The Importance of Being Earnest: Collection of 11 photographs of the Theatre Royal Haymarket production. Angus McBean, photographer, 1968

This West End revival of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest opened on February 8, 1968 and ran for 283 performances at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. The production starred Isabel Jeans, Daniel Massey, Helen Weir, and John Standing, among others.

$800

Flowers from My Garden. Sketched and Painted from Nature. [New York], [1864]

FIRST EDITION, a unique pre-publication copy with 18 fine watercolors, the original art used as the basis for the lithographs in the published edition.

$37,500

Collection of six original views of “Strand Theatre at Work” signed by the artist. London, 1984

These delightful views depict scenes at the Strand Theatre (now the Novello Theatre) in London’s West End. They range from views of the boxes and theater-goers to the box office to backstage scenes. The box office advertises the original production of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing, which ran at the Strand from 1982 to 1985.

$1,700

The Vocal Standard, or, Star Spangled Banner: being the latest and best selection ever offered to the public, particularly of American patriotic songs. Richmond: Nash and White, 1824

RARE AMERICAN PATRIOTIC SONGSTER. The Star-Spangled Banner appears at pp 15-16. The song’s great fame at this early date is reflected in its inclusion in the book’s title and its use as the running headline in every page

$1,200

Photo Album Operation Greenhouse. Hollywood, California: United States Air Force Lookout Mt. Laboratory, [1951]

This rare album documents Operation Greenhouse, the first series of tests in the nascent American thermonuclear weapons program. The four tests were performed in April and May 1951 at the Enewetak Atoll of the Marshall Islands. Following the Soviet Union’s successful test of an atomic bomb in August 1949, the United States made the controversial decision to proceed with the development of thermonuclear weapons. These fusion weapons (the “Super” or hydrogen bomb) would be orders of magnitude more destructive than the fission weapons used against Japan.

$17,500

Dred Scott decision – “Important Decision of the Supreme Court:” in National Intelligencer. Washington: Gales and Seaton, March 7, 1857

This is the announcement of the Dred Scott decision, brought as breaking news by a leading Washington newspaper.

$4,500

Bird’s Eye View of Holy Jerusalem. Odessa, 1902

This vibrant chromolithograph bird’s eye view was published in Odessa for the tourist market.

The foreground is dominated by the Dome of the Rock, behind the wall of the Old City of Jerusalem. In the background appear houses of the Old City and the holy sites. Captions in Russian describe selected sites. The title of the lithograph appears in the margins, in Russian, English and French.

$2,400

[Poster.] Nuzhno usilit’ i ukrepit’ internatsional’nye proletarskie sviazi rabochego klassa SSSR a rabochim klassom burzhuaznykh stran [“We Must Reinforce and Consolidate the International Proletarian Links of the Working Class of the USSR with the Working Class of the Bourgeois Countries” – Stalin]. Moscow, Izostat, 20 October 1940

This dramatic poster, similar in style to the Socialist Realist graphics found in USSR In Construction, exhorts the people to support MOPL, the International Organization of Helpers of Fighters for the Revolution. The figures represent international workers united with the Soviets in the heroic struggle for the Revolution. The poster was printed during the last year of Lissitzky’s life while he worked for the Soviet state with the sure knowledge that his friends and colleagues were the victims of Stalin’s purges.

$6,800

At the graveside of Walt Whitman: Harleigh, Camden, New Jersey, March 30th and Sprigs of Lilac.. Philadelphia, 1892

First edition. Presentation copy inscribed by Whitman’s friend and literary executor Horace Trouble to W. W. Clews and further inscribed by Traubel: “Edition: 750 / Number 382 / Horace L. Traubel.”

$500

To the friends of the slave in the town of Smithfield. Peterboro, New York: [Smith], March 12, 1844

A fiery antislavery broadside by one of the Secret Six.

$2,500