By Michael Stillman

Starting on November 18, 2003, and running through November 20, one of the most important book auctions of the past several seasons will be taking place at Sotheby’s in New York. Entitled “The Celebrated Reference Library of H.P. Kraus,” Sotheby’s will be auctioning one of the most complete reference collections ever put together. It affords collectors, librarians, and booksellers a rare chance to build or add to their own reference libraries.

H.P. Kraus was one of the major booksellers of the second half of the 20th century. Emigrating from Austria just before the start of the Second World War, he set up shop in New York, where he sold books until his death in 1988. The shop was then run by his widow, Hanni Kraus, until she passed away early this year.

Hans Kraus was no ordinary bookseller. Two things stand out about his business. One is that he was noted for the immaculate condition of his material. You didn’t go to Kraus to buy material in fair or good condition. This is where you bought material that was mint. And, his material was mostly very old, much of it incunabula.

The second thing that Kraus was noted for was his massive reference library. He gathered virtually every reference work available in the field of books. It is from this immense collection that the Sotheby’s auction draws. It is unlikely we will be seeing another offering of reference works this extensive any time soon.

The Kraus auction will take place in five sessions over three days. Morning sessions take place at 10:15 on all three days, Tuesday-Thursday, November 18-20, while afternoon sessions are limited to November 18 and 19 at 2:00. Material will be on exhibit at the H.P. Kraus store Thursday, November 13 – Monday, November 17, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. except 1:00-5:00 on Sunday, November 16. The auctions take place on the second floor at Sotheby’s, New York.

It would be impossible to do more than mention a few scattered items in this extensive collection. There will be 1,088 lots offered for sale, but this doesn’t begin to indicate the quantity of material as most lots contain multiple titles. There are around 17,000 items in all. Lots are sorted into different categories, such as bookbinding, American bibliography, cartography and catalogues. Lots in a category are all auctioned in the same session, enabling bidders to focus on material of interest to them.

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