Book TV had a fascinating program this past weekend about the recent auction of the Frank S. Streeter library.
The 45-minute program shows the auction in progress, some of the items being sold, interviews with the Christie's staff and with rare book dealer Kenneth Nebenzahl. According to Francis Wahlgren, International Head of the Book Department at Christie's, the auction was remarkable - for the number of items that sold; and for a resulting sales price... more than double Christie's high estimate.
The total value of the Frank Streeter sale of 552 items was $16.5 million.
Frank Streeter served in the Navy during World War II and was a successful financier. He collected books on maritime voyages and exploration as well as the history of science relating to navigation. Wanting to personally direct the disposal of his library, the 88 year-old Streeter made arrangements to sell it at Christie's in New York, but passed away prior to the auction. He was a scholar-collector, leaving many notebooks of his own research on the items. One example from the collection was Des Barres, Atlantic Neptune - large charts of the North American coast commissioned in 1755 by the British admiralty. It sold for $779,000. Another was sea charts and engravings of scientific instruments with movable pieces produced by Sir Robert Dudley in 1661. It sold for $824,000.
The name Streeter is familiar to anyone interested in Americana. Frank Streeter's father was Thomas W. Streeter, a broad-gauge collector, interested in the frontier experience. His collection, sold in 1968, was the most important collection of Americana in the twentieth century. The catalogues from that sale are a foundation of booksellers' reference libraries.
