It's rare for AE to feature an auction preview where the headlining item isn't considered part of books, maps, or ephemera, but Bonhams New York's History of Science on October 22nd is one such sale. The sale contains many items that will be added to the AE Database once its results are posted--everything on paper. However, those items are not the reason why the sale has been featured in the news recently.
The reason this sale is particularly significant is lot 286, which is a functioning motherboard for the Apple I computer, the first pre-assembled personal computer to ever be sold. This began the modern computing era. You can see a neat video hosted on Bonhams website of the Apple I in action by clicking here. You could buy many brand new modern day Apple computers for the estimated price of the Apple I ($300,000-500,000), and they'd be faster and more capable by light years, but this computer is truly a piece of history. Working Apple Is have sold for huge amounts recently.
The range of topics covered in this general sale of science is broad. The following are highlights and interesting items available for bidding.
Astronomy
Lot 58w, being an archive of pioneering astronomer, photographer and telescope designer George Willis Ritchey. Contained within the lot are hundreds of photographs of the universe as well as glass slides, and books on astronomy. Estimated $450,000-550,000.
Lot 48, Johannes Kepler’s last publication, Tabulae Rudolphinae, quibus Astronomicae scientiae, temporum longinquitate collapsae Restauratio continetur, which was later called “the foundation of all planetary calculations for over a century” by Ruth Sparrow in her Milestones of Science.
Natural History
Lot 74, Nathaniel Wallich’s Plantae Asiaticae Rariores, or, Descriptions and Figures of a Select Number of Unpublished East Indian Plants. Contains 295 full page hand-colored lithograph plates. Estimated $35,000-55,000.
Lot 78, an exhibition broadside entitled “Great American Mastodon!! Now Exhibiting at the Hall”, circa 1846. Estimated $2,000-3,000.
Anatomy
Lots 128 through 132 are superb prints of human muscles by Arnauld-Eloi Gautier D’Agoty. Each of them estimated $1,200-1,800.
Lot 142, for those interested in plastic surgery, an untitled article on Hindu rhinoplasty is the first Western reference on the pratice that would later take LA by storm. Estimated $800-1,200.
Autograph Letters Signed
Lot 80, ALS by Charles Darwin containing questions about the reproductive act among barnacles. Estimated $20,000-30,000.
Lots 256, 257 and 259, being autograph letters and postcards signed by Albert Einstein. Estimated $5,000-8,000; $2,500-3,500; $3,000-5,000.
Lots 276-278, being an autograph letter, photograph and document signed by Thomas Edison. Estimated $1,500-2,000; $1,500-2,000; $1,000-1,500.
Bidding for the sale begins on October 22, 2014 at 1pm EDT. The sale's catalogue is available for viewing in its entirety on Bonhams' website. Bidding is available in person, over the phone, and over the internet. Prospective bidders using Bonhams' website must register prior on their site, direct link to registration here.
Dominic Winter Auctioneers Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles 1500-1800 22nd July 2026
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 83 – Westall & Owen. Picturesque Tour of the River Thames, 1st edition, 1828. £2,000-3,000.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 88 – Blume. Rumphia, Botanicae de plantis Indiae Orientalis, 1835-1848. £2,000-3,000.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 101 – Michaux. Histoire des arbres forestiers de l'Amérique septentrionale, 1810-1812. £700-1,000.
Dominic Winter Auctioneers Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles 1500-1800 22nd July 2026
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 102 – Miller & Shaw. Cimelia Physica, 1796 [but c. 1816]. £3,000-5,000.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 104 – Parkinson. Theatrum Botanicum: The Theater of Plants, London: Thomas Cotes, 1640. £800-1,200.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 159 – Plancius. Orbis Terrarum..., double hemisphere map, 1594-99. £5,000-8,000.
Dominic Winter Auctioneers Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles 1500-1800 22nd July 2026
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 217 – Illuminated Medieval Manuscript. From a Breviary, 14th/15th c. £3,000-4,000.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 224 – The newe Testament … By Wylliam Tyndall…, 1549. £3,000-5,000.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 238 – Douay-Rheims Bible. 3 volumes, 1582/1609/1610. £7,000-10,000.
Dominic Winter Auctioneers Printed Books, Maps & Wisdens, English Bibles 1500-1800 22nd July 2026
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 336 – Ashendene Press. A Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle, 1903. £1,000-1,500.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 393 – Sassoon. Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, signed limited edition, 1931. £800-1,200.
Dominic Winter, July 22: Lot 402 – Dylan Thomas. Twenty-Five Poems, 1st edition in d.j., 1936. £400-600.
Case Auctions 2026 Summer Auction August 1st and 2nd
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Timberlake, Henry: A DRAUGHT OF THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY on the West Side of the Twenty Four Mountains, Commonly Called "Over the Hills". $18,000 to $22,000.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Manuscript orderly book detailing day to day activities of multiple Virginia regiments in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary,1776-1777. $7,000 to $8,000.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Cormac McCarthy, The Orchard Keeper, Random House, New York, 1965. Signed 1st Edition. $3,800 to $4,200.
Case Auctions 2026 Summer Auction August 1st and 2nd
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Battle of Kings Mountain Pamphlet by Isaac Shelby, April 1823, Signed. $1,800 to $2,200.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Large Tintype CSA Lt. Col. Thomas Coke Johnson, 19th GA, w/ Southern Cross, Book. $1,400 to $1,800.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Rare Civil War Ambrotype, 19th GA Infantry with Johnson Family of GA. $800 to $1,200.
Case Auctions 2026 Summer Auction August 1st and 2nd
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: A signed note written by Thomas Alva Edison to an unknown recipient, in which he shares his thoughts on Guglielmo Marconi, regarded as the inventor of the radio. $800 to $1,200.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: Rare 1931 TN Grasslands Steeplechase Book, Gallatin. $800 to $1,000.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: War of 1812 related Broadside, Petersburg Volunteers. $700 to $800.
Case Antiques, Aug. 1: 2 World War I Posters, “Our Colored Fighters” and “No Slacker”. $800 to $1,000.
