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Forum Auctions: Fine Books, Manuscripts, and Works on Paper
Auction Reports
| Auction Name | Fine Books, Manuscripts, and Works on Paper | Total Sales (GBP) | 557,600.00 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auction Date | March 26, 2026 - March 26, 2026 | Low Estimate of Lots Sold (GBP) | 312,750.00 |
| Sale Number | #1197 | High Estimate of Lots Sold (GBP) | 441,600.00 |
| Total Lots | 265 | ||
| Sold Lots | 215.0 | Low Estimate of All Lots (GBP) | 442,050.00 |
| % of Lots Sold | 81.13% | High Estimate of All Lots (GBP) | 626,100.00 |
| Unsold Lots | 50 | Total Sales as a % of High Est. | 89.06% |
Top twenty-five by sale price
| Lot Number | Author Name | Book Title | Year Published | Estimate | Actual Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 97 | Blake (William) | Illustrations of the Book of Job |
March 8, 1825 [but March, 1826] | GBP 15,000.00 - 20,000.00 | GBP 27,720.00 |
| 222 | Haytham (Ibn al) [known as Alhazen] | Optics.- Opticae Thesaurus. Alhazeni Arabis libri septem, nunc primum editi...Item Vitellonis Thuringopoloni libri X... |
August, 1572 | GBP 20,000.00 - 30,000.00 | GBP 17,640.00 |
| 27 | Italy, Malta & elsewhere..- Charters, Bulls, Letters, Petitions, Indulgences, Doctorates etc., from Kings, Popes, Saints, Cardinals, Bishops etc.... |
N/A | GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 | GBP 16,380.00 | |
| 152 | Pratchett (Terry) | The Colour of Magic |
1983 | GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00 | GBP 15,120.00 |
| 123 | Christie (Agatha) | Murder on the Orient Express |
[1934] | GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00 | GBP 10,710.00 |
| 267 | Havell, Junr. (Robert) | London.- An Aeronautical View of London |
1836 | GBP 1,000.00 - 1,500.00 | GBP 10,710.00 |
| 71 | Milton (John) | Paradise lost. A Poem in Ten Books |
1669 | GBP 8,000.00 - 12,000.00 | GBP 10,080.00 |
| 99 | Dickens (Charles) | A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas |
1843 | GBP 3,000.00 - 4,000.00 | GBP 10,080.00 |
| 219 | Newton (Sir Isaac) | [Several papers by or relating to Isaac Newton], in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society |
1672-76 & [1742] | GBP 8,000.00 - 12,000.00 | GBP 10,080.00 |
| 208 | Smith (William) | Geology.- Stratigraphical System of Organized Fossils, with Reference to the Specimens of the Original Geological Collection in the British Museum |
1817 | GBP 3,000.00 - 4,000.00 | GBP 9,450.00 |
| 31 | England.- Leaf from a bilingual Psalter |
[late fourteenth or early fifteenth century] | GBP 800.00 - 1,200.00 | GBP 7,812.00 | |
| 134 | Grahame (Kenneth) | The Wind in the Willows |
1908 | GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00 | GBP 7,560.00 |
| 8 | Dante Alighieri | Le Terze Rime |
[August, 1502] | GBP 1,500.00 - 2,000.00 | GBP 6,930.00 |
| 202 | Darwin (Charles) | On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection |
1860 | GBP 4,000.00 - 6,000.00 | GBP 6,930.00 |
| 65 | Sidney (Sir Philip) | The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia... Now since the First Edition augmented and ended |
1593 | GBP 6,000.00 - 8,000.00 | GBP 6,350.00 |
| 39 | Edward IV (King of England and Lord of Ireland, 1442-83) | - Kent, St. Laurence, Thanet.- Charter, grantors William Manston, William Harlewyne, John Horne, Simon Lambyn... |
20th April 1431 | GBP 1,500.00 - 2,000.00 | GBP 5,715.00 |
| 42 | Medical & Cookery.- [Collection of Recipes] |
[17th century] | GBP 1,000.00 - 1,500.00 | GBP 5,715.00 | |
| 69 | Aesop | The Fables of Aesop Paraphras'd in Verse...by John Ogilby |
1665 | GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 | GBP 5,715.00 |
| 12 | Gianutio (Orazio) | Chess.- Libro nel quale si tratta della maniera di giuocar'a' scacchi |
1597 | GBP 3,000.00 - 4,000.00 | GBP 5,334.00 |
| 53 | Mendelssohn Bartholdy (Felix) | Music.- Lind (Jenny).- Autograph Letter signed to 'My Dear Madam' |
30 April 1847 | GBP 2,500.00 - 3,500.00 | GBP 5,334.00 |
| 62 | Bible, English. Holy Bible (The), Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New: Newly translated out of the Originall Toungues |
1613 | GBP 3,000.00 - 4,000.00 | GBP 5,334.00 | |
| 104 | [Evans (Marian)] | Scenes of Clerical Life |
1858 | GBP 5,000.00 - 7,000.00 | GBP 5,334.00 |
| 1 | [Pierre de Limoges] | Ocular.- De oculo morali |
[c.1477] | GBP 5,000.00 - 7,000.00 | GBP 5,080.00 |
| 61 | Bible, English. Bible in Englyshe (The) of the largest and greatest volume that is to saye: The contentes of all the Holye Scripture, booth of the Oulde and Newe Testament... |
1566 | GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 | GBP 4,826.00 | |
| 72 | Machiavelli (Niccolo) | The Works of the famous Nicolas Machiavel, Citizen and Secretary of Florence |
1675 | GBP 1,500.00 - 2,000.00 | GBP 4,826.00 |
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Sotheby's Book Week
2 June - 9 JulySotheby’s, June 25: Smith, Adam. The Wealth of Nations, on its 250th anniversary. $180,000 to $250,000.Sotheby’s, June 17: Fontana, Lucio. Concetto Spaziale. 1967. Leporello en papier doré. Bel exemplaire signé. €4,000 to $€,000.Sotheby’s, June 25: Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past”. $150,000 to $200,000.Sotheby’s, June 25: Washington, George (as First President). Washington decries “an ostentatious imitation, or mimickry of Royalty” in his Presidency. $250,000 to $500,000.Sotheby’s, June 17: Lope de Vega. Rare manuscrit autographe signé de la préface dédicatoire de "El Cardenal de Belen" (le cardinal de Bethléem), pièce composée en 1610. €40,000 to €60,000. -
June 23rd, 24th & 25th 2026 Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: Medical Incunabula: Petit (Jean)publisher & Kerver (Thielman)printer. Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, sm. 8vo, Paris [1498]Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: Hugo (Victor) [Wraxall (Lascelles)]. Les Miserable, 3 vols., 8vo, L. (Hurst & Blackett) 1862, First Authorized English Translation (copyright).Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: Shelley (Mary Wollstonecraft). Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus, 8vo, 2 vols. in one, L. (G. & W.B. Whittaker, Ave-Maria-Lane) 1823.June 23rd, 24th & 25th 2026 Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: Cuisine: Anon. Cookery, Pastry, and Sweet Meats in three Books, Alphabetically Digested, 8vo 1710.Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: Lambert (Aylmer Bourke). A Description of the Genus Pinus, with Directions Relative to the Cultivation…, 2 vols. Sm. folio L. (Messrs. Weddell) 1832.Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: Botany: Curtis (William). Flora Londinensis: or Plates and Descriptions of such Plants as Grow Wild in the Environs of London, 2 vols. folio, London (B. White) 1777 – 1798.June 23rd, 24th & 25th 2026 Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: Le Moire (J.M.) Maple Leaves, Canadian History and Quebec Scenery (Third Series) 8vo Quebec (Hunter, Rose & Co.) 1865. First Edn.Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: The Earliest Extant Printed House Contents Sale Catalogue in Ireland: Baillie, Auctioneer, Abby Street. A Catalogue of the Goods and Stock of the late Edward Wingfield…Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: William III King of England. Autograph Letter Signed ("William R") to an unnamed correspondent [possibly Charles-Henri de Lorraine] discussing his strategy against the French forces during the siege of Namur.June 23rd, 24th & 25th 2026 Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: [Austen (Jane) (1785-1817]. Pride and Prejudice, 3 vols. sm. 8vo, L. (T. Egerton) 1813.Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: Heaney (Seamus). Ugolino, sm. folio D. (Dolmen) 1979, Limited Edn. No. 78/125 Copies, Signed by Seamus Heaney, Louis le Brocquy, Liam Miller and Andrew Carpenter.Fonsie Mealy’s, June 23-25: Voltaire (F.M. Avouet de). Petits Ouvrages, attribues a M. de Voltaire, sm. folio manuscript, dated 1776, containing 9 works. -
Bonhams, June 14-23: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presentation Gold Pocket Watch. Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000Bonhams, June 14-23: Presentation Copy of the First Issue of the Lincoln Douglas Debates Signed by Abraham Lincoln in Pencil to a Sangamon County Illinois Republican. Estimate: $150,000 - 250,000Bonhams, June 14-23: A Senate Resolution Signed in the Tense Days After the Union's Humiliating Defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run. Estimate: $80,000 - $120,000Bonhams, June 14-23: Seven Passages to a Flight, an Artists Book with a Story Quilt by Faith Ringgold, the Publisher's Own Copy. Estimate: $80,000 - 120,000Bonhams, June 14-23: A New Charter for Virginia, A Response to the First Armed Rebellion in the American Colonies. Estimate: $15,000 - 25,000Bonhams, June 14-23: Earliest obtainable printing of the Bill of Rights. Estimate: $8,000 - 12,000Bonhams, June 14-23: Edward Curtis Orotone. Estimate: $7,000 - 9,000Bonhams, June 14-23: Owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis: A Butter or Dessert Plate from FDR's State Dinner Service. Estimate: $3,000 - 5,000Bonhams, June 14-23: An Early Large-Format Plan of the City of Washington. Estimate: $1,500 - 2,500Bonhams, June 14-23: Containing the First Map to Name the Hudson River. Estimate: $20,000 - 30,000Bonhams, June 14-23: America's First Major Novelist, a Complete Chapter in Autograph Manuscript by James Fenimore Cooper. Estimate: $15,000 - 20,000Bonhams, June 14-23: The Only Full-Length Book by Jefferson, with the Justly Famous Map. Estimate: $12,000 - 18,000 -
June 25, 2026 Doyle, June 25: Houdini's biography, boldly signed. $3,000 to $5,000.Doyle, June 25: A volume from Abraham Lincoln's library, signed just before heading to Washington for his inauguration. $20,000 to $30,000.Doyle, June 25: A very early Confederate recruiting manual belonging to the chief commissary in Lee's Army. $600 to $800.Doyle, June 25: Rare hand-colored lithographs of the life of Napoleon. $20,000 to $30,000.Doyle, June 25: The "Holster Atlas" of the American Revolution. $5,000 to $8,000.Doyle, June 25: Jewish ceremonies in fine hand-colored engravings. $7,000 to $10,000.Doyle, June 25: A very rare work on Turkish military costume. $1,000 to $1,500.June 25, 2026 Doyle, June 25: The most important illustrated work on the Mexican-American War. $10,000 to $15,000.Doyle, June 25: The finest illustrated book on Afghanistan. $10,000 to $15,000.Doyle, June 25: Henry Justice Ford St. George rescues the Princess from the horrible Dragon. $2,000 to $3,000.Doyle, June 25: A rare work of Prussian Army uniforms under Frederick William II, with exquisite hand-colored engravings. $800 to $1,200.Doyle, June 25: Lenny Bruce typed letter signed to a Village bohemian during his obscenity trials, with a manuscript note and drawing. $300 to $500.Doyle, June 25: Schiff's scarce Shanghai Sketchbook. $300 to $500.Doyle, June 25: The first accurate published representation of the American flag. $2,000 to $4,000. -
Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 123. Celebrate 250 Years of Independence with Original Stars and Stripes (1790) Est. $1,400 - $1,700Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 20. Keulen's Spectacular Chart of the World Featuring California as an Island (1728) Est. $12,000 - $15,000Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 42. Schedel's Ancient World Map with Fantastic Humanoid Creatures (1493) Est. $14,000 - $17,000Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 591. Matching Set of 3 Stunning Globe Gores of Eastern Asia from Coronelli's 3.5 Foot Globe (1688) Est. $5,500 - $7,000Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 9. Speed's Popular World Map with Allegorical Representations of the Elements (1651) Est. $14,000 - $17,000Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 168. First Separate Map of Kansas & Nebraska Territories (1854) Est. $5,500 - $7,000Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 43. Only Macrobius Map with Britain Attached to Europe (1515) Est. $800 - $950Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 250. Rare Map of Boston and One of the Earliest Maps of the Revolutionary War (1775) Est. $2,000 - $2,300Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 79. Schenk's Uncommon Map Featuring Two Figurative Title Cartouches (1696) Est. $1,200 - $1,500Old World Auctions (June 17): Lot 681. Hand-Colored Image of the Annunciation to the Shepherds (1502) Est. $800 - $950