Rare Books &c. at Upcoming Auctions

Here are the upcoming auctions I'll be watching:

Sotheby's Churchill in Charge sale ends on Wednesday, May 20. The 100 lots include a print from around 1951 of Yousuf Karsh's December 30, 1941 iconic photograph of a scowling Churchill ($20,000–26,000); a 1925 photograph featuring both Churchill and the future Edward VIII, and signed by both ($18,000–24,000); and a set of Churchill's War Speeches, with the first volume inscribed and dated February 18, 1941.

On Thursday, May 21, Forum Auctions will sell Books and Works on Paper, in 201 lots. 

Also ending on Thursday, PBA Galleries' sale of Americana from the George M. Steinmetz Collection – Literature – Miscellaneous Books. There are 301 lots up for grabs in this entirely no-reserve sale. Much of interest to the Californiana collector.

Books and Manuscripts: A Spring Miscellany at Sotheby's also ends on May 21. The 190 lots include David Burr's 1833 engraved pocket map of Texas, with an additional manuscript map on the verso ($70,000–100,000). A copy of Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied's Voyage Dans l'Intérieur De l'Amérique Du Nord Executé Pendant les Années 1832, 1833 et 1834, with the atlas of illustrations by Karl Bodmer, is estimated at $60,000–90,000. A 1781 Vienna impression of the 1515 Dürer/Stabius world map could sell for $50,000–70,000.

At Christie's Paris on Wednesday, May 27, Livres Rares et Manuscrits, in 182 lots. André Gide's 1947 Nobel Prize medal is expected to lead the sale, estimated at €120,000–180,000. A dedication copy of Louis Duret's edition of Hippocrates (Paris, 1588) with the arms of Henry III on the binding—and later owned by de Thou—rates an estimate of €40,000–60,000, while a large-paper copy of the 1755–59 Desaint & Saillant edition of La Fontaine's Fables could fetch €40,000–50,000.

On May 27–28 at Dominic Winter Auctioneers Printed Books, Maps & Autographs at Dominic Winter Auctioneers, in 876 lots. A first edition of Darwin's Origin is estimated at £15,000–25,000, and an 1879 Darwin letter to his cousin Reginald Darwin about a proposed translation of Ernst Krause's sketch of Erasmus Darwin could sell for £10,000–12,000.

PBA Galleries will sell Art & Archaeology of Asia – Travel & Exploration – Cartography on Thursday, May 28. The 319 lots include several Aurel Stein publications, including Serindia ($15,000–25,000); The Thousand Buddhas ($10,000–15,000); and Innermost Asia ($10,000–15,000). The Bridgewater Library copy of Adam Olearius' The Voyages & Travels of the Ambassadors sent by Frederick Duke of Holstein, to the Great Duke of Muscovy, and the King of Persia (1662) is estimated at $8,000–12,000.

Freeman's holds two sales on May 28: The Martin Magovsky Collection of Children's Books and Books & Manuscripts. The first comprises 156 lots, of which a copy of Matt de la Peña's Last Stop on Market Street (2015), signed by Peña and by illustrator Christian Robinson, rates the top estimate at $3,000–5,000. A first edition of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH could sell for $1,000–1,500. There are 217 lots in the second sale, including a first octavo edition of Audubon's Birds of America ($20,000–30,000); two plates from the first edition each rate the same estimate.