ 30 personnes, certaines déguisées, grimées, homme travesti, etc., avec en arrière-plan un décor et des personnages peints. [8]. Groupe (5 hommes et 2 femmes), en habits de ville, devant une fontaine ouvragée. On reconnaît peut-être Gontcharova et Larionov (de profil?). GONTCHAROVA, Natalia. 2 planches, dont une coloriée à la gouache et signée "N. Gontcharova", l’autre en noir.262 x 186 mm (planche) sur un feuillet 338 x 258 mm. L'épreuve gouachée l'a probablement été par Natalia Gontcharova. LARIONOV, Mikhaïl. 3 planches, une en noir, deux rehaussées à la main (peut-être par Larionov ?).275 x 225 mm. Billet d’entrée pour le Grand Bal des Artistes Travesti-Transmental. Paris, 1923.223 x 137 mm. Impression recto bicolore en xylogravure sur papier fort beige. Billet d’entrée pour le Grand Bal des Artistes organisé salle Bullier 31 rue de l'Observatoire à Paris le 23 février 1923 "au profit de la caisse de secours mutuel de l'Union des Artistes Russes". Exemplaire non numéroté et sans prix marqué. Illustré d'un grand bois gravé bicolore de Mikhail Larionov (trois personnages stylisés). Programme original du Bal, conçu par Larionov pour l’Union des Artistes Russes. Paris, 1923.In-4. Broché. Grand Bal des Artistes organisé salle Bullier 31 rue de l'Observatoire à Paris le 23 février 1923 "au profit de la caisse de secours mutuel de l'Union des Artistes Russes". Illustrations de Picasso, Ferat, Gris et Derain. Ces documents proviennent probablement d'un des organisateurs ou de son entourage (peut-être le photographe Pierre Choumoff ?). Ils ont appartenu à Xavier Fourcade, fameux galeriste américain qui défendit Willem de Kooning, John Chamberlain et Joan Mitchell, entre autres.

View 1 of Lot 112: Grand Bal des Artistes Travesti-Transmental. Février 1923. 8 photographies (décors et participants, dont Foujita), 3 planches de Gontcharova et Larionov (une gouachée et signée), programme et invitation.

grand bal des artistes travesti-transmental. février 1923. 8 photographies (décors et participants, dont foujita), 3 planches de gontcharova et larionov (une gouachée et signée), programme et invitation.

Dwan Gallery collection of posters, invitations, and other ephemera.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 74 items, including posters, catalogs, invitations, and flyers.</li><li>Curated by Virginia Dwan.</li><li>Los Angeles and New York: Dwan Gallery, 1960-1971.</li><li>All housed in archival boxes, most stored flat or folded in clear mylar sleeves, a handful rolled. </li><li>A complete inventory is available upon request.</li></ul> "Language to be Looked at and/or Things to be Read" Extensive collection of printed material from Virginia Dwan's legendary gallery, central site of Minimalism, Conceptualism, and Land Art movements of the 1960s. "The run of the Dwan Gallery was brief but momentous. During its eleven years, Virginia Dwan mounted 134 shows, introducing viewers in Los Angeles and New York to the most challenging art practices of the time." — Earl A. Powell IIIWhen Virginia Dwan opened the storied Dwan Gallery in a Los Angeles storefront in 1959, she (together with Ferus Gallery) helped establish Los Angeles as a nexus of the art world to rival New York or Paris. While Dwan's earliest exhibitions focused on certain established artists and Abstract Expressionists, by the early 1960s the gallery was increasingly showing Pop and Neo-Dada artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Yves Klein, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and James Rosenquist. By the middle of the decade, and especially after establishing a second location in NYC in 1965, Dwan focused increasingly on major minimalist and conceptual artists such as Sol LeWitt, Carl Andre, Arakawa, Robert Morris, Dan Flavin and others — eventually becoming the most important gallery to support landscape and other Earthworks artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer. Though the gallery would last little more than a decade, its impact was enormous. Dwan not only exhibited and promoted her artists, she also funded their projects — and it is not an overstatement to say that without the support of Dwan such canonical works as Robert Smithson's "Spiral Jetty" and Michael Heizer's "Double Negative" (which the artist eventually gave to Dwan) would simply not exist. Dwan was also a pioneer in creating promotional materials that were themselves works of art, frequently designed by the artists for conceptual works that otherwise often lacked any other physical manifestation. Highlights of the collection include an exceptional unfolded example of Michael Heizer's monumental poster for "Double Negative / 1,000' x 42' x 30 / 40,000 Tons Displacement," as well as the rare poster for Yves Klein's "Le Monochrome," one of the few shows mounted during his brief life and one that marked a turning point in the gallery's history toward minimalism and conceptualism. Other major documents include a beautiful copy of the innovative catalogue BOXES, a complete set of postcards from Dwan's groundbreaking series of "Language" shows, as well as early and important pieces from Larry Rivers, Claes Oldenburg, Sol LeWitt, Carl Andre, Robert Rauschenberg, Kenneth Snelson, Dan Flavin, Ed Keinholz, James Rosenquist, Lucas Samaras, Robert Ryman, and numerous others. The collection is in remarkable condition overall, with many of the posters unfolded. At 74 items, it is one of the larger groups of Dwan material. The Smithsonian holds a nearly complete collection, as does Bard — both donated by Virginia Dwan herself. The next largest grouping is at the Getty (which consists of 57 items), and after that we locate only scattered individual items. As such, this collection represents nearly two-thirds of all Dwan exhibitions mounted during its twelve-year reign, and one of the largest to come to market. A major opportunity to acquire a dense and representative overview of this pioneering gallery and curator.

Dwan Gallery Posters, Invitations, and Ephemera Collection

An invitation designed by <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Keith%20Haring&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Keith Haring</a> to the <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?query=Martin%20Luther%20King&amp;tab=objects&amp;sortBy=bsp_dotcom_prod_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Martin Luther King</a> Day celebration in 1988.<ul><li>After Keith Haring (American, 1958-1990).</li><li>Printed signature upper right.</li><li>Offset printed double-sided invitation.</li><li>This work is presented unframed.</li></ul> In 1988, 20 years after the death of Martin Luther King Jr., Keith Haring illustrated this extremely rare invite in celebration of one night event hosted by the artist at The Palladium. Haring hosted alongside legendary DJ’s Jellybean Benitez (Madonna’s 1st producer), &amp; Larry Levan (Paradise Garage).

Keith Haring Martin Luther King Day Celebration Invitation

An invitation to the press showing of The Beatles first-ever feature film A Hard Day’s Night, which took place at the Leicester Square Theatre in London on the morning of July 6,1964.<ul><li>United Artists Corporation, Ltd.</li><li>Later on the same day, the film officially premiered at the London Pavilion.</li></ul>

 A Hard Day’s Night Press Show Invitation

Important Watches

Dial: black tapestry Caliber: cal. 3155 automatic, 31 jewels Movement number: 5'606'764 Case: 18k yellow gold, engraved screw down case back Case number: E'279'441 Closure: 18k yellow gold Rolex President bracelet with folding clasp Size: 36 mm diameter Signed: case, dial and movement Box: yes Papers: yes Accessories: Rolex presentation box fitted with a commemorative plaque for the Career Achievement Award presented to Jack Nicklaus at the Van Patrick Memorial Invitational on August 2, 1992, outer packaging, Official Chronometer Attestation dated August 2nd, 1992, facsimile of Letter from Brian T. Schubot, former president of Jules R. Schubot, facsimile of Letter of Provenance from the original owner’s family, booklets, and polishing cloths Weight: approximately 140.64 g

View 1 of Lot 142: Reference 18238 Day-Date | A yellow gold automatic wristwatch with date, bracelet and engraved case back, Presented to Jack Nicklaus as a Career Achievement Award at the Van Patrick Memorial Invitational in 1992, Circa 1992

reference 18238 day-date | a yellow gold automatic wristwatch with date, bracelet and engraved case back, presented to jack nicklaus as a career achievement award at the van patrick memorial invitational in 1992, circa 1992

The Jay T. Snider Collection of Benjamin Franklin

William Franklin The Answer of his Excellency William Franklin, Esq; Governor of His Majesty's Province of New-Jersey, to the invidious Charges of the Proprietary Party, contained in a Libel, read by Mr. James Biddle, Clerk of the Common Pleas for the County of Philadelphia, on Saturday last, and afterwards published and industriously dispersed through the Province. [Philadelphia: Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall, 1765] Letterpress broadside (317 x 206 mm) on a half-sheet of laid paper (watermark indistinct); lightly browned and foxed. Writing here as governor of New Jersey, William Franklin refutes the allegations made by James Biddle that Benjamin Franklin had helped to plan and promote the Stamp Act and that William had prevented the New Jersey assembly in joining the general colonial protests against it. Biddle’s broadside, titled “To the Freeholders and Electors Of the Province of Pennsylvania,” was printed in Philadelphia by William Bradford (ESTC W1374; Evans 9915). Biddle wrote, “As another annual election is now approaching … You have seen too how the same faction have gratified an ambitious man in frequent embassies to England, under pretence of extinguishing a flame designedly kindled by himself! … Nay, that the stamp-act has been long a favorite scheme of his, is clear from a manuscript written by him about eight years ago.” Here Franklin’s son responds, his answer datelined Burlington, October 1, 1765: “Whereas a Report has, for some Time past, been circulated, That the Governor of this Province received the Letter sent by the Speaker of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, to the Speaker of the Assembly of New-Jersey, detained it in his Possession till the last Day of the late Meeting at Burlington, and by his Management, prevailed on the Assembly not to accept of the Invitation to send Commissioners to New-York. And whereas a Paper has been printed and published at Philadelphia, positively asserting, ‘That the Governor of New-Jersey has made strong Efforts to subdue the Spirit of Liberty in his Government, and arbitrarily refuses to give his Assembly an Opportunity to join the other Assemblies in decent Remonstrances against the Stamp Law, although Nine Tenths of the People of the Jerseys now vehemently desire it. …’ Now this is to assure the Public, that so far from my having received and detained the above mentioned Letter, I have not even yet seen it. …” Franklin continues, “I should not have thought it necessary to give this publick Refutation of the Falshoods contained in the Report and Paper abovementioned, had they not been propagated and published with a View of taking Advantage of the present Commotions to excite a Difference between me and a People for whom I have a great Regard, and with whom I have lived in uninterrupted Harmony ever since my Arrival in the Government.” Pivoting to the charges made against his father, William is even more zealous in his response: “As to what is contained in the said Paper relative to my Father's being concerned in the planning and promoting the Stamp Act, it is grossly false, and consequently a shameful Imposition on the People. Not a Gentleman of the Proprietary Party, even among those who scruple not to aver the Truth of it in Conversation, can, I am convinced, be found so hardened as to avow in Print, with his Name subscribed, that he believes it to be true, or to undertake to produce any Proofs in its Support.—My Father is absent—but he has left Friends enough on the Spot, who are both capable and willing to clear him of any Aspersions which the Malice of the Proprietary Party can suggest. To those Friends I leave the Defence of his Reputation, if it can need any, being determined to concern myself no farther with the Disputes of Pensylvania than as they relate to my Character, or have Reference to the publick Transactions of this Province.” According to Franklin and Hall’s Workbook, Joseph Galloway paid them £2.5.0 on 3 October 1765 to print one thousand copies of William Franklin’s broadside Answer. Today, though, only perhaps four copies survive: ESTC records copies only at the Library Company of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania; and just two copies appear in Rare Book Hub, none for more than fifty years: a copy at a sale conducted by Stan Henkels at Thos. Birch’s Sons, Philadelphia, in 1892, and an apparent Library Company duplicate sold at Parke-Bernet, 20 January 1970, lot 6. The Snider copy is likely the one sold in 1970. REFERENCES Miller 837; ESTC W36526; Evans 9973; Hildeburn 2125; Campbell 713

View 1 of Lot 98: William Franklin | A refutation of a "grossly false" charge against his father

william franklin | a refutation of a "grossly false" charge against his father

Benjamin Franklin Autograph letter signed (“BFranklin”) to Mary “Polly” Stevenson Hewson (“My dear dear Friend”), 2 pages (228 x 183 mm) on a leaf of laid paper (watermarked posthorn GR), Passy, 13 April 1782, a warm letter on domestic topics, that also looks forward to seeing “Peace & Good Will restored between our Countries,” reception docket in left margin of verso “Passy April 13—82.” Half red morocco folding-case gilt, chemise. In the midst of his residence at the Hôtel de Valentinois, Passy, while American Minister to France, Franklin sends an affectionate letter to Mary “Polly” Hewson. “I received your kind Letter of the 23d of December. I rejoice always to hear of your & your good Mother’s Welfare, tho’ I can write but Seldom, safe Opportunities are Scarce.” Franklin renews an earlier invitation that Hewson visit him in Passy with her mother and children: “Looking over some old Papers I find the rough Draft of a Letter which I wrote to you 15 Months ago, and which probably miscarried, or your Answer miscarried, as I never receiv’d any. I enclose it, as the Spring is coming on and the same Proposition will now again be in Season and easily executed if you should approve of it.” Franklin was wise to include his draft, because the original of his earlier letter, 10 January 1780, evidently never reached London and Polly would have had no idea of what the “Proposition” entailed. Still thinking of a reunion in France, Franklin inquires about John Viny and Joseph Jacobs, partners in a wheelwright and carriage-building firm who had worked with Franklin to develop a new method of making wheels in one piece. “You mention Mr. Viny’s being with you. What is his present Situation? I think he might do well with his Wheel-Business in this Country. By your Newspapers Jacob [sic] seems to have taken it to himself. Could he not make up a good Coach with the latest Useful improvements, & bring you all in it. It would serve here as a Specimen of his Abilities, if he chose to stay; or would sell well if he chose to return.” He next commiserates with Mrs. Stevenson about the health consequences of growing older: “I hope Your Mother has got over her Lowness of Spirits about the Dropsey. It is common for aged People to have at times swell’d Ancles towards Evening; but it is a temporary Disorder, which goes off of itself, & has no Consequences.— My tender Love to her.” Benjamin Franklin Bache, Franklin’s twelve-year-old grandson, was at the time attending school in Geneva, and his grandfather requests Hewson to send the books that he arranged for her to purchase to him there: “If you have an Opportunity of sending to Geneva, I like well enough your sending the Books thither for my Grandson, who goes on well there.—” (Franklin had earlier suggested that she use a smallish amount of money that she owed him—about £5—to purchase duplicate sets of appropriate books for his grandson and her son William, Franklin’s godson, who was the same age). Perhaps referencing a running joke that the young Bache would one day wed Hewson’s daughter Elizabeth, Franklin endorses not dressing the girl too soon in mature undergarments, “You do well to keep my Grandaughter without Stays. God bless her, and all of you.—” In its conclusion, the letter transcends familial themes as Franklin thoughtfully reflects on the unsettled period between Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown and signing of the Treaty of Paris: “You may imagine that I begin to grow happy in my Prospects. I should be quite so, if I could see Peace & Good Will restored between our Countries; for I enjoy Health, Competence, Friends & Reputation; Peace is the only Ingredient wanting to my Felicity. Adieu, my dear Friend, and believe me ever Yours most affectionately.” REFERENCES Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Cohn, 37:144–145 (not locating the original, text [surprisingly accurate] from Stan V. Henkels, Catalogue No. 1262) PROVENANCE Stan V. Henkels, Catalogue No. 1262, The Great Autograph Sale, 1 July 1920, lot 31 (undesignated consignor) — American Art Association, 22 April 1924, lot 295 (undesignated consignor) — “A Gentleman” (Christie’s New York, 4 December 2018, lot 141)

View 1 of Lot 85: Benjamin Franklin | "Peace is the only Ingredient wanting to my Felicity"

benjamin franklin | "peace is the only ingredient wanting to my felicity"

Pennsylvania General Loan Office Mortgage Register for the 1729 Currency Emission

Pennsylvania General Loan Office Mortgage Register for the 1729 Currency Emission This Indenture Made the [blank space] Day of [blank space] in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and [blank space] Between [blank space] of the one Part, and Samuel Carpenter, Jeremiah Langhorne, William Fishbourn and Philip Taylor, Trustees of the General Loan-Office of the Province of Pensylvania, of the other Part, Witnesseth, that the said [blank space] in Consideration of the Value of [blank space] in Bills of Credit of the said Province to [blank space] in Hand paid by the said Trustees, (pursuant to the Trust reposed in them by an Act of General Assembly of this Province, entituled, An Act for Emitting of Thirty Thousand Pounds in Bills of Credit, for the better Support of Government, and the Trade of this Province) The Receipt whereof he the said [blank space] doth hereby acknowledge, Hath granted, bargained and sold, and by these Presents Doth grant, bargain and sell unto the said Trustees of the General Loan-Office of the Province of Pensylvania, their Successors and Assigns. … [Philadelphia: Printed by Benjamin Franklin and Hugh Meredith, August/September 1729] Royal folio volume comprising 137 leaves (460 x 293 mm) of fine imported paper (watermarked Strasbourg bend, countermarked IV), printed recto and verso with the foregoing 51-line form in Franklin’s typefont pica no. 1 and cast heading A (This Indenture), first 132 leaves accomplished and witnessed recto and verso and paginated in a contemporary hand 1–264, final 5 leaves unaccomplished and unpaginated, 5 leaves evidently excised shortly after the volume was bound and certainly before being paginated; scattered light browning. Contemporary blind-panelled calf, by, or employing the tools of, William Davies, plain endpapers and edges; worn and restored, but covers and spine largely preserved. Half russet morocco folding-box, chemise. Job printing, especially what Franklin called “little jobs”—blank forms (indentures, bonds, bills of lading, meeting invitations and notices, receipts), handbills, lottery tickets, bookplates, and all other manner of printed ephemera—was vital to eighteenth-century printers. “The importance of small jobs lay not so much in the amount of revenue they generated, but the fact that it was ready money. That is why Franklin stopped all other work to print them. Cash flow was a perennial problem for printers, and more generally, a shortage of cash was endemic in the early eighteenth-century American economy. Franklin was a tireless proponent of increasing the money supply by printing paper money, which in turn led to his getting the biggest ‘little Job’ of all” (Green & Stallybrass, p. 52). Franklin’s biggest little job—also one of his first commissions and certainly the very first for the provincial government of Pennsylvania—is represented in the present volume of mortgage forms that backed 1729 emission of paper currency. At the time, paper money in Pennsylvania was issued by the Loan Office, essentially acting as a land bank. The Loan Office issued “mortgages that were paid out in newly created paper money. The loans were repaid over a period of time, but while the paper money was in circulation, it increased the money supply for all” (Green & Stallybrass, p. 52). Once the loans were fully repaid, the bills were taken out of circulation and destroyed, and much commerce would revert to barter, exchange of accepted commodities, or any available specie, mostly Spanish. Like most tradesmen and small businessmen, Franklin opposed strict limits on how much paper money was in circulation. Unlike most tradesmen and small businessmen, Franklin did something about it: he anonymously wrote and printed A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper-Currency. He later reflected in the autobiography that the pamphlet “was well receiv'd by the common People in general; but the Rich Men dislik'd it; for it increas'd and strengthen'd the Clamor for more Money; and they happening to have no Writers among them that were able to answer it, their Opposition slacken'd, and the Point was carried by a Majority in the House.” The point carried by the Pennsylvania Assembly was An Act for Emitting of Thirty Thousand Pounds in Bills of Credit, for the better Support of Government, and the Trade of this Province, which revitalized the economy of Pennsylvania. In the autobiography, Franklin wrote that his friends in the legislature, conceiving that his Modest Enquiry “had been of some Service, thought fit to reward me, by employing me in printing the Money, a very profitable Job, and a great Help to me.” This, however, was a faulty memory, at least in part: the commission for paper currency went to his rival Andrew Bradford, but Franklin was not entirely overlooked. He was engaged to print the mortgage indenture forms for the 1729 emission. Previous emissions of these bills of credit in 1723 and 1726 had been recorded by mortgage contracts written entirely by hand by clerks in the Loan Office. Since the text of each indenture was to follow a strict legal formula and be uniform with the others, they were an ideal object for typographic reproduction. Everyone benefitted, with the possible exception of the Loan Office scriveners. Had Franklin more accurately recalled the favor granted by the Assembly, the significance of this remarkable volume of accomplished and witnessed indenture forms from the 1729 emission of bills of credit might have been recognized earlier. The importance of the 1729 General Loan Office Mortgage Register is not simply in the information it provides about Benjamin Franklin’s early career, or about eighteenth-century job-printing practices in general, but rather for the rich background material it supplies about Philadelphia in the early decades of the eighteenth century. The 264 mortgages recorded herein account almost entirely for the total sum lent out by the 1729 emission act: the Assembly authorized £26,000 to be lent (with another £4,000 reserved for other purposes), and the value of the mortgages included in the present register total £25,971. A very useful appendix in Keith Arbour’s indispensable study of the Snider mortgage register indexes all of the mortgagees by name, with their occupation, place of residence, and amount of the paper money loaned. As Arbour writes, “The Snider volume provides equally useful information for historians of the early Pennsylvania economy, and for prosopographers of colonial Pennsylvania. Some of the data recorded in the Snider volume may prompt re-examination of conclusions reached by historians who necessarily worked without access to the long-lost register” (p. 78). In his highly engaging memoir, Fifty Years a Bookseller: or, The Wolf at Your Door (Bryn Mawr: Privately Printed, 2025), Clarence Wolf amusingly writes of his purchase in the early 1990s of the mortgage register from a bookshop that did not recognize its significance—and that had reneged on an major deal with him earlier. Wolf realized that the bound forms could only have been printed by Andrew Bradford, Samuel Keimer, or the recently established firm of Benjamin Franklin and Hugh Meredith. With his suspicion that the pica type employed was from Franklin’s shop confirmed by James Green, Librarian of the Library Company of Philadelphia, Wolf placed the mortgage register—as he had done with many other Franklin rarities—with Jay Snider. He never told the seller what he had overlooked. All of Benjamin Franklin’s remarkable achievements in science, invention, writing, government service, diplomacy, and the many other intellectual spheres that he orbited were made possible by his success as a printer, which provided him funds and leisure to live a (very active) life of the mind. And Franklin’s success as a printer was due in large part to these mortgage forms printed for the 1729 Pennsylvania act of emission of bills of credit. “[T]he register was Franklin's first piece of official printing for any arm of the provincial government. As such, it was the opportunity he had sought formally since February 18, 1729. In seeking this first opportunity he had three goals: to demonstrate his ability to produce fine work for the province on demand; to prove (with something more substantial than a broadside) the superiority of his work to Andrew Bradford's; and thereby to break Bradford's lock on government printing. Awarded the printing of the register, Franklin used the opportunity to great effect. Within three months of presenting the nearly flawlessly printed register to the Loan Office trustees, Franklin and Meredith ‘obtain’d, thro' [Franklin's] Friend [speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly Andrew] Hamilton’ a weightier and more lucrative job: ‘the Printing of the NewCastle Paper Money.’ Shortly thereafter, on January 30, 1730, the Pennsylvania Assembly voted to have Franklin and Meredith—rather than Bradford—print the next installment of the Assembly's session laws. This is generally interpreted as the vote that made Franklin and Meredith the Assembly's official printers. Whether or not this interpretation is entirely correct, Franklin and his printing office held this remunerative position for the next thirty-six years” (Arbour, pp. 24–25). (Referring to the printing of these mortgage forms as “flawless” is not an exaggeration. According to Arbour, just a single line of the 14,178 lines contained in the volume was poorly inked and had to be supplied in manuscript by a clerk.) REFERENCES Keith Arbour, Benjamin Franklin’s First Government Printing: The Pennsylvania General Loan Office Mortgage Register of 1729, and Subsequent Franklin Mortgage Registers and Bonds (American Philosophical Society, 1999); Arbour, Additions to Miller 1 (in the preceding); James N. Green & Peter Stallybrass, Benjamin Franklin: Writer and Printer (Oak Knoll, 2006), pp. 47–55; cf. Farley Grubb, Benjamin Franklin and the Birth of a Paper Money Economy (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia & The Library Company of Philadelphia, 2006) PROVENANCE William Desmpster (the gift of his aunt, Mrs. Mclain, 1891; inscription on front free endpaper) — Baldwin's Book Barn, West Chester, Pennsylvania — Clarence Wolf, George MacManus Company

View 1 of Lot 4: Pennsylvania General Loan Office | Benjamin Franklin's First Government Printing

pennsylvania general loan office | benjamin franklin's first government printing

Benjamin Franklin Autograph letter signed (“BFranklin”) to Henry Home, Lord Kames (“Lord Kaims,” at foot of first page), 3 pages (320 x 197 mm) on a disjunct bifolium of laid paper (watermarked Pro Patria with Maid of Dort, countermarked crowned GR), London, 28 February 1768, on the venting of chimneys and the happiness derived from “small Conveniencies or Pleasures that occur every day,” with a six-line autograph postscript; a few tiny pinholes to top horizontal fold of second leaf. Accompanied by a neat clerical “Copy of part of a Letter from Dr. Franklin. To Sir Alexander Dick— London, January. 21. 1762” (superscription at head of first page), 3 ½ pages (302 x 183 mm) on a disjunct bifolium of laid paper (watermarked arms of the United Kingdom, countermarked crowned GR), docketed on final page “Copy Letter from Dr. Franklin about his Chimney Machines. 21 January 1762”; inner margins and some folds skillfully reinforced, final page lightly soiled. And with an address panel directed “To The Rt. Honble. Lord Kames Edinburgh,” with red wax seal largely intact; soiled and repaired. (This address panel perhaps covered the transcription of Franklin’s letter to Dick, since the Papers describes the present letter to Kames as bearing the autograph address and franking signature, “To The Right honble. Lord Kaims, at Edinburgh B Free Franklin”; this was perhaps retained by a member of the Family Trust at the time of the 1995 sale.) Half green morocco folding-case gilt, two chemises. One of Franklin’s first and most famous inventions was the Franklin stove, also called a “circulating stove” or “Pennsylvania fireplace.” Invented by Franklin in 1742, and significantly improved by David Rittenhouse, the Franklin stove was intended to produce more heat and less smoke than an ordinary open fireplace. The notoriety of the invention led Lord Kames to consult Franklin, in a letter of 18 February 1868, about an issue with his new house in Edinburgh: “I begin to perceive in my decline of life that happiness, comfort at least, depends more upon what a Philosopher would call slight conveniences than a young man in the ardour of his studies is apt to imagine. I have bought a house in this Town which luckily is absolutely free of smoke except what is commonly called neighbour smoke; that is the smoke issuing from one vent sometimes goes down a neighbouring vent and issues into the Room when there is no fire in it. I apply to you for a remedy as to an universal Smoke Doctor; and if I had a remedy, mine would be the most compleat house in Edinburgh” (Papers 15:50–51). Franklin here responds fully to his friend, apologizing for his laxity in writing and voicing his concurrence with Kames’s perception of “slight conveniences”: “I have long been of an Opinion similar to that you express, and think Happiness consists more in small Conveniencies or Pleasures that occur every day, than in great Pieces of good Fortune that happen but seldom to a Man in the Course of his Life. Thus I reckon it among my Felicities that I can set my own Razor and shave my self perfectly well, in which I have a daily Pleasure, and avoid the Uneasiness one is otherwise oblig’d sometimes to suffer from dull Razors, and the dirty Fingers or bad Breath of a slovenly Barber.” But Kames had consulted Franklin on a practical, not philosophical, matter, and the greater part of Franklin’s answer is devoted to a meticulously detailed commentary on the issue of “neighbor smoke,” its cause and its remedy. “I congratulate you on the Purchase of a new House so much to your Mind, and wish that you may long inhabit it with Comfort. The Inconvenience you mention of Neighbour Smoke coming down the Vents, is not owing to any bad Construction of the Vent down which it comes, and therefore not to be remedied by any Change of Form. It is merely the Effect of a Law of Nature, whereby whenever the outward Air is warmer than the Walls of the Vent, the Air included being by those Walls made colder, and of course denser and heavier, than an equal Column of the outward Air, descends into the Room, and in descending draws other Air into the Vent from above to supply its Place; which being in its Turn cooled and condensed by the cooler Walls of the Vent, descends also, and so a Current downwards is continued during the Continuance of such Difference in Temperament between the outward Air and the Walls of the Vent. When this Difference is destroy’d, by the outward Air growing cooler and the Walls growing warmer, the Current downward ceases; and when the outward Air becomes still colder than the Walls, the Current changes and moves from below upwards, the warmer Walls rarifying the Air they include, and thereby making it so much lighter than a Column of the outward Air of equal Height, that it is oblig’d to give way to the other’s superior Weight, and rise; is succeeded by colder Air, which, being warmed and rarified in its turn, rises also, and so the upward Current is continued. In Summer when Fires are not made in the Chimneys, the Current generally sets downward from nine or ten in the Morning during all the Heat of the Day till five or six in the Afternoon, then begins to hesitate, and afterwards to set upwards during the Night, continuing till about Nine in the Morning, then hesitating for some time before it again sets downwards for the Day. This is the general Course, with some occasional Variation of the Hours according to the Length of Days or Changes of Weather. Now, when the Air of any Vent is in this descending State, if the Smoke issuing from a neighbouring Vent happens to be carried over it by the Wind, part will be drawn in and brought down into the Room. The proper Remedy then is, to close the Opening of the Chimney in the Room, by a Board so fitted that little or no Air can pass, whereby the Currents above-mentioned will be prevented. This Board to remain during the Summer, and when Fires are not made in the Chimney. Those Chimneys that have Fires in them daily, are not subject to this Inconvenience, the Walls of their Vents being kept too warm to occasion any downward Current during the Hours between the going out of one Fire and the kindling of another. And indeed in Summer, those Vents that happen to go up close joined with the Kitchen Vent, are generally kept so warm by that, as to be free from the downward Current, and therefore free from what you call Neighbour Smoke.” Kames, in his letter, had also asked Franklin if he should adopt “your Philadelphia Grate, as it promises to save Coal, and to diffuse an equal heat through the Room,” but Franklin here advises that, under the circumstances, this is an unnecessary addition: “The Philadelphia Grate which you mention, is a very good Thing, if you could get one that is rightly made, and an ingenious Workman to fix it properly. Those generally made and used here are much hurt by fancied Improvements in their Construction, and I cannot recommend them. As Fuel with you is cheap and plenty, a Saving in that Article is scarce an Object. The Sliding Plates (of which I sent a Model to Sir Alexander Dick) are in my Opinion the most convenient for your purpose, as they keep a Room sufficiently warm, are simple Machines, easily fix’d, and their Management easily conceiv’d and understood by Servants.” Franklin described these sliding plates, based on his “more than 20 Years Experience of my own Contrivances and those of others, for the Warming of Rooms,” in a letter of 21 January 1762 to Sir Alexander Dick (Papers 10:13–16). A contemporary transcription of this letter to Dick accompanies the present missive to Kames, although its origins are uncertain. It is most likely that after receiving Franklin’s answers to his questions about chimneys, Lord Kames applied to his fellow Dunediner for the information. Franklin concludes by promising himself the happiness of accepting Kames’s invitation to be entertained at “one of the finest places [in Scotland] with an inchanting Winter Garden”; Franklin fulfilled this promise in 1771. In a postscript, he describes “a late Paper of mine, written to palliate a little the late offensive Behaviour of the Boston People relating to the use of the Manufactures of this Country.” This was “Causes of the American Discontents before 1768,” which was printed in The London Chronicle, 5–7 January 1768. “Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696–1782), Scottish judge, son of George Home, a country gentleman of Kames, Berwickshire, was indentured at the age of sixteen to an Edinburgh writer to the signet. He studied assiduously in his spare time and was admitted to the Scottish bar at twenty-eight. His published collection of legal decisions four years later brought him to professional attention; he prospered, and was appointed an ordinary lord of Session in 1752, whereupon he assumed the personal, non-hereditary title of Lord Kames. In 1763 he became one of the lords of the Justiciary Court, where he sat until a few days before his death. He had a wide variety of interests including the promotion of fisheries and manufacture and improvement in agriculture. He wrote voluminously on law, antiquities, ethics and natural religion, and criticism. His Introduction to the Art of Thinking (Edinburgh, 1761) and Sketches of the History of Man (1774) included versions of [Franklin’s] 'Parable against Persecution.' As a judge he was severe in criminal cases, but personally he was jovial and vivacious, with a ready, though coarse, humor” (note in Papers, ed. Labaree, 9:5). REFERENCES Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Willcox, 15:60–62 PROVENANCE Deposited in the Scottish Record Office by a Family Trust of Kames’s Descendants — Sold by the Trust (Christie’s London, 29 June 1995, lot 512) — Bonhams New York, 11 June 2008, lot 2384 (undesignated consignor)

View 1 of Lot 103: Benjamin Franklin | The “universal Smoke Doctor”

benjamin franklin | the “universal smoke doctor”

[Famille Bonaparte] 33 lettres au chevalier Luigi Angiolini, à Adolphe Crémieux et à divers correspondants. 1800-1878. Intéressant ensemble émanant de membres de la famille Bonaparte évoquant notamment le mariage de Pauline Bonaparte et le château de Mortefontaine. Les lettres s'adressent principalement soit au diplomate italien Luigi Angiolini, soit à l'avocat et homme politique Adolphe Crémieux. Joseph BONAPARTE (1768-1844), roi de Naples puis roi d'Espagne en 1808. 5 lettres autographes signées, 3 billets autographes, une lettre signée et un billet dicté, à Luigi Angioloni. Paris septembre 1800-juin 1804 ; 10 pages in-4 ou in-8, certaines avec souscription, cachets encrés. Billets de rendez-vous, à Paris ou à Mortefontaine, notamment au printemps 1803 au moment des négociations pour le mariage de sa sœur Pauline avec le prince Camille Borghèse. Et alors qu’Angiolini est à Dresde : "Je pense toujours que la Toscane mérite la bienveillance et l’intérêt du Gouvernement, surtout lorsqu'elle remettra ses intérêts entre vos mains" [4 vendémiaire IX]. Diplomate et homme politique progressiste, Luigi Angioloni obtint du tribunal de Pietrasanta l’autorisation d’ajouter le patronyme de son épouse au sien. La famille Gherardi-Angiolini, établie près de Seravezza, dans une grande villa, surnommée "Buon Riposo" [Le Bon Repos], reçut très régulièrement les Bonaparte exilés en Italie. 12 lettres autographes signées, deux lettres signées et un billet dicté, à l’homme de loi Crignon de Bonvallet. Paris, Mortefontaine ou Lunéville, 18 brumaire VII-21 vendémiaire X [8 novembre 1798-13 octobre 1801]. 18 pages in-8 ou in-4, dont 10 avec adresse. Correspondance relative au château de Mortefontaine, près de Senlis, acheté par Joseph Bonaparte et son épouse Julie, née Clary, en octobre 1798. Où il est question de diverses sommes dues, de l’inscription au registre des adjudications, de l’achat ou de la vente de certains autres biens, du renouvellement de baux, etc. Avec 9 lettres et documents, concernant les héritiers et créanciers du banquier Joseph Duruey, ancien propriétaire de Mortefontaine, guillotiné le 18 mars 1794, dont une annonce pour la vente d’une maison rue d’Errancis (actuelle rue du Rocher), appartenant à Joseph Bonaparte. C’est à Mortefontaine que fut célébré le mariage de Pauline. 2 lettres signées dont une autographe à Adolphe Crémieux, Londres 17 avril 1840 et 21 janvier 1841. Une page in-8, signée "Joseph comte de Survilliers" et 2 pages in-4, signées "Joseph". À propos d’une invitation, Crémieux se trouvant alors à Londres parce que faisant partie d’une délégation ayant pris la défense de la communauté juive de Damas [dont certains membres avaient été inculpés et condamnés après l’assassinat d’un père Capucin]. La seconde lettre, signée d’une main tremblante, concerne sa santé [il a été victime d’une crise d’apoplexie] et ses difficultés à pouvoir rejoindre l’Italie. Lucien BONAPARTE (1775-1840). Billet autographe rédigé à la 3e personne, à Angioloni. Dimanche 3 fructidor [21 août 1803]. Une page in-12, avec souscription. Il le prie de venir déjeuner avec lui le lendemain. Par la correspondance d’Angiolini, on sait que cet autre frère de Napoléon était également très lié au chevalier et qu’il intervint, notamment dans la rédaction du contrat de mariage entre sa sœur et le prince Borghèse. Joseph FESCH (1763-1839), oncle maternel des enfants Bonaparte. Lettre autographe signée au citoyen Bonvallet, Paris 20 pluviose IX (9 février 1801). Demi-page in-8. À propos d’une ferme, située près de Mortefontaine, que sa sœur [Laetizia Ramolino, Madame Mère] pourrait éventuellement acquérir. Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte futur NAPOLÉON III (1808-1873). Lettre autographe signée "Napoléon Louis B" à Adolphe Crémieux. Fort de Ham 3 février 1846. Une page in-8. Il ne suivra ni son conseil ni ceux de certains de ses amis politiques : "je crois avoir fait tout ce que les circonstances et le gouvernement avaient le droit d’exiger de moi et je n’irai pas plus loin". Il va lui faire remettre une copie de sa réponse à Odilon Barrot. [Avec :] manuscrit autographe d’Adolphe Crémieux signé de son paraphe. Paris 15 décembre 1848. Lettre ouverte au tout nouveau président de la République, lui enjoignant d’être un drapeau de conciliation, non d’exclusion, et de refuser le gouvernement qu’on veut lui imposer. "Ordonnez, ordonnez seul ; ayez le pouvoir, vous avez la force […] Montrez à l’assemblée nationale que votre cœur est à la République et vous verrez par quelle majorité vous y serez entouré, soutenu, applaudi". Napoléon (Jérôme), dit PRINCE NAPOLÉON (1822-1891), fils cadet de Jérôme Bonaparte. 2 lettres autographe signées et une lettre signée à Adolphe Crémieux, Paris 10 octobre 1858 et s.d. Une page in-8 chacune, une enveloppe. À son retour d’une mission à Varsovie. "Je vous ai fait envoyer mon discours sur la Pologne et je suis certain que nous sommes d’accord, vous n’êtes pas un renégat, comme ce malheureux M. Billault !!". Il espère le voir avant son départ probable pour la campagne... [On joint :] Minute autographe signée d’une réponse de Crémieux à une invitation du prince Napoléon qu’il est contraint de décliner, en raison de ses propres opinions républicaines (Paris 23 juin 1855, 2 p. in-8). Pierre-Napoléon BONAPARTE, prince Bonaparte (1815-1881), fils de Lucien Bonaparte et de sa seconde épouse, Alexandrine de Bleschamp. 6 lettres autographes signées à Adolphe Crémieux, 3 juillet 1860-15 février 1878. 20 pages in-8. Lettres amicales et politiques, dont celle du 4 juin 1863, qui fait état des relations conflictuelles entre Pierre-Napoléon et son cousin, l’empereur Napoléon III, qui lui a ordonné de retirer sa candidature en le menaçant de mesures coercitives ou encore celle du 17 novembre 1868, à propos du rôle de son père, Lucien, au moment de l’abdication et de l’exil forcé de la famille Bonaparte (jointe la minute autographe d’une lettre de Crémieux sur ce même sujet). La dernière lettre est un pathétique appel au secours, affirmant qu’il serait littéralement mort de faim sans le secours de quelques cœurs généreux… [On joint :] Carte in memoriam du prince impérial, tué le 1er juin 1879, illustrée d’une photographie contrecollée d’une prière et d’un poème de Léon de Jouvenel. Carton d’invitation, vierge, pour le Théâtre de la Cour au palais des Tuileries. André DUMONT (1764-1838), député de la Somme à la Convention nationale et haut fonctionnaire sous le Premier empire. 2 lettres autographes signées, Amiens 22 avril 1836 à un négociant collectionneur de lettres de conventionnels, et 20 janvier 1838, à une nièce, la félicitant de son heureux accouchement (1 p. in-8 chacune). Séverin Paul ABBATUCCI [?]. Billet autographe signé à son cher Crémieux (1 p. in-8).

View 1 of Lot 73: 33 lettres au chevalier Angiolini, à A. Crémieux et à divers correspondants, évoquant notamment le mariage de Pauline Bonaparte et le château de Mortefontaine. 1800-1878.

33 lettres au chevalier angiolini, à a. crémieux et à divers correspondants, évoquant notamment le mariage de pauline bonaparte et le château de mortefontaine. 1800-1878.

Miró, Joan — Jacques Prévert — Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes

Miró, Joan — Jacques Prévert — Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes Joan Miró. Paris, Maeght Éditeur, 1956. Petit in-4 carré (228 x 200 mm). Cartonnage sous jaquette rempliée de l'éditeur illustrée par Joan Miró, rhodoïd. Avec un dessin original de Miró. Envoi de Prévertn avec petits croquis. Édition originale des poèmes de Prévert et des textes de Ribemont-Dessaignes. Monographie abondamment illustrée. 10 lithographies originales en couleurs de Joan Miró, dont une pour la couverture, imprimées par Mourlot. Dessin original signé de Joan Miró (encre de Chine et aquarelle) sur la page de faux-titre, signé "Amicalement Miró" à l'encre. Envoi autographe signé de Jacques Prévert, à l'encre sur la même page : "à Colette et Lucien Chardon, Jacques Prévert", avec petits dessins (fleur et animal). Contresigné par Ribemont-Dessaignes. Le dessin original a été authentifié par l'Association pour la défense de l’œuvre de Joan Miró (Admo), avec certificat joint. [On joint :] 3 invitations à des expositions de Miró à la Galerie Maeght, illustrées de lithographies. Avec une quatrième invitation imprimée.

View 1 of Lot 157: Joan Miró. 1956. Édition originale, avec un dessin original de Miró et un envoi de Prévert illustré .

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