Christie's: The Exceptional Literature Collection of Theodore B. Baum
- by Announcement, Rare Book Hub staff
Exceptional Literature!
Christie's New York is pleased to announce The Exceptional Literature Collection of Theodore B. Baum, which will take place in two parts, live and online, this September. Part One will commence as a live sale on 14 September at 10am, comprising literature to 1900. Part Two will be online only from 2-17 September, featuring twentieth-century literature.
Mr Baum's library of literary first editions is among the finest ever assembled and particularly strong in works by English and American authors—from Edmund Spenser and John Milton in the 16th & 17th centuries through Jonathan Swift (the Berland copy of Gulliver's Travels), Mary Shelley (the Manney copy of Frankenstein, uncut in original boards), a wealth of Jane Austen (including the Kern copy of Mansfield Park, in original boards, from a lending library), Charlotte Brontë, and Charles Dickens in the 18th & 19th centuries, all the way to James Joyce, Virginia Woolf (including Night and Day, in dust jacket), Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, and much more in the 20th century. The library, more than 500 titles, was assembled by Mr Baum with love and care over the course of decades, as he worked with top dealers and auction specialists to find the greatest copies of the most beloved books.
Viewing is by appointment only, 9-13 September. For more information contact Heather Weintraub Hweintraub@christies.com.
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
