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Athena Rare Books
Fairfield, CT
Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. John Murray, London, 1859. First Edition, First Issue. Darwin’s brilliant theory of evolution has had the most profound impact on almost every corner of our intellectual landscape and it provides the foundational perspective for our modern world view. Still readable and gripping, this world-historical text easily ranks among the most important books published since Gutenberg invented his printing press in the mid-1450s. $110,000.
Between the Covers Rare Books
Gloucester City, NJ
One of only three known surviving autographs of Cinque, the leader of the 1839 Amistad Slave Rebellion, one of the few successful slave revolts in history (basis for the Steven Spielberg film Amistad, in which Cinque was played by Djimon Honsou). Cinque only learned to write his name when he was brought to America, he was only in this country for two years, and after his return to Africa in 1841 he probably never wrote his name again (there are no reliable reports of him after 1841). In terms of pure rarity, it is one of the most rare autographs imaginable (there are, by comparison, six known of Shakespeare, and around 30 known of Declaration of Independence signer Button Gwinnett, usually considered the rarest American autograph). It comes with a rare and attractive original contemporary Sartain mezzotint engraved portrait of Cinque. It is part of a small archive of abolition related autographs assembled in the 1840s. $275,000.
The dedication copy of the late Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter’s first book, The Birthday Party. It is inscribed to his first wife, the actress Vivien Merchant. $40,000.
Webb Dordick
Somerville, MA
Robert Couch. Praxis Catholica: or, the countryman’s universal remedy. Written by Robert Couch, sometimes practitioner in physick and chyrurgery, at Boston in New-England. Now published with divers useful additions (for public benefit) by Chr. Pack, operator in chymistry. London, 1680. First edition of the very rare first medical book composed in the region later called the United States by the first American physician to publish (in this instance posthumously) an entire book devoted to medicine. $20,000.
Carl Ferdinand von Graefe. Rhinoplastik. Berlin, 1818. First edition of one of the founding works of plastic surgery and the rarest of all the landmarks in this field. $29,500.