McMurtry Estate, Sci/Fi Classics, Beethoven Letter: Auction Preview

On Monday, May 29, Vogt Auction sells 300 lots from the Estate of Larry McMurtry, including furniture and typewriters from his home in Archer City, TX, as well as his own copies of many the books he wrote. Top lots among the books are expected to include an Easton Press edition of Lonesome Dove signed by McMurtry and members of the cast of the 1989 miniseries (along with Easton Press editions of other McMurtry titles), estimated at $4,000–8,000. His Roycroft writing desk is expected to sell for $10,000–20,000.

At Ader on Tuesday, May 30, Enluminures, Livres Anciens at Modernes, in 129 lots. A set of sixteen illustrations in gouache by François-Louis Schmied (about 1931) made for Gaston Gradis and depicting the stations of the cross is expected to lead the sale at €30,000–50,000.

Ending on Tuesday at New England Book Auctions, a 222-lot sale of Travel, Exploration, Architecture, Eastern Europe, and Posters. Some interesting Frank Lloyd Wright material here amongst the usual mix.

Chiswick Auctions sells 313 lots of 19th & 20th Century Photographs on Wednesday, May 31. Sharing the top estimate of £10,000–15,000 are Horst P. Horst's "New York Still Life, 1946" and Jacques-Henri Lartigue's "The Rabbit Has Arrived/Descent of the Rabbit," a pair of 1911 silver gelatin prints.

At University Archives on Wednesday, 387 lots of Rare Manuscripts, Books & Sports Memorabilia. Rating the top estimate is a Beethoven manuscript letter to Friedrich Sebastian Mayer with instructions for the singer who portrayed Don Pizarro in Beethoven's opera Fidelio ($80,000–100,000). A copy of the 1946 script for a t.v. episode "The Atom" signed by Einstein is expected to sell for $40,000–50,000.

ALDE sells 229 lots of Musique at Spectacles: Collection André Tubeuf on Thursday, June 1.

At Swann Galleries on Thursday, Focus on Women, in 188 lots. A first edition of Narrative of Sojourner Truth, a Northern Slave (1850) rates the top estimate at $10,000–15,000. Two parts of the 1898 Woman's Bible signed and inscribed in the first part by Elizabeth Cady Stanton is expected to sell for $7,000–9,000. A third edition of Pride and Prejudice (1817) from the library of Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story is estimated at $6,000–8,000.

Potter & Potter sell 510 lots of Fine Books & Manuscripts, including the Ronald K. Siegel Collection. A copy of the first edition of Nostradamus in English (1672) is expected to lead the way at $7,000–9,000. A first issue copy of Dickens' Great Expectations could sell for $8,000–12,000, and the second Tonson edition of Caesar's Commentaries (1753) rates an estimate of $6,000–8,000.

PBA Galleries' sale of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror rounds out Thursday's sales. The 419 lots include a full deluxe set of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, expected to sell for $8,000–12,000, and a first edition of Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), estimated at $7,000–10,000.