Bonhams’ December 4, 2007 auction of Fine Books and Manuscripts will feature a first edition of John Fisk Allen’s Victoria Regia, or the Great Water Lily of America, believed to be the first book printed in the United States using color-printed lithographs.

Described as “an extraordinary achievement, worthy of this giant Amazonian water-lily,” the book was published by Dutton & Wentworth in 1854 in Boston. Although only 16 pages, it is illustrated by six lithographed plates, printed in color by Sharp & Son. The plates are the work of William Sharp who pioneered chromolithography in England in 1835, and then immigrated to the United States in 1839. The lithographs are beautifully printed using four separate stones and the text features a brief account of the discovery and cultivation of the giant Amazonian water lily from specimens grown in Salem, Massachusetts. This extraordinary work has been valued at $20,000 to $30,000.

Additional sale highlights are currently being catalogued for the December sale, including a collection of six early Charles Schultz pen and ink renderings of Peanuts characters. The sketches, which will be sold individually, feature Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, Violet and Patty. Each is valued between $1,500-2,500.

Also featured will be an 1818 Benjamin Owen Tyler printing of the Declaration of Independence on parchment, valued at $10,000 to $12,000. This document was the first version to include facsimile signatures and preceded the Stone Declaration by five years. Other noteworthy items include a pair of portrait paintings by Eugene Paul Ullman depicting the poet Ezra Pound and Margaret Cravens, offered together with a copy of Pound’s Exultations inscribed to Cravens (est. $6/9,000). As well, the December sale includes an 1840-44 octavo edition of John James Audubon’s Birds of America valued at $30,000 to $50,000.

Previews open Dec. 1-3 at Bonhams, 595 Madison Ave., NY, NY, the illustrated catalog will be online at www.bonhams.com in the weeks preceding the sale.

Posted: 10|31|07 at 12:54 pm. Filed under: News.