The sale opens in spectacular fashion with important music from the collection assembled by the late Sir Ralph Kohn (1927-2016), an avid and celebrated collector of printed and manuscript music, especially relating to the Bach family. Highlights include rare first editions of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (1741) and the Italian Concerto and French Overture (1735), as well as J.F. Reifenstein’s portrait of C.P.E. Bach. A charming portrait of a family of musicians from the time of Bach, ascribed to Balthasar Denner, is also included. There is also autograph music by Schubert (the manuscript of his first surviving song, Hagars Klage, D.5), Mendelssohn (his vocal duet Sonntagslied, op.77 no.1, and his arrangement for violin and piano of the first movement of Bach’s Partita no.3 in E for violin) and Brahms (the autograph manuscript of the song Feldeinsamkeit, op.86 no.2, widely regarded as one of his greatest songs).

The Kohn Collection of Music

Other musical highlights on offer include an exceptionally rare manuscript leaf of Renaissance secular music, including the tenor part of Nicolas Grenon's ballade Je ne requier (c.1420s), an autograph history notebook by the teenage Mendelssohn, autograph music by Haydn (a draft for the Piano Trio in G, Hob. XV: 25) and Mozart (a leaf from the ‘Antretter’ serenade, K.185), a superb 4-page letter by Debussy to André Caplet, discussing his interior creative life, and a contemporary portrait of the violinist Nicola Matteis by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

Music

The sale includes a fine group of books from Fonmon Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan, including atlases, Americana, and science. Parts of Fonmon Castle date to the 12th Century, and it was purchased from the St John family by the powerful Parliamentary leader Colonel Philip Jones in 1654. It remained in the Jones family until the death of Oliver Henry Jones in 1917, when it was inherited by his niece and her husband, Sir Seymour Boothby (1866-1951), 13th Bt. The current selection includes books from both the Jones and the Boothby families.

The Property of Sir Brooke Boothby, 15th Bt., removed from Fonmon Castle, Glamorgan

Natural History, Travel & Americana

The scientific books feature works by Galileo, Newton, Einstein and Darwin, along with lesser known figures who made significant contributions to scientific progress. There are contemporaries of Einstein in the field of theoretical physics, Paul Ehrenfest, Werner Heisenberg and Wolfgang Pauli, and the new discipline of psychoanalysis appears in a presentation copy of Freud’s Die Traumdeutung and a group of works by Carl Gustav Jung. From a more historical perspective, there are works by Galileo and Kepler, Leeuwenhoek, John Wallis and Jacob Bernoulli, as well as an early seventeenth-century astrological manuscript notebook with horoscopes and planetary motions.

Science & Medicine

The sale contains a rich selection of early English printing and some uncommon incunabula, many in contemporary German bindings. There are five Sarum liturgies, including the rare miniature Diurnal of 1528, and an even rarer manual for the use of York, in a contemporary York binding with an inscription by the book binder, Thomas Richardson. More familiar works are a Nuremberg Chronicle, a 1498 Book of Hours, The Merchant of Venice from the First Folio, John Donne's poems and three English translations of Homer. Tudor history is also represented by Sir Walter Raleigh's commonplace book and a volume of correspondence relating to the Florentine ambassador to London in the time of Henry VIII. Early editions of the Bible include two Tyndale versions from 1549 and 1566, the former belonging to an early manuscript librarian at the British Museum, and the latter in a contemporary English stamped binding.

Antiquarian Books & Manuscripts

The sale includes an eclectic range of nineteenth- and twentieth-century works, including objects as diverse as a drawing attributed to Emily Brontë and a previously unrecorded leaflet that provides some of the earliest known rules of football. There are two outstanding Tolkien lots: a signed presentation copy of The Hobbit with the author’s manuscript corrections, and a first edition of The Lord of the Rings trilogy inscribed by the author in Elvish. The sale also boasts a strong selection of works by Churchill, notably a presentation copy of The Second World War inscribed to Clement Atlee, whilst corrected typescripts of Fleming’s You Only Live Twice and Le Carré’s The Looking Glass War give fascinating insights into the creative processes of the two most celebrated spy novelists of the Cold War period. A group of letters and manuscripts of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle, coming directly from the authors’ family, provide a rich source of material from one of the most influential writers of the Victorian era.

Modern Books, Manuscripts & Illustrations 

Director | Specialist

Dr Gabriel  Heaton

Deputy Director | Specialist

Charlotte Miller 

Consultant

John Arthur

Books and Manuscripts

William Passey

Meet our Specialists

Lots from the sale are viewable at Sotheby's Greenford Park warehouse by appointment.

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<a class="Link" href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/books-manuscripts-and-music-from-medieval-to-modern/c-p-e-bach-portrait-of-the-composer-probably-by-j">Lots 1-39: The Kohn Collection of Music</a>
 
 
 
 <a class="Link" href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/books-manuscripts-and-music-from-medieval-to-modern/album-autograph-music-album-of-marie-louise">Lots 40-73: Music</a>
 
 
 
 <a class="Link" href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/books-manuscripts-and-music-from-medieval-to-modern/library-catalogue-a-catalogue-of-all-the-books-at">Lots 74-90: The Property of Sir Brooke Boothby, 15th Bt., removed from Fonmon Castle, Glamorgan</a>
 
 
 
 <a class="Link" href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/books-manuscripts-and-music-from-medieval-to-modern/william-beebe-a-monograph-of-the-pheasants-london">Lots 91-123: Travel & Natural History</a>
 
 
 
 <a class="Link" href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/books-manuscripts-and-music-from-medieval-to-modern/astrology-manuscript-notebook-on-astrological">Lots 124-145: Science & Medicine</a>
 
 
 
 <a class="Link" href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/books-manuscripts-and-music-from-medieval-to-modern/alexander-de-villa-dei-doctrinale-nuremberg-1495">Lots 146-252: Antiquarian Books & Manuscripts</a>
 
 
 
 <a class="Link" href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2023/books-manuscripts-and-music-from-medieval-to-modern/clement-attlee-a-tour-of-the-united-states-of">Lots 253-337: Modern Books, Manuscripts & Illustrations</a>

Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern