Earlier this spring Bonhams revealed the news that this unique portrait had turned up in its London office. The oval miniature is catalogued as 'Circle of Charles Hayter,' perhaps obscuring the fact that the image is generally accepted as one of the Romantic poet John Keats. Housed within a gold frame, the reverse reveals strands of dark blonde hair decorated with split seed pearls and gilt-wire. It has been consigned by an American, a descendant of Earle Vonard Weller (1890-1994), an author and avid collector of English Romantic poets. He is known to have purchased this miniature in 1931 from an antiques dealer in Knightsbridge. Though there is some debate over its identification as Keats, Bonhams' catalogue copy does a fine job in describing its history. 

The miniature will be auctioned on May 30th within its red leather traveling case, together with Autobiography of John Keats: Compiled from His Letters and Essays by none other than Earle Vonard Weller (Stanford University Press, 1933), in which an image of the very same miniature is color illustrated on the frontispiece. It is expected to reach £10,000-15,000 (US$ 15,000-23,000).

Image via Bonhams.com.

Almost a year ago, scholars at Canterbury Cathedral and the University of Kent became alarmed when the possibility arose that a major collection of early printed books and manuscripts might be broken up and sold to the highest bidder. The Mendham collection--named for its founder, Anglican vicar Joseph Mendham--was donated to The Law Society of England and Wales in the 1860s. Since 1984, the collection has been on deposit at Canterbury Cathedral Library under a loan agreement between the Cathedral, the University of Kent, and the Society. (That agreement is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2013.)

But in July of last year, the Law Society plucked three hundred of the most valuable books from the collection and consigned them to Sotheby's. An uproar ensued, and a petition was circulated to save the historic library from an uncertain fate. Negotiations began, and there was hope that the scholars and the solicitors might reach an agreement. According to Dr. Clive Field, president of the Religious Archives Group, the Law Society invited bids to purchase the entire collection from a number of UK universities. With no deal in sight, "Highlights of the Mendham Collection"--142 lots of bibles, prayer books, and other rare theological works--is now officially on the Sotheby's calendar for June 5. The six-volume polyglot bible pictured here at left is estimated to be one of the top lots at £70,000-100,000 ($105,000-150,000).

In anticipation of the auction, a letter of support for keeping the collection intact was sent to the Times of London on May 11. Dr. Clive Field; Diarmaid Maccullouch, professor of the history of the church, Oxford; and Roly Keating, chief executive, British Library, wrote as a group describing their concern. "Many items will doubtless be lost to the nation as a result," they wrote. They urged the Law Society to explore "alternative options to the Sotheby's auction, with the attendant damage to scholarship and national heritage."

Some solicitors have also shown support for the effort to save the collection from dissemination. In a May 14 letter to the Times of London, Ian Stevens, director of policy for the Solicitors Regulation Authority, 2007-2010, wrote, "As a history graduate, solicitor and former employee of the Law Society of England and Wales, I am dismayed by the society's proposal to break up and dispose of the Mendham Collection ... The donor's intention was to find a secure home for the collection, not to provide the profession with a disposable asset." Two other UK solicitors followed up with a letter in the Times on May 15 urging other solicitors to "contact the Law Society, as we have done, to ask that the sale be delayed. Short-term financial considerations cannot be a justification for the break-up of a historical collection."

Dr. Alixe Bovey, director of the University of Kent's Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, would very much like to see the collection preserved. In an email last week she wrote, "We're still making efforts to stop the break up of the collection but time is running out."

The Law Society, for its part, has refused to comment. A May 16 email from Fine Books went unanswered by the Society's press office.

Image via Sotheby's.com.

Daniel Rolnik and Ryan McIntosh of Intellectual Property Prints in Los Angeles are launching a run of 100% handmade fine-art screenprints. Timed to support the annual Venice Art Walk auction on May 19th, IPP will debut ten new prints by artists from all genres of contemporary art, including: Gary Baseman (subversive art), Jason Shawn Alexander (fine art), Bob Dob (pop surrealism), David Flores (vinyl toys), Daniel Edwards (sculpture), Christine Wu (fine art Illustration), Gregory Siff (street art), Eric Joyner (lowbrow), and Michael Sieben (skateboard illustration).

To see teasers of prints being produced, visit: http://instagram.com/intellectualpropertyprints#

Or check out this video of Bob Dob, whose new 3-color screenprint, "Blood Orange," made in an edition of fifty, is one of the featured IPP prints.

Recent and upcoming auction doings:

- 10 April was a pretty amazing day for Christie's New York. The sale of the first part of the Collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow on 10 April can only be described as spectacular. The sale realized a grand total of $15,842,145, with Goya's Tauromaquia leading the way at $1,915,750. Another Goya lot, Los Caprichos, sold for $843,750. And in their single-item sale on the same day, Christie's sold Dr. Francis Crick's "secret of life" letter to his son for an eye-popping $6,059,750.

- Bloomsbury sold Books on Horology, Science, and Medicine on 11 April; results here.

- At Swann on 11 April, Fine Books Including Incunabula and Writing Manuals, in 148 lots. The Noble Fragment Gutenberg leaf sold for $55,200, and the first edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds made $288,000. The (only?) presentation copy of Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield fetched $16,800, and early printing did especially well.

- Swann sold Printed & Manuscript Americana on 16 April. A collection of Civil War diaries and letters by two friends in a California regiment sold for $31,200, while an archive of material by natural historian William Cooper and his son James Graham Cooper made $40,800 (over estimates of just $1,500-2,500). An extreme Theodore Roosevelt rarity, a memorial volume to his wife and mother, sold for $38,400.

- Bloomsbury held a Bibliophile Sale on 18 April, in 655 lots. Results here.

- Christie's London sold Travel, Science, and Natural History items on 24 London, realizing £1,658,075. The manuscript speech by Wilbur Wright sold for £61,875, while the egg of an extinct elephant bird fetched £66,675.

- PBA Galleries sold Travel & Exploration, Cartography & Americana from the Library of Glen McLaughlin (with additions) on 25 April. Their website was having issues when I wrote this, so I don't have results information at present.

- Christie's Paris' sale of Importants Lives Anciens, Livres d'artistes et Manuscrits on 29 April brought in 2,407,762 Euros, with Hugo, Balzac and Proust manuscript lots taking top honors.

- At Sotheby's Paris on 29-30 April, the first part of the Bibliothèque des ducs de Luynes, Château de Dampierre was sold, for a total of 2,354,715 Euros. The grand folio volume with Blondel watercolors produced to mark the wedding of the dauphin in 1745 sold for 301,500 Euros, but it was a manuscript map noting action involving Lafayette during the American Revolution which took the top price, fetching 373,500 Euros (over estimates of just 60,000-80,000 Euros).

- Bloomsbury sold The Library of a Continental Gentleman: Natural History Books on 9 May, in 288 lots. Results here. A copy of Ventenat's Description des Plantes Nouvelles et peu Connues (1800-1802) sold for £13,000.

- Swann sold Art, Press & Illustrated Books, including inventory from the stock of Irving Oaklander on 9 May. See the summer Fine Books & Collection for an overview of this sale.

- Sotheby's London sells Travel, Atlases, Maps & Natural History on 14 May, in 219 lots. An early 18th-century illustrated manuscript of Piri Reis' Kitab-i Bahriye once in the Phillipps collection could fetch £100,000-150,000.

- At Bloomsbury on 16 May, a Bibliophile Sale, in 406 lots.

- Sotheby's London holds a sale of First Editions, Second Thoughts on 21 May. This sale includes 50 contemporary first editions, annotated by their authors, to benefit the charity English PEN. Browse the available lots here.

- On 29 May at Sotheby's Paris, Livres et Manuscrits, in 149 lots. An archive of Rousseau letters is estimated at 250,000-350,000 Euros.

- PBA Galleries sells South Sea: The Library of Richard Topel, Part II on 30 May, in 349 lots.

- Also on 30 May, Bloomsbury holds a 30th Anniversary Sale of Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper, in 424 lots.