The year is drawing to a close, and for the final time in 2025 we are invited to step into the inner sanctum at Crafoord Auktioner Lund – the department lined with well-stocked bookshelves. And, as always, they are densely filled.
A brief voyage of discovery along the spines reveals Carl Linnaeus’s Öländska och Gothländska Resa in first edition; eight elegant issues of the magazine Art – Goût – Beauté; and Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d’Argenville’s gardening bible with its seemingly endless title, La Théorie et la Pratique du Jardinage ou l’on traite à fond des beaux jardins appelés communément les jardins de propreté. One could just as easily list three entirely different examples and still convey the remarkable breadth of the offering.
Alongside a wide spectrum of older specialist literature, the catalogue also includes modern art books, a touch of poetry, several fine bindings and at least one travelled postcard. The sale is crowned by Johan Wilhelm Palmstruch’s Svensk botanik in ten volumes. Exactly as it should be.