Rare Books &c. at Auction This Week
Cel A3 from Kiki's Delivery Service, "Kiki and Jiji," offered at Bonhams London this week. Art by Hayao Miyazaki. Acrylic on celluloid, with color reproduction background. Estimate: $15,000 - 25,000
Here are the auctions I'll be watching this week:
Hindman Auctions sells 90 lots of Photographs on Tuesday, February 1. Brett Weston's portfolio Twenty Photographs 1970-1977 is expected the lead the sale at $20,000–30,000. Sally Mann's Dog Scratches (1991) could sell for $10,000–15,000, and Eliot Porter's Glen Canyon portfolio (1980) is estimated at $7,000–9,000. Other notable lots include Walker Evans' Wooden Church, South Carolina VII (1936) and Bert Stern's Marilyn Monroe, The Last Sitting (1962).
On Wednesday, February 2, Lyon & Turnbull sells Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs featuring the Library of the Late William St Clair, in 433 lots. The first 200 lots are from the collection of St Clair, the author of The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period, among other works. They include some interesting Mary Shelley lots, a commonplace book containing a poem attributed to Ada Lovelace, and a number of travel titles which will be of interest. A large number of lots relate to St Clair's research on the Cape Coast slave trade and the Elgin Marbles. Other lots include a 1687 Chaucer folio, a complete set of Frans Baltasar Solvyns' Les Hindoûs (1808–1812), and a 1568 letter by Mary, Queen of Scots. The latter is estimated at £14,000–18,000.
The World of Anime sale at Bonhams New York ends on Wednesday. The 154 lots include a number of cels from My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service, among others. Cel A17 from My Neighbor Totoro, "Sleeping Totoro," shares the top estimate of $15,000–25,000 with "Kiki and Jiji," cel A3 from Kiki's Delivery Service.
Bonhams London's sale of 19th and 20th Century Vintage Posters at Bonhams London ends on Thursday, February 3. the 61 lots include El Lissitzky's Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919), estimated at £15,000–20,000. Alphonse Mucha's Zodiac poster La Plume (1896) is estimated at £8,000–12,000, and one of the 1939 Keep Calm and Carry On posters could sell for £5,000–7,000.
Closing out the week, 525 lots of Comic Books at PBA Galleries on Thursday. Rating top estimates are Seven Seas Comics No. 4 (1947), featuring Matt Baker's cover design of Alani "the South Sea Girl" battling a great white shark ($10,000–20,000); and Daredevil No. 1 (April 1964), which is estimated at $10,000–15,000. Crime Patrol No. 15 (1950), featuring the first Crypt Keeper story, could sell for $8,000–12,000.
