London--On 28 November, Christie’s will present the single owner auction Russian Literary First Editions and Manuscripts: Highlights from the R. Eden Martin Collection, which features 228 lots of fine Russian books and manuscripts, primarily from Russia's Golden Age and Silver Age of literature (the early 19th and early 20th centuries respectively). Built over the past two decades by the American Chicago lawyer R. Eden Martin, this is one of the last great private collections of Russian literature in America. The collection is highlighted by a presentation copy of the first edition of Kamen (1913), which was inscribed by Mandel'shtam for his early mentor, the poet Viacheslav Ivanov (estimate: £60,000-90,000). Further highlights include a first edition of Gogol's rare first masterpiece Vechera na khutore bliz dikan'ki (1831-32) (estimate: £50,000-70,000) and the first part of Pushkin's Evgenii Onegin (1825) in its original paper cover - a book so rare that even the great collector Smirnov-Sokol'skii did not have it on his shelves (estimate: £25,000-35,000).

Sven Becker, Specialist, Books & Manuscripts, Christie's: “The auction of this remarkable collection is the most important sale of Russian literature to take place outside of Russia since the Diaghilev-Lifar auction, more than 40 years ago, and one of the last opportunities to acquire genuine rarities in this field”. 

R. Eden Martin: “It seems to me that the case for collecting rare editions of great Russian books is not scholarly - and it is not different than the case for collecting early editions of American literature, or early maps, or stamps, or even antique sports cars. The case is based on taste - pleasure rather than utility. The great books are inherently interesting. Seeing, handling, turning the pages of a first edition of Pushkin or Dostoevsky or Akhmatova is compellingly - even magnetically - engaging. Books are the life-blood of our cultural heritage. Reading of course is fundamental, and one doesn’t need a first edition to read. But seeing or possessing the first appearance of a great story or poem is to touch the new-born infant at the earliest stage of its cultural life. And if the author owned the book, or gave it to a friend with a written presentation on the title page, we get a glimpse of the author’s own life as well. Great books embody superb craftsmanship of the mind working with life and language. They’ve formed and shaped our culture, just as mind-bending new technologies have transformed the ways we live, work and travel. A first edition of Pushkin’s Ruslan and Liudmila has a fascination about it as great as one of the Wright brothers' early airplanes, or the first Apple 1 assembled circuit boards”. 

Los Angeles—Julien’s Auctions, the world-record breaking auction house, has announced that a rare collection of comic book legend and pioneer Stan Lee is part of their highly anticipated event Icons & Idols: Hollywood taking place on November 16 and 17, 2018 at The Standard Oil Building in Beverly Hills and live online at www.juliensauctions.com.

The collection of nearly 20 items includes important artifacts from the universe of Stan Lee, the writer, editor and publisher behind some of the most iconic Marvel Comics characters, Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Black Panther, and Fantastic Four among others. Consigned months ago by an anonymous collector, highlights heading to the auction block feature numerous original comic books signed and written by Stan Lee including a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 (Marvel Comics Group, August 1962) featuring the first appearance of Marvel’s most famous character, Spider-Man and Spider-Man’s origin (estimate: $30,000-50,000); a custom bound one-of-a-kind hardcover book that includes the first 10 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man, Strange Tales Annual #2, and Amazing Fantasy #15 (Marvel Comics Group, 1962-1964) that is believed to have been previously owned by Michael H. Price, a writer and friend of Stan Lee (estimate: $20,000-$30,000); a Stan Lee written and signed copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #1 (Marvel Comics Group, March 1963) that features the retelling of Spider-Man’s origin (originally published in Amazing Fantasy #15) and also featured the first appearance of J. Jonah Jameson and the Chameleon as well as the first cross-over with the Fantastic Four (estimate: $2,000-$4,000) and a Lee signed copy of The Amazing Spider-Man #42 that features the first full appearance of Mary Jane Watson (estimate: $800-$1,200); a signed copy of Rise of The Black Panther Variant Edition #1 (Marvel Comics Group, March 2018) signed with black marker on the top cover by Stan Lee written by Ta-Nehisi Coates (estimate: $2,000-$3,000); a Stan Lee signed copy of Star Wars #97 (Marvel Comics Group, July 1985) story by Jo Duffy and artwork by Cynthia Martin (estimate: $800-$1,200) as well as a custom fiberglass life size mannequin of Spider Man designed to hang from the ceiling (estimate: $1,000-$2,000), sketches and more.

“We were saddened to hear of Mr. Lee’s passing this morning as we opened our pre-sale Exhibition,” said Darren Julien, President/Chief Executive Officer of Julien’s Auctions. “At Julien’s we have always been in awe of Stan Lee’s contributions to comic book art and feel fortunate to have this Collection as part of our November 17th Icons & Idols: Hollywood event on view this week at our Beverly Hills gallery.  Fans of Mr. Lee are most certainly welcome to visit this free event. ”

Lee, whose legendary career in comic books began in 1939 and spawned Marvel Comics’ most classic and enduring superheroes, died today at the age of 95. The Stan Lee collection was previously announced as part of a spectacular two day auction featuring some of Hollywood’s most iconic pieces including a selection of never-before-seen, personal property of one of Hollywood’s greatest screen legends, Marilyn Monroe, most notably her 1956 Black Raven Thunderbird, Roy Rogers’ “Nelly Belle” Willys-Overland 1964 jeep, a rare photography collection of silent film star Harold Lloyd, handwritten letters and ephemera connected to HRH Princess Diana and costumes and wardrobe from Batman & Robin (Warner Bros., 1997),  Forrest Gump (Paramount, 1994), The Big Lebowski (Polygram/Working Title, 1998) and more.

Chicago—Potter and Potter's Freakatorium: The Collection of Johnny Fox auction caught the attention of enthusiasts from every corner of the globe and delivered exceptional results - surpassing its high pre-sale estimate by more than 50%!  After the hammer fell for the last time, 74 lots realized between $1,000-2,499; 36 lots made between $2,500-6,999; and nine lots broke the $7,000 barrier. Prices noted include the company's 20% buyer's premium.

Getting right to the point, lot #94, a collection of two c. 1970 silver prints of sword swallower Lady Sandra Reed was the top lot in the sale.  Estimated at $1,000-1,500, they realized $28,800.  The photos are attributed to photographer Diane Arbus (1923-1971) and included one shot of the performer kneeling and the second with a sword raised in preparation for the attempt.  The prints were believed to be unique, and were accompanied by a note of provenance by Reed.  Research shows that this is a record price for the most expensive sideshow item sold at public auction.  Other ephemera highlights from the sale included lot #198, an 1880s Wild West Beacon Park season program listing William Cody as Buffalo Bill and Dr. W.F. Carver as an evil spirit in a wild west show, and lot #428, an American Circus broadside from 1846 advertising various equine acts. Each was estimated at $200-300 and made $2,640 - almost 9 times their high estimate! 

Big top and sideshow banners also headlined this auction both in size and sales. Lot #15, c. 1945 Freaks. Alive. canvas sideshow banner was estimated at $3,000-5,000 and realized $11,400. This enormous masterpiece featured sideshow attractions such as the alligator skin lady, a conehead, and a sword swallower.  Lot #12, a Magic. Alive. sideshow banner painted with a half-length portrait of a magician in white tie and tails producing cards, birds, and bats soared to $7,800. Both of these were painted by the Snap Wyatt studios in the 1940s.  And lot #35, a c. 2000 Frierson Studios miniature sideshow banner featuring a two headed calf generated 30 bids and $2,125. 

Circus posters were well represented in this off the wall sale, with those picturing elephants really capturing the eye - and wallets - of collectors.  Lot #338, a c. 1882 linen backed color litho depicting Jumbo giving kids rides on his back was estimated at $3,000-5,000 and delivered $10,200.  Lot #338, a Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth color litho from 1913 illustrated with an elephant baseball team was a home run at $7,800.  And lot #340, a John B. Doris’ Great Inter-Ocean Museum, Menagerie & Circus color lithograph from c. 1883 featuring a flamingo, elephant, lion, hawk, and alligator made $7,800. 

Fox’s Freakatorium displayed over 1,000 oddities within a 500 square foot venue. These included items related to circus sideshows, historical objets d'art, stage illusions, photographs, and tabloid style ephemera.  Lot #245, a brass “Champion Strong Woman of the World “ trophy belt presented to Minerva (Josephine Blatt., c. 1869-1923) by The Police Gazette in 1893 New York was estimated at $3,000-5,000 and flexed its muscles at $7,800. Lot #495, a 19th century glass sided gothic revival cast iron terrarium/aquarium generated 31 bids and $2,500.  Lot #516, a German, mid-sixteenth century casket style strongbox with an intricate locking mechanism traded hands at $4,560. Collectors said yes to lot #283, a collection of 28 different sideshow giants’ souvenir rings. Estimated at $400-600, this happy handful sold for $3,840. And there’s no bones about it - Freakatorium items featuring human or animal body elements were also quite popular.  Lot #295, an early 20th century South American shrunken head made $7,500, and lot #603, a c. 1920s bone sculpture of a Chinese garden blossomed at $1,440. 

Finally, It is interesting to note that bidders gave a high five to items with provenance to Tom Thumb. Lot #247, a boot reportedly owned by Thumb, sold for $5,040.  Lot #249, Thumb’s Victorian-era walking stick with an ornate gold-filled handle made $4,560. Lot #247, his dark brown satin and dotted waistcoat buttoned things up at $3,840.  And it was lights out for lot #251, a Tom and Lavinia Thumb-owned overnight trunk and its contents. This treasure trove included Thumb clothing, accessories, memorabilia, and ephemera.  It sold for $18,000 on its $1,500-2,000 estimate. 

According to Gabe Fajuri, President at Potter & Potter Auctions, “The stars aligned for this sale. The combination of a great story, great (and rare) material, and a loud and constant buzz online and in the collecting communities that this auction was of interest to set us up to hit a real home run. Bidding was fast and furious, coming from private collectors, Johnny Fox's personal friends, public institutions, and lovers of the unusual alike."

Potter & Potter, founded in 2007, is a Chicago area auction house specializing in paper Americana, vintage advertising, rare books, playing cards, gambling memorabilia, posters, fine prints, vintage toys, and magicana - antiques and collectibles related to magic and magicians. The company's next sale, featuring hundreds of important vintage travel posters, will be held on December 1, 2018. For more information, please see www.potterauctions.com.  Follow us on Facebook (potterandpotterauctions), Twitter (PnPAuctions), and Instagram (potterauctions). 

Dallas, Texas - The original art for the comic story that changed how comics told stories will make history on Thursday when the original art for the complete 8-page story “Master Race” is offered at auction for the first time.

The 1955 EC Comic masterpiece, which writer and illustrator Neil Gaiman calls “one of the most important stories in the history of comics and the history of the art of comics,” will be offered in its entirety in Heritage Auctions’ Nov. 15-17 Comics & Comic Art Auction in Dallas and on HA.com. The artwork for Master Race crosses the auction block the afternoon of Nov. 15.

EC Comics co-editor Bill Gaines and writer Al Feldstein developed the important Holocaust story, but critics point to Bernie Krigstein’s storytelling artwork that perfected the piece and influenced the comic genre for more than 60 years.

“It’s been called the most critically acclaimed comic story of all time,” said Todd Hignite, Vice President at Heritage Auctions. “It's been the subject of numerous studies in books on the history of comics, as well as a hugely influential analysis by John Benson, David Kasakove and Art Spiegelman.”

Frequently called the Citizen Kane of comic books, Master Race is a powerful look at the effects of Nazi concentration camp atrocities upon those who survived them, while retaining EC Comics’ traditional "twisted" ending.

Krigstein's jaw-dropping formal invention of mirroring previous panels and layouts from one page to another became an iconic template for both mainstream and underground cartoonists for many decades to come. The format is said to have influenced Dave Gibbons’ genre-shattering Watchmen in 1986 and many other illustrated contributions to American literature.

The story was the cover feature for Impact #1, one of EC's “New Direction” wave of books, released in 1955. So important is this story, that when Gaines sold much of EC's original artwork during the 1980s, it was the only artwork sold directly instead of at auction. An astute collector made Gaines “an offer he couldn't refuse” ... well over market-based value on what other EC art had been selling for at the time. The set is signed as “B. Krigstein” in the first panel.

“This is a true ‘auction first’ in comic history,” Hignite said. “Krigstein's tour-de-force demonstrates everything he dreamed the comic language was and is capable of as an art form.”

The original art for the complete, 8-page story “Master Race,” illustrated by Krigstein for Impact #1 (EC, 1955), will be auctioned this Thursday afternoon, Nov. 15, in Heritage Auctions’ Nov. 15-17 Comics & Comic Art Auction in Dallas and on HA.com.

London—On 12 December, as part of Classic Week, Christie’s auction of Books and Manuscripts will offer two extraordinary sledging journals of the Norwegian polar explorer Tryggve Gran, who accompanied Robert Falcon Scott on the Terra Nova Expedition of 1910 - 1913. The journals have passed by direct descent from Tryggve Gran; their appearance at auction represents a remarkable opportunity to acquire an authentic piece of Polar history, offering an insight into the trials and tribulations of the British Antarctic Expedition here. Featuring two separate journals, one in English and one in Norwegian (estimate: £120,000 - £180,000, illustrated above), these accounts offer additional material, covering his astonishingly prescient dream on the night of 14 December 1911 of Amundsen’s triumph, as well as the search for Scott’s polar party and tragic discovery of the tent.

The young Norwegian Tryggve Gran was recruited by Scott as a skiing expert for the Terra Nova Expedition on the recommendation of the explorer and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen. He would go on to play a valuable role in the second geological expedition (November 1911-February 1912), which collected data in the Granite Harbour region. 

A particularly emotional entry in his diary takes place on 12 November 1912, when Gran discovered the tent with the frozen bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers: ‘It has happened - we have found what we sought - horrible, ugly fate - Only 11 miles from One Ton Depot - The Owner, Wilson & Birdie. All gastsly [sic]. I will never forget it so long I live - a horrible nightmare could not have shown more horror than this “Campo Santo”. In a tent - snowcovered til up above the door we found the three boddies [sic]. The Owner in the middle, half out of his bagg [sic]. Birdie on his right and Uncle Bill on left laying headway to the door. The frost had made the skin yellow & transparent & I’ve never seen anything worse in my life. The Owner seems to have struggled hard in the moment of death, while the two others seem to have gone off in a kind of sleep’. 

The English journal also includes Gran’s reading of Scott’s last diary entries and the fruitless search for Oates: ‘The Owner writes in his diary: There is no more hope and so God look after our people...’ (12 November 1912) 

Gran retrieved their personal effects and records, and used his own pair of skis to fashion a cross, raised above the snow cairn built to cover the bodies of the ill-fated polar party, before returning to camp on Scott’s skis, reasoning that at least his expedition leader’s skis would finish their journey. In December 1912, before leaving Antarctica, Gran he made an ascent of Mount Erebus with Raymond Priestley and Frederick Hooper, and was lucky to escape with his life after an unexpected eruption set off an avalanche of the surrounding pumice stone. Gran went on to receive the Polar Medal for his endeavours in Antarctica. 

Paris—Paris Photo and Aperture Foundation are pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 edition of the Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards. The selection for Photography Catalogue of the Year is The Land in Between by Ursula Schulz-Dornburg. On Abortion by Laia Abril is the winner of PhotoBook of the Year. One Wall a Web by Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa is the winner of $10,000 in the First PhotoBook category. A Jurors’ Special Mention is also given to Experimental Relationship Vol. 1 by Pixy Liao.

A final jury at Paris Photo selected this year’s winners. The jury included: Federica Chiocchetti, curator and founder of the Photocaptionist; Hervé Digne, president of Manifesto and the Odeon Circle; Kevin Moore, curator; Azu Nwagbogu, director of African Artists’ Foundation (AAF) and LagosPhoto Festival; and Batia Suter, artist. 

Regarding the jury’s selection this year, Hervé Digne said, “The choices we made reflect the chaotic and changing world in which we are living—I think both the shortlist selection and the final award winners offer a window on the world at large and on the world of photography and photographic books today.”

Kevin Moore remarked on the First PhotoBook winner, “It’s a serious moment in history, and it felt urgent amongst the jury that we choose books that have gravity to them but also maybe a glimmer of hope, as in the selection of Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa’s One Wall a Web. This is a book that has complexity and embeds race in a larger narrative and a larger system—it demonstrates, if not a solution, at least a direction for further dialo­gue.”

Ursula Schulz-Dornburg’s The Land in Between was selected as the Photography Catalogue of the Year for providing a strong platform for interviews, portfolios, and essays about an artist less well-known outside of her native country. The minimalist, elegant design and form are well matched to the content, emphasizing what Batia Suter describes as “the artist’s sharp vision.” 

Azu Nwagbogu spoke to the PhotoBook of the Year: “In choosing Laia Abril’s On Abortion, the jury felt it was important to recognize a well-crafted statement on a topical and timely issue. The book offers a strong commentary on women’s reproductive choices, and uniquely visualizes the topic using archival imagery, contemporary photographs, and text.” 

Finally, Federica Chiocchetti explained the draw of Jurors’ Special Mention recipient Pixy Liao’s work: “In this current situation of post-#MeToo, and the ongoing debate around the binary opposition between the male and female gaze, Pixy Liao’s Experimental Relationship Vol. 1 is a very refreshing and blissful vision of intimacy, complicity, and collaboration between the sexes.”

This year’s Shortlist selection was made by a jury comprising Lucy Gallun (associate curator in the Department of Photography, Museum of Modern Art, New York), Kristen Lubben (executive director, Magnum Foundation, New York), Yasufumi Nakamori (incoming senior curator of international art [photography], Tate Modern, London), Lesley A. Martin (creative director, Aperture Foundation, and publisher of The PhotoBook Review), and Christoph Wiesner (artistic director, Paris Photo). 

Since the announcement of the previous winners in November 2017, last year’s shortlisted titles have been exhibited in multiple venues internationally, including in Lithuania, Germany, Russia, Switzerland, and Italy.

Following Paris Photo, the exhibition of the 2018 Shortlist will travel to Aperture Gallery, New York, from December 2018 to February 2019, and then to Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto, in May 2019.

December - On 12 December, Christie’s will offer eye witness accounts of the Armistice which ended ‘the war to end all wars’ (estimated - £10,000 - £15,000). The lot includes Captain Jack Marriott’s extraordinarily detailed accounts of the negotiations, alongside two autograph letters, a sheet of blotting paper used at the Armistice and a printed text of the terms of the Armistice itself. Marriott was one of only four British participants, and the notes and mementoes he kept summon up the scene with extraordinary vividness. Christie’s is pleased to offer such significant archival material on the year of the centenary of the end of World War I.

The Armistice was negotiated between a remarkably restricted group of participants, comprising seven on the Allied side and six on the German side, including translators. For the three days of negotiations, all were living and working in a pair of French military trains in a clearing of the Forest of Compiegne behind French lines. The Allied group was headed by Marshal Foch, with Admiral Wemyss the senior British representative and head of the naval delegation, to which Marriott was also attached and whose negotiations he recounts in detail.

The scene was set in a forest in northern France, ‘typical November weather’. Two railway carriage stood 200 feet apart: at precisely 9 a.m., as agreed, six men emerged from one and made their way to the other along the temporary duckboard path that had been laid over the boggy ground. 

One of those watching thought to himself that ‘I have never seen a more miserable lot of men’. They were led by Matthias Erzberger, the son of a postman from southern Germany, ‘fat and bloated looking, double chin, scrubby moustache, wears pince-nez’; beside him was Graf von Oberndorf, ‘a polished gentleman’; just behind them, Captain von Vanselow, a naval officer who ‘does not look at all like a sailor, more like a pork butcher’. 

At the door of the second carriage they were received by a French general, who bowed stiffly, alongside a 38 year-old British naval officer, Jack Marriott, who was mentally recording every detail of these events. It was Friday 8 November 1918: the German delegation had arrived in the Forest of Compiègne to sign the Armistice that would end the ‘war to end all wars’. 

There were moments of accidental comedy: Weygand, as the German delegation approached, was suddenly paralysed by a point of etiquette: how, ‘from a point of view of courtesy’, do you receive the representatives of a country with whom you have been engaged in a war of unprecedented destruction for the more than four years? Then the Allies asked the Germans for their credentials (to prove they were the legal representatives of the German government) - but Marriott wryly noted that ‘it was lucky the Germans did not retaliate’, as they had not thought to bring any themselves. 

Marriot’s account fills in some lost details of history: like the fact that the Great War was prolonged by a whole day because the German party had failed to bring a code with them by which they could send the armistice terms back to headquarters: so the papers had to be sent back across the front line by motorcar, a process which took 36 hours. Then when Captain Marriott tried to phone Buckingham Palace to inform King George V that the war was over he was almost defeated by the primitive telephone technology: ‘the line was dreadful and I must have been cut off about 30 times’. 

And then there are the human vignettes: the junior German representative taking the Armistice terms back to his government with ‘a bottle of beer in each pocket and crying his eyes out'. 

It had been immediately clear to the Allied party that the German delegates, caught between absolute military collapse on the front and starvation and revolution at home, would accept almost any terms. And so, after three days of cursory negotiations, at 5 o’clock on the morning, Maréchal Foch, Admiral Wemyss and the four German delegates signed the document which declared an end to a war which had lasted for more than four years and killed 7 million military combatants. The guns would fall silent exactly six hours later, at 11 o’clock on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. 

They filed out of the railway carriage, the Allied party to return ecstatic to Paris, where Foch and Wemyss ‘danced ring-a-ring-a-roses’ around the Elysée Palace with the French president Clemenceau, and the Germans to make their despondent way home to a nation in a state of starvation and social collapse. Captain Marriott took one last look round: on the table where the Armistice had been signed lay a sheet of blotting paper, the ink from the signatures still soaking into its fibres. Marriott slipped it into his file, and added it to his small collection of keepsakes from his brush with history. His memoir ends on a remarkable note of calm understatement: ‘We then had a glass of port and went for a walk in the Forest which was wonderfully soothing after our busy night’. 

This lot will be offered in the Books and Manuscripts auction on 12 December as part of Classic Week at Christie’s London. 

New York - Poster lovers from far and wide came to Swann Auction Galleries on Thursday, October 25, sale of Rare & Important Travel Posters, setting eight records with bidding driven by eager collectors both in the room and on the phones.

The top lots of the sale were Emil Cardinaux’s snowy image for a winter getaway in St. Moritz and Philip Zec’s poster for travel to Scotland by night train, each reaching $17,500.  

Numerous records were realized in the sale for both artists and individual works. W. Smithson Broadhead’s Sea Breezes and Sunshine at Lytham St. Annes, circa 1930, set a record for the artist with $8,125. Further records for sporting and leisure posters include the circa 1925 Gleneagles / The Tennis Girl by Septimus Edwin Scott advertising the Gleneagles hotel and golf resort, which reached $8,750.

Records for travel posters advertising American destinations include Adolph Treidler’s New York / The Wonder City of the World, 1927, with $13,750-double the previous record for the image-and Sascha Maurer’s Atlantic City / Pennsylvania Railroad, circa 1940, with $6,500.

Additional records were set by The Belgian Coast, 1934, by Jean Droit with $7,000. Savoy Hotel / St. Moritz, a lively dining scene by Karl Bickel brought $6,750. Farman / ?cole de Pilotage, a circa 1920 aviation poster The Farman Aviation Works set a record for the image with $6,500 and Alexander Zhitomirsky’s Georgian Military Highway, 1939, reached $5,720. 

Beach posters by Roger Broders proved popular, led by two posters featuring sun-worshiping women: Sur la Côte d’Azur, circa 1920, sold for $8,125 and La Plage de Calvi. Corse, 1928, reached $7,500.

Nicholas Lowry, President and Director of Vintage Posters at Swann, noted of the sale, “Collectors dominated the highly curated sale, generating over half a dozen record prices for posters. Many of which haven’t been seen on the market for years. It is always heartening when exciting and rare pieces sell well.

The next auction of Vintage Posters at Swann Galleries will be held in February 2019.

New York - This December 4, Christie’s Books and Manuscripts department will be presenting two sales: Albert Einstein: The God Letter, a stand-alone sale of one of the most famous manuscripts by the 20th century’s most famous thinker (estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000); and a various owner sale of Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts Including Americana. The latter includes over 200 objects ranging from early printed books to 20th-century manuscripts. The public view will be open at Christie’s galleries in New York from Friday, 30 November to Tuesday, 4 December. Albert Einstein: The God Letter will be on view in New York additionally during 20th Century Week from 5 to 14 November.

Science, Travel & Natural History

A major highlight of the science, travel and natural history section is Joan Blaeu’s magnificent Novum ac magnum theatrum urbium Belgicae Regiae. This is an exceptionally colored and important copy—likely the dedication copy for King Philip IV of Spain—of Blaeu’s celebrated town book of the Netherlands, splendidly commemorating the Peace of Westphalia and ushering in the Dutch Golden Age (estimate: $250,000-300,000). Another highlight is Mahmud Raif Efendi’s Cedid Atlas Tercümesi, which is the first European-style atlas printed in the Islamic world. This exceedingly rare, handsome, and complete copy is estimated at $100,000-150,000 and is one of only 50 copies printed.

Continental Printed Books & Manuscripts

Leading the continental books section is a superbly colored copy, worked with a rich and vibrant palette, of the first edition of Hartmann Schedel’s Liber Chronicarum. The Nuremberg Chronicle is celebrated for its fine and numerous woodcut illustrations, to which Albrecht Dürer is believed to have contributed (Estimate: $250,000-300,000). Also offered in this section are a number of works from the press of the great Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, including first printings of important ancient authors such as Plato, Herodotus, and Lucretius.

English Printed Books & Manuscripts

This section includes the original printing blocks used for the first editions of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass—arguably the most famous books for children ever made (estimate: $20,000-30,000). The Alice books are among the most successful collaborations between author and artist, and these printing blocks reproducing John Tenniel’s original drawings defined for countless generations the appearances of Alice, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter and various other blue chips of popular culture.

Another unique offering this season is the single-owner collection: Beloved Enchanter: The Arthur Rackham Collection of Nita and Frank N. Manitzas. This collection includes 27 captivating original watercolor and ink illustrations by Arthur Rackham, the famous illustrator who created iconic images of characters like Peter Pan, Snow-White and Rose-Red. Estimates begin as low as $800 and go up to $30,000.

Printed & Manuscript Americana

The top lot of the sale is a previously unrecorded edition of the official 1823 Stone printing of the Declaration of Independence, with French provenance and in remarkable condition (estimate: $600,000- 800,000). Stone’s meticulously prepared, actual-size, engraved facsimile of America’s founding document remains the most accurate of all existing facsimiles and the only one officially authorized by Congress. The present copy was discovered in an outdoor market in France in the 1970s.

The 20th Century 

Highlights of the modern portion of the sale include the rare true first edition of the beloved children’s classic Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, signed by J.K. Rowling (estimate: $45,000-65,000); A Wild Thing Christmas, an original watercolor drawing by Maurice Sendak (estimate: $300,000-400,000); and Kurt Vonnegut’s unpublished wartime correspondence recounting the events that inspired Slaughterhouse-Five, collected in a contemporary scrapbook kept by his family (estimate: $150,000-200,000).

Los Angeles - A high-grade issue of The Incredible Hulk #1 from May 1962 will be auctioned by Huggins & Scott Auctions from November 2- November 15. Interested bidders may participate in the auction online.

This first issue is considered one of the most valuable and prestigious comics of the Silver Age. Marvel Comics published the inaugural issue of the Incredible Hulk in May 1962, which was part of an enormous resurgence of super-hero comics in the early 1960’s. This comic book earned a Universal Grade of  8.5 from the leading comic book grader CGC.

The consignor read this 56-year old Hulk Comic once as a youth and kept it in storage since 1962. Well known to be a super tough comic to find in upper grades, this high-demand pivotal issue continues to show astonishing sale price increases, reaching a Fair Market Value of $175,000 in recent years for the few known examples that have been graded at the 8.5 level. Label notations include "Off-White to White Pages, Stan Lee story, Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman art, Jack Kirby and George Roussos cover, Origin and 1st appearance of the Incredible Hulk, 1st appearance of Rick Jones, Betty Ross and General Ross."