Rare Books &c. at Auction This Week

Last week may have been quiet, but this week is anything but! Here are the sales I'll be watching:

Bibliothèque M. D.: Livres Précieux at Binoche et Giquello on Tuesday, March 22. The 84 lots include an illuminated book of hours on vellum from about 1460, estimated at €25,000–35,000, and the 1514 edition of Robert Gaguin's Grans Croniques de France, which could sell for €10,000–20,000. A printed book of hours from about 1607 is estimated at €10,000–15,000, as is a first edition of Pascal's Provinciales (1657) and a 1780s manuscript copy by Lesclabart of the Speculum humanae.

On Tuesday at Doyle New York, 324 lots of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps at Doyle New York on 22 March. The first edition in English (1640) of Machiavelli's Prince is expected to sell for $20,000–30,000, and a copy of the 1847 "Revised Edition" of John Disturnell's map of the United States and Mexico could sell for $15,000–25,000.

At New England Auctions on Tuesday, 187 lots of Fine Books & Ephemera.

On Wednesday, March 23, Fine Books and Manuscripts at Bonhams London in 139 lots. Percy Shelley's copy of Filicaja's Poesie Toscane (1707), inscribed to Clare Clairmont in April 1821, rates the top estimate at £60,000–80,000. A large collection of Maurice Sendak material assembled over more than three decades rates an estimate of £20,000–40,000. An 1897 Sun Yat-Sen autograph letter in English to Felix Volkhosky about his abduction is estimated at £20,000–30,000. A presentation copy of Ian Fleming's Goldfinger inscribed to his secretary Una Trueblood is placed at the same estimate (as is a similar copy of From Russia, With Love). There are also a number of Leibniz autograph manuscripts to be had in this one.

Bonhams London will then hold a 282-lot sale titled Women Through History. A Jane Austen autograph letter from December 1816 to her niece Anna Lefroy rates the top estimate at £60,000–80,000, and a first edition of Jane Eyre is estimated at £20,000–30,000. A collection of photographs and documents relating to model and dancer Christine Keeler could fetch £15,000–25,000. Collections included in this sale include Phyllis and Jim Bratt's women's suffrage materials, and Thomas Schuster's collection of Kate Greenaway.

At Forum Auctions on Thursday, March 24, 253 lots of Books and Works on Paper.

Swann Galleries sells 384 lots of Printed & Manuscript African Americana on Thursday. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Why We Can't Wait (1964), inscribed to civil rights lawyer Jack Greenberg, is estimated at $20,000–30,000, as is a third edition, second state copy of Frederick Douglass' Narrative. A copy of Benjamin Banneker's first almanac, for 1792, could sell for $15,000–25,000.

Rounding out the week on Thursday afternoon, 411 lots of Fine Literature – Beats, the Counterculture & Bukowski at PBA Galleries. A copy of Bukowski's Women (1978) with an original oil painting by Bukowski inserted could sell for $4,000–6,000. The same estimate has been assigned to a first edition copy of Munro Leaf's Ferdinand (1936).