Rare Books &c. at Auction This Week
An 1831 John James Audubon letter to Thomas Allis, offered at Doyle on Tuesday.
Another busy auction week coming up!
Doyle sells 305 lots of Rare Books, Autographs & Maps on Tuesday, November 12. A deluxe copy of the 1969 Maecenas Press/Random House edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by Salvador Dali, is estimated at $8,000–12,000. Joseph Hooker's Rhododendrons of Sikkim-Himalaya (1849–1851), could fetch $6,000–9,000; the same estimate goes to an uncut copy of the first edition of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755). An 1831 Audubon letter to Yorkshire natural historian Thomas Allis is estimated at $5,000–7,000.
At Sotheby's London on Tuesday, Travel, Atlases, Maps and Natural History, in 318 lots. The monumental Description de l'Égypte (1809–1828), in 35 volumes and housed in a bespoke mahogany case, could sell for £250,000–350,000. A copy of the Atlas ou Colom Ardante demonstrant toutes les costes de la Grand Mer (Amsterdam, 1668), being sold to benefit the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, is estimated at £80,000–120,000. Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin's Plantarum rariorum (Vienna, 1797–1804), the de Belder and von Hoffman copy, could also fetch $80,000–120,000. At estimates of £70,000–100,000 are Jakob Christoph Trew's Hortus nitidissimis and the only edition in English of Ortelius' Theatre of the Whole World.
On Wednesday at Swann Galleries, Rare & Important Travel Posters, in 198 lots.
Forum Auctions holds another online sale of Books and Works on Paper on Wednesday, in 103 lots. This "Property of a Collector" sale includes Robert Southey's copy of the 1817 work Account of the Natives of the Tonga Islands, edited by John Martin. The book, in one of Southey's typical Cottonian bindings, could fetch £1,500–2,000. A set of the 1976 Basilisk Press facsimiles of Humphry Repton's Red Books could sell for £750–1,000.
Arader Galleries holds their November Sale on Saturday, November 16, in 85 lots. Gould and Hart's Birds of New Guinea (1875–1888), annotated by both Gould and Hart, is estimated at $350,000–500,000. Subscriber Sir John Franklin's copy of Gould's Birds of Australia (1840–1869), with the supplements, could sell for $275,000–375,000. Much more of great interest here to collectors of Audubon or other ornithological works.
Skinner is running their Fine Books & Manuscripts auction online through Sunday, November 17. The 539 lots include a first edition Leaves of Grass (in a later binding and once in the collections of the Mercantile Library Association of Baltimore), estimated at $20,000–30,000. A copy of Des Barres' Chart of the Coast of New York, New Jersey, Pensilvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, &c. (1780), could sell for $10,000–12,000.
