166. LINNAEUS' MUSA CLIFFORTIANA FROM 1736, with the famous description and plate of the banana. COPY OF OLOF KALMETER.

Books, Maps & Manuscripts

Once again, the world’s oldest auction house proudly presents a captivating collection for bookcases and libraries. With the theme Books, Maps & Manuscripts, Stockholms Auktionsverk invites you to explore a catalog of over 200 carefully selected lots. As is tradition, these volumes span several centuries, showcasing the work of printers and cartographers from diverse origins.

The highlight of the auction is a hand-colored sea atlas crafted in Amsterdam in 1714. Among the most coveted titles are John William Boydell’s Picturesque Scenery of Norway, a treatise on Tycho Brahe's scientific instruments, a 17th-century Quran, and J.W. Palmstruch’s botanical classic, to name a few. Adding to the collection are maps from various eras, covering nearly every corner of the globe, many of which are delicately hand-colored.

These academically crafted works sharply contrast with the auction’s late 19th-century children’s books, exemplifying the era’s literature and serving as cultural time capsules. Feel free to leaf through them to see for yourself!

Birdwatching book collectors should take special note of Anders Sparrman’s Svensk Ornithologie with 70 color illustrations drawn from nature and the very rare first edition of the Wright brothers' Svenska Foglar, featuring 178 hand-colored lithographic plates. Also noteworthy is Colored Figures of Four of the Rarer Animals in Mr. Lehmann’s Menagerie, a zoologically significant historical artifact whose lithographs are brimming with 19th-century exoticism and a spirit of discovery.

In this context, Johann Baptist Homann's Globus Terrestris and Globus Coelestis are two elegant outliers—masterful works of art perfect for a distinguished library setting.

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