The William S. Reese Sales Begin this Spring; Highlights Coming to California
- by Bruce E. McKinney
Slipping into the daily news flow in January, The New York Times recently published an homage to William Reese, the exceptional rare book dealer who dominated collectible printed Americana over his 62 years. Bill passed away on June 4th, 2018 and soon his personal collection of books and fine art will be sold at Christie’s in New York. The field’s great enthusiasts will watch, bid, buy and remember as Mr. Reese’s personal copies have long been understood to be among the best examples on the planet.
The material highlighted in the New York Times story recently is of course exceptional as is defined in the ways the field uses the term: by rarity, condition and/or provenance: any one category will make a copy special for the keenest observers. Given Bill’s encyclopedic knowledge, his extensive community of experts he relied on, and his relentless pursuit of best copies, expect you’ll soon be encountering an exceptional sale.
The first lot to be auctioned will be a single lot in the Old Master Paintings Evening Sale, currently scheduled for April 27, 2022. It is a set of six important paintings by the Italian painter Agostino Brunias (1730-1796), depicting free people of color on the island of Dominica, est. $200,000-300,000.
The “main event” of Bill’s material will be sold in May in what Christie’s describes as one of “the most significant sales of printed Americana in more than half a century.” The collection comprises 700 lots +/-, carrying a $12 to $18 million estimate that Christina Geiger, head of rare books and manuscripts, explains as “conservative.”
Christina is bringing some of the material to California for the ABAA Book Fair. Items can be viewed in the Junior Ballroom at the Oakland Convention Center on 12-13 February (closing early on the 13th) or at Christie’s San Francisco office by appointment. For a short-title list or to make an appointment, contact kayla.trowbridge@christies.com.
The Reese auctions are not posted yet but they are already visible in Christie’s calendar. Look for the below:
Old Master Paintings, Evening Sale, 27 April 2022
The Private Collection of William S. Reese: Part One, 25 May 2022
The Private Collection of William S. Reese: Part Two, 26 May 2022
These will be followed by an Online Sale closing in late May or early June and the Reese Collection of Herman Melville selling in the autumn. Advance orders for all printed catalogues can be made: here.
The images attached with this article are photographs of highlights, taken last year in the New Haven home which Bill shared with his wife, Dorothy Hurt.
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
