Pillone Binding, Darwin Proof Sheets, More Bobins Colorplate Books: Auction Preview
A copy of the 1582 edition of Anania's Cosmographia in a decorated Pillone binding, offered at Forum Auctions this week.
A handful of sales to keep an eye on this week:
At Christie's London on Wednesday, July 12, 247 lots of Valuable Books and Manuscripts. Sharing the top estimate of £150,000–200,000 are a March 7, 1872 letter from Karl Marx to his French publisher Maurice Lachâtre and Charles Darwin's revised proof sheets for his 1875 book Insectivorous Plants. A first edition of Darwin's Origin is estimated at £80,000–120,000, and three lots are estimated at £70,000–100,000: a manuscript book of hours made at Bruges about 1430 for the English market with illuminations by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht; a 1603 edition of Ortelius's Theatrum orbis terrarum; and Hamilton & d'Hancarville's Collection of Etruscan, Greek and Roman Antiquities from the Cabinet of the Hon. William Hamilton (1766–1776).
On Thursday, July 13, Forum Auctions sells 299 lots of Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper, including a copy of the 1582 edition of Anania's Cosmographia in a decorated Pillone binding, estimated at £50,000–70,000. Other lots include a first impression copy of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale (1953) and Pablo Neruda's Los Versos del Capitan (1952), one of 44 subscriber's copies: each of these are estimated at £12,000–18,000.
Christie's London sells the second part of the Magnificent Library of Norman Bobins on Thursday, in 336 lots. This portion of the library includes a colored copy of Jacques Rigaud's Recueil choisi des plus belles vues des palais, des châteaux et maisons royales de Paris et des environs (1720–1738), expected to sell for £100,000–150,000. Two rare works on costumes, the 1775 Recueil des differens costumes des principaux officiers et magistrats de la porte; et des peoples sujets de l'empire othoman and Andreas Wolfgang's 1701 Die algierische Hofstaat, dabei die beiden Brüder Wolfgang im Sclavendienst, bound together, are estimated at £50,000–70,000. At the same range is John Young's Series of Portraits of the Emperors of Turkey from the Foundation of the Monarchy to the Year 1815.
At PBA Galleries on Thursday, the Janusz Zalewski Collection of Charles Bukowski – with Additional Fine Literature, Beats & Counterculture, in 528 lots. Sharing the top estimate of $10,000–15,000 are a first printing of Hemingway's In Our Time (1925) in the dust jacket and a campaign poster from Hunter S. Thompson's 1970 run for Pitkin County sheriff, initialed by Thompson and signed by the artist, Thomas W. Benton. Quite a lot here that will be of interest to the Bukowski completist.
