Sothebys: Books, Manuscripts and Music, L25401, London

Auction Details

Auction Report
Auction Date
December 11, 2025 - December 11, 2025
Page Size: 162 items in 7 pages
Lot Number Author Name Book Title Place Printed Year Published Estimate Actual Price
127 Ian Fleming

Complete James Bond novels.

London 1955-67 GBP 3,000.00 - 5,000.00 GBP 4,825.00
128 A group of 3 volumes inscribed by Ian Fleming, comprising:

(1) Humbert Wolfe. Humoresque

London 1926 GBP 3,000.00 - 5,000.00 GBP 4,825.00
129 John Pearson

A collection of 10 works, comprising:

GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 GBP 1,269.00
130 Ludwig van Beethoven

Fine characteristic autograph letter signed ("Beethoven"), to his friend Nikolaus von Zmeskall, dated by the recipient '28 8br.

1810 GBP 20,000.00 - 30,000.00 GBP 38,100.00
131 Hector Berlioz

Three autograph letters signed ("H. Berlioz"), APPARENTLY UNPUBLISHED

GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 GBP 1,650.00
132 Hector Berlioz

Autograph letter signed ("H. Berlioz"), to the librettist Eugene Scribe ("Mon cher Collaborateur"), ABOUT THE UNFINISHED OPERA LA NONNE SANGLANTE, 23 June [1841]

1841 GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 Not Sold
133 Sir Harrison Birtwistle

Autograph manuscript of Nine Settings of Lorine Niedecker, for soprano and violoncello

2000 GBP 10,000.00 - 15,000.00 GBP 11,430.00
134 Johannes Brahms

Autograph manuscript signed of the songs 'Sehnsucht', op.14 no.8, and 'Trost in Tranen', op.48 no.5, for voice and piano, FORMERLY IN THE CELEBRATED COLLECTION OF LOUIS KOCH

1858 GBP 40,000.00 - 60,000.00 GBP 44,449.00
135 William Byrd---[William Cecil, Lord Burghley]

The copie of a letter sent out of England to Don Bernardin Mendoza [...] declaring the state of England [...]

London 1588 GBP 10,000.00 - 15,000.00 Not Sold
136 Fryderyk Chopin

Autograph letter signed ("F. Chopin"), to his publisher Maurice Schlesinger in Paris

1844? GBP 5,000.00 - 8,000.00 GBP 20,319.00
137 Composers

Collection of autograph musical quotations

1884-1905 GBP 4,000.00 - 6,000.00 GBP 8,255.00
138 Composers

Collection of autograph letters, including by Spohr, Spontini, Pacini and Leoncavallo

1818-1916 GBP 4,000.00 - 6,000.00 GBP 3,048.00
139 Composers

Collection of signed photographs, including of Rossini, Puccini and Grieg

1867-1898 GBP 4,000.00 - 6,000.00 GBP 4,825.00
140 Ruggero Leoncavallo

Collection of autograph letters and photographs signed by Leoncavallo, Pietro Mascagni, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari and Riccardo Zandonai

1882-1936 GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 Not Sold
141 Franz Liszt

Remarkable collection of 28 autograph letters and notes, signed ("F. Liszt"; "FL"), in French, to the composer's close friend and confidante Baroness Olga von Meyendorff

1863-1886 GBP 10,000.00 - 15,000.00 GBP 53,340.00
142 Pietro Mascagni

Fine large photograph signed and inscribed on the mount

1923-04-14 GBP 1,000.00 - 1,500.00 GBP 380.00
143 Jules Massenet

Autograph manuscript full score, signed, of the incidental music to Georges Rivollet's play Jerusalem, UNPUBLISHED

1911 GBP 15,000.00 - 20,000.00 GBP 27,939.00
144 Jules Massenet

Collection of ten autograph manuscript scores of songs and operatic numbers

1865-1912 GBP 9,000.00 - 12,000.00 Not Sold
145 Jules Massenet

Collection of nine autograph manuscripts of complete instrumental compositions, mostly signed

1880-1894 GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00 Not Sold
146 Giacomo Meyerbeer and Pietro Mascagni

Three autograph manuscripts

C19th-C20th GBP 4,000.00 - 6,000.00 GBP 3,301.00
147 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Autograph sketchleaf including a probable draft for the finale of the Piano Quartet in E flat, K.493, FORMERLY IN THE COLLECTION OF PAUL HIRSCH

1786 GBP 150,000.00 - 200,000.00 GBP 177,799.00
148 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart--Paul Hirsch (collector, bibliophile and Mozartian, 1881-1951)

The Frankfurt and Cambridge autograph guest books and chamber-music notebooks of Paul Hirsch

1897-1967 GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00 GBP 24,129.00
149 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart--Paul Hirsch

Paul Hirsch's annotated copy of the four-volume catalogue of his library, and other printed and manuscript items

GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 GBP 3,301.00
150 Gioachino Rossini

Remarkable, long autograph letter to Gaetano Donizetti ("Preghiatissimo amico"), signed ("Gioachino Rossini")

24 November 1841 GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 GBP 2,412.00
151 Gioachino Rossini

Six autograph letters signed ("Rossini"; "G. Rossini"), comprising five to his agent Gaetano Fabi and one to Mauro Corticelli

1849-1863 GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 GBP 1,777.00
  • Dominic Winter
    Books, Maps, Documents & Autographs
    Ornithology, Music, Bookplates
    28th January 2026
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 26. Company School. An album of 85 Indian mica paintings, Madras, c. 1852. £700-1,000
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 28. Ross & Hooker. Notes on the Botany of the Antarctic Voyage, 1st edition, 1843. £4,000-6,000
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 44. Gould (John). The Birds of Great Britain, 5 volumes, 1st edition, 1862-73. £30,000-40,000
    Dominic Winter
    Books, Maps, Documents & Autographs
    Ornithology, Music, Bookplates
    28th January 2026
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 72. Edwards (George). A Natural History of Uncommon Birds… [and] Gleanings of Natural History, 7 volumes, 1st edition, 1743-64. £7,000-10,000
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 87. Walcott (Charles D. et al.). Geologic Atlas of the United States, 227-volume set, U.S. Geological Survey, 1894-1945. £500-800
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 236. A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew…, By B. E. Gent., 1st edition, [1699]. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter
    Books, Maps, Documents & Autographs
    Ornithology, Music, Bookplates
    28th January 2026
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 245. Frost Fair Broadside. Upon the Frost in the Year 1739-40, Printed on the Ice upon the Thames at Queen-Hithe, 1739/40. £1,500-2,000
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 270. Micheli (Antonino di). La Nuova Chitarra di Regole…, 1st edition, Palermo, 1680. £10,000-15,000
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 280. Elgar (Edward). Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, [1910], signed presentation copy. £500-800
    Dominic Winter
    Books, Maps, Documents & Autographs
    Ornithology, Music, Bookplates
    28th January 2026
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 282 - Griffes (Charles). Autograph Manuscript Score for Overture to Hänsel und Gretel, c. 1910. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 304. Churchill (Winston). A terracotta maquette of Churchill by Oscar Nemon, c. 1955. £1,500-2,000
    Dominic Winter, Jan. 28: Lot 364 - Russian Imperial Archaeological Commission. Mecheti Samarkanda..., Fascicule I Gour-Emir, St. Petersburg, 1905. £2,000-3,000
  • Sotheby’s
    Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana
    27 January 2026
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary pair of books from George Washington’s field library, marking the conjunction of Robert Rogers, George Washington, and Henry Knox. $1,200,000 to $1,800,000.
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: An extraordinary letter marking the conjunction of George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Benjamin Franklin. $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: Virginia House of Delegates. The genesis of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. $350,000 to $500,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana
    27 January 2026
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: (Gettysburg). “Genl. Doubleday has taken charge of the battle”: Autograph witness to the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, illustrated by fourteen maps and plans. $200,000 to $300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: President Lincoln thanks a schoolboy on behalf of "all the children of the nation for his efforts to ensure "that this war shall be successful, and the Union be maintained and perpetuated." $200,000 to $300,000.
    Sotheby’s, Jan. 27: [World War II]. An archive of maps and files documenting the allied campaign in Europe, from the early stages of planning for D-Day and Operation Overlord, to Germany’s surrender. $200,000 to $300,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th January 2026
    Forum, Jan. 29: Plato. [Apanta ta tou Platonos. Omnia Platonis opera], 2 parts in 2 vol., editio princeps of Plato's works in the original Greek, Venice, House of Aldus, 1513. £8,000-12,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Book of Hours, Use of Rome, In Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum, [Southern Netherlands (probably Bruges), c.1460]. £6,000-8,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Correspondence and documents by or addressed to the first four Viscounts Molesworth and members of their families, letters and manuscripts, 1690-1783. £10,000-15,000
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th January 2026
    Forum, Jan. 29: Shakespeare (William). The Dramatic Works, 9 vol., John and Josiah Boydell, 1802. £5,000-7,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Joyce (James). Ulysses, first edition, one of 750 copies on handmade paper, Paris, Shakespeare and Company, 1922 £8,000-12,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Powell (Anthony). [A Dance to the Music of Time], 12 vol., first editions, each with a signed presentation inscription from the author to Osbert Lancaster, 1951-75. £6,000-8,000
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th January 2026
    Forum, Jan. 29: Chaucer (Geoffrey). Troilus and Criseyde, one of 225 copies on handmade paper, wood-engravings by Eric Gill, Waltham St.Lawrence, 1927. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Borges (Jorge Luis). Luna de Enfrente, first edition, one of 300 copies, presentation copy signed by the author to Leopoldo Marechal, Buenos Aires, Editorial Proa, 1925. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Nolli (Giovanni Battista). Nuova Pianta di Roma, Rome, 1748. £6,000-8,000
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    29th January 2026
    Forum, Jan. 29: Roberts (David). The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, & Nubia, 3 vol., first edition, 1842-49. £15,000-20,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Blacker (William). Catechism of Fly Making, Angling and Dyeing, Published by the author, 1843. £3,000-4,000
    Forum, Jan. 29: Herschel (Sir John F. W.) Collection of 69 offprints, extracts and separate publications by Herschel, bound for his son, William James Herschel, 3 vol., [1813-50]. £15,000-20,000