Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2018 Issue

The Lubranos, Music Antiquarians, Test the Auction Field on 6 October

John & Jude Lubrano

John & Jude Lubrano

John and Jude Lubrano, the husband-and-wife team of J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians, have long held an important, even unique, place in the field of antiquarian music.  They specialize in historically significant material relating to music and dance through the centuries.  Their business dates to the pre-Internet era, having been established in 1977.  In a few days they will be launching, via the auction platform Invaluable, their first auction, to take place on October 6th.

 

In their 41 years in the trade they were first traditional dealers, located near the summer music paradise, Tanglewood, in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, also the site of the country’s oldest summer dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow. They began by selling to both visitors to the festivals and associated conductors, musicians, and dancers, and later broadened their business by selling by mail and telephone.  In time, they would issue several catalogues a year, and over the ensuing years, publish more than eighty in total. In the early 1980s they joined the ABAA, the primary American association of antiquarian booksellers, and soon thereafter became regular exhibitors at ABAA book fairs.  In the 1990s they began to both buy and sell online, launching their first website in 2003. Their website and online catalogues have since become their primary sales vehicles.

 

But times change, and the Lubranos are changing with them with this new auction venture. More, and younger, people are buying at auction, and this tendency is as noticeable in antiquarian music as it is in the myriad other categories of collectible printed and manuscript material that have increasingly seen younger buyers prefer market-determined valuations.  With the staging of this, their first auction, the Lubranos are moving into this realm.

 

The collectability of the categories of music and dance is beyond dispute; these fields have been actively collected for centuries. The primary question for new collectors is just how much to pay for items they find of interest.

 

Auctions fall into two categories: those houses that sell their own material and those that provide this service to others.  Initially, the Lubranos will be selling their own material, and it is material that they know very well.  Their plan is to set conservative starting prices and allow the hammer, or price realized, to be determined by market interest. For newer collectors who are more accustomed to, and comfortable with, buying by competitive bidding, such an approach makes sense.

 

The material offered in their current auction, some 465 lots, is posted on the auction site Invaluable and a link to the sale posted at the end of this article.

 

Here are a few examples that express both the subjects and price ranges reflected in the sale:

 

MUSICAL MANUSCRIPTS

Lot 224: MENOTTI, Gian Carlo

Two solo songs from the composer's cantata Landscapes and Remembrances: "The Abandoned Mansion (South Carolina)” for contralto: 1f. (title), 5, [i] (blank) pp. and "Farewell at a Train Station in Vermont for tenor." 8 pp. Autograph musical manuscripts in piano-vocal score. Signed "G. Menotti." Ca. 1976

Estimate $6,000 - $8,000

Starting bid $4,500

 

 

AUTOGRAPH LETTERS OF COMPOSERS

Lot 384: VERDI, Giuseppe

Autograph letter signed "G. Verdi" to his accountant Luigi Peragallo

Estimate $4,500 to $5,500

Starting bid $3,000

 

 

PRINTED MUSIC

Lot 246: MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus

[K527]. Il Dissoluto Punito osia Il Don Giovanni Dramma giocoso in due Atti... Ridotto per il Pianoforte da C. G. Neefe. [Piano-vocal score]. Hamburgo: Giovanni Augusto Böhme [without PN], [ca. 1810]

Estimate $600 - $800

Starting bid: $500

 

 

DANCE

Lot 473: [DUNCAN, Isadora] Walkowitz, Abraham

Original full-length pencil drawing of Duncan in a dance pose by the American modernist artist Abraham Walkowitz

Estimate $450 - $650

Starting bid $350

 

Here is a link to the sale on Invaluable:  https://www.invaluable.com/catalog/yyaxwpv6w7

 

The sale begins at noon EST on October 6th

 

Contact Information: 

 J. & J Lubrano

Synosset, New York

(516) 922-2192

Email:  info@lubranomusic.com

 

Rare Book Monthly

  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    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.
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