Dec. 14: La bibliothèque de Pierre Bergé in association with Sotheby's, Round 4
- by Thomas C. McKinney
Later this month, Pierre Bergé & associés in association with Sotheby’s will be hosting another sale of La bibliothèque de Pierre Bergé. In the last three years, three sales of literature have already been conducted with varying focuses. The current sale is not limited by any specific subject or era, and therefore reflects the variety of the taste Bergé had in his collecting. Taking place December 14 at 3PM GMT+1 in Paris, 130 lots are on offer. The following is Sotheby’s introduction to the sale’s catalog:
While the lion's share naturally goes to literature, other lots reflect his interest in botany, philosophy and politics. There are several major illustrated books – a surprising taste for this disciple of Flaubert, who refused any illustrations for his novels – and books linked with the places he remembered, printed in La Rochelle and Aix-en-Provence. His friends Jean Cocteau, Jean Giono and Bernard Buffet rub shoulders with companions from his personal adventures, like L'Encyclopédie anarchiste by Sébastien Faure, whose widow gave it to the young man before he left for Paris.
Through its variety and open-mindedness, this sale provides a journey through the history of books, where official and alternative thinkers, gardeners and novelists, militants and poets all mingle together. Le Propriétaire des choses, an illustrated mediaeval encyclopaedia printed in Lyon in the 15th century, is seen alongside a copy (still in its original vellum) of the first edition of Montaigne's Essais, and the ultra-famous copy of Du côté de chez Swann, the first ever printed on Japan paper, given by Marcel Proust to Lucien Daudet. The great Chroniques de Franceby Monstrelet printed on vellum and illuminated in the period prior to the seminal book on modern botany by Leonhart Fuchs published in 1542 (of which the coloured copy here once belonged to a friend of Montaigne, Jacques-Auguste de Thou), or two famous examples on fine paper of works by Flaubert: Madame Bovary(1857), with a dedication to Lamartine, and Salammbô (1863), offered as a gift to Berlioz. And there is a collection of autograph letters from Édouard Manet to his friend and first champion, Émile Zola, the autograph manuscript of Jean Genet's Pompes funèbres and a copy of the Grand Meaulnes given by Alain-Fournier to Charles Péguy a few months before the two friends were killed at the front.
A faithful companion who was overshadowed, however, by creators like Bernard Buffet, Yves Saint Laurent and Madison Cox, here Pierre Bergé gives shape to his own collection: exactly sixty years after the Trapèze collection that established Yves Saint Laurent, he invites the reader to a show that promises to be truly memorable.
La bibliothèque de Pierre Bergé will take place at Hôtel Drouot in Paris on 14 December at 3PM local time. Viewing of the sale will be available on December 12 and 13. The catalog is viewable online here.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
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 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
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
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.