JFK Birthday Reception Guest Book: Rare Books Auction Roundup

Another very busy week coming up! Here are the sales I'll be watching:

At ALDE on Tuesday, October 11, Bibliothèque d'un amateur – Livres illustrés modernes, in 137 lots.

Bonhams New York sells 88 lots of Photographs on Tuesday. A unique platinum print of Paul Strand's 1915 photo Central Park, New York is expected to sell for $50,000–70,000. This and various other lots in this sale come from the collection of Sarah Warren Hoffman. Sarah is the daughter of Michael Hoffman, the first executive director of Aperture and the co-founder with Hazel Strand of the Paul Strand Archive. Sarah writes in the auction catalog "With the sale of my very personal and beloved collection in this auction, I hope to bring Paul Strand, Hazel Strand, and my father's life work back into the spotlight. I hope they will all find worthy new homes." Other lots in the sale include three photographs by Matthew Barney ($50,000–60,000), and the Time Exposed portfolio by Hiroshi Sugimoto (1991), which is estimated at $30,000–50,000.

Dominic Winter Auctioneers sells 486 lots of Printed Books, Stamps & Documents, Maps, Travel & Exploration on Wednesday, October 12. Rating the top estimate is the first edition in German of Leonhard Fuchs' New Kreüterbuch (Basel, 1543), containing 517 full-page woodcut illustrations of herbs in a blindstamped pigskin binding dated 1578 (£7,000–10,000). A first quarto copy of David Roberts' The Holy Land (1855–1856) bound in three volumes is expected to sell for £2,000–3,000. At the same estimate are the first two volumes of Tocqueville's De la Démocratie en Amérique (1835), the second edition of Juan de Torquemada's history of New Spain (1723), and an album of Queen Victoria stamps.

At Chiswick Auctions on Wednesday, Autographs & Memorabilia, in 265 lots. Sharing the top estimate range of £6,000–8,000 are a collection of letters, photos, and ephemera related to the Earl of Dudley (including a 1947 typed letter from the then-Princess Elizabeth and three typed letters to Dudley from the Duke of Windsor); and a copy of the program for the June 18, 1963 boxing match between Cassius Clay and Henry Cooper, signed by Clay. This comes with a Press Gallery ticket to the match, and was previously in the collection of reporter Hartmut Scherzer. A set of Beatles signatures from November 1963 is estimated at £4,000–5,000.

On Thursday, October 13 at Doyle New York, Rare Books, Autographs & Maps, in 226 lots. The 1620 first complete edition in English of Don Quixote, later owned by the fascinating Isabel Somerset, is expected to lead the sale at $60,000–90,000. The 1961–1967 guest books from the New York City home of Arthur and Dr. Mathilde Krim, which includes the signatures of guests present at the May 19, 1962 birthday reception for JFK, with additional accompanying material, is estimated at $40,000–60,000.

Swann Galleries sells 278 lots of Early Printed Books on Thursday. A Shakespeare Fourth Folio (1685) formerly in the libraries of Henry Perkins, T. Henry Foster, and Ken Rapoport rates the top estimate at $60,000–80,000. A third authorized edition of Don Quixote (Valencia, 1605) with a woodcut knight errant on the title page is expected to sell for $40,000–60,000; a set of the first Brussels edition of the same work (1607 and 1616) rates the same estimate. A 1542 second folio of Chaucer's works could sell for $30,000–50,000.

At Forum Auctions on Friday, October 14, Modern Literature, in 304 lots. Rating the top estimate is a third impression copy of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale (1954), at £1,500–2,000.