Sotheby's (London)

Continental manuscripts and printed books, science and medicine : Including a major collection of Spanish documents comprising printed books, autograph letters and manuscripts including Le Corbusier’s sketch plans for Buenos Aires; Kafka’s earliest love-letter; letters by Archduke Rudolf about his marriage; fine scientific letters by Alessandro Volta; Lascaris, Erotemata, Milan, 1476; Homer, Opera, Florence, 1488; Aristotle, Opera, Venice, 1495-1498; the Rudolph Sturm collection of works by François Villon and related material (catalogue of an auction sale conducted by Sotheby's, London, 21 November 1989)

London, Sotheby's, 1989
(27 cm), 230 pp., illustrations (some in colour). 412 lots. List of prices realised and buyers’ names loosely inserted. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - The first 63 lots comprised books from the library of John Alfred Spranger (1889-1968), whose chief interest was Euripides. Two of Spranger’s three copies of the 1503 Aldine editio princeps were bought by Chiesa (one in a contemporary Roman morocco binding, for “L.T”, lot 22, £26,400; the other annotated by Martin Crusius, lot 23, for £10,000); Chiesa also bought the 1513 Plato in an unsophisticated alla greca binding (£159,500, against Quaritch). The Aldine Aristotle in sixteenth-century pigskin was bought by Francesco Radaeli, for Max Favia del Core (£242,000). Cf. Desmond Gill, “John Alfred Spranger: Portrait of a Bibliophile” in The Book Collector, Summer 1984, pp.179-188. Also in the sale was the collection of François Villon assembled by his bibliographer, Rudolf Sturm; the more than 600 items (gathered in one lot, 152) realised £19,200. Cf. R. Sturm, “François Villon 1431-1463?: Notizen eines Sammlers” in Imprimatur, neue Folge XI (1984), pp.101-120. ¶ Annotated copy.

£ 24

Enquire

Remove bookmark Add bookmark

Books sent to some EU destinations are experiencing customs delays
Top