Ten Commandments Tablet, Kelmscott Press Collection, Alcott Autograph Manuscript: Auction Preview
A copy on vellum of the last Kelmscott Press book, A Note By William Morris On His Aims In Founding The Kelmscott Press Together With A Short Description Of The Press By S. C. Cockerell, and An Annotated List Of The Books Printed Thereat (1898), offered at Bonhams this week.
Here are the sales I'll be watching this week:
Swann Galleries will sell 223 lots of Fine Photographs on Tuesday, December 17, with Ansel Adams' Portfolio Four (1963) expected to lead the sale at $50,000–75,000. An albumen print of Julia Margaret Cameron's 1869 portrait of Alfred, Lord Tennyson is estimated at $10,000–15,000, as are Roman Vishniac's portfolio The Vanished World (1936–1938, printed 1977) and a suite of fifteen master set photographs from Arthur Tress' 1975 book Shadow.
At Bonhams New York on Tuesday, the Complete Kelmscott Press Collection of Joseph Mark Van Horn, in 80 lots. The Kelmscott Chaucer could sell for $60,000–90,000, while a notable copy of the last Kelmscott Press book, A Note by William Morris on his Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press could sell for $30,000–50,000. The sale also includes Van Horn's copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle, estimated at $30,000–50,000.
On Wednesday, December 18, Sotheby's Paris sells 108 lots of Livres et Manuscrits, de Galilée à Warhol. Rating the top estimate is a deluxe edition of Marcel Proust's À l’ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs (1920), expected to sell for €150,000–200,000. A copy of the 1930 Gallimard edition of Apollinaire's Calligrammes with illustrations by Giorgio De Chirico and in a Paul Bonet binding is estimated at €130,000–150,000. Galileo's Dialogo (1632) in a contemporary binding could sell for €60,000–80,000.
At Sotheby's New York on Wednesday, the earliest surviving inscribed tablet of the Ten Commandments (c.300–800 CE), known as the Yavne Tablet, will be sold. The estimate range is $1–2 million. This will be followed by a 121-lot sale of Important Judaica, including a fifteenth-century Mahzor manuscript according to the Rite of Candia ($150,000–250,000). A 1942 illuminated manuscript of the Book of Job with miniatures by Ze'ev Rabin in a binding decorated with gold, silver, and gemstones is expected to sell for $100,000–200,000.
Bonhams New York sells 165 lots of Fine Books & Manuscripts on Wednesday, with a large folio composite atlas from about 1730 rating the top estimate at $300,000–500,000. Louisa May Alcott's autograph manuscript of her story "Jerseys, or the Girl's Ghost," previously in the Estelle Doheny collection, could sell for $50,000–70,000. A first issue copy of Swift's Gulliver's Travels is expected to sell for $40,000–60,000. This sale also includes highlights from Kendall Reed's collection of Walt Whitman letters (lots 42–78).
At PBA Galleries on Thursday, December 19, Americana – Travel & Exploration – Jim Hier Collection of U.S. Presidents – World History – Maps, Prints & Views, in 558 lots. A copy of George Armstrong Custer's My Life on the Plains (1874), signed by Custer and seven other members of his command shares the top estimate of $10,000–15,000 with a large Currier & Ives lithographic bird's-eye view of San Francisco (1878). A copy of Frederick Schortemeier's Rededicating America: Life and Recent Speeches of Warren G. Harding (1921) inscribed by Harding "Yours for America!" and dated May 30, 1921 could sell for $8,000–12,000.
