Choice items at Hamburg evening auction of “Rare Books”

Ketterer Kunst attains sales quota of 83%

Hamburg, 22 November 2007 (kk) - Outstanding results were achieved at the two-day Ketterer Kunst auction marathon in Hamburg. With overall estimates amounting to € 475 000, the evening auction alone made € 600 000*. The sales quota for objects in the division expressly allocated to the evening auction is 83%. The overall proceeds from the auction of Rare Books - Manuscripts - Autographs - Decorative Prints on 19 & 20 May 2007 amounted to approximately € 1 200 000*.

The TOP THREE at the EVENING AUCTION

€ 26 400*
Conrad Gesner - Thierbuch
Estimate: € 12 000

€ 24 000*
Hartmann Schedel – Das buch der Croniken ...
Estimate: € 10 000

€ 24 000*
J.A. Risso and P. A. Poiteau – Histoire et culture des orangers (=> see illustration)
Estimate: € 20 000

“I’m delighted that our still quite young evening auction concept is popular with both clients of many years’ standing and a great many new ones. What is particularly gratifying is that we have succeeded with the evening auctions in convincing many clients who were previously interested only in art that the world of books can be equally fascinating,” thus Robert Ketterer, auctioneer and owner of Ketterer Kunst.

The highest sale price of the evening was fetched by the beautifully coloured Conrad Gesner “Thierbuch” (estimate: € 12 000). A collector from the Ruhr outbid eager telephone bidders and rivals who had logged in online to bag the animal book for € 26 400*.

Not far behind (sale price: € 24 000*) was the Hartmann Schedel “Das buch der Croniken” [“Nuremberg Chronicle”]. A European dealer secured the first edition, printed in Augsburg (1496), of what is known as the “little Schönsperger Schedel”, outstripping the order book and the auction room as well as four telephone bidders.

The same sum was bid on the telephone by a collector for the “Histoire et culture des orangers” [“The History and Cultivation of Orange Trees”] of Joseph Antoine Risso and P.A. Poiteau. The same bidder also paid tribute to an album boasting 328 hand-tinted (estimate: € 18 000 Nature prints for € 22 800*.

Another hit in the botany department was Johann Christian Volckamers “Nürnbergische Hesperides...”, which has gone across the Atlantic to America for € 22 800*.

The collected letters of Pope Gregory I did not have so far to go. The first edition of the papal “Epistolae”, which is the sole incunabulum edition, found a home in a private library. Carrying an estimate of € 7500, the book was bid up by the purchaser to a dizzying € 22 800*.

In the photography section, a particularly striking object was an album of 20 original photographs taken around 1867 of “Niagara Falls”. Probably assembled by a German couple, these unusually large prints for the time were sold to an American dealer for € 16 800*.

The first edition (published in 1581) of Marx Rumpolt’s “Ein new Kochbuch” was pounced on by a Berlin collector for almost as much (€ 16 200*). Featuring 149 woodcuts in the text, it fetched top price in a collection of some 70 cookery books with estimates starting at € 200 and an overall limit for the collection of € 60 000. This little gourmet selection achieved € 80 000.

In the Autographs division, an “Album Amicorum” was particularly successful. The family tree of the philologist Nikolaus Weber of Nuremberg changed hands for € 14 400 and is now in Austria.

John Napier’s “Rhabdologia Neperiana” fetched fifteen times the estimate of € 800. This rare first German edition of the celebrated mathematical treatise sparked off a fierce bidding skirmish fought out between the auction room and seventeen bidders on the telephone and in writing, going in the end most appropriately to a mathematical research institute for € 12 000*.

Daniel Chodowiecki’s cycle of 12 signed original sepia drawings sold for more than eight times the estimate of € 1000. The cycle of drawings deals with the four ages in a woman’s life, with three drawings devoted to each phase. A south German antiquarian bookseller was so taken with it that he parted with € 8400.

Post-auction sales continue through Thursday, 20 December 2007.

* The sale price equals hammer price + 20 per cent surcharge

Press enquiries:
Ketterer Kunst
Prinzregentenstraße 61
81675 Munich
Michaela Derra
Telephone: +49 (0)89-55244-0 oder -152
Fax: +49 (0)89-55244-166
E-mail: m.derra@kettererkunst.de

Since it was founded in 1954, Ketterer Kunst has been firmly established in the front ranks of auction houses dealing in art and rare books. While our Munich headquarters in the Prinz-Alphons Palais is responsible for the two traditional annual auctions of Modern Art & Post War, the Meßberghof in Hamburg is the venue for two traditional auctions a year, each based on the following fields: Old Masters and 19th-Century Art /Marine Art and Rare Books - Autographs - Manuscripts - Decorative Prints as well as Modern Art & Post War, with a focus on works on paper. In addition, exhibitions, special and benefit auctions for charity as well as live auctions online are regular events at Ketterer Kunst.

This release was published on openPR.