A comprehensive array of early printing in Greek, from the printshops of Aldus Manutius, Lorenzo de Alopa, Zacharias Kallierges, Filippo Giunta, Guillen de Brocar in Alcala, Thierry Martens and Rutger Rescius in Louvain, Gilles de Gourmont in Paris and the Estiennes in Paris and Geneva.

Works printed by Aldus, Kallierges, Giunta, Brocar, Martens and the Estiennes

Early Printing in Greek

From a scarce first edition of Walton’s The Compleat Angler to unpublished letters by John Wesley

Antiquarian Books & Manuscripts

A number of stunning autograph manuscripts are included in the sale: the original working manuscript of Wagner’s seminal essay Eine Mitteilung an meine Freunde (1851), which represents a pivotal moment in the conception of the Ring; the autograph manuscript of two Schubert songs, the Tischlerlied D.274 and Totenkranz für ein Kind D.275 (1815); and autograph sketches for the second movement of Bruckner’s sublime, unfinished Symphony no.9 (1889). In addition to other manuscripts, including a receipt signed by Beethoven, a month before his death, for his allowance from Prince Kinsky (1827), the partly autograph manuscript of the choral tenor part of Mendelssohn’s Jagdlied, op.120 no.1 (c.1837), and a remarkable eighteenth-century French dance manuscript dating from the 1780s, the sale also contains autograph letters by Paganini, Meyerbeer, Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, Johann Strauss II, Richard Strauss, Puccini, Bruch and Reger.

Including an important Wagner autograph manuscript

Music

Foremost amongst the Dickens material is an autograph manuscript chapter outline of David Copperfield (lot 248). Other literary highlights include a finely bound copy of Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werther with an autograph dedication signed (lot 256), first editions of Austen’s Northanger Abbey: and Persuasion (lot 239) and Byron’s Marino Faliero (lot 243), and a first Kelmscott edition of Swinburne’s Atalanta in Calydon (lot 266). Also featured are autograph letters signed by Ruskin (lot 294), Florence Nightingale (lot 281), and Darwin (lots 245 and 247), as well as a presentation copy of The Descent of Man (lot 246).

Nineteenth Century

Leading our selection of iconic drawings and illustrations are a fine pencil drawing of Winnie-the-Pooh by E.H. Shepard (lot 296) and David Low’s original artwork for the 1940 cartoon which encapsulated British defiance at the “darkest hour” of World War Two, signed by Winston Churchill (lot 273). The sale also includes original works by Kay Nielsen (277-279), Arthur Rackham (lot 287), and Adrian Searle (lot 295), as well as a beautiful series of original drawings by Karl Lagerfeld for The Emperor’s New Clothes (lot 269).

Drawings & Illustrations

Beatrix Potter collectors will not want to miss this sale’s copy of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, signed and with a charming presentation inscription (lot 286). Conjoining exquisite twentieth century craftsmanship with a thousand-year-old tradition of illuminated Hebrew manuscripts is a signed limited edition on vellum of The Haggadah (lot 297). For Harry Potter fans there are signed copies of the Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets (lots 290-293). Literary manuscripts include autograph letters signed by T.E. Lawrence (lot 271) and Patrick Leigh Fermor (272).

From Beatrix Potter to Harry Potter

Modern Books & Manuscripts

World War I reshaped literature as surely as it reshaped politics and society, and the exceptional private collection of 100 lots that are included in this sale trace the range of poetic responses to the world’s first mechanised mass conflict. Rupert Brooke’s 1914 and Other Poems (lot 312), containing his famous sonnet “The Soldier”, now serves as an elegy for the pervading mood of optimism and moral certainty at the outset of the war; the brutal reality of fighting on the Western Front is evoked in works by soldier-poets including Wilfred Owen, Isaac Rosenberg, and Ivor Gurney; whilst older poets from Hardy to Yeats reflected on the war and its impact from the home front. The profound moral dilemma of the soldier called to fight in a war in which he could no longer believe is encapsulated in the copy of Siegfried Sassoon’s The Old Huntsman that the author presented to Thomas Hardy, which comes with Hardy’s typescript copy of Sassoon’s anti-war “Soldier’s Declaration” (lot 379). These books have been collected as association copies and so trace the various, and often deeply moving, comradeships forged by war, from the pair of reciprocally inscribed association copies of Graves’ and Sassoon’s first collections of war poetry (lot 333), to the copy of Fairies and Fusiliers gratefully inscribed by Robert Graves to the man who saved his life in the trenches (lot 336).

Rare inscribed editions of poignant poetic responses to the war

World War One Poetry

London

The following lots will be exhibited at New Bond Street from 8-13 July and afterwards viewable by appointment: 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 22, 45, 66, 79, 84, 104, 107, 115, 124, 138, 139, 147, 159, 169, 173, 183, 184, 189, 191, 204, 209, 220, 230, 232, 233, 245, 246, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 268, 269, 273, 277, 278, 279, 284, 286, 287, 294, 296, 297, 301, 306, 311, 331, 333, 337, 341, 351, 360, 367, 371, 377, 379, 389, 400, 402, 405 Other lots are viewable at Sotheby’s Greenford Park warehouse by appointment.

Director | Specialist

Dr Gabriel  Heaton

Deputy Director | Specialist

Charlotte Miller 

Music Consultant 

John Arthur

Books and Manuscripts

William Passey

Meet our Specialists

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 <h6>Sale Contents:</h6>

 </div>
 </div>Lots 1-185: Antiquarian Books &amp; Manuscripts Lots 186-237: Music Lots 238-304: Modern Books, Manuscripts, &amp; Illustrations, 1800-Present Lots 305-405: First World War Poetry

Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern