John Harris Cover Art, Pan Am Poster, Sondheim's Thesauruses: 2024 Auction Sleepers
Four printings of Roget's Thesaurus from the library of Stephen Sondheim, sold at Doyle in July for $25,600.
Two years makes a tradition, right? As I did last year, I'll use this final post of 2024 to look back on some lots from this year that went unmentioned in my weekly preview posts and which greatly surpassed their presale estimates.
At the June 13 Swann natural history sale, Jacob Giraud, Jr.'s Description of Sixteen New Species of North American Birds (1841) with lithographs by Nathaniel Currier realized $25,000 over estimates of $7,000–10,000. This is one of about ten copies known, and the first at auction since 1955; it was accompanied by a letter from Giraud to Charles de Rham noting that one of the birds described had been named for de Rham's deceased brother Casimir, an amateur naturalist.
Many of the group lots of Stephen Sondheim's books sold well above expectations at the June 18 Doyle sale, including four printings of Roget's Thesaurus which realized $25,600, having been estimated at just $200–300.
Frank Miller's original art for a February 1979 comic book page from Spectacular Spider-Man sold for $60,000 at Swann on June 20 as part of the collection of Jules Feiffer, bettering presale estimates of $4,000–6,000.
A copy of the signed "Author's Edition" of Whitman's Leaves of Grass (1882) fetched $37,500 at University Archives on June 26, surpassing the $3,000–4,000 estimate.
At Swann's sale of printed and manuscript Americana on June 27, Frederick Douglass' 1852 Oration Delivered in Corinthian Hall, Rochester sold for $87,500; it had been expected to reach $6,000–9,000.
A nice association copy of Benjamin Harrison's This Country of Ours inscribed to his second wife and noted as "the first copy from the press" realized $15,000 at PBA Galleries on August 8 as part of Jim Hier's presidential collection.
At the September 10 Christie's sale of items from the collection of Paul G. Allen, a late sixteenth-century portolan chart of the northwest Atlantic region sold for $302,400, over estimates of $70,000–100,000.
Karl Bodmer's graphite drawing of Prince Maximilian, once in the collection of Maurice Sand, fetched €9,360 at Ader on October 8, greatly bettering the €200–300 estimate.
The Botfield copy of the Aldine Herone et Leandro, with the Greek and Latin texts interleaved, sold for £381,000 at Sotheby's on October 18 as part of the Bibliotheca Brookeriana series of sales.
At the Freeman's | Hindman sale of American ephemera and photography on October 25, an 1803 Albany almanac containing journal entries by Rev. Samuel Kirkland realized $28,575, over estimates of $600–800.
A Pan Am "Gateway to the World's Fair" poster (1961) sold for $18,750 at Potter & Potter on November 7; it had been expected to reach just $1,000–1,500.
Alfred Edward Mathews' Pencil Sketches of Montana (1868) fetched $53,975 at Freeman's | Hindman on November 14 in their Americana sale, over estimates of $6,000–8,000.
Maxfield Parrish's original illustration "Wond'rous Wise Man," for L. Frank Baum's Mother Goose in Prose (1897) sold for $120,650 at Freeman's | Hindman on December 5, better than the expected $30,000–50,000. This lot was included in their sale of Justin Schiller's collection.
A first edition of Baruch Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670), bound with another work, realized $70,350 at Doyle on December 6; it had been estimated at $3,000–5,000.
John Harris' original dust jacket artwork for the first edition of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game sold for £504,000 at Christie's on December 12, well over the £30,000–50,000 presale estimate.
