BERLIN – An important collection of geographical view drawings of Persia, Afghanistan and Armenia is the top lot of Valuable Books, Prints and Historical Photography, an auction scheduled for December 14 at Jeschke van Vliet in Berlin. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.
These original drawings from the 1830s came to Berlin originally from a French collection. They were acquired by the head of the department, Balazs Jadi, who has already drawn attention to himself in recent years with important international acquisitions. Some of the places mentioned on the drawings, estimated at €10,000-€15,000, are congruent with the route of a Russian astronomical expedition to Persia, which started at the end of 1838 and lasted until 1839.
The Russian emperor sent the astronomer and topographer Burchard Friedrich Lemm (1802-1872), an officer in the Imperial Russian General Staff, to offer a number of gifts to the Shah of Persia and the Governor of Khorasan as a sign of his good will. Lemm was to make geographic location determinations on the trip.
Perhaps the most beautiful illustrated book about monkeys is Jean Baptiste Audebert’s Histoire naturelle des singes, published around 1800. Audebert replaced the watercolor paints that had previously been used for the color cast with oil paints in a process he had newly developed and thus achieved a color effect that had never been seen before. The magnificent French work is estimated at €8,000-€10,000.
The selection of geological and mineralogical books is led by Henri Lecoq’s Atlas geologique du departement du Puy-de-Dome, a large format and exceedingly splendidly illustrated tome estimated at €5,500-€7,500.
Collaborative work by Zao Wou Ki and Henri Michaux, est. €3,300-€4,000
Medieval manuscripts on offer include a French Book of Hours from the second half of the 15th century that has more than 1100 gold heightened red and blue initials, as well as red and blue lombards partly with fleuronee carries a moderate estimate of €7,000-€8,000.
Modern illustrated literature choices are led by Zao Wou Ki’s collaborative work with Henri Michaux. It features seven magnificent aquatint etchings and is estimated at €3,300-€4,000.
Important artists’ books in the lineup include Reventos’ Deux Contes, estimated at €2,400-€3,000 and boasting four drypoint etchings by Pablo Picasso, as well as Blaise Cendrars’ 1919 vision of the Last Days La Fin du monde, which Fernand Leger illustrated in powerful color. It, too, is estimated at €2,400-€3,000.
[av_button label=’ Click to view the auction catalog and sign up to bid’ icon_select=’no’ icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ link=’manually,https://www.liveauctioneers.com/catalog/228262_rare-books-prints-historical-photography/?keyword=&page=1&sort=lotNumber’ link_target=’_blank’ size=’small’ position=’center’ label_display=” title_attr=” color_options=” color=’theme-color’ custom_bg=’#444444′ custom_font=’#ffffff’ btn_color_bg=’theme-color’ btn_custom_bg=’#444444′ btn_color_bg_hover=’theme-color-highlight’ btn_custom_bg_hover=’#444444′ btn_color_font=’theme-color’ btn_custom_font=’#ffffff’ id=” custom_class=” av_uid=’av-ws49aq’ admin_preview_bg=”]
The current rate of exchange is €1 = $1.13.
View top auction results on LiveAuctioneers here: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/pages/recent-auction-sales/
