November 2, 2011 |
Auction Preview: November Sales
- Art + Object auctions in Auckland will sell the Pycroft Collection of Rare New Zealand, Australian and Pacific Books [PDF] on 2-3 November, in 632 lots. Highlights include a complete set of Cook's Voyages (est. NZ$18,000-30,000) and other major Pacific travel accounts.
- PBA Galleries sells Travel, Natural History, Medicine and Cartography on 3 November, in 239 lots.
- Doyle New York sells Books, Photographs and Prints on 7 November, in 560 lots. They preview the sale here.
- On 9 November at Sotheby's Paris, Livres et Manuscrits, in 241 lots. The top lot is a collection of 126 Revolutionary decrees, dated 3 November 1789 through 12 September 1790, from the collection of Rochefoucauld-Liancourt. The collection is estimated at ??300,000-500,000. A1475 Augsburg Bible rates a ??220,000-320,000 estimate. One section of the sale will be devoted to a selection of lots relating to the "history of science and ideas," which features some notable items. In the evening, Sotheby's will also sell Livres Précieux de la Bibliothèque d'un Amateur, in 131 lots. Lots of sets and fine bindings here, but also a set of Buffon estimated at ??80,000-100,000.
- Books will be included in the Sporting sale at Bonhams Edinburgh on 10 November.
- Also on 10 November, Bloomsbury sells Asia: Books, Maps, Prints and Posters, in 447 lots.
- Skinner's annual Boston sale of Fine Books & Manuscripts will be held on 13 November, in 940 lots. Highlights include a holographic copy of the joint Congressional resolution proposing the 13th Amendment (estimated at $200,000-300,000), an Abraham Lincoln letter to Massachusetts Governor John Andrew ($30,000-50,000), &c.
- At Christie's New York on 15 November, Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts, in 211 lots. Eight lots are estimated to fetch more than $100,000: the top estimate goes to a very raremanuscript map made by Frenchman Charles Augustus de Gironcourt, showing the deployment of Hessian troops around New York during the Revolutionary War. It's estimated at $1,000,000-1,500,000. A second Gironcourt manuscript map, of Charleston, is estimated at $100,000-150,000.
- A 16th-century composite atlas of (mostly) Italian maps could fetch $300,000-400,000, while a particularly interesting Thomas Jefferson letter (to Mathew Carey, waiving copyright of his manual of congressional procedure), is estimated at $200,000-300,000). Two leaves from George Washington's draft (and undelivered) first inaugural address (the manuscript of which was divided up by Jared Sparks) rates a $150,000-200,000 estimate. A copy of Roberts & Croly's The Holy Land is estimated at $100,000-150,000, while a John Adams letter (in which he complains about Washington-worship, &c.) and a presentation copy of Darwin's Origin are both estimated at $80,000-120,000. Lots of other interesting things here too, includingHemingway's typewriter ($30,000-50,000), a second edition Hyperotomachia ($20,000-30,000) and more.
- Also on 15 November, Sotheby's London sells Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History, in 203 lots. A set of 134 Linnaeus Tripe photographs of Burma (1855) is estimated at £200,000-300,000, while a 1566 Cimerlinus world map could fetch £100,000-150,000.
- On 17 November, Rare Books and Manuscripts at PBA Galleries, in 229 lots. A 1613 folio King James Bible rates the top estimate, $30,000-40,000.
- Christie's London Valuable Printed Books and Manuscripts on 23 November, in 83 lots. Pedro de Medina's Arte de navegar (1545) is estimated at £200,000-300,000, and a first edition Vesalius could fetch £120,000-160,000. The New York "second folio" edition of Audubon'sBirds of America rates a £100,000-150,000 estimate, as does Maria Sibylla Merian's Der rupsen begin (1713-1717).
- Also on 23 November, Bonhams London has Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs, including the Property of the late Michael Silverman, in 577 lots.
- On 29 November, Bonhams Oxford will sell Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photographs, in 778 lots.
- Later in the month: Bloomsbury sells Important Books and Manuscripts on 24 November; Christie's London will sell Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including a selection from the Malcolm S. Forbes Jr. Churchill Collection and Photobooks from the Calle Collection on 28 November, and Importants livres anciens, livres d'artistes et manuscrits at Paris on 29 November. Sotheby's London sells Music and Continental Books and Manuscripts on 30 November.
