The private collection of Bill Reese, renowned as the foremost dealer-scholar of antiquarian books of his generation, comes up at a series of sales at Christie’s beginning of May 25. The rich combination of printed works, historic prints, fine art, and colour-plate books rank this among the most valuable sales of printed Americana in over 50 years. With approximately 700 lots, the collection has a total pre-sale auction estimate of $12 to $18 million.
The collection is highlighted by one of only six recorded copies of one of the earliest contemporary broadside editions of the Declaration of Independence, and likely the first edition printed in New England: the Sang-Copley-Reese copy ($1,000,000-1,500,000) – UPDATE – THIS SOLD FOR $2.1 MILLION. The Continental Congress, after authorising the writing of the Declaration and approving the text submitted by Thomas Jefferson and his committee, took steps to ensure the rapid dissemination of the historic document when it was approved on 4 July 1776.
Highlights include the Illustrated Notes of an Expedition through Mexico and California by John Woodhouse Audubon from 1852; Henry James Warre’s Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory; William Guy’s Wall’s Hudson River Portfolio (the first complete copy of the first issue to be at auction since 1948); Hannah Millard’s even rarer chromolithograph work on the wine grapes of California—most copies of which seem to have been destroyed in the San Francisco’s Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906; and natural history works of John James Audubon, Mark Catesby, George Brookshaw, John Fisk Allen, and Daniel Giraud Eliot, among others.
Rare historic documents include Paul Revere’s engraving of The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated In King Street, Boston, On March 5th 1770, By Party Of The 29th Reg. Boston from March 1770 ($250,000-350,000) and a special first edition copy of Lewis and Clark’s History of the Expedition by Meriwether Lewis in 1814, which is the definitive account of the most important exploration of the North American continent.
In 1979, William S. Reese established the antiquarian books firm that would define his presence in the market: the William Reese Company, situated adjacent to the Yale University campus and its Beinecke Library.
UPDATE: THE COLLECTION REALISED $16 MILLION
