Library of Justin G. Schiller at Auction
Freeman’s | Hindman is honored to present the first of several installments of "Collections of an Only Child: Seventy Years a Bibliophile, the Library of Justin G. Schiller" at its New York saleroom on December 5. The auction will feature more than 250 lots from one of the most celebrated book dealers and collectors in the country with lots spanning a broad array of collecting categories and media.
When asked to describe himself, Justin Schiller will quickly respond with one word: “Indefatigable.” At 80 years old, he is as keen and wide open to being charmed by the world of books—and its cousins, Art and Ephemera—as he was 
as a 10-year-old when he first arranged the display of his Wizard of Oz collection at Columbia University, in 1954.
For seventy years, Schiller has been a bridge between the Real World and Narnia. He’s been up and down the rabbit hole with Alice countless times. He’s been all over Mr. McGregor’s garden with Peter Rabbit, losing buttons along the way, and no one is quite sure if he ever actually returned from a certain island inhabited by a group of Wild Things… He has sold books to virtually every corner of the globe and all with the enthusiasm and wide eyes of that ten-year-old. That might sound exhausting but when you spend any time at all with him, you realize that is just his normal operating pace. Indefatigable.
“I’ve spent the last many months, sharing countless lunches and dinners with him as well as spending endless hours on the floor of his beautiful home in upstate New York or perched on the sofa in his New York City apartment, surrounded by books—mountains of them, boxes of them, stacks of them—looking, looking, and looking,” said Darren Winston, Freeman’s | Hindman’s Senior Vice President and Head of Department of Books & Manuscripts, Philadelphia. “Most times I had to peel myself away from a visit because he just kept showing me more books and more things, the best books, the best things. The menu was endless, but we managed to put together a sale—or three. Justin is the Wond’rous Wise Man. Indefatigable.”
Among the many highlights from the collection is Lewis Carroll’s hand-colored presentation photograph of Alice Liddell, Carroll’s muse and inspiration for his iconic masterpiece, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Carroll took the photograph of then eight-year-old Liddell in the Deanery Garden at Christ Church in Oxford in July 1860. It was just two years after Carroll took this photo of the girl he described as his “ideal child-friend” that he would pen his beloved story. The photo is conservatively expected to bring between $50,000 and $80,000.
The auction features a number of remarkable illustrations, including a fantastic original 1897 drawing of The Wond'rous Wise Man from Maxfield Parrish’s first illustrated book, Mother Goose in Prose, the first children’s book by L. Frank Baum, the famed author of The Wizard of Oz. Based on one of Mother Goose’s lesser known poems, the short story tells the tale of a wise man who jumps in the bramble bushes to avoid an opponent he bested in a game of wits, only to scratch his eyes. Adding to the value of the piece, the drawing was acquired directly from Baum’s son in the 1960s and is one of just five of the remaining 12 original illustrations known to still exist. It is estimated to fetch between $30,000 to $50,000.
Iconic works from the 20th century are also well represented in the sale, including a terrific original etching by Maurice Sendak depicting “Moishe” Wild Thing in the moonlight, with a sunflower in the foreground, and a ship in the distance. Etched in 1979, it was signed by Sendak in 2002.
The Collections of an Only Child: Seventy Years a Bibliophile, the Library of Justin G. Schiller auction will be offered on December 5 in Freeman’s | Hindman’s New York saleroom. Bidding will be available in person, over the phone and via absentee or live online bidding. For more information, please visit hindmanauctions.com.
