Rare Books &c. at Auction This Week

Here are the sales I'll be keeping an eye on this week:

New England Book Auctions sale of Literature, Graphic, Illustrated ends on Tuesday, January 18. The 194 lots include a copy of the Lakeside Press edition of Moby Dick illustrated by Rockwell Kent; a signed first edition of Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem; a signed first edition of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale; and a first American edition of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.

Bonhams will auction books from the collection of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, beginning Wednesday online. More on that here. 

At Forum Auctions on Thursday, January 20, 250 lots of Books and Works on Paper. Notable lots include a second edition of Sir George Staunton's Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China (1798), estimated at £1,000–1,500. David Roberts' The Holy Land (1855–56) could sell for £1,500–2,000), and Corelli's Concerti Grossi (1714) is estimated at £800–1,200. A second edition of Sir Hugh Plat's Jewel House of Art and Nature (1653) could sell for £400–600. What appears to be an authorial proof copy of Sir John Bowring's Visit to the Philippine Islands (1859) is estimated at £300–400.

There are some lots of relevance to us in the Christie's New York Important Americana sale this week on Thursday and Friday. They include a pair of Amos Doolittle's 1775 engravings, A View of the Town of Concord and A View of the South Part of Lexington from the collection of J. William Middendorf II, which could sell for $700,000–900,000. A rare copy of Bernard Ratzer's map of New York City, published in London in 1776, with contemporary coloring, is estimated at $300,000–500,000.

And to round out the week, the 438-lot sale of Important Numismatic Books at Kolbe & Fanning ends on Saturday, January 22. A complete 29-volume set of the Catalogue of the Greek Coins in the British Museum (1873–1927) is estimated at $6,000, and a large folio volume of Medaillons Antiques et Françaises du Cabinet du Roy is expected to sell for about $5,000.