Sturdy Outcomes at Potter & Potter Auctions’ Fantastic Books And Manuscripts Sale

The Chicago Fall Event – Potter & Potter Auctions was a best seller in every way. The last time the hammer fell, 98 lots fetched $ 750 to $ 2,499. 23 lots fetched $ 2,500 to $ 9,999; and four lots broke the five-digit mark. The prices shown include the buyer’s commission of 20% of the company.

Museum quality art, paintings and prints participated in this exciting sale.
• Lot # 630, Le Pigeonneau by Pablo Picasso, was valued at $ 10,000-15,000 and traded for a staggering $ 37,500. This hand-colored and signed artist’s proof from 1939 was printed by Robert Blanchet in Paris and accompanied by two certificates of authenticity.
• Lot # 605, David Hockey’s framed Ossie and Mo, was valued at $ 1,000-2,000 and made $ 4,800 – nearly five times its low estimate! This signed work was numbered 4/75, printed on Chisbrook handmade paper by Maurice Payne, and published in 1968 by Petersburg Press.
• Lot # 581, William Adolphe Bouguereau’s beautifully rendered study of a brunette woman’s head, returned $ 14,400. These signed pastel works on board included the original gallery tags Galerie Drouant-David and Galerie Percier Paris

Important books from the century and millennium also made for heated commandments and impressive results.
• Lot No. 6, a second edition of Charles Darwin’s On Creation of Species Through Natural Selection or Conservation of Preferred Races in the Fight for Life, was valued at $ 8,000-10,000 and sold for $ 11,400. It was published in London in 1860 by John Murray. This example had 1860 printed on it and “five thousand” on the front page; There are around two copies of the first edition with an overprint from 1859.
• Lot # 231, a copy of Gaius Julius Caesar’s The Commentaries printed by Jacob Tonson in London in 1712, fetched $ 14,400 – more than double its low estimate. This 560-page folio was edited by Samuel Clarke and contained the bison double-sided plate, which is usually missing.
• Lot # 13, Thomas Hawkins’ The Book of Great Sea Dragons, Ichthyosauri, and Plesiosauri … Extinct Monsters of Ancient Earth dating from 1840. Estimated at $ 3,000 to $ 4,000, making $ 7,200. This first edition was published in London by W. Pickering and contained 30 plates copied from skeletons in the author’s collection of fossil organic remains.
• Lot # 83, an 18-volume set of The Works of Jonathan Swift from the Robert R. Livingston library, rose to $ 5,520 on a pre-sale estimate of $ 1.00 to $ 2,000. These books were published in 1778 by Ms. Mundell et al. Printed in Edinburgh. Each volume contained Mr. Livingston’s personal bookplates. One of the founding fathers of the United States, Livingston was a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, administrator of George Washington’s oath of office when he assumed the presidency in 1789, and chief negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
• Lot No. 584, a boldly inscribed presentation of Alma Mahler’s Gustav Mahler: Memoirs and Letters from 1946, fetched $ 3,600 at its estimate of $ 400 to $ 600. Alma Mahler was a composer, author and wife of Gustav Mahler. This book contained six paper items, including an autographed letter, Western Union telegram, photo postcards, snapshots, and other ephemera.
• Lot No. 67, William Cullen Bryant’s two-volume Picturesque America; Or the land we live in: A delineation of mountains and mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, waterfalls, banks, canyons, valleys, cities, and other scenic features of our land that sold for a staggering $ 3,360 estimate of 250-350 USD. This first edition, the first printing set, was published in New York by D. Appleton & Company and richly illustrated with 49 full-page steel plates, including additional title pages and frontispiece engravings, as well as numerous intertextual wood engravings.

Another focus of this exciting auction were photographs, pictures and cabinet cards from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Lot # 710, a collection of early photographs of men and women in hats, was valued at $ 100 to $ 200 and restocked at $ 2,280. These included daguerreotypes of a rich man with a stick and top hat; an ambrotype of a young man smoking a cigar; and a partially real photo postcard with a seated man wearing a hat and bow tie.
• Lot # 751, a group of 13 professional cabinet cards dating from the 1880s, was valued at $ 200 to $ 300 and worked its way up to $ 2,040. The professions represented included tailors, organ builders, blacksmiths, chimney sweeps, picture framers, glass blowers, saddlers, actors and others.
• Lot No. 779, a collection of more than 30 cabinet cards and CDVs by French stage performers, writers, and other personalities, was valued at $ 100 to $ 200 and sold for $ 1,440. Most of them were recorded by the Nadar studio; People pictured include Dumas, Daudet, Bernhardt, Gustav Doré, Victor Hugo, and others.

Ephemera of all kinds, magazines, modern editions, and other manuscripts closed the circle.
• Lot # 632, a group of 35 Playboy magazines from 1954 to 1958, returned $ 3,600 – twelve times its low estimate.
• Lot No. 644, a four-volume limited folio on abstract expressionism produced by the Tiber Press in 1960, raised $ 6,000. This important post-war American artist book contained collaborations between four of the most influential American poets of the second half of the 20th century and four important second-generation New York School artists. Each publication has been signed by the author and artist.
Lot No. 222, a typed French-language manuscript travelogue describing a trip to China on the Trans-Siberian Railway from 1913 to 1924, was valued at $ 400 to $ 600 and sold for $ 3,120. The volume was lavishly illustrated with postcards, snapshots, cards and real photos, which were provided with photo corners and numerous annotations or captions.

According to Gabe Fajuri, President of Potter & Potter Auctions, “Strong results across the board and a 93% sales rate shows that the demand for quality is high – but more importantly, it shows that Potter & Potter continues to deliver exceptional results . ” the book and manuscript market, not to mention the fine arts. We are thrilled with the sales results and have already planned our next auction in this category for mid-March 2021. “