Sitwell and Blunt. Great Flower Books, 1956.

Sacheverell Sitwell and Wilfrid Blunt. GREAT FLOWER BOOKS 1700-1900. A bibliographical record of two centuries of finely-illustrated flower books. Collins, London 1956.

Current Selling Prices
$300-$1400 /£150-£700



NATURAL HISTORY / ART/ ILLUSTRATION
Sometimes described as 'Atlas Folio.' 19 1/2 x 13 3/4. x,94 p/pages incl index.36 full page plates, 20 colour, 16 plain. A sumptuous reference work reproducing examples by Thornton, Curtis, Redouté, and others. It has remained a primary reference in the field and is sometimes cited by booksellers attempting to sell books and plates that are described in it. The reproductions are finely done and it is not unknown for the book to be broken for its plates, the originals of which are mostly in the $1000+ range. Not uncommon, despite this, as there were 1750 copies done and a special signed and numbered edition of 295 in green half morocco with a slipcase. There are usually one or two copies to be found at bookfairs. As a distinguished and posh literary figure Sacheverell Sitwell was often wheeled in to write a piece for unwieldy coffee table books of the time (Fine Bird Books, Great Houses, Old Garden Roses etc.,)

VALUE? Auction records reveal an extaordinary, anomalous price achieved in 1999--you can spot it below:-

Great Flower Books. L, 1956 - One of 295 - Folio, - orig half mor - rubbed - With 20 colored plates - Bloomsbury, Nov 27, 2003, lot 262, £220 ($374) - BM

Great Flower Books. L, 1956 - One of 295 - Folio, - orig half cloth, in d/j - bdg with light wear at extremities - Swann, June 19, 2003, lot 348, $225 - BM

Great Flower Books. L, 1956 - One of 295 - Folio, - orig half mor - rubbed - Bloomsbury, Mar 7, 2002, lot 229, £260 ($369.20), Daniels - BM

Great Flower Books.... L, 1956 - One of 295 - Folio, - orig half mor by the Wigmore Bindery - Christie's, Mar 17, 1999, lot 95, £1,000 ($1,620) - BM

Great Flower Books.... L, 1956 - One of 295 - Folio, - orig half mor - Swann, Apr 15, 1999, lot 182, $550 - BM

Great Flower Books.... L, 1956 - One of 295 - Folio, - half mor - extremities worn - Swann, Mar 25, 1999, lot 37, $375 - BM

Great Flower Books.... L, 1956 - One of 295 - Folio, - half mor - With 20 colored plates & 16 other full-page illusts - Sotheby's, May 14, 1999, lot 695, £220 ($354.20) - BM

Great Flower Books. L, 1956 - One of 295 - Folio, - half mor - Sotheby's, Nov 18, 1999, lot 500, £200 ($330) - BM

Great Flower Books.... L, 1956 - One of 295 - Folio, - half mor - Stanley Smith copy - Sotheby's, Oct 22, 1998, lot 295, £17,000 ($28,730) - BM

Great Flower Books.... L, 1956 - One of 295 - Folio, - half mor - Stanley Smith copy - Sotheby's, Oct 22, 1998, lot 211, £400 ($676) - BM

1999 was a sort of annus mirabilis for this book. Recent copies of the signed limited edition between 2003-2008 have stayed in the £200 to £400 range but 6 copies appeared in 1999 with one making the profoundly silly price of £17K. The fact that it was Stanley Smith's copy hardly explains it. Stanley Smith was a jolly collector of interesting books (he had alot of Andre Raffalovich for example) but he was not the Duke of Omnium. A bidding competition broke out between 2 collectors (said to be from the Gulf states)--several other lots were affected but this was noticeable because most dealers knew it as a £200 book and were impressed to see it reach eighty times its normal price. A classic 'pissing competition' - if you ever get involved in one be sure to be the underbidder. The most mysterious thing is that there was another copy in the sale, an earlier lot, that made £400. The moral of the story is not to trust freak auction results.

Below is the beautiful 'Night Blowing Cereus' featured in the book and taken from Thornton's 'Temple of Flora.' Note that the church clock is at midnight - the hour when the Cereus likes to show its full glory. To be horticulturally accurate it should be noted that it is not likely to flourish in an English churchyard. A.k.a. the Moon Cactus, it is mostly found in Jamaica and Cuba--visitors to botanic gardens never see the plant in full bloom unless they climb over the wall at midnight. The original 1802 Thornton plate which exists in 2 states can sometimes be found selling for circa £3000 to £4000.

Gertrude Lintz. Animals are my Hobby.1942

At the end of this I mention an ebay item. I was struck by the name of the dealer selling the above book. He had about 5000 feedbacks to his or her name which was something along the lines of 'luckystoragefind.' There is a whole mythology around storage/ warehouse/ lock-up finds and some great lots and collections, even the foundations of businesses, have come from these secret places. Someone dies or goes broke and their goods are held in storage, sometimes for years. Their goods are sometimes unclaimed and eventually they get sold off. We were called to one where the storer had failed to pay the rent and after many notices the books were sold. As I recall we paid a deal more than was owed. The attraction of these collections is they are often like a time capsule. One we bought consisted of books on fashion with nothing after 1979 so the world of taste ended with punks and neo romantics but stretched back as far as Beau Brummell. There was also a box of books all with textile samples laid in. Kind of thing you don't see much any more-- just like this book of Ms Lintz:-


Gertrude Lintz. ANIMALS ARE MY HOBBY. Robert M. McBride Co, NY 1942.

Current Selling Prices
$180-$550 /£100-£280


NATURAL HISTORY / ANIMALS/ PETS
True tale of upstate NY socialite who in the late 1920s transformed her mansion onto a menagerie and was especially keen on Chimpanzees. She kept several animals in her Brooklyn home, including several St. Bernards and the famous gorillas Gargantua (called Buddy at that time) and Massa. She was known to drive around Brooklyn with a fully clothed gorilla or chimpanzee sitting in the passenger seat. She believed that apes would only thrive if they received proper mothering and thus treated them as her children - dressing them, teaching them to eat at the table with cutlery and so forth. Something that was picked up in the early PG tips TV ads. The book has become rather desirable since the story of Gargantua was filmed ('Buddy' 1998) with Rene Russo as Ms Lintz, apparently portraying her as 'daffy.'

The book is listed along with other desirable gorilla books at the excellent Gargantua website ('a hairy handful of GARGANTUANLY rare gorilla books.') There is even a photo of a woman suckling a small ape--as Ricky Gervais might say 'CHIMPANZEE THAT!'

VALUE? One of those books it would be nice to find at a car boot sale for nada or less. It is obviously quite scarce and hard to buy for less than a £100 note - Ebay is recommended for the patient Gorilla punter on a budget. Early last year a copy of the US 1942 first in a chipped jacket failed to attract interest at $349 as a Buy-it-Now (or Bin-it -Now as one wag called it.) At the time I thought this indicated that the book in a genteel decline but a recent look at Addall shows the Museum Press 1945 paperback at over $350, one stray good+ McBride first at a similar price and 3 dealers holding out for $750 + (one signed). Meanwhile it is likely that copies are quickly sold at more modest prices and the above copies stick around like hardy perennials. Our photo is not from the first edition, the McBride first is red with an orange jacket with an ape--looks like a hard to sell nature book of the kind done later by Armand Denis etc., Below is a German poster for them movie which as well as the russet Rene also featured 'Cracker' himself - Robbie Coltrane.

The American Wild Turkey. Henry Davis. 1949.

Henry Davis. THE AMERICAN WILD TURKEY. Small Arms Technical Publishing Company, Georgetown, S.C. 1949.

Current Selling Prices
$550-$800 Want level 25-50 Highish

NATURAL HISTORY / HUNTING
Seriously wanted book on the Wild Turkey and especially Turkey hunting. North America"s largest game bird. Published in a yellow tweed cloth binding. Can show up in a jacket. A 'Samworth Book on Hunting.'

VALUE? Seldom seen at much less than $650 although a facsimile was produced in 1984 which appears to retail at circa $100, but there aren't any around There was also a fancy leather bound 'premier' edition of 3000 copies in 1989 which can cost $250. These Premier Press editions seem curiously elusive for a book with such a large print run. Premier Press also produced 'The Wild Turkey and Its Hunting' in 1986 by Edward Mcilhenny, another 3000 copy edition facsimile of a 1914 printing in fancy pigskin. That goes for $150 and the original 1914 edition $1300+.The literature on this national bird is said to be enormous (like the bird.)

Dragonflies. Collins New Naturalist Series, 1960.

Philip S Corbet., Cynthia Longfield and N.W. Moore. DRAGONFLIES. Collins (New Naturalist Series No 41) London 1960.

Current Selling Prices
$450-$800 / £220-£420 Want level 25-50 Highish

NATURAL HISTORY
One of the more desirable books in Collins's New Naturalists series, but not the most valuable. These attractive books are collected like Modern First Editions and collectors want them to be firsts and fine in the jacket. It now costs over 10 grand sterling, (possibly 20 if all are going to be fine/fine ) to acquire the 117 titles. Some of the early ones like London Natural History are so common you cannot spit without hitting one, some so rare that you need a bank loan to pay for them IF you can find them.

The dificult ones are, as often happens with collecting series, the later ones -- numbers 70 and 71 British Warblers and Natural History of Orkney. An article in the Guardian in 2005 by a New Nats collector priced them at £ 1200 and £1750 respectively, only 725 of each were published. They all went to subscribers. There are said to be 2000 collectors of Collins New Naturalist Series in the UK and a few dealers who do little else.

VALUE? 'Dragonflies' is probably the most wanted because it is a lovely book and unlike New Nats such as Warblers, Ferns and Freshwater Fish there is a chance of finding and even affording one. A British Warblers is currently online at £2600 and the seller isn't one of the usual squadron of crazed overchargers, so the price is probably not totally barmy.

Before the net took hold you could occasionally find these in the Natural History section of US shops for $10 or less. 'Dragonflies' goes for about 300 quid for a smart one wearing it's green jacket , more some days. The series is avidly traded on ebay, at terrestrial auctions and at bookfairs. Long may they reign.