Babe Ruth Rookie Card, Curtis Photogravures, Early Don Quixote: Auction Preview

Here's what I'll be watching this week:

At New England Book Auctions on Tuesday, April 9, 216 lots of Fine Books & Ephemera, with the usual wide range of material.

On Wednesday, April 10, Dominic Winter Auctioneers will sell 466 lots of Printed Books, Maps & Caricatures, Architecture & the Fine Arts, including a complete set of James Sowerby's Mineral Conchology of Great Britain (£8,000–12,000); Solomon de Caus' Les Raisons des Forces Mouvantes (1615) bound with other works and estimated at £6,000–8,000; and C & J Greenwood's 1827 map of London (£5,000–8,000).

At Tennants Auctioneers on Wednesday, 116 lots of Books, Maps & Manuscripts. A sketchbook attributed to George Chinnery rates the top estimate at £4,000–6,000. A copy of the 1923 publication A Northern Venture: Verses by Members of the Leeds University English School Association, which includes a poem by Tolkien, is estimated at £2,500–3,500. The 1727 Designs of Inigo Jones, with both volumes bound together, could sell for £2,000–3,000.

The Bonhams online Fine Books and Manuscripts sale ends on Wednesday: the 194 lots include the Gimbels version of the 1916 Babe Ruth rookie card ($250,000–500,000); a first edition of Darwin's Origin ($60,000–90,000); a first printing copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone ($50,000–80,000); and a copy of the German edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle ($40,000–60,000). This sale also includes a number of original Maurice Sendak artworks.

At University Archives on Wednesday, 364 lots of Rare Autographs, Manuscripts, Books & Memorabilia, including the earliest known photograph of Marilyn Monroe inscribed with that name ($28,000–35,000); a mimeographed copy of the advance text of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech ($20,000–30,000); and an 1888 Paul Gauguin letter to artist Émile Schuffenecker ($20,000–30,000).

Swann Galleries sells 308 lots of Fine Books on Thursday, April 11. The 1608 third Madrid Cuesta edition of Don Quixote from Ken Rapoport's collection is expected to lead the way at $80,000–120,000; a married set of the 1617 Barcelona complete edition of Don Quixote, also from Rapoport, is estimated at $60,000–80,000 (the sale includes several other early editions of this work). A manuscript book of hours on parchment, use of Rome, made at Lyon between about 1475 and 1500 is estimated at $40,000–60,000.

At Santa Fe Art Auction on Thursday, 171 lots from the Christopher Cardozo Collection of Photogravures, from Edward S. Curtis' The North American Indian.