Sendak Art, Frankenstein First Edition, Einstein Letters: Auction Preview

What a week coming up in the auction rooms!

At ALDE on Monday, December 9, 167 lots from the Bibliothèque Peter Obergfell I - Précieux livres sur la montagne. Expected to sell well are Jean-François Albanis-Beaumont's Voyage pittoresque aux Alpes pennines (1787), estimated at €12,000–15,000; Blaeu and Borgognio's Theatre des Estats de son Altesse Royale le duc de Savoye (1700), which could fetch €25,000–30,000; and Charles Fellows' A Narrative of an Ascent to the Summit of Mont-Blanc (1827), estimated at €30,000–40,000.

Ending on Monday at Sotheby's New York, the Ted Benttinen Library of Exploration and Adventure, in 312 lots. A collection of 69 silver gelatin photographs taken during the 1914–16 Shackleton expedition by official photographer Frank Hurley rates the top estimate at $80,000–120,000. André Thevet's Les singularitez de la France antarctique, autrement nommée Amerique & plusieurs Terres et Isles de nostre temps (1558) could sell for $25,000–35,000, and a presentation copy of Richard King's The Franklin Expedition from First to Last (1855) is expected to sell for $10,000–15,000. 

On Tuesday, December 10, Sotheby's London sells 242 lots from the Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library Part V, including an Henri Estienne manuscript of Anacreon in Greek and Latin in an early 1550s binding attributed to the Wotton Binder C (£200,000–300,000). A copy of the 1559 Paris Thucydides in a contemporary silvered binding for Henri III is estimated at £100,000–150,000. A two-volume 1545 set of Origen's Opera omnia, edited by Erasmus and in a Pillone library binding could sell for £80,000–100,000.

At Sotheby's New York on Tuesday, 95 lots of Fine Books and Manuscripts, including Maurice Sendak's original pen-and-ink and watercolor design for the 1979 "New York is Book Country" poster, estimated to sell for $300,000–600,000. A mixed set of the 1847 first editions of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey is estimated at $90,000–130,000, and a 1967 copy of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, signed by Mao next to his portrait, could realize $80,000–120,000. A group of seven letters from author Thomas Hardy to OED editor James Murray are estimated at $7,000–10,000.

New England Book Auctions sells 252 lots of a Holiday Miscellany of Books & Ephemera on Tuesday

At Swann Galleries on Tuesday, Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books, in 282 lots. Two eighteenth-century French manuscript maps of the Asian Pacific coast share the top estimate of $25,000–35,000 with volumes 3 and 4 of Pierre-Joseph Redouté's Les Liliacées.

On Wednesday, December 11, ALDE sells 395 lots from the Bibliothèque médicale Arthur Tatossian.

At Forum Auctions on Wednesday, 308 lots of Books and Works on Paper, including a mid-nineteenth-century Arabic Qur'an manuscript on paper from sub-Saharan West Africa (£3,000–4,000); a first edition of Burton's Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah (£1,200–1,800); and a first edition of Champollion's Grammaire Égyptienne (1836–41), also expected to sell for £1,200–1,800.

At Christie's London on Wednesday, 169 lots of Valuable Books and Manuscripts, with a group of 43 Albert Einstein letters to his first wife, Mileva Marić along with associated material expected to lead the sale at £700,000–1,000,000. A copy of the 1534 German Bible as translated by Martin Luther could sell for £200,000–300,000, and a Beethoven autograph sketch leaf for a string quartet is estimated at £100,000–150,000.

Bonhams London holds a Travel & Exploration sale on Wednesday, in 220 lots. A copy of David Roberts' The Holy Land, bound in four volumes, rates the top estimate at £25,000–30,000, while a copy of John Ogilby's America (1671) could sell for £10,000–15,000.

Heritage Auctions sells 399 lots of Important English and American Literature: The William A. Strutz Library, Part II on Wednesday.

University Archives sells 518 lots of Rare Autographs, Manuscripts & Books on Wednesday, including a rare ship's passport signed by William Henry Harrison as president, expected to reach $90,000–120,000. A 1789 letter from George Washington to Connecticut governor Samuel Huntington is estimated at $40,000–60,000.

On Thursday, December 12, Dominic Winter Auctioneers sell 341 lots of Printed Books, Maps & Ephemera, Printing Woodblocks by Thomas & John Bewick.

At Christie's on Thursday, 49 lots of Science Fiction and Fantasy, including a storyboard from Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune film project from about 1975 (£250,000–350,000); and a first edition copy of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein from the library of Sir Gilbert East (also estimated at £250,000–350,000). Jean-François Podevin's original dust-jacket artwork for Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash could sell for £200,000–300,000, and a 2001 replica copy by Thomas Taylor of his cover art design for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is estimated at £120,000–160,000.

Swann Galleries sells 212 lots of Illustration Art on Thursday. Joseph Francis Kernan's cover for the January 13, 1934 issue of the Saturday Evening Post, showing a boy giving his dog a bath, is expected to lead the sale at $40,000–60,000.

At PBA Galleries on Thursday, 399 lots Weird Tales and Amazing Stories as their Pulp Sale, with Weird Tales No. 118 (October 1933) rating the top estimate at $8,000–12,000. A Ludwig Bemelmans illustration from the original version of Madeline's Christmas as published in McCall's in 1956 is estimated at $15,000–25,000.

Rounding out this busy week, on Friday, December 13, Dominic Winter Auctioneers sell 428 lots of Modern First Editions & Illustrated Books, Playing Cards, Toys & Games. A first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone could sell for £30,000–50,000, while a signed, limited 1928 edition of The House at Pooh Corner is estimated at £3,000–5,000.