Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana

Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana

Sale Overview

Christie’s Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts including Americana auction will take place online in New York this October. The material on offer is led by Norland: Important Literature from an East Coast Gentleman, which includes one of the finest complete collection of first editions by Jane Austen to ever come to auction, as well as works by Milton, Byron and Hobbes.

Christie’s is also honoured to offer highlights from the collection of renowned Renaissance scholar and bibliophile Phyllis Goodhart Gordan. These include such masterpieces as the prized first edition of Aristotle’s De animalibus (Venice: 1476), many rare Humanist staples from Cicero, Plutarch, Pliny and more (many rediscovered by Poggio and Niccoli and referenced in Gordan’s book, Two Renaissance Book Hunters), as well as the first appearance in print of the Middle English poem Piers Plowman (London: 1550).

In addition to these important collections, this sale will offer works spanning to Lobachevsky in the 19th century and the Beatles in the 20th. The sale will be on preview at 20 Rockefeller Center from 11 to 15 October.

Auction times
02 Oct 10:00 AM (EDT)

Our specialist’s selection

Brought to you by

Heather Weintraub

Heather Weintraub

Specialist, Books, Manuscripts, & Archives | Books & Manuscripts

Heather Weintraub joined Christie's New York as a Specialist in the Books & Manuscripts department in 2017. In this role, she sources, appraises, and catalogues all manner of printed books, literary manuscripts, and archives for auction and private sale.

In her time at Christie's, Heather has contributed to a wide variety of auctions. She helped lead The Exceptional Literature Collection of Theodore B. Baum ($9,657,875, September 2021), which set a record for a printed work by a woman with the first edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in original boards ($1,170,000). In addition to the Shelley, a personal favorite from the sale was a first edition of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park that had contemporary circulating library notes written on the covers. Heather also had the joy of cataloguing many books from The Herman Melville Collection of William S. Reese (September 2022), including a first edition of The Whale in original cloth (realizing $302,400) and Melville's own copy of Dante ($441,000).

Heather holds an A.B. in English from Vassar College, where she concentrated in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She worked in the New York book trade while pursuing an M.L.S. from Pratt Institute with a certificate in Archives and a concentration in Special Collections. She is currently a member of the Grolier Club, where she serves on the Publications Committee.

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