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More Dubious Signed Copies

September 2, 2020 in auctions, inscriptions | 6 comments

On ebay, a dealer in Michigan, j_j_books, is offering signed copies of the 1938 Bobbs-Merrill Laughter in the Dark and the 1941 New Directions The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. The books have the bookplates of Richard Adams, the British author of Watership Down. Without having examined them first-hand, but going by the photos and descriptions, I am dubious of the authenticity of at least one of them.

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, with a mangled dust jacket, has an inscription on the title page, “With much love | Vladimir Nabokov | 1945”. That is not Nabokov writing, especially to someone outside his intimate circle. Assuming that the inscription was meant for Adams and not someone else, Nabokov would not have written so warmly to someone of whom there is no evidence that they ever met or corresponded. In fact, in 1945, Adams was in the British army and Nabokov was living in the U.S.

The Laughter in the Dark could be legitimate. I don’t know. But that Richard Adams bookplate makes me wary of it.

The dealer, j_j_books, has offered and sold several inscribed or signed Nabokov books on ebay recently (Ada and Poems). That by itself, of course, doesn’t mean anything. But all of these books have supposedly been from collections of people who had no known connections to Nabokov.

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Stikhi (1916) Set for Auction by Bonhams

February 20, 2019 in auctions | 1 comment

Nabokov’s first book, Стихи [Stikhi / Poems] from 1916, a self-published volume of 68 Russian poems in cream-colored wrappers will be auctioned on 12 March by Bonhams in New York. It is number 252 of 500 copies.

Title page of Стихи [Stikhi / Poems] from 1916.

Bonhams’ estimate is $25,000 – $35,000. The auction house catalog description doesn’t give the item’s provenance. It is lot 2036.

Full information is on the Bonhams website.

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VN Entomological Archive Sells at PBA Auction

February 16, 2019 in auctions, lepidoptera, letters | No comments

An archive of Nabokov letters, drawings, and off-prints from the 1940s relating to his entomological work and correspondence with Kansas lepidopterist Donald B. Stallings was sold at auction by PBA Galleries to a West coast dealer on 7 February.

The lot was estimated to go for $10,000–$15,000. It sold for $15,600 plus a 20% buyer’s premium. Included were:

  • A 7-page autograph letter signed by Nabokov (in ink) to Kansas lepidopterist Donald B. Stallings, on the letterhead of Harvard College’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, dated March 10, 1944. The letter gives extensive details of Nabokov’s Lycaeides research.
  • A 6-page typed list of Lycaeides specimens sent to Nabokov by Stallings and J.B. Turner. On the last page of this list, Nabokov  has written, in pencil, a 12-line note regarding the list, and signed the note.
  • 4 pages, in pen, of drawings by Nabokov, of Lycaeides morphology, notably genitalia.
  • A 1-page autograph letter signed by Nabokov, undated, on the letterhead of Harvard College’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, to Donald B. Stallings. The letter notes that Stallings has cleared up a research question for Nabokov, and lists issues of the journal PSYCHE in which Nabokov has published his research.
  • Reprints of Nabokov’s Lycaeides research articles in PSYCHE, vol. L, #’s 3-4; vol. LI, #’s 3-4; vol. LII, nos. 1-2; and in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, vol. 101, no. 4. Each of these four reprints is inscribed by Nabokov to Stallings in ink, one with a small drawing of a butterfly. There are Nabokov’s pen corrections in two of the reprints, of which two corrections are extensive. 
  • A manila mailing envelope addressed by Nabokov  to Stallings and with Nabokov’s return address of Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology. The envelope is stamped and the cancellation is dated March 13, 1944.
  • A 1-page reprint from vol. 14, nos. 1 & 2 of the Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, concerning Donald B. Stallings’ research on Kansas Lepidoptera

Details and photos are at www.pbagalleries.com.

Christie’s Auction Results

December 9, 2018 in auctions | 2 comments

All eleven Nabokov’s lots were hammered down for very good prices at Christie’s in London on 28 November.

The prices here include the 25% buyer’s premium. The grand total was GBP60,800.

Stikhi [Poems], 1916, GBP25,000
Grozd’ [The cluster], 1923, GBP4750
Ania v strane chudes [Alice in wonderland], 1923, GBP11,875
Gornii put’ [The empyrean path], 1923, GBP4000
Mashen’ka [Mary], 1926, GBP5250
Vozvrashchenie Chorba [The return of Chorb], 1930, GBP3000
Podvig [Glory], 1932, GBP2000
Otchaianie [Despair], 1936, GBP6875
Priglashenie na kazn’ [Invitation to a beheading], 1938, GBP2375
Sogliadatai [The eye], 1938, GBP4000
Lolita, 1955, GBP6875

Considering condition and rarity, buyers significantly overspent on three of the lots: Mashen’ka, Otchaianie (it does have the VN ownership label that Glenn Horowitz put on many books from Nabokov’s library when he sold them for Dmitri Nabokov years after VN’s death), and Lolita.

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Ten Russian Editions at Christie’s

October 23, 2018 in auctions | 1 comment

Ten Russian first editions of Nabokov’s novels, poetry, stories, and a translation are being offered in auction at Christie’s in London on 28 November.

Notable are Nabokov’s first, and self-published, book of poems, Stikhi (1916) and his translation of Alice in Wonderland, Ania v strane chudes (1923) in pictorial boards. Other lots include two poetry collections (Grozd’ (1922) and Gorniĭ put’ (1923)), five novels (Mashen’ka (1925), Otchaianie (1936), Podvig (1932), Priglashenie na kazn’ (1938), and an Engllsh Olympia Press Lolita (1955)), and the story collection, Vozvrashchenie Chorba (1929).

Stikho [Poems], 1916, St. Petersburg, Nabokov’s first book.

Christie’s estimate for Stikhi is £15,000-20,000 (roughly $20,000–26,000). The other Nabokov offerings are, though expensive, less dear.

I notice that the copy of Gorniĭ put’ is the same one that sold at Bonhams in New York on 5 December 2012 for $3800 (not including the 25% buyer’s premium).

A link to the sale, number 17162, is at Christies.com here. The Nabokov lots are 193–202.

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Alice Translation at Auction

September 17, 2018 in auctions, translations | No comments

A hardbound copy of Nabokov’s 1923 translation of Alice in Wonderland into Russian, Аня в странe чудес [Ania v strane chudes] (A7.1a), is being auctioned by Аукционный дом 12й стул
[12th Chair Auction House] in Moscow on 19 September. Here’s the link.

The 116-page book, with illustrations by Zalshupin, was published in Berlin by Gamaiun. The offered copy has its blemishes and worn spots, a proprietary stamp on the fly leaf and an owner’s inscription on the title page. The book is extremely rare. The description doesn’t give an estimate, but it should go for at least five figures.

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Signed Lolita Coming up at Auction

February 15, 2018 in auctions | 3 comments

A 1955 Olympia Press first printing of Lolita signed by Nabokov is being offered by Heritage Auctions on March 7 in New York. The house’s website gives no estimate. But the opening bid of $2000 is at least half of what the book can be expected to be hammered down for.

The signature appears to have been dashed off with a broad-tipped pen. The date is simply “III . 57”. The copy is one of many books in the auction from the James C. Seacrest Collection. No other provenance is given.

Here’s a link to the lot. Additionally, Heritage is offering an unsigned but very nice copy of the first edition.

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New Fraudulent Inscription at NEBA

September 16, 2017 in auctions, inscriptions | 1 comment

New England Book Auctions has finally posted its catalog for sale 465 on Sept. 26. It includes as lot 169 a 1973 British first edition of Strong Opinions allegedly inscribed, signed, and crudely lepidopterized by Nabokov to Martin and Diana Shuttleworth in 1974. (http://nebookauctions.com/shop/uncategorized/169-nabokov-vladimir/)

We’ve been through this before. See my previous postings about the Shuttleworths: Signed/inscribed/lepidopterized books (not just by Nabokov) to any member of the Shuttleworth family are almost certainly fraudulent. But some dealers and auction houses continue to peddle them as the real thing.

Not all, though. James O’Sullivan writes that

A few months ago I corresponded with a very well-known London antiquarian dealer who had offered up a Mishima with the Shuttleworth provenance. They withdrew it from sale immediately, but really should have known better.

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The Australian Connection

September 15, 2017 in auctions, inscriptions | No comments

A Beckett collector has written to me to point out that many bogus book signatures and inscriptions, including those of Nabokov, appear to emanate from Australia. And that some sellers use Julian Jebb (a British arts journalist who died in 1984) as the provenance source of the books.

The collector wrote:

[The sellers] are based in NSW, Australia and their eBay ID history looks like this:

therepository Jan-03-17 – Present
jebboroam May-15-15 – Jan-03-17
worthingness Mar-12-15 – May-15-15
keramikoz Jan-21-11 – Mar-12-15

Several things should be pointed out: therepository mentioned above is still active; it has a 100% positive feedback since 2011, probably because buyers still aren’t aware that they may have been taken in; 17 of the varied 17 books therepository has listed on eBay today claim to be signed; but, the seller never explicitly says they were “signed by” the authors.

My correspondent collector also wrote:

I have been advised that if anyone is taken in by this fraud, and the seller is based in Australia, that they report it to the local fraud office – depending where the item was sent from.

Queensland: http://www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au/lodge-your-complaint
New South Wales: http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/biz_res/ftweb/General_complaint/?type=general

Fraud reporting forms for other territories can be found online. Apparently eBay will only take action against these sellers if this is escalated through legal channels.

An additional eBay seller is socrates349.

On the other hand socrates349 seems to have a fairly clean looking eBay account, lots of feedback with none of it bad and their ID has not been changed since 2003 (and that would appear to be because they used their email as their seller ID). I would suspect they are downstream of the scam and are likely unaware of it’s workings – as you pointed out many other dealers have been taken in by these books and the Shuttleworth provenance can be now seen beyond eBay.

I think given the long history of these forged books coming from Australia, I’ve come across quite a few mentions online, it’s likely the person behind it is known to the Police or at least local book dealers as they potentially have tried various avenues to offload their creations.

Last of all, New England Book Auctions (again) is offering an inscribed and signed 1973 British first edition of Strong Opinions (on Sept. 26, sale number 465, lot 169) with a “UACC Member certification provided”. I haven’t seen the book or its inscription yet and can’t judge its authenticity. In any case, UACC (Universal Autograph Collectors Club) membership certification means nothing. Anyone can become a member for $29. And that anyone can say that a particular signature is the real thing. We’ll see.

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More Fraudulent Inscriptions, This Time on eBay

August 18, 2017 in auctions, inscriptions | No comments

Two dealers are offering six allegedly signed/inscribed/lepidopterized Nabokovs on eBay. I’ve written about fraudulent copies inscribed for “Martin and Diana” before. See my postings of 16, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 27 April 2016. Also, one of the sellers has attached a supposed letter of provenance for the three paperbacks. That letter is as dubious as the sorry lots themselves.

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