Reiss & Sohn

The anniversary year 2021 proved successful for the Königstein/Taunus based book auction house Reiss & Sohn. Since the foundation in 1971 the firm hold over 200 prestigious auction sales devoted to antiquarian books. After the spring season 2021 already saw with 260.000 Euros a record price for Copernicus’ “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium” , the fall sale outscored by far this stunning figure with a result of 1 Million Euros for the “Rudimentum novitiorum” printed in 1475. This result equally marks the most expensive auction price for a printed book in 2021 at a German auction sale. Besides the 2021 Reiss & Sohn book offer was impressively laid out in 7 richly illustrated catalogues. The auctions saw amongst others over 1.000 lots selling in the four- to seven figure price range, making again the city of Königstein to one of “the places to be” for book lovers and bibliophiles also in the coming year 2022. Reiss & Sohn is looking forward to auction consignments for the spring season.

The second part of the jubilee book auctions under the motto “1971-2021, 50 years of REISS & SOHN auctions” closed successfully on October 29th. The most expensive piece of the auction, the important universal chronicle “Rudimentum novitiorum”, from the year 1475 in an illuminated copy, reached a total of 1.000.000 € (all prices incl. buyer’s premium). The masterpiece of geometrical book illustration by Lorenz Stöer, his “Geometria et Perspectiva”, printed in Augsburg in 1567 went for 65.450,- € to a private collector. Thus only the 40 items in the special catalogue, of which 32 were sold, realised over 1.5 Mio €.

This important auction event was followed by the sale of 3000 lots in a 4 day sale marathon with numerous further hightlights. The results for the three editions of the Biblia graeca-latina by Erasmus of Rotterdam were a pleasant surprise.

The catalogues of the autumn book auctions in the Reiss & Sohn jubilee year are now online. The auction house, which was founded in 1971 in the Gutenberg city of Mainz, offers around 3,000 rare books, manuscripts, atlases and maps as well as graphic art and photography. Collectors can look forward to many scientific highlights such as the first printing of Galileo Galilei’s famous “Dialogo” from 1632 (estimated price 100,000 Euros). The most expensive and certainly most spectacular piece is the important universal chronicle “Rudimentum novitiorum”, from 1475 in an illuminated copy (1,2 million Euros estimate). Another very rare work offered is Lorenz Stöer’s “Geometria et Perspectiva”, a most beautiful masterpiece of book illustration, printed in Augsburg in 1567 (50,000 Euros estimate). In addition to the otherwise rich offerings some special collections on national economics, on philosophy and on the Reformation, as well as a remarkable series of 60 atlases are forming focal points of the auction event, which runs over 4 days.