Wolverine, Revere Engravings, and a Praxinoscope Theater: Auction Preview
Paul Revere's 1769 engraving of British troops landing in Boston Harbor, offered at Christie's New York this week.
Here are the sales I'll be watching this week:
At Chiswick Auctions on Wednesday, January 18, Scientific Instruments, Optical Toys & Photographica including an Important London Collection, in 161 lots. Among the relevant lots for our purposes are what is described as the first lenticular daguerreotype, produced in the early 2000s by David Burder and John Hurlock (£1,500–1,700); an 1855 stereoscopic daguerreotype of Napoleon III's visit to the Crystal Palace exhibition in 1855 (£1,500–2,500); and a praxinoscope theater with ten picture strips (£1,000–2,000).
Also at Chiswick Auctions on Wednesday, 251 lots of Erotica: Objects of Desire. These are mostly paintings and other things beyond our remit here, though there is a set of eleven erotic mezzotints from the 1790s depicting scenes from popular novels (£4,000–6,000), and a late 1780s Persian manuscript on paper of the "Mirror for Princes" conduct manual (£200–300).
Forum Auctions sells 297 lots of Books and Works on Paper on Thursday, January 19. Lots include an imperfect copy of the 1745 edition of Hooke's micrographic plates, Micrographica Restaurata (£1,000–1,500); a rare first edition of E. Taylor's The Lady's, Housewife's, and Cookmaid's Assistant (Berwick upon Tweed, 1769), estimated at £800–1,200; James Gillray's 1803 etching/aquatint "The first kiss this ten years! Britannia & Citizen François" (£700–1,000); and 22 books by Naomi Novik (£400–600).
At PBA Galleries on Thursday, 250 lots of Marvel–DC Mashup. Expected to lead the way is The Incredible Hulk No. 181 (November 1974), featuring the first full appearance of Wolverine ($10,000–15,000); a copy of X-Men No. 1 (September 1963) is estimated at $7,000–10,000, while another copy of the same issue but rated slightly lower is expected to sell for $6,000–9,000.
Christie's New York sells 221 lots of Important Americana on Friday, January 20. Among the lots of interest to us are a copy of Paul Revere's "The Bloody Massacre" (1770), expected to sell for $100,000–150,000. An Augsburg print of Philip Dawe's mezzotint "The Bostonians in Distress" (1774) is estimated at $25,000–35,000, and a copy of Paul Revere's 1769 engraving showing British troops landing at Boston Harbor (1769) could sell for $10,000–15,000.
