Austen Rarities, Kerouac Self Portrait, Einstein's Violin: Auction Preview
One of a large collection of some 2,000 glass half-plate negatives of British scenes from about 1910–1920, offered at Dominic Winter Auctioneers on October 8.
Here are the sales I'll be keeping an eye on:
At New England Book Auctions on Tuesday, October 7, a Fine Fall Miscellany, in 213 lots.
ALDE sells the Bibliothèque Peter Obergfell II – Précieux Livres sur la Montagne on Wednesday, October 8, in 247 lots.
At Dominic Winter Auctioneers on October 8, 327 lots of Photographs & Autographs, Historical Documents & Artefacts, including a violin and a bicycle saddle once owned by Albert Einstein. The violin is estimated at £200,000–300,000, and the bicycle seat at £20,000–30,000. A full score for William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, partly in the composer's hand, is estimated at £70,000–100,000. A large collection of some 2,000 glass half-plate negatives of British scenery from about 1910–1920 could sell for £5,000–8,000.
University Archives sells Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books on October 8, in 452 lots. A copy of the 1917 U.S. Declaration of War on Germany, signed by the president, vice president, and speaker of the House could sell for $25,000–35,000, and a January 1780 George Washington letter to his aide Stephen Moylan is expected to fetch $18,000–25,000.
On Thursday, October 9, Forum Auctions sells Books and Works on Paper, in 304 lots.
At PBA Galleries on October 9, 533 lots of Fine Literature with Mystery & Sci-Fi – Beats & the Counterculture, with a copy of Jack Kerouac's On the Road signed (at various times) by ten close Kerouac/Beat associates (including Lucien Carr and Allen Ginsberg) sharing the top estimate of $15,000–25,000 with a self-portrait in pencil of Jack Kerouac from 1956. A 1968 Black Panther Party memorial poster for Bobby Hutton signed by Angela Davis and other party leaders is estimated at $5,000–8,000.
Bonhams New York sells 203 lots of Photographs on Friday, October 10, with Edward Weston's "Bertha Wardell, Glendale (Legs of a Dancer)" from 1927 expected to lead the sale at $40,000–60,000. Two Ansel Adams images are each estimated at $30,000–50,000: "Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California" (1944; printed in the mid-1970s) and "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico" (1941, printed 1960s).
New England Book Auctions sells 205 lots of Fine Books & Ephemera on Tuesday, October 14.
Swann Galleries sells 330 lots of Photographs on Thursday, October 16, another chance for Ansel Adams's "Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California" (1944; printed April 1978), estimated here at $25,000–35,000. Eugène Atget's "Coiffeur, Avenue de l'Oberservatoire, Paris" (1926) is expected to sell in the same range, as is an album of Baron Adolf De Meyer's photographs of American women (about 1900–1920), containing 65 platinum and silver prints.
And rounding out the week at Christie's New York on October 16, Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana, in 161 lots. A copy of the 1494 Basel edition of the Columbus Letter is estimated at $1.5–2 million; it is among other books from the library of Antonio Bonchristiano offered in this sale, along with a copy of the 1500 Brescia edition of Marco Polo's De le maraveliose cose del Mondo ($120,000–180,000). At the same estimate range is a first edition of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813), with the earliest known ownership inscriptions (just seven weeks after publication). A number of other Austen rarities are also included in this sale, as are a number of early printed books from the collection of Phyllis Goodhart Gordan, including a copy of the 1476 Venice edition of Aristotle's De animalibus.
