Hamburg (kk) - The Heinrich Vogeler series "An den Frühling" ["To Spring"], carrying an estimate of € 20,000, fetched over € 32,000 at the Ketterer Kunst auction of Rare Books -Manuscripts - Autographs - Decorative Prints held at Meßberg 1, in Hamburg on May 22 and 23, 2006. One of ten numbered exemplars from a rare luxury edition on Atlas silk, it appealed to a lady bidding in the auction room. Those ten original etchings were not, however, the only work to be bid up by a packed auction room, backed up by about five hundred bidders competing on the telephone and in writing. "On the whole," said a delighted Christoph Calaminus, auctioneer and head of the books division, "sale proceeds amounted to € 1.2 million. This means that not only did overall proceeds surpass those at our last auction by 25 % but the overall estimates were also in excess by the same percentage."
This handsome increase is exemplified, to take just one example, by a magnificent 16th-century initial. Carrying an estimate of € 800, this miniature ensured that the mood was buoyant in the auction room from the outset by fetching more than € 20,000.
In addition to the extremely rare second English edition of Sebastian Brants "Stultifera Navis - The Ship of Fools", which also went for more than € 20,000 in the Old Prints section, the Botany section, a field in which Ketterer Kunst is traditionally well represented, did brilliantly.
Mark Catesby's "Hortus Europae Americanus",
which boasts 62 reproductions of plants on 17 originally colored
copperplates (estimate: € 12,000) fetched more than €
26,000, going to an English dealer bidding by telephone, who beat
off three other bidders from European metropolises.
In the Modern Literature section, apart from the Heinrich Vogeler work so redolent of spring, two books illustrated by Pablo Picasso convinced bidders. Whereas "El entierro del Conde de Orgaz" went to North America for nearly € 14,000, "Carmen" (estimate: € 7500), illustrated with 38 original Picasso etchings, remained in Europe, with an Italian collector winning a lively bidding skirmish by paying more than € 13,000.
The highest hammer prices in the geography section were paid by German dealers. The first edition (1716) of the "Große Atlas Uber die Gantze Welt" of Johann Baptist Homann fetched over € 26,000 and the "Relations de divers voyages" of Melchisedec Thevenot went for € 18,000. Carrying an estimate of € 2000, a "Sammelatlas" with maps by G. Bodenehr, C. Weigel and J.G. Schreiber was bid up to over € 11 ,000.
The Autographs section also saw a lot of action, with Germans again leading the bidding. A dealer on the telephone considerably surpassed the € 8000 estimate for the Hermann Hesse watercolor "Tessiner Dorf mit Sonnenblumen" ["Ticino Village with Sunflowers"], which went for nearly € 15,000. A letter in Gustav Mahler’s own hand to the operatic tenor Willi Birrenkoven launched a flurry of bidding. A South German dealer bidding by telephone outstripped the field, including several bids in writing, by more than doubling the original estimate of € 2500 at over € 5000.
The rare German first edition of Hieronymus Reusner’s "Pandora" cast a spell over the auction room. This gem of alchemic lore with large woodcuts on magical subject matter went for over € 13,000, double the original estimate (€ 6500). An Austrian collector outbid three Italian and a French rival for it.
A private collection, comprising 30 catalogue entries, of "Hamburgensien und Norddeutsche Ansichten" ["Views of Hamburg and North Germany"] was a dark horse that paid handsome returns. Fetching five times the overall estimate of € 8000, it went for some € 40,000. A sensational success was a batch of 15 copperplates with views of Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg, each carrying an estimate of € 200, that a North German dealer bid up to over € 10,000.
Post-auction sales will run through June 14, 2006. For the auction result lists, please call + 49 40-374961-61.
Since it was founded in 1954, Ketterer Kunst has been firmly established in the front ranks of auction houses dealing in art and rare books. The Munich headquarters in the Prinz-Alfons Palais plays a leading role with two annual auctions of Classics of the XXth Century.
At the Meßberghof in Hamburg two auctions a year are devoted to Rare Books - Autographs - Manuscripts - Decorative Prints. Auctions of Old Masters and Modern Art / Marine Art are also held in Hamburg twice annually. In addition, exhibitions, lectures and benefit auctions for charity are regular events at Ketterer Kunst.
Sale proceeds = hammer price + 19%
Hamburg, May 29, 2006
