Mineral Dictionary, Micrographia, and British Imperial Intel: The Week in Rare Books

This weekly auction result is provided by Spencer W Stuart, an independent collections advisor specializing in rare books and manuscripts as well as fine photography and prints. He is also the author of Contemporary Issues in Rare Books & Manuscript Collecting and host of the monthly webinar Collecting Insights.

These are the three lots that stuck out this week because of either uniqueness or exceeding expectations:

A Unique Manuscript: James Mander's manuscript draft of A Mineral Dictionary of Words, Or Terms Used By The Miners In Derbyshire, 1821, handwritten in vellum-bound notebook, together with first edition of The Derbyshire Miners' Glossary, (Bakewell, Minerva Press, 1824)

Exceeded expectation: Robert Hooke’s Micrographia, second edition (London: Printed for James Allestry, printer to the Royal Society, and are to be sold at his shop, at the Rose and Crown in Duck-Lane, MDCLXVII [1667]). With bill of sale laid in. "Note this copy of the Micrographia originally belonged to the microscope dealer & scholar Court Clay…. Supposedly was under one post of Court’s bed when Harold Heywood found it."

Rich Resource for Colonial History: Large collection of reports compiled for military and political reference by high-ranking officers of the British Army in India and Central Asia with extensive encyclopedic records of the history, geography, and ethnography of the sprawling territories under aegis of British imperialism.