Mar. 9: Extraordinary Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams
- by Thomas C. McKinney
Highlights from Bonhams' March 9 sale
Every month I cover a handful of sales for Rare Book Monthly, and “Fine Books and Manuscripts” might be the most commonly used sale title I’ve come across. This month, however, Bonhams has upped the naming ante with their sale of Extraordinary Books and Manuscripts. Their offering is indeed extraordinary. Thirty-three lots make up the March 9th sale in New York, and 40% carry high estimates of six digits. The auction is quite varied, too, with cartographic, religious, scientific, musical, and manuscript material all providing shining highlights. Here are some of the best of them.
Though it is preceded by one older work, the sale’s high estimate belongs to something that is nonetheless incunabula. Claudius Ptolemaeus’ third edition (1478) of Cosmographia, translated by Jacobus Angelus and edited by Domitius Calderinus, is one of the rarest editions bearing the title and is cited as the edition that “far outshone any other fifteenth century edition” by The World Encompassed. It is one of the earliest printed books to contain copper-engraved illustrations, and it carries extra weight being the edition used by Columbus prior to his voyage of discovery to the Americas. The volume is incredibly rare—one other copy has come to auction in the last hundred years. This copy includes 27 copper-engraved maps and 23 additional engraved maps bound in at the end from the 1541 Vienna edition. Ptolemy’s work does not come cheaply; as the sale’s second lot, it is estimated $600,000 to $800,000. Such is the price for a once in a century opportunity.
Two lots share the second highest estimates of the sale, and they are quite different from one another. The sale’s oldest item, a 1468 second edition of Saint Aurelius Augustinus’ De Civitate Dei, is the author’s magnum opus and one of Rome’s first printed books and delves into matters religious, historical, and philosophical. The other is a manuscript written over 200 years later by Sir Isaac Newton in which he details how to make the philosopher’s stone. Augustinus opens the sale as the first lot, while Newton appears as lot 6. Both are estimated $200,000 to $300,000.
Music is another category well represented in the sale. An autograph manuscript of Beethoven, being a sketch-leaf part of the score of the Scottish Songs, “Sunset” Op. 108 no. 2 is available as lot 14, listed for $80,000 to $120,000. Three autograph manuscripts from Wagner, lots 20 through 22, carry estimates varying from $40,000 to $60,000 up to $150,000 to $200,000. And if a more tangible piece of music is your desire, a violin belonging to Einstein is also included in the sale as lot 26 for an estimated $100,000 to $150,000.
Not every item carries an estimate of $50,000+. Lot 17 is a document signed by Lincoln as President ($4,000 to $6,000) and the original transmission print on ferrotyped paper of the iconic “The Raising of the Flag at Iwo Jima” is estimated $12,000 to $18,000 as lot 28.
Bonhams’ sale of Extraordinary Books and Manuscripts takes place Friday, March 9th in New York at 10 am eastern standard time. Bidding is available through the expected avenues: in person, absentee, telephone, and online. Registration prior to the sale is required. The sale’s catalog is vewiable on Bonhams’ website here.
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800