January 2012 | Jeremy Dibbell

Auction Preview: January Sales

January's a fairly quiet auction month overall, but there's certainly the potential for a really big sale price, at Christie's New York on 20 January.

  • PBA Galleries sells Fine Books in All Fields on 5 January, in 460 lots. A first edition Leaves of Grass rates the top estimate, at $20,000-30,000.
  • Edinburgh's Lyon & Turnbull will sell Rare Books, Maps, and Manuscripts on 11 January, in 456 lots.
  • Bloomsbury hosts a Bibliophile sale on 12 January, in 398 lots.
  • On 19 January, PBA Galleries sells Americana & Californiana, Cartography, and Clipper Ship Cards. No preview yet available.
  • Christie's has just one book sale this month, on 20 January ... but it's a doozy: the Duke of Portland's copy of Audubon's Birds of America (est. $7-10 million). See Rebecca's preview of this sale from earlier this week.
  • There will be at least a few books and manuscripts in the 22 January Bonhams sale.
  • Swann Galleries holds a "Shelf Sale" on 26 January.