Rare Books &c. at Auction This Week

Here are the sales I'll be watching this week:

Swann Galleries will sell 271 lots of LGBTQ+ Art, Material Culture & History on Thursday, August 19. Lots includes a group of Oscar Wilde advertising cards and theatrical photos ($1,000–1,500) and a program from the original theatrical run of Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), estimated at $1,500–2,500. Lots 54 through 56 contain large groups of lesbian pulp fiction ($300–500 apiece). A group of 22 mid-1960s San Francisco newspapers is estimated at $1,000–1,500, and a large collection of more than 100 Terrence McNally letters could sell for $2,000–3,000.

Also on Thursday, Apple and Steve Jobs at RR Auction, in 35 lots. A working Apple-1 computer from the collection of Roger Wagner is expected to lead the sale, estimated at more than $450,000. An amusing May 11, 1983 note from Steve Jobs replying to a request for an autograph by writing "I'm honored that you'd write but I'm afraid I don't sign autographs," and then signing the typed letter, is estimated at more than $10,000 but had been bid up to more than $35,000 as of Sunday afternoon. An Apple Lisa model, also from Roger Wagner's collection, is expected to fetch more than $25,000. The first issue of Macworld magazine, signed on the cover by both Jobs and Wozniak, is estimated at more than $50,000.

Rounding out Thursday's sales is 588 lots of Americana – Travel & Exploration – Space – World History – Cartography at PBA Galleries. The French edition of the atlas accompanying Vancouver's Voyage of Discovery (1799) is estimated at $6,000–9,000. A full set of the government reports on the feasibility of a railroad route to the Pacific (1855–1860) is estimated at $5,000–8,000.

On Friday, August 20, 299 lots of American Historical Ephemera & Photography at Hindman Auctions. Lots of interest include an extensive collection of family letters and photographs from the family of Charles Slade English and his wife Ellen Deborah Miller ($1,000–1,500), and a fair number of Civil War photographs and documents.