• <b><center>Koller Auctions<br>Books & Autographs<br>29 March 2023</b>
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> DADA - <i>Cabaret Voltaire.</i> A collection of artistic and literary contributions. Edited by Hugo Ball. CHF 5,000 to 8,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> EXPRESSIONISM - <i>Der Sturm.</i> Weekly magazine for culture and the arts. Almost complete suite from the years 1910 to 1932. CHF 20,000 to 30,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> LISBON EARTHQUAKE - <i>Augsburg collection of copper engravings of Lisbon. CHF 40,000 to 60,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> Hamilton, William. <i>Campi Phlegraei. Observations on the Volcanos of the Two Sicilies as they have been communicated to the Royal Society of London.</i> Naples, 1776-1779. CHF 50,000 to 70,000.
    <b><center>Koller Auctions<br>Books & Autographs<br>29 March 2023</b>
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> Leonardi, Domenico Felice. <i>Le Delizie della villa di Castellazzo descritte in verso dall'abbate Domenico Felice Leonardi lucchese fra gli Arcadi Ildosio Foloetico.</i> Milan, 1743. CHF 12,000 to 18,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> Zwingli, Huldrych. <i>Von erkiesen und freyhait der speisen. Von ergernusz und Verbößerung. Ob man gewalt hab die speyß zu etlichen zeyten verbieten [...]</i>. CHF 2,500 to 4,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> HENDRIK VAN VULLENHOE, UMKREIS. Benedictional and other texts for Johannes von Venningen, Bishop of Basel. Latin manuscript on parchment. CHF 50,000 to 80,000.
    <b>Koller, Mar. 29:</b> Gujer, Hans Rudolf. Master typist's book by Hans Rudolf Gujer from Wermetschweil (Wermatswil). German manuscript on paper. CHF 3,000 to 5,000.
  • <b><center>Stargardt Autographenhandlung<br>Autographs: Literature, Music, Art, Science, History, Theatre & Film<br>March 28, 2023</b>
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Autograph album leaf signed, 1826. €9,000 to €12,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Franz Kafka: Autograph letter unsigned, 1924. €15,000 to €20,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Torquato Tasso: Autograph poem signed, no date. €12,000 to €16,000.
    <b><center>Stargardt Autographenhandlung<br>Autographs: Literature, Music, Art, Science, History, Theatre & Film<br>March 28, 2023</b>
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Charles Darwin: Autograph letter signed, 1866. €4,500 to €6,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Albert Einstein: Autograph letter signed, 1933. €6,000 to €8,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Heinrich Hertz: Autograph manuscript signed, 1889. €18,000 to €24,000.
    <b><center>Stargardt Autographenhandlung<br>Autographs: Literature, Music, Art, Science, History, Theatre & Film<br>March 28, 2023</b>
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Giambattista Bodoni: Autograph letter signed, 1787. €900 to €1,200.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Francisco de Goya: Autograph letter signed, 1789. €18,750 to €25,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Martin Luther: Notes from his desk, no date. €30,000 to €40,000.
    <b><center>Stargardt Autographenhandlung<br>Autographs: Literature, Music, Art, Science, History, Theatre & Film<br>March 28, 2023</b>
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Ludwig van Beethoven: Autograph letter signed, 1816. €22,500 to €30,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Gustav Mahler: Foto portrait signed and annotated, 1907(?). €7,500 to €10,000.
    <b>Stargardt Autographenhandlung, Mar. 28:</b> Bed?ich Smetana: Autograph letter signed, 1883. €4,500 to €6,000.

Rare Book Monthly

Articles - January - 2016 Issue

And Now... The Top 500 Prices Paid at Auction in 2015 for Books and Works on Paper

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#275 - the last supper – dinner menu from the Titanic's final night (from Heritage Auctions).

The close of another year gives us a chance to look back at the Rare Book Hub Top 500 prices paid at auction in the books, manuscripts and ephemera field for 2015. These annual lists help us understand what is popular today, particularly among the highest end of collectors, and to take the pulse of the market. Here are a few things we found.

 

For the first time since 2012, the top item fell just short of reaching eight figures. However, the most expensive piece is not indicative of much other than how badly someone wanted the most desired item offered. More indicative of the market is how great the price still is at the 500th most expensive item. For 2015, that number was $74,200, down from $79,800 (7%) the prior year. Next month, we will have a chance to get a broader look at what happened at auction in 2015, but this implies some market softness in the past year after a major gain in 2014.

 

Last year saw a return of many great literary names to the Top 500, though not always their books. There has been a trend toward more interest in manuscripts and other often unique ephemeral items. Top dollar is as likely to go to a letter from the author or an original manuscript copy versus a first edition of the book itself. Books are found in healthy numbers on this list, but so are manuscripts (particularly pre-Gutenberg illuminated manuscripts), plates from books, maps, posters, photographs, and almost unheard of a decade ago but common today, comics. Unlike a few years ago, they are not just first issue comic books, but the original boards used to create them. These are sort of the comic equivalent of a book's original manuscript or typescript. We wondered whether comics should even be included in the books and paper field, but they are certainly works on paper, and leaving them out would leave an incomplete picture of what is selling today.

 

At the end of this article, we will provide an explanation as to what sort of material qualifies for this list.

 

Who was the most popular collectible author in 2015? The top two from 2014 exchanged places. John James Audubon is on top with 12 appearances on the list. Along with his complete books, single plates from the double-elephant folio first edition of his Birds of America continue to bring huge prices. Slipping back from first to second, with only 10 appearances, instead of 14 like last year, is Belgian George Remi, better known as Hergé. That one may leave Americans scratching their heads. Hergé was the creator of the French comic Tintin. Americans are probably wondering what it is about Tintin that leads Europeans to spend so much money on its boards, but Europeans are probably wondering what on earth leads Americans to spend so much on bizarre, often violent superhero comics. I can't explain either.

 

Perhaps somewhat similar is the type of broadsides/posters found on this list. They are not so much announcements of historical events as they are posters for famous movies. Once again, pop culture trumps reality.

 

As for the most popular book on the list, the runaway leader was Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species. It appears five times in the Top 500, one of eight Darwin items found. Obviously, it is more important than rare.

 

Here are a few of the names you will find this year. From the world of literature and poetry we find Fitzgerald, Orwell, Dickens, Proust, Villon, Eliot, Voltaire, Kafka, Grimm, Milton, Racine, Twain, Shakespeare, Hugo, Donne, Coleridge, Baudelaire, T. Williams, Chaucer, Dostoevsky, Mallarmé, Stendahl, Wilde, Rabelais, Dante, Joyce, Jonson, Cervantes, La Fontaine, Poe, de Sade, Balzac and Tolkien. Are there a surprisingly large number of French authors this year? This was the year of the first Pierre Bergé sale, approximately $13 million worth of books with a decidedly French orientation.

 

From politics, military and thought we have Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy, Lee, Sherman, Mao, Locke, Engels, Montaigne, Mill, Malthus, Wittgenstein, Adam Smith, and John Adams. Science gives us Einstein, Newton, Darwin, Galileo, Buffon, Descartes, Kepler, Boyle and Pascal. From music we find Beethoven, Handel, Haydn, the Beatles, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, Bizet, Liszt, Dvorak, and Don McLean.

 

Before we get to the Top 10, here are few items elsewhere in the Top 500, to be followed by the Top 10 and a link to the complete 500.

 

#450 is a manuscript map by someone in British General Burgoyne's army of part of the site of the Second Battle of Saratoga in 1777. American forces led by Generals Gates and soon-to-be traitor Arnold defeated the British, preventing their plan to split the nation in half along the Hudson River and secure a quick victory. $81,250.

 

#416 - The Kelmscott Chaucer, the greatest private press book ever printed being no match for dozens of comics and movie posters. $86,655.

 

#275 - A dinner menu from the final night of the Titanic in 1912. It was a very good meal, but not good enough to justify the trip. It is signed by five salesmen, first class passengers, which is why four of them survived. $118,750.

 

#143 - In a draft of an important announcement he was about to make in 1959, John F. Kennedy writes three pages, including the words, "I am announcing today my candidacy for the Presidency of the United States." For reference, nine Tintin items beat out Kennedy's announcement that he was running for the presidency. $196,000.

 

#79 – The most expensive of Darwin's Origins. It is a presentation copy, with a secretary's inscription from the author (as with all other presentation copies). $298,000.

 

#60 – The top movie poster, this for the 1931 version of Frankenstein. $358,500.

 

#28 - The Beatles first signed contract with Brian Epstein in 1962. As their manager, Epstein would lead the Fabulous Four to unparalleled heights. $551,150.

 

#15 – The first complete edition of Joan Blaeu's Atlas Major, the greatest atlas ever printed. $883,120.

 

#14 - A 1937 letter from Communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong to British opposition leader Clement Attlee calling for the two nations to work together to defeat the Japanese who had invaded China. $907,500.

 

#12 - Eight consecutive leaves comprising the Book of Esther from the "Noble Fragment" copy of the Gutenberg Bible. $970,000.

 

And now, the Top 10.

Rare Book Monthly

  • <b><center>Swann Auction Galleries<br>Printed & Manuscript African Americana:<br>March 30, 2023</b>
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Victor H. Green, <i>The Negro Motorist Green Book,</i> New York, 1949. $10,000 to $15,000.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Papers of pianist-composer Lawrence Brown relating to Paul Robeson & more, various places, 1925-54. $5,000 to $7,500.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Freedom Summer archive of civil rights activist Karen Haberman Trusty, Atlanta & elsewhere, 1963-64. $5,000 to $7,500.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> E. Simms Campbell, <i>A Night-Club Map of Harlem,</i> New York, 1933. $8,000 to $12,000.
    <b>Swann March 30:</b> Archive of letters from the sculptor Richmond Barthé to a close Jamaican friend, various places, 1966-85. $25,000 to $35,000.
  • <center><b>Gonnelli<br>Auction 41<br>Books, Autographs & Manuscripts<br>March 21st-23rd 2023</b>
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Nabokov, <i>Lolita,</i> 1955. First edition, mint copy. Starting price 1900€
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Marinetti, <i>Zang Tumb Tuuum,</i> 1914. First edition. Starting price 1600€
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> A collection of <i>Playboy,</i> starting price from 20€
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Kepler, <i>Dioptrice,</i> 1611. First edition. Starting price 9500€
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Barbault, <i>Les plus beaux Monuments de Rome,</i> 1761-1766. Starting price 5500€
    <b>Gonnelli:</b> Watson, <i>Dendrologia Britannica,</i> 1825. Starting price 380€
  • <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>30th March 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Roman binding.- Pindar. <i>Olympia, Pythia, Nemea, Isthmia,</i> translated by Johannes Lonicer, contemporary Roman binding by Niccolo Franzese, Basel, 1535. £40,000 to £60,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Raverat (Gwen). Comprehensive album of 530 wood engravings, circa 1909-1950. £40,000 to £60,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Hemingway (Ernest). <i>Fiesta,</i> first English edition, first impression dust-jacket, 1927. £15,000 to £20,000.
    <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>30th March 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Fleming (Ian). <i>Casino Royale,</i> first edition, first impression, 1953. £12,000 to £18,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Dickens (Charles). <i>Great Expectations,</i> 3 vol., first edition, first impression, Chapman and Hall, 1861. £10,000 to £15,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Campbell (Colen) & others. <i>Vitruvius Britannicus, or The British Architect...,</i> 5 vol., vol.1-3 later editions, vol.4 & 5 first editions, [?1731]-31-67-71. £10,000 to £15,000.
    <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>30th March 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Geography.- Mela (Pomponius). <i>Cosmographia, sive De situ orbis,</i> Venice, Franciscus Renner de Heilbronn, 1478. £8,000 to £12,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> America.- [?Espinosa y Tello (José)]. <i>Relacion del Viage hecho por las Goletas Sutil y Mexicana en el Año de 1792,</i> 2 vol. including Atlas, first edition, Madrid, 1802. £8,000 to £12,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Australasia.- Péron (Francois) and Louis-Claude de Saulces de Freycinet. <i>Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes,</i> 5 vol. including Atlas, second edition, Paris, 1824. £8,000 to £12,000.
    <center><b>Forum Auctions<br>Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper<br>30th March 2023</b>
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Botany.- Curtis (William). <i>The Botanical Magazine; or, Flower-Garden Displayed,</i> 83 vol. in 62, 1794-1956. £8,000 to £12,000.
    <b>Forum, Mar. 30:</b> Darwin (Charles).- Lecky (W.E.H.) <i>The Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe,</i> 2 vol., Darwin's copy with inscription "Charles Darwin 1865", pencil marginalia and pencil notes, 1865. £7,000 to £10,000.

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