Sotheby’s Books & Manuscripts sales feature notable collections and works spanning Americana, literature, historical documents and illustrations, offering a remarkable array for both seasoned collectors and new enthusiasts alike. Browse works across the auctions below or learn more here.
Joseph Galloway | "in Vindication of my Character"
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(John Armstrong) | An exceedingly rare Franklin imprint
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(Benjamin Franklin) | The founding—and funding—of the Pennsylvania Hospital
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Benjamin Franklin | Poor Richard ... for the year 1750
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Benjamin Franklin | Poor Richard ... for the year 1758 — the last of the series written by Franklin
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Benjamin Franklin | “probably the most fundamental thing ever done in the field of electricity”
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Thomas Cadwalader | An important, early American medical work on lead poisoning, printed by Franklin
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William Franklin | A refutation of a "grossly false" charge against his father
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Benjamin Franklin | Poor Richard ... for the year of Christ 1747—an early and scarce issue
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(Benjamin Franklin) | A bequest to Boston, his birthplace
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Benjamin Franklin | Franklin commissions the captain of an eponymous naval vessel
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A group of nine reference books on Shiwan Ware | 石灣陶藝參考書藉一組九本
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Benjamin Franklin | A subtly subversive franking signature: "B Free Franklin"
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Roger More and Benjamin Franklin | The only complete copy known of Poor Roger
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A group of four reference books on Yixing Stoneware | 宜興陶藝參考書藉一組四本
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Prière de toucher
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Chinese Porcelain, The S. C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, vols. I & II, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1987 | 《天民樓藏瓷》,兩冊全,香港藝術館,香港,1987年
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(Johann Conrad Beissel) | A Sammelband of two of Benjamin Franklin's rarest imprints
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John Dickinson | Benjamin Franklin's copy
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Richard Peters (& Benjamin Franklin) | Inscribed by Franklin to a subscriber to the Academy of Philadelphia
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Benjamin Franklin | God and Man and Franklin and Mather at Yale
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Benjamin Franklin | The first French edition of Franklin's landmark work on electricity, evidently a presentation copy
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A group of Sotheby’s catalogues | 蘇富比圖錄一組
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(Benjamin Franklin) | A very rare work written and printed by Franklin, containing "the earliest American political cartoon"
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Benjamin Franklin | A Pocket Almanack for the year 1747
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Benjamin Franklin | An appointment for a Deputy Postmaster
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Benjamin Franklin | "Peace is the only Ingredient wanting to my Felicity"
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Benjamin Franklin | "the Day of the Declaration of Independence is everywhere annually celebrated"
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(Benjamin Franklin & Samuel Rhoads) | Presentation copy of Some Account of the Pennsylvania Hospital
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John Jerman | The American Almanack ... for 1731 — the only known copy in private hands
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William Currie | A Treatise On the Lawfulness of Defensive War
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Benjamin Franklin | One of Franklin's very earliest surviving letters
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Benjamin Franklin | The work that led to the establishment of the University of Pennsylvania
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Benjamin Franklin | The rarest form of American Revolutionary military commission
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Benjamin Franklin | A Pocket Almanack for the year 1746
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Benjamin Franklin | An unusual double Library Company membership document
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