Rare Books &c. at Auction This Week

It's a lively week for rare books and manuscripts auctions; here's the rundown. 

On Tuesday, June 21 at ALDE, Livres Anciens et du XIXe Siècle, in 286 lots. A 251-volume copy of the Panckoucke Encyclopédie Méthodique (1782–1832) is expected to sell for €20,000–30,000, and an alchemical manuscript is estimated at €8,000–10,000. A first edition of Tocqueville's De la Démocratie en Amérique (1835–1840) could sell for €10,000–12,000.

It will be 152 lots of Photographs at Doyle on Tuesday. A 1996 Andreas Gursky Cibachrome print of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Atlanta rates the top estimate at $150,000–250,000. A complete set of Edward Weston's Fiftieth Anniversary Portfolio (1951) could sell for $60,000–90,000.

At Hindman Auctions on Tuesday and Wednesday, American Historical Ephemera and Photography Featuring the Civil War and American Militaria Collection of Bruce B. Hermann. The 296 lots include a family collection of letters and photographs of the Rosborough family, estimated at $15,000–25,000. An album of 120 Mathew Brady CDVs of Union generals and officers could sell for $15,000–20,000.

Bonhams London sells Fine Books and Manuscripts on Wednesday, June 22, in 233 lots. An inscribed first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997) rates the top estimate at £100,000–150,000. Gould and Sharpe's Birds of New Guinea and the Adjacent Papuan Islands (1876–1888) in the original 25 parts, could sell for £40,000–60,000. A "press copy" of the Shakespeare and Company edition of Ulysses (1922), sent to the London Mercury, is estimated at £30,000–50,000, while a presentation copy of the same edition, inscribed by Joyce to his Zurich friend August Suter rates the same estimate.

At Sotheby's Paris on Wednesday, Un Cabinet de Curiosités Bibliophiliques: de Dürer à Alechinsky, in 253 lots. Dürer's 1511 Passio domini nostri Jesu is expected to sell for €80,000–120,000, and the same artist's Epitome in divae parthenices mariae historiam is rated at €60,000–80,000. John Young's Series of Portraits of the Emperors of Turkey (1815) could fetch €40,000–60,000.

University Archives sells Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books on Wednesday, in 480 lots. A 528-item collection of autograph material relating to Confederate generals is estimated at $300,000–500,000, while a similar 630-item collection of Union generals could sell for $175,000–200,000. A 1954 Albert Einstein letter to Arthur Rushmore is expected to sell for $60,000–70,000.

Australian Book Auctions holds their June Gallery Sale on Wednesday, in 220 lots.

Forum Auctions sells the Gastronomy Library of the Late Caroline Crisford on Thursday, June 23. The 158 lots include La Varenne's The French Cook (1564) and Hannah Glasse's Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747), each expected to sell for £3,000–4,000.

At Aguttes on Thursday, Aristophil 50, Autographes & Manuscrits Musicaux, in 263 lots. A handful of Olivier Messiaen music manuscripts are expected to fetch the highest prices.

Swann Galleries sells 411 lots of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books on Thursday. John Bachmann's Panorama of the Seat of War (1861) rates the top estimate at $10,000–15,000, while a first state copy of William Birch's "The City of New York in the State of New York" (1803) could sell for $8,000–12,000.

On Saturday, June 25 Arader Galleries holds their June Auction, in 186 lots. A ninth-state copy of the Prince & Bonner map of Boston (1769) is expected to sell for $250,000–300,000, while William Matthew Hart's original watercolor of a resplendent quetzal for Gould's Monograph of the Trogonidae could fetch $200,000–275,000.