Early Printed Books: Part I of the Ken Rapoport Collection

The May 5, 2022 sale of Early Printed Books features the first part of the complete library of bibliophile Ken Rapoport. Below are some of the highlights from the selection.

English Literature

At auction May 5: From left to right: William Shakespeare, Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, second impression, London, 1632. Estimate $100,000 to $150,000; Geoffrey Chaucer, The Woorkes, London, 1561. Estimate $8,000 to $10,000; William Wycherly, Miscellany Poems: as Satyrs, Epistles, Love-Verses, Songs, Sonnets, &c, first edition, London, 1704. Estimate $4,000 to $6,000.

At auction May 5: Sammelband of three works by Edmund Spenser. From left to right: The Shepheards Calendar, London, 1591; The Faerie Queene, London, 1596; Colin Clouts Come Home Againe, London, 1595. Estimate $16,000 to $24,000.

Spanish Literature

At auction May 5: From left to right: Miguel de Cervantes, El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, first Valencia edition, Valencia, 1605. Estimate $80,000 to $100,000; Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, Primera, Segunda, y Tercera Partes de la Araucana, first collected edition, Madrid, 1590. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

Additional Highlights

At auction May 5: The Whole Works of Homer; Prince of Poetts in his Iliads, and Odysses. Translated according to the Greeke, translated by George Chapman, London, 1634. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

At auction May 5: From left to right: Lancelot du Lac, Le Premier Volume de Lancelot du Lac Nouvelleme[n]t Imprimé à Paris, Paris, 1533. Estimate $15,000 to $20,000; Virgil, The xiii. Bukes of Eneados of the Famose Poete Virgill Translatet out of Latyne verses into Scottish metir, translated by Gawin Douglas, first edition, London, 1553. Estimate $15,000 to $20,000.