Featured What’s Your White Whale?

An original (or early) edition of any book by Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717).

• Blumenbuch. Volume 1. 1675
• Blumenbuch. Volume 2. 1677
• Neues Blumenbuch. Volume 3. 1680
• Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung. Volume 1, 1679
• Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandlung und sonderbare Blumennahrung. Volume 2, 1683
• Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium. 1705

Even one plate from one of her books costs several thousand dollars at high-end galleries:
https://www.audubonart.com/shop/category/botanical-art-maria-sibylla-merian-85

I did just learn that her Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium was reprinted in what looks like a fairly nice edition a couple of years ago... I may have to be satisfied with that.
https://www.amazon.com/Maria-Sibylla-Merian-Metamorphosis-Surinamensium/dp/940143378X

 

I've seen what must have been copies of Maria Sibylla Merian's plates in the past. I can see why people like them so much: they're a charming (and accurate, for the time) rendition of butterflies and other natural history subjects. I'd love one myself....

 

the accuracy is the Swiss part of her...

 

"the accuracy is the Swiss part of her..."

Indeed.

 

Trying not to beat the Maria Sibylla Merian horse to death, but folios of her work were published by the...er....Folio Society some time ago, and can be had for less than $1K American each. I know that's still high for most folks - including me - but the Folio Society does amazing work, and it sure beats paying $250-350K for originals.

Just a heads-up.

 

Are these the prints, or the books? -- Oh, never mind... I think you mean the books.

I have visited the Oppenheimer Gallery in Chicago. (they run the audubonart website I linked earlier.) They had some original Merian plates on display. That whole store is like a museum! They changed locations a couple of years ago and I haven't been to their newer store. The old one was in the ground floor of the historic Wrigley Building.

I'm not a scientist. How I became interested in her work had to do with a purchase from years ago, that is described in this old thread here.
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/what-is-the-best-deal-you-have-ever-gotten.13971/#post-196063 -- Mine is #9, if that link doesn't go there. The image I used is NOT taken from the engraving that I bought. But the lines are eerily the same and I think mine is probably taken from one of her original plates.

Plates in the Neues Blumenbuch were in a smaller format than the very large plates in her later work.

 

This made me want to sort the really high-priced stuff on AbeBooks. Price shouldn't be a criterion in a selection like this, but I was curious.

The highest price you can search is 999999. There are enough recent books listed for $999,999.99 that I assume there's a wrong way to enter a listing price... but there are others. I have no idea if the prices are realistic.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/Se...tlyadded=all&sortby=1&sts=t&yrh=1950&yrl=1100

 

how's about "Maximilian Prince of Wied’s Travels in the Interior of North America, during the years 1832–1834" ? the sketches of the "Indians" are still used as reference by movie outfitters ...
...due to the accuracy...

 

haha...I do have a macarbre streak a few miles wide but not to the extent of actually putting a green head in a cabbage shop thing...reading about it is as close as I get ( I THINK :O :O :O )

 

AbeBooks issues a list every year of the most expensive sales done through their site. Here is the list for 2018!
https://www.abebooks.com/collectibl...018/?cm_sp=home-_-tile_2_12_cta-_-2018mostexp

 

I have a facsimile edition. Not the real thing, obviously, but still good for accuracy.
He visited the Mandan before and during/after the smallpox epidemic. Devastating. Together with Karl Bodmer, the artist who traveled with him, he made a lasting record of pre-smallpox Mandan life. And that of other nations, of course.

 

Glad I'm not the only one that does this, LOL! For me, the difficulty has been that most of the books I read as a child were sent here to the US by my British grandparents so finding them here is next-to-impossible and I therefore have to pay exorbitant postage costs to get them. When possible, I prefer to get them in the same binding that I used to have.
I googled/searched for some time before I was able to find out what one of my favorite childhood books was called. All I could remember was that it was about a little girl who got sick and was bed-ridden at home for several months. She finds a magic pencil and whatever she draws comes to life in her dreams. Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr. (Apparently, it was adapted into an opera libretto in 1999!)

So now, another White Whale of mine is a reasonably-priced edition of the sequel, Marianne and Mark, which I've never read.

 

Didn't somebody want the first editions of the Narnia books? Looks like they made the ABE list at $24,000 for first editions of all of them. Not even signed! WOW!

 

I love really old books, so my white whales are the Zainer Bible 1475, because as far as I know its the first illustrated bible ever printed, it has beautiful Initials in the style of medieval Book Illuminations. (Link to a digital version)

The other is the Theuerdank (1517), a book composed by Emperor Maximilian at the end of the 15th century, illustrated with many woodcuts by some of the best artists of the time, and with a extraordinary typeface used only in this book. (digital)

Both do come up for auction, but the prices have to many digits. Facsimiles are not an option for me, they simply don't feel the same as an old book.

 

"Theuerdank"

Wow!

 

Interesting... these were on several people's list.

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, $24,000
A complete set of British first editions - all seven books in first issue dust wrappers with no repairs. The first five books of this classic series were published by Geoffrey Bles. The final two were published by The Bodley Head. They all contain the marvelous illustrations of Pauline Baynes. The series began with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in 1950, and concluded with The Last Battle in 1956.
***
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum, $16,000
A 1900 first edition in fine condition. A beautiful copy bound in the publisher's light green cloth stamped in red and green. All 24 color plates are present.