Back

Sothebys: Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern - online 11/28

Auction Reports


Auction Name	Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern - online 11/28	Total Sales (GBP)	1,358,520.00
Auction Date	December 12, 2024 - December 12, 2024	Low Estimate of Lots Sold (GBP)	766,500.00
Sale Number	#L24401	High Estimate of Lots Sold (GBP)	1,106,500.00
Total Lots	94
Sold Lots	65.0	Low Estimate of All Lots (GBP)	1,393,000.00
% of Lots Sold	69.15%	High Estimate of All Lots (GBP)	1,983,000.00
Unsold Lots	29	Total Sales as a % of High Est.	68.51%

Top twenty-five by sale price

Lot Number	Author Name	Book Title	Year Published	Estimate	Actual Price
19	Niccolo Machiavelli	First edition of The Prince and second edition of the Florentine Histories, in a seventeenth-century Italian binding, comprising:	1532	GBP 200,000.00 - 300,000.00	GBP 576,000.00
64	Bela Bartok	Extraordinary autograph field-book of Hungarian folksong transcriptions, UNPUBLISHED	1906-1918	GBP 60,000.00 - 80,000.00	GBP 132,000.00
21		New England---Land Grant. Letters patent, issued by "the Councell established att Plymouth in the Countye of Devon, for the planting, ruling, ordering and governing of New England in America"...	1623/4	GBP 80,000.00 - 120,000.00	GBP 96,000.00
77		Composers and musicians . Three fans with signatures and musical quotations by Mahler, Johann Strauss II, and many others,	c.1900	GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00	GBP 48,000.00
6	Francesco Colonna	La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, cioe pugna d'amore in sogno. Dov'egli mostra, che tutte le cose humane non sono altro che sogno: et dove narra molt'altre cose degne di cognitione	1545	GBP 30,000.00 - 40,000.00	GBP 33,600.00
54	Beatrix Potter	The Tale of Peter Rabbit.	1902	GBP 20,000.00 - 30,000.00	GBP 24,000.00
65	Bela Bartok	Collection of 24 Hungarian folksong transcriptions 1906-1030	1906-1930	GBP 20,000.00 - 30,000.00	GBP 21,600.00
85	Richard Strauss	Autograph sketch book for Die agyptische Helena, Act II, and the Parergon zur Sinfonia Domestica, op.73, with a quatrain from Schiller and effusive dedication to the pianist Paul Wittgenstein	c.1924-1925	GBP 20,000.00 - 30,000.00	GBP 21,600.00
18	George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney	A manuscript volume from his library, containing two items: i) Copies of memoranda, letters, petitions and Imperial Mandates relating to the Canton Debts Crisis, Canton, 32 pages,	1777-1778; 1813	GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00	GBP 20,400.00
33	Martin Waldseemuller	Tabula terre nove.	1513	GBP 12,000.00 - 18,000.00	GBP 20,400.00
22	John Ogilby [Arnoldus Montanus]	America: being the latest, and most accurate description of the New World.... Collected from the most Authentick Authors... by John Ogilby.	1671	GBP 15,000.00 - 20,000.00	GBP 18,000.00
24	Claudius Ptolemaeus	Sexta Asie Tabula.	1486	GBP 15,000.00 - 25,000.00	GBP 16,800.00
39	Charles Dickens	A Christmas Carol.	1843	GBP 8,000.00 - 12,000.00	GBP 16,800.00
44	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	Autograph poem, 'Liegt dir Gestern klar und offen', signed ("JWvGoethe")	1831	GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00	GBP 14,400.00
58	J.K. Rowling	A collection of first edition Harry Potter books, comprising: (i) Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.	1997	GBP 10,000.00 - 15,000.00	GBP 14,400.00
13	Giacomo Gastaldi and Paolo Forlani	Africa a veteribus... Venice: Paolo Forlani, 1566	1566	GBP 10,000.00 - 15,000.00	GBP 12,000.00
67	Bela Bartok	Autograph notebook documenting Bartok's phonograph recordings of Hungarian folksongs, UNPUBLISHED	1906-1907	GBP 15,000.00 - 20,000.00	GBP 12,000.00
2	Boethius.	De consolatione philosophiae (with commentary ascribed in the text to Thomas Aquinas). Pseudo-Boethius: De disciplina scholarium (commentary by pseudo- Thomas Aquinas).	1489	GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00	GBP 11,400.00
43	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	Die Leiden des jungen Werthers. Erster [...Zweyter] Theil.	1774	GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00	GBP 11,400.00
30	Henry Timberlake	The Memoirs of Lieut. Henry Timberlake (who accompanied the Three Cherokee Indians to England in the year 1762).	1765	GBP 9,000.00 - 12,000.00	GBP 10,800.00
17	Lancelot du Lac	Le premier (-tiers) volume de Lancelot du Lac. Nouvellement imprime a Paris.	1513	GBP 5,000.00 - 8,000.00	GBP 9,600.00
53	Florence Nightingale	Notes on Nursing: What it is, and What it is Not.	1860	GBP 8,000.00 - 12,000.00	GBP 9,600.00
76		Collection of 14 photographic portraits of composers, including Johann Strauss II, Wagner, Richard Strauss and Mahler, comprising:		GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00	GBP 9,000.00
93	Egon Wellesz	Important archive of autograph correspondence between the Austrian composer and musicologist, Egon Wellesz (1885--1974), and the poet Elizabeth Mackenzie (1921--2021)	1943-1971	GBP 8,000.00 - 10,000.00	GBP 9,000.00
4	Bartolome de las Casas	Narratio regionum indicarum per Hispanos quosdam devastatarum verissima.	1598	GBP 4,000.00 - 6,000.00	GBP 8,400.00

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…
Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
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.