Can You Guess the Most Valuable Object Sold by Sotheby’s Books in 2018?

10. E.H. Shepard, The Original Map of the Hundred Acre Wood. Sold for £430,000 ($568,761).

Probably the most famous map in English literature, this illustration was in a private collection for almost five decades. It nearly tripled its high estimate when selling at Sotheby’s London in July 2018 and became the most expensive book illustration sold at auction.

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9. Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe, 'Carte nouvelle de la partie de l'ouest de la Louisianne'. [Paris, circa 1722–1725]. Sold for $591,000.

La Harpe led a French expedition to the Southwest in 1718. During nearly four years of travel –the routes of which are outlined on the present map – La Harpe explored the areas that would become Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. This lot achieved the highest price in Sotheby’s inaugural online sale of books and manuscripts, and sold for more than triple its high estimate

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8. John Donne, The Melford Hall Manuscript of Donne's Poetry. Sold for £471,000 ($595,315).

This lot is a unique contemporary scribal copy of John Donne’s poetic works , one of the supreme literary achievements of the English language. A newly discovered manuscript and one of the largest extant manuscript collections of Donne’s poems, no comparable work survives in private hands. This was the top selling lot in our first London online auction.

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7. [Christopher Columbus; Amerigo Vespucci and others]--Bernardus Albingaunensis, Dialogo Nuperrime Edito Genue in 1512. Contiene Sotto Compendio... Monterosso Al Mare (Near Genoa), 10 February–15 April 1512. Sold for £466,000 ($601,559).

This important unpublished manuscript contains near contemporary accounts of the voyages of Christopher Columbus and other travelers from the great age of discovery.

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6. Galileo Galilei, Difesa...Venice: Tommaso Baglioni, 1607. Sold for £466,000 ($613,349).

Galileo wrote the Difesa to attack a rival, Baldassare Capra, who had laid claim to Galileo’s invention of the compasso, a multipurpose calculating instrument; plagiarized a manual Galileo had published explaining its use (1606); and impugned Galileo’s reputation. At least forty copies of the Difesa are known, of which only about ten have been seen on the market over the past 100 years. This one is inscribed by Galileo to Girolamo Cappello.

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5. Charles Darwin, Autograph Manuscript Leaf from the Origin of Species. Sold for £490,000 ($648,123).

It is characteristic of Darwin's On the Origin of Species that key points are made at the end of chapters, as he gradually builds up his argument. The final sentence of the present leaf provides the radical conclusion to a chapter that had ranged from Victorian hothouses to speculation on the origin of the domestic dog: "there is no fundamental difference between species & varieties." This lot more than doubled its high estimate.

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4. The Breviary of Marie, Duchess of Bar, Daughter of Bonne of Luxembourg and King John II (the Good) of France, Franciscan Use, in Latin with a few rubrics in French [France (Paris), circa 1360]. Sold for £610,000 ($801,845).

This deluxe manuscript was made in Paris around 1360 with the coat of arms of Marie, Duchess of Bar, daughter of Bonne of Luxembourg and King John II of France. It includes several full-page miniatures depicting the patroness in prayer, delicately painted by a follower of Jean Pucelle who participated in the illumination of the Bible Moralisée for John the Good, King of France.

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3. The Only Known Documented Samples of the Moon Available for Private Ownership Частицы Грунта Луны-16 [Soil Samples From Luna-16], Collected September, 1970. Sold for $855,000.

This is the only know documented lunar sample to have been gifted to a private individual. Having made history in December 1993 when selling this sample at auction, Sotheby's sold it again 25 years later in the November Space Exploration sale in New York.

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2. Richard P. Feynman, 1965 Nobel Prize Medal in Physics, Awarded to Richard Phillips Feynman for His Fundamental Work in Quantum Electrodynamics. Sold for $975,000.

This Nobel Prize was awarded to Richard Phillips Feynman, America's greatest physicist and one of the most beloved scientists of all time, for his groundbreaking work in remaking the theory of quantum electrodynamics. This tremendous lot was sold in Sotheby's November History of Science & Technology auction in New York.

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1. The Declaration of Independence, In Congress, July 4, 1776. A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, In General Congress Assembled. … Salem, Massachusetts-Bay: Printed By E. Russell, By Order Of Authority, [circa. 18–20 July 1776]. Sold for $1,185,000.

This fresh and beautifully preserved contemporary broadside of the Declaration of Independence is well deserving of its place as the most valuable lot sold by Sotheby’s books department in 2018. It is the authorized printing for Massachusetts, the colony that led the struggle for American independence from Great Britain.

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Can You Guess the Most Valuable Object Sold by Sotheby’s Books Department in 2018?

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Can You Guess the Most Valuable Object Sold by Sotheby’s Books Department in 2018?