Friday, March 09, 2012

Auction Report: February Catchup

I just realized I'd forgotten to look back over February's auction results, and I still have March's to preview. Sorry for the delays.

- The top seller at the 2 February Bloomsbury Bibliophile Sale was a rare copy of The Court & Kitchin of Elizabeth, Commonly called Joan Cromwel (London: 1664), which sold for £2600. Results summary here.

- Results for PBA Galleries' Rare Books & Manuscripts sale on 6 February are here. A collection of fifteen Yousuf Karsh photographs was the top lot, at $39,000. A copy of Ansel Adams' Portfolio Four also did well, making $24,000, while a copy of Du Halde's Description geographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l'empire de la Chine (1735) fetched $22,800.

- The Heritage Auctions Rare Books sale on 8 February brought in a total of $760,049. Full results are here. The top seller was a copy of Hemingway's first book, Three Stories & Ten Poems (Paris, 1923) which sold for $81,250.

- Results of the Property from Serendipity Books auction at Bonhams on 12 February are here. James Joyce's Gas from a Burner was the top lot, at $17,500.

- The prices realized at the PBA Galleries Americana and Cartography sale on 16 February are here.

- Bloomsbury sold the Horological Library of Charles Allix on 22 February. John Harrison was the belle of this particular ball: the last sixteen lots (123-138) were Harrison-related materials, and every one of them did better than expected (some of them did much better than estimated).

- Swann Galleries sold Private Press & Illustrated Books on 23 February. The Kelmscott Chaucer was, as anticipated, the top let, selling for $52,800.

March results so far and a preview for the rest of the month is coming this weekend.