Event Calendar

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March 23, 2023 Christie's - Paris

Pierre's Feast - Library of Baron Pierre de Crombrugghe
Sale #22143

Christie's Paris, in association with experts Jacques T. Quentin and Benoît Forgeot, invites gourmets and collectors to survey five centuries of gastronomic history, with the library of Baron Pierre de Crombrugghe.

The centerpiece of the library, the  Cuisinier Taillevant , or the  Viandier , is an extremely rare incunabula print of a 13th century treatise. Adorned with a large woodcut depicting a cook in the kitchen, this book published in Lyon around 1495 was the first illustrated cookbook. The copy in the library is the only complete one that has come down to us.

Half a century later, the  extremely excellent Livre de Cuysine tresutille appeared , rich in more than three hundred recipes. During the Renaissance, it was a  culinary best-seller  and its influence was considerable. The copy offered at auction is one of the 3 listed from the edition given in Lyon in 1542, the only one still in private hands.

In the 19th century, the publications diversified, to develop a less rich and more affordable cuisine. With the writings of Brillat-Savarin and Escoffier, gastronomy was modernized. One of the most extraordinary pieces in the collection is the massive working manuscript of the second edition of  Escoffier's Guide Culinaire  , still considered the cornerstone of traditional French cuisine today. Sauces, entremets, soups, roasts: nothing is forgotten among the thousands of recipes, nourished by his experiences at the Savoy and the Ritz.

Many themes of the culinary imagination are covered in the library: making frozen desserts, the first treatise describing the principle of canning; European texts on tea, coffee and chocolate, treatises on the cutting of meat and fish, as well as on setting a table; truffles, oysters, bakery, mushrooms.

3pm

VIEWING
Mar 17th 10am – 6pm
Mar 18th 10am – 6pm
Mar 19th 2pm – 6pm
Mar 20th 10am – 6pm
Mar 21st 10am – 6pm
Mar 22nd 10am – 6pm


Christie's - Paris
9 Avenue Matignon

Paris, France

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Auctions International
March 23, 2023 PBA Galleries

Americana - Travel & Exploration - Maps, Prints & Views
Sale #784

Over 450 lots of rare and significant materials relating to the history of the United Statas and the far reaches of the globe, with emphasis on California and adjacent territories. Included are printed and manuscript rarities, scarce maps and views, original photographs, and much more.

11am

PBA Galleries
605 Addison Street

Berkeley, CA 

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Auctions West
April 14, 2023 - April 23, 2023 Sworder Fine Art Auctioneers - Virtual Auction

Books & Maps Timed Auction
Sale #A1077

The sale features some outstanding highlights, including; eight photographs taken by Charles Dodgson – aka Lewis Carroll – of one of his ‘child friends’, an album of 127 ornithological watercolours by a 19th century German artist and naturalist, a collection of letters relating to the American War of Independence of which two were written to British general Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805) by Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart following the action known as the Battle of Eutaw Springs on September 8, 1781. Also featured is a first edition copy of the first volume of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations has an interesting provenance with the Duke of Sutherland and the economist Edwin Walter Kemmerer among its former owners.

Sworder Fine Art Auctioneers

UK

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Auctions Virtual
May 7, 2023 Vermont Spring Book & Paper Fair

Join us for a boozy book fair!

Book dealers from throughout New England will be selling used & antiquarian books in a variety of subjects and prices, as well as postcards, maps, prints, ephemera and more in the beautiful & historical St Albans City Hall building. With book binders and other book businesses on site, it's a wonderful experience.

14th Star Brewing Co. will have a cash bar, so you can have one of their locally brewed beers while you peruse the treasures you have found, and St Albans Community Arts will be hosting local authors who will be will be present to discuss their books and sign copies.

10am - 4pm

St Albans City Hall
100 North Main Street

Saint Albans, VT

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Book Fairs Mid-Atlantic
May 16, 2023 Sotheby's - New York

Codex Sassoon: The Earliest Most Complete Hebrew Bible
Sale #N11240

Sotheby's is proud to offer Codex Sassoon: The Earliest Most Complete Hebrew Bible during this year's marquee New York Sales.

The Bible is one of the world’s greatest treasures and holds powerful resonance for the three monotheistic religions and their billions of adherents. For thousands of years its sacred words have been closely studied, analyzed, and meditated on. The Hebrew Bible is composed of twenty-four books divided into three parts: the Pentateuch, the Prophets, and the Writings. Christians call these texts the Old Testament, and Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant sects all incorporate them into their biblical canons. Muslims, too, regard the Torah and the Psalms as divinely revealed books, and many biblical stories made their way into the Qur’an and later Islamic works. Copied, printed, and translated into scores of languages the world over, the Hebrew Bible arguably constitutes the most influential book of human history and the bedrock of Western civilization. Codex Sassoon, created circa 900, is the earliest surviving example of a single codex containing all the books of the Hebrew Bible with their punctuation, vowels, and accents.

The codex is named for its prominent modern owner, David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942), who assembled the largest and most important private collection of Hebrew manuscripts in the world and had a special affinity for Bibles in particular. Some of the most valuable and important items in his library belonged to this genre of Hebrew literature. His collection catalogue, Ohel Dawid, begins and ends with biblical material, and Codex Sassoon is its very last entry, giving pride of place to this monument of world civilization.

The Codex Sassoon will also be on view in our Sotheby’s Los Angeles gallery from Sunday, April 30th to Wednesday, May 3rd.

10am

EXHIBITIONS:

New York
Sun, May 7th 1pm - 5pm
Mon, May 8th 10am - 5pm
Tue, May 9th 10am - 5pm
Wed, May 10th 10am - 5pm
Thu, May 11th 10am - 5pm
Fri, May 12th 10am - 5pm
Sat, May 13th 10am - 5pm
Sun, May 14th 1pm - 5pm
Mon, May 15th 10am - 5pm
Tue, May 16th 10am - 5pm

London
Tue, Feb 28th 10am - 5pm

Sotheby's - New York
1334 York Avenue

New York, NY

More info
Auctions Mid-Atlantic