Sendak’s Blakes, Jefferson’s Cicero, Rockwell Original Art: Auction Preview

Here's what I'll be watching over the next few weeks:

On Wednesday, June 4, University Archives sells 524 lots of Rare Autographs, Books & Space Memorabilia, including six volumes of Cicero from Thomas Jefferson's library ($150,000–200,000) and a huge collection of more than 48,000 nineteenth- and twentieth century art prints ($90,000–150,000). A February 1780 letter signed by George Washington about recruitment in Pennsylvania is estimated at $35,000–50,000.

At Forum Auctions on Thursday, June 5, 294 lots of Modern Literature, including a good number of Agatha Christie first editions.

ALDE sells 150 lots of Manuscrits & Autographes on Tuesday, June 10, with three lots sharing the top estimate of €4,000–5,000: 75 autograph pages from Céline's D'un château l'autre; a June 1906 letter by Marcel Proust on mourning stationery; and an 1807 letter from Stendhal to his sister Pauline.

At Christie's New York on June 10, Maurice Sendak: Artist, Collector, Connoisseur, in 58 lots. This sale, containing works from Sendak's own collection, will benefit the Maurice Sendak Foundation. Two lots of William Blake publications share the top estimate at $1–1.5 million: an early copy of Songs of Innocence (1789) formerly in the collections of Edwin Grabhorn, John DuPont, and Abel Berland and the only first issue copy in private hands of Songs of Experience (1793). Blake's watercolor of Oberon and Titania on a Lily, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, is expected to sell for $400,000–600,000. The Sendak original pieces include his designs for the "Sendak in Philadelphia" exhibition poster (1995) and for the "New York is Book Country" festival (1988). Each of these are estimated at $60,000–80,000. Another 80 lots will be sold in an online sale on Thursday, June 12.

On Thursday, June 12 at Swann Galleries, 269 lots of Printed & Manuscript Americana, with Thomas Hariot's Admiranda narratio fida tamen, de commodis et incolarum ritibus Virginiae (1590), a mixed first and second issue copy, rating the top estimate at $25,000–35,000. A large collection of the client files of architect Dwight James Baum from 1921 to 1932 could sell for $15,000–25,000.

At PBA Galleries on June 12, Photography & Fine Art, Fine Press & Fine Bindings – with Natural History & Mountaineering, in 341 lots. A large collection of sketches, watercolors, and photographs by British artists Albert and Mary Stevens dating from the 1880s through the 1920s is expected to lead the way at $10,000–15,000. Frederick Hill Meserve's The Photographs of Abraham Lincoln (1911) could sell for $8,000–12,000.

Arader Galleries will sell 189 lots on Saturday, June 14.

On Tuesday, June 17, at Swann Galleries, 284 lots of Illustration Art, featuring the collection of Lee Lorenz. Norman Rockwell's oil painting for Albert Payson Tehrune's story "Wolf" (St. Nicholas, April 1918) rates the top estimate at $60,000–80,000. Much more of interest for the Rockwell collector here, as well as a number of Ludwig Bemelmans illustrations.

There are some books (mostly grouped lots) among the 441 lots from the David Lynch Collection at Julien's Auctions on Wednesday, June 18.

At Forum Auctions on Thursday, June 19, A Sixth Selection of 16th and 17th Century English Books from the Fox Pointe Manor Library, in 380 lots. The 1570 John Daye edition of Euclid's Elements of Geometrie rates the top estimate at £20,000–30,000.

Sotheby's New York sells Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library. The Aldine Collection N–Z on Wednesday, June 25, in 344 lots.