- The 23 November Christie's London sale of Fine Printed Books, Manuscripts, and Traditional Sports made 502,912 GBP (full results here). Sigmund Freud's walking sticks (lot 139, $3800-5300) made $7,876; the Leo Africanus's, De Totius Africae descriptione, 1556, of which only two copies have sold at auction since 1975 (lot 235, $4600-7500) sold for $6,218; Gervase Markham's Cavelarice, or The English Horseman, 1607 (lot 54: est. $3100-4500) fetched $3,109; the presentation copy of Evelyn Waugh's Mr Loveday's Little Outing, 1937, made $2,694. The book high spots were two lots of Pushkin, which each made $22,758 (Lots 304 and 305).
- At today's Christie's sale of Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books, Lot 5, a c. 1470 illuminated manuscript on vellum of Petrarch's Il Canzoniere and I Trionfi and related works (est. $498,300-664,400), made $578,707. Lot 44, Bartolommeo Dalli Soneti's Isolario (c. 1485/6), the first printed edition of the first maritime atlas, sold for $151,201. Lot 46 the four-volume Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle (London: 1839), made $35,211; lot 47 (one of just 15 copies of Darwin's On the Connexion of Certain Volcanic Phenomena in South America) sold for $26,926. Lot 48, a beautiful copy of the first edition of Origin, made $171,085 (better than doubling its estimate on the 150th anniversary of its publication.
Lot 7, the 1547 illuminated manuscript of Olivier de la Marche's Le Chevalier délibéré (Lot 7, est. $581,350-830,500), and Lot 43, the colored Blaeu atlas (1649-55), did not sell.
Upcoming Sales (in addition to those previewed here):
- The De Orbo Novo Collection: Exploration in the New World, 1492-1625 at Bloomsbury New York, 3 December. 81 lots.
- The William E. Self Library at Christie's New York, 4 December. 197 lots.
- Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana at Christie's New York, 4 December. 258 lots.
- The Wolfgang A. Herz Library: Important Voyages and Travels at Christie's New York, 9 December. 340 lots.
- Music and Continental Books and Manuscripts at Sotheby's London, 8 December. 257 lots.
- The William E. Self Library at Christie's New York, 4 December. 197 lots.
- Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana at Christie's New York, 4 December. 258 lots.
- The Wolfgang A. Herz Library: Important Voyages and Travels at Christie's New York, 9 December. 340 lots.
- Music and Continental Books and Manuscripts at Sotheby's London, 8 December. 257 lots.
- Capture the Imagination: Original Illustration and Fine Illustrated Books at Bloomsbury New York, 9 December. 365 lots.
- Bibliophile sale at Bloomsbury Godalming, 10 December. 459 lots.
- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Sotheby's New York, 11 December. 276 lots.
- Fine Books and Manuscripts at Sotheby's New York, 11 December. 276 lots.
- Books, Maps, & Manuscripts; Historical Photography at Bonhams New York, 15 December. 562 lots.
- English Literature, History, Children's Books & Illustrations at Sotheby's London, 17 December. 182 lots.
Many interesting things in these sales, and I hope to be able to preview them before they happen, time permitting. I really am starting to dislike the new Sotheby's catalogs, which are slow to load, hard to sort and hard to link to. Christie's definitely wins that battle.
Many interesting things in these sales, and I hope to be able to preview them before they happen, time permitting. I really am starting to dislike the new Sotheby's catalogs, which are slow to load, hard to sort and hard to link to. Christie's definitely wins that battle.
