Thursday, May 08, 2008

Auction Report: Sotheby's

Sotheby's London held a sale of Natural History, Travels, Atlases and Maps today in London; the sale total was 1.375 million GBP ($2.66 million). Full results here. Highlights included:

- Zaehnsdorf-bound copy of John Gould's Birds of Great Britain (1862-1873), which sold for 43,700 GBP

- First edition of Albertus Seba's Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio (1734-1765), a four-volume catalogue of one of the great cabinets of natural curiosities (and a great tourist attraction in its day). Sold for 84,500 GBP.

- A 1628 world map by Cornelis Danckerts the Elder and Melchior Tavernier, of which only a "four or five" copies survive, sold for 62,900 GBP (smashing its estimates). A 1513 Waldseemüller map also sold well, fetching 48,500 GBP.