Rare Book Monthly
Articles - December - 2009 Issue
Auctions in December
Christies Lot 6. Blaeu: Theatrum orbis... $300,000 - $450,000
I asked Tom Lecky, who is managing the sale, to provide a list of items to highlight. These are some of them.
Lot 6. BLAEU, Willem and Johan BLAEU. Theatrum orbis terrarium sive Atlas Novus. 1649-1655, Amsterdam.
Six volumes containing 404 of 406 maps issued. A very fine deluxe set with the hand colored maps and engraved titles. Estimated $300,000 to $450,000
Lot 34. PTOLEMY (Claudius Ptolemaeus). Geographiae opus novissima traductione e Grecorum archetypis castigatissime pressum. 1513 Strassburg
THE FIRST MODERN ATLAS, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT EDITIONS OF PTOLEMY, CONTAINING THE FIRST MAP EXCLUSIVELY DEVOTED TO AMERICA, AND MANY NEW REGIONAL MAPS THE FIRST STRASSBURG EDITION OF PTOLEMY'S 'GEOGRAPHIA' -- THE FIRST "MODERN" ATLAS. This edition is one of the most important of all the Ptolemy editions with the inclusion of 20 modern maps in the supplement. Estimated $200,000 to $300,000
Lot 200. CATLIN, George. Catlin's North American Indian Portfolio. 1845 New York.
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. THE PLATES VERY FINE AND FRESH. A superb copy of the much scarcer American edition of Catlin's portfolio: "The coloring of the Ackerman issues is generally superb, not as bright as the almost gaudy Bohn card issues, and many have held that the American color is the best of any of the Catlin issues" (Reese). Estimated $200,000 to $300,000
Lot 222. JEFFERYS, Thomas (d. 1771). The American Atlas: Or A Geographical Description of the Whole Continent of America. 1775, New York
"ONE OF THE MOST AUTHORITATIVE AND COMPREHENSIVE ATLASES OF AMERICA..." (Walter Ristow) FIRST EDITION. Most maps are dated 1775, with some dated 1774. A very important atlas with large maps of 11 of the 13 colonies and of French Canada, of the Revolutionary War era. Estimated $60,000 to $80,000
Lot 243. POPPLE, Henry (d. 1743). A Map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish Settlements Adjacent Therto 1733 [but 1739-41], London
A Map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish Settlements Adjacent Therto. London: Sold by S. Harding and W.H. Toms. Estimated $90,000 to $120,000
