BookThink's NewsFlash by Terra-Leigh Baghurst #71, 19 June 2006

Booksellers who frequent auctions will be interested to know about two important sales taking place at the end of this month.

Bonhams & Butterfields will be holding their Fine Books & Manuscripts auction on Tuesday, June 27th in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Western Americana is the theme, and more than 450 lots of collectible and historic material are available for viewing. The two focal titles of the sale are Charles Kimball's San Francisco Directory of 1850 and J.W. Audubon's Illustrated Notes of an Expedition Through Mexico and California (1852). Each are one of fewer than a dozen copies of the title, and this is the first time either title has been offered at auction in nearly a century. Also included are an FDR manuscript, a Dwight Eisenhower signed letter, a First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln signed letter, letters relating to the Boston Tea Party, a signed albumen print of John Wilkes Booth, John Hancock signed letters, photographs and first editions of William Faulkner and much more. For more information please view the auction's illustrated sale catalog for review and purchase at Bonhams & Butterfields.

A second auction should draw the attention of all booksellers. It is being held by Christie's on June 27th at 10 am and 2 pm and June 28th at 10 am at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Titled "The History of the Book: The Cornelius J. Hauck Collection," this is a single-owner collection assembled between 1945 and 1965 and containing over 700 lots documenting the history of the book around the world. Offered by the Cincinnati Museum Center, the proceeds of the sale will be used to conserve and preserve their history collection. The top lot of the auction is the Album Amicorum - Das Grosse Stammbuch of Philip Hainhofer - an illuminated manuscript on vellum and paper in German, Italian, Latin and French organized by Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647) to document the history of the princes and court art of Europe during 1596-1633. Other rare and exotic lots include a Chinese celadon jade book, Ulrich Richental's first edition of Chronik des Konstanzer Konzils, a Dutch Haggadah - Seder Haggadah shel Pesach - by Aaron Wolf ben Benjamin Zeev Schreiber Herlinger of Gewitsch, the only known round bookbinding of the Renaissance, and a first edition of De veris ac salutaribus animi gaudiis dialogues. Visit Christie's for images and details of all of lots up for auction.