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Travel

not including Space.
See also : Ancient maps  Photos 1900-40
Chronology : 1680-1699

1450 The Maps of Greek Islands
2012 SOLD 1.76 M$ including premium

The work of Cristoforo Buondelmonti is admirably typical of the spirit of the Italian Renaissance. This monk born in Florence lived in Greece for many years and traveled the islands. Hellenist, he studied the history and geography of the islands and collected manuscripts for the benefit of the bibliophile Niccolo Niccoli.

Around 1420, Buondelmonti draws a set of maps of this region, including comments judiciously arranged with the drawings, under the title Liber Insularum Archipelagi.

It indicates the monasteries, bridges, springs, ruins, monuments, and even the grave of Homer then located in Chios. This work includes the only known representation of Constantinople before the Ottoman conquest.

Executed about 1450, perhaps in Florence, the copy of the Liber Insularum Archipelagi for sale on April 10 at Christie's in New York is probably the oldest that has survived. This Latin manuscript especially clean and fresh, size 25 x 16 cm on vellum, is a superb illuminated example, with maps in different colors of lines and washes. The period binding has been restored.

This book is estimated $ 800K. Here is the link to the catalog.

POST SALE COMMENT

Two exceptional manuscripts, from the same collection, were featured in this sale.

The Buondelmonti, subject of this discussion, was sold for $ 1.76 million including premium.

Made in the following century and more artistic, the Agnese was sold for $ 2.77M including premium.

Ancient Maps

1691-97 Kangxi Southern Tour

The Manchu Qing Dynasty had first seized Northern China. By organizing and pacifying Southern China, the Kangxi Emperor became the great re-unifier of this vast country.

The 
Kangxi Emperor had a high opinion of his duties and responsibilities and his personal commitment was intense. The Qing Dynasty was still recent and it was challenged in the border provinces. The six inspection tours conducted by the emperor in the south between the 24th and the 47th year of his reign are intended for the assimilation of these reluctant regions.

Kangxi is not afraid to go to war but prefers peace. His tours are opportunities to link with the Four Occupations in their local particularities : gentry, peasants, craftsmen and merchants. The loyalty to the Emperor requires to understand and to be understood. Kangxi is a great statesman, lucid, responsible and effective.

The second trip took place during the 29th year of the reign, 1689 CE. It was fruitful and promising and they must preserve its memory. An imperial decree orders the execution of a scroll divided into twelve parts showing in a continuity the steps of the long journey.

Two years later, in order to mark the prestige of this operation, Kangxi required the imperial palace workshops to display this journey through a series of handscrolls. The management of the project is entrusted to the best landscape painter of that time, 
Wang Hui. 

I do not know where Wang was during the 1689 Imperial inspection. It does not matter. A connoisseur of the Song and Yuan landscape art, he worked by copy and imagination, including in his work picturesque scenes with numerous figures caught in everyday life.

The landscape is depicted with realism all along the way in a graphic style inspired from the Yuan maps, enough detailed to be used for guiding a trip along thousands of kilometers.


For seven years from the 31st year of Kangxi, the team of artists applies strictly on a silk strip 68 cm high the detailed instructions of Master Wang concerning the topographic features, the more or less close distance to villages and mountains, the actions of the emperor and the daily life of the people. The style is magnificent.

The overall length of the twelve scrolls, completed around the 37th year of the reign, is 200 meters. Nine scrolls are complete and kept in various museums. The scroll number 6 was plundered by the French during the Boxer War and divided in or near Bordeaux, possibly in a deceased estate in the 1930s. The whereabouts of the scrolls 5 and 8 are not known.

1
​​2016 SOLD for $ 9.5M by Sotheby"s

The longest fragment of the sixth scroll, 68 cm x 4.75 m, was sold for $ 9.5M from a lower estimate of $ 4M by Sotheby's on September 14, 2016, lot 576.

In a bird's-eye view demonstrating a remarkable control of the topographic representation, boats travel around the many islands of a river. It depicts dense poulations in their daily life and may be the terminal end of the still incomplete sixth scroll.


The tweet below shows a detail. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.

Single-owner collection of Chinese paintings @Sothebys after 25 years off the market. https://t.co/eMYfycoQK2 pic.twitter.com/aWOpS6WtaM

— AntiquesTradeGazette (@ATG_Editorial) August 5, 2016
years 1680-1699

2
​2010 SOLD for HK 36.5M by Sotheby's

A fragment 68 cm x 3.62 m of the sixth scroll surfaced in Hong Kong in 2009 and was sold for HK $ 36.5M from a lower estimate of HK $ 2.5M by Sotheby's on April 7, 2010, lot 1824.

It is depicting the visit of the Kangxi emperor to the towering Jiangtian Si temple on Mount Jinshan in the middle of the Yangtze River. It features on the far left the emperor himself, standing on a terrace under a yellow canopy and escorted by many officials dotting the island,

3
2013 SOLD for € 3.36M by Briscadieu

A fragment 68 cm x 2.48 m including dock scenes was sold for € 3.36M by Briscadieu on April 27, 2013.

​Two other fragments of the same scroll, 2.58 m and 3.28 m, were listed separately on 
March 8, 2014 by Briscadieu. One of them was sold for € 1.17M. The other fragment was sold for € 600K before fees.

1869 The Transcontinental Spike
2023 SOLD for $ 2.2M by Christie's

In 1862, during the US Civil War, an Act of Congress decided to build a transcontinental rail road. Superseding the cart trails, it would increase the prosperity by creating a secure link between East and West. The terminus were to be Sacramento and Omaha for a total length of 3,075 km.

In 1869 the meeting of the Western and the Eastern rails was ready to be made at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory. The ceremony scheduled for May 8 and performed on May 10 included a spike in copper alloyed gold to join the rails of the two rival companies.

Another spike was added so that the junction could be proceeded simultaneously by both companies. Amazingly both official hammers missed the spike and fell on its rail. After the ceremony the golden spike was replaced for security with an iron spike by a team of Chinese workers. The word DONE was sent by telegraph. Travel from coast to coast had been reduced from six months to just one week.

In addition the State of Nevada and the Arizona Territory had both supplied one ceremonial spike. 

The 13.5 cm long Arizona spike was inscribed on the shaft: "Ribbed with iron, clad in silver and crowned with gold Arizona presents her offering to the enterprise that has banded a continent, dictated a pathway to commerce. Presented by Governor Safford."

This piece of history was presented in 1943 by the family of an official of the Union Pacific Rail Road to the Museum of the City of New York. After de-accessioning, it was sold for $ 2.2M from a lower estimate of $ 300K by Christie's on January 27, 2023, lot 15.

Woohoo! THE SPIKE hammers at 1.8 million, benefitting the Museum of the City of New York pic.twitter.com/y9ytegobRi

— Christie's Books (@ChristiesBKS) January 27, 2023

1907-1930 The North American Indian by CURTIS

1
​2012 SOLD for $ 2.9M by Christie's

he work of Edward S. Curtis, The North American Indian, should be part of the cultural heritage of humanity. Without him, two worlds would never have met: the authentic traditions of American Indians, and photography.

When Curtis began to visit the western America, the tribal populations had declined dramatically, and many of them were snapped up by other forms of civilization. This is the end of an era.

When Curtis began recording thousands of photographs, this technique was already fully mastered. The photographer is no more a chemist or an experimenter, he can concentrate on his subject. This is the beginning of another era.

Compare dates: the first issue of Camera Work is published by Stieglitz in 1903. The first delivery of The North American Indian by Curtis, sold by subscription, in 1907.

Tirelessly, Curtis visited the 80 most authentic tribes. His friendship with some chiefs was facilitated by his application to use their own language, opening to him the path for the other communities.

When the publishing venture of The North American Indian ends in 1930 because of financial difficulties, Curtis had managed the most extraordinary and unsurpassed photographic documentary of all time : 2,200 selected photographs distributed among twenty volumes of text and twenty portfolios.

The copy for sale by Christie's on April 10, 2012 is complete. Kept in excellent condition, it is certainly the finest surviving example of this unusual work. It was sold for $ 2.9M from a lower estimate of $ 1M, lot 38.

Started with enthusiasm in 1907 during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, the project had lasted too long. When it was finally completed in 1930, with its twenty portfolios of large size photogravures 58 x 24 cm and twenty volumes of text 31 x 24 cm also illustrated with photographs, it was already a failure. With 222 subscribers, Curtis was far from achieving the target of 500 copies given to him by his sponsor, the banker Morgan.
Photos 1900-1940

2
​edited by Lauriat
​2012 SOLD for $ 1.44M by Swann

The fabulous editing material of Curtis was purchased in 1935 by a dealer of rare books based in Boston, Charles E. Lauriat, who appreciated the importance of this work. Lauriat became the owner of few unsold complete copies, of all the original copper plates and of 285,000 prints.

With these elements, Lauriat assembled additional complete copies, by reprinting as necessary from the original plates the pages that had been outprinted, bringing the grand total to 291. Lauriat's death in 1937 put an end to the most outstanding photographic edition of all time. The Curtis-Lauriat material, rediscovered in the early 1970s, has not been dispersed.

On October 4, 2012, Swann sold for $ 1.44M a full set of The North American Indian, in which text volumes printed by Lauriat are completing the portfolios prepared by Curtis. This copy has a rare feature : all images of three portfolios including number I are signed by Curtis. Please watch the video shared by Swann.

​1935 The Grand Salon of the SS Normandie
​2017 SOLD for $ 1.4M including premium

Launched for her maiden commercial transatlantic crossing in May 1935, the Normandie liner is the champion of volume, speed, service and luxury. A crew of 1345 accompanies the 1972 paying passengers, nearly half of them in first class. From her first trip she captures the Blue Riband in both directions.

Twelve months later the Queen Mary achieved similar performances but as far as luxury is concerned the Normandie conceived as a showcase for French modern arts will remain unrivaled. Her architects use to compare the opulence of her interior design to the Galerie des Glaces in the Palace of Versailles.

A special attention is paid to brightness. The huge dining room is equipped with Compiègne glass walls and lighted by chandeliers, wall lamps and cascades by Lalique. The columns of the Grand Salon are made of Lalique glass.

Artists and craftsmen of the Art Déco style are solicited. Jean Dupas, a specialist in decorations of monumental dimensions, draws for the Grand Salon the doors made in gold lacquer by Dunand and the angular walls in Saint-Gobain glass églomisé by Champigneulle. That églomisé technique of painting on the back side of the glass brings a mirror effect into the decoration of the lounge.

For the angle murals Dupas and Champigneulle realized four artworks for a total surface of 400 square meters on themes mixing symbols of navigation and mythology. Each one is composed of one hundred plates assembled on bronze brackets. The whole was dismantled when the liner was militarized in 1941 and most of the plates were scrapped.

Malcolm Forbes who was a great fan of liners and travels hurries at Christie's on March 21, 1981 to buy a joint set of two rows of four elements each from the upper part of La Naissance d'Aphrodite, which will be on display until 2014 at the Forbes Gallery.

This set 250 x 310 cm overall is for sale by Sotheby's in New York on June 6, lot 64. The auction house revealed to The New York Times an estimate in the region of $ 1M.

1940 The Parade of Progress
2006 SOLD for $ 4.3M including premium by Barrett-Jackson
2015 SOLD for $ 4M hammer price for charity

PRE 2015 SALE DISCUSSION

The Parade of Progress is an idea of the engineer and inventor Charles F. 'Boss Ket' Kettering, head of research at General Motors since 1920. He had conceived this great tour dedicated to technical progress when he visited the 1933 World Exposition in Chicago.

The first parade starts in 1936. The exhibitions are installed for two to four days in small towns in North America. They look like a circus. The lectures are made in a large tent with more than 1200 seats. The parade buses display the equipment.

The idea of Boss Ket was educational and generous. The themes were not limited to automobiles, but this great marketing operation enabled General Motors to meet in three years 12.5 million visitors in 251 towns in USA, Canada, Mexico and Cuba.

The Parade of Progress was a great success, which enabled GM to organize their sales network throughout North America. In 1940, the original eight buses are replaced by twelve huge vehicles 3.5 m high and 10 m long manufactured by GMC Trucks and bodyworked by Fisher : the Futurliners.

The war interrupted the operation, and the Futurliners waited until 1953 to go on parade. Communication techniques had changed in the meantime and the operation, now less efficient than the direct exhibition of cars in the GM Motoramas, was stopped in 1956.

The Futurliners were dispersed. GM offered two of them to the Michigan State Police, who used them for awareness of road safety under the name of Safetyliners.

A Futurliner was sold for $ 4.3 million including premium by Barrett-Jackson on 21 January 2006. This bus carefully restored in its original GM colors and inscriptions will be sold at no reserve to benefit the Armed Forces Foundation by the same auction house at Scottsdale on January 17, lot 2501.

POST SALE COMMENT

SOLD $ 4M hammer price (event observed live).
No fees applied.
$ 4.6M total raised for this lot on behalf of the Armed Forces Foundation.

$4,600,000 raised at #BarrettJackson all going to #HelpSaveOurTroops pic.twitter.com/Ycn5bqCxrq

— Armed Forces FNDN (@SupportAFF) January 18, 2015

1953 Rolex Deep Sea Special
2021 SOLD for CHF 1.9M by Christie's

In 1931 the Swiss balloonist Auguste Piccard and his assistant were the first men to enter the stratosphere and watch the rotundity of the Earth. Piccard had invented for that purpose the pressurized capsule, which he later also applied to withstand the extreme pressure of the deep seas. 

On September 30, 1953, accompanied by his son Jacques, Auguste travelled his Trieste bathyscaphe down to 3,150 m below sea level off the Italian coast.

Rolex had caught that opportunity to develop the Deep Sea Special model for depth pressure testing. This water resistant prototype is an Oyster Special in a 17 mm thick hemispherical stainless steel case, stripped of unnecessary components that could break under high pressure.

The No. 1 was fixed outside the Trieste during the travel. Jacques telegraphed to Rolex : ‘Watch performed perfectly. Depth 3,150 metres. Piccard’. 

This No. 1 riveted with a Rolex gold bracelet was sold for CHF 1.9M by Christie's on November 8, 2021, lot 33. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.

The population of this experimental series was extended in period to 7. The No. 3 accompanied the 1960 10,900 m dive in the Mariana Trench. The Rolex Submariner is the commercial version of the Deep Sea Special.

​In the 1960s, Rolex produced commemorative units of the Deep Sea Special with a new caliber. One of them, completed in 1966, was sold for CHF 1.06M by Phillips on November 7, 2021, lot 248.
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