LONDON THE JOSEPH CONRAD COLLE C TION ∏he FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE LATE STANLEY J. SEEGE Joseph CoNrad ColleC∏ioN from the library of the late stanley j. seege® Part I R - P ART I 10 10 J ULy 2013 2013 ULy L 13415 LONDON 34–35 nEW BOND STREET LONDON W1a 2Aa | +44 (0)20 7293 5000 | sOTHEBYS.COM 10 JULY 2013 BACK COVER LOT 93 PORTRAIT OF CONRAD WITHIN ONE DAY MORE, 1917 THIS PAGE LOT 37 conrad TYPHOON THE COMPLETE AUtoGRAPH DRAFT MANUSCRIPT ∏he Joseph CoNrad ColleC∏ioN from the library of the late stanley j. seege® Part I AUCTION IN LONDON WEDNESDAy 10 july 2013 | 2.30 Pm EXHIBITION AT NEW BOND STREET Friday 5 July | 9 am–4.30 pm Sunday 7 July | 12 noon–5 pm Monday 8 July | 9 am–4.30 pm Tuesday 9 July | 9 am–4.30 pm sothebys.com/bidnow 34-35 NEW BOND STREET LONDON W1A 2AA +44 (0)20 7293 5000 | sOTHEBYS.COM INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENTS SPECIALISTS AND AUCTION ENQUIRIES For a full listing of our offices and salerooms worldwide with detailed information on all of Sotheby’s services, visit sothebys.com For further information on lots in this auction please contact any of the specialists listed below. Dr. Stephen Roe David N. Redden International Head of Department International Chairman +44 (0)20 7293 5286 +1 212 606 7386 SALE NUMBER SALE ADMINISTRATOR Peter Selley L13415 “KURTZ” Joanna Lowe Specialist [email protected] +44 (0)20 7293 5295 LONDON MUSIC AND CONTINENTAL NEW YORK PARIS BIDS DEPARTMENT +44 (0)20 7293 5287 [email protected] Roger Griffiths MANUSCRIPTS Richard Austin Anne Heilbronn +44 (0)20 7293 5283 FAX +44 (0)20 7293 6927 Head of Department Dr. Stephen Roe Head of Department Head of Department FAX +44 (0)20 7293 6255 +44 (0)20 7293 5292 +44 (0)20 7293 5286 +1 212 894 1642 +33 (0)1 53 05 53 18 [email protected] POST SALE SERVICES Dr. Simon Maguire Andrea Usai, ENGLISH LITERATURE PRINTED AND MANUSCRIPT BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS +44 (0)20 7293 5016 Telephone bid requests should Post Sale Manager AND HISTORY, CHILDREN’s AMERICANA, MAPS AND ATLASES Anne Heilbronn John Arthur‡ be received 24 hours prior FOR PAYMENT, DELIVERY BOOKS AND ILLUSTRATIONS Selby Kiffer +33 (0)1 53 05 53 18 Dr. Philip W. Errington +44 (0)20 7293 5296 to the sale. This service is AND COLLECTION Peter Selley International Senior Frederique Parent Specialist offered for lots with a low +44 (0)20 7293 5220 +44 (0)20 7293 5295 WESTERN MANUSCRIPTS Book Specialist +33 (0)1 53 05 52 91 +44 (0)20 7293 5302 estimate of £2,000 and above. FAX +44 (0)20 7293 5910 Dr. Philip W. Errington AND JUDAICA +1 212 894 1288 Adrien Legendre [email protected] [email protected] +44 (0)20 7293 5302 Camilla Previté +33 (0)1 53 05 52 66 MODERN LITERATURE AND PRIVatE CLIENT GROUP Dr. Gabriel Heaton +44 (0)20 7293 5334 ADMINISTRATOR ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, PRIVATE Maureen Hooft Graafland, CATALOGUE PRICE +44 (0)20 7293 5670 Dr. Timothy Bolton Sylvie Delaume-Garcia PRESS, NATURAL HISTORY Head of Department £25 at the gallery +44 (0)20 7293 5330 +33 (0)1 53 05 53 19 TRAVEL, ATLASES, MAPS Justin Caldwell Gauri Agarwal Dr. Christopher de Hamel ‡ AND NATURAL HISTORY +1 212 894 1265 BRUSSELS Alexandra Brenninkmeijer FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS CALL Dr. Gabriel Heaton Roger Griffiths ADMINISTRATORS BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS Annabel Curtis +44 (0)20 7293 5000 EUROPEAN LITERATURE, Specialist +44 (0)20 7293 5292 Joanna Lowe Elise Moureau Alina Davey for UK & Europe CHILDREN’s BOOKS, JUDAICA +44 (0)20 7293 5670 Catherine Slowther +44 (0)20 7293 5287 +32 2 627 7189 Maryam Farkhadi +1 212 894 7000 USA Elizabeth Muller [email protected] +44 (0)20 7293 5291 Tiril Krabbesund Kareen Ibrahimchah +1 212 894 1033 MILAN Dr. David Goldthorpe +44 (0)20 7293 5297 Irina Kronrod BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS +44 (0)20 7293 5303 INCUNABULA, EARLY PRINTING, Natasha Mendelsohn AUCTION OPERATIONS Filippo Lotti Richard Fattorini SCIENCE, HISPANIC MATERIAL Katia Nounou Russell Campbell +39 02 295 001 +44 (0)20 7293 5301 Dr. Joshua Lipton Celsa Susino Ramirez GENERAL ENQUIRIES +1 212 606 1209 ROME CONTINENTAL AND RUSSIAN +44 (0)20 7293 6429 Harriet Lebus Dr. Paul Needham ‡ BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS BOOKS, SCIENCE, MEDICINE [email protected] +44 (0)20 7293 6182 Esmeralda Benvenuti AND BINDINGS +39 06 6994 1791 ASIA CLIENT LIAISON Charlotte Miller Wei-Ting Huang +44 (0)20 7293 5893 +44 (0)20 7293 5958 [email protected] Consultant ‡ RUSSIA & CIS CLIENT LIAISON Lilija Sitnika +44 (0)20 7293 5595 [email protected] FORTHCOMING AUCTIONS A comprehensive calendar of international auctions, in addition to all sale results, can be viewed at sothebys.com WESTERN MANUSCRIPTS AND ENGLISH LITERatURE, MINIatURES HISTORY, CHILdrens’ BOOKS 2 July 2013 AND ILLUSTRatIONS London 10 July 2013 London 4 I +44 (0)20 7293 5000 SOTHEBYS.COM +44 (0)20 7293 5000 SOTHEBYS.COM I 5 THIS PAGE LOT 92 CONRAD SERIES OF 23 LETTERS TO CHRISTOPHER SANDEMAN, 1916-1922 Contents 8 The Joseph Conrad Collection: Lots 1–193 122 Buying at Auction 123 Explanation of Symbols 123 VAT Information for Buyers 124 Conditions of Business for Buyers 126 Warehouse, Storage & Collection Information 126 Authenticity Guarantee 126 Important Notices 127 Index of Lots 127 Select Bibliography of frequently cited texts Sotheby’s Europe The Quiet Collectors Stanley Seeger once said to his partner Christopher Cone “when Christopher had already glimpsed the breadth of Stanley’s taste I think of myself, it is as an island alone in the middle of the on that first encounter: “Books were very much in evidence sea”. As one of the greatest collectors of his generation, Seeger too, collections of first editions of Hawthorne, Mark Twain, was determined to guard his privacy in the middle of the sea Longfellow, Gertrude Stein and others. Also vying for attention of the art world. Over the last three decades of Seeger’s life, were antiquities, and, to my untutored eye, a disconcerting, Cone observed both the pattern of his life and his collecting, rather angry-looking collection of Pre-Columbian figures on recalling Stanley “as an immensely private person and, while shelves in the master bedroom.” his collecting was both an aesthetic and intellectual pleasure to Stanley had consuming passions, and perhaps the greatest was him, it was something he enjoyed privately.” So successful was for Picasso. “Stanley was by instinct cerebral and reclusive. But Stanley at ensuring his invisibility that a day or so before his understanding Picasso became an obsession for Stanley. He highly successful auction of 88 Picassos at Sotheby’s New York in responded to the sensuality of Picasso and he loved tough but 1992, he and Christopher went to look at an exhibition of Picasso predominantly figurative art”. His acquisition of Picasso’s work Drawings at a gallery and over-heard the owner tell a visitor was like solving a particularly difficult puzzle. He had to finish that he did “not believe that there was such a person as Stanley it, but once he had fully explored it he needed to move on.” Seeger” . Delighted at this tribute they left the gallery unnoticed. Characteristically, this change of direction was transformed into Christopher was introduced to Stanley by the artist John a new pleasure. Over the last 20 years, Christopher and Stanley Craxton, who “thought that I might be able to cheer Stanley up oversaw with great attention to detail, the auction of $100 million a bit, and took me to his Mayfair mews house for dinner. As an of paintings and other works of art, while continuing to collect. impoverished Sotheby’s Belgravia Victorian picture cataloguer, For example, another passion, which was still in progress when Stanley J. Seeger the experience of entering that pretty, and unostentatious he died, was his extraordinary collection of works by Joseph house was something I shall never forget. The front door Conrad, which will be sold at Sotheby’s in London this July. opened and there, standing beside an ancient oak dresser was Christopher recounts the personal connection for Stanley: An exhibition of some of those acquisitions was mounted at his a decorator and every house became a distinctive private space Stanley, exotically, but typically, dressed in a gloriously blue “The collection is another example of his obsessiveness. It alma mater in 1961, after which he worked with the fabled art for the couple and a close circle of friends. African robe with long hair and a beard and the most intensely contains almost every edition of Conrad ever printed, as well as dealer Catherine Viviano, discovering contemporary Italian art After ten years of buying, however, the accumulated blue, rather sad, eyes. Over supper, came to understand presentation copies and letters and the last great manuscript in that he bought throughout his life, and Peter Lanyon, another of collections had in some cases reached completion and in that Stanley was a softly spoken, reticent and gentle being, private hands, Typhoon, which he bought in Sotheby’s New York Viviano’s stable of artists. others needed to be rationalised. This was my introduction to seemingly very shy, intense, and with an impish sense of in 1990. Stanley shared with Conrad a love of the sea, and the Another of Seeger’s passions, as already alluded to, was the phenomenon that was Stanley Seeger: in 1992, I received humour. He asked me at one point, and with no relevance to freedom of it. Stanley was footloose.