Traquair Illuminated Leaves, Amulet Prayer Roll, Twain Photograph, Mormon Missionary Diary: Auction Preview

A lot of sales to keep an eye on this week!

At Chiswick Auctions on Tuesday, November 19, 315 lots of Fine Photographs, with a 1985 Robert Mapplethorpe self-portrait expected to lead the way at £30,000–50,000. Irving Penn's "Three Rissani Women with Bread" is estimated at £15,000–20,000.

New England Book Auctions sells 225 lots of Fine Books & Ephemera on Tuesday, with their usual eclectic mix of material.

On Wednesday, November 20, Dominic Winter Auctioneers sells 331 lots of Photographs, Autographs & Documents, including a group of 65 Walter Nurnberg industrial photographs and a watercolor album by Charlotte Grimston, Countess of Verulam, sharing the top estimate at £3,000–5,000. Eight Annan & Sons photographs of the construction of the Glasgow docks in the 1890s are expected to sell for £1,500–2,000.

Bonhams London sells 98 lots of Fine Books and Manuscripts on Wednesday, with six David Hume letters to his friend William Mure of Caldwell rating the top estimate at £80,000–120,000. Twenty-five illuminated leaves by Phoebe Anne Traquair made to illustrated Elizabeth Barrett Browning's sonnets are expected to sell for £60,000–80,000, while a complete copy of Esquemelin's De Americaensche Zee-Roovers (1678) is estimated at £50,000–70,000. Bonhams has found no auction record of a complete copy of this edition since 1894.

At Freeman's | Hindman on Wednesday, American Historical Ephemera and Photography, in 295 lots. A collection of more than 1,500 wire service photographs of NASA missions from 1961 to 1972 is expected to sell for $4,000–6,000. This sale also includes a number of interesting Civil War photographs.

Forum Auctions sells 394 lots of Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper on Thursday, November 21, with Elisha Trapaud's suite of twenty aquatint views of India (1788) and David Roberts' The Holy Land (1842–1849) sharing the top estimate at £20,000–30,000. An amulet prayer roll on parchment from around the turn of the 15th century is expected to sell for £15,000–20,000. The 1787 Stockdale edition of Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia is estimated at £10,000–15,000.

At Swann Galleries on Thursday, 320 lots of Printed & Manuscript Americana, including a 1833 Mormon missionary diary by John Portineus Greene, expected to sell for $60,000–80,000. A copy of the 1643 tract New England's First Fruits is estimated at $40,000–60,000.

Potter & Potter sell 605 lots of Fine Books & Manuscripts on Thursday, with an inscribed photograph of Mark Twain (signed both as S.L. Clemens and Mark Twain) rating the top estimate at $15,000–20,000. Twain has also added the motto "Good friends, good books, + a sleepy conscience: This is the ideal life." A first issue copy of the 1893 Authors Club publication Liber Scriptorum, with the rare prospectus and instruction sheet, is expected to realize $12,000–15,000. Artist Hannes Bok's copy of the first Arkham House book, Lovecraft's The Outsider and Others (1939) is estimated at $10,000–12,000.

At PBA Galleries on Thursday, 428 lots of Antiquarian Books with Fine Art & Photography – Fine Press – Fine Bindings, with the 1649 first edition in English of Descartes' Discourse of a Method expected to lead the sale at $30,000–50,000. One of just a handful of known copies of George Baldwin's 1801 Investigation into Principles is estimated at $7,000–10,000.