Königstein/Taunus, May 2023 – Reiss & Sohn opened its spring auctions on 3 May with numerous top results. On the evening of 6 May, around 1,600 lots had found a new owner. The most expensive lot of the auction with a hammer price of € 160,000 (estimate € 70,000) was the six-volume atlas in the geography section in the Dutch edition by the Amsterdam publisher Willem and Johann Blaeu. The magnificent copy, with 100 additional bound maps, was published under the title “Toonneel des Aerdriicx, 1635-1662.”
Right at the beginning of the auction, 99 selected books, manuscripts and incunabula, including an important collection on the theme of death and the dance of death, united in a richly illustrated special catalogue, went under the hammer. Only 13 objects did not find a buyer. The total proceeds amounted to 116% of the total estimated price of the special catalogue.
Particularly noteworthy is the result of € 90,000 (hammer price) for the most magnificent of all floral works, Basilius Besler’s “Hortus Eystettensis” (Eichstätt, ca 1750).
A small surprise was the record bid of € 90,000 (hammer price, estimate € 10,000) for P. L. Moreau de Maupertuis’ “Rélation du Voyage de Laponie” (after 1736). A French manuscript of the original account of Maupertuis’ memorable voyage to Lapland (1736-1737), printed only in abridged form, with corrections in his own hand.
For the atlas by de Wit “Atlas (Maior)”, printed with the sea atlas, published in Amsterdam after 1688, the hammer fell at € 75.000 (€ 40.000). A rare map of Africa printed in several sheets by the Venetian engraver Gastaldi from 1564 fetched the pre-auction estimate € 45.000.