Blog | PBA Galleries | Auctioneers and Appraisers of Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Works on Paper

Photography continues to impress the market

Posted on April 27 2022 by Chloe Ceillier

PBA Galleries had an outstanding Photography and Fine Art sale on April 7th. The auction consisted of 420 lots featuring the magnificent photography collection of Jack and Beverly Waltman. This collection did exceptionally well with items reaching record highs, and even exceeding the highest expectations.

Jack Waltman, an accomplished photographer in his own right, was also a patron to and a collector of many of the 20th century’s finest photographers. The collection included signed prints by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston (and family), Imogen Cunningham, George Tice, Judy Dater, Sebastião Salgado, John Sexton, and many others. Several of these photographs are inscribed to Jack and Beverly, whose friendship and support were so vital to the artists represented—notably Morley Baer, Brett Weston, and John Sexton. The reception of these artists’ works by the bidders was very enthusiastic; an example is Dunes, Oceano by Brett Weston that sold for $7,500, reaching the high estimate.

This offering from the Waltman Collection of photographs featured some of the most famous images of the 20th century: Ansel Adams’ Moonrise, Hernandez New Mexico that went for $62,500, but also The Teton Range & The Snake River and Clearing Storm: Mt. Williamson (Manzanar). The latter two far exceeded the highest estimate since they both sold for $68,750.

Inexhaustible and timeless, the landscapes of the American Southwest and California’s Central Coast drew the midcentury’s greatest photographers to capture archetypal images. As great art, they speak to universal themes but also come to us as glimpses of an era. The Waltman collection also included Edward Weston’s Church Door, Hornitos, his Point Lobos photographs and Charis, Santa Monica, among others. Other artists were very popular with the bidders, like Bill Brandt whose Nude with Bent Elbow went for $6,250.

This successful sale gives a glimpse of things to come at PBA Galleries and proves how this department continues to impress the market. The second part of the Jack and Beverly Waltman collection will be offered on July 28th.

Other offerings included a section of signed posters by Berkeley artist David Lance Goines that have almost all sold out, some lovely examples of art deco pochoir illustration, and much more. Several signed prints by Salvador Dali did very well, such as the Dali de Gala books which each sold between $2,000 and $4,687.50.

PBA Galleries holds sales of fine, rare and collectible books every two weeks. We are currently accepting consignments for Fine Art and Photography until June 27th. For more information regarding upcoming sales, consignments, or auction results, please contact PBA Galleries at (415) 989-2665 or [email protected]

PBA Platinum Sale In-Person at Oakland Marriott City Center

Posted on February 3 2022 by Sharon Gee

James Dean in bongo class

PBA Galleries announced a PBA Platinum Sale on Thursday, February 10th, 2022. The sale consists of 113 select lots of rare, important, and valuable material in all fields, with printed books from the 16th to 21st centuries containing landmarks of science, literature, and history; stunning maps of the various regions of the world; original artwork; rare photographic views; manuscripts; and much more.

The auction will be held at the Oakland Marriott City Center Hotel (1001 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94607), venue of the 54th California International Antiquarian Book Fair. The sale venue is open to in person previewers and bidders for the first time in nearly two years. On-site previews begin at 8:00 am with the auctioneer taking the podium at 10:00 am.

Thomas Salusbury’s Mathematical Collections and Translations, with the first edition in English of Galileo’s Dialog, 1661, comprising the majority of the volume. Galileo’s most famous work and of seminal importance in establishing the heliocentric theory of the solar system. Also included is Galileo’s Letter to the Archduchess of Tuscany on the relation of science and theology as well as other important texts on the subject, by Johannes Kepler and others. (Estimate: $30,000-$50,000); Another mathematics work, The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid will be on the block. A remarkable presentation, in which colored diagrams and symbols are used was printed at the Whittington Press for William Pickering and is one of the rarest and most sought-after color-printed books of the 19th century (Estimate: $20,000-$30,000).

A Manuscript Royal Order authorizes the colonization of the Californias, dated 1705, and is signed by Philip V, King of Spain, “Yo el Rey.” This highly important document, addressed to the Viceroy of New Spain, gives Father Maria de Salvatierra of the Jesuits permission to establish missions, as well requesting a report on his progress. An exceptionally rare document of paramount import. (Estimate: $30,000-$50,000)

Rare California Gold Rush Guide

George Vancouver’s A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, from 1798, in three volumes plus the folio Atlas, is one of the great accounts of Pacific exploration, rivaling the works of Cook and La Perouse (Estimate: $20,000-$30,000). Also from the New World, Brasiliae qua parte paret, a rare oversize map of Brazil by Georg Margraff, published by Joan Blaeu in 1657, with striking hand-colored pictorial engravings, is one of only a handful of copies extant (Estimate: $10,000-$15,0000. A rare 1849 Gold Rush guide, California Gold Regions, compiled by F.M. Pratt, is one of the earliest and scarcest of all guides; this one in the rare original printed wrappers (Estimate: $10,000-$15,000).

Other featured lots include: an autograph letter signed by Marcel Proust, from 1907, to his friend and confidante Mme Catusse, referring to a duel he had witnessed, and to his lover Lucien Daudet (Estimate: $10,000-$15,000); a vintage original 1955 photograph of James Dean at a bongo class, taken for submission to Life Magazine for a photo essay on the rising motion picture star (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000); and an important and revealing archive of documents and bulletins from the War Relocation Authority detailing the role of American social scientists in the internment of United States Citizens of Japanese ancestry, dating from 1942 to 1956 (Estimate: $10,000-$15,000).

PBA continues to safeguard the health of employees and clients and is open by appointment only. Live auction participation for this sale is available as well as online or phone bidding. For more information about upcoming sales, to schedule a Zoom preview or phone bidding for a future auction, please contact the galleries at 415.989.2665 or [email protected]

Ed Ruscha’s Thanksgiving Day 1965 offered on January 27th

Posted on January 21 2022 by Sharon Gee

PBA Galleries will hold an auction of Fine Art & Photography on Thursday, January 27th, 2022. The sale comprises over 325 lots featuring paintings, prints, original photographs, photobooks, artists’ books, posters, deco arts, and more. Major collections include early works by Ed Ruscha from his friend Marilyn McCorkle’s collection, a large collection of Chez Panisse posters signed by David Lance Goines, and a collection of signed prints by Salvador Dali. Outstanding individual lots include a Thanksgiving Day mail art broadside sent from Ed Ruscha and Mason Williams to model Marilyn McCorkle, a signed Käthe Kollwitz lithograph, Sebastião Salgado’s Genesis in the sumo edition from Taschen Press, Le Corbusier’s Série Panurge, lovely original photographs from Nick Brandt and Peter Stackpole, an original oil painting from Bauhaus participant Iwao Yamawaki, and much more.

Thanksgiving Day 1965 by Ed Ruscha and Mason Williams is an original multicolor holograph mail art broadside lettered and designed on both sides of a blank orchestra score. It is written in the hands of Ruscha and Williams and signed by them as Masie Bunny and Eddie P (short for Eddie Poo, sometimes Eddie Pooo). This 1960s unique art piece was sent to Marilyn McCorkle, erstwhile model for Ruscha at The Chouinard Institute of Art and friend to both artists. (Estimate: $6,000-$9,000)

Les Amours de Cassandre, a suite of 10 colored etchings with drypoint leads the Salvador Dali lots in the sale. Each etching is singed in pencil by the artist along with his embossment. This is Dali’s tribute to the forlorn lover Pierre de Ronsard, author of the 1552 cycle of poems Les Amours. (Estimate: $10,000-$15,000)

An early oil on canvas by Iwao Fujita (later Yamawaki) from 1928 will also be on the block. Fujita was a Japanese artist, photographer and architect, who, in exchange for taking his wife’s family name, was sponsored by his father-in-law to train at the Bauhaus under Josef Albers and Walter Peterhans. After his return to Japan, Yamawaki became a successful architect and is best remembered for designing the interiors of the Japanese pavilion at the New York World’s Fair. (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000)

Among the highlights of the photography section is Ruth Bernhard’s iconic photograph In the Box. Best known for her photographs of still life and female nude studies, this work is one of her most recognizable. The model photographed in a discarded shipping box results in a sensual, provocative image. The signed photograph is accompanied by Bernhard’s book The Eternal Body: A Collection of Fifty Nudes. (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000)

Other featured lots include a signed lithograph, Zuhörende by Käthe Kollwitz (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000); 30 lots of signed David Lance Goines lithograph posters celebrating 40 years of birthdays of Alice Waters’ acclaimed restaurant (Estimates: $300-$500 and $200-$300); and two Sumo sized lots from Taschen celebrating the work of Annie Liebovitz (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000) and Sebastião Salgado (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000).

Original Bukowski Typescript Featured in January 13th Literature Sale

Posted on January 5 2022 by Sharon Gee

PBA Galleries will hold an auction of Fine Literature with Beats, Bukowski and the Counterculture on January 13th, 2022. The sale comprises Over 450 lots of fine literature and ephemera, featuring scarce works from the counterculture and the Beat Generation, as well as a large selection of Charles Bukowski, including an original typescript story. The sale includes a number of rare works by Ray Bradbury, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, and numerous other important figures of the 20th century. The sale also features a number of scarce works of fantasy and mystery, with works by Anne Rice, J.R.R. Tolkien, Edgar Rice Burroughs and others. The Beat/Counterculture section includes a number of important works by the likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, as well as a selection of scarce literary journals and posters.

Bukowski 100 Dollar Stuff

Leading the way is quite possibly the only existing copy of an original typescript story by Bukowski, titled “100 Dollar Stuff,” submitted to Robert Singer, for his literary journal in-the-works which was to be called “Speed Fast Reading.” The journal never came to be, and there is no record of the story appearing in any journals or included in any published collection (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000). Another Bukowski highlight is a scarce copy of The Wedding, privately printed in an edition of 40 copies on the occasion of Bukowski’s marriage to Linda Lee Beigle. With 12 original photographs by Michael Montfort, this copy includes the rare suppressed photograph of Linda fixing Hank’s fly (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000).

Stein’s Before-the-Flowers-of-Friendship-Faded-Friendship-Faded

The second book published by Plain Edition, a publishing venture undertaken by Gertrude Stein and her partner, Alice B. Toklas, Before the Flowers of Friendship Faded Friendship Faded, is offered in the publisher’s original saddle-stitched binding with coarse brown wrappers. Stein’s work written on a Poem by Georges Hugnet is signed by her at the colophon (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000). Another highlight from an American expatriate is a signed second printing of Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000).

Two featured science fiction works in the auction are an inscribed copy of Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on the screenplay by Clarke and producer/director Stanley Kubrick (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000) and a first edition of Frank Herbert’s Dune in a rare original jacket (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000).

Other sale highlights include: a first printing of the great anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000); a scarce signed copy of The Convict Stories by James Lee Burke, his first book of short stories (Estimate: $1,500-$2,500); and a lot of five fine to near fine dust jackets for works by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Estimate: $1,500-$2,500).

Exceptional “Blue Map” of the Chinese World leads Americana sale

Posted on December 10 2021 by Sharon Gee

“Blue Map” of the Chinese World

PBA Galleries will hold an auction of Americana – Travel & Exploration – Maps and Views on December 16th, 2021. The sale comprises 400 lots of books, manuscripts, maps, ephemera, and other items, covering the exploration and exploitation of the American continents and the far reaches of the globe, their cultural, social, and economic development, and paths through history. There is much on the westward movement in the United States, the relentless growth of California, and the quest for that more perfect union. China and Central Asia are well represented, as is Mexico and New Spain, the higher latitudes, and much more.

An exceptional, superbly restored example of the renowned “Blue Map” of the Chinese World, c.1810 leads the sale. The map depicts the Qing Dynasty’s world minimizing the European notion of a map of the world, its centralized and marginalizing construct confirming the Qing/Chinese notion of the Central Kingdom. Russia, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Korea are clearly defined .To the upper left of the map lie the Mediterranean (‘Small Western Ocean’), and Atlantic (‘Great Western Ocean’), with both the Netherlands and Great Britain shown as islands (Estimate: $150,000-$200,000).

Other maps featured in the auction include Abraham Ortelius’ important map of China, a beautiful hand-colored copy, issued in the rare English-language edition of the Theatrum, published in 1606. The striking, beautifully colored example is the earliest printed map to focus on China and the first to illustrate the Great Wall (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000). The 1810 first edition of Zebulon Pike’s account of his expeditions across the Mississippi and into Louisiana Territory and the border country of New Spain is offered with the landmark maps in the rare separate atlas. Pike’s was the first United States government expedition to the Southwest, and his report was one of the most important of all American travel narratives (Estimate: $8,000-$12,000).

A pictorial letter sheet with a lithographed view of Mission Dolores in San Francisco is the only letter sheet devoted to a California mission making it quite rare (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000). Also from California, is a sheet of three unused stock certificates in the Bodie Bluff Consolidation Mining Co., each signed in ink by Leland Stanford as President of the company. Individual certificates of stock in Stanford’s short-lived company are rare, to have three together on a single sheet, all three signed by Stanford, is exceedingly so (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000).

Sioux Indian Painting

Other highlights of the auction include: Thomas & William Daniell’s Oriental Scenery, the quarto edition, six volumes in three, 1812-1816, with 150 aquatint plates capturing the architecture, antiquities, and scenery of India (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000); Nathaniel Portlock’s Voyage Round the World, and to the northwest coast of America, searching for fur, and political influence against Spanish and Russian rivals. The first edition, 1789 (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000); Six photographs of the 1900 fire that destroyed Honolulu’s Chinatown, started by efforts to burn down buildings where the presence of bubonic plague was suspected (Estimate: $2,500-$3,500); and Sioux Indian Painting, 1938, two large portfolios with collotype plates reproducing ledger book drawings and pictographs by Amos Bad Heart Buffalo and other artists, published by C. Szwedzicki in Nice, France, limited to 400 sets (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000).

PBA continues to safeguard the health of employees and clients and is open by appointment only. PBA limits live auction participation to online or phone bidding. For more information about upcoming sales, to schedule a Zoom preview or phone bidding for a future auction, please contact the galleries at 415.989.2665 or [email protected]

Antiquarian Books with something for everyone

Posted on November 29 2021 by Sharon Gee

Carter the Great

PBA Galleries will hold an auction of Antiquarian Books on December 2nd, 2021. The sale comprises nearly 250 lots featuring children’s books, works from the golden age of illustration, posters, decorative & graphic arts, and antiquarian books. Highlights include a custom-made art deco chandelier from San Francisco’s premier movie palace the Fox Theater, a three-sheet color lithograph poster from magician Carter the Great, a complete set of William Pickering’s Book of Common Prayer, several classic works of the Western canon, and a wide variety of other material from marching with Napoleon Bonaparte to Go-Kart racing in communist Czechoslovakia.

Highlighting the sale is a rare, complete set in seven volumes of William Pickering’s printing of the historical Book of Common Prayer, as issued by the different English monarchs. Typographic facsimiles of the original black letter editions, each volume is magnificently printed handsomely bound in the original vellum over marbled boards with ornamental title pages and decorative head and tailpieces (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000).

A number of documents related to the Napoleonic era will be offered led by a Napoleon signed letter. Penned in August of 1797 amidst the Italian Campaign in which Napoleon, then General in Chief of the Army of Italy, gained much of his early fame, Napoleon directs procedure for the confiscation and distribution of rations and other goods, requests an intelligence officer for a planned raid, and names other specific tasks for his officers (Estimate: $1,000-$1,500).

A unique manuscript ledger and cutlery design book from the Argyle Cutlery Works in Sheffield, England is illustrated throughout with pen and ink knife designs. Dating from the early 20th century, the lot also contains other bits of ephemera including an invoice and business card from the business. The Argyle Cutlery Works was one of numerous Sheffield businesses that exported pocket knives, soldiers’ knives, and cutlery to the world market (Estimate: $1,000-$1,500).

Some of the non-book lots in the sale are: a custom chandelier from San Francisco’s landmark Art Deco movie palace The Fox Theater (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000); a pair of vintage Art Deco lighting fixtures with opaque glass (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000); and a Beaux Arts era Paris streetlight floor lamp with bronze casting (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000). Also in the auction are two beautiful Seguso Family Murano glass vases from the glass making dynasty (Estimates for each: $1,500-$2,000).

Rounding out the sale are other featured lots: one hundred pochoir plates of 1920’s Paris fashion from the celebrated Gazette du Bon Genre, by artists including G. Barbier, Benito R. Bonfils, P. Brissaud, et al (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000); a First Edition of Aubrey Beardsley’s first important work, containing over 300 of his designs illustrating King Arthur (Estimate: $1,000-$1,500); the 1649 classic on French royal ceremonies, Theodore Godefroy’s Le Cérémonial de France, originally printed in 1619 (Estimate: $1,000-$1,500); a large collection of English plays spanning post-restoration to the early 19th century (Estimate: $1,000-$1,500).

Art, Illustration, Dr. Seuss, British Prime Ministers

Posted on October 31 2021 by Sharon Gee

Abstract Expressionism

PBA Galleries will hold an auction of Art, Illustration & Dr. Seuss – British Prime Ministers – Antiquarian Books on November 4th, 2021. The sale features over 250 lots featuring works of art and photography, fine press, finely bound books, with scarce and antiquarian books. These categories are augmented with focused collections on eminent men such as Dr. Seuss and the British Prime Ministers. Highlights include a collection of works by Sandow Birk, a spectacular midcentury artist’s book featuring work by Joan Mitchell, exquisite bindings by Donald Glaister, signed photography books by Ansel Adams, a rare film magazine on Casablanca from American-occupied postwar Japan, and much more.

From The New York School, Abstract Expressionism pairs poetry by John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler with prints by Joan Mitchell, Michael Goldber, Alfred Leslie, and Grace Hartigan. Each of the four volumes is signed by the poet and the artist. An outstanding post-war American artist book the collaboration partners between four of the most influential American poets of the second half of the twentieth century, and four important second generation New York School artists was left to the individuals involved. (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000)

Highlighting the British Prime Ministers section of the auction, Winston Churchill’s Storia, the First Italian Edition of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples is signed by the author. Unmarked as such, but the provenance of Emery Reves, who contributed greatly to orienting the work toward a wider audience, and in whose home it was completed. (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000)

A scarce bilingual movie magazine which accompanied the 1946 release of the great anti-fascist film Casablanca in American-occupied Japan. The magazine presents background information on the film and its cast in Japanese as well as dialogue from the film in both English and Japanese. Having won the war this magazine marks the American effort to win the peace through “soft power”—Hollywood film, rock ‘n roll, and baseball. (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000)

Original Dr. Seuss Starfish drawing

Amongst the nearly fifty lots of Dr. Seuss are two signed original drawings by the great author and illustrator. A Starfish drawn in blue, sports a red star on its belly measures 9¼x8″ (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000). An untitled drawing of a yellow figure dressed in blue and pink stripes measures 8¾x10¾” (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000). Both are accompanied by Certificates of Authenticity. Also in the auction is a First Printing of the iconic The Cat in the Hat; the book was written specifically for beginning readers. This copy is in the original pictorial dust jacket and housed in a custom cloth slipcase. (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000)

Additional featured lots include No. 1 of only 10 copies of 3 in Search of the Universe: Rumi Walt Whitman and the Voyager spacecrafts wonder at The Quest by Donald Glaister (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000) and A Rake’s Progress: The Life and Times of Rafael Perez (Based on the Work of William Hogarth) – suite of four signed etchings by Sandow Birk (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000).

Literature: Bukowski, Beats & the Underground

Posted on October 16 2021 by Sharon Gee

**Bukowski’s first book inscribed twice to Lou and Jon Webb**

PBA Galleries announced an auction of Fine Literature with Bukowski, Beats & the Counterculture to be held on October 21st, 2021. The sale features over 500 lots of fine literature and ephemera, featuring a large selection of scarce works from the counterculture and the Beat Generation, as well as a section dedicated to Charles Bukowski. The sale includes a number of rare works by Gertrude Stein, Jack London, John Steinbeck, and numerous other important figures of the 20th century, many of them signed or inscribed. The Beat/Counterculture section includes a number of important works by the likes of Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg and the recently passed San Francisco Poet Laureate Jack Hirschman. The section dedicated to Charles Bukowski features scarce editions of most all of his major works, including a twice-inscribed copy of his first chapbook, as well as original correspondence and poems, and numerous pieces of original art.

Leading the sale is the first book published by Charles Bukowski, Flower, Fist and Bestial Wail. One of only 200 volumes of the rare First Edition, this copy is signed and inscribed twice to Jon and Louise Webb of the New Orleans LouJon Press. The earlier inscription, dated 9-18-63, includes a drawing of a flower (Estimate: $10,000-$15,000). Also in the sale is Buk’s rare third book, Longshot Poems for Broke Players, containing 26 poems and 5 drawings by the author (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000).

Featured in the Beats & Counterculture section of the sale is a First Printing of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Pictures of the Gone World signed by the author. One of the highlights of Beat literature, this was the first book published by Ferlinghetti’s City Lights Books. Number One in The Pocket Poets Series, which made the Beats and other influential stylists available to the reading world, “whether it be `in the American grain’ or against it” (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000). Also in this section is a unique group of ephemera including original paste-ups and author’s corrections for Mind Breaths: Poems 1972-1977 by Allen Ginsberg (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000). A carbon copy typescript of “An Open letter to Tim Leary” from Charles Manson which was printed on the front page of the Oct. 9, 1970 issue of the LA Free Press also includes a handwritten letter to Leary from Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme that talks about her devotion to Manson and the coming apocalypse (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000).

Literature highlights include: a presentation copy of Gertrude Stein’s Portrait of Mabel Dodge, signed and inscribed to French historian Bernard Fay (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000); Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam signed by artist Susan Allix and bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000); and a rare presentation copy of Fahrenheit 451 inscribed by Bradbury and 1/50 specially bound (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000).

Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography on August 19th

Posted on August 11 2021 by PBA Editor

(Berkeley, California, August 11th, 2021) – PBA Galleries announced an auction of Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Cartography to be held on August 19th, 2021. The catalogue includes nearly 600 lots of rare, interesting, and uncommon material, ranging from scarce local histories to the science and valor that put men and women into space and to the moon. There is much on California from the time of the gold rush to the creation of the freeways of today; a large selection on the African American experience, from the struggles against slavery to the movements of the 1960’s and the Black Panthers; Mexico; Cookery; Hawaii; U.S. Presidents; Texas, and more, with sections on Space Exploration; Travel & World History; and Maps.

**Real estate promo for Searchlight Nevada 1906**

Highlights include Novísimo Arte de Cocina, 1831, possibly the first cookbook printed in Mexico, published the same year as a competing gastronomical work, with Mexican specialties as well as European fare with a Mexican flair (Estimate: $4,000-$6,000). The cookery section also features Pauline’s Practical Book of the Culinary Art, the first edition, published in Omaha in 1919, regarded as the third cookbook written by an African American woman, Carrie Pauline Lynch (Estimate: $2,000-$3,000).

Travel stands out in the sale, with noteworthy lots such as Adam Olearus’ Voyages and Travells… to the Great Duke of Muscovy, and the Kings of Persia, 1669, the second English edition of this detailed account of the first German trading mission to Moscow, Persia, India and beyond (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000). Die Einwanderung nach U.S.A., an official German guide for Jews emigrating from Germany, published in 1940, covers procedural steps and legal technicalities necessary to be observed by Jews seeking to emigrate to the United States from Nazi Germany (Estimate: $1,500-$2,500).

Rare accounts from world history also feature in the sale: The Grasslands International Steeplechase, John Gourlay’s account of the inaugural running of this short-lived American steeplechase, illustrated by Paul Brown was limited to 200 copies (Estimate: $5,000-$8,000). A rare Mexican decree from 1842, by Antonio Lópes de Santa Anna, sets the rules under which foreigners can purchase property in Mexico, and allowing them to buy mines (Estimate: $1,000-$1,500).

Other standouts include a photograph of astronaut Ed White, signed and inscribed on the image by the first American to walk in space, who tragically died when Apollo I went up in flames in 1967 during pre-flight testing (Estimate: $1,000-$1,500). Map of Joiner Area, Rusk County, Texas, 1930 is a hand-colored blue line map showing the Joiner subdivision and locating the famed Daisy Bradford well number three, the largest oil field discovered up to that time (Estimate: $2,500-$3,500).

PBA continues to safeguard the health of employees and clients by remaining closed to the public. PBA will limit live auction participation to online or phone bidding. For more information about upcoming sales or to schedule a Zoom preview or phone bidding for a future auction, please contact the galleries at 415.989.2665 or [email protected]

Fine Literature – Beats & The Counterculture on August 5th

Posted on July 29 2021 by PBA Editor

(Berkeley, California, July 29th, 2021) – PBA Galleries announced an auction of Fine Literature – Beats & The Counterculture to be held on August 5th, 2021. The catalogue features over 400 lots of fine literature and ephemera, as well as a large section of scarce works from the counterculture and the Beat Generation. The sale includes a number or rare and signed works by John Steinbeck, Ray Bradbury, Ross MacDonald and others, as well as numerous first editions by Aldous Huxley, Ian Fleming, and other greats of the 20^th century. The Beat/Counterculture section includes a number of scarce and signed works by the likes of Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg and Richard Brautigan among other icons of the scene, as well as a large collection of ephemera, correspondence, and photographs from the legendary Loujon Press. Also present is a wonderful assortment of posters and ephemera from the San Francisco music and psychedelic scene of the 1960’s, including a collection of plates for a psychedelic light show.

First editions and rare fine literature are present throughout the catalogue, including Samuel Johnson’s Works of the English Poets – 68 volumes. This is a scarce complete set of the handsomely bound first edition of Johnson’s second great work (1779 – 81) (Estimate: $3,000-$5,000). Nabokov’s Lolita, a first edition, is expected to draw spirited bidding. The Olympia Press copy is the true first edition of one of the most important and controversial novels of the twentieth century ($3,000-$5,000). The Moon is Down is signed by John Steinbeck with the Steinbeck family bookplate ($3,000-$5,000).

The Beats and Counterculture are represented with works such as the City Lights Journal 1-4, signed by Ferlinghetti and others. All volumes are signed on the title page by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, with two additionally signed by Gary Snyder, Jack Hirschman and others ($1,000-$1,500). A collection of plates for a 1960s psychedelic light show includes 100 pieces in the case ($1,000-$1,500). A rare proof of the Quicksilver Messenger Service Fillmore poster features one large image along with three smaller versions ($1,000-$1,500).