Washington Commission, Fine Press, French Travel Books: Auction Preview

Here are the sales I'll be watching this week:

At ALDE on Tuesday, April 16, 286 lots of Atlas & Livres de Voyage – Histoire Naturelle, including a very nice copy of George Edwards' Histoire naturelle de divers oiseaux (1745–1751), which rates the top estimate at €20,000–30,000. Ignace Mouradja d'Ohsson's Tableau général de l'Empire othoman (1787–1820) is expected to sell for €10,000–12,000, and Alexandre Laborde's Voyage pittoresque et historique de l'Espagne (1806–1820), estimated at €8,000–10,000.

Forum Auctions holds an online sale of Books and Works on Paper on Thursday, April 18, in 295 lots. Guillaume Du Choul's Discorso sopra la Castramentatione (1556) from the Macclesfield Library shares the top estimate of £800–1,200 with an early 18th-century manuscript plan of the Mayfair area of London.

At Potter & Potter Auctions on Thursday, How History Unfolds on Paper: Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection, Part IX, in 560 lots. One of just two known original copies of George Washington's commission as commander of the Continental Army in 1775 is estimated at $150,000–250,000. An appointment document signed by Washington as president could fetch $15,000–25,000. A group of twenty-three letters from Mormon convert George Alley to his brother is estimated at $10,000–20,000.

PBA Galleries sells 353 lots of Fine Art & Photography – Fine Press – Fine Bindings on Thursday, including the Trillium Press edition of Dante's Divine Comedy (2003–2005) with lithographs by Sandow Berk ($10,000–15,000); the Arion Press Leaves of Grass (2014) rates the same estimate range. The Golden Cockerel Press Canterbury Tales with illustrations by Eric Gill and from the library of Carl I. Wheat is estimated at $7,000–10,000.