1. The Scots Musical Museum by James Johnson - $8,500
The pivotal collection of Scottish music compiled by Johnson with contributions, both musically and editorially, by Robert Burns - published in 1792 as four volumes, this bound in two. The collection gained international recognition after arrangements by Haydn and Beethoven.
2. Oeuvres by Pierre de Ronsard - $7,435
The complete first volume of the first edition of Ronsard’s poetry; bound with an incomplete copy of the second volume and the preliminary matter of the third volume. Ronsard (1524-1585) was known as the Prince of Poets in his native France. Published in Paris in 1560.
3. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - $6,500
A signed second edition (printed in 1956) of Tolkien’s fantasy masterpiece.
4. The Bonefish Brigade by Zane Grey - $5,000
Privately published in 1922, this was a special edition with “Christmas Greetings” and a candle design printed in red and green on the upper cover. This was Zane Grey’s personal copy with his library blind-stamp on the front free endpaper.
5. Frank Lloyd Wright Monograph by Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer; Frank Lloyd Wright; Yukio Futagawa - $4,500
The complete 12-volume monograph of Wright’s work. Published 1984, first American edition.










You might have thought J.K. Rowling was rather old hat these days. A little bit forgotten even. It’s Dan Brown everywhere you look at the moment and then wham! AbeBooks goes and sells a $6,000 copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard. It was a first edition of the
Over a period of about 10 years, beginning in the late 1990s, book collector John Gilkey of Modesto, Calif., acquired an impressive array of rare first editions by authors including Mark Twain, Beatrix Potter and Vladimir Nabokov. Money was no object because Gilkey didn’t buy his books. He stole them.

Earlier this week we had a very interesting sale for art fans - a letter from the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo for $3,750. Written in August 1947, the letter to Arturo Sidon concerns the purchase of five watercolours and states that reproduction rights are not to be included. A rather mundane letter but letters from Kahlo are particularly hard to locate.