May 23: Artist's Books take center stage at Il Ponte Casa d'Aste
- by Thomas C. McKinney
Highlights from Il Ponte Casa d'Aste's May 23 sale
This month, on May 23rd, Il Ponte Casa d’Aste is hosting a sale of Books, Manuscripts and Engravings that includes a unique collection of artist’s books. About 150 artist’s books from the avant-garde periods of the 20thand 21stcenturies are on offer. Among the examples of the Futurist period, there are several books with the dedication of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and a curious edition of the '70s of the Manifesto della cucina futurista (€ 100.00-200.00), printed on silver paper and metallic red characters.
Within the Surrealist context, Il Ponte notes several items, beginning with a prestigious volume by André Bréton, Paul Eluard and René Char (€ 12,000.00-18,000.00), belonging to the latter, printed on pink paper with the binding of the period by Devauchelle. Also part of the collection is a second copy of the same subject that bears the signature of all three intellectuals. Two copies of the Second Manifeste du Surréalisme are also being auctioned (€ 2,000 - 3,000), one of them with a dedication to Man Ray, and a rare example of the speech that Bréton held for the French students at Yale University in 1942, published without his permission in that year (the official copy arrived two years later in 1945). Additionally, Il Reale Assoluto by Man Ray and Marcel Duchamp (€ 4,000-6,000) is being offered, with two original lithographs signed by Man Ray and later used in reproduction for the publishing of the book.
The sale continues with a series of books from the Cubist period, including a volume by Blaise Cendrars (€ 300-500), which conceals a particular curiosity: on the title page there are two photos taken with one of the first Photomaton on the Boulevard des Italiennes in Paris.
Among the most recent volumes worthy of note are the ones inspired by the exhibition of Adami, Del Pezzo, Tadini, Schifano of 1965 (€ 100.00-200,00), with the puzzles of their works, and Il primo giorno di primavera by Del Pezzo who personally took care of the original cover and the four inserted boards.
The catalog for Il Ponte's sale of Books, Manuscripts and Engravings is viewable online here.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Book of Hours.- Heures de nostre dame a l'usaige de Romme, Paris, Antoine Chappiel pour Germain Hardouin, [1504]. £6,000-8,000
Forum, May 28: Colonna (Francesco). La Hypnerotomachia di Poliphilo, second edition, Venice, Sons of Aldus Manutius, 1545. £15,000-20,000
Forum, May 28:The Christ Child holding a crystal orb and surrounded by banderoles with devotional exhortations, on a leaf most probably from a Book of Hours, [Southern Netherlands, last decades of the fifteenth century]. £2,000-3,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Jackson (Shirley). The Haunting of Hill House, first English edition, signed presentation inscription from the author to Claude Fredericks, 1960. £2,000-3,000
Forum, May 28: Lennon (John). In His Own Write, first edition, first impression, signed by the author, 1964. £3,000-4,000
Forum, May 28: Doves Press.- Keats (John). [Poems], one of 200 copies on paper, Doves Press, 1914. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Rodrigues (João Barbosa). Sertum Palmarum Brasiliensium, 2 vol., first and only edition, Brussels, 1903. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Newton (Sir Isaac). Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica…editio ultima, auctior et emendatior, Amsterdam, Sumptibus Societatis, 1714. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Kepler (Johannes). Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, wuibus astronomiae pars optica traditur, first edition, Frankfurt am Main, 1604. £5,000-7,000
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 28th May 2026
Forum, May 28: Tagliacozzi (Gaspare). De Curtorum Chirurgia per insitionem, libri duo, first edition, Venice, Gasparo Bindoni, 1597. £7,000-10,000
Forum, May 28: Lootsman (Jacobsz). The Lightning Colomne, or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern and Western Navigation..., 1670. £8,000-12,000
Forum, May 28: Ribelles y Helip (José), Attributed to. An album comprising 33 finely executed watercolours of Spanish costume, bull-fighting scenes, and other genre subjects, [circa 1830]. £10,000-15,000
