Peter Harrington’s rare book gallery in New York City has released an unusual catalogue, An Englishman in New York - a selection of works from the library of consummate bookman Stephen C. Massey. This catalogue reflects many of the important events Mr. Massey participated in the rare book field over the past fifty years. His catalogue contains 180 items. For collectors of auction material, this is a very important presentation.
One hundred and twenty of his items will be on display at the Harrington offices at 35 East 67th Street, a few steps away from the Armory.
For bibliophiles in for the New York International Rare Book Fair at the New York Armory at 643 Park Avenue April 30 – May 3, the Harrington firm will be exhibiting. Their booths are numbers A10 and A12.
Here is the Harrington release in full.
Peter Harringtin is pleased to share its latest catalogue An Englishman in New York - a selection of works from the library of consummate bookman Stephen C. Massey.
Massey is someone whose knowledge has been formed in the saleroom and in the traditions of the book trade, having come from a long line of respected booksellers (his family-operated Dublin bookshop on Aston’s Quay is mentioned by name in “The Dead”, the wonderful climax to Joyce’s Dubliners.) A Londoner by birth and a New Yorker by long residence, he was instrumental in establishing and shaping Christie’s books and manuscripts department in New York.
Massey has, for many years, worked with Peter Harrington as a special adviser.
Curated over a lifetime, Massey’s private library is a cabinet of memories: books acquired as touchstones of collections dispersed, mementoes of sales conducted, and life-long friendships made. It is also reflective of his private collecting instinct – particularly his love of beautiful bindings. These are a working bookseller’s books: chosen with discrimination and of the highest underlying quality.
Here are selected examples (after which you’ll find a link to Mr. Massey’s catalogue):
Massey’s copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Hammer – best known today as Codex Leicester. Stephen C. Massey is the antiquarian books specialist and auctioneer at Christie’s who sought out, secured for auction, catalogued, and sold the original manuscript to Bill Gates for $30,802,500 in 1994 - $6,000
First Ashendene edition of Horace, Carmina Alcaica, gifted to Massey by the distinguished private press collector John A. Saks, a scion of the famous New York department store family. Massey personally auctioned 614 lots from Saks’ collection over ten sales, culminating with the sale of a complete collection of Kelmscotts on vellum in 1983, one week before he died - $2,500
A well-preserved volume of the English Bible bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe for sale by the Los Angeles department store J. W. Robinson. It was gifted to Massey after the Doheny sale. Carrie Estelle Doheny was the noted Los Angeles philanthropist and collector, especially of Bibles - $1250
The Houghton Shahnameh – a first edition of a fine facsimile and study of the Shahnameh of Tahmasp, gifted to Massey by Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., the founder of the Harvard library that bears his name, and president of both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Grolier Club. This facsimile edition might be considered a small token of recompense for Houghton’s infamous decision to break up the Rothschild manuscript of the Shahnameh, which Massey has described as “the ultimate act of vandalism”. Until the time came to examine it for this catalogue, Massey had left it unopened in the shipping carton in which it was sent to him - $3,500
For those who can’t wait, here’s a downloadable catalogue* of An Englishman in New York – a selection of works from the library of consummate bookman Stephen C. Massey.
Dominic Winter Auctioneers Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles 1500-1800 22nd July 2026
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 83 – Westall & Owen. Picturesque Tour of the River Thames, 1st edition, 1828. £2,000-3,000.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 88 – Blume. Rumphia, Botanicae de plantis Indiae Orientalis, 1835-1848. £2,000-3,000.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 101 – Michaux. Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amérique septentrionale, 1810-1812. £700-1,000.
Dominic Winter Auctioneers Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles 1500-1800 22nd July 2026
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 102 – Miller & Shaw. Cimelia Physica, 1796 [but c. 1816]. £3,000-5,000.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 104 – Parkinson. Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants, London: Thomas Cotes, 1640. £800-1,200.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 159 – Plancius. Orbis Terrarum..., double hemisphere map, 1594-99. £5,000-8,000.
Dominic Winter Auctioneers Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles 1500-1800 22nd July 2026
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 217 – Illuminated Medieval Manuscript. From a Breviary, 14th/15th c. £3,000-4,000.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 224 – The newe Testament … By Wylliam Tyndall…, 1549. £3,000-5,000.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 238 – Douay-Rheims Bible. 3 volumes, 1582/1609/1610. £7,000-10,000.
Dominic Winter Auctioneers Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles 1500-1800 22nd July 2026
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 336 – Ashendene Press. A Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle, 1903. £1,000-1,500.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 393 – Sassoon. Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, signed limited edition, 1931. £800-1,200.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 402 – Dylan Thomas. Twenty-Five Poems, 1st edition in d.j., 1936. £400-600.
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000
Case Auctions 2026 Summer Auction August 1st and 2nd
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Timberlake, Henry: A DRAUGHT OF THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY on the West Side of the Twenty Four Mountains, Commonly Called "Over the Hills". $18,000 to $22,000.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Manuscript orderly book detailing day to day activities of multiple Virginia regiments in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary,1776-1777. $7,000 to $8,000.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, Random House, New York, 1965. Signed 1st Edition. $3,800 to $4,200.
Case Auctions 2026 Summer Auction August 1st and 2nd
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Battle of Kings Mountain Pamphlet by Isaac Shelby, April 1823, Signed. $1,800 to $2,200.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Large Tintype CSA Lt. Col. Thomas Coke Johnson, 19th GA, w/ Southern Cross, Book. $1,400 to $1,800.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Rare Civil War Ambrotype, 19th GA Infantry with Johnson Family of GA. $800 to $1,200.
Case Auctions 2026 Summer Auction August 1st and 2nd
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: A signed note written by Thomas Alva Edison to an unknown recipient, in which he shares his thoughts on Guglielmo Marconi, regarded as the inventor of the radio. $800 to $1,200.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Rare 1931 TN Grasslands Steeplechase Book, Gallatin. $800 to $1,000.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: War of 1812 related Broadside, Petersburg Volunteers. $700 to $800.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: 2 World War I Posters, “Our Colored Fighters” and “No Slacker”. $800 to $1,000.
