Simenon Manuscript, Gutenberg Bible Bifolium, Aldine Aristotle: Auction Preview

Here are the sales I'll be keeping an eye on in the coming weeks:

At ALDE on Wednesday, December 3, Reliures originales & livres illustrés modernes, in 300 lots.

Forum Auctions sells 60 lots of Western Medieval Manuscripts on December 3, with a fifteenth-century Franciscan breviary from northern Italy expected to sell for £3,000–5,000. Many of the lots are either individual leaves or small groups of leaves.

At Forum on Thursday, December 4, 334 lots of Modern Literature, with a Jack Butler Yeats illustration "Morrissey and the Russian Sailor" estimated at £3,000–5,000. A first edition of A.A. Milne's When We Were Very Young (1924) is expected to sell for £3,000–4,000, and a signed copy of W.B. Yeats' The King's Threshold (1904) could sell for £1,500–2,000.

Swann Galleries sells 337 lots of Illustration Art on December 4, with an original William Wallace Denslow illustration for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) rating the top estimate at $60,000–80,000. An original Norman Rockwell magazine illustration for Albert Payson Tehrune's "Wolf" is estimated at $40,000–60,000, and a group of fifteen illustrations by Jerry Pinkney for Beth Wilson's The Great Minu (1974) could sell for $12,000–16,000.

At PBA Galleries on December 4, 471 lots of Fine Literature – with Mysteries, Fantasy & Sci-fi – Bukowski, Beats & the Counterculture. A complete set of first editions of the Chronicles of Narnia series, each title in its original dust jacket, rates the top estimate at $20,000–30,000. An original drawing of Neal Cassady by his wife Carol is expected to fetch $4,000–6,000.

Aguttes sells 369 lots of Books & Manuscripts on Friday, December 5, with the original manuscript of Georges Simenon's La Mort de Belle (1951) expected to sell for €40,000–50,000. A copy of the 1755–1759 Paris edition of La Fontaine's Fables choisies with illustrations by Jean-Baptiste Oudry is expected to reach €30,000–40,000.

At New England Book Auctions on Tuesday, December 9, Fine Bindings, Literature, Illustrated, including Selections from Austin Abbey Rare Books, in 223 lots. 

Western Illuminated Manuscripts are on the block at Sotheby's London on December 9, in 19 lots. A 1447 Petrus Roselli portolan chart of the Mediterranean is expected to lead the sale at £700,000–1,000,000, while a 1480 Neapolitan manuscript of Thomas Aquinas' Quaestiones de potentia dei and Quaestiones de malo rates an estimate of £240,000–320,000.

Swann Galleries sells 371 lots of Maps & Atlases, Natural History & Color Plate Books on December 9, with Audubon's Carolina Parakeet from the folio Birds expected to sell for $80,000–100,000. Jan Huygen van Linschoten's Histoire de la Navigation aux Indes Orientales (1619) could fetch $30,000–50,000.

At Sotheby's New York on December 9, 24 lots from the Library of Barry Yampol: A First Selection: Part 1, including the Macclesfield copy of the 1470 Sweynheym & Pannartz edition of Pliny's Historia naturalis, estimated at $900,000–1,200,000. The Doheny copy of the Aldine Aristotle (1495–1498) could sell for $400,000–600,000.

Dominic Winter Auctioneers sell 342 lots of Printed Books, Maps & Original Art on Wednesday, December 10, with Robert Morden's 1772 atlas of England and Wales estimated at £4,000–6,000.

Christie's London sells Valuable Books, Manuscripts and Photographs, including Highlights from the Royal Society of Medicine on December 10, in 212 lots. A first edition of William Harvey's Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus (1628) rates the top estimate at £800,000–1,200,000. An early tenth-century Gospel manuscript potentially made at Essen Abbey in Germany could fetch £700,000–1,000,000.

At RR Auction on December 10, Fine Autographs and Artifacts Featuring Science-Technology and Animation, in 794 lots. A 1922 Albert Einstein letter to Baron Edmond de Rothschild thanking him for a financial gift is expected to realize more than $60,000.

On Wednesday, December 11, Sotheby's London sells 162 lots of Books, Manuscripts & Music, with a Mozart autograph sketchleaf with what seems to be a draft for the finale of his piano quartet in E flat estimated at £150,000–200,000. A bifolium from the Gutenberg Bible is estimated at £60,000–90,000.

At Forum Auctions on December 11, Books and Works on Paper in 301 lots.

Dominic Winter Auctioneers sell 431 lots of Illustrated Books & Modern Literature on December 11, with a first edition of Khalil Gibran's The Prophet (1923) in the dust jacket expected to sell for £4,000–6,000.

On Friday, December 12, Sotheby's New York has the Library of Barry Yampol: A First Selection: Part 2, in 194 lots.