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Sothebys: Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections

Auction Reports

Auction Name Books, Manuscripts & Objects from Three Important Collections Total Sales (GBP) 2,755,968.00
Auction Date April 17, 2026 - April 17, 2026 Low Estimate of Lots Sold (GBP) 1,279,100.00
Sale Number #L26401 High Estimate of Lots Sold (GBP) 1,851,900.00
Total Lots 99
Sold Lots 98.0 Low Estimate of All Lots (GBP) 1,285,100.00
% of Lots Sold 98.99% High Estimate of All Lots (GBP) 1,859,900.00
Unsold Lots 1 Total Sales as a % of High Est. 148.18%

Top twenty-five by sale price

Top Sale Price Lots
Lot Number Author Name Book Title Year Published Estimate Actual Price
91 Lactantius

Opera. [Subiaco: Konrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz, 29th October 1465]

N/A GBP 300,000.00 - 400,000.00 GBP 332,800.00
92 [Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun]

Le Roman de la Rose.

Gaspard Ortuin and Pierre Bouttlier GBP 200,000.00 - 300,000.00 GBP 332,800.00
89 Castiglione

Il libro del cortegiano del conte Baldesar Castiglione.

, April 1528 GBP 100,000.00 - 150,000.00 GBP 307,200.00
90 Cesare Delfini

Matris Virginis Mariados libri tres.

12 October 1537 GBP 80,000.00 - 120,000.00 GBP 217,600.00
47 Luis Ramirez de Lucena

Repeticion de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez.

1497 GBP 70,000.00 - 100,000.00 GBP 179,200.00
67

World Championship, 1972 Partially printed scoresheets, used in round 17 of the competition, completed by Boris Spassky

22-23 August 1972 GBP 5,000.00 - 7,000.00 GBP 140,800.00
35 Gioachino Greco

Trattato gioco de scacchi [...] Diviso in sbaratti & partiti.

12 February 1620 GBP 20,000.00 - 30,000.00 GBP 115,200.00
10 Jacobus de Cessolis

De ludo scachorum... Schachzabel... das Buch menschlicher sitten vnnd der Ampt der Edlen.

1 September 1483 GBP 50,000.00 - 70,000.00 GBP 96,000.00
11 Jacobus de Cessolis

Libro di Givocho di scacchi intitolato de costumi deglhuomini & degli offitii de nobili.

1 March 1493 GBP 50,000.00 - 70,000.00 GBP 76,800.00
36 Gioachino Greco

Trattato del nobilissimo essercicio de’ Scacchi. Nel quale Sicontengono molti et bellissimi tratti e tavera scienza d’esso gioco.

l'an 1624 GBP 12,000.00 - 18,000.00 GBP 76,800.00
94 Charles Darwin

Letter signed, with autograph postscript, to St George Mivart, defending the theory of Natural Selection

23 January 1871 GBP 10,000.00 - 15,000.00 GBP 76,800.00
50 Thomas Middleton

A game at chesse.

1628 GBP 10,000.00 - 15,000.00 GBP 40,960.00
66 Stefan Zweig

Schachnovelle.

1942 GBP 5,000.00 - 7,000.00 GBP 35,840.00
109 Oscar Wilde

Ravenna Recited in The Theatre, Oxford, June 26, 1878. 

1878 GBP 5,000.00 - 7,000.00 GBP 33,280.00
57 Publicius

Artes orandi, epistolandi, memorandi.

N/A GBP 30,000.00 - 50,000.00 GBP 28,160.00
15 Jacobus de Cessolis

Dechado de la vida humana, moralmente sacado del juego del axedrez.

8 April 1549 GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 GBP 25,600.00
21 Pedro Damiano da Odemira

Libro da imparare giocare a scachi: & de belitissimi partiti revisti & recorrecti con summa diligentia emendati da molti famosissimi giocatori. In lingua spagnola & italiana. Novamente stampato.

21 November 1524 GBP 10,000.00 - 15,000.00 GBP 24,320.00
52 Thomas Murner

Logica memorativa.

1509 GBP 20,000.00 - 30,000.00 GBP 23,040.00
112 Oscar Wilde—Lord Alfred Douglas

Autograph letter signed, to W.T. Stead, an exceptional and revealing letter thanking Stead for his support in the aftermath of Oscar Wilde’s trial

15 November 1895 GBP 7,000.00 - 10,000.00 GBP 23,040.00
100 Ben Franklin

Autograph letter signed (“B. Franklin”), to William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, as American Peace Commissioner

26 November 1782 GBP 15,000.00 - 20,000.00 GBP 21,760.00
12 Jacobus de Cessolis

Incipit libellus de ludo scachorum et de dictus factisque nobilius virorus philosophorum et antiquorum prologus libelli.

c.1494 GBP 15,000.00 - 20,000.00 GBP 19,200.00
104 Napoleon

Letter signed, as First Consul (“Bonaparte”), to an unnamed Bishop (“Monsieur l’Eveque”), justifying the resumption of war, which he blames on the bad faith of the British over the fate of Malta, and asking his blessing, with two countersignatures includi

7 June 1803 GBP 3,000.00 - 5,000.00 GBP 19,200.00
34 Karl Gottlieb von Windisch

(i) Karl Gottlieb von Windisch. Lettres.... sur le joueur d'echecs de M. de Kempelen. Traduction libre de l'Allemand.

1783 GBP 2,000.00 - 3,000.00 GBP 17,920.00
101 M.K. Gandhi

Letter signed (“M.K. Gandhi”), to William Winstanley Pearson, praising the work of a fellow satyagrahi, reflecting on Pearson's recent arrest for his work in support of swaraj and celebrating its ultimate benign consequences

30 October ?1918 GBP 7,000.00 - 10,000.00 GBP 17,920.00
2 (i) L. D[utens].

Lettres sur un automate, qui joue aux echecs.

1772 GBP 15,000.00 - 20,000.00 GBP 16,640.00
  • 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