Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2020 Issue

Christies is announcing its inaugural various-owner Books & Manuscripts Sale Online

Clockwise from top left: Rhiannon Knol, Heather Weintraub, Fernando Peña, Christina Geiger, Peter Klarnet and Gillian Hawley.

Clockwise from top left: Rhiannon Knol, Heather Weintraub, Fernando Peña, Christina Geiger, Peter Klarnet and Gillian Hawley.

Once upon a time auction house savants labored somewhere between secrecy and privacy while making policy and fortunes for buyers and sellers.  Then BINGO, in response and reaction to risk, danger, emergencies, and a bunch of scary stuff the auction process is becoming straightforward.  It looks quite appealing. Here is Christies' next step.  Voila!!

Christie's New York is very pleased to announce its inaugural various-owner online Books & Manuscripts sale: The Open Book: Fine Travel, Americana, Literature and History in Print and Manuscript. The sale takes place from June 2-18 and is now available for browsing on Christies.com.  The 113 lots were all first slated to be sold in a traditional live auction at the end of April, but that was not to be. “The day that Christie’s New York closed its offices, on March 13, was the very day that we otherwise would have begun printing the April sale catalogue,” reports Christina Geiger, the Head of Department, “However, we adapted. We hope this freshly reconceived and curated sale speaks to the current moment.”  What makes this sale different from other online sales held so far during the pandemic is its high value. It includes several lots expected to sell in the six figures and has an aggregate high estimate of over $3 million.

The sale title, “The Open Book,” has a double meaning. It invites all those who are socially distancing (and the natural recluses) to delve into the world of the book; reminding us that we can travel the world, travel through time, view fine art, meet our heroes, and commune with other minds and souls—all with a technology no more complicated than the printed book or manuscript.  Secondly, the auction itself is an “open book.”  As distinct from a traditional, live auction, all of the reserve prices will be public information.  When the sale goes live for bidding at 10am on June 2, the starting bids are the reserves, a completely transparent and open process which should appeal to the community of collectors.

The sale is led by the first newspaper printing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” (estimate $300,000-500,000). It appeared under its original title, “The Defense of Fort McHenry,” in The Baltimore Patriot and Evening Advertiser on 21 September 1814, only three days after Francis Scott Key completed it. Proceeds of the sale will benefit the American Antiquarian Society’s Collections Acquisitions Fund.

 

Other notable highlights include the first folio edition of John James Audubon's The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America ($120,000-180,000) sold to benefit the Delaware Art Museum; the Vershbow copy of Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel ($60,000-80,000), the first edition of a mysterious series of grotesque illustrations “for the recreation of witty spirits" falsely attributed to Rabelais; the rare first edition of J.K. Rowling's classic, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone ($50,000-80,000); two important rarities from the Age of Discovery: Enciso’s first account in Spanish of the discoveries in the New World ($180,000-250,000) and an exceedingly rare, circa 1515 French account of the voyages of Columbus, Vespucci and others ($180,000-250,000); fine first editions of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway ($20,000-30,000), which is signed, and To The Lighthouse ($7000-9000) from the collection of Elizabeth Paepcke; a November 1781 letter by George Washington on his victory at Yorktown ($40,000-60,000); a 1918 letter by Sun Yat-sen pleading for American support for China ($20,000-30,000); as well as the original artwork for Led Zeppelin's 1969 debut album by artist George Hardie ($20,000-30,000).

  

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • 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.

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