Fly Tying, Sangorski & Sutcliffe Bindings, Cricketers Caricatured: Auction Preview
Sangorski & Sutcliffe designer binding on a first American edition of Moby-Dick, offered at Potter & Potter this week as part of the library of Robin and Kathryn Smiley.
Here are the sales I'll be watching this week:
Doyle's 219-lot sale of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps ends on Tuesday, August 15. Lots include a deluxe copy of Charles Phair's 1937 Atlantic Salmon Fishing estimated at $10,000–15,000. Sharing an estimate of $2,000–3,000 are the first English edition of Edwin James' Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains (1823); the 1965 Leisenring Color & Materials Book for Fly Tying, one of perhaps just twelve copies assembled; and a 109-volume run of The Annual Register for 1758 to 1866. Much more here from the angling and sporting collection of Arnold "Jake" Johnson.
On Wednesday, August 16, Dominic Winter Auctioneers sells Books, Maps, Prints, Ephemera & Bookbinding, in 430 lots. Estimated at £600–900 are a 1627 John Speed map of China and a collection of 32 late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century cricketer caricatures from Vanity Fair. A second-state copy of Sebastian Munster's world map is expected to sell for £500–800.
At Swann Galleries on Thursday, August 17, 373 lots of LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History. Among the lots are an collection of some 110 items related to the 1992 presidential campaign of Joan Jett-Black, estimated at $8,000–12,000.
Potter & Potter Auctions sells the Library of Robin & Kathryn Smiley on Thursday, in 382 lots. Readers may know the Smileys as the publishers of Firsts: The Book Collector's Magazine. Lots include a first American edition of Moby-Dick in a Sangorski & Sutcliffe designer binding and a signed presentation copy of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms given to the author Owen Wister and now also in a Sangorski & Sutcliffe designer binding designed to mirror the original jacket is estimated. Both of these are estimated at $20,000–30,000. An inscribed early edition of Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad is estimated at $15,000–20,000, and a first state copy of the first American edition of The Hobbit could fetch $10,000–15,000.
