An amazing collection of aviation pioneer signatures [Courtesy B & B]
On Sunday as the show begins its final day, Bonhams & Butterfields, at 10:00 am, brings up the lights on their auction at 7601 Sunset Boulevard and via simulcast in San Francisco at 220 San Bruno Avenue. Bonhams catalogues efficiently and prints lavishly. Their presentation and material is a beautifully catalogued array that reflects the eclectic nature of Southern California. They are offering 302 lots under the title "Fine Books and Manuscripts" and the material runs the gamut from "an archive of correspondence from Gandhi to his brother and nephew" [lot 1287] estimated at $50,000 to $70,000 to a fascinating printed Illinois election document [1258] dated 1844 and including notations about Abraham Lincoln estimated at $2,000 to $3,000. A sale this wide understandably also includes six lots of Marilyn Monroe material [1295-1300] one of which is a letter she wrote in 1947 to Twentieth Century Fox that is estimated $10,000 to $15,000. During all of 1946 she worked for RKO and was paid $7,150.
There is also a group of later editions of Leaves of Grass signed by Walt Whitman [W W] to B. G. Morrison of Karns City, Pennsylvania. This is lot 1218 and it's worth consideration. For those looking to add to their collection of John Steinbeck material or, who are attracted to material with civil rights interest, there is a two page letter dated July 22, 1964, from him to Martin Luther King expressing support and concern. This is lot 1203 and is estimated $15,000 to $20,000.
Now here is a question. What does it take to make a single sheet of paper from a spiral notebook with no date and no signature worth a great deal of money: the jottings of Albert Einstein as he worked through his unified field theory. This is lot 1042 and is estimated $15,000 to $20,000.
Here is one more. It's a card signed at the 1930 National Air Races at Chicago by nearly every major aviation figure of the day including: Orville Wright, Charles Lindbergh, Richard Byrd, Giuseppe Bellanca, Jimmy Doolittle, Georges Thenault, Hoot Gibson and nearly fifty others [1284]. If you would like to both start and complete a collection of aviation pioneer signatures you can buy this one piece and be about done. It is estimated $8,000 to $12,000.
By the end of Sunday as you start home by car or head to the airport you'll be thinking this was quite an experience.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 156: Cornelis de Jode, Americae pars Borealis, double-page engraved map of North America, Antwerp, 1593.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 206: John and Alexander Walker, Map of the United States, London and Liverpool, 1827.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 223: Abraham Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, hand-colored double-page engraved world map, Antwerp, 1575.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 233: Aaron Arrowsmith, Chart of the World, oversize engraved map on 8 sheets, London, 1790 (circa 1800).
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 239: Fielding Lucas, A General Atlas, 81 engraved maps and diagrams, Baltimore, 1823.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 240: Anthony Finley, A New American Atlas, 15 maps engraved by james hamilton young on 14 double-page sheets, Philadelphia, 1826.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 263: John Bachmann, Panorama of the Seat of War, portfolio of 4 double-page chromolithographed panoramic maps, New York, 1861.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 265: Sebastian Münster, Cosmographei, Basel: Sebastian Henricpetri, 1558.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 271: Abraham Ortelius, Epitome Theatri Orteliani, Antwerp: Johann Baptist Vrients, 1601.
Swann Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books December 9, 2025
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 283: Joris van Spilbergen, Speculum Orientalis Occidentalisque Indiae, Leiden: Nicolaus van Geelkercken for Jodocus Hondius, 1619.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 285: Levinus Hulsius, Achtzehender Theil der Newen Welt, 14 engraved folding maps, Frankfurt: Johann Frederick Weiss, 1623.
Swann, Dec. 9: Lot 341: John James Audubon, Carolina Parrot, Plate 26, London, 1827.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue, inscribed by the author pre-publication. £100,000 to £150,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 11: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the E flat Piano Quartet, K.493, 1786. £150,000 to £200,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
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![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/00d5fd41-2542-4a80-b119-4886d4b9925f.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 11:</b> Darwin and Wallace. On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties..., [in:] <i>Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society,</i> Vol. III, No. 9., 1858, Darwin announces the theory of natural selection. £100,000 to £150,000.")
