NEW YORK – Christie’s Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana concluded after two weeks of competitive bidding, totaling $5,242,860. The total was 173 percent sold by hammer plus buyers premium, and 86 percent sold by lot, with bidders and buyers participating from 28 nations worldwide. In a sign of this category’s continued strength, 24 percent of bidders and buyers were new to book sales at Christie’s. The sale featured scientific works from two important collections. The top lot of the auction came from the Owen Gingerich Astronomical Library: Johannes Kepler’s Astronomia nova realized $327,600. Other top lots from the Gingerich library included: Kepler’s Mysterium cosmographicum, which set a new world record at $277,200; the Stellarum Fixarum Catologus Britannicus of John Flamsteed, which realized $176,400; and Nicolaus

Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, which made $163,800. A top lot also came from Incunabula from the Collection of Eugene S. Flamm: Pliny the Elder’s Historia naturalis, in Italian, which made $201,600. Among the 20^th century offerings were top lots that included the Annette Campbell-White copy of James Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses, signed by Joyce, which brought $138,600; and a lot that excited worldwide interest, Marlon Brando’s annotated partial script for The Godfather, which fetched $30,240.

(Press Release)