To understand Collectible Paper Auctions Click here
- by Bruce E. McKinney
One of the interesting ways to follow the auctions is to select Upcoming Auctions and voila and the first option on the down bar: Auction Home, There are the most recently posted auction results with an option to View Auction Report.
The most recently posted completed auction as of 7:07 pm PST on 2/25/23 was Leland Little Auctions, a report on 33 lots that fell into the categories we cover; books, manuscripts, maps and ephemera. Those 33 lots were offered and 32 sold for a total of $10,100.00. With each lot under Book Title is a full description. Simultaneously, when this information is posted to this report of Recent Auction Results they move into Transactions+.
Once you have scanned the full details for the present sale there is another link to the upper right corner that takes you to the next most recently completed sale, and so on, and on.
The second sale recently was completed by Heritage, their The Thrillingly Exciting Heroes of Nedor Comics Showcase Auction. They offered 151 lots and sold them all for $116,235.20.
The third sale posted and completed was Heritage’s The Estate of Veronique and Gregory Peck’s Hollywood & Entertainment Signature Auction. Mr. Peck, was famous for his role as Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Heritage sold 147 of the 149 lots offered and when you scan the list for the realizations you may notice a few things you might wish you had bid on. In Boomers heaven, Mr. Peck’s Personal book-bound presentation script To Kill a Mockingbird (Universal, 1962) would fit nicely on a nearby shelf. The action overall brought $718,291.50.
The fourth sale was held by Stair & Co. of Hudson, New York: The Matisse Legacy, Part II: Property from the Collection of Jacquelyn Miller Matisse. 82 lots brought $138,432.00.
Bonhams’ Prints & Multiples sale on 23 February brought $346,487.63. The four sales I’ve already mentioned all sold close to 100% of their lots. Not every sale is in the high cotton.
On the same day, the 23rd, Aste Bolaffi in Italy held a Comics auction, offering 244 examples and sold 213. That worked out to be a 87.3% success rate. The norm, for the field anymore is the sell-through percentage to push into the low 80%s.
Swann Galleries sold Fine Photographs on the 23rd. They offered 192 lots and sold 80.21% of them for $658,250.
PBA, otherwise known as Pacific Book Auction Galleries, offered Fine Bindings and Small Press material on the 23rd and sold 369 of their 431 posted lots. They sold 86.61% of their lots and raised $237,275.00 for their consignors.
Forum Auctions’ Online Sale: Books and Works on Paper also wrapped up on the 23rd, as they offered 313 lots and sold 261 for an 83.39% success rate. Their sales, in GBP, registered as 117,374.75.
On the 23rd, Doyle New York offered Sports and Travel Books providing 258 lots and sold 240 of them for a 93.02% success rate. Their material raised $101,466.00
And I could go, and on. Typically 50 auctions close each week and we capture their outcomes, post them to Recent Completed sales and enter them into Transactions+.
Net-net, the auctions tend to look like this every time you check. This is the pulse of the auction marketplace. It’s a free service for anyone and everyone. Make a point once or twice a week to click on the Upcoming Auctions, then Auction Home and then click on the Recent Results and then click, on and on..
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Pietro Aquila, Psyche and Proserpina,1690. Starting price 140€
Gonnelli: Jacques Gamelin, Memento homo quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris, 1779. Starting price 300€
Gonnelli: Giorgio Ghisi, The final Judgement, 1680. Starting price 480€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli Goya y Lucientes Francisco, Los Proverbios.1877. Starting price 1000 €
Gonnelli: Domenico Peruzzini, Long bearded old man, 1660. Starting price 2200€
Gonnelli: Enea Vico, Leda and the Swan,1542. Starting price 140€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Andrea Del Sarto [school of], San Giovanni Battista, 1570. Starting price 25000€
Gonnelli: Carlo Maratta, Virgin Mary and Jesus, 1660. Starting Price 1200€
Gonnelli: Louis Brion de La Tour, Sphére de Copernic Sphere de Ptolemée / Le Systême de Ptolemée. Le Systême de Ticho-Brahe…, 1766. Starting price 180€
Gonnelli Auction 59 Antique prints, paintings and maps May 20th 2025
Gonnelli: Marc’Antonio Dal Re, Ville di Delizia o Siano Palaggi Camparecci nello Stato di Milano Divise in Sei Tomi Con espressevi le Piante…, Tomo Primo, 1726. Starting price 7000€
Gonnelli: Katsushika Hokusai, Bird on a branch, 1843. Starting price 100€
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 26th
Ketterer, May 26: Th. McKenney & J. Hall, History of the Indian tribes of North America, 1836-1844. Est: €50,000
Ketterer, May 26:Biblia latina vulgata, manuscript on thin parchment, around 1250. Est: €70,000
Ketterer, May 26: M. Beckmann, Fanferlieschen Schönefüßchen, 1924. Est: €10,000
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 26th
Ketterer, May 26: A. Ortelius, Theatrum orbis terrarum, 1574. Est: €50,000
Ketterer, May 26: M. S. Merian, Eurcarum ortus, alimentum et paradoxa metamorphosis, 1717-18. Est: €6,000
Ketterer, May 26:PAN, 9 volumes, 1895-1900. Est: €12,000
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 26th
Ketterer, May 26: Breviarium Romanum, Latin manuscript, 1474. Est: €15,000
Ketterer, May 26: Quran manuscript from the Saadian period, Maghreb, 16th century. Est: €10,000
Ketterer, May 26: E. Hemingway, The old man and the sea, 1952. First edition in first issue jacket. Presentation copy. Est: €3,000
Ketterer Rare Books Auction May 26th
Ketterer, May 26: Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re militari libri quatuor, 1553. Est: €3,000
Ketterer, May 26: K. Marx, Das Kapital, 1867. Est: €30,000
Ketterer, May 26: Brassaï, Transmutations, 1967. Est: €6,000
Leland Little, May 21: Signed Artist Proof of the Monumental G.O.A.T.: A Tribute to Muhammad Ali.
Leland Little, May 21: Assorted Rare Publications Related to H.P. Lovecraft, Including The Recluse Signed by Vincent Starrett.
Leland Little, May 21: Two Issues of The Vagrant, Including the First Appearance of H.P. Lovecraft's "Dagon" in Number Eleven.
Leland Little, May 21: Rare First Printing of Anne of Green Gables, With ALS from the Author.
Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, In First Issue Jacket.
Leland Little, May 21: The Limited Paumanok Edition of The Complete Writings of Walt Whitman.
Leland Little, May 21: Beautifully Bound Limited Flaubert Edition of The Works of Guy de Maupassant.
Leland Little, May 21: First Edition of Bonaparte's Celebrated American Ornithology, With Spectacular Hand-Colored Plates.
Leland Little, May 21: A Rare Complete Set of Jardine's The Naturalist's Library, With Hand-Colored Plates.
Leland Little, May 21: Invitation to the Lincoln-Johnson National Inaugural Ball, March 4th, 1865.
Leland Little, May 21: A Scarce Inscribed First Edition of James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name.
Leland Little, May 21: Picasso's Le Goût du Bonheur, Limited Edition.
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR