The Lubranos, Music Antiquarians, Test the Auction Field on 6 October
- by Bruce E. McKinney
John & Jude Lubrano
John and Jude Lubrano, the husband-and-wife team of J & J Lubrano Music Antiquarians, have long held an important, even unique, place in the field of antiquarian music. They specialize in historically significant material relating to music and dance through the centuries. Their business dates to the pre-Internet era, having been established in 1977. In a few days they will be launching, via the auction platform Invaluable, their first auction, to take place on October 6th.
In their 41 years in the trade they were first traditional dealers, located near the summer music paradise, Tanglewood, in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, also the site of the country’s oldest summer dance festival, Jacob’s Pillow. They began by selling to both visitors to the festivals and associated conductors, musicians, and dancers, and later broadened their business by selling by mail and telephone. In time, they would issue several catalogues a year, and over the ensuing years, publish more than eighty in total. In the early 1980s they joined the ABAA, the primary American association of antiquarian booksellers, and soon thereafter became regular exhibitors at ABAA book fairs. In the 1990s they began to both buy and sell online, launching their first website in 2003. Their website and online catalogues have since become their primary sales vehicles.
But times change, and the Lubranos are changing with them with this new auction venture. More, and younger, people are buying at auction, and this tendency is as noticeable in antiquarian music as it is in the myriad other categories of collectible printed and manuscript material that have increasingly seen younger buyers prefer market-determined valuations. With the staging of this, their first auction, the Lubranos are moving into this realm.
The collectability of the categories of music and dance is beyond dispute; these fields have been actively collected for centuries. The primary question for new collectors is just how much to pay for items they find of interest.
Auctions fall into two categories: those houses that sell their own material and those that provide this service to others. Initially, the Lubranos will be selling their own material, and it is material that they know very well. Their plan is to set conservative starting prices and allow the hammer, or price realized, to be determined by market interest. For newer collectors who are more accustomed to, and comfortable with, buying by competitive bidding, such an approach makes sense.
The material offered in their current auction, some 465 lots, is posted on the auction site Invaluable and a link to the sale posted at the end of this article.
Here are a few examples that express both the subjects and price ranges reflected in the sale:
MUSICAL MANUSCRIPTS
Lot 224: MENOTTI, Gian Carlo
Two solo songs from the composer's cantata Landscapes and Remembrances: "The Abandoned Mansion (South Carolina)” for contralto: 1f. (title), 5, [i] (blank) pp. and "Farewell at a Train Station in Vermont for tenor." 8 pp. Autograph musical manuscripts in piano-vocal score. Signed "G. Menotti." Ca. 1976
Estimate $6,000 - $8,000
Starting bid $4,500
AUTOGRAPH LETTERS OF COMPOSERS
Lot 384: VERDI, Giuseppe
Autograph letter signed "G. Verdi" to his accountant Luigi Peragallo
Estimate $4,500 to $5,500
Starting bid $3,000
PRINTED MUSIC
Lot 246: MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus
[K527]. Il Dissoluto Punito osia Il Don Giovanni Dramma giocoso in due Atti... Ridotto per il Pianoforte da C. G. Neefe. [Piano-vocal score]. Hamburgo: Giovanni Augusto Böhme [without PN], [ca. 1810]
Estimate $600 - $800
Starting bid: $500
DANCE
Lot 473: [DUNCAN, Isadora] Walkowitz, Abraham
Original full-length pencil drawing of Duncan in a dance pose by the American modernist artist Abraham Walkowitz
Sotheby’s Shelf Life: Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper from the Library of Stanley J. Seeger and Christopher Cone 25 June – July 7
Sotheby’s, July 7: Ludwig van Beethoven. Autograph sketches for the overture "Die Weihe des Hauses", op.124, [1822], UNPUBLISHED. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice, 1813, first edition, 3 volumes, contemporary half calf. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass, Brooklyn, 1855, first edition, first issue, original green cloth, the Doheny copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: Binding—Sangorski & Sutcliffe—Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat, London, 1872, third edition, in a magnificent jewelled Peacock binding. £15,000 to £20,000.
Sotheby’s, July 7: George Eliot. Middlemarch, Edinburgh and London, 1871, first edition in the original parts. £20,000 to £30,000.
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Hassall (Joan) A large collection of over 300 original woodblocks of engravings for various books, v.d., with Hassall's engraver's glass water-globe (Qty) - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Eragny Press.- [Bradley (Katherine Harris) & Edith Emma Cooper], "Michael Field." Whym Chow, Flame of Love, one of only 27 copies, inscribed by Bradley, the rarest book from the press, 1914. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: [Moore (Thomas Sturge)] [Wood Engravings], 71 wood-engravings printed by David Chambers from the original blocks, the only set on Japanese Hosho paper, from an edition of 5 sets, [1970]. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: La Fontaine (Jean de) Contes et Nouvelles en vers, 2 vol., engraved plates after Eisen, fine early 19th century blue morocco, gilt, by Bradel l'ainé, Amsterdam [Paris], 1762. - Est. £2,000-3,000
Forum, July 9: Erotica.- Prostitution.- Pretty Women of Paris (The); Their Names and Addresses, Qualities and Faults..., [Paris], privately printed at the Press of the Prefecture de Police, 1883. - Est. £3,000-4,000
Forum, July 9: Vale Press.- Ricketts (Charles) & Lucien Pissarro. De la Typographie et de l'Harmonie de la Page Imprimée…, [one of 216 copies], bound in dark blue morocco tooled in gilt, by Sarah T.Prideaux, 1898. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Martin (John) Illustrations of the Bible, complete set of 20 mezzotints, good impressions, rarely found in early states, [c.1831-1835]. - Est. £1,000-1,500
Forum, July 9: Golden Cockerel Press.- Four Gospels of the Lord Jesus Christ (The), one of 500 copies, Mary Gill's copy, Waltham St. Lawrence, 1931 with a signed proof of engraving on japon numbered 10/10 (2) - Est. £5,000-7,000
Forum, July 9: Boccaccio (Giovanni) The Decameron, 3 vol., vol.1 extra-illustrated by John Buckland Wright with c.150 erotic original drawings in pen & ink and pencil, 1886 [extra-illustrated c.1940]. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum Auctions The Private Library: Fine Printing & Private Press books, the collection of the late David Chambers July 9, 2026
Forum, July 9: Cox (Morris) Collection of Gogmagog Press Books, 35 vol., rare complete collection of printed books issued by the press, limited editions, most signed by Cox, 1957-83. - Est. £10,000-15,000
Forum, July 9: Wynkyn de Worde.- [Terentius Afer (Publius)] [Comedie...], [Paris, Josse Badius: sold in London by Wynkyn de Worde, & others], [15 July 1504]. - Est. £4,000-6,000
Forum, July 9: Mosley (James) Ornamented Types. Twenty-Three Alphabets from the Foundry of Louis John Pouchée, 2 vol., one of 10 copies for presentation, from an edition of 210, 1992-93. - Est. £1,000-2,000
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
