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Fine Autograph Letters and Manuscripts from a Distinguished Private Collection. Part 1: Music

26 October 2017 | 10:30 AM BST | London

SALE TOTAL

924,201GBP
Browse Lots
  • Verdi, Giuseppe, (1813-1901)
    IMPORTANT SERIES OF 36 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS TO SALVADORE CAMMARANO
    LOT SOLD.
    £358,800

  • 11
    Brahms, Johannes, (1833-1897)
    AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF THE "GEISTLICHES WIEGENLIED", OP.91 NO.2
    LOT SOLD.
    224,750 GBP

  • 137
    Verdi, Giuseppe, (1813-1901)
    AUTOGRAPH WORKING MANUSCRIPT OF A SCENE FROM ERNANI
    LOT SOLD.

    112,500 GBP

  • 25
    Chopin, Frédéric, (1810-1849)
    AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF THE OPENING OF THE ÉTUDE OP.25 NO.2, IN A-FLAT MAJOR
    LOT SOLD.

    112,500 GBP

  • 122
    Schumann, Robert, (1810-1856)
    UNRECORDED AUTOGRAPH SKETCHLEAF WITH DRAFTS FOR THE SONG "NUR WER DIE SEHNSUCHT KENNT", OP.98A NO.3
    LOT SOLD.

    47,500 GBP

  • 75
    Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Felix, (1809-1847)
    AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT OF THE SONG 'MORGENGRUSS', OP.47 NO.2
    LOT SOLD.
    40,000 GBP

  • 46
    Haydn, Joseph, (1732-1809)
    AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("JOS HAYDN[PARAPH]"), TO THE BADEN CHOIRMASTER ANTON STOLL, 30 JULY 1802
    LOT SOLD.

    35,000 GBP

  • 42
    Gluck, Christoph Willibald, (1714-1787)
    FINE AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("GLUCK"), TO FRANZ KRUTHOFFER, ABOUT HIS OPERAS ALCESTE AND ARMIDE, 29 AUGUST 1776
    LOT SOLD.

    22,500 GBP

  • 135
    Tchaikovsky, Pyotr, (1840-1893)
    AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("P. TCHAÏKOVSKY"), IN FRENCH, [TO JULES MASSENET], ONLY PARTIALLY PUBLISHED, 24 SEPTEMBER 1889
    LOT SOLD.

    20,000 GBP

  • 124
    Schumann, Robert
    FINE, LONG AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("ROBERT SCHUMANN"), TO LOUIS SPOHR ("HOCHZUVEREHRENDER HERR"), ABOUT HIS SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN B FLAT ('SPRING')
    LOT SOLD.
    17,500 GBP

Browse Lots
Sale Number: L17413 Lots : 162

SALE TOTAL

924,201GBP DOWNLOAD RESULTS
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Overview

RESULTS

This single-owner music sale offered many unrecorded and unpublished letters and manuscripts. The highest price achieved was for Lot 138, the series of thirty-six unknown autograph letters by Verdi about Il trovatore and other operas. Lot 138 was purchased by the Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali in Rome on the eve of the sale for £358,000, a record for a collection of letters by a composer. The printed brochure for this lot is available on request. On the day, good prices were realized for music manuscripts by Brahms, Chopin, Bellini, Schumann and Verdi (his earliest known sketch-leaf), all hitherto unknown. Strong results were obtained with autograph letters by Haydn, Gluck, Dvorák, Bruckner, Mahler, Tchaikovsky and Wagner, and for some splendid photographs, including four signed by Brahms, and others by Mahler, Johann Strauss and Puccini.

AUCTION DETAILS

Sotheby’s is honoured to offer for sale fine and important music manuscripts and letters from a distinguished private collection, amassed in the first half of the twentieth century, and unknown and inaccessible since then.  It contains a large number of new, unpublished and unrecorded manuscripts including an autograph canon by Beethoven, “Ewig dein”, reported in the 1860s but thereafter untraced, leading modern scholars even to doubt its existence. There are also unrecorded music manuscripts by Chopin, Bellini, Verdi, Schumann and others. Most remarkable is a series of thirty-six mainly unpublished letters by Verdi to one of his most important collaborators Salvatore Cammarano, about composing Il trovatore, Luisa Miller and other operas. There are also music manuscripts by Brahms and Mendelssohn, letters by Haydn, Gluck, Paganini, Berlioz, Rossini, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Mahler and Puccini and many exceptional signed photographs.

conditions of sale Saleroom Notice

Contact Information

Dr Simon Maguire
Director
Senior Specialist
Books & Manuscripts
+44 20 7293 5016
simon.maguire@sothebys.com
Dr. Lukas Baumann
Senior Administrator
Modern British Pictures
+44 20 7293 5287
lukas.baumann@sothebys.com
John Arthur
Senior International Consultant
Dr Stephen Roe
Senior International Consultant
stephen@stephenroeltd.uk
   
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