Cookery Manuscripts, Fishing Classics, Indian Miniatures: Auction Preview

Image: Tennants Auctioneers

One of a group of 27 watercolor views of Nile scenery (1864–65), offered at Tennants Auctioneers this week.

Here are the sales I'll be watching this week:

On Tuesday, November 26, 226 lots of Hunting, Fishing, Travel & Exploration at New England Book Auctions, including one of 105 numbered copies of Dean Sage's The Ristigouche and Its Salmon Fishing (1888), estimated at $10,000–15,000, and a deluxe copy of Roland Clark's Gunner's Dawn (1937), expected to sell for $2,000–3,000.

At Chiswick Auctions on Wednesday, November 27, Books & Works on Paper, in 275 lots. A collection of 156 mid-19th-century Indian miniatures painted on mica shares the top estimate of £6,000–8,000 with an interesting copy of the 1617 edition of Vesalius' Anatomia Viri and artist John Buckland-Wright's interleaved and extra-illustrated copy of Keats' Endymion.

ALDE sells 258 lots from the Bibliothèque viticole Jean-Luc Chagnon - Livres sur les vins de Bourgogne & d’ailleurs on Wednesday.

At Tennants Auctioneers on Wednesday, 111 lots of Books, Maps & Manuscripts, with a first edition copy of Richard Blome's Present State of His Majesties Isles and Territories of America (1687) expected to lead the way at £1,500–2,500. A group of 27 watercolors of the Nile made during an 1864–65 cruise are estimated at £500–700.

Forum Auctions sells 299 lots of Books & Works on Paper on Thursday, November 28, with the first 84 lots comprising Jill Norman's collection of cookery books and manuscripts. Sharing the top estimate of £3,000–4,000 are a copy of Bartolomeo' Scappi's Dell'arte del cucinare con il mastro di casa e il trinciante (1643); a 1683 English medical and cookery manuscript; and a mid-18th-century English recipe book in three hands.