Christie's London in November: Cricket, Adult Material, and An Atlas of Epic Proportion
- by Thomas C. McKinney
Snapshots from Christie's upcoming November sales
This month three auctions from Christie’s London pertain to AE’s focus on books, maps, manuscripts, and ephemera. Beginning with November 5th, Two Important Sporting Libraries will take place over the course of two sessions on that day at Christie’s South Kensington location. Later in the month and moving over to their King Street address, Highlights from the Erotica Library of Tony Fekete takes place on the 18th, with Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books following the next day on the 19th. With no two sales containing overlapping material, Christie’s footprint in November is significant.
Two Important Sporting Libraries is made up of 260 lots and strongly focuses on the sport of cricket. A significant run of John Wisden’s Cricketers’ Almanack is available as individual lots, and the sales two most valuable items based on estimation are both cricket-related. The first, Samuel Britcher’s A Complete list of all the Grand Matches of Cricket that have been played in the year 1801 is one of four known copies. The item is available as lot 51 and is estimated £25,000 - 35,000. The other, Frederick Lillywhite’s The Young Cricketer’s Guide [and] The Guide to Cricketers is a full 25 volume set containing the famous Lillywhite guides. As stated before, Two Important Sporting Libraries takes place on November 5th at Christie’s London, South Kensington facility. Full details of the sale including an e-catalogue may be found on Christie’s website here, as well as online registration for bidding.
Next chronologically is Highlights from the Erotica Library of Tony Fekete. Before I continue, I will copy a note from Christie’s website: WARNING: THIS SALE CONTAINS ADULT MATERIAL NOT SUITABLE FOR MINORS. That should have definitely been the article title. Containing 221 lots, this sale is what I would call... more visually engaging, at least to my 28 year-old eyes. All sorts of material are present, including two erotic alphabet books (who knew typography could be that interesting), homoerotic watercolours, and good old fashioned nude photographs. The sale’s highest value items are both copies of the Marquis de Sade’s influential and infamous work Justine. Lot 179, the “very rare true first edition,” is one of perhaps less than five copies known. Estimated at £70,000 - 100,000, owning one of those copies will not come cheaply. Highlights from the Erotica Library of Tony Fekete takes place on November 18th at Christie’s London, King Street location. Full details of the sale including an e-catalogue may be found on Christie’s website here, and again, registration for bidding online is also on their website.
Valuable Manuscripts and Printed Books has the difficult task of following up an act made up in large part by nudity. However, that is rendered null by the fact this sale is the only one with an item priced with seven figures. With 87 lots, it is the smallest of the three sales, but if one particular lot sells, it will far outweigh the other two combined. Lot 45, Grazioso Benincasa’s Portolan Atlas, signed and dated by the man himself, is the sale’s crown jewel. Dated 1468 from Venice, this manuscript atlas contains seven charts, two of which are the earliest known depictions of their subjects--the west coast of Africa and Ireland. This item in question is a legendary piece for the most dedicated map collectors.The sale takes place on November 19th at Christie’s London, King Street location. Full details of the sale including an e-catalogue and auction registration may be found on Christie’s website here.
Sotheby’s, July 14: Henry De La Beche. "Awful Changes," 1830. $6,000 to $9,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 11]. Flight Plan, Complete Original Printing Signed by Buzz Aldrin. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Thomas Alva Edison. Documents Establishing and Ending the Edison Electric Railway Company. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: Richard P. Feynman. Feynman's Lectures on Gravitation 1-16, Including the Original Transcriptions of Lectures 12-16 by Morinigo and Wagner, With Richard Feynman's Manuscript Notations, 1971. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [Apollo 9]. A Group of Manuals and Mission Documents used by Stuart Roosa as a member of the Astronaut Support Crew. $5,000 to $8,000.
Sotheby’s, July 15: [BYTE: The Small Systems Journal]. A collection of early foundational issues of Byte: The Small Systems Journal, with rare hardcover editions. $5,000 to $8,000.
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Inundation papyrus. P.Michael 4, the ‘Inundation papyrus’, a geographical account of the Nile near Canopus, in Greek, remains of two columns from a manuscript scroll on papyrus, Egypt, second century CE. £12,000-18,000
Forum, July 16: Book of Hours, use of Sarum, manuscript on vellum, 6 full-page miniatures, with famous Middle English inscriptions, Southern Netherlands for the English market, [c.1430]. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Qu'ran, Arabic manuscript on burnished, stencilled, and gold-flecked paper, 447ff., Sultanate Gujarat, Ahmadabad, [after 1411 but no later than 1442]. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Turner (William). A New boke of the natures and properties of all wines that are commonly vsed here in England, rare first edition of the first English book on wine, By William Seres, 1568. £20,000-£30,000
Forum, July 16: Spenser (Edmund). The Faerie Queene. first edition, Printed [by John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, 1590. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Shakespeare (William). The Comedie of Errors, extracted from the first folio, Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount, 1623. £15,000-20,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Fleming (Ian). Casino Royale, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1953. £40,000-60,000
Forum, July 16: d'Agoty (Jacques-Fabien Gautier). Anatomie de la Tête, first edition, Paris, chez le Sieur Gautier, 1748. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 16: Martial Arts.- Lee (Bruce). 'Praying Mantis style' Kung Fu book, containing numerous annotations, diagrams and graphs in Bruce Lee's hand, c. 1960. £50,000-70,000
Forum Auctions The 10th Anniversary Sale Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper July 16, 2026
Forum, July 16: Warre (Capt. Henry James). Sketches in North America and the Oregon Territory, first edition, rare hand-coloured issue, 1848. £30,000-40,000
Forum, July 16: Norie (John William). The Marine Atlas, or Seaman's Complete Pilot for all the principal places in the known world..., 1826. £30,000-50,000
Forum, July 16: Mao Tse-tung.- Kim Il-sung.-[Note book for visitors from China to Korea], signed by Mao and Kim, [Beijing, 1954]. £10,000-15,000
