Poems: Written by Wil. Shake-speare. Gent.. London: Printed by Tho. Cotes, and are to be sold by Iohn Benson, 1640

First collected edition of Shakespeare’s poems and the earliest obtainable edition of Shakespeare’s sonnets.

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Autograph manuscript notebook, the working notebook for the verses later published in The Seraphim, and Other Poems.. No Place, 1835-1837

This extraordinary manuscript is Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s heavily revised autograph working notebook for The Seraphim, and Other Poems, the book that first brought her fame.

$550,000

Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies … the Second Impression. London: Printed by Tho. Cotes, for Robert Allot, 1632

This is an excellent example of the Second Folio, the second edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays. This is “incomparably the most important work in the English language” (Jackson, Pforzheimer Catalogue).

$475,000

Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign, embracing scenes of the occupation of Nashville, the great battles around Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, the campaign of Atlanta, march to the sea, and the great raid through the Carolinas. [New York: Press of Wynkoop & Hallenbeck], [1866]

FIRST EDITION. George N. Barnard’s Photographic Views of Sherman’s Campaign is, together with Alexander Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book, one of the two greatest photographic monuments of the Civil War. Its 61 original mounted photographs include some of the most famous images of the war.

$390,000

Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the War. Washington, D.C.: Philp and Solomons, [1865-66]

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE of the most famous photographically illustrated American book of the nineteenth century.

$275,000

The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly Translated. London: by Robert Barker, 1613-1611

The Great “She” Bible, the “authorized version” or King James Bible, one of the greatest monuments of English literature.

$270,000

The Federalist: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution.. New York: John and Andrew M’Lean, 1788

George Washington family copy of the first edition. This is an important association copy of the central book of American political philosophy, signed and dated June 10, 1788 in the first volume by Dr. David Stuart, George Washington’s relation and political confidante.

$250,000

Typed Letter Signed as President to Lewis L. Strauss, Chairman, United States Atomic Energy Commission. The White House, Washington, DC, 7 June 1955

This is the document by which Eisenhower and the United States allowed Israel to become a nuclear power. Through Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace initiative, the United States shared atomic energy material and technology with several countries. One of the first of these agreements was the one sharing the secrets of atomic energy with Israel, as authorized by Eisenhower in this letter. This document laid the foundation for Israel’s ultimate deterrence against destruction by its enemies. It was perhaps the greatest gift possible to the new Jewish state from its greatest ally, the American people.

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Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Continens Dissertationes Aliquot. Hamburg: Heinrich Künraht [i.e. Amsterdam: Rieuwertsz], 1670

First edition of this landmark of 17th-century thought, the Theological-Political Treatise. This is the rare first edition, readily identified by the misspelled “Künraht” imprint and the mis-numbering of page 104 as 304.

$120,000

De Architectura. Venice: Giovanni Tacuino, 22 May 1511

First illustrated edition of Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture, a landmark in the history of architecture. This is the only work on architecture to survive from antiquity. It was Vitruvius (ca. 90-20 BC) who famously declared that a structure must be durable, useful, and beautiful. His terms for order, arrangement, proportion, and fitness for purpose have guided architects for centuries. Vitruvius served in the campaigns of Julius Caesar, and he was involved in the restoration of Roman aqueducts. In ancient Rome, architecture encompassed not just the design of buildings but also civil and mechanical engineering, construction, military engineering, and urban planning.

$95,000