ASIA MINOR, RUSSIA & EUROPE
(LOTS 282-401)
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF MEHMET EFIK E. ATABEY
My father's decision to sell his collection of books on the Ottoman empire, and return to his native Istanbul, followed the death of my mother in 1993. However, my father took the advice of book dealers and friends by deciding to bring out a fully-illustrated catalogue of his collection first. This was The Ottoman World compiled by Leonora Navari, a 2-volume reference work now regarded as indispensable for books on the Levant. Only after its publication in 1998 did my father finally sell his library to a fellow collector who then dispersed it in the celebrated Sotheby's sale of 2002. However, it would have been unthinkable for a man like my father to go on living with no antiquarian books at all. The present books, an Atabey collection in miniature, were kept as the solace of his later years.
efik Atabey was born in 1927. His passion for beautiful books and prints started at the precocious age of seven, when he came across an illustrated copy of The Three Musketeers. He was spellbound not only by the story, which he read again and again, but also by the quality of the engravings. During his school years, he also developed a keen interest in history. These passions gradually combined and from the age of seventeen my father began to seek second-hand books on the Ottoman Empire. From the beginning, he endeavoured to find copies with beautiful illustrations or exquisite bindings, saying that his was a private collection, not an attempt to rival a public library. Quantity was not the main object; the books needed to please the eye and be a delight to look at.
Although Turkish bookshops were few in the decade after the Second World War, an early purchase with just the right aesthetic appeal was a folio edition of the Turkish history by Rycaut and Knolles in 'a very attractive morocco binding'. Bought from Cohen Soeurs of Istanbul about sixty years ago, this was given a special mention in my father's introduction to The Ottoman World. It is now being sold (lot 313) because it is not a book he was prepared to part with in 1998.
When his career in commodity broking necessitated a move to Europe, first to Paris in 1962, and then to London in 1970, my father was understandably thrilled by the chance this offered to expand his already fast growing collection. I remember how he would tirelessly read through catalogues, go to auctions, and return with a gleam in his eye whenever he obtained a rare copy he had been seeking for years. If the copy in question was looking the worse for wear, then it would be sent to the binders for restoration.
Even after the bulk of his collection had been sold, my father's Knightsbridge apartment was kept well stocked with books and a plan-chest full of prints and maps. Although he was not primarily a map collector, many of the maps were illustrated at the end of The Ottoman World. On the other hand, the rows of English and French books published after 1850, which feature in the current sale, were largely omitted from the collection catalogue because of their late date. Many of the French works are colourfully rebound in modern morocco with their wrappers preserved.
Other surviving books were duplicates, among them Melling's Voyage pittoresque de Constantinople (Paris, 1819) in three volumes folio (lot 317). Interestingly, one or two others had actually been bought back from the 2002 auction, including Les Six Voyages de Jean Baptiste Tavernier (Paris, 1676), a 3-volume set in opulent contemporary red morocco (lot 328). Whatever their value, all the remaining books represent the after-glow of an enduring passion, only extinguished by my father's death last year.
Zeynep Atabey
ARVIEUX, Laurent d' (1635-1702). Memoires ... contenat ses voyages à Constantinople, dans l'Asie, la Syrie, la Palestine, l'Egypte, et la Barbarie, edited by Jean Baptiste Labat. Paris: Charles-Jean-Baptiste Delespine le Fils, 1735. 6 vols., 12° (158 x 87mm). (Lacks quire N in vol. II, some waterstaining in vols. I and III, a few shoulder notes shaved.) 19th-century gilt-panelled, hard-grained red morocco, gilt edges (extremities lightly rubbed, front free endpaper in vol. I detached). Provenance: Bib. pub. Sacerdotum Doctrine Christiana Parisiensium (inscription on titles) -- Prince Theodore Callimachi (inscription on front endpapers) -- Princess Jean Callimachi (bookplate).
細節
ARVIEUX, Laurent d' (1635-1702). Memoires ... contenat ses voyages à Constantinople, dans l'Asie, la Syrie, la Palestine, l'Egypte, et la Barbarie, edited by Jean Baptiste Labat. Paris: Charles-Jean-Baptiste Delespine le Fils, 1735. 6 vols., 12° (158 x 87mm). (Lacks quire N in vol. II, some waterstaining in vols. I and III, a few shoulder notes shaved.) 19th-century gilt-panelled, hard-grained red morocco, gilt edges (extremities lightly rubbed, front free endpaper in vol. I detached). Provenance: Bib. pub. Sacerdotum Doctrine Christiana Parisiensium (inscription on titles) -- Prince Theodore Callimachi (inscription on front endpapers) -- Princess Jean Callimachi (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION OF THIS IMPORTANT WORK by D'Arvieux, a key figure in the Levant in the second half of the 17th century. Atabey 39 (this copy; binding illustrated); Weber II, 308; not in Blackmer. (6)
FIRST EDITION OF THIS IMPORTANT WORK by D'Arvieux, a key figure in the Levant in the second half of the 17th century. Atabey 39 (this copy; binding illustrated); Weber II, 308; not in Blackmer. (6)