IFLA Amsterdam 2023
17-18 August 2023
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
Art Libraries Conference, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
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1An outstanding Flemish Book of Hours with 14 high-quality illuminationsBook of Hours (use of Rome).Southern Netherlands, probably Ghent, ca. 1500.
€ 150,000.00An outstanding, unpublished Book of Hours, produced around the year 1500, at the apogee of Flemish book illumination. The quality of illumination is remarkable, both in the borders and the full-page miniatures. The execution is neat and flawless.
At least three different miniaturists worked on the illumination cycle of this precious Book of …
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2Cellini's only work published during his lifetimeDue trattati, uno intorno alle otto principali arti dell'oreficeria. L'altro …Florence, 1568.
€ 18,500.00First edition of the only work of Cellini's published during the author's lifetime, and indeed in the entire 16th century. This treatise on the art of goldsmiths and sculptors offers a wealth of technical instructions drawn from immediate practical experience (on enamelling, gilding, embossing, moulding, bronze casting, etc.), providing insight not …
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3Owned by Prince Alfons of BavariaIl tempio Vaticano e sua origine. / Templum Vaticanum et ipsius origo.Rome, 1694.
€ 18,000.00First edition of this lavishly produced publication on the Vatican, with Latin and Italian parallel text in two columns. Illustrated by Alessandro Specchi after drawings by Carlo Fontana. "His principal work, uniting his technical and his historical studies. In the same work Fontana also publishes a project for expanding St Peter's Square, a plan …
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4Album of the Imperial blanket maker J. F. Hörmannspergerof the blanket maker Johann Franz Hörmannsperger.Vienna, 1736.
€ 85,000.00Unique, museum-quality document of late Baroque craftsmanship among the urban Third Estate: apart from 58 meticulously executed textile designs, the album contains seven large-format gouaches showing the self-assured author practising his trade in his workshop, advertising and selling his wares to customers, as well as playing music and even bowling, …
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5Rare mechanical equinoctial table sundialMechanical equinoctial sundial, signed "Jo. / Antonius / Schega".Bavaria or Austria, late 18th century.
€ 28,000.00Rare mechanical equinoctial table sundial by J. A. Schega, active in Augsburg, Munich, and Vienna. Born in Neustadtl (Rudolfswerth, now Novo Mesto, Carniola, Slovenia) as the son of the gunsmith Andreas Schega and his wife Catherina, the instrument maker Schega is first mentioned as a "mechanical artist" in Vienna in 1771. Here he built special lathes …
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6Autograph letter signed.Glasgow, 12 Mar 1875.
€ 3,500.00To an unidentified friend, thanking him for a text on Doré's work and particularly praising his "protest against the systemaric ostracism" that excludes Doré "from all decoratif works for the state": "Voici vingt jours environ que j'ai quitté Paris et que je me livre à un vagabondage des plus écossais, ainsi que à la chasse aux grousse [!] …
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7Autograph letter signed.Paris, 26 May 1875 postmark.
€ 4,500.00To his only female student Éva Gonzalès, informing her that the art dealer Templaër is willing to exhibit a painting of hers, which she should finish "fast and well" and for which she should ask 1500 to 2000 francs: "Mademoiselle, Templaer exposera votre tableau quand vous voudrez. Dépêchez-vous de le terminer vite et bien et joignez-y une petite …
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8"I am having fun with a very nice marten called Gibeline": a cheerful childhood letter by Toulouse-LautrecAutograph letter signed ("Henry de Toulouse Lautrec").N. p., 11 Oct., no year but ca. 1878-1880.
€ 8,500.00Charming and exceedingly rare childhood letter to his great-aunt Amandine d'Alichoux de Sénégra, addressed as "Tata", thanking her for a pocket-knife and providing her with updates on the family. Toulouse-Lautrec also mentions that his mother was relieved that he has "given up one of [his] canes for the inside", which points to the fateful fractures …
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92 autograph letters signed.Giverny, postmark: 5 and 19 June 1888.
€ 18,000.00To the writer Stéphane Mallarmé, thanking for a copy of the "Ten o'clock" manifesto by the American poet and painter James McNeill Whistler, which had appeared in Mallarmé's translation in "La Revue indépendante" in May 1888, and well as in an offprint. On Whistler's behalf Monet requests Mallarmé to mail a copy to the sculptor Jean-Joseph Carriès, …
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10"Dear Poet": Renoir's portrait of Stephane MallarméAutograph letter signed ("Renoir").Paris, "Lundi matin" 15 March 1894, postmark.
€ 6,500.00To Stephane Mallarmé, explaining that he has not forgotten his portrait but had been suffering from a toothache and fever with chills. He promises that they will be more at ease after "this idiotic exhibition". Following a somewhat cryptic remark that he would like to put his painting on display "before the face that it makes", Renoir mentions the …
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11Between Paris and Polynesia: Gauguin and his patron Ambroise VollardAutograph letter signed ("Paul Gauguin").Hiva Oa, March 1902.
€ 26,500.00To his art dealer and sponsor Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939), complaining about an outstanding monthly payment and worrying about the shipment of paintings to Marseille through the famous art dealership Goupil & Cie: "Je reçois votre lettre datée 27 Xb 1901 m'annonçant 650 plus mille francs soit au charge commission de 1618f. à cette date il …
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12To his beloved motherAutograph picture postcard signed.Gastein, 3 Jul 1914.
€ 22,000.00To his mother Anna Klimt, née Finster (1896-1915), regarding the payment of taxes: "[...] habe dem Bankhaus Auftrag gegeben die Steuer zu zahlen - bitte dem ungehobeltem Steuerkommisär [!] in meinem Auftrag sonst die Thür zu weisen - bitte mir zu schreiben ob der Commisar vom Neubau oder Hietzing (?) ist. Ich möchte mich über diesen Herrn beschweren! …
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13Written five days before the outbreak of the Great WarAutograph letter signed.Villach, Hotel Goldenes Lamm, 23 Jul 1914.
€ 22,000.00To his patron, the Viennese lawyer and collector Alfred Spitzer (1861-1923): "Ich habe bis zur Stunde leider noch nicht Nachricht ob und wieviel an Geld [ich] von Goltz und einem Kunsthändler in Dresden, von denen ich einiges erwarte, bekomme; - was also mit den Zahlungen geschehen wird, die ich diesen 25. leisten soll, weiß ich nicht, - jedenfalls …
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14Invitation to dance for Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Marcel BreuerCollective letter with the signatures of 68 teachers and students of the …Weimar, 1923.
InquireTo the ballet dancers and choreographers Albert Burger and Elsa Hötzel in Stuttgart, who had, together with Oskar Schlemmer, conceived the famous "Triadisches Ballett" (Triadic Ballet), cordially inviting them to perform the piece on the occasion of the 1923 Bauhaus Week in Weimar: "Wir Bauhäusler möchten Sie so von ganzem Herzen bitten kommen …
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15Sergei Eisenstein sulked like a little girlAutograph letter signed.Moscow, spring 1929.
€ 48,000.00In Russian, to his third wife, Natalya Andreevna (née Manchenka, 1902-90), about some of his paintings that were sold, his return to Moscow, where everyone is happy to see him, and a presentation he attended there: "[...] Yesterday I went to the Academy to hear a presentation by Shutko on Dziga Vertov. It was quite remarkable, and I also saw three …
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162 autograph letters signed. In Norwegian.Opdal and Gothenburg, 1930s.
€ 14,000.00To his lawyer Johannes Roede (1875-1958), brother of the pianist and collector Halfdan Nobel Roede, concerning Munch's financial problems and poor reputation. In the letter on stationery from a hotel in Opdal, Munch complains about his financial difficulties despite his owning several apartments. He contemplates renting or selling his properties …
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17"Je n'irai donc pas vivre en Amérique": Marx Ernst's refusal to leave FranceAutograph letter signed twice ("Max Ernst").Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche, "Mercredi" 1939/1940.
€ 4,500.00Highly interesting letter to the collector and critic Christian Zervos, asserting that Ernst will not emigrate to the U.S., probably following his brief internment in France as an "undesirable foreigner" at the beginning of World War II. Ernst thanks Zervos for forwarding a letter from his son Jimmy and for some issues of the Cahiers d'Art, before …
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18Picasso's wartime Buffon: a very fine copy, embellished with two original drawings for his friend, the painter André Marchand2 full-page pen and brush drawings in Indian ink. In: Eaux-fortes originales …Paris, 1942.
€ 450,000.00Two unique and wholly original brush drawings, adorning a signed and inscribed first edition of this famous suite by Picasso, in perfect condition.
Limited edition of 226 copies: this is number 155, one of 135 on Vidalon vélin. This copy was presented by Picasso to his friend, the painter André Marchand (1907-98), with an autograph inscription …
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19Collaboration between cows and sculptorAutograph postcard signed and with a small sketch.Roxbury Litchfield County, CT, 9 May 1958.
€ 25,000.00To the Franco-Hungarian sculptor István Beöthy (Etienne Beothy) in Montrouge/Seine, announcing his arrival in Paris for the end of June. The sketch on the card's picture side, partly hand-coloured by Calder, shows a "collaboration entre vaches et sculpteur" ("collaboration between cows and sculptor").
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20The "beginning of a precious 'commentary'": Magritte's correspondence with André Bormans5 autograph letters signed (2 "René Magritte" and 3 "RM") with two sketches.Brussels and n. p., 1960-1965 and n. d.
€ 28,000.00Highly interesting correspondence with his friend, the Belgian librarian and writer André Bosmans, touching upon various subjects, especially semiotics and the theory of art. In the earliest letter, Magritte invites Bormans for the Christmas holidays and announces that he will show him his latest unfinished paintings: "Particularly: La Joconde, …