Parties at Versailles, Fine Photographs, Arion Press Whitman: Auction Preview
Engraved title page of Les Plaisirs de l'Isle Enchantée (1673), offered at ALDE this week.
Here's what I'll be watching this week:
At ALDE on Wednesday, October 2, Bibliothèque J.-M. Rebois, in 136 lots, a nice batch of French books in fine bindings. Highlights are expected to include Charles le Brun's Tapisseries du Roy (1746) in a binding with the arms of Louis XV and a presentation inscription to Comte Vorontsov (€7,000–9,000); and a 1673 volume illustrating the May 1664 celebrations at Versailles, Les Plaisirs de l'Isle Enchantée (€8,000–10,000).
Christie's New York's sale on Thursday, October 3 is titled An Eye Towards the Real: Photographs from the Collection of Ambassador Trevor Traina. The 132 lots include Andreas Gorsky's Dortmund, 2009 ($300,000–500,000); William Eggleston's Greenwood, Mississippi ('The Red Ceiling'), 1973 ($200,000–300,000); and Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Still #81, 1980 ($180,000–250,000).
On Thursday at PBA Galleries, 320 lots of Photography & Fine Art; Fine Press & Fine Bindings, including a copy of the 2014 Arion Press edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass ($10,000–15,000); a first octavo edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds ($6,000–9,000); and a deluxe "state proof" copy of the 1989 ABCedary Letterpress publication Ancient Needs ($5,000–8,000).
