Rare Books &c. at Auction This Week

Courtesy of Heritage Auctions, HA.com

George Washington Survey Description & Plat Map (1751).

From a quiet auction week to one that's absolutely jam-packed! First, we've got three sales on Tuesday, May 14:

On Wednesday, May 15, Dominic Winter Auctioneers holds a 566-lot sale of Printed Maps, Books, Travel, Exploration, Natural History, Prints, Archaeology & Gastronomy. Most lots are in the three- to four-figure range, but a really beautiful 1540 Paris world map could sell for £20,000–30,000.

Also on Wednesday, University Archives sells Declaration Signers, Autographs, Signed Books & Relics, in 292 lots. An 1863 Lincoln letter to the Secretary of War about the Illinois Central Railroad rates the top estimate, at $30,000–50,000. An 1805 letter from Thomas Paine to Hartford newspaper publisher Elisha Babcock, asking for information about potential monarchist sentiments among New England Federalists, could sell for $30,000–35,000.

At PBA Galleries on Thursday, May 17, Rare Golf Books & Memorabilia, in 471 lots. A first edition of the 1891 publication The Duffers' Golf Club Papers, in original wrappers, is estimated at $15,000–25,000. An 1881 first edition of Robert Forgan's The Golfer's Handbook could sell for $12,000–18,000. One of fifty large-paper copies of Wethered and Simpon's The Architectural Side of Golf, signed by both authors, rates an estimate of $15,000–18,000. Lots 387–471 are being sold without reserve.

Skinner Inc.'s 293-lot online sale of Fine Books & Manuscripts also ends on Thursday. The top estimate there, at $30,000–50,000, is shared between a first edition of Newton's Opticks (1704) from the collection of Dr. Adrian Pollock and a 1776 Massachusetts broadside proclamation docketed "to the Town Clerk of Danvers."