Bidspirit auctions | L'Autographe Auctions Auction Jul 7, 2025

L'Autographe Auctions, Jul 7, 2025. 274 lots, estimates 10 - 20000 £.

L'Autographe Auctions -

L’Autographe Auction — Inaugural Rare Book Auction

7 July 2025 at 2pm (BST)

This is an online auto-clerked auction, with bidding progressing in 45-second intervals.

We are proud to announce our inaugural Rare Book Auction, presenting a curated selection of antiquarian treasures, scientific milestones, and bibliophilic curiosities.

Auction Highlights

Johannes Kepler, Dioptrice (1611) — first edition of the groundbreaking work that laid the foundation for modern optics.

Claudius Ptolemy, Almagestum (1515) — rare first edition of the Latin translation of antiquity’s greatest astronomical treatise.

A rich selection of early printed books and scientific rarities spanning the 15th–18th centuries.

Autograph Letters & Manuscripts

An exceptional group of letters and manuscripts from luminaries of science, literature, and the arts, including:

Albert Einstein · Enrico Fermi · Samuel Morse · Ugo Foscolo · Richard Wagner · Franz Liszt · Giuseppe Verdi · and many others.

Featured lot — A poignant letter from Stefan Zweig to Arturo Toscanini, in which Zweig hails Sigmund Freud as “one of the immortals of our time, ” capturing the spirit of an extraordinary intellectual era.

A unique opportunity to acquire works that changed the way we see the universe — and the hands that shaped it.

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Lots in this catalog (274)

• Lot 1: [ART] - Alexander Calder: Artistic Postcard and Invitation from the Inventor of the Mobile — £300 - £400
• Lot 2: [ART] - De Segonzac: A Realist’s Fever and Secrets – Private Note — £100 - £150
• Lot 3: [ART] - EZEKIEL Moses Jacob (Richmond, VA, 1844 - Rome, 1917) - Autograph letter signed, not dated, — £500 - £600
• Lot 4: [ART] - Federico Fellini: Portrait with Dedication from the Film Maestro — £120 - £200
• Lot 5: [ART] - Friesz: A Fauvist Battles Diphtheria – Letter from Recovery — £200 - £300
• Lot 6: [ART] - François Gérard: Artistic Delay – Meeting Postponed — £150 - £200
• Lot 7: [ART] - Hans Hartung: Illustrated Postcard Signed by the Abstract Master — £150 - £200
• Lot 8: [ART] - Original "ex libris" by Paul Landacre for Elizabeth Watson Diamond — £500 - £600
• Lot 9: [ART] - Marie Laurencin: A Letter of Art, Trials and Passion — £150 - £200
• Lot 10: [ART] - Frederic Leighton – A Pre-Raphaelite in Ink A Signed Letter by the British Painter and Sculptor, — £120 - £180
• Lot 11: [ART] - Anita Loos & Erich Maria Remarque: Two Signatures on One Page — £200 - £250
• Lot 12: [ART] - Jean-François Millet: Artistic Encounter Between Brush and Business — £400 - £500
• Lot 13: [ART] - Claude Monet: Grief and Finances – A Letter in Mourning — £5,500 - £6,500
• Lot 14: [ART] - A Sculptor’s Plea: Vitali & Tenerani, 1854 — £100 - £150
• Lot 16: [HISTORY] - Louis Blanc: A Socialist and a Crate of Wine – Duty Paid — £100 - £150
• Lot 17: [HISTORY] - “NAPOLEON’S FURY: THE DOOR TO POWER LEFT UNGUARDED” — £800 - £1,200
• Lot 18: [HISTORY] - Charles Robert Drysdale and the Malthusian League — £100 - £150
• Lot 19: [HISTORY] - Ralph Bunche: Signed Portrait of the First Black Nobel Laureate — £100 - £150
• Lot 22: [HISTORY] - Spiritus Flechier Episcopus Nemausensis — £400 - £500
• Lot 23: [HISTORY] - “CHE GUEVARA AND REVOLUTIONARY JUSTICE IN CUBA” — £2,200 - £2,800
• Lot 24: [HISTORY] - Belva A. Lockwood: The First Woman at the Supreme Court – Historic Signature — £180 - £250
• Lot 25: [HISTORY] - MUSSOLINI Benito (Predappio, 1883 - Giulino di Mezzegra, — £1,300 - £1,700
• Lot 26: [HISTORY] - MUSSOLINI Benito (Predappio, 1883 - Giulino di Mezzegra, — £1,000 - £1,400
• Lot 27: [HISTORY] - Max Nordau: A Courtesy Note from a Zionist Pioneer — £150 - £200
• Lot 28: [HISTORY] - Unpublished letter. — £2,000 - £2,500
• Lot 29: [LITERATURE] - Isaac Asimov: Autographed Extract from “I’m in Marsport Without Hilda” — £120 - £150
• Lot 30: [LITERATURE] - Théodore de Banville: Poetic Praise for Karl’s Album — £100 - £150
• Lot 31: [LITERATURE] - “AN AUTOGRAPH FROM THE CREATOR OF PETER PAN: A GIFT OF FANTASY” — £300 - £500
• Lot 32: [LITERATURE] - Saul Bellow: Signed Contract for the Israeli Edition of “A Theft” — £100 - £150
• Lot 33: [LITERATURE] - Barbara Cartland – The Queen of Romance Writes Back Signed Photographs and Letters from One of the — £100 - £150
• Lot 34: [LITERATURE] - “FROM SPRING TO WINTER: CHATEAUBRIAND’S MELANCHOLY REFLECTIONS” — £200 - £300
• Lot 35: [LITERATURE] - Freeman Wills Crofts – The Engineer of Classic Crime A Signed Letter and Photograph by the Creator of — £200 - £300
• Lot 36: [LITERATURE] - “THE ROMANCE OF POLAND: A PASSIONATE TALE OF FREEDOM” — £1,500 - £2,500
• Lot 37: [LITERATURE] - “WHEN GENIUS TURNS TO POETRY: EINSTEIN’S HANDWRITTEN POEM FOR MOSZKOWSKI (1926)” — £8,000 - £15,000
• Lot 38: [LITERATURE] - “ITALY, A SORROWFUL MUSE: FOSCOLO BETWEEN TRAGEDIES AND HOPES” — £10,000 - £14,000
• Lot 39: [LITERATURE] - Bibliophilic Correspondence: Fossi to Coltellini — £100 - £150
• Lot 40: [LITERATURE] - Jean Genet: The Cursed Poet Writes from the Bristol in Lugano — £250 - £300
• Lot 41: [LITERATURE] - Anthony Hope: The Author of Zenda Declines a Visit to St. Louis — £100 - £150
• Lot 42: [LITERATURE] - Anthony Hope: Signed Photograph of the Adventure Novelist — £120 - £200
• Lot 43: [LITERATURE] - “VICTOR HUGO: BETWEEN ILLNESS AND SILENT REVOLUTIONS” — £400 - £600
• Lot 44: [LITERATURE] - “BEHIND THE SCENES OF POWER: HUGO AND THE MYSTERIES OF POLITICAL ACTION” — £400 - £600
• Lot 45: [LITERATURE] - Elizabeth Jennings: “The Jump” – A Poem on the Edge of Suicide — £250 - £300
• Lot 46: [LITERATURE] - Yaşar Kemal – The Poetic Voice of a People Moving Signed Letters on Life, Beauty, — £200 - £300
• Lot 47: [LITERATURE] - Norman Mailer: Christmas Wishes Amid Rehearsals — £100 - £150
• Lot 48: [LITERATURE] - André Malraux: A Minister of Culture in Mourning – Private Letter — £250 - £300
• Lot 49: [LITERATURE] - Ellery Queen – Masters of Mystery in Correspondence Forty Years of Signed Autograph and Typed Letters — £3,000 - £4,000
• Lot 50: [LITERATURE] - Mirabeau on Music: Revolutionary Thoughts on the Art of Sound — £200 - £300
• Lot 51: [LITERATURE] - Robbe-Grillet: Rural Apologies from a Nouveau Roman Voice — £100 - £150
• Lot 52: [LITERATURE] - Peter Shaffer – From Stage to Script A Signed Autograph Letter by the Author of Amadeus, — £100 - £150
• Lot 53: [LITERATURE] - Angelos Sikelianos: Spiritual Plea for the Delphic Festival — £300 - £400
• Lot 54: [LITERATURE] - Edith Sitwell: A Poetess Moved by a Friend’s Illness — £150 - £200
• Lot 55: [LITERATURE] - A meeting in London with Henry Monteith — £1,000 - £1,500
• Lot 56: [LITERATURE] - Sax Rohmer – Rare Lines from the Father of Fu Manchu A 1913 Autograph Letter from Manila, Full of Wit, — £100 - £150
• Lot 57: [LITERATURE] - “STEFAN ZWEIG: THE LAST CHANCE TO MEET FREUD” — £3,000 - £5,000
• Lot 59: [MUSIC] - “...J’ai en horreur de parler de moi, et du reste, je vous avoue que je ne saurais absolument pas quoi dire.” — £300 - £400
• Lot 61: [MUSIC] - “DONIZETTI AND THE PRICE OF ART: SECRET NEGOTIATIONS IN PARIS” — £800 - £1,200
• Lot 62: [MUSIC] - “...je vous prie n’attendre pas tres impatiemment le petit morceau de piano que vous voulez bien me demander! — £350 - £450
• Lot 64: [MUSIC] - Heinrich Kaminski – A Composer’s Regret and Reverence A German Master Reflects on Art and Florence in a — £180 - £240
• Lot 65: [MUSIC] - “A GENIUS’S SIGNATURE: PORTRAIT AND AUTOGRAPH OF FRANZ LISZT” — £2,500 - £3,500
• Lot 66: [MUSIC] - Gian Francesco Malipiero – Two Autograph Musical Worlds A Journey into “Celestial Worlds” with the Master’s — £4,000 - £6,000
• Lot 67: [MUSIC] - Giacomo Puccini – The Tuscan Maestro Unfiltered Six Autograph Documents and a Playful Photograph Reveal the — £1,500 - £2,000
• Lot 68: [MUSIC] - “Puccini Unplugged: The Maestro, — £3,500 - £5,000
• Lot 71: [MUSIC] - Stephen Sondheim: The Musical Genius Declines a Public Appearance — £100 - £150
• Lot 72: [MUSIC] - A Japanese inventor forerunner of modern computer systems — £5,000 - £6,000
• Lot 75: [MUSIC] - “VERDI AND LA FORZA DEL DESTINO: THE HIDDEN STORY OF A REVISION” — £2,000 - £3,000
• Lot 76: [MUSIC] - “AN UNUSUALLY CHEERFUL VERDI: AN INVITATION TO SANT’AGATA” — £1,500 - £2,500
• Lot 77: [MUSIC] - “VERDI, GHISLANZONI, AND RICORDI: SOLIDARITY AMONG OPERA GIANTS” — £1,500 - £2,500
• Lot 78: [MUSIC] - “VERDI’S FINAL GESTURE TO GHISLANZONI: A FAREWELL AMID TRIUMPHS AND SORROW” — £1,500 - £2,500
• Lot 79: [MUSIC] - “WAGNER’S FIGHT FOR RECOGNITION: THE ANXIETY OVER HIS RIGHTS” — £2,000 - £3,000
• Lot 80: [MUSIC] - “WAGNER FROM NAPLES: DREAMS OF TRIUMPH IN PARIS” — £2,000 - £3,000
• Lot 82: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - Louis de Broglie: Waves and Quanta in a Nobel Letter — £300 - £400
• Lot 83: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - Jean-Baptiste Charcot: The Explorer’s Bust in the Making — £120 - £200
• Lot 84: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - Auguste Comte: Positivist Receipt Signed by the Philosopher — £400 - £500
• Lot 85: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - Physical, sexual, and natural religion in the time of Queen Victoria. — £500 - £600
• Lot 86: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - “BETWEEN RAIN AND SCIENCE: THE EUROPEAN YOUTH OF ENRICO FERMI” — £2,000 - £3,000
• Lot 87: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - Julian Huxley on Tour: Science Between Lectures and Humanism — £100 - £150
• Lot 88: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - Extraordinary letter to Giuditta Pasta from one of Stendhal's best friends — £2,200 - £3,000
• Lot 89: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - Le Verrier: The Mathematician Who Discovered Neptune Sends an Invitation — £100 - £150
• Lot 90: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - “MARCONI TO MURRAY: THE SECRETS BEHIND THE BIRTH OF RADIO” — £2,000 - £3,000
• Lot 91: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - “MORSE AND THE REVOLUTION OF THOUGHT: TELEGRAPHY IN COLLAGES” — £2,000 - £3,000
• Lot 92: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - Serge Voronoff: Appointment with the Surgeon of Eternal Youth — £100 - £150
• Lot 93: [LITERATURE] - Exceptional Signed First Edition of Truman Capote’s Debut Novel – Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948) — £1,500 - £2,500
• Lot 94: [LITERATURE] - ENZENSBERGER Hans Magnus (1929 - 2022) - Ausgewählte Gedichte - signed — £100 - £150
• Lot 95: [LITERATURE] - GREENE Graham (1904 - 1991) - Yes and No, a play in one act - signed — £100 - £150
• Lot 96: [LITERATURE] - IONESCO Eugene (1909 - 1994) - Les Chaises - with autograph - signed — £100 - £150
• Lot 97: [LITERATURE] - “RARE EUROGRAPHICA SIGNED EDITIONS – MASTERS OF 20tH CENTURY LITERATURE” — £100 - £150
• Lot 98: [LITERATURE] - LESSING Doris (1919 - 2013) - Three Stories - signed — £100 - £150
• Lot 99: [LITERATURE] - MILOSZ Czeslaw (1911 - 2004) - Selected Poems - signed — £100 - £150
• Lot 100: [LITERATURE] - MORAVIA Alberto (1907 - 1990) - L’imbroglio e altri racconti - signed — £100 - £150
• Lot 101: [LITERATURE] - OATES Joyce Carol (1938 - ) - Small Avalanches and other stories - signed — £100 - £150
• Lot 102: [LITERATURE] - ROTH Philip (1933 - 2018) - Looking at Kafka - signed — £100 - £150
• Lot 103: [LITERATURE] - SCIASCIA Leonardo (1921 - 1989) - Il Mare colore del Vino e altri racconti - signed — £100 - £150
• Lot 104: [LITERATURE] - VARGAS LLOSA Mario (1936 - 2025) - The Cubs - signed — £100 - £150
• Lot 105: [LITERATURE] - YEVTUSHENKO Yevgeny (1932 - 2017) - Selected Poems - signed — £100 - £150
• Lot 106: [ART] - All of Doré: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1931 Edition — £150 - £200
• Lot 107: [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] - RARE COLLECTION OF EARLY ITALIAN INSURANCE AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS — INCLUDING POSSIBLY — £5,000 - £6,700
• Lot 108: [HISTORY] - Ottoman Elegance: An 18th-Century Turkish Manuscript — £300 - £400
• Lot 110: [HISTORY] - From Saint Helena? A Bonapartist Mystery Manuscript — £200 - £300
• Lot 111: [HISTORY] - Theology in Exile: Huguenot Translations in Manuscript — £1,000 - £1,500
• Lot 112: [HISTORY] - Bibliophile’s Honor: Galletti’s Canon Law Degree — £300 - £400
• Lot 113: [HISTORY] - Illuminated Doctorate on Vellum: Padua, 1630 — £500 - £700
• Lot 114: [LITERATURE] - Manuscript Joy: A Lost Work by Marchese Caraccioli? — £150 - £200
• Lot 115: [LITERATURE] - Voltaire Revived: The Henriade in Manuscript — £300 - £400
• Lot 116: [MUSIC] - Opera for the Emperor: Sacred Tragedy in Autograph — £300 - £400
• Lot 117: [ART] - Floral Delight: 18th-Century Italian Decorative Paper — £100 - £150
• Lot 118: [ART] - Patterns of the Past: Early Italian Marbled Papers — £80 - £120
• Lot 119: [ART] - Vines & Grapes: A Remondini Paper in Bloom — £100 - £150
• Lot 120: [ART] - Daisies in Grey: Early Italian Marbled Bifolium — £100 - £150
• Lot 121: [ART] - Color and Ledger: Patterned Paper with Estate Notes — £100 - £150
• Lot 122: [ART] - Lives of the Artists: Baglione’s Expanded Edition — £300 - £400
• Lot 123: [ART] - Benvenuto Cellini’s Autobiography – Rare Early Edition — £100 - £150
• Lot 124: [COOKING] - ON WINE AND ITS MYSTERIES: RARE 1608 EDITION ON HOT AND COLD DRINKING, BETWEN THEOLOGU, MEDICINE, — £800 - £1,000
• Lot 125: [COOKING] - RARE FIRST EDITION OF AN ICONIC BAROQUE COOKBOOK — A LANDMARK IN ITALIAN CULINARY HISTORY — £1,000 - £1,500
• Lot 126: [HISTORY] - Sacred Stage: A Renaissance Passion Play Manuscript — £300 - £400
• Lot 127: [HISTORY] - Florentine Bookkeeping: A Rare Accounting Manual — £500 - £700
• Lot 129: [HISTORY] - Defending Trajan: Antiquarian Rarity from Todi — £200 - £300
• Lot 130: [HISTORY] - Aristotle Recast: Latin Rhetoric in 16th-Century Venice — £300 - £400
• Lot 131: [HISTORY] - Forbidden Books: The 1758 Index with Engraved Frontispiece — £300 - £400
• Lot 132: [HISTORY] - A Saint in the Making? Life of Nun Florida Martelli — £400 - £600
• Lot 133: [HISTORY] - Boethius on Consolation: Sessa Edition, 1522 — £200 - £300
• Lot 134: [HISTORY] - Mapping Empires: Botero’s Political Geography with Early Global Maps — £5,000 - £7,000
• Lot 135: [HISTORY] - Tax Theory Pioneer: Broggia’s Treatise, 1743 — £400 - £600
• Lot 136: [HISTORY] - Chronicles of the Rhineland: Lavish Annals of Jülich and Berg — £800 - £1,300
• Lot 137: [HISTORY] - Sacred Tongue: Hebrew Grammar and Dictionary, 1616 — £400 - £600
• Lot 138: [HISTORY] - Eulogy for a Scholar: Salviati’s Funeral Oration, 1589 — £100 - £150
• Lot 139: [HISTORY] - Imprisoned Thought: Campanella’s Real Philosophy under Censorship — £3,500 - £4,000
• Lot 140: [HISTORY] - Holy Wood and Healing: A Genoese Physician on Syphilis Remedies — £1,300 - £1,600
• Lot 141: [HISTORY] - Venetian Incunable: Carcano’s Sermons, 1496 — £2,000 - £3,000
• Lot 142: [HISTORY] - Clausewitz in English: First Edition of On War, 1873 — £1,000 - £1,500
• Lot 143: [HISTORY] - Trade through the Ages: De Jorio’s History, 4 vols — £500 - £700
• Lot 144: [HISTORY] - The Ancient Voice of Spain: A Jesuit’s Praise of the Basque Language — £900 - £1,000
• Lot 145: [HISTORY] - In Death, the Law: A Medieval Guide to Wills, Codicils and Inheritance — £1,300 - £1,600
• Lot 146: [HISTORY] - Tocqueville’s America: The 1842 Paris Edition — £300 - £400
• Lot 147: [HISTORY] - Rise of the Ottomans: Early History in Italian, 1558 — £300 - £500
• Lot 148: [HISTORY] - Gold Gone Missing: Neapolitan Monetary Crisis, 1849 — £300 - £500
• Lot 149: [HISTORY] - Monza in Prints: Illustrated Court History, 1794 — £400 - £600
• Lot 150: [HISTORY] - SCARCE AND EXTENSIVELY ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF CACCAMO’S ANTIQUITY AND NOBILITY — PALERMO, 1661 — £700 - £1,000
• Lot 151: [HISTORY] - Type, War, and Commentary: Livy’s Punic Wars Printed in Renaissance Paris — £950 - £1,250
• Lot 152: [HISTORY] - Pulpit and Politics: Two Rare Italian Orations — £200 - £300
• Lot 153: [HISTORY] - Alcibiades & Coriolanus: Philosophy in Political Biography — £150 - £200
• Lot 154: [HISTORY] - From Jerusalem to Aleppo: Mariti’s Travel Memoirs — £400 - £600
• Lot 155: [HISTORY] - Correcting the Ancient World: Núñez’s Humanist Emendations to Roman Geography — £800 - £1,000
• Lot 156: [HISTORY] - Plague and Poison: A Papal Physician’s Renaissance Warnings — £800 - £1,000
• Lot 157: [HISTORY] - Defining Reality: Piccolomini’s Aristotelian Legacy in First Edition (1600) — £400 - £600
• Lot 158: [HISTORY] - Plague in Rome: Causes, Symptoms, and Secret Remedies — £800 - £1,000
• Lot 159: [HISTORY] - Indulgences Revoked: Papal Broadsides from Rome — £100 - £150
• Lot 160: [HISTORY] - War and Words: Pontano’s Humanist Chronicle of Naples — £1,100 - £1,300
• Lot 161: [HISTORY] - Art of War: Rocca’s Military Treatise, 1582 — £150 - £200
• Lot 162: [HISTORY] - A Martyr in China: The Apostolic Labours of Father Giambattista da Bormio — £350 - £500
• Lot 163: [HISTORY] - From the Nuremberg Chronicle: 8 Iconic Leaves — £200 - £300