Rare Books &c. at Auction This Week

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

On Tuesday, May 31, New England Book Auctions sells Fine Books & Ephemera, in 210 lots. Henry J. Van Lennep's Oriental Album (1862), estimated at $2,000–3,000, is expected to lead the sale.

Swann Galleries holds a Focus on Women sale on Thursday, June 2, in 199 lots. A complete six-volume set of The History of Woman Suffrage (1881–1922) is estimated at $7,000–10,000, as is a third edition of Juana Inés de la Cruz's Poëmas de la Unica Poetista Americana (1691). Four silver print photographs by Helen Levitt could sell for $5,000–7,000. An inscribed copy of Georgia Douglas Johnson's Bronze: A Book of Verse (1922) is estimated at $4,000–6,000. A mixed set of Ida Husted Harper's Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony (1898–1899), one volume inscribed by Susan B. Anthony, is expected to fetch $4,000–6,000.

The third part of the Private Collection of William S. Reese at Christie's ends on Thursday. The 148 lots include a 1942 ink drawing by Matisse ($18,000–25,000); a copy of the first American architecture book, Asher Benjamin's Country Builder's Assistant (1797) in a contemporary sheep binding ($15,000–25,000); and John Betjeman's copy of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1945), which is estimated at $12,000–18,000.

Also on Thursday at PBA Galleries, 218 lots of Rare Books & Manuscripts. A copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer (1896), formerly in the collection of John Whiting Friel, rates the top estimate of $70,000–100,000. A Golden Cockerel Four Gospels (1931) could sell for $15,000–25,000, and Edward Halle's Union of the Two Noble and Ilustre Famelies of Lancastre & Yorke (1550) is estimated at $10,000–15,000. This rare copy of the suppressed fourth edition previously belonged to A. Edward Newton, Abel Berland, and the Marquess of Lothian.