Christie’s New York is pleased to announce our October online sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts
- by Announcement, Rare Book Hub staff
Possibilities, possibilities, ...
Christie’s New York is pleased to announce our October online sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts including Americana, open for bidding from Oct 1st to the 15th, with lots beginning to close at 10am.
The sale features a curated selection of works representing over 500 years of history and the book arts, sortable by theme to allow for dynamic exploration of the sale. Take your pick from Cartography of China, a single-owner section containing an important group of early Chinese and Japanese maps of China, including handscrolls and wall maps; Color Plate & Illustrated Books featuring important illustrated works from the Nuremberg Chronicle to the mammoth Napoleonic Description de l’Egypte in a reproduction cabinet, and with a special focus on archaeological plate books of the 18th and 19th centuries documenting both the ancient Mediterranean and the Yucatan; Science and the History of Ideas, led by the first edition of Kepler’s ground (or heaven?)-breaking work outlining the first two Laws of Planetary Motion, the Astronomia nova, as well as a beautiful hand-colored copy of the 1592 edition of Ortelius’s great world atlas, Theatrum orbis terrarum, and first editions of works by Galileo, Thomas More, Charles Darwin, Thomas Malthus, and others.
The section on Literature encompasses classic works from across two millennia, from the editio princeps of Sophocles to Shakespeare’s Second Folio and a beautiful copy of Eliot’s Middlemarch in original parts; while the Americana highlights include a rare and important treaty signed by Metacomet (aka King Philip) in 1670: an agreement that would be torn asunder with the eruption of King Philips War five years later; other intriguing items include an important document signed by George Washington in 1786 consolidating his control over the Mount Vernon estate; a letter from Henry Knox authorizing the construction of the U.S.S. Chesapeake, as well as a series of rare signed bank notes (or short-snorters) from the 1943 Tehran Conference including the signatures of Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin.
There are plenty of threads to pick here, with additional options to filter by topic (try the “Ancient World” filter!), type, date, and provenance—this sale features books from the estate of the bibliophile Theodore Cohn, as well as the collections of Ambassador J. William Middendorf II, Dr Leonard Hamilton, and The India House Club.
The preview exhibition will be open October 9-14, with entrance by appointment. Please contact Rhiannon Knol (rknol@christies.com) for more information about the sale.
ALDE, Apr. 8: GUEVARA (ANTONIO DE). Histoire de Marc-Aurèle, Empereur Romain, vray miroir et horloge des Princes. Paris, Pierre et Galliot du Pré, frères, 1565. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: HEURES DE LA VIERGE. Horæ in laudem beatissimæ virginis Mariæ ad usum Romanum. Paris, Charles L'Angelier, 1556. €4,000 to €5,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: MONTAIGNE (MICHEL DE). Les Essais. Édition nouvelle, trouvée après le deceds de l'autheur… Paris, Abel L'Angelier, 1595. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [ROJAS (FERNANDO DE)]. Celestina, tragicomedia di Calisto et Melibea, tradotta de lingua castigliana in italiano idioma… Venise, 1531. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CAMÕES (LUÍS DE). Os Lusiadas. Lisbonne, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. €2,000 to €3,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Bruxelles, Roger Velpius & Huberto Antonio, 1611. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: LA FONTAINE (JEAN DE). Fables choisies, mises en vers. Paris, Denys Thierry et Claude Barbin, 1678-1694. €6,000 to €8,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: CERVANTES (MIGUEL DE). El Ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. Madrid, Joaquin Ibarra, 1780. €3,000 to €4,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: DIDEROT (DENIS) ET JEAN LE ROND D'ALEMBERT. Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers. Paris, 1751-1765. €15,000 to €20,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. LAMARTINE (Alphonse de). Les Laboureurs. Poème tiré de Jocelyn… Lyon, J. A. Henry, 1883. €8,000 to €10,000.
ALDE, Apr. 8: [LIVRE TISSÉ]. Livre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe au XVIe siècle. Lyon, [A. Roux], 1886. €5,000 to €6,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections Open for Bidding 2-17 April
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun]. Le Roman de la Rose, [Geneva or Lyons, c.1481], first printed edition of the most important medieval French vernacular poem. £200,000 to £300,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Castiglione. Il libro del cortegiano. [Venice], April 1528, first edition, in a magnificent binding by Jean Picard for Jean Grolier. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Jacobus de Cessolis. Schachzabelbuch, Strasbourg, 1483, von der Lasa copy. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: World Championship, 1972. A collection of 84 press photographs of the famed match between Spassky and Fischer. £2,000 to £3,000.
Sotheby’s, Apr. 2-17: Ben Franklin. Autograph letter signed, to Lord Shelburne, British Prime Minister, during peace negotiations, November 1782. £15,000 to £20,000.
