AE Top 500 Book Auction List for 2011

10. A substantially complete manuscript of Robert Schumann's musical masterpiece Szenen aus Goethes Faust (Scenes from Goethe's Faust). Schumann struggled mightily with a task for which he thought no one but Mozart could be worthy – putting Goethe's masterpiece to music. $1,119,802.

9. A collection of papers, including a speech written on the eve of his death, by French Reign of Terror leader Robespierre, held by a friend's family for 200 years. After the purchase at auction, the French National Archives used its power of preemption, that is, it seized the historic papers by paying the auction price. $1,179,982.

8. A first edition of De Revolutionibus Orbium by Nicolaus Copernicus, in which the great astronomer described his theory of a heliocentric universe, that is, one in which the planets revolved around the sun, not the earth. $1,295,642.

7. The rules of football as laid down in 1860 by the Sheffield Football Club. This is considered the birth of modern football. Americans take note – this is English football, commonly known in America as “soccer,” not that game you watch on the tube every Sunday in the fall. Interestingly, #2 last year was the original rules for basketball. $1,418,812.

6. Description de l'Égypte, a massive 23-volume undertaking by the French government published 1809-1813. Napoleon wanted to know everything about Egypt as he planned to colonize it. This set tells everything, including numerous plates and maps for visuals, but Napoleon never succeeded in his mission. $1,544,514.

5. The 1976 founding contract of Apple Computer, signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ron Wayne. A secondary document of Wayne's withdrawal was also included. Today, Apple is America's second largest corporation and threatens to replace Exxon as number 1. It sold for over 10 times the high estimate (kind of like Apple's stock price). $1,594,500.

4. The autograph manuscript for Jane Austen's unfinished novel, written in 1803, The Watsons. Austen went on to other novels and never came back, though a niece later provided an ending. $1,599,132.

3. The Great Hours of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, a magnificent illuminated manuscript from 1471. $1,947,600.

2. This is no joke. Number 2 in books this year goes to a comic book. It is issue #1 of Action Comics, the comic book that introduced the greatest hero of them all to Earth – Superman. $2,161,000.

1. At the top is a more traditional item, the illuminated, velum manuscript of the Imhof Prayerbook, from 1511. The illumination is the earliest dated work of the miniature artist Simon Bening and originally belonged to Nuremberg merchant and banker Hans V. Imhof. $2,574,000.

To see the entire AE Top 500, click here now.

Note on inclusions: This is a top 500 list of books, manuscripts and ephemera. Books and manuscripts are, for the most part obvious, and we also include maps, but what constitutes appropriate ephemera is sometimes a borderline issue. “Works on paper” is another term sometimes used for this category, but should art be included? Basically, we have limited art and photography to that which is book related or of historical, more than artistic, merit. Therefore, early photographs of places and people are in. A photograph of Abraham Lincoln makes the cut; one of Marilyn Monroe does not. Art intended as book illustration or by noted book illustrators make the cut; most others do not. E.H. Shepard's original artwork for Winnie-the-Pooh appears several times in this list, while numerous prints by Picasso and Warhol, priced high enough to make the list, do not.

Items sold in euros and pounds have been converted to U.S. dollar equivalents.

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AE Top 500 Book Auction List for 2011

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AE Top 500 Book Auction List for 2011

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