Skyscript Astrology Forum

thanks for the update Phillip. I would love it if you could told us about some of these auctions before it was too late to bid.

Thanks for the feedback, Justin! I'm glad you appreciate the information.

I would ideally love to be able to give advance notice of all the notable auctions as you suggest. There are, as I've found since I began this strand, though, a few practical factors mitigating against this, as I'm sure you'll appreciate if I spell them out:

1) The amount of time it takes me to post links and details while auctions are still running in addition to when they are complete.

2) For readers scanning through the strand looking to compile their own database for future reference on bidding levels for the books they particularly are after, it becomes much slower and more complicated when advance notices are interwoven with results, leaving a very disorganised jumble that does not follow a single, orderly chronological sequence, although for astrologers used to dealing with complex calculations and multiple considerations this may be straight-forward to disentangle! The results in themselves can be a guide on which basis individuals looking for a particular title can set up ebay to search for it automatically and email them when a new copy is listed, and then bid for that title in the knowledge of the past market values achieved by similar copies.

3) Some auctions of rare books have high start-bids that prevent them selling at all in the current marketplace of that particular week's viewers. When I first started this strand around October or November last year, often I would give advance notice of auctions only to report the books were unsold. This would end up taking up quite a lot of extra space in the strand, as well as time, without giving particularly useful information.

Anyhow, one way around the problem outlined in 2) above would be a separate strand for advance notices and one for results. Provided that readers were willing to cross-reference between the two strands by keeping multiple windows open, it would work fine. However, the main problem remaining would be that in 1), simply the amount of time it takes to post so much information on two occasions in each case!

What I have been doing lately on the whole is to give advance notice of rare astrological book auctions held outside ebay in the major auction houses, since these tend to be for particularly high-profile, rare items that it can be interesting to learn more about by looking up facts etc. regardless of how they sell or fail to sell in practice. This is essentially a pragmatic compromise. Since some similarly rare books are also listed on ebay, it would be ideal to extend this to such listings, and I have occasionally done so, but in July I was away for three weeks with very limited net access working on writing, and the most I could manage was to track newly listed items in my Ebay watch-list and keep them there after they expired, saving them up for the next update.

If nobody objects to the idea of advance listing notices being given their own separate strand in the future, I'd be happy to set one up for that purpose as a separate ongoing strand, and anyone at all who spots rare or otherwise topically interesting and comment-worthy astrology books newly listed for sale would be welcome to post them to it, leaving this strand dedicated mostly to the results and any discussions arising from them.

In the same spirit, if anyone else at Skyscript has taken up tracking astrological book listings at ebay or other auction sites, there is no reason at all why he or she can't post their results here too - it's an open strand in an open community forum, and the topic is an impersonal one of general interest which shouldn't have to depend on a single main contributor for its long-term sustenance. My feeling anyway!

Best regards,

Philip

Hi Phillip,

Without putting you to any obligation or commitment, I think that would be a great idea. As you say, it?s an open strand in an open community forum, so other people could use it too, to advertise books wanted or for sale. As long as people understand that it?s a place for informal notices, some of which will fall out of date.

Best wishes
Deb

It's been very much quieter on ebay and absolutely silent in the major auction house arena over the whole of the summer as far as rare astrology books are concerned, and August seems to have been an especially quiet month, but in the course of the past five weeks a few auction results worthy of at least a passing mention have come to pass:

1. A 1943 first edition of Manly Hall's 'The Philosophy of Astrology' complete with dust jacket achieved the seller's starting bid of $50:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=013

2. A 1722 printing of the rather common antique book credited to Marcelli Palingenii called 'Zodiacus Vitae' sold for $160:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=010

3. A 1661 almanac whose full title begins 'Almanacco Perpetuo di Rutilio Benincasa Cosentino, Illustrato, e diviso in Cinque Parti, de Ottavio Beltrano di Terranova di Calabria Citra' sold for $710:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=010

4. A first edition of Jack Gillen's 'The Key to Speculation on the New York Stock Exchange' sold for $305, a lot less than the typical dealer price of $900 or more:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=010

Personally I bought one of Tom Gillen's periodically auctioned softcover reprints of this title, which seem to be drip-fed onto the market in scarce supply to keep values high, for around $75 a year or so ago. For a hardcover original, $305 was a very good deal for the successful bidder.

5. An Arabic astrological manuscript dated to 1727 sold to a sole bidder for the start-price of $299:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=011

6. An 1892 first edition in essentially very good- condition of Karl Anderson's 'Astrology of the Old Testament' fetched just over $54:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=011

7. An original 1697 printing of Ball's 'Astrophysical Compendium', the paper in very stained and quite browned condition though sympathetically rebound, sold to a sole bidder for the reasonable starting price of $349:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=004

I was tempted by this one because it's rare and the price was reasonable, but it's hardly a major astrological work contents-wise (a simplified, brief introduction to astrological interpretation in any century is by its design unlikely to add much new to other more major sources), the condition of this copy left quite a bit to be desired, and I felt on balance that my existing Ballantrae reprint would suffice.

Incidentally, there was also a much later edition of this book published about a century later in the late 18th century which has a higher page count but was heavily edited from the original with additions by an editor from other astrological sources, and is therefore less authentic as a representation of the true author's writing, and arguably less desirable for it.

8. What appears to be a standalone very early (first?) edition of Culpeper's 'The English Physician Enlarged', published in 1676, sold for $402:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=003

9. The first volume out of a limited edition (to 500 copies) three volume work called 'Summa Astrologicae' (though written in French, not Latin) by the late editor of 'L'Astrosophie' magazine, Francis Rolt-Wheeler, fetched 72 Euros despite the absence of the other two volumes from the listing. I expect the fine hardcover binding had its part to play in this result. If it had been a plain softcover Volume One of a set lacking Volumes Two and Three, I doubt it would have fared nearly so well.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=017

I note that no other copies of any of the volumes are available for sale used, indicating that this is truly a scarce work. Personally I'm not that much interested in an isolated volume of a set which is likely eventually to come up for sale complete.

10. An early (1834) reprint of the first Raphael's 'Manual of Astrology' in quite good though uninspiredly rebound condition, shipping strictly to US bidders only, sold for a lowly $67.77, quite a bargain really:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=020

These are the only ten notable ebay results over $50 from the past five weeks that I have tracked, which accounts for my sense that it's been a very quiet period for good auction listings in the astrological arena.

Let's hope things pick up a bit when Autumn comes!

It's about time I caught up with posting some astrological auction results here, although in view of personal responsibilities this may have to be the last time I do so in any kind of a comprehensive manner as a matter of routine, though I may still occasionally post a result or two. A year by itself is only a partial snapshot in the long term, since some rare astrological books do not come up for auction at all in the space of any given year, but I hope it has nonetheless been informative to those interested.

1. A copy of the John Story reissue of Simmonite's 'The Celestial Philosopher', under Story's changed title of 'The Complete Arcana of Astral Philosophy', sold after some naive bidding for almost $200, about five times as much as it is worth, since it's a fairly common edition:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=011

2. Another copy (the second this year) of Raphael's 'Fortune-Teller's Own Book and Master-Key to Futurity' sold for only $150, less than half of the price fetched by the first one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=006

This was bad luck above all, though Raphael's name was mis-spelt in the listing again. For a work of its age bearing that famous pen-name, and with only one copy found on OCLC, it has to be worth more than that. The one copy listed in the world's libraries is at New York, but currently classified as 'missing', though whether that means it has been misplaced within the library or stolen I know not.

3. The third 1898 first edition to be listed this year on ebay (there was none all last year or, as far as I recall, the year before) of Broughton's 'Elements of Astrology' sold for only $53 to the same buyer who overpaid for the Simmonite reprint, and from the same seller who listed that one. It would have made more sense if this person had paid $197 for Broughton and $53 for Simmonite, since those are closer to their true values in these editions, so I suppose you could say he or she made a fair overall deal with the seller concerned

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=020

4. A ropy softcover copy of Svehla's early 1939 translation of the Rules for Planetary Pictures sold for about $89:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=002

5. An Arabic manuscript on astrology, purported to be around 500 years old, sold for $560:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=002

6. A 1593 first edition of Rantzau's 'Tractatus Astrologicus', I believe probably a copy that was previously listed at fixed price for $1500 and unsold, since there was one on the fixed price market until very recently but it has now gone, was sent to auction at PBA Galleries, and sold for $1900 plus buyer's premium, a lot higher than its previous fixed asking price if indeed it was the same copy:

http://cgi.liveauctions.ebay.com/ws/eBa ... 00166&rd=1

7. A complete copy (with frontispiece, though pictures have expired) of the works of George Wharton sold for $600 on a 'Best Offer' basis:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=003

8. A rare set of Manly Palmer Hall's eight lectures on and forecasts using mundane astrology from 1941 entitled 'The Principles of Prophecy' sold for around $67:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=019

9. A 1778 printing of Pluche's two-volume set 'L'Histoire du Ciel' sold for just under 170 Euros:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=009

10. A moderately well-preserved hardcover copy of Svehla's same 1939-published translation of the Rules for Planetary Pictures fetched slightly less, at $64, than the ropy softcover copy, paradoxically:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=020

11. An almanac with missing title page, published 1645, by William Lilly, sold for a bargain price of just under $90. If it had been complete, I presume it would have fetched a lot more:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=012

12. A stated 1784 printing (which would make it a first edition) of Sibly's 'Complete Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology' floundered at $410 (Reserve Not Met), presumably because one page was missing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=020

13. A first edition from 1937 or thereabouts of Robert Ambelain's first two volumes in his 'Traite d'Astrologie Esoterique' series, rebound together in a single hardcover volume, confounded my every expectaton by selling for over 260 Euros, despite the fact that the third volume of three was lacking:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=020

Without meaning to sound disrespectful, I have to wonder if Ambelain is today revered in esoteric circles in France even more than Alice Bailey or Helena Blavatsky have at times been in English-speaking countries. His books certainly seem to be attracting extraordinary competitive bidding compared to the more scientifically themed French astrological works of comparable age.

14. A set of historically themed (from what I can tell looking at the description) ephemerides published in 1652 by a Nicolo Caussino, in Italian, sold for $355:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=007

15. Some ephemerides spanning 1595 to 1630, published in 1599 by David Origano, were unsold (reserve not met) with bidding up to 615 Euros ($890 at current exchange rates):

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=020

16. An 1837 Thomas Tegg reprint of Raphael's 'Manual of Astrology' with detached boards sold on relisting for ?49.99:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=011

17. Another two-volume set of Pluche's 'Histoire du Ciel', this time a first edition from 1739, sold for just 86 Euros, a lot less than it is probably worth:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=019

18. A volume of Argoli's ephemerides spanning 1630 to 1680 floundered at just over $500 (Reserve not met) against a reserve of $600:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=009

19. Two rare Jack Gillen manuals on commodity trading (no doubt using astrological methods, since financial astrology has been his speciality), one substantial and one short, sold together for just over $500:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=019

I have not seen either of the above listed on ebay before, but then they might have been without my noticing if they were listed without reference to astrology in some form or other. Still, they are probably a lot scarcer than the 'Key to Speculation' reprints that are sold from time to time by Jack's son Tom.

20. The same 1739 edition of Pluche listed in '17' above was immediately relisted, and this time sold for 121 Euros. Presumably the buyer the first time around backed out of the sale. The leading underbidder that time was beaten again this time, by some different people.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=019

21. A book on astrology from 1898 that I had not even heard of before, 'The Secrets of Astrology Revealed' by a Macdonald, sold for over $255 in what must have been somewhat speculative, blind bidding:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=020

22. A 1917 first English-language edition of C. Aq. Libra's 'Astrology: Its Technics and Ethics' sold for an unreasonably high $234.50. It is often available for less than $50 at fixed price from used bookdealers.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=011

23. A copy of William G. Foster's scarce 1982 work on financial astrology 'Timing is the Key', battered at the base but said to be complete, fetched $85.98.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=005

I contacted the author (whose auction this was not, incidentally) before the auction was finished, and he told me that his book is still available from him directly, new, for $125, but that he sells very few of his books because he is a full-time professional trader.

With his having so little time to market his own publications, it's to be expected that they will remain very scarce, and become very valuable in the future when he is no longer actively offering them for sale. If there's one category of astrological publication that most consistently gains value after it falls out of print, and long before it becomes an antique, financial astrology books are it.

24. A somewhat stained but otherwise virtually complete (but for the fact that it lacks six or seven plates) copy of Ebeneezer Sibly's edition of Culpeper's Herbal, from 1802, sold for $240:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=001

25. The same collector who bought William Foster's financial astrology book got a bargain price of just over $40 for a complete set of all nine of another William's scarce lectures on medical astrology: the late Dr. William Davidson. This was a second edition from 1973, with the eight main lectures bound two per booklet and the introduction separate. The listing was not very clearly set out, with the author not being mentioned in the headline appearing in search results, nor the number of lectures being shown in the description. Otherwise, this set would normally have fetched well in excess of $100 on ebay, and would retail for closer to $175:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=017

26. A fine-looking (for its age) copy of Agrippa's 'Opera' in two tomes, bound as one, sold for $4350:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=020

27. A 1679 edition of Culpeper's 'Pharmacoepia Londinensis, or the London Dispensatory' sold for just $415. It appears to be complete though the binding is somewhat worn:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=007

The asking prices of bookdealers for this work in almost any 17th century edition are astronomical, with the first American editions tending to command the highest expectations, often over $10,000, even though they were quite a few years after the first English editions, which were known by the different name of 'A Physical Directory'.

28. A first edition set of the first two volumes of Lynn Thorndike's 'A History of Magic and Experimental Science' sold for around $260, in the absence of the other six:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=014

29. A 1672 edition of the works of Lazarus Riverius, as translated by Nicholas Culpeper and a few others, with the title 'The Practice of Physick', ran above $700, but its reserve was not met:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=019

That's all for now from me for this strand. Perhaps it will sink into the Skyscript archives, or perhaps others will post to it in due course. Either way, I hope the research to date was interesting and occasionally helpful. I certainly found Sue's early contributions especially so.

Philip