?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
Dreiser, Theodore (1871-1945) An American Tragedy, signed limited edition.
New York: Boni & Liveright, 1925.
First edition, limited issue, two octavo volumes; a scarce unnumbered copy, stamped "Presentation Copy" from a total run of 795, signed by Dreiser on the limitation page; bound in quarter cloth and blue paper boards stamped in red, spine gilt-lettered, blue endpapers, all edges uncut (author's portrait mounted to verso of upper flyleaf in vol. 2, small, closed tear to page 16 in vol. 1; spines lightly faded with minor fraying at corners); Charles W. Engelhard Jr.'s Cragwood Library label on back flyleaf; housed in cloth chemises and custom double-slotted slipcase; 9 x 6 in.
[Together with] Autograph letter presenting this copy to Jane Mannheimer on her birthday signed "Lewis", single leaf of Cragwood stationery; laid in at front of second voume; 7 3/8 x 4 7/8 in.
Cragwood Estate, a 172-acre plot crowned by a Georgian Revival manor house in New Jersey, served as the main residence of American industrialist Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and his wife Jane Mannheimer. Engelhard was known as the "Platinum King" because of his company's standing as the world's largest refiner and fabricator of gold, platinum, and silver. His physical attributes and role as a precious metals magnate led many to speculate that Engelhard inspired Ian Fleming's Bond villain, Auric Goldfinger. Both Engelhard and his fictional counterpart shared an obsession not only with gold, but also with pedigree racehorses. Cragwood is primarily an equestrian estate, where Charles and Jane raised prize-winning thoroughbred horses as well as champion golden retrievers.
The present copy was a birthday gift to wife Jane, likely from a friend or relative. Jane was renowned for her extensive philanthropic endeavors, most notably the founding of the a chartiable foundation founded in her husband's memory in 2004, and contributor of the Charles Engelhard Court to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's American Wing.
