Auction Preview: Two Sales by Swann Auction Galleries
- by Thomas C. McKinney
The fall is historically a busy time for the auction industry, and October finds Swann Auction Galleries in the heat of it. With five auctions upcoming this month for them, we’ll be taking a look at two that pertain particularly to books, maps, and ephemera. Taking place the day this month’s AE Monthly releases, October 1, Art, Press & Illustrated Books begins bidding at 1:30pm EDT. The second sale, Early Printed, Medical & Scientific Books, is scheduled for October 21 at 1:30pm EDT. Bidding for both sales is available in person, over the phone, and online.
With approximately ten and a half hours from the time of AE Monthly’s mailing (around midnight PDT) to the auction beginning for Art, Press & Illustrated Books, let’s get right into it. Here are some examples of what you’ll find for sale:
Lots 40-46, works by Marc Chagall, including the six volume The Lithographs 1922-1974. Lot 45, estimated $3,500-5,000.
Lots 65-74, works by Salvador Dali, including a first edition, number 20 of 25 numbered copies with two additional suites of plates of Pages choisies de Don Quichotte de la Manche. Lot 70, estimated $25,000-35,000.
Lots 187-192, works by Henri Matisse, including a limited edition copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses illustrated and signed by Matisse. Lot 191, estimated $3,000-4,000.
Lots 211-214, works by Pablo Picasso, including Jaime Sabartes’ Toreros containing 4 lithographed plates by Picasso, one in color. Lot 213, estimated $3,000-4,000.
The entire catalogue of Art, Press & Illustrated Books is available online at Swann’s website where you may also register if you wish to bid online.
The second sale mentioned previously is Early Printed, Medical & Scientific Books, occurring on October 21. Here are some of the high profile lots included within it:
Lot 16, Single leaf from a paper copy of the 42-line Bible, circa 1450-55. This is a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible! It is hinged in a copy of A. Edward Newton’s A Noble Fragment; being, A Lead of the Gutenberg Bible, 1450-1455, with a Bibliographical Essay. Estimated $40,000-50,000.
Lot 29, Missale Leodie[n]sis ecclesie, 1502. Full-page woodcut of the Crucifixion at the beginning of the Canon of the Mass. Estimated $15,000-25,000.
Lot 262, Galileo Galilei’s Systema cosmicum . . . in quo quatuor dialogis de duobus maximis mundi systematibus, Ptolemaico & Copernicano . . . disseritur, 1635. This is the first edition in latin of Galileo’s 1632 dialogue proving the validity of the Copernican heliocentric theory. Estimated $15,000-20,000.
Lot 324, Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica . . . Editio tertia aucta & emendata, 1726. Features an engraved frontispiece of Newton by George Vertue after Vanderbank. Estimated $8,000-12,000.
Lot 240, Georg Agricola’s De re metallica, 1556. Contains nearly 270 woodcut text illustrations. This is the first edition of the first systematic treatise on mining and metallurgy.
The entire catalogue of Early Printed, Medical & Scientific Books is available on Swann’s website where you may also register if you wish to bid online.
Koller, Mar. 26: Wit, Frederick de. Atlas. Amsterdam, de Wit, [1680]. CHF 20,000 to 30,000
Koller, Mar. 26: Merian, Maria Sibylla. Der Raupen wunderbare Verwandelung, und sonderbare Blumennahrung. Nürnberg, 1679; Frankfurt a. M. und Leipzig, 1683. CHF 20,000 to 30,000
Koller, Mar. 26: GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON. Faust. Ein Fragment. Von Goethe. Ächte Ausgabe. Leipzig, G. J. Göschen, 1790. CHF 7,000 to 10,000
Koller, Mar. 26: Hieronymus. [Das hochwirdig leben der außerwoelten freünde gotes der heiligen altuaeter]. Augsburg, Johann Schönsperger d. Ä., 9. Juni 1497. CHF 40,000 to 60,000.
Koller, Mar. 26: BIBLIA GERMANICA - Neunte deutsche Bibel. Nürnberg, A. Koberger, 17. Feb. 1483. CHF 40,000 to 60,000
Koller, Mar. 26: HORAE B.M.V. - Stundenbuch. Lateinische Handschrift auf Pergament, Kalendarium französisch. Nordfrankreich (Rouen?). CHF 25,000 to 40,000
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
Swann Printed & Manuscript African Americana March 20, 2025
Swann Printed & Manuscript African Americana March 20, 2025
Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 7: Thomas Fisher, The Negro's Memorial or Abolitionist's Catechism, London, 1825. $6,000 to $9,000.
Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 78: Victor H. Green, The Negro Travelers' Green Book, New York, 1958. $20,000 to $30,000.
Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 99: Rosa Parks, Hand-written recollection of her first meeting with Martin Luther King Jr., autograph manuscript, Detroit, c. 1990s. $30,000 to $40,000.
Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 154: Frederick Douglass, Autograph statement on voting rights, signed manuscript, 1866. $20,000 to $30,000.
Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 164: W.E.B. Du Bois, What the Negro Has Done for the United States and Texas, Washington, circa 1936. $3,000 to $4,000.
Swann Printed & Manuscript African Americana March 20, 2025
Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 263: Susan Paul, Memoir of James Jackson, Boston, 1835. $6,000 to $9,000.
Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 267: Langston Hughes, Gypsy Ballads, signed translation of García Lorca's poetry, Madrid, 1937. $1,500 to $2,500.
Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 274: Malcolm X, Collection from Alex Haley's estate, 38 items, 1963-1971. $4,000 to $6,000.
Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 367: Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave, Auburn, NY, 1853. $2,500 to $3,500.
Swann, Mar. 20: Lot 402: Anna Julia Cooper, A Voice from the South, Xenia, OH, 1892. $2,000 to $3,000.
![Koller, Mar. 26: Wit, Frederick de. Atlas. Amsterdam, de Wit, [1680]. CHF 20,000 to 30,000](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/2214ca86-0dc9-47be-8bc5-99d9f1c2aa1f.jpg "<b>Koller, Mar. 26:</b> Wit, Frederick de. Atlas. Amsterdam, de Wit, [1680]. CHF 20,000 to 30,000")
![Koller, Mar. 26: Hieronymus. [Das hochwirdig leben der außerwoelten freünde gotes der heiligen altuaeter]. Augsburg, Johann Schönsperger d. Ä., 9. Juni 1497. CHF 40,000 to 60,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/b8b6a630-a01a-4220-ae77-38540d6c898d.jpg "<b>Koller, Mar. 26:</b> Hieronymus. [Das hochwirdig leben der außerwoelten freünde gotes der heiligen altuaeter]. Augsburg, Johann Schönsperger d. Ä., 9. Juni 1497. CHF 40,000 to 60,000.")
