Notable rare astrological book auctions - ongoing strand
Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 6:39 pm
I thought maybe it would be tidier to place notable listings and results for rare astrological books in a dedicated ongoing strand within this board, so the other announcements in this board are not crowded out by too many separate strands having this one particular purpose!
I'll personally restrict my input on this to genuinely rare (mostly but not all of which will be at least half a century or so old) astrology books that are very hard to find at an affordable price, if at all, on the general used bookseller listings, and so when a copy does come up at auction it can be interesting to know about it and also to see what it fetches on the free auction market.
To begin with, a few interesting results (all fetching at least US $100) noticed on ebay last week and earlier in November:
1. What I presume to be a later hardcover edition of Sepharial's 'The Law of Values', published by the 'Astro Dynamic Publishing Company', and date-marked 1948 by a previous owner, confounded my every expectation by selling for an outlandish $399. I bid a lowly $35, which was the third highest bid, but there were two bidders who clearly thought it was worth at least $395, hence the result. If this was indeed a later edition, surely this price must be a mistake on the part of those two bidders? I just wonder what a 1920s Foulsham copy would fetch.... Needless to say, I'm happy enough with my Ballantrae reprint of this title!
2. A softcover first edition of Fakir Chandra Dutt's 'Market Forecasting' (1949), another classic financial astrology text, this copy not in the best condition but solidly bound all the same, sold for $164.49, to the second highest bidder on the 'Law of Values' lot. This too is available much more cheaply in a Ballantrae Reprint form.
3. A softcover first edition of L J Jensen's 'Astro-Economic Interpretation' from 1936 sold for $127.50. It is a pamphlet of just 28 pages, by the way. A previous listing of the same book early in 2006 sold for around $76, so this one seems to be consistently popular. It's otherwise available as an appendix to a reprint by the Lambert-Gann Publishing Company of another work by Jensen to this day, for a much more reasonable cost.
4. A hardcover first edition of James Langham's 'Cyclical Market Forecasting: Stocks and Grain' from 1938 sold for $110.07. This is also available very much more cheaply as a Ballantrae Reprint.
These results underscore a consistent observation: early and otherwise rare financial astrology books in early editions are highly collectible. I think (speculating somewhat here) a major reason for this is that there are many more active financial astrologers now than there were back in the early part of the 20th century, so the original numbers of copies printed have failed to meet with the continuing demand.
5. A 1789 first edition (in translation) of 'Astronomy and Elementary Philosophy' by Placido de Titis, as translated by Manoah Sibly, sold for $152. This is a lot lower than the asking price of booksellers for this title, something of a bargain really.
6. A 1937 second edition, complete in five volumes (without dustjackets), of A. E. Housman's edition of Manilius sold for $371.66 early this month (November 2006). Retailers generally ask for at least $500 for this edition, which is in high demand and therefore rare second-hand even though there are plenty of libraries around the world that have it, so this price was reasonably fair for an auction. The first edition in five volumes, published 1903-1930 sequentially, was limited to five hundred copies I believe, and I have not yet seen a complete set listed used. Even the second edition has become highly collectible, clearly.
7. An original 1645 edition of 'A Collection of Ancient and Moderne Prophecies' by none other than William Lilly sold for $751.00, even though it is just 54 pages long. A very popular auction with many bids. Mr. Lilly's original works are clearly in very high demand with collectors.
That's all for now! I'll try to update this strand once every week or two if anything noteworthy crops up.
Philip
I'll personally restrict my input on this to genuinely rare (mostly but not all of which will be at least half a century or so old) astrology books that are very hard to find at an affordable price, if at all, on the general used bookseller listings, and so when a copy does come up at auction it can be interesting to know about it and also to see what it fetches on the free auction market.
To begin with, a few interesting results (all fetching at least US $100) noticed on ebay last week and earlier in November:
1. What I presume to be a later hardcover edition of Sepharial's 'The Law of Values', published by the 'Astro Dynamic Publishing Company', and date-marked 1948 by a previous owner, confounded my every expectation by selling for an outlandish $399. I bid a lowly $35, which was the third highest bid, but there were two bidders who clearly thought it was worth at least $395, hence the result. If this was indeed a later edition, surely this price must be a mistake on the part of those two bidders? I just wonder what a 1920s Foulsham copy would fetch.... Needless to say, I'm happy enough with my Ballantrae reprint of this title!
2. A softcover first edition of Fakir Chandra Dutt's 'Market Forecasting' (1949), another classic financial astrology text, this copy not in the best condition but solidly bound all the same, sold for $164.49, to the second highest bidder on the 'Law of Values' lot. This too is available much more cheaply in a Ballantrae Reprint form.
3. A softcover first edition of L J Jensen's 'Astro-Economic Interpretation' from 1936 sold for $127.50. It is a pamphlet of just 28 pages, by the way. A previous listing of the same book early in 2006 sold for around $76, so this one seems to be consistently popular. It's otherwise available as an appendix to a reprint by the Lambert-Gann Publishing Company of another work by Jensen to this day, for a much more reasonable cost.
4. A hardcover first edition of James Langham's 'Cyclical Market Forecasting: Stocks and Grain' from 1938 sold for $110.07. This is also available very much more cheaply as a Ballantrae Reprint.
These results underscore a consistent observation: early and otherwise rare financial astrology books in early editions are highly collectible. I think (speculating somewhat here) a major reason for this is that there are many more active financial astrologers now than there were back in the early part of the 20th century, so the original numbers of copies printed have failed to meet with the continuing demand.
5. A 1789 first edition (in translation) of 'Astronomy and Elementary Philosophy' by Placido de Titis, as translated by Manoah Sibly, sold for $152. This is a lot lower than the asking price of booksellers for this title, something of a bargain really.
6. A 1937 second edition, complete in five volumes (without dustjackets), of A. E. Housman's edition of Manilius sold for $371.66 early this month (November 2006). Retailers generally ask for at least $500 for this edition, which is in high demand and therefore rare second-hand even though there are plenty of libraries around the world that have it, so this price was reasonably fair for an auction. The first edition in five volumes, published 1903-1930 sequentially, was limited to five hundred copies I believe, and I have not yet seen a complete set listed used. Even the second edition has become highly collectible, clearly.
7. An original 1645 edition of 'A Collection of Ancient and Moderne Prophecies' by none other than William Lilly sold for $751.00, even though it is just 54 pages long. A very popular auction with many bids. Mr. Lilly's original works are clearly in very high demand with collectors.
That's all for now! I'll try to update this strand once every week or two if anything noteworthy crops up.
Philip
