WELCOME – Book Auctions 2021

Please check current winter time setting for auction schedule

Registration for live bidding online available now

Personal visits need prior appointment. 
Personal visits for picking up auctioned goods or bringing in new consignments require prior appointment due to the Corona situation.

For other inquiries, including auction consignments for future sales kindly give us a call or write an email.

Reiss & Sohn was founded 1971 and is a specialized company for auctioning, buying and selling of rare antiquarian books, manuscripts, maps, prints and photography. Read more about the company

Next book auctions: rare books, manuscripts and maps taking place april 28th-30th 2020. Consignment offers welcome now.

We are happy to receive consignment offers for spring sales 2021. Please direct all offers in written form or give us a call.

Your reliable business partner for valuable books, manuscripts and maps – Book auctions since 1971

News

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“lots of things to read” – Book Auctions at Reiss & Sohn

Around 2800 items of rare books, manuscripts and maps form this year’s autumn offer of the book auctions at Reiss & Sohn in Königstein from 27th to 30th October 2020. Two voluminous print catalogues will soon be sent out and the web version of the catalogue is now online and contains around 10,000 photos of the offered objects in addition to the print version. The ranking of estimate prices is led by an extraordinary copy of “Ichtyologie – Histoire naturelle des Poissons” from 1785-97, by Marcus Elieser Bloch dealing with the natural history of fish, for an estimated 70,000 €. Georg Bartisch von Königsbrück founded ophthalmology with his “Ophthalmodouleia (graece). Das ist Augendienst “, from 1583, offered here in a contemporary coloured copy (30,000 €). A remarkable sammelband comprising more than 600 partly coloured copper engraved views from Augsburg’s production of the 18th century, including one of the most extensive ever offered collections of the works from the publishers Kilian and Leopod (after Werner) (30,000 €).

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Optics – the Birth of Photography and Motion Pictures

M. F. Ledermüller. Amusement microscopique. 3 parts and suppl. Nuremberg 1764-68

An important offer of books and prints on the history of optics as well as the practical application is coming to auction at Reiss & Sohn in the sales from october 27th-29th 2020 in Königstein near Frankfurt/Main. The offering includes rare works from the 16th till 19th century including precursors and early works about photography and cinematography. The outstanding offer comprises mostly first editions of works by Alhazen, Daguerre, Lumière, Witelo and many more. At the same time Reiss & Sohn is holding their large fall sales of rare books, manuscripts, atlases and maps. Consignments are welcome anytime.

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Latest News: Successful Spring Auctions in Time of Corona

A three day auction marathon ended last Thursday, May 7th in Koenigstein at Reiss & Sohn. Strong bidding generated by written orders, telephones and last but not least by countless online live bids made the book auctions at Reiss & Sohn a successful sale event in difficult times. Almost 90% of total estimates could be realized in turnover. Some price highlights include a German edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle (Nuremberg 1493) , selling at 60,000 € hammer (est. 50,000 €), the same work in Latin version from the same year for 42.000 € (30,000 €), a coloured version of Abraham Ortelius’ “Theatrum orbis terrarum” printed in 1594 at 46,000 € (est. 40,000 €) and 30,000 € for the non-euclidean “opus magnum” , the “Tentamen”, published in 1832 by Farkas and Janos Bolyai (15,000 €). In total 3.000 rare and valuable books, manuscripts and maps were on offer. So far 70% of auction lots found new homes, post sale is online until May 22nd. Reiss & Sohn is happy to receive consignment offers for the fall sales in 2020.