Rare early American texts with rock-solid provenance led Heritage Auctions’ $1.2-plus million Rare Books Auction on Sept. 15, as a copy of “The Federalist,” previously owned by New York Post founder Samuel Boyd, sold for $175,000. The auction came in at 134 percent above expectations and had a sell-through rate of 97 percent.
“Our selection of rare Americana and modern literature were particularly strong in this auction,” said James Gannon, director of Rare Books at Heritage. “We saw intense bidding that pushed many first editions well beyond our expectations.”
An influential copy of Joseph Smith’s “The Book of Mormon,” owned and annotated by press foreman Pomeroy Tucker, sold for $100,000 against a $70,000 estimate. Ironically, Tucker would move on from his printing career to become a journalist and New York politician, and he later penned “Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism,” a book arguing that Smith was dishonest.
Among the most valuable examples of fiction on offer, a three-volume set of the first edition, first impression of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” including “The Fellowship of the Ring,” saw interest by six bidders who pushed the sale price to $30,000. A presentation copy of the third Tarzan adventure, “The Beasts of Tarzan,” by Edgar Rice Burroughs, sold for $18,750, three times its pre-auction estimate. A 1923 first edition of Ernest Hemingway’s first book, “Three Stories & Ten Poems,” sold for $15,625.
A 13-volume set of the “Journals of Congress” – spanning Sept. 5, 1774 to Nov. 3, 1788, and one of only 400 copies printed -- ended at $16,250 against a $6,500 estimate. A first edition presentation copy of “The Moon Maid,” with an original drawing by Edgar Rice Burroughs, realized $12,500. An archive of the original production artwork for Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” television program realized $12,500, and the “Further Account of the Tryals of the New England Witches,” written by Increase Mather in 1693 brought the same amount.
A bright example of the hand-colored aquatint engraving by Robert Havel of John James Audubon’s “Great Auk” sold for $11,250 against a $3,000 estimate.
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