Music: Books & Manuscripts

We are delighted to present our sale of manuscript and printed Music. The highlights of the sale are the autograph score and parts for C. P. E. Bach’s Trio Wq. 144, and Schubert’s last letter. Other notable items include a fine portrait of Verdi after the painting by Domenico Morelli, and an important archive of correspondence between the great nineteenth-century Bach scholar Philipp Spitta and the Berlin teacher and pianist Ernst Rudorff, from whose former collection also originate: a remarkable collection of drawings by Mendelssohn’s drawing master Samuel Rösel; a copy of the first edition of Mendelssohn’s violin sonata Op. 4 probably presented to Betty Pistor, an early sweetheart of the composer and Rudorff’s mother; and a rare collection of autograph letters by Louise Reichardt, daughter of J. F. Reichardt (who is also represented here in a number of lots of printed music). In addition to a varied selection of first and early editions of music by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart (including the first edition of his piano concerto in A, K. 414, of 1785), the sale also includes some attractive association items, such as a letter opener made from the yew tree in Mendelssohn’s Berlin garden, a conducting baton belonging to Schumann, Haydn’s visiting card and a decorative souvenir made from the hair of Joseph and Michael Haydn.