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The late Stanley J. Seeger (1930-2011) was one of the 20th century’s greatest collectors—a perfectionist, who assembled world class collections of art, books, pottery and manuscripts. He also amassed, with a single-minded passion over the course of 50 years, the greatest private collection of first editions, inscribed works, manuscripts, letters and annotated proofs by the celebrated author Joseph Conrad. Sotheby’s London is honoured to offer these rare and important works from Stanley J. Seeger’s celebrated Library in two sales—the first of which will take place on July 10th 2013.

The centrepiece of the collection is the autograph working manuscript of Typhoon, one of Conrad’s greatest stories of the sea and the most important Conrad manuscript remaining in private hands, which is estimated to realise £300,000-500,000*.

DALLAS — Rembrandt Peale’s iconic portrait of U.S. President George Washington — created in the artist’s lifelong quest to paint the most recognizable image of the “Father of the United States” — realized a new world record for a porthole portrait by the artist when it sold for $662,500 to lead Heritage Auctions’ two-day, $4.5+ million American art events in Dallas.

The May 10-11 events spanned American Indian art, Texas, Western and California Art and masterpieces of Fine American art. The auction sold 88 percent by lot and 93 percent by value and pushed three artists’ records past $500,000.

An extraordinary cast of the death mask of the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, made shortly after his death on the island of St Helena on 5 May 1821,  is to be sold at Bonhams Book, Map and Manuscript sale on June 19th in Knightsbridge, London.  It is estimated at £40,000-60,000.

The  cast — known as the ‘Boys cast’ — was made for the Rev Richard Boys, Senior Chaplain of St Helena and is one of only a tiny handful with a provenance linking it directly to the island.  It is the most significant example remaining in private hands and bears an autograph note of authentication written by Boys.  All but one of the other examples are in national collections, either in France or in Corsica. It is being sold by Andrew Boys, a direct descendent of the original owner’s brother.

San Francisco—Bonhams looks forward to offering a strong selection of pens, sure to appeal to collectors, in its Fine Writing Instruments auction to be held June 11. The leading lot of the auction is a Montegrappa "The Dragon 2010 Bruce Lee 18 Karat Yellow Gold Limited Edition 88 Fountain Pen," estimated at $30,000-50,000. The pen, which honors one of the greatest icons of the 20th century, features cinnamon-veined red celluloid, a solid 18 karat yellow gold dragon overlay, ruby eyes and a Yin-Yang cap-top emblem. Its medium 18 karat gold nib is engraved with a silhouette of Bruce Lee.

Another standout pen in the auction is a Montblanc "Charlie Chaplin Skeleton Limited Edition 88 Fountain Pen," estimated at $30,000-40,000. The outstanding instrument pays tribute to one of the greatest figures of 20th century cinema, Charlie Chaplin. This pen's intricate cog-wheels in 18 karat solid white gold suggest the machines and machinations featured in Chaplin's most celebrated film, Modern Times. Each detail of the pen's design recalls a different aspect of Chaplin's persona: the barrel and cone suggest his baggy trousers, the captop is based upon his bowler hat and the solid gold clip resembles his cane. Its medium 18 karat rhodium-plated gold nib is engraved with Chaplin's iconic accouterments.

Auctioneers at Lyon & Turnbull sold a first edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby for £1875 on the eve of the premiere of the new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan. The book valued at £700 is from one of the most remarkable private libraries of English literature to come to auction.

The library, sold for a total of £226,000, belonged to the late Bruce Ritchie. Tom Stoppard, on hearing of his death, said, “I’ve known very few people as kind, as learned, as civilised as Bruce. He taught my son Oliver at Merchant Taylors’ forty years ago and many pupils remember him fondly. The world is poorer without him.”

New York—Swann Galleries’ auction of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Historical Prints, Ephemera on Thursday, June 6 offers scarce and appealing mappings of New York and other American subjects and the Holy Land, as well as botanical and ornithological plates and books.

Among the U.S. maps is The City of New York as laid out by the Commissioners with the Surrounding Countryside, a nearly pristine final Commissioner's map of 1821 by John Randel, Jr., printed on satin, with the grid system beginning with 1st street and running northward to 155th street, streets running east to west intersected by 12 avenues running south to north, essentially the city modern day inhabitants and visitors have come to know (estimate: $10,000 to $15,000).

DALLAS — A portfolio of 10 screen prints from Andy Warhol’s Endangered Species, 1983, may bring $250,000 to lead Heritage Auctions' May 22 Modern and Contemporary Art Signature® Auction in Dallas. Each signed and numbered in pencil, the portfolio is presented in a single lot and is one of eight lots featuring the Master of Pop Art, to include Ads, 1985, ($200,000+), Liz, 1967, ($5,000+) and Teddy Roosevelt, from the Cowboys and Indians portfolio, ($12,000+).

“The fine Warhols are just a few of the more than 200 lots of fresh to market paintings, sculpture and photography offered in this auction," said Frank Hettig, Director of Modern & Contemporary Art at Heritage. “This is a powerful selection.”

May 13, 2013 — LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In one of the most significant auctions of TV memorabilia, the estate of Captain Kangaroo goes to auction on May 21st in Los Angeles.  Over 500 lots can be viewed, encompassing 30 years of television history.

"Captain Kangaroo is beloved by almost the entire adult population, as the Baby Boomers and Generation X grew up watching the show in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. It's the longest running children's program in the history of TV," said Nate D. Sanders whose company is auctioning the estate. "The sketch format of Captain Kangaroo telling stories, goofing around with his guests and using puppets literally set the stage for all children's programming thereafter."

London — On 12 June 2013, Christie’s London will offer a newly discovered, deluxe copy of Opera by Virgil (70-19 B.C.) in the sale of Valuable Printed Books & Manuscripts (estimate: £500,000 - 800,000). The Aeneid is accepted as the foundation stone of western literature, and this copy is the earliest edition a collector could ever aspire to own. 

Printed in 1470, within a year of the beginning of printing in Venice, it is the second edition, acknowledged to be textually superior. Its rarity is indicated in the fact that the last copy to come on the market was sold almost a century ago, in 1920. This newly discovered copy is complete and printed on costly vellum for a wealthy patron; the elegance of its page and the hand-painted decoration add to its resemblance to a Renaissance manuscript, and indeed, an earlier owner may have regarded it as a manuscript, perhaps contributing to its true identity not being recognised until now.

Several new world records for hand written works by some of the giants of British poetry were set at Bonhams yesterday (8 May) during Part II of the sale of The Roy Davids Collection Part III:  Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets.  The sale made a total of £750,000.

Star of the sale was Oscar Wilde’s very early poem, ‘Heart’s Yearnings’ written when he was an undergraduate at Magdalen College Oxford in 1874.  It sold for £67,250, a world record for a poetic manuscript by the writer the previous record being £24,000 for a draft poem on Lillie Langtry).  It had been estimated at £12-15,000.

Doyle New York's April 23, 2013 auction of Rare Books, Autographs & Illustration Art offered a wide range of material. Comprising 300 lots, the sale included Americana, items of sporting interest, travel, literature, early printing, photographic albums, color plate books, original illustrations, science and medicine, among many other subjects.

With competitive bidding from buyers in the salesroom, on the telephones and on the Internet, the sale totaled $909,406 against a pre-sale estimate of $596,800-923,450 with an exceptional 90% sold by lot and 94% sold by value.

New York — On Thursday, May 23, Swann Galleries will offer an excellent assortment of Autographs at auction. The sale features Americana, presidential material, musicians, writers, artists, and more.

There are several lots related to Ronald Reagan, dating back to a May 1946 autograph letter signed, written to a fellow member of the American Veterans Committee, on Jane Wyman stationery, that discusses the role of Communists in the organization, and expressing a decidedly liberal viewpoint (estimate: $6,000 to $9,000). There is also an autograph note signed, as President, a retained draft of a letter written to a Viet Nam veteran, containing the line, “I can understand why you think me a closet racist…” March 1983 ($3,000 to $4,000); a color photograph signed by Reagan, First Lady Nancy Reagan, and White House dog Lucky, which was the original artwork used for holiday cards, 1984-85 ($700 to $1,000); and a pair of items written to the Reagans by Mother Teresa, 1984 ($800 to $1,200).

May 2, 2013 — LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Anne Revere's Best Actress Tony Award for the 1960 play, "Toys in the Attic" is available at auction through Nate D. Sanders Auctions on May 21, 2013 just in time for Tony Awards season.

"Tony Awards are quite scarce," said Nate D. Sanders, whose company is auctioning the award. "The Awards started in 1947, relatively late compared to the Oscars, and there are also fewer categories as compared to the Emmys and Grammys. Beginning in 1947 there were only 11 awards given out and today it's just 26."

Chicago, Illinois — Grant Wood’s artworks have always held a special place in the hearts of Midwesterners — they capture the land and the people Wood knew best, hard-working men and women of 20th century rural America. We see his visions as a memorial to the American working class and generations of collectors have established a strong market for his iconic views of rolling hills and hearty farmhands. 

The Veterans Memorial Building in Grant Wood’s hometown, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, boasts a towering landmark to his artistic achievement, a 24-foot tall stained glass window — the largest in the United States in 1929 at the time of its inception. The window features a central figure of a Lady in Mourning, modeled after the artist’s sister and sitter for the iconic painting, American Gothic, Nan Wood. The figure is flanked by life-size soldiers from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and the First World War. It is the only known stained-glass window designed by Wood.

The first handwritten poem by Philip Larkin ever to come to auction is to be sold on 8 May in Part II of the sale of The Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams, New Bond Street. London. It is estimated at £3,000-4,000. Handwritten poetic manuscripts by Larkin are exceedingly rare.

The poem, entitled, ‘Love’, was written in December 1962 and is a typically wry reflection on the compromises and demands of love.

Sotheby's 29 April sale brought over $8.5 million, an auction record for Judaica. The Mishneh Torah, the highlight of the Michael & Judy Steinhardt Judaica Collection, was purchased jointly by The Israel Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art prior to the sale for a price significantly in excess of the current record for Judaica at auction.

Many other works from the collection are also destined for prominent cultural institutions.

New York—On Thursday, May 16, Swann Galleries will auction more than 215 examples of Contemporary Art, including unique pieces and multiples. The sale comes on the heels of the Frieze Art Fair and other spring art events in New York.

The lot with the highest pre-sale estimate is a late 1960s Untitled painting of a horse by Maqbool Fida Husain, the modernist Indian painter. This grand and powerful piece exhibits the finest qualities of Husain’s celebrated horse paintings—sweeping, bold brushstrokes, a chiseled white horse with rich black contours brilliantly set against a muted background. It is estimated at $100,000 to $150,000.

New York—Every spring, poster enthusiasts look forward to Swann Galleries’ auction of Modernist Posters, which is always filled with eye-grabbing examples of cutting-edge design. This year’s sale, which will take place on Monday, May 13 at 1:30 p.m., boasts typography masterpieces, early 20th-century exhibition and product advertisements and alluring posters for recognizable brands.

The most valuable works in the sale are those by Art Deco designer A.M. Cassandre, which include one of his earliest designs, Turmac / La Cigarette Turque, 1925 (estimate: $15,000 to $20,000); a poster for safety glass brand Triplex, Paris, 1931 (also $15,000 to $20,000); the iconic Nord Express, 1927 ($12,000 to $18,000); The Continent / via Harwich, London, 1928 ($8,000 to $12,000); a Grand Sport hat advertisement, 1931 ($15,000 to $20,00); and an unpublished maquette on wood for L’Art Decoratif & la Peinture Moderne Francaise / Lord and Taylor, 1927 ($25,000 to $35,000).

DALLAS — A single page of the LM Activation checklist referenced by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during Man’s first moon landing on July 20, 1969 realized $55,268 to lead Heritage Auctions’ $1.57+ million Space Exploration Signature® Auction in Dallas. Items related to the Apollo Program took top lot honors during the April 18 auction as an Apollo 11 flown crew-signed commemorative cover from Aldrin’s personal collection sold for $50,787 and an Apollo 16 flown wrist mirror used by astronaut Charlie Duke during his moonwalks brought $44,812.

“This is truly the largest space auction — by dollar and by lot — held since President Obama signed a law last fall granting Mercury, Gemini and Apollo crew full rights to own and sell mementos from their historic journeys,” said Michael Riley, Senior Historian and Chief Cataloger for Space Exploration at Heritage. “This event far exceeded our expectations and we’re already excited about our Nov. 1 auction in Dallas.”

Bonhams is to sell a fine photographic portrait of Dylan Thomas standing outside the Boathouse in Laugharne taken by the American photographer Rollie McKenna and printed personally by her.

It features in the sale of The Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams, New Bond Street on 8 May.   

The photograph, taken in 1952, shows Thomas leaning casually against the door of the Boathouse and looking directly into the camera. It is estimated at £1,500 -2,000.

DALLAS — The 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine awarded to Dr. Francis Harry Compton Crick realized $2.27+ million to lead Heritage Auctions’ two-day, $4.97+ million Historical Manuscripts Signature® Auction in New York. Awarded for the discovery of the helical structure of DNA, the medal sold April 11 to Jack Wang, the CEO of Biomobie of Shanghai, China. Wang pledged to use the medal, which set a record as the most valuable Nobel Prize ever sold at auction, to encourage the pursuit of biomedical sciences.

Amid Crick’s personal items, his endorsed Nobel Prize check fetched $77,675, a lab coat worn as he decoded an amino acid brought $8,962 and his personal copy of Charles Darwin’s The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, sold for $4,182.

New York—On Thursday, May 9 Swann Galleries will conduct an auction devoted to Art, Press & Illustrated Books, which includes the first installment of material from the inventory of the late Irving Oaklander, whose eponymous shop specialized in books on printing, graphic design and typography, classic and modern.

Design enthusiasts will note the strong focus on German and Dutch masters with Theo van Doesburg and Kurt Schwitters’s collaboration Kleine Dada Soiree, the poster for their 1923 tour introducing artists and the public to the Dadaist movement (estimate: $20,000 to $30,000); several examples by Herbert Bayer, including an archive of material about the making of Arthur A. Cohen’s 1984 book Herbert Bayer: The Complete Work, containing books, sketches, letters and more ($1,200 to $1,800); as well as Jan Tschichold’s annotated De Proporties van het Boek, Amsterdam, 1955 ($1,000 to $1,500); and works by Paul Schuitema, Piet Zwart and Hermann Zapf.

(New Orleans, LA) — April 22, 2013 — New Orleans Auction Galleries (NOAG), the premier auction house of the American South, hosted an impressive three-day sale held April 19-21, 2013 with 8 pieces achieving world record prices with many others garnering exceptional results.

Important highlights from the auction include a large Shearwater Pottery vase decorated by Walter Anderson, which sold for a world record price of $31,980; William Tolliver’s oil on canvas titled, “Man in Blue, Playing a Guitar,” reached a world record price of $23,370; and Pedro Friedeberg’s Giltwood “Hand Chair,” also achieved an unprecedented price of $17,835.

The Theodore Roosevelt collection of Peter Scanlan led the way at Swann’s April 16 Americana auction, with a lifetime of collecting sold in 109 lots. The top Roosevelt lot was the extremely scarce pamphlet In Memory of My Darling Wife Alice ($38,400), which had never before appeared at auction. Several other Roosevelt printed works had never been previously seen at auction, including President Roosevelt's List of Birds Seen in the White House Grounds ($3,120).  Roosevelt autographs and a family photo album ($5,520) also did well. Several books by Roosevelt set records, including The Naval War of 1812, $2,640; The Summer Birds of the Adirondacks, $5,040; The Wilderness Hunter, $5,040.  An event at Swann a few days before the sale, featuring a poignant talk by Scanlan’s friend and fellow collector Gregory Wynn, set the tone for the dispersal of a great collection.

The biggest surprise of the sale, and the top lot, was an archive of scientific and family papers of naturalists William Cooper and his son James Graham Cooper. Estimated at $1,500 to $2,500, it sold to a private collector for $40,800 after prolonged bidding between three parties. Three other highlights were a group of amazing California Civil War letters by Julius Hall ($31,200), a beautiful extra-illustrated biography of Benjamin Franklin which attracted more than a dozen phone bidders (sold to a collector for $22,800), and the personal papers and effects of controversial lawyer Roy Cohn (sold to a collector in two lots for a total of $18,960).

Fairfield, Maine, April 18, 2013  — James D. Julia, Inc., one of the nation's top ten antique auction houses, is excited to present an absolutely breathtaking Chinese treasure in association with the company's upcoming Annual Summer event to be held on August 21st through 23rd, 2013. This exceptional lot is certain to be of great interest to Asian arts enthusiasts and historians around the world, and highlights James D. Julia and its specialists as leaders in the important and growing Asian Arts auction category. 

The seal is estimated at $20,000 to $30,000. It measures 6-3/4" x 6-3/4" x 3" overall, is cast from bronze, and is heavily gilded in pure gold. The item is dated "Third Year of Ch'ien Lung" indicating that it was produced in the 1738/39 time frame for Qianlong Emperor, the sixth leader of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty who reigned from 1735 to 1796. The seal was used to officiate business for the country's "Plain White Banner" military and administrative division, one of eight such divisions at the time.

A very rare poem, ‘At Dawn’, by the novelist and poetess Amy Levy described by Oscar Wilde as a ‘girl of genius’,  is to be sold on 8 May in Part II of the sale of The Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams, New Bond Street. 

Amy Levy (1861-1889) was only the second Jewish woman to attend Cambridge University and the first to attend Newnham College though she left after four terms. A precocious child, she had her first poem published at the age of 14. During her brief life she contributed poems, essays and stories to many magazines including the Jewish Chronicle and Oscar Wilde’s Women’s World.

NEW YORK—Swann Galleries’ March 21 auction of Printed & Manuscript African Americana drew collectors, dealers and institutions alike to compete for scarce and one-of-a-kind material related to black history.

Wyatt Houston Day, Swann’s African Americana specialist said, “We were so pleased to see such a large number of items in this sale—more than 100—go to institutions, including the Connecticut Historical Society, which acquired the sale’s top lot, a collection of Amistad-related letters.”

Kestenbaum & Company’s first of two Fine Judaica auctions to be held this Spring will take place on Thursday, May 2nd at 3:00 pm at the company’s gallery in New York City. Featured in the sale will be Rare Books, Manuscripts and Autograph Letters. A second Spring Judaica auction scheduled for June 13th will offer Ceremonial Objects and Graphic Art exclusively.  The May auction of nearly 400 lots includes Holy Land Travel books offered from the Collection of Nathan Lewin, Esq. These books represent in particular, the varied ways over the centuries that the country has been cartographically represented. Further sale highlights include rare books, manuscripts and important letters consigned from illustrious Rabbinic libraries including the Rivkin and Zuckerman families and the late Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak Halevi Ruderman, founder and Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Baltimore.

A broad range of subjects being offered for auction include Americana, Anglo-Judaica, anti-Semitica, Bibles, Chassidic books, children’s books, Passover Hagadahs, Kabbalistic books, Holocaust-era related books, books relating to Jews in 19th and early 20th century China, a number of rare government pamphlets relating to Jews of early 18th century Germany, Zionist related books and Livres d’Artistes.

New York—Museum-quality works of art on paper found a receptive audience of bidders at Swann Galleries March 7 auction of 19th & 20th Century Prints & Drawings.

Todd Weyman, Swann Vice President and Director of Prints & Drawings, said, “The best known artists were the best selling in this sale—including Picasso, Matisse, Whistler, Hopper and Bellows. The majority of those top lots went to private collectors in the U.S. and Europe, and there was robust bidding throughout the auction, indicating a market well into recovery.”

The sale’s highest selling lot was Pablo Picasso’s Tête de Femme (Portrait Stylisé de Jacqueline), color linoleum cut, 1962, which brought $48,000*.

NEW YORK — Bonhams is pleased to announce the inaugural auction of Judaica to be held at the Bonhams New York Madison Avenue salesroom on December 9, 2013. The auction will include significant historical and religious items that represent the cultural and social movements of the Jewish people from ancient through modern times. Pre-war and post-war Judaica from Israel, Europe and the Americas will be considered from such diverse fields as fine art, books and historical manuscripts, textiles, liturgical items, coins, medals, jewelry and decorative arts. 

The auction will be overseen by Bonhams’ recently appointed Judaica Consultant, Dr Rachael B Goldman. Dr Goldman received her Ph.D. in History from City University of New York - The Graduate Center in 2011, and has held fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, the New York Classical Club and the College Art Association. She has been a member of the American Association of Appraisers since 2002, and has worked for many esteemed institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University. Versed in several languages including Latin, Greek, Italian and Hebrew, Dr Goldman has taught at Adelphi University and the Cooper Hewitt M.A. program in Decorative Arts. Currently, she is an adjunct professor at The College of New Jersey.

BEVERLY HILLS — J.C. Leyendecker’s spectacular Honeymoon, The Saturday Evening Post cover, July 17, 1926, realized $194,500 to lead Heritage Auctions’ $2.8+ million Illustration Art Signature® Auction on April 11-12, a sale which saw tremendous prices realized across the board, especially where Pin-Up and Golden Age classic artworks were concerned. The piece came to auction from a consignor in New England whose mother was gifted the painting by the artist himself upon her own wedding, where Leyendecker also walked her down the aisle.

“Collectors would be hard pressed to find a Leyendecker that showcases the artist’s skill in a ways as spectacular as this painting,” said Ed Jaster, Senior Vice President of Heritage Auctions. “This was the third highest price ever for the artist, and with good reason — it’s a masterpiece.”

April 16 2013 — Sotheby’s New York is pleased to offer The Library of a Distinguished American Book Collector in a dedicated auction on 4 June 2013. Acquired over the course of nearly three decades, this collection, expected to fetch over $5 million, reflects the collector’s great intellectual curiosity and eclectic interests, as well as a deeply held passion for American history. Among the 250 lots on offer, the library has a particular emphasis on George Washington, highlighted by seven books from Washington’s Mount Vernon Library, all with his bold signature on their title pages and his bookplate (est. $1/1.5 million). This is the largest group of books from Washington’s library to appear in a single auction since the Bishop John Fletcher Hurst sale in 1904 and features novels such as Jonathan Swift’s The Beauties of Swift, Alain Rene Le Sage’s The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane. Vol. 3.  and Joseph Priestley’s Discourses Relating to the Evidences of Revealed Religion. Highlights from the collection will be on view at our Boston, Chicago and London offices in May, and the full collection will be on exhibition at our New York galleries beginning 31 May 2013 in advance of the sale. 

Further highlights of the sale include an extraordinarily fresh copy of the 1754 Journal of George Washington, his account of the French and Indian War prepared for the House of Burgesses (est. $100/150,000) and an important letter signed by him about securing New York City during the Revolutionary War (est. $70/100,000).

DALLAS, TX — Significant fresh-to-market memorabilia punctuates Heritage Auctions’ Vintage Sports Collectible auction, May 2-4, further bolstering Heritage Sports’ reputation as the hobby’s leading source for significant “finds,” with numerous discoveries making their auction debuts.

Also, for the first time in the history of the sports category at Heritage, all lots will close in the Extended Bidding format, so collectors are advised to place initial bids early.

NEW YORK, 12 April 2013 — On 26 November 2013, Sotheby’s New York will auction one of the finest surviving copies of the Bay Psalm Book — the first book printed in what is now the United States of America. The Congregationalist Puritans who emigrated to Massachusetts Bay in search of religious freedom quickly set about to translate and produce a version of the Book of Psalms that was a closer paraphrase of the Hebrew original than the one they had carried from England. The first edition of the resulting Bay Psalm Book was printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1640, and Sotheby’s will auction one of the 11 surviving copies in the dedicated auction. The present example comes from the collection of the Old South Church in the heart of Boston, Massachusetts — one of two remarkable copies presently in its collection - and the proceeds of the sale will benefit the church’s mission and ministry in the Greater Boston area.

No example of the Bay Psalm Book has appeared at auction since 1947, when another copy achieved a record auction price for any printed book at the time — many multiples of what other icons of printing achieved in that period, including the Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare’s First Folio and Audubon’s Birds of America**. The present example of the Bay Psalm Book from the Old South Church’s collection comes to auction at Sotheby’s New York with a pre-sale estimate of $15/30 million*.

NEW YORK — The 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine awarded to Dr. Francis Harry Compton Crick, along with Drs. James Dewey Watson and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins, for “...their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material,” or what would become known as DNA, sold on April 11, 2013, for $2.27+ million (including Buyer’s Premium) as the highlight of Heritage Auctions’ Historical Manuscripts Signature® Auction at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion.

“This auction, given the international attention is received, showed the continuing importance of Crick’s, Watson’s and Franklin’s discovery 60 years after they made it,” said Sandra Palomino, Director of Historic Manuscripts at Heritage Auctions. “This medal is the physical embodiment of the importance that discovery represented and, as such, worth every bit of the final $2.27+ million price realized.”

The last known manuscript poem by John Keats sold for a world record £181,250 today (10 April) at the sale of the first part (Poets A-K) of Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams, New Bond Street. 

Charlotte Bronte’s 'I’ve been wandering in the greenwoods,' written when she was just 13, also set a world record for the poet when it sold for £92,450.

The literary and artistic worlds will be astounded this week to meet a unique image of the poet, John Keats which has surfaced at Bonhams in London.

The image, consigned by an American owner, will feature in the ‘Fine Portrait Miniatures’ auction taking place at Bonhams, Knightsbridge on May 30th. Oval in format and measuring 70mm (2 3/4in) in height, this spellbinding image is estimated to attract £10,000-15,000 when it is auctioned.

The majority of contemporary portraits of Keats derive from Joseph Severn's miniature of the poet, which was exhibited at the RA in 1819 (no.940) (The Fitzwilliam Museum, Accession no.713). The present lot does not derive from this work or any of the other known portraits taken during Keats' short life, which strongly suggests it was painted from life.

NEW YORK—April, 2013—Profiles in History, run by Joe Maddalena, is proud to announce the auction of The Property of a Distinguished American Private Collector Part II on May 30th. A selection of the letters and manuscripts will be on display at Douglas Elliman's Madison Avenue Gallery, 980 Madison Avenue, April 8th to April 16th from 11am to 6pm. The Property of a Distinguished American Private Collector Part I was a blockbuster sale with a letter by Vincent van Gogh selling for $336,000 and a Thomas Jefferson letter selling for $300,000. Part II promises to be even bigger.

At Douglas Elliman's Madison Avenue Gallery the letters on display will include letters from George Washington, one in which he looks to hire Negro slaves as laborers, pictured left. An emotional letter by Thomas Jefferson, to a Mrs. Katharine Duane Morgan, pictured below, in which he states, "I did what I could, and now acquiesce cheerfully in the law of nature which, by unfitting us for action, warns us to retire and leave to the generation of the day the direction of it's own affairs." There will also be a collection of Dwight D. Eisenhower letters to his wife Maime chronicling World War II. Eisenhower writes about everything from how he hates the Germans to his reaction to seeing the concentration camps.

An unpublished, handwritten, poem in praise of absinthe drinking by the great occultist, Aleister Crowley, is to be sold in Part I of The Roy Davids Collection III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams New Bond Street on 10 April. It is estimated at £1,500-2,000.

Crowley (1875-1947), a bisexual, drug using, self styled prophet, often referred to as the ‘Great Beast 666’ was an inveterate absinthe drinker. His poem is called ‘The Green Hour’ and celebrates the period from 5 pm to 7, during which the drink was often imbibed.

(NEW ORLEANS, LA) — April 3, 2013 — The New Orleans Auction Galleries announces their Spring Estate Auction with nearly 1,600 lots, including fine paintings, art pottery, estate jewelry, a collection of garden furniture and statuary, and an extensive clock collection. The auction will take place over a period of three days: Friday, April 19, starting at 2 p.m., Saturday, April 20 and Sunday, April 21, starting at 10 a.m. 

Guests are welcome to preview the items at the Gallery, 510 Julia Street (at the corner of Magazine St.), from Wednesday, April 3 through Friday, April 19, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., excluding Sundays.  In addition, a late-evening preview event is scheduled for Thursday, April 18, from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m.

The signed manuscript of a patriotic poem by the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conon Doyle, is to be sold in Part I of The Roy Davids Collection III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams New Bond Street on 10 April. It is estimated at £5,000-8,000.

Written in 1915 — the manuscript is dated 10 October — the poem, entitled ‘Ypres’ was Conan Doyle’s contribution to The Queen's Gift Book, published for Christmas 1915 'In aid of Queen Mary's Convalescent Auxiliary Hospitals For Soldiers And Sailors Who Have Lost Their Limbs In The War'. It was subsequently included in Doyle's The Guards Came Through and Other Poems, 1919.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is one of the most enduring and influential pieces of literature, despite its less than auspicious beginning.

In the fall of 1958, the world was slated to receive the debut of New York sophisticate, Connie Gustafson. However, Connie Gustafson never made her debut— She was replaced by the icon the world knows as Holly Golightly.

A rare 86-page typed manuscript of Breakfast at Tiffany's with hand annotations by Truman Capote will be featured at auction, from New Hampshire based RR Auction in April.

NEW YORK — The largest single selections of signed Harry Potter first editions offered at one time, including a rare first edition, first printing of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone — one of the first 500 copy press run — may conjure $30,000+ as part of Heritage Auctions’ Rare Books Signature® Auction April 10 at New York’s Fletcher Sinclair Mansion (Ukrainian Institute of America) at 2 East 79th Street (at 5th Ave.). A highlight among the number of signed and autographed editions is a first edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, signed by Rowling and 14 members of the cast of the Warner Bros. film. The book is accompanied by a pass to a cast and crew screening of the film and a certificate of authenticity and is expected to bring $5,000+. 

The volumes leads a deep run of the world’s more sought after children’s titles among a select library of unique books, manuscripts, prints and maps.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — "Rarely can you see, let alone own, a handwritten manuscript by someone like F. Scott Fitzgerald," said Nate D. Sanders, who is auctioning the original poem. "It's an extraordinary finding that comes along maybe once every 10 to 20 years."

Unearthed from the estate of actress Helen Hayes, whom Fitzgerald became close to during the 1930s, Fitzgerald's poem is written to Hayes' daughter, Mary, who was almost 8 years old at the time.

Chicago, Illinois — On April 10, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers will showcase a fine selection of rare and historical Americana, including books, autographs, and maps, as part of their Fine Books and Manuscripts sale. 

Leading the sale is an early four-page letter from George Washington, as Commander of the Continental Army, to the Governor of New York, George Clinton, July 30, 1782. Letters from this period in Washington’s military campaign are exceedingly rare, especially with historically significant content. Here, Washington expresses his concern to Clinton for General Marinus Willett’s command of the Mohawk Valley, a strategic and vulnerable point on the Revolutionary War battle lines that had been plagued with numerous skirmishes between Loyalists and Allies. Washington planned to send Willett on a secret mission to recapture the British-held Fort Ontario at Oswego, but expresses doubts: “I wish to be informed … of the force of Willet’s [sic] corps now assembled on the Mohawk, also the strength of the enemy at Oswego, of which I have as yet had only vague and unsatisfactory accounts.” He warns them to be cautious; not to act too quickly. The mission, sent February 1783, would fail, when Willett’s forces were unable to surprise the garrison. It continued to be held by the British until 1796, thirteen years after the Peace of Paris.

March  2012 — Woburn, MA — At James D. Julia, our goals include bringing our global community of customers the very finest and most interesting antiques and artifacts possible. At our recent Winter 2013 Extraordinary Firearms Auction — which grossed over $13 million and featured remarkable militaria spanning four centuries — many lots also came with breathtaking provenances. This one in particular, with both deep Civil War and family roots, really caught our attention.

The Col. George G. Briggs Civil War Collection

The lot, number 1480, was a breathtaking collection of Civil War materials. These items, consigned by a Rhode Island family who were direct descendants of Col. George G. Briggs, were estimated at $45,000 to 65,000.  Briggs was the last commander of the 7th Michigan Cavalry and a trusted friend and confidante of Lt. Colonel George A. Custer, the famous officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.  After spirited and competitive bidding, the package sold for $184,000, including the buyer's premium.

28 March 2013 — Sotheby’s is pleased to offer the largest and most important group of William Faulkner material ever to appear at auction on 11 June 2013. Estimated to fetch over $2 million, Property from the Descendants of William Faulkner contains a highly personal selection of letters, manuscript drafts, and drawings, providing a remarkable window into key moments of the celebrated author’s life, including his time in Paris in the 1920s as well as receipt of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.  Further glimpses into the private life of this public figure are offered by intimate gifts the author prepared by for his wife and daughter.  A portion of the collection was only recently discovered on his family’s property in Virginia, including a number of items previously feared lost.  Highlights will be on view at Sotheby’s Paris in late May and in New York in advance of the June sale.

“This archive is remarkable for the new insight it provides into how Faulkner explored his artistic future in 1920s Paris, how his principles informed the content of his novels, and how he struggled with life in Hollywood, among other topics,” commented Justin Caldwell, Vice President in Sotheby’s Books & Manuscripts Department.  “The intimate nature of so many of these items speaks to Faulkner’s enduring relevance today, not only as one of the most important American authors of the 20th century, but as a writer who remains an essential figure to everyone from President Obama to Martin Scorsese, Oprah Winfrey to will.i.am, French President François Hollande and most currently James Franco, who is currently starring in and directing a film adaptation of As I Lay Dying.”

New York—Swann Galleries’ Printed & Manuscript Americana auction on Tuesday, April 16, features the Theodore Roosevelt Collection of Peter Scanlan, as well as scarce Mormon items, American Revolution, Civil War and American Indian material, and archives related to famous and notorious Americans.

Peter Scanlan began collecting Theodore Roosevelt material as a young boy and continued throughout his life, building a collection that was wide-ranging, with emphasis on books and pamphlets by Roosevelt, and included a choice selection of autographs, books about Roosevelt, material related to the extended family, and posters, photographs, ephemera and artifacts covering the whole of Roosevelt’s life. Of note in the auction are Roosevelt’s memoriam for his wife and mother, who died on the same day in 1884, In Memory of My Darling Wife Alice Hathaway Roosevelt and of My Beloved Mother Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, which had a very small print run and has become one of the greatest printed Roosevelt rarities (estimate: $25,000 to $35,000); a Typed Letter Signed to the acting Secretary of War, William Cary Sanger, postponing a major offensive against the Muslim inhabitants of the southern Philippines, Washington, 20 April 1902 ($1,500 to $2,500); and a family photograph album showing the President and his children, circa 1890-1910 ($4,000 to $6,000).

DALLAS — A massive six sheet movie poster for Casablanca, one of just two copies known, bid a fond ‘Here’s looking at you, kid’ to its pre-auction estimate of $60,000+ to realize $107,550 in Heritage's Vintage Movie Poster Signature® Auction. Measuring an impressive 81” x 81,” the poster took top lot honors during the March 23-24 event which brought $1.72+ million and was 96.4% sold by value. 

“This is the largest Casablanca poster we’ve ever offered at Heritage,” said Grey Smith, Director of Movie Posters at Heritage. “It is always a pleasure to manage the sale of a rare find like this six sheet - this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to own this particular poster and the price proves it.”

New York—Outstanding examples of early printed books—including incunabula from the Library of Kenneth Rapoport—are featured in Swann Galleries’ annual spring auction of Fine Books on Thursday, April 11, which is also opening day of the 53rd Annual New York Antiquarian Book Fair. The sale additionally offers fine examples of bindings, illustrated books, literature, science and natural history, travel books and writing manuals.

The book with the highest pre-sale estimate in the auction is John James Audubon and John Bachman’s The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, a first edition in book form of Audubon’s second monumental and enduringly popular work of natural history illustration, containing 150 hand-colored lithographed plates, New York, 1845-48 (estimate: $250,000 to $350,000).

Another richly illustrated natural history lot is a first edition of Daniel Giraud Elliot’s A Monograph of the Tetraoninae, or Family of the Grouse, with 27 hand-colored plates of birds and eggs, New York, 1865 ($10,000 to $15,000).

BEVERLY HILLS — J.C. Leyendecker’s Honeymoon, The Saturday Evening Post cover, July 17, 1926, one of the illustrator’s all-time greatest Post covers, is expected to bring $80,000+ as the centerpiece of Heritage Auctions’ April 11-12 Illustration Art Signature® Auction.

“I would argue that this is not only one of Leyendecker’s greatest Post covers, but one of his greatest works, period,” said Ed Jaster, Senior Vice President at Heritage Auctions. “The detail, the amazingly vibrant color and the vividly depicted subjects all add up to a masterpiece among masterpieces from one of the form’s greatest practitioners. I fully expect top collectors to come after this piece with tremendous enthusiasm.”

A hand-written manuscript of South African poet Roy Campbell’s translation of Saint John of the Cross, will be offered for sale at Bonhams auction of The Roy Davids’ Collection of Manuscripts to be held in London on 10 April where it is expected to fetch more than 70,000 Rand.

Campbell (1901-1957) made the vow to translate the works of the saint during his escape from death at the hands of a Republican mob in Toledo in 1936, when he rescued the saint’s papers from destruction.

Beverly Hills, CA — March 22, 2013 — Julien’s Auctions, the world’s premier music and entertainment memorabilia auction house has announced Music Icons 2013, an exceptional auction event featuring a rare VOX guitar played by two legendary Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison.   The one-day auction to take place at Hard Rock Cafe New York in Time Square  will also feature an extraordinary collection of music memorabilia including items from the Beatles, Elvis Presley, the King of Pop Michael Jackson, Bette Midler, David Cassidy, David Bowie, The Grateful Dead, Madonna, Jimi Hendrix and much more.

The rare offering of a VOX guitar played by both John Lennon and George Harrison is what rock n’ roll legends are made of. The striking custom guitar built by Mike Bennett and Dickey Denney was gifted to “Magic Alex” Mardas by John Lennon in 1967.  Harrison played the guitar while practicing “I am the Walrus” during The Magical Mystery Tour and by Lennon while recording a video session for “Hello, Goodbye.” The spectacular piece of Beatles history is estimated to bring $200,000-300,000 and offers collectors a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own one of the rarest pieces of Beatles memorabilia to ever be offered. The John Lennon/George Harrison played Beatles guitar will be on display at The Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge Silverware in County Kildare, Ireland from April 16th - May 8th.

NEW YORK — Bonhams third Asia Week auction, the Xi’an Incident: The Papers of Hyland “Bud” Lyon on March 20 featured never before seen letters and documents surrounding the pivotal 1936 Xi’an Incident and brought over $2.7 million. The unique sale was only eight lots long, although the auction took over an hour due to the continual bidding wars between the attendees, international phone bidders and online bidders primarily from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong — although Europe and the United States were represented as well. The salesroom brimmed with excitement, and occasionally broke out in applause, as lot after lot exceeded pre-sale estimates. 

“There will never be another auction quite like this,” said sale specialist, Dr. Catherine Williamson, Bonhams Director of Fine Books & Manuscripts. “I am thrilled with the results, and very excited about the market for rare Chinese manuscripts going forward.”

Two collections of early photography — fashionable ladies and the architecture and landscapes of India — were the stand-out items in Bonhams sale £784,000 today (19.3.13) of Books at Photographs in Knightsbridge, London.

Top item in the sale was an important collection of 37 albumen prints by Clemintina Maud, Lady Hawarden, plus 15 associated albumen prints (several possibly by Lady Hawarden), [c.1857-1864] which sold for £115,200.

The second highest item in the sale was the photo album of a wealthy young Frenchman, Alexis De La Grange, who while having fun on a tour of India some 163 years ago, took some of the first photographs of the country between 1849 and 1850. His album offers 49 architectural views, most of which are Mughal, in northern India. The album sold for an above estimate price of £63,650.

London—The complete working papers for Sylvia Plath's poem Sheep in Fog, offering a vivid insight into the fragility of the poet's mind in the weeks leading up to her suicide on February 11, 1963, are to be auctioned at Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street, London, on May 8. 

The papers are featured in the Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical  Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets, and are estimated at £30,000-35,000, or $47,000-55,000.

DALLAS — An intricate silver presentation frame holding a signed photograph from the Days of the Raj brought six times its pre-auction estimate to reach $46,875, leading Heritage Auctions’ two-day, $2.3+ million Estate Auction of fine and decorative art and collectibles, Feb. 23-24. The eclectic array was offered across three sessions, including one devoted to the second annual Gentlemen Collector Auction and the Brent Hyder Charitable and Education Fund collection, which brought a record crowd.

“The amount of online bidders set in-house records, but we also worked hard to invite the local community in and we succeeded — our floor was standing room only,” said Ed Beardsley, Vice President of Fine and Decorative Arts at Heritage. “We also saw a good bit of interest from beginning collectors, who are realizing that auctions are approachable and include material in all price points.”

MARCH 2013 — (San Clemente, Calif.) — The Surfing Heritage & Culture Center today announced that The Surf Riders of Hawaii, a truly unique and exclusive historical piece of surf history, will be one of the hallmark items in the Surfing Heritage Vintage Surf Auction, May 11, 2013 at the OC Fair & Events Center in Costa Mesa, California. Presented by Quiksilver Waterman Collection, the “California Gold” themed auction will feature historical surfboards and memorabilia with California flair from the 1920s through the 1990s. The auction will also include a live online option for those rare book and surfing enthusiasts who want to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity from anywhere in the world.

Made by hand by A.R. Gurrey, Jr. between 1911 and 1915, The Surf Riders of Hawaii holds a revered place in the world of surfing. Initially made to sell in his local art shop in the still desolate Waikiki beach in the early 1900s, A.R. Gurrey, Jr. was one of the first photographers to capture the surfing phenomena, thereby opening the sport to world-wide attention. With only eight known versions of this book in existence, the one available at the live auction was the copy that was found by Gurrey’s family in his personal belongings.

The signed manuscript of Emily Dickinson’s letter-poem 'She sped as petals from a rose...',  is to be sold on 10 April in Part I of the sale of The Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams, New Bond Street, London.  

The eight line verse, reproduced below, dates from around 1865 and is signed 'Emily' at the end and addressed on the back to 'Sue', written in pencil.  It is estimated at $15,600 - 23,000 (£10,000-15,000).

March 2013—New York. Christie’s is pleased to announce the sale of one of the most celebrated American book collections —The Collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow. The collection will be sold throughout 2013 in four parts, with an inaugural evening sale of highlights from Schongauer to Chagall on 9 April and The Middle Ages and the Renaissance on 10 April. Highly regarded among their contemporaries, the collection formed by the Vershbows is truly unparalleled, with its unique integration of illuminated manuscripts, books and prints.

DALLAS — A copy of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band — sporting four crisp signatures by the Fab Four on the iconic gatefold — is expected to bring well in excess of $30,000 as the top highlight on the music side of Heritage Auctions’ March 30 Entertainment & Music Memorabilia Signature® Auction.

Authenticated by two leading Beatles signature experts, the specimen is being called one of the top Beatles autographs they’ve examined in more than 30 years.

Beverly Hills, California — March 11, 2013 — Julien’s Auctions, the world’s premier entertainment celebrity memorabilia auction house has announced its Hollywood Legends auction of over 800 items including exceptional screen worn wardrobe, props,  photographs, jewelry and celebrity owned items to be held on April 5 & 6, 2013 at Julien’s Auctions Beverly Hills Gallery. From the only surviving vehicle from the Green Hornet production to the fanciful Munchkin’s hats in the all-time classic “Wizard of Oz,” Julien’s will not disappoint at this year’s Hollywood spectacular.

Unique to this auction is an unsurpassed collection of publicity stills and photographs from over 6000 films from some of the earliest days of Hollywood and through the 1960s.  The collection includes original key book images, wardrobe test images, promotional and scene stills and images by photographers Clarence Sinclair Bull, Irving Lippman, M.B. Paul, Malcolm Bulloch, A.L. Whitey Schafer, Oliver Sigurdson, Ernest Bacharach, Chronenweth, Christie and many others. This is the first time Julien’s Auctions has presented this collection to the public.

DALLAS — Marlon Brando’s 1954 ‘Best Actor’ Golden Globe award for his performance in On the Waterfront is expected to bring $10,000+ to highlight a never-before-offered selection of his personal property in Heritage Auction’s March 30 Entertainment & Music Memorabilia Signature® Auction.

The award is one of two of Brando’s Golden Globes offered — the second was won by the actor for being named World Film Favorite a year later in 1955. For a now unknown reason, though in a classic Brando-esque move, he threw this second award against the wall at his home, breaking off the top female statuette and scratching the placard — the piece was not repaired until decades later and still carries evidence of its damage at Brando’s hands. It carries a pre-auction estimate of $6,000+.

Los Angeles — Bonhams is pleased to announce its June 24 auction of the Doll Collection of Alexandra and Sidney Sheldon in Los Angeles.  The 400 lot collection was compiled by the noted author and his wife and features stunning, hand crafted dolls from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, primarily from the Lenci Company.  Highlights from the famed maker will include celebrity inspired dolls such as Rudolph Valentino and Madame Pompadour; a series of sports figures and international dolls from China, Russia, Scotland and Spain, among others.  

Founded in 1919 by Elena Konig Scavini, the Lenci Company is best known for its iconic, beautifully crafted dolls made from manufactured and processed felt.  The high end dolls became popular in the 1920s and gained many admirers among adult collectors that included Queen Elena of Savoy, Josephine Baker and many celebrities of the day.

DALLAS — A magnificent and massive Casablanca (Warner Brothers, 1942) six sheet (81" X 81") large format movie poster, one of just two copies known, is expected to bring $60,000+ when it comes across the auction block as the centerpiece of Heritage Auction’s March 23-24 Vintage Movie Poster Signature® Auction.

“There are few films as beloved as Casablanca,” said Grey Smith, Director of Movie Posters at Heritage Auctions, “and few titles that collectors covet more. Given the status of the film and the rarity of this particular poster - there is only one other known to exist - and you have the makings of something special.”

A deeply characterful portrait of Seamus Heaney by Peter Edwards, who also painted the portrait of the Irish poet which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London, is be auctioned at Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street, on 10 April during the sale of Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical  Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets.   

Estimated at £6,000-8,000, it is to be sold with the original pencil drawing made at Heaney’s Dublin home in 1987 from which the portrait was subsequently painted. Seamus Heaney wrote about the pleasure of sitting for Edwards in his 2008 memoir ‘Stepping Stones’.

BEVERLY HILLS — Irving Penn’s iconic close-up portrait of Picasso is expected to bring $60,000+ to lead a rare selection of four different Penn portraits offered in Heritage Auctions’ March 23 Photographs Signature® Auction. The Penn works are offered amid a cavalcade of work by noted artists, ranging from Ansel Adams’ Portfolio V, expected to bring $30,000+, and Richard Avedon’s Kennedy Portrait, triple signed and inscribed by both the artist, JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy, expected to bring $15,000+. All lots come from private collections and will be presented at Heritage’s Beverly Hills location.

“This auction is wall to wall stars, both behind and in front of the camera,” said Rachel Peart, Consignment Director for the company. “There are many instantly recognizable images by the powerhouses of photography from Man Ray to Cindy Sherman being offered.”

NEW YORK — A three-cel set-up from Walt Disney’s classic Lady and the Tramp realized $33,460 and a cel featuring Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice from Fantasia sold for $26,290 during Heritage Auctions’ Animation Art Signature® Auction. The Feb. 21 auction sold 93.9% by value and 97.8% by lot.

“Our formula was to auction primarily fresh material that had never before been offered for sale, with almost no reserves, and to cross promote it to a new generation of bidders as well as seasoned animation collectors,” said Jim Lentz, Director of Animation Art for Heritage. “We plan to continue in this vein and also to continue emphasizing the whole range of animation from 1928-2000.”

NEW YORK — A CGC 6.5-graded copy of Detective Comics #27 (DC, 1939), the first appearance of “The Batman,” realized $567,625 as the lead lot in Heritage Auctions $4.39+ million Vintage Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction on Feb. 21-22 at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion (Ukrainian Institute of America) in New York. Heritage also conducted its inaugural Animation Art Signature® Auction, which realized $925,000+, giving the category at $5.3+ million trio of auctions.

“This is the third best result for a comic book that Heritage has ever seen,” said Steve Borock, Senior Consignment Director at Heritage Auctions, “and shows that comics are a market right now where significant appreciation can occur within a short span of time; this copy of Detective Comics #27 brought $45,000 more than another copy in the same grade that we sold a year ago.”

The manuscript of Charlotte Brontë’s poem, “I’ve been wandering in the greenwoods,” written when she was just 13, is to be sold on 10 April in Part I of the sale of The Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams, New Bond Street.  It is estimated at £40,000 - 45,000.

The poem is signed C Brontë and dated by her 14 December 1829.  It is written on a small slip of paper 3x3 inches in size and cannot be read easily without a magnifying glass. Although Charlotte Brontë wrote around 200 poems, the vast majority of the manuscripts are in institutions. There are perhaps no more than four in private hands, making this poem extremely rare.

Denver, PA — Morphy’s 700-lot March 30 Advertising & General Store Auction brings together 700 lots of colorful antique amusements, including a remarkable collection of rare, primarily 19th-century safes. Many popular genres of advertising are represented, including tobacco, alcoholic beverages, Coca-Cola and other soft drinks.

The sale will open with 125 lots of occupational shaving mugs, a category that has grown organically as a staple in Morphy’s advertising sales. One of the top lots depicts a man walking up the steps of a lighthouse and is estimated at $3,000-$5,000. Another choice mug, dated 1927, is known as “First Flight.” As the name implies, its graphics are of a man piloting a primitive Wright Bros.-style bi-plane over the countryside. Estimate: $5,000-$10,000.

New York—Following the success of Swann’s inaugural auction of Fine & Vintage Writing Instruments in fall 2012, this sale offers pens to please the most discriminating connoisseur as well as outstanding opportunities to enhance beginning and advanced collections.

The auction opens with a fine selection of modern limited edition pens, including many wonderful examples from Montblanc’s Patron of Art limited edition series, such as Elizabeth I (estimate: $1,500 to $2,500); Karl der Grosse ($1,500 to $2,000); Lorenzo de Medici ($3,000 to $4,000); Octavian ($1,200 to $1,800); and the Prince Regent ($1,500 to $1,800).

On April 10, Christie’s New York will offer a letter from Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the structure and function of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), to his son, outlining the revolutionary discovery, dated 19 March 1953 (estimate: $1-2 million). The 7 page handwritten letter expresses Crick’s personal excitement of the recognition of the double helix structure of DNA. The letter was addressed to Francis’s son, Michael Crick, who was twelve at the time and at a British boarding school and was instructed to “Read this carefully so that you understand it. When you come home we will show you the model.”

NEW YORK — The 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine awarded to Dr. Francis Harry Compton Crick, along with Drs. James Dewey Watson and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins, for “...their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material” will be auctioned with an opening bid of $250,000 when it comes across the block at Heritage Auctions on April 10 as the highlight of the company’s Historical Manuscripts Signature® Auction.

The auction of the medal is a historic moment, marking the first time in decades that a Nobel Prize has been sold at auction. It has been kept in a safe deposit box in California since Crick’s widow passed away, and has been consigned to auction by his heirs. It is one of 10 lots consigned by the family, including Crick’s endorsed Nobel Prize Check, dated Dec. 10, 1962 and one of his lab coats. The trove also contains nautical logbooks, gardening journals and books from Crick’s personal collection.

San Francisco—The winter Fine Books & Manuscripts auction, February 17 at Bonhams in San Francisco brought a successful $716,038. It was led by the French edition of Gerard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius’ Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de frabrica mundi et fabricati figura, 1619, which brought $27,500, ahead of a $12,000-18,000 estimate.

A rare example of a Charles Schulz annual Peanuts football strip also sold very well, at the highest end of its estimate, bringing $25,000. The 8-panel Sunday strip, from October 16, 1983, features Charlie Brown overcoming the compulsion to try and kick a football Lucy holds for him, only to encounter several other members of the gang tempting him with footballs of their own.

Previously unpublished working papers for “Binsey Poplars” by Gerald Manley Hopkins are to be auctioned at Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street, on 10 April during the sale of Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets. They are estimated at £40,000 - 45,000. 

No poetic manuscript by Hopkins has been sold at auction for over 40 years and the emergence of these preparatory papers for one of the poet’s most popular and finest works is a major literary event. They include Hopkins early drafts showing extensive deletions and rewritings and complement the material on the work held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Leslie Hindman Auctioneers’ February Fine Furniture and Decorative Arts auction achieved over $1.74 million, with spirited interest in every category and 92% of all lots sold. 

A large percentage of the property offered came from two prominent collections. Mark Fritz, an avid and educated collector from West Bloomfield, Michigan, had assembled arguably the world’s largest collection of operas glasses, monoculars, and other ophthalmic antiques. His collection attracted attention from the Ophthalmic Antiques International Collectors’ Club (OAICC), with many members bidding from the UK, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and the United States. Every lot in his collection of over 500 pairs of opera glasses sold, many tripling their auction estimates. His eclectic collection also included canes, card cases, seals, ink wells, and other vertu objects. Other highlights included a French articulated artist’s mannequin that sold for $15,000 and a collection of prosthetic glass eyes that brought $5,000.

New York—Strong press interest and passionate collectors led to impressive prices for examples of 20th Century Illustration: Original Art / Books, Featuring Maurice Sendak on January 24.

Christine von der Linn, Swann Galleries’ Art & Illustrated Books specialist, said, “What began as a fun collaboration and experimental sale concept blossomed into an event that received huge public and press attention. We are so pleased with the response and interest from buyers and sellers alike that we eagerly anticipate a 2014 sale and the creation of a new auction category at Swann.”

(NEW ORLEANS, LA) — New Orleans Auction Galleries today opened exhibition of their February auction. With nearly 1,400 lots slated for auction, including fine paintings, antiques, decorative art and more, the auction will take place over a period of two days; Saturday, Feb. 23 and Sunday, Feb. 24, starting at 10 a.m.

The auction will feature “The Southern Experience”: a celebration of American Southern regional artists, including works by:

• Painters: George Rodrigue, Marie Madeleine, Seebold Molinary, Knute Heldner and Ella Miriam Wood
• Outsider artists: Mose Tolliver and William Hemmerling
• Contemporary artists: Mark Bercier and Lousie Guidry

On 28th February 2013, Sotheby’s London will present for auction a superb private collection of Fine Travel and Plate Books comprising some of the most magnificent illustrated travel books on the grandest scale together with watercolours and manuscripts — some of which are unique and contain previously unpublished material — the 142 lots are expected to raise in excess of £1.5 million.

Assembled by a private collector who sought the best examples of travel and plate books in a variety of media including hand coloured prints, photography, watercolour and sketches - the collection contains a number of works that come from notable collections including 21 lots from Beriah Botfield’s library (Longleat) - one of the greatest book collectors of the 19th century - and 49 from the collection of Şefik Atabey - who formed one of the largest libraries on the Ottoman Empire*.

NEW YORK—Bonhams will offer a collection of rare and important letters and documents signed by Mao Zedong (1893-1976) and other high-ranking Chinese Communist Party officials in the upcoming auction, The Xi’an Incident: The Papers of Hyland “Bud” Lyon, to be held at Bonhams New York on March 20. This is the first time the material will be publicly exhibited. 

Many of the sale highlights relate to the 1936 Xi’an Incident, a pivotal moment in modern Chinese history when Nationalist Chinese General, Zhang Xueliang (1901-2001), placed Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) under house arrest, forcing him to negotiate with Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist forces. By ceasing hostilities, the two sides were able to successfully join forces and resist the invading Japanese army.

A deeply personal and revealing handwritten poem in draft, by ‘Shropshire Lad’ poet A.E. Housman, which came close to being destroyed is to be sold on 10 April in Part I of the sale of The Roy Davids Collection Part III:  Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams, New Bond Street.  

The work, “Oh were he and I together” was written, in pencil, in 1917 and never published during Housman’s lifetime. The text is very faint and a deliberate attempt has been made to erase it.  The manuscript was among papers preserved after the poet’s death by his brother, Laurence. Housman left strict instructions that his working drafts and unpublished poems should be destroyed but gave his brother discretion to retain documents that he felt would be worth keeping.

NEW YORK — For many fans it signified the end of innocence in comics — Amazing Spider-Man #121, The Night Gwen Stacy Died — and now the original John Romita Sr. cover art from 1973 that warned readers all over the world of this critical event is set to debut at auction as part of Heritage Auctions’ Feb. 22 Vintage Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion (Ukrainian Institute of America), 2 East 79th Street (at 5th Ave). It is expected to bring $200,000+.

“Some say the death of Gwen Stacy marked the end of the Silver Age of comics,” said Barry Sandoval, Director of Operations for Comics and Comic Art at Heritage Auctions. “The Marvel office were deluged with letters, and there was much controversy at the time over whether Stan Lee had approved or even known about the plot twist.”

NEW YORK — One of the very early developmental sketches that legendary animator Chuck Jones made of Wile E. Coyote, dating back to within a few years of the character’s creation, is expected to bring $10,000+ as the lead lot of offerings from The Chuck Jones Archives, part of Heritage Auctions’ inaugural Animation Art Signature® Auction, Feb. 21, at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion (Ukrainian Institute of America), 2 East 79th Street (at 5th Avenue), in New York City.

The 30+ piece grouping — with more than 20 pieces that come directly from the hand of Chuck Jones himself — has been consigned by Jones’ family, the first time since the 1990s that the family has released any “new” work. This is the first time that the pieces in the trove have ever been offered at public auction.

PBA Galleries invites you to join us to commemorate our 500th auction to be held on Monday, February 18th in our San Francisco Gallery. Preview the 225 lots in our Fine and Rare auction prior to the start of the sale and mingle with exhibitors and visitors following the 46th California International Antiquarian Book Fair.

Coffee and pastries at 9am during preview. Auction begins at 11am.

The rare and desirable material on view includes works of literary, historical, cultural and scientific import, ranging from a 14th century manuscript reconciling Christianity with Platonism, to a set of the 16 printings of the first edition of the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, each in the original dust jacket. The variety of printed and manuscript material includes important editions of the Bible; rare works on China; early alchemy; natural history; cosmology; cartography; travel and exploration; Americana; fine printing; illustrated books; photography; literature; art and architecture; rare manuscript material on Cuba; an important typescript on spiritualism by Harry Houdini; and much more.

The manuscript of one of Oscar Wilde’s most original and beautiful poems, ‘Les Ballons’, is to be sold on 8 May in Part II of the sale of The Roy Davids Collection Part III: Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams, New Bond Street.  It is the only known copy of the entire poem in Wilde’s hand and is estimated at £14,000 - 16,000.

The poem, which was published in 1887, is a perfect fusion of the two artistic styles most associated with Wilde — the Aesthetic Movement and Literary Decadence. It describes the poet’s response to watching children flying balloons in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris where he lived from late January to mid-May 1883 on his return from a successful year long lecture tour of America and Canada.  Wilde started work on the poem while he was still in Paris, though it is uncertain when and where the manuscript in the sale was written.

NEW YORK — The original cover art for Watchmen #1 — the issue that began the most influential graphic novel series of the 1980s — is expected to bring $100,000+ as part of Heritage Auctions’ Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction Feb. 21-22 in New York. The cover art for issues #2 and #3, along with a color cover guide for issue #1, are also featured in the grouping, which comes to auction from The Shamus Modern Masterworks Collection.

The auction at Heritage will mark the beginning of the sale of all 12 covers from the series in calendar year 2013, with original cover art for issues #4, #5, and #6 in May, #7, #8, #9 in August and #10, #11, and #12 in November.

An important collection of 37 albumen prints by Clemintina Maud, Lady Hawarden, a pair of pencil sketches of her and her husband, and 15 associated albumen prints (several possibly by Lady Hawarden), [c.1857-1864] will be sold at Bonhams on March 19 for an estimated £100,000-150,000.

The sale of this exceptional collection by one of the most important and influential Victorian fine art photographers is a rare event in this market.

DALLAS — Montblanc’s Sir Winston Churchill  Limited Edition 53 fountain pen — featuring 18 karat pink gold, tortoiseshell bands and 53 diamonds — is expected to bring $25,000+ as part of a special offering of fine writing instruments in Heritage’s Gentleman Collector Auction event, Feb. 23-24 at the company’s Design District Annex, 1518 Slocum Street.

In addition to pens, the auction includes eclectic collections of vintage walking canes, automobilia, nautical art and ship models, paintings, books, furniture, desk items for the bar and study and remarkable memorabilia dedicated to historic ballooning.

Bonhams is to sell a copy of the last and most famous stanza of For the Fallen which begins, “They shall grow not old”, handwritten by its author, Lawrence Binyon. It will feature in Part I of The Roy Davids Collection Part III:  Poetry: Poetical Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams New Bond Street on 10 April offered at auction and is estimated at £5,000-8,000.

The final verse of For the Fallen is commonly known as the Act or Ode of Remembrance. For many it is the emotional climax of Remembrance Sunday services not only in this country but throughout the Commonwealth and the words are often engraved on cenotaphs, war memorials and on headstones here and in the war cemeteries of northern France.

NEW YORK — Heritage Auctions will hold its inaugural Animation Art Signature® Auction Feb. 21, signaling a major step into the category from the world’s third largest auction house. The auction is deep in prime examples of animation art from a wide variety of subjects, including key animation cels from Disney, Warner Brothers, Hannah Barbera, Peanuts, Simpsons, Sponge Bob Squarepants and many other titles from across the spectrum of animation.

“This auction serves as nothing less than a complete survey of the history of animation art from its inception in the 1930s through the turn of the millennium,” said Jim Lentz, Director of Animation Art at Heritage. “Fans of the classics will have choices from Disney to Warner Brothers and everything in-between, while modern collectors will find pop culture classics from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. This is a tremendous opportunity for smart collectors to get in on the ground floor of a resurgence of the category.”

A wealthy young man having fun on a tour of India some 163 years ago, and one of the first to photograph the country compiled an album of photographs which will be sold by Bonhams on March 19 for an estimated £40,000 to £60,000.

Alexis De La Grange’s album offers 49 architectural views, most of which are Mughal, in northern India. These albumen prints, nine numbered and one captioned in the negative, are mounted one per page, the images typically 180 x 218mm. or slightly smaller, bound in red morocco with "Photographies de l'inde Anglaise" in gilt on upper cover, [c.1849-1850].

NEW YORK - A CGC-graded 6.5 copy of Detective Comics #27 (DC, 1939), the first appearance of “The Bat-Man,” is expected to bring more than $500,000 when it comes across the auction block on at the Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion (Ukrainian Institute of America) on Feb. 21-22 as the centerpiece of Heritage Auctions’ Vintage Comics & Comic Art Signature® Auction.

“If you've followed the sales in recent years of this prime pop culture collectible, then you know that the issue is currently the second most valuable comic in the hobby,” said Ed Jaster, Senior Vice President of Heritage Auctions, “behind only Superman's debut in Action Comics #1. This comic has held down the number one spot before and it's certainly possible that it could return there. Batman is a stronger character than Superman in the minds of many a fan right now, and has certainly been a bigger box-office hit in recent years.”

A copy, in the author’s hand, of one of the best known and loved hymns in the English language, Onward Christian Soldiers, is to be auctioned in the sale of The Roy Davids Collection Part III:  Poetry: Poetical  Manuscripts and Portraits of Poets at Bonhams, New Bond Street on 10 April.   

Onward Christian Soldiers was written by the Rev Sabine Baring-Gould in 1865, when he was a curate in Yorkshire. He wanted something for the local village children to sing while they walked to a schools’ Whit Day Festival and scribbled the words down in haste the evening before.  For a tune, he borrowed the melody from the slow movement of Haydn’s Symphony No 15. In 1871, Sir Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert and Sullivan) secured the hymn’s enduring popularity when he set the words to the stirring music which has become so familiar.

New York—Swann Galleries’ auction of Early Printed, Medical, Scientific & Travel Books on Thursday, February 28 offers Aldine imprints, Bibles, classics, medieval manuscript leaves and post-medieval manuscripts, music, books by and relating to Samuel Johnson, and works on law, astronomy, the occult, China and the 15th-century Albanian national hero Skanderbeg.

Aldine Press highlights include first editions in the original Greek of Sophocles, Tragoediae septem, Venice, 1502, the first Greek classical text to appear in the Aldine portable format (estimate: $6,000 to $9,000); Euripides, Tragoediae septendecim, Venice, 1503 ($15,000 to $20,000); and Pindar et al., Olympia, Pythia, Nemea, Isthmia, Venice, 1513 ($8,000 to $12,000).

New York, NY — January 23, 2012 — Between January 18th and 20th, 2013, Guernsey's Auction House conducted the first of three separate sales of thousands of rare collectible posters seized by the Nazis from collector Dr. Hans Sachs in 1938. Recently returned to Peter Sachs, the son of Dr. Hans Sachs, Guernsey’s auctioned 1,233 lots of the more than 4,000 posters recently retrieved from Germany after seven long years of legal battles initiated by the Sachs family. The first group of posters from the collection was auctioned to the public over the course of three days, fetching approximately $2.5 million dollars.

 
Arlan Ettinger, President of Guernsey’s was quite pleased but not at all surprised by the turnout and response. “People recognized and appreciated the historic significance of this collection. There was excitement in the air and even cheering during a few moments when various members of Dr. Hans Sachs’ family including his son-in-law and granddaughter spoke. The Bohemian National Hall where the auction took place was packed with enthusiastic bidders, the telephone lines were busy throughout the entire three day auction series and scores of people were bidding internationally via LiveAuctioneers.com,” he states.

Following the firm’s exclusive sale of Magnificent Silver Judaica last month, Kestenbaum & Company is now pleased to present on Thursday, January 31st at 3:00 pm, an auction of nearly 400 lots featuring the broad variety of Fine Judacia for which the company is celebrated. In addition to Rare Books and Manuscripts, this particular auction has an unusually strong section of Graphic Art highlighted by the famous 18th century portrait of the Ba’al Shem of London which is featured on the auction catalogue cover, as well as a collection of very fine Epraim Moses Lilien artwork.  

The celebrated painting of Hayim Samuel Jacob Falk, the Ba’al Shem of London, was painted in the 1770s probably by the French-British artist, Philip James de Loutherbourg. For more than a century it was broadly accepted that this was a portrait of the Ba’al Shem Tov himself. This framed oil on canvas is estimated at $30,000-50,000 (Lot 287).