ABE (Advanced Book Exchange) has just released its list of the top ten prices obtained amongst hundreds of thousands of books bought through them during the month of July. They are the rarest or most collectible of books offered and sold.
10. Sefer Tehilim by Sebastian Munster, a Basel printing of this 16th century work by the German Hebrew scholar. $3,464.
9. The Bible, an edition limited to 75 copies, printed by the Nonesuch Press of London in 1927. $3,750
8. Histoire de la mesure du temps par les horloges by Ferdinand Berthoud, a book on time measurement by the Swiss watchmaker, published in 1802. $4,340.
7. Don Juan by Lord Byron, six volumes of Byron’s masterpiece published from 1819-1824. $4,500.
6. Beskrivelse over Eylandet St. Croix I America I Vest-Indien by Reimert Haagensen, an early look at St. Croix, Virgin Islands, published in Copenhagen in 1798. $4,500.
5. Du Cote De Chez Swann by Marcel Proust, 1913 first edition of the first installment of the seven-volume In Search of Lost Time. $5,000.
4. A Touch of Frost, Frost at Christmas, Night Frost, Hard Frost and Winter Frost by R.D. Wingfield, a collection of first editions of Wingfield’s English detective set. $5,609.
3. Hieronymi Cardani Mediolanensis Medici De Rerum Varietate Libri XVII by Gerolamo Cardano, a 1557 edition of Da Vinci’s friend’s work on natural phenomena. $7,017.
2. The Origin of Species, first American printing from 1860 of Charles Darwin’s revolutionary classic. $11,000.
1. Libellus ysagogicus Abdilasi Id est servi gloriosi dei: qui dicitur Alchabitius ad magisterium iuditiorum astrorum by Alchabitius, an incunabulum (1485) printing of the 10th century Arabian astrologer’s work. $12,000.
Note the glaring absence of American books. It would be interesting if ABE delved into what part of the world these sales occurred.