AUCTION: Books, Prints and Drawings, Autographs (Catalogue 118), Venator & Hanstein KG, Buch- und Graphikauktionen (Caecilienstr. 48, 50667 Köln, tel. +49 221 257 54 19; fax +49 221 257 55 26), 25 March 2011, Contact: info@venator-hanstein.de
Particular notice should be placed on two autograph manuscripts by Ludwig van Beethoven: one of them a sketchleaf, containing a draft of the song by Goethe Neue Liebe, neues Leben (WoO 127), written in 1798/99 (estimate € 90,000), the other a memo, comprising six notes on errands to run in Vienna, probably from about 1817, with the composers desire for a metronome, convenience goods like a mousetrap, a lighting machine, a straight razor and soap, and a mysterious BücherMaschin (€ 60,000).
Very rare atlases like the Itinerarium Europae, Cologne ca 1585 (€ 15,000), the Miroir du monde by Zach. Heyns, Amsterdam 1598 (€ 27,000) or the Cologne Atlas by Gigas, printed in 1620 (€ 6,000) are to be offered. Well-known topographical views are inclosed in the almost complete series of Merian’s Topographiae or the complete 21-volume edition of his Theatrum Europaeum (€ 40,000). The collection of travels by J. J. Schwabe in also 21 volumes can be offered for € 15,000.
A beautiful uncoloured copy of the so called Ninth German Bible, Nuremberg 1483 (€ 60,000), is a highlight among the 15th and 16th century printed books. The department of Old Master Prints comes up e.g. with a lot of valuable etchings by Rembrandt.
Among the manuscripts there is a fine illuminated Book of Hours, written in Rouen ca 1470-80 (€ 35,000 ). Autographs by musicians like Max Bruch, Hans Pfitzner or Max Reger are available in addition to the Beethoven manuscripts. The famous collection of fairytales Kinder- und Hausmärchen by the Brothers Grimm, 1819-22 (€ 17,000) or the first edition of Ulysses by James Joyce, Paris 1922 (€ 14,000) are outstanding literary subjects.
View the catalogue online