Rare Books at Auction this Week

A quick update on last week's sales first: at Lyon & Turnbull, that album of early photographs of India sold for £40,000 (over the estimate of £5,000-8,000). At Swann Galleries, an 1873 album of photographs from an Army Corps of Engineers project in Louisiana fetched $93,750, over estimates of just $15,000-20,000.

                                                                                                                                                                  On Wednesday, February 21, University Archives sells Autographed Documents, Manuscripts, Books & Relics, in 248 lots. A map of Cuba consulted by President Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, known as the "Victory map," is estimated at $30,000-35,000, while an archive of letters and other documents written by Elizabeth Bacon Custer could sell for $20,000-25,000. A varied sale with a number of very interesting lots.

                                                                                                                                                                          PBA Galleries offers Fine Books, Science & Medicine, Art, Illustration & Children's Literature on February 22, in 492 lots. The top estimate goes to Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach's Surgical Observations on the Restoration of the Nose (1833) at $10,000-15,000. An inscribed first edition of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas is estimated at $1,000-1,500.

                                                                                                                                                                           Heritage Auctions in Dallas holds a pair of sales toward the end of the week:

                                                                                                                                                                                    - From February 22 to 24, a Comics and Comic Art Signature Auction, with 1,415 items up for grabs. An original Frank Frazetta painting, "Tree of Death" (1970), has a $300,000 reserve, while original cover art for Amazing Spider-Man No. 100 has a $190,000 current bid at time of writing. An issue of Batman No. 1 (pictured) currently stands at $160,000. 

                                                                                                                                                                                     - On February 24, Heritage offers the second part of The David and Janice Frent Collection of Political & Presidential Americana, in 659 lots. As with the political memorabilia sale noted last week, this auction offers a very wide range of material types, and the catalog (like that for University Archives sale above) makes for an excellent browse. There are some neat campaign broadsides--including one for an 1864 Lincoln-Johnson meeting--and textiles, plus notable campaign items like a rebus-style stickpin for Winfield Scott Hancock and an exceedingly strange-looking 1912 Bull Moose/Elephant "fusion" button.