July 28: Fine Books & Manuscripts at Potter & Potter Auctions
- by Thomas C. McKinney
This month, Chicago-based Potter & Potter Auctions is hosting a July 28th sale of Fine Books & Manuscripts comprising 619 lots of diverse material. Books and manuscripts certainly make up a large portion of the sale, but photographs, posters and other mediums are also included. Autograph material is also a strong suit. The following are some standout items.
Is it inappropriate to say that the sale’s tour de force is Peter Force’s engraving of the Declaration of Independence? A rice paper engraving pulled from volume I of Force’s 1837-1853 series of books American Archives, this reprint was made using William J. Stone’s copperplate which was made by lifting ink directly from the original to create a perfect copy. Force’s reprints were authorized up to 1,500 sets, but many fewer copies were printed. This one is estimated $15,000 to $20,000 as lot 369.
In a total shift of subject matter, our next highlight is a WWI lithograph enlistment poster entitled “Destroy this made brute — Enlist,” which “played on the heartstrings of American men by summoning up deep-held fears of a German invasion. Lady Liberty, half-naked, lies in the arms of the German brute striding ashore, a cudgel emblazoned with the word “kultur” in his blood-smeared free hand.” Lot 383 carries an estimate of $12,000 to $18,000.
Hugh Hefner may have passed away last year, but his memory lives on, and lot 445 allows its owner to perhaps know him better than most. Coming to auction is a large and revealing archive of Hefner’s early correspondence, with over 60 typed signed letters and autograph letters addressed to his lifelong friend and confidant Jane Borson. The archive is estimated $10,000 to $20,000. Other autographs worth noting are an eleven-page autograph letter signed from Fidel Castro to an aviator and arms smuggler (lot 358, est. $8,000 to $12,000); a framed display with items relating to Harry Truman and his Secretary of the Treasury, John Snyder (lot 344, est. $6,000 to $7,000); and a large, sepia toned, signed photograph portrait of Chester Arthur, circa 1882 (lot 329, est. $6,000 to $8,000).
Under the heading of literature, two first editions, both estimated $4,000 to $5,000, are ones you’re familiar with. Lot 72 is a first issue of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With The Wind in its original dustjacket, printed in New York in 1936. Further on into the sale, lot 121 is L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, being a first edition, second state copy. The publication is dated 1899, 1900.
These are but a few of the items coming to auction in Potter & Potter’s sale of Fine Books & Manuscripts, slated for July 28, 2018 at 10AM central time in Chicago. The sale’s catalog is live online now. Live, absentee and telephone bidding is also available.
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
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.