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RR Auction: Remarkable Rarities - bidstart 1/19

Auction Reports


Auction Name	Remarkable Rarities - bidstart 1/19	Total Sales (USD)	1,091,335.00
Auction Date	February 22, 2024 - February 22, 2024	Low Estimate of Lots Sold (USD)	724,000.00
Sale Number	#707	High Estimate of Lots Sold (USD)	1,025,000.00
Total Lots	49
Sold Lots	26.0	Low Estimate of All Lots (USD)	1,386,000.00
% of Lots Sold	53.06%	High Estimate of All Lots (USD)	1,960,000.00
Unsold Lots	23	Total Sales as a % of High Est.	55.68%

Top twenty-five by sale price

Lot Number	Author Name	Book Title	Year Published	Estimate	Actual Price
4023	Mao Zedong	Mao Zedong Historically Important Signed Book: Quotations from Chairman Mao (The Little Red Book) - Autographed for the Wife of Pakistan's Foreign Minister, with Photo Proof	1966	USD 200,000.00 - 300,000.00	USD 250,000.00
4001	George Washington	George Washington Excessively Rare Check Signed as President, Filled Out by Treasury Secretary Oliver Wolcott Jr. - PSA MINT 10	1795	USD 100,000.00 - 150,000.00	USD 135,473.00
4032	Kelmscott Chaucer	Kelmscott Chaucer: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer by Kelmscott Press (1896) - 'The finest book since Gutenberg'	1896	USD 65,000.00 - 75,000.00	USD 90,750.00
4051		Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Flown LM Prep Checklist with In-Flight Annotations by CDR Neil Armstrong Prior to the First Moon Landing - From the Private Collection of Buzz Aldrin	1969	USD 50,000.00 - 60,000.00	USD 76,533.00
4016	Albert Einstein	Albert Einstein Rare Typed Letter Signed Writing His Famous E=Mc2 Equation	1946	USD 10,000.00 - 20,000.00	USD 68,708.00
4046	John Williams	Star Wars: John Williams Original Handwritten Music Manuscript for the Opening 'Star Wars Main Title' Theme		USD 10,000.00 - 15,000.00	USD 49,290.00
4045	Queen	Queen Massive Signed 1978 Concert Poster - The Largest Example We Have Ever Offered	1978	USD 20,000.00 - 30,000.00	USD 48,713.00
4024	Chou En-lai and Chen Yi	Chou En-lai and Chen Yi Signed Dinner Menu for Pakistan's Foreign Minister	1966	USD 40,000.00 - 60,000.00	USD 46,279.00
4007	Isaac Newton	Isaac Newton Handwritten Manuscript Criticizing Religion and the Papacy		USD 30,000.00 - 40,000.00	USD 45,375.00
4042		Beatles Signed 1963 Program Page - Dezo Hoffman's Classic 'Collarless Suits' Portrait	1963	USD 20,000.00 - 25,000.00	USD 36,875.00
4025	Chou En-lai	Chou En-lai Rare Signed Photograph - The First We Have Ever Offered	1967	USD 20,000.00 - 30,000.00	USD 33,275.00
4013	Thomas Edison	Thomas Edison Document Signed for Light Bulb Patent: "Improvements in and connected with Electric Lamps"	1881	USD 15,000.00 - 20,000.00	USD 20,625.00
4039	Billie Holiday	Billie Holiday Autograph Letter Signed on Being Fired from Count Basie's Band: "I would never sing again, but I still have Mama to take care of"	1938	USD 10,000.00 - 15,000.00	USD 20,271.00
4049	Coco Chanel	Coco Chanel Rare Document Signed for Cannes Couture Workshop Lease	1926	USD 15,000.00 - 20,000.00	USD 20,000.00
4012	Thomas Edison	Thomas Edison Document Signed for Electric Meter Patent - Used in Developing the Electric Light	1881	USD 15,000.00 - 20,000.00	USD 19,250.00
4004	John F. Kennedy	John F. Kennedy Handwritten Manuscript on Security in the Middle East: "All of these different conflicts are concentrated in ancient Persia, now Iran"	circa 1951.	USD 15,000.00 - 20,000.00	USD 18,750.00
4031	Claude Monet	Claude Monet Autograph Letter Signed on Manet's 'Olympia'	1890	USD 10,000.00 - 15,000.00	USD 16,478.00
4048	Louis Vuitton	Louis Vuitton Autograph Document Signed - Penned for a Founding Father's Descendent	1873	USD 12,000.00 - 15,000.00	USD 15,000.00
4006	Brigham Young	Brigham Young Rare Complete Set of Signed 1849 Mormon Currency 'White Notes'	1849	USD 10,000.00 - 15,000.00	USD 13,749.00
4038	Frederic Chopin	Frederic Chopin Document Signed for the Sale of a Musical Manuscript	1838	USD 10,000.00 - 15,000.00	USD 12,513.00
4020	Napoleon	Napoleon Handwritten Manuscript on the Capture of Malta, Prepared for His Memoirs	no date.	USD 10,000.00 - 15,000.00	USD 12,501.00
4015	Albert Einstein	Albert Einstein Typed Letter Signed Seeking Support for a Jewish Academy, Weeks Before Hitler's Rise to Power	1932	USD 15,000.00 - 20,000.00	USD 11,136.00
4027	Winston Churchill	Winston Churchill Oversized Photograph Signed by Yousuf Karsh	1941	USD 8,000.00 - 10,000.00	USD 9,999.00
4053		9/11: World Trade Center Observatory Ticket (September 10, 2001) - PSA EX 5	2001	USD 5,000.00 - 7,000.00	USD 7,774.00
4026		World War II Teletype Archive with Model 15 Printer, Covering FDR's Death, Japan's Surrender, and the Atomic Bomb	1945	USD 4,000.00 - 6,000.00	USD 6,018.00

Heritage Auctions
Rare Books Signature Auction
December 15, 2025

Heritage, Dec. 15: John Donne. Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death. London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.

Heritage, Dec. 15: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.

Heritage, Dec. 15: F. Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night. A Romance.

Heritage, Dec. 15: Bram Stoker. Dracula. Westminster: Archibald Constable & Co., 1897.

Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.

Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.

Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.

Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.

Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.

Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.

Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.

Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.

Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.

Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.

Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.

Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s
Book Week
December 9-17, 2025

Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.

Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.

Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.

Sotheby’s
Book Week
December 9-17, 2025

Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.

Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.

Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.