1894 Rare Carnegie Provenance - The Purchase of the North Pole by Jules Verne
This book has been sold, but we regularly acquire comparable copies.
An attractive 1894 illustrated English edition of Jules Verne’s Arctic adventure, with a remarkable contemporary presentation label from the July 1894 fête at Cluny Castle, the Highland summer residence then occupied by Andrew and Louise Carnegie.
Author: Jules Verne.
Title: The Purchase of the North Pole: A Sequel to “From the Earth to the Moon.”
Publisher: London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company Limited, 1894.
Edition: 1894 English edition, an early reprint following the first British edition of 1890/91.
Language: English.
Pages: iv, 143 pages, followed by 32 pages of publisher’s advertisements.
Size: 7.5 x 5 inches.
Binding: Very good original green pictorial cloth binding, decorated in black with gilt lettering to the front board and spine. Light rubbing and wear consistent with age, particularly at the extremities, as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content, complete and well preserved, with occasional light age toning and spotting. Of particular interest is a contemporary presentation label mounted to the front pastedown reading “Cluny Castle Fête, July 1894, with Mr. & Mrs. Carnegie’s Best Wishes,” associating this copy with Andrew and Louise Carnegie during their documented summer residence at Cluny Castle in the Scottish Highlands.
Illustrations: Complete with 30 full-page black-and-white illustrations, comprising the frontispiece and 29 plates after the original illustrations.
Estimate: USD450-500.
The book: The Purchase of the North Pole, originally published in French as Sans dessus dessous in 1889, returns to the world of Verne’s Baltimore Gun Club. Its members acquire the Arctic regions with an audacious plan to alter the Earth’s axis and expose the supposed coal deposits beneath the polar ice. Part scientific fantasy, part satire of industrial ambition, the novel appeared in Britain shortly after its French publication and remains one of Verne’s more eccentric late scientific adventures.
This attractive 1894 edition retains the extensive series of dramatic full-page illustrations and the striking publisher’s pictorial green cloth. Its unusual Carnegie association distinguishes this copy considerably from ordinary examples of the edition.
The provenance: Andrew Carnegie and his wife Louise rented Cluny Castle, the historic Macpherson residence near Kingussie in Inverness-shire, as their Highland summer home for a number of years before settling at Skibo Castle. Documentary evidence places Carnegie at Cluny during the summer of 1894, including correspondence from June of that year concerning guests who were to join him there.
The original label in this volume, inscribed “Cluny Castle Fête, July 1894, with Mr. & Mrs. Carnegie’s Best Wishes,” therefore provides an unusually direct contemporary association with the Carnegie household. While the precise recipient and circumstances of the fête have not yet been identified, the label strongly indicates that the book was distributed as a presentation or commemorative gift connected with the Carnegies’ 1894 season at Cluny.