Yesterday, May 07, 2025. – Day 2 of the extensive spring auctions began with a wide variety of books from various fields, such as Varia, architecture and old literature. From the afternoon onwards, the auction focussed on incunabula, manuscripts, old printed books and Reformation literature, which was extremely successful. This resulted in considerable increases in estimated prices. The richly illustrated Indian manuscript Hitopadesha (lot 631), a collection of fables and wisdom sayings, had already generated a great deal of interest beforehand, increasing its estimate of 20,000 euros by 275% to a hammer price of 75,000 euros. A pretty small-format book of hours in the style of the Ghent-Bruges school of painting was knocked down for 15,000 euros hammer price (lot 635). The incunabula section included some very early and rare Cologne prints, which were heavily bid for, especially online. Particularly noteworthy here was lot 685, a manuscript by J. Gerson, De efficacia orationis, printed by Cologne’s first printer Ulrich Zell around 1468: estimate 3,000 euros/supplement 7,500 euros. Also lot 694: Juvencus, Evangeliorum libri, Cologne 1500 (estimate 1,200 euros/surcharge 5,000 euros). The beautifully illustrated first edition of the treatise on the rosary brotherhoods ‘Liber fratenitatis rosaceae coronae’, Cologne, circa 1500, achieved a hammer price of 5,500 euros (estimate 1,800 euros, lot 705).
Rare and influential works were also valued in the Old Prints department and rewarded with high hammer prices. For example, lot 753: P. Crinito, Libri de poetas & De honesta disciplina. Two important and influential works of Italian humanism, in a rare first edition, in one volume (estimate 3,000 euro/surcharge 12,000 euro). Furthermore, the 12th German edition of the famous cosmography by Sebastian Münster from 1569, hammer price 10,000 euros/valuation 4,000 euros (lot 810).
The auction of books, atlases, prints and photographs from the geography catalogue 225 begins today, Thursday, and will continue until tomorrow afternoon: AUCTION CATALOGUE 225
