Early Baseball Sheet Music, Arrowsmith’s Maps, JFK Presentation Copy: Auction Preview

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

At Dominic Winter Auctioneers on Wednesday and Thursday, March 6–7, 693 lots of Printed Books, Maps & Playing Cards, Charles Darwin & Natural History. A copy of John Arrowsmith's London Atlas with 66 folding maps, including 16 not mentioned on the contents page, rates the top estimate at £9,000–12,000. Among the extras are a rare second state copy of Arrowsmith's map of the Republic of Texas. A first edition of Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan (1651) is expected to sell for £8,000–12,000. Charles Darwin's Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands (1844) could fetch £6,000–8,000.

Forum Auctions sells Travel Books, Maps and Atlases on Thursday, in 220 lots. A 1932 edition of the Persian Gulf Pilot is expected to fetch the top price at £5,000–7,000; an engraved map of Virginia from about 1647 based on John Smith's prototype could sell for £2,000–3,000. The log book of Captain James Alms of the H.M.S. Monmouth on a voyage to the East Indies in 1783–1784 with additional material is estimated at £1,500–2,000.

At Doyle on Thursday, 261 lots of Maps, Travel & Sporting Books Including the Esmond Bradley Martin Collection, including 26 titles in 33 volumes of early editions of Darwin's works on evolution and translations ($7,000–9,000); a 74-volume set of the works of John Ruskin with an autograph Ruskin letter ($4,000–6,000). A copy of the c.1694 third state Janssonius map of Virginia, New England and New France is estimated at $2,000–3,000.

Swann Galleries sells 180 lots of Autographs on Thursday. A copy of John F. Kennedy's As We Remember Joe (1945) inscribed to Edgar Sherrill, the publisher's secretary, along with a list of names of recipients to whom copies were to be sent and other material is expected to lead the way at $15,000–25,000. A printed song sheet for John Lennon and Yoko Ono's song "Attica State," signed by both, could sell for $10,000–20,000, and a 1783 document signed by John Hancock as governor of Massachusetts is estimated at $8,000–12,000.

At Potter & Potter on Thursday, 660 lots of Ephemera, Americana & Historical Memorabilia, including a c.1908–1909 photographic portrait of the Cuban Almendares Baseball Club of Key West, Florida ($10,000–20,000). A volume of sheet music which includes a copy of the first known baseball sheet music ("The Live Oak Polka") and the earliest known baseball lithograph could sell for $8,000–16,000. A collection of some 240 nineteenth-century tobacco labels is estimated at $6,000–10,000.

PBA Galleries sells 489 lots of Americana – Travel & Exploration – World History – Maps, Prints & Views on Thursday, including Henry Lewis' Das Illustrirte Mississippithal (1854–1858), estimated at $40,000–60,000. Bill Wilson's Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age inscribed to Hollywood director John Frankenheimer is expected to sell for $8,000–12,000. Lewis & Clark's History of the Expedition (1814) with a facsimile map is estimated at $6,000–9,000.