Francis Wahlgren

International Department Head
London, King Street

In January 2007, Francis Wahlgren was appointed Christie’s International Head of Books & Manuscripts, following his ten years as head of the department for the Americas. In this role, he is responsible for global sales and business-getting, and leading Christie’s International Books & Manuscripts team. Mr. Wahlgren has overseen the sales of an important botanical library, which realized $8.8 million in June 1997; and The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine in 1998, which achieved $18.7 million, making it the third highest price realized for a book collection at auction in America. He has also organized several successful sales of children’s literature, including the cataloguing and auction of an extra-illustrated copy of the very rare suppressed first edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which sold for $1.54 million, in December of 1998, a record price for a children’s book at auction. In March 2000, he organized the sale of Bute Audubon, in which The Birds of America sold for $8.8 million, setting a record for a printed book at auction. In October 2001, he secured and organized the sale of the Abel Berland library, which sold for $14 million -- a record for an English literature collection at auction. This sale included a first folio edition of Shakespeare’s works, which sold for $6.1 million, a record for any Shakespeare work at auction -- and for any 17th-century book sold at auction. In 2002, he was responsible for the sale of the Library of Roger Rechler which achieved the world record price for a collection of modern literature. In 2006, he secured the sale of The History of the Book: The Cornelius J. Hauck Collection, which was 99% sold and totaled $12.4 million. More recently, he handled the sale of the Frank S. Streeter Collection of Navigation and Voyages, in April 2007. A New York State licensed auctioneer since 1991, Mr. Wahlgren is a frequent auctioneer in Christie’s salerooms as well as for a number of charity auctions. Over the past six years, he has appeared regularly as an appraiser on the Antiques Roadshow. Mr. Wahlgren did his undergraduate work at Parsons School of Design and The American College in Paris; he received a Master’s degree in Art History from Queens College, New York, in 1985, with a concentration in medieval art. Mr Wahlgren worked for the Pierpont Morgan Library from 1985-1987.

Margaret Ford

Department Head
London, King Street

Meg Ford joined Christie's in 1994 having worked with rare books since 1980; she was appointed Head of the London Book & Manuscript department in 2004. Meg’s first auction at Christie's was the highly successful sale of the Library of Beriah Botfield at Longleat (£4.6m, 1994). Subsequent major successes have included the sale of English incunabula from the Wentworth Library (£15.3m, 1998); the Moller Florilegium (£551,000, 1999); the Library of William Foyle (£12.6m, 2000); further books and manuscripts from Longleat (£12.4m, 2002); the Wittock Collection of Renaissance Bookbindings Part I, (£1.1m, 2004); a Charles Dickens desk on which he penned his last words (£433,000, 2008); and, most recently, the Arcana Collection of exceptional rare books and manuscripts (2010-2011). Her rare book research has led to discoveries such as an unrecognised English incunable and detecting books stolen from the Danish Royal Library. Meg is the author of the two-volume catalogue of incunabula in the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam (1989); a contributing author to The History of the Book in Britain, vol. III (Cambridge University Press: 1999), and of numerous articles in scholarly journals. She is invited to speak at academic conferences worldwide. Meg is Vice-President and Hon. Secretary of the Bibliographical Society, and a member of the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie. Meg speaks German fluently.

Eugenio Donadoni

Junior Specialist - Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts
London, King Street

Eugenio Donadoni joined Christie’s in 2010 and is the most recent addition to the Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts team. Born in Florence and raised in Naples, he moved to England in 1993 and splits his loyalties when appropriate. His interests lie in palaeography, iconography and the illustration, illumination, tracing and description of rare books and manuscripts. In 2011 he contributed to the highly successful sale of the Arcana Collection. Eugenio read for an undergraduate degree in Classics and Modern Languages, a Master of Studies in European Literature, specialising in History of the Book and early French printing strategies, and a D.Phil. in 15th and 16th-century French at Oxford University. He speaks fluent English, Italian and French and reads Spanish and Ancient Greek.

Rupert Neelands

Senior Specialist and Auctioneer
London, King Street

Rupert Neelands joined Christie’s South Kensington in 1983 –- an era when sales took place every fortnight and tea-chests spread across the basement floor piled high with books were a prominent feature of the department’s topography. In his 15 years as a South Ken stalwart -- ten of them as Department Head -- Rupert witnessed the introduction of such innovations as computers, mobile phones, fax machines, bidding paddles and buyers’ premium, as sales became less frequent but gradually moved upmarket. In 1998 he was appointed Senior Specialist for printed books at King Street, where he has handled books of a different value quantum and gained the inestimable benefit of a window. While his qualifications in English Literature and early experience as an English teacher give him strong literary leanings, Rupert also enjoys spectacular atlases and all forms of illustrated book. His favourite poet is William Blake, and most admired scientist Newton. Lesser known books on social pursuits such as angling, chess, cricket, and tennis are a special interest, along with the whole field of 18th-century pamphlet literature. Rupert studied English Literature at Bristol under Christopher Ricks, and followed this with an M.A. at Queen Mary College, London.

Kay Sutton

Senior Specialist, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts
London, King Street

Kay Sutton joined Christie's Book Department in 1996 after a career as an editor, consultant and lecturer on Medieval and Renaissance Painting and Manuscript Illumination. Kay has a world wide reputation in this area and has written numerous articles which have been published around the world. Kay has led Christie's highly successful sales of such important manuscripts as the Rothschild Prayerbook (World Record Auction Price of £7.8m, 1999), the Longleat Virgil illuminated by Francesco d'Antonio del Chierico (£1.2m, 2002) and the long-lost Book of Hours of Francesco da Barberino (€780,000, 2003). The rediscovery of this manuscript was the subject of her latest article in The Burlington Magazine (March, 2005). After graduating in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute, Kay completed a PhD thesis on Medieval Manuscript Illumination in Lombardy at the University of Warwick.

Thomas Venning

Senior Specialist - Autograph Letters, Manuscripts & Archives
London, King Street

Since joining Christie's in 1998, Thomas Venning has catalogued autograph letters, manuscripts and music ranging in date from the 1070s to the 1970s by many of the great figures of European history and thought, from Mozart to Napoleon and from John Donne to Einstein. Highlights during this time have included the youthful diary of G.W. Hegel (£146,750, November 2000), the original witness statements for the first trial of Oscar Wilde (£44,650, June 2001), the lost manuscript of Federico Garcia Lorca's last collection, Poeta en Nueva York (£139,650, June 2003) and a draft of Winston Churchill's great wartime speech, ‘The Few’ (£139,250 in June 2008 -- three times the previous record for a Churchill manuscript). In July 2007 he was responsible for the landmark sale of The Albin Schram Collection of Autograph Letters, which set a series of world records (amongst them the top lot, a magnificent love letter from Napoleon to Josephine, at £276,000) and created a new public profile for this collecting field. At the same time, Thomas leads Christie's work in the complex field of archives: he has valued some of the most significant collections in the UK and across Europe, from the papers of great landed families to those of banks, publishing houses and living writers; key sales have included the Abinger Shelley papers (including the autograph manuscript of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein), the archive of the Earls and Dukes of Sutherland, the Dalhousie papers, which included the papers of the Marquis of Dalhousie as governor-general of India as well as the earliest manuscript history of Norway, and the archive of Sir Edward Heath. Thomas holds a B.A. from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, in Classics and English; he speaks fluent English and French and divides his time between the London and Paris Books departments.

Sven Becker

Associate Director, Specialist
London, King Street

Sven Becker joined Christie's in 2004 after seven years as director of one of London’s leading firms of antiquarian books. His expertise lies in 16th to 18th century books, Russian books, and illustrated books including photobooks. He is especially interested in creating cross-over between Books and other categories, and bringing new collectors to the field. Sven led Christie's inaugural auction of valuable Russian books and manuscripts and its successful follow-ups, establishing the record price for a Russian book (£300,500 for the Coronation Album of Alexander II). Sven also pioneered Christie's auctions of photobooks, leading to the 2008 auction in New York of a fine private collection, an event now seen as a landmark in the field. Sven has been responsible for numerous other auctions, including the Nicholas Falletta collection of Lewis Carroll, and has brought to market fine books across many categories, including the record-setting Poems 1640 of William Shakespeare (£204,000). Sven was the lead specialist in the 2008 private-treaty sale of an exceptional collection now in the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library – this remains the most valuable library sale ever negotiated by the Books department. Sven took an M.Phil in Classical History and Archaeology from Cambridge, and a B.A. in Classical Archaeology from McGill University, Montreal. Sven speaks fluent French and reads Russian.

Susannah Morris

Associate Director, Specialist
London, King Street

Susannah Morris joined Christie's in 1997 having worked at The Royal Collection for five years. Susannah's role as a specialist in the Book Department began with Printed Books, turning to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts from 2000 when she contributed to the highly successful sale of The Library of William Foyle. In recent years she has broadened her work to include Autograph Letters and in 2007 participated in The Albin Schram Collection of Autograph Letters. Susannah holds a BA in English from King's College, London and a post-graduate diploma in Early Renaissance studies from the Courtauld Institute of Art.

Julian Wilson

Associate Director, Specialist
London, King Street

Julian Wilson joined Christie's Books & Manuscripts department in 2008 as a Specialist after spending eleven years at the antiquarian booksellers Maggs Bros, where he ran the Natural History department. In his years at Christie's, Julian Wilson has helped to catalogue the Foljambe Collection of natural history books (April 2008) as well as many other fine natural history, science and travel books, including maps and atlases. Highlights during this time have included the negotiation of the sale of the Max Newman Collection of Alan Turing offprints to Bletchley Park in January 2011, and a British record for a first edition of Darwin's On the Origin of Species (£103,250, November 2009). Julian’s expertise lies in all aspects of natural history and science, and he is particularly interested in the relationship between voyages of exploration and the acquisition and scientific description of natural objects -- Alexander Shaw’s 1787 book composed of samples of Tapa cloth collected during the voyages of Captain Cook (£115,250, September 2010) has been one such highlight. The fields of science and exploration also offer enjoyable opportunities for involvement with non-book lots, such as the Apple-1 computer which sold for £133,250 (November 2010) or the Enigma machine which fetched £67,250 in the same sale -- both world records for these objects. Julian has a fascination with paleontology, geology and the earth sciences, and is a member of the History of Geology Group at the Geological Society of London. He is a Council member of the Society for the History of Natural History and a past Chairman of the T.E. Lawrence Society.

Jane Flower

International Specialist Consultant
London, King Street

Jane Flower joined Christie's in 1991 as a consultant on archives and historical documents. She has been responsible for preparing the detailed submissions for offers of archives of national importance under the acceptance in lieu scheme (AIL) including Sackville (Knole), Fitzwilliam (Wentworth Woodhouse), Coventry (Croome Court), the Earls of Derby, Gregory (Stivichall), Guilford, Hawkins (Trewithen), Battle Abbey and the papers of Leo and Julian Amery. She has also prepared the catalogues of numerous archives offered for sale by private treaty. Jane graduated from the Courtauld Institute of Art (University of London) with a degree in the history of art and architecture and has worked in the field of manuscripts since then .Her particular interests include eighteenth and nineteenth-century English literature, architecture and manuscripts relating to the West Indies, SE Asia and New South Wales. Her languages include German and French.

Catherine Reynolds

International Specialist Consultant
London, King Street

After lecturing in the history of art at Reading and London Universities, Catherine Reynolds became an independent specialist in painting and manuscript illumination of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, with a particular interest in France and the Netherlands. Recent work for Christie’s includes cataloguing for The Arcana Collection of Exceptional Manuscripts, 2010-2011. Among her publications are contributions to: Lambeth Palace Library, Treasures from the Collection of the Archbishops of Canterbury, London, 2010 (on an English psalter); Quand la peinture était dans les livres, Mélanges en l’honneur de François Avril, Turnhout and Paris, 2007 (on Boucicaut manuscripts); Illuminating the Renaissance, the Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe 1467-1561, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and the Royal Academy, London, 2003, (on Illuminators and the Painters’ Guilds).

Dr. Moshe Brown

International Specialist - Judaica and Hebraica
London, King Street

Dr. Moshe Brown has been a Christie’s consultant since 1987 responsible for international sales of Judaica and Hebraica. Moshe oversaw the landmark auctions in New York of The Asher Lewis Shane Collection, which was 100% sold and realized $5 million (1998); and the London Beth Din Collection, which was 99% sold and totalled $3.8 million (1999). Moshe is the only Certified Appraiser of Judaica and Hebraica in the Netherlands and has catalogued many famous collections including those of the Jewish Historical Museum of Amsterdam; the Jewish Ashkenazic Community of Amsterdam (NIHS); and the Portuguese Jewish Community of Amsterdam (Ets Haim Library/Livraria Montezinos). Moshe graduated Magna Cum Laude from Tel Aviv University (1975). He holds a post-graduate degree in Semitic Languages and Jewish History from the Rijksuniversity in Leiden.

Stefania Pandakovic

Junior Specialist
London, King Street

Stefania joined Christie's Books & Manuscripts department in 2009 after gaining experience in some of the major Italian auction houses. Since joining the department she has been trained in the field of rare printed books and has being dealing especially with Italian and Spanish collections. Stefania obtained her M.A. in History of Art and Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the Università Ca' Foscari of Venice after writing her final dissertation at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. She was born and raised in Milan where she completed her B.A. at the Università Statale. She speaks fluent English, Italian and Spanish.

Marianne Boullé

Administrator
London, King Street

Natasha Crawshay Jones

Administrator
London, King Street

Natasha Crawshay Jones

Henrietta Greene

Administrator
London, King Street

Nick Martineau

Director - Travel, Science & Natural History
London, South Kensington

Nick Martineau joined Christie's South Kensington in 1989 as a porter before becoming an administrator in the Wine department. In 1998 Nick was promoted to run the Antiquarian Prints department and three years later started the Topographical department at South Kensington working closely with the King Street Books & Manuscripts department. Nick manages bi-annual Travel & Natural History Sales at South Kensington whilst also cataloguing Prints for the Interior sales and advising other departments at South Kensington. Nick studied paper conservation and printmaking at Camberwell School of Art 1987-1989.

Francis Wahlgren

International Department Head
New York, Rockefeller Center

In January 2007, Francis Wahlgren was appointed Christie’s International Head of Books & Manuscripts, following his ten years as head of the department for the Americas. In this role, he is responsible for global sales and business-getting, and leading Christie’s International Books & Manuscripts team. Mr. Wahlgren has overseen the sales of an important botanical library, which realized $8.8 million in June 1997; and The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine in 1998, which achieved $18.7 million, making it the third highest price realized for a book collection at auction in America. He has also organized several successful sales of children’s literature, including the cataloguing and auction of an extra-illustrated copy of the very rare suppressed first edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which sold for $1.54 million, in December of 1998, a record price for a children’s book at auction. In March 2000, he organized the sale of Bute Audubon, in which The Birds of America sold for $8.8 million, setting a record for a printed book at auction. In October 2001, he secured and organized the sale of the Abel Berland library, which sold for $14 million -- a record for an English literature collection at auction. This sale included a first folio edition of Shakespeare’s works, which sold for $6.1 million, a record for any Shakespeare work at auction -- and for any 17th-century book sold at auction. In 2002, he was responsible for the sale of the Library of Roger Rechler which achieved the world record price for a collection of modern literature. In 2006, he secured the sale of The History of the Book: The Cornelius J. Hauck Collection, which was 99% sold and totaled $12.4 million. More recently, he handled the sale of the Frank S. Streeter Collection of Navigation and Voyages, in April 2007. A New York State licensed auctioneer since 1991, Mr. Wahlgren is a frequent auctioneer in Christie’s salerooms as well as for a number of charity auctions. Over the past six years, he has appeared regularly as an appraiser on the Antiques Roadshow. Mr. Wahlgren did his undergraduate work at Parsons School of Design and The American College in Paris; he received a Master’s degree in Art History from Queens College, New York, in 1985, with a concentration in medieval art. Mr Wahlgren worked for the Pierpont Morgan Library from 1985-1987.

Thomas Lecky

Specialist Head
New York, Rockefeller Center

Tom has particular strengths in travel and historical Americana, as well as English and American literature. Some of his recent successes include these collection sales: the Fox-Bute set of Audubon's Birds of America; The Library of Abel E. Berland; The Forbes Collection of American Historical Documents; and The Library of Roger Rechler. Tom also catalogued The Origins of Cyberspace, the first auction exclusively devoted to the history of the computer; and the Jay T. Snider Collection of Historical Americana, among the finest collections of printed Americana to come to auction. Tom holds a BA in English from Columbia College and an MA in American Literature from Stanford University. His articles and reviews of post-war American literature have been published in numerous publications.

Chris Coover

Senior Specialist, Manuscripts and Americana
New York, Rockefeller Center

Chris Coover joined Christie's in 1980 and has been instrumental in strengthening the firm's dominant market leadership position in the Book and Manuscript auction market in the USA. His notable successes include Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Hammer ($30.2 million, 1994); an autograph draft of the "Circe" episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses ($1.5 million, 2000); and the typescript scroll of Jack Kerouac’s beat classic On the Road ($2.5 million, 2001), a record for any literary manuscript. Chris appraised and organised the sales of the American manuscripts in the Forbes Collection ($29.4 million, 2002), the single most valuable collection of American documents ever sold at auction. Chris holds a BA in music (SUNY at Buffalo) and an MS in library science (Columbia University). He is a past president and fellow of the Manuscript Society and a member of the Grolier Club.

Ian Ehling

Senior Specialist
New York, Rockefeller Center

Ian Ehling joined the Christie’s Books and Manuscripts Department in 1993 after working with major Book dealers in Germany and New York. His area of expertise is printed books, specifically Continental books including natural history, scientific, and travel literature. Ian has catalogued books in more than seventy sales, including The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine ($18m, 1998), The Estelle Doheny Collection ($5.5 m, 2001), the Sachsen-Meiningen Set of Audubon’s The Birds of America ($5.8m, 2004), and the Bibliotheca Bibliographica Breslaueriana (5.5m, 2005). Ian has also overseen numerous successful consignments and institutional sales including the three part single-owner sale The Detective Fiction Library of Richard M. Lackritz ($780 000, 2002) setting a world record for a single-owner sale in that genre, Atlases from the Free Library of Philadelphia which was 100% sold ($1.7m, 2003) and Travel Literature from the Library of the South American Collector Horacio Zorraquin Becu ($340 000, 2004). Ian has been a member of the Grolier Club since 1999. For many years he has been appraising books on the popular PBS series The Antiques Roadshow. Ian is fluent in English and German.

Patrick McGrath

Specialist
New York, Rockefeller Center

Patrick McGrath joined Christie's as an Americana and manuscripts specialist following three years as a New York books dealer. Since his arrival at Christie's in 2003, Patrick has participated in the appraisal and successful auction of several major collections, including the Forbes Collection of American Historical Documents totaling $30.2 million; the Mary Hyde Collections of documents relating to Samuel Johnson, James Boswell and other major 18th and 19th Century figures for over $40 million; the Spiro Collection fetching over $1.9 million; the Kanter Collection of Civil War Documents for $1 million (2004); and the Simon Collection selling for $630,200 (2005). Patrick received his M.A. and Ph.D. in American History from New York University, and is the author of Scientists, Business and the State, 1890-1960 (University of North Carolina Press, 2002).

Gretchen Hause

Associate Specialist
New York, Rockefeller Center

Francis Wahlgren

International Department Head
Paris

In January 2007, Francis Wahlgren was appointed Christie’s International Head of Books & Manuscripts, following his ten years as head of the department for the Americas. In this role, he is responsible for global sales and business-getting, and leading Christie’s International Books & Manuscripts team. Mr. Wahlgren has overseen the sales of an important botanical library, which realized $8.8 million in June 1997; and The Haskell F. Norman Library of Science and Medicine in 1998, which achieved $18.7 million, making it the third highest price realized for a book collection at auction in America. He has also organized several successful sales of children’s literature, including the cataloguing and auction of an extra-illustrated copy of the very rare suppressed first edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which sold for $1.54 million, in December of 1998, a record price for a children’s book at auction. In March 2000, he organized the sale of Bute Audubon, in which The Birds of America sold for $8.8 million, setting a record for a printed book at auction. In October 2001, he secured and organized the sale of the Abel Berland library, which sold for $14 million -- a record for an English literature collection at auction. This sale included a first folio edition of Shakespeare’s works, which sold for $6.1 million, a record for any Shakespeare work at auction -- and for any 17th-century book sold at auction. In 2002, he was responsible for the sale of the Library of Roger Rechler which achieved the world record price for a collection of modern literature. In 2006, he secured the sale of The History of the Book: The Cornelius J. Hauck Collection, which was 99% sold and totaled $12.4 million. More recently, he handled the sale of the Frank S. Streeter Collection of Navigation and Voyages, in April 2007. A New York State licensed auctioneer since 1991, Mr. Wahlgren is a frequent auctioneer in Christie’s salerooms as well as for a number of charity auctions. Over the past six years, he has appeared regularly as an appraiser on the Antiques Roadshow. Mr. Wahlgren did his undergraduate work at Parsons School of Design and The American College in Paris; he received a Master’s degree in Art History from Queens College, New York, in 1985, with a concentration in medieval art. Mr Wahlgren worked for the Pierpont Morgan Library from 1985-1987.

Christoph Auvermann

Department Head
Paris

Christoph Auvermann joined Christie's Paris in 1998 after 12 years in the book trade in Germany, Paris and Boston. In 2000, Christoph took over the reins of the Paris department, which under his leadership has flourished to become a major force in the French auction market. His major successes include the sales of the Daniel Filipacchi Collection on Surrealism, Part One, which realized €5.1 million and set several world auction records (2004). Such world auction records include €349,250 for La prose du Transsibérien; €1.7 million for the Jean-Louis Mosès Collection of Science and Medicine; and €709,440 for The Michel Wittock Collection Part II, French decorated bindings from the 17th and 18th centuries. Christoph is fluent in German, French and English.

Patricia de Fougerolle

Specialist
Paris

Patricia de Fougerolle joined Christie's in 2001 following seven years working with a book dealer and then seven years as a curator for the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris. Patricia has been an instrumental part of the development of the Paris Books Department helping to grow annual revenue in Paris from €1.5m when she started to the current level of just under €10m. Patricia has in depth knowledge across the full range of Books and Manuscripts. Patricia has a Diploma from the Ecole du Louvre, and a Ph. D. (History of Art Université Paris-Sorbonne emphasizing on architecture of the 19th century) and has written many articles for leading journals such as Connaissance des arts and Revue de la société des amis du musée de l'armée. Patricia is fluent in French and English.

Philippine de Sailly

Specialist
Paris

Ludovic Marock

Regional Representative
Zürich