Auction Preview: Two Sales by Swann Auction Galleries
- by Thomas C. McKinney
The fall is historically a busy time for the auction industry, and October finds Swann Auction Galleries in the heat of it. With five auctions upcoming this month for them, we’ll be taking a look at two that pertain particularly to books, maps, and ephemera. Taking place the day this month’s AE Monthly releases, October 1, Art, Press & Illustrated Books begins bidding at 1:30pm EDT. The second sale, Early Printed, Medical & Scientific Books, is scheduled for October 21 at 1:30pm EDT. Bidding for both sales is available in person, over the phone, and online.
With approximately ten and a half hours from the time of AE Monthly’s mailing (around midnight PDT) to the auction beginning for Art, Press & Illustrated Books, let’s get right into it. Here are some examples of what you’ll find for sale:
Lots 40-46, works by Marc Chagall, including the six volume The Lithographs 1922-1974. Lot 45, estimated $3,500-5,000.
Lots 65-74, works by Salvador Dali, including a first edition, number 20 of 25 numbered copies with two additional suites of plates of Pages choisies de Don Quichotte de la Manche. Lot 70, estimated $25,000-35,000.
Lots 187-192, works by Henri Matisse, including a limited edition copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses illustrated and signed by Matisse. Lot 191, estimated $3,000-4,000.
Lots 211-214, works by Pablo Picasso, including Jaime Sabartes’ Toreros containing 4 lithographed plates by Picasso, one in color. Lot 213, estimated $3,000-4,000.
The entire catalogue of Art, Press & Illustrated Books is available online at Swann’s website where you may also register if you wish to bid online.
The second sale mentioned previously is Early Printed, Medical & Scientific Books, occurring on October 21. Here are some of the high profile lots included within it:
Lot 16, Single leaf from a paper copy of the 42-line Bible, circa 1450-55. This is a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible! It is hinged in a copy of A. Edward Newton’s A Noble Fragment; being, A Lead of the Gutenberg Bible, 1450-1455, with a Bibliographical Essay. Estimated $40,000-50,000.
Lot 29, Missale Leodie[n]sis ecclesie, 1502. Full-page woodcut of the Crucifixion at the beginning of the Canon of the Mass. Estimated $15,000-25,000.
Lot 262, Galileo Galilei’s Systema cosmicum . . . in quo quatuor dialogis de duobus maximis mundi systematibus, Ptolemaico & Copernicano . . . disseritur, 1635. This is the first edition in latin of Galileo’s 1632 dialogue proving the validity of the Copernican heliocentric theory. Estimated $15,000-20,000.
Lot 324, Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica . . . Editio tertia aucta & emendata, 1726. Features an engraved frontispiece of Newton by George Vertue after Vanderbank. Estimated $8,000-12,000.
Lot 240, Georg Agricola’s De re metallica, 1556. Contains nearly 270 woodcut text illustrations. This is the first edition of the first systematic treatise on mining and metallurgy.
The entire catalogue of Early Printed, Medical & Scientific Books is available on Swann’s website where you may also register if you wish to bid online.
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.
