Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Auction Preview: Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury will sell the first part of the Richard Harris Collection of Natural History and Colourplate Books on 13 October in New York (a second part will be sold in London on 4 November). The New York section will consist of 172 lots (the descriptions for which include information on Harris' purchase of the work), and highlights include:

- A first edition of Audubon's Quadrupeds (1845-1854), estimated at $400,000-600,000.

- Ten volumes of the works of Daniel Giraud Elliot (1861-1895), uniformly cased (est. $200,000-300,000).

- A large collection of the color prints of Jacques Gautier D'Agoty (est. $200,000-300,000).

- Pierre-Joseph Redoute's Les Liliacees (1802-1816), est. $100,000-150,000.

- Gould's monograph on hummingbirds (1849-1861, plus the later supplement), est. $80,000-120,000.

- King Leopold I's copy of Gould and Sharpe's Birds of Asia (1850-1883), est. $70,000-100,000.

- George Brookshaw's Pomona Britannica (1804-1812), an illustrated treatise on fruit (est. $70,000-100,000).

- Priscilla Bury's Selection of Hexandrian Plants (1831-1834), by an accomplished amateur botanic artist (est. $60,000-90,000).

- Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705), est. $50,000-80,000.

- McKenney's and Hall's History of the Indian Tribes of North America (1836-1844), in original parts.

- Buffon's Histoire Naturelle de Oiseaux (1770-1786), a large-paper copy (est. $40,000-60,000).