Rare books and manuscripts; Flower paintings by Pancrace Bessa; sale number 2393; December 14, 1965. Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 1965, Wraps, , , Very Good
29 pp. 4 bw plates. An important group of flower paintings by Pancrace Bessa, Near Eastern Miniatures and mss., notably a lavishly illustrated Shahnama, A copy in the original parts of Gould on Hummingbirds. Property of Mrs. Verree Teasdale Menjou, Beverley Hilss, Laurence M. Channing, Boston, Gerard O'Brien, Halifax, Nova Scotia and others. Bessa, Bird of Paradise, lot 52 is illustrated. Lot 59, Firdausi's Shahnama in an 18th century editions is illustrated with one leaf. Lot 39, Gould in parts, is illustrated by a plate. Prices realized included.
Swann Galleries was founded in 1941 as an auction house specializing in Rare Books. Today they are the largest specialist rare book auctioneers in the world, and our business has expanded to encompass the Visual Arts.
THIS EXHIBITION presents Renaissance editions of Dante's Divine Comedy from the John A. Zahm, C.S.C., Dante Collection at the University of Notre Dame, together with selected treasures from The Newberry Library. The Zahm collection ranks among the top Dante collections in North America. Purchased for the most part by Zahm in 1902 from the Italian Dantophile Giulio Acquaticci, the 15th- and 16th- century imprints presented here form the heart of Zahm's collection, which totals nearly 3,000 volumes, including rare editions and critical studies from the Renaissance to the present. The nine incunable editions and nearly complete series of 16th-century imprints featured in this exhibit constitute essential primary sources for both the history of Dante's reception during the Renaissance and the early history of the printed book.
In 1945 the Zamorano Club published The Zamorano 80: A Selection of Distinguished California Books Made by Members of the Zamorano Club. The criterion for inclusion was that a selection above all should be distinguished, and that rarity and importance would be secondary. Yet, over time, it appears that the eighty books selected are both distinguished and important, and a number of them are definitely rare. The Club's goal was to choose those books considered cornerstones of a serious collection of Californiana. The books listed in The Zamorano 80 for the most part have withstood the test of time.
19th Century Schoolbooks"The Nietz Old Textbook Collection is one of several well-known collections of 19th Century schoolbooks in the United States. Among the 16,000 volumes are many titles that are rarely held and have not yet been reproduced in microform collections or reprint editions. The collection is used by Pitt faculty and students as well as visiting scholars from other colleges and universities. The ULS received two U.S. Higher Education Act Title IIC grants (1985-1987) to catalog the original collection."
Library of Congress Rare Books and Special Collections: Table of Contents; Introduction (Larry Sullivan
Chief, Rare Book and Special Collections Division); American History; American Literature; Europe; Book Arts; The Illustrated Book; List of Selected Special Collections;
Concordance of Images (Includes information on how to order copies of the images).
The Paula Peyraud Collection: Samuel Johnson & Women Writers in Georgian Society.An Auction Report by Maureen E. Mulvihill as published in
Eighteenth-Century Studies, Fall 2009, with 8 images and a list of selected buyers,
prices & new locations of the Peyraud properties.
A pdf of the published report may be downloaded here: http://www.ilab.org/download.php?object=documentation&id=81
‘DARK LADY’ OF RARE BOOK COLLECTORS,
PAULA FENTRESS PEYRAUD (CHAPPAQUA, NY, 1947 ~ 2008).
Peyraud Collection Auction, May 2009, Bloomsbury Auctions N.Y.
483 Lots (books, manuscripts, images). Sales total: $1.6 million,
including premium. Photograph, Margie Van Dyke.
Bookplate from Peyraud copy of Frances Burney’s Cecilia,
(lot 218, buyer McGill University). Bookplate bears inscribed
initials (“FCP - EKP”), being the collector’s
grandparents Frank C. Peyraud & Elizabeth Krysler Peyraud,
both visual artists (see “Peyraud,” Benezit, vol.
10, 2006 edition).
THE BRAVE OLD OAK
A song to the oak, the brave old oak,
Who hath ruled in the greenwood long;
Here's health and renown to his broad green crown,
And his fifty arms so strong.
There's fear in his frown when the sun goes down,
And the fire in the west fades out;
And he showeth his might on a wild midnight,
When the storms through his branches shout.
Then here's to the oak, the brave old oak,
Who stands in his pride alone;
And still flourish he, a hale green tree,
When a hundred years are gone!
In the days of old, when the spring with cold
Had, brightened his branches gray,
Through the grass at his feet crept maidens sweet,
To gather the dew of May.
And on that day to the rebeck gay
They frolicked with lovesome swains;
They are gone, they are dead, in the churchyard laid,
But the tree it still remains.
He saw the rare times when the Christmas chimes
Were a merry sound to hear,
When the squire's wide hall and the cottage small
Were filled with good English cheer.
Now gold hath sway we all obey,
And a ruthless king is he;
But he never shall send our ancient friend
To be tossed on the stormy sea.