Sunday, December 09, 2012

Auction Report: December 10-31

Here's what's up for the remainder of 2012:

- Swann Galleries sells Fine Photographs and Photobooks on 11 December, in 417 lots.

- Sotheby's sells English Literature, History, Children's Books & Illustrations on 12 December, in 186 lots. Austen friend Anne Sharp's copy of Emma rates the top estimate, at £150,000-200,000. The earliest known photo album compiled by Julia Margaret Cameron could fetch £100,000-150,000: a gun used by Sean Connery in James Bond publicity photos rates the same estimate, as does a first edition of Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte containing six manuscript Bronte letters. Eight of Virginia Woolf's pocket engagement diaries could fetch £40,000-60,000, while an imperfect Second Folio is estimated at £30,000-50,000.

- Also on 12 December at Sotheby's, The Art of Illustration - From the Collection of Michael Winner, in 157 lots. E.H. Shepard, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen, Edmund Dulac, they're all here.

- Bloomsbury sells Astronomy and Space Exploration-related lots on 12 December, in 403 lots.

- At Sotheby's on 14 December, Fine Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana, in 191 lots. A first edition, first issue of Newton's Principia is up for grabs, with a $400,000-600,000 estimate. A set of The Pennsylvania Evening Post for 1776, including the first newspaper printing of the Declaration of Independence (the second printing overall after the Dunlap broadside) rates a $300,000-400,000 estimate. The largest collection of Charles Schulz drawings and letters ever to come to auction, romantic notes and drawings to Tracey Claudius, is estimated at $250,000-350,000. A first edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds could sell for $250,000-350,000.

- PBA Galleries sells Fine Literature, Illustrated and Children's Books, and Books in All Fields on 13 December. A first edition Ulysses rates the top estimate, at $25,000-35,000.

- At Bloomsbury on 14 December, Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts, in 418 lots.

- On 20 December at PBA Galleries, Treasures from Our Warehouse with Books by the Shelf.

And that should be just about it for December! Will have updates as required.