With a sell-rate of over 80%, most of which exceeding their estimates, Reiss & Sohn got off to a very successful start on Tuesday with its spring auctions. The lots from the holdings of the Apel Library in Ermlitz, offered in a separate section, opened the day. Here, virtually no lot remained unsold. The highest hammer price of 50,000 euros went to a handwritten musical manuscript by Richard Wagner from the opera „Die Feen“.
The subsequent chapter, “Incunabula and Manuscripts, Old Prints,” was, as in previous auctions, almost entirely sold. Particularly noteworthy was the hammer price of 24,000 euros for a parchment manuscript intended for use in the Mass, created in Germany around 1400 – as well as the hammer price of 20,000 euros for a typical 13th-century “Paris Bible,” a Latin manuscript on parchment featuring numerous fleuronnée initials in red and blue.
The mining section, which was exceptionally extensive this time with 72 lots, included a large collection of items related to geology and paleontology. In addition to the many international bidders online, a number of specialist buyers were also present in the auction room. Agricola’s “De re metallica libri XII,” a first edition of the most significant mining book of the Renaissance, sold for 20,000 euros; L. Agassiz’s monumental 10-volume work on fish fossils, „Recherches sur les poissons fossils”, changed hands for a hammer price of 11,000 euros.
All results, as well as the catalogues for the upcoming sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, can be found at https://www.reiss-sohn.de/en/auction-sales/