Fine Books & Manuscripts at Bonhams New York, December 13, 2022
- by Announcement, Rare Book Hub staff
Kepler Investigates Planetary Motion
By Ian Ehling
Director, Fine Books & Manuscripts
Bonhams New York
In his autobiography The World of Yesterday, Stefan Zweig describes his interest in collecting manuscripts: “The one thing that can grant a slight inkling of this incomprehensible process of creation is the handwritten pages and particularly those not yet intended for the press, those sprinkled with corrections, the tentative first outlines, from which gradually the future valid form crystallizes … It was a pleasure to me to hunt them down at auctions, a joyous effort, to follow a scent to the most hidden places, and at the same time a kind of science….” The Kepler manuscript (lot 19) in the December 13 Fine Books & Manuscripts sale at Bonhams New York was part of Zweig’s famous collection and encapsulates his desire to find the best example of the author’s writing. The initial fragment of 3 leaves (4 pages each) was dispersed, with one leaf now in the Morgan Library in New York and the other in the Smithsonian collection in Washington DC. The best leaf – mentioning Copernicus – is still in private hands and is offered here for the first time since 1988. It is one of only two scientific Kepler manuscripts to come to market in the past 80 years.
Two of my favorite lots in the sale describe the ending of beloved stories. One is the final drawing of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet in the hundred-acre wood (lot 68). Pooh and Piglet walk home in the golden evening having said goodbye to their friends following Christopher Robin’s party for Pooh. Without a question this is to me the most important Winnie-the-Pooh drawing in existence. The other ending of equal importance is the bittersweet return of Mowgli to the world of man in the final Mowgli story. Lot 100 is the corrected and annotated typescript for “The Spring Running,” the last chapter in Kipling’s Jungle Book. Kipling’s holograph? manuscript is in the British Library and shows significant differences with these final edits.
The battle of Trafalgar ended Napoleon’s plans to invade England and solidified Britain’s dominance of the seas throughout the nineteenth-century. Nelson’s revolutionary battle plan for Trafalgar (lot 136) was transmitted in his famous secret memorandum. Dated 10 days before Nelson was killed in battle on October 21, 1805, this copy to Nelson's Vice-Admiral of his Blue fleet Robert Calder represents possibly the most important copy of the memorandum outside the holograph copy sent to the Vice Admiral of the Red fleet Collingsworth (which now resides at the British Library).
In addition to these extraordinary manuscripts and drawings you will find in the Bonhams sale a wonderful selection of early printed books, atlases, illustrated books, music, Dickensiana and literature. As Zweig observed, “the pride of owning a few such leaves was accompanied by the sporting desire to acquire them, to hunt for them at auctions or in catalogues. How many tense hours do I owe to that chase, how many exciting incidents…” You will have a chance to participate in our December 13 auction just like Stefan Zweig did one-hundred years ago: in person, through absentee bid, by telephone and now of course online.
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
