W. Graham Arader is a businessman with a communicable appreciation and love of maps, and watercolors. He admits to have created the modern market for collectible maps and barely acknowledges that others believe they too were there when the star appeared over Bethlehem. What is known is that Graham was selling maps from his dorm room at Yale in the early 1970s and recognized that individual maps were worth more than the books they were in, an idea taken for granted today. In that epiphany he saw he could buy books of maps and hand-colored images and set them free as individual collectibles to an audience that wanted material to frame and display. It was a simple concept, actually an act of genius that would become the basis of his career as the greatest map and images collector and one of the greatest dealers in the works on paper field over the next half century: a simple idea that has come to define a complicated life.
So it is meaningful that he now believes the wheel has turned and the world changed in how buyers and sellers will increasingly establish the prices of collectible materials. He sees the auction model establishing the purchase price, a breathtaking acknowledgement, that doesn’t spell the end of how he sells today but does point to market-derived pricing in the future. As he explains it, “the world changes.”
So on December 5th Guernsey, the New York auctioneers, will conduct a sale of 282 items for the Arader Galleries and in a further departure from standard practice hold the sale at the Arader Galleries at 1016 Madison in Manhattan. There is nothing predictable about Mr. Arader and little reason he abandon the original thinking that has carried him to the top of the premium images market. It’s simply time for a change.
His is an important sale and distinctive in significant ways. It is a large sale; $12.6 million at the low estimate and $16.5 at the high. Lots with high estimates of $10,000 and less are offered without reserve and are marked as unreserved in the lot descriptions or, if all lots on the page are unreserved, on the top of the page. There are 138 lots in this category. For bidders this is assurance they are not bidding against undisclosed house reserves that may create the illusion of multiple bidders pursuing an item. As well Mr. Arader explains that for more valuable material, that is anything with a high estimate of $10,001 up, the estimates are intended to be low to reasonable and points to various examples to make his point:
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
Heritage Auctions Rare Books Signature Auction December 15, 2025
Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
