Rare Books &c. at Auction This Week
On Monday, April 23, Australian Book Auctions sells Books and Documents, in 182 lots. The catalog is available as a PDF file. Three issues of the London Chronicle from March 1789, containing the first printed account of the settlement at Sydney (Lot 3), are estimated at AU$8,000-12,000, while Watkin Tench's 1793 Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson in original boards (Lot 5) could sell for AU$10,000-15,000.
Doyle New York hosts a sale of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on Wednesday, April 25, in 604 lots. See Rebecca's post from last week about the items from the estate of Dr. Leo Hershkowitz coming up in this sale. Other lots include a first edition of The House at Pooh Corner signed by both Milne and Shepard and including an original Shepard drawing ($40,000-60,000) and a number of items from the estate of Arnold "Jake" Johnson.
At Swann Galleries on Thursday, April 26, Fine Illustrated Books & Graphics, in 278 lots. Copy No. 103 of Das Werk von Gustav Klimt (1918), the artist's only monograph published during his lifetime, could fetch $25,000-35,000. Fernard Léger's 1950 portfolio Cirque is estimated at $20,000-30,000. Among the other notable lots are a 1974 "Doubtful Guest" doll, one of an edition of fifty numbered copies signed by Edward Gorey ($4,000-6,000; pictured above), a copy of the Kelmscott Press Defense of Guenevere ($2,500-3,500), and a three-volume facsimile of the Book of Kells ($600-900).
On Saturday, April 28, Potter and Potter holds their Spring Magic Auction, in 705 lots. The lot to watch here is a two-volume scrapbook related to spiritualism and "spirit debunking," kept and annotated by Harry Houdini and later owned and added to by Joseph Dunninger, a magician and friend of Houdini's. The auction house has placed an estimate of $30,000-40,000 on the scrapbooks. A second lot of much interest to the Houdini collector is an extensive archive of material collected by Elliot Sanford, Houdini's secretary and assistant ($10,000-15,000). Ed Marlo's archive of magic trick manuscripts could sell for $5,000-8,000. Potter and Potter's catalogs always make for interesting browsing, so do have a look through this one.
Image credit: Swann Galleries
