Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Auction Report: Big Day for Dumas

Today's sale of Importants Livres Anciens, Livres d'Artistes et Manuscrits at Christie's Paris brought in €1,502,275.

The unexpected high seller was a first edition of Dumas' Le Comte de Monte-Christo (1845-1846), which made €253,000 (beating the €30,000-50,000 estimate handily).

Perrault's Histoires ou Contes du temps passé (1697), estimated at €80,000 - €120,000, made €133,000.

A Johannes Janssonius Atlas (1657-1658) fetched €97,000; the 1482 edition of Euclid made €62,200. An Aldine Aristotle and Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius (1610) with Kepler's 1611 commentary each sold for €68,200.

Champlain's Les Voyages de la nouvelle France occidentale, dicte Canada (1632) failed to sell.