Rare Books on Wine
Rare books on wine are, like the finest wines themselves, both hard to find and intoxicating to indulge in! Wine and the art of viniculture have appeared in printed books since the 15th century and the birth of western printing. Incunabula featuring agriculture included sections on the best practice, and sometimes history, of wine-making, though such books are very hard to find these days, especially complete and in good order.
Rare books on wine printed from the 16th century onwards are also competitively sought after, and there are numerous renowned rarities. These range from early printed treatises on viticulture, rare catalogues of fine wines, political broadsides and acts of Parliament relating to the selling of wine, vinicultural guides and books of bawdy bacchanalian verse to limited edition bibliographies and modern illustrated books that affectionately reflect on the less edifying effects of the famous elixir...
In this article we look at some of our favourite rare books on wine to come up at auction. These include incunabula, discourses and limited editions, which we hope showcase the diversity and collectability of wine books in today's rare books market.
"The wine-cup is the little silver well, Where truth, if truth there be, doth dwell."
William Shakespeare
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- Petrus de Crescentiis, Ruralia commoda, first edition, 1471. Sold for £93,750.
Whilst not dedicated to wine, this was the first printed book on agriculture, considered the most important source on agricultural practices, including wine-making. - Charles Estienne, Vinetum. In quo varia vitium, uvarum, vinorum, antiqua, latina, vulgariaque nomina, first edition, 1537. Sold for £8,750.
The rare first edition of this treatise on wine, which includes an extensive listing of French growths, along with their names in Latin and French, and indices of French and Latin viticulture terms. - Marco Bussato, Giardino di Agricoltura, first edition, 1592. Sold for £1,000.
Rare first edition of a treatise on viticulture, with interesting plates showing different ways of grafting and pruning the vines. - Giovanni Vittorio Soderini, Trattato della Coltivazione delle Viti, 3 parts in 1, first edition, 1600. Sold for £1,250.
A rare Italian work on the cultivation of the vine. - Broadside.- Charles I. By the King. A proclamation for the prizing of wines, 2 sheets, 1641/2. Sold for £1,200.
Exceedingly rare broadside for the pricing of wines. - The Last Discourse betwixt Master Abel & Master Richard Kilvert, first edition, 1641. Sold for £4,000.
Rare, we could trace only 2 copies at auction. William Abell (1584-1655) was a vintner and master of the Vintner's Company. "Alderman Abel and his brother-in-law Richard Kilvert made themselves very unpopular by seeking parliamentary authority for a 'Project' giving to the Vintners' Company fresh powers of control over the retail sale of wine." - André Simon. - Walter Charleton, Two Discourses. I. Concerning the Different Wits of Men... II. The Mysterie of Vintners, or a Discourse Concerning the Various Sicknesses of Wines... First edition, 1669. Sold for £1,375.
A good copy of a work often found in poor condition or even defective. Charleton's formulations on the concept of brain function are said to have influenced Locke's own writings on the subject. - William Hughes, The Compleat Vineyard: or, an Excellent Way for the Planting of Vines, second edition, 1670. Sold for £3,500.
Rare. "Wm. Hughes served, according to his own account, on board a vessel engaged in a filibustering expedition in the West Indies. He then visited, among other places, Barbados, Jamaica and Florida. After his return, about 1652, he took service, apparently as gardener, under the Dowager Viscountess Conway, at Ragley." - André Simon. - Charles Darby, Bacchanalia: or a Description of a Drunken Club. A Poem, first edition, 1680. Sold for £940.
The author's first published work. The poem ends with the judgemental lines: "Think on All this: and think on't soberly, And then, perhaps you'l say, as well as I, Your Mirth is Madness: Wine is Poison fell: Your Paradise is Bedlam; if not Hell." - Richard Ames, The Bacchanalian Sessions; or The Conten' tion of Liquors: With a Farewel to Wine, first edition, 1693. Sold for £3,500.
Ames' humorous poem on drinks in which wine, liquors, beer and various other drinks compete and argue for Bacchus' favour. Followed by Farewell to Wine in which Ames warns against drinking wines in taverns: "For that Damn'd Stuff which in their Vaults they brew,/ Which Mystery if we but throughly knew,/ Sooner we'd leap into the Thames or Severn,/ Than Venture on the Wine in any Tavern." Rare, we can trace only a handful of copies at auction. - S.J., The Vineyard: being a Treatise shewing I. The Nature and Method of Planting, Manuring, Cultivating, and Dressing of Vines in Foreign-Parts. II. Proper Directions for Drawing, Pressing, Making, Keeping, Fining, and Curing all Defects in the Wine, first edition, 1727. Sold for £2,750.
Includes the first detailed description in English of wine making in Champagne. - Adamo Fabbroni, Dell'arte di fare il vino, first edition, 1787. Sold for £1,000.
A rare treatise on wine-making, including a folding engraved plate. - George Rainbird, An Illustrated Guide to Wine, 1983. Sold for £500.
An attractive limited edition, one of 25 copies specially bound in original dark blue morocco, gilt, red and green morocco onlays of vine leaves to upper cover, by Zaehnsdorf.
RARE TREATISE
VINTNERS
BACCHANALIAN!
Collecting Rare Wine Books
Important and scarce books relating to wine can attract an almost Bacchanalian frenzy of bidding at auction! From private wine book collectors and more general purveyors of books on food & drink to Special Collections librarians and specialist dealers, rare wine books often achieve sobering prices. Wine collectors also sometimes like to collect antiquarian books relating to the subject, for example if they are looking to build a library to complement their wine collection.
As with most books, condition and completeness play a key role in defining the value of rare books on wine. Further insight into potential value can sometimes be discerned via the numerous specialist bibliographies published on the subject. Notably perhaps the several works by the French London-based epicurean and wine writer André Simon. If you wish to understand this market further, please contact our resident specialist and all-round bon vivant, Justin Phillips, who will be delighted to help you hunt down specific titles or develop a collection of books on wine and its sparkling history.
Do also visit our sister company Dreweatts' Wine Department if you are interested in collecting actual wines.
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