A. A. Milne Presentation Copy, Fox Pointe Manor Library, Lisman and Bobins at Christie's: Auction Preview
Image from William G. Wall's The Hudson River Port Folio, offered at Christie's this week as part of the Norman Bobins collection.
Quite a busy week coming up!
At ALDE on Tuesday, June 13, 391 lots of Éditions originales du XIXe siècle - Une bibliothèque littéraire du XXe siècle et à divers amateurs. An impressive copy of Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) is expected to sell for €30,000–40,000.
Sotheby's sells 69 lots of Photographs on Tuesday, including a unique mural-sized Peter Beard gelatin silver print, Giraffes and Zebras, surrounded by colored drawings and collage by the artists who worked with Beard at his Hog Ranch studio is estimated at £100,000–150,000. Andreas Gursky's 1995 chromogenic print Gran Canaria is estimated at £30,000–40,000, and Richard Avedon's Dovima with Elephants, Evening dress by Dior (1955) could sell for £30,000–50,000.
At Dominic Winter Auctioneers on Wednesday and Thursday, June 14–15, Printed Books, Maps, Playing Cards & Games, Literature, Private Press & Illustrated Books, in 941 lots. A copy of The House of Pooh Corner (1928) from a limited edition of 20 copies on Japanese vellum, a presentation copy to A.A. Milne, signed by Milne and E.H. Shepard, and then inscribed by Milne as a wedding gift to Priscilla Lutyens Chester-Master, Milne's neighbor and sometime typist. Two letters from Milne are also included. This is expected to sell for £15,000–20,000. A second edition of Pride and Prejudice (1813) is estimated at £8,000–12,000. A large needlework nursery frieze illustrating Peter Pan, by expert embroiderer Helen Stebbing could sell for £7,000–10,000.
Forum Auctions sells a fourth selection of books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library on Thursday, in 335 lots. A first issue copy of Hobbes' Leviathan (1651) rates the top estimate at £10,000–15,000, and a first edition of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), previously in the library of Harriet D. Schermerhorn, could sell for £8,000–12,000. Another really fascinating selection of books from this collection.
Christie's New York sells Part One of the Bruce M. Lisman Collection of Important American Literature on Thursday, in 160 lots. This is a big one, in which basically every lot is quite something. Highlights are expected to include Hawthorne's pre-publication annotated proof copy of The Scarlet Letter (1850), which is estimated at $600,000–800,000; a presentation copy of Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840) inscribed to his cousin and just one of two known inscribed copies of this edition is estimated at $300,000–500,000. And a first edition copy of Leaves of Grass, with the Kern copy of the broadside printing of Emerson's letter to Whitman is expected to sell for $200,000–300,000. A copy of Phillis Wheatley's 1773 Poems on Various Subjects, later owned by her editor Gloster Herbert Renfro is estimated at $20,000–30,000.
Swann Galleries sells 277 lots of Fine Books, Autographs & Illustration Art on Thursday, including an early copy of Dickens' Pickwick Papers in book form, which is estimated at $30,000–40,000. Gustav Klimt's Das Werk (1918) could sell for $25,000–35,000. Robert Indiana's Numbers (1968) is expected to reach $20,000–30,000.
PBA Galleries sells 361 lots of Fine Printing with Illustrated & Antiquarian Books: Selections from the Phil Lenna Collection (with additions). A copy of the Lakeside Press Moby Dick with illustrations by Rockwell Kent (1930) with several interesting association inscriptions and including the aluminum slipcase rates the top estimate at $12,000–18,000. A Pennyroyal Caxton Bible is estimated at $10,000–15,000.
At Hindman Auctions on Thursday and Friday, June 15–16, 556 lots of American Historical Ephemera & Photography. A large collection centered on the papers of Joseph Claypoole Clarke, Jr., including Civil War letters and military commissions is estimated at $20,000–25,000. One of the very rare copies of William W. Heartsill's Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army (1876) is estimated at $15,000–20,000, and a 1764 orderly book from Bouquet's force of British and Virginia volunteers is expected to sell for $10,000–20,000.
On Friday at Christie's, Part Two of the Bruce M. Lisman Collection, in 170 lots. This will be one to watch for the scholars of early American literature, as many key novels &c. are included here.
Also on Friday at Christie's, The Magnificent Library of Norman Bobins: Part One, American Color, in 83 lots. Prince Maximilian and Karl Bodmer's Reise in das innere Nord-America in den Jahren 1832 bis 1834 (1839–1841) is expected to sell for $500,000–800,000, and Hayden and Moran's Yellowstone National Park (1876) could fetch $200,000–300,000. Shaw and Hill's Picturesque Views of American Scenery (1820) is estimated at $150,000–250,000, and William Wall's Hudson River Port Folio (1821–1825) could sell for $100,000–150,000.
