manuscripts

  This fall, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) presents over 30 rare and storied objects from the museum’s renowned Phillips Library, including a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible, original transcripts from the Salem witchcraft trials, and the first example of paper currency in the Western world. Boasting 400,000 books collected over three centuries, PEM’s Phillips Library is one of the largest and oldest museum libraries in the country. Through a selection of books, manuscripts, sketchbooks, maps ...

With an overall result of € 1,9* million, the two day auction of Rare Books at Ketterer Kunst made for the best result in this section for the last twenty years. The evening auction alone realized a stunning 74 percent sold lots and a quota of 128 percent*. The reason for this tremendous success is in “the very innovative catalog concept,“ said Robert Ketterer. The introduction of the evening auction made for a jump start. A catalog was developed just for this particular event, with the ...

Leslie Hindman Auctioneers’ November 18th Fine Books and Manuscripts auction was an outstanding success with 90% of all lots selling. The highlight of the sale was a hand-written draft chapter from Mark Twain’s A Tramp Abroad, which sold for $79,300 against a presale estimate of $30,000-50,000; an original hand-written high school essay by Ernest Hemingway sold for $7,320. Another item of note was a George Washington document signed as the President of the Potomac Company, which sold for ...

Under the direction of Melanie Halloran, Gray’s new Director of Books and Manuscripts, Gray’s are proud to announce the results of their inaugural Fine Printed Books auction which took place May 6, 2010.  Auctioneer & President Deborah J. Gray declares that over 80% of lots sold by value, with several lots selling above their estimates. Among the highlights of the auction were: Lot 44: Diderot's 3 volume Suite de Recueil des Planches from his Encylopedie published circa 1779.  A ...

They had to be pretty and rare, the flowers that were accepted into the baroque florilegium "Fleurs du Printemps et de L'Este", which will be sold in the auction of Rare Books - Manuscripts - Autographs - Decorative Prints and Maritime and North German Art at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg on 17/18 May. Besides sketches of domestic and exotic flowers, the florilegium also contains 19 illustrations of tulips, which were the most valuable flowers by far in those days. The sense for an esthetic ...

Leslie Hindman Auctioneers announces an auction featuring over 75 lots of early Italian and Latin literature from the antiquarian book library of John Sisto of Berwyn, Illinois. The books, maps and engravings comprise what remains of the over 3,500 items seized by the Chicago division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2007, of which 1,600 items were repatriated to Italy after being deemed unlawfully imported. The collection had been brought to the attention of the FBI by Mr. ...

  The Frick Collection is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Stephen J. Bury to the post of Andrew W. Mellon Chief Librarian at the Frick Art Reference Library. For the past ten years, he has been at the British Library, the national library of the United Kingdom, and one of the world’s greatest research institutions, where he is a Deputy Director and Head of European and American Collections, as well as Maps, Music, and Philatelic Collections. Previously, Dr. Bury was Head of ...

Overall proceeds of € 19,3 million* are the excellent result of Ketterer Kunst’s business year 2009. Thus the company once more reached the same heights as it did for the last four years.   The 2009 Top 10 Results   € 780.000* calling price: 500.000 Otto Mueller - Artistenpaar   € 355.000* calling price: 140.000 Franz Radziwill - Gespräch über einen Paragraphen   € 290.000* calling price: 80.000 Emil Nolde - Tänzerin   € 240.000* calling price: 70.000 Günther Uecker - Field ...

Patronage of Robert Burns’s original manuscript and lyrics to Auld Lang Syne go under the hammer at 10th Made in Scotland Sale A bidder at Bonhams annual Made in Scotland Sale, held in conjunction with the National Trust for Scotland (18-21 August), will have the unique opportunity to ‘sponsor’ one of the world’s most popular songs: Auld Lang Syne. The work of Scotland’s favourite son, Robert Burns, the sale is expected to attract the attention of Scots around the world, with the fragment of ...