By IANSlifeNew Delhi, Jan 16 (IANSlife) Bill Reese was regarded as the best antiquarian book dealer-scholar of his generation, and his private collection will be among the most valuable auctions of printed Americana in more than 50 years.This collection of printed works, vintage prints, fine art, and color-plate books is one of the most visually stunning collections of Americana ever offered at auction.
Beginning May 25 and ending in September, a series of themed live and online auctions will be held in New York, with highlights of the collection being shown to the public during Christie’s Americana Week exhibition from January 13 to 28.The Christie’s displays are the first public showings of any part of the existing collection in almost 30 years.The collection has a total pre-sale auction estimate of $12 to $18 million, with about 700 items.
Christie’s New York’s Christina Geiger, Head of Department, Books & Manuscripts “One of the most amazing experiences of my life was seeing William Reese’s private library for the first time.Bill’s interest for history is evident in both written and visual culture, as seen by the books and artwork.The library was a unique combination of sanctuary and adventure, academic rigour and comedy, grandeur and approachability-all of these qualities were held in perfect harmony with excellent judgement.”
The Sang-Copley-Reese copy (estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000) is one of only six recorded copies of one of the first contemporary broadside versions of the Declaration of Independence, and presumably the first edition printed in New England.After ordering the preparation of the Declaration and approving the wording presented by Thomas Jefferson and his committee, the Continental Congress took steps to assure the document’s speedy diffusion when it was approved on July 4, 1776.
The Declaration’s swift diffusion can be seen in newspapers and broadside versions from its genesis in Philadelphia to the thirteen self-proclaimed states, as fast as express riders and the post could transport it.The typesetting employed for the edition printed in the 16 July 1776 issue of the American Gazette, produced by John Rogers of Salem in collaboration with Ezekiel Russel, almost closely matches the text of the present copy.Only six copies are known to exist, including the current edition, with four of them being held by institutions such as Georgetown University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Peabody Essex Museum.
Books with illustrations and colour illustrations are likewise well-represented.
Highlights include John Woodhouse Audubon’s 1852 Illustrated Notes of an Expedition through Mexico and California; Henry James Warre’s Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory; William Guy’s Wall’s Hudson River Portfolio (the first complete copy of the first issue to be at auction since 1948); and Hannah Millard’s even rarer chromolithograph work on California wine grapes-most copies of which appear to have been destroyed in San Francisco’s Great Fire.
Paul Revere’s engraving of The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated In King Street, Boston, On March 5th 1770, By Party Of The 29th Reg.Boston from March 1770 (estimate: $250,000-350,000) and a special first edition copy of Lewis and Clark’s History of the Expedition by Meriwether Lewis in 1814 (estimate: $250,000-350,000).This copy (estimate: $100,000-150,000) is in a very nice modern Boston binder attributed to John Roulstone.A Front Depiction of Yale-College and The College Chapel, New-Haven, 1786, is the first published view of Yale and reflects Reese’s substantial tie to his alma mater (estimate: $70,000-100,000).Colonial and European-Americana is also well-represented, with excellent copies of works by John Smith, Theodor de Bry, Joshua Scottow, Nathaniel Morton, and Louis Hennepin, to name a few.
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